Disclaimer: Don't own. Damn you, Father Christmas!
Of course his mum's the center of the universe; that's a given. All planets revolve around her, and you could travel for days and days without finding a mum as cool as she is. He loves her but even so, he's got to admit, Dean Winchester is awesome.
Dean's the one who showed him how to take apart an engine and (almost) put it back together, and frankly, that's man stuff that a mum can't teach. He's not being sexist (being a single mum up to this point, Lisa was big on anti-sexism and lectured her son every day until he's pretty sure that he should become a monk or something) but no one, and he means no one, can make the whole thing cooler than the way Dean does it. Guy Time, he calls it. Ben tries the phrase out. Guy Time. It sounds okay.
Guy Time mostly involves his mum shutting her ears and laughing as they argue about the best flavors for pie, arm-wrestling and Dean putting in a good word for the parents of the girls Ben really likes. It involves Dean's stories, which are absolutely epic.
Another vital part of Guy Time is at night, when the stars are out. There once was an Astrology Camp at school, and Ben went because he heard that you could put spiders on the girls' clothes when they were asleep. It was a bummer of a night (the girls had figured it out and consequently had a system of night guards) right up until he'd actually looked up.
He had no idea there were so many. Like, sure there were universes and galaxies and stuff, but stars? There were hundreds. More, even. Millions.
He always had a thing for staring at the night sky since then. It made him feel….weird. But in a good way. Like he was the only one down here, and the rest of the world was just waiting for him, gently glowing, just enough to see a path.
And after Dean came along, Dean would join him. And instead of on the grass of his mum's lawn, they'd sit on Dean's Impala.
Sometimes they'd talk. About important stuff, like girls and cars and mechanics of stuff and their favorite AC/DC albums. Sometimes Ben talked and Dean listened, and sometimes it was vice versa.
But mostly, they were quiet. Ben liked the quiet. It wasn't like those awkward silences you have with a girl you really like, or the quiet you have with Mum which isn't really quiet, but just a series of homely noises that simply never stopped.
Dean's silence gives him a sense of peace. Not that Dean ever talks much. The guy's funny and knows a bucket load of stuff, but he somehow never seems to talk much. He only talks when there's something to say, and Ben appreciates that. In his opinion, grownups talk way too much about stuff that simply wasn't important.
But when they're there, under all those stars, it's like he and Dean are close, closer than blood. It's like they're the same person.
When he asks, though, Lisa is adamant. "He's not your father," she says, and he believes her because she's his mum and he sees in her eyes that she wants to believe it, too.
She falls silent after that, because the Braedens aren't exactly talkative. He ponders on what she did say. He's okay, he decides, with having Dean as a non-father as long as he's around.
But one day, after his mum's yelled her throat out at him for hotwiring and crashing the Impala and Dean has winked at him over her shoulder, he remembers something out of nowhere.
It's not one of those things that you try to trap under a net, but one of those memories that just float in on their own. It's simple, really; the last time he saw Dean, there was someone else with him.
The events of that time are blurry and unfocused (I was a kid, he defends himself mentally) but he's pretty sure: there was someone else. Someone really tall.
He half-opens his mouth to ask Dean, but some voice in his head tells him no, this isn't the time, he'll tell you when he feels like it. He shuts his mouth. He understands. There are times when it's better if you just wait, like when his mum makes pie and it's best to wait until it's moderately cool before getting any ideas.
So instead he asks, "Dean, can you teach me to drive?" Then as an afterthought, "Please?"
There's a look of surprise on his face, which fades instantly into a bright grin. "Sure thing, kiddo."
And as he watches Dean drive, telling him about gears, he wonders what happened to the guy who was really tall.
Maybe someday, he'll ask. But first, he'll wait.
And when he says, "It's gonna be alright, isn't it?" Dean nods without a lie in his eyes.
"Yeah. Looks like."
A/N: Let's just hope he gets the opportunity. The way I see it, the only road left for the kid is hunting.
Thoughts?