Disclaimer: I do not own Ben 10 or its sequels, spin-off and related characters. All is the property of Man of Action and Cartoon Network. I'm just borrowing them for some non-profit entertainment.

Test Positive

Gwen paced her room nervously, glancing at her watch every now and again to count how many seconds had ticked by since the last time she checked.

Kevin sat on her bed, equally as nervous, though less mobile about it. He glanced around her room, at the books lining her shelves, spell books, text books and general fiction stories. At the posters lining her walls, a chakra chart, an Einstein motivational poster, some pretty boy band he'd never heard of, and then an old movie poster from Casablanca. Basically, he was looking everywhere but at her or the plastic stick that sat on a tissue on her desk. "How long is this supposed to take again?"

Growling more to herself than actually speaking to him, Gwen answered, "Three minutes. All the freaking hyper-advanced level-quadzillion technology that we deal with every day, and we still can't find a faster pregnancy test!"

"I bet I could find one if you gave me a couple days and some start-up cash." Kevin supplied in his best 'I think I'm being helpful' voice.

Gwen rounded on him, green eyes glowing star sapphire with a sudden swing into irrational rage. "A couple days doesn't do anything for me right now, Kevin!"

"Us." He corrected her without the heartbeat of a pause. This wasn't just her problem, it was his too. It was their problem. "A couple days wouldn't do anything for us right now. I was just trying to be… Look, I'm nervous too, okay! I'm not really thinking right now, I'm just talking."

The angry glow faded from her eyes, their irises returning to their normal, vibrant and beautiful verdant green. Kevin loved the color of her eyes. Sometimes he wondered if he actually could sit and gaze into them for hours. Probably not. Some big alien crisis would come crashing down right in the center of Bellwood, and Ben would need him and Gwen to save him from his own ego. But he could gaze into her eyes for the next couple minutes at least.

Gwen's watch beeped.

Kevin tensed with nerves.

She crossed the room to the desk and picked up the napkin that held their test. Then she froze.

He stared at her unmoving back for a few moments before asking, "Well, what is it? Are we in the clear like last time? Babe?" When she still didn't move or speak, Kevin stood from the bed and crossed to place his hands on her shoulders. "Gwen?" He peered over her shoulders to glance at the plastic stick -as if he actually knew how to read it. "Its blue. What does blue mean? Is blue good?"

Gwen threw the test in the trash. "Its positive."

"That's good, right?" Kevin pressed. "'Positive' means good?"

"No." She deadpanned. "Positive is bad. Positive is very, very bad."

There was a beat of silence.

"Oh." He staggered backwards. "Crap." And fell back onto her bed. "Oh, crap…"

Sighing to herself, as if she didn't know what else to do (and in all likelihood, she probably didn't know what else to do) Gwen bent down to empty the bag out of her trash can. She was halfway out the door before Kevin even noticed she was even moving -he was in a bit of a mindless daze of his own.

"Where are you going?"

"I don't want my mom to find the test when she cleans my room." She replied as if this should have been obvious. Never mind that neither of Gwen's parents had had to clean her room for her since she was ten. This was more to give herself something to do while the shock sank in.

Kevin leapt from the bed, probably for a similar reason of needing something to do. "Let me help!"

"It doesn't take two people to throw away one small bag." She slapped his hand away when he grabbed for the trash. When he looked fragile and rejected she compromised. "But you can walk with me."

It wasn't until they were downstairs, Kevin holding the lid of the black can open while Gwen tossed the bag in that they spoke again. "So… what are we going to do?"

"We're gonna drag the can out onto the curb so that the garbage truck can pick it up tomorrow." Gwen supplied.

"Uh, no." Kevin shook his head. "I meant, what are we gonna do about the test? I mean, the test result."

Before either of them could say more on the subject, Gwen's phone rang. She fished into her pocket to pull it out. "Its Ben." She said. "We should continue this conversation later."

"But, Gwen-"

She made a 'shush' motion with her hand and answered the call.

Because -in the end- everything that to be about Ben. Their own personal problems, and their own lives be damned. Ben was the center around which their universe turned -whether they liked it or not.

…

END