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After Vilgax, after the whole thing was cleaned up and things went back to their semi-normal, there was a lot of time for.. Lazing about.
TV. Video game. Comic book. Smoothie. Nap. TV. 'Ad nauseum', Gwen would say, and explain it's meaning, and Ben wouldn't listen because she was being a nerd. If she were around, that is.
She was taking a gap year, and that meant some stress free travel. And Kevin would go too, obviously, because they were dating. Of course.
Julie had taken some time off to join in all the nothing-doing but eventually life moves on and she had to get back to her life of practice, tournaments, and practice.
Everyone sure was adjusting.
Ben wasn't really clear what day it was.
How long, exactly, it'd been since Vilgax.
How long Julie had been away for what was supposed to be a three day trip.
When he'd talked to her, or called Gwen, or Grandpa. Or anyone, for that matter.
Stay up all night, sleep all day, his parents let him. TV, video games, comic book, smoothie, ad nauseum. Small thanks for saving the universe and being the #1 10,000 sons, or whatever some stupid highly specific mug would say in two weeks.
He wasn't even sure when he'd last stepped out of the house. He'd started ordering smoothies right to his door, and half the time, his mom brought them up. The other half, he ordered it and it sat at the doorstep for hours before he eventually got up to throw it away.
It didn't matter. He'd always been an "inside kid".
He checked his phone.
3:36 am. Battery %11. 5 notifications from Gwen, 7 from Julie, 3 from Grandpa, 1 from Kevin, dozens and dozens from who knows who and who cares what.
His eyes glazed over the text previews.
Pictures from Gwen, "See you soon <3" from Julie, some weird link from Grandpa, "pick up ur phone doofus" from Kevin.
He didn't open any of them.
The phone went dim. There were so many and they made him feel sick.
See you soon, 8 hours ago, god he sucked.
She was probably gonna be back by morning, and he was probably gonna slam his head through the dry wall if he missed it.
Vaguely, he was aware of a smell in the room that was probably, mostly, him. If it'd been three days already, he probably hadn't showered since he rode with Julie to the airport with her dad.
He probably hadn't showered for a bit before then, in fact, which in the back of his head pinged as "fucking rancid" but in the forefront was just kind of bland.
Probably normal, for a boy his age, he thought to himself and pushed it back.
3:40 am. Alarm for.. When? 8? She'd probably have texted by now. He just had to open his messages to see her arrival time.
He stretched his arms far above his head and groaned as all his muscles and bones seemed to wake up.
One step at a time, Tennyson.
He looked at his arms in the dark.
Pale, lean no matter what he did, freckled and scarred with long skinny fingers and bony knuckles.
It moved slow and detached from his head, hand turning. It didn't look like himself.
He didn't know what that meant.
Whatever.
Shower.
It's fine.
He hauled himself up and out of bed, the mini tv on mute lighting up his room. When no one was around, he suddenly couldn't stand the noise.
It was easy to find clean clothes, at least. No one had been doing his laundry but he hadn't been doing much changing clothes either.
The door to his room creaked with disuse and he cringed, hoping not to wake his parents up.
His fingers twitched.
Big Chill, Spidermonkey, Goop, they could all get through the house nice and quiet.
He hadn't put it on since he started his break. Somewhere in his closet, or in the dresser, or something like that. Standing in the doorway, he couldn't bring himself to turn back and start looking.
Onward, then.
At least he was still good at avoiding the creaky spots in the floor.
He shut the bathroom door before turning the light on.
The flashbang made him grimace, hiding his face in the arm for a minute.
Smooth. Oddly hairless, for his age, he was pretty sure. No fur, or scales, or even the cold crystal or metal he was used to.
Once he could take his arm down without seeing heaven he shook it out like it'd fallen asleep.
It felt loose in his body.
Cottony.
Which was, admittedly, a little weird. He didn't have any aliens that were dolls. None that he cared enough about to remember. So it probably wasn't a phantom sensation, which would happen sometimes.
He sighed, rubbing his wrist for a minute before dropping his clothes on the counter and starting the water.
Something had him hesitant to take off his clothes and jump in.
He'd caught his reflection in the mirror.
When was the last time he'd seen himself? Not a picture on a billboard or a printed poster or a weird marketable plushie, himself. In the flesh.
Bright green eyes, kind of gaunt, greasy hair that was growing longer than he'd like, radioactive green veins starting to peek through his skin.
Jeez.
He looked at himself and he didn't feel human. He didn't look alive, even.
Man, Julie was gonna freak.
And that wasn't fair. How did this happen in three days?? Three???
Could it??????
The person in the mirror sneered at him in disgust. Or fear. Or concern. He couldn't tell.
In the back of his head, he thought, it was him. He knew what it was saying with its face, it was his face, and he was freaked out and annoyed, and a little scared.
And in the front, all he thought was; what the hell.
In the front he itched for the omnitrix, or the ultimatrix, or even his mom's foundation to get this face off this mirror.
Seeing his eyes move.
His face flex into a grimace, then a glare, the feeling of cotton in his jaws and something strangling his voice.
This wasn't him.
This didn't belong to him.
His nails dug into his wrist where a watch should've sat, he had to get this thing off of him, this false skin sewn on.
Weird and disgusting, and detached from his brain. Everything moved slow and bleary.
His heart pounded as he bared his teeth at the stranger sitting in his reflection, and suddenly one thought entered his head, front and back.
I kind of get Albedo now.
And god how much did that suck.
His breath hitched for a moment, as he forced someone else's lungs to take in air. That wasn't right. "I get Albedo", of all the jerks he ever had to fight, what the hell was that, man, cmon.
He shut his eyes and turned away from the mirror. Teeth clenched. Nails still digging.
One step at a time, Tennyson.
Shower.
Then.... That.
When he opened his eyes he was still hesitating. Steam had started filling the room. The water was gonna be boiling when he stepped in. Great.
The light was sterile and white. Showed everything and left harsh shadows.
If his face was such a panic he didn't want to imagine what the rest of 'Ben Tennyson' was like right now.
He thought about all his aliens that had night vision before sighing and turning off the light.
A small window close to the ceiling didn't produce much, but, that was probably for the best. It was workable.
Stepping into the shower was enough of a shock to get him through the starting phase. Hair first.
It shed so much he was sure he'd have a huge bald spot once he was out.
Flesh felt wrong in his hands.
The water burned and even that didn't feel natural.
He could only hope that, somehow, this was some alien DNA thing. Some residual whatever that'd gotten stuck in his system. Plausible. Right? Yeah.
That was probably it.
He'd talk to Grandpa.
The thought of opening his phone again made him feel sick. He bit the tip of his tongue. Didn't matter. He had to open his phone. No excuses. He was gonna be at the airport in the morning if it killed him. Alien DNA be damned.
He was in the shower for what felt like hours. It was fifteen minutes. His phone was on %8. And he wasn't gonna let himself dry off until he opened his stupid texts.
He took a deep breath.
Alright.
Three, two, one.... He opened the app with his eyes shut, and found Julie's with one squinted barely open.
There. Good start.
He sighed, opening his eyes. Seven texts. Touchdown, good mornings and goodnights, how the tournament went, concern, a picture, when she'd land back home, "see you soon<3".
All unread and unreplied to until right now
He considered slamming his head through the dry wall no matter what happened in the morning.
Formulating a response took another ten minutes and %5 battery.
Weak apology, congratulations, excitement, promising he'd be at the airport to meet her.
That was... Something... She probably wasn't gonna see it before she saw him, but, whatever, it was something, right? Better than nothing?
%3 Battery, three more people to reply to. No one else mattered.
But he'd accomplished his first goal. Talk to his girlfriend. What a stand up partner he was.
Whatever.
He dried and went back to his room in the dark. He didn't look at his phone until it was solidly plugged in and at %100 brightness. Light mode. No more reflections for him for now.
Gwen gave him trip updates, and asked if he was doing anything, or if he was even okay, and sent a few pictures of her and Kevin and the sights and everything. He wanted to say he was fine.
He skipped it to look at Grandpas text.
Some recipe to do with chicken eyes. Okay.
He switched back to Gwen. Doing fine, just sleeping, don't be a nag and a dork. Bring back something cool like a t rex skull to put on the hood of Kevin's car.
Good enough.
Kevin.
They didn't text much. Which he was glad for, now. Replying to him was quick and easy. 👍 and My Bad.
Grandpa again.
He stared at the link, at their sparse conversations, usually they talked in person. He'd just go visit whenever he felt like. They hadn't seen each other much lately. He was starting to see his reflection again.
He squeezed his eyes shut.
He could see him in the afternoon and they'd figure it out together. He was fine, his relationships were good, and they would fix whatever stupid mutation junk was happening now. Easy.
He ignored the link and asked if Grandpa would be cool to hang out, which he was sure was gonna be alarming, but it didn't matter, the situation was alarming. His fingers hitting the screen felt too round and too flat at the same time.
Too many. Too few. Thin and thick, and it didn't make sense.
He set an alarm and tossed his phone aside.
At least sleep always came easy.
Ad nauseum.