Vault of the Oracle
Chapter 1: Again?

A/N- Um. Okay, the author actually has nothing to note.
Convergence is the prequel to this fic. Reading it shouldn't be necessary, but if you do, parts of this will make a lot more sense.
Disclaimer- If I owned National Treasure, this wouldn't be fanfiction. And Ben would wear a fedora. Just in one scene, but it'd happen.

Riley's head snapped up as the doorbell's piercing chime shattered his concentration. Lack of concentration and World of Warcraft didn't mix well, and he shot a nasty look in the door's general direction as his rogue dropped dead. "Thanks a lot."

Stupid doorbell. He really needed to get that thing fixed. And by 'fixed' he meant 'replace that awful shriek with some real music.' Ben's doorbell played the National Anthem, and that was just a little weird, but it wasn't a bad concept... he stopped thinking about it as the bell sounded again, and got his first look at the clock.

Odd. There was really no reason for anyone to be at his door at two in the morning.

Before he could come to any decisions about how to handle the situation, the chime came once more, this time accompanied by knocking. "Riley, it's not dawn yet, I know you're not asleep."

He had the door open in approximately three seconds. "Ben! What's wrong?" There was really no good reason for Ben, of all people, to be at his door at two in the morning unless something horrible had happened.

The older man just shrugged. He didn't look injured or anything, but he was carrying a travel bag. "Abigail kicked me out again, so I went to my dad's, and it turns out I left my key to his place at home. It's way too late to wake him up. So I was wondering if I could stay here for the night?"

Riley's jaw dropped. He wouldn't be surprised if it had hit the ground, cartoon-style, leaving him nothing but a large mouth standing in his doorway. "Wh... what?"

"Just for one night, I'll go to Dad's tomorrow—"

"Get in here!" He all but dragged his friend into the apartment. He knew there was a reason he'd gotten two bedrooms, other than extra storage space. "And you can stay as long as you want, don't make your dad complain about having all your junk in his house again. Around here I won't know the difference." As he spoke he'd climbed over three bundles of wiring, a bag of Cheetos, a broken motherboard, and a stack of video games. A few more boxes could hardly hurt. "She kicked you out at this time of night?"

"Well no. I didn't realize I didn't have my key until I got there, and there just happened to be a police patrol in the area when I was trying the door." Ben shook his head. "So after taking half an hour to explain things to him, I headed here, and you know how that is."

That was a bit over an hour drive. "Uh huh." Riley pushed him into what passed for the guest room, obvious as such because it had more than six square inches of visible floor space. Shelf space no, but at least there was floor space. "Unpack. I don't have an alarm clock in here, but I can rig something up with a bucket and some ice water if you want."

Ben gave him a look that he knew very well—the I'm not sure if you're joking and I don't want to find out look. "That's okay, I'll manage."

"You sure?"

"Quite."

"Suit yourself!" Riley returned to the main room, grabbed a pillow off the couch, and threw it in after his friend. "Breakfast's at seven, unless you're brave enough to look through the fridge on your own."

"Seven? You'll be up at seven?"

"I'll be going to bed at seven." He grinned, able to picture Ben's exasperated expression clearly. "Now stop insulting my sleeping habits and worry about yours, or I'll throw another pillow at you."

"I'm unpacking, I'm unpacking!"

--

Riley sat scowling at his computer, which really wasn't fair. It wasn't the machine's fault Ben had showed up on his doorstep at such an unholy hour. It wasn't the machine's fault that Abigail had thrown him out again.

Again!

It wasn't that Riley minded having Ben stay, far from it. But he was really starting to wonder about Abigail constantly booting him out of his own house. Which it was. Ben's treasure, Ben's finder's fee, Ben's house, Ben's alarm system that Abigail had changed the codes for. He wondered how long it would take before he had to break in this time.

He'd ask what happened, of course. Ben would brush him off with some explanation about her using some innocent word too much, not paying attention to the rest of the words, and he would say nothing. The idea that maybe it was better this way would stay locked in his head where it belonged. But really. It was getting ridiculous.

To take his mind off the mess that was Ben's love life, he returned to the most basic necessity of human existence: the Internet. "Anything fun and exciting happening out there?" he inquired of the screen, closing the game and opening four news sites in as many seconds. And everyone wondered why he didn't bother getting a newspaper. "Let's see. Politicians arguing... that's not news. Hurricanes... not gonna hit here. Five-legged mutant dog... not news either, and 25 percent more allergies, heck with that. More politicians arguing... still not news. NBA finals? I give up."

Maybe stabbing some demons would be a better distraction. He was about to go back to his game when he caught sight of a small headline in the corner. Smithsonian welcomes Greek history scholars to study Templar treasure.

"Hope Ben doesn't find out about that," he mumbled. "He'll go listen in and I'll be hearing about it for a week. Not my problem anymore!" He couldn't explain why, but he was pretty sure the headline was laughing at him as he closed the window.