Chapter 12: Uncontrollable
"How about this one, mom?"
Natalie glanced up from where she was reading to eye her daughter's choice in costume. The witch hat was absolutely adorable, that much she would admit, with its wide brim dwarfing her head, but the equally black robes were too large on her.
"I love the hat, but aren't the robes too big? They make you look small."
Gwen only snickered, adjusting the hat in the mirror. "Ben will love that; creates the illusion of me being as short as he is."
Natalie rolled her eyes, smiling at the same time. One track mind, as ever. The kids had returned from her trip to the National Park on Monday evening, and as all the adults had agreed that the kids had been separated too abruptly after their previous trip, it was decided that Ben could stay over at their place before going back to his own house on Saturday, today after dinner. Natalie was glad for the decision, even if she was slightly hesitant about indulging their interdependence. Ben had gotten by quite well, to everyone's surprise. A large part of that had to do, Gwen had explained, with the fact that Ben had two friends at school who seemed to understand something was up and helped him through the day.
Gwen, on the other hand, struggled this week of school. But whenever she came home, Ben was either already there or would soon be. It never quite lost its appeal, the way her daughter would freeze the second she saw the boy, how her shoulders would relax, how her eyes would warm and her face light up. It was still strange, as for most of their lives, Natalie had only ever seen them bicker and fight.
Ben was much the same as Gwen though, always seeming to come a little more alive when he heard the front door open. He didn't jump up, or even move at all to acknowledge Gwen entering the house until she actually entered the room, but there was a clear air of anticipation emanating from him every time. And the second she came into view, even if he didn't even look up, Natalie could feel his attention shift completely from whatever he was doing onto Gwen.
As adorable as it was, it watered the seed Frank had planted in her mind, even if she still believed that it was a phase and it was all quite clearly connected to their trauma. They relied on each other, and that reliance manifested in affection. No real mystery. With treatment, that reliance would lessen, and, theoretically, so would the need for constantly being around each other. They could deal with any small crush after that, if it even was a thing at all that point. The treatment came first.
Natalie hummed to herself, flipping a page in her book. Treatment. They'd asked for treatment. Max had privately confirmed upon returning that they were open to it (and by the way Sandra had called later to gush about the news, it was fair to say that her relationship with Max was much improved by him keeping his promise), but until they'd asked her directly two days ago, she hadn't really dared to hope.
She did have some pretty obvious misgivings though, not least of which was the plain simple fact that she was related to her patients. Bias, shying away from uncomfortable truths, the distance required for a psychologist to be effective, all of them were on shaky footing. But it had been a requirement the children had insisted on when they brought it up: they'd talk to Natalie. No one else. She could, they told her, share things with their grandfather. No one else.
Given their legendary stubbornness as well as not wishing to waste this chance, she'd accepted, as had the other adults. Natalie smiled ruefully as she remembered that. Five grown-ups taking cues from two children because they were desperate to help said children. Maybe this whole family needed to get therapy; this was screaming 'dysfunctional.'
She was pulled from her musings by a buzzing sound coming from Gwen, who pulled her right arm into her robes, rifling about with her tongue poking out at the corner of her mouth before she pulled out her phone with a sound of triumph, answering. "Hey Lizze, what's up?"
Natalie smiled in spite of Gwen's less than flattering antics. That was another thing that had changed; Ben's little friends had apparently taken such a shine to Gwen that they'd pressured the boy into giving them her number when he'd returned to school. The result had been frequent phone calls between the four children over the most inane things. It warmed her heart as a mother though, as Gwen had always had difficulties making friends. Now she had two more, one of which was throwing a Halloween party that they were shopping for, next weekend.
"Am I wearing a hat? Yes, why-"
"Surprise!"
From between the clothing racks, a brown haired girl jumped out, cheerfully glomping Gwen, picking her up as she did. Gwen squeaked in surprise. "Lizzie! Personal space! We talked about this last week!"
"I forgot!" The girl informed Gwen cheerily, not a hint of remorse in her as she squeezed her daughter. Natalie was reminded of Ben in that moment, and had to hide a grin behind her hand. Then the girl turned to the woman, and her already large brown eyes become positively huge as her jaw dropped. Wonder what that's about. Didn't anyone teach her that it's rude to stare?
Gwen sheepishly untangled herself from the now slack grip. "Lizzie, mom. Mom, Lizzie." She introduced shortly. Natalie had figured as much, but it was still nice to have it confirmed. Finally, a face to match the name-
"She's beautiful!" The little girl breathed out, before turning to Gwen beaming. "And you look just like her!" She gasped, clapping her hands excitedly. "You're going to be so pretty Gwen! Oh, Ben is so-"
"Not here! He's so not here!" Gwen cut her off, slapping a hand over the girl's mouth, slightly pale. The girl just kept talking, seeming not to care that she was unintelligible. If anything, it spurred her on, gesticulating enthusiastically with every muffled word she said. Natalie couldn't quite contain a laugh at the sight. Perhaps it was her exposure to Ben, but she'd found that her tolerance for goofing around was increasing by the day.
"Thanks, Lizzie. You're very cute yourself." Natalie returned the compliment. It was true anyway, the girl was a little bundle of fluff. Gwen shot her a look before sighing, removing her hand from Lizzie's mouth.
"-and then the unicorn said 'that's no moon!' and- oh, thank you Mrs…?"
"I'm taking her for a walk!" Gwen announced abruptly, red-faced, before quickly dragging the smaller girl away. Natalie just shook her head and flipped her magazine open again, sinking back in the chair near the dressing rooms. She'd think about what happened there when she wasn't tired from rereading a dozen or so psychology books. She had treatment to prepare, after all.
"Soooo, any reason why I can't meet your mom properly?" Lizzie asked her, smiling confusedly where they stood, hidden between the clothing racks in a quiet corner of the costume store. Gwen peeked over them to ensure that her mother hadn't moved before sighing, turning to the other girl in full.
"It's… complicated. My mom doesn't know about me and… Ben." She admitted. It wasn't even a lie. "She wouldn't like it very much." Understatement of the century. She'd probably never see the boy again if they found out. Well, to her parents' knowledge at least. She could fly, for crying out loud; they weren't keeping her down.
Lizzie grinned at her, eyes sparkling. "So, it's secret love?" She breathed, sounding far more excited than she should. Gwen eyed her oddly, before nodding hesitantly. She really should've seen the resulting squeal coming.
"Shhh! Lizzie! Contain yourself!"
"But it's so romantic!" It was a miracle how Lizzie could whisper while sounding like she was shouting. "I can't wait to grill Ben over it. And tell him how lucky he's going to be in a few years- I mean, even more than he is now!"
Gwen smirked at that, lazily adjusting her witch hat. She'd seen her future self. She knew exactly how lucky he was going to be… or how lucky she was going to be, for that matter, feeling a flush creep up her face when she recalled Ben Ten-Thousand. Grumpy, but he had been quite the sight. "Ben's not here though is he?" She asked, warily. She wanted to see him, she always did these days, but the last thing she needed was Ben and Lizzie in the same room as her mother-
Her train of thought was derailed by the sensation of lips gently brushing her neck, and she was very, very glad they were out of sight of her mother, because of course the doofus had no impulse control. Gwen felt her flush deepen as his lips lingered, and in front of her Lizzie turned a similar shade of red before giving them an approving thumbs up. Gwen pulled her hat down to hide her blush... and to hide her grin.
Ben pulled back, and Gwen wasn't entirely sure if he had pulled her against him, or if she'd fallen against him, but he was pressed flush against her back. Given how weak her knees felt… probably a bit of both. Steadying herself, she turned around, coming face to face with a grinning Ben, his visage red and his grin somewhere between insufferably cocky and adorably shy. Darn him. How was she supposed to get mad at his impulsiveness when he looked like that?
She crossed her arms and glared, tapping her foot. Ben's grin gained a sheepish quality. "Anna put me up to it." He defended himself. Gwen snorted.
"I'm sure you resisted vigorously." She drawled.
"I did! It was epic." Ben declared, puffing out his chest. Gwen quirked a brow.
"Oh, so kissing my neck is so terrible that you put up 'epic resistance' to the idea?"
"Err..." Ben looked momentarily lost. Behind her, she could hear Lizzie gesticulate wildly.
"Its a trap!" The brunette told Ben. "Abort mission! I repeat, abort mission!"
Gwen rolled her eyes, smirking, deciding to let her doofus off the hook. "Why are you here, twerp?"
Ben shrugged, looking relieved at the change of subject. "Anna and Lizzie insisted they help me pick a costume. I keep telling them that I already have one but..."
"You so don't." Anna deadpanned from behind Ben, where she was rifling through the clothes racks, the only one amongst them who stood tall enough to be seen over them, if barely. "And because you're too lazy to get one, you lie to get out of it. We know you, Tennyson. Classmates, remember? For years?"
"They just wont believe me!" Ben complained, to Gwen's loud snort.
"You, lying so you can be lazy? Perish the thought."
Ben gave her a kicked puppy look and she groaned inwardly, spotting the misschievous twinkle in his eyes. That little-he knew exactly what that did to her! She persevered, hoping against hope that her stern glare conveyed nothing. She'd been immune to his face for years and she was not going to let it get the better of her now just because he was fun to cuddle (and if that were the only thing that drew her to him, she might have believed her own lie). He sullenly pouted. "I really do have a costume…" he muttered.
"Really? What is it?" She asked, skeptically.
In response, he leaned in to whisper in her ear, his breath tickling her. "It's a secret." He told her, and she couldn't even focus on what he was actually saying because of the shudder that ran through her. She had expected these things to become less distracting after they'd cleared the air between them about the kiss last weekend.
But it hadn't. It was following the exact same pattern as all the other forms of affection they shared, in that it was quickly becoming uncontrollably normalized, but it so, so wasn't becoming any less distracting. Or addicting. Gwen should probably worry about that more when her brain wasn't somewhere in her stomach.
But even with her brain down there, she could still decide that she needed to balance the scales. She reached up with both hands, gently ghosting her fingers over his jawline, satisfied to watch him shudder, pupils growing huge. She smirked, feeling heat creep up her face as he smiled back, just a bit hesitant. It still hadn't stopped amazing her that they were doing this, nor had it become any less confusing as a feeling, but it was worth it when he looked at her like that. It made her feel like the strongest thing in the universe.
Ben placed one arm around her waist and his other one reached up to gently run his fingers through the hair at the base of her skull. For a moment she forgot where she was altogether; she just focused on the feeling, on him, not in spite of it being Ben that made her feel like this but precisely because it was Ben and he had been making her feel safe and appreciated for weeks now. And loved, she had to conclude retrospectively, even if neither of them had quite acknowledged that until recently.
Behind them, Anna scoffed, pulling her back down to Earth. "Will you two kiss already?"
Gwen wanted to snicker. She probably expected them to 'realize' how entangled they were and jump apart. A week ago, they might have. A lot had happened since then. Ben smirked at her. "You heard the lady." He said, shrugging helplessly. Gwen sighed in response before shooting Anna a mock glare.
"Look what you're making me do-" She was cut off by Ben leaning in to kiss her soundly and she felt her brain scramble a little. Distantly, she heard Lizzie squeak (and she just knew she'd be arguing with the doofus over who got points for that later), but she was too preoccupied by the dual sensation of Ben kissing her and his hand massaging her scalp at the same time to really care. Deepening the kiss, she allowed the world to fall away again, losing herself in this moment-
"Gwen? Everything alright over there?"
-right up until she didn't.
She jumped out of Ben's embrace, poking her head over the racks. "We're fine mom!" She squeaked out. She grinned sheepishly at her mother's quirked eyebrow. "Uhm, would you mind if I went with Lizzie? Please?"
Her mom did not look impressed at being ditched, but just sighed. "Fine, just be sure to be home for dinner."
"Thanks mom! You're the best!" She chirped. Her mother waved her off.
"I know, darling, I know." She distractedly flipped a page in her book.
Gwen grinned before ducking back down and slapping a hand over her mouth. In front of her, Ben looked to the side, face red and eyes wide. What was wrong with her?! With them?! That had been way more intense than it had a right to be! And they did it in the middle of a shop of all places, in public! With her mom barely five yards away with two people watching-
"Wow," Anna mused, poking Lizzie with her foot, the other girl having sprawled out on the floor, twitching and foaming at the mouth. "I think you guys broke her."
"We gotta be more careful." Gwen told her cousin as they trailed behind the other two girls. Or rather, trailed behind Anna who, in a surprising display of strength, was piggybacking Lizzie around the mall. Ostensibly because Lizzie was still 'weak from overexposure to pure cuteness', but Gwen suspected the brunette was just hitching a free ride. Anna didn't seem to mind at all, only shaking her head indulgently at Lizzie whenever the bubbly girl pointed to one thing or another and chattered relentlessly.
Beside her, Ben snorted. "'We'? You started this when you tickled the jaw. You know what that does..."
Gwen sighed. "I know, I'm..." She could do this, she could do this- "sorry." Ben gasped beside her and she swatted him, fighting back a grin. He snickered aaand… that was that. Really, they used to be so good at fighting, now look at them? She was tempted to step on his toes for old times sake. Silence fell for a moment before she felt her fingers weave through his. She wasn't entirely sure who had reached out first. She let the familiarity of the touch sooth her though, and she wasn't going to question that.
"Let's just… not do anything that'll set us off while family is around, okay?"
Ben nodded. "Family, other than the obvious." He waggled his eyebrows. "But sure, don't want to get caught by your mom, after all." He shuddered.
"She's actually starting to like you, you know."
"I'm pretty sure she'll like me less when she finds me eating her daughter's face." Ben deadpanned, causing Gwen to snicker at his banal choice of words.
"Classy, Ben. And you mean if she finds us."
Ben was silent beside her, probably thinking the same thing that she was: with the way they were getting used to kissing and cuddling as 'normal', she'd probably end up kissing him in front of her parents and only notice she'd done it after the fact. She didn't really know what to do about that though, and was loathe to think about it now. Comfortable silence descended over them before Ben drew her from it with a gentle squeeze of his hand. She turned to him.
"Remember when we gave that concert for grandpa?" He asked her, reminiscing. Gwen grinned.
"The one where you screeched like a chicken? Yeah, doofus, I remember. No amount of therapy will ever make that moment right."
Ben smirked at her. "I sounded amazing and you know it." He asserted, before pointing to the side, eyes alight with merriment. "Wanna dig that hole a little deeper?"
Following his finger, Gwen grinned like a shark before calling out to Anna and Lizzie.
"I gotta say, I'm impressed." Anna started an hour later, taking a delicate slurp of her soda. Beside her in their booth at the Burger Shack, Lizzie was wolfing down fries, with Ben directly across from her doing the same, though his were drenched in chili saus. Gwen believed it was a challenge of some sort. "I hadn't pegged you for the types to be into karaoke, much less be good at it."
"I phnow wight?!"
"Chew. Swallow. Now, what were you saying, Ben?"
The brunette gave the redhead a grin before excitedly continuing, waving his arms. "I know right?! We rocked!" Across from him, Lizzie nodded enthusiastically.
"You gotta bring that to the school talent show!" She gushed, pointing a fry at Ben for emphasis. Ben smirked, pointing back at her with his own fry, though is eyes were fixed on Gwen. "Finally, some positive feedback. Such a nice change of pace."
Gwen blew out a breath, shooting him an annoyed look. "If you like it so much, maybe you should date Lizzie instead." Ben just rolled his eyes, but the considering look Lizzie sent the boy made Gwen quirk a brow.
"Hmm... nah. I'm into blondes. Anna had a crush on him last year though, so she might wanna take a swing."
Anna choked on her drink and Gwen felt steam come out of her ears. "What?!"
"Not anymore!" Anna spluttered, waving her hands defensively in the face of Gwen's wrath. "I just thought he was cute, that's all!"
"Ladies, please, there's enough of me to go around-"
Gwen gave him her best fearsome glare. It did precisely nothing because, of course, the twerp's ego was too large right now. A compliment and two girls argueing over him? He was loving this, as his lazy smirk indicated.
The stand-off was broken by the sound of Lizzie abruptly reaching the end of her soda. She gave it a forlorn look, before turning that look on the long line she'd have to wait through to get another one. Her puppy eyes found Anna, but she was met with a stony, bored expression.
"No." The blonde informed her, frigid as the North-Pole.
Switching targets, Gwen turned out to be equally immune. Ben, on the other hand, started squirming under her doe eyes. Finding a receptive victim, Lizzie upped the ante with a lip wobble and Ben made a pathetic sound in response. Gwen rolled her eyes.
"Really? I can't get you to take a shower with death threats, but one pouty look from her and you go soft on me?"
Ben shrugged, mood abruptly shifting. "You always try to motivate me with cruelty. I respond better to emotional rewards."
Is that so? Let's put that to the test. Gwen leaned into his personal space, folding her hands in front of her face and gave the boy her best pleading look, widening her eyes and putting all the love and appreciation she could muster into her gaze (it still amazed her just how much of both she had to spare for him these days), as well as leaning slightly down so she actually had to look up at him. "Can you get me a strawberry slurpie, Ben? And a soda for Lizzie? Pretty please?"
She had no idea if this would work. She knew she could make Ben melt in a dozen different ways in private, heck, she'd done it over the phone to get him to sing her a lullaby. But in public, his pride might pull him through. Ben squirmed for a moment, resisting as best he could, before heaving a sigh, getting up and walking over to the line, grumbling. Gwen watched him go with a flabbergasted expression.
"That's all it took to get him to do something?" She should've tried kissing him way sooner, if it made him this weak to her charms.
"Don't count your blessings girl," Anna drawled with a smirk. "he's going to throw everything you use right back at you at some point." ...that might be a problem in the future. He could scramble her brain without even trying as it was. Lizzie giggled beside the blonde before rolling her eyes, smiling sweetly.
"I guess I'll go keep him company." She glomped Anna, who did not so much as twitch, only turning her flat stare on the brunette.
"Throwing me to the red wolf alone? Harsh."
Lizzie just squeezed the girl a little harder before turning her puppy eyes on Gwen. "Please mind the face, I like her pretty!"
"Wow. Glad you like me for my personality." Anna responded, tone drier than the Sahara and look flatter than the horizon at sea.
Lizzie grinned with all the emotion that Anna refused to show. "You know it." Before she jumped out of her booth to sneak up on Ben, giving him a noogie when she reached him. Gwen snickered before turning to the purple clad girl across from her. She hadn't met many people who could pull off the color, barring Charmcaster, but Anna nailed it. Even if she did look rather nervous right now. Gwen waved her off.
"Relax. I'm not going to do the whole 'he's mine' thing."
The sigh of relief that came out of Anna was heartening. Clearly, she could still intimidate someone at this table. "That's mighty mature of you."
Gwen shrugged, throwing up her hands. "That's what I do. Also, I'm pretty confident on where I stand with Ben." She didn't exactly feel threatened by the other girl, even if her long blonde hair was beautiful. She knew Ben liked hers better anyway, so even that point was moot."Actually," she started, hesitantly, before soldiering on. "I wanted to thank you for looking after the lame brain."
Anna didn't need any elaboration. She waved Gwen off. "Blame Lizzie, she noticed it before I did." She eyed Gwen with consideration. "...is he alright, though? He often looks..." Scared. Gwen finished mentally as the other girl trailed off. She sighed.
"He's… getting better." She gave the blonde a grateful look. "Thanks for keeping an eye on him when I can't." Anna grinned back at her.
"My pleasure," she purred teasingly. "there are worse things to keep an eye on." Gwen scoffed, though she couldn't disagree. Before she could banter back, their conversation was interrupted by a slurpie being pushed in her face.
"Here, nerd queen." She glanced up to see Ben standing over her, eyes averted and blushing, glaring off into the middle-distance. In the corner of her eye, she saw Lizzie seat herself next to Anna again, slurping her soda happily. Anna gave the boy her sassiest look.
"It's funny how half your nicknames for her make her sound like she's got a position of power. I think your subconscious is making a point here."
Beside her, Lizzie nodded cheerily before she started counting on her fingers. "Nerd queen, cootie queen, commander in geek, bore mistress, captain nag-" the both of them were cut off by Ben pointing a threatening finger at them, glaring with such intensity that even Gwen could appreciate the heat rolling off it.
"Don't psychoanalyze me." He growled. "You won't like me when I'm psychoanalyzed."
Gwen wanted to snort. Now there's a five dollar word. Guess I'm finally rubbing off on him. Deciding that she needed to save her new friends, and to see if she could pull this off twice in a row, she reached up to wrap both her hands around the one holding the smoothie, gently prying it out of his fingers. When he turned back to her, their eyes met and she was sure to maintain that contact.
When she'd untangled the smoothie from his fingers, she pulled the hand closer to cradle it to her cheek, close to her mouth. It was quite a riot, the way she could see his brain grind to an abrupt halt and the flush spread over his face.
"Thanks doofus," she said, pecking the heel of his hand. "You're my hero." She saw him bite back a groan and knew she'd won this one.
A sound from the other side of the table broke the moment, and they both turned to see that Lizzie had collapsed into Anna's lap, twitching. Anna just glanced down with a distinctly unimpressed expression before fixing both Ben and Gwen with a look of admiration, of all things.
"Twice in one day. You guys are good."
Gwen smirked, but before she could tease Ben about how she totally got full points for that one, the hand that she was still holding to her face moved, ghosting over her jaw before running through her hair, derailing her thoughts. Her head was guided back to look up at Ben, who had leaned down to close the distance with her, eyes slowly shutting the closer he got, head tilted unmistakably. Gwen wet her lips.
Oh yeah. She knew what was coming alright.
Leaning in, Ben brushed her lips gently, and it felt slightly different than usual. Maybe because, when they were sitting or standing, she had a height advantage on him. Now it was the reverse, and it felt… comfortable. Safe. She wondered what it'd be like after he'd finally hit that growth spurt-
"They're gonna do the tongue thing I think, you might wanna get up for this." They heard Anna mutter, and both Ben and Gwen stopped, eyes flying open, looking at each other with confusion before turning to the girls on the other side of the booth. It was tough going, getting her thoughts in line when she could still feel his heat right next to her face, his breath tickling her eyelashes, but she managed.
"The what now?"
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone