A/N: alright, alright. Warped. Here we go.
Disclaimer: Own Eliza and plot ideas. Much else, none. Lol. But I wish I owned Kevin!!!! Strongly worded message to Man of Action might be able to take care of that… but I can't do that……
Eliza made sure to dig her heels into Ken's back. "Ow," he mumbled as the dark haired girl grinned wickedly. "Eli, cut that out or-"
She only flicked the back of his head as a response.
"Can you two cut it out?" Gwen said, finding herself already loving Eliza and Devlin. They were her kids. She assumed it was only natural… Maybe it wasn't. She wanted to reach over and smack some sense into her daughter. But… That wasn't exactly positive. She didn't know how she and Kevin were in the future. Maybe they were used to being hit. Maybe it would come as a shock. The redhead didn't know. She hoped her future self was nice enough to give Eliza a bit of a break.
Kevin just laughed.
Odds were, Eliza and Devlin weren't trained much in the whole maturity thing. Devlin seemed to have it under control. His sister, not so much.
Ken wriggled a bit. "Guys, this hurts."
"Suck it up," Devlin suggested, staring out the window at the sight of a very different Bellwood than he was used to.
Trees. Houses. Roads. Grass. People. Dogs. Fresh air. He was distracted by it. The future Bellwood was surrounded by walls of glass so the globe couldn't be effected by the sun's dangerous radiation waves. There was also less grass. Only a few soccer fields for Eliza and oxygen was pumped in through some tubes. He didn't understand whatever happened to Earth, but he didn't want to find out and see this version of the world destroyed the way it was in the future. He brushed his bangs off his face and caught Gwen's gaze.
She immediately looked away.
Kevin's car rolled up to Ben's house. "First stop, emo boy and Benji."
Gwen reached over and slugged Kevin's arm. Hard, but not hard enough to severely hurt him. Although she really did want to hurt him. "You shouldn't talk to your own son that way! I mean, how could you?!"
The door slammed, Devlin disappearing towards Ben's house, unaffected. His gray hoodie was pulled up over his head and his eyes were glassy. "You coming?" he called to Ben who scrambled out of the car right behind him.
Watching them walk away, Gwen realized that Devlin was nearly a foot taller than Ben. Which was strange. Kevin wasn't even that tall. So the redhead watched his reaction, knowing that her worst-case scenario of the future was probably the real future. She sank into her seat, folding her arms across her chest. Gwen would have to ask Eliza about it later. When they were alone.
Kevin immediately shifted the car back into the drive gear, watching Ken climb up into the backseat and next to Eliza who was looking at him with a devlish smile. "I hate you."
"Right back 'atcha." The remaining Levin child slugged Ken's shoulder.
Somehow, Gwen could feel that cousin-ly love between them. In a strangely demented way. She ran a few fingers over her forehead, stressed and tired of this day already.
Quietly, Kevin looked over his shoulder at this girl. Red highlights in her bangs which hung limply around her face. Green eyes staring out. Jet black hair was a bit frizzy in a few spots, but silky and long, falling just a bit above her shoulders. And her face was pale, almost white, but there was a permanent smile plastered there. He took a deep breath and let it out slowly. He still wasn't sure who he married to get that kind of a daughter, but he sure as heck wanted to find out.
This was going to be hard...
Gwen's house was illuminated as he pulled into the driveway. Eliza was out of the car in record time. The redheaded girl barely had the door open before she felt a hand grab her wrist. "You going to be okay?" Kevin's low voice asked, his obsidian eyes gazing at her with that faintly loving look in them.
"I'll be fine." She felt her wrist being slowly released from his grasp. Kevin gave her that one last look before Ken jumped into the passenger seat, cutting them both off from each other. "I've never sat up here before," he announced, running his fingers across the dashboard and over the soft leather seat that Gwen had kept nice and warm.
Letting out an irritated growl, Kevin reached over and closed the passenger side door, giving a little wave to Gwen as she headed up to her house where Eliza was pacing impatiently. She waved back, giving him a halfhearted smile.
How Kevin would survive with Ken, Gwen had no idea.
WARPED~WARPED~WARPED~WARPED~WARPED~WARPED~WARPED
Ben let Devlin into his room. The dark teen just flopped down into the chair at Ben's desk. "Sumo Slammers?" he asked, pointing to the pile of action figures in the closet. The brunette boy gave a sheepish look and used his foot to kick it all back into place before trying to shut the door, accidentally snapping off one of the arms. "Yeah, Dad tells me all about them." Devlin gave Ben that devilish look.
"What's it like having Kevin as a father?" Ben asked.
Biting his tongue, Devlin had to watch his words. "He's not home a whole lot. Usually out with the future you. Lots of aliens to stop still. Kenny, Eli, and I sometimes help when you're busy. But he's pretty cool. Still has his car. Keeps it in better shape than he does mine." He pulled his hood down, brown eyes full of memories. "He's just… so carefree now. Compared to the future. He's always stressed out about everything."
He took a moment to mull this over. "Why?"
"He can't keep a job for long. It's hard to get one with his record. Null Void makes a huge impression on applications. And Mom isn't always the biggest help." Neither were he and Eliza, always destroying stuff in some pointless fight and usually a wall took a bit of damage in the process. "Verdona's around a lot though."
"She's still alive?"
Devlin nodded. "She fixes everything that we break." Which was a lot more than Ben could even imagine. "Life's not exactly easy at our house."
WARPED~WARPED~WARPED~WARPED~WARPED~WARPED~WARPED
Eliza was immediately going through Gwen's closet. "You have, like, nothing. Goodie little school girl…" She closed the doors fiercely. "I mean, how could you be like this and then be so entirely different in the future?! I don't get it!" The girl threw herself down onto Gwen's bed, burying her face in the warm smell of watermelon. For some reason, her mother always smelled good. Strange…
Gwen sat on the edge of the bed, looking at Eliza. She wanted to help, but this was more of a matter for Kevin to deal with. It was all difficult for her to comprehend, even now. "What am I like in the future?"
"Difficult. Annoying. You nag a lot. Mostly at Dad. He's pretty bummed most of the time and you don't help it much." Neither did she and Devlin either. "But you've got a lot of stress with almost six kids and all so-"
"Six?!"
Eliza had to blink to realize that Gwen had interrupted her. "Excuse me. I was freaking talking to you. Don't you know that's rude?"
"Six?!"
Giving up on the argument she was trying to start, Eliza sighed. "Yes. One more on the way and Ken's over at our house most of the time because Ben's always gone and he spends way too much time with Max so Devlin lets him stay over most days."
"Six?!"
"Yeah, me and Skylark and Devlin and Emery. And we're not sure if the last one is a boy or a girl yet." Eliza just smiled.
Gwen was still in her state of stupor and shock. "Are you serious?"
The dark haired girl nodded. "Yup. Technically five, but Kenny counts as six. That's what everyone says."
"Why doesn't Julie take care of him?" Gwen mulled over the fact that if she and Kevin had stayed together that long, Ben and Julie must've too. Right?
Eli's head tilted slowly to one side, a questioning eyebrow raised. "Who's Julie?"
WARPED~WARPED~WARPED~WARPED~WARPED~WARPED~WARPED
Kevin's gaze stared directly into Ken's, long and hard.
Ken's eye was already twitching. Not because of a lie. That was Ben's thing.
"CRAP, I BLINKED!" Ken howled, rubbing his eyes while Kevin laughed.
"Dude, you're bad at staring contests." Kevin cracked his knuckles and leaned back into the chair, rocking it onto it's back legs. Being wood, he heard it creak beneath him, but not snap in two. Yet at least. He was just waiting for it. Maybe he'd tell Ken to sit down before he let it snap.
The younger shook his head, clearing his bangs from his electric green colored eyes. "Yeah, I noticed."
"And, I'm really good at staring contests."
"Yeah, I already knew that too." Ken huffed, blowing his hair from his face only to feel it fall back in his line of vision again. He cursed himself for forgetting to have Aunt Gwen cut his bangs. Although she was technically his second aunt. "You stare. A lot."
Kevin only nodded before getting up. "Okay, so now what?"
The sun was already gone, dipping all the way around the world to meet China about now, Ken assumed. "Sleep maybe?"
"Sleep's for losers." Kevin stretched before grabbing a wrench and dropping down onto the board that he used to slide under his car. "I stay up. All night."
"Insomniatic much?" Ken said with a sniff, curling up a little more into the couch.
Kevin wished he was smart. He really did. "If I knew what that meant, I'd probably slap you for saying it." He worked the wrench against a screw. "So what's the future like?"
What was there to say? Honestly, sucky. "Sucky," Ken found himself saying. "It's dark. Kind of drab. They've still got soccer though."
"That'll keep Ben happy," Kevin replied as some grease splattered down on his face.
Ken wasn't sure what else to say. He was off in the world of crime-stopping and superheroes whereas Kevin and Gwen and the other Levins… It wasn't the same. Usually running and hiding for Kevin, but Gwen was able to keep an eye on everyone else at home and even keep track of Ken most days.
Gwen was a great multi-tasker.
Silently, Ken threw a rag under the car knowing Kevin needed it.
"Thanks," Kevin said softly, wiping his face.
"But you should really treat Devlin better in the future." Ken knew if he changed things now, it might not be the same, but it was better than seeing his best friend the way he was. "You're not exactly the nicest person."
"I've noticed." He hit the undercarriage of the car a few times to make sure he'd fixed it properly. Of course, it was better to check than to have the car die halfway to California. If he ever decided to go there, that was. "I've never exactly been the nicest guy in the world. Hasn't Benji ever told you that? Like about back when we were kids?"
"He keeps most of his history confidential. And yours for that matter, but Gwen is an open book for us. She tells us everything that Dad and you haven't told her to keep quiet about." Ken kicked off his shoes. "You got a blanket around here?"
Kevin sighed, feeling all these questions bubbling inside of him, but silenced them all with his usual self-control. "It's in the backroom. Got a couple of smoothies back there too if you want one."
"AWESOME!" Ken was running for the thought of blended stuff, one shoe on and the other, somewhere under the couch.
A/N: man, I love writing for these guys!!!! They're crazy fun for me!!!
~Sky
P.S. R&R plz!