He found you attractive, and funny, so of course this lead him to flirting with you.
He didn’t really think anything would come from it, but he did it anyways, because he was just a flirty guy in general.
Ben found that he liked the way you’d get a bit flustered or blushy if he flirted with you, so in some ways it a bit of a joke to him at first.
He would call you a variety of nicknames, usually a random one in the moment, they were always changing.
Sweetheart or Love (when he wanted to make you blush), Robin (he was batman), Sherlock (when you did something intelligent that often saved the group).
Slowly, he started to notice the way your smile or laugh made his heart flutter. Or the way his eyes would seek you out to make sure you were close.
He seemed to always want to be around you, seeking you out so he could be nearby. He just loved being around you.
If you attended one of his fights, it made him work harder, as he found himself wanting to impress you.
When he got hurt, you would worry over him, and he loved it.
If you were ever put in a dangerous situation, he was protective before hand, but he started to notice that it got worse over time.
He never wanted you to go off alone, and if he lost contact with you for even a moment, he would start to panic.
It didn’t really click for him that he was developed honest-to-God feelings for you until William called him a “love-sick puppy”
Once he realized that he had fallen for you, and no longer just saw you as a good friend, he wasn’t really surprised, not upset in any way. He was just afraid that you would never feel the same.
When he confided in the boys about his feelings, they laughed at him because they already knew.
And once they reassured him that you certainly returned his feelings, he decided not to run from them.
