Disclaimer: I do not own Ben 10. Sad day.

Some of you have read these on lj already, but for those of you who haven't, I hope you enjoy your first reading. I'll post up ten at a time.

Promise

Kevin was bad at making promises, but he did make one that he intended to keep. He'd never told anyone about it, not even to the person he made it to. He'd rather die than say it out loud to Ben Tennyson. But he made the promise just the same, and every time he looked at Ben, he made it again.

So when Gwen asked him why he hadn't asked her out, it was kind of awkward. He couldn't exactly say, "No, I can't, because I promised your cousin that he was my one and only. Oh, you can't ask him about it, though. I haven't told him yet."

So, like an idiot, he said, "Don't push me."

Now Ben teases him about it.

One day he'll make that promise out loud just to see Ben's expression.

Keeping Quiet

'I wish they'd give me a little more credit.' Gwen sighed and tried to refocus on her magazine. 'Or at least they could be a little quieter.'

"Nng…ow, Kevin! Not so rough."

"Don't be such a baby. You can handle it."

Gwen groaned. 'Oh, God…it starts.'

"Hnn…ah…Kevin…"

Gwen buried her bright red face in her magazine.

"See? You like it."

For God's sake, she was ten feet from the car! She'd tried to give them some privacy when they started making goo-goo eyes at each other when they thought she wasn't looking. But those two couldn't keep a secret if the fate of the universe depended on it. Gwen was having a harder and harder time pretending that she had no idea what was going on.

'That's it,' she thought finally. 'These two will have to learn to deal with my knowing.'

She rapped on the back door window impatiently. All movement inside stopped.

"Listen up, you two. I am ten feet away from the car. If you can't be quiet, I am going to establish a 'no sex in the car' rule in order to get some peace and quiet. Now keep it down!"

She walked away again to finish her magazine. Ten feet away, the car rocked quietly on its wheels.

Irony

"Wow. Déjà vu." Ben checked himself out in the mirror, spinning around, flipping his hair and fixing his skirt. Gwen's skirt. But it was his skirt right now. Yeah.

"Tell me about it." Gwen examined herself as well, cringing a little at the not-so-pleasant state of her teeth. "Do you ever brush?"

Ben shrugged. "Sometimes."

From behind them, Kevin laughed. "This is better than the movies. I can't believe you two actually switched bodies."

Gwen turned around, hands on her hips. Which looked weird, considering they were actually…Ben's…hips. "Laugh it up, Kevin. I'll have us back to normal in no time."

"Figures he'd find this funny," Ben muttered.

"That's cuz it is funny." Kevin smirked. So did Gwen. It didn't look too uncharacteristic on Ben's face.

"You know what else is funny, Kevin?" she asked, getting right in Kevin's face. "You can finally ask me out."

Ben laughed in Gwen's voice.

Asking For It

"Boy, you are askin' for it!"

Kevin stared down the four arms look-alike. "I'm beggin' for it! Who's gonna give it to me?"

Ben raised his hand. "Um…I will."

Gwen just stared at him. The kineceleran and the tetramand couldn't quite figure out what expression to have and settled for "scandalized."

Kevin shrugged. "It's true. He will."

No one knew what to say to that.

Old Age

Kevin hated being old. He supposed it was his own fault, but he wanted it fixed. His back hurt, his legs hurt, his eyes hurt, and he couldn't hear anything properly. And he thought he might have been getting senile, too. That was the worst part. Because before he knew it, he was practically telling Ben how he felt.

"You should have gone out with me when I was young and handsome," he told the boy (whom he'd thought was going to drive…didn't he say he was going to drive? Then why was he in the passenger seat?). To which Ben replied:

"You were too immature."

Was it his imagination, or did Ben sound like Gwen all of a sudden?

No matter. He pressed on. "What about now?"

"Too old."

He really needed to get young again. His hearing was just awful.

Heartbreak

Gwen had strived for this day; playing matchmaker in the wings, pushing the two of them in the right direction until finally, they were together. She'd always known that Ben and Kevin were near and dear to each other's hearts, so trying to hook them up just came naturally.

That didn't mean it didn't hurt to watch.

She really did like Kevin. Despite the things he'd done in the past, she knew that he was a well-meaning and sweet guy. And of course there was his "roguish charm." He was so genuinely…Kevin. She'd wanted that. She'd fallen in love with that.

And apparently, Ben had, too. It couldn't be helped. Gwen put family first.

So she endured the lovey-dovey eyes, the stolen kisses, the not-so-secret sex-romps in the car, and the unconscious, constant closeness that came with two people who were in love. And she tried to be happy for them.

Gaydar

In the midst of experimentally pressing buttons, Ben was astonished to find out that the Omnitrix had a gaydar. At first he didn't know why the damn thing was beeping and flashing with multicolored light. But it became kind of obvious once a mini satellite popped out of the face and pointed at him, and the familiar mechanical voice declared, "Homosexual orientation detected." His jaw dropped.

Kevin started to laugh. "That's just great, Tennyson. The Omnitrix called you a homo." He laughed until his sides hurt, until the mini satellite pointed at him.

"Homosexual orientation detected."

Now it was Ben's turn to laugh.

Gaydar: Gwen's Reaction

Gwen sighed. "Okay. So the Omnitrix has a gaydar. Which Kevin is convinced is broken." She turned to her cousin. "Ben, are you sure you didn't press something weird to make it go out of control?"

"He must have!" Kevin shouted accusingly. "It keeps calling me gay! Me!" He crossed his arms over his chest and pouted. "I'll bet it just says that to everything."

"I'm standing right here, Kevin," Gwen stated calmly, holding up Ben's wrist. "And it's not calling me gay." She sighed again. "Any way we can figure out if it's broken or not?"

Ben scratched his head in thought. "Umm…I think so. Hold on a sec." He walked over to Kevin, placed both hands firmly on the mutant's shoulders, and kissed him squarely on the mouth.

Gwen turned the color of a tomato but for some reason couldn't look away.

The mini satellite on the Omnitrix spun and beeped, and the mechanical voice repeated, "Homosexual orientation detected. Homosexual orientation detected." Finally, Ben drew away, and Kevin tried to follow Ben's lips until he realized what he was doing and stepped back.

"This proves nothing!"

"No," Gwen agreed, still blushing furiously; and she pointed at Kevin's crotch. "But that does."

Ben examined the Omnitrix. "Now, if I can just figure out how to shut it off, we can finish this."

Gwen hid her face and groaned.

Dying Words

This Xenocyte had always had the same goal as its Kin. Attach to a human life form, live off it, and work with the rest of the Kin to further the populace. This Xenocyte always expected to do great things with its new host.

But this one's host would not move. He just talked.

Of course the rest of the Kin counted this one as useless, since all it could do was take energy from its host and do nothing to expend it. Because the host refused to move, and so both body and Xenocyte were slowly shutting down. It wasn't fair.

What else could this one do but listen to its host's dying words?

He talked about stealing what he wanted, when he wanted; whether it happened to be car parts or alien tech, or even a few hearts with his "roguish charm." He talked about all the things he'd learned in the Null Void (which probably would have been a bad idea if this one could have relayed any of the information to its Kin).

But the host talked more about a human called Ben Tennyson than anything else. About the fire in his green eyes when he got angry. About the slight sway of his hips when he walked. This one didn't know much about human relationships, but weren't human males supposed to go after human females?

Every word about the Tennyson boy stood out prominently to the Xenocyte. This one soon found itself forgetting its own goals and wondering what the goals of humans were. Were they the not ultimately the same as the Kin's?

"You…wanted…to be with…the Tennyson…human."

"Yes."

"You…could have lived…yet…we lie here…because…you love…him?"

"Yes."

As soon as that understanding was made, this one felt the last of its host's strength fade away.

This one did not understand human emotions. But it now had an idea what sadness was like.

Dying Words: This One's Message

"Something's not right."

Ben agreed. "It's just…lying there." He frowned. "This can't be Kevin…can it?"

"Genetic code splicing error. Should we attempt to repair?"

"I guess it's the only choice we have." Ben glanced at the blinking Omnitrix. "If this thing is Kevin, then there's no way we can leave him like this." He hoped it wasn't Kevin. "All right. I'm going in."

He'd been through this before with Ken. But he hadn't been this terrified. Ken had still been moving around. And he could still see that it was Ken in there.

This time, he wasn't so confident in what he was doing as he reached for the slimy alien flesh.

"You are…Ben Tennyson."

Ben recoiled. This was definitely new.

"Kevin?"

"He is in here, yes," the voice replied. "But I am not him."

"Then…you're the alien? How do you know my name?"

"The black-haired boy…Kevin…he has said a lot about you." The voice of the creature sounded faintly curious. "I had wondered if I would ever get to meet you." The Xenocyte paused, and Ben felt that he had to stay silent too. "He loved you dearly."

"He…did?" Something else about that was astonishing. "Wait…why are you using past tense?"

"He used up the last of his energy, and expired. Although I suppose I could…wait just a moment. I would like to try something, if I may."

"Wait…what are you going to try?"

"Wait just a moment."

Ben waited with a heart full of apprehension. A moment passed, and he heard nothing from the alien. He reached out once more, but a barrage of tentacles began to coil around his wrist. There was a second of blackness, and then he found himself in the real world again, a lifeless Xenocyte curled in his palm.

'It…gave his energy back…'

"Kevin!" Ben looked up in time to see Gwen throw her arms around Kevin.

Kevin's eyes shot right to Ben.

Ben smiled. "Hey. Missed you."

The older boy smiled, too.

Set one: END