Disclaimer: I do not own Ben 10 or its sequels, spin-off and related characters. All is the property of Man of Action and Cartoon Network. I'm just borrowing them for some non-profit entertainment.

Growth

Chapter Five: Friendship and Support

This time it wasn't just Devlin who was stoically silent during Group. Kenny was also uncommonly quiet.

Not that he was particularly talkative during Group anyway. But he certainly wasn't silent and Ally didn't even know he knew how to be stoic.

Nobody really seemed to like sharing during Group. Everyone except Ally seemed stubbornly resistant to the therapist's prodding questions, or constructive suggestions. But Kenny usually answered questions when they were directed to him and even offered up a tidbit of information here and there that wasn't asked for. But today, he seemed to be channeling his inner Devlin and sat in silence with a Batman-style grimace on his face. When a question was asked to him directly, he took a page out of Devlin's book and simply replied with, "I have nothing to say."

The fact that, that was also Devlin's answer to every question the therapist asked him made it a very monotonous Group session indeed.

Everyone was relived when their time was up and they could all go their separate ways.

Ally grabbed Kenny's arm once they were out of the building. "Are you okay? You're not your usual idiot self."

Devlin paused long enough to give them a quizzical glance, but moved on to give the couple their space. He stood near the curb, waiting for Kevin to come and pick them up. Poor Devlin. The loss of his car and subsequent loss of his independence must be really frustrating for him. Ally could sympathize. She didn't know what she would do if her dad took away her truck. People their age needed their own cars.

"I'm not? Oh." Kenny blinked at her as if she had somehow startled him out of a moment of deep thought. Ally didn't even know he was capable of 'deep thought'. Kenny put on a wide smile that didn't quite reach his eyes. "Sorry. Things have just been a little crazy lately."

"I know. I was there." She reminded him, thinking he was talking about the Rooters. "Things were really crazy right after Devlin's dad got Pardoned."

"Yeah. That." Kenny avoided eye contact, casting his gaze instead to the side. His eyes falling on Devlin, arms crossed over his chest, tapping his foot on the pavement. Impatient to get away from Group, even if that meant haven to sit in the car with Kevin.

Suddenly, Kenny didn't want to go home with Devlin anymore. There was just something about being locked in an inclosed space with him that made Kenny incredibly uncomfortable. Kevin would be there too, obviously. He was their driver. And Kenny -for the most part- trusted the older Osmosian to subdue Devlin and protect him if the need arose. After all, it was Kevin that originally saved him from Devlin back at the Rooters' base. Kevin was kinda Kenny's hero.

But he was also Devlin's father and also an Osmosian. He could also, just as easily, take Devlin's side and help the younger Osmosian kill Kenny too. Kenny still didn't know why Devlin seemed to focus exclusively on him once he went crazy. Logic would dictate that -as an energy crazed Osmosian- Devlin should have locked on to the strongest source of living energy. That would have been Aunt Gwendolyn and her Anodite mana. But he didn't go for her. He went for Kenny. And only Kenny. And no one knew why. That also bothered him.

Couple that with Devlin's new ability to pass through solid objects and Kenny was very, very uncomfortable with his cousin. He did not want to go home with him.

"Ya wanna grab a smoothy?" Kenny asked suddenly, returning his attention to Ally.

"Huh?" She blinked at him.

"I'm sick of all of this kriffing doom and gloom stuff." He explained. "The shrink telling us its okay to cry and asking us about our mothers. The Academy postponing our Psychologicals because we're 'emotionally distraught'. I'm over it. Lets go have some fun. You and me! I'll buy if you drive."

"What about Devlin?" Ally asked, nodding her head to Kenny's older cousin who still stood waiting for his father to come pick them up.

"He's got Osmosian training to do with Kevin." Kenny supplied. It wasn't exactly a lie, it just wasn't what was likely to happen once they arrived home. "He doesn't need me underfoot bothering them. Besides, when was the last time you and I hung out just the two of us?"

"We've never hang out, just the two of us." She informed him. Any time they did hang out, it was the three of them. Kenny, Ally, and Devlin.

"All the more reason to!" Kenny insisted.

She raised one dark eyebrow, but agreed anyway. "Alright. But just so you know, this sounds suspiciously like a date."

"Fine. Then you can drive and pay for your own smoothy." Kenny shrugged. Then he called, "Hey, Dev, I'm gonna take off with Ally. Tell Dad I'll be home late."

Devlin looked surprised, and for a moment, Kenny wondered if he was going to object. No, you can't go with her. You belong to me! But he didn't. Instead, the Osmosian lowered his eyes and muttered, "Have fun you two." Then added, probably meant to be teasing, though it came out deadpan, "Make smart decisions."

It was only after Ally's beat-up pick-up truck pulled out of the parking lot that Kevin pulled the GTO up to the curb where Devlin waited.

"Where's the other one?" Kevin asked as Devlin threw his backpack in the back seat.

"He and Ally are going on a not-date." Devlin informed his father. "Remind me when we get home to tell Uncle Ben that he'll be home late and that he shouldn't worry. Uncle Ben's a worrier where Kenny is involved."

Ben's absentminded spawn and Alan's daughter? That was not a match Kevin would have imagined. But he didn't really care all that much either. So he shrugged his indifference and decided to take advantage of the other boy's absence. "Why don't you sit up front with me?"

Devlin paused. "Are you actually asking a question, or is that a command?"

Kevin made a face of annoyance. "Come here and sit next to me for the eleven minutes it takes to drive back to Plumbers Headquarters."

"Fine." With a huff, Devlin slammed the door to the back seat and climbed in the passenger side instead. He buckled his seatbelt and crossed his arms over his chest. Everything about his posture expressing annoyance.

With a shrug, Kevin shifted gears and pulled out into traffic.

"So, how was Group?"

"Same."

The older Osmosian sighed in resignation. It seemed, even after Devlin's breakthrough with his powers yesterday, he was still resistant to letting his father in. To opening up to the man and letting him help. Because if Devlin actually unclenched long enough to let his father in, they just might actually get to know each other and bond. Heaven forbid that ever happen!

"So, I've been thinking about your new ability." Kevin announced as he merged into the left lane to make a turn. "Servantis said that different Osmosians have different powers. But all our powers have to somehow relate back to the process of osmosis, otherwise why would he call us 'Osmosians'. I can absorb matter and copy it to make armor, and you can pass through matter. Osmosis."

"That's not actually what osmosis is." Devlin informed him. Real osmosis was when molecules from a solution passed through a cell membrane in order to equalize the levels of said solution on either side. "And I'm not even sure I can pass through solid matter. What I did yesterday -it was an accident. A fluke. There's no reason to just automatically assume I can do it again. I don't even know what I did the first time!"

"Well, then I guess we know what we're gonna be doing when we get home." Kevin grinned. "We're gonna work on developing your new power and I'm not letting you go until you can both reproduce what you did yesterday, and get yourself out of it on your own."

Devlin made a face of displeasure. But offered no argument. So long as his father continued to keep his secret about never being under Servantis' mind control, Devlin would have to do whatever the older man wanted.

…

"This feels weird."

It didn't take Ally and Kenny long after sitting down with their smoothies and chili fries to realize that neither of them really knew how to hang out together. Not when it was just the two of them. They were used to having a third person there to balance the conversation. They were used to having Devlin there.

"Only because we're thinking about it to much." Kenny insisted. "Its only as weird as we let it be. So lets not be weird!" A pause. He sipped his smoothy. "So… so, you're thinking about quitting the Academy? Why?"

"You're kidding, right?" She shot back, running her fingers between the tight braids of her corn rows. "I almost killed my dad. And your dad! If Kevin hadn't stopped us -I would have!"

Kenny wanted to argue that she didn't and that made all the difference, but that would have made him a hypocrite. Because Devlin almost killed him, and if Kevin hadn't stopped him, he would have. Same situation, different faces. If Kenny was willing to brush aside Ally's fears, misgivings, and guilt with so casual an excusal, then he should be willing to do the same for Devlin. But he wasn't.

Instead, he changed the subject.

"Ya know, when I was younger. Back when my dad first gave me my Omnitrix, he let me and Dev come with him on missions some times. I used to think it was so cool and we were so grown-up. Doing real hero work next to a real hero!" He smiled ruefully, stirring his smoothy with his straw. "I didn't realize until the Rooters thing that the missions he let us come on probably weren't really all that big a deal. Just easy, safe, little cases he could take kids along on and not have to worry. If it really was dangerous, my mother probably would have sued for custody."

He paused again, suddenly remembering that his mother was now dating Ally's father. According to her, they had been together for roughly two months now. That would just make thing even more awkward between them -if they derailed their conversation to discuss the remote but still very possible prospect of them becoming siblings. Instead, Kenny steered back to his original point.

"But that thing with the Rooters wasn't safe. My dad could have died, your dad could have died, I almost died. It wasn't like the cute little missions my dad would take me on as a kid. It was real! And it opened my eyes. Made me realize that what I thought I knew about the world might not be true and people aren't who I thought they were."

"Exactly!" Ally nodded, taking his hands in hers.

To spite the fact that she'd just been holding a cold smoothy, her hands were hot against his skin. Ally always felt so much warmer than the average human, and Kenny had to focus to fight the blush that wanted to sneak onto his cheeks at the contact.

"Its not what I thought it would be at all!" She agreed. "Its dangerous and scary! And people surprise you. My dad always used to tell me how terrible Kevin Levin was and that I should always be carful around Devlin because while he might be my friend now, he could turn at the drop of a pin. But Kevin was the one to save us in the end! He cleaned my head of the mind control and saved everyone. Kevin Levin is a hero, not a bad guy."

"I… I agree." Kenny reluctantly admitted. Because it felt strange to admit that one Osmosian was a hero while the other tried to kill him. "He saved my life too."

There was a pause.

Ally withdrew her hands and took a slow sip of her smoothy. She looked her friend up and down.

Finally, she asked, "How are you two, really? You and Devlin. I know at Group you both insist that you're fine. But you're not fine. You two used to be attached at the hip. Now you never sit together. You don't even make eye-contact a lot of the time. Hell! We're here sharing smoothy's and he's not here sharing one right next to us! What is going on between you two? I know something's wrong. I'm not our bone-head shrink. I know you two. So, don't you date lie to me."

Kenny was silent a long moment.

A long moment.

He stared into his smoothy cup for one… two… three beats.

Kenny hadn't said it out loud yet. Not to anyone. Not to Dad. Not to Aunt Gwendolyn. Not to Dev. And especially not to their useless shrink. For some reason, he felt like saying it out loud would make it more 'real'. Right now it was just an irrational fear. A night terror. Something that kept him up at night but wasn't really a real threat. Like being afraid of the dark. But if he said ti out loud… if he admitted that his cousin scared him… Then it would solidify. Become real.

…and he would never be able to take it back.

"You do know us." He nodded. "You've known us since forever and… I'm not gonna lie to you, Ally. I should probably go home now. You don't have to drive me if you don't want to. I'll find my own way."

Kenny stood to leave.

Ally shot to her feet and grabbed his wrist to keep him from leaving. "Now wait just a-"

But she froze mid sentence. There was something off about his wrist. It felt naked. Like something that had always been there that she stopped paying attention to was suddenly absent. She lifted her hand to look at the tan-line that marked the place where a watch had once been. No… not a watch. The Omnitrix! The faux-Omnitrix his father gave him. Kenny wasn't wearing it anymore!

"Kenny… you're not wearing your-"

"Don't worry, its safe." He assured her, pulling his arm back. "I took it off so that it wouldn't get absorbed again. Its hidden in a place no Osmosian will look."

She just stared at him. "You took it off because of Devlin?"

Ally liked to think of herself as a smart person. But for some reason she was having trouble working through Kenny's logic. He took it off so that it wouldn't get absorbed again? He hid it where no Osmosian would look. But the only time it was absorbed was by Devlin when he was under Servantis' control along with her and Billings. The only Osmosians they knew about that might be in a position to absorb the Omnitrix were Kevin and Devlin.

Kenny and Devlin had been so distant lately…

…they never sat together anymore… rarely made eye-contact…

…Kenny was avoiding the older boy…

It came to Ally slowly because she couldn't believe it. Devlin and Kenny had always seemed so solid. Inseparable. Closer than brothers. They had always been together. Always had each others backs. Kenny used to like to boast that he was Devlin's own private protector. That Devlin was his. (Which, truth be told, Ally found a little creepy at times.) The whole reason Kenny enrolled in the Weekend Academy was because Devlin did first.

But now it seemed… "Kenny, are you- are you afraid of Devlin?"

And just like that, it became so real.

So true.

"He can walk through walls now." And Kenny's voice just might have cracked into a sob when he said that. "Kevin's been trying to teach how to absorb matter, so that he won't have to transform or absorb… other stuff. But he can't absorb matter. Instead he learned to pass right through solid stuff. Not even a locked door can stop him now, and… and he's already absorbed my Omnitrix once before and tried to kill me. He tried to kill me, Ally! Dev tried to kill me! My Dev…"

Ally closed the space between them as Kenny began to cry. This was not what she had expected.

She was honestly expecting the distance she saw between them to be of Devlin's doing. Feeling guilty over what he'd done or tried to do while under the Rooters' control, he would try and distance himself from the people he hurt or tried to hurt in an effort to distance himself from the event entirely. It was what he did with his father before Kevin was released. Distance himself from the image of Kevin 11,000 and by extension the terrible things he did. It was Devlin's coping technique. Push it away.

But that wasn't what was happening at all! It wasn't Devlin pushing Kenny away. It was Kenny running away from Devlin!

That was not what Ally was expecting.

She rubbed circled in Kenny's back while he quietly sobbed into her shoulder. In all honesty, Ally had no idea what to do. If it had been Devlin pushing Kenny away, she could have helped. Goodness knew she had been helping Kenny mediate Devlin's multiple insecurities and complexes for as long as she'd known them. But Kenny being afraid of Devlin? That was a new animal entirely. It was such a strange and outlandish idea that she never even would have imagined it. Kenny couldn't be afraid of Devlin. Devlin couldn't hurt Kenny. He was far more likely to hurt himself first.

"Hey, hey." She soothed. "Its okay. I know it was scary. But Devlin was under mind control back then. Just like I was. He's back to his normal self now. So there's no reason to worry. You're over reacting over nothing."

Kenny raised his head. Wiping his eyes, he looked at her skeptically.

She smiled back at him reassuringly. "Devlin loves you, Kenny. Probably more than he loves himself. So, I bet you he's just as torn up inside about what happened as you are. You should talk to him about it. Work through this together. This might even make you closer than you were before."

A feat Ally didn't think was possible without the two of them fusing into the same body. Now there was a mental image!

"I don't think I can…" Kenny admitted. "Everything's so different."

"Look, if you want someone there for moral or emotional support, I'll come with you." She promised. "We've been friends since forever -all three of us. I don't like watching you two like this any more than you enjoy being like this. I miss your normal moronic self and his snarky sarcasm. Or if you don't want me there, ask someone else. Talk to Kevin! Since he saved us all in the first place, he would understand. Hell! He's done the same thing Devlin did. So he can understand both sides. Talk to Devlin and ask Kevin to mediate for you."

Ally's opinion of Kevin was apparently a bit higher than Kenny's. Sure, he agreed that Kevin was definitely the hero of the Rooters adventure. Sure, Kevin wiped out the mind control. Sure, Kevin saved his life when Devlin was chasing Kenny down to suck the life out of him. But, Kevin was also Devlin's dad and -on a daily basis- showed an obvious bias in favor of his son. So how much of an impartial mediator could Kevin be? Really?

"Thanks, Ally. I'll think about it." Kenny told her. "I'd like to go home now."

…