Ben's house

April 8th, 2000

9:27 AM

He was dimly aware of the buzzing noise until it started getting louder, gradually forcing awareness on him. The noise continued to slowly grow louder, not so much it hurt, but really annoying, and then started to fade so that he could almost ignore it again. Then the cycle repeated, and by the third or fourth time - it was hard to keep track, as his awareness faded in and out with the buzz, and who cared anyway? - he had almost been able to ignore it altogether as it substituted for normal. Then the second buzz started, different than the first in pitch and volume, and the volume stayed at a louder, more obnoxious level. The two combined made him clench his jaw in growing irritation, until Ben finally opened one eye just enough to see bright sunlight flooding his room through the window. He woke up slowly, the twin buzzes filling his ears, and turned his head so it faced the nightstand next to his bed. Opening the other eye, he had to try to focus on the clock, the blur finally going away so he could see the time. 9:30. He groaned as the twin buzzes got louder and he finally figured out what they were. "Shit! Can't old man Baumann get his yard crew to start a little later?" he mumbled into his pillow.

Ben rolled onto his back and stretched his body from his feet up to his hands, pushing his arms over his head. And immediately regretted it, as his right shoulder throbbed with a dull pain. He cringed, and it wasn't from that pain. Yep, it wasn't a nightmare, the Dweeb had in fact kicked his ass during karate yesterday. Or more like used him as a speed bag, the pain in his shoulder was only the worst of the various bruises he had on his arms and ribs from too many partial blocks to her blizzard of punches and strikes. Feet of Fury my ass, he thought, she was all fists yesterday. She knew he was just getting up to speed with the moves they were supposed to be practicing. And what the hell got into her in the first place?

As he rolled out of bed and got to his feet, Ben wondered again at what he could have done that would make Gwen do that. Still nothing. She apologized over and over, and he knew she meant them just as he knew how badly her nightmares were affecting her. But as true as that was, he couldn't help but wonder what else was true that she wouldn't say. Was she that annoyed that he was a green belt now, like her? That he was catching up to her? It wasn't the first time he thought she was angry he tried to be as good as she was.

Ben shook his head. That wasn't it. He knew it wasn't, after all the times she had helped him practice, and the way she looked at him and smiled from ear to ear when he finished his test, and again when Sensei gave him the new green belt. Those weren't her fake smiles. So what was it that kept nagging the back of his mind?

He walked the couple of feet to his dresser, where his T shirt and jeans lay in a ball on the floor where he threw them last night. He was tired when he got home and it was too much trouble to even stuff them in a drawer. He didn't feel bad about staying a bit later than usual at her house, though, each Friday night seemed to be getting longer by 5 or 10 minutes lately. He got a small grin at that thought. As soon as he started to take his pajamas shirt off, it transformed into a wince, and he looked at his shoulder in the mirror as he dropped the shirt at his feet. Even though it was still an ugly purple with yellow-green dots where her knuckles hit, and hurt like hell, he knew it would have been even worse if she hadn't used her magic to make it start healing sooner than nature would normally allow. Figures, he thought, I get a wicked gross bruise and I can't really show it off. Evil witch!

As he was admiring the reflection he heard a single knock on his door, and his Dad opened it and came in saying "Up and at 'em, Sport, you can't stay in bed... all ... morning." with a laugh, obviously a bit disappointed that Ben was already up. Then it was him grimacing at the sight of his son's shoulder. "Holy... That's worse than I expected! Your Mom said you must have taken a good shot, but she didn't know it was like that! Who'd you get that ticked off at you? Gwen?"

Ben just frowned and said "Pssht!" Not really a no.

"Wasn't Paul, was it? Or that other big kid with a blue belt, Steve, was it? I keep telling you if you don't dial back the snark with them they're gonna let you have it!" Dad grinned.

Ben groaned a little as he pulled his T-shirt on, "I was just a little slow blocking a punch. Like any of them could do this if I was paying attention!"

"Hmpf. Maybe paying attention would be worth while, ya know? Anyway, come on downstairs, we need to stock up on stuff at Costco today, and I don't want to be there when the afternoon crowd hits." He closed the door and went back downstairs.

Ben finished changing and put on his sneakers with a mixed grin. He didn't really want to spend a couple hours wandering around getting jumbo packages of paper towels, canned tomato sauce, and junk like that. On the other hand, he could usually get a pretty good afternoon snack from all the food samples! He remembered not to shrug. Take the good with the bad. He picked up his phone and looked in the mirror before heading down to the kitchen, and almost tried to smooth down his hair before giving himself a sly grin and said "Nah! Already awesome!"

He did his usual controlled crash down the stairs, and laughed at the expected "Ben! How many times do I have to tell you to not run on the stairs!" from his Mom.

"Don't know, we're both still alive!" he called back. And laughed some more when she groaned "Ben..."

He poured a double helping of cereal in a large bowl along with some milk, and grabbed the carton of strawberries next to the OJ. He settled down to eat when his Dad spoke up from where he stood by the coffee maker "And that's why we need to make a Costco run. Better get three cereal packages.", knowing full well that each package had two extra large boxes. Ben just shot him a dirty look as he shoveled in a heaping spoonful out of spite. Made him gag, and Dad chuckled.

While he was eating, Ben's phone started vibrating, making a racket as it resonated on the countertop, and playing the text alarm. Thinking it might be his Dweeb, he jerked his left arm to pick it up and just about dumped his glass of orange juice when the watch bumped it, earning him a raised eyebrow and a shake of the head from his Dad. Flipping the thing open, he was surprised the message wasn't from Gwen after all. Instead the display read Paul, with a message underneath.

Hey Shorty, I've got some free time this afternoon, want to find out how not to be her punching bag on Monday?

He let out a low, surprised "No way!" that Dad picked up. "Something wrong, Sport?"

Ben recovered from the surprise, saying "Um, no, it's Paul. You remember, you met him when I got my green belt? He's been helping me with some new stuff, right, and he wants to know if I want to practice this afternoon." He gave the idea a few seconds' thought, then asked "Can he come over instead of me going with you guys?" He tried the puppy dog look, but wasn't sure he pulled it off. But his Dad looked at his Mom, she looked at him and back to his Dad, and nodded with a smile. "Why not? He seems like a nice guy. Unless he's the one who gave you that sore shoulder?" she added with a semi-fierce growl.

Meanwhile Ben had tapped out

And you want to know how she's doing, too. ;) Im checking

He looked up at Mom and said "No, it wasn't him. Practicing with him is fun, not a pain." Not as good as with Gwen, but he knew she was busy today. "Can I?"

This time Dad answered "Yeah, sure. We'll go after he gets here. What time?"

Ben looked back at the phone.

Paul

Yeah, that too. You got me

and grinned as he punched out

Uh huh. My parents say OK, what time?

Paul

How about 1

"Is one o'clock ok?"

His Dad thought for a second and replied "OK. We'll be gone for a couple hours, you guys have fun." Ben grinned and said "Thanks!" and turned back to his phone.

Cool!

Paul

Great. Send me your address, see you at 1

- X - X - X -

The door bell rang a few minutes before 1, and Ben called out "I'll get it" as he crashed down the stairs. Pulling open the door, he saw Paul laughing to himself before saying "Hey Squirt!" Ben cut off whatever he was going to say with "Hey! Geez, you haven't come inside yet and you already have that look like I just fell flat on my, er, butt. What's funny?" A quick sideways glance let him know his Mom was about to say something about his language before he caught himself. She was walking to the door to greet his friend.

Paul walked in saying "The wreck I heard before you opened the door! Either you've got elephants dancing upstairs or that was your graceless a", and he must have picked up on Mom's attitude because he shifted words in mid-sentence "um, tail banging down the stairs."

Ben closed the door and turned around to see both his parents there, Dad reaching out his hand saying "Hello, Paul, good to see you again." Paul shook it, "Yeah, you too. Thanks for letting me come over. Gotta make sure your boy knows how to defend himself!" he said with a smirk. "Hi, Mrs Tennyson."

Both his parents returned the smirk, and his Mom said "Hi, Paul. You'll be careful with him, right, he's a bit fragile!", playing along.

"Hey! I'm standing right here!"

"No worries, I've got lots of gauze pads to wrap my hands in. I'll use bubble wrap if you have any, though!" Paul was happy to keep the game going another round, and his Dad laughed while Ben glared at all of them.

"Sure! Always pick on the little guy..." he grumbled.

His Dad grabbed the keys to the mini-van as his Mom put on a light jacket. "We'll be out for a couple hours. There's stuff for snacks in the kitchen, just clean up whatever mess you make this time?" She kissed the top of his head and said "Have fun!" Ben made a half-effort to dodge it, and groaned out "Mom!", making the word sound like it had three or four syllables. His Dad followed up "I keep telling you, it's easier if you just go with it. Be good." They walked out the door, and Ben made sure it was closed before turning around.

"Your parents are pretty cool" Paul said.

"I guess, even though you made it to the top of their favorite list in record time."

"Stop whinging, dude, it's undignified!" They both laughed. Paul continued "So where can we practice? Indoors...?" He was looking around, but the family room and dining room were clearly wrong. "Or your back yard? It isn't cold, really, and I plan to keep you busy."

Ben replied "Yeah, we've got enough space on the back lawn. And one of us will be busy dodging, that's for sure!" and gave Paul a scornful smirk as he led the way to the back yard.

One he had reason to rethink after about 15 minutes. Paul started with doing each move Gwen used yesterday at half speed, one at a time, and progressed to full speed. Ben was able to keep up, although there were a few punches to his ribs, and of course to the shoulder, that were fairly new to him so his blocks and counters lacked precision and speed. Still, he was huffing pretty good, and they paused to catch their breaths. Paul ended up giving him a few stiff taps to some bruises from yesterday, but nothing he couldn't handle, so he said "These aren't as hard as I thought yesterday. How come she got past me?"

Paul grinned and said "You mean how did she whip your scrawny tail?" and laughed, the dirtbag, when Ben complained that wasn't what happened at all. "Yeah, she did, I was right behind you two and saw the whole sorry episode! ... Seriously, here's how. You're used to working on individual moves and simple sequences - punch, block, counter, like that. Now you need to think about sets of sequences, and the goal - well, one of 'em, anyway - is to confuse and overwhelm and set up your opponent, to score points. The first punch or kick you throw isn't necessarily meant to land, it's a bonus if it does. But if it's part of a sequence, it's meant to open you up to a later move. See what I'm getting at?"

"You mean like what she did at the end of class?"

"Yeah, exactly. So let's go through that series a few times, half speed, OK?"

They spent another twenty minutes with Paul pointing out the details of his explanation for each move, and how they were put together to score match points. By the end, they were going at it full speed, and Ben took a few more lumps, even though Paul was being careful. He finally called quits when he threw the same series Gwen did, but at Ben's left shoulder, with almost the same result. His punch got through, but Paul stopped it an inch before he connected.

They were both breathing hard again, but Ben still got out the words between gasps "Why'd you stop? I don't want you taking it easy on me!"

Paul smirked "You want me to hit you full force? I had you dead to rights, and I outweigh you by twenty pounds easy. Not bragging, but that would have hurt way more than what Gwen did yesterday. The point was to show you that was a set specifically meant for competition, or for an honest to god fight, not to put you on the ground." He took a deep breath. "Besides, I don't want to face your Dad after smacking you full force. What I said to you goes for me too, I don't really want him mad at me."

They got their breathing back to normal, and Paul continued "I could use something to drink?"

Ben grinned "Me too, and maybe something to eat. Come on." He led Paul back into the kitchen and opened the fridge. "Take what you like, I think we have soda in the garage, too."

Paul grinned at seeing packs of Capri Sun and said "I haven't had these in ages!" as he grabbed two. Ben said "Get a couple for me, too" and got a pack of cookies out of a cabinet. They sat at the counter and attacked their snacks. After finishing one of the drink packets Paul caught Ben's eye and finally asked what he'd been dreading since morning.

"Now that I showed you what Gwen did, you understand how she got to you, right? That sequence was meant to score points and it almost always works. You did good, I've seen brown belts get beat by it." Ben just kept a steady gaze and nodded at the end. Here it comes...

"So do you know what's bothering her? I've never seen her get that close to losing control, and she clearly wasn't mad at you. She looked like crap before class, too. Something's got her messed up. Any clues?" He looked seriously worried, so Ben said quietly "I'd rather not go into it here", the kitchen was too public even if they were alone in the house. "My game console is in my room if we're gonna play."

Ben threw away the trash, then started up the stairs. On the way Paul noticed the various pictures on the wall, and stopped briefly to look closely at one. It was a group shot of his family and Gwen's when they were maybe 8, and even though they could hardly deal with each other then they were standing side by side. Which had given him a chance to sneak up his fingers behind her head. His Mom and Dad thought it was hilarious, but she had been furious!

Paul kept going but grinned and commented "You gave her rabbit ears in that? Nice one, Squirt!"

Ben returned the grin and said "We were 8 years old, give me a break!" Then he thought Oh shit, that's a family picture! Don't ask, don't ask, please don't ask! Paul just kept climbing the stairs, though.

When they got to his room, Ben took a breath and started to explain "I'm not blowing off your question. We hung out last night like usual. What?!" he asked, scowling as Paul got a shit eating grin. He sat down on the edge of his bed and put his hands flat by his sides. Paul sat in the desk chair facing him and replied "Nothing! I think it's great that you guys do that, is all!"

Ben kept going "My Dwee..." He caught himself staring at the floor, but there wasn't any reason to look away. Paul knew they were friends. He looked right at him. "My Dweeb apologized, more than once. She told me she didn't sleep much, so she was kinda out of it during class. She just forgot." That wasn't the whole story, of course, but talking about the nightmares would only bring up other questions, that he couldn't explain. And they were personal, between them. They didn't even tell Grandpa the details.

"You believe her?" Paul leaned forward, his elbows on his thighs.

"Yeah. You're right, she wasn't mad at me. She told me so." Ben shrugged. That was pretty much all there was to say. He wasn't going to bring up his doubts. No point.

"So she's OK? She had me worried there. You're good?" Ben could tell Paul had more on his mind, but was glad his new friend was OK with the answer and didn't push it.

"Yeah. And don't worry. I'll watch out for her."

"I don't doubt it! Guess you two are meant to watch each other's back, huh?" Paul said with a relieved look and sat back in the chair.

Ben got a slight smile and agreed "That's what we do!" He stood up and said "We've got about an hour before my parents get back. Want to play something? I've got Sumo loaded!" he added with a smirk.

Paul dramatically fell face forward to the desk with his hands at his head, "I can't believe you rot your brain with that crap!" He looked up and turned to face Ben "I brought my Medal of Honor cartridge if you want to try something that requires skill and intelligence, but I'll show you the error of your ways with that if you insist!"

Then he saw the guitar and amp tucked between the desk and bed, pointed to it and asked "Do you play that thing, or is it neglected by your unnatural infatuation with shitty games?"

Ben glared back, holding back his smirk, "I can do both! And I'll show you how shitty it isn't if..." but Paul was looking intently at his guitar now.

"Those are pretty heavy gauge strings." He looked at Ben's hands, then back. "You don't have fingernails, do you pick or just do chords?"

"Um, both. I had lighter strings but I kept breaking them." He got a little embarrassed, not enough to blush though. Until he thought of the first night he played for Gwen, and busted the string on a crazy power chord. He felt the heat start then. "You play, too?"

Paul just kept looking and asked "Yeah, I fool around with mine. Mind if I try it? I like to hear what different models sound like."

"Yeah, sure. Everything should be plugged in."

Paul leaned over and flipped the power switch and the amp started to hum softly. He picked up the guitar and slung the strap over his shoulder while he stood up. He strummed all the strings, when Ben said "You can turn the volume up a little since no one else is home. My parents like to complain about noise." he snorted with some disgust.

Paul did, then straightened up. Ben didn't know what to expect, but it wasn't what Paul did. He started slowly picking a scale, starting with his hand on the fretboard next to the tuning pegs and working down to the body. As he moved down the fretboard he increased the speed of the notes until his fingers were flying over the frets and the strings over the pickups. He went up and down the scale, changed keys at least twice, and went directly into an intricate piece of music that Ben knew he'd heard before, but couldn't place. He was gobsmacked at the way Paul was playing, recognizing how the boy was concentrating as he played - Gwen described his own face once when he was shredding a song. He had to have looked like that! Ben couldn't help smiling as Paul finished, and the older boy looked up with a grin.

"I like it! A little darker sound than mine, but nice."

"No kidding! That was amazing! How long have you been playing? And what was that?"

"Um, let me think... something like six or seven years. You don't recognize the song? How about now?" He started playing, something familiar, but... Then it hit him, and Ben called out "My Sharona?! Are you serious?!" Paul played softer but didn't stop "Yeah, hang on" and then played louder at the solo and just wailed! He stopped when the solo was over and looked at Ben. "I swear the Knack wrote that POS song just for the solo! Most people switch the station when it comes on the radio and miss it!"

He unslung the strap and held it out to a Ben. "Your turn. Show me what you got."

Ben felt his cheeks burn for real and crossed his arms. Playing when someone else besides his Dweeb was listening? He'd never done that, except for a time or two for his parents, and the prank when Gwen brought Army Girl over, and they didn't count. "No, I don't sound as good as that..."

"Pffft! So what? Playing for yourself is OK, but performing is almost always better. That's the point of being a guitar hero, right? Isn't it more fun when Gwen is rocking out with you?"

Ben's jaw dropped and he took a step forward. "How do you know about that?! Did she tell you? What did she say?!"

Paul started laughing. "Whoa, cool your jets dude! Holy sheepshit! ... I didn't know anything until a few seconds ago! I was making a joke, your reaction told me it was true!" He finished laughing and asked "So what do you play for her?", and wiped at his eye with the heel of his right hand, holding the guitar out again with his left.

Ben rolled his eyes and thought what the hell, took his axe and slung it over his shoulder with a wince, and mumbled "I hate you". His friend just barked out another laugh. "Sure! Start with something you play a lot."

Without really thinking about it, Ben started the song that got him into playing in the first place, Detroit Rock City. He got past the intro all right, but fumbled a little from lingering doubt that he would play well enough. He looked up, saw Paul nod encouragement, and kept at it. He was over any doubts by the time he got to the solo and nailed it! He finished the song, then a second Kiss tune naturally followed. He stopped at the end, letting the strap hold the weight of his guitar and looked to see Paul's reaction.

Which was as good as he hoped it would be. Paul had his good natured grin plastered on his face and said "What were you being shy about? Those were good! So you're part of the Kiss Army, huh? Do you know anything more recent?"

Ben explained "Yeah, I got this after I saw them at a concert when I was eight, and learned a bunch of their stuff. But I've been picking up new songs, too." He strummed across all the strings once, tapped out a tempo with his left foot, and launched into Follow You Down, dancing his fingers across the strings, remembering what it was like when he first played it for her. When he finished the smile he had almost hurt.

Paul took notice of that and guessed "She likes that one, right? C'mon, 'fess up!" and grinned. Ben felt the heat return to his face but nodded. "Yeah. Gwen said she liked it when we heard it on the radio once, so I learned it. Then I got a Gin Blossoms cassette and learned a few more."

"So you're expanding your repertoire, good for you! Different style of playing, huh?"

"Reper...? Oh, right. Yeah, I'm adding to my playlist. Not just them, either." Ben unslung the guitar, handed it to Paul. "Your turn." he said with a little smirk.

Paul took the challenge, "OK, how about this..." and ripped out Hey Jealousy so rambunctiously that Ben was almost afraid he'd have to replace a string after all. When that song finished, Paul asked "Do you like Foo Fighters?", and played There Goes My Hero. Ben continued to be amazed at how Paul played, as well as the fact he played at all. Who'd have guessed they'd have this in common, too? When Paul finished he had a far away look in his eyes for a few seconds, then grinned and slipped off the strap. "Back atcha!"

This game was more fun than Sumo, Ben thought with surprise. Well, maybe not more, but different. "Yeah, I like some of their stuff" and did Everlong. He finished and asked "How's that?"

"Pretty good, Shorty, pretty good!" Paul replied, leaning now against his dresser. He raised an eyebrow and asked "Have you played that for Gwen?"

"Yeah, why?"

"The guitar riffs and vocal line are cool, but have you looked at the words? Lots of ways to interpret them. You're not worried she''ll think that's kind of a couple-ey thing?" Paul gave him a sly grin. "You might want to be careful about the lyrics more, you know she'll look them up. Think she won't be looking for hidden meanings?" He stopped for a second, waiting for a reaction.

Ben's thoughts started racing. Damn, they agreed they wouldn't do that! Since when did she stop over-thinking things, though. His cheeks were burning now. Aw, man!

Paul laughed at his realization. "Uh huh. I'm not saying you should stop new songs for her, just know what you're putting out there. Give it here, let me show you something a little less prone to misunderstanding."

After transferring the instrument again, Paul tapped out a tempo and started a tune Ben knew he hadn't heard before, definitely not his style. He would have skipped over it if he heard it in the radio, it was slower and didn't rely on power chords, and there wasn't a lot of picking until the bridge, more like using chords instead of single notes. Hard to explain, but it grew on him. Paul finished it, and explained "That's more modern surf music from Los Straightjackets, the tune is Pacifica. I know, not your usual thing, but it's good to do some different stuff now and then. Helps build technique. And it's an instrumental, no lyrics to misinterpret." He cocked his to the left "Get my drift?"

Paul didn't wait for an answer. "Then there's this" and started a faster paced, more bouncy tune with lots of chord work and picking. Ben recognized it, he had played the original version at her house last night, Cliffs of Dover. He grinned at the memory and said "I know that one! I played the radio version for Gwen yesterday, she said I should learn it!"

Paul must have heard him because he started grinning like a maniac, and was almost at the bridge when Mom appeared in the doorway. Followed by his Dad, and both were frowning, and Mom was complaining "... told you to not have the volume so high, Ben!"

Then she stopped talking, Paul stopped playing, and only the amp made any noise for a second. Then Ben almost shouted "Mom! Dad! We didn't hear you come in!" while Paul was apologizing "Sorry, it's my fault! I was playing with a little too much enthusiasm" at the same time, and Mom and Dad just stood there in shock.

Dad spoke first "No! No, don't be sorry. We're just not used to hearing Ben's guitar, let alone being played by someone besides him. That was really good!"

Then it was Mom's turn "Um, yeah, I liked that, and the one before it. That was you, too?"

Paul grinned at the praise. "Thanks! Yeah, that was me. But Squirt here has been showing off how multi-talented he is with his hands, between karate and making music."

His parents laughed at that, and Mom said "Really? We don't get to hear him play much." giving him a funny look. "How'd you manage that?"

"I just played off his cockiness, I asked if he was a guitar hero and, well, here we are!" Paul's smirk was pure evil, and Ben's glare would have blistered paint if there was any heat to it.

"Still picking on the little guy, I see!" he grumbled. Everyone else laughed, then Paul said "Now's your chance, dude, show 'em something."

He thought for a moment. "Well, Dad said he wanted to hear this. Kind of a buzzkill, so remember you asked for it." And Ben started the prank routine. His Mom just gasped and clamped her mouth closed, Dad looked puzzled, and he couldn't read Paul's expression. Again, though, he got the pained expression from Dad and Paul at the start of Everybody Cries, then explosions of laughter from both after the chorus of Kung Fu Fighting! Mom joined in, and by the time he hit the bridge Paul had fallen on his bed in a fit!

They all had a good laugh at the end, with his Dad saying "Yeah, that fits as one your epic pranks! Good one, Sport!" His parents turned to leave, and his Mom closed the door saying "Turn the volume down a little, too, OK?" As his parents walked down the hall Mom said "First his cousin, now this? What's got into that boy?" with another laugh.

Paul was still laughing as Ben froze, then took the strap off and leaned his axe against the bed. He turned to the window and crossed his arms.

"That's what you two kept giggling about last week? You were both really irritating, but now I get it! Awesome! ... All right, give it here, let's see what else we can do..."

Paul looked at him then, and got a concerned look. "What's wrong? I thought you were doing good, this was fun!"

Ben turned, and put his right hand to the back of his head, then looked towards where his Mom had been talking. "It was, but..." He grimaced back at Paul, and saw him connect some dots in his head.

"Ah. Gwen is the cousin, huh?" he said in a neutral tone.

Ben let his hand drop, feeling helpless, and fell sitting on his bed. His head dropped as he wondered how he could explain this. Up tp now his family relationship with her had never been said out loud around the dojo, there was always the possibility, however unlikely, they only had the same last name. Now Paul was going to know the truth, about his sick feelings about her. There was no way to avoid it though, Ben saw how Paul had stared at the photo in the stairs of both families together when they were little, and now his mom of all people had let the cat out of the bag. That would have been hilarious if it were about someone else's cousin.

He nodded and then looked directly at Paul and said simply, but with a trace of pride, "Yeah. She is." He expected to hear some kind of outraged surprise, shock, a snarky comment about keeping it in the family, or some similar expression of disgust. Paul just kind of stared, and before he could say anything Ben added softly "You didn't know that?" and stared at his shoes.

Paul's expression changed, but not the way Ben thought it would, as he shifted his weight from one foot to the other. Instead of being grossed out, Paul was... thinking? Whatever was going through his head, after what seemed like a long time, the older boy just said "I guess I never really thought about it."

Ben started to shout, then remembered where he was and kept his voice down, and wrapped his arms around his stomach. "That doesn't bother you?" leaning forward a little. "That we're cousins, and we, I ... Well, you know."

Paul shrugged and said "Um, no. Should it? You're not brother and sister." That was a statement, but it somehow made Ben burn even harder from his shoulders up and shudder a little. "Wha?!"

Paul struggled to not burst out laughing at Ben's shock. "Geez, that's priceless! You can't be, you have different parents, dumbass!" He cocked his head to his right "You're too easy to get to!" And then he did laugh, the way he did when he heard a good story at the dojo, not loud, and not mean. "Look, I know what you're getting at, but no, it doesn't bother me. Why should it?" His grin faded as he kept on talking "I don't really know what you two mean to each other - I still think you're more than friends, but that's just me - but don't let some ignorant way of thinking mess with your head." He smirked. "Lord knows there's too many stripped gears in there as it is!"

Ben looked up at him in relief. "Really?"

Paul snorted "Really really. And don't worry, I won't say anything about this. Anywhere. Not my story to tell." He stuck his hand in his right front pocket and came out with a game cartridge. "Someone will be coming around to get me in forty minutes or so, that'll give me plenty of time to kick your ass, if you're game." He smirked again at his pun and held the cartridge out.

Ben groaned as he felt the smile spread across his face, stood up and took it. "That was lame! I'm gonna make you pay for that!" and walked to the game console on his dresser.