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Tweak says, "hot cocoa is my name-o"

Dean Winchester hugs baby trees (withgunsdrawn) wrote in wariscoming,
@ 2011-11-14 23:23:00

Entry tags:

ben braeden, dean winchester

Who? Dean & Ben
What? Dinner, talking.
Where? Dean's apartment.
When? Earlier tonight.
Rating? Not terribly high, probably.

Dean had honestly still not been sure what he was expecting when he’d gotten the results back from the complex doctor. Mostly, he’d sort of been dreading even finding out - because one way or another it was going to change things. If it were up to him, he’d never have gone for the test in the first place. He’d have simply gone on ignoring the resemblance and the personality that was so close to his own, the way it was like seeing a version of him that had grown up an only child in a universe that didn’t hate him. Ignoring things was fine, he was good at it. But it wasn’t all about him - and he had people asking and wondering and if he didn’t know, how could he keep the angels from paying attention? If he didn’t know, he might miss something.

The results came back positive. A match.

Ben was his son.

The idea of having a son - in and of itself - was not really a bad one. It wasn’t ideal, mostly based on timing and legitimacy and the fact that he hadn’t even known, he hadn’t been there - but it wasn’t bad. It wasn’t like he didn’t want kids - he just, he hadn’t expected to already have one, or to have that kind of responsibilty on him right now, when he already had so much to handle and deal with and the end of the friggin’ world looming over him every day. Over all of them, and now that included his kid.

His.

It scared the hell out of him, if he was honest - and for the most part, he was, because, hey, it wasn’t like people weren’t gonna figure that out on their own or anything. With Sam, it had been different. Yeah, he’d basically raised his brother, but he hadn’t really ever thought about it - it was just... what he did. Making sure the kid ate something, slept sometimes, didn’t get his ass killed. It wasn’t hard, it was what he was supposed to do. This, though? This wasn’t the same thing, in so many ways - there was no authority to fall back on if he screwed this up, no one who was going to come in and fix all of Dean’s mistakes.

Right. There was time to worry about all of that later, though. Now, he needed to figure out how to break the news to Ben - and then to everyone else. Juliet and Mom, especially - he didn’t know how he was going to be able to do that. It wasn’t going to be easy. Ben first, though - comparatively, that would be simple enough - and he had decided that news like this needed to be dropped carefully, and preferably over a really awesome dinner, so he’d gone out and grabbed some burgers from the better burger place in town - extra bacon, because why not? - and a pie. Bacon cheeseburgers and pie made most things better, right? Even, you know, finding out that the hunter who had no idea what the hell he was doing with this whole trying to take care of you thing... was also really your dad?

...right. He hoped that was the case, anyway.

“Hey, kiddo. Dinner,” he said, with a quick tap on Ben’s head that was half a hair-ruffle, as he passed the couch the boy was sitting on, on his way to drop the bag of food off in the kitchen, starting to unpack it. “Grab a couple paper plates, would ya?” He was trying so hard to just play at normal right now, like this was just some kind of normal night and everything was going to be fine. It wasn’t like Ben was suddenly going to hate him - he might even be cool with this. So, it’d be fine, right? Right. Hopefully.

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zeppelinrulez
2011-11-16 05:51 pm UTC (link)

Y'know as far as settling into new places was, this whole living with Dean thing wasn't too shabby. Sure, he wasn't quite like mom was, and okay he didn't know everything that your average parent would know as of so far, but Ben could live with that. He liked Dean, hell, like might even be putting it a little bit lightly. The kid looked up to Dean was more like it. There might have been some hero worship going on, but it wasn't like Ben was going to admit that at the moment. Nope, it was all good with Dean having no clue about that. He was cool, and he didn't treat Ben like he was an idiot, which was kind of important for Ben, actually. He really was a good guy, hence the hero worship. Ben wouldn't have picked anyone else that he knew, to be quite honest. He liked Dean and he couldn't help it. There was something really kinda cool about him, he wasn't like other adults. He wasn't pushing Ben to do things that he wasn't ready for and he wasn't treating him like a baby either, which helped things a lot, actually. Sure, Darcy was great, but he really didn't want another mom-ish figure. He loved his mom. He missed her, and Darcy didn't really help with that completely, as much as he liked the older lady.

Ben had been playing on his DS, something he'd been doing a lot lately, actually. His mom never would have let him get away with playing it as much as he had been, but then again, his mom wasn't here. And there was also the fact that his mom would have made an exception if he were upset...probably....maybe.

Mom wasn't here, though. She wasn't and Ben wasn't going to see her for a while. She wasn't going to miraculously come back and pop in. He had to get used to that fact. It wasn't so bad settling in with Dean. He and his family were nice. Ben liked them, actually. They were good people. They'd all been really helpful and nice so far, anyway.

Ben blinked as he heard the voice, automatically looking up as the hand landed on his head. Without even looking his finger moved, turning off the game. " 'Kay." It took him only a moment to stand and stick his DS in his pocket and then he was moving into the kitchen, heading for the cabinet to pull out two paper plates. He could smell the cheeseburger....and the pie. He didn't know why the pie, but it smelled awesome! Sitting the plates on the table, Ben grinned up at Dean. "Burgers and pie, awesome! ... This isn't some kind of trick, right? No nasty veggies you're gonna throw in?" Couldn't blame the guy for being cautious.

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withgunsdrawn
2011-11-19 12:40 am UTC (link)

Dean knew sooner or later he was probably going to have to make sure Ben realized that playing video games constantly wasn’t going to fly - but now really wasn’t the time for that. Not literally now, and not now as in within a week or so, probably, because he wasn’t going to push this whole authority thing, regardless of how this whole night went. And then there was part of him - a voice that sounded more like his own father than himself - that said Ben should have been out running laps instead of playing video games, because video games weren’t gonna save your life when something was after you...

...but nothing was going to be after Ben, he reminded himself, offering the boy a smile as he came into the room and got the plates. He wasn’t going to let anything happen to him, and he wasn’t growing up a hunter like Dean and Sam had - he was normal. Or, at least as normal as he could be, growing up in the center of the end of the world. Dean wasn’t going to let him even decide he wanted to be a hunter until he was well old enough to actually make that decision. Like twenty.

He was getting ahead of himself, though - wondering how old was really the right age to teach a kid how to shoot, and if he should still know Latin exorcisms, and whether giving him a silver or iron knife would be okay, without giving him the idea that hunting was an option... Right now, this wasn’t about all of that; there would be time for that later. Now, he needed to get through this - dinner, talking - before he could even think about all of that.

“Nothing nasty, promise,” he responded. He pointedly didn’t say it wasn’t a trick, though, because.... well, it sort of was? It was sort of somewhere between a bribe and a trick, so he didn’t want to lie. That would be a crappy way to start things off. He unwrapped the burgers and set them on the plates, dumping the little cardboard containers of fries out onto them also. At least this way they could pretend it wasn’t fast food. The pie he put in the microwave, not turning it on, just to keep it warm, and then he grabbed a couple sodas and the bottle of ketchup from the fridge and put them on the table as well.

Once they were both settled in and eating - well, Dean wasn’t eating, just sort of moving fries around his plate, breaking them in half, rearranging them - he cleared his throat slightly. “So, uh. I have something I need to talk to you about.” Right, that wasn’t ominous at all. “It’s not bad,” he added quickly, hoping he hadn’t already scared the kid, “Just, you know. Important.”

He paused long enough to break another two fries in half, then rubbed his fingers clean on one of the cheap, thin fast food napkins, and leaned his arms on the table. He didn’t really know how to say this - how the hell do you explain to a kid that, surprise, you’re his dad? It’s not exactly a conversation he ever really expected to have to have with anyone. Just saying it was probably going to be the best - anything else would be super awkward explanations that were probably not going to help anything. So he had to just... say it.

And doing the Luke, I am your father thing was right out of the question.

“I’m your dad.” His eyes lifted to meet Ben’s for like half a second, and then dropped to linger on the napkin he was shredding between his fingers. “I, uh. Just found out. Today.” Oh yeah. Super awkward. He wondered if it would have been a better idea to have Sam come in here and do the puppy eyes please don’t hate us for telling you this thing. Probably. Sam might not have been the one who knew what to do with kids, but he was good at breaking uncomfortable news to people. Sometimes. Better than Dean, at least. Crap.

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zeppelinrulez
2011-12-09 06:44 pm UTC (link)

Ben knew that he shouldn't be playing videogames all the time, to be quite honest. Maybe part of it was seeing what he could get away with now that he wasn't at home anymore. Maybe part of it was boredom. And still there might have been another part of it that was all about the familiarity of it, it was something he'd done at home and it was something that wasn't completely new and foreign. It might have been all or none of that, Ben didn't really think about what he was doing that way. He just knew he was bored, and he knew his mom wasn't around to harass him about doing homework, or y'know not playing videogames constantly. And it wasn't like Dean was yelling at him to stop spending all his time doing it. Sam, Ruby, and Mary weren't either. So, obviously it was okay, or at least it was for now. It was weird.

It was really weird not to have his mom around, and Ben missed her. He couldn't help it. Part of him worried he'd done something wrong or failed in some way, but honestly he couldn't have done anything to make this all different....could he? At least he was safe and Dean was a cool guy, who Ben thought cared about what happened to him. That was better than nothing. That was better than foster care or whatever. He'd take it.

At least Dean liked good food, unlike his mom. Even if Sam had to ruin it by griping about veggies sometimes. "All right, cool." Ben responded, not even realizing that he didn't say anything about the trick part. What? He was a kid! As Dean was busy setting things on plates, Ben did have the sense to grab napkins before he sat down. It didn't take the kid long to dig in, grabbing up a couple of fries and taking a few chomps out of them.

And then the worst words in the history of words came out of Dean's mouth. Ben wasn't sure what he'd done to be in trouble, but obviously it had been something. Or maybe this was Dean telling him that he didn't want him around. Either way, Ben froze. He didn't think as he wiped his hands on his pants and stared at the older man. "Okay...." If it wasn't bad why did he have to start it that way, all scary and unsettling. Ben was worried, he couldn't help it. Important, but not bad? Was that possible?

Ben couldn't even think about his food now. It sat there in front of him, forgotten for the moment. The kid was totally focused on the man sitting there with him. What came out of Dean's mouth was much different than what Ben had thought was going to come out. Ben was shocked, though. Could you blame him? That was some hefty news.

Ben had grown up without a dad. He'd always been told he didn't have a dad. His mom didn't know who his dad was, and Ben had pointedly ignored what that meant for the most part. Not that he hadn't wished he had a dad at times. Hell, he had pretty much fantasized about Dean being his dad, but that had been in a situation where y'know he imagined his mom and Dean together. This....this was not what he expected. Ben sat there, a few long moments passing. HE was torn. It was so cool 'cause....Ben had never had a dad before, but at the same time why hadn't anyone known earlier. Why couldn't he have had Dean around all his life?

"You're really my dad?" Ben asked, following it up with, "And why today? How did you not know before? My mom never said you were my dad...." Ben was holding in part of his thoughts, but....this could be the coolest thing ever....maybe...

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