isclaimer: I don't own Ben 10 or any of its other incarnations.

Okay everyone I'm glad you all enjoyed that last chapter. If you all wondering why Kevin was overpowered by Tasha, it due to Kevin's age. Dragons normally don't get their full powers until they reach the age of 20. Kevin will get his full power early, but it won't be till later. So everyone please be patient and I hope you like the BeViny goodness in this chapter.

Curious Dragons

Chapter 10

To the student's surprise, when Marello said he'd cook them a feast, he wasn't joking. Marello cooked several dishes from all over the continent, and even made a few special dishes for the dragons. After a few hours of eating, chatting, and just relaxing, the recruits and their partners started to get drowsy. Marello considered letting every stay the night, but as he started to prepare places for everyone, Tasha told him it'd be best if they slept in their own beds. Marello sighed knowing Tasha was right, so he called the boys together. However as they got together, Marello smiled to himself seeing that it was nearly midnight and the boys were barely on their feet. So Marello called on the partner of each rider and asked them to place them on their back. The dragons complied easily as they used their tails as hands and lifted their riders onto their backs.

Marello led the group of young, tired riders back to their dorms, but did not take them through the entryway. He guided the dragons around the building and walked to end of a row. The young rider quickly summoned his partner and told the young dragons and riders to follow him. In a matter of moments the group of five was hovering in the air about three stories off the ground. Marello took one of the keys for one room and showed them that this was the way that their dragon had to enter the room. He took the key and placed it in a hidden slot next to the window. The large window soon divided and allowed enough room for a dragon to fly in quite easily.

The young trainer then called out to Michael and told him that his would be his room. Then he flew to the next window and opened it. The room had two full sized beds so Allen and Cooper knew that this was their room and flew inside.

Lastly Marello opened up Kevin and Ben's room. Ben, who was still quite tired, looked into the dorm room and saw that it was the size of a slightly average apartment. It was separated into a living area, a kitchenette, with a working stove, along with a door that Ben believed lead to his bedroom. Even with well rounded décor, the thing that caught Ben's attention the most was a large machine that sat off to the side of the living area. Marello followed Ben's gaze and sighed as he forgot to tell the boy about the devise.

"Sorry Ben I forgot to tell you. The devise you see in the corner is a sleeping chamber for you dragon. The chamber scans a dragon and creates an artificial climate that the dragon will feel most comfortable in so he or she may sleep in relative ease," Marello said from his partners back. However Marello thought the devise may be useless with Kevin sense there weren't enough black dragons in history for the machine to actually find out a climate that the black dragons would enjoy.

With his task complete, Marello wished Ben and Kevin a good night and muttered about having to clean up his apartment and getting ready for tomorrow night.

Ben waved tiredly from Kevin's back and asked Kevin to fly into the room. Kevin quickly glided into the room and landed next to the couch. He gently laid Ben onto the couch and transformed into his other self. His change was swift and effortless, and as he looked down at Ben, he smiled at him. Ben lay on the couch coming in and out of consciousness. Kevin then knelt beside the couch and looked into Ben's sleepy eyes.

"Hey Ben, want me to carry you into the bedroom," Kevin asked innocently. The answer he received was something the raven haired prince could easily come to like. Ben nodded his head yes and reached out to him like a needy infant wanting to be picked up. Kevin gave him a large smile and scooped Ben into his arms. He then proceeded to carry Ben bridal-style towards the bedroom. Once inside the large sleeping room, Kevin looked around and notice a king size bed in the middle of the room. It had a black comforter, and when he pulled it back, there were dark red sheets.

As the colors seemed to please the dragon prince, he soon laid Ben into the bed. He then proceeded to tuck Ben in. In the time that he tucked, Kevin had considered jumping into the bed with him. He continued his debate for a minute or two, but concluded that sleeping with Ben would help him sleep better. So with relative ease, he slipped under the sheets and scouted closer to the young hero. After pressing a kiss to his cheek, Kevin pulled the young boy closer to his body and wrapped his arms around the younger teen's waist. With s smile spreading across his face Kevin drifted into the realm of dreams.

As the night wore on, morning came in a brief moment to those who fell asleep. In Ben and Kevin's room, the two teens were sleeping contently wrapped in each other's arms. However that soon came to an abrupt end when a loud knock came to their room door. Ben was the first to wake up, but still dazed by sleep, he told the person to enter.

Marello walked into the room only to see Ben lying under Kevin in his human form. Marello gave the two a skeptic look, but decided to ignore their actions for now. Clearing his throat, Ben looked up at Marello and instantly fell out of bed. At the sound of the crash, Kevin stirred from his sleep and looked over at Marello as well. He then let out an unmanly yelp and gave the instructor a nervous smile.

"Mornin' sir, uh, how you doin," Kevin asked. Marello smiled at them replied, "I'm good Kevin, now let's get up and get dressed. Your classes start at 8 this morning, and I forgot to tell you all last night so I decided to wake everyone up and make sure they got to class on time. Today Tasha and I will be letting you all eat in class, but we won't allow it unless its lunch time. Now with that said get dressed and meet me in the lobby area within the next twenty minutes. Oh, and Kevin, I got say I love your sexy human form." Marello winked at the now blushing dragon prince and walked towards the lobby.

Ben had been standing in the doorway of the bathroom listening to Marello and Kevin, and knew that the young man was going to tease him mercilessly today. With a mental groan, he walked into the bathroom and took a quick shower. Luckily the shower only took ten minutes and the young teen was able to grab an outfit from his closet. After that he brushed his teeth, but when he went back into the bedroom, he noticed Kevin wasn't there. Ben then opened his mental link with Kevin and called out to him. 'Kev? Where are you,' Ben called.

'I'm outside of the dorm. I knew you were getting dressed so I went ahead, so we wouldn't end up back in bed,' was Kevin's reply, to which Ben greatly appreciated. So once he knew what was going on, Ben ran down stairs to see Marello sitting on one of the plush couches in the lobby with his looking glass in his hand. Ben noticed there was a shy, but warm smile on the man's features, which he couldn't figure out. He stealth fully snuck up behind the instructor, and took a look at what Marello was so focused on.

"Ben, if you really that curious I'll happily show you my looking glass," Marello stated in a slightly amused tone. Ben jumped back and gave a nervous laugh. He walked over the other side of the couch, when Marello tossed him his looking glass. In the magical tool, was the picture and a muscular built young man. He was very handsome with slim trimmed eye brows, hazel green eyes, high and well defined cheekbones, thick slick black hair, and a lightly tanned complexion. Overall the guy was sexy as fuck and Ben could do nothing but stare.

"Yeh, he's cute isn't he? His names David, or papito to me. He's undergoing training under a master sorcerer to gain the title of the Anodites," Marello said with a longing expression crossing his features. Soon Marello shook his head and stood up and took back his looking glass. It was a moment later when the others came into the lobby ready to go.

Marello told them to follow quickly or they'd all be in trouble. No one really could make sense of Marello this early in the morning, so they and the dragons, who were waiting outside for them, followed Marello back to the older portion of the academy's grounds until they were walking into the old castle.

As they walked through halls, Marello lead them into a large open room. The room was once used for entertaining large numbers of guests from the style and sheer size of the room. However towards the back portion of the room were four tables set up. On those tables was silver buffet style serving containers, with steaming hot food waiting to be devoured.

The four human teens stared at the food and started feeling their hunger kick in. As the scent filled the room, even the dragons began to feel their stomachs growl. With a smile, Marello told them to grab a plate and get whatever they wanted. While Ben and the others started grabbing plates and grabbed as much food as they could, Kevin and the other dragons were starting to feel left out, until they heard some whistle towards them. When they turned to look to their left, they noticed Arc was standing in a nearby entryway motioning them to follow him. As each dragon looked to the other, Van started towards Arc. After that the others followed after him and were pleasantly surprised to that they were lead just outside the castle.

"Hey guys, I knew you all loved to eat your preferred foods outside. And that way we don't have to watch your owner lose their breakfast," Tasha said as she pulled two large dollies with different types of meat on them. "For Flare, I cooked up some charred elfin deer. Ship your dish was a lil harder to cook, you've got the simmered centaur meat with a few broken up computer bits for some flavor. Van, I know your kind don't feed like the other dragons, but I was able to make the best synthetic dragon energy shake I could. Lastly for Kevin I figured you'd might like charred leviathan chunks and charred white tiger meat. Well eat up boys, today your riders are going to start tapping into your powers so we figured we'd get you as much extra energy we could muster into you guys," Tasha said as she placed each dish in front of their respective lover.

Too much joy, each dragon started wagging their tails and dug into their meal with just as much gusto as their owners. Tasha smiled at them and told them that if they wanted more to just tap on the window. She then walked into the castle and started to help Marello set up mats and other objects to help make their training as safe as possible.

It was another half hour before the trainees finished eating and started heading back to the room where Marello told them where they'd be starting they're next class.

When they walked into the room, they all stared at Marello who was stripped down to a pair of elastic like shorts and a white sleeveless shirt. Marello's once flowing dreads were pulled to the back of his head and held there with a rubber band. The smile that they all became so used to on Marello's face was replaced with a firm and slightly angered expression. He stood in the middle of large area covered in blue matting with his arms folded over his chest.

"You're late; I asked you all to be here at 830 hour and your fifteen minutes late. For that you will be running laps around this room. I'll tell you how many at the end of the day. Now hurry onto the mats and stay still while I get you all changed," Marello said in a strong and hardened voice. The four teens and their dragons knew it was Marello's voice, but to have such a hard edge to it was foreign to them.

Not wanting to find out what Marello would do if they really angered him; they ran onto the mats and stood up straight while Marello summoned some of his powers over magic. Pointing one hand at them, Marello cast a spell that turned into hundreds of dots of light the swirled around each student and changed their normal clothes into something similar to what Marello was wearing.

"Alright now that you'll are dressed, the first thing I will be teaching you is how to fight like a dragon. Oh, and before any of you say that you all already know how to fight like a dragon, you're wrong. The dragon martial arts is a hand-to-hand combat style themed from the dragons. What I, and your dragons are going to teach you is how to fight, as in breathing fire, using your dragons unique powers, and finally merging a piece of your dragon's soul into your body. This will take at least four months to do, while you will be learning combative from me, and in the afternoon you will be learning how to ride your dragons from Tasha. Now the first thing we have to do is permanently forge a union between you and you dragon." As Marello took a small pause, the four students looked to one another as if the man in front of them had just lost his mind.

"And before you start to question my sanity, the link you and your dragons created yesterday was just foundation of what we're going to start on today. We're going to be creating your Dragianium summoner today. Now did you all bring an item of personal importance," Marello asked as he glanced around the room.

Everyone pulled out an item except, but after a moment, he pulled out the necklace his parents gave to him. Marello nodded his head and told each dragon to pull off one of their scales to create the summoner. Then he told the dragons and riders to face one another and lay their foreheads together. Once that was done, Marello instructed them to close their eyes and open the connection they created yesterday. This took each rider a few moments to do, and while they opened the link, Marello walked over to each pair and draw a diamond inside a circle and placed the scale and personal item inside of the magical seal.

As the links opened completely, Marello closed his eyes and began to chant.

Pectus pectoris quod mens iam publicus thy. A prodigium of vestri animus iam belongs volo. Per is item , EGO iam tribuo. Permissum nostrum verus vox iam verum suscipio vivo.

The scales and personal items soon began to glow with and unearth aura rose between their owners. They began to orbit each other and spin at a slow pace. However as Marello chanted the spell time after time, they began to spin faster and faster. Soon it was almost impossible to see either item as the unearthly auras merged into the other. When it finished, a new item sat between each rider and dragon. The first was the Dragianium summoner, the tool in which allowed a rider to call his or her dragon, and for those who studied the ancient arts, to unlock the hidden powers of the dragon. The second item was known as the Dragianium caller. This device is used in the same way as a Dragianium summoner, but was only used in extreme emergencies. While dragons can travel through the portal that allows them to come to their rider, humans are not as resistant to such high levels of magic.

When Marello gave them the okay to open their eyes, everyone was surprised at the item that lay before them.

Alan and Flare were left with a ring and a small dragon sized earring. The ring was gold and in its face was a red gem, with the symbol of the Plumbers engraved on it. On the earring was the crest of the Volo Incendia dragon inside of a blood ruby. Alan smiled as he picked the ring up. The ring was still warm from the sudden creation, and as he picked up the earring, it started to glow and flew to Flare. Quickly it set itself into Flare's ear, to which the dragon flinched only a bit. Alan then put his ring on and smiled at it as he felt a new rush of power come from it.

A moment late Cooper picked up his summoner, and his dragons caller. Each was made silver bracelets engraved with ancient dragon symbols, for power and protection. Cooper looked at each of them and took the larger one and placed it on Ship's front right leg. He then mimicked the wear of the bracelet and placed it on his right wrist. He smiled as he felt Ship's presences with bracelet. He then turned the look at Alan, who blushed at the gorgeous smiled turned his way.

Next Michael picked up his summoner and Van caller and looked at them extensively. Michael's summoner was a gold necklace with an emerald Plumbers emblem hanging from it. The caller for Van was the same as his riders, but a larger scale. Michael shook his head and sighed in a discontented way, when he was truly happy to have someone to have a connection with.

Last but not least was Ben. His summoner was different from the others by the most. The summoner was a green colored armguard. On top of it had a green and black Plumber's emblem that seemed to be a top for a hidden compartment. Kevin's caller was something he could truly come to love. It was an acid green arm band that would wrap around his arm. Kevin smiled at Ben and gave him a loving lick. Ben blushed at the action and never noticed the smile that crept onto Marello's face.

"Alright boys, now that you're truly connected to your partner, I'm going to start teaching you the secrets of the ancients. Your first class will be learning to breathe fire, or in my case ice," the young instructor said as he reverted to his normal personality.

Alan however raised his hand in question at his cousin's sanity. "Ah, I thought we were going to learning hand-to-hand combat? And how are we gonna breathe fire?"

Marello gave them a huge grin as he started to explain the basics of fire breathing. "It's simple, by taking small portions of your dragon's energy, and adding it to your own, you can create flames inside your lungs. Then it's as simple breathing hard from your mouth. Now to draw power from your dragon, you're going to have to use your summoner. Focus your thoughts on the summoner and you should feel a huge source of power from it. That power is your dragons, and you only need to pull a small amount at it at first. Taking too much power from your dragon is stealing all your dragons' strength. Now for training purposes go ahead and take a bit of it."

When everyone took a small portion of their dragon's power, the felt the energy meld with their own and felt instantly more powerful than before.

What they didn't see was their aura escaping their bodies. This aura is a side-effect of a human ingesting the power of a dragon, and normally is the color of the dragon they have.

"Now that you've got this power, take a deep breath. Let the energy flow into your lungs along with your natural breath," Marello instructed watching each student very closely. "With that breath you should feel your new power circling inside of your lungs; well the next to last step is to give your dragons breath a good spark. Think of something of someone who truly pissed you off and breathe out as hard as you can." As Marello finished his explanation, he jumped back and let everyone try it out.

Once Marello had cleared fire breathing range, each student released powerful flames from their mouths. As they ran out of air to fuel their flame, the dragon fire vanished, and left four humans stunned at the feat they had just performed.

TBC….

Okay I know I've made you all wait a really long time for this and I'm sorry. My muses are fickle and they didn't want to co-operate. So this is what I've got and I hope you all like it. I will do my best to get the next chapter up as quickly as possible. TTFN…