Ben had just came back to the apartment after a successful mission that led to the arrest of several members of the Forever Knights. Gwen received him with a tight hug and a kiss on the cheek, which made Ben burn inside.
He was very aware of how he felt about her. He had known that for years and had long ago gotten over the phase "I can't like my cousin like that." Ben had accepted that he was in love with her, and he knew these feelings would never go away. But he also knew that, although he could do something about it, he shouldn't.
"Can you take care of Dawn while I prepare dinner for us, Ben?" she asked with a sweet smile.
"Of course." Ben returned the smile. "I'm just going to take a shower first."
Ben entered the bathroom, but before turning on the shower, he looked at the Omnitrix on his wrist. "Maybe one more try, maybe today is my lucky day..." He picked Eye-Guy and slammed the watch. He focused, and one of the many eyes started itching…
A possible future.
Ben was walking in circles, his head down, his eyes glued to the Omnitrix on his wrist. He knew what he had to do, but he was still hesitant.
Kevin woke up, and realized that he was tied up by special restraints to contain his powers, in a completely deserted place in the middle of nowhere, "Benji, where are we? I thought I was going to wake up at the Plumber's prison in the Null-Void again, but... did you bring me here to kill me?" Kevin asked with a wicked smile.
"You killed too many people, Kevin. If I arrest you, you will escape and will continue to kill, like always." Ben tried to hide his own nervousness behind a cold voice tone, "I tried to help you find your way back. I really tried, but now I just have to permanently stop you from taking more innocent lives."
Kevin laughed, "Okay, Benji. Kill me, but cut the crap. You tried to help me? YOU STOLE GWEN FROM ME!" Kevin yelled, "You had Julie, and you had a few other options too, but the forbidden fruit is always more delicious, right? Your sick disgusting obsession with your cousin turned me into a monster!"
"Don't blame me for your actions, Kevin!" Ben shouted back, "When you were 11, you wanted to blow up a train and kill a bunch of innocents just to get some money! Crap, you did kill innocents just to frame me! You tried to kill Gwen twice and I lost count of how many times you tried to kill me! And you always tried to put the blame on me for your actions, ever since we were kids!"
"Yes, I admit, I was a monster!" Kevin yelled, "But Gwen saved me! And when you took her from me, you kicked me straight back into the hole of insanity that I had come out of! YOU ARE THE VILLAIN HERE, BEN!"
Ben tried to ignore Kevin's words. He activated the Omnitrix and turned into Way Big.
Kevin closed his eyes, "My blood, the blood of the people I killed as a villain, and the blood of the people that I could have saved as a hero, it all will weigh in your consciousness until your last dying breath. As long as you live, you're never going to get rid of me."
Way Big crossed his arms in an X and fired a deadly blast of cosmic energy at Kevin.
Ben turned back to normal and breathed heavily for a few seconds, still stunned by the vision.
"CRAP!" He punched the wall in frustration, before finally going to take a shower.
A few minutes later, Ben was watching Dawn.
"Sing!" The toddler waved her little arms.
"I'm going to find a song for you, ok," Ben said.
Dawn was addicted to the Lottie Dottie Chicken songs. Ben played one of the songs on the tablet for the baby girl to watch.
"No! You sing!" she continued to wave her arms.
"But, Dawn, I can't sing," Ben said, "The video is so much better, and-"
"Sing!" she looked at him with puppy dog eyes.
Ben sighed. By now, he already knew by heart almost all the songs from watching them with Dawn. "Ok, ok... Lottie Dottie is a chicken, Purple Rooster is her guy, Lottie Dottie wears a skirt, Purple Rooster wears a tie,"
The toddler burst out laughing. It seemed that she was entertained by how out of tune and awful Ben's voice was.
"Are you laughing at me, you little brat?" Ben asked.
"Dinner's ready," Gwen shouted from the kitchen.
"You're lucky I'm hungry, otherwise you'd be severely punished," Ben said playfully. He picked up Dawn and took her to the kitchen, "Unbelievable, Gwen, this child is already picking up all of your worst traits. It seems like she'll turn into a Dweeb just like you."
Gwen giggled, "Dawn, show Uncle Ben who the greatest Doofus in the world is."
The toddler immediately pointed her finger in Ben's direction.
"Oh, I should've guessed that she had a teacher," Ben said, "Maybe I should punish you, Dweeb." Ben placed Dawn in her seat and walked slowly towards Gwen.
"Dawn is just smart enough to figure things out, cuz. I have nothing to do with this," Gwen said with a silly grin on her face as she took a few steps back.
When Gwen was cornered between Ben and the wall, Ben placed his hands on her exposed belly - the weather was hot, and at the apartment Gwen was usually wearing short shorts and a crop top. It meant that the redhead's sexy legs and belly were always at Ben's line of sight, and even if Gwen hadn't realized it, that was making Ben go crazy.
"Hahahaha," Gwen laughed as Ben tickled her.
"Who is the Doofus now?"
"Haha you are haha," Gwen said in laughter, refusing to surrender, "And you don't even know how to tickle right!"
Her statement wasn't quite true, but, in fact, Ben was too distracted by letting his hands run freely on Gwen's belly and legs and he wasn't that worried about the actual tickling part. He only saw that it was time to stop when he realized that this was causing a very embarrassing involuntary reaction from him.
Ben stopped and took a seat to hide the bulge that had formed. The boy's face was red, flustered with shame, and he just hoped that Gwen hadn't realized what just happened, "I-I'm hungry, w-we can finish this later."
Luckily, Gwen didn't seem to notice, "I didn't surrender, that means I beat you, Doofus," she said as she served the plates.
At bedtime, Ben covered Dawn under the sheets and Gwen kissed her goodnight. Then Ben and Gwen turned off the lights and left the toddler's bedroom. Ben was already going to the couch, but Gwen grabbed his arm, and without saying a word, dragged him to the bedroom.
Thump. Ben's heart was pounding.
"You will tell me about your nightmares now." Gwen pushed Ben in the bed and sat next to him.
He thought about making a joke about how he loved when she was all bossy like that, but he stopped himself at the last second.
"I remember ..." Gwen began to say, a little hesitant, "When we were kids, you had nightmares as well. You had turned into Eye-Guy and you had seen visions of the future... You had seen me leaving to go to college, dating Kevin and... Distancing myself from you. That made you start having nightmares back then. At the time, I thought that idea was crazy, but then Kevin really changed for the better, and ... it all happened. "
Ben froze, very nervous with the current course of that conversation.
"But we are close again now. These last few weeks have been wonderful. I'm taking care of a baby, and yes, my life turned upside down, but you're here, and you make it fun. I really couldn't do this without you. And I'm sorry that before I couldn't give you the attention you deserve, because I let myself become too busy with college and Kevin. I promise it won't happen again," Gwen said, with guilt in her voice, as she grabbed Ben's hand.
Ben wanted to say that this wasn't her fault. He could have visited her at her college campus many times, but he didn't. He knew that keeping his distance from her was absolutely necessary in order to prevent anything happening between them. He had broken that rule when he offered to let her come live with him. He told himself that the circumstances led to that and he was just being a good cousin, but he was also feeling guilty, because, deep down, he knew there was a part of him that just wanted to use this as an opportunity to win Gwen's heart, not caring about whatever negative consequences it could bring to the future.
"I wasn't even remembering that, to tell you the truth, but this scenario, you having nightmares and not wanting to tell me what's going on, brought back all those memories from 7 years ago." Gwen chuckled. "But let's talk about your recent nightmares."
Ben sighed again. The reasons that were making him have nightmares before were basically the same as now, but he couldn't tell Gwen that.
Ben had used the powers of Eye-Guy again. First he discovered two futures. In one he had his happy ending with Gwen, but Kevin would go back to being a psychopath. In another, Kevin was firm in the path of heroism, married to Gwen, while Ben had to spend the rest of his life unhappy - married to Julie, a very sweet person, but he didn't love her.
Then he continued to use Eye-Guy's powers. Again. And again. And again. He saw hundreds of possible futures, looking for one in which he could have his happy ending with Gwen and still have Kevin on the good guys' side. But there wasn't a single future like that.
Ben had tried to look for a different future for himself to see if there was any way he could forget Gwen. He even saw a future where he had a harem of women, but even that still couldn't fill the void of not having Gwen in his life. He always ended up unhappy when he wasn't with her.
"Ben," Gwen said in a gentle voice, then she placed her hand on his shoulder, "Whatever you're feeling, spit it out. It will be good for you."
"I'm going to miss it," Ben simply said.
"Miss what?" Gwen asked.
"I, you, Dawn, living here... I'm enjoying this role of Uncle Ben," Ben replied.
"I will miss it too. But don't worry, this will last a long time. Probably until you and Julie get married, or until Kevin and I get married - and knowing Kevin like I do, that won't happen anytime soon," she let out a frustrated sigh, "And then Dawn can stay one week at your house and one at my house, like if we were a divorced couple sharing her custody," Gwen giggled. For her, this was just an innocent joke, but for Ben, these were heart-breaking words.
He knew that "playing house" with Gwen would be temporary - it had to be, for the sake of the future - but the truth is that the more time he spent with her, the more painful it would be to let it end. He was dreading the moment when Kevin would finally feel ashamed of himself and would offer to let Gwen and Dawn move in with him.
"It's getting late," Gwen yawned, "I hope you're more willing to open up tomorrow," she laid on the bed and cuddled up with Ben, using his chest as a pillow for her head.
Thump. Ben was pretty sure that Gwen would end up hearing his heart pounding like that. He took a deep breath and put his arms around the redhead, not resisting the urge to gently rub his fingers against her smooth skin.
This was already the second night in a row that they were sleeping together in the same bed.
Kevin Levin parked his car in front of the yellow house. The address was right. He ran his hand through his hair, sweating in nervousness. In his mind, he saw Ben and Gwen passionately kissing, taking off each other's clothes with urgency, and…
"You know what you have to do to stop that idiot Ben from stealing our girlfriend. What are you waiting for?" There was an 11-year-old boy in the passenger seat. He was Kevin himself, the other Kevin, Kevin 11.
"This is wrong," Kevin Levin shook his head, "There has to be another way."
"Of course, there is another way," Kevin 11 shrugged, "Go to Gwen, and offer to let her and Dawn live with you."
Kevin Levin let out a grunt, "I can't raise a child. I would be a terrible father."
Kevin 11 laughed, "Don't lie to yourself. It's not that you can't. You don't want to. You don't want responsibilities. Taking care of a snotnose brat child is tiresome and boring. You want Gwen, but you don't want to build a family with her, not now and not ever."
Kevin Levin began to breathe heavily, very nervous, "It's not like that."
"It's just like that. I know. I am you. And we will get exactly what we want. We will get our Gwen back and things will go back to the way they were before," Kevin 11 put a hand on Kevin Levin's shoulder, "Come on, I promise we won't kill anyone. We'll just give them a scare. It's not a big deal. Just let me handle it for you, like I always do."
Kevin Levin let out a long sigh, closed his eyes and whispered, "Do it."
When Mr. and Mrs. Rocco got home, they found a tall and muscular young man with long black hair sitting on the couch in their living room.
"Hello, my name is Kevin 11. It's a pleasure to meet Dawn's grandparents," the young man smiled.
"H-How did you find us?" Mr. Rocco said, very frightened, and his wife was shivering in fear as well, "G-Go away, o-or I'll call the P-Plumbers."
"Don't worry! I just want to talk." Kevin held his hands up, speaking in a friendly voice tone, "I'm Gwen's boyfriend and an ally of the Plumbers. That's why I know about you."
Mr. Rocco wiped away the sweat from his forehead with a handkerchief and Mrs. Rocco let out a relieved sigh. They seemed a little bit more relaxed now. Kevin smiled discreetly. That was fun.
"You gave Dawn to Gwen, but this is sort of ruining our relationship because I don't want to raise a child. I need you to take your granddaughter back, please," Kevin said.
"It was Gwen's own decision to accept Dawn," Mr. Rocco said in a firm voice, "We don't want to stay with her because we're afraid. Dawn's father is a very dangerous man, and he's certainly looking for her."
"I know Hex is dangerous. But you shouldn't worry about him." A grin formed on Kevin's face as he looked at the middle-aged couple with deep piercing eyes," You should worry about me. I'm much more dangerous than he is."
The expression of panic from before was suddenly back on Mr. and Mrs. Rocco's faces. That was really fun.
"I know what you're thinking. It's too stupid of me to come here, show my face and threaten you. But it has to be this way to be truly effective. You have to know that I can do anything and get away with it," Kevin was walking in circles around Mr. and Mrs. Rocco, like a shark circling his prey.
Kevin opened and closed his fist, emitting small sparks of electricity - he had absorbed a good amount of energy before going there.
"I have a split personality. There is Good Kevin and there is Bad Kevin. I'm Bad Kevin, obviously, if you haven't figured that out yet," Kevin chuckled "I can kill you here and now, and later Good Kevin will just say that it wasn't his fault, and he'll be forgiven. It might be hard to believe, but it really works! I've killed innocents before. Heck, I've tried to kill Gwen herself and her cousin several times, and now she's dating me! I have a free pass to do whatever I want. That's awesome, right?" Kevin put his hand on Mr. Rocco's shoulder, almost giving him a heart attack.
"Please-please don't hurt us," Mr. Rocco begged.
"I promise I won't. If you promise me that you will call Gwen tomorrow, and ask for your granddaughter back. Do we have a deal?"
"Y-Yes, we'll do w-whatever you want," Mr. Rocco said.
"Wonderful! Have a nice day," Kevin just walked out the door whistling.
Author's Notes
* Hi, folks! Sorry to make you wait so long for a new chapter, I'm just too busy with college and I didn't have much time to write lately. But fortunately there are other amazing Bwen stories being published around here, so I'm sure you guys have plenty of fics to read in my absence. My next update will probably be on my other fic, Watch Boy & Witch Girls, since I'm alternating between this one and that one.