OUT OF THIS WORLD .. ben tennyson x reader

xx. surreal nightmare

When Ben wakes, it's with a start.

The usual noise that comes with four people being cramped into an RV the size of a hallway isn't there. He knows he hasn't woken up before everyone else because he's just never done that period if someone else hadn't put in the effort to wake him up, and the sun is currently beating down on his face from both windshields and every window on the Rustbucket.

Forcing himself up, he can see that they're parked at a gas station. Grandpa Max's head is poking over from where a gas pump is. The girls are leaving a smoothie shop across the street, each holding two cups and sipping from one while talking. Their arms are locked with one another, which, in and of itself, wasn't strange— it'd be weird to see the two not touching each other—, but they just seemed closer than how they usually are. Shoulder-to-shoulder, hip-to-hip, elbow-to-elbow— if you asked Ben, he'd think that they were trying to get in the other's skin.

What were they? Dating now? He wouldn't think that a change that drastic would happen while he was asleep.

     While [name] wasn't as touchy with him as she was with her, she showed an equal amount of affection when he let her. A tight hug there, a hand hold there— he found it hard to believe they'd managed to graduate to girlfriends when she treated them exactly the same.

Ben considers leaving the comfort of his bunk to get whatever they ordered for him. Though he hadn't been awake long, he could feel how dry and gross his mouth felt. He only decides against it and goes with collapsing back in bed when [name] peels away from Gwen to enter the Rustbucket, waving with a hand after moving a cup to her elbow when she finds him looking at her expectantly.

"G'morning, sleeping beauty," she hums with a laugh. Standing by his bed, she hands off his cup and lets her laugh calm into a snicker when he sits up on an elbow to drink it like a man starved. "Max said you probably wouldn't be up until tonight."

Sucking his teeth, Ben sucks his tongue at both the drink and sentiment. Though he didn't mind strawberry flavor, it wasn't his go-to, and he'd think that she'd know that by now. He'd forced her to listen to his hour-long tangents about which flavors were best at which times, that she should've memorized them all by now. Was Gwen the one who ordered the drinks, then? He hadn't been able to get her to listen to his explanation yet.

"Hey! I've been getting up earlier since we got on the road! You three getting up before the sun has been rubbing off on me!"

He doesn't like the look that she gives him.

"..Okay..!"

Squinting up at her, Ben can't help but tilt his head into his shoulder. "What's that supposed to mean? You know I have! All three of you've said something about it!"

".. I—"

"Hey!"

Gwen's yelp makes Ben and [name] jump and scurry to look out the window. She's red in the face and pointing down at her spilled smoothie. "That was a mega— uhm.." Going quiet when a robber in a skull mask turns to glare down at her, she weighs her options while he continues to try to intimidate her.

"Gwen," Grandpa Max calls out, hastily shoving the gas pump back into its slot to aid her, "run!"

"Let's go, idiot!" The other robber, in a gorilla mask, huffs as he hops onto their motorcycle, ripping off his gorilla mask after a few attempts to rev the engine result in nothing. "It won't start! Help me out!"

Ben's already shoving his drink into [name]'s hand and sprinting in front of the bike. "What's it gonna take for guys like you to learn crime doesn't pay?" Arms folded over his chest, he tuts his tongue like a disappointed parent. "I just don't know who's gonna give you the lesson. Heatblast? Diamondhead? Four Arms?"