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.
Rose
Chapter One: Blank Roses
Present Day...
Kenny started awake when the truck bounced as it rolled over the slight dip between the street and Mr. Smoothy's parking lot. He jerked, not quite remembering where he was for a moment. "Whus goin' on?"
Blinking, he realized he must have been asleep. He remembered having a dream, but he couldn't quite remember what it was about. Devlin was there -and roses. Green roses. But the images were there and gone in an instant. An hour from now, the boy knew he wouldn't be able to remember even having a dream at all.
"Nap's over." Ally told him from the driver's seat.
It was the last weekend before summer break ended and they had to return to school. So, she had come from Coble to spend the last few days of vacation with him in Bellwood. Since Devlin was too busy getting ready for his transfer to a different school, and building a relationship with his new boyfriend, Sigil. Kenny was glad for the company. He was actually starting to wonder if his cousin's new commitments that took him away from the younger boy were really just a pretext to avoid him.
As much as Kenny was still grappling with his own trust issues -and he was having his own hard time with it- Devlin was working through his own short comings.
Kenny -more of less- forgave Devlin for trying to absorb him at the Rooters base, but things between them weren't exactly back to the way they used to be yet. For starters, even if Kenny now understood why it happened and forgave the older boy for it, that didn't mean that it would never happen again. Devlin was still Osmosian and still perfectly capable of absorbing his faux-Omnitrix again. Forgiveness was one thing, but trust was a different animal entirely. Kenny forgave Devlin, but he still wasn't quite sure if he trusted him again.
And while Kenny was struggling with that, Devlin was grappling with his own issue of jealousy. He wouldn't admit it out loud. But the Osmosian was deeply jealous of his younger cousin.
At the time that Devlin absorbed the faux-Omnitrix and went mad, the Osmosian also made the incredible discovery that Kenny was an Anodite. The younger boy had no idea at the time, and now even knowing what he was, Kenny still couldn't access his mana. But that didn't matter much to Devlin. All his life, the Osmosian wanted different powers, any powers. Powers that didn't come from his criminal father. Powers that wouldn't make him lose his mind if he used them, or hurt those around him. He wanted his mother's powers. Gwendolyn's powers. Anodite powers. Devlin always wanted to be an Anodite instead of an Osmosian, but Kenny got to be the Anodite instead.
Ally hopped out of the truck. Determined to distract Kenny from his dark thoughts for at least a few hours.
With a sigh, the boy followed her up to the order counter.
He paused again when he actually got to the counter however. One eyebrow raised in skepticism. He recognized the one running the register. Dark blue skin and the grill-like triangle that passed as a mouth for insect-type aliens. Human-shaped pale blue eyes, above a human nose. Mingled Earthling and Necrofriggian features. Dylan Billings.
Billings used to be completely human. He attended the Weekend Academy with Kenny and Devlin, and was one of the kids taken by Proctor Servantis when he tried to revive his Amalgam Project. Using Devlin's Osmosian abilities, Servantis grafted Necrofriggian DNA onto Billing's human genes. Ever since, he'd been stuck as another human-alien hybrid.
"Well, look who it is." Billings recognized Kenny too.
"Hey, Billings." Kenny forced a friendly smile on his face. They weren't exactly friends. But after Devlin absorbed Kenny's faux-Omnitrix, the two boys had come to a sort of 'understanding'. "I didn't know you worked here."
"I'm eighteen now." The older boy ruffled his moth-like wings and crossed his arms over his chest. "You know what that means? My foster parent no longer gets a monthly stipend for letting me stay with her. I was planning to be at the real Academy at Galvan by now, but thanks to you and Fake-Tennyson, our Psychologicals were postponed. So I'm left having to scramble to support myself. Now, are you and Albright gonna order, or just gawk at me all day? -And you better freaking tip well! I've got rent to pay now! Everything is rent."
"Um." Kenny began, suddenly unsure.
It was true that after the Rooters fiasco, their Psychologicals were postponed. Ever since Magister Kevin Levin went off the rails and became the worst terrorist the universe had ever seen -the criminal known as Kevin 11,000- the Plumbers changed some things. Now, all Cadets had to take regular psychological exams before they could advance in training, or even get their Plumbers badges at all. Nobody wanted to be responsible for training and outfitting another Kevin 11,000.
But since their Psychologicals had been postponed, Kenny, Devlin, Ally, and Billings couldn't advance to the next steps in their respective training. Devlin, Kenny, and Ally, couldn't move onto their second year at the Weekend Academy, and Billings couldn't graduate up into the real Academy at Galvan. ...And it looked like the older boy had been depending on that advancement to the real Academy.
"Um..." He said again.
Ally nudged him to the side. She offered a sympathetic smile to the hybrid alien. "Are there any specific drinks your manager wants you to promote right now? Anything you get extra credit for up-selling?"
Billings gave her a suspicious glare for a second. He was not used to people trying to help him. Finally, he answered. "The new lemongrass and flaxseed smoothy with almond milk."
With a smile -lemongrass and flaxseed sounded awful- Ally nodded. "Then Kenny will have a large of one of those, and I'll just have a regular hot chocolate. I'm not really a fan of cold drinks."
Of course, as a half-alien herself, a member of a species that burned hotter than the core of the Earth, she would prefer hot beverages over cold ones. Ally pulled out her wallet.
"You letting your girlfriend pay, Tennyson?" Billings teased as he rang them up. "Shame on you."
"She's not my girlfriend!" Kenny all but shouted.
While at the exact same time, Ally very calmly informed Billings. "I'm not his girlfriend."
Billings only rolled his eyes. Seemingly unconcerned. "Whatever. Not my business. You can get your drinks at the pick-up window."
"Thanks, Dylan." And Ally dropped a ten terran bill into the tip jar.
"I didn't give you permission to call me by my first name, Albright!" He called after her. But the Pyronite girl was already pulling Kenny away to the pick-up window.
"He's got terrible customer service." Kenny commented when they were finally out of ear shot.
Ally only rolled her eyes. "Well, this isn't exactly what he planned to do with his life, and what he did plan to do with his life has had to be put on hold for reasons beyond his control. Can you really blame him for being a little bitter and resentful? Plus, it sounds like there's other stuff too. Did you know he was a foster kid? I didn't."
Kenny only shrugged. "I think Magister Wheels might have mentioned it to Dad once, but it wasn't really a conversation I was included in, so I wasn't paying attention. I was more concerned with Dev at the time anyway."
Their drinks came up on the pick-up and they moved to a table in the sunlight.
"And how are you and Devlin doing?" She asked. "You seemed to start reconciling back at my house over the summer."
"Yeah, we started..." Kenny admitted. They had at least started talking about. Not talking as freely or deeply as they used to when they were close. Now their conversations were stinted, shorter, and superficial. They talked about Kenny's games, Devlin's books, their respective schools, or Devlin's new boyfriend. Man! Did Devlin talk about his new boyfriend. A lot. But they didn't really talk about anything deeper anymore. Not their hopes, not their fears, not their feelings.
"Where is Devlin, by the way?" Ally finally asked. "He wasn't at Headquarters when I picked you up."
"Where else?" Kenny shrugged. "With his new boyfriend."
…
Zoraster was the capitol city of Ledgerdomain -where the castle was located.
The castle boasted an expansive garden, mostly for growing herbs and other flora used in the constructing and casting of spells. But a portion of the garden was sequestered off for the Prince's use. Sigil's private garden.
Devlin bent down over a pure white rose and inhaled deeply. Perplexingly, it had no scent. He turned to look at his host, an odd smile on his face. Halfway between admiration and awe. "I've never been to Ledgerdomain before."
Sigil reclined next to a decorative pond that was off center of the garden.
The Osmosian had noticed instantly upon entering the garden, but politely did not comment that there were white stone paths -five white stone paths- criss crossing between the beds. The pond was situated at the juncture of two such paths. At another such juncture was brazier -currently unlit. At another juncture was an empty and unplanted flower bed filled with nothing but rich dark soil. Water, fire, earth. The fourth juncture ended at a sheer drop, the garden falling away into empty air -air. It didn't take a genius to figure out the garden was a pentagram. But then, what did one expect from the grounds attached to a magical castle, in a magical realm, where the magical rulers lived.
"I figured as much." Sigil only smiled at the other boy. Then his eyes fell on the white rose Devlin had been examining. "Take your gloves off."
"Why?" The Osmosian blinked at him.
The sorcerer did not elaborate. He just lifted his chin, silently saying, 'Just go ahead.'
Hesitantly, Devlin hooked a finger under the hem of his gloves. Ever since the incident with the Rooters, when the Osmosian absorbed his cousin's faux-Omnitrix, went insane, and tried to absorb the other boy, Devlin had started wearing the bright green gloves. A light barrier between his hands and anything he might absorb. It was a small precaution. But it made Devlin feel more secure with his powers and more secure with himself. It was also an attempt to try and put Kenny at ease with him and his powers after what happened between them. It didn't work as well at the Osmosian had hoped, but it did help. Now it felt strange to take them off.
Pulling one glove off, he picked the white rose from its stem. A thorn nicked his thumb, a drop of blood trickling onto the shaft. Devlin gasped. The moment his blood touched the stem, the rose's white petals turned a bright, vibrant green. The same shade of green as his eyes. The same shade of green as his car. The same shade of green as his gloves.
Sigil came up behind the other boy. Encircling the Osmosian's waist with his arms, he pulled Devlin's back flush against him and whispered in the other man's ear, his breath warm against the Osmosian's skin. "These roses aren't white. They're blank."
"Magic roses." Devlin muttered back, leaning back into his boyfriend's embrace. What else did one expect to find in a magical garden? Magical flowers should have been a given. "Why'd it turn green? What does green mean?"
Besides jealousy.
Devlin already knew he was jealous. Deeply, deeply jealous of the fact that his cousin was an Anodite. All his life, growing up with his father's powers and his father's mutation, all the Osmosian wanted was to be something else. Anything else. His mother was an Anodite, why couldn't he be an Anodite too? Why did he have to be like his father? Why couldn't he be like his mother? Why did Kenny get to be the Anodite? Neither his father, nor his grandfather were Anodites. Vedona's powers did not pass to Carl or Ben. They shouldn't have been passed to Kenny. But they were. It just wasn't fair!
"Green can mean lots of things." The sorcerer muttered, now talking to the other man's neck. His lips intimately close to a pulse-point on Devlin's throat. "Green is an emotionally positive color. It represents the ability to love and care for ourselves and others unconditionally. Its the color of the Peacemaker, it loves to observe, is a good listener, and serves the community."
It was also the color of the Omnitrix and the Plumbers.
"That all sounds very nice." Muttered the Osmosian.
"I think it suits you." Sigil took the rose from Devlin's hands and slipped it into a chest-pocket on the other boy's vest. He turned him around in his arms and leaned in, lips parting.
That was when the Osmosian tensed. Nervous. When their lips met, he brushed his mouth against the other boy's hesitant and unsure. Then pulled away almost instantly.
Sigil humped, pouting with disappointment. "How come you never kiss me?"
"I kiss you all the time." Devlin informed his boyfriend. "We kissed just now!"
"No. I kissed you just now -and you pulled away." The sorcerer informed him. "What's the deal, Devlin? What's your hang up?" A pause. "You're not... you're not secretly in love with your cousin, are you?"
"No! Gawd, no!" The Osmosian was mortified by the question. Especially since the real reason was much simpler and so much more innocent and mundane. "Sigil, you're my first boyfriend. I've never done this before. I don't- I don't know how to kiss."
There was a pregnant pause.
Then Sigil giggled.
Starting low, then climbing in volume until it was a true and proper laugh. Right. Because being laughed at by his boyfriend for not knowing how to kiss didn't make Devlin feel worse at all. The Osmosian pulled away, his face flushing a humiliated shade of red.
"You don't have to laugh at me, ya know." Devlin muttered, not looking at his boyfriend.
Shaking his head, Sigil smiled. "No." He shook his head. "I think its cute. You're weirdly innocent, Devlin."
Closing the space between them, Sigil pulled the Osmosian back into his arms. Devlin tried to pull away again, but the sorcerer held him tight. He was nowhere near as strong as the Osmosian, if Devlin really wanted to break his hold, he easily could. But the other boy knew his own strength and wasn't about to injure his boyfriend over something like this. Besides, it was nice for the insecure teen to be held so fiercely. It made him feel wanted and needed.
"I can teach you how to kiss." Sigil drew a thumb across Devlin's bottom lip. "Close your eyes and open your mouth."
Again, Devlin hesitated. Giving the other man a suspicious look.
"Not, like, a lot." The sorcerer quickly clarified. "Just, part your lips a little bit."
Taking a breath and letting it out in a sigh, Devlin closed his eyes as he was told. His mouth, however, was pinched shut. His lips pressed together with nerves.
"Relax..." Sigil whispered, leaning in close. His own lips almost brushed Devlin's. Almost. But not quite. "Just spread them and whatever happens, happens."
Devlin didn't comply immediately. For a moment, Sigil thought he wasn't going to at all and this little exercise in kissing was over. Then the Osmosian's bottom lip drifted away from his upper lip in a slight, narrow part.
"Good..." Sigil's breath was hot of his mouth. It sent a shiver ghosting down Devlin's spine where it pooled in his belly, and solidified between his legs. "Now lean up."
Tilting his head upwards, their faces were so close together that Devlin ended up brushing his parted lips against Sigil's. The sorcerer snaked a hand behind the Osmosian's head, holding him in place, preventing the other man from breaking the kiss to soon like he always did. Without even realizing it, a moan rumbled up from deep in Devlin's throat. That was when Sigil allowed the kiss to part.
Devlin's face drifted away, oddly breathless. He blinked his eyes open, staring at Sigil with a dumb-struck and dreaming expression on his face.
"See?" Said the sorcerer. "You kissed me."
The Osmosian's cheeks flushed again. This time a lighter shade of modest pink. "I've never kissed anyone before."
"Maybe next time we can try with tongue." Sigil smiled.
That modest pink blush of Devlin's deepened to scarlet.
Still smiling, the sorcerer brushed a strand of ebony hair back behind the other man's ear. "So oddly innocent..."
"Is that bad?" Asked Devlin.
"No." Sigil shook his head. "Its sexy."
That bright red flush was back again. "You think I'm sexy?"
Taking a step back, the sorcerer gave the other man a serious appraising look. Studying him from the top of his ebony pony tail, to the luminous emerald green of his eyes, the bright pink in his high cheekbones, the delicate bob of his adams apple when he swallowed with apprehension, the hollow of his throat where the neck met his chest, the muscles of his arms that rippled under his shirt. Lower to his leather studded belt that showed off just how small his waist was, his narrow hips, the folds in his denim jeans showing that their kiss had excited him as much as it had Sigil. The sorcerer found himself sucking on his own bottom lip.
"So sexy."
Devlin scratched the back of his head, oddly self-conscious. No one had ever called him 'sexy' before. No one had ever found him attractive before. At least, no one that he knew of. This had literally never happened to him before and he had no idea how he was supposed to behave. How did you respond when someone called you sexy?
Finally, the Osmosian said, "I should get home." He quickly decided that was not the right thing to say because immediately after wards he felt awkward. But the words were already out of his mouth. He was committed now. "I'll be starting at my new school soon and I should be getting ready..."
Sigil looked disappointed.
Devlin avoided eye-contact.
Finally the sorcerer sighed. "I suppose I should get you home before your cousin starts to think I'm trying to eat you like my sister tried to eat him."
He probably meant it as a joke. But after everything that had happened between the cousins, Devlin took it seriously. Was Kenny worried about Devlin spending time alone with his boyfriend? When Devlin worried about Kenny being alone with Lightstar, he charged after the two of them, used his Osmosian powers to phase through a door, absorbed Lightstar, and dented the car. If Kenny remained suspicious of Sigil, would the younger boy eventually do the same thing?
So, the Osmosian said, "I would like it if you tried to get along with him."
"You don't even get along with him." The sorcerer shot back without hesitation. Devlin had already told him how they used to be very close, but had grown distant after an incident where Devlin nearly consumed the dormant Anodite. But from what Sigil had seen, they were not close again. They were still very, very distant. "Maybe I should try and fix you two before I start sucking up to your cousin."
Devlin smiled an odd, forlorn smile. "Fixing me and Kenny would take way more than what I think you can do." He said. "Our issues are kinda... deep."
"Then I'll just have to go deeper." Sigil smiled. He thumbed the green rose he'd slipped into Devlin's vest pocket. The Osmosian looked down at what his boyfriend was pointing at and the sorcerer raised the finger to boop him on the nose. Sigil swaggered back to the bush of white roses -blank roses- and made a bubble of mana around one of them so that he could pick it without picking his fingers on the stem.
"What's that for?" Asked the Osmosian.
"A peace offering." Replied the sorcerer. "You want me to try and get along with your cousin, right? I wonder what color his rose will turn."
…
It was sunset by the time both boy's finally made their ways home. Kenny retuning from his day hanging out with Ally and Devlin being escorted home by his boyfriend.
"Oh. Hi. You're home." Kenny came up short exiting the elevator, seeing his older cousin leading his boyfriend in through the hanger. Clearly their date went well since after Sigil saw him home, Devlin had invited him inside for drinks and snacks. "And you brought Lightstar's brother."
There was a tense pause.
"I, uh, brought this for you." Sigil materialized a white rose in a ball of mana and offered it to the younger boy. "Consider it a peace offering. No hard feeling towards you over what happened with my sister, and I hope you don't have hard feelings towards me." A pause. "Just to reiterate, I didn't inherit our father's mutation."
He held up his hands, palms out so that Kenny could clearly see that his hands did not have Darkstar's trademark leech-like sucker that was the defining characteristic of a Lampray.
There was another pause.
Devlin made eye-contact with his cousin, urging him to take the peace offering. Kenny was ready to start reconciling with the older boy, and the older boy wanted his cousin -whom was like a brother to him- to get along with his boyfriend. Suppressing the urge to sigh, Kenny reached for the offered rose.
"Thanks, Sig, that was really thoughtful of you."
The mana bubble around the rose vanished when Kenny touched it, allowing the boy to wrap his hand around the stem. Inevitably, he pricked a finger on one of the thorns, drawing blood. "Ouch!"
He dropped the rose, sucking on his finger, glaring at the flower as if it were a rude, uninvited guest that had just insulted his ancestors. But his angry glare melted into an expression of perplexed curiosity when the white rose turned a bright vibrant green. The same shade of green as his eyes. The Tennyson eyes. The same shade of green as the Omnitrix. His shade of green.
Devlin didn't say anything. But it figured that Kenny's magical rose would also be green. The color of the Protector archetype. After all, Kenny had been protecting Devlin since they were kids. Just like he vowed when they were eleven and ten, respectively, and Kenny was pulling Devlin out of a dumpster. Kenny vowed to be Devlin's hero, and up until the Rooters fiasco, he was Devlin's hero. Estranged though they were at the moment, there was no doubt in the Osmosian's mind that Kenny would still be his own private protector.
Bending down, Kenny picked up the rose. This time more mindful of the thorns and carful not to prick his finger. "Neat magic trick. Wonder if I can do it to if I ever learn to access my Anodite powers."
Devlin bristled at the reminder that the younger boy was an Anodite and he was not.
Sigil did not reply to the comment. He was staring at the rose with a thoughtful expression on his face. Kenny's rose had also turned green, the same shade as Devlin's rose. It was the color of the Peacemaker and the Protector. But from what the young sorcerer had seen of the other boy so far, it was Kenny that needed protecting. Then again, Devlin did swear up and down that when they were younger Kenny had been his champion. Sigil hadn't seen it, but he'd only just recently come into their lives, and Devlin had said that their issues went deep.
Originally, the sorcerer had been joking when he told Devlin he should 'try and fix' the cousins before becoming friends with Kenny. But if he could just go deeper. Revive the roots of their relationship... maybe he could fix them.
Sigil's eyes fell back on the matching roses. The color of the Protector.
And he knew just the engine to do it too.
…