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 Eight: Circle and Growl
Both Kevin and Devlin exited their dressing room stalls wearing almost identical outfits (apart from the sizes of course). The two men paused, looking each other up and down in mild surprise.
Then Kevin smirked. "Gotta say, I like your style."
"Oh, no!" Devlin shook his head. "You take that off! You take that off right now! There is no way in hell I'm walking out of this dressing room looking like twinsies with Kevin 11,000."
Kevin looked down at the band shirt he was wearing, the exact same band shirt Devlin was now sporting. "I think I've got more right to this shirt than you do. I'm actually old enough to remember when the lead singer was still alive. If you don't like it, you change."
Devlin looked like he was about to argue the matter further. The corner of his mouth twitched asymmetrically with tension. But, instead of biting out another remark at his father, the boy instead turned and stomped out of the men's dressing room to where Gwen was patiently waiting outside. "Mom! He's copying me!"
She looked up from the datapad she was reading and raised an amused eyebrow at her son. "Did you suddenly regress in age five years?" -Then Kevin walked out wearing the exact same outfit Devlin was.- "Oh." Now it was Kevin who got the raised eyebrow. "Baby, you're forty-three years old. Don't you think its time you stopped dressing like a teenager?"
"But, Babe, jeans and a grunge-style t-shirt is my signature look." Kevin whined, much like the teenager he was dressed as.
Crossing her arms over her chest, Gwen dug her feet in and glared at him. "Well, I'm not paying for you to look like you never matured past the age of seventeen. Now turn around, go back in there and try something on I will be willing to pay for. Try that nice button down shirt I picked out for you."
Kevin looked like he was about to protest. Kevin Levin, wear a button down shirt? With a collar? Like some average guy who worked a normal job? Who worked nine to five in the city then came home to the suburbs? Who owned a house and had two point five kids? No. That just wasn't Kevin E. Levin. But Gwen was giving him that look. The look that meant any protest would be pointless, to argue would be a losing battle. It was a Look she started developing back when they were still just teens, even before they started dating. It seemed after years of practice with Devlin -and probably Tennyson's kid as well- Gwen had perfected the Look to be completely iron-clad.
With a groan and a surplus of grumbling, Kevin turned around and stomped back into the dressing room.
Devlin looked smug. Elevated by the perception that his mother had taken his side and put Kevin in his place.
That is, until Gwen said, "And, Devlin, I want you to find something that's not black."
"What? But this has got color in it." He pointed to the graphic on his black shirt. "See? There's red."
His mother did not look impressed. She held up a finger. "One article of clothing. I don't care what it is, shirt, pants, beanie, sneakers, whatever. Just find something to wear that's any other color besides black."
"Alright. Rainbow Pride underpants it is then!" The boy smiled.
"Visible clothing." Gwen specified. "Come one, Devlin, it's not asking a lot. I'm just asking you to find one thing."
He grumbled and groaned, souring very much like his father just did a moment ago. But said, "Alright, fine." all the same. He turned around and dragged his feet back into the dressing room to change back into his own clothes so he could peruse the racks again.
Just as the boy disappeared back into the dressing room, Kevin came back out wearing a sky blue button down shirt over the same black denim jeans from earlier. "I feel so stupid."
"But you look so handsome!" Gwen assured him.
"Where would I even wear this?" He asked.
"Job interview." She suggested. "Or fancy date out with me. How about just around town because you're a grown-up now and you should finally start dressing like one."
He ignored that last bit. "Most of the jobs I pull don't do interviews, and I've taken you out on plenty of fancy dates where I didn't have to dress like I'm going to a court hearing."
She crossed her arms over her chest and glared at him. "Having dinner with Don Vizini at gunpoint because he thinks you lost a shipment of product does not count as a fancy date! In fact, nothing that either begins or ends with us being threatened, shot at, or having to use our powers counts as a fancy date. You have never taken me on a real fancy date."
"Alright, fine." The Osmosian threw his hands up in defeat. "When I can get together some money, I'll take you out on a real fancy date, no violence, no mortal threats, or anything fun. Just a boring, stuffy, fancy date like old people."
Devlin happened to walk back out at that moment, once again wearing his own clothes. He turned to Kevin as he passed and reminded to man, "You are old."
"Nobody asked you!" Kevin shouted after him. But Devlin had already turned a corner and disappeared behind a rack of men's jackets.
Gwen offered her pseudo-husband a comforting pat on the shoulder. "You're getting the shirt. No arguments, and I might be persuaded to get you and Devlin your matching band shirts too. And when we get home later, you can show me just how not-old you really are."
"How the heck am I supposed to show you how 'not-old' I am?" Then he caught the look she was giving him. Gazing up at him through her lashes, lips parted in a very appealing pout, hand caressing down the buttons of the shirt… "Oh. Oh! Okay."
"And wear the shirt."
Devlin ducked behind the racks and tried to ignore his parents openly leering at each other. At least they were being subtle with their dialogue if not with they expressions and body language. Seriously, if this was what they were like now -in their forties- then Devlin felt very sorry for his Uncle Ben having to hang out with them in their twenties, back when they were younger, more energetic, and virile. The young Osmosian shuttered the think about it.
He distracted himself by perusing the clearance section. All the things that were off season and thus not in demand. Winter knit caps, scarves, and gloves. Devlin paused at the gloves.
'I don't want your nasty Osmosian hands on me!' That's what Kenny said.
But if he was wearing gloves, it wouldn't be his hands touching Kenny. After all, Osmosians channeled their power through their hands. If a glove was between his hand and something, Devlin couldn't absorb it. He selected a pain in all black and tried them on only to find that they were far to big for his freakishly small and girly hands. He tried another pair, to much the same result -to big. That was the problem most of the time whenever Devlin was looking for hats or gloves. He inherited a slim and lithe frame from his mother and so often had a hard time finding cloths in the men's section to fit him.
With an irritated sigh, he gave up and moved to the Boys' clearance section to look for a pair of gloves that might fit his hands.
As with most things marketed to younger children, they were all brightly colored. Blues, and yellows, and greens, and reds… Devlin cringed noticeably. Even when he was the actual age these were meant for, he didn't like wearing so many garish colors. But his mother did say she wanted him to find an article of visible clothing that was a color other than black. He pulled on the first pair of gloves that looked like it would fit him. A bright green pair, the same shade as his car.
They fit.
Devlin returned to his mother and showed her the gloves.
She raised a critical eyebrow. "Its summer. How often are you actually going to wear those?"
"I'll wear them." He assured her, putting his best reassuring smile on.
"In summer?" She continued to stare at him skeptically.
"Uh-huh." Devlin nodded. Anything to show Kenny how serious he was about not using his powers again. That he wouldn't absorb Kenny or his faux-Omnitrix again. "I'll wear them every day."
Gwen did not look convinced. "Your hands are going to smell like feet."
…
At breakfast, Kenny tried sitting with Billings again. Because, as much as he didn't like the guy, and as abrasive as he might be, Ally was right. He was also at the Rooter's base when Devlin had his episode, he knew just as well as Kenny did what Devlin was capable of.
"What is this?" Billings growled when the younger boy sat down. "You stalking me now, Tennyson?"
"No." Kenny assured him and said nothing more. He ate his breakfast in silence, content not to converse with the older boy more than he had to. While Kenny was usually a very social person and made friends easily, he found it a little awkward talking to Billings. Probably because he'd spent so much of the past year disliking him for no other reason than Devlin disliked him. Sort of a 'my best friend hates you, so I must hate you too' kind of thing. But Kenny had no real, legitimate reason of his own to dislike Billings.
Of course, he didn't really have any compelling reasons to like him, either.
Billings was seventeen, two years his senior. He mostly kept to himself and didn't socialize much outside of the combat or teamwork exercises that were required of academy training. If it hadn't been for that fiasco with the Rooters, Kenny wouldn't have known that he was a ward of the state, and if Ally hadn't been so aggressively social yesterday, he wouldn't have known that Billings had a summer job.
That was about everything Kenny knew about the older boy.
"Doesn't your boyfriend come back today?" Billings sneered after the awkward silence drew on long enough. "Shouldn't you be at the teleporters pining for him?"
"My what?" Kenny blinked.
"You know, Fake-Tennyson. Devy." Billings explained. "You two are always together. I just assumed…" He let that statement trail off.
"Anyone ever tell you its rude to assume things?" Kenny asked. It was not the first time someone thought he and Devlin were anything more than what they were.
"Anyone ever tell you its rude to invite yourself over to someone else's table and disturb what would have been an otherwise pleasant meal?" Billings shot back. "What do you want, Tennyson? Albright's easy to understand. She wants us all the be happy and friendly with each other like some campy after school special. We all went through some shit together, so we should all bond and get chummy over it. But not you. No, the son of the great hero, Ben 10,000, knows that things aren't as easy as a Saturday morning cartoon. You don't just have one zany adventure together and suddenly become besties. So, what do you want?"
Kenny was silent for one… two… three beats.
He didn't really know Billings all that well, but the guy was smart. A little rough around the edges and often abrasive. But he didn't sugar coat things, or dance around issues. And he was brutally honest. People who were honest to the point of brutality usually appreciated straightforward honesty in return.
Kenny took a chance. "Ally's serious about quitting the Academy after this term."
"If it means getting away from you assholes, I don't blame her." Billings snorted over a spoonful of powdered eggs.
"Can you try and not be an asshole yourself for, like, five minutes, please." Kenny snapped back. "Anyway, the fact that she's my friend aside, I don't want Ally to quit because she knows what Dev is capable of and I want to have someone around who knows what Dev is capable of."
The second bite of powdered eggs was halfway to his mouth when Billings paused. He lowered the fork back down to his plate and pushed the tray to the side. Leaning across the table, he looked Kenny right in the eyes when he asked, "Come again?"
"Look, Dev and I grew up together, okay. I've always known he's Osmosian and I know what that means." Kenny began awkwardly, suddenly wondering if this was a bad idea after all. "I just never thought he would absorb my Omnitrix or try and kill me. Those were two things I just didn't think Devlin would do. Not to me. But he did. He absorbed my Omnitrx, went crazy and chased me around the Rooters base until Kevin finally subdued him. Thing is, Kevin's not always gonna be around. His Pardon is only good here on Earth, so he can't leave the planet without being arrested and thrown back int he Void, and on top of that, he's kinda old."
Kenny paused long enough to take a sip of his orange juice while Billings just stared in disbelief at the admissions that were tumbling from the younger boy's mouth.
"Unless you're also Osmosian, subduing an energy-crazed Osmosian is not a one-man job." Kenny continued. "I won't be able to handle Devlin alone if that happens again. With Ally leaving, I will be alone. That is, unless I have someone else who knows what Dev is capable of willing to watch my back."
Billings just stared at the younger boy as he took a couple bites of meat-like option and drained the last of his orange juice.
"You're asking me to help you kill Fake-Tennyson?"
"No!" Kenny was quick to deny. A much as Devlin frightened him now, they were still family. They still grew up together. They were still closer than brothers. They shared a lifetime of history and one bad experience didn't change that. As much as Kenny feared his cousin now, he did not want the older boy dead. "I'm asking you to help me subdue him if -and only if- that happens again."
A silence stretched between the two boys. An almost palatable quiet that was thick with tension.
Then Billings grabbed his glass of milk and forced himself to look relaxed and casual. "Well, shit, Tennsyon, you know I'll take any excuse the beat Fake-Tennyson's skinny ass."
Kenny nodded. He and Billings didn't have to be friends. They just had to understand one another. "Thanks."
…
Of course Kenny wouldn't be there to meet him when Devlin teleported up to the Weekend Academy. Why would he be? Kenny had been avoiding him for the past two weeks now and nothing had happened to change that.
'I don't want your nasty Osmosian hands on me!'
In fact, things between them seemed worse than ever now.
With a sigh of resignation, Devlin pulled his electric green gloves tighter over his hands and stepped out of the teleporter stall.
Kenny wasn't there to meet him, but Ally was. She came around the corner holding a napkin with two pieces of toast on it, spread with marmalade instead of jam. Just the way he liked it.
"I didn't know if you had breakfast with your folks or not, so I saved you something from the Mess." She explained, offering him the toast.
Truth be told, he hadn't eaten with Kevin and his mother. He was to nervous about seeing Kenny again, and trying to prove that he wasn't a danger to the younger boy. That he wasn't going to absorb the faux-Omnitrix and go crazy again. He hadn't said that at breakfast, of course. Instead he muttered some BS excuse about not wanting to be late to the Academy and made Kevin drive him to the teleporters right away. Now that he actually was at the Academy, Devlin realized he really should have eaten -if for no other reason than to ground his stomach.
"Thanks." He took the offered napkin in his gloved hands. Lifting one piece of toast with bright green fingers, he tore a large bite out of it.
Ally raised an eyebrow at him. "Are you wearing gloves? Its summer. Aren't you hot?"
He shrugged. Swallowed his toast. "A little. But its not that bad. I can get used to it."
"Let me rephrase that: Why the hell are you wearing gloves in summer like an idiot?" Ally amended.
Devlin paused, not quite sure how to explain. 'I don't want your nasty Osmosian hands on me!' How exactly did one explain that the gloves were meant to be a symbolic gesture to show Kenny that he wasn't a threat to him and that he had no intention of absorbing the faux-Omnitrix again -not even by accident- or try to kill him? "Its just a new thing I'm trying out."
She roller her eyes. "I swear. You and Kenny and your stupid drama. Look, I get it. I was there too, remember? You went crazy and tried to kill him and now he's jumpy and paranoid. But you're both forgetting one simple thing: you were under mind control when it happened. I get that its scary and you could have killed him. I could have killed my dad and Mr. Tennyson! But I didn't. Kevin stopped me. No harm done. My dad and I talked it out and we're okay. You and Kenny should talk too."
Devlin looked skeptically at her.
"If you're really worried then get a mediator. I already suggested Kenny ask Kevin to sit down with you. And if you two still can't get over this whole near-murder thing, then you should just quit the Academy and give up being a Plumber like I am. Because, Devlin, stuff like that is just gonna keep happening. Real Plumbers work isn't like the safe little drills they do here. Its violent, and its frightening, and people could get killed! That's what my experience with the Rooters taught me. That's why I'm leaving at the end of this term."
He offered a self-deprecating smile. "I don't know what we'd do without you."
"Not my problem." She reminded him. "I do not exist solely to support you and Kenny."
"But you do it so well."
"I do other things well, too." She informed him. "Maybe if I'm not spending all my weekends at the Academy, I'll have the time to develop my other skills. Since our Psychologicals are postponed, maybe you should work on your other skills too. I hear you can walk through walls now?"
"Not really. I mean, I haven't really tried since the first time it happened -and that was an accident."
"Well, then maybe you should work on it so that it won't happen by accident."
…
Gwen was at work, Ben was out on patrol -or whatever Hero stuff it was that kept him away from home all day- and not for the first time, Kevin found himself with nothing to do.
The Rust Bucket was -for all intents and purposes- done. Completely repaired. It wasn't like Kevin ever had much else to do. With nothing else to divide his attention or devote his time to, Kevin got the space plane repaired even faster than he would have guessed. It was a new record and he was quite proud of himself.
But it also meant that Kevin had nothing to do.
While his Presidential Pardon absolved him of his crimes as Kevin 11,000 (at least, the crimes committed either on, or against the Earth were absolved), and he could go out and do things like he used to, Kevin didn't really want to. All the friends he used to have had moved on. Argit went from being a second rate, two bit middle man, and went on to become the President of the whole entire Earth! His other clients and contacts were either arrested, killed, disappeared into obscurity, or went straight.
But that was okay.
In all honesty, Kevin should probably go straight too. For real this time. No more selling contraband tech. No more middle man jobs, brokering deals between terrorists and warlords. No more playing both sides of a conflict to double profits.
But then, that did raise the question of what -exactly- he could do. He'd been a criminal his whole life. Kevin didn't really know how to do a 'real job'. The only non-illegal job he ever had was as a Plumber. But that sure as heck wasn't a possibility anymore.
So, what then was he good for?
Kevin laid on the couch, one of Ben's beers in his hand and asked himself that very question. What was he good for? What use was he anymore?
That was how Max found him when he passed through the living room to collect any trash or dirty dishes that might have been left there by the rest of the family.
"Are you busy?" Asked the older man.
"Just questioning whether or not there's anything I can do in this world anymore and wondering if there's even a point to my existence." Kevin answered, speaking more to the ceiling than to Max. He sat up just enough to take a sip of beer before laying back down, his head resting on the arm of the couch.
"Well, can you have your existential crisis while you help me clean the boy's rooms?" Max asked. "I'm not as young as I used to be but they're just as messy as ever."
Kevin sat up. This was also not the first time the answer to his dilemma of 'what's the point' was to help Max with the domestic household chores. "You want me to clean the kids' rooms?"
"Well, Devlin's usually pretty good about keeping his room clean." Max amended. "But Kenny and Ben… they're worse than Carl and Frank ever were."
"I am not picking up after Tennyson." Kevin vowed. Picking up after Devlin, sure. Why not? He probably would have been doing that anyway when the kid was younger if Ben hadn't sent him to the Null Void for sixteen years. Picking up after Kenny, eh, fine. The brat was Devlin's best friend. He was pretty sure that in the 'never banished to the Void' scenario, he would have been picking up after his son's best friend a bit too. But not Ben. Ben was a grow-ass adult and could clean his own damn room.
"That's fair." Max nodded. "Just do Kenny's room for me. And you don't so much have to clean it, as much as just pick up his dirty laundry for me, clear the floor enough for a normal person to walk on, and make the bed."
The great Kevin 11,000… reduced to a maid. He drained the last of his beer before standing. "What do I get out of this?"
"Something to do with your time." Max answered as if this should have been obvious. "And a temporary answer to your existential crisis."
"Okay, seriously, what is an 'existential crisis'!?"
But Max was already walking out of the room and pretended not to hear.
With nothing better to do, Kevin heaved a sigh. He detoured to the kitchen to throw his empty beer can in the 'fridge before making his way to Tiny-Tennyson's room.
To call it 'messy' was being kind.
Max was right to ask Kevin to clear the floor. There wasn't a floor. At least, not one that could be seen under the scattered piles of video game boxes, wireless controllers, miscellaneous cords, strewn clothing, comic books, and food wrappers. Kevin took a step back out of the room almost the moment he stepped into it.
Standing out in the hall, the Osmosian took a deep breath of the clean Plumbers Headquarters air, and thanked his lucky stars that his own while took after his mother and not any other member of the Tennyson family. Taking a moment to compose himself, Kevin made a point of reminding himself that he'd faced down much worse and survived. It was stupid to be intimidated by a little teenage mess (especially since he was only half a step better when he had been a teenager). Taking one last breath of clean air, he stepped back into Kenny's room.
Make bed, collect laundry, clear floor. Those were Kevin's tasks. He took a sheet from the bed and started piling the large, obvious pieces of laundry on it. Any clothing that was on the floor, any sock that didn't have a mate, a pair of pants thrown over the back of a chair, a random shirt hanging off the inside door handle. All these were thrown on the sheet, bundled up, and carried out of the room to the laundry where Max already had a load going.
"Just throw them over there." The older man pointed. "I'll sort them in a bit. And, Kevin, thanks. You might not see it, but things actually are a lot easier since you came back -for me, at least."
"Thanks, Max." Kevin said, not quite sure if that was what he was supposed to say.
"That does't mean I don't want you to keep thinking about what else you can do now that you're out." The old man quickly added. "You can't spend the rest of your life hiding from the world in this tower."
"I know." Kevin assured him. "I should really get back to work."
He left. Not because he really felt any driving need to clean-up after someone else's kid. But because he didn't really want to think about what he could do at the moment. What use was he? Everything he used to do he either wasn't going to go back to, or couldn't go back to for one reason or another. But Kevin didn't know how to do anything else. He was a crook, and he was a Plumber. Broker and Enforcer. Smuggler and wheel-man. Hitter and grifter. Those were his skills. It was all he knew.
But he pushed those thoughts out of his mind. That was a problem for future-Kevin to solve. Right now-Kevin was busy distracting himself by picking up Kenny's floor and secretly judging him on his taste in video games.
Fallout 12 sounded alright. But Final Fantasy XXXVII? Really? Ugh. Oh! But Dragon Quest: Sun Stone! Anything Dragon Quest was good. Maybe the kid wasn't so bad after all.
Kevin dumped the games in the closet where he found the majority of the boy's dishes consoles. Jeez, this kid had a lot! What, did Tennyson try and buy his kid's affection with expensive toys? Was that how he managed to stay one-up on his ex-wife? Ben could be notoriously petty at times, Kevin didn't put it past him.
The cascade of games and empty game boxes Kevin threw in the closet knocked over an old Xbox One and Kevin bent down to make sure he hadn't broken it. The last thing he needed was a whining about a broken toy and Tennyson giving him that indignant, accusatory look of his. Kevin needn't have worried it looked like the kid never played it anymore. It was so disused, in fact, that there was actually a dirty, mateless sock stuffed into the socket where the hard drive was supposed to go. Damn, and he just finished collecting all the laundry too.
Kevin pulled out the dirty sock, but paused in confusion when he felt something inside it.
Curious, he reached inside and was socked when he pulled out, not another game accessory or toy, but the Omnetrix. Or rather, the faux-Omnetrix that Kenny worse -was supposed to wear. Apparently, he wasn't wearing it. Not if it was suffer in a sock, hidden in his closet.
And wasn't that an interesting question.
It was obviously hidden on purpose. Things didn't just get shoved inside other things and then placed inside bigger things by accident. How very interesting.
Kevin made a mental note to ask the kid about it when he talked to him about Devlin.
...