#not gwev1n-positive

[kariachi]

Concept that has been in my head a while now, now officially in fic form.

In the far-flung future, Gwendolyn receives bad news.

~~

There was nothing that a person wanted less on a day when their husband had been gone before they woke up, had responded to none of their texts and refused to pick up the phone, then to have an officer show up at the door. Yes, it was Molly, as much friend of Kevin’s as Plumber Agent, but given Gwendolyn had, when the knocking started, been talking to Ben about whether they should go out and look for Kevin or if he was just being an asshole…

“Molly,” she greeted her, muscles tight, as she reached the entryway, her mom heading back inside to let her handle her business. “Is everything alright?” Molly made a quiet noise she couldn’t identify and held out a very official-looking brown envelope.

“I have legal papers for you,” she said. Something wary twisted in Gwendolyn’s gut as she took the envelope, narrowed eyes flicking between it and Molly.

“Thank you,” she said tentatively, watching her take an easy step back. “Was that, everything?”

“Yep,” Molly said with a nod, “that’s it.” Giving her a once-over, like she was making sure of something, Molly turned and headed down the walk, without a single glance back. “Have a nice life, Gwendolyn.”

Oh. Oh, that wasn’t ominous…

“Have a nice day,” she called back anyway. Shutting the door, Gwendolyn licked her lips and stared down at the envelope. On autopilot she made her way to the dining room, with a single glance back to where the family was gathered in the living room. She sat at the table with deliberate slowness, cautiously opened the envelope and slipped out the paper inside.

At the top was the information for an attorney she didn’t know and would have to ask her dad about. Then, for the court of her county. Kevin’s name after that, beside ‘petitioner’, set off even more alarm bells, with her own beside ‘respondent’. After that-

Well.

She dropped the first piece of paper, bringing her hands to twine together. Her face rested on them, pressed up against her lips and under her nose as she stared down at the forms before her. Jaw clenched, eyes already stinging. They were married, they lived in California and had for years, they- It even had a spot for how long it had been since they tied the knot. June 9th, 2016, the eleventh anniversary of the day they’d met. Kevin had wanted a Fall wedding, maybe go back east for the changing leaves, but she’d known the symbolism and symmetry in an anniversary wedding was too good to pass up. He was a poetic soul at heart, he’d have regretted passing it up in the end, like she’d regretted not getting him to propose a year earlier.

Though she supposed now regretting dates was the least of her problems.

Sixteen years and six months. There was even a section for that. From June 2016 to December 2032. And six years together before they’d married. Two-thirds of their lives…

‘No minor children’. That had been a whole hassle all its own. Kevin had talked about kids someday back at the very beginning, but by the time Gwendolyn was considering that for their future he’d changed his mind, just to be contrary she’d swear. It’d taken years passed when she was ready to start a family to talk him around, and even then they’d had no success. She got involved in fights and dragged into strange and dangerous magics too often to carry herself, adoption wasn’t an option with Kevin’s history, and Kevin… As much as doctors had sworn there was no physical reason he couldn’t have kids, nothing had seemed to work to make them happen. Gwendolyn had started bringing around information on surrogacy, though Kevin had been ignoring it. Now she knew why.

He’d put his reasoning down on the form as ‘irreconcilable differences’, despite how well things had been going.

That was sticking in her craw. Things had been good between them, or so she’d thought. They fought sometimes, yes, but mostly Kevin went along with her suggestions. Occasionally he got on her nerves- okay, more than occasionally- but she had him under control for the most part. He’d gotten better over the years and now, what? He was going to take all the improvements that had come from the years she put into him and just, let them benefit somebody else?

Was there somebody else? Gwendolyn’s temper flared and stomach twisted at the thought. She didn’t think- But then he’d managed to keep getting in touch with a lawyer secret, so clearly he had a burner phone she didn’t know about… It would certainly explain why he was ending a twenty-two-year relationship with her, if he’d been having an affair. And after all they’d been through together, all she’d done and put up with for him-

Shaking her head, Gwendolyn forced herself to take a deep breath, to stretch her limbs and relax her muscles. No, no she couldn’t let herself get worked up, especially not when she didn’t know. Yes, there’d been that time with Charmcaster, and the whole mess with Looma, but for twenty years there’d been no sign of any cheating. But then again, he was clearly keeping secrets…

Forcing a sigh, she put her attention back on the forms. Any cheating could be worked out later, once she had her own lawyer- and she was going to have a lawyer, she wanted to know exactly what was happening and he wasn’t answering his phone. He also wasn’t looking for alimony, or to pay it. Instead he’d gone to the ‘other’ option on that section. ‘Petitioner pays respondent two million American dollars in exchange for termination of spousal support rights on both sides.’

“Of course you thought about the money, you fucking-” Gwendolyn cut off her muttering with another deep breath, scrubbing at her eyes. At least he wasn’t trying to skimp her, Argit probably would have tried to get him to go for getting her to pay alimony, and an extortionate amount at that. (That was a thought, he was probably at Argit’s, she could go over there-)

The next section was on property and pointed her to a stack of papers. She’d have sworn everything either of them owned was listed on there, either in the stack labelled ‘separate property’ or the stack labelled ‘communal property’. The first stack was nothing really surprising, aside from the reveal that he’d had other bank accounts she hadn’t known about listed alongside her own personal account. His cars, his old machinery, their valuable jewelry and books, the car he’d finally built her, all listed and set as owed to their respective owner. The second stack was more a shock. He was offering to give her the house, and take custody of her remaining debts. His machinery he wanted in full, but otherwise he was offering her everything they’d gotten since they married and no more debt.

She couldn’t have told you whether that made her more or less certain there was somebody else. On the one hand, surely nobody would take him with all of a third party’s debt over his head, but on the other he clearly wanted this done and done quick, and what other reason would he have to rush? He was even, she noted when she worked her way back to the main set of papers, offering to pay all attorney fees.

And that, she could deal with that, she could handle it. Sure, let him pay for everything, let him have his machines and his cars, but seeing the request to have the court formally change his name back to Levin-

“Cuz?” Gwendolyn didn’t even manage to start when Ben poked his head into the dining room, worry tinging his voice. “You’ve been a while… everything alright?” She took a deep breath, hating how roughly her voice grated against her throat.

“Kevin’s leaving me.” There was a long beat of silence as she stared at his signature, ‘Kevin Ethan Tennyson’ in a deceptively neat script.

“Seriously?” Ben whispered it more than said it, approaching her like she might break. She kind of felt like she might. Wordlessly, licking her lips again, she picked up the first piece of paper and held it out to him. He took it like it might bite as she scrubbed at her face again, wishing for a handkerchief and having to grit her teeth against the memory that Kevin was the one who carried them. Twenty-two fucking years…

“For fucking real,” he all but growled after a few minutes. “After this long, after all you’ve done for him- That selfish, ungrateful-” Letting out a sigh that really more snort than anything, Ben wrapped an arm around Gwendolyn’s shoulders and pulled her into a hug. “I’m sorry. I don’t know what crawled up his ass and died for him to pull this shit but-”

“Things were going so well,” she said, tension turning to trembling as Ben squeezed her tighter, “I thought he was happy. I was happy, and he hasn’t complained in years…” Dropping the paper unceremoniously on the table, Ben pulled up a chair and took a seat, releasing his hug in favor of laying his hands on Gwendolyn’s shoulders.

“It’s going to be okay,” he assured her with a gentle jostle, “we’ll get this all worked out. And if he wants to ruin his life, well, that’s his problem.” She took a deep breath, more shuddering than she would have liked, and nodded as best she could. It was Kevin’s problem, whatever the fuck was going on in that head of his and not- He’d just made it officially not hers. Legally not hers. Whatever the fuck his deal was it just-

He'd been one of the most important things in her life since she was fifteen.

With what she refused to call a sob Gwendolyn collapsed herself forward into Ben’s arms, wrapping her own around him like he might vanish too if she didn’t. Face buried in his shoulder, blood pounding in her ears, she could hardly hear his reassurances, promises that she was going to be okay and that he was going to get to the bottom of all this.  But she couldn’t help worrying that having answers might make it worse.

They hadn’t exactly served her well so far.

[kariachi]

Some fic. In which Gwen acts hastily and it fucks her.

~~

Two tweets. That was all it took to rattle their social group apart and send all the collective fanbases into a frenzy.

At 12:13 pm, on the 14th of October, 2015, Gwendolyn Tennyson announced her engagement to one Kevin ‘11’ Levin. The tweet blew up instantly with congratulations and shows of support from friends, family, and fans alike. Some people expressed displeasure at the match, which always happened with these things, and some expressed disappointment one or both of them would be off the market, but for the most part responses were positive and supportive.

At 3:04 pm, on the 14th of October, 2015, Kevin ‘11’ Levin responded to Gwendolyn’s announcement with four simple words.

‘No we fucking aren’t.’

His second response- ‘You may wanna grab your shit before Manny uses it for target practice’- went all but unnoticed as the ethernet and internet both exploded.

Family and friends were split between those condemning him for publicly humiliating her with his response and for using his friends as threats (‘You say ‘threat’ like I’m not here and armed’), and those condemning her for announcing an engagement that clearly hadn’t been set in stone, given it was called off in under three hours. The fanbases went feral, picking sides depending on who they preferred and where their morals lay. Lines in the sand were drawn everywhere. Insults, accusations, and threats flew. People had to take their arguments off social media, and breaks from them to try to get their followers under control. The only other tweets either Gwendolyn or Kevin made that day were in response to the carnage (from Gwendolyn there was a short essay on not sinking to other people’s level, from Kevin a simple ‘Don’t be dicks, I’ll never hear the end of it’) and each was responded to by mountains of support and condemnation both.

In the end the fighting lasted for nearly a week.

The pair of them weren’t seen together again for months.