Author's Note: A birthday present for...myself. -smiles- An idea inspired by something I dreamed about. Okay, now I know I really love BxG, because I've never dreamed about a pairing before. And yeah, I named my fic after my favourite webcomic. This fic takes place after the original series.

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Sugar Bits

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"Ben?"

He turned, brushing the hair out of his greenish-yellow eyes, and looked at his cousin. "What?"

"Thanks for inviting me over for Christmas."

Ben shrugged, shaking his head slightly, and replied, "Yeah, well, my parents told me to." Clearing his throat, he started imitiating his father. "Hey Ben, why don't you go ask your cousin Gwen over for Christmas? 'Cause it would be really great for you to be influenced by your smarty-pants, weird, dorky--AAAH!"

While Ben had been distracted, Gwen had scooped up a handful of snow and tossed it at him. "Guess you shouldn't be so mean to me, huh?" And she tossed another snowball at him.

"Hey! No fair! I didn't get a chance to--oh okay, that DOES it!"

...And so began a snowball fight between the two children.

"Take that!"

"Missed! Aim better, would ya?"

"Oh? You mean like this?!"

"You missed again! Try taking lessons, dweeb!"

"Dude, you take karat--yaaah!"

It was hard to keep up a tough exterior for long, and they started breaking down in peals of laughter. Ben leaned against the newly rebuilt wall of his house and tried to stifle his smile. "I can't believe I just got my butt kicked by a girl!" he exclaimed, and then tried to rationalize the situation. "Of course, I didn't go alien on you, or you'd be covered in snow by now!"

At that, Gwen snorted. "Yeah, right. You think your watch can take me down? I don't think so."

Ben chose not to reply, even though he really wanted to. Instead he chose to roll his eyes and gave a quiet "Hmph." He glanced slightly at Gwen and blinked.

He wasn't crazy about...girls...in general, anyway. Some of the guys in his class, yeah, they liked to tease (he didn't like saying 'flirt'. It sounded like a girly word.) and stuff, but not him. And he had a pretty skewed view of what was pretty and what wasn't, on top of that, and Gwen kind of fit in between that.

...but yeah, when Gwen wasn't calling him 'dweeb', or any other insult...she could actually be viewed as quite pretty...

Like how some of the guys thought they could win her easy, during those times when she was new in his school, and they found out she was his alien-kicking cousin who could deal out insults meaner than they'd ever expected to come out of a girl's mouth. The hard way.

"Why are you staring at me?"

Ben gasped, but it wasn't the question (he hadn't really been paying attention, anyway), and he quickly backed away so fast, XLR8 could've matched that speed. "Mistletoe..." He warned, pointing upwards. And right there, above Gwen's head, was a strand of white string tied to the roof, strangling a piece of plastic mistletoe Ben's dad had picked up at the mall yesterday, intending it for himself and his wife. The girl paled and stepped away from it.

If there was one thing that they'd agree about, it was the fact that kissing, to be frank, was just SICK.

"Good thing I spotted that, huh?" Ben smiled, and then his face suddenly tinged with disgust. "Or else I'd have to...kiss you."

"That would be gross." Gwen agreed.

"Yeah," Ben replied. "Cause I'd have to kiss a girl with cooties."

Gwen flinched. "I don't have cooties, loser."

"Oh yeah?" Her cousin smirked. "Prove it."

The boy was about to regret that.

The redhead leaned in and kissed her cousin on the left side of his face. The effect on Ben was quite fascinating to watch. His mouth fell open slightly, his face slowly tinged with the colour red (and so did Gwen's, after she realised what she had done) and he turned to face his cousin, who quickly attempted to look as though she'd meant to do that. "Need me to prove it some more, Ben?"

"Uh...uh..." His eyes flickered about wildly, and then he finally looked at Gwen. "Please don't do that again."

And his cousin's response was a smile.

Not the good kind.

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Author's Note: And now you tell me what came next.