In a world of villains, Dean is born a superhero.

He didn't ask for this responsibility. He didn't ask for the villains to come after him and his family, alerted by a powerful and invisible aura emitted from his person. He didn't want his life uprooted every other week as villains chased him and his parents around the world.

Dean becomes tired and he decides to put an end to it.

New York City.

The city is loud and bustling with regular people, Normals. While Normal aura is not as strong, there are overwhelming numbers of them. Dean's parents move into the heart of the city with the hopes of masking his aura.

For three weeks, it works. Dean attends school, a Normal school, and makes friends. He develops a crush. He has good grades.

He lives the life of a Normal. No one discovers that he can turn invisible.

And then, a villain finds him.

They attack during the school day, forcing Dean to turn invisible and flee amidst the panicked Normal students as they turn into stone around him.

He and two other students, Parvati Patil and Lavender Brown, get separated from the main group — or perhaps everyone else had been turned into stone, faces frozen with fear. Together they run into the alley behind the school.

"Quick, get behind me," Parvati orders as the villain barrels into the alley behind them. She closes her eyes and a pink forcefield ejects from her body, barring the villain's way. He stops short, his eyes bright with interest.

"What do we have here? Three Supernaturals?" the villain marvels. "I'd never thought I'd be this lucky to capture three of you."

"Supernaturals?" Dean blurts out. He swings an incredulous look in Lavender's direction. "Both of you are — have abilities?"

"I forgot you're European," Lavender says, sighing. "I believe you call them superheroes, though that sounds pretentious to me."

"A little help here?" Parvati groans. Her forcefield is shaking with the impact of the stone beams.

Dean collects himself. "Can you create a hole in your forcefield?"

"Depends on how big."

"About the size of a person," Dean says carefully and Parvati's eyes widen, but she nods. Sweat beading on her forehead, she reaches out a hand and rips a long hole in her forcefield.

"Quick!"

Dean swallows a breath and turns invisible the same moment he dives through the hole.

"Wait, where did that boy go?" the villain roars.

Smirking, Dean tackles him from behind. "Run!" he shouts.

Parvati has to be dragged by Lavender, but Dean wrestles with the villain long enough to buy them sufficient time. But his invisibility advantage doesn't last long; the villain soon overcomes his confusion.

"Aha!" he cries as a blow connects with Dean's stomach and Dean is forced to roll away. "Can't hide from me for—oof!"

Dean kicks him in the groin and darts out of the alley. He can hear the villain howling behind him, part frustration and part agony, and grins.

Fighting is fun.

From then on, Dean starts going to the gym more often. He signs up for kickboxing and karate lessons to improve his agility and speed. He can't win with sheer strength, so outsmarting them physically and mentally is crucial.

Stone Man comes back for him a few weeks later, his ego healed, and Dean puts some of his new tactics to use. This time, it's a clean fight, with Stone Man receiving more of the damage. And it's nighttime, so Dean has the upper hand with his invisibility.

Over time, Dean blends more and more into the Normal lifestyle. He goes on dates. He attends school. He goes out with friends.

One boy catches his eye. Seamus Finnigan. He's the life of the party, the class clown, and has a proclivity for pyrotechnics — aka he can make anything explode without trying. He's pretty good-looking too, with a troublemaker smile and mischievous eyes.

It just so happens that he takes an interest in Dean too, and then that develops into a friendship.

Dean knows this is dangerous, befriending a Normal, but he doesn't want to be like Parvati and Lavender, who keep to themselves. He wants to be a Normal.

Stone Man keeps coming back for more, though, and every time Dean has to fight him off.

One day, he's walking home from school — a dangerous thing, considering his aura, but Dean thinks he can fend off any attacks — when something cold and sharp slices cleanly through the flesh of his arm, sending droplets of blood scattering onto the ground. A warm, woozy sensation overcomes and all he wants to do is sleep.

Too late, he realizes hazily, it's poison. His mother had been injected with a similar liquid but thanks to Dean's dad's quick reflexes, only she'd been affected by it. The poison wasn't lethal, but it was more of an inhibitor, meaning Dean couldn't activate his ability.

"Who…?" he murmured drowsily and slumped onto the ground —

— only for a stone fist to slam into his cheeks.

"Wake up!" a familiar voice urges. "Wake up, Dean!" Another knock on his head. "Wake up, dammit!"

Dean doesn't feel like moving, doing anything, his limbs feel like jelly and —

Someone shakes him violently and Dean's brain clears for a few seconds. He's able to make out the shape of a person — wait, Stone Man?

"Tell me who did this to you," Stone Man growls as he holds a barely conscious Dean in his arms. "Tell me who did this and I'll find them and —"

"Dunno," Dean whispers, his mind drifting back into Fog Land. "Had a knife…"

And a black curtain falls over his eyes.

He wakes to Seamus hovering over him and Lavender and Parvati huddled together a few feet away, whispering and staring.

Where is he?

He tries to sit up, only for a wave of dizziness to overwhelm him.

"Lie down." Seamus pushes him back onto the bed (or at least it seems like a bed). "Your body has been through a lot in the last two hours."

"Two hours?!"

"Yeah, that poison knocked you out for a solid two hours," Seamus says, grimacing. "I've already told your parents, and they agreed not to come. Four Supernaturals in a room...that's a lot of aura."

"Wait, four?" Dean gazes at Seamus quizzically. "You're a Supernatural too?"

"In a sense," he answers vaguely. "I do have an ability."

"And what are they doing here?" Dean's eyes dart to the two girls still whispering.

"Oh, them? They were with me when I found you."

"Wait, you found me?" Dean's mind whirls. "But I thought…" An image of Stone Man flashes before his eyes. The pieces click into place. "You," he breathes.

Seamus cocks his head but says nothing, waiting for Dean to finish.

"You, you're Stone Man," he says, shock numbing his body. "You're the one who's been attacking me all these weeks, except for the attack two hours ago."

He swings his legs off the bed, attempting to lunge for his archenemy and best friend; they're the same —

"Don't." Seamus pushes him back easily and Dean falls onto the bed, nausea pooling in his stomach. He has a brief flashback to his mother's poisoning; the aftereffects were disgusting and not pretty.

"Lavender can heal you," Seamus states, glancing over his shoulder. "She won't be able to rid your body of the poison, but she can alleviate the effects and heal the wound on your arm."

Lavender approaches the bed and Seamus moves aside. A cool hand presses against his forehead and the other lands flat on his stomach. The nausea and dizziness settle a little and Dean can finally sit up, but he doesn't try getting out of bed again.

"Now," Seamus says as Lavender backs away, "I'm sure you have a lot of questions…"

"That is an understatement."

Dean leaves Seamus's flat building (supposedly, he'd collapsed right outside of it) and this time, he's not alone. Parvati comes with him, ready to defend him if there's another unexpected attack.

It's a nice, sunny, autumn day, and he's got a friend (sort of) walking next to him — and yet they're both coiled like snakes ready to attack at the first sign of trouble.

"Hear anything?" Parvati asks.

"Nope."

The silence between them is deafening. He can tell that Parvati wants to ask something, she's practically vibrating with curiosity.

"Do you need to ask me something?" Dean asks because frankly, it's been a long day and he just wants to go home.

"...Yes, now that you ask." Parvati looks relieved. "I was wondering, how did you get so good at fighting?"

"Lessons." Dean shrugs, stuffing his hands in his pockets. "I take lessons in my free time."

Parvati is visibly impressed. "That's smart," she says. "Maybe I should take some self-defense lessons so I won't have to just rely on my forcefield."

"I think that's a marvelous idea," he says warmly, and he means it.

Parvati, true to her word, starts taking self-defense classes and routinely spars with Dean. She becomes stronger with each passing lesson. Lavender opts out of these lessons, saying her healing ability attracts fewer villains, but those with offensive powers are more at risk.

Dean manages to keep his powers under wraps and the villains are fewer in number, once they realize how easily Dean can beat them.

Stone Man stops attacking him. Dean teaches Seamus how to keep his Supernatural radar under control, so he doesn't have an urge to attack Dean — he'd been doing it for weeks, but it had taxed him. But now he can control himself around Dean.

Life, Dean thinks, couldn't get any better than this.

1629 words

This was meant to be a little drabble, but I have no control anymore.

FYI, Stone Man/Seamus kept attacking Dean even after they became friends because he couldn't suppress his urges. Dean's aura was so strong that he couldn't resist and gave in to his villain tendencies. His appearance: gray skin, red eyes, and could shoot beams from his hands that turned people into stone.

Written for:

Assignment 4, Survival Skills Task 10 - Write about tending to someone's wounds.

Auction: Parvati/Dean/Lavender (platonic)

Skyscraper, First Floor: 2. (character) Dean Thomas

Pick a Wick: 1. Autumn Leaves

Build a Better Breakfast: 6. Peanut Butter

Sci-Fi September: Dialogue: "Tell me who did this to you," the villain growled as they held the barely conscious hero in their arms.