A/N: My beta sent it back to me today! ^^ I don't like making you guys wait for very long, so I try to give you new chapters as soon as I can... So you can pay me back with reviews maybe? I want to thank you for your reviews because you guys are awesome and I LOVE YOU! ^-^ Have a nice reading!

Chapter 18 – Thirty Laps

The school day ended and Dean was waiting impatiently for Mr. Lafitte to show up at the gym. He was ready to start learning how to fight.

"I see you're excited about this." Mr. Lafitte said, once he saw Dean almost jumping on spot whilst waiting for him.

Dean turned around to face his teacher with smile in his face.

"Pretty much."

Mr. Lafitte chuckled.

"It's nice to see such enthusiasm. I hope you know that you're not going to be punching bags straight away. First I need to teach you some stuff…" Dean nodded. "…about how you're going to predict your opponents' moves and things like that."

Dean gave him a determined look.

"I'm more than ready to learn. You're the one who knows how to teach this, so you're the one who can tell me what I need to do first."

Mr. Lafitte opened the door and let Dean walk inside before himself. The school gym was one of the coldest places in the building. The walls stood proud and tall, with an enormous gymnastics area, along with everything a teacher could possibly need for the sport, it also had some courts for Basketball and volleyball. It was the biggest gym in their town. Every other school had their own gym, but they were nothing compared to this one. Every sports club had at least one meeting a week in there, where they practiced whichever sport they were enrolled in. There were some punching bags hanging on one side, and a small locker room next door. Mr. Lafitte stopped in the middle of the room and motioned for Dean to do the same.

Once they were in front of each other, Mr. Lafitte asked Dean to sit down in the floor, which he did right away. The teached walked back a few steps.

"There are three things you need to know about how I'm going to teach you to fight: one: I want you to only use these techniques in defense; two: whatever I tell you to do, you have to do it, no questions asked, they will help you and that's all you need to remember; three: if you complain I will make you work harder. Understood?"

"Yes sir!" Dean answered just as determined as before.

"Good. I will make you gain some stamina before you start actually fighting; if you can't stay up after running, you aren't up to fighting anyone. When you can run and you're still up for fighting, I will start teaching you how to gain some muscle and how to use it, alright, Dean?"

Dean could understand why Mr. Lafitte wanted things to go like that. It made sense that he only started fighting when he actually had the capability to do so. In a real fight it's important that you know the tactics -both attack and defense-, but it was more prudent that you weren't going to fall to the ground after just 2 punches.

"Should I start running?" Dean asked with an easy smile.

Mr. Lafitte sighed.

"I'm not gonna lie to you, Dean. You have a hard path ahead of you. I'm going to lead you through it all, but I still need to ask you to give your hardest through it all." Mr. Lafitte told him seriously. "And while we're in this, I'm going to ask you to call me Benny; right now, I'm not your teacher, I'm your friend… A friend who is helping you to strengthen yourself. So please I ask you to treat me as a friend and not as your teacher."

Dean nodded.

"Then I will always be thankful to you, Benny." He blushed slightly, but quickly accustomed to this new familiarity. "I will never be able to thank you enough, and if you ask me to treat you as a friend, you can be sure that that is what's going to happen."

"I'm glad you think so. Now, let's get to it. When you can run thirty laps without stopping and not fall to the floor when you're finished, I will start teaching you how to fight. Now… You just gotta start running every day, to make sure you can train yourself as fast as possible."

Dean nodded and started running.

"Will you run with me, or are just going to yell at me to keep running?"

Benny smiled.

"I'm going to help you run when you start giving up, and I will make you realize that you still have many laps to run when you start getting cocky."

Up to three laps it was easy, Dean wasn't running very fast, just a simple sort of fast jog really. Once he reached the forth lap, it started getting harder. He wasn't used to running, he was more of walking type of guy, but he wasn't going to give up just yet.

Come on, Dean! You only started now! You can run more than three laps! Move your ass! What would Bobby say if he saw how pathetic you are? He'd call you an idjit and would tell you that you're better than that! It's time to start believing so!

As soon as he entered the fifteenth lap, Dean was starting to give up; he wasn't sure how he was going to endure fifteen more laps, but he kept going. Benny noticed him stopping for a few seconds and yelled at him to keep going.

"You can't be a winner if you won't run all the laps I told you to!"

Dean nodded and started running again with renewed confidence, a bit slower than before, but nonetheless still running.

"That's it! You just gotta find your speed and keep it." He told Dean, giving him the motivation he needed to continue. "You can do it! And if you don't, you'll have to run more laps tomorrow!"

A few more laps went by and Dean continued to persevere. His abdomen was hurting, but he couldn't… No. He wouldn't stop running. He promised himself he would run as much as he could, no matter how much longer it would take him, no matter if he fell unconscious to the floor. He would give this his all.

Lap twenty four came and he started feeling dizzy. He could see everything spinning around, he wanted to give up, but he knew that he wouldn't. Benny's words kept playing in his mind. 'You can't be a winner if you won't run all the laps I told you to!' And Dean wanted to be a winner, so he kept running.

It was about ten minutes later that Dean fell to the floor, completely exhausted, only a lap away from the so desired thirty.

Benny ran up to him and kneeled on the floor beside Dean. He raised a hand to check Dean's pulse and realized that Dean's heart was beating way faster than a normal person's heart would after running twenty nine laps. Just by sheer observation he could tell how much Dean had put into this, how eager he was to do this.

"That was good, buddy. That was very good." He told Dean, patting him lightly on the back. "Now we just gotta get you your strength back." He started helping Dean up –more like raising Dean himself– from the floor, placing an arm around his shoulders before restoring the boy onto his feet. "Let's get you something to eat." He told him, who just hummed in agreement, incapable of saying something more elaborated.

Dean felt exhausted. He had tried his best to keep running, but he just couldn't do it anymore. It was so hard just to stand that he leaned on Benny while they got their stuff from the gym and moved to the cafeteria. Dean was proud of himself. Even if he couldn't run the thirty laps that day, he was sure that he would be able to do it soon enough; he just had to keep practicing. Every inch of his body ached and yelled for him to stay in the same spot. But Dean couldn't do that. He had more things to do: he needed to get something in his stomach; he needed to go to Bobby's shop and help him; he needed to get home and cook dinner; he needed to clean the house… There were so many things he still needed to get done, but he just wanted to stay in the floor and sleep.

"I'm so hungry!" Dean said, his voice half failing him with the effort, trying to take him mind away from anything related to sleep.

Benny chuckled lightly. Dean was a fighter; he could feel it. He fought the whole time. He ran more than any other person he had ever asked to run thirty laps; he did it all at the first time. If he ever needed to describe Dean in three words they would be: courageous, determined and hard-worker. No one had ever tried this much. He could feel that Dean was hardly walking, he was mostly being pulled by Benny, but he didn't care. Dean deserved a full meal, and he was going to give it to him.

Once they were inside the cafeteria, Dean motioned for his bag to fish his wallet out.

"Nah-ah… There's no chance in hell that I'm going to let you do that!" Benny told him, placing him in one of the tables. "I'm paying for our snacks."

He started moving to order as much food as he could when Dean grabbed his sleeve. Benny stopped and looked down. Dean was looking at him with a gigantic warm smile.

"Thanks."

Benny smiled back.

"You deserve a good meal. You did so well, Dean… I'm so proud of ya… I can't tell you how proud I am."

With that, Benny left Dean alone at the table.

Dean's smile spread all over his face. He ran as much as he could and it was completely worth it; hearing someone tell him that they were proud of him… It was just one of the best things Dean had ever been through.

The teacher walked back with a tray full of food.

"Here you go." He said placing most of the things he bought in front of Dean. "You can eat whatever you want, as much as you want."

"Again… Thank you." Dean told him in earnest. "There aren't many people who had ever been this kind to me."

"I know Dean. But I want you to know that I meant what I said. You can find a friend in me whenever you need me to be one. I just ask you that you keep calling me Mr. Lafitte during classes, otherwise you can call me Benny… If you want you can pretend that I'm your uncle or something…"

Dean smiled tiredly.

"Uncle… Nah… I've got one of those… You're more like an older brother."

Benny smiled.

"Well then… I'm your 'older brother' whenever you need me to be one."

Dean ate as much as he could, shoveling the food into his hungry needy mouth, his body relishing the energy and nourishment.

"You're a strange one, Dean. I've been asked to teach many people how to fight, but none of them as ever been so close to actually running the thirty laps the first time… And absolutely none of them were able to stand up and walk after such a little time resting… I'm in awe of your stamina." The teached admitted, his eyes looking at Dean with admiration.

With that statement Dean's chest swelled with pride and his face broke into a rare and genuine smile.

"It's good to know that I'm better than anyone else." He said, both excited and proud to know just how good he was. It wasn't a feeling he was even mildly accustomed to.

Mr. Lafitte chuckled.

"I guess you're right. Being better than everyone else is an amazing achievement. And I'm glad you're the one who gets to be the best of them all. They didn't fight half as hard as you, and you're trying to change. They just tried to show they were better than the other ones; while you, Dean, you have a reason to fight, you want to be a protector… You don't want glory all for yourself, you want the safety of those you care about… And that's why you're the best."

Dean smiled at his newfound friend.

"I'm glad. They don't sound half as good as they should be, if they're trying to learn how to fight. This has been great… But I have work to get to, so… I'll see you tomorrow!" Dean said to his teacher, standing up.

"I'll see you tomorrow Dean." He had almost left the cafeteria when Mr. Lafitte yelled after him. "Dean!" The student looked in his direction, waiting for him to continue. "I expect you to have the research homework I asked you yesterday done tomorrow!"

Dean laughed.

"It's been done since yesterday!" He replied before leaving the room and grabbing the rest of the stuff he needed to get before heading out to work.

A/N: What did you think about Benny and Dean's relationship? Is it ok? Do you agree with it? PLEASE REVIEW WITH YOUR THOUGHTS!