"We've been at this for hours!"

"It can't be that hard to find a place to stay. We're in Empire City, after all. And what happens in Empire City never sleeps."

"The only places to stay we're gonna find at this time of night are probably not worth staying at in the first place. We're better off sleeping in the car."

"I told you, we're not sleeping in the car!"

"Why not?"

"…"

"Why not, Steven?" – Ben repeated.

"Because how am I supposed to prove that I can live independently if I can't even find a place to stay?" – Steven responded, slightly heated.

"Who are you trying to prove that to? The Gems?"

Steven stayed quiet for a moment, staring ahead at the road.

"No. The Gems already believe I can do it." – Steven then told him.

"Th-" – Ben was about to ask again, but Steven interrupted him.

"To myself!" – he yelled. Ben looked at him. "How am I supposed to live if I can't even manage to find a roof over my head?" – Steven told him.

"I think just living on the road like that is independence enough. Besides, aren't you using your dad's car to drive around? And his money?" – Ben asked. Steven knew that with his dad's money, he could rent a room in any hotel in the city, but that would defeat the whole point of living independently.

"Yeah. Between the two of us, I'm totally the one doing all the depending around here." – Steven decided to remark sarcastically instead as Steven's Dondai stopped for a red light.

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"It is my car we're driving in." – Steven said matter-of-factly.

"Yeah, and we wouldn't be driving in it right now if you didn't value "independency" so much."

"We're still not sleeping in the car! I don't know what you drive around in, but the Dondai doesn't have a bathroom, if you haven't noticed. Where are we supposed to shower?" – Steven backed up his argument.

"Never been a problem for me." – Ben mumbled under his breath.

"Well, it is for me!"

"Who made you king of the road trip?" – Ben objected.

"Who made you the authority on independency?" – Steven retorted.

"If you want to be independent so much, why don't you just go live in the forest and forage for survival? Because otherwise you'd always be depending on society and the infrastructure." – Ben told him sarcastically. Steven had to pause and think of a response to that.

"Okay, I've done that before, and I'm not looking for that level of independence again" – he admitted.

"See? So it's okay to take help every once in a while." – Ben told him. "Wait wait wait wait, you've lived in the wilderness?"

"Yeah, I guess it is okay to take help. I had to learn that the hard way." – Steven said, ignoring the question. "But I don't know anyone who can help us way out here in Empire City. Except maybe…" – he pulled over so he could pick up his phone and call someone.

"Hey! Are you… It's really loud, I can't hear you! Are you playing in Empire City tonight? You are? Where? No, I don't know where that is. Listen, do you know if we can- I said, DO YOU KNOW IF WE CAN GET A PLACE TO STAY TONIGHT? Okay, we'll come by. So that's the Lo- yeah, alright. I'll look for it on Boogle Maps. See you there." – Steven said and hung up.

"Sorry for yelling earlier, by the way." – he also told Ben.

"That's okay, I'm very sleepy too. Also all these neon lights everywhere are so irritating, they're driving me crazy. Really driving home the "never sleeps" part. So, did you find us a hotel?" – Ben asked eagerly.

"Well, not a hotel exactly, no."


"We're here." – Steven told Ben as he parked the car.

"Yeah, I can tell. I'm the one holding the map." – Ben responded. They both got out of the car.

"The Love Glove. Why is it called that?" – Ben wondered as they stared at the neon sign.

"I don't know, night clubs are weird." – Steven responded.

"So what do we do about…" – Ben tilted his head towards the bouncer outside. He was extremely big and menacing. He also seemed to be wearing a prosthetic on his left hand. He wasn't a physical problem for Ben or Steven, but he did still look intimidating.

"What?" – Steven asked.

"What do you mean, what? We're 16! This is a night club! He's not just gonna let us in there!" – Ben told Steven as they headed around the corner, away from the bouncer so that he wouldn't notice them. "Did your friend say anything about a bouncer?"

"He might have forgotten to mention it? Maybe you're right. Well, me and Connie would go as Stevonnie to stuff like this, but…" – Steven was thinking out loud, and he looked at Ben. "No."

"What?" – Ben asked, not quite getting what he was talking about. "Okay, okay, you can shape-shift, right?" – he asked Steven. Steven nodded. "Can you shape-shift into a grown-up?" – Ben asked him.

"Does this answer your question?" – Steven said and started shape-shifting. His whole body started radiating pink extremely brightly (especially his gem, which glowed so brightly it almost turned white), the contours of his silhouette changed, he got taller, grew body hair and as the glowing dimmed, the figure of a man in his late twenties/early thirties stood before them.

"Meet Stefan!" – he declared.

Ben eyed him up and down. "Yeah, I don't know if "midlife crisis" is going to be a thing the bouncer would go for." – he then said.

Stefan, heartbroken, changed his shape again, this time looking like a young adult.

"Let's hope he doesn't ask us for an ID." – Ben said. "Otherwise, you look good."

"So what are you gonna do?" – Steven asked him.

"You know what time it is?" – Ben said, with a smug grin.

"12:45 AM" – Steven looked at his phone. As he got it out of his pocket, he realized that his clothes were too tight for him now. "OH MAN, 12:45?!"

"Wrong. It's hero time!" – Ben exclaimed as he slammed down the Omnitrix. In a flash of light not too unlike Steven's, though green, Ben also grew in size – though, much taller than even Stefan.

"Oh, man, of all the times I ask for Fourarms and NOW you give it to me?" – Ben complained at the Omnitrix.

"Yeah, I don't think the extra arms are gonna do you any favors." – Steven remarked.

"I know! I was going to turn into Gray Matter or something and just jump into your jacket pocket. Hopefully they'll let us in." – Ben said as they went to stand in line.

"How long do you think we'll have to wait in line?" – Steven asked Ben. "I'm not sure I can keep this transformation too long."

"Yeah, the Omnitrix is known for de-transforming me at the worst possible moment too. We probably chould have thought this through better." – Fourarms admitted.

"Ben Tennyson! Steven Universe!" – they heard the bouncer say. They looked and yep – the bouncer was looking directly at them. Both Ben and Steven de-transformed to their normal selves.

"How did you know it was us?" – Ben asked.

"Are you kidding me? That's one of your most famous transformations!" – he told Ben. "My favorite's Upgrade, though. Come on in. DJ-SC told me you guys were gonna drop by." – the bouncer said warmly.

"Wow… that easy?" – Ben thought to himself.

"Just stay out of trouble, or… I'm gonna have to kill you." – the bouncer then added in a completely different, cold and intimidating voice. The sudden change of his expression was almost uncanny and Ben and Steven didn't know how to react, but then he smiled again. "Just kidding, boys. You have fun in there."

"Steven!" – they heard someone yell. A guy wearing a leather jacket and a fancy scarf ran out of the line and towards them. "Steven, you gotta let me in there with you."

"Who's that?" – Ben asked Steven.

"That's…" – Steven sighed – "Kevin. An… acquaintance of mine."

"Listen, all that stuff from that party, I've forgotten about it already, even though you totally didn't hold up your end of the deal. But this… the Love Glove is the hottest underground club in all of Empire City, infamous for it's exclusivity. You gotta be in the know to get in. And you have an in."

"Seriously?" – Steven asked.

"Get to the back of the line, punk." – the bouncer told him.

"Oh come on, just let him in!" – Ben Tennyson vouched for him, even if just to have this conversation over with.

"But he's the worst. He'll probably go in there start making people uncomfortable, like he always does."

"Hey, he did say he helped you out, right?"

Kevin was watching the dialogue with an extremely tense grimace, hoping that they'd decide to let him in.

"Fine, fine. Just to get… you off my conscience. Don't say I never did anything for you, Kevin." – Steven finally said. "And no harassing people in there!"

"YES!" – Kevin exclaimed. "Come on, you guys. It's about to be Kevin time." – Kevin went back to his group, waiting in line.

"Totally didn't lift my catchphrase there." – Ben mumbled.

"Hey, hey, what is this?" – The bouncer asked, as Kevin and his three friends approached. "I'm only letting this one in. Rest of you, you know where the line is."

"We've been waiting for over an hour!" – one of Kevin's friends exclaimed.

"Alright, come on, Kevin, Let's see if The Box is letting people in." – another one suggested.

"Sorry guys, looks like Kevin's rocking solo tonight." – Kevin said, having refound his cocky snark after successfully bargaining with Steven.

"You're ditching us?" – one of his friends protested.

"Looks like it." – Kevin said with a smirk while walking backwards into the unlit entrance to the club.

"I can see why the two of you aren't close." – Ben told Steven.

"So, you boys going in or what?" – the bouncer asked them.

As they headed into the club, Ben looked at the bouncer one last time and noticed him wink at him. Strange.

They could hear music ahead of them. After they passed the dark hallway, the two of them went down a set of stairs, and finally entered a large and tall room, full of neon lights and deafening beats. Both of them immediately put their arms on their ears, and neither of them was sleepy anymore.

"WHAT DO WE DO NOW?" – Ben yelled to be overheard over the music.

"WE FIND SOUR CREAM! THAT'S THE DJ!" – Steven yelled in response.

"THERE!" – Ben pointed at an elevated section, decked out with all kinds of equipment.

The two of them made their way through the partying crowd. Though he knew they were supposed to be dancing, none of them were dancing in a way that Steven understood it. It was more like swaying around on a densely packed dancefloor than anything else, and he wondered how did people find this fun. Steven then caught a glimpse of Kevin, talking to someone. He made a mental note of making sure Kevin didn't get too out of hand, since that'd be his fault. Ben noticed that several of the people among the crowd weren't actually human – there were various aliens, some species of which Ben recognized. Unexpected.

"SOUR CREAM!" – Steven yelled and raised his hands into the air when he got close.

"HEY, DJ SOUR CREAM!" – Ben yelled too.

Sour Cream did not notice them, as he was wearing his headphones and raving out to his own beats.

"HEY!" – Steven finally got up to the elevated area and grabbed SC's arm. Sour Cream snapped out of his raving state.

"Oh, hey, Steven, glad you finally made it." – Sour Cream told them casually.

"WHAT?" – Steven couldn't hear him over the music.

"Hold on…" – the DJ told him as he gradually lowered the volume ever-so-slightly as to not disturb the party-goers' flow, though this was probably a welcome change for them.

"Sour Cream, this is Ben, a friend of mine."

"That the superhero?" – Sour Cream recognized him.

"The one and only." – Ben said proudly.

"Rad."

"So, you mentioned you know a place to stay for us?" – Steven asked him eagerly. "Because we're kinda desperate."

"Oh, yeah, totally. Except I can't leave this place for a couple hours until the club closes. Until then, you guys can party here."

"Oh." – Steven said, disappointed.

"Hey, look at the bright side. You're at a real Empire City rave. How often does that happen?" – Ben tried to cheer him up. "So why is this place called "The Love Glove" anyway?" – he asked Sour Cream.

"You'll see soon enough." – Sour Cream told him mysteriously. "Hey, Steven, you know who's here?" – he then asked Steven.

"Who?" – Steven asked, hoping he wasn't about to bring up Kevin.

"Hey, Spo! Get over here!" – Sour Cream yelled at someone in the crowd, and indeed – one of the non-humans that Ben had noticed, a Gem, heard them and got up to the DJ's booth. She was even taller than Sour Cream, her body was gelatinous and semi-transparent, like a jellyfish or a gummy bear, and strands of "hair" on the top of her head were obstructing her single eye. Her gem was at her navel, just like Steven's.

"Hey, Steven! Long time no see!" – Orange Spodumene greeted him.

"Oh, hey. Haven't seen you in Beach City in a while. So, this is what you've been up to?" – Steven asked her.

"Ahem! Aren't you gonna introduce me to the super hot alien chick?" – Ben made his presence known.

"Oh, right. Ben, this is Orange Spodumene. Spodumene, this is Ben Tennyson, wielder of the-"

"The Omnitrix! Wicked cool." – Spodumene finished his sentence for him and grabbed Ben's arm to get a good look at it and poked it to see what it'd feel like. This went on for a while.

"Nice to meet you too." – Ben wrestled his arm away from her, though trying to stay nice.

"Spo here is actually how I got this gig at the Love Glove. It's the only place in Empire that's visited by human and alien regulars alike. Though, they won't let just anybody in." – Sour Cream explained. "You should see some of the life forms that show up sometimes." – he added as Spodumene went back to the dancefloor.

"Yeah. This kind of human-gem integration is exactly what I was hoping for when building Little Homeschool." – Steven said. "Does she live in the city alone, though?"

"Well, Bixbite is in the city too, and I have gigs almost every night."

"You drive back and forth from here to Beach City every day? Isn't that exhausting?" – Ben asked him.

"Yeah, I have considered moving into the city. Gotta find a place to stay first, though."

"Told you it's not that easy." – Ben told Steven. "He kept saying we'd be able to find a free room tonight without reservations." – he explained to Sour Cream.

"Yeah, probably not. Don't worry, though, I've got you guys covered for tonight." – Sour Cream told them and looked at Spodumene raving out.

"Listen, Steven." – he then said while putting on a tape by Brain Explosion. "I need to ask you something personal. This might be a little bit weird, but this is important."

"Um, okay."

"Listen, how exactly did it work with your parents when they…" – Sour Cream asked while still looking at Spodumene.

Ben burst out laughing. "Is this the gems and the bees talk?"

"Ben. Come on."

"You see, when mommy gem and daddy human love each other veeeeery much…"

Steven gave a disappointed look at him.

"Okay, okay. I'm going. I'm gonna, uh… I'm gonna go mingle with the kinecelarans." – Ben finally said and went away, into the crowd.

"So you and Spodumene are…" – Steven asked Sour Cream.

"Mhm."

"You two seriously are…"

"Yes."

"Okay, I think you should ask my dad about stuff like that. He's the, um… expert."

"Are you sure it's not weird if I ask him?" – Sour Cream wanted to confirm.

"I'm not sure if there's any way to make it not weird." – Steven admitted.

"There should be a class for that at Little Homeschool!" – Ben yelled.

"Ben…" – Steven said sternly.

"Okay, NOW I'm going." – Ben said and he walked off, but then immediately turned back around. "Seriously. Completely out of educational and cultural purposes, that feels like an absolutely necessary class that you should consider adding. Because how else are human and alien cultures supposed to integrate?"

"Only if your grandpa comes in to teach the non-gem classes." – Steven said with a completely straight face.

Ben opened his mouth, but then froze, shocked, because Steven actually had a great point. Without even closing his mouth he turned around on the spot and walked away, leaving Steven and Sour Cream to their conversation that was incredibly uncomfortable for anyone involved.

"Alright, what do I do now…" – Ben thought. He walked past a tetramand woman arm-wrestling four guys at once. "Better not. Don't want another Looma situation…" – he thought to himself. Elsewhere, a Gourmand was chugging some liquid, surrounded by people cheering him on. That reminded Ben of something.

"I don't suppose you serve any smoothies?" – he asked the bartender there, who happened to be a Pripyatosian-B, though his protective gear was completely different from that of Ben's NRG. It resembled more off a hazmat suit than anything, though the living manifestation of radiation was clearly visible inside.

The bartender shook his head. "Only thing for underage humans we serve is soda." Ben was surprised at hearing the Pripyatosian's voice, because it sounded female while he had assumed otherwise. "I guess there was no way to tell from the outer layer. Come to think of it, how would I even tell from the true form? And do radiation energy beings actually have gender?" – he wondered, but he was smart not to voice his thoughts. He then got another idea.

"Hey, how do you know I'm not actually 21?" – he tried to persuade the bartender. Maybe she wasn't well-versed with human biology, just as Ben had no idea how Pripyatosians worked.

"Seriously? You think I landed on this planet yesterday?"

"Fine, fine. Just give me the soda." – Ben said irritably. The bartender placed a can of Radicola in front of him as Ben got his wallet out.

"How do people even drink this stuff?" – Ben asked after taking a sip, disgusted by it, then kept on drinking. The sugar rush would at least keep him on his feet temporarily.

"So do you know a Pripyatosian named P'andor?" – Ben asked the bartender.

"Not all Pripyatosians know each other." – she responded irritably and walked away.

"And I thought bartenders were supposed to be talkative." – Ben wondered. He looked around for someone in the crowd he might know. Probably no one among the humans, but the aliens were another story. He noticed a vaxasaurian wearing glasses at the other side of the bar (a hard sight to miss) and went over to talk to him.


A couple of (non-alcoholic) drinks later, Ben was right in the middle of the dancefloor, transforming into various aliens to show off while riding on the shoulders of Hugh the vaxasaurian, visible to everyone. He was currently Chromastone, shooting colored light beams all around as if he was a party light projector. The people in the crowd were all cheering him on and yelling "BEN TEN! BEN TEN! BEN TEN!" He then transformed into Gutrot and exhumed various colored gases like a living fog machine. This really went well with Sour Cream's signature glowsticks, which were still visible throughout the fog as he threw them around into the crowd and everyone started picking them up. Then Ben noticed Spodumene go onto the DJ's stand and start throwing something else into the crowd. Ben couldn't quite make out what that was until he was hit in the face with it. It seemed to be a leather red fingerless glove. Just a single one. Though, others were getting thrown everywhere. The party-goers started cheering.

"What's going on?" – Ben asked as he jumped off from Hugh's neck and detransformed, though nobody was paying him much attention anymore – they were trading gloves for some reason. He went up to one of the party-goers, held up the glove and was about to ask what this was all about, but the guy took Ben's red glove out of his hand and gave him his white one without saying anything. Now, both of the guy's gloves matched. Then, Ben felt a tap on his shoulder. It was the tetramand woman he saw earlier and decided to avoid. She held out a green glove to him. Though he didn't understand the point of these trades, Ben gave her his green one. Before she went away, she winked with her top left eye at Ben. Ben shuddered.


Steven looked at his phone. 2:04 AM. He was sunk in a bean bag, tired and sore and waiting for the club to close so that Sour Cream could take them to their place to stay, but that wouldn't be for another hour. He tried simply falling asleep but the loud techno music, which was by a band fittingly called "Brain Explosion", wasn't letting him. Now he watched as Spodumene threw gloves into the crowd. Sour Cream noticed him, sitting alone like that, and said something to Spodumene that Steven couldn't quite overhear. Spodumene nodded and went over to Steven.

"All burnt out, huh? Come on, we're leaving. Let's get Ben and go." – she told Steven, but then noticed that Ben was already making his way towards them.

"So what's up with these gloves?" – he asked them, but Steven told him "Later! We're finally leaving!" and grabbed his hand and dragged him along as Spodumene led the way back to the entrance. On the way, the two of them noticed Kevin talking to the tetramand woman.

"You think he's bitten off more than he can chew with this one?" – Ben asked Steven.

"Trust me, it's better if he chokes on it for once." – Steven assured him as they got to the exit.

"So what ARE the gloves about?" – Ben asked Spodumene after they got into the car, though this time in the back seat, as Spodumene was to navigate Steven.

Probably has something to do with the club's name, the Love Glove." – Steven suggested.

"Yes, thank you Captain Obvious, anymore brilliant observations?" – Ben asked sarcastically. "What the… she wrote her number on the glove for me!" – he exclaimed.

"Who?" – Steven asked.

"The tetramand woman."

"And that is…?" – Steven asked.

"The one we saw Kevin talking to."

Now Steven burst out laughing. Spodumene did too.

"As a former victim of tetramand affections, that is NOT funny!" – Ben shouted. "What ARE these gloves about?"

"Chillax, the gloves are like, the whole theme of the club." – Spodumene told him. "You pick up a pair and swap them around with other people to get a matching pair. And whoever you swap with becomes your glover."

"A "glover."" – Ben repeated.

"Yeah, like a glove brother or sister. Every night, more and more glovers leave the club. And our goal is to eventually have every human and alien in Empire City to be connected to each other with the love gloves!" – Spodumene exclaimed. "Take a right here." – she then told Steven, as he was driving.

"Hmph. Good luck with that." – Ben thought to himself and wondered how would that work with various-shaped appendages different species would have. Imagining glove shapes for Terraspin, Lodestar, or, hell, Brainstorm, he drifted to sleep in the backseat.


Author's notes:

It took me exactly a month, but hey, that was still within my estimate so good on me for keeping it on schedule.

Okay so the first chapter focused almost exclusively on Ben-related characters and concepts, so I wanted to switch it up and have this one all about Steven Universe. I mean, I did use various Ben 10 aliens to fill out the background, but it's clearly more SU focused with Kevin, Sour Cream and even a fellow gem, Orange Spodumene showing up.

Alright, Kevin, well, I wasn't even intending on using him, I maybe joked about it a couple times before, but then I needed some asshole teenagers to be in line and complain that the bouncer's letting Ben and Steven cut in line, and Kevin fit the part perfectly. And it was definitely worth using him too. Though, could I use him in a more serious manner? There is no end to the deep comlexity of a character that is Kevin.

Also I got to use the best Ben 10 character ever that is Hugh #HughSweep