Author's note 1. There has been a minor change to the last chapter. I couldn't get the planned ski trip to work, so now the kids get to enjoy a rare snow day at home instead. Thank you.
Author's note 2: The title for this chapter was taken from 'Where are you Christmas" by Faith Hill.
Chapter 25: Their World is Changing...
Gwen's House
Bellwood, California
December 24, 1999
11:32 pm
'Twas the night before Christmas, when all through the house
Not a creature was stirring, except for a gray-skinned alien the size of a mouse;
Who paced to and fro outside the window barely aware
As he chose his words with great care…
- o - o - o - o -
"- lyn, you are a female sapient bipedal creature of..."
Greymatter stopped his endless pacing on the edge of the snow-filled gutter as four tiny fingers found the spot between his bulbous eyes that usually increased his mental acuity by three percent when he pressed down on it. Usually. "No, no, no. There's no need to point out the obvious! What are you, a Cerebrocrustacean?"
The words ended with a high-pitched sigh as he let his shoulders slump as he sank down onto an asphalt tile. For just a moment, he thought about thinking about something easy as he sat there, like plotting out the eleventh-dimensional vortexes that made up the universe…
But those made sense. Those were logical and predictable and everything his mental processes weren't anymore.
"I don't understand it." The words were a misery all on their own as they spilled out for an audience of none. "For the last sixty-four planetary rotations I've found myself beyond words or rational explanation for the strange and alarming biological processes within me whenever you draw close to my bio-electric field, Gwendolyn. I look into your eyes and find myself more lost than when I stare into the cosmic background radiation, looking for patterns in the chaos..."
Ben opened his eyes then and looked over his shoulder, hoping he'd see her there in her dark window even though the thought was completely illogical. Not when the only light on in the whole house were the two candles that were burning by the kitchen window downstairs. Candles that he'd watched his aunt light as he waited for the watch to time back in so he could think in the only way he knew how from his perch in one of the trees on the other side of the fence. Watched and almost ran up even though it was such a stupid idea just because he'd seen her face in the dancing flames of the match after she struck it…
And how the light caught in what looked like tear tracks on her cheeks, but it couldn't be. His aunt would never…
Never cry over candles, never all but collapse into his uncle's arms when she was done or let him lead her away. Not on Christmas Eve. It just didn't make any sense.
"Madness, all of it," Greymatter muttered as he shook his head and tried to push the image away. As illogical as him being here, freezing on the snow-covered roof with his Dweeb's window behind him and a wrapped box almost as big as him sitting next to him. One that was wrapped in glossy paper the exact shade of the part of the visual light spectrum that he knew she preferred and that he'd put down on a part of the roof that he'd so carefully scraped the snow off of so it wouldn't get ruined. Not even his phone got that much care when he tossed it down on top of the box, and why? All logic said he should have just left them in his pocket where they'd be perfectly safe in the storage sub-dimension inside the Omnitrix, but he didn't. His primitive primate form couldn't shake the feeling that seeing them might be the necessary spark of inspiration that even a hyper-advanced brain sometimes needed.
They just made him ponder more questions instead, like why was he doing any of this? Just so he could see his Dweeb's face when she opened her present? Just so he could see her smile? "The fractals of your smile…"
Pure. Simple. True, the whole universe was caught in Gwendolyn's face every time she did just like it was in the frozen fractals that were falling all around and somehow in the stone that was waiting inside the box...
"Nonsense. Poetic nonsense. As if the mere movement of her lips could be so..." Greymatter whispered even as he shivered and felt his hearts race at the thought. One that destroyed all the ones that came after and left only the random sparks of neurons behind so they could tumble out of his mouth. "There comes a time when… no, no. There are some idioms that are...ugh. It should be transparently self-evident how I...Great gyroscopes, NO. Come on. You're in the body of the most intelligent creature within the Milky Way Galaxy and this isn't difficult. You're just trying to tell her that you..."
Greymatter sank down into the snow and buried his face in his hands before he could finish that sentence. Not that it helped. Not as much as the sudden beeping he heard coming from his back, or the flash of red light that the night swallowed up as he timed out and went back to being Ben. At any other time, he would have missed the crystal clear clarity of being the little guy. Now he just groaned into his gloves. "Why is this so hard?"
It was stupid! He'd faced monsters who held saws against his arm and mutant animals and ticks the size of buildings! He'd saved the universe and...
And it didn't matter. Not in the face of the words he couldn't say to the girl who was on the warm side of the roof. "If the Dweeb saw me right now..." he said after a while, and he couldn't help letting out a laugh that turned into a cloud around his face. She'd smack him. He knew she would. She'd do it because he was out here freezing like a Doofus instead of just…
That stopped Ben dead and made him lift his head back up so he could look at the shingled roof again. "No way is it that easy." He shook his head as he said that, but he got up anyway. Got up and made his way to the edge of the roof and her window as his boots crunched through the dirty snow there. He only stopped for a second so he could scoop up the present and his phone and shove them both back into the pockets of his jacket. Then he took that last step and tapped on the glass. "Dweeb?"
The word was barely a whisper, but she'd heard words he'd said softer. Usually so she could get him in trouble, but still…
Not that anything moved in the room on the other side. Especially not the shape he saw lying in her bed and so cocooned under the covers that not even her head was sticking out. He should have laughed when he saw just how far she'd go to get away from the cold, but he just smiled instead. Smiled and made up his mind. "Hero time," he whispered even as his fingers ran over the window that she never locked and found the catches that alien claws had worn there ages ago.
"You can do this," Ben whispered as he pushed the window up and slipped into her room before he closed it again so she wouldn't freak. Well. Not because he made her colder anyway. "Youcandothisyoucandothis!" His boots were barely any louder than his words as he turned around and realized he was wrong.
There was some light in here. The usual pink glow from the baseboard and the frame of her door that was so soft it was worse than nothing and he didn't even really notice anymore. Not when his feet knew the way to her bed and not when he felt sweatier and grosser with every step in a way that didn't have a thing to do with the sudden heat, but he didn't let that stop him. His stomach was in his throat as he called her name again and reached across the bed for her shoulder, where his hand hesitated for a lifetime before he brought it down.
And it sank into the pillow hidden under the blankets. "Wha - ?"
"Gotcha!" Gwen shouted as her closet door banged open behind him. Ben screamed even before something cold hit him in the back of the head and sloshed down the back of his shirt. Something that turned into a snowball as he spun around and another one hit him in the chest, the white powder exploding like her laugh when it hit as he caught a glimpse of an open cooler half-hidden in all her clothes.
"Hey!" Ben shouted even as he ducked low and reached for the still red watch on his wrist as his heart raced like his Dweeb as she dashed across her room. He barely got a glimpse of her in her thick powder blue coat as she pulled her hood up with one glowing hand and waved the other at her window, which caught the same glow and shoved itself up even as she grabbed the sill and vaulted through boots first with just four words breaking her giggle.
"Tag, Doofus! You're it!"
And just like that, the chase was on. One that led them across the roof for the drainpipe that they slid halfway down before they threw themselves off of in a move that they'd both made a hundred times. The only difference was that the snow was just a little bit softer than the grass as Ben tucked in tight and tumbled off his momentum just like Sensei taught him. Then he was back on his feet again not ten feet behind her with a scooped up handful of snow.
Ten feet that were more than enough for her to make it to the fence in the backyard. One that was usually covered in roses pricklier than he wanted to admit, but were cut back now. Not that roses would have stopped her, but maybe they would have kept her from dodging his snowball at the last second. "Missed!" Gwen cheered as his wild throw hit the wood an inch from her ear as she hung there on one hand and stuck her tongue out at him. Then she swung back and scrambled over the top with him right behind.
The snow was so much thicker in the woods behind her house and he didn't care. Not when it made following her tracks so easy as they led him deeper into the woods before they just disappeared. She disappeared, but her voice didn't. "What took you so long anyway? I was melting in that closet!"
"Nothing!" Ben shouted right back as he looked all around, but he couldn't spot her. Not in the shadows of the bare trees all around. Trees he stuck close to because he knew her. She could be up in any of those branches by now. So could he, but until the watch timed back in she could fly and he couldn't. And she called him a cheater. "I was just busy counting all the loot I'm gonna get tomorrow, Dweeb!"
"Ben!"
"Like you didn't do it, too!" Gwen might be the Wicked Witch, but he was the only one who could make her gasp his name like it was a spell all on its own. He grinned at the sound of it even as he ducked branches and dodged tree trunks.
Dodged them almost a second too late as something flew at him from the sky and hit the tree he was just at in a flash of pink light. "Did not!"
"Why not?" he shouted back with a cackle as his own as he eyed where the shot came from. He was sure he saw a splash of blue up there and a shadow move the wrong way from the way the wind was blowing. "So you don't wanna know about the big present that has both our names on it?" One that was big and heavy and would have been so much cooler if it didn't look like a book. Even if he did give his parents some props for hiding it in with the rest of the stuff they were bringing over tomorrow.
Some, but not as many as he gave himself as he snuck closer and closer to her tree. He wished he could dare a look at the watch so he could tell if it had gone green again, but the light would give him away and he didn't need it. Not when he had all the snow he could ever need all around. Cold, dirty snow that would feel just horrible when it got under her jacket. He laughed and wondered how many people he was going to wake up with her shriek…
Then he stopped dead in his tracks as an amazed voice came back. "You have one, too?"
"I knew it!" Ben crowed even as he wondered why they'd both get one if they were supposed to share. "I knew you peeked!"
"Only a little!" The words came back with only half of the force of the wind that suddenly wiped up behind him even as he flung his snowball at her and the barest pink glow around her hand. "What do you think it - ow! Hey!"
"Gotcha!" Ben didn't know what was better, her shout or the fact that the watch went green again just as he tied her fair and square. He kept laughing as he popped the dial out, spun it around, and prayed as he brought his hand down. "Sudden death round!"
The world burned with emerald light as he threw himself forward. Burned it away and kept it away as he landed and paws tore through the snow.
So he never saw the spell that tore through the silent night at him, but he felt the heat of it against his back and smelled the stink of ozone it left behind as it exploded against the tree that he'd just been hiding behind. More spells followed after. Spells that made the snow erupt and trees grab at him with needles sharp enough that they almost hurt even through the thick fur that came with this alien body. Either of them would have been game over if he'd been Ben, but he wasn't.
Ben knew from the first breath he took that he got just the alien he wanted for a change as Wildmutt's gills caught every scent. The night came to life as he sucked in as much air as he could just like he had the first time he changed into this form. He still wished he had the words to describe what it was like, but he didn't. Not for him and not for her when she asked as she stared at him with her green eyes so wide as she watched him from over her notebook like he was the most interesting thing in the world.
Which he was.
The closest he got was how the scents seemed to leave glowing paths in the air, and now there were so many as the world was filled with life and everything that came with it. He could smell deer everywhere, deer and rabbits and other prey that made this body drool as he dug his claws into the snow as he ran, but he had other prey. He smelled a bobcat, too. One that just passed by a few hours ago and he could almost see the path it left through the snow. It was big, too. It would be a dangerous prey, but this was his territory now and -
Ben shook his head because it wasn't. He was just borrowing it, and he was after a cat who had a butt that was a lot bigger and who was a lot more dangerous even if Gwen had stopped flinging magic at him. That was when he was sure that the orange fur somehow blended into the night a lot better than the bright green jacket his mom got him and way better than the fruit bowl of scents that filled her shampoo and moisturizer ever could.
A scent that made him drool with anticipation as he circled her before the wind changed and she disappeared. All but her voice. Wildmutt's ears weren't anywhere near as good as his nose, but he still heard her shout, "You better run, Doofus!"
This alien couldn't grin either, but his growl meant the same thing. Especially now, when it was low enough and deep enough that it made the loose snow all around him dance even as he tried to catch her scent, but she kept staying just out of reach. Of course, she'd be making sure she stayed downwind now. She always was way too smart.
The thought made him feel so much warmer than even his thick coat of hair should have allowed. The thought and the fact that the wind changed again and he caught the stink of something that was as much her as the fruit bowl of lotions that she wore.
Ozone.
Not the flash of it that came when she was tossing the magic around. No, this time the harsh smell that almost made him sneeze stayed as he 'watched' the witch jump onto a platform of mana that he'd seen way too often before she sped away into the night.
If Ben had been in his body he knew that the word cheater would have exploded out of him. It did, in a way, as a howl that filled the night and made the snow-covered bushes and trees explode with prey that scattered. He wondered if her parents heard him and if they were rushing to the window right now…
And he howled again at the thought. If he was just him he wouldn't have done it, but being WIldmutt was easier. Wildmutt didn't care. Not when he had prey in front of him. Prey that was racing through the night in front of him. Prey that was stuck flying through the trees instead of racing over them because the glow of her magic would give her away if anyone saw and he knew that she couldn't let that happen any more than he could get seen using the watch.
Not even here. Not in a place that almost felt like the middle of nowhere if he pretended hard enough and ignored how his every breath proved that was a lie. The ground was rough and broken with dead bushes and rocks and a thousand other things that hid under the snow, but he could still smell the houses and people all around. Smell them and ignore them as he focused on the snow that his feet and the girl in front of him. The snow that he raced through with his toes spread wide so he barely touched the surface of it as he ran instead of sinking in when he was him.
That and the fact that she was dodging more branches than he was were the only things that let him catch up, and he did.
He got close enough that a part of him screamed that he should just pounce and bring her down. The Ben part of him. The part that sat in the park with his Dweeb until she drilled in some of the math that screamed that he was close enough. Not that he would have believed it, but this body was screaming the same thing and he trusted Wildmutt way more than any numbers. So he tensed the furry guy's whole body for the leap that he knew he could make….
Only the witch knew it, too, and she shouted another nonsense word back at him.
One that Ben barely dodged as he threw himself to the side just as the whole world exploded in thunder and ozone. If he hadn't been ready for the pounce he never would have made it, and as it was the blast knocked him on his furry butt, but it didn't matter. It wasn't a clean hit and he was still in the game as he dodged behind another bunch of trees even as clumps of snow rained down on him.
Even after a year and a half, Wildmutt's heart still sounded weird in his ears as it pounded in his chest even as the snow dampened all the rest of the noise. It was almost like his guitar when he tried adding an extra string, just because he could. It was so loud that Ben was sure that she'd hear that and not the snow that barely made a sound under his feet as he fought every instinct and went quiet. It so wasn't him and it felt like it took forever, but it worked.
He heard the snow crunch not twenty feet away as the witch jumped down. "I know I got you that time!" The girl's words were brave and bold. "So come out here and bow to your queen, Ben!"
The best prey.
For as big as Wildmutt was, Ben was still amazed at how quiet he could be, and he was so quiet now as he crept forward. He barely even breathed, but she was so close now that it was enough. Close enough that he could smell the real her that she tried to hide under everything else. He knew that she loved all the perfumes, but that didn't do a thing to hide the real her. Not from Wildmutt or him.
Only…
"Ben?"
Ben froze at the worry in his Dweeb's voice as he 'watched' her turn this way and that, her right hand up and wrapped in the sharp smell of ozone, but that wasn't why he dared a deeper breath. No, it was because she smelled different. Different from the last time he'd gone Wildmutt months ago when the world was hot and green and they were so far away from here with Grandpa. Different from then and different in a way he couldn't find words for. Not bad, not even with the smell of the sweat she'd gotten from the chase though that had changed, too. It was still her, but more in a way he didn't understand, and that made him dig his claws into the snow as the fur on his back stood up as he crept closer. Some part of him wondered how she managed it, even if it wasn't anywhere near the best trick he'd seen her pull off.
And then she turned her back on him and it didn't matter. She was his.
There was only the sound of the snow crunching under his feet as he pounced. It was still too much, and he saw her start spinning back, her hand held high as the stink of the magic she gathered around it hit him like a punch, but it was too late.
Her shriek filled the air again as he caught her against his shoulder and drove her down into the snow under them. A shriek that died as the blow knocked all the breath out of her. He pressed one huge paw into her chest so it stayed that way because she was too dangerous for anything else. Words were always her best weapons, so he wouldn't let her have any until she tapped out.
Her best, but not her only and not all of her spells needed words. Ben forgot that until the stink of ozone gave her away as she did something as she shoved her hand in his face, but he didn't know what. She didn't blast him with energy or wind or any of the tricks he'd seen her use. He didn't feel any different, but that didn't mean anything. That time at the dog park proved that.
So he didn't give her a second chance. Not for magic and not for her feet to find anything sensitive as she kicked at him and tried to wiggle away. He let out another growl that showed off all of his razor-sharp teeth, one that made her heart race even before he ducked his head and ended the fight the only way he could…
"Ew!" His Dweeb shrieked again as he dragged Wildmutt's huge, wet and gross tongue across the side of her face in a long lick that knocked her hood back. She screamed so loud as he pulled his head back that he barely heard the Watch beep on his shoulder over the sound of it and his huffing laugh. Her words followed him as the world burned red as he changed back even as she kicked at him. "Ew! Gross! I have Ben germs!"
Gwen looked every bit as outraged and horrified as Ben hoped as he finally opened his eyes again and saw her staring up at him. "I - " he started to gloat before he froze because her face was so close. Close enough that he could see the sticky drool glistening from her chin to the skully he didn't even know she was wearing where the hair that slipped out of it was slicked back like she was using the same junk that Cash smeared into his.
And then none of that mattered. Not as much as the fact that his Dweeb was right there, that the watch might have made him Ben again, but it didn't change how he was perched over her and she was so close. Close enough that he could see the dying embers of her magic in her eyes. Close enough that when she took a breath he could see how her teeth caught the moonlight between her lips…
Her lips…
It felt like Wildmutt was sitting on his chest as Ben stared until he realized he could feel her breath. Feel it against the seat of his pants as he sat on her middle and in his hand. Not the one buried in the snow by her shoulder, but the other. The dinner-plate-sized paw was gone, but his hand was on her chest. Still on her -
"Ahh!" They shouted together as he bounced away even as she kicked out and knocked him into the snowdrift he'd just jumped over.
"Sorry!" Ben gasped out the one word he never thought he'd tell her even as he wiped his gloved hand in the powdery stuff like that made any difference. Not when he'd been…
Oh, God…
"Yeah, I…" Gwen squeaked out as she covered her chest with her arms so didn't look at him because there weren't any words that would make this better. None but the most obvious. "That stupid watch of yours!"
"Yeah," Ben said as he nodded as fast as she talked and he would have glared at the thing on his wrist, but he couldn't stop looking at her no matter how hard he tried. He couldn't stop talking either. "But I still kicked your butt!" Ben gasped out with a laugh that started out as more nerves than anything else before it turned into an honest one because it was true! "Man, I got you! I just wish I could have seen your face!"
"I can't believe you - you licked me!" The Dweeb huffed as she sat up and finally met his eyes again, even if it was in a glare that took all his guts not to flinch away from because if he did, then…
Then it would be real.
As it was he knew her face was every bit as red as he knew his was just from how quick her hand shot to her face just so she could scrub the spit off of the side of her face with the sleeve of her snowsuit. Not that it helped. Not when he just started laughing again after she grumbled, "You are so gross, Ben!"
"Me?!" Ben asked even as he brought up his sleeve and scrubbed his tongue because that was better than remembering what he just felt. Not that it helped with either. "You're the one who wears all that gunk! Do you have any idea what it tastes like?!"
He hoped he sounded as angry as he should when he kept tasting chemically fruit even after he spat into the snow. But it was still better than thinking all the things that he knew he shouldn't as he met her glare head on. A glare she gave up on just so she could lift her nose high and sniff. "Good! I'm glad it's horrible! I hope you taste me all day just like Grandpa's stink bug casserole!"
Ben closed his eyes and shuddered at the memory. "And you're calling me gross!"
"Because you are!" Gwen huffed and sounded so mad at that. Mad and normal and maybe she wasn't going to kill him just because…
Oh, God.
He even opened his eyes again, just to check. That was the only reason he even saw the snowball coming at him. He let out a shout that made more of an impact than the attack did, since the snow just puffed away when it hit him, too powdery to make any impact. The way her face fell when it did just made it all the sweeter. "That's what you get for cheating," he smirked at her like she deserved.
"I wasn't!" His Dweeb shouted, outraged for real at last. Outraged enough that she bounced to her feet and glared down at him. "And I wasn't the one running around in a body without any eyes! I thought you went Blitzwolfer! That dazzle spell was awesome!"
"So that's what you did!" Ben had seen it before a couple of times - the 10,000 flashbulbs all going off at once like the worst part of their birthday parties - and he wondered if that burglar she'd hit with it was still trying to blink it off. He smirked at her for beating it and her glare got all the hotter for it, but he didn't glare back. Sparring with her was too much fun. "That was a good one! I'm almost sorry that I'm too awesome for it."
"Awesome?!" The dweeb echoed and there was so much evil in her laugh. Evil and joy as she put a hand on her hip and looked so wicked that Ben scrambled back to his feet, but he didn't realize just how dark she'd gone until she said, "Wildmutt isn't awesome, Ben. He's adorable!"
"Hey!" Insults were a part of their game. His favorite part for so long, but that one went too far! "Take that back! None of my aliens are… that!"
"Wildmutt is!" The Dweeb said with a grin as she eyed the watch. "And so is Greymatter, but you know who's the best?"
"Fourarms!"
"Upchuck!" Gwen said and Ben forgot all about grabbing her as those words made him stop dead and gape even as she clapped her hands together and cooed. "His powers are beyond gross, but he's so cute! Like a big stuffed animal! I'd snuggle with him every night if he was."
"He is not!" Ben shouted and grabbed for her as the thought made his face burn like even the cold couldn't.
Gwen just laughed as she danced away from his hands. The sound was like music and he hated it even as he wished she'd never stop. He hated it almost as much as he did when she aimed her hands at the ground and said one of her nonsense words that made all the snow explode up like a wave. One that knocked him on his butt again and left him half-buried and blinking even as she ran and shouted, "Best three out of five, Doofus!"
He just watched her spun around on her foot, the move as graceful as he'd ever seen even with her thick boots before she darted away like the deer he chased sometimes. He watched it all, but the only thing he saw was her grin as she did it. Her grin and the way her eyes -
"No powers!" Ben shouted back as he scrambled up so he could chase her even as he tried to shake the idea of her glowing eyes out of his head. Her eyes and everything that went with them that made him just stop and stare. Everything that made her…
"What's wrong with me?" he muttered as his hands found the lump in his jacket again. The one that wasn't his phone, but the horrible idea that started all of this. It was too cold. It must have been. Why else would he think that she looked…?
Because she wasn't. Cousins weren't. Neither were dweebs and she was both. There wasn't any way she'd ever be… that. Not now, and not when he'd watched her dance all those weeks ago. Not when she grinned or bugged him. Not when she hit him with a wall of snow or ran away so they could keep playing tag. It was impossible. As impossible as the alien thing on his wrist or the magic that waited on her lips.
And as impossible as forgetting the small soft something that he felt through her jacket. The one that fit his tingling hand -
An explosion of snow against his chest knocked that thought away. "Hey!" He shouted even as she cackled because this snowball was more than powder and stung and that was all it took. The chase was on again in a running snowball fight that led him up a hill that he never even knew was there even after all the times he'd flown over this spot and only ended when she'd run out of trees and hill both.
The ravine wasn't much, but it was still a break in the forest. One that the tree that Gwen vaulted made bigger when it fell over. Some part of him was sure that it was a trap as she dropped the snowball she already had made and just stood there with her back to him instead of calling up her platform so she could take to the sky. She'd done it before. She'd done it so many times that if she wasn't standing on the very edge of the drop he would have nailed her with as many snowballs as he could just so he'd win. Some part of him thought about doing it anyway. The rest of him…
The rest of him just stared as she stood there outlined by the stars and looked for the world like she was just waiting for the music so she could dance.
Ben couldn't breathe as he stood there with fingers that ached for his guitar. He couldn't move and he didn't know why. A thought ran through his head, and if he could have moved it at all he would have looked up for the alien ship that he knew was up there. The one that was blasting them both with some kind of ray that made them both statues. An alien ship or a Bigfoot or a curse or something. Anything that would explain -
"Beautiful," Gwen said, the words as soft as the cloud of her breath as she brought her hands up to her mouth as she stumbled back until she found the fallen log again and sank down onto it with shaking knees. "It's beautiful."
If there was a curse holding them in place, those three words broke it. Ben felt his feet move again anyway as he inched closer. Close enough that he saw the frozen stream not twenty feet down as he tried to find what made her stop because it must have been good if she was acting like this.
But there wasn't anything but the trees and the snowflakes that had been falling all day. Nothing but her as she sat there and stared out. She didn't even look up at him when he backed away, too. When he felt the log at his heel and looked down she was just staring out, her eyes huge as they caught every star. He followed them again and finally asked, "What is?"
"This," Gwen said, louder now that the quiet was broken, but she still didn't sound anything like herself. The only thing that came even close was the few nights when they went to visit her brother and their grandmother because they got tired of heroing and didn't feel like smoothies. It was something he tried as hard as he could not to think about even as he sat in front of those two stones with her and held her hand as she told them about school and heroing and everything else. Ben didn't know why she did it, and he didn't know why he joined in when she left something out, but she sounded just like this while she was talking.
That alone gave him pause as he looked around again and tried to see what they did. "...What? The trees?" The words finally slipped out because there wasn't anything else.
"Not just..." Gwen sighed and finally gave him a look as she waved a hand around. "Everything. Just...for a few seconds. Just sit here and look?"
Ben grumbled, but he did it anyway. Not on the log, he wasn't going to give her the satisfaction and he wasn't about to push her off, not when she was acting like this. So he sat at her feet instead. The snow was cold under his butt, but not too bad. It would probably suck in a few minutes, but for now, he sat close enough that he felt the rough bark at his back and close enough that he jumped when her leg just brushed his shoulder. He thought she'd jerk away at the touch like she always used to, but she didn't. She let her knee press against him instead, and that more than anything kept him there as he waited for a trick that never got pulled and the bad guys that never attacked. There was just the quiet of the snow falling as he stared out at the world on the other side of the cliff with her.
Ten seconds went by, and then another ten as he slipped closer to her. At half a minute, she still hadn't made a sound, but something made him let his head fall against her thigh as he watched the snow fall. It wasn't heroing or video games. It wasn't exciting. It was just him and her. No magic or watches. It wasn't even him playing guitar as she danced. It should have been boring, just sitting here and listening to her breath. "This...is kinda nice."
The Dweeb didn't say a word. She just let out a little hum and that was enough because it was her happy one. The one she made when one of her books told her something that surprised her, that made her wonder. He could almost see her eyes, see how wide they were as she took everything in. That was what made his brain itch. "Is this what the lady in your journal was going on and on about? How she could hear the world?"
Ben felt the jolt go through her. "You remember that?"
"Duh," he said because it was the only thing he could think of saying, but he didn't take his head off of her leg. She'd gone on and on about it enough before the summer went bad and after. When she would just sit there and sigh sometimes. He knew she had a whole list of questions that she wished she could ask the woman who wrote that stupid book, and a map hidden in her computer that was covered in notes as she tried to follow her. She tried and tried until she slammed the thing shut and moped after because she couldn't. Sometimes he wished that Grandpa never gave her the journal, just because of that.
But that was what made her a Dweeb. His Dweeb.
"I don't know. Maybe." Gwen's words were just a whisper as soft as the touch of her fingers as they found his hair. His hat was in the way, and so were her gloves, but it didn't matter. He still froze at the touch, and it wasn't just because her hand was cold. He should have slapped it away, no matter how good it felt, but that seemed wrong here. Wrong in the quiet. A quiet that she barely broke as she added, "Or maybe she just liked to sit down and listen every now and then. Maybe it isn't any kind of magic at all."
The world went still again except for her hand. Still enough that he thought he heard the snow landing even as his heart pounded in his ears. He wished he knew what was wrong with him, which made having her hand in his hair feel so good or use her leg as a pillow. It didn't make any sense. Not any more than the idea that places sang. Nothing here did. It was just quiet. Still.
But that didn't stop him from leaning a little closer as he murmured, "Feels like - " The thought died when her leg pressed against the lump inside his jacket. The small one he'd been carrying around all day and - and he couldn't do this anymore, couldn't hide it.
"I - " Ben started before he lost the words again.
This was stupid! This was a horrible idea! He knew it was! His worst. His absolute worst. He knew it even before the worry in her voice echoed back at them and the cold stole away every bit of warmth he had as she pulled at his hand even as he reached in his coat's pocket for the box inside.
What was he thinking?!
Some part of him wanted to go XLR8 so he could run until he left all these stupid thoughts behind. Maybe this time it would even work. At least his heart would have a reason for beating so hard then.
A better one than the one Greymatter came up with. There was something wrong with the little guy for saying what he did the other day. No, he didn't say it, he squeaked out as he collapsed back onto his bed. There wasn't any way that somebody that smart would think something so dumb. There wasn't any way that he was… He was… Just the thought made the box in his hand so much heavier.
The box he yanked out anyway and almost threw at her. "Here!"
Gwen jumped at the word and her feet and hands found their kata before she froze and blinked at the box that he was holding out and its badly wrapped Christmas paper. Then her eyes lit up as she scowled all at the same time. "What's this?" she asked, suspicious and gleeful as she snatched the box out of his hand.
"What do you think it is?!" Ben asked, the words coming out too loud and too fast as he yanked his hand back and wiped it on his pants. Stupid! Stupidstupidstupid! He should have just gotten her a book! If he'd just been smart he would have. That could have waited until morning because it didn't matter. Not this.
Dead. So dead.
His Dweeb wasn't saying a word now as her hand found her mouth. She just stared with the moon and the stars catching in her eyes. Ben didn't know what he was thinking as he answered the question she didn't have to ask. "I just… I don't want them watching! So just open it!"
"If this is another stink bomb..." Gwen warned, but her tone wasn't up to it as she pulled at one of the rougher corners.
He couldn't help grinning at that. "No one ever proved it was me." Best birthday party ever.
"Like anyone else would - " Gwen sniffed before she sucked in a breath and yanked open the top of the box, but he was the one who stopped breathing when she looked inside. His hand found the watch again, just in case.
"Ben!" the dweeb whispered as she looked down at the blood-red charm he'd hidden inside. The Keystone of Bezel he'd taken out of her collection months ago. He watched her grin as she touched it and almost let out the breath that was aching in his lungs. Then her green eyes burned as they shot up and met his in a glare. "I knew you had it! I knew it!"
Her right hand came fast and hard as she smacked his arm over and over again, and Ben couldn't help laughing as she went on. "I tore my bedroom apart four times looking for this! I made mom drive me to the church store just in case we put it in with - You DoofusWhy?"
Ben rolled his eyes as he zipped his coat back up and swiped for the box. Stupid. "Because it would be awesome if I could get it working again, duh." He should have just kept it. This was the luck charm all over again and he was starting Christmas with another crawfish up his nose.
So stupid.
"No!" Gwen shouted as she grabbed for the charm even as he pulled the box away. "Mi - !" The rest of the word was lost in the soft rustle of the chain that he'd hidden under the charm, the delicate links flowing like water as they glinted gold in the silver light of the moon. Links she brushed at like she couldn't believe that they were real. "Ben?"
"I couldn't. Greymatter couldn't make heads or tails of the thing. Neither could Upgrade, but then I remembered something you said. About how you wished that you had something like this - " The words rushed out of him as he held up the Watch and he didn't know if he was trying to explain or just fill the silence that her whisper left behind." - and I thought… You were right. You do deserve something from that first summer, too. Something better than a book, even if it doesn't work."
His Dweeb didn't scream as he let out that ramble, and that just made him say more and say it faster. She didn't hit him again either, and he was sure she would. He almost thought she was home free or he crashed her brain, one or the other, when he saw her eyes get wet. "Ben…"
"You can fix it!" Ben declared, guilt making the words a rush just so she'd stop, as he grabbed for the chain. "It comes right off! It's just running through the hole in - "
"Don't you dare!" Gwen breathed as she yanked the chain away from him. He thought her crying would be the worst thing that could happen, but the way she smiled at the charm as she took it, at him? Words didn't come. Thoughts didn't. The bad guys could have stomped through the mountain and he never would have noticed.
He just smiled back. It was the only thing he could do.
Gwen stared at the fine chain, ran her fingers over it, and somehow her eyes got even wider. "Ben, this is real - how?!"
That part he was ready for, and he shrugged. "Chores?"
"Ben..." Gwen said again as she tapped her foot.
This time his hand found the back of his neck as he looked back before he dropped his voice and she leaned in. "I've been Upgreymattering the guys' Gamestations. I was just going to do it for mine, but when Jamie said he'd pay me..."
So many emotions flickered through her green eyes at that before she shook her head. "I can't… You shouldn't, but… but it's your money and a leather cord would have - "
"I wanted to," Ben almost growled at her as he reached over and closed her hand on the charm before he squeezed it. That was real, more real than what he said next. "What kind of hero would I be, letting my sidekick run around with something this awesome on a leather cord? Don't you know anything about how this works?"
She shook her head at that, but it didn't touch her smile. "Fine, Mr. Hero. Thank you."
WayBig had nothing on how tall he felt after that as she found the clasp at the end of the chain and undid it. She started moving it up to her neck when she froze and gave him another look. One that made him throw his head back. "Fine! I just felt bad because I've been stiffing you on presents for years, alright?! And I thought - "
He bit his tongue when he realized what he was about to say. It was something he couldn't. Something he couldn't even think and he knew it. If he said it…
He didn't. He never got the chance. She exploded the universe before he could as her eyes darted from the clasp to him and she just asked, "Put it on for me?"
"Wha - ?"
"It's your present. You have to," his dweeb said like it was obvious as she held out the charm. She must have cast some spell on him because he didn't say no. He couldn't. Not when she looked at him like she did, her eyes huge and happy and trusting. He only felt a little sick as he pulled off his gloves, stuffed them into his pocket, and took the charm. The smooth stone still felt warm against his chilled fingers when he did, and he brushed his thumb against the black rune carved into the red stone before he found the chain.
The gold links weren't warm at all, and that must have been why Gwen shivered as he slipped behind her and put the necklace on like he'd seen his dad do for his mom a thousand times. She even pulled her hair out of the way with one hand like his mom did as she took and hugged the charm to her chest with the other.
Nothing could have hidden the shake in his hands now, but he was glad that she couldn't see them, even if she did shiver again as the chain slipped against her skin and his knuckles brushed the short, soft hairs on the nape of her neck. "Just - " she started to say, her voice shaky and odd.
"I know how to do it," Ben said. He tried for annoyed and didn't get anywhere close even though he'd done this before when he put the stupid thing on the charm to begin with. But his hands were still then, and she wasn't right there, smelling of strawberries and peaches after her shower and sweat from playing tag. Smelling the same as she did every night when they went hero. Only she didn't have goosebumps and he wasn't thinking…
He didn't think now, either. Not when he brought the ends close and yelped as he felt more than saw the spark of light that jumped between them. "What the - ?!"
He shouted as he added a word he shouldn't have, not with her parents just a few miles away. The only thing that made him feel better was that she jumped, too, at the zap that made his fingers tingle.
"It was just a little static electricity," Gwen said, her voice breathy as he finally secured the clasp shut. Then she let her hair drop as she spun around, squeezing the charm that was hanging over her heart with her left hand. She let it drop after a moment, one she spent just standing there staring at him. Then she darted forward and pressed a kiss into his cheek, and he froze up completely.
He should have scrubbed his sleeve on his face or said something. He should have moved away, made a face. He didn't do any of that, and he just stared at the dead Keystone around her neck, hanging over her…
That thought made him jerk his head up towards her face, feeling his burning and his hand tingling. He didn't expect to see the same blush on hers, though, or for her green eyes to go wide when she saw him looking right at her and quickly look away. Her lips moved, and it was a few pounding heartbeats before he realized that she'd said something.
"...what?" He croaked out, and Gwen shoved a hand into her coat pocket.
"I said I have something for you, too." The words were too soft and timid for how she should have been. Gwen hated repeating herself when he wasn't listening. It was just one of the things he knew about her that could always set her off, that he used to tease her.
But he wasn't teasing her now, and she wasn't going off on him like she usually did as she shoved the box out at him. The wrapping was perfect and covered in Christmas trees a shade of green that he knew even out here in the dark. A shade that was almost the color of their eyes. A color he forgot about the second he got his hands on the box and pulled it up to his ear. "Ben!" she shouted just before he could give the box a real shake, but he still heard something inside.
Something that wasn't a book. Something that made him tear through the paper the second she gave him a grin and a little nod. "A calculator?"
His mouth dropped as he stared at the thing on the box. The thing that had more buttons on it than he could have ever imagined even as she squealed and bounced on her toes. "Isn't it amazing? I do so much on mine, and you're going to love it next year when - when…" she started before she just burst out giggling. His head shot up and he stared as she laughed into her gloves, her eyes glittering like the snow and stars. "God, your face! I just needed the box, you dork!"
He stared for another heartbeat even as she teased him. One that lasted just long enough that he saw all the things he could do to her with the snow all around. All the things she deserved. Then he tore open the top of the box and tilted it over so whatever was inside could fall into his hand. "I swear if this is - " he started.
And then a pack of guitar strings fell into his hand. Strings and picks and everything else. Even a little bottle of wax.
"I meant it when I said I wanted to hear you play again, Ben," she said as he just stared, her voice soft as she reached up and brushed at her hat. Her eyes were big as they watched him and she bit her lip and the words rushed out of her even as he couldn't find any. "I just… I know you don't - " she rambled as she pulled a hand back so she could brush it against her hat as her eyes went to his chest or the ground, he couldn't tell which. "- and that you don't like to play around anyone else, but - but I was hoping…"
Her words trailed off at that and Ben knew he should say something. Something to get things back to normal again. Everything was too quiet and too loud at the same time, and his stomach felt weird. His hand twitched around everything she just gave him. Twitched enough that he almost dropped it all into the snow. The same powder she was digging the toe of her boot into even as she brushed at her necklace again. "And that it's not as nice as what you got me, but..."
But he caught himself as she said that and breathed in. He needed to say something and…
"It's perfect," He got out as he carefully put it all back in the box and slipped it into his pocket. A half a dozen taunts and teases and explanations all bubbled up in his brain and tried to find his way down to his mouth, but every time Ben went to say one, his throat closed up on him. She kept looking at him in happy glances between the strangled noises he made, and it kept driving him crazy. She should be making fun of him for this. For once in the Dweeb's life, she'd gotten one over on him. She'd done something that shut him up completely. And she wasn't crowing about it.
Just once. Just once, he thought, he'd beaten her at this. Making the Keystone into a necklace had been a genius idea. Then she went and played dirty for the win. Just once, he'd wanted to be better than her at something. He really should have known better. But, as he looked at her again, he realized something. She kept touching it, and then kept looking at him and looking away, blushing even more.
And each time she did, his stomach flip-flopped again. It almost felt like the time he'd eaten a whole tray of triple chocolate cookies. Like he wanted to scream and run all at the same time. Like he'd never sit still again.
She was….
It wasn't a win for him, but it wasn't one for her either. And after a lifetime of not being the best to the Dweeb…
Maybe he didn't have to win. Maybe a tie wasn't the worst thing in the world. Not when she was standing there in the moonlight. Not when she was wearing the necklace he got for her with the memory of their first summer hanging over her heart. Not when she just gave him everything he'd need for his guitar. Enough that it would last for months. And best of all, she wanted to hear him. She wasn't just being nice all those months ago…
And he wanted to see her dance again almost as much as he wanted to know if it was their summer or that night she was thinking of as she reached up and brushed her fingers across the stone again. Whatever it was, she must have liked the idea because her smile got wider from it even as she breathed, "Merry Christmas, Doofus."
The words played at the smile of her lips as he stared at them. Lips that were red from the cold, even with all the goop she'd put on them. Goop he'd tasted once before when they'd switched bodies. The goop that he remembered tasting like cherry, and he wondered...
He wondered instead of watching her hands until he felt them press into his chest. "Hey!" he shouted as she shoved him and he fell back into the snow next to the tree.
"But you're still it!"
- o - o - o - o - o -
And Ben sprang to his feet with a great clatter
And chased his Dweeb down the hill, drawn by her laughter.
It didn't matter what he said, he was suddenly aware;
Not when it was Christmas and she was right there