WHO: Ben Braeden, Dean Winchester; briefly Mary Winchester WHERE: the Winchester & co house WHEN: Wednesday, January 4, 2006; around lunchtime WHAT: Dean, finding a way to get Ben to sleep. RATING: A, for adorable. STATUS: log; COMPLETE
With a grunt that wasn't quite burly masculine because he was still small, Ben hit the back of Dean's legs running and tackled him to the ground. It was relatively easy to do, really, but he was too determined to notice that fact. The football was forgotten now in their impromptu game in the backyard, as this resembled something more like wrestling.
"I win! I'm the winner and champion of the world!" he declared, pumping his arms over his head.
Dean had noticed that Ben had been trying to avoid sleep, but he also knew that trying to talk to the boy about it wouldn't help. After all, there was a lot about Ben that reminded him of himself, and admitting that there was a problem was often impossible. That's why he didn't try to question Ben about why he wasn't sleeping, had just hung out with him last night (after movies with Heather) all night through today, or come up with ideas to make things easier for him to rest.
No, his plan now was a lot more simple. He had been playing football with the boy, waiting until he was tired, then he planned on settling them in to watch some movie that was entertaining without being too much to keep Ben awake, and hope for the best. If this worked out, Ben would be too tired not to crash on the sofa, and Dean would watch over him while he slept, and be there to wake him up and make things better if the boy so much as whimpered in his sleep.
"Not quite!" Dean said, using Ben's moment of victory to turn the tables and tackle him. "I WIN!" he said, mimicing the younger boy's actions right down to the pumping arms over his head. "I'm the winner and the champion of the WORLD!"
Effectively trapped by someone far bigger than him, Ben could only really flail around futilely for a few moments before defeat had to be faced. Not admitted, of course, but faced.
"That is so not cool!" he declared, but he was grinning, one that had the edge of exhaustion because Ben was tired and would likely fall asleep again soon, but he definitely didn't want to. Crashing the first time after Uriel visited and he'd sworn off sleep had taught him that an angel didn't have to be there for his dreams to suck - what Uriel had said was enough. But he wasn't going to be a girl about it and tell anyone that.
Dean could see the edge of exhaustion in Ben's eyes, and he knew it was time to go in. While normally he'd be all for a beer or soda after this much fun, Dean had it all planned out. Warm soup and hot cocoa, because even though the weather in LA was warm those kinds of things (things he had been able to prepare even as a kid in the hotel kitchenettes) always made him sleepy. He had talked his Mom into having some ready for when they came in, so that grabbing some would be seamless and less obvious than Dean making some would be.
"I'm hungry. Let's go get some food and see what's on, dude." He stood, offering his hand to help Ben up. The gesture was a friendly one, like two real football players might use after one had gotten tackled, and nothing like the hug he wanted to give to the kid. How was he supposed to make this right? How could he show him that the angel couldn't keep him from sleeping forever?
"'Kay." Surprisingly compliant, but it was only half from exhaustion, as Ben proved by taking Dean's hand then grabbing his forearm with the other and yanking hard. Another fall, aided by the sneak move, and tackle followed, but this time, Ben didn't wait around to have the tables turned on him.
"I still win!" he declared, then jumped to his feet and tore off in the direction of the back of the house.
Dean stared up at the sky, laughing slowly when he realized just how sneaky Ben was. Hell, that was the sort of thing that he would have done, he should have expected it. Ben had been learning from the best.
"Get back here, you little brat!" Dean shouted, though he was clearly just teasing. He thought Ben was the furthest thing possible from a brat.
Dean's longer legs were no match for the head start he had given the boy, and that was good too. He liked to let Ben win, not in the obvious way that grown ups sometimes did, and not all the time because Ben was too smart for that too, but most of the time, on little things, he would let Ben win.
"You want to get the movies or see what Mom has in the kitchen, dude?"
Though he'd run, Ben was waiting at the back door for Dean, a tired grin on his face. At the question, he shook his head and then rolled his eyes, like the answer was the most obvious one in the world.
"Food, duh." They could always take food to the movie. Mary usually liked him to eat meals at the table, or messy foods there, but he could take chips or popcorn or something while they watched.
Shoving open the kitchen door, Ben moved inside the kitchen, head lifting as he caught the smells. Soup and hot chocolate. His sense of smell when it came to food was just that good, after all. "Sweet!"
Dean came in behind Ben, a big smile on his face when he smelled the food Mary had made. It smelled good, much better than the food he had made in the kitchenettes had smelled.
"Thanks, Mom," He said, going to give her a hug. He lowered his voice to a whisper before he spoke again. "I think it's working." He knew Mary was almost as worried as he was about the boy.
He grabbed one of bowls of soup, and a mug of cocoa and went toward the living room. Normally she would prefer that they ate messy foods at the table, but desperate times called for desperate measures and after they had talked about things, Mary had agreed to Dean's plan entirely. "Come on, Ben, we'll play rock paper scissors to see who gets to pick the movie."
Ben stepped close to the food, but stopped at Dean's comment. "We get to eat soup in the livingroom?" he asked, turning to look at Mary with his eyebrows slightly raised.
Was this another one of those 'be nice to Ben' things that everyone had been doing lately? It made Ben feel uncomfortable when they all made a big deal out of it, like he needed to talk about the dream or have extra treats or special favors to make up for it. Dean was one of the few who hadn't tried to do anything different than normal and Ben, well, he liked that. Normally, he was all for extra fun, but if it was because of the dream, he felt babied and that wasn't cool.
"I can eat at the table."
"You could..." Mary said with a long suffering sigh. "Except for the fact that I don't want Dean burning his tongue on the soup again and complaining about it. He said something about watching Batman Begins earlier today and we both know how crazy he is about that. Beisdes..."
She ushered them out of the room, and toward the dining room. Dean's entire tape collection was spread out haphazardly across it, with labels and pens and an old stereo. "Dean decided to make Heather some more mix tapes because he thought she didn't have nearly enough to be a Winchester or something silly like that. If you spilled soup on his tapes I think he'd cry."
As far as explanations went, the first was a bit suspect but the second sealed the deal for Ben, because he could clearly see the table was full and he wasn't about to take the chance of ruining Dean's tapes.
Besides, Batman Begins. Ben had that movie at home and luckily, it had come out on DVD recently so he hadn't had to go without it. He had watched it more times than he could count, but it hadn't gotten old ever.
"Yeah, then he'd have to listen to Dashboard Crybabies and that would suck," he said, grinning at Mary, then turned and headed toward the livingroom. "C'mon Dean, let's watch it. We'll keep the coin flip for when we have to win and get the cool movies in the DVD player instead of the chick ones."
"Careful not to spill anything!"
Dean laughed when he heard his Mom call after them, because he knew the last thing on Mary's mind was a little soup or cocoa spilled. She was worried about Ben, but she knew the gentle warning would be expected, and she wanted Ben to not feel as though someone were trying to coddle him.
Dean settled his bowl and mug on the small end table on one side of the couch, and waited on Ben to do the same. The movie was already in the DVD player, proof of his earlier preparation, and as soon as Ben was settled Dean would push play.
Ben might be incorrigible, but he had still been taught manners, so it was with consideration for the warning for Mary that he drug the side table carefully to be in front of the middle of the couch, then flopped down next to Dean. He only stayed in the position for a few moments, then shifted to a completely upright position to try and keep sleep away.
"Okay, dude, let's to this," he said, reaching for the bowl of soup, then holding it close to his chin to eat it. It was good - great, even - and he dug in with relish. As always, he didn't notice when he and Dean did the same things at the same time, an almost eerie synchronization, like now.
Dean had promised his mother when they were talking about the plans that they would be careful, so he too raised the bowl of soup to rest just under his chin. He shoveled in a few spoonfulls before hitting the play button. When the familiar opening sounds of the movie began Dean let out an eager laugh.
"Bruce Wayne's gonna kick some a...bad guy butt." Dean said, editing himself a little more quickly than normal. He took a drink from his mug of cocoa, then set the food back on the table, stretching out half across the couch so that his upper body was draped over the arm rest and his legs were curled up halfway over the middle cushion. If he had any luck, Ben would mimic the action without even meaning to, and the half lying down position would be better at coaxing him into sleep without being too obvious...at least, that's what Dean was hoping for.
"Ass. Dude, I say ass," Ben said, rolling his eyes. He was always sort of amused when Dean edited himself like that, since Ben didn't mind anything Dean did, but Dean seemed to like doing the grown up type actions sometime. Though Ben wouldn't admit it, it made him feel good sometimes that Dean did. Sometimes it sucked, like when it was to tell him no about something, but other times it was like Dean cared and that was awesome. Awesome, but not going to be admitted.
"Dean, way to be a couch hog," he said, sliding the bowl back on the table in front of him before leaning against Dean's legs. Going to the other end of the couch would mean moving the table again and Ben wasn't feeling that motivated.
Dean knew that Ben said words like 'ass' and 'bitch' and worse, hell, he had said them upon their first meeting, but there was something about being around the boy that made Dean want to protect him. It made him make sure that Ben was always safe and provided for, made him ask Sam about putting filters on the computer so Ben couldn't see too much...it even made him watch his mouth, which could be considered nothing short of a miracle.
Dean nudged Ben gently with his foot, something that could be considered a manly thing like a kick, but Dean used it as a simple reminder to Ben that he was there. He was hoping that, if nothing else, the simple act of having someone with him would help.
"I'm bigger than you." he said with a sly grin. "So I need more couch. Deal with it, Mini Me." There was a fondness to his words, because he liked nothing better than the fact that this amazing kid was like him in a few ways.
At the nudge, Ben pushed back, but after he did, he leaned against Dean more, exhaustion working against him despite his best efforts. It was a companionable spot, but more than that, while this tired Ben was just a nine year old little boy and kids liked closeness sometimes, even ones who thought they were macho and tough.
"Then Sam'd need a whole couch if that's the rule," he said with a snort, flashing Dean a grin at the nickname, clearly pleased, before turning back to the movie. The thing about action movies was not all of there were all action, which meant sitting through the less exciting parts -
His eyes snapped open ten seconds later, Ben jumping slightly as he woke himself back up. This was the hard part, the sleepiness coming around again, but Ben had already learned if he fought it, he'd get past it to the point he was so tired he was awake again.
Dean watched hopefully as Ben's eyes drifted closed, and when they snapped open a mere second later he had to bite his tongue hard to hold in a groan of disappointment. Poor Ben, why did this thing have to be so hard on him? Why did that damned angel go after HIM? He was just a kid, and he couldn't turn Ruby over even if he wanted to because he was only nine. She was a demon, and even Dean would have a hard time doing it...if he ever changed his mind.
Changing tactics, Dean started talking, though he kept his voice at a monotone, low level, as though trying not to talk over the movie. He pointed out little things about the movie, gave insights to older Batman movies...just anything so that he was talking. He hoped it would be a bit more soothing than the periods of loud then quiet of the movie, and if worse came to worse it would give Ben something to tease him about later, about how he was literally bored to sleep.
If Ben actually understood what Dean was trying to do - lull him to sleep, basically - he was too tired to object to it. The stuff about the older Batman movies was interesting, especially hearing Dean's take on all of it all the time, since Dean was kind of like Batman and all, but it always wasn't engaging enough to rouse him and make him ask lots of questions.
He stirred several times, to finish the soup and drain most of the hot chocolate, but eventually he was back to just leaning against Dean's legs entirely now. His eyes dropped, only to pop open again, but the frequency of that increased as the movie played toward the middle, then the length between close and open increased too.
Somewhere before the end of the movie, Ben was sprawled out over Dean's legs, the position not as comfortable with him leaning forward, but changing the position meant caving to sleep and he still didn't want to do that. Still, it was getting almost impossible to wake himself back up.
Dean noticed that Ben was getting more and more tired, and for the first time he allowed himself to think that this might actually work. He shifted himself a bit, so that his legs were a bit lower and Ben looked like he was in a slightly more comfortable position, then continued on with his monologue.
Come on, Ben, it's ok...I'll be right here the entire time, nothing's going to happen to you. He urged, though he knew better than to speak the words aloud and risk breaking the spell.
Only waking entirely once more, when the volume of the movie peaked in an action scene, Ben peered at the TV groggily before he finally passed out. What he wouldn't do during consciousness came as he finally slipped into actual sleep, body relaxing and shifting until he was comfortable. For a time, it was just the sound of Dean's voice, the end of the movie and Ben's breathing evening it.
"Dean?" The murmur was barely comprehensible, Ben's hand tightening on Dean's leg as he stirred slightly, stuck in the place between sleep and awake and not likely to see awake again for a long while unless nightmares interfered.
Dean relaxed when he felt Ben shifting and heard his breathing even out. Somewhere toward the end of the movie, Mary came in with a throw blanket and draped it over the boy, and the look that she gave her son, of pride and relief, spoke volumes. Somehow Dean had succeeded in making Ben feel safe enough (or had even just succeeded in tricking him) to fall asleep, and that was really something.
When Ben's hand tightened on Dean's leg, he reached down, brushing a little of the boy's hair back from his head the same way he used to do for Sammy. "Still here, kiddo," he whispered.
And he would be...both until Ben woke up and until the angels took him back to hell. He was going to make damned sure that the kid was safe, if it took his very last breath to do it.
It seemed that reassurance was all Ben needed, as even though his grip didn't loosen on Dean, the rest of his body slackened again as he moved back into sleep. Though he hadn't wanted to do it, he hadn't been able to help it, but having Dean there - well, it made it a little easier. As long as Dean was there, he couldn't be anywhere else. It was as close to feeling safe as Ben could feel right now, and it was because of Dean.