Disclaimer: I do not own Ben 10.

A/N: Only good bit about the country being in lockdown on account of a pandemic: finally got some time to write. A few folks at discord bounced some oneshot ideas at me to help shake off the rust.

...well they didn't say I could only use one. Hope you enjoy this bit of self-indulgent fluff.

Summary: Three times Ben and Gwen had plausible deniability and one time where they didn't. Not even to themselves.

(I)

Gwen's last summer had featured a lot of weird things, like aliens, magic, alien warlords, space trips, alien magic and more aliens. And grandpa's cooking.

Somehow, that one still managed to be the most terrifying- which probably said little about her grandpa's cooking and a lot about her lack of perspective. In her darker hours, Gwen suspected she was going to need a lot of therapy down the line.

When she mentioned this to Ben he'd just given her a blank stare. "No amount of therapy can fix you, cootie queen."

Cheeky little freakazoid.

But the point was: Gwen's last summer had been weird, cosmically so, and she had fully expected her next summer with Ben and grandpa to be just as weird. She'd anticipated it, prepared for it. Maybe even wanted it because even she had gotten a little bored over the school year.

For all that, nothing could have prepared her for this weirdness.

Her ice cream had fallen out of its cone and splattered on the smoldering pavement below, but she paid it no mind. No, her wide eyes were reserved for the hand that had clasped hers in a hesitant but surprisingly firm grip.

Gaze snapping up to the owner of said hand, she found him looking straight ahead as he demolished his own ice cream with a fervor that bordered on the obscene. When he noticed her stare, he shrugged, reddening.

"I-If I lost you in the crowd, grandpa would have my head." He explained quickly before diving back into his cone.

Gwen wanted to point out that it wasn't that busy on the sunny Austin day. That she had bright red hair, for crying out loud, even he couldn't lose track of that. That he was the shorter one between them, she'd sooner lose track of him.

Instead, she felt her cheeks heat and grumbled at the pavement. "You made me spill my ice-cream, jerk."

He seemed to consider that for a second before begrudgingly holding out his own to her, close enough to lick. So she did. Sure, she could have dropped the remainder of her own cone but she might as well offer him some of it if he was going to make an attempt at being nice.

She could've dropped his hand when he offered her a lick and taken his offered cone in that one. He could've dropped hers when she offered him a bite of her cone instead of leaning in.

But they might just lose each other in a nonexistent crowd if they let go, and that just wouldn't do.

(II)

"Are we there yet, doofus? It's freezing." The redhead grumbled behind him as he guided her through the darkened forest behind her home's backyard, her small hand squeezing his. He smiled, glad that his night vision had always been way better than hers. And that he knew this path by heart.

Resisting the urge to pull her to his side to warm them both, he just gave her hand a squeeze, relishing the immediate squeeze she gave back. "I thought you were supposed to be the tough one?"

"I thought you were supposed to be the one that never shut up? You keeping a surprise, well, a surprise, is weird."

He snickered. It was kinda true that he usually wasn't that good at keeping things from her, he didn't want to either, but some things he just couldn't really put into words.

So he figured he'd show her instead. "Like you are any better, ms. Raves-for-three-hours-straight-about- ah, found it!"

They stepped into a small clearing in the forest, the grass gold but mostly dry with the clear, starlit sky overhead, very nearly tripping over the sole source of heat there was.

"Is that-?"

"Yup! Surprise." He supplied, trying to sound casual and failing even to his own ears, but he could feel the amusement radiate off her, so he didn't mind. He lifted the pre-heated electric blanket off the picnic blanket under it and dove into the warmth, Gwen wasting no time in joining him.

Huddled up and toasty, he could faintly see Gwen move her head to take in what little of the clearing she could make out and turning her gaze to face the starlit sky. Bellwood was a large town, but it was spaced out pretty well and didn't have that much light pollution, so the stars were perfectly visible on the clear winter night.

Not that that was remotely impressive to them. They'd seen the night sky in the desserts of Nevada. They'd traveled to distant stars themselves. This paled in comparison to either. As if to echo these sentiments, Gwen turned back to him, an amused huff ghosting over his face. He could see her smile just fine, as well as the delicate furrow of her brow.

"So, what? You brought me out here to huddle up and stargaze?" She asked, somehow sounding simultaneously scathing, bemused, but also perfectly willing to accept that as an answer and roll with it.

He could do better than that, though. He grinned, pulling out a remote with a big red button from under the blanket. Gwen's bemused stare blanked out into calculated indifference. It did nothing to hide the twitch at the corner of her mouth or the playful light shining in her eyes, visible even in the dark. "Ah. So that's what activates the pie throwing trebuchets? Or is it a trap hole?" She eyed the dirt beside their blanket speculatively. "Cuz that would actually be kind of impressive."

Ben snickered. "Wouldn't you like to know." He answered slyly, feeling her tense at his words.

Now whether she was tensing in dread or anticipation, that was the question. His grin grew, but before he could say or do more she'd shot forward in an attempt to grab the remote.

He saw it coming from a mile away so he stretched just so that the remote was out of reach, and leaned back just far enough that they toppled rather than collided.

They both landed on their side, her hand reaching just short of where his own with the remote lay. Having lost the element of surprise, she sagged a little, another huff emitting from the girl laying in front of him now.

"Close." He told her, thumb hovering over the red button.

Gwen scoffed, and blew a raspberry in his face. He pushed the button in retaliation.

Again, he wasn't entirely sure whether it was dread or anticipation that caused her to tense when she heard the sound of the hidden boxes clicking open. Nor could he entirely discern whether the way her head shot up, or the way she half rose from where she lay beside him when the humming started, was fear or curiosity.

It didn't matter.

When the fireflies emerged from the boxes that were scattered around the clearing and took flight, lighting up the place like their own little starlit sky on Earth, he could clearly see the wonder and awe overtake her face. He didn't really notice the flies. He only saw the way their light danced over her and reflected in her eyes.

Lips stretching into a gleeful grin of her own, Gwen's head whipped back around to beam down at him, her mouth opening for an unspoken question that died on her tongue, not daring to ask but seeing no other answer.

He grinned back, soaking up her happiness like a plant soaking up sunlight. "Happy thirteenth birthday, dweeb."

She dove in for a rib crushing hug and he laughed, happily burrowed in the crook of her neck as she was in his. It had been a pain to keep those fireflies alive through winter, but the woods behind her house were a great place to play around with the Omnitrix, and, for some reason, it kept turning him into Grey Matter and Upgrade when he did. He needed to do something while he waited for the thing to time out, and making a present for the dweeb was as good a way to pass the time as any.

And if he'd taken some inspiration from the way she gushed about 'that sweet thing Jamie had done for his girlfriend' for over an hour- well. Ben figured he was allowed to go a little overboard on a special occasion like this. It was that extra effort that she appreciated anyway, he knew.

She was allowed to go a little overboard herself, of course, which was why he didn't stop her when she placed a quick kiss on his lips.

(III)

They were going to eat him alive.

And Ben had no idea what was coming for him.

Not that that was special. The lame brain was many things: heroic, brave, charismatic in an easygoing way on a good day, and brash, stubborn, petulant and selfish on a bad day.

But he was rarely, if ever, perceptive.

So where Ben enjoyed his climbing height because he could prop his chin on the crown of her head or blow the hair on top to get her to startle, she noticed the way that height would turn heads when they walked down the streets of New Orleans on their sixth summer trip together.

Where Ben enjoyed the way his broadening shoulders helped him haul Plumber tech around, she took note of how the muscles rolled under his shirt as he did so.

Where Ben enjoyed having the strength to finally beat grandpa Max at arm wrestling, she took note of the way he could (and often would) easily lift her off the floor in those same arms, spinning her around like she weighed nothing at all.

(She blushed because of mortification when he did that and laughed to humor him. Just that. Nothing else.)

And where Ben noticed the stubble on his face and jokingly pointed out that they both knew what that was gonna look like in a few years, she only noticed the way it looked now, emphasizing the hard line of his jaw and somehow making the bright green of his eyes stand out even more.

So here they were. Summer was ending, Ben was handsome, she was frustrated in multiple ways and the girls at school were going to tear him to shreds like the pack of wolves they were. That was a simple fact. He wouldn't stand a chance. For all that he pretended to be a cool guy, her doofus was easy pickings.

Charmcaster had winked at him once and he'd straight up ran into a wall. Of concrete. In the middle of fighting the witch.

As XLR8.

That had been embarrassing to watch.

Ben was her partner in battle as well as her best friend- galling as the latter had been to admit. His lack of suaveness was both a liability and reflected poorly on her. Heck, if people started thinking she was as lame as he was because of this, she was going to scream.

This would not stand. She had to save her cousin and her respectability.

When she mentioned as much to Ben during a sparring session in the woods behind her house, just two days before school would start, he laughed in her face. So Gwen knocked him flat on his back in retaliation and stole the laugh from his lips.

It was ample proof of her point. Sure, she could kick his ass in a fight any day of the week, but she was literally a head shorter than he was and lighter to boot. She had no business pinning him at all, yet here she was, keeping him down with just her lips. He really stood no chance against any girl putting the moves on.

Pulling back from the kiss, tugging his bottom lip between her teeth as she did, she gave them both a long second to catch their breath. She did not go far, though, as she rather liked having a front row seat to his kiss bruised lips, the sight of his pupils blown wide and his cheeks coloring red, all for her.

She smirked at the daze in his eyes. "Told you, doofus."

Ben rallied somewhat, shaking off the fog and giving her a heated look. Her toes curled in anticipation.

He reared up, causing her to slip into his lap, one arm cradling her neck while his other snaked around her waist. She threw her own around his neck- because she might need to put him in a headlock. Somehow. She wasn't entirely sure, the look on his face promised so many things that made her brain turn to mush.

Stupid Ben and his stupid sexy eyes.

Said sexy eyes narrowed, and though there was a ghost of a smirk twitching at his lips, he was dead serious. "You think I can't handle you, little lady?" He challenged, all but purring the endearment, a new favorite he picked up after he triumphantly passed her in height.

Her heart skipped a beat or two, but she soldiered passed it, her smirk widening, raising a defiant brow as she raked her nails through the hair on the back of his head. "Prove me wrong." She returned his challenge with one of her own and he picked up the glove she'd tossed by responding with a downright scorching kiss that left no room for air or words.

All in all, she may have been underestimating the doofus when it came to his skills with the ladies, but she wasn't gonna tell him that. It'd go straight to his head, and her mouth was occupied with more interesting things anyway. Much, much more interesting things.

Letting her eyes slide shut, she groaned into his mouth, a move that allowed him to deepen the kiss much further and she in turn allowed herself to sink into the moment more, ignoring the world around her and focusing solely on him.

On the support his thighs provided her; on the warmth of his abdomen and chest against her, his heart beating a mile a minute under his ribs, same as hers; on his arm stroking her neck and lower back (when had he snuck his hand under her shirt? Cheeky little…) and on the softness of his lip and the wet heat of his tongue.

She may or may not have forgotten why she was doing this, but it came back to her in fragments (somewhere between the hand on her back raking its nails over her skin and her affirming that no, Ben did not have any cavities, no dental problems whatsoever).

Gotta steer this ship right. Can't let him get an even bigger ego. She resolved, weaving her fingers through his locks and pulling his head back, angling it up and exposing his jaw and neck to her tender mercies.

...well, she could do tender. If he wanted mercy, he had another thing coming.

Ben did not fight her, instead he moved the hand on her neck to rake over her thigh till he came around and cupped her rear, giving her a squeeze, a low rumble in his chest that might have been a chuckle. She realized Ben was not looking for mercy at all- he was telling her to put her money where her mouth was.

So she did, nipping at his jaw, eliciting the most delicious groan from the back of his throat before she moved down to his neck, lips lingering on his pulse and teeth grazing before she locked them down and sucked.

Truthfully, she hadn't planned on giving him a hickey, or two, or three, but then again, the plan had never progressed past 'make-Ben-more-resistant-to-floozies-somehow' so she chalked it up to thinking on her feet and left it at that.

And if Ben showing up to the first day of school with two prominent hickey pulsing on his throat as well as one on his collarbone- and an utter disregard for anything woman shaped that did not have red hair- well.

Accidents happen.

But she'd make sure they kept happening. Couldn't be to careful after all.

Luckily, Ben was in full agreement with her on that one, for a change.

(IV)

Ben swallowed nervously. He'd anticipated company that evening, specifically his dweeb helping him out with his homework while their parents were all on some lame double date (at least they were getting along).

Now, he was confronted by another redhead with a far more severe look than the one he was used to. Sitting up straight he tried to smooth out his sweatpants and for all that it was eight o'clock on a weekday and this was his room, he felt horrendously under dressed.

At least she'd knocked and he'd only been studying. Could've been way worse. He still hoped that she wouldn't snoop around- he had far more stuff to hide than your average adolescent.

He'd expected her to tear into him for one failing or misdemeanor or another, he could think of a literal bazillion things that she could rail him on, but instead her mouth worked silently for a few seconds before she seemed to deflate on herself.

That was somehow infinitely more worrying. Before he could ask her what was wrong, she spoke.

"Look, we- we're not always the quickest on the uptake, but we do have eyes. Me, Frank, your parents and grandfather." She started, gauging his reaction. When he raised a confused brow, she sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose. It seemed he was good at disappointing her even when he wasn't trying.

"We know." She ground out, sounding both frustrated and… resigned? He stiffened, eyes widening, denial and apologies on the tip of his tongue but they hadn't told them about the alien business for their own safety!

She held up a hand before he could say anything, though, her expression... softening? She waved the hand that had been pinching her nose at him. "Don't worry. We… sort of accepted it." Aunt Nat held up her hand other hand too, as if defensively. "Wasn't as easy as you probably would've liked, but you two stuck through dozens of attempts to set you up with someone else. At some point we had to give." She sighed, ignoring his mounting confusion. "This is us, giving." She explained, before giving him a rueful smile.

"And for what it's worth, while its not exactly what any of us hoped for, this is surprisingly… nice. You'll be good for her. And she for you. That's more than a lot of people get."

...oh.

oh. Oh! She meant-

"Take good care of her, Ben." Her lips quirked. "To quote Frank, the sap, 'Love her like she deserves.'" Her eyes softened again. "Gwen- she acts tough, and she is, but she's also… it can become too much. And she's an innocent soul at the end of the day."

Ben was and always would be of the firm belief that 'Gwen' and 'innocent' did not belong in the same sentence unless that sentence was a staunch denial of a connection.

But he was honestly too dazed to even snort. So he did what he always did, what they always did, when their brain came remotely close to this topic: he grabbed it by the scruff of its neck like it was a smelly cat and threw it out of his mind asap.

So he mutely promised her that would do both of those things and she left satisfied. He didn't respond to his mother's holler to 'have fun and use a god damn rubber!', wincing at it.

When he heard the car pull out, his bed shook. He closed his eyes and exhaled.

Then he glanced down. Gwen's upper body emerged from under the bed, eyeing the door speculatively before turning her unfairly huge green eyes on him. "Any idea what that was about?" She asked, innocently, but her eyes were sharp, observant. Considering.

He gave her a long look, taking in the heat smoldering just under the surface of her demeanor, of the slight hint of triumph in the turn of her lips. He understood the feeling- a small, secret part of him wanted to scream in delight at the acceptance his aunt had showered on them- but…

He'd long ago decided that if they were ever acknowledging this, she'd lead the way. So he shrugged.

"No clue, dweeb. One ear in and out the other."

Gwen scoffed before crawling the rest of the way out, face souring as she took in the dust clinging to her. Ben's expression lit up.

"Made some new dust bunny friends down there?" She flipped the finger at him as she stood and patted the dust off herself. He tried not to watch her do it too much.

"Just be happy I managed to hide before she came in, otherwise that talk would've been a lot less sweet." She returned. He rolled his eyes.

"You know, you could've just waited till I texted you that they were gone instead of portalling into my room while they were still in the house." He pointed out as she unceremoniously dropped down beside him in all her baby blued hoodied and sweatpantsed glory.

"Could have, but then you'd lose out on precious time on your literature homework and that would be a travesty. You need all the tutelage you can get."

He snickered, leaning over to waggle his eyebrows at him. "Admit it, you were just eager to see me."

She gasped in mock affront and he fought down the urge to giggle. She was in a playful mood. "Are you insinuating something, Tennyson? Because I'll have you know I'm a perfectly innocent soul, my mama just said so!" She nodded enthusiastically. He scoffed. Loudly.

"You're about as innocent as your average demon straight out of hell, dweeb." He deadpanned, crossing his arms and all but looming over her.

He'd expected her to scoff, or glare, or sass him. Instead, she smirked and leaned over, causing him to rear back, not trusting her for a second. This seemed to only amuse her more. "Yup, you got me!" She cheered, crawling forward, to which he scooted back-

Headboards. Who thought those were a good idea, again?

"Straight out of the second circle of hell." She purred, closing in and he gulped. "And if you studied like a good doofus, you know what sin that circle is about, right?"

He didn't quite know his own name with the way she was looking at him right now, much less whatever the hell Dante wrote about the second circle of hell, but he made a token effort.

"...putting pineapple on pizza?" Yeah, that was a nope, if the triumph in her eyes was anything to go by. She slowly shook her head, and he tried not to focus on how her loose hair shifted with every gesture, undone from its usual clippings. Barely shoulder length, it was still a curtain that completely hypnotized him.

She giggled. That sound was cute on a normal day, but when she was giving him bedroom eyes like that, it was anything but. "No, silly." She leaned closer, hovering her lips right next to his ear and sliding up against him fully. "It's lust."

...leave it to Gwen to make dirty talk nerdy. He tried to cling onto that conviction as all vestiges of what little resistance he had dwindled- his hands had already snaked around her to roam across her back and hips.

"D-Didn't you say I needed to study?" Because he had to put up at least a token fight for his grades-

"Didn't you promise my mother to take care of me?" She countered, voice a low purr that reverberated from where her lips traced his jaw and causing him to turn to jelly- all of him, which allowed her to roll them over so she was beneath him, looking up at him with sweetness, and desire, and amusement and fondness and-

Love. She looked at him with love.

He desperately hoped his own eyes could convey half that much affection, because this was so close, so dangerous, because if they put into words what their eyes were saying-

"Didn't you promise to love me, Ben?" She whispered, fingers brushing his jaw and drawing his forehead to rest on hers, lips inches apart and putting him so close to those eyes.

He soaked it up, from the warmth of her legs cradling his legs to the callousness of her fingers as she cupped his face, to the sweet feel of her lips brushing his when she reared up ever so slightly.

It was a silly promise, really. They'd been taking care of each other for ten years, and had no plans of stopping. One of the best, and worst, things about them was that this bond between them never needed a promise, it was just there, a fact of life like the sun in the sky or the ground under his feet.

It was a stupid promise, because he was pretty sure he'd loved her for years, and she'd known that. But he didn't do stupid promises by halves either.

So he returned her kiss with something more than just passion and for possibly the first time they allowed themselves to acknowledge the feeling between them for what it really was.

A/N: ugh okay thats enough diabetes for one oneshot. Hope you enjoyed, sorry for any mistakes.

I think Playing the Odds is next on the list to be updated. I haven't posted a new chapter for that since last summer and that just straight up blows. Later all! And try not to get wiped out by a virus.