Written for the bromance story big bang. Mostly about the friendship between Benny & Dean, though Castiel is there as well. Originally meant to be longer but this is what it turned into. No destiel, pure friendship. There's some Lisa/Dean but that's mostly in chapter 6. You can also find this story on archive of our own if you find it easier to read, same title but my name there is pamymex3girl.
Don't own anything. Trust me it wouldn't be as good if I did.
One morning – well Benny thinks it was a morning – he wakes to whispers of a human in purgatory.
At first he ignored the whispers; he had, after all, been here long enough to realize that most of the stories and rumors that went around were not truth. Just somebody messing with everyone's minds, making them run around desperately trying to find a way out that simply does not exist. When he first got here, years and years ago, Benny had been like all the others, desperately trying to find a way out but then he'd met John – a vampire who had been here for so long he couldn't even remember what the human world was like and he probably wouldn't recognize it if he ever ended up back there, although Benny has to admit that he probably wouldn't recognize it either. John had taught him how to survive in this world, how to make the most out of it and he was the one who told him that there was only one way out of purgatory, a way that probably would never come because they needed a human, and humans simply did not belong in purgatory.
Ignore the whispers, John said, for they are just whispers.
He'd waited for years, he'd say, waited desperately for a human to come, but none ever did and none ever would. In the beginning, back when he first got here he'd follow every lead, listen to every story, and research ever whisper. But there was nothing there.
He gave up, Benny knows, around the time they met 50 years ago.
There are times Benny thinks it's sad that John survived for so long only to die right before a human actually made it inside purgatory.
Mostly however Benny is kind of glad – and yes he's fully aware of how selfish that sounds, especially considering all that John did for him – because the human, should he be willing to do so, could only take one of them.
Still that morning – again he thinks it was morning – when those whispers first started, Benny ignored them and just kept going about his own life. He'd expected them to stop, like all those times before, fade away into nothing until in a few years another vampire would start another rumor and so on. But they didn't. They were there, everywhere he went, constantly, and instead of fading into nothing they grew. It took him many days, weeks probably, but eventually Benny believed. It wasn't really the whispers – though of course those helped convince him – but it was the way purgatory felt like. Something had changed, and he couldn't really explain it if somebody asked about it, but purgatory was different, wrong, out of balance. Once he believed he went in search of him, desperate to use John's story of getting out – unlike all the other inhabitants of purgatory who just seemed to want to kill the human.
He'll find him and when he does they'll escape this place together.
In order to accomplish this Benny will promise him anything.
"He's looking for something;" they whisper "he's running around, torturing vampires and demons alike, tearing the whole place apart just to find it."
"He's a hunter, he doesn't belong."
At first they don't say what he's looking for and Benny is inclined to believe that the human – whether he is a hunter or not is beside the point, though Benny will concede that if he is a hunter he has a higher chance of survival – is simply looking for a way out. It's what he would do were he in the humans shoes, hell it's what he's doing – he and so many others – trying to find a way out of this place, and he actually belongs here. But if he is looking for a way out, if he's that desperate to escape this place – and who wouldn't be – than it certainly won't be hard to convince him to allow Benny to escape with him.
Despite the many whispers, and the many sightings, it takes a while before he actually finds the human.
He seems to be moving at an inhuman speed, tearing apart the place looking for something, and Benny wonders, truthfully, if he is human, if he hasn't been tricked.
By the time he finds him the whispers have changed.
"He's looking for an angel," they now say "his angel, his friend, who came with him to this world. The leviathans hate him, that angel, but the human cares for him."
That actually takes him by surprise – so much so that when he first hears it he thinks it's a joke – because he's been here for many years, and John had been here for many more, but Benny has never heard of an angel in purgatory. He's heard stories of humans in purgatory – though most were fake – but an angel has never entered into the equation. Nobody has ever considered the possibility one might come here, not even John, and Benny has always been convinced that a human might end up here accidently, but an angel? No that he never considered. Although he has to admit that, until he meets Castiel months later, he didn't believe in angels either.
It matters not, even if he's not now looking for a way out he will be once he finds his angel.
Benny can still convince him.
But first, first he watches him, following him as he makes his way across the land, killing demons and vampires alike, looking for his angel. And Benny thinks: he might not belong here, he might not be a part of this world, but he certainly isn't afraid to become a part of it, to be like the others. Some of the things he does Benny has to admit are things any hunter would do but he wonders, though he never asks, where he learned how to do these things, how not to shy away from the worst parts of being in purgatory. And then one day, while he's contemplating how to approach him without getting killed, the human is attacked, taken by surprise.
That is his way in, Benny realizes, he just has to save his life.
And ask him to trust him.
While telling him not to trust anyone else in purgatory.
He's smart, Benny has to admit, smart and not afraid to make his own demands. He's not afraid of Benny and Benny can't tell whether that is because he believes he's stronger than him or because he's simply not afraid to die. He is determined though to find the angel, unwilling to leave his friend – at least Benny thinks it's his friend – behind and though it's annoying – really any second longer this human spends in purgatory is a second longer he can get killed – Benny has to admit that there is something admirable about that kind of loyalty.
He's never had that.
Still it matters very little to him, whether or not the angel comes, as long as the human lives Benny will help him find his angel. As long as he can escape he doesn't care how he does it.
He is amused however by the fact that the human uses his own words against him.
"You're either in or you're out."