A/N — Woooo! Guess who's back, baby!

Yeah, yeah, I know, grand entry for someone who managed a whole 1.7k words in… four years. Still, at least this one is actually original. It's really not much and was sort of an exercise in writing a short-fic but I wanted to at least put out something for my second fic to reach 100 favorites (that's a whole two for two, if you're counting). I originally said to myself I'd publish something in Christmas 2017, then New Year, then when A Shift In Time hit 100 favorites, but I finally, finally managed to publish something again (means I'm not dead).

I just wanted to say, though, that that doesn't mean I've been doing nothing.

First of all, I need to make it clear that I'm bad with actually creating a complete plot. I can do the beginning, just not so much the middle or the end in terms of planning. It's why both my fics up until now were inspirations/rewrites of other B/G fics (and why the SW fic I published next to this is basically also an inspiration/rewrite). What I'm getting at here is that if you think to yourself "I have a complete plot for a B/G oneshot but don't want to write it" feel free to shoot it my way in a PM or something. I can't guarantee I'll write it, but actually having a complete plan for a fic is my stumbling block. So feel free. Side-note: I've seen in reviews for my other B/G fics requests for stuff like a sequel to ASiT for young!B/G but don't really have ideas in that regard. I've also thought about doing my own versions of some of my favorite B/G oneshots but I've held back because I don't want to be "that author who just steals other people's ideas." Thoughts?

Second of all, I actually have written some BT stuff. I just haven't published it. I have a short (not a one-shot) B/G fic mostly planned out that I've written one (or two? Maybe not even one) chapters of that I could post, but I can't guarantee I'd finish it anytime soon or at all. So let me know if anyone wants that posted. Most of the BT fic work I've done though, as I've discussed with some others on FFN, has been on planning out a novel-length fic that would be a B/G story essentially rewriting the entire series going from Ben and Gwen ages 10–18 or thereabouts. I've got a general plan up to about half of that fic and a detailed plan up to the end of the second road-trip but nothing other than some general ideas for what a final fic arc could involve. Unfortunately for my BT fics I've been more invested in writing out SW stuff but I do want to do the novel length fic, so if there's any enthusiasm for it let me know. Also let me know what thoughts are on jumping into it blind: i.e. writing the fic for the plot I have planned and seeing where it goes. The danger is that I might not finish it and the update schedule might be chaotic but at least you guys might get to read something that might be halfway entertaining. Let me know!

/rant

Christmas Kisses:

•

Eighteen year-old Gwen Tennyson pulled the scarf tighter around her neck as a cold breeze blew through the garden, showering her with a number of falling snowflakes. Behind her, the noise, light, and warmth of the party was still going strong as the party guests got happily drunk and stuffed with food in preparation for the new year. Gwen herself had excused herself from the party to get some time alone. She knew her mother would come looking for her soon enough, but for the moment she could stand quietly and enjoy the crisp, silent winter under the full Moon.

In truth, she wanted to be a little melancholy. She knew it was being probably too self-indulgent, but after the last few weeks she'd had she felt she deserved it a little. A loud laugh drew her attention and she turned her gaze away from the backyard to spy the unwitting cause of most of her woes laughing uncontrollably and throwing a cork back at her brother. From the way her cousin, Ben Tennyson, was rubbing his shoulder she gathered that he'd accidentally been hit by the popped champagne cork. Staring at her cousin, Gwen felt a new wave of melancholy hit her and she turned away again.

It wasn't really anything Ben had done so much of what he hadn't, and even then Gwen knew she was being unreasonable. They'd had a great Christmas together and their shared eighteenth birthday just a few weeks before had been one Gwen would always treasure, but despite that she couldn't help but feel disappointed. They'd even just graduated from high-school. They were going through so many big events and changes and Gwen just wanted a little more.

She never would have expected that a few years ago. Almost eight years ago she'd absolutely despised Ben, but that seemed like such a long time ago. Not only in terms of time, but just in terms of how much had happened. Over that first summer she and Ben had become a team, a pretty darn good one. That bond had only been strengthened over time. Having someone save your life and saving theirs in turn multiple times tended to do that to people. It wasn't always so dramatic, though: over time she and Ben had become more than teammates and become real friends. Fighting aliens and wizards, to her surprise, had translated somewhat naturally to training together, studying together, even going to movies or, as they got older, lunches and dinners together.

Gwen supposed it was only natural that, with so much time spent together, so many secrets and fears shared, that she would fall in love with him. She didn't bother denying it these days. When she'd first noticed, at around age fourteen, she'd tried to convince herself it was something, anything, else, but the truth won out as it always did. Even if she was interested in burdening her academics with a high-school love-life, no boy captured her interest quite like Ben did. By the time she was sixteen she was even, pathetically, pretending that their outings to movies and dinners and lunches were dates. Sometimes she even thought Ben felt the same way about her, but she had never been sure.

It didn't really matter. Everything was just too complicated to do anything. Besides the fact that he was her cousin and the thought of sorting everything out with her family made her shudder, Gwen had remained committed to keeping her life drama-free. She and Ben had a good thing going and as high-school got harder she was even less inclined to try balancing a secret boyfriend — because there was no way she was going to announce to her high-school that she was dating her cousin — with everything else in her life. It helped that all the other girls at her school just thought she was too prudish, too bookish, or both and largely left her to her romance-free life.

By the time her high-school career was ending, however, Gwen found herself yearning for more from Ben. Their adult lives beckoned, and as they left the pressures of high-school and began to taste real adult freedom Gwen felt real hope bloom that maybe she and Ben could be something more. She only had to hope that maybe, just maybe, Ben felt the same way about her as she did him.

There were signs, sometimes. Ben had never had a girlfriend just as she had never had a boyfriend and Ben spent more time with her than he spent with any other girl. Then there were their not-dates. They even hugged — sometimes even in a sincere way where, with no one around, they could share that close, intimate contact with each other. There were no direct signs, however, or nothing Gwen couldn't write off as false imagination. Who was to say whether Ben was checking her out or merely glancing at her? Whether he was daydreaming about her or merely lost in thought?

So Gwen had gotten to hoping for just one kiss.

She knew it was silly, but she wanted it desperately. If it meant nothing to Ben she could just laugh it off as a moment of shared awkwardness that didn't impact their relationship, but if it did mean something to him… Gwen didn't ponder it, not wanting further pangs in her heart. The sad truth of the matter was that she'd been trying to steal a kiss from Ben ever since the first snows of winter and kept failing — hence why she was out in the cold.

Somehow she or Ben just kept screwing it up. The first time she'd chickened out, getting Ben under a mistletoe and then not being able to point it out to him. The second time Ben had been called away as soon as she opened her mouth, and the 'important conversation' she wanted to have with him under the mistletoe ended up being an actual conversation about college nowhere near the mistletoe. More attempts had failed until Gwen had gotten fed up and decided to ambush Ben and simply kiss him; that had given her a bruised nose and a rickety doorframe for her trouble, though Ben had apologized for ducking out of the way of her attack. She'd had to lie to him that she just wanted to give him a surprise hug, which Ben had reluctantly accepted, but at least she'd had Ben fussing over her for an afternoon. The next time she tried Aunt Sandra had appeared and Gwen had wanted to die from embarrassment caught standing with her cousin underneath mistletoe. Christmas had come and been too hectic for Gwen to try anything except sit and hope that maybe Ben would surprise her; he did, but with a lovely antique spellbook instead of a kiss. She wished she could have given one in thanks, though she had mustered the courage to give him a kiss on the cheek despite the looks her dad and Aunt Sandra had given her.

Now here she was, standing out cold in the snow on New Year's Eve.

The glass door slid open behind her. "Hey, watcha doing out here?" Ben asked.

Gwen didn't bother turning around. "Just taking a breather," she replied.

Ben chuckled and moved up behind her. "I guess I understand that. It just doesn't seem like you." Gwen didn't feel like answering that. "Hey, seriously, what's got you down?"

Gwen shook her head, sighing and looking down before finally turning to look at Ben. His face was pinched with concern and his green eyes stared at her intensely. She quickly looked away, feeling her heart flutter. "It's nothing, Ben." Seeing his look, she immediately added "Nothing you could do anything about." Liar.

Ben was silent for a moment. "Look, Gwen, I know us going away to college has you torn up, but we can still see each other. You have magic and I have the watch. And we've got cars, if you want to soothe your worry."

Gwen cracked a small smile. "I'm not that nagging."

"You so are."

"Am not!"

"Are to!" Gwen stuck her tongue out at him childishly and then laughed, not able to keep her face serious. "There we are," Ben grinned. "There's that smile."

"You didn't come out here just because you thought I wasn't okay, did you?" Gwen asked, peering over at him.

"Course I did," Ben said with a big smile and Gwen's heart melted a little. "The party's not as fun without you."

Gwen smiled softly in a way she hoped wasn't as gooey as she felt. "Thanks, Ben," she whispered. Her cousin didn't answer, and when she turned around she found him staring up at the ledge of the roof they were under. She looked up too and felt herself flush.

"Mistletoe," Ben said mildly. With a start, Gwen glanced back down at her cousin to find him standing in front of her. Eyes widening, she stuttered as Ben leaned forwards and pressed his lips softly against hers. It was a chaste and soft kiss and both their lips were cold but Gwen melted into it all the same. Her heart sung as she kissed Ben for the first time and she felt the urge to bolt, squeal, run, and a hundred other un-Gwen-like things when he finally pulled away. "I know it's a bit before New Year's, but I couldn't help myself any longer," Ben murmured to her. "Would you go out with me?"

Gwen sputtered. When had Ben decided all this? "But… I… What?"

Ben smirked at her. "Well, I just thought so you'd stop running into door frames." Wide-eyed, Gwen slapped him lightly and then kissed him again. This one was longer and she pressed herself against him like she'd been dying to for years, wrapping his arms around her as they really kissed for the first time. "I'll take that as a yes," Ben grinned.

Gwen grinned back. "Yes, you doofus."

Last edited: 2019/3

A/N — Considered having one of the parents, probably Sandra, catch our favorite cousins but I really didn't know what to do with that to end the fic, so we end with them getting together.