Warnings: Canon mash-up between the different series.
Prompts: 62. Canon, 70. Children, 227. MPREG, 338. Surprises (from fandom_level at Dreamwidth)
A/N: Majority of the information mentioned about aliens is taken from the Ben 10 Wikia.
Beta: ditz

Benmommy

Kenny, Gwendolyn, and Devlin are on their way home from school. Kenny and Devlin are arguing about who has to do what chore when they get home, and Gwendolyn is doing her best to ignore them. They pass by an alley and Kenny and Devlin stop a mugging. Gwendolyn hands the woman her purse as her brothers tie up the mugger for the policemen. Someone asks them to pose for a picture for the newspaper—"The article is going to be called, 'Ben 10,000's children: Heroes for a new generation'!"—but Gwendolyn reminds them that Ben preferred they not do interviews unsupervised, so they decline and continue on their way.

All in all, a normal day.

Kenny and Devlin are getting back into the fight about chores when a group of Necrofriggians approaches them. "Excuse me, but do you know where we can find Ben 10,000?"

Gwendolyn squints up at the Necrofriggians—twelve, by her count—and asks, "Why do you wanna know?"

There's a pause as the Necrofriggians glance at one another. It makes Gwendolyn even more suspicious. Kenny's placed his hand on his Omnitrix and Devlin looks like he's about to transform at any moment.

Finally, one of them steps forward and says, "We think he's our mom."

To say that they're surprised is an understatement.

"Dad! You had babies by yourself?"

It takes a lot of effort for Ben not to spit out his drink all over Kenny, and a lot of it ends up going down the wrong pipe. Beside him, Kai looks up from the documents she's reading, eyebrow raised. "What do you mean, Kenny?" she asks, putting aside her paperwork as Ben tries to recover from his coughing fit.

Before Kenny can answer, the kitchen door opens again and Gwendolyn and Devlin enter, followed by a group of Necrofriggians.

Ah.

Ben has, of course, told Kai about the whole Big Chill incident. And of course she'd found it hilarious that Ben had gone through what was essentially a teenage pregnancy. They'd never really talked about it afterwards, mostly because Necrofriggians didn't really bother about parents or the whole "family" thing—once you hatched, you were pretty much on your own—and also because it really wasn't a big deal in the long run.

But Kenny's question and the arrival of a group of strange Necrofriggians could lead to only one conclusion. Ben's not really sure what to do; he'd been putting off telling his kids about their older brothers until they were teenagers. Maybe never.

Kai glances at the Necrofriggians, and begins to herd the kids into the living room. "I'll explain it to you. I think it'd be better if your father stayed here for now." Ben is torn between relief at being spared the grueling task of explaining alien asexual reproduction to his children, and frustration at being left alone to attempt to talk to his other children.

There's a tense silence as Ben looks at the Necrofriggians and they look back at him. Some of them seem curious, some of them seem nervous. Ben supposes it's up to him, as the parent, to make the first move. "So … how'd you find out about me?"

There's a pause before one of the Necrofriggians speaks. "You know how some insects operate on instinct? Like, the monarch butterfly will travel all the way to a different country during a certain time of the year."

"Yeah?"

"You probably know this already, but after they're born, Necrofriggians instinctively fly to Kylmyys, after spending some time in space eating plasma."

Ben actually didn't know that but he wasn't about to let what could possibly be his estranged kids know that. He nodded as if that were all old information to him.

"Well, after some time, we all felt another urge to migrate. It was kind of weird, and at first we didn't know about each other or where we were going."

Another Necrofriggian speaks up. "Yeah—we all met in space and we realized that we were all going to the same place. Here, to Earth. And then we saw you fighting on the megascreens."

"And?"

Most of the Necrofriggians shrug. "We just knew you were our mom."

Ben needs time to process what he's just been told. His estranged kids flew across the vastness of space to look for him, a parent they've never known, and they know who he is on sight. It's touching, in a way, and he can't deny that raising Kenny and Gwendolyn and Devlin sometimes makes him wonder about Big Chill's babies; if they're safe or if they're healthy. It takes Necrofriggians a longer time before they reach adulthood, so his kids really are just kids, in every sense of the word.

He looks at the group again, and feels ridiculously mushy parental affection when he realizes that the runt of the litter is still the runt. He's standing somewhere to the back of the group, trying to peek over one of his brother's shoulders. Ben remembers him fluttering in his hands, reluctant to leave, remembers having to urge him to follow his siblings.

Ben smiles at his children and says, "Well, I think it's time we got to know each other better."

Kai takes a deep breath and decides to go for broke. "Necrofriggians can have babies by themselves. When your father was younger, he turned into Big Chill, and that's what happened."

It seems like Kenny's the only one having problems processing what she's just told them, so Kai adds, "Remember. It's a big universe out there. There are a lot of stranger things than this."

Gwendolyn smiles, all of a sudden, "This is really cool! I've always wanted an older brother or sister."

"Well, they all came from dad so they're all guys," Kenny says.

Devlin rubs his chin thoughtfully. "Do you think if we ask nicely, they'll let us ghost through stuff with them? That'd be pretty neat. I always thought that that was Big Chill's coolest power."

"No way! The freeze breath is the coolest one, literally."

"But Articguana can do the same thing," Gwendolyn says. "And actually, Ghostfreak can turn intangible too."

"But we don't have any Ectonurite brothers."

"And I don't want any either."

"I don't think any of us do, doofus."

Kai watches the entire exchange with a smile on her face. The fact that they're now arguing about which of Ben's aliens is the coolest is a good sign that none of them are too bothered by the fact that their father laid eggs back when he was a teenager. Kai knows that she and Ben have raised Kenny and Gwendolyn to be open-minded when it comes to alien practices, and even if Devlin's only been with them for half a month, they've treated him like he was their own son.

The door leading to the kitchen opens and Ben comes into the living room with the twelve Necrofriggians.

"Did we miss anything?" he asks, settling down on the couch beside Kai. Devlin, Kenny, and Gwendolyn immediately make their way over to their new-found siblings to ask them if they'd mind showing off their powers.

"Nothing much," Kai says. "I think Kenny was more upset about the possibility of Ghostfreak having babies."

The look Ben gives her is equal parts confused and grossed out. "I'll explain later," she assures him, patting his knee.

Luckily, they have a lot of guest rooms, so they have no problems with where the Necrofriggians are going to stay. It's only after the flurry of arranging who stays where that Ben realizes that he doesn't know what his kids are called. He didn't exactly have time to name them when they first came out, and it was hard to believe that they hadn't named themselves after all these years.

"We've prepared for this," one of the Necrofriggians says. "We picked our Earth names before we got here."

The "Earth names" they've chosen are Ice, Nippy, Wintry, Frost, Sleet, Frigid, Hail, Tundra, Snow, Blizzard, Winter, and Pole.

The way Gwendolyn's nose is wrinkled, it means she's holding in her laughter. Kai has the same expression on her face. Ben doesn't think the names are that bad. Kenny and Devlin exchange looks, and Devlin asks, "Why'd you choose the name Pole?"

Pole answers, "Y'know, like the North and South Pole."

When they've all retired to their own rooms for the night, Kai calls up Gwen to tell her about what's happened, and after she finally stopped laughing ("Figures that they take after Ben in the naming department."), Gwen promises to drop by soon to meet her nephews.

Breakfast the next day is a crowded affair. Their table is big, but not big enough to accommodate all of them comfortably. Luckily enough, the kids don't seem to mind the lack of personal space—Gwendolyn is even sitting on Sleet's lap—and the dining room is filled with the sound of multiple conversations being held at the same time.

It takes some time for Ben to notice that Devlin is oddly quiet during the entire meal. Normally, he wouldn't have made much of it, except Devlin didn't even bother to retaliate when Kenny stole the bacon from his plate. The last time that had happened, Devlin had transformed and Kenny had turned into XLR8 and they'd run around the house, trying to keep the plate of bacon away from each other.

Ben looks at Kai, and nods once when she raises an eyebrow in question. When breakfast is finished, she herds everyone into the kitchen to help clean up. Before Devlin can trail after them, Ben places a hand on his shoulder. Devlin looks up at him, curious, but Ben doesn't say anything until the door to the kitchen is closed.

"Is there anything wrong?"

Devlin just shrugs, fiddling with the plate in his hands.

"You sure there's nothing wrong?"

There's a pause before Devlin answers, eyes on the floor. "I was just … thinkin'. About some stuff."

"Is this about your older brothers?" Ben asks, and his heart kind of drops into his stomach when Devlin nods.

Ben had thought that all of his human kids had been okay with the whole "alien half-brothers" thing, but Devlin is obviously still having some trouble with it. He's so busy panicking about what he should do, that he almost doesn't hear Devlin speak.

"I mean, that's kind of the problem isn't it? They're not really my big brothers. They're Kenny's and Gwendolyn's. I'm just the freaky kid with the parents who don't care about him."

It feels like Ben's heart has fallen from his stomach to the floor. When he'd asked Devlin to stay with them, Devlin had been ecstatic. Before now, there'd never been any sort of indication that Devlin felt left out. He and Kai make sure to treat him the same way they treat Kenny and Gwendolyn, and it hurts to think that maybe he'd failed to make Devlin feel like he belongs.

Ben gives Devlin's shoulder a squeeze before he squats down and tilts his chin up gently. "Hey. The fact that you're adopted doesn't make you any less a member of this family. Besides," Ben grins, "we've known you longer than we've known your older brothers."

Devlin manages a small smile, and Ben ruffles his hair before straightening up. "C'mon. Let's see if your mom's managed to keep all the dishes in one piece."

Wintry phases through the roof, Kenny in his arms, and quickly darts towards where Ben and Kai are standing. Behind them, Snow appears with Gwendolyn and Pole with Devlin. The other Necrofriggians appear at a more sedate pace, carrying plates of food and utensils.

"You cheated!" Snow says as soon as they're within hearing distance.

Wintry frowns. "Did not!"

Grandpa Max and Gwen are coming over to meet the Necrofriggian kids, and Kai had suggested that they have a rooftop barbecue.

It was hard to believe that only a week ago, Ben had been preoccupied with only three kids. Now he has to deal with fifteen (though at least twelve of them had almost the same mindset he had as a teen, so he deals with them easily enough). He watches the Necrofriggian kids and marvels at how big they've grown, and feels a weird sort of emptiness in his stomach. He wonders if this is how Kai feels whenever she looks at Kenny and Gwendolyn, but decides not to ask in case she decides to start teasing him about it.

Ben watches all of his kids argue about the best way to set up the barbecue and the deck chairs and the tables and where the food should go, and thinks that life is good.