Disclaimer: I do not own nor do I claim to own any characters or concepts related to Ben 10, Ben 10: Alien Force, or Ben 10: Ultimate Alien. This is a nonprofit work of fanfiction.
I wrote this a long, long time ago for hydrophobia (livejournal), well before I'd caught up on all things AF, so it's a bit AU-ish. (It's definitely AU.) (2008, whaaaaaat.) I pretty much take a thousand friggin' years to crosspost anything.
No more fooling around
After they had successfully repelled the alien invaders (second invasion this month), Kevin turned to Gwen and said, "So, uh, you were pretty awesome," exactly as he had in the aftermath of the last four alien invasions.
Oh my God, Gwen thought, we're going to be doing this when I'm thirty, the prospect of which was so horrifying that for a single, paralyzing moment she couldn't breathe.
"Are you doing anything on Saturday?" she blurted.
Something almost like panic flared on Kevin's face. "What? Why? No," he sneered.
"We're going to see a movie," she said.
"We are?" said Kevin.
"Yes," she said. "We are." She could see it perfectly, as though someone had drawn a curtain back, revealing everything she had let slip by: he'd laugh at all the wrong moments and bounce his leg off the seat in front of him, and she'd reach across to thread her fingers between his and he'd go still and awkward and shy, and she had wasted half a year waiting for Kevin to work up the guts to say, "Hey, do you want to see a movie together?" when clearly this sort of social maneuvering was beyond him. Also, it was 2008; she could totally ask a guy out if she wanted.
"What?" Kevin said. "Like...on a date?"
Gwen smiled at him, serene and very deadly. Dark as the night was, moon and stars hidden behind the clouds, she imagined she could see him swallow. A little bubble of pleasure popped inside her stomach.
"Yes," she said. "Exactly like that."
fin