newbienovelistRD asked for this one. Here you go, Amiga! Enjoy! :)

Ben 10 belongs to Cartoon Network and Man of Action. I only own Rachel and Sparkle.

Not A Burden After All

Ben let out a groan as he went over paperwork that Plumber HQ sent over. "Man, I can't believe this," he groaned. "No matter what I do, more aliens keep coming."

He glanced at his Omnitrix and a picture of himself with his parents. "Life grew difficult after I got this thing and my family has always been either targeted or in danger because of my job. Even Rachel and her family have been endangered more than once and they just stumbled into aliens, kind like how I did."

His shoulders slumped. "I've never heard her say life is difficult, but it has to be for her. Always worrying about the Forever Knights or the evil aliens, or about her family, stuff that I brought on her by becoming a hero."

He sighed and picked up the paperwork again. "Maybe it would be better if aliens weren't on Earth? My family and I would have safe and normal lives if it wasn't for aliens."

As he thought about the bad guys he had had to face because of his Omnitrix, he just felt worse, especially when he saw that by having the Omnitrix, he had essentially sent out a universal invitation for aliens to come to Earth. As the weight of the world fell on his shoulders, he got up and decided to go for a walk in town and finish up the paperwork when he got back.

Teens talking on cellphones, kids running around and playing, adults getting groceries and heading for home, and storeowners locking up for the night, eager to go home to loved ones filled the streets, making Ben feel a bit of envy towards them. They never had to worry about something bad happening to them or their families. They had normal lives. Their jobs didn't weigh down on them so much as his did. Well, maybe some problems weighed them down, but surely saving the world and keeping it safe wasn't one of their problems or worries.

After a bit, the hero headed back to the Mansion and got back on the paperwork, working on it for a bit before letting out a sigh. "Ben?" He heard a familiar voice ask and turned to see Rachel at the door. "Everything okay?" She asked, coming in. "You've been really quiet all day. That's not like you."

He shrugged. "Just doing paperwork," he said before looking at her. "Hey, Rach. Can I ask you something?"

"Sure," she said, going over to sit by him. "What's up?"

"I mean no offense by this, but do you miss being normal?"

At Ben's question, a confused look came over the young woman's face. "Miss being normal?" She repeated. "Why do you ask that?"

"Well, you're kind of in this whole mess with aliens on Earth and my enemies now your enemies because of me," he said. "Aliens have made life kind of difficult because of me. If I hadn't gotten this Omnitrix…aliens wouldn't be here on Earth."

Rachel sat there patiently, knowing Ben wouldn't be saying these things on a whim. They were truly bothering him. "But what if Vilgax had gotten it?" She asked gently. "He would have come to Earth all the same, right?"

Ben shook his head. "The Omnitrix landed deep in a forest. No one would have found it unless they had dug up the forest," he said.

He sighed. "I'm always worrying about my loved ones because of aliens and I robbed you and your sister of having normal lives and normal fiancées. I've robbed a lot of people from having normal lives."

The owner of the Grant Mansion decided to tell Ben something she had only told Rook because it was painful to talk about. "Ben, let me tell you something," she said gently. "A long time ago, I had a normal life and a normal boyfriend, but…it wasn't what it was cracked up to be."

Ben looked at her in confusion. "What do you mean?" He asked.

She looked at him. "Do you know what normal got me?" She asked.

He shook his head. "What?"

"A cheating, abusive boyfriend."

The young man looked at her in shock and she nodded. "Kevin played me like a violin and I fell for it hard. The emotional abuse, the verbal abuse, and him cheating on me. I finally had enough one day and I left him, vowing I'd never let another man have my heart or even get close to me," she said. "I didn't think there were any guys out there that were good enough for me."

The hero looked saddened. "I'm sorry," he said, sensing this was hard for her to talk about.

"A normal life for me when I was growing up was bullies constantly chasing me and hurting me, my birth father trying to reassert his controlling behavior over me and my sister, and most nights crying myself to sleep," Rachel said. "It wasn't a good life for me. My whole outlook only changed when I met an alien who proved to me that while he could be scary, he had a genuine heart and wasn't a bad guy."

"Who was that?" Ben asked.

She smiled. "It was Snare-Oh," she answered. "He was the first alien I ran into when I first came here."

"Was he the first one you had ever met?" The young man asked.

She shook her head. "When I was a toddler, my first alien to ever meet was Chromastone and then later on, a Celestialsapien who granted me my power to speak to animals," she said. "I didn't know they were aliens back then. I just loved Chromastone because he was a great babysitter and always made my sister feel like she could do anything."

"Because she was sick a lot?" Ben asked gently, remembering Rachel telling him that long ago.

She nodded. "But when I met Snare-Oh, while he frightened me at first, after learning that I had run in here to escape the bullies and then watching me keep the police from finding out about him and the Galactic Monsters, he proved that he was a good alien, and he became my first adopted alien brother," she said.

She let out a sigh and then smiled. "My life went from normal where I was always sad to a life filled with excitement and a bit of chaos where I'm now happy," she said. "Sure, bad guys come, but we send them packing. If we didn't have the good aliens, we'd have a tough time keeping the bad guys away from Earth or keeping other bad guys away."

Ben fell into thought and Rachel noticed the Galactic aliens peeking in, along with Feedback, Bullfrag, Four Arms, and Sparkle. She looked back at Ben. "Would you have alien nieces if aliens weren't on Earth?" She asked.

He looked up at her as Sparkle came to his mind. The little female Conductoid who had accepted him as her human uncle and always glomped him happily when he arrived at the Mansion and she was waiting for him. She even went to him for comfort many times, always loving him unconditionally. Ben's shoulders now slumped. How many times did he look forward to seeing his alien niece or some of the other aliens when he had been having a bad day? How many times had they comforted him and proven that he could always turn to them for help? How many times had they…protected his family?

Rachel saw the hero look thoughtful and she motioned the aliens to come in and gestured to Ben. They nodded and Bullfrag placed a hand on Ben's shoulder. "How many times have you proven that we're not bad guys just because our races are close-minded unlike us, Ben?" He asked in a gentle tone.

"How many times have we proven that we don't think the same way the evil aliens do?" Snare-Oh asked gently.

"How many times have we proven you're a great hero?" Feedback asked softly.

"And how lucky we are to have someone like you who has walked in our shoes and understands us?" Whampire said, his tone gentle.

"And how lucky I am to have an awesome uncle who gave me two awesome grandparents when Daddy's parents rejected me?" Five-year-old Sparkle asked, jumping into Ben's lap and hugging him.

Swallowing hard, Ben hugged the small alien before turning to the others, who looked at him with patient, understanding looks. "We know you've been through a lot, Ben, and we wish we could have met you long ago when you first gained the Omnitrix," Ghostfreak said. "That way, we could have made a good first impression with you, unlike our evil counterparts did."

Rook came in, having heard most of the conversation. "Ben, I know being a hero weighs down on you, but that means that you are good at what you do," he said. "And if you hadn't gotten the Omnitrix and I never came to Earth, I would have lost the chance to find the loveliest girl in the universe to have as my love."

Rachel blushed hotly at that, making the others chuckle. "And I certainly wouldn't have a terrific fiancée who reminds me every day that he's madly in love with me," she said.

"Madly in love with the most beautiful, wonderful girl in the universe," Rook said, gently grabbing Rachel's hands and tugging her close to him before leaning her in a dancing dip, making her face go redder as a huge smile came to her face.

"Rook," she protested without heat before he kissed her. Sparkle giggled and covered her eye, making Ben chuckle before he looked back at the paperwork and his shoulders slumped again. Frankenstrike gently turned Ben's chair so that the boy was facing them all.

"Ben, what brought these worries on?" He asked gently.

"Just a bunch of paperwork listing all the damages that had been done battling the bad guys and the fact that I'm a bit burned out," the hero answered honestly.

Blitzwolfer looked over the paperwork and, seeing there was only two pages left, quickly did them up and set them with the rest of the paperwork. "Done," he said. "I think you're due for a much-needed vacation."

"I agree," Rachel said. "Rook?"

He held up his phone, which had a text from Magister Tennyson granting Ben a two-week vacation. "Done," he said with a smile.

The Galactic Monsters now turned to Ben. "So, are aliens as bad as you think?" Ghostfreak asked.

"No," Ben said honestly. "You guys are proof of that."

"You should be proud of what you do, Ben," Whampire said. "It's not a burden, especially when you have us to help you fight."

The hero nodded as Sparkle jumped up to his shoulders. "Can we play a game, Uncle Ben?" She asked excitedly.

"That is actually a great idea," Feedback said. "Guys, what do you say we play our favorite game? One where we convince a family member that we're not scary or bad?"

Everyone, including Ben, caught on and the young man took off fast with the aliens chasing him. Rachel and Rook laughed heartily before the Revonnahgander swept her up in his arms. "Come on, let's find a good spot to watch," he said, carrying her out of the room.

Rachel grinned and wrapped her arms around her love's neck as they found a good spot on the balcony to stand and watch as Ben tried to outsmart the aliens, but they were equally quick before he managed to give them the slip and they all came running into the foyer, almost crashing into each other before looking around for Ben. "Where is he?" Blitzwolfer asked.

"Hiding, no doubt," Snare-Oh said.

Rachel and Rook headed down the stairs and the owner of the Grant Mansion noticed something odd. One of the scatter rugs was askew in front of a closet. Going up to it, she opened the door and suddenly burst into laughter at the scene inside the closet.

Ben was hiding in there, but apparently had tried to turn into one of his smaller aliens or ghostly aliens to escape, but had ended up turning into Shocksquatch and getting stuck in the closet. The other aliens laughed as well at seeing this. "Well, well. That's one way to get stuck," Whampire said teasingly as they went up to the trapped hero, who was trying to get his hands free as they were stuck over his head between the wall and the closet shelf since it was a small closet.

"But it's a perfect set up for us," Feedback said with a grin. "Let's get him, guys."

All six aliens swarmed Ben and began tickling him, making him shriek and laugh hard as he squirmed, the walls shaking a bit from his squirming. "Guys, careful the wall doesn't come down," Rachel said worriedly.

"Allow me," Whampire said, touching Ben's Omnitrix and making him revert back to human form, which made it easier for them to trap him and tickle him. The Vladat and Feedback jumped inside the closet and held Ben's arms up so that they would tickle his underarms and ribs, making him burst into laughter again and squirm, but he couldn't squirm away because Frankenstrike had an arm wrapped around the boy's legs and was tickling his left foot while Blitzwolfer helped out by tickling Ben's right foot. This left Ben's stomach at the mercy of Snare-Oh and Ghostfreak, who unleashed both tendrils and tentacles onto the ticklish, defenseless stomach.

"AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAA!" Ben laughed out, unable to talk because they were tickling his tickle spots good and all his breath was being used to laugh crazily.

Rachel finally stepped in after she got her laughter under control. "Okay, you guys, that's enough," she said gently. "Give our hero a breather."

The six aliens did so and Ben lay there a moment to catch his breath before feeling something land lightly on his stomach and lifted his head to see Sparkle was sitting on his stomach and she was grinning. "You're the greatest, Uncle Ben, just like the rest of our family," she said, hugging him.

Chuckling, he hugged her back. "Thanks, Sparkle," he said before looking at the aliens surrounding him. "And thanks, guys. Guess I need to be tickled back into my right mind."

They chuckled at that. "More like, needed a break and a reason to laugh," Ghostfreak said, ruffling Ben's hair as they all shared a good laugh.

Ben smiled, realizing his job would be a lot more boring if it wasn't for aliens and he would feel a lot more burdened if it wasn't for them helping to ease his burdens and share some of the burden with him.

He now saw what Rachel meant about having a normal life being boring. His life certainly would be without all his awesome alien friends and family.

He was definitely glad that good aliens were here on Earth.

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GoldGuardian2418