Author's Notes: I wrote this on a whim right before the new episode of Ben 10 Alien Force aired. It passed the time nicely and I rather enjoyed it. The subject… Kevin, back when he was living on the streets! This takes place a few days after he was thrown out. Originally I was going to use something more symbolic for the theme, but I like this idea.

Disclaimer: I don't own Ben 10 or the quote at the beginning.

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"Starvation, not sin, is the parent of modern crime."

~Oscar Wilde

79. Starvation

He whimpered softly. The pain in his stomach had begun as a small nuisance, but it had escalated to an almost overwhelming sense of torture. His knees pulled tighter up against his scrawny chest in a feeble attempt to stop the pain. It didn't help at all.

Dark eyes surveyed his dirty surroundings for any sign of food. There was none. His eyes focused on the dumpster on the other side of the alleyway, but he shook his head. There was no way he was going dumpster-diving. His stomach let out another wave of pain. At least, not yet. Maybe if things became really bad, he would scrounge for some food among the garbage.

Licking cracked lips, Kevin pushed himself off the ground. Sitting around wasn't going to earn him any food. Perhaps it would earn him the pity of a passerby, but that was unlikely in the crowded streets of New York. No one looked twice at the homeless.

This iron jungle was a dog-eat-dog world. He had to take care of himself. There was no one he could rely on, that much he had learned from his parents and the other homeless. If you got food, you eat it on your own. If you found a dry spot, you kept it to yourself. Sure, there were some who stuck together, but Kevin felt no desires to join one of those groups. They wouldn't accept someone like him.

His stomach sent out another throbbing sensation, disrupting his thoughts. Food, food was all he needed right now. Who cared about justice, fairness, law, love? All he wanted, all he cared about, was food.

His eyes jumped over to the dumpster again before a very delicious aroma swept into his nostrils. The boy's salivary glands watered at the thought of what could be producing that heavenly scent. He twisted his hear around to locate the smell.

Cautiously, the boy trailed out of the alleyway, following his nose. The sight of a hotdog vendor, serving greasy sausages in buns from a cart, caused Kevin to frown. He couldn't afford a hotdog…

What if—The boy chopped the thought off. No, he couldn't do that. It was against the law and his parents had always told him that stealing was wrong… But his parents had abandoned him, because he was a freak. Freaks didn't need to follow rules, did they? And if it came down to it, would he rather steal what he needed, search through a dumpster, or give up and die?

In the end, it was his stomach that made up his mind. Hunger was a powerful force, perhaps one of the most powerful in the universe and his stomach was demanding that it be eliminated.

The boy traipsed over, being careful to only gaze at the hotdogs out of the corner of his eye. He had never tried to steal something before and it filled him both with a rush of guilt and exhilaration. This was something new, something different, something very wrong but somehow oddly exciting. Maybe he should've tried with something easier, a supermarket for example, but this was the only available food within a block, minus the restaurants.

His eyes followed the vendor's hands as he reached over and plucked a hotdog out for his customer. His eyes watched the progression as the vendor got ready to hand over the hotdog. Pure instinct propelled the boy forwards. Just as the transfer was about to be made, Kevin grasped the hotdog and jerked it away from both hands.

"Hey!" Kevin didn't stick around to listen. He charged away, black boots thudding heavily against the ground.

"Get back here, you damn kid!" That was the vendor, shouting angrily after him. "You little thief!" People looked around in alarm, but Kevin pushed past them quickly.

The chase could hardly be considered a chase. With the cart, the vendor was too cumbersome to catch up with the agile Kevin. The customer, a tourist from the middle of the country, shook his head at the scene. There were no kids like this back home and it was certainly something he had never seen before. He wondered how parents raised their kids here before deciding that he didn't care too much if the kid was caught or not. All he wanted was a hotdog.

The boy finally came to a halt in an alleyway that looked much like the one he had been in earlier. It had graffiti, albeit a bit different, it had grime, and it had a dumpster. Glancing back at the confusion in the streets as people either passed by with only a glance at the huffing vendor or attempted to find a kid who had been lost among all the confusion.

Just for safety, Kevin hid himself behind the dumpster. For a few moments, he sat there, breathing heavily, adrenaline still coursing through him. The chase had been fun and it had awoken something within Kevin. Something that he had only known existed when he used his power. It was that same exhilaration, as if all his body was on fire. He laughed to himself before a pang from his stomach reminded him exactly why he had gone through with the whole ordeal.

The boy looked down at his plunder. The hotdog was matted from the boy gripping it and while some of the condiments had slipped off on to the ground or on to his hands, it was in good condition. He opened his mouth and took his first real bite of food since a few days when he had been thrown out.

The taste hit him at once. It was delicious, if it had been in a restaurant, he would've given the meal five stars. In reality, it could hardly earn two stars, but to the ravenous boy, it was comparable to fillet mignon. In a matter of seconds, the hotdog was gone. Kevin leaned back, slowly licking the remaining mustard and ketchup off his grimy fingers.

The meal had been a good one, but it had not completely filled his stomach. The terrible pains were gone, but he was still hungry. Slowly, he got up, a satisfied smirk spreading over his face. Never again would he be hungry. Never again would he feel those terrible pangs of hunger. Never again would he question the morality of theft.

Poking his head out from the other side of the alleyway, his eye caught a grocery store. It was the perfect target.

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A/N: Forgive any inaccuracies, I have never stolen anything (except for stuff from my friend's house and it was a game we devised), so I'm not knowledgeable on that front. Same goes for New York City inaccuracies, I'm just going with what I know about big cities and big city complexes from books and my own experiences in big cities. Oh and for those who don't know, fillet mignon is a very high quality beef.

Starvation is the title, both because he's starving and if you want to look at it in a more symbolic level, he's starving for attention, care, etc. *shrugs* I think I've been spending too much time thinking about things like an analytic English student xD Reviews are always lovely!

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