Ben groaned in annoyance as yet an unholy alliance formed between his rogues' gallery and his cousin's coterie of villains this week. Their goals were usually unknown but it leaned into either revenge, world domination or destruction. Today was the revenge category, it seemed based on the evil speeches they gave.
Ben was fighting the circus freaks along with their ringmaster, Zombozo, a crazy, undead clown and he suppressed a shudder of disgust. Why did it have to be zombie clowns?
Gwen was off to the side, fighting against her own archnemesis, Charmcaster, dressed in her usual purple sorceress aesthetic, the two masters of magic duking it out. They'd been fighting for the past ten minutes, locked in stalemate and he had the perfect idea.
"Gwen!" He yelled, uppercutting a hulking figure, Thumbskull, in one of his classic alien transformations, a brawny red-skinned alien with four arms. "Trade dance partners!?"
"Gladly!" Gwen chanted a spell, a thin film of pink mana surrounding herself as Ben readied his fists for the fight. His omnitrix beeped ominously and his confidence turned to panic.
"Uh, wait, time—," Ben didn't get a chance to finish as the two swapped places, a bemused Charmcaster stared at him, his alien form disappearing in a green flash of light replaced by his regular human self. "—out."
"Are you kidding me, Ben!?" Gwen called out, slapping her forehead.
"Oh, come on, I haven't had this problem since I was ten!"
Charmcaster's confusion didn't last long as her smile became deadly. Magical energy building around her as she laughed maniacally, rising from the ground above Ben. "Well, well, well, if it isn't the hero himself, Benjamin Tennyson."
"Don't suppose you could wait a bit so I can transform and have an even fight?" Charmcaster raised her hand in a gun gesture, a magenta magic circle blinked into the air. "Yeah, didn't think so."
He dodged the onslaught of magical energy blasts, turning nearby rubble into powdery dust. He looked at his Omnitrix, praying desperately for the device to recharge in the next ten seconds so he could change into something that was more helpful in this situation. He grabbed a nearby rock and threw it at her. The little projectile bouncing off a conjured shield.
"Come on, Benjamin, is that all you've got? A little performance issue and you're resorting to throwing rocks." The evil sorceress taunted, pink mana building in her hands.
"Well, I'm just waiting for my chance," The Omnitrix lit up, beeping and ready to go as Ben cheered, turning to dial to the perfect transformation he needed. "To blow you away!"
He pushed the dial down on the silhouette of an alien turtle, his human body transforming. His extremities turned into flippers and his torso into one of a giant turtle-like alien as he cried out. "TERRASPIN!"
Charmcaster bristled, seeing him transform as his flippers turned itself into triangular fins, the holes in the underside of his shell opening as a blast of concentrated wind knocked her out of the skies. She yelped, screaming as she dropped from the air. Ben watched where she was going to land, eyes wide in panic. Sharp rebar jutted from the rubble, poised to skewer her if she continued her free-fall.
His arms and legs spun around his shell, taking off at max speed towards the terrified sorceress whose eyes widened as she saw the rebar. Just as she was about to be made into bloody modern art, she landed on top of Ben's shell, grunting at the impact, jolting his flying form as he fell onto the ground. He twisted his body, holding her close to him as he took the brunt of the impact, kicking up air and dust as the Omnitrix flashed, ending his transformation prematurely.
He groaned, feeling a weight atop of him, blinking his eyes open. Charmcaster laid on top, panting from the near-death experience and looked down into his green eyes. Ben stared back into orchid eyes and he never realised how enchanting they were, now that he got a closer view of them. Her crown knocked from the fall and her silky silver hair fell over him and he wanted to know it felt between his fingers. Her face flushed at their close proximity as her body pressed to his and he momentarily forgot that they were hero and villain fighting each other and were two actually young adults. They stared at each other for another moment before she got off, dusting off her dress as she coughed into her hand.
"Um, thank you for saving me." Charmcaster averted her gaze and he did the same.
"Yeah, uh, no problem." He tried to whistle, but found that he wasn't the best at it and added more to his embarrassment. The not-so-distant noise of explosions was a welcome distraction as Zombozo called for a retreat and Charmcaster sighed in relief.
"Don't think that you saving me changes anything." She declared, pointing at him as a magic circle formed beneath her feet. "I still have unfinished business with Gwen and if you're there with her then all bets are off. We'll meet again, someday, Ben!" And she disappeared with her fellow villains in a flash.
Ben stood there speechless as Gwen came flying over to him.
"Hey, you alright? She didn't do anything to you."
"Yeah, I'm fine." One thought pervaded his mind.
She called me Ben.
"So, I guess someday meant today." Ben's opinion did nothing to undercut the awkwardness of the situation he was in. He stood outside the doors of the new smoothie joint that recently opened, opposite the evil sorceress that he was fighting against earlier that day with his cousin. Instead of a form fitting outfit of witchery and evilness, Charmcaster was dressed in a loose-fitting pink top and a black sports bra with black shorts and trainers and her stark silver hair done up in a high pony-tail with a yoga mat under her arm. A light dusting of red on her cheeks as she saw him in a similar get up, having finished soccer practice. If they stood any closer, they might have looked like a couple at the gym.
"Tennyson." She greeted, clipped and cold. He supposed he could count this as a blessing that she didn't want to turn him into a frog right now. "Should I be wary that you'll transform right now and arrest me?"
"No!" Ben shouted, surprised at his own volume and so was she before he rubbed the back of his head in embarrassment. "I mean, I'm off the clock right now and I just really want to try out this new smoothie place."
"Hmm, fine, I heard that this place was serving a special drink and I wanted to see if it lived up to its reputation. I have a figure to keep after all."
"So let's pretend we're regular people and enjoy some regular drinks. Deal?"
The two entered the store, being calm and cool about the whole situation though Ben thought otherwise. The image of the Charmcaster he knew versus the Charmcaster right now was causing some cognitive dissonance and he tried to brush that aside. The goal was smoothie, whoever was with him didn't matter. Nothing would stop him from getting that smoothie.
"Can I please get the special smoothie?" Charmcaster asked, beating him to the punch, too caught up in his daze of smoothieness.
"Ah, yes, the limited-time special smoothie! We're doing a daily theme as part of our promotion this week and are offering a discount of buy one, get one free, to share with that special someone for today's theme: Romance!" The store clerk announced.
Ben's eyes widened hearing that. Free smoothie if they said they were a couple? The offer was really tempting. He'd give anything for a good smoothie and it was rated highly from all the rumours that he heard but this was Charmcaster. Cousin's archnemesis, recurring villain throughout the years and all-around bad guy…girl but she didn't look like a bad person right now. She was a regular, teenager coming back from the gym. A very hot, teen in form-fitting–No! As tempting as it was, he still had his principles and he couldn't do this without Charmcaster's express permission that they were a couple. He didn't know if she wanted to play along but she was her own person so he had to bite the bullet and pay the full price.
"Actually, we're—," Ben began before Charmcaster grabbed his hand, a beaming smile on her face as she leaned into him.
"Definitely a couple!" She declared and his head whipped to hers in shock. "Right, sweetie?"
Was she really doing this? He tried to find any ulterior motives but his stomach grumbled, protesting that it wanted smoothie! "Uh, yeah, we're together."
"Wonderful, that will be—,"
"Hold up!" The clerk turned to the back as a muscular man in a too tight pink store shirt with the name tag 'Dwayne' rushed forward, towering over everyone as they all stared up at him. He had muscles on his muscles and the man intimidated everyone by his sheer size. "Now, Doreen, I know you want to believe in love and I want to believe in love, too! But there are too many people out there taking advantage of the promotion. We gotta prove that they're a couple!"
"But, sir, we can't really make them do anything to prove that they are!" Doreen protested, the high-schooler behind the counter doing her best to save them from proving that they were.
"Oh, but we can! I'm gonna ask you two some questions!" Dwayne pointing a finger at the couple . "First of all, how did you two meet?"
"Magic convention," They both answered easily. It was true too, they did technically meet there, fought would have been more accurate.
"Vegas." He threw in that detail.
"Alright, usually that question trips most 'couples', now for the next question, how long have you two known each other?"
Ben scratched his head, they've been fighting each other for so long, it almost felt like a blur for him.
"Seven/Eight years," They answered at the same time and they both looked at each other for a moment, their precious free smoothie in jeopardy.
"Is that a conflicting answer, I hear?"
"Sir, it's just a one year difference. It's pretty close."
"One year is all it takes, Doreen. Now explain." Dwayne's eyes drilled into them, towering over them.
"Well, I was eleven when we first met and he was ten, we're both eighteen right now but my birthday is next month so he's not doing his math correctly, so it'll be eight years." Charmcaster lied as naturally as she breathed.
"Did you have to bring up how bad my math was?" Ben grumbled.
"Is, sweetie, is." She corrected, slapping his cheek playfully and he blushed at the contact. Wait, she was eighteen? She was near the same age as he was? He was learning more about her in the past ten minutes than in the past sev–eight years that he'd known her.
"Hmm, fine, I'll accept that. Now, for the last question, when was your first kiss?" The two stood stock still, the question being so unexpected as they both turned away from each other.
"Well, about that, you see, we um," Ben tried to explain as he scratched the back of his head, his eyes finding the ceiling much more interesting.
"It's just that we're not at that stage yet and it's…," She trailed off into a rambling mess as Dwayne nodded.
"Oh my gosh, you two haven't kissed yet, is this innocent love?" Doreen squealed as she shook Dwayne in her excitement.
"YOU!" His voice rising, bellowing and thunderous, like Zeus before it turned clear as he joined Doreen in gushing over them. "Are so adorable!"
"Really?" Ben asked, his question getting an elbow to the ribs from Charmcaster.
"Yes, it's so nice to see a couple like you two come into my store, please have another special smoothie on the house. It's refreshing to see such honesty these days."
The two laughed nervously which Dwayne took as embarrassment on their part before sending them away with well-wishes and four special smoothies.
The two breathed a sigh of relief as they exited the store, their precious smoothies in hand.
"You didn't have to lie about us being a couple. I would have gladly paid for the smoothie." Ben started, looking down at the smoothie and the little cartoon drawing of their mascot, with words of encouragement from Doreen and Dwayne on it as guilt settled into his stomach.
"And you didn't have to play along with the lie either." She countered, sipping into her smoothie.
"I panicked, I couldn't say no."
"Seems like that works better in life and death situations than it does back there."
"Well, it did save your life earlier." He pointed out and she sighed in irritation.
"Yes, thank you for reminding me of that. Now, are we done being the lovey dovey couple?" Ben nodded and she took her half of their reward, turning on her heel. "See you in our next fight then."
Ben watched her go before an intrusive thought, one so utterly ridiculous yet tantalising, that he had to give voice to it lest the opportunity eluded him forever.
"Wait!" He rushed up to her, and she turned, curiosity in her eyes. His mind gathering all the courage he could muster. "Doyouwanttogooutforreal?"
She blinked, once. "What?"
Maybe, an inkling of nervousness corrupted what he said, so he tried once again, slowly this time. "Do you want to go out for real?"
Charmcaster's face blanked for a moment before her entire face grew red. "Wait, wait, slow down."
"I did slow down."
"Pump the brakes then. Are you asking me out? Like on a date? Don't you know we're meant to not do those kinds of things? Because you're a hero and I'm…not?"
"Yes, yes, yes and yes."
"Why?"
"Well, when we were inside and the guy asked all those questions, it got me thinking that we have known each other for a while now and I guess the idea of dating you is something that I kind of like and you have beautiful eyes." He admitted to her. She did have really nice eyes too, he'd never seen a shade as unique as hers.
Charmcaster squinted at him as if he grew a second head and Ben was now wishing he didn't say all the things he just said.
"You do make some decent points and you are easy on these pretty eyes of mine." She joked which got a bark of laughter out of him. She got a cute, little notebook from her bag, scribbling in it before she tore the page out and handed it to him.
"What's this?" He stared at it quizzically.
"My number, silly."
"You have a number?"
"Of course I do. I'm not a knave who can't afford a phone plan."
"You, me, dinner, tomorrow?"
"Tomorrow? Why wait? How about tonight?"
Ben smiled wide at that. "Yes!"
