Who: Ben & Kit What: They arrive in Chicago, and Ben’s performance issues lead to a rather interesting status update. When: Late January 2018 Where: Their hotel room and the Chicago office Warnings: Swearing, made up magical theory, penis jokes
Kit was supposed to make this better. And he did. He made a lot of things better, but maintenance was the absolute worst. Only nothing good ever came from the phrase, “I just want to run a few tests.” Even less so when a Mysteries Levi said it.
Ben’s day had not gone as expected. And he wasn’t particularly optimistic about this evening either.
“So, good news first?” Ben set the pizza and beer down on the table. A penance pairing, perhaps, but also Chicago staples. “I love you, and I still want to marry the hell out of you. Absolutely no take backs.”
Being back in Chicago was strange to say the least. Kit spent the day visiting some old haunts. He’d have to plan a day into the office for ‘visiting’, but he could count on one hand how many former co workers he wanted to see. And he wasn’t sure if the Battle Axe would appreciate him being there.
Anyway, it wasn’t a very full day and he was back with plenty of time before Ben arrived back to the place where they were staying.
The first thing Kit had noticed was the pizza and beer… and while he was internally wondering where Ben went to get it and if it had been a good pizza place, the mention of ‘good news’ filtered into his thoughts.
“What did you do?” was his default question. Not an angry accusing tone, but more preparation for exasperation. They had barely been in Chicago. What could have Ben done now to get himself in trouble? “I’m assuming that’s the bad news.”
Ben opened two bottles. “Why do you always assume I did something?” He handed one to Kit.
“It’s a high probability,” Kit answered as he took the bottle handed to him from Ben. And took a drink because it seemed like he was going to need it.
“I will have you know that I resent that. I am a gentleman and scholar who has been on his utmost best behavior since Salem.” Ben took a long pull of his beer. For courage. “I may also be kind of married to Max?”
“Trouble sometimes finds you without you having to do anything,” Kit countered to Ben’s defense. But that sarcastic banter was quickly pushed aside at that confession. And Kit… honestly didn’t know what to think of that. He paused, looking at Ben to wait and see if this was some kind of joke. “What do you mean you maybe married Max?” Because fuck if that made sense. And it definitely wasn’t funny.
“Well you remember the really fucking cool Te Fiti guard statue I made? Apparently, that was a sort of magical merging ceremony that I performed. Which is still cool, but apparently came with some literal baggage.” Ben took this moment to shove a large mouthful of pizza into his mouth. He was starving. And really for the past month, he felt like he couldn’t get enough calories. “Amelia is pretty sure I did it wrong.” Which wasn’t fair, because obviously he did it wrong - he didn’t even know it was a thing he was doing! “May also explain my eating habits lately.”
Kit did try to understand Ben’s particular type of magic, but sometimes he was lost. This explanation would be one of those times. “So, obviously not intentional,” Kit said as opposed to asking, because he didn’t think Ben was confessing to cheating on him with Max right now. Kit wasn’t even admitting that to be a possibility. “What are the implications of this, besides your eating habits,” he did ask, and subconsciously his thumb was rubbing at his engagement ring. “Can it be reversed?”
Ben laughed. At least his mouth wasn’t full of pizza. Small miracles. “Well, technically speaking, no one has ever tried? Because no one has ever done it on accident? And then it might also be complicated because apparently my midichlorians are also trying to merge and activate yours to make you force sensitive, which apparently is a seldom spoken about perk of marrying into the clan.”
Kit wasn’t laughing, but he was taking another drink so that he could try to get through this conversation. “How did you know? Or how did Amelia find out?” he asked apparently having more questions. The Star Wars explanation did help, but also just made Kit worry more too. “So, does this mean we can’t get married now?”
“You’re being rather calm about this.” It was one part observation, but mostly stall tactic. Even then, he was gratetful that Kit didn’t go running. Although, to be fair, this was not the worst thing Ben had to confess to Kit. “Well, magic is magic, and law is different. Marriage is kind of in the middle? I mean mom and dad got married, and he’s still fully non-magical. Or at least I’m pretty sure he is. Plus I said I still wanted to marry you and if you want to marry me, I don’t see why not -- unless the potential lack of actual Jedi Master in your future is a deal breaker.”
“I figured calm was the best mode for this conversation,” Kit said but he was still very unsure what do with this information. He didn’t even know that this wasn’t the worse thing. “Of course I still want to marry you. I didn’t even know that the sharing of magic was even an option, and I don’t care,” he said. Sure that would have been cool, but that was beside the point.
Ben moved around their tiny hotel room to take a seat on the couch. Sitting was better. “And I mean, Amelia is eagerly looking into what exactly this means, and how to fix it, or at least make me be less of a nexus for two different people. So I don’t like burn myself out, which is actually how she figured something was off when we were running the op this morning and my performance left something to be wanting.”
Finally Kit grabbed himself a piece of pizza so he could at least eat and do something else while thinking. At least Amelia was looking into it, but Kit looked to Ben concerned that this was actually a physical effect on him. “So, this accidentally being married means that your magic is getting shared, and you’re draining faster than normal?”
Ben took a moment to polish off his second slice of pizza. It wasn’t the best pizza he had ever eaten, but it wasn’t the worst, and these days calories were calories. “Okay, so this kind of sort goes back to how I use magic and the fact that in some circumstances that I am actually a special snowflake.”
Ben sighed, trying to recall the important bits from his Magical Theory class far too many years in his past. “Like most wizards or witches have an internal power source that gets focused through a wand, elaborate hand gestures, or some other kind of totem. Right? For me, it’s more like I’m the totem, and quite literally all the magical potential in the ground can be pulled through me. I could sneeze and transfigure the table without meaning to. So, I don’t actually need a wand, but it offers refinement, control, and sort of a dampener. Plus we all expect witches and wizards to have wands so it’s just easier to blend, follow suit.
“I guess with the ceremony, I pulled some of that energy through Max, making him a totem that is paired with me, except I may have forgot to put a control valve. Or at least that’s how Amelia described it.”
Kit knew this wasn’t bragging. This was just Ben being… Ben. He was different, and somehow Kit didn’t imagine that this much different was going to affect their life and relationship that much. Rookie mistake Ghezzi.
“Got it,” Kit nodded to the wand vs no wand explanation, and how Ben had that access to special magic and connected to the ground. So when Max got included to that explanation, Kit nodded. “Alright, makes sense,” he agreed. Still didn’t mean that Kit was happy about it. “So, at the very least you need to find a way to figure out how to control it. If not get rid of the connection.”
Ben had a terrible amount of power allowed to him. He didn’t realize how much until he was in Max’s body. “Sort of gives a different weight to with great power, comes great responsibility.” It wasn’t said, but Ben could certainly hear that gently echoed ‘oh Ben’ from Kit and his mother. “But it can be controlled, and when done right, Amelia says it’s pretty cool for her and Paul.”
As soon as he said it, he wished he put it differently. Ben didn’t want to deny Kit anything. He chose Kit. Certainly that had to count for something. Then again -- “Which is also kind of where my problem is? I forced this pairing with Max, but I’ve already been attuning to you, so I’m sort of like when a cell phone is out of range looking for signal and ends up burning through the battery quicker.”
Even if he didn’t say it, the look Kit gave him said ‘oh Ben’. And of course Ben only made that worse by sharing his cousin’s experience. It was annoying. Kit was upset but he didn’t know what to be upset about. Or who to be upset with. He wasn’t mad at Ben or Max because really neither one of them was at fault. It was just the idea that… Kit was missing out on something special with Ben. That someone else now had. Even if he hadn’t known it was a possibility, and it wasn’t something that he needed… Kit didn’t really know how to feel about it.
“So what are you going to do about it?” Kit asked because obviously Ben burning through his magic was a concern. “Or what are we going to do? Is there anything that can be done?” Just so many questions. “Do you need to be back in New York with Max near by?”
“Well, good thing there’s unlimited potential to go through, and it really isn’t a problem unless I’m performing big time magic, which hey, technically excuses me from maintenance.” That was supposed to be a victory. Funny how it didn’t feel like winning. “But Amelia thinks it’s best if I stay here, let her run some tests. If anyone can figure this it out, it’s probably her and honestly? The less Max knows the less of a threat to national security we have at hand.”
“There’s a bonus,” Kit said sarcastically as he took another drink because he needed it. He’d had more beer and less pizza at this point. The main reason Kit had agreed to go to Chicago was because they were here to see what Ben did and well… they got a lot more than that. Kit was pretty sure he wouldn’t have dealt with this news any better back in New York, but at least he could have gone off to his grandmother’s for a few hours. The idea of wandering around Chicago on his own was not appealing. “Yeah, Amelia is probably the best option,” he agreed turning his back to pick up another piece of pizza.
Ben shifted, so he was perched, able to take in all of Kit all at once. He didn’t quite have Kit’s Jedi mind skills, but he knew enough about people - about Kit really - to try to put the pieces together. “You’re not angry, as much as you are disappointed.” And it was so typical Ben related drama.
“And it does kind of ruin Chicago. Which is hard to do, but I do always defy expectations.’
Kit couldn’t see Ben, but he could picture quite clearly what his expression might be. He almost felt the stares into his back. “That sort of sums it up, yeah,” he said to Ben’s assessment of his feelings. He did chuckle though at the mention of Chicago, and Kit took another drink of beer for that. Probably needed to open another soon. “You didn’t ruin Chicago. It was already pretty awful before we got here,” he said.
“Pizza’s not that bad,” said Ben helping himself to another slice. He could probably polish off the whole pizza if left alone. “Is this one of those moments you need to time and space to process or distraction? I can make either happen. No judgement.”
“That’s because you’re catching up on calories,” Kit pointed out about the pizza. At Ben’s question, his first instinct was to be left alone but that wasn’t fair. It was Ben’s doing, but it wasn’t Ben’s fault. “Distraction I think.”
Ben shrugged. Pizza was pizza at this point. He didn’t particularly care if it was good or bad. But if Kit didn’t like it, more for him. “Okay. Stay in or go out?”
“Let’s go out. If we’re here in Chicago, we should do things in Chicago,” Kit suggested. If they went out and did something, that would be easier to be distracted.
“Out it is,” Ben had a few ideas -- when didn’t Ben have ideas? “But more pizza first!”
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It was a new day, and Kit still wasn’t sure what to do with all this information. Well, Kit wasn’t sure there was anything he could do. That was on Ben and Max… and Amelia if she could find out anything. Either way, Kit got his excuse to go into the Chicago office, as Kit went in with Ben the next day.
So when they arrived to the office, Kit got stopped by former co-workers so he told Ben to go ahead of him to the lab. He’d planned on putting off visiting till later, but if they were going to be in Chicago for awhile, and coming into the office, Kit couldn’t be rude… right away.
When Kit finally got free, he went down to the lab to see what was going on. “Is he cooperating?” Kit asked to Amelia when he joined them.
Amelia smiled, greeting Kit warmly as he came into her lab. “For the moment, I have seemed to buy his cooperation with food.”
“The best tactic in taming Ben,” Kit said grinning when Amelia greeted him. It was strange to think that he’d known Amelia first before he’d ever met Ben. She was at least one of the few people that he remembered more fondly from his time in Chicago.
For his part, Ben was sitting focused intently on his rather large mediterranean salad and falafel. This morning had been an interesting affair. Although he was limited, he wasn’t excused from his maintenance duties. “You survive the rounds with the old crew?” Ben said with his mouth only partially full of food.
“Survived, yes. I made it down here after all,” Kit said to Ben. “Mostly questions of surprise of why I’m here. If I’m coming back,” he explained. “Avoided Battle at least.” There were other people Kit wasn’t interested in running into either, but Ben didn’t need to know about them.
Ben glared at Kit over his salad, trying to piece through what wasn’t being said. “Should have just told them you were doing the rounds to let everyone know you’re off the market. About to marry into wizarding royalty.”
Before Kit would have a chance to say anything, Amelia whacked him on the back of the head. “I have learned my Ben wrangling skills from the best. Not to mention the only thing he’s afraid of more than his mother is my father.” And one cue Ben made a gagging noise because Uncle David was quite literally The Worst.
Kit shouldn’t have been that amused at Ben getting a whack from Amelia, he did love him after all, but Ben deserved it over the glare. “No one important enough that they can’t hear about it from Facebook,” he said with a shrug. He wondered if Ben’s former coworkers at the LA office even knew.
Amelia finished the diagnostic sweep she was working on before sheathing her wand. “Now, c’mere.” She held up her arms to hug Kit. “Welcome to the family, Ghezzi, certainly didn’t think all those years ago we’d end up here.”
“What makes David the scarier Levi?” Kit asked as he was curious. He knew he was on Abigail’s good side now, but she’d been quite intimidating before getting to that point. However, answers could wait and he smiled as he gave Amelia a hug back. “Thank you. It’s funny how the universe works out like that.” And then magically pairs your partner off to another person.
Ben opened his mouth to speak and then said nothing. Which had absolutely everything to do with Amelia standing right there. Amelia who didn’t necessarily agree with his take on Uncle David, and certainly didn’t want to hear it - not when there was already so much on the line.
“I find it less so much random chance, as it is the universe seeking balance. Plus, I totally would have tried to date or just fuck you those years ago if things weren’t already going so well with Paul.” This time, Ben actually choked on a piece of salad. He did not need to hear about his cousin wanting to have sex with his fiance. Not cool. “You’re apparently a good match for the depth and wilds of our type of magic.”
Kit was going to make some joke about the Force, but he had to laugh at Amelia not so subtle suggestion of what could have been. “You could have helped prevent me from some dumb choices while I was here, but it all worked out for the best. And, at least I ended up with a Levi,” Kit said and patted Ben on the back while he was choking. The comment of being a good match though… “Unless that magic accidentally gets matched with someone else.”
“We all walk the paths meant for us.” Amelia looked over at Ben, scrunching up her face. “Even if that does have its own host of twists and turns along the way. Although, really, would you expect any less from the McLegend?”
Kit had to agree with Amelia’s question there. “I shouldn’t expect it to be any different. I’m still on a learning curve I guess,” he offered since he hadn’t even known about this shared magic thing anyway. “I do know never to expect things to be boring,” Kit added with a chuckle.
Amelia chuckled and reached over her desk to grab a small file. “Speaking of that, if you sign here, I can answer just about any question you have and catch you up to speed without the all the Benism nonsense.” In the folder was a run of the mill NDA, and acknowledgement of security clearance level increase. Kit may have long since crossed that point with his relationship with Ben, but this would make it official.
Kit took the file that Amelia handed to him, and picked up a quill. He looked it over quickly and arched an eyebrow. There was no point of questioning it because he needed to be able to ask certain questions and get answers. So Kit signed the form and handed it back to Amelia. “So, what do I get to know now that I didn’t get to know before?”
“Well, the manuscripts are kept at the family estate in Savannah. And until then, I’m your best source.” It also required a few other skills that Amelia didn’t know if Kit had, but in time, if that was actually something he wanted. “Now, you essentially get to know whatever you want, so where do you want to start?”
“I feel like there’s a joke in there about needing an instruction manual to being with a Levi,” Kit said but that was because he wasn’t sure what he really wanted to know. “I don’t know where to start. I guess I just kind of foolishly thought that we were just going to get married, and other than that, things wouldn’t be that different,” he admitted. “Are you going to be able to find way to unconnect Ben and Max?”
“Hey!” Said Ben with his mouth still full of food. “Still getting married! No take backs!”
“No take backs,” Kit said waving at Ben to reassure him.
“Ah yes, the great and mysterious wonders that is Clan Levi and the teachings of the old world. For which an instruction manual would be highly classified.” She had more than once thought about writing one, but Amelia doubted it would go over well with the Defense Council. “A magical divorce is a little different, but theoretically I should be able to uncouple them. Although it’s never been done with our branch of the family, which is rather...complex being so rooted to the earth as it were.”
“But it would be very helpful,” Kit added though he realized such a manual would be classified. He listened to Amelia’s explanation, which finally gave him a hope that this could be undone. “But it can be done,” Kit concluded. “And, then… what happens with Ben and I?”
Amelia shrugged. She didn’t know, but anything was possible. “Well, I would imagine what happens with you boys, is up to you, but as far are things now, Ben has already subconsciously tried to merge and resonate through you. He’s just resonating elsewhere as well. Leave it to McLegend to need not one, but two husbands.”
Kit nodded to understanding as Ben had already explained this to him. Of course, he hadn’t even been aware of this merging and resonating at all, but mostly Kit was concerned about the drain on Ben. He scoffed at the mention of McLegend needing more. “I should cease to be surprised, but I still am,” he said. He was trying to think about what else to ask. “So, if you can’t figure out how to break this connection with Ben and Max, or if you do and then Ben continues to make that connection with me… what does it actually do? Right now, what is Max capable of?”
Amelia sat back down, inviting Kit to do the same. This was the sort of thing that required sitting. And probably snacks -- which despite Ben’s attempts, she still had plenty. Maybe it was her motherhood showing, but she pulled those out and offered them to Kit.
“First, it goes to say that Ben isn’t all ego when he tells you he is a Jedi master. It’s not a perfect metaphor, but it holds up well. Assuming we all passed our basics of magical theory coursework, we’ll skip the basics and go to the specifics. The Levi Clan are a long line of priests and guards, leaders among the tribe, and with that came a certain amount of responsibility, but also over the years keepers of lost knowledge and ancient, powerful, magical traditions.
“There is an unending supply of power in the universe. As a wizard you are able to access but a small part of that. The Levis are attuned to more of that potential, and depending on the branch we each have our own specialities tied to the four elements. We are taught from a young age how to channel that energy, to control it rather than let ourselves be controlled or destroyed by it.” Amelia paused, quietly reflecting of a loss perhaps still too personal.
“Ultimately that power wants to be shared, it needs to find another outlet. In some ways, it is a necessity that we mate, we marry, to not burn through ourselves. Ben used a great amount of power, probably more than he needed, to override the curse. Not to mention he forced the power through Max with questionable consent.”
The pause here was different as the cousins matched glares. Ben still stood by what he did.
“Okay, okay,” he said. “Maybe I need to learn more, but c’mon, Amelia, on most days it’s difficult enough for me to just to keep it under control. And it was so frustrating to be that bad at magic. I felt I could fix it, so I did. And now...now, you get to undertake exciting new research!”
Rather than answer him, Amelia looked back over to Kit. “Should I whack him, do you want to do it?”
Ben had explained some of this before, but Kit appreciated the detail that Amelia went into. He did grin at the part of Ben being a Jedi Master, and Kit spared Ben a look at that as well, before focusing on Amelia’s explanation again.
He arched an eyebrow at Ben admitting he needed to learn more, and offering up his mistake as a research opportunity. “I’ll leave it to you if you want to whack him since you’re the one getting the work,” Kit explained. It just reinforced for Kit more than this was all unintentional, and it was just another way the universe reacted to Ben. “You could just save it for poking and proding him for experiments.”
Amelia shook her head and smacked Ben upside the head. Again. “I don’t actually need or want the extra work. I am doing this out of the kindness of my heart.”
Ben muttered something about traitors and kept his head down, intent to finish his meal while they were having lecture time.
“Which now means I need to convince Judy to let Max come out here for a few days for testing.” It was far more work than she needed during their already busy season. “As for what the connection does for the other member of the pair? It gives them an amazing magical boost, and with the correct rituals and discipline even the ability to create golems. Which also to say, yes, Ben does actually have a significant level of discipline, although you’d be hard pressed to see it most days of the week.”
Ben looked up at Kit as soon as the word ‘ritual’ was said. “Circumcised. You’re going to have to give up your foreskin in order to cleanse your gentile soul.”
Amelia picked up one of the snack sized granola bars and opened the package. Using the snack break to intentionally ignore Ben. “I’ll have to host you both for dinner and you can meet Paul. He might be able to answer more of your questions about his side of the story.”
Kit grabbed one of the granola bars, not that he was really hungry. It was a lot to think about, and Kit felt like he was playing catch up on something he didn’t know he needed to prepare for. Or to prepare for something he wasn’t sure he was even going to take part in.
Again, he loved Ben. But he was also ignoring Ben at the moment. He didn’t need to be able to make golems. That’s what he had Ben around for. It was just the thought of Ben being connected to someone else, when it should have been him… that was the bother. “Thanks, appreciate it. I do have some questions for Paul,” Kit nodded. “Any idea on how long we’re going to have to stay in Chicago for this new research?” This was extra work on Amelia’s plate, when she probably had her own caseload to deal with on top of that.
“A week? Maybe two tops? Depends on what I can get done with all else going on and also what you have waiting for you back in New York.”
“Well, I’m using vacation days already, and Ben was supposed to be working, so we were already scheduled to be gone. So, unless something new has happened in New York, I know I’m good to wait.”