It was once in a full moon where Ben would reconsider Verdona's request. And it wasn't long before the time he would leave earth became less of a daunting idea and more like relief the more he contemplated about it, like perhaps it was for the better to leave with his alien grandma to train on her planet. The sooner the better. He was half-Anodite, after all; it made sense. He'd be free from all the chaos, destruction, alien ambushes, and migraines he'd get from thinking too much about battle strategies.

Sleepless nights teaching himself how to bend his mana as flexible as Charmcaster, Sunny, or Verdonas' but hopeless because all it would do was blow up in his face. He sighed, thought himself as a pathetic excuse for a plumber.
Accepting Verdona's request was so logical in this case, and all his life he's been nothing but reasonable and calculating. But… there was only one tangible, irrational, infuriating being who kept him anchored. Before he knew it, Ben never realized how quietly he was pulled in and how this being attached onto his heartstrings despite knowing it would never work out. It had him spiraling back to earth in surges of spacecraft speed and light, and that something- someone was Kevin.

However, lately, Kevin hasn't been himself and Ben had taken notice. He always took notice of Kevin's mannerisms which prompted these unstable thoughts of his. Kevin was more gaudy, arrogant, prideful, and consumed with all the fame and fortune after his secrets been out. After a while, this indulgent nature became less cute and more vexing. More often than not, Ben would voice it to him of how his pretentious nature will kill them all. It was distracting. That only pissed Kevin off though.

He was so easy to bother if you pushed the right buttons. It's always been like that. Ever since that summer, he'd never hesitated the chance to push those buttons even if it meant life or death. He knew this wavering frustration when he first met Kevin at the age of ten, and he knew how detrimental it was to know him.

Kevin was, in essence, everything Ben wanted to be back then and so stark different. Kevin was unconfined fun, living, rules broken, badass, independent, and sometimes insanity all at once with not a care of circumstance in the world. The polar opposite of Ben at the time. Ben figured he was attracted to his sort of lifestyle for several reasons: because he was an only child, sheltered since forever by his parents with no siblings or friends to hang out with (besides Gwen who doesn't count because they were related). Even his grandpa kept a close watchful eye over him. It was suffocating and… lonesome. But, that summer road trip was fresh breath of air and life-changing; beginning with Kevin discovering the Omnitrix, and Ben eventually discovering his magic powers (or so he thought.) Fighting aliens, running away, playing sumo slammers from dusk til dawn, it used to be a joy to wake up and await what troubles would cross their way the next day.

When Ben suggested that Kevin should travel with him, Grandpa Max welcomed him. He had opened arms for Kevin in a way his father never could, and invited him in as though he were his own son. Gwen, still stuck with one more dweeb , had liked (pitied) his presence and was glad for his technical skills for fixing the faucet every now and then. Nevertheless, Kevin wasn't a constant, he was reckless, unstill, and ready to leave the shabby, old trailer his Grandpa left doors open for him. There was also only one reason why he stayed around and Ben wished he didn't know that reason was because of Gwen. He was quite smitten with her back then, and... even now.

This made Ben roll his eyes to the back of his head at age ten and gag, fast-forward six years later and it gave his heart palpitations, exceedingly when Gwen didn't turn him down. It drained the color in his eyes, and suddenly he was stuck inbetween the confines of a black and white society again. He would resort to twiddling with plumber equipment and reading his magic spell book whenever they gave public displays of affections to each other. The intimacy between the two had him biting his bleeding tongue and his heart might've died right there had he not excused himself to the restroom. That van had no air in it and he never speculated how much this would affect him. Fortunately, no one was able to tell and they never would- he preferred it that way, because at least if Kevin never saw him in that way, he would still be close to him as friends. Mortified, if anything changed between them and created distance.

Then, came the endless nightmares in nostalgic waves of that legarthic summer. Not in the beginning or halfway through, but the end. The horror plastered on his face when Kevin lost control and tried to kill him and hunted him down like it was his fault he found the Omnitrix in the first place. The same Omnitrix was unable to be removed from Kevin's skin. Vilgax wanted to kill him, Ben wanted to save him in futile attempts. He remembers the lost kick to his stomach when he'd heard that Kevin had been locked up in the Null Void.

However, when it came down to it, there was nothing he could do. He had cried his eyes out in front of Grandpa Max to save him, cure him, because he wasn't a bad person within. He was just under bad circumstances. When Grandpa Max said to firmly, no, nothing could be done, Ben started hating the world for not caring as much as him. Harsh backlashed conversations with Gwen when she wasn't as moved towards Kevin's fate as he was and teeth grinding to his grandpa who, all of sudden, began obeying plumber and intergalactic space laws that were abandoned long before he met Kevin. It was relief to everyone else, and a betrayal to the core. Kevin had consumed his thoughts that summer and that was when Ben shoved a photo of them together- happy, smiling, and locked up his spell book under the floorboards of his basement. He crushed the plumber badge he was given as a token to his heroism. Never again, a thought he had longed to instill.

He thought.

Everyone told him to forget. Forgive and forget. His mom, furious at Max for letting her son hang out with a "delinquent" all summer. Max, apologetic, for bringing them all into this plumber business of his. Gwen, sympathetic and soon apathetic, on the outside and inside respectively. It was the type of mindless dreaming that took Ben months to get over before his grades plummeted down to the endless abyss. Whenever he tried to return to normalcy, he was reminded of the Null Void and thought, if he could, he would go to keep him company. Simple things in life wasn't so fun anymore and sumo slammers was just a stupid game. The therapist his parents hired had called what he had "temporary" and that it might be a while before he would be open to making close connections again. That summer, now, seemed like a bad dream: intangible and out of his grasp.

Until now.

Now Kevin was back stronger, taller, and he wasn't trying to kill him this time; a matured Kevin. He still looked the same; scowling, moppy-black hair, hardened eyes, but the resemblance to his eleven year old self ended there. It was then Ben realized what it was his ten year old self hadn't been prepared for when he met Kevin. It was a grave mistake to have met him. Ben realized this when they had met by chance; after winning the soccer game with a gold medal to compliment his uniform, his uniform now muddy and torn as an alien attacked the living lights out of his tired, sore body. Then, the air sucked between his teeth when exhaling was suddenly impossible before the sight of an old friend that had just saved his ass with no contempt. No reservations.

He had millenias, Verdona had told him. As an Anodite he'd live for years beyond earth's existence with power burning through his palms and eyes with violet rage. The powerlessness in his youth would be gone and left with unbinding capability. Kevin though? He was a once in a millenia and this attachment was never going to go away. He felt a searing, sharp pain in his lungs at this revelation.

So, when Kevin asked he join with him, how could he say no?

notes: the cover art i was inspired by is by lingi-15 (permission granted; thank you!) the idea came from her au too. so, i decided to upload here. it's been a long while since i've updated but i'll try to do so regularly on ao3 bc i shifted most of my work there. my ao3 name is theroaringseas, i hope to see some of you there :)