Disclaim: I do not in any way own Ben 10 and other associated characters.
I had never seen him in my life but we had always been together in the most intimate of ways sharing a body back to back. Spines interlaced perfectly like a fresh puzzle but I'd never seen his face just heard his voice as he spoke of Thor and Isis and recited hieroglyphs telling of the Sky People like they existed. Like we weren't born faultless together rather something selected us from above and knew we'd fit just right. That all our bones would align seamlessly, all our strengths and weaknesses would balance, that our opposites would attract.
To believe there was something out there in the vastness of the universe that could outwit our Gods and changed the harmony of our world was inconceivable. It had to be like this for always and the pictures carved in stone of beings like themselves with merely two legs, two arms, and two eyes were simply there for entertainment. But the way Kevin talked made me want to believe it could be. And at night I dream of turning around and tracing where our spines fused until I traced muscles to his face to see what I was missing.
I wish Kevin liked me the way he likes his stories. I know better; liking something is an amazing experience itself liking is the strongest positive emotion one can feel for something.
Ben likes Kevin.
Kevin likes to not like Ben.
It's late at night and Kevin is reading, tracing his fingers over indents in cold rocks, whilst I try to engage my other half in conversation to no avail. Connected in such ways to a person and yet I am sure I've never been so alone amusing myself with dirt on the floor.
"I grow bored with them,"
"No. You grow scared of them"
"I'm gonna kill them all," hammer raised high in emphasis Thor gloated, "just like I did the giants."
"No," thunder simmered as Zeus rose, "let me use my lightning like scissors like when I cut the legs off of the whales and cut the dinosaurs to lizards. Allow me Thor to prolong your amusement."
The Gods laughed above opening the sky forcing clouds to rumble and expanding and intermingling 'til the sky disappeared at such a swift pace that eyes couldn't follow. The first burning rock struck bursting through the clouds silently until it hit and like a tidal wave chaos followed with fire blazing down to scorch the earth I had walked for so long.
We ran in madness with others yelling out like they had lost something vital. In madness I saw red lightning strike into the person beside us until they split down the middle and fell apart standing on two legs like Sky People before crippling to the crisped ground with gaping holes being sewn by a tan skinned God.
Red lightning was above us and I screamed as it tore through me and Kevin destroying the perfect puzzle I imaged was our spine, scattering the pieces far out. Hands were all over me pulling me together where I had split but the pain was on my stomach and in my mind.
Left alone I stood shakily unused to not having thick legs bumping mine and a voice snorting at me in annoyance. I turned and ran long and hard before I collapsed from the sheer weight of myself something I'd never had to carry alone.
"Get up,"
And I did stumbling along with a stranger until we fell into a ditch carved from a flaming meteor. Blood poured from me like tears and I didn't even know whose it was anymore just knew I could hardly see.
I looked into the eyes of this stranger and saw something I must've known and by the way you stared back you must have seen it too. But I must have been crazy from loneliness 'cause his face was pale splattered red and my vision was tinged red from blood.
Over the screams of others I heard the wind pick up and the ocean ride on land throwing people in thousands of different directions. I grabbed on to the stranger just as the water picked us away and with my eyes cleaned of blood and your face visible I swore you felt my pain and that your soul was the same as mine. The pain wasn't in my stomach now it was in my chest and I must have been suffering a heart attack but I wouldn't die and this wasn't just like anymore.
It hurt too much. The Gods had taken our safe like and ripped the letters apart like our spines and sewn the pieces together to make something ten times more painful. He pulled me close despite the strength of the torrent and I buried my nose in his black hair as we surfaced momentarily I breathed in the smell of old paper and clean skin.
As quickly as it came it left us. Alone with ourselves and each other huddled at the base of an old tree I cried the last of the blood off my face. He soothed me and called me by name telling me stories of Thor and Isis and recited hieroglyphs telling of the Sky People like they existed. I had never seen him before but I knew that if I cut our backs open our spines would fit together maybe not perfectly not with all the pieces lost and broken but we'd fit and that's all that mattered.
That night I traced his back and we explored the new indents in our stomachs. He touched me and kissed me and cried with me all night. In the sunrise he moved in me thrusting and clinging to me like he could put us back together again if he just destroyed all the space between us.
I wished he could. I wish I could just like him again. I wish that if I said I love you he'd understand.
Origin of Love – Hedwig and the Angry Inch