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.

…Before Its Ever Even...

Chapter One: Intersecting Orbits

To say that Kevin never saw his son would be disingenuous. Kevin saw Devlin.

He saw the boy sometimes when he would come to Plumbers HQ so he and Ben's brat could head to school together.

Originally, Gwendolyn had the boy going to the same fancy prep-school she used to attend. But the young Osmosian got kicked out of that school real quick. Now, Devlin attended Bellwood Public with Kenny Tennyson. The boys rode their hoverboards to campus together.

Kenny, mid-yawn, would peer at the older boy through sleep clouded eyes. "Why do you always dress like a bible sales man?"

And Kevin had to admit, that the way Gwendolyn dressed their son, it really did make Devlin look like a Mormon, or Jehovah's Witness, or other similar irritating solicitor that came to your door asking if you had a moment to talk about their Lord and Savior. After all, what other boy Devlin's age would wear button-down shirts and sweater vests every day? Blazers over t-shirts and jeans. His long hair all twisted up into a tight knot. Kevin's son with a man-bun. Ugh. The Osmosian knew it had to be Gwendolyn buying his clothes and dressing the boy, and Devlin had no say in the matter. But Kevin never commented. He knew he didn't have a say in the matter either.

He saw the boy sometimes at Burger Shack or Mr. Smoothy.

At the end of the day. Kevin would be on his way back to the cramped apartment he'd found since Gwendolyn wouldn't let him back in her house. The Osmosian would stop to get something to eat and there would be the boys. Sharing a textbook, presumably doing homework. Or with their phones out sharing dank memes with each other. Or Ben's brat would be playing a game while Devlin read off an e-reader.

The server would bring the boys their food and Kevin would watch Devlin reach into his school bag and pull out a number of prescription bottles, pop three different pills in his mouth, and wash it down with whatever soft-drink he had in his paper cup. The first time Kevin saw this, he was about to freak out. He thought his son was taking drugs, was ready to run up and confront the boy -Gwendolyn's command to stay away be damned! She had been through too much between the two of them. She did not need to deal with her son doing drugs on top of everything!

Luckily, the first time Kevin saw this, Ben had been with him too. The Hero of the Universe held his long standing frienemy back and explained to the Osmosian that, yeah, Devlin was taking drugs. Prescription drugs. That he had a prescription for. Several, in fact. Anti-depressants, anti-anxiety, and mood stabilizers. All recommended and prescribed by his psychiatrist, Dr. Borges. Devlin had to take them with food. That was why Kevin saw him washing them down right before he bit into his burger. So, calm the hell down and stop freaking out, please!

He saw the boy sometimes in the motor-pool at Headquarters.

Gwendolyn still hadn't seen fit to return his car to him, so the Osmosian had checked out a semi-permanent loaner from the motor-pool lot. He had to go in and renew it every month and sometimes Devlin would be against the far wall of the garage, where they did maintenance. Sitting at a work bench, a tool cabinet open, working on his hoverboard. Maintaining and improving his own Ride with as much care, love, and attention to detail as Kevin used to do on his car.

It was the times like that, the times when Kevin didn't just see himself in the boy, but the good parts of himself, the parts he actually liked about himself reflected in his son that Kevin really wanted to talk to him. Cross the motor-pool and meet face to face. Speak as men.

But Gwendolyn had forbidden Kevin from going anywhere near their son.

He wasn't allowed in their house. When Kevin and Gwendolyn shared their romantic rendezvous, it was at his shitty apartment or in her secret Headquarters under her library on the fold-out bed. Or in the back of backseat of Kevin's car that Gwendolyn still drove, tumbling in the backseat like awkward teenagers. He wasn't allowed at home where the boy lived. He wasn't allowed near they boy's school. When they passed each other in the Plumbers Headquarters, they were always surrounded by other. People who understood their powers, dealt with aliens every day, understood the tension of their relationship, and would not be shy about intervening between two Osmosians. Kevin didn't even know where Devlin's therapist's office was. So even if he wanted to corner the boy there, he couldn't.

Bottom line, to say that Kevin never saw his son would be disingenuous. Kevin saw Devlin.

He just didn't speak to him.

…

It would be disingenuous to say that Devlin never saw his father. Devlin saw Kevin.

The older man was reinstated as a Plumber and given back his old rank of Magister. So, it made sense that he was there at HQ when Devlin went there to see Kenny. And, Kevin was still riding desk duty and not allowed to carry a weapon, go out on patrol, or work open cases. So, he was always there whenever Devlin passed through the bullpen. On his way to or from school with Kenny.

Bellwood was by no means a small town anymore -certainly not compared to what it used to be when his parents were younger. So there were plenty of places to get some food fast after school or work. But Kenny and Devlin tended to frequent places that were familiar to them, places that Ben took them to. Members of Ben's Team, and just Plumbers in general, tended to frequent those same places, Kevin included. So, it was not uncommon for Devlin to see the car his father was borrowing from the motor-pool to pull into the Mr. Smoothy parking lot, or thought the Burger Shack drive through.

He might not actually see the man when he met with his mother, but Devlin always knew when they were together. His mother would text him on a Friday night informing him not to wait up for her since she would be spending the night at Kevin's place. Or when he would come home from an appointment with his therapist to an empty house and a note that there was dinner in the fridge, all he had to to was heat it up whenever he was hungry. He knew that they were probably at the lake, rolling around in the back of the car, or else in the grass under the tree that Kevin had carved their initials in.'KL + GT Until The End of Time'

And while Devlin saw Kevin, he knew the other man saw him too.

Growing up the son of a smuggler, arms dealer, terrorist, and madman, the young Osmosian learned to develop a sort of sixth sense. He knew when he was being watched. A tension between his shoulder blades. A prickling on the back of his neck. The slight raising of goosebumps on his skin as his hindbrain and instincts told him there was danger about. Predators stalking him. Hunting him.

He felt it when he entered Plumbers HQ to see Kenny. The tension of a hard stare. A critical look. Appraising him. Sizing him up. Judging him. Devlin ran a self-conscious hand over the tight knot he twisted his hair up into. He still preferred it long, but he was keeping it neater now. Tied up and off his neck and out of his face. Just like he was dressing neater now. Button down shirts and sweater vests, or blazers over his t-shirts. Kenny could make all the comments he liked about Devlin looking like a bible salesman, but that meant he didn't look like a street urchin anymore. He was neat. Respectable. More like his mother... ...and less like his father. What did Kevin think of that?

But when the young Osmosian raised his head to chance a glance at his father, the older man was looking down. His attention back on his desk and the paperwork he was so bad at.

He watched surreptitiously over his textbook, or phone, or e-reader. The moment he heard the sound of the Plumbers car that was on loan to his father, a slightly different sound from other standard issue vehicles since Kevin had undoubtedly started modifying it himself. Devlin would keep his head down, but lift his eyes up, watching the car pull into the drive thru and back out again. As soon as Kevin was gone, he would go back to his homework, or goofing around with Kenny. Like nothing had happened. But if Kevin's car pulled into the parking, if he went in for his food, if he sat and ate there, sometimes alone, sometimes with Ben, Devlin kept his eyes on the man.

Kenny finally noticed one day and commented on it. Asking what the hell he was looking at and turning to follow his line of sight. Devlin didn't realize just how preoccupied with his father until his cousin said something. He was invested in watching Kevin watching him. He wondered what the older man thought about him. He cared about his opinion. He hoped it was positive. Devlin wanted his father's approval. The realization startled him. After everything the other Osmosian did to him, the younger man still just wanted daddy to love him.

Then Devlin went home to a dog that hated him, and got a text from his mother that she would be home late because she was fucking the man that he still wasn't even allowed to talk to. (She didn't used the word 'fucking', of course. Her exact text used the phrase 'don't wait up'.)

Heating up his dinner in the microwave, Devlin sat down at the kitchen table to eat alone. Zed wandered into the kitchen, noted that Gwendolyn was not home and was about to flee. Devlin tried offering her a cut off his meat as an incentive to get her to stay. Maybe be his friend. It would be nice if the family dog liked him. Considering the fact that Zed freaking loved Kevin, the fact that she was still utterly terrified of Devlin bothered him. A lot.

The Anubian Baskurr sniffed the air between them. Glared at the young Osmosian suspiciously. Sniffed some more. She crept closer. Paused. Took a step back. Crept closer. Stopped short. Reaching out gingerly with one paw, she knocked the bit of meat off the Osmosian's fork. Keeper her eyes on Devlin the whole time, Zed closed the distance between them, snatched the piece up in her mouth and bolted from the room. Devlin heard her eating it in the living room.

He looked down at his dinner, feeling unwanted and rejected. He knew that was factually not actually the case. His mother loved him dearly and was happy to have him back living with her. But she also loved his father too. It was because she loved him so much, understood how much his father hurt him, and wanted to protect him from his father that she was so determined to keep him insulated from her trysts with Kevin. He knew that Zed was suffering from the lasting emotional effects of her own Osmosian trauma. It wasn't that she didn't want Devlin, or hated him. She was just afraid.

But knowing these facts did not change the way he felt.

That was the reason Dr. Borges prescribed him his sertraline.

Devlin tapped his fork on the placemat and thought about his father and how severely Kevin still affected him. A year ago when he was still new to his safe, peaceful, and nurturing life with his mother the young Osmosian missed his father. His deep voice, his firm hand. Just his general presence. Kevin was what was familiar to Devlin and there was safety and comfort to be found in the familiar. Living with his mother was different. That made it strange and took getting used to. But now he was used to it and, feelings of resentment and mild depression that was lasting three years and just severe enough to merit medication aside, Devlin liked his current life. He liked it a lot.

He just wasn't sure how exactly Kevin figured into it.

Obviously, the older Osmosian wasn't the same evil and abusive monster he was when Devlin was younger. Gwendolyn exercised him of all his surplus energy and excess aliens. The things that were supposed to make Osmosians mad and mindless. Devlin wouldn't know about that. He'd never absorbed energy before -that he could remember, anyway. His father wouldn't let him. The young Osmosian grew up believing his powers were bad. Something to be ashamed of. He could control his mutant form and transform back and forth at will. But he never used his actual powers of absorption. So, Devlin wasn't really sure just how true that was.

Devlin got the distinct impression that Kevin wanted to figure back into his life.

At least, that's what he assumed it meant when his father was constantly staring at him. Watching him in the bull-pin of Plumbers Headquarters, glaring critically when he took his medications, or even going so far as to almost approach him once in the motor-pool when Devlin was using their alien tech and tools to improve his hoverboard. Kevin didn't actually approach him. But the younger Osmosian could see in his body language that he wanted to. Close the distance between them. Come over and- -and what? Devlin didn't even know what his father might want with him.

But, what was even more clear, was that no matter how much Kevin might be taking an interest in his son, or want to speak with him, he wanted Gwendolyn's continued love and respect more. Devlin's mother wanted to keep them separated so, while the older Osmosian could easily just ignore her request, cross the bull-pin, or the Burger Shack dinning room, or the motor-pool and engage with his son, he wasn't going to. Because Gwendolyn told him not to. Kevin Levin was actually respecting another person's wishes. Another person, meaning someone other than himself. That was something the Kevin 11,000 that Devlin remembered from his childhood would never do. So, clearly, his father was a different person now. But Devlin didn't know this new person.

Given his history with his father, Devlin wasn't quite sure if he wanted to know the person Kevin was now or not.

But he was willing to try.

…