An Unexpected Surprise

A/N: Yes yes yes! Finally! After all this time, I managed to write my first fanfiction! :D :D (Throws balloons and flowers around!)

Firstly, I would love to give MugetsuPipefox lots of thank you's for being my beta reviewer in this story, and for helping me correct and improve my structure greatly! You really are a dear! :D :D

Now, this is a Benlie one-shot, and needless to say, I found absolutely no justice given to Julie's character in the series, making her more of a dominating person, than an understanding one! And the Benlie break-up was absolutely formed on such an unacceptable basis!

Nevertheless, I've been babbling too much now, and I've been delaying to you my story!

Disclaimer: Oh for goodness sake! Why on earth should anyone think that I owned Ben 10 in the first place! It's clearly owned by MOA and Cartoon Network!

P.S. : This story is written completely in Julie's POV, so ta da!

Double P.S: This is story is also a dedication to my best friend, whose birthday it is today! :D :D Happy 18th to you dear! :* :* Love you loads! 3 3

It was not often that Ben Tennyson regularly gave you a call, or was ever particular to call in the first place. Maybe it was more for that reason that when I received a call in the morning during my tennis practice, with Ben's name as the caller ID, I was surprised through and through.

"Hey Ben, what's up?"

"Um, hi! I, uh, just, well…." Ben stammered.

"Well?" I asked, a little impatient now. Ever since I and Ben had begun dating and Ben's secret was known to me, he had quite lost the stammering habit. But he did have the most impeccable timing for speaking all the wrong things at the wrong times, which most of the time resulted in an argument between us.

Ben seemed to have gotten even more uncomfortable on the phone, as he quite suddenly blurted out, which looked like he didn't mean to put it up that way.

"Will you be with me if you're free today evening?"

Whatever it was that I'd expected Ben to say, it certainly wasn't this. Funnily enough, it also attributed in my exclaiming a rather overdramatic, "What?!"

I assumed that Ben must have gathered the worst from my reaction, and sure even when he spoke again, his voice held that note of disappointment and hasty retreat.

"It's alright if you don't want to, I was just…"

It was true that I and Ben had become a couple once again over the past two weeks after my two months of dating Hervé, which ended in the two of us just "falling apart". Hervé was the perfect boyfriend for me, having his fixed "surprise dates" and perfect ones at that. But after dating Ben for a year and a half, my taste in boys had changed drastically.

During my time with Ben, I came to learn that everybody makes mistakes. Sometimes one may be a little late for a date, or sometimes due to unavoidable reasons things may not go as it should. Maybe that was the reason that I found too much perfection in Hervé, which only made me feel more irksome than usual.

During our first meeting just after my break-up, Ben once again sprung up on the chance to ask me to turn over a new leaf. I'd decided to give him one last chance, clearly emphasizing the point that if he felt that the commitment of our relationship was becoming too much of a burden over his other responsibilities, he could call our relationship off and I would willingly understand.

But now that my shock had worn off at hearing Ben ask me out on a sort of date, I answered only too willingly, the embarrassment clearly in my tone.

"Of course I will… What time, then?"

"It's 11 now, we can meet up at 4. I'll, uh, pick you up from your place," said Ben swiftly and I could almost hear the relief in his voice.

"Sure," I replied politely. "See you, then."

It was at 3:50 pm when I was finally ready, adding a last touch of powder to my cheeks. I'd kept my dress unusually simple; a simple, hater-necked, light yellow top, and a knee-length black skirt with my hair done in a ponytail. I had the perfect black sandals to go with my outfit, along with an accessory or to that complimented my attire. I'd kept my make-up extremely simple too, with only mascara on my eyes, a light application of lip gloss on my lips and a little compact powder to go along with it. The last touch to my attire was my small yellow-black clutch purse which went superbly well with the total dress up.

I was just admiring the total effect of my attire when I heard a bombarding honk from below. I immediately rushed over to the window to see that unmistakable race car of Ben's waiting at the side of the road, positioned exactly in front of the front door of my house.

I was surprised by the fact that, except for our first date, Ben was never on time for dates, the reason being pretty obvious. A smile unconsciously creeping up to my face in spite of myself, and I quickly rushed down to the front door just as the bell of my house was rung. When I opened the door, however, I was thoroughly taken aback, and so was Ben.

The way he looked at me, I almost thought his eyes might pop off his head, but my surprise too was very evident on my face. Apparently like me, Ben too, had quite changed himself out from his usual black T-shirt-blue jeans-green jacket combination, and now instead stood in front of me in a casual white shirt and black jeans. His clothes were just as simple as mine, but never had I seen him look more handsome and charming.

After staring at each other for 5 minutes, we finally managed to break from our spell.

"You look… beautiful," Ben remarked.

I blushes freely and returned Ben's compliment with a, "You indeed look charming, too," which made him go crimson just the same.

"Let's go now, shall we?"

I replied in the affirmative and both of us took our seats in Ben's DX Mark-10. Ben took a look at me one last time before he started up the engine. The car sprang to life at once and Ben rammed at the accelerator, driving the car away steadily.

At the beginning of the journey we were both quite silent. My mind was going over several unimportant things, when Ben's voice cut through my thoughts.

"I'm sorry, what were you saying?" I asked apologetically.

"When are your parents coming back from Japan?" he repeated.

"Oh, they'll be back by next week," I replied back politely. My parents had gone to Japan for 3 weeks, since my father was a correspondent of the Daily Times and had to go about on his little trips to different parts of the world.

The two of us were enveloped in silence once more. Even though we'd begun dating again, we didn't have enough topics to cover, and we were trying to be too courteous to each other.

It was at this point that I quite intentionally put my question to Ben, "You really are trying to do your best to make this relationship work now, aren't you?"

"I promised that I'd try my best to make this relationship work despite of all the conditions," he replied honestly.

I gave a satisfied nod in return and put forth another statement.

"You were early today."

"Yeah, I didn't have anything much to do and since I know that you aren't like those other girls who take hours on doing themselves up, I thought you'd be ready."

At this point another question, in fact, the most important question of the day, came across my mind. "You didn't tell me where exactly you are taking me for a date, Ben."

A sudden change came over the car. The so far polite and well-mannered Ben almost reverted back to his old self.

"Jeez, Jules! What's the point of a surprise date when you know where you are going?" he answered cheekily, with his famous cocky grin.

And out of nowhere, I felt relieved, like a big burden was taken off my shoulders which I didn't even know was there. This was Ben I was with, the Ben I've always desired to be with, the Ben who I've always been ready to do anything for.

How could I behave so stupidly?

Indeed, I'd been acting like an idiot, all afraid of… I didn't even know what I was afraid of… another break up? Ben never being the same again? Or of me ditching him way too poorly? But seeing Ben's original cockiness creep to his face for the first time in two weeks, I felt as if everything would become perfectly alright between us; that all the two of us had to give was time.

And for the first time in the two of us being together, I laughed heartily.

"Alright, Ben! But I better hope you are not taking me for one of those Sumo Slammer movies!"

Ben put on a childish face and added pouted lips to make him look like a completely disapproving child. God, how much I had missed these little things about him! But I would make sure this time that I, too, would give my 100% in our relationship.

"Well, I never used to see you complaining earlier about Sumo Slammer's in our previous dates!" retorted Ben quickly, and I stuck my tongue out.

"If that's the program of the date, you might as well drop me home now or I might hammer you with my racquet," I added playfully.

"You wouldn't do that, not if the date contained something interesting…" Ben said confidently. But I too, was not going to back down so easily now.

A smug grin formed on my face. "You might as well turn the car back now Ben…. I think I would love to cancel the date right now."

I observed Ben's expression, but when I saw it, I nearly accepted defeat. Ben had on one of those looks when he had the ultimate winning hand. And to put a seal on my doubt, he spoke like those salesmen who try to make you greedy with those buy one get one free offers.

"And would you like to do that, even if that something interesting was…. shopping?" He purposely added emphasis to the last word, and I knew that I was very well defeated.

"Very well," I growled at him in mock-sulkiness, "But you'll have to carry all my bags." Ben smirked at me before unexpectedly replying.

"That's a deal."

It was after two hours of satisfying shopping at the mall that found Ben and me once again in the car.

"Well, thanks a lot Ben! That was some really awful shopping I happened to do today," I ended apologetically. I knew shopping was one of the things Ben hated as much as studying, but he had been quite good natured, and as per the deal, he had carried all my shopping bags.

"Well, I'll definitely make you sit through 3 Sumo Slammer's marathons one day as a payback, so no worries." He replied only too happily.

"Ugh… So, where next?" I asked to change the topic. Talking of Sumo Slammers was the best way to ruin our so far brilliant date, and I was in no way eager to do so.

"Didn't I tell you earlier that it wouldn't be a surprise date if you knew the place?" Ben spoke in a mocking sing-song tone which really irritated me.

"Fine! Do as you like" was all I replied.

"Oh Julie, now don't get all angry. I was just trying to keep the surprise." Ben responded this time in an almost hurt voice, but I knew him too well. That was one of those emotional blackmailing tones which he used unashamedly to melt people's hearts off completely.

"Alright, alright, I'll wait" I resigned to him. After all, I did not want to provoke an argument, not when everything was going on too perfectly.

Finally, after sitting for 10 minutes in silence, the car stopped in front of the cinema.

"So this is the surprise! I hope you do show me a good movie containing neither vampires nor wrestlers!" I exclaimed as we walked towards the counter. Apparently Ben was so absorbed in getting the tickets that he did not even pay attention to my little joke. It barely took us any time, before we found ourselves in one of the back rows of the hall. The hall was quite full and we were lucky that we got the tickets in a touch-and-go situation.

Ben had bought us two tickets to a light hearted romance-comedy that had just been released this week. It was indeed a perfect choice of movie that Ben chose, as the "rom-com" was just the type of movies I loved to watch. But what surprised me the most was that Ben, who found rom-com movies absolutely trash, and who thought movies like Sumo Slammers were "classic", was taking a good amount of interest in the movie.

It was the second time that day that I noticed how much indeed Ben was trying to make our relationship work. Before I could ponder much, the interval was announced and Ben went out to buy an extra box of popcorn.

After two and a half hours well spent on an amazing movie, the two of us once again journeyed through the car, but this time our journey was quite short, as Ben parked straight in front of Burger Shack. It happened to be both mine and Ben's favourite joint and also it was the first time in two months that I'd been to Burger Shack to enjoy some of its delicacies. Hervé, being a Parisian in particular, seemed to revolt the idea of American fast food, and seemed to stick to good French joints only, and, occasionally, an Italian or Spanish one.

The restaurant was fairly empty except for two occupied booths and that enabled us to get our preferred table by the window. We had a simple dinner; Ben ordered for me the Shack's special meal combo, which was my favourite, while he ended with his ever classic chilli fries and a coke.

During the meal, we spoke on several topics: his Plumber business, his new partner, my tournaments, school, holidays, relationships…

"I'm sorry I ditched you for Hervé, Ben." I said suddenly, interrupting Ben's speech.

That caught Ben totally off guard for a moment before he regained his composure. He gave me a bewildered look, and I continued.

"Look Ben, I know that for the past few months, things were not so great between us, and between you and me, I won't have a problem saying that my own fame gave me a bad influence. I began to feel just as important as you, and fame got in my head just as bad. I began gathering that you had no right to cancel dates and stuff all by yourself because I was just as important as you are…"

"Maybe that's why I began to get dominating. And when on the phone you were mumbling stuff about your game which coincided in a very bad way with our conversation, I just felt as though you were trying to show how insignificant I was in your life. I tried to call it off for the betterment of the two of us, but see how that worked out?" I ended lamely with a half-hearted chuckle.

Throughout my speech, Ben silently listened to me without interrupting me once, for which I was grateful. Another burden felt relieved off my shoulders as I finally spoke my mind to Ben about the whole matter. Even though I and Ben always had arguments, the only reason why our relationship was special was because of the understanding and honestly between us.

At last, Ben spoke, but in such a way that it removed any remaining doubt I may have had in the slightest about our reconciliation.

"Julie, we both made our mistakes in the past, and we've both learnt from it. Let that be in the past. Just give this relationship another chance, and I promise to you that if we both give in our best, there's no reason why our relationship should fail again. You know the real me, I can be honest and frank only with you, and perhaps Gwen and Kevin, about my feelings, and if things are so clear between us, minus our faults, we have a damning good relationship!" He ended slightly breathlessly.

I now looked at him with confidence and yet asked him childishly.

"Promise?"

Ben smiled at me radiantly as he replied with an equally appealing "promise" in return. The two of us had the rest of our meal in silence, before we left Burger Shack smiling towards our new future, hand in hand.

But that, it seems, was after all not the last stop of our date. Ben now drove the car towards the beach. We spent half an hour on the beach, walking and discussing other little matters, enjoying the calm bliss that the sea provided us. But there seemed to be another surprise in wait as after some time, Ben deviated our path and took me round the corner, where there was a small Mr. Smoothie's shop barely visible to the normal eye.

Ben looked at me hesitantly and I knew at once what was going on in his mind. I told him that it was alright, and he bought me a simple strawberry smoothie, and for the most surprising fact, he bought himself, not a repulsive flavour, but the latest mint and lemon smoothie.

We sat on the beach and watched the waves hitting the sand in a mesmerizing way. We were both silent, just plainly enjoying each other's company, and once again, my mind drifted off to other unimportant things. It may have been minutes, even hours, but I did not feel inclined to leave the beach side. This was always the kind of date I wanted to have - calm, uninterrupted, simple yet a perfect date. At that moment, I could not have been in love with life more than then. It was perfect; perfect in all senses, and a deep calm approached me. I shut my eyes only too willingly to enjoy it.

Perhaps I must have fallen asleep, for suddenly I felt a gentle rapping on my shoulder. I opened my eyes, my gaze directly meeting with Ben's emerald one; into which I could always drown myself. And then there was a moment, I must have been dreaming maybe, when I almost felt Ben come near to me, as in a kiss. I must have given him an uncertain expression, however, for the next moment, he had increased the distance between us. He got up and pulled me up too, and we quietly made our way back to the car.

At last, the most undesired moment in our date approached. Ben brought his car to a halt in front of my house, and now it was time for us to part for the night. Our date had been such a beautiful one and I had no intention to leave Ben, but as they say, all good things come to an end.

Ben walked me to the front door and spoke softly.

"I hope you had a great time."

"It was our best date by far."

"Well, there certainly weren't aliens interrupting us, so there's that," Ben laughed forcefully on that, and said rather reluctantly "Uh… so well… uh… good night, Jules."

"Good night Ben," I whispered, as I slowly moved a step nearer to him.

Ben looked at me steadily and I returned his gaze in the same manner. "I don't know if I've told you this, but I had a great time with you," he whispered again, and this time he came a step closer.

Getting a hint at what the both of us wanted, I replied, "But our date has not been complete – yet," and at the same I pulled Ben into a kiss. It was quite an extraordinary kiss that we shared on that spot, perhaps the best I've ever felt.

Ben kissed me in the kind of way that each adjective contradicted the other severely – reckless yet careful, fierce yet gentle, passionate yet loving, every emotion in one kiss. There was something about the way our lips met in that moment, meeting and parting like old friends, a strange spark of passion igniting with me as my fingers entangled into Ben's hair and his arms slithered around my waist in a protective embrace.

When we finally came up for air, we looked into each other's eyes before I whispered lovingly, "There... now the date is complete."

"That was..." was all Ben could manage to speak. He looked completely bowled over, just like the first time I kissed him on his cheek. Boys. In that moment, however, I was suddenly taken over by an urge to say something that would completely ruin the date, or else give me an utter disappointment. But I could not control myself for long, before I found myself whispering to him once more.

"I love you, Ben".

Eternity held itself for me when Ben returned my statement with the same amount of love in it, if not more, his voice husky.

"I love you too... I always have and I always will." I gave him a dumbfounded look as he kissed my forehead lovingly. "Pick you up for school tomorrow," he promised with a huge smile and a wink before he made his way towards the car.

I stood there, rooted on the spot gaping at him, when I suddenly broke out of my stance, clearly awestruck and hypnotized with the intensity of the moment. I gave him a reassuring nod, as I waved at him, and him at me, before he left.

I returned back home that night to cherish a beautiful memory that I would remember for years.

Finally! I got the two love birds to come together for the time being! But what does my bringing them together do? It's all in MOA's hands to do anything about it! :( :(

Constructive criticism will be more than welcome and sorry for any typos. :) :)