Disclaimer: I do not own Ben 10 or its sequels, spin-off and related characters. All is the property of Man of Action and Cartoon Network. I'm just borrowing them for some non-profit entertainment.
Branch
Chapter Three: Awkward Reunion
Devlin yawned and stretched in the passenger seat. "So, its been three months and summers about to be over. At what point are you gonna let me drive?"
"I'm already taking you to see your childish cream-puff cousin." Kevin reminded him, not taking his eyes off the road. "A cousin whom you live with and will see anyway once the summer is over. And still you want more." Shaking his head in mock-disappointment. "You're so spoiled."
"I am not spoiled!" The boy shot back without the slightest hesitation, just as Kevin predicted he would.
Devlin could say what he wanted about this little road trip of theirs, but the older Osmosian was legitimately getting to know his son better. Maybe not in the 'father-son bonding' way that Kevin hoped. It was more along the lines of the way he used to case up a mark, time and observation as opposed to conversation and heart-to-hearts. But at this point, Kevin was willing to take what he could get. One couldn't expect Devlin to warm up to him after only one vacation. Not after he'd been absent from the boy's life for sixteen years.
Kevin suppressed the amused smile that pulled at his lips as he turned off the highway exit and onto the town's surface streets.
Leaning over from the passenger's seat, Devlin pointed to a turn at a fork in the road. "Ally's house is-"
"I know how to get to Albright's house." Kevin informed the younger man, pushing his arm out of his field of vision. "Stop being a side-seat driver. Read your book."
"I already finished my book." The boy shot back. He'd finished several book over the course of the summer.
"Then read another one." Kevin suggested. The kid had brought a whole duffle bag full of books. Devlin had two great pleasures in this world -and he got both of them from his parents- his car, and reading and being an insufferable know-it-all.
The boy made a noise that might have been a scoff, or a grumble of begrudging agreement. Kevin wasn't sure, but it didn't matter. They were almost at Albright's house anyway.
He pulled into the drive way, a long wide stretch of packed churt, lined on either side with tall stalks of summer corn. The last time Kevin was here, several months ago before the summer began the fields were flat and empty. It looked like Albright still kept up with the planting -even if he wasn't actually a farmer anymore. What was it Gwen said he worked as now? Agricultural Commissioner, what did one of those even do?
They pulled into the turn-around in front of the house and were stopped by a collage kid a dorky sun-hat with caked on sunscreen on his nose. She leaned down next to the drivers side window. "Are you here to see Dr. Green?"
"Who?" Kevin blinked at her, confused. This was Alan's house -Alan Albright. He didn't know anyone named 'Green'.
"She means Kai." Devlin explained from the passenger seat. "After she divorced Uncle Ben, she went back to her maiden name, Kai Green. She also has a doctorate in pre-colonial archeology." Leaning over the center consul he addressed Kai's grad student. "We're actually looking for Kenny Tennyson, Dr. Green's son. I'm his cousin. They know me. Its not creepy."
It wasn't creepy up until Devlin said that last bit. At that remark, the grad student's expression shifted from patient and helpful to suspicious and wary. Everyone working under Dr. Green knew that her son's father was the great Ben Tennyson. A kid with that high-profile a parent was going to have his fair share of stalkers, obsessed fan, or even attempted kidnappers.
"Is Kenny expecting you?" She asked.
Before either Devlin or Kevin could answer another vehicle pulled up the driveway behind them. Ally's beat-up old pickup truck. Upon recognizing Devlin's car -Kevin's car?, the kids weren't sure how to assign ownership anymore- she honked her horn once to get their attention then killed the engine and hopped out.
Recognizing Ally coming towards him in the side mirror, Devlin unbuckled his belt and practically leapt out of the passenger seat. He hadn't realized just how stir crazy he'd been going with only Kevin to talk to until he saw his friend in person.
Ally ran up and glomped him. Not a hug, a glomp. "Ohmygosh! I haven't seen you in forever!"
"Its been so long since I've seen someone who's not Kevin!" He replied. Then took a step back to look at her. "You shaved your head again."
"Hair's easier to take care of when you don't have any." Ally reminded him, running a hand over her smooth dark scalp. Then the hand was reaching forward to brush through the thick stubble where his sides were growing back. "We need to touch you up. You're starting to look messy."
"Well, I can't have that." Devlin laughed.
The grad student that had originally stopped them blinked at the familiar exchange between Ally and Devlin. Kevin flashed to poor kid a smug smile before he leaned over the passenger seat to ask the Pyronite girl where he could park.
Ally pointed him towards the garage, and he pulled away. Leaving Kai's poor grad student in the dust looking confused.
"Go polish an arrowhead, Tsol." Ally waved her away, while turning back to her truck to likewise move it out of the driveway and into the garage.
Devlin followed her, and that was when he saw Kenny sitting in the passenger seat. He had not made any move to get out or say 'hi' at all. Their eyes met, and Kenny looked away first. Devlin suddenly found his feet very interesting.
Ally huffed. "Honestly, you two." And grabbed Devlin by the arm, practically dragging him back to her truck. She shoved him in the front seat, practically onto Kenny's lap, before coming around and reclaiming the wheel. Kenny scooted over as much as he could so that the three of them could share the front seat.
There was an awkward silence.
"Dev, I should also introduce you to Lightstar and Sigil." Ally jerked her thumb back to indicate two other teenagers that were sitting in the bed of the truck. Devlin was unclear on which one was supposed to be Lightstar and which one was supposed to be Sigil. "Guys, this is our other friend, Devlin."
He gave an awkward wave. It was always just a little uncomfortable for Devlin when meeting new people. But that's what happened when you spend the first decade of your life in semi-isolation. Social anxiety. But he tried to force a friendly smile on his face. "Those are some hard core Magic Names you got there."
"Kenny picked them up today in Town Square." Ally continued. "They're lost and we're helping them get to Morganstern city."
"Why would you wanna go there?" The Osmosian blinked at them. Admittedly, Devlin didn't know much about the town on the other side of Bellwood other than the fact that it was also home to one of his mother's most dangerous enemies -dangerous to her. The Lampray mutant, Michael Morningstar who went by the alias 'Darkstar'. As Kevin had just reminded him earlier that day, Anodites were prey to a very specific type of predator, Darkstar was that kind of predator.
"Our dad lives there." The boy answered.
"Ah." Devlin made a non-committal noise, and reminded himself that not everyone had the same complicated relationship with their fathers as he had with his own. "My dad drove me here to see my friends."
He glanced sideways at Ally and Kenny. Mostly just Kenny. The other boy hadn't said anything to Devlin at all.
Ally took her attention off parking long enough to elbow Kenny in the ribs.
"Ow! What!?"
She finished pulling into the spot next to Devlin and Kevin's car and killed the engine. Then she fixed Kenny with her full attention. A hard and stern glare. Silently reprimanding him for not acknowledging his cousin. A cousin whom -up until recently- was closer to him than a brother. Kenny avoided her stare, shame faced.
Then Ally put back on her friendly smile. "I'm going to show Sigil and Lightstar a decent map. Devlin, my truck has been making a funny sound recently when I go uphills. Could you take a look at it for me? Kenny can help you. He knows where my tool kit is."
She climbed out of the truck and went around back to let Lightstar and Sigil out of the bed.
Kenny fled out her open door. "I guess I better start looking for her tool kit. I don't actually know where-"
He was cut off abruptly when Kevin materialized behind his back, his own red tool box in hand. "Here, Tiny-Tennyson, you can borrow mine."
Kenny was thrown off balance when the older man practically dropped the metal case into the younger boy's unexpecting and unprepared hands.
Behind Kenny's back, Ally mouthed a silent 'Thank you', at the older Osmosian.
To which Kevin only replied with a microscopic nod. It was high time the boys got over themselves and reconciled. Subtlety wasn't exactly Kevin's strongest area of expertise, but he understood when it was and wasn't necessary. In this instance, it was necessary. Out loud he said, "Hey, Sparky, you dad keep beer in the house?"
"Sure. I'll show you the kitchen." She smiled.
In less time than it took someone to say 'Hero Time' Kenny found himself alone in the garage with Devlin.
There was an awkward silence.
Both boys avoided eye contact.
Devlin sighed.
Pulling on his gloves to make sure they were good and tight over his hands, the Osmosian got out of the truck and came around to pop the hood. He might not know where he stood with Kenny anymore, or if their relationship would ever return to what it was before. But he did understand machines. Engines, gears, moving parts. Those, at least, were things Devlin could fix. After giving the engine a cursory inspection he held one gloved hand out to Kenny.
"Piston pliers."
"What?" The other boy blinked.
Devlin didn't look at him when he repeated, "Piston pliers. They look like pliers with a pronged clamp at the end."
Kenny balanced the tool box on the truck's bumper and opened it. Kevin was not the most organized mechanic in the world. He also didn't keep the most conventional tools. Kenny had to shift around random bits of iron chain, fragments of Taydenite, stone shards, torn remnants of rubber, and other such absorbable materials until he found the tool his cousin was describing. Kenny dropped the pliers in Devlin's hand without even coming close enough to touching him.
His gloved fingers closed around the tool and Devlin went to work removing a piston ring. He kept his eyes on his work, not looking at his cousin when he said, "I'm wearing my gloves, Kenny, you don't have to be afraid of touching my hands."
They already weren't looking at each other, but Kenny somehow managed to look even more away. His head was turned so far, he couldn't even see his cousin's hands working when he replied. "Its not your hands that bother me, Dev."
If Devlin's hands hesitated in his task, Kenny didn't see it. His body was turned to far away.
There was a moment's pause as Devlin tried to compose himself so that his voice didn't choke when he asked, "So what is it that bothers you now? Whatever it is never seemed to bother you before."
"Ya know, for such a smart guy, you really are stupid." The younger boy growled back. "Its not your powers that bother me, Dev. Its the fact that you grew up being warned what would happen if you used them -and then you went and used them! On me! Don't deny it. I was there. All our lives Aunt Gwendolyn told us why it was dangerous for you to absorb to much energy. All our lives my Dad shared stories about all his battles with energy absorbing enemies, Darkstar, Aggregor, and -yeah- even your dad, just to hammer home that it was bad for you to absorb a lot of energy. You knew all that. You knew what would happen to you. You knew! And you did it anyway."
"Kenny, I-" Devlin tried to cut in.
"And then-" But the younger boy wasn't giving him the opportunity to argue the point, "-then you go and try to absorb me! There were plenty of other prey in the base for you. Our friends, the bad guys, even your own mother whom is an Anodite and should have been much more appetizing for you! But instead you went after me -and only me. You really wanted to eat me, Dev. You really wanted to kill me. Why? What have I ever done to you? I thought we were friends. I thought we were best friends!"
"We are best friends!" Insisted the older boy.
"Friends don't eat friends!" Kenny shouted back.
Devlin set the tool down and turned to face his cousin. Looked him right in the eyes when he began. This was important. "Look, the reason why I was so focused on absorbing you and not anyone else was because you're-"
"I don't want to hear your excuses." The younger boy turned away again, waving a hand of dismissal -and showing off that he was back to wearing his faux-Omnitrix again. Well, at least that was back to normal.
An inaudible sighed escaped Devlin's lips. He hadn't realized the fact that Kenny stopped wearing his Omnitrix after that incident bother him so much. It was good to see it back on his cousin's wrist where it belonged. But that didn't change the fact that Kenny still didn't know that he was also an Anodite. An energy being every bit as powerful as Devlin's own mother. But dormant and unaware of his power. As Kevin pointed out, there were other things in this world that preyed on Anodites, and it Kenny didn't know he was one, then he was leaving himself open to attack.
"Its not an excuse." The older boy insisted. "Its the truth, and it's important."
But Kenny had already set down Kevin's tool box and was stomping his way to the open garage door. "If it was so important, then you could have told me months ago when it happened. Instead of waiting all summer to come up with your excuses."
"Its not an excuse!" Devlin insisted, following his cousin out. "Its just an explanation. But its something you need to hear."
Kenny didn't pause or slow down. He continued on into the house and Devlin found himself having to jog a bit to catch up. It was a bit of a surreal roll reversal for them. Usually it was Kenny always having to sprint to catch up to Devlin. The older boy was always in a hurry to get somewhere. Get to school. Get to the Weekend Academy. Get away from Kevin. He never thought he'd have to sprint to catch up to Kenny -whom was trying to get away from him.
"Then I probably would have needed to hear it months ago too, and you didn't tell me then. So why tell me now?" The kitchen's screen door slammed shut behind the younger boy.
Devlin hopped up the porch steps and wrenched to screen open to continue following his cousin.
Kevin was sitting at the kitchen counter, a beer in one hand, a sandwich on a plate in front of him. "He went that way." The older Osmosian pointed. "Did you tell him yet?"
"I'm trying." Devlin informed his father.
The older man only shrugged and went back to his beer and sandwich. "Sparky took the wonder twins into Albright's office. Tiny-Tennyson probably went there." There was a pause in which Kevin stared at the level of his beer bottle. Then, just when Devlin was almost out of the kitchen, still hot on his cousin's trail, Kevin called him back. "Devlin-"
"What?" The younger Osmosian poked his head back in the kitchen, irritation coloring his voice. He was on a mission. What did Kevin want that was so freakin' important?
"Those twins, they look like they're from Ledgerdomain." He said slowly, as if trying to call up an old memory he hadn't thought about in years.
"I donno." Devlin shrugged. He literally just met them just now. "Their clothes look like they're from Ledgerdomain."
"If, uh, if you can do it without being to obvious about it, can you find out who their parents are?"
Devlin came back into the kitchen fully. Confused. Kevin sounded concerned. He wasn't used to his father appearing concerned. Board, angry, frustrated, impatient, sleepy. That was how Devlin was used to seeing his father act. Even back when they were trying to rescue his mother from Cooper, his father masked his concern under a layer of anger and frustration. It was so disorienting that Devlin found himself nodding. "I'll find out."
Kevin nodded back, and Devlin was dismissed to go find his cousin.
As his father predicted, Devlin found Kenny with Ally and their new friends, Sigil and Lightstar. They were all in Alan's office. Ally had a map of the surrounding area unfolded on the desk and way trailing the rout they should take to get to Morganstern city.
"You take the forty heading this direction." She was saying. Then pointed to something on the map. "This is the old power plant. You should be able to see it from the freeway. Once you pass that, you can take any of the next three exits and that'll get you into town."
The boy pointed to something else on the map. "This looks like it also goes into the city."
"Oh, we don't take the fourth exit." Kenny informed him. "That road takes you straight to Morningstar Manor. You don't want to go there."
The siblings exchanged a look.
It was then that Devlin decided to announce his presence by clearing his throat loudly. All heads turned to stare at him lurking in the doorway. "Hey, sorry to interupt. But if your new friends need a ride to wherever it si they're going, I can drive them."
Assuming Kevin would let him have the key to his car back.
The boy smiled at the offer and Devlin noticed for the first time just how hansom he was. He didn't really get a good look at the other boy when they were first introduced, then sitting in the bed of Ally's truck and all. But now he had a clear view of his chiseled chin and almond shaped eyes, a straight nose and perfect teeth, and a high forehead below a crown of silver-white hair. Devlin felt a nervous twist in his stomach that he was sure had nothing at all to do with the argument he'd just had with Kenny.
"That's really nice of you." Said the boy. He offered his hand. "We weren't properly introduced before. You're name's Devlin, right? I'm Sigil."
Devlin took the other boy's extended hand in his own gloved one. "I'm, uh, hi."
His face felt hot. Was he blushing? He hoped he wasn't blushing.
Ally put a hand to her mouth in a vain attempt to suppress a squeal. "Awww! This is so cute!"
Devlin let go of Sigil's hand abruptly as if the other boy had burned him. He'd had crushes before. But they were never requited, and a rejection was not really what he needed right now. His feelings were already to raw from trying -and failing- to reconcile with Kenny. Devlin just couldn't handle another spurn on top of that. And the hansom young Sigil would spurn him. After all, who would want to date the son of Kevin 11,000? Devlin cleared his throat.
"I, uh, I'll got ask Kevin if I can borrow the keys." He moved to leave the room.
As he was exiting, he saw Sigil's sister grab Kenny's arm. She pressed her body against the boy's when she asked, "Can Kenny come too?"
Of course, the son of the great Ben 10,000 would have no trouble finding partners interested in him. Devlin tried not to let it bother him.
Ally pursed her lips together in a thin line of disproportional. The girl had only just met them. Where did she get off, hanging onto Kenny like that!? "Why don't we all go!" She suggested. "It'll be like a mini-road trip. To Morganstern City and back again!"
"Okay." Devlin nodded, wondering just how awkward this car ride was going to be. With Kenny who still wasn't talking to him, a girl that was hanging off him, Ally glaring at the pair jealously, and the super cute boy Devlin had just met and was trying really had not to crush on. Then again, nothing in his life ever seemed to be easy. "I'll go grab the keys from Kevin."
He left.
"Oh, this is gonna be so fun!" Lighstar said, still hanging onto Kenny.
He smiled at her, and moved his arm to wrap it around the girl's shoulders -completely ignoring the fact that he'd only just met her, like, two hours ago. There was just something about her. Some nebulous and ephemeral pull that was drawing him into her. As he lifted his arm, Kenny noticed two weird star-shaped marks on his arm where she had held him. Red and irritated looking, almost like hickeys. But he decided to ignore them. They didn't hurt. It wasn't worth making a big deal over.
…