N.A.: Hi, I intended to upload this last night, but there were things happening beyond my control. However, here it is. We're almost reaching the end of this story and I feel, well, thankful and surprised and overwhelmed over the amout of people who had read this. Thank you all and, please, review.
"Rumor has it that a human can open a door to go back to Earth, it could be a gigantic ball of crap, but we should try."
Dean looked at Benny and saw a small hint of presumption, but inside all that smugness and irony, there was a real fire. A need. A desire so strong nothing was going to be able to stop him. He had reasons almost as good as his to go back to Earth. And if he could help him wander those horrid lands of Purgatory, he was gonna take the chance.
"I was living on transfusions, you know", Benny said and Dean almost believed him.
"Yeah, we'll see that when we're back there", was Dean response while getting the knife off his boot because there was something lurking in the shadows near them.
And then he saw him. It was bloody, muddy and torn in some parts, and he hadn't seen him in, like, weeks, but it was the trench coat.
"Cass!", Dean yelled from behind his back.
"Dean, what… what are you doing here? I thought I was being cautious. You should go. They're gonna find us quickly", said Castiel while drying his hands on the front of the coat, his reflexes going off about the man following Dean' steps.
"He's Benny… He's a friend", Dean paused watching Castiel composing himself. Something in the twitch of the angel's eyes and the tensed muscles on his neck told him it was not about Benny.
Castiel's look was fixated some point within the woods, and long steps took him beyond where Dean and Benny were standing. He adopted a defensive position that made Dean nervous.
"They are coming. Go, Dean! Go!", said the angel while standing with the angel blade drawn out. He was hearing sounds Dean couldn't in the trees, and then the growls started to get clear. Soon enough the three of them discovered themselves surrounded by a horde of leviathan.
They fought with blades, knives and machetes, they cut heads and kicked them away. They ended up exhausted. The team sat by a huge tree and caught their breath.
"So… You're the angel", Benny's voice was sore and loud, his chest going up and down with some difficulty.
"So they say", was Castiel's answer. He wasn't sure if Benny was being nice or rude, or if there were some sort of hidden sarcasm in his words.
"Okay, little birds, we need to get where the gate of this place is so we can go back to our lives, you know, those awesome and wonderful and perfect lives", a sigh escaped Dean's lips, but feeling Castiel's body right next to him, hearing him breathe, watching him clean his silver blade on one side of the trench coat, and he was sure everything would be alright.
Benny walked behind the other two, watching in between the leaves of the forest, looking for the other creatures who existed in there. He hadn't choose the life that was given to him. He just tried to survive, but failed dramatically. He had loved a woman, a beautiful, charming, perfect woman. And he had failed her, more than everyone.
But now he might have the chance to get it right.
He turned his view to the couple in front of him and then saw it. Dean was brushing his hand against Castiel's. And it was obvious for Benny that he wanted to hold it, but wouldn't dare to do it. When Dean had told him that Castiel had saved his ass and soul from Hell, he could notice something changing in the human's voice when the angel's name was said. There was a little spark of emotion and sadness and devotion. He had thought about it as gratitude and admiration, but the looks Dean gave Castiel, the worriness on his eyes when Castiel had flew and landed on a tree and that precise moment when he was so desperate to reach on the angel's hand had made it obvious. The guy was in love with the angel, even though he obviously didn't realised it yet.
And the angel was cautious, like trying so hard to keep a secret that was hinted by a sigh or by a tilt in his head when Dean did… about anything. When Dean wasn't paying attention, Castiel would look at him from the back of a boulder while he was washing his face, or put a hand on his shoulder while saying something he needed Dean to understand, looking directly on his eye. There was always a little smile when Dean talked about any of his hunts that, for some reason, he always ended with a "You should've seen it, man" sent to Castiel.
They kept walking and listening to the sounds of the darkness left behind them, when a cold breeze hit them in the faces. The murmur of the steps of a creature flew through the wind. They all stopped their march and reunited, back touching back defending all three fronts. A vampire Benny had knew for months in that place ran directly towards the three of them, fangs first. He was crazy and desperate and messy and strong… and before he could jump on and attack Dean's throat, Benny's machete made his head roll to the side of the path they were following.
Castiel's brows frowned at Benny but a relieved sigh and a quickly check on the status of the human being to his side brought back the blank stare he had held all the time before the assault.
Benny took the front of the parade and the other two followed his lead in silence, but with intertwined hands that Benny chose to ignore.
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Thank you for reading this. The next and last chapter to this story would be up by Sept. 28. Please, let me know what you think!