Facade

"You didn't have to tell them."

Green eyes glanced up at the teenager beside him. Even after six years, he looked exactly the same; with the familiar haircut he wore now and thin, lanky body. His outfit had changed slightly, the black-and-white shirt exchanged for an ebony one, an emerald jacket stretched tight over his shoulders. His eyes were completely different, though—they were darker, angrier, more mature, he guessed. The light that flared within them no longer came from the thrill of battle, but the resolve to help people, save lives. That, he supposed, came from the experiences he had faced, and those he had yet to face.

Still, this wasn't what he had in mind when he imagined himself in the future. More muscular, maybe, and a bit taller. Kicking his legs back and forth over the edge of the bench, he muttered sullenly, "It doesn't matter. They would have found out eventually."

Now it was his turn to study the boy. Taking another sip of the smoothie clutched in his hands—Cranberry mixed with carrot and chocolate—he considered the words carefully, taking in his disheveled appearance, the mussed brown hair and bright lime orbs. His gaze then flickered to the azure sky and its pure white clouds, endlessly blue and lifeless. Such beauty…and such contrast.

"Maybe. But that still doesn't mean they had to know."

Author's Note: The idea for this story initially stemmed from the conversation between ten-year-old Ben, Gwen and Kevin on the ship about his role as a hero in The Forge of Creation episode. His younger self stated that he treated everything as a big joke as a necessary counterpart to "do what I need to do". This part, aside from being something that struck me as completely unexpected, made me think about character depth and development in the series: The fact that the boy uses arrogance and conceit (obnoxiousness as well, from a certain standpoint), to hide his actual feelings about having to save the universe was an aspect that had never occurred to me before. And given the older Ben's offhand reply to his cousin's question afterwards, it was a feature of his that he wasn't happy sharing with the rest of his teammates, less so when brought up by him as a child.

Due to these circumstances and the reappearance of younger Ben, I figured that, should there have been a chance for the two Tennysons to talk after the battle; the older version would have confronted him about it. Since no such incident happened in the show and younger Ben ended up having his memories erased, this tale could be considered to be part of an Alternate Universe instead. Either way, last night's episode prompted me to write this, simply out of curiosity to see what a chat between both Bens would be like, seeing how much he developed over the course of several years.

Any reviews on this are welcomed, though flames certainly aren't. I do NOT own Ben 10. It belongs to Man of Action.