'Once an Osmosian has reached puberty, they will begin a heat cycle, regardless of birth gender, in which they will become extremely promiscuous for the equivalent of one day in an Earth year. This promiscuity can be passed to any in the immediate vicinity. This is a method used to find their mate...'
That was what was written about Osmosians in the Plumber alien database. It was simple: after puberty stats, Osmosians become super horny once a year. What confused Ben about this description, though, was the 'regardless of birth gender' part. Did that mean that Osmosians could change gender like some other alien species? Or did it just mean that both the males and females o into heat? Ben was really curious now, but he only knew two Osmosians – the elder was either deep in the Null Void or dead. Kevin, on the other hand, seemed to have disappeared off the face of the earth.
Could it be possible that he was in his heat cycle? Or was he just out of town, trying to get a hold of a teleporter pad like he wanted before. Either way, Ben decided to go look for the raven to find out more.
Ben searched for Kevin around Bellwood; he normally wouldn't have been this obsessive, but he was bored, Julie was out of town for the next few days, and he was dying to know more about this whole 'heat cycle' thing. Ben checked the auto-shop, under the pretence that Kevin had promised a new part for his car, and he wanted to know if it had arrived yet. Kevin's boss seemed confused, and mentioned that Kevin hadn't been in for a few days, but as far as he knew was still in Bellwood. He offered to do the work on Ben's car in place of the brute, but Ben insisted that Kevin was the only person he trusted to work on his car. He continued looking for Kevin elsewhere around town, but it really seemed to Ben that the older teen had gone out of town, for the day, at least.
Deciding to see if Kevin's family knew where he was, Ben began driving in the direction of the Levin household.
Just as the brunette turned onto Kevin's street, he recalled being told by the raven that his mom and stepdad were out of town on some trip they had won. Driving past, Ben noticed a familiar green Camaro parked in the open garage. He pulled over in front of an empty house nearby and walked back to Kevin's garage.
As he walked in, he spotted Kevin's legs sticking out from under the car. He called out to his friend and got a loud thud and a shout in reply. Kevin wheeled himself out from under his car, rubbing his head where he had hit in on the undercarriage. Several minutes and a dozen complaints from the brute later, the two teens found themselves in the kitchen fishing sodas from the depths of the fridge. As they drank, they spoke about fights, cars, Sumo Slammers, and the few other things they had in common. Ben watched Kevin as they spoke, feeling too awkward to breech the topic he found in the database. As he watched, he looked for any signs that the elder may be on his heat cycle. He realised that he didn't actually know what signs would be shown if he was, so he stopped himself from string at his friend and returned his attention to the conversation.
Kevin, having noticed Ben staring at him, was the one to start the new conversation. "What's up, Benji? You seem a little out of it."
"No, it's nothing, it's just... well, you're an Osmosian, right?"
"Wow, took you a while to figure that one out, didn't it, Tennyson?"
"Shut up, that's not what I meant. I was looking through the Plumber database earlier and was a little confused about some of the stuff in the Osmosian section. I was hoping that you might be able to explain it."
Kevin arched his brow, "That depends on what you want to know. To be honest, I don't really know that much about Osmosians. The only adult Osmosians I knew growing up were my dad and my aunt."
"Oh. So why didn't you ask you aunt?"
She and my mom weren't really on speaking terms after my dad died, and Mom was kinda hoping I wouldn't turn out to be one." He snorted, "Apparently, that's kind of guaranteed if one parent was a Osmosian, though, so she might as well have let my aunt teach me about my species."
"Okay... So what do you know about..." Ben trailed off, feeling even more awkward talking about this now, knowing that Kevin barely knew anything about his own species. "You know what, never mind, it's fine. It wasn't anything important, really, just a few tiny little things. It was really just how they worded it."
Kevin nodded; Ben's eye didn't twitch, but he still wasn't sure what Ben had bee asking about. He shrugged, and challenged his hero friend to a game of Sumo Slammers.
After what felt like ten minutes of playing, Ben ran to the kitchen to grab his phone that he left there. Checking for any missed calls, he noticed that the time was now quarter to twelve. He and Kevin had been playing that video game for over five hours. Ben called his parents to let them know where he was, and that he'd probably spend the night there. Getting the okay from his parents, he returned o the living room to let Kevin know that he was staying the night. Kevin blanched slightly, unbeknownst to Ben. Not for the first time, Kevin was grateful that be had a tendency for obliviousness.
The two boys played another round and, ten minutes later, switched off the console and grabbed some snacks to eat in Kevin's room. They sat on Kevin's bed, talking about nothing in particular while they ate one of the bags of chips they had taken. After a while, though, an awkward silence grew over the small room. Kevin shifter his weight and rested his arm across his lap. Ben cleared his throat and crossed his legs, trying to find a slightly more comfortable position. For the first time in a long time, Ben found himself actually noticing details around him, more specifically, to discomfort growing in his own jeans, Kevin's slightly awkward position, and the blush growing across Kevin's cheeks. As he tried to piece together this puzzle, a quote from the Osmosian section in the database flashed in his mind: 'Osmosian will become extremely promiscuous for the equivalent of one Earth day. This promiscuity can be passed to all in the immediate vicinity.'
All Ben could say when everything clicked into place was, "Fuck."