He searched Ari's face for some sign - any sign that he'd been joking. Ben couldn't see anything that said he was joking, but there was something else that Ben thought was wrong...something else that didn't seem right. Part of him wanted to rely on his instincts as an Auror, but given the circumstances of the past year or so, he still wasn't sure what the difference was between his instincts given his profession and something that just didn't feel familiar yet. Either way, Ben clung onto that idea that perhaps there was something that maybe Ari wasn't telling him.

It snuck up on him? His brow indented quizzically as he looked down at his best friend. Ben still hadn't taken his seat yet - had forgotten he was still standing; holding his drink, even. "You....you weren't sure?" Only the faintest hint of elevation at the end of his question betrayed his hope that perhaps this was still an ongoing joke, or at the very least, he wasn't getting the full story yet. That could have just been the shock still reverberating about his person like a gong. Ben wasn't sure.

Ben's voice, though still containing a hint of his previous humor, "Mad?" Ben laughed, attempting to keep his tone the same. "I'm sorry, Ari, it might be the liqueur and recent retrograde amnesia, but does how does a marriage and partnership exactly...sneak up....on someone." For all that he tried, it still came out more as a defiant statement than anything. He struggled to comprehend. To understand why he wasn't aware of this sooner, why it was so sudden and most of all, why it seemed like Ari was leaving for good; why their lives seemed to be splitting at the seams when it just had felt like everything was settling back into its normal pace.

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