(A/N: wow, over a year since I posted a chapter on this story. Don't hurt me! I've been working on finishing my other stories and, truthfully forgot all about this one. But I'm back. I already have the next chapter done too so it'll be up soon. I've reread this story and can see a lot of places where it can be polished up so I'll also be working on that. On that line I am also looking for a beta reader for the polished version so let me know if your interested. )

Disclaimer: have I ever owned Ben 10? Nope

Tilted summer 13: A simple game.

The sun rose as it always did but the tracks the train traveled were still deep in shadow. Gwen was the first to wake as usual; she smiled at Ben who was still sleeping, pressed up against her. She didn't move, she didn't want to move, and it was over an hour later that Ben finally began to wake. "Morning Ben"

"Morning, we miss breakfast?"

"I don't know"

"Wanna go see?"

"Ok, give me a minute to change"

"Ok" Ben sat up a stretched. Gwen got out of the bed and walked to the door, she opened it a crack to check for anyone. Then she opened the door and stepped out, in the hall there were two carts with large dishes on them covered by silver domes. There was a card on each one; Gwen opened the card on her cart.

I am sorry you missed breakfast; I hope you are feeling well.

Jonathan

The card on Bens cart was the same except it was signed by Elizabeth. Gwen pushed the carts into Ben's room. She didn't know though Ben was getting dressed and caught Ben in just his boxers. "Wow"

"Um Gwen? Could you either come in or out? I would kind of like the door closed while a change."

"Oh sure." Sadly for Ben she chose to go out.

Gwen waited in the hall, a minute later Ben opened his door. He'd only hurriedly put on a pair of pants and was still shirtless. "So, whats up with the carts?"

"They were here when I came out, looks like they didn't want us to go hungry."

"Yes! Let's eat" The pushed the carts into Bens room and took of the tops, there were bacon, eggs, toast, sausages, and fruits. Ben shoveled the bacon and sausages into his mouth. Gwen had some toast and fruit. When they were finished Ben lay back on his bed a sighed, "That was great, no bugs just meat"

There was a knock at the door, without thinking Gwen got up and opened it. Elizabeth was standing outside wearing an old fashioned blue sun dress. "Oh hello. I hope I'm not interrupting"

"No, I just came to get Ben up."

Elizabeth looked at Gwen's wrinkled clothes. "Of course. Jonathan wanted to invite Ben to play a game of pool with him if he was feeling up to it."

Ben sat up. "Sure, I'm up for it. Time to show that guy how I play."

Ben walked towards the door before Gwen grabbed his arm, "Might want to put some clothes on first smart guy."

Ben looked down at himself. "Oh yea."

Gwen stepped out into the hall with Elizabeth while Ben changed. Elizabeth kept glancing at Gwen. "I hope I'm not intruding but is Ben really your cousins?"

"What? Of course he is."

"I'm sorry, you just remind me of how I used to be with John, never mind. That was a long time ago anyways."

Ben came out of his room. "Ok lets play!"

Elizabeth led them along the train to a car that had two pool tables in it, racks of pool cues lined the wall, and they consisted of many shapes and sizes and colors. Jonathan was already there waiting. He was wearing a dark blue suit today. "Ah I'm glad to see you are all well. Gwen, if you would like you may go with Elizabeth and find some, era clothes."

Gwen looked down a blushed, she hadn't changed her clothes and she was still wearing the same wrinkled shirt from yesterday. "Yea, that'd be good."

Elizabeth led Gwen out of the car. Her room was only a few cars down and Gwen gave a silent whistle when she saw it. It took up most of the car, there was huge luxuries bed, dresser. Through an open door Gwen could see a large bathroom with a shower and separate bath. The closet was almost as big as Gwen entire room.

Elizabeth looked through the many dresses she had and pulled out a light blue one with white trim near the bottom. It had so many waves and layers to it Gwen wondered how much it weighed. As it turned out it was pretty heavy. Elizabeth tried to get Gwen to wear a corset too but Gwen drew the line there.

After Gwen was in the dress and Elizabeth had done up the hundred or so knots on the back they went back to the pool car.

It was clear by bens frown he wasn't doing very well. Jonathan on the other hand was smiling hitting ball after ball. As they watched Gwen wondered if Ben had even gotten a chance to really play. She watched Jonathan as he put a red ball into a pocket, then glanced back at Ben who had stopped watching the game and was now focused on her.

Ben hadn't noticed when Gwen and Elizabeth came back into the pool car, but he did suddenly notice how good Gwen looked in the old fashioned dress. It reminded him of the one she had worn to the wedding earlier that summer.

She saw him watching her and a blush came to her face which caused him to start to blush too. Their uncomfortable moment was interrupted by a pool ball hitting the wall just behind Ben. They all jumped at the bang it made.

Jonathan looked up from the pool table with a perplexed expression on his face. "Sorry, it's been ages since that's happened."

Ben picked up the ball. "That means I'm up now?"

"Yes it does." Jonathan stepped away from the table as Ben lined up his shot.

Ben smiled thinking about how cool he'd look making the shot, then he completely missed. Jonathan quickly finished the game, "a good game Ben. So will you and Gwen be attending the dance tonight?"

He walked over to Gwen and gave her a suggestive smile. "I'd love the chance to dance with you."

She took a step back and looked at Ben; he came over and grabbed Gwen's hand. "We'll be there. But I doubt you'll get to dance with Gwen."

Jonathan raised an eyebrow. "Well we'll just have to see. Elizabeth would you find them appropriate costumes?"

"Of course." She led them back towards her room.

Gwen walked slower and grabbed bens arm to make sure Elizabeth couldn't hear. "What was that? We are trying to keep us a secret remember?"

"Sorry but I couldn't stand him with that fake flirty smile."

"You can't just do stuff like that though. We'll get caught."

They were interrupted by Elizabeth, "alright first is Ben." She looked him up and down before walking into a second closet Gwen hadn't noticed earlier. It was full of fancy eighteenth century men's clothes. She grabbed several items and handed them to Ben. "You can change in here while I find Gwen something to wear."

She closed the door to the closet and they went into the other one, Gwen watched a she pulled dresses out to look at them before putting them back with a shake of her head. Finally she had what she wanted. She held up a lacey ice blue corset. "First off this"

"I already said I wasn't going to wear one of those."

"Don't worry it's not one of the ones that'll suffocate you, it was made to go with the dress to help it hold its shape."

Gwen looked at it; her parents would have a fit if they knew she wore something like that. Then she thought of what Ben would do if he saw her in it. Of course she didn't plan on letting him see but just wearing it wouldn't hurt. "Ok, so how do I put it on?"

"You start by taking off your clothes."

Gwen quickly disrobed and Elizabeth helped her put the corset, it was actually pretty comfortable. Of course just as the finished lacing it up Ben walked in tugging at his tuxedo. "Am I wearing this thing right? I feel like its strangling me."

Gwen stood horrified as Ben looked up and noticed for the first time what she was wearing. His mouth hung open slightly and stopped tugging at his suit. Instead just standing there. "Ben!"

She pulled a dress across herself to hide from his view. "ah sorry!" he ducked back out the door. Gwen's face was a dark red and she had to take several deep breaths to calm down.

"I can't believe he saw me in this." Gwen said mortified.

"Weren't you planning on showing him though?"

"What? No! I mean I thought about it but I wasn't going to!"

"Oh, Gwen can I ask exactly what there is between you and Ben? I've seen the way you two look at each other, how upset he gets when Jonathan is with you."

Gwen couldn't explain it but she trusted Elizabeth and decided to tell her. "We really are cousins, my aunt and uncle adopted Ben when he was a baby. A few weeks ago he found out and was upset. And well, somewhere along there we kind of fell in love. Weird isn't it."

Elizabeth shook her head. "Not at all, it sounds like myself and john. I was adopted into his family and we were like brother and sister. Our love grew from that. Do you really love Ben though?"

"Yea I do." Gwen blush as she said it.

"Then do the both of you a favor. Go pack your bags and get off the train as soon as you can."

Gwen looked at her. "You know I meet john last night and he said the same thing, then got scared. Why what's going on?"

"Nothing, nothing at all I've said too much." She gave the dress one last tug. "There all set for the party tonight. If you'll excuse me I need to get ready too."

Gwen looked out the window; it couldn't have been after one o'clock. "When is the party?"

"Around two, Jonathan likes to start early so we can all watch the sun set".

Gwen wasn't exactly sure what she meant but said ok and left. Ben was waiting outside Elizabeth's door. "Gwen, listen I'm sorry about seeing you, like that."

They both blushed again. "It's fine." Then she grabbed his shirt. "But if you ever tell anyone I was wearing something that frilly even all of your aliens won't be able to save you."

Then she started to laugh and Ben caught on that she was joking. As they walked back down the corridor toward their rooms Ben started tugging on his tuxedo again. Gwen pulled his hand, "stop that."

"But I can't stand this thing."

"Really? I think you look good in it, kind of like tuxedo mask."

Ben immediately stopped pulling on his clothes. "Really? Wait who's tuxedo mask?"

He thought he saw Gwen blush a little before she answered. "Just a character from a cartoon I used to watch."

"No fair come on tell me."

"I don't want to."

"Come one, please."

"No."

"Please?"

"I told you no."

"You're no fun." Ben sat in Gwen room while she read trying to remember if she'd ever mentioned that cartoon before. Finally he thought he remember what she was talking. "Was he that guy from that show where there were girls named after planets? And they all had that weird transformation scene where their clothes turned into ribbons then short skirts?"

"Yea, sailormoon. Wait did you watch it to?"

"Hello, girls transforming into short skirts."

"Pervert." She threw a pillow at him and he ducked. He grabbed it and was prepared to pound her into fluffy oblivion when Elizabeth knocked on the door.

"The party is starting." They followed her into a car neither had noticed before. It was completely empty except for a few chairs next to a table.

Jonathan was already there wearing a suit like bens but with a red vest. "Ah, I hope you don't mind but it will be just the four of us for now. The older guests aren't much for this kind of thing. Also I hope you won't mind us breaking from the historical theme a little." He pulled out an iPod and connected it to a small stereo on the table. "So much easier than trying to fit a full band in here."

Soft music started to flow from the ceiling. "May I ask one of you lovely ladies to dance?" it was clear he meant Gwen though because he didn't even look at Elizabeth.

Without an answer he took her hand and pulled her onto the dance floor. He put and hand on her hip and Ben almost jumped in right there. He kept his promise to Gwen though and just sat in one of the chairs. Elizabeth sat down beside him. "You must leave soon."

"Why?"She didn't answer though; he eyes were unfocused lost in thought.

Jonathan pressed himself closer to Gwen. "You know you really are very pretty, and so, full of life. Would you consider staying here with me?"

She tried to answer but again she couldn't, there was a pressure on her throat and she couldn't make any nose. He was to close, and she suddenly started to panic but she didn't know why. It was horrible. She felt sick, he skin was hot but inside she was freezing. Just breathing became a struggle.

"Oh where are my manners? We can't ignore our cousins can we?" he stepped away from her with a vicious smile. "Elizabeth may I have a word with you for a minute? I trust Ben can keep Gwen company while we are away."

She reluctantly got up and followed him out of the car. Ben walked over to Gwen, "uh Gwen, want to dance?"

The pressure on her throat finally eased and she let out a small choked sob. Ben took a step back, "Gwen, you ok? Come on I'm not that bad of a dancer."

She shook her head and took a moment to get her breath back. "Something's wrong. When I was dancing with Jonathan I couldn't speak, I felt terrified and sick. We need to get off the train something bad is going to happen."

Ben wanted to ask her more but she still looked ill and he didn't want to make it worse. "Ok let's go." He took her hand just as her knees gave out and she fell. "Gwen!"

Suddenly he slumped to the floor too.

Jonathan watched from the other side of the door. "Well shall we get started?"

Elizabeth grabbed his arm. "Please just let them go."

"Oh? A soft spot for them? Or maybe just Ben? Would you like me to give him to you later as a pet?" he moved closer to her. "I'm sure I could take care of anything you need."

"No, that's not it."

"Then be quiet, or I might decided to have a talk with john."

"No!"

"Alright then, go back to your room."

She did but caught site of two of the men from dinner picking up Gwen and Ben and carrying them into another car.

(A/N: well I hope you all liked it, you can probably see why I need a beta read now hehe. Next chapter coming soon.)