I'm baaaack! Sorry it took me so long to update, I had school and marching band practice out the yin yang. So I'll probably not update for a while, or until marching season ends. Which is November/ December-ish. The only reason I'm updating now is because it's raining, I'm getting a cold because of the rain, my internet connection sucks, I'm done with my homework, and I just remembered about this. I'm such a procrastinator… REVIEW TIME!

Kurozaki: Haha...yesh he is...

Arianne: Yey! I'm good at being a crazy person's voice! I feel so accomplished...don't worry, I will never stop updating this fic until I think it's finished! I don't know when that will be... Oh well. The time will come.

Anyways… Disclaimer time! I wish I owned Ben 10. But I don't. Because if I did it'd probably become very depressing at one point or another. And people would die. A lot. Oh and I don't own Bleach.

"Let me see your arms." Devlin sighed as he held out his arms lazily out in front of Kenny for 'Weekly Inspections', a little something Kenny decided to do ever since Devlin's first trip to the counselor at school. That was a month ago. Needless to say, Devlin was starting to get tired of Kenny's nagging and constant questions and inspections. He understood he was just concerned for him but when he forced Devlin to allow him to inspect him in case he was cutting somewhere else on his body in only his boxers at 3 in the morning was ridiculous.

"Alright, you're good." Kenny said, giving Devlin's arm back, who was muttering something about ripping Kenny's spine out and choking him with it. Kenny didn't doubt he would do that. Especially since just the other day Devlin took his anger out on a poor kid who called him emo in school. That kid was currently in the hospital with a broken arm and leg and several fractured ribs. Luckily though, no one knew it was Devlin. Sneaky child…. "Just shut up and do your homework."

"Don't tell me what to do." Devlin said, flicking a marshmallow at his brother. He turned his attention back to his math homework, which he had no idea how to do. Who honestly cares what X equals? He sighed and decided to just give up entirely and write down the answers tomorrow in class while the teacher went over answers. He put his things away and grabbed the bag of marshmallows and started eating one at a time by pulling in half and nibbling on the inside part of one half and when he finished that he'd just eat the other half normally. This kid had such weird eating habits.

"Can't you eat anything without pulling it apart? You know, like a normal person?" Kenny asked watching him and raising an eyebrow. "You forget that I'm not normal." Devlin simply replied and kept eating his snacks. Kenny shrugged it off, knowing the statement was most likely true in the first place. Technically both weren't exactly normal, but let's not get into that. "Will it be too much of a distraction if I watch TV?" Devlin asked politely, and Kenny just shrugged. Taking that as a yes, Devlin took the changer and turned on the huge flat screen. He surfed channels for a few moments before he found Bleach re-run and decided to watch it. He'd already seen this episode so many times, but it was better than everything on. Devlin loved Bleach just oh-so-much. Once he spent four whole days just watching every single episode online with no sleep at all and running only on Coffee and sweets, which made him very jittery and giggly and raised a lot of questions from many people and a slightly concerned Ben. One thing Kenny learned from that day, never try to pull a sleep deprived, and super hyper Devlin away from the watching Bleach on the computer. It ends in having a black eye, a broken lamp, and a golf club.

"You're going to be one of those anime nerds, aren't you?" Kenny asked eyeing him closely. Devlin shrugged in that 'I don't know, maybe' kind of ways. "Is that a bad thing?" Devlin asked, glancing over at him with a raised eyebrow before turning back to the screen and watching attentively. "I don't really care. Just wondering." Kenny replied, closing his textbook and stealing the marshmallows away before Devlin had another sugar rush and broke something. Devlin pulled up his knees to his chest and wrapped his arms around them with his chin on his knees. "I'm not a nerd just because I don't like what everybody else does. Besides it's interesting… Japanese animation is much more interesting than American." Devlin stated in a calm tone. Kenny looked from him to the TV screen. "I didn't mean it like that. If you like it than whatever." He said and looked back at the screen. Devlin didn't answer since he was too interested in the TV at the moment.

"How do you feel today, Devlin?" said Mss. Gates

Devlin sat on the squishy chair in the counselor's office. It was Thursday, after school. The day he usually came to see Mss. Gates and talk. She'd made special arrangements to stay after school for as long as Devlin liked since during school was pulling him behind and bringing his grades a little low. As an excuse, Devlin said he was getting tutoring for his classes so Ben wouldn't ask questions.

"Fine. I guess." Devlin replied, tugging on his sleeves a little, a habit that stuck with him even though he hadn't cut in almost two months. He looked up at Mss. Gates to see the expression on her face. He couldn't quite make put what it was. She nodded and wrote something down on the clipboard.

'Taking notes…why does she take notes? Weird…' Devlin thought to himself while watching her. She finally looked at him and asked, "Did you do anything fun today?" Devlin couldn't help but roll his eyes and he replied with a small smirk, "It's school. Barely anything is fun."

"Barely? Is there an exception?"

There was a short pause before Devlin answered with, "Art class. And Music. Sometimes English, too."

"Are those your favorite classes?" Mss. Gates asked, writing things down and looking at him every once in a while. Devlin nodded and said, "I like Art and English better though. Mostly art, 'cause there's a lot of things to do. English is only fun when we get to write. Not the worksheets and other stuff."

"Why?"

"I guess…it's relaxing. It gets my mind off of things and I can express myself in different ways, with pictures and words." He replied without thinking at all. "Usually when I'm upset or bored I start doodling on my notebooks and ideas come in my head. Sometimes I wake up in the middle of the night and I have to write or draw my ideas down or it just bugs me and I can't go back to sleep or can't concentrate all day." Devlin looked up at her and she wasn't writing anything down, so he guessed she already did or was too busy listening to him to even bother to write down notes.

"Well that's good. Has it stopped you from ever cutting?" Mss. Gates asked in an understanding tone of voice. Devlin didn't answer immediately, but thought over it. Had it stopped him? He remembered that he almost had a slip and wanted to. Maybe he was over cutting and found different ways to get rid of it all. He doubted it though. Not waiting for an answer, Mss. Gates wrote something down and put her pen down.

"Could we stop for today?" Mss. Gates nodded and Devlin got up and thanked her before leaving the room.

4:49 A.M

The bright red numbers glared in Devlin's eyes as he laid in bed that night. He sighed and pulled the covers closer to him. He shifted around curled up in a small ball until he was comfortable and warm in his blankets. Yawning he turned onto his other side, facing the wall and away from the numbers. He closed his eyes and slowed his breathing, hoping sleep would finally come. It'd been like this for the past few hours. Constant tossing and turning and sighing, waiting to fall asleep.

After a few moments, Devlin gave up and sat up in his bed. He rubbed his eyes and pulled on an over sized, black, zip-up jacket. He shivered a little as he got up from bed and the cold air enveloped him. He searched for a notebook and pencil before quietly going downstairs to the kitchen and turning on the light. He squinted at the light until his eyes adjusted and he sat down and opened the notebook. His drawing notebook. He was in an art mood for the night. He picked up the pencil and turned to a blank page and started sketching.

'You think you can get rid of me so easily?'

'I know I can get rid of you so easily.'

'Such a smart-ass…and so naïve. You think a few pictures and poems would make you normal?'

'Yes.'

'He he…Oh, Devlin...you're just so…'

'So…? Childish? Naïve? Weird? I guess I'm all of the above.' Devlin smirked to himself, the voice didn't answer back. He knew he won that argument and his smirk grew into a smile. He looked at the picture he was drawing, taking in what he subconsciously drew during his argument with The Voice. So far it looked like a girl, who was facing him sideways. She wore a dress that was torn and tattered, the sleeves ripped off, showing one arm as a corpse and the other normal. Her hair was waist length, tangled in an almost wet sort of way. Devlin thought before adding a pair of wings on her back, stretched out high as if getting ready for takeoff. He made the hair covering her face and angled it down as if she was looking at something. He then drew a tombstone and some flowers scattered next to it. He made small lines to indicating that it was raining and started drawing the ground.

"What're you doing up so late?"

Devlin couldn't help but yelp in surprise and hug his notebook to his chest closely, ignoring the graphite that would smear on his pajama shirt. He turned around and saw Ben standing there, staring at him with an expression Devlin couldn't figure out. He looked at the floor, already feeling the awkwardness between them. He still wasn't comfortable with addressing to Ben as 'Dad' even though he had told Devlin it was alright. Ben understood though. Devlin needed time to get used to having an actual family and Ben didn't mind waiting on him.

Devlin tensed a little as Ben walked over and sat down next to him, looking curiously at the notebook in his arms. "What's that?" he asked. Devlin could feel Ben's eyes locked on him, it was starting to make him nervous. He tried to avoid any eye contact with his adopted father whatsoever and kept his mouth shut. "It's ok, I won't bite." Ben said giving him a small smile.

"…"

"Is it a journal?"

"…"

"A…story?"

"…"

"Poetry?"

"…"

"Drawing?"

After a few moments Devlin gave a small nod. Ben nodded. "That's cool. I didn't know you were interested in art." He said and Devlin shrugged. "Could I see?" Ben added. After thinking it over, Devlin flipped the pages of the notebook until it was on the first page and handed it to Ben without saying a word. He didn't look up at Ben the entire time he observed the drawings and looked at his hands in his lap. He waited for Ben to make some remark about how much of a pansy Devlin was and telling him he sucked and hated his art. Surprisingly to Devlin, Ben said nothing. Every once in a while he would ask a question, a yes or no one since he knew Devlin didn't want to talk.

Finally after looking through all of them, Ben handed the notebook back and smiled at Devlin. "You're a really good artist." He said with an encouraging smile as Devlin took his notebook back and held it close to him again as if he were expecting Ben to take back from him.

'Is he just saying that or does he mean it? Is it only to get me to trust him? I'm so confused…' Devlin thought to himself. As if listening to his thoughts, Ben said, "I wasn't kidding either, you know. For your age, that's really good. Not many people can do that." Devlin nodded understandingly.

"Did you draw these free hand?" Devlin nodded again.

"Some are from looking at pictures…" he finally said in a small voice. He opened the notebook again to page that had of drawing of Toshiro from Bleach on it. "I found this on the internet and wanted to copy it. And this one too." Devlin explained and flipped to another page that was a forest scene with fog and mangled looking trees that gave it an eerie feeling to the picture.

Ben nodded and asked, "So then you thought of everything else?"

Devlin nodded. "From dreams mostly. Some are just random ideas. Some are just because I got bored and couldn't think of anything to do."

Ben nodded again and didn't say anything but looked like he was thinking about something. Devlin closed the notebook and held it close again. He pretended to yawn and rubbed his eyes like he was tired. "I'm going to bed now, goodnight." He said, turning around and quickly walking back upstairs to his room. He closed the door to his room and sat on his bed, holding his drawings close.

'I shouldn't have said anything…Oh god, he probably thinks I'm such a freak. Why did I say they were my dreams? Now he's going to tell everyone that I'm crazy or depressed or something, well… that's a little true, but still! Stupid, stupid, stupid! Damnit, Devlin! Why are you such a moron?' Devlin sighed as he mentally kicked himself and he put his notebook and pencil away in his backpack.

He ran a hand through his hair frustrated and sat down on his bed before taking off the jacket and laying down. He pulled the covers over his shoulder and curled into a fetal position and closed his eyes again. The bright red numbers on the alarm clock said that it was 5:59 A.M. Only a minute until he was supposed to get up and get ready for school. Hopefully Ben would let him sleep in and just come to school in the afternoon or something. Devlin yawned and rubbed his eyes, exhausted by now and closed his eyes. Finally, his breathing evened out and he fell into a much needed, deep, dreamless sleep.

FIN! For this chapter at least. Haha…this one a lot longer than the rest. Plus it included Benji, who I thought needed some sort of father/son moment with Devvies. It should've been more…bond-ish between them. Oh well. I'll do that in another chapter. Once again, sorry this took so long. Busy schedule…So expect the next one to be possibly just as long. Once again and always, Review por favor! I'm outta here, PEACE!