Reverie

Ben was not a deeply sentimental person. He never clung to mementos to the degree Rex did. There was a reason why the EVO boy had held onto his old jacket until he had long outgrown it and even a little after that. The goggles Six had gifted him were no longer worn, but they hung over the headboard of his bed back home, a charm for warding off bad dreams. He still owned the bottle cap to the first drink Noah ever bought him, buried somewhere in his drawer of souvenirs he had accumulated throughout his life.

Ben would probably never know what offhand gifts meant to him. Perhaps he would never share his sentimentality over a token of affection.

What he and Rex did happen share was a love for soccer, though Rex never played competitively. None of the soccer teams from their respective worlds were the same, but it was more fun playing the game than watching it anyway. They only resorted to putting it on television when there was nothing to do and only to have something idly playing in the background that neither of them paid special attention to. A foggy, dim recollection gave Rex the knowledge that he and his childhood friends used to kick the ball back and forth, never fully understanding the rules. For that reason, Ben hated playing with him, their matches devolving into wrestling competitions in the grass instead.

"You must have been really good," Rex commented, half-snooping again through Ben's belongings, finding medals and trophies shoved in a crate beneath his bed. Half-snooping because he was actually helping Ben organize his things.

Ben looked up from where he was packing old figurines into boxes for storage. He was clearing out his messy dresser but briefly stopped to see what Rex was referring to. "Not really. I mean, I played better than you at least."

"Jackass."

Ben laughed at him.

"I've only played for fun when I was a kid, not for an actual team. I never got to go to school or join any sports clubs." Rex explained, inspecting a glimmering medal beneath the light from one of the windows. The letters MVP were inscribed into its golden face.

Once, he had temporarily attended Noah's school but that didn't really count. It had never been real. It had been nice pretending to be an ordinary boy for a little while. Even then, faking a civilian life didn't compare to the real thing. Rex wasn't sad about having missed out on normalcy, having outgrown his private childhood longings.

"Wasn't anything special. You didn't miss out on much." Ben set his box down to join him where he knelt on the floor, taking the medallion out of Rex's hands. He twirled it between his fingers, studying with with some fondness, before slipping it around Rex's neck.

"What…?" Confused, he reached down to touch it.

"Keep it, since you never got to play for real. You probably wouldn't have made it onto an official team anyway."

"Whatever, jerk!" Rex scoffed, not wanting to reveal how flattered he really felt by the new necklace. "Didn't know you were such a soccer snob…"

"That's what's funny. I'm not. You straight-up don't even know the rules for soccer, you just start making them up."

"That's how we play it in my world!"

"No way, I don't believe you." Ben remained skeptical. "I don't care what dimension you're in, soccer doesn't change. It's sort of like me and you."

Rex blinked dumbly. "Huh?"

"I love you," The other man elaborated, adjusting the medal over his chest. "That'll never change, regardless of what world you find yourself in. When you're crossing over to the other side of the universe, and if you ever find yourself forgetting, now you have a keepsake to help you remember."