Ben 10 Porn Story: detox just to retox Chapter 1
butterfly bandage
but don’t worry – you’ll never remember
your head is far too blurry
The first thing Ben remembers hearing upon waking up in the hospital – for the second time, as apparently he surfaced once before and his mom almost choked him into unconsciousness again with the hug she gave him, but then his parents left to get coffee and he slipped back under again – is the whirr of a monitor.
The second is Gwen.
“…You should have just listened to me,” she finishes, the end of some long (and probably true) sermon that she must’ve started when he blinked and she took it as a sign that he was conscious again. But it doesn’t matter if he is or not – Gwen has always been lecturing and he has always been receiving; it’s just the way things are, mission accident or no.
He expects to be blinded when he opens his eyes, but the lights are down in his room. The curtain pulled across the entrance to the corner room in the emergency ward muffles the drone of the TV in the next room, and the stern voice of a tired nurse as she tries to guide an elderly patient to his MRI. It occurs to Ben that it must be rather late at night.
The accident is a blank, but apparently he was the only one hurt – he hit his head hard enough to turn him from Swampfire into Ben again, and when he wouldn’t wake up, his friends freaked and raced him here. Fair enough.
He asks where his parents are – they’re coming back soon – and about Kevin and her – she’s fine, and Kevin’s still waiting to be examined but she knows he’s fine, too. The doctors are just being cautious, and it’s driving Kevin nuts, she adds with a smirk.
His vision blurs, but then refocuses on Gwen, standing by his bed, arms folded and an exasperated-but-kind look on her face. She reaches out and traces the curve of his cheek, cups it, and her expression melts into one of quiet contentment.
“You never listen,” she says, suddenly more sentimental than worried or annoyed.
“Nope,” he replies, closing his eyes because he’s still tired and this sort of exchange is second nature for the two of them; he can do it in his sleep.
His eyes are still closed when she kisses him, chaste but undeniably intimate.
His eyes snap open, and he stares at her for a moment. His mouth is dry, his temples throbbing, but his lips are still tingling from where she brushed them with her own.
“Kevin better have put you up to that.”
Gwen laughs – fond, affectionate – and presses her forehead to his like a wife would.
Ben suspects that that’s his answer.
A/n: Because it was either edit this or throw my computer out the window for all the grief that unfinished Mai/Teo fic is giving me.
(Disclaimer: I don’t own Ben 10: Alien Force. Title of fic and lyrics at the beginning are from Fall Out Boy.)