"Grudge Match Redux" Post #19 by Goddess-of-da-Cheeseburgers
I'm been feeling ill lately, but I made a miraculous recovery and typed this up.
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Kevin turned his head aside, the blush creeping over his red skin nearly imperceptible. Instead of commenting, he steered the brunet back to the chair and gently forced him to sit down. Gwen placed a plate in front of her cousin and stepped back, planning an escape from the awkward silence presently hanging over the room.
Ben scowled at Kevin for avoiding the subject, but turned to the food placed in front of him nonetheless. Picking carefully around the eggs and ham, the brunet cut into the pancakes and ate quickly. With nothing to do but stare at Ben as he ate, Kevin noted the meat and eggs that had been pushed aside.
"You need the protein."
Ben swallowed the last bite of pancake and drained his orange juice, "I ate the pancakes, didn't I?
A low growl rippled through the mutant, "That's not good enough. If you don't eat meat, then you won't recover well." He crossed both sets of arms and glared, wishing he could see the brunet more clearly.
Ben shifted in his chair and crossed his arms as well, "Don't you growl at me. I don't eat meat."
Already edging out the doorway, Gwen sighed. In her worry, she'd forgotten Ben's recent diet change. In a feeble attempt to break the mounting tension, the redhead spoke up, "If I can borrow some clothes, I'll run out and get Ben something to eat." Kevin grunted, but his fuzzy glare stayed on the stubborn brunet sitting in front of him. Ben nodded, and stared right back with equal (if a little more focused) intensity.
Ten minutes later, Gwen had found a set of clothes that didn't smell too bad. After cinching the cloth belt tight around her waist and waving a hesitant good-bye to Ben and Kevin—she was fairly certain neither of them had blinked yet—the redhead left for the grocery store.
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"Let usssss...Tesssst my new toy." Pepaa remarked to no one in particular. He slipped a small handheld device from under his tongue and tapped a few keys, a smirk spreading across his angular face.
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Kevin broke the silence a few moments after Gwen left, "If you're not going to eat that..."
Ben shrugged carefully, "Go right ahead."
Kevin reached for the plate, "Not that I'm being greedy or anything, but I have three stomachs in this form." He wolfed the food down quickly, nearly swallowing Ben's fork at one point, and Ben could only stare.
He wasn't the high and mighty sort of vegetarian that preached the evils of eating animal products, and didn't mind eggs or milk when they were baked into bread or something. Just eating eggs, though...And all the grease with that bacon? Yuck.
Ben's train of thought ground to an abrupt halt and his body stiffened. Wide green eyes glazed over and his face bore a blank expression. A few of the shallow scratches remaining on his back, irritated by the sudden, rigid movement of his shoulders, opened and a few tiny droplets of blood beaded out.
Kevin, in the process of licking Ben's plate obnoxiously, paused and sniffed. The faint metallic scent from the few remaining scratches wasn't terribly concerning, but it was the brunet's stiff posture and vacant expression that alarmed the mutant.
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Notes:
--Ever since Race Against Time, I've had this vague obsession with Ben's parents converting Ben into some super-neo-hippie-vegetarian-Ben who wears hemp shirts and listens to psychedelic rock. AND SO MY SECRET PASSION MANIFESTS ITSELF.
--I had to talk with my vegetarian friend on this one about how I should portray Ben. He was surprisingly cool about it, and told me that preachy vegetarians piss him off. SO BEN IS NOT A PREACHY VEGETARIAN.
--I hear Ben saying "Don't you growl at me." in the same tone of voice my friend uses to scold her puppy. It's absolutely hilarious.