Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Thump!

Gwen's eyes snapped open at the strange sound coming from outside.

Thump!

Gwen froze, listening intently as her heart began to race, her mind running through all the possible things it could be, all of them bad.

Thump!

This time it sounded like it was right outside the Rust Bucket.

Quick as a flash, Gwen was out of bed and crouching beside Ben's bed, trying to shake the boy awake.

“Ben!” She hissed, shaking him again. “There's something outside.”

When he didn't respond, she shook him harder.

“Mphm,” he finally mumbled, rolling over.

“There's something outside,” she told him again as his eyes snapped open.

“What?” He asked sleepily, rubbing his eyes.

“There's something-” she began again, but was cut off when something crashed outside.

Ben was instantly on alert, all traces of tiredness gone from him as he leapt out of bed and cautiously approached the windows, one hand on the Omnitrix.

Gwen was right behind him and together they peered nervously out into the night.

“I can't see anything,” Ben whispered as they looked around.

“Me either,” she whispered back.

There was another crash, making them both jump and Ben almost slammed his hand down on the Omnitrix, but she stopped him just in time.

“Not in here Doofus!” She hissed, glaring at him.

“Okay, okay, take it easy Dweeb,” he muttered, heading for the door.

“Where are you going?” She asked in disbelief.

“There's only one way to find out what it is, and that's going out there,” Ben stated, far more confidently than he felt. “You coming?”

“Um, of course,” she shot back, not wanting to look afraid in front of him.

“Alright then,” he grinned. “Grab the torch, I'll get the door.”

She nodded and grabbed the torch Grandpa always kept over the sink and followed Ben to the door.

“On three,” he whispered, grabbing the door handle.

She nodded and turned on the torch.

He counted it out and on three, threw the door open and they both rushed out, ready to face whatever it was.

There was a sudden scurrying from the chairs and other equipment they'd left outside and she shined the torch at it as they braced themselves for any number of threats.

What jumped out however, was not what they expected.

“Possums?” Ben said in relief as a family of Possums scurried away from them.

“Yeah, just Possums,” she said with a shaky laugh when nothing else materialized and attacked them.

“We're getting paranoid,” Ben chuckled as they went back inside and returned to bed.

“Yeah, but better to be safe than sorry,” she replied as she climbed back up to her bed.

“I suppose,” Ben mused. “Goodnight.”

“Goodnight,” she said as she flopped back into her bed and attempted to go back to sleep.

She almost had when the Possums returned with a crash, setting her heart racing again even though she knew it was just normal Possums, not the mutant one's they'd fought yesterday.

“Get a grip,” she told herself crossly, punching her pillow into a more comfortable shape and burying her face in it. “It's just regular Possums.”

She lay like that for a while, trying to sleep, but she couldn't seem to as every noise the Possums made set her on edge.

Eventually, she couldn't take in anymore and grabbed her pillow and jumped off her bed again.

“Dweeb?” Ben asked in surprise as she landed next to him and she was surprised he was still awake, but maybe the Possums affected him as much as her.

“Move over,” she ordered, tossing her pillow beside his.

To his his credit, he didn't argue and merely shuffled over as far as he could.

And he didn't say anything when she climbed in beside him and pulled the covers up around them, which she was grateful for because that would have made what she was doing even weirder.

“Goodnight,” she said stiffly and rolled over, facing away from him, but feeling instantly better as her eyes closed.

“Goodnight,” he said in a strange tone, which didn't surprise her at all considering what she'd just done.

But that was something to think about in the morning, because right now, all she wanted to do was sleep.

She'd add that to what possessed her to climb into bed with Ben and why she felt so safe there.

And why it feels so nice, her brain added as she finally drifted off.

Chapter Text

Gwen took a deep breath and tried to quell the dread building in her as she walked into school.

Normally, she loved the place. But after what had happened over the weekend, after what Marci and her friends had caught her and Ben doing when they thought they were alone at the mall, school had lost it's appeal somewhere in the last two days as she worried what she'd face from her fellow students on Monday.

And she was already regretting their decision that it would be best if they arrived separately at school on their first day after in incident.

Because there was no way Marci would stay quiet about something like this and despite the extra attention it'd get them, she rather have Ben by her side than have to face the mob alone.

Still, she was a Tennyson, and Tennyson's let little things like the whole school probably turning against you phase them, so she squared her shoulders and stepped into the main building.

Almost immediately, she could tell the news had been spread as all eyes seemed to be focused on her, most with varying levels of disgust in their gaze, others with harder to read expressions.

She ignored them all as she marched to her locker and put away her bag, taking no notice of their whispering or muttered insults as she made her way to her first class of the day.

One she was grateful she shared with Ben.

The boy in question was already in class when she got there, sitting there like he didn't have a care in the world and it was only because she knew him so well that she could see the defensiveness in his posture, the hard glint in his eyes.

“Hey Gwen,” he smiled as she walked, like it was just another day at school.

“Hey Doofus,” she said with a weak smile of her own as she sat down beside him, ignoring the looks and whispers of the rest of the class.

He glanced sideways at her, then took her hand under their desk, giving it a reassuring squeeze.

She immediately felt better, which made it easier to ignore the renewed whispering behind them.

After all, they'd faced down intergalactic warlords together, what was a bunch of high-school students compared to that?

Chapter Text

Ben was bored.

The Rust Bucket had broken down in the middle of nowhere and left them stranded.

Again.

Leaving him and Gwen to try and occupy themselves as best as they could while Grandpa tried to fix whatever it was that had gone wrong this time.

This was no trouble for Gwen, who simply sat down with one of her books.

For Ben, it was an entirely different story.

He'd already read all his comics and played through all his video games, there wasn't anything to do outside and after the last incident, he was loath to fiddle with the Omnitrix again.

Which left him with only one thing, annoying the Dweeb.

And as luck would have it, Grandpa Max had left a pot of greyish goop on the bench that was probably going to become dinner later and would go great with Gwen's hair, he thought with a smirk, grabbing a handful of the stuff and approaching her stealthily.

But not stealthily enough.

Just as he came within range to smear the goop in her hair, her left hand shot up and grabbed his, squeezing the goop all over their joined hands.

“Ugh, what are you doing Doofus?” She hissed, trying to pull her hand back.

“Ahh, nothing,” Ben said innocently, trying to free his hand, but he couldn't, the stuff wouldn't let him.

“What is this stuff?” Gwen huffed when she finally gave up trying to separate them.

“I don't know, I just got it out of that jar,” Ben said, pointing to the source. “Probably something Grandpa wants us to eat later.”

So they both went over to it, joined by his right and her left hand.

“Super quadruple strength hull repairer,” Gwen read off the label, turning to glare at him. “This is like super super glue you idiot! What were you going to do with it?”

“Ah, nothing, I didn't realise what it was,” he muttered.

“We'll have to ask Grandpa what to do, I don't want to be stuck to you for the rest of my life,” she said.

“Yeah,” he agreed with a shudder.

Just at that moment, Max re-entered the Rust Bucket, wiping sweat off his face as he went to the kitchen and got himself a drink.

When he finished, he turned to see them staring at him and noticed them holding hands.

“Am I interrupting something?” He asked teasingly, causing them both to blush.

“No!” They both shouted, trying to move as far from each other as their joined hands would allow, then Gwen launched into an explanation of what had happened.

When she was finished, Max frowned thoughtfully.

“That stuffs pretty heavy duty,” he said. “I don't think I have anything in the Rust Bucket that'll get it off without taking your hands with it. We'll have to try the next town once I get this engine repaired.”

Ben and Gwen sagged in despair as Max went back to fixing the engine.

“This is all your fault,” Gwen hissed at Ben, before stomping away, forgetting for a moment that she was stuck to him until her momentum tugged him forward and his lack of movement pulled her back, ending up with them in a heap on the floor.

“Ugh,” she groaned.

“Sorry,” he muttered as they picked themselves up.

She just glared at him for a moment, then sighed.

“Why do you always get me into these situations?” She complained, shaking their joined hands.

“Because I'm awesome!” He replied, striking a heroic pose that looked weird with Gwen attached to him.

Gwen just groaned again in response.

They spent the rest of the day stuck like that, trying to do things separately and refrain from winding the other up too much, with reasonable success.

Eventually, Max came back inside saying he'd fixed the engine and that they'd get on the road again tomorrow morning.

“But what about this?” Gwen asked, holding up their joined hands.

“It'll have to wait till tomorrow, I'm not even sure what we can use to get it off,” Max told them. “But you can survive one night stuck together I'm sure,” he grinned as they sagged again.

“Now, who's hungry? I don't know about you guys but I feel like a nice piece of steak,” he added in an attempt to cheer them up.

Ben and Gwen agreed happily, excited to have something normal for once and soon the smell of cooking meat filled the air.

When they were cooked, they sat down at the table, all set to dig in when Ben and Gwen discovered a problem.

With only one usable hand each, neither of them could cut their meat properly.

Ben tried uselessly for a minute, but his left hand just wasn't up to it and the meat slipped around on his plate without being cut and he quickly gave up and turned to watch Gwen struggle.

She kept trying for almost two more minutes before it looked like she'd give up.

Then an idea occurred to him which he thought might lessen whatever revenge he was sure she was cooking up in retaliation for this and he picked up her fork and stabbed it into her meat, holding it in place for her.

She shot him a look and he just shrugged in response. So she started cutting her meat, every so often asking him to reposition the fork and soon it was all chopped up.

“Now yours,” she said when she'd finished, so he switched forks and they repeated the process, silently observed by Max.

“Cheers,” Ben said when they'd finished cutting, holding up his fork with a piece of meat on it to Gwen.

“Cheers,” she grinned, bumping his fork with her own.

The rest of the meal passed in silence and when they finished they helped clean up as much as they could before Max said they should get ready for bed so that they could get an early start in the morning.

They reluctantly agreed and headed down to the bunks, wondering how this was going to work.

“Well, obviously one of us is going to have to sleep on the floor,” Gwen stated. “And since it's your fault we're stuck like this, it's gonna be you.”

“Fine,” Ben grumbled, and together, they got his stuff onto the floor and made a relatively comfortable bed for him.

“Goodnight Doofus,” Gwen said as she got into her own bed, left arm hanging over the side as she lay on her stomach.

“Goodnight Dweeb,” Ben muttered, laying on his back.

And despite how uncomfortable it was being stuck together , they soon drifted off to sleep.

The next morning, they discovered a new problem as they both climbed out of bed.

How to go to the bathroom.

After a brief discussion, they decided the only option was to take turns, with one standing outside holding door closed with the other took care of business.

Once that awkwardness was over, they sat down for breakfast, quickly getting the hang of eating one handed and working together for the harder things, which Ben quite enjoyed.

Then Max told them they'd head into the nearest town to see if they could find something to get them unstuck.

Ben and Gwen were excited at the thought of finally being separated.

So excited that when they arrived at the town and parked outside the hardware store, they didn't mind at all when Max asked them to come in with him.

As they walked in, a pair of old ladies coming out smiled at them.

“Aww, you two make such a cute couple,” they told them, causing them both to blush furiously and rush inside.

They quickly found Max again and stood by him, still flushed and not looking at each other.

Max browsed the store for a couple of hours, occasionally pulling down products and testing them on the stuff that held them together, with little success.

“I'm sorry kids,” he said eventually. “We'll have to go more high tech than what's on offer here.”

“That's alright Grandpa,” Gwen said. “I'm sure we can survive a bit longer stuck together.”

“Good,” Max smiled. “Because it's a couple of days drive to the nearest plumber base that might be able to help.”

“I could just go hero,” Ben suggested.

“No!” Gwen shouted. “It might work for you, but what will happen to me.”

“Gwen's right,” Max said. “We don't what effect that might have on Gwen with her being stuck to you.”

“Fine, it was just an idea,” Ben muttered as they left the store.

It ended up taking four days to reach the base, but they didn't mind. In fact they quiet enjoyed it, much to their surprise and even asked to stop at a number of places along the way that looked interesting so that they could have a look around and have some fun together, ignoring the stares that they got.

When Max finally found something to dissolve the stuff holding them together, there was a moment of relief and elation for them, but it quickly changed to something else, an almost sad feeling, Ben thought as he glanced at Gwen, who was staring at her hand like she couldn't believe they'd been separated.

Then she caught him looking and blushed, before turning away and heading back to the Rust Bucket.

Ben and Max followed, all of them quiet.

Later that evening, Ben felt weird as he climbed up to his bed after four nights on the floor and lay there, listening to Gwen as she got ready for bed as well, feeling that unusual feeling again.

“Goodnight,” she said quietly, turning the light off.

“Goodnight,” he replied, rolling over and trying to fall asleep.

But after half an hour of tossing and turning, he couldn't seem to manage it and he knew why.

He missed holding her hand as he fell asleep.

So, as casually as he could, he rolled over and let his arm drop over the side of the bed, hanging down beside Gwen, hoping but not really expecting anything.

After a moment though, he felt a hand tentatively slip into his and give it a squeeze.

He squeezed back, a smile forming on his face as he closed his eyes again.

Things felt right again and he quickly fell asleep.