OUT OF THIS WORLD .. ben tennyson x reader

iii. Mutt

"Caught ya!" Gwen's hands grapple onto Ben's shoulder while she shouts in his ear. She laughs at the way he jumps from the log and almost into the ashes of their fire.

Ben brushes himself off and scoffs, sitting back down as she sits beside him. "Hardy, har, har," he sneers, attention turning back to the device on his wrist. "Very funny, just like your face."

It takes a lot to ignore the jab, but she does. "Didn't we tell you to not touch it?" The question is rhetorical, but she can't help but sate her own questions by pulling his wrist towards her.

"I'd like to think since it's attached to my body, I get to touch it as much as I want," Ben retorts, snatching his wrist back. "You on the other hand."

"I'm starting to think your parents dropped you when you were a baby," Gwen huffs when Ben starts biting at the face of the watch. The corner of her lip curls in disgust as he looks up at her from the corner of his eyes, drops of saliva slipping onto the alien device.

Ben rolls his eyes and wipes the drool off with the bottom of his shirt before using the collar to wipe at mouth. "You mean to tell me you aren't the least bit curious? What if that conspiracy theory [name] had is true? Just how many other aliens are out there? What if they're locked behind some firewall?"

"I have a feeling that's not really what you're trying to get at."

"What if, stay with me, it stacked my human DNA? Would it make me a double human? superhuman? A mutant?"

"Well, now I know you were dropped."

"Then how are we related?"

"You were adopted, your parents got rid of the papers, and they just never told you."

A silence overtakes the two even as [name] approaches with no max in tow. They stare each other in the eyes, either trying to size each other up or see who would break first.

"Your Grandpa said he'd join us later, but—"

"I hope we drop you off at the side of the highway and it turns into an Animals of Farthing Woods situation."

"Oh, my Ancient Ones?"

"How do you even know about that show?— Why only Farthing Woods?"

"Because it was the first thing I thought of."

"Well, am I the hedgehogs or everything else?"

Ben doesn't break eye contact with Gwen as he returns to messing with the Omnitrix. He pauses and looks to [name], tilting his chin briefly towards her to encourage her to speak. "What were you saying?"

"I was about to say your grandpa left to look at the crater," [name] answers with a mortified expression. She combs her braids down with her hands, giving them an extra tug for reassurance. "Also that our food should be here soon.. But.. was that like.. a death threat..?"

"Suggestion," Ben corrects.

"Therapy," [name] and Gwen fire back in unison.

Ben shakes his head and turns his eyes back to the watch. "Look, if I'm gonna be stuck with this thing, I wanna know the limits of it. Can I help people?— and I mean, really help them. Not just get cats out of trees and roasting marshmallows 'til they're golden delicious."