"God I hate thi-DIE ALREADY!" Ben shouted as he gripped the controller to the video game a bit tighter. He stood as soon as he shouted, his grandfather jerking awake in his chair.
"Oh no way I am so winning!" Edwin laughed as he jerked his own controller to the left, smiling as he bit his bottom lip.
"How can you be good at this game? I've had it for years!" Ben nearly shrieked as his player flew back across the screen, a K.O. in white flash blinking before him. "… and again I die." he dropped the controller onto the coffee table, snatching up his glass.
Max sighed, rubbing the sleep from his eyes as Ben paced and drank in quick sips. "What's going on this time?" he mumbled, blinking through his sleeping fog.
"Oh, sorry Max… we started playing a game while we were waiting for Kevin and Gwen to get back." Edwin said, moving some of the controllers so Ben could sit beside him.
With an agitated sigh Ben did just that, stretching out as he set the glass down on the counter, rubbing his eyes with a string of grumbles.
"Don't talk like that Ben; I don't want my kids having a potty mouth." Edwin mumbled back against his neck, tapping his shoulder gently.
"Yea I'll watch it if you s-" Ben hushed as he heard the door open and caught his grandfathers confused gaze. "That'll be them." Edwin smiled as he moved his arms from around Ben, letting him sit up and stretch.
"I'll go tell them where we are." he muttered as he stood, walking gingerly toward the hallway that lead top the front room.
"You've still got snow in your hair, Gwen… here." Ben slowed again as the voices became clearer along the walk toward the back room, the sudden urge to eavesdrop striking him like the alien had earlier. Only this time more metaphor and a lot less flying through the air to hit a wall or support beam.
"Thanks. I never would have noticed… Kevin are you bleeding?" Gwen's voice sounded a bit worried, slightly frightful even. Ben stopped, pressing his back against the hallway wall as he inched along it.
"What? … no, it's just my skin. I'm fine." Ben finally got to the corner of the wall, peering behind it to catch the glimpse he needed of Kevin and Gwen standing across the room by the door. Gwen was smiling, relaxed as she continued to brush the snow out of her hair.
"We should find your cousin and tell him." Kevin muttered, it was almost too low for Ben to make it out, but it intrigued him enough to catch his ear. He glowered, leering through the room as he placed a hand on the wall to keep him steady.
"He's probably just in the back playing video games or getting food, you know Ben." Gwen said, smiling as she pulled her hair across her shoulder and set a hair tie in it. She brushed her fingers through what was left and sighed, stopping near the end to grip her hair a bit.
"I don't think I should tell him yet… I still need to get everything out…" she muttered, but Ben couldn't make the last bit out. He needed to get closer.
"Not everything, Gwen, you didn't use half of it I'm sure, so just what you use weekly would be fine. But really, if you don't tell him, I will." Kevin muttered, taking a step toward the hall. Ben quickly let go of the wall, ready to dash away until Gwen snatched up Kevin's wrist.
"It's not his business, it's mine, I'll tell who I want to." she barked, an angry spark in her eyes.
"Well actually it's our business, Gwen; it does take two to decide that you know." Kevin snapped back. Gwen glared at him, swatting his hand away as he went to touch her face. Ben felt his eyes grow wide as his mind race and he entered the room.
"Oh my god." he breathed, both people in the room turning to him in a startled way, eyebrows raised.
"Ben, there you are, what's wrong?" Gwen asked, heading toward him.
"You're pregnant! I knew it, it wasn't just me damn it I knew it Kevin I'm going to kill you!" Ben dived toward Kevin; fist balled until a beam grabbed him in mid-air and set him in place.
"Damn it Ben I'm not pregnant!" Gwen nearly shouted, pulling Ben back with her mana, grunting a bit as she pushed back at his struggling.
"Then what the hell were you two talking about?!" Ben shouted, still fighting against the binds Gwen had wrapped around him. "Everything you two were talking about leads to having a baby!"
Gwen groaned and sighed, setting Ben on his feet but still in her mana's grip as Kevin chuckled and turned to rub the back of his neck. "Ben, I'm talking about moving out of my current place. It's pretty much trashed anyway and since Kevin is in my custody he'd have to move with me." she grumbled, arms crossed.
"… I'm having a hard time believing you." Ben huffed, crossing his arms as Gwen groaned and rubbed her temples.
"Ben! My house has giant holes in it now!" Gwen screamed in frustration, throwing up her hands and letting Ben go from her mana grip. "What do I have to prove ithat/i to you?!" she nearly howled as Kevin came to her rescue and pulled her close to his chest.
"I know there are holes! I meant being pregnant!" Ben shouted back as Kevin held Gwen in place from diving into a shouting match.
"Fine, you want proof! I'll give it to you!" Gwen shouted as she drew her hands back as they began to hum almost with mana, and as she did it Edwin and Max came running into the room, Max holding a Plumbers gun.
"What's going on in here?" Eddy gasped as Gwen tossed her hands straight at Ben before anyone could even stop her. The flash was blinding and for a moment everyone was stunned by the choking feeling of white.
After the light faded to a dull pink the room was covered in an odd glow, lines connected to both Ben and Gwen as they stretched from their stomachs to the center of the glow.
Each of the circles swirled until it formed an ultrasound, the warm glow of Ben's twins sleeping sounds in misshapen balls, and the empty circle of Gwen's.
"There, I told yo-"
"Oh god… Ben!" Edwin took a step forward, dropping the glass that was in his hand as he stared straight at the ultrasound in shock. "Ben they've… they've got-"
"Oh my god they've got tails!"
Kevin quickly let go of Gwen's arms as she let her spell fade from her own half, holding the form on Ben as she walked forward and tilted her head.
"Will you look at that…" she muttered, poking at the ultra sound as the babies squirmed and tossed, wiggling about before the orb blinked out of sight. The room filled with silence before Max sighed and rubbed his forehead.
"I'm too old for this. I mean it this time." he said, turning around as he headed back down the hall. "I'm going to get my coat, go back to the rust bucket and talk to some people!" he shouted as he hurried out, more than ready for this day to be over.
Gwen sighed again as Ben stared and the shut his mouth as he turned back to her. "I'm sorry… that I jumped to conclusions." he whispered, "I just… I thought…" he shook his head, not ready to continue before grabbing Edwin's hand. "I'm hungry." it was all he muttered as he dragged his boyfriend out of the room.
Kevin sighed as he watched them go, turning back to Gwen after a silence had settled. "I think that went well." he said with a smile until Gwen smacked him hard across the arm. "Ouch! Woman why did you hit me!" he grumbled at her.
"Kevin…" Gwen went to say something but stopped, hand up in the air before she lowered it and closed her mouth. "You know what, never mind. It's just stupid." she took his hand in hers, smiling a bit. "Let's just go." she said, tugging his hand a bit as he laughed a little and began walking with her.
"I'm sorry I broke a hole in your wall." he said after a silence of everything but their footsteps. Gwen smiled as she turned to look back at him, picking up her bag from one of the chairs.
"It's ok; it was going to happen eventually anyway. I mean, Ben's always moving places you know, cause of stuff like this I mean." she smiled and pulled her purse over her shoulder by the strap. "Anyway, come on." she said, tightening her grip on his hand again.
Kevin nodded as they walked outside into the snow, letting Gwen lead him as they heading in the general direction of her house. They shared the silence, smiling back and forth like love struck teenagers. If anyone would have passed, that's all they would have seen standing their.
Love struck teens who didn't even realize they were doing it, the smiles and random nervous laughter as they held hands. Gwen was back in high school all over again and it felt like she's never left those memories. Everything that had happened when she was 15 was fresh and nothing else mattered.
She was just a girl holding hands with a boy she cared about, and the boy cared about her back. It was cheesy and romantic and neither of them cared to notice or even care.
When they finally got to the broken up patch work palace Gwen had called a home she turned, looking back up at him with a smile. "Stay here, I just remembered something." she let his hand go gently and ran inside through the hole in the garage, rummaging through tossed boxes.
"What are you doing Gwen?" Kevin asked after a good five minutes and a loud crash.
"Hunting!" she called back, tossing an empty cardboard box at his head as she tossed it behind her. Kevin sidestepped it, nearly barking back at her for her aim before she let out a squeal of delight that was so unlike her.
"Found it!" she shouted, stumbling around the boxes as she headed back out of the garage and smiled, hair strands falling out of place as she held the prize behind her back.
The man waited quietly, ready for whatever the other girl had in store for him. Gwen smirked as she took one of his hands and placed the item in it. "I found this a couple of weeks ago, and I thought for some god forsaken reason it might come in handy." she said with a smirk, waiting for his reaction.
He turned it over, tilting his head before he stopped and froze, his face falling before he started laughing. Gwen grinned with him and laughed a little as well.
"Of all the…" Kevin shook his head as he held the crystal up to the light, "Taedenite, where on this green Earth did you find this stuff?" he asked with another laugh, tossing it up into the air before snatching it back into his hand.
"Let's just say Gwen isn't the only one Alien's come to for help anymore." she said with a smile, looking back toward the house with a grin. "Come on, you can help me uncluttered my place." Gwen said with a smile, leading Kevin back inside through the large hole in her garage door.
--
"Are you keeping this?" Kevin asked Gwen as he held up the CD case, having flipped open the box on a whim. Gwen turned back to him from her fight with the dust that had caked the stack of boxes ion the back of the garage that hadn't fallen over yet.
"What is it?" She asked, heading over to him through the garbage bags. Levin flipped it over a few times before he grabbed another rag and scrubbed the cover clean.
"Looks like some classical crap." he said with a shrug before he let out a curse as Gwen pulled a few strands of his hair.
"Don't make fun of classical, and anyway this isn't classical, it's actually a CD I borrowed from someone… they just never came to pick it up… huh, I don't think I've ever even listened to this thing." she muttered as she plucked it out of his hands, opening the case to examine the CD.
"Well if you've never listened to it why don't we listen? I bet it'll be fun." Kevin said as he stood straight and snatched the case from Gwen, heading over toward the busted up CD player as he knelt in front of it and began tangling with the cord.
"Kevin don't worry with it, it's silly to put it on." she said, crossing her arms as he yelped when a spark hit him from the outlet before he grumbled and plugged the item in.
"It's silly to do this in silence, put the CD box over by the rest of the group items that need to be sorted through will you?" he asked her as he grabbed a screwdriver and went to fixing the lid of the player as he sat down and grumbled at the thing.
"Kevin what if the neighbors hear, it's nearly two in the morning!" Gwen said gently before she stopped as Kevin raised an eyebrow at her.
"Gwen, a giant Alien just threw me through your house, a girl kicked its ass and then turned into a guy before vomiting on your lawn and complaining about morning sickness." Gwen snorted a bit at the last one before brushed imaginary dust from her nose.
"I think a little bit of music will make you seem a tad more normal, don't you?" he asked with a smirk as she rolled her eyes.
Fine." she finally said, tossing her hands up before lifting the box below her with a bit of a groan as Kevin nodded and popped the CD into the player. He fiddled with the volume for a few minutes before the garage filled with music, upbeat and quick.
"There, now we have something to listen to." he said as he turned, walking over to help her set the box on top of a few others, his fingers brushing over hers as he smiled. "So… what else should I help you with?" he asked, smiling as she rolled her eyes.
"You can take the bike out to the curb with the garbage bags that we've gotten so far." she said, pulling her hand back with a blush as he nodded and started lifting the items before heading outside. She kept the blush as she turned quickly and began opening a new box.
Inside were pictures, the first of a teen red head wrapped up in a dark haired teens arm as a brunette stood to their left making faces as they all laughed. Each was dressed in loose clothing as they stood on the boardwalk, a balloon string wrapped around the girl's wrist.
Gwen opened her mouth, no real intention to speak, but shock overtaking her as she picked up the shoe box, walking over to one of the chairs she'd dragged out and setting the box in her lap. She flipped through several pictures that were similar until she stopped and bit her lip with a smile.
Two ten year olds and their grandfather were standing outside an old RV, smiling as they waved at the Camera, all but the boy. He stood making faces at the camera at just the right moment, Gwen couldn't help but smile and laugh as she set the picture back, looking through to another.
The next one she came across that made her smile was a dark haired teen leaning against his car, arms crossed as he grinned and poured a smoothie onto another boys head. She bit her lip again, feeling her throat tingle.
Kevin walked back in and grabbed the bike, the wheels bent inward and cracked; he looked up and stopped when he caught sight of Gwen wiping tears from her eyes.
"Gwen… are you ok?" he asked, setting the bike back down as Gwen put the new picture down. It was of Kevin, his teens hidden under rock, steel and wood skin.
"I thought I'd fixed it… I thought that I had, I was just so sure I'd fixed it and I…" she sniffled, shaking her head before she closed the box and set it atop a keep pile.
"Gwen…"
"I'm fine, I promise." she stood, breathing out and picking up a garbage bag. "Here, I'll help you out."