Soufflé

Two weeks after the Omnitrix arrived

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"Hey megadork, eggs go in the fridge, not on the counter!"

Ben sighed deeply as he finished putting the last of the cold groceries away, exasperated at the sound of the girl's irritating voice. They just got back from a nearby grocery store, and she was already starting in on him before they'd barely finished putting the stuff away. He closed the refrigerator door with a purposeful thump before replying.

"No kidding, nag master! I just put the other carton in there." He glanced at the container of eggs on the counter. "I want those to get to room temperature. I'm gonna try something."

He tried to ignore her as he started getting out the bowls and measuring spoons and other stuff the recipe said he'd need.

As if!

Gwen hated that! He'd found that out a couple days ago after she over reacted to one of his sarcastic taunts. He thought she knew how to play the game after the first week together in the Rustbucket: who could get in the best burn after trading a few insults and sarcastic jabs. Not his fault she'd left herself wide open for his remarkably clever comeback! Even if he did have to say so himself.

He wasn't trying to be mean, like the way she took it; he was only having fun!

That should have been the end of that skirmish, but no! Instead of letting him have the minor win and starting the next round, she took it totally the wrong way and got nastymean, going on forever about how bad he was at school and how that showed up in his report cards and after school detentions! Unlike her four semester string of straight As and awards! Dragging his less than stellar grades into it was playing dirty - that was only one of the many reasons he hated school, and he didn't like having his nose rubbed in it. Again. Especially when he was supposed to be on vacation. He got enough of that from the adults in his life, screw you very much!

He had angrily glared daggers at her before he grabbed his game console and stomped out of the RV, flopping into one of the camp chairs Grandpa put out and ignored her, pretending to be absorbed in the game he just bragged about finishing by winning the final boss battle before they went to the store. He kept up his aggressive indifference to her for a good half hour after she followed him outside, stealing glances at her as she grew ever more annoyed when he refused to answer her attempts to restart the game, or even just answer a question. She finally exploded again and fled back into the RV to sulk.

Served her right! Always had to be the center of attention…

But the sad, confused look in her eyes he saw when she stared at him for a long second just before she closed the side door ate at him. Way more than having Grandpa scold him about it. When he finally went back in five minutes later and deliberately put his game console face down on a counter, he saw a brief, happy smile flash over her face that for some reason made him feel good before she smirked and threw another verbal challenge at him. Her smirk had no anger behind it, though, and she got another quick satisfied grin when he pitched his burn right back at her to keep the next round going. He liked to think he let her have that win, but truth be told she got in a really good barb after they traded a few more insults. He almost grinned at her in admiration before suppressing it - no way was he going to let her know that!

"Oh yeah?" she said with a hint of interest, making him refocus on the present. "Like what?"

He stopped gathering stuff and turned to look at her. "I found a recipe for a dessert. Chocolate soufflés." It didn't sound too difficult.

"What?! Those are really complicated! … Jeez, you make a few good batches of scrambled eggs and you think you're making a Bobby Flay brunch!"

Not a bad opening salvo, that. And he noticed the backhanded compliment, even if she tried to backtrack from it with a quick grimace. The brunchmaster's cooking shows had become an almost daily routine, when they weren't off heroing. Even an offhand comparison like hers was a nice surprise.

"Not really," he shrugged. "It's just like stuff we've cooked up lately - whipping egg whites is like whipped cream, melting chocolate is easy, baking a cake. Folding stuff together is new, but how hard can that be?" He needed to focus on the recipe, though, so he didn't try a counter strike - the dessert did have a reputation for being fussy, even if the instructions he found claimed otherwise. And now she was going to be watching, so he didn't want to mess it up.

Gwen smirked at him anyway. "Yeah, it's just that simple!"

"Well, this recipe says it's not as hard as everyone says. We have some small round dishes that should work. I'm gonna make it. Do you want to help, or just give me crap?" He shot a mild glare at her before finishing with a sing-song tone. "Helpers get to have some…"

"You mean ramekins?" The self-satisfied smirk was plastered on her face; of course she knew the correct name. "I didn't know Grandpa had those. … Sure, if nothing else I can be there when all you get is a gooey mess!" she grinned. The words should have set him off, but the way she said it didn't have the mean edge he was all too familiar with. Kind of a nice change, but he didn't think about that too long; she had to have some prank in mind that she was setting him up for.

Ben started collecting the ingredients and checked to see if she really wanted to get involved. "Fine. You can start by getting the ramekins out. The recipe makes eight servings. Then rub some butter on the insides and swirl some sugar over it." He looked over his shoulder at her and smirked back. "Think you can manage that?"

She snorted at him but got the little dishes from a cupboard. "Why am I doing this again?" she asked as she did the butter and sugar coating. "And don't say because you told me to!"

"It's supposed to keep the batter from sticking to the sides as it bakes."

"Huh." was all she said as she re-wrapped the stick of butter she finished with.

Ben grabbed the carton of eggs and started separating the yolks and whites into separate bowls. Gwen watched him closely while he did after she finished with the ramekins, but said nothing. By the third one her silence was deafening - why wasn't she lecturing him on the right way to do it, or at least hit him with some snarky comment?

"Wow. You're pretty good at that" she said as he finished egg number four, letting the whites drip through his fingers into a small bowl before dropping the unbroken yolk into a bigger one with the others, then putting the yolk-free clear goo with the rest of the separated whites. There was more than a trace of admiration in her voice, and when he looked up at her before starting on a fifth egg he saw a smile on her face. Not a big one, but also not fake or sarcastic. He ducked his head, surprised and not quite sure how to reply.

It didn't last long, though, quickly replaced by her wrinkled nose. "Kinda disgusting, though, doing that with your hands! … Doofus cooties! Eww!"

He gave her half an eye roll. "I washed my hands first, in case you didn't notice." he said. "And it is kinda slimy, but fun, too, in a gross sort of way. … Besides, I also like that I get to play with your food!"

He gave her his worst wicked grin, and got the reaction he wanted. "That's nasty, Ben!" she yelled back and stuck her tongue out at him, followed by "You are such a doofus!" under her breath. Didn't stop her return grin, he noticed.

"When did you learn how to do that, anyway?"

"The recipe. I saw it about eight days ago, so I've been practicing every time I made scrambled eggs or French toast. I just dumped it all back together before I mixed up the eggs." he said as he finished number six.

"I want to try…" Gwen grabbed an egg at the same time he did, wincing as she dumped the contents in her right hand after she cracked it before the white slipped through her fingers. She shuddered at the feel. "Yuck!"

He finished the egg he picked up and gave her a smug grin. "Slimy yet satisfying!" he said as they washed their hands. Gwen groaned and rolled her eyes - the dork wasn't bad at using movie lines in his otherwise lame jokes - as he turned to read the recipe again.

"OK, can you melt the chocolate? Grandpa doesn't have a double boiler but you can use a glass bowl and a small pot." Ben said, referring back to the recipe.

"I know how to do that, chef." she replied, loading the last word with a heavy dose of sarcasm as she considered some of the other ingredients on the counter. "Half and half, sugar, vanilla…" she said to herself, then looked back at him. "Is this going to be a ganache?"

"Uh huh."

"Why didn't you just say that?" She put the makeshift double boiler on the cooktop and fired up the burner, then got to work to melt it all together.

"When that's done it needs to cool off a little. Then can you beat the sugar into the yolks, and whisk them into the chocolate a third at a time?" Ben said, reading off the recipe. "I'll work on the egg white part of the batter while you're doing that."

Gwen whisked the sugar into the bowl of egg yolks while the water in the pot got to a boil, then turned the flame down for a fast simmer as the glass bowl on top started to heat up. She dumped the ingredients to make the chocolate sauce into the bowl and stirred them all together as they melted.

Ben considered the bowl of egg whites in front of him. "Now I have to whip these egg whites to soft peaks." he said to himself. "How would you do that?" he asked, turning to his cousin.

"You mean you don't know what you're doing? Why am I not surprised!" his obnoxious cousin smirked at him in a less than friendly way. Big surprise there.

Ben scowled at her, not bothering to hide his annoyance. "We have the big stand mixer and a hand held one. I didn't say I don't know how, you dweeb, I asked how you would do it?" he griped at her. "Geez, give me a little credit. Never mind!" He frowned as he got the heavy stand mixer out and set it up.

Gwen finished the chocolate batter quietly, watching the normally chatty boy work in angry silence. Her overly sarcastic remark really pissed him off, and she couldn't blame him if she were honest. She would have dumped the egg whites over his head if he'd said it. Here the little freak was trying to be nice for a change and she was being the jerk! She didn't like that the tables had turned.

When she finished with the chocolate mixture, she put a sheet of aluminum foil on the bottom of the oven before turning it on. When Ben gave her a questioning look, she replied sheepishly "Just in case the batter overflows when you cook it. It'll make the cleanup go easier." He quirked his left eyebrow and did the boy head nod thing at her the way she'd seen the ones at school do with each other, with a brief grin.

Good! That made her a little less uneasy. She didn't like when he was angry and aggressively quiet with her, especially when she knew she deserved it.

It did make her confused. When did she start caring if he was mad at her or not? Wasn't annoying him the point of how they'd been interacting since the start of the trip?

Ben was reading through the recipe again, mumbling the directions for making fluffy egg whites as he did, then started the mixer. After a few minutes the clear snot-like stuff started to turn white, almost like the picture in the recipe, so he compared the two again and looked at Gwen. The girl had crossed her arms across her middle and was looking down at her feet, her flaming red hair partially concealing the green eyes neither liked that they shared. He could still see them, though, and they had that dejected look she had a few days ago by the fire. He was still annoyed at her snotty remark, but he didn't like seeing her like that, even if she kind of brought it on herself.

"Hey, uh, Dweeb… does this look like stiff peaks to you?" Ben said and showed her the recipe, pointing to the picture and the description.

Gwen looked up, more confused at his unexpected question. Dweeb?! In the past that word was an insult from him, but the way he just said it was different than those times. His tone of voice made it more like a friendly nickname, and he had a sortof apologetic look. This was new. Maybe he got over her nasty dig already? Her cousin could hold a mean grudge, but he was still working on the dessert and making an effort to keep her involved instead of stomping off in a huff. For right now, anyway - best to be nice with her reply and not blow what wasn't such a bad thing to do together.

She looked at the sheet of paper with the directions and read the step they were on, then leaned across him to peer into the mixer.

"Yeah, they're glossy too. I think you got it." She gave him a real smile - he figured it out on his own, and the results looked like the recipe picture. "Nice job, doof- um, Ben."

Gwen put the chocolate batter in front of him as he removed the big glass bowl from the mixing machine, and used a silicone spatula to cut in the whipped egg whites. He stopped when the dark chocolate changed color to a light brown with streaks of white through it.

"I think this is right. It's how I read the instructions anyway, and they make a big deal of saying to not overdo it." he explained. "I think it's done." Not that he needed to; she was reading along with him, almost bumping her shoulder against his, much to his consternation. "What do you think?"

He felt the fabric of her sleeve brush against his, but decided the fake gagging reaction and complaints about her cooties jumping on him that was at the tip of his tongue could wait for another time. He wasn't sure why, though. There was just something different about this situation that made him hold it back.

… He had to stay focused on not goofing up the dessert, even if she was crowding way too far into his personal space.

Yeah, that's exactly why he felt strange, he couldn't afford to let her distract him…

"Looks like the picture to me" the redhead replied. She looked up from the bowl at him. What was that look? Was that approval he saw in her eyes? "See? All that reading you had to do in school was worth it after all, wasn't it? … Not bad, even for a doofus like you!" she grinned at him.

OK, this was getting a little weird. Gwen was being nice! For no reason! Not like when Grandpa was there giving them a stern look after they both got a little too emphatic with taunting each other. Ben wasn't sure how to reply; even the few guys at school he was friendly with never acted like this when he made a particularly good play with his Sumo deck. There was always supposed to be some poison in an otherwise admiring 'Nice play' comment. Wasn't there?

The confusing girl put the ramekins in front of him so he could pour the batter into them, putting four of the filled cups on a baking sheet. "Hey, let's just cook these right now and save the rest for after dinner tonight" Gwen said. "That way no matter what Grandpa fixes we'll at least have a normal dessert." Her grin turned into a bashful smile before she turned away to put the remaining ramekins into the fridge. Ben picked up the baking sheet and put it in the now-hot oven.

"Um, sure. … Assuming we did the recipe right." He gave her a lopsided grin back as he stood up and closed the oven door.

Gwen turned back towards the oven and quirked her left eyebrow at him. "You did." she said with that confident voice of hers. It usually ticked him off whenever she used it to brag about her grades or her latest gymnastics competition medal or whatever. Not this time, though - this was the first time she used it about him, and it was … strange… so strange. But he liked what they weren't.. or was it were doing. Not playing the game, not having to anticipate her next burn or think up a clever reply - that darn girl really made him work for any advantage he got! Instead they were being friendly to each other without anyone forcing it, and as much as he'd deny it Ben really liked the change up. He knew it wouldn't last long - neither of them could keep this up - but for now he wasn't going to be the one to screw it up.

"Guess we'll find out in fifteen minutes" he said as he set the oven timer. "The trick is to not open the door to check 'em, according to the recipe."

It took eight minutes for them to clean up the kitchen, automatically divvying up the chore according to who dirtied up what, without talking about it. Gwen stepped away from the sink and put the just-rinsed glass bowl in her hands into the drying rack so Ben could wash the mixing bowl. That was the last thing to clean, so she grabbed a dish towel to dry off her hands and glanced at the clock.

Huh… they never cleaned up after cooking this quickly before. They usually bickered about who would do what for half an hour just to make sure neither felt like they did more than their share, and that still didn't really work. She felt chagrined when she realized just doing it without worrying about who might be doing less work was way easier than arguing. They worked quietly, but for a change not because they were trying to bug each other. She found the silence was comfortable, not at all like when he was trying to hurt her by not talking. She handed the towel to Ben after he put the last bowl in the rack, and was pleased that he actually said 'Thanks' when he took it instead of just grunting.

They sat at the table opposite each other while the soufflés baked, still without talking as Ben picked up the superhero comic he was in the middle of, and Gwen read more of her latest book. He was acting so abnormally, but she kind of liked it and bit back the snarky comments that kept popping up in her mind. After the almost non-stop sniping and arguments since they started the trip, this was… a welcome relief.

Six minutes later Grandpa came in with a couple bags of stuff from the campground convenience store. The one that had crudely hand painted signs advertising different kinds of bait - worms, minnows, crickets - that the man probably intended to be part of their dinner. Ben glanced up just in time to see his cousin mirror the eye roll he did at their shared thought.

"Well the old girl is still in one piece and I didn't hear any yelling when I walked up, so you two can't be..." he said when he opened the side door and straightened up from picking up a bag. He stopped in the middle of the doorway in surprise as two pairs of almost identical placid green eyes looked up from what they were reading, then sniffed and started to grin at the aroma of chocolate in the air. He put the bags down on the table and the seat next to Gwen, pointedly looking with approval at the washed bowls and assorted utensils drying next to the sink. "Smells like you two made cookies" he said, just as the timer went off.

"Not cookies" Ben said as he jumped out of his seat and took the four steps to the oven, reaching to turn off the timer. Gwen's lips twitched almost into a grin as she stood up at her seat, leaning over the table to watch Ben open the oven door.

"How do they look?" she asked expectantly. A delicious aroma released by the open oven filled the kitchen.

Ben put on some oven mitts and pulled the baking sheet out slowly, turning around with a broad smile to show off the white ramekins with dark brown puffs extending an inch over the edges. "We did it!" he said proudly.

Gwen grinned back at him. "Way to go, Ben!" she said as she peered across the kitchen at the boy. "Guess it can't be too hard after all if a doofus like you can make something that looks that good!"

Grandpa gaped at the tray, and then at his granddaughter as Gwen squealed with excitement and bounced on the balls of her feet in the dining booth. The normally disdainful word she used to refer to her cousin had a completely different tone. Was he really hearing a no-kidding compliment from the girl to the boy?

"You two made chocolate soufflés?" he asked, surprised, as Ben approached the table and put an oven mitt on it, then set the tray down on top. Gwen answered "Well, it was Ben's idea...", then stopped, a little embarrassed by her initial expectation that his experiment was doomed to fail. "He did most of the work."

"Did he now?" Grandpa asked, looking back and forth at the two, bemused by his granddaughter's unusual praise for Ben's accomplishment, as well as his grandson's blush because of it.

"Nuh uh, this was an us thing, not a me thing." Ben hurried to say. "You were right there, helping." He couldn't help the smile he gave her. Gwen gave him a grateful smile back.

Grandpa cleared his throat to get their attention. "Just like the last few times we took on some aliens and bad guys. Glad to see those experiences are taking hold outside hero times." He grinned as they both blushed harder and Ben unconsciously put his right hand over the watch on his left wrist.

He turned to get three spoons from a drawer, turning back to the kids and handing one to each. "Those things will deflate as they cool, better dig into them now to get the full effect. Don't you think?" He said smiling at them. Three sets of hands grabbed the cooling ramekins and there were sounds of spoons scraping porcelain and satisfied taste buds.

"That was delicious! You two did a great job!" Grandpa said after he took his last spoonful.

Gwen scooped up what was left in her ramekin, and finished the last bite with the bowl of the spoon towards the roof of her mouth so she could get every last bit with her tongue. She closed her eyes and made an Mmmmn sound, enjoying the lingering taste. Ben laughed at her after finishing his dessert "Geez Dweeb! I didn't think you liked chocolate that much!"

"Well, there's one more left, but I've had enough. Be a shame to let it go to waste, though. I don't think it will stay fluffy like this in the refrigerator. One of you needs to eat it." Grandpa said, turning to wash out his bowl and spoon.

"You go ahead Doofus. It was your idea to make them, you should get it. Besides, we have more we can bake for tonight." Gwen watched Ben, expecting him to grab the last ramekin and wolf down the contents like usual. She also expected him to make some self-congratulatory comment about what an awesome dessert chef he was, and in this situation she wasn't going to argue with him. The little brat actually did a good job! The dessert she initially thought he'd completely doofus up turned out to be really good! She grinned as he took it, then her jaw dropped at what he did next.

"Nope. What kind of hero would I be if I didn't share the glory with my sidekick?! Let's split it." He smiled in a way that was somehow smug and bashful at the same time as he offered it to her while taking a spoonful of his own. Gwen smiled back through the burn she felt across her face as she dug in to the ramekin he was holding.

And then what he said sunk in. "Wait! … Ooohhh no! You did not just call me your sidekick!" She tried to glare at him but only managed to not laugh.

Ben's smile turned into a sly grin. "Why not? You've been watching my back when we go hero, just like the stories in my comic books." He finished the spoonful of soufflé, then got that shy look again. "And you're not bad at fixing me up when I get hurt."

He glanced at his left wrist where the burn marks were now covered by the Omnitrix, then quickly looked back at the dessert as he took another spoonful.

"Hmpf!" Gwen snorted half-heartedly, barely waiting for him to get his spoon out of the way before scooping out some more. "Sidekick my … !" she murmured before eating more of the treat. She caught him looking at her with almost the same deep green eyes she saw in a mirror. Eyes that sparkled at her in a way she never saw from the kids in her class, that she briefly hoped he saw in hers as well. Maybe sharing those eyes with him, like sharing a birthday, wasn't so bad. Sometimes.

Why did that thought make her smile at him again?

"Thanks for the help, Dweeb" he said, before they finished their bites together.