Title: Nostalgia

Rating: T

Genre: Romance/Drama

Pairing: Ben/Kevin

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"Your place is so cool!" Ben exclaimed. The place itself was actually rather run-down, but it was the idea of being free, of living on your own that Ben found so 'cool'. He had never even considered the idea of living by himself, and her Kevin was living it.

"Thanks," Kevin nonchalantly shrugged, hopping up onto a crate and gesturing for Ben to hop up on the one opposite him. After a few moments of struggling, Ben managed to sit atop the wobbly wooden crate.

"What's in these, anyway?" Ben queried, peering down nervously at the crate, which appeared to be glowing.

"Honestly? You'd probably rather not know, kid," Kevin grinned. Ben shifted awkwardly, kicking his feet a little as he squirmed.

"You're so innocent," Kevin sighed. "I can't even remember a time when I was as innocent as you."

"I'm not that innocent," Ben insisted.

"Please. What's the worst thing you've done?" Kevin demanded.

"I'm the good guy. I don't do bad things," Ben shrugged.

"Have you ever even done anything a little dangerous? Something on the wild side? Something rebellious?"

"Lots of times," Ben lied smoothly, placing his arms behind his head and leaning back, only to remember a bit too late that he was sitting on a crate and tumble down to the concrete floor. Kevin blew a lock of hair out of his eyes and hopped off his crate, walking over and pulling Ben to his feet. Blushing red, Ben dusted himself off.

"That doesn't mean anything," Ben murmured. Kevin pretended not to hear.

"You wouldn't believe the things I've done, Ben. You just wouldn't be able to imagine. Not even if you spent years imagining, you'd never think of them all," Kevin grinned, feeling pretty good as Ben stared at his feet.

"I bet you've never even kissed a boy before," Kevin smirked. Ben's head quickly snapped up and he blushed even harder.

"Maybe I have!" Ben defensively insisted.

"Well, have you?" Kevin queried.

"Not your business," Ben scowled. In truth, he had never even kissed a girl before, let alone given into the forbidden pleasure of kissing someone of the same gender.

"If you have, you'd have no problem kissing a boy right now, right?" Kevin leered, placing his hand on the wall behind Ben and cornering him.

"C-course not," Ben attempted to hold onto his façade as his palms grew sweaty and his voice rose in pitch.

"Then kiss me," Kevin ordered. Ben let out a squeak and shook his head.

"I don't like you, not like that. I'm not gonna kiss someone I don't even like," Ben insisted. Kevin rolled his eyes.

"You want romance, Ben? Romance is a lie used to get us to reproduce. There's no such thing as romance," Kevin insisted.

"You're lying!" Ben shouted, pushing at Kevin's chest, but the slightly older boy was too strong. Kevin pressed himself against the younger brunet and wrapped an arm around Ben's waist.

"Just because you've never had romance doesn't mean there's no such thing!" Ben wailed. He thought of his parents and grandparents. How could it be possible that the only reason they were together was to reproduce? How could it be possible that there was no such thing as love?

"Shut up," Kevin growled, and he tilted Ben's chin up with a single finger before pressing his lips to the smaller boy's in a hasty kiss.

Ben froze as a strange feeling shot through him. He didn't want to kiss Kevin back, he kept insisting that he didn't like Kevin, didn't like boys to begin with, but something clicked in his head that this was his first kiss, one to remember, so he might as well enjoy it, so he nervously pressed his trembling lips back against Kevin's. Kevin smirked into the kiss and pulled away.

"You're wrong," Ben insisted. He swallowed hard and forced himself to look into Kevin's cold black eyes.

"You're wrong," Ben repeated, "there is such a thing as romance."

"What? Are you going to tell me you're in love with me?" Kevin sneered. Ben blushed and Kevin shook his head. "Nobody loves me, Ben. Nobody."

"Maybe I do," Ben shakily insisted. Kevin shoved him against the wall and kissed him violently, biting down on his lower lip and pulling his hair. Ben gasped and Kevin chose that moment to shove his tongue into the younger boy's mouth, pushing against the tongue that already resided there in a wet tango. Ben's fingers curled and he tugged against the fabric of Kevin's shirt. Kevin broke away and pulled back, releasing Ben who found his knees suddenly weak. Ben fell to the ground and Kevin merely walked away, sitting down on a crate.

"So why is your grandpa so mad at you?" Kevin queried.

"All I did was sneak off to play the new Sumo Slammers video game," Ben answered shakily, pushing himself up to his feet and sitting on the crate opposite Kevin.

"The one that doesn't come out until Christmas?" Kevin demanded.

"That's the one," Ben agreed.

"I've got something to show you," Kevin remarked, hopping down from his crate and beckoning for Ben to follow.

Shaking his head to clear his mind, Ben stood and followed Kevin out, not realizing that this was one of the last moments he and Kevin would share as friends.

At least, the last moments for a few years.

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Five Years Later

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Ben finished his smoothie and set the empty cup down on counter next to him, chewing on his pencil as he worked out the next algebraic equation on his homework. What next? Distribute? He sighed and began working on it on paper, trying to make the numbers make sense.

The door opened with a loud bang and Ben jumped, his homework tumbling to the ground next to him. Kevin walked in with an almost sheepish look on his face.

"Haven't you ever heard of knocking?" Ben sighed, gathering up the fallen papers from the ground and setting them down on the counter with the empty smoothie cup.

"Ben, you were right. There is such a thing as romance, okay?" Kevin panted. His hair was wet. Had he walked here in the rain?

Ben was confused for a moment before his mind took him back to his younger days, the first time he and Kevin had tried to be friends. To a kiss in a run-down place, to forgetting about it as he ran off in pursuit of Sumo Slammers.

To feeling utterly betrayed as Kevin rejected his second attempt at friendship and slammed him to the ground.

"Okay," Ben agreed. "Why?"

He expected some long tale about Gwen, but Kevin wordlessly offered Ben a hand, pulling him to his feet and suddenly pulling him into a hug. Ben awkwardly patted him on the back before Kevin released him, pushing him away…

But it wasn't harsh, it was pained, like it just about broke his heart to let him go. Kevin growled and ran a hand through his hair.

"I can't believe this," Kevin muttered. "I can't believe I'm doing this."

"I'm confused," Ben confessed. "What's going on?"

"There is such a thing as romance, Ben," Kevin insisted, and Ben was confused because they'd gone over that part and Kevin wasn't making any sense, but suddenly Kevin was back in front of him, pulling him close again, but this wasn't just a hug, this was an intimate embrace and Ben blushed, wondering if Kevin had been drinking, but he didn't smell like alcohol, he smelled slightly of the metal he'd just turned into and mostly just of himself, that strange musky scent that he always carried with him.

"I made you kiss me before. I'm not going to make you now. But I want to kiss you," Kevin explained. Ben swallowed hard. What on Earth was going on here? He and Kevin hadn't even seen each other in days. Nothing had happened to make Kevin behave like this. It didn't make any sense, and Ben knew he should tell Kevin this, break out of this bizarre mood that Kevin had put him in and tell Kevin to either begin acting like himself or get out of Ben's house.

But for some reason Ben whispered, "You can kiss me."

And for some reason, Kevin did.