A/N: Okay here we go, New re-write. I have spent AGES tidying this up and improving it to a good standard. And 7 pages! Wow! I didn't know I could write that much! Anyway here it is Tough Love: Late Night Caller :)
Disclaimer: I Samantha Thomas Caunt own nothing apart from the plot. All characters are owned by Man of Action, who in turn are owned by Cartoon Network who is owned by Warner Bro's Studios.
Summary: It's the year 2013, Julie and Ben are 18 and in their senior year at High School. They have been dating for 3 years and are still going strong. Ben, still being Hero of Earth is still juggling Hero Time and being a normal teenager. But he has got better at handling it, although he still misses the occasional date and special occasion, but always make it up to Julie, who is taking everything in her stride and continues to be Ben's supporting Girlfriend. The Media has backed off Ben a little bit, taking some stress of their relationship. But do sometimes make up rumours about the couple. Kevin and Gwen are also still going strong with their relationship, and have a very strong connection to each other. Although the Alien fighting trio don't spend as much time together as they used to, they still sometimes meet at Mr Smoothie's and talk about life as well as going on missions together.
Emerald stared into hazel, Determination was written over the young mans face as his gaze flickered back and forth from the prize to his opponent. But she wasn't backing down. Oh no, she wasn't going to let him win this one. He had gotten his way too many times and she was putting her foot down. Muscles tensed in anticipation, as the stare down carried on.
Neither opponent was showing any signs of breaking, the girls fingers twitched as she readied herself to slap away the offending hand from the prize that was rightfully hers. The silence that hung in the air was deafening, the players not daring to breathe or even blink encase they missed their opportune moment to claim the treasure for themselves.
It all happened in slow motion. The boys hand shot out like a rocket, its sights set on grabbing the ultimate prize. But just as the hand was about grab it, a slim hand slid underneath his larger one and snatched up the prize, and it was quickly shoved into the winners awaiting open mouth.
The losers eyes widened in shock as he watched her happily munch on the thing he had worked so hard to get. As she swallowed a smug smile slid its way onto her lips as she watched amused at her partners opened mouth shock at her Ninja-like skills.
"I can't believe you stole my last chilli-fry!" Ben whined as her crossed his arms over his chest in a child like manner.
"You're just jealous because I am quicker than you" Julie said as she proceeded to lick her fingers clean of the remaining chilli residue. Ben just sat there and continued to pout over his loss; Julie just rolled her eyes at his child like behaviour.
Seeing that his pout wasn't going to let up anytime soon, Julie got up from her side of the booth on which they were sitting at and went over to Ben's side. Sitting down next to him she planted a quick kiss on his cheek and giggled when his cheeks slightly tinted pink.
"What was that for?" He asked with a smile on his face after turning to face her.
"For taking the last chilli-fry and to get you to stop pouting" Julie replied and gave Ben a grin.
"Do you know what would really make me happy?" he mumbled and leant forward, Julie knew were this was going and she too leant forward. Soon there lips were millimetres apart and Julie could feel Ben's warm breath on her lips. She closed her eyes in anticipation, but of course a certain dark-haired ex-con had to come spoil it for them
"Sorry to interrupt your face sucking session" Kevin said loudly causing the two teens to jump away from each other and almost causing Julie to fall off her seat, both had deep blushes on there faces, making Kevin snicker.
"Is there not one day you can go with out tormenting me or embarrassing the hell out of me" Ben asked, angry at the fact the Osmosian teen had ruined yet another one of his dates.
"Nah what would be the fun in that? Teasing you makes my day Benji" The dark haired teen smirked as Ben glared daggers at him.
"Can't I take you anywhere Kevin?" A voice said behind from were the three teens were. They all turned their head to see Gwen walk towards them a thin crimson eyebrow raised as she waited for Kevin's witty comeback.
"Aw you know you love it really" the oldest of the four said and wrapped a strong arm around Gwen's wait and kissed her temple. Gwen just rolled her eyes at her immature boyfriend and set to the task of telling Ben what was happening.
"Ben we got trouble" she started and heard an audible groan from her brunet cousin "There's an alien causing trouble in Franklin, Tennessee. Grandpa Max wants us to check it out" she finished watching her cousin's facial expression droop.
"Why can't the Plumber Kids check it out? They passed their formal training ages ago!" he asked. Julie who had been listening to the whole conversation felt her heart drop; she loved it when she got to spend quality time with Ben. But lately more and more alien activity had been popping up around the world, so they hadn't really had time to have a date in a while.
"They are on a mission half way across the universe Ben, The time it would take them to get here we could have done it and been home" Gwen said exasperated, it was like explaining it to a bunch of kindergartners.
"Fine" he growled and turned to face Julie, regret and sadness swimming in his emerald orbs. "I'm really sorry Jules, I know we haven't had a lot of time together and when we do I get called away" He averted his gaze down to the table not wanting to see the hurt in her beautiful hazel eyes. "I know I'm a crap boyfriend, putting hero business before you" he continued but was stopped when a slim hand rested on his own.
"Ben, I forgive you. I know that hero business is important, and I don't mind sharing I really don't. You are trying and that's I all ask. You're not a terrible boyfriend, your sweet, kind caring and funny, and I'm glad I found you" she told him. Ben looked up to find her smiling at him, he gave a smile back. They lent in a shared a kiss, Gwen smiled at the pair, glad that after all the crap with the media and rumours that they were still going strong. While Kevin just pretended to gag at the love fest in front of him, he soon stopped after Gwen landed a short sharp jab of her elbow into his side causing him to grunt in pain.
When they pulled apart Julie cupped Ben's cheek in her hand and stared deep into his eyes. Ben could see the worry swirl around her hazel eyes, "Be careful okay?" she whispered just loud enough for him to hear "Am I not always?" he said with a cheeky grin but seeing that it wasn't easing the worry he turned serious "Don't worry Jules, I'm coming back. I'm not leaving you anytime soon, not without one hell of a fight anyway"
Julie smiled and Ben gave her one of his own, He lovingly kissed her forehead before getting up and facing his team mates. "We taking the Rust bucket?" he asked the Osmosian, who just gave him his trademark devilish grin
"Of course, she hasn't been used in a while since I had to fix her up after that battle with the shape shifter" The alien morpher nodded his head in understanding and they set off, but not before Ben had turned round and given Julie a wink that meant 'When we get back I will make it up to you'
She watched them until she could no longer see her boyfriend signature green jacket, finishing her smoothie she threw the empty cup in the bin and headed on the long trek back home.
Walking down the scarcely populated streets, Julie watched as a young couple walked past, holding each others hand smiling and laughing. It made her heart ache, she knew that Ben couldn't be with her as much normal couples because of his duties but it didn't mean she didn't miss him when he did go.
After another 15 minutes of walking she finally made it home. She couldn't have been happier to see her mothers bright pink flamingo's that decorated their front garden, making it look like some artificial zoo. Smiling slightly to herself she headed up her driveway ready to have some of her mothers home cooked food and then to curl up in her bed and sleep.
Stepping inside her nose was assaulted with the smell of lasagne and homemade chips., a large grin broke out on her face and she quickly made her way to the kitchen were she found her mother serving up dinner.
"Hey sweetie, your home early. I thought you had a date with Ben?" he mother said while placing some salad on a plate. Julie's shoulders sank a little; she had just gotten ridden of the feeling of loneliness until her mother had brought it up again
"Err... Yeah they had to go off on another mission" she said half heartily, really not wanting to get into another argument with her mother about the fact that Ben seems to prefer Hero Time more than her.
She knew that wasn't true, Ben had always told her honestly that sometimes he wished he could take the watch off and just be a normal guy again. A guy who goes out on dates with his girl friend without having to worry that his plumbers badge might go off. Or be able to walk down the street without people hooding him for autographs or people being wary of him encase he snapped and turned into an alien and killed them all.
But luckily her mother said nothing and got an extra plate out for Julie to eat. Just as she sat down to start eating her father entered and looked at Julie warily.
"Julie, I thought you had a date with Ben? Or did he cancel again" Her father asked, his heavy Japanese accent slightly hiding his anger. Julie rolled her eyes at her parents, she knew they didn't like the fact that he kept sometimes leaving her halfway through dates but she thought they would have got over it by now.
"No Dad he didn't cancel, he got called away" she said exasperated. She was fed up having to explain Ben's situation to them.
"Still doesn't give him the right to keep leaving you or standing you up" Her father said loudly, he accent making him sound stern. Julie sighed; it was the same every time. She would tell them, they get angry at the fact she had been left again and tell her over and over again how she could get someone better.
"Dad it's not his fault okay? He can't just ignore calls; people's lives could be at risk! And don't even start telling me I could do better because I don't care. I love him and that's all that matters" she said angrily, officially ending the conversation.
The rest of dinner was eaten in silence, once she finished Julie picked up her plate and placed it into the sink before trooping upstairs without a word to her parents... Once in her room she plopped face first onto her bed and screamed into the pillow.
"Ship?" a little technological voice chirped, a black and green blob slithered out from under her bed. It one lone eye looking at it owner worriedly, he could tell something was bothering her.
Julie looked up and smiled when she saw Ship "Hey boy" she called, Ship wagged his tail in response and jumped onto the bed and snuggled into her side. The raven haired girl giggled and affectionately scratched his head.
Yawning, Julie got off her bed and went to get changed into her jammies which consisted of a tight tank top and a pair of slightly too small shorts., she really didn't care what she looked like, nobody was going to see her anyway. Crawling into bed she let out another yawn and snuggled into her pillow, Ship followed and settled next to her and shut himself down. Julie's last coherent thought before she fell into a deep sleep was that she hoped Ben was okay.
Ben winced as he pulled himself out of his car, the alien they had fought was quite aggressive, and had even managed to take Kevin down in one single punch. It was about 7ft tall and was covered in a kind of scalely armour that protected it from attacks. Instead of fingers on its hands it had 4 long sharp midnight blue knives as claws; its feet were bird like in structure and were bright mustard yellow that stood out against its forest green armour.
It had managed to slice Ben's side with one of its claws when the Ultimatrix had timed out. The wound had been quite deep and he had lost a lot of blood, if it wasn't for Gwen noticing he had been hurt and was unable to transform and put up a shield when the monster attempted to stab him in the heart, he would have been dead.
As Ben looked around he smirked at the bright flamingo's that took up the front yard. Julie's mother always did have a weird taste in design. Sneaking round the back, he located Julie's window, lifting up his left arm and wincing as he did so he popped up the faceplate of the Ultimatrix and selected Big Chill. Being careful not to move too much and split open his wound again he pushed down the dial.
A bright green flash erupted around him, when it died down in his place stood a large moth like alien with piercing lime green eyes. "Big Chiiilll" he hissed, turning intangible he flew up into her bedroom. He had sneaked into her bedroom before; Kevin had given him the idea after all the times he had snuck in Gwen's bedroom of a night time.
Once in her bedroom he turned back to normal and crouched beside her as she slept in her bed.
"Julie, Jules" he whispered careful not to make too much sound encase her parents found out he was in her bedroom. She mumbled something and dug her head deeper into her pillow; Ship on the other hand had heard Ben and was happily chirping his name and wagging his tail.
"Hey boy" Ben whispered in greeting to the little alien pet "Do you think you can get her up without making to much noise?" he asked the little mechamorph, hoping maybe he would have more success at waking the sleeping girl. Ship chirped his name again and began to nudge her, repeating his name over again.
Ben could see her slowly coming round, opening her eyes; she blinked a couple of times to get her eyes used to the darkness that showered her room like a blanket. She could hear Ship happily chirping her name and nudging her side, lifting her arm she comfortingly stroked his head in an attempt to calm her ecstatic pet down.
"What's up boy?" she mumbled tiredly, hoping that it was nothing so she could go back to the lovely dream she was having.
"Hey Jules" a very familiar voice called out to her, her slowly drooping eyes shot open, the tiredness she once felt being replaced by confusion and surprise. She turned her head in the direction the voice came from and was met with the sight of her boyfriend's grinning face.
"Ben! What the hell you doing in here!" she angrily hissed, even though inside her heart was hammering in her chest and her stomach was doing flips at the fact he had come home alive and safe.
"I wanted to see you and let you know that I'm safe and you don't have to worry about me anymore" he told her, a cheeky grin on his face. Julie tried to be angry at him and glare at him, but the way his eyes glittered in the trickle of moonlight that had made it through her window, and the way his grin brought out the dimples in his face and made her want to grin along side him made it extremely hard for her to be the slightest bit angry at him for breaking into her room.
"There is such a thing called a cell phone which normal people use to tell other normal people they are safe and not break into their girlfriends bedroom, in the middle of the night while her parents are asleep down the hall" She scolded him and got up to open the window. Ben gawked at her wardrobe choice; it extenuated her womanly curves and showed off more skin than usual. Plus, with the added trickle of moonlight that shone over her body, made her look like a goddess. He was having an internal battle with himself to stop him jumping her right then and there and exploring her exposed flesh that taunted him.
"Yeah but Jules, we not normal. Normal doesn't even register in our vocabulary" he reminded her, still having trouble stopping his eyes wandering over her scantily clad body.
"Yeah I know, But sometimes when you have a life like ours a bit of normal is what you need" she said and lent out of the open window, letting a small breeze blow on her face, making her shoulder length raven coloured hair seem like it was dancing around her head.
Guilt washed over the male teen. He knew how hard it was for Julie, with him being gone most of the time she was left alone. This made people talk and rumours to be spread, it was especially hard when the story came out that he was having it away with another girl and covering it up by saying he had missions. He had come to her house babbling about how it wasn't true and he loved her and would never ever do that to her. She had just shrugged it off and kissed him to make him shut up, he was glad she had because he was running out of things to say.
He walked up behind her and wrapped his arms around her slightly exposed waist "I'm sorry Julie, I really am. I never wanted this to happen and I wish that you never had to through all this" he whispered in her ear.
She sighed and lent into his embrace "I knew when I started going out with you things were going to be hard, so I'm not surprised. Things will calm down and get better, we just have to grit our teeth and get through the worst of it. I'm sure these experiences will make our relationship stronger" she told him, but a little voice inside her head screamed or break it up and ruin us but she pushed that thought back not really wanting to even start to think about not being with Ben after all this time.
She turned around and faced him, a smile on her face. "I love you, I'm not going to break up with you over some stupid thing" she said and wrapped her arms around his neck. Leaning in their lips met in a searing kiss, they moved in perfect sync and fit together like two pieces of a jigsaw. They poured all their emotions into that one kiss, showing how much they needed each other. Ben ran his tongue along her bottom lip begging for entrance, she eagerly let him in, and taking his chance he explored the silky cavern. Their tongues danced together, it was like poetry in motion.
As the minutes ticked by the need for air got more intense until they were forced to break apart, chest's heaving as they forced air into their lungs. Ben rested his forehead against hers, eyes closed as he revelled in the moment. Julie was the first to break the comfortable silence albeit breathlessly.
"Come on, you can stay here tonight. I don't want you driving home tired" she said, more like demanded to her boyfriend who was still reeling from the intense kiss earlier. But he soon snapped out of it and gave her a confused look and tilted his head slightly to the side, Julie couldn't help but think how cute he looked at that moment.
"But what about your parents? If they find me in here they will skin me alive, and I quite like having my skin on my body thank you very much" the alien morpher said worriedly. Yeah he could stand next to an atomic bomb and not blink but Julie's father scared the living shit out of him, and he would rather not have to explain to him why he was in his daughter's room.
Julie just rolled her eyes at him "Don't worry Ben, they go to work early and only come in to wake me up for school, so when they come in you can hide under the bed" she soothed and ran her fingers through his messy muddy coloured locks. He leaned into her touch, realising how tired he was he decided to agree. It would be dangerous to drive like this.
Nodding his head he followed her to the bed and stripped off his jacket and shoes, he blushed when she pointed to his pants, making her giggle. He was just glad he didn't have to take off his top, he didn't want Julie to see the wound on his side and worry, and she had enough on her plate as is. They crawled into bed, Ben slower than Julie. And soon they were laying together her head laying on his chest, directly over his heartbeat. The soothing rhythm and Ben gently running his fingers through her soft hair lulled her to sleep. Ben stayed awake, he looked at the sleeping girl in his arms. He had done so much wrong with her, missing dates and games. Being an obnoxious and oblivious jerk. Yet here she was, laying in his arms sound asleep, he didn't know why she had stayed with him. But deep down he was glad, she was the only thing in his life keeping him grounded and in touch with normality. She was the person at the end of the day he looked forward to seeing, to be able to hold her in his arms like he was now. She was his angel.
"Night, my beautiful angel" he whispered and lovingly kissed her forehead, before joining her in a blissful sleep.
A/N: Well there you have it! My new first chapter! If you liked it review, and if you didn't still review and tell me why you didn't.
And if you want to follow me on twitter the name is TennysonAddict I will auto follow back :)
Until next time
Sammyantha x x x