Ben 10
Generation X
Nora Tennyson, daughter of the famous Ben 10,000, is furious when her father fails to show up for her little brother's birthday dinner… again. After arguing with a stubborn Ben, she tells her Aunt Gwendolyn that she wished she could have known her father when he was a teenager and Gwendolyn grants her wish.
Chapter 1
"Naito?" Maxwell Tennyson asked his half sister as she took a precooked chicken out of her bag, "Where are Mom and Dad?"
"Yeah," Noradean said, pulling some dinner plates out of the cupboard, "I thought they said they'd been home to night for Max's birthday."
"I'm sorry, Max, they were called off-world again," Naito groaned, "But I promise, this will still be a great birthday! You like chicken, right? I picked one up on the way home from work. You know me, I'll eat anything."
"Yeah," Max smiled sadly, "Chicken, carrots, broccoli, turkey, ham…"
"Tooth picks, tooth brushes, TV remotes." Norry continued for him.
"Hey!" she smirked, "That was a long time ago! Tasted pretty good, though, but next time I'd add a bit of salt to the remote. Now, Nora, would you be a dear and fetch Ken and Kelly."
"Sure," she called heading up the stairs to the twin's bedroom. Kelladria and Kenneth Tennyson were sprawled out on their bedroom floor, Kelly with her nose stuck in a book and Ken playing some shooting game on his portable game player. If you ignored the fact that they were the same age, you'd never guess that the two were twins; Kelly had very dark brown, almost black hair, almond skin and dark greenish hazel eyes, making her look a lot like Norry. Kenny had chocolate brown hair and dark green eyes, making him a perfect copy of their dad, except for their mom's almond skin. She knocked lightly on the door and the two ten year olds glanced up at her, "Dinner time."
Ken frowned, "Dad's not home."
"I know," Nora sighed.
"They're not coming, are they?" Kelly asked.
Nora shook her head, "No, they're not."
"Oh," Kelly hung her head, "I'm not hungry."
"Can you try to eat something?" Norry asked, "It is Max's thirteenth after all."
"Did Nai cook?" Ken asked suspiciously, Nai wasn't a bad cook, but she ate literally anything, so she sometimes had troubles telling what was edible for humans and what wasn't. It wasn't her fault; she was an alien after all, their half sister who was asexually reproduced when their parents were fifteen by one of her dad's aliens, BigChill. Normally she looked very alien, but she had a holowatch that allowed her to blend in with the rest of the human race who were, at times, still a bit nervous about aliens living on earth.
"No," she shook her head, "she bought a precooked chicken."
"Alright, I'll eat then," Kelly decided.
Once they were all seated around the table, they started another long, awkward dinner without their parents. As usual, when their parents were away, Kelly picked at her food and barley ate anything, while Ken ate enough for himself and all ten aliens on his omnitrix. Max hardly ate anything as well; he just kept using his fork to push the food around on his plate.
"Cheer up, Max," Nai said, reaching down to feed some chicken to the two dog sized Pepexs, Jinger and Tucker, that their Aunt Gwendolyn had given the twins for their birthday three months earlier, "I'm sure they'll be back in time for your party."
"Yeah, like last year?" Max asked bitterly, "They were "there" as holo images. Happy birthday, Max, we couldn't be bothered to show up in person."
"I made you a cake in cooking today." Norry offered, "Vanilla with chocolate icing and rainbow sprinkles, your favorite."
"Thanks, Nor." He smiled a little.
"Can I be excuse?" Kelly asked miserably.
"Kel!" Nai whined, "You haven't eaten anything."
"I'm just not hungry!" She snapped, pushing her plate away and storming out of the room.
"Ding Dong!"
"I'll get it!" Nora smiled and headed for the door. She peeked out to see a group of familiar faces, "Aunt Gwendolyn, Uncle Kevin!"
"Noradean!" Aunt Gwendolyn grinned and hugged her niece, "It's so good to see you! Now, where's my dweeb cousin?"
Nora's face dropped, "Dad's not here… again."
"Of course," Uncle Kevin rolled his eyes, "When it really counts Benji cops out, as usual."
"What?" asked Nora's cousin Devlin, "No Uncle Benny again?"
"Nope," she shook her head.
"How about Aunt Julie?" asked Kayla, her oldest cousin.
"Naw, they're both off world." She grimly stated, disappointed in her parents once again.
"Off world?" Kevin asked, "I don't remember Ben saying anything about going off world. Surely Sunny and Jim could have taken this one."
The youngest girl, Brittany shook her head, "Naw Dad, you know Uncle Benny; he never passes up a chance to play the hero."
"He should have told me though," Gwendolyn frowned, "Or at least Mitch, we're not a team so that he can run off and be superman when ever he feels like it. Oh, Dev, sweetie, why don't you put those presents in the living room?"
"Aunt Gwendolyn!" Naito grinned hugging the older woman, "How are you?"
"Oh, pretty good, Nai," their aunt smiled, "Why don't we find Max and do some real birthday stuff?"
"Sounds good, he's in the kitchen," she smiled, "Norry made a cake."
LATER
"A new hover board!" Max grinned at his cousin, "Thanks Dev!"
"Yeah, man, no prob," Devlin playfully punched his younger cousin's shoulder, "Maybe one of these days we can go boarding together!"
"Sounds like fun, you two," Gwendolyn ruffled her nephew's hair, "but right now, you two should hit the sack. In fact, you should all be in bed."
"Yes Mom," Britt groaned, as she followed the twins up the stairs.
Gwendolyn and Kevin helped Kayla, Naito and Noradean tuck the younger ones into bed. Britt shared the double bed that made up the bottom of the twins bunk bed with Kelly, Devlin took over the top bunk in Max's room and Kayla finally settled down in Nai's room with her tired alien half cousin.
"Are you going to bed now, too?" Gwendolyn asked Nora.
"No, I think I'll stay up a while." Nora shook her head, slumping down in an arm chair, "Auntie? Was Daddy always such a disappointment?"
"Yes," Kevin smirked.
"No!" Gwendolyn frowned hitting her husband lightly in the stomach, "Benjamin was a very responsible young man. He still is, he's just still responsible about the same things as he was when he was fifteen, when his priorities should have changed long ago. I wish you could have see your dad when he was younger… not to young though, when he was Kenny's age he was a total dork… but when he was around your age, he was an absolute star, nothing seemed to bother him except my relationship with Kevin. He was a different guy back then, he used to laugh and smile and was so bad at talking to girls that it's a wonder that Julie ever went on a first date with him. That was when she got Ship actually, on their first date."
Just then, the front door opened and Ben and Julie came in, "Gwen!"
"Julie!" Gwen greeted the small Japanese woman, then glanced at Nora, who was glaring at her father, "Why don't you come upstairs with Kevin and I and we'll catch up!"
Once her aunt had shooed her mother upstairs, Nora turned a smoldering glare on her father and snapped, "You missed the party!"
"I know, there was trouble," Ben brushed off her anger, "Max will understand."
"No, you don't get it," she snarled, "Max doesn't understand, he shouldn't have to because you should have been here! You promised you wouldn't miss another birthday! Can't you ever keep the promises you make?"
"Nawy!" He whined
"No, don't Nawy me." She snapped, "I'm serious, things have got to change, Daddy, you have to start coming home for dinner! I'll be you didn't know that when you and mom don't come home, Kelly doesn't eat!"
"Why not? That's ridicules!" Ben frowned.
"Because Kelly's not like Max and I," Norry protested, "She's not the kid you can start leaving home alone at age eight. She's like Nai was, you leave her alone to long and she starts eating TV remotes and batteries!"
"I can't always come home for dinner, Nora!" Ben rolled his eyes.
"No, that's fine, I can understand that, but you don't come home at all half the time!" she spat, "You could at least make an effort on birthdays!"
He frowned even deeper, "I made it to Ken's birthday this year."
"Oh, congrats, what do you want a medal?" Nor growled, "So you made it to one birthday party, but you missed nine others! Not to mention the day him and Kelly were born you were off fighting some giant toad!"
"Keeping innocent people safe is important, Noradean!" Ben snapped.
"More important then your kids?" she didn't even try to hind her disappointment in him as she headed for the stairs, "Aunt Gwendolyn was right, you do need to grow up!"
"Nora?" Aunt Gwendolyn poked her head out the door as the fifteen year old stopped up the stairs.
"You know what?" Nora snapped, "I wish I'd know Dad when he was young, too."
"You know I've been thinking and I might be able to help with that." Gwendolyn grinned. She lead Nora into her room where she saw a large, glowing, floating circle, "It's a time portal, I mastered the spell way back before Kayla was even born, but I don't use them often, since time is so delicate. This one will take you back to the summer that your father and I were sixteen, the summer after Nai was born actually. So what do you say… wanna go?"
She hesitated for a moment before nodding, "Yes."