Story: "Unring a Bell" by Tsu

Details: My Babysitter's a Vampire fanfic, Benny/Ethan pairing

Summary: Ethan Morgan's started having Vision problems. Not only is he seeing more, but they're getting longer, and what he sees doesn't seem to change. And he can't stop!

"Sophomore year! I feel like a king, dude."

Ethan rolled his eyes. "Benny, we're still underclassmen. Even when we're seniors, we still won't be cool."

"You're missing the point, E!" He turned around on the spot and gripped his friend's shoulders with a wild look in his eyes. "Freshmen girls," he whispered excitedly, savoring each—

He stood in a cramped kitchen that had seen a lot of wear. Light flooded the room through clean windows and an opaque skylight, giving a relaxing Kodak-moment feeling to the room. He wasn't sure what was on the kitchen counter in front of him, but it looked like a terrifying evolution of the peanut butter cup pizza. Since when did it have so much icing? His arms rifled through the cabinets for all kinds of stuff-three kinds of sprinkles, chocolate hard shell, other candy bars-breaking them up and throwing them on at random. It was a good three minutes of food porn, and he kept waiting for the vision to end, but it never did.

Just then, Benny walked in, carrying plastic grocery bags that had paper bags inside them full of clinking bottles. He ran his left arm up the doorway and spread his right knee sideways in his worst off-Broadway Zorro impression. "El wine," he said in a husky voice and a cheesy grin, "est arrivo'd!" He was older, taller, and wearing good clothes that fit him astonishingly well. But his humor hadn't changed an inch.

"Benny, you idiot, put those down before you break them," joked a voice Ethan discovered to be a lower version of his own. "C'mere, we'll have to make space in the fridge." Were they living together? That would be cool. That was their dream post-Whitechapel, to head to university and have their own place.

Older Benny dropped his pose and walked toward him. "Hey hey, Mister Business, first things first. Don't I get a hug?" He unleashed the puppy dog eyes as if on cue, which looked as dorky on Probably-In-College Benny as they did on Highschool-Sophomore Benny.

Ethan felt his face mock a groan. "Patience, El Capitain." A smile cracked on both their faces, and he saw both his and Benny's hands lift—his at waist level, Benny's at face level—when Ethan realized something was different. Benny's fingertips touched his cheek—

"Whoa! Come on, Ethan, you can't pass out on your first day back," called a familiar voice. Not weird older Benny. Normal Benny.

Ethan exhaled a breath he didn't realize he'd been holding. "It was a vision. How long was I out?" he asked nervously. Benny helped him up from the ground and Ethan dusted the dirt off his pants.

"Um, three seconds, maybe? Why? What'd you see?"

"Well, it was us, but older... and in college, I think. We have our own apartment... or house... or something."

"You saw our future selves? Sweet! How did I look? How awesome is our place?"

If Ethan had to guess, Benny's next question would probably be how hot his future girlfriend was, how many parties they hosted and how often, and if any vampire stuff was going on. But all Ethan could do was try to hide his reaction, and share as much of the truth as he thought he could stand. "I don't know, Benny. I've never seen anything like this. It wasn't that anything strange was happening... it was like looking in on five minutes of daily life, but it was every second of those five minutes. Usually the stuff I see is confusing but short, but this was just long and not very important, to be honest."

"Maybe you're turning into Dr. Manhattan? All of space and time at your command. Good deal."

Despite his nervousness, Ethan had to laugh. "No way. I don't want to be blue and naked for the rest of my life."

The tension was gone for now, but Ethan was still on edge. He knew Benny like the back of his hand. He knew which 80's B-movies to pull out when Benny was in a bad mood. He had a list going of their best deaths and most triumphant victories in Ninja Sasquatch, which had been a classic with them since third grade. He could tell you by instinct how much juice one of Benny's sugar highs would have before the imminent crash. But this? This wasn't right. He loved Benny to death, sure, but he didn't love Benny. They were best friends, not... whatever he'd seen. What the heck was his seeing trying to pull?

They kept talking about superheroes on the way to school, but Ethan couldn't get those five minutes (and five minutes! What was going on?) out of his head. He'd never been kissed before, but he knew enough to know that that's what their future selves were about to do, and that was ridiculous. He tried to forget—to put it out with Biology, or History, even Gym. But all day, there was a nagging voice in his head... you can't forget, you can't unsee.

You can't unring a bell.