trans_9 | Recovering [open]

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Recovering [open]

Devlin was feeling a little better--at the very least, he wasn't in a whole lot of pain. His left arm was in a sling, though, and he had pillows around that side as he sat in one of the WITCH bus's many rooms. Nearby, he had his omnicom, where he'd borrowed several songs from the Media Library. What was the best music for getting out of the "My best friend and I did something stupid and because of it, I got hurt and can't do anything for a while?" Queen's "Bohemian Rhapsody." An oldie (and definitely by his time) but a goodie.

He fished out a piece of fluorite from his pocket and tossed it in the air with his right hand. As he caught it, he absorbed enough crystal to cover his hand, then let go of the absorption to toss it again. Each time he caught it, he absorbed the crystal, slowly but surely improving his reflexes.

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As for Gwen, she was still getting used to the bus in general. She didn't mind the extra space, but it was troublesome enough trying to find the kitchen on a good day. Made her feel tempted to leave breadcrumbs just to be safe. She eventually came to one of the doors and made her way inside.

"...Okay. Not my room, or Ben's." she looked around and her eyes widened a bit upon seeing who was there. "Devlin?"

Startled by the sudden interruption, Devlin's toss went off to the side, eventually landing right on his shoulder. He winced in pain for a moment before looking over.

"Oh, hi, Aunt Gwen."

She still wasn't quite used to being an aunt, much less having a nephew that was pretty much the same age as her, but at least she wasn't seeing afterimages of Kevin anymore. Part of her didn't want to peruse what that could mean yet.

"Getting in touch with your inner Osmosian?"

"Kinda," he answered, retrieving the small crystal. "It's pretty much the only thing I can do right now. Hurts too much to do a lot." Plus there was the whole he-was-in-serious-trouble thing. That put a damper on things.

"What happened?" She couldn't help but smile faintly while sitting near him, figuring now was a good a time as any to try and bond with the younger Levin. There was a reason his arm was in a sling, after all.

And here was the question. Yeah. The one with the really bad answer. The one that would get him in serious trouble.

Time to try to lessen the blow.

"Negi and I borrowed Phillip's Kamen Rider belts, but we wound up getting caught in that attack."

And there was a pause. And a bit of guilty shuffling.

"...Without permission," he muttered.

Gwen listened silently, doing her best to keep a smile from crossing her face. It was obvious that he'd already been punished for his actions otherwise he wouldn't be in the bus, seemingly on house arrest.

"You remind me more and more of my Kevin every day." she finally replied after a moment of silent thought. She did grace Devlin with a half-frown.

Devlin hesitated. He knew that there was a difference. He knew that their Kevin didn't suffer from the madness that plagued his father. Still, there was something about that frown that just didn't seem comforting.

"Is that good or bad?" he asked.

After a second or two, Gwen's half-frown became a half-smirk as she was reminded of the hijinks Kevin and Ben got into.

"It's good. Does Negi have anyone to keep on their toes like Ben does me?"

"A lot of girls," Devlin said, which honestly summed up Negi's relationships perfectly. As for explaining anything else, he was still confused. "But what do you mean?"

Gwen let out a light sigh while crossing her arms; how to explain Ben and Kevin's antics...?

"Their friendship is...unique. They both care about me and know I can take care of myself, but want to look out for me anyway. At the same time they do things during our missions that I barely even begin to understand and can't fully understand since I'm a girl." It was times like those that she was grateful for Julie's presence.

Devlin was just giving her a bit of a blank stare. Not much of what she was saying made a lot of sense to him, even though he was the kind of idiot who went and stole a couple of Kamen Rider belts and proceeded to be chewed out by his girlfriend (along with everybody else) for it.

...And he doesn't get what I'm saying! Gwen thought while closing her eyes for a few seconds; maybe Ben would have better luck getting through to him?

"Think of it like this, Devlin - you'd never admit to his face that Negi is your best friend, would you? Kevin's the same way with Ben. They'll both do whatever's necessary to look after each other but won't admit anything after the fight's over. Kevin won't, anyway."

Devlin tilted his head to the side a little bit in confusion, but he wasn't staring as blankly this time.

"Why?" he asked. "Why don't they say anything? I think Negi and I don't have a problem saying we're best friends."

And right there--probably the biggest difference between Devlin and Kevin. Everything that Kevin felt he had to hide, Devlin needed to say.

A little more quietly, he added, "I've never had enough friends or family to take for granted like that. That's why I want them to know that."

"You'll understand as you get older, but most guys don't usually talk about their feelings. You and Negi were raised much differently than the Kevin I know, and possibly even just as differently than your Kevin." Gwen replied, almost having to strain to hear his latter response.

"I think in that way, you're the same as Kevin. My Kevin, at least. He never got the chance to bond with his Dad, either. Sure he had his Mom, but..."

"He needs a second chance, doesn't he?" Devlin asked. This was something he could understand, and easily at that. He knew that right now, he was lucky that he had a second chance instead of just being thrown in the Null Void like he'd expected, and he knew he had to do everything possible to make the most of it.

"He does, but it's up to your Kevin to decide if he's going to take it." Gwen noted, silently suggesting that her Kevin had already taken said second chance and proven himself more times than not.

"That might take a while," Devlin sighed. He rolled the small crystal around in his hand for a bit before adding, "If he's really the way he is because he's crazy from absorbing energy, he'd have to stop that first."

And look at that, his omnicom decided to play "Who Wants to Live Forever?" Horrible sense of humor, that thing.

Gwen's eyebrows rose in surprise at hearing the song before shrugging, listening to what Devlin said about his Kevin. "Getting him to stop absorbing energy...from the way you've described him, that might be easier said than done."

Devlin pulled his knees up close to him and rested his good arm on them.

"That's what I'm afraid of," he admitted. "He was nice to me before he last went to the Null Void, but when I broke him out, he seemed like a completely different person. I thought that might have been the way he really was, but you guys all say he's a lot better than that. I want to believe you're right, and that when he was being a dad to me, he wasn't lying, but..."

A couple of tears were running down his face. Frustrated, he wiped them away with his bad arm, wincing when he jerked his shoulder too much to one side.

Gwen closed the gap that was between the two almost immediately when she saw Devlin's tears, holding out her arms and pulling him into a gentle embrace. "It'll be okay, Devlin. You've been through a lot with your dad and it can't be easy to hear that he's been acting the way he is because of his powers."

"I feel so stupid," Devlin admitted, relaxing slightly in the hug. "It's just so hard."

"You're not stupid, Devlin. Ben and I had problems getting along when we were your age, but we eventually worked them out." Gwen silently acknowledged that they didn't have to deal with an insanity plea, but the honesty was still there regardless.

Slowly, Devlin nodded. It was a little easier knowing that the people he looked up to didn't have things quite as easy as it seemed.

"What am I supposed to do?" he asked, letting out a tiny bit of the fear that was so tightly wound up in his heart. "I'm scared that even if I play it safe and don't use my powers, what happened to him is just going to happen to me too."

Gwen pulled back just a bit and smiled reassuring at Devlin. "You'd eventually have to use your powers at some point, but absorbing energy doesn't have to be the route you go. You could do what my Kevin does and just encase your body in metal or whatever's close by.

"But if you really don't want to use your powers I could always teach you some martial arts."

"Yeah, I was going to ask someone about that when I'm all healed up," Devlin said. "The healer, Katara, said to ask Kang or Ronon. But..."

And here came some uneasy territory. With most people, he was okay about showing his alien form, though even around Hikari he'd been worried it might freak her out. Ben had taken it okay, though he was clearly a little weirded out. This was pretty much the embodiment of everything that had been wrong with Kevin back when they were kids, and Devlin wasn't sure how Gwen would take it.

"I have an alien form too," he admitted. "I can't show you right now," He didn't want to risk hurting himself any worse, after all, "but it's the same one Dad had when he was my age."

Gwen nodded silently, recalling the form Ben had described a few times herself. "I've got an alien form myself, one that I discovered over a year ago. I'd show it to you, but it can only appear under certain...conditions."

One of them being 'get Gwen extremely pissed off.'

That was something entirely unexpected. He'd had no idea that Gwen was an alien; even though he hadn't known his aunt very long in his world, she hadn't let on that she was anything more than an unusually magically-gifted human.

"So what do you do about it?" he asked.

"I try to make sure those conditions don't happen often, and for the most part it works." came her response while sitting down on a nearby chair. "I still get to use my powers, and at the same time benefit to the team."

"I haven't had any problems with my form," Devlin said. "But I know I'm not that strong yet. Or good at fighting."

He sighed. "I really need to learn how to focus or something. So the next time there's a fight, I don't panic again."

"Ben might help out with that, but we do get a little scared during fights." Gwen replied. "We just don't show it all the time."

Devlin gave her the "Are you kidding me?" stare.

"But you guys fought Vilgax!" he said. "I thought after him, no one could scare you."

"Not so much for ourselves, but for the people we care about." Gwen said calmly, motioning toward Devlin as an example. The young kidlet had wormed his way into her heart. She was pretty sure she hadn't mentioned Aggregor to him, and she was going to keep it that way for now.

"Yeah, that makes sense," Devlin admitted. "I wouldn't want anything to happen to Hikari or Negi, and I'd hate myself if I couldn't protect them."

"Exactly." Gwen replied. "So...do you feel a little better now, Devlin?"

"A little," he admitted. "It's still kinda hard, but I guess I'm not as confused anymore."

"That's good. Come on - let's see if we can get something decent to eat, and you can tell me all about Hikari." She couldn't help but be curious about this girl, especially if Devlin, Hikari and Negi were somewhat shaping up to be the new 'Ben 10' team that didn't really have a name.

Plus, having to deal with food that still seemed like Grandpa Max's? Not good whatsoever.

Devlin smiled.

"Yeah, that sounds good."

Arika was keeping track of her child. Very close eye on him. From helping her clean to staying in his room writing his letter. She walked the halls of the Bus, her low-heels making soft tapping sounds against the floor of the Bus. When she passed by Negi's room, she took a peak in, found things satisfactory, then went on her way.

When she passed Devlin's room, she heard the music and stopped. She continued on and turned into the room the music was coming from. "What is it that you are listening to?"

Uh-oh. That was Negi's mom. From the little he'd heard, Devlin knew to fear her. After all, anyone with the power to tell a super-powered little kid to go to his room was nobody to be taken lightly.

"Some old songs I found in the Media Library," he answered carefully. "The band's name is Queen." Was he supposed to call her ma'am or anything? He had no idea.

"I heard of the Media Library, but have not had the chance or urge yet to visit the library," Arika said, seating herself in an available chair. "I can hear the operatic melody in this music. Are all songs usually of this quality?"

Devlin shook his head. "This one's different. Good, but different." He switched to "Under Pressure." "This one's really good too."

And there he lapsed into a short, awkward silence. Finally, he had to ask, "Are you mad at me?"

Arika listened to the new melody, and nodded her head. "It is different."

She turned her head to Devlin with a very set expression. "I am displeased that you and my son committed that act with little thought and care towards the person you took the device from."

"I'm sorry," Devlin admitted, looking down in shame. We didn't want to cause any trouble--we thought we were trying to help. You're probably not going to want us to hang out anymore."

He hated being in trouble. He was always sure of the worst.

"Don't go too hard on him, okay? It was my dumb idea in the first place."

"I would not deny you and Negi your friendship. You are children and children are wont to make mistakes." She sighed, reaching up to rub her temples. "This was a lesson for you two. And I expect you and Negi to learn from it."

"We will," Devlin promised, inwardly relieved. Pessimism was probably his worst habit, and he'd had himself convinced this was the end of his friendship with Negi. "We won't do anything like that again."

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Recovering [open]

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