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The problem with saving the world is that it’s bound to happen again.
After saving the world a thousand times over - remaking the universe even more - Ben feels numb and guilty. It’s worse during the night where his thoughts plague even his sleeping mind with everything he failed to do.
While away at college, things were somewhat okay because Ben was focused on school and whatnot. Being back home has undone everything Ben has been working on.
Staring into the depths of the fridge is his breaking point.
His mind is blank and Ben can’t grab anything, only making his thoughts worse. Guilt eats away at what little defence he has against them.
No one seems to have noticed the change in Ben; going from upbeat and chaotic to withdrawn and quiet. Some just figure school has something to do with it and leave it at that.
Well, save for his kids.
He tries to hide it from them as much as possible but they are just as stubborn as him and can read him like an open book. Ben loves them but he doesn’t want to worry them. That’s his job…and now he understands why his parents were so stressed back when they grounded him.
If he found out his kid could turn into aliens and fight evil then he would have grounded them too.
With a sigh, Ben shut the fridge and went to the front door to grab his keys.
“Midnight fast food run?”
Standing on the stairs is his dad, still in his pyjamas but already grabbing his coat and taking the keys from Ben’s hands. His dad ruffles his hair and guides him out of the house and to the car.
Ben just flops down into the seat – making sure to buckle up – and accidentally shuts his eyes for a second. He forced himself to sit up and try not to be too impolite to his Dad.
After years of being a brat of a kid, it took seeing the horrors of the world and gaining his own batch of brats – whom he loves very much – to finally get some manners into him, at least for his parents and grandfather.
“Want to talk about it?”
“How do you do it?” Ben questioned, looking over at his Dad and couldn’t help but feel like a failure. “Be an adult, have your life together.”
His Dad nods slowly as he thinks over an answer. “I don’t know, luck and what I put my own old man through mostly.” He frowns, thinking something over. “Stress is common in anyone, Ben.
It’s good to take a break and just relax.”
“But the world–”
“Can wait.” His Dad briefly smiles over at him. “Plus Plumbers have it covered long before you were even born and they’ll continue to take care of everything while you take a break.” There’s so much truth in his Dad’s words that it’s hard to argue back. “I think most people don’t realize that they are living until they suddenly stop and look around.”
Ben sits up in his seat and looks out the window at the moving world outside.
“It’s a big world out there, Ben.”
Things have changed so much since he was ten years old and went on that summer road trip. Aliens and humans are living peacefully together in one city; learning about one another and building a new future that’s going to last beyond a lifetime.
Because that’s what everything Ben has been unknowingly working towards.
“You barely seen any of it.”
His Dad pulls the car to a stop close to Mr. Smoothy where they get out and head towards the building. Ben held the door open for his Dad and even ordered for the both of them; sharing what he thinks his Dad would like the best before they went outside to wait for their food. Mostly because Ben did not want to hang out inside tonight.
“If you can go anywhere, where would you go?” Ben asks after a few seconds.
His Dad thought about it; tapping his finger against the table. “Wherever you and your mother are is where I would go.” He couldn’t help the smile when Ben had stated that wasn’t an answer. Even though they both know that it was. “Alright, then I would take your mother to Paris because she always wanted to go but we could never afford to.”
“That sounds nice.”
“It is.”
It was the first time in a long time since Ben actually hung out with his Dad and it was the best time that he had spent in quite a while.
They made plans for dinners so Ben’s mom could have a break and what to do for Christmas and even talked about Ben’s college that he would be returning to tomorrow.
Even during the drive home, Ben still felt at ease with the world and the guilt had slipped away for now.
It’ll come back but that’ll be later and right now is just perfect.