Edgard usually isn't this serious. He only was once before, and Benedict remembers it well, but it was long enough ago that he can shrug it off as being from from a different time, a different him. Surely Edgard doesn't monitor him that closely.
He can't quite bring himself to fully deny it, thus lying again, but he doesn't want to acknowledge that that's what the statement was. So Bene shrugs, hoping as hard as he can that it's enough, and Edgard will leave him alone.
Sighing through his nose, Benedict averts eye contact, his shoulders hunching irritably. All right, so Edgard's got him. It's probably safer to not even acknowledge that what he was doing just now was also (just a little bit) lying, so he shrugs again, trying to quiet the pounding of his heart telling him that Danger Is Coming.
"Wh-- ow-- stop," Benedict stammers, scowling as he steps back and away from Edgard with every shove.
"Well I didn't know that," he snaps, taking a few larger steps back and standing his ground, "and you wouldn't have an opinion on this if you hadn't been listening in, so."
He folds his own arms.
"What're you gonna do? Beat me up, out here in front of everyone?" He gestures around to the courtyard. "I didn't do anything."
"That's the problem!" Edgard explodes. "You never do anything! You let everyone else fight and do the work and you lie to get out of it. You've been training. This is what it means!"
He shoves him again and yells, "And no one cares if you get beat up, Benedict! Except maybe me! So there wouldn't be an issue!"
"Stop--" Bene stumbles back again, flailing to catch his balance and managing, though likely not without drawing the attention of one or two passersby.
He lets Edgard finish, but anger boils in him, manifesting as an indignant sneer: "that's not fucking true and you know it," he snarls, suddenly stepping forward to push past.
"Fuck you, Edgard."
He might admit to lying, eventually: but never doing anything? Days of being at Byerly's beck and call, training in the yard, and biting back every poisonous instinct set in him by twenty years of parental training amounts to nothing?
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"What a rude assumption to make. Maybe I'm just having a good day."
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"Why would you assume it's an assumption?"
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"...what... do you mean," he asks, playing it very cool.
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He lowers his arms and says very quietly (but deadly).
"Lied about anything recently?"
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He can't quite bring himself to fully deny it, thus lying again, but he doesn't want to acknowledge that that's what the statement was. So Bene shrugs, hoping as hard as he can that it's enough, and Edgard will leave him alone.
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"So, now you're gunna lie to me too?"
He huffs and growls back.
"I heard you! I heard you lie to get out of that assignment."
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"It wasn't a real assignment," he grumbles.
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"And what isn't real about it?" He breathes evenly, deliberately.
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He shoves Benedict lightly with every word in the next sentence.
"That's what they said when they assigned me to it."
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"Well I didn't know that," he snaps, taking a few larger steps back and standing his ground, "and you wouldn't have an opinion on this if you hadn't been listening in, so."
He folds his own arms.
"What're you gonna do? Beat me up, out here in front of everyone?" He gestures around to the courtyard.
"I didn't do anything."
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He shoves him again and yells, "And no one cares if you get beat up, Benedict! Except maybe me! So there wouldn't be an issue!"
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He lets Edgard finish, but anger boils in him, manifesting as an indignant sneer: "that's not fucking true and you know it," he snarls, suddenly stepping forward to push past.
"Fuck you, Edgard."
He might admit to lying, eventually: but never doing anything? Days of being at Byerly's beck and call, training in the yard, and biting back every poisonous instinct set in him by twenty years of parental training amounts to nothing?