Chapter 6: Fears

AN: Sorry for the wait! Hope you all had a lovely holiday! ^^ I also realized this is my first update since the new year! 2018! And it won't be my last, don't worry. ;)

Along with Escape, I also have a new Ben 10 story (with Albedo) called "More Than Ever" it was gonna be a one-shot but as it got a lot of love and I know how much everyone loves Albedo, I will be continuing it as a side thing. The plot of it is not related to Escape, just similar to Escape's plot. So if you need more Albedo goodness, go read and review that too. :3

Also, if anyone likes the cartoon/anime "Avatar: The Last Airbender" I'm currently beta-reading a story for that series called "Hey, Zuko?". You can find it in my favorite list.

Enjoy-

After a long night Ben finds himself blinking up at the sunlight beaming into the room, almost blindingly. He turns onto his side, glaring at his room and wishing he could have a few more hours of sleep, and that's when he spots Albedo who's sat on the floor reading the backs of some of Ben's Sumo Slammer's game boxes.

Ben sits up, for some reason he had the urge to snap at Albedo for going through his stuff again, but he stays silent. It was clear that Albedo had no clue he was being watched, his red eyes completely unguarded as he read the game box, looking a mix of intrigue and confused, then he set it back on the game machine, picking up the controller before suddenly glancing at Ben.

He puts the controller down just as quickly, looking a bit jumpy, but his facial expression quickly changes to it's usual stoic, with it's unusual touch of friendliness that Ben had been seeing lately.

Albedo stands up then and walks over, suddenly putting his hand against Ben's mouth and shocking Ben before he could say anything. Ben moves to pull away but Albedo whispers, "Your cousin is here."

Ben frowns at that, glaring at the door. Of course. Of course she was. He loved his cousin, but she had to have to worst timing ever. He pushes Albedo's hand away from him now, part of him realizing Albedo might have done that because he knew Ben had a tendency to be loud.

"She got here earlier?" Ben asks quietly now, staring at Albedo, who nods. "And she brought Kevin." Albedo mutters, glancing towards the floor.

Ben nods, trying to think up a plan. But Albedo speaks up again as he's trying to figure something out, "Ben, don't make more lies than you can remember. That wouldn't end well."

"I know," Ben whispers, feeling frustrated, "But I have to do something. I can't just...tell them the truth." Albedo's stares at him, his eyebrows rising slightly at the statement, but he stayed quiet, thankfully.

He can't just go downstairs and leave Albedo. He had to keep an eye on him, too, didn't he? He frowns to himself, absentmindedly watching Albedo as he grabbed his red jacket and quickly put it on, glancing at Ben as he did so. Couldn't just they go out the window? Leave for a bit? He was hardly ever home, and even if his mom had told them that he was home, he could have left earlier without her knowing, for all they knew.

Or maybe he would fake being sick? Tell his mom to bring the food up for him, and share some with Albedo? Ben was so hungry. But on the other hand, Gwen and Kevin would likely try to come and see him anyways.

But if they went out through Ben's bedroom window, where would they go? Mr. Smoothies? Risk getting caught? He was starting to give himself a headache.

And that's when he realized the perfect place to hide out. The one place no one would expect him to go. A place he hardly went to, and was known for disliking.

Jimmy's house. He groans to himself. Great.

Albedo looks at him then, a eyebrow raised questioningly. Ben opens his mouth to explain his idea, but just then he hears his mom's voice, "I think he must still be sleeping."

He felt his heart speed up in his chest as he stood and went to the window, quietly—or as quietly as possible—unlocking the window and pushing it up. They could not be here when his mom walked in if this was going to work. She needed to think that they had left already, earlier in the morning. He expertly climbs out the window and grabs the nearby limb of a large, sturdy tree and climbed out, carefully getting to a lower limb before dropping to the ground. He glances up then to see Albedo swiftly following, grabbing the limb and seemingly copying what Ben before dropping to the ground as well, almost losing his balance, but as Ben reached out to catch him he regained it, grabbing Ben's wrist anyways and pulling him away from the window.

They didn't wait to hear what his mother thought, though Ben wanted to, instead they both silently rushed behind the house, ducking low, hiding behind trees and eventually making it away from Ben's home.

"And you were about to say something?" Albedo brought up later as they walk along a road a bit further away from Ben's neighborhood. But as long as they were in Bellwood there was a chance they'd get caught.

"Right, so we need to go somewhere else where we won't get caught by Gwen and Kevin—or anyone, I guess."

Albedo glances towards him, "So avoiding everything is your plan?"

Ben can't help rolling his eyes, looking away. He should have just made Albedo come up with a plan, since he was so picky about everything. "Yes, that's my plan. Problem?" He snaps then, staring at the sky angrily as the sun shone down on them.

"So where then?" Albedo questions instead, surprising Ben. He thought Albedo would just return the anger, snap back or come up with a snide reply, but no. He had to go and confuse Ben instead.

"What?" He asks distractedly, turning to stare at Albedo. "Where would we go?" Albedo asks again, his red eyes a bit impatient. But just a bit, somehow. Honestly, who was this guy and where did Albedo go?

"Tennyson?" Albedo asks, sounding impatient too, now. "Oh, right, uh—I have a friend who'll let us hide out there for a bit, until we, um...figure this out."

"Does he know about this, then?"

"Not yet? But he totally won't mind. The dude's literally my biggest fan. It's super annoying." Ben mumbles off-handedly.

Albedo just stares before glancing away. "You realize it'd be easier to send me back?"

"What?" Ben watches him in confusion, trying to read his expression.

"I mean, why go through all this trouble? It's tedious and frustrating. You clearly hate lying to those you consider close. You could turn me in and lie—or better yet, tell them you realized your mistake before it escalated, they would probably accept that easily. It's stupid how simple it would be for you. Why are you making this more difficult for yourself?"

Ben stares at Albedo, trying to decide if he was being serious, before he realized just how serious Albedo was being—he was dead-serious. And that annoys Ben, for reasons he's not sure. The fact that Albedo was questioning his decision to offer his help was ridiculous. Did Albedo think he was lazy? Or stupid?

"It's not about how difficult it is," Ben snaps, "I do what I think is right, I don't care about the danger and risks if it's for a good reason."

"And helping me is?" Albedo asks quickly, looking annoyed.

"To me, yes! What part of 'I want to help you' didn't you understand? Honestly, I thought we'd been through this already! I want to help you, not just because it'd be better for everyone, but because you asked, and because I trust you!"

"You don't trust me!" Albedo snaps then.

"I do with some things! Sure, maybe I don't trust you with yourself, or around my parents, but I think we both know I have a good reason to not trust you with yourself! And yeah, I'm worried you might try to kill my parents just to get revenge on me, but I trust you—" Ben pauses, searching for the right thing to say, "I trust you with my life!"

Albedo glares at him with his fierce red eyes, but there was something more than anger in his eyes. He looked unsure. So Ben quickly speaks up before Albedo can say anything, "I'm trusting you with my future, okay?! Because if this goes badly—I could get in trouble, or my family or friends will look at me differently! I don't even know how bad this could go, so don't say I don't trust you! Because I am trying."

Ben turns away then as they walk, hearing Albedo sigh quietly. They're silent for a moment before Albedo speaks again, "Never mind."

"What do you mean 'Never mind'?" Ben asks, annoyance clear in his voice. "You can't just treat me like I'm a lazy idiot with trust problems and then tell me never mind like that."

"The only trust problem you have is how trusting you are with me." Albedo says slowly, making Ben glance at him in confusion. Albedo met his eyes, and Ben realized then how comfortable he felt around Albedo. Well, not comfortable, considering they were hiding from all of Ben's family, friends and co-workers, but he trusted Albedo. He stares at Albedo, feeling like he could trust him with his life, too.

"Shouldn't you be happy that I trust you so much?" Ben asks then, still watching Albedo.

Albedo frowns before glancing away. "Overjoyed. But I'm terrified as well. Aren't you?"

Ben swallows with difficultly, thinking. "A little."

"I guess I find it strange how easy this is, asking you to trust me, I expected this to be more...difficult."

Ben shrugs his shoulders, looking to the road. "I don't know. I've seen what you're willing to do to get away, to escape. To me it seems like you mean it. And so I'm willing to help."

"That doesn't mean you have to trust me." Albedo points out almost silently.

"I never meant to. Not as much as I do. But now that I know this-this different side of you, it's hard not to. I just really want to help you, Albedo."

Albedo sighs suddenly. "So how can I ever repay you for this debt? Trust you more? It's not fair to you that you're helping me like you are. You're putting everything at risk, as you've already pointed out."

The seriousness of Albedo's words and how honest he sounded made Ben smile without meaning to. Maybe this was getting a little too serious though. He smirks and bumps his shoulder into Albedo's, "I'm a hero, putting my life at risk to help others is what I do."

Albedo stares at him silently, and Ben realizes it was his bad arm he bumped into. "Oh, sorry."

"For what?" Albedo asks with a frown, and Ben quickly glances away. It was such a weird topic to bring up, a weird thing to talk about. Depression was a thing Ben understood at least, but...this? This was a dangerous territory, a touchy subject. He felt terrified at the thought of bringing it up again to Albedo, but he already had, and there wasn't really a way to avoid it now.

"Um, hitting your...bad arm."

Albedo continues to stare, but soon realization sits in, and Albedo smiles a bit, though it almost looked as pained as it was a happy smile. "It's not that noticeable, Tennyson."

"Oh."

"But thank you." Albedo mumbles then.

Ben nods silently, deciding to leave it at that. They had enough to worry about, and Ben figured Albedo didn't want him asking questions about it. Instead his thoughts wandered back to their earlier conversation, trying to decide how they were going to go about all of this.

He did trust Albedo after all, for better or worse. And Albedo seemed to trust him. But Albedo assuming Ben didn't care still didn't set well with the hero. It bothered him.

"Look, um," Ben begins carefully, "For now on, just don't assume what I want to do, okay? If I say I want to help, that's what I want to do, even if it's dumb to you, or you feel like you don't deserve the help. It's my decision."

"I was just trying to express my concerns."

"Well, okay, but I don't really need to hear you second guessing yourself. Or me, for that matter."

Albedo stares at him with intense red eyes, "Very observant. But still, you don't know that I'm not planning on back stabbing you."

"Why are you so bent on changing my mind? If you have anything planned, I'll deal with it then. I'm stupid, remember?"

"So you are." Albedo nods, looking like he was still lost in his thoughts.

"Look, I don't care what you say, I'm going to trust you until I have reasons not to. Weren't you angry at me for assuming you hiding something from me the other night?" Ben asked then.

"Only because I was hiding something. It was more personal then. I still expect you to be careful."

Ben shakes his head, "I can't be careful and help you. You asked me to trust you. So I am. Don't complain."

Albedo just sighs this time, but Ben could swear he saw him smile before he glanced away. Or maybe it was wishful thinking. But he felt good about his decision. He felt like this as the right thing to do. Nobody, not even Rook could convince him otherwise.

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