A/N: I'm very sorry for this late update. I usually don't take this long to finish chapters, but both my mental and physical health hasn't been the best these last couple of weeks, and so I didn't exactly have the motivation to write.

It's also smaller than the first, but I can't always write long chapters. I have other pains, but to save me going into detail, I've basically had a constant headache for over two years which can get pretty severe. Naturally I can't really write when I'm really particularly worse, and so there are times when I'd much rather simply post a smaller chapter than keep you waiting even longer for an update. Hopefully that is understandable!

Anyway, thank you for the feedback for the first chapter. I hope that you enjoy this one!

I'll Save You

Chapter Two - Protection

Seth had stayed in that same spot for several minutes, frozen by the thoughts running through his mind. Thoughts of how he was going to get his life on track, thoughts of what would happen if Randy found him. It wouldn't be a heart-warming reunion, despite how much it might appear like that to the public eye. As soon as they got home, it would be even worse than how it was before. So now Seth had gotten away, he had to stay as far away as possible. The thought of not doing just that made his anxiety rise higher and higher.

He took a deep breath and tried to push the negative thoughts away as he finally changed out of his nightclothes and into one of the spare outfits he had brought with him - just a band T-shirt and a usual pair of skinny jeans. After he had folded his nightclothes and placed them on the bed, he couldn't stop his mind wandering again. It was only the knock on the door which made him jump back into reality.

"Are you alright, Seth?" he heard Dean call through the door. He realised how long he had taken in the room, and quickly walked over to open it.

"Yeah, I'm fine. I was just thinking," said Seth. He stepped out onto the landing next to Dean and closed the door after him.

"Sorry, I guess I can be a bit over-protective at times," Dean laughed, rubbing his neck. Seth wasn't used to someone actually being protective over him, even if it was just in their nature, like it appeared to be with Dean. Randy had been possessive, sometimes even obsessive, but never protective. He was anything but that.

"It's okay," Seth smiled.

"I have to go to the store quickly; we were going to get the shopping done tomorrow, but obviously we need a couple more things now that you're here. Before you feel guilty, it's fine," Dean grinned. "You can come with me if you want?"

Seth quickly shook his head. He didn't exactly want to be left alone with Roman, as friendly as he seemed, but he also didn't feel brave enough to go back outside. The thought of potentially running into Randy terrified him. Dean, however, understood.

"Roman's here anyway so you won't be left on your own," he said. He walked down the stairs, Seth close behind him, and called out to Roman when he reached for the handle of the front door. "I'm just going to go to the store, Roman! I'll be back soon."

He smiled at Seth before he opened the door and left the house. Roman walked over to the hall, grinning.

"I guess it's just you and me, huh?" he said, folding his arms. His voice was perfectly friendly but the words made Seth panic. Those the words which were spoken by one of Randy's friends, who was at their apartment. Randy himself had been heading out to the store, and his friend wasn't exactly as kind as Roman was.

"I guess it's just you and me, huh?" the man said, smirking. "So you're Seth, huh? He's mentioned you before. You're as pretty as he made you out to be."

Seth gulped when the man started to walk over, his eyes looking at Seth's body up and down. He had no idea what the man's name was - he don't think Randy had ever told him. He was a little smaller than Randy, but that was only in height. He looked about a year or two older, and he was quite clearly proud of his rather large muscles.

"Seriously, why he hasn't gotten you out more is beyond me. But, I guess I can see why he'd want to keep you to himself. I'm sure he wouldn't mind sharing you with me, though."

He suddenly reached out to Seth, grabbed his arm, and pulled him closer.

"Not much of a talker, huh?" he asked, his other hand trailing under Seth's shirt.

"Please, don't," Seth said quickly, breathing in deeply.

"Why not? Randy won't give a shit, I'm sure. I'm one of his best friends. And... Well, you really don't seem to be big enough to stop me. You might as well not resist."

He grinned slyly, and the hand which had been under Seth's shirt suddenly pulled out and grabbed at Seth's hair to bring his head closer.

"Get on your knees."

"Seth, you alright? Seth?"

He was snapped out of his flashback by Roman, who had walked over and placed a hand on Seth's shoulder, looking at him with concern. He nodded slowly, quite clearly shaken,

"Yeah... Yeah, I'm fine, don't worry."

"Are you sure? You spaced out there for a moment," Roman frowned.

"I know, I was just distracted. I'm alright."

"I'm just making sure," Roman smiled, taking his hand off Seth's shoulder. His smile faltered when he saw Seth visibly relax from the lack of contact. What had he been through to make him so fearful of such a simple gesture?

He felt like it would be far too intruding to ask him why, however, or ask him what had happened. It was understandable: he had only met this guy a few minutes ago. Plus, Dean was the one who had found him and offered Seth to stay, so he would obviously be trusted a little more than Roman.

"Dean should be back soon enough. Do you want to go and watch TV or something for now?" Roman asked, deciding it would be best to change the subject and also do something which didn't really require for Seth to speak that much. He didn't seem very comfortable engaging in a lot of conversation, which was, again, understandable.

"Yeah, sure," Seth nodded, and he followed Roman into the lounge. He sat down on one end of the sofa, and Roman sat on the other. He reached for the remote to turn it on, and left it on the news as there wasn't really anything interesting on. Seth didn't seem to be paying much attention to the screen, anyway.

To Roman's surprise, it was actually Seth who spoke up first.

"Thanks for being fine with me staying. I don't even know where I could have gone if Dean hadn't offered for me to stay here."

"It's not a problem," Roman smiled, and was extremely close to asking Seth about why he had nowhere else to go, why he wasn't at home, but stopped himself. Seth, however, noticed this and sighed.

"I can tell that you want to know what happened, and I think I should tell you, considering you've agreed to me staying here," he said, and decided to try and keep it as simple as possible. He didn't feel brave enough to go into detail. "I've ran away from my abusive boyfriend, who I was living with. I was sitting on a bench, and that's where Dean had found me."

"God, I'm so sorry," Roman replied softly. "You seem far too much of a good person to deserve anything like that."

"No one deserves it," Seth said quietly. Roman's eyes glanced at the two bruises on his face, the ones around his throat, and the cut on his lip. How on earth could someone do that to someone who was so innocent? How could someone do that to anyone?

"If there's anything, anything at all that you need me to do for you, I'm here," he said. Seth smiled at him sweetly, and that only made Roman's heart hurt more, knowing that someone so kind had been treated so horribly.

"Thank you. I appreciate that."

Dean had returned around half an hour later, with several bags of groceries in his hands.

"Mind giving me a hand, Roman?" he called after he had announced he was back.

"Sure," said Roman, giving Seth a quick smile before he walked out of the room and took two of the bags from Dean and followed him to the kitchen. They placed the bags on the kitchen counters, and Roman started unpacking one of them, but stopped when he noticed Dean's frown.

"What's wrong?" Roman asked.

"I can't say, not without saying what has happened with Seth, and I don't want to tell you without him being alright with that."

"It's alright, I know about his boyfriend," said Roman. "He told me about him while you were out."

"Okay, well, while I was on my way back from the store, I overheard some guy in the street, with a couple of people with him," he started, lowering his voice. "I sat down on a bench nearby and pretended to look at my phone so I could carry on listening. He was asking people walking by if they had seen a small sixteen-year-old boy with two-toned hair."

"Oh shit," Roman said, a hand over his mouth. "Did he say anything to you?"

"Yeah, he asked me that very question. I just told him that I hadn't. But fuck, this guy was big, Roman. Well, not exactly any bigger than me in muscle, definitely not bigger than you, but he was huge compared to Seth. If that's the guy that Seth has been living with..."

Dean inhaled a deep breath before he continued.

"He was older as well; about our age. My guess is that he was twenty."

"So why would he live with someone like this? Did he have nowhere else to live?"

Dean sighed, rubbing the back of his neck.

"My guess is that his parents kicked him out of the house, probably for being gay. His boyfriend, this guy, was probably the only person he could go to. Maybe he changed or something, I don't know," he said, and sighed deeply before he continued. "We need to keep him away from that guy, Roman. God knows what would happen if he ended up back with him."

"We will, don't worry," Roman said reassuringly. "He'll be alright."

"I sure hope so, because he really doesn't deserve that," Dean sighed, and he started to unpack the groceries from the bags.

"I said the same thing to him," Roman said. Both him and Dean stayed silent as they both put away the groceries, though just as Roman was about to leave the kitchen, Dean spoke up again.

"I can see the pain in his eyes," he said quietly. "It makes me furious that he's been made that way. He gets scared, too, with contact. It's awful."

"I know, he seemed fearful of me before, for a moment," Roman sighed. "But he'll be okay, Dean. He's safe now, and he'll get better. He just needs time."

Dean nodded, and both of them made their way back to the lounge. Seth was still sitting on the sofa, though his eyes weren't on the television and he was quite clearly lost in thought. When Dean sat down next to him, he jumped.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to startle you."

"It's fine, I was just thinking," Seth replied, smiling, though it seemed slightly forced. Dean knew better than to question why, as Seth had already confessed more about what had happened to him, and so returned the smile.

That happened a lot throughout the day. Seth drifting off into his thoughts, a noise or movement startling him, followed by an apology from either Dean or Roman. It seemed as though Seth being left in silence led to him thinking about things, and Dean could tell that they weren't exactly nice. He was very good at reading body language. The way that Seth picked at his nails and sometimes bit down on his lip was a clear sign of being nervous. Dean hated seeing him like this, but obviously, it wasn't his fault. He still didn't know everything about Seth's life, at least not enough to know how long it had been going on for and how bad it was, but he understood why Seth had been so nervous.

However, the boy seemed to trust Dean a lot, more than Roman, despite his friendly attitude. Dean could see Seth relax when they sat down next to each other, and he seemed to start finding it a little easier to speak to him.

The following day, he even began to answer one of Dean's questions without it even being asked.

"Randy was never like this, not at first, at least," Seth started quietly. "It was probably stupid, being with someone several years older than me when I was just fifteen. I was almost sixteen, but it was still a bad idea. He was nineteen at the time. But I honestly thought he was making my life better, and I suppose he was, at first. I don't know what I would have done once I had turned sixteen without him."

He was going to stop there, but somehow, it felt better to say this rather than keep it to himself. And so, the words kept coming.

Seth, his mother, his step-father and his older brother were sat at the dining table, eating the roast that had been prepared. Meaningless conversations stopped the silence, as well as the same kind of questions which were asked everyday. The only difference was that it was Seth's sixteenth birthday.

"I'm surprised that you didn't ask us if you could bring someone along. A friend, or girlfriend, maybe?" his step-father said, before raising an eyebrow. "I would have thought you'd have one by now."

It was a statement that was said quite often. They didn't know of Seth's older boyfriend, Randy. He probably wouldn't ever tell them about him, not when they made it so obviously clear that they were homophobic.

"Perhaps he is just waiting for the right girl to come along. Isn't that right, Seth?" his mother questioned, smiling. He returned the smile and nodded, hoping that would end this conversation, but of course, his brother had to speak up.

"Or the right guy, that is," he sniggered. His mother sighed, shaking her head.

"Don't be so childish," she said. "Seth isn't gay."

"Oh, sure he isn't," he said, rolling his eyes. "Come on, you could see it a mile away."

"Ryan, shush! Don't start with this."

"Actually, I think he has a point," their father said, tilting his head slightly at Seth. "He has never shown interest in girls whatsoever."

"Perhaps he is just not ready! The fact that he hasn't had a girlfriend yet doesn't mean he's gay."

"Oh, please," his brother scoffed, the tone making Seth wince. "It's so obvious. He's a fucking fag."

"Don't swear at the dinner table!" she scolded. She turned to Seth, and sighed. "Just tell them, honey."

Seth couldn't find the right words to say. Should he lie, convince them that he was straight, or should he confess? He didn't have the chance to decide for himself.

"See mom, he's completely silent! I told you!"

"Ryan, enough of that! Seth isn't gay, he's not. He just needs to find the right girl. If he thinks he's gay, it's just a phase. He'll get over-"

"It's not!" Seth suddenly shouted, his emotions getting the better of him. His father and brother's words stung, but hearing his mother make excuses for him was just as hard for him to hear. "I am gay and I will forever will be that way! Are you happy now?"

A gasp escaped his lips when a hand reached across the table and struck him across the face. He looked back at his father, who was clearly furious.

"I will not listen to any of that! I am not having a fag live in this house!"

"Calm down," Seth's mother said, though she looked rather angry herself. She took a deep breath and turned to Seth. "Go to your room so we can talk."

"Oh yes, he can go to his room. But not so we can talk. Get your things."

"Wait, what?" Seth questioned, his hand still covering his red cheek.

"You heard me. Whether you stay with a friend or whatever, you're not living here anymore. You can come back if you see sense."

"But what if I have nowhere to go? I'd be homeless!"

"Well, then you'd have to get over these sick... Urges, that you have."

Seth could hardly believe what he was hearing. Did his father really care that little? His mother hadn't protested to this, either. Ryan seemed to actually be pleased.

"Don't ever expect me to come back, then," Seth said quietly, and ran upstairs to his room. He grabbed the rucksack he used for school, and started to pack some of his clothing and his phone charger. Tears threatened to spill, though he didn't allow them to. He wouldn't show his family how weak he actually was in this situation and how his courage was mostly fake.

When he finished his packing, he looked up to see his mother in the doorway.

"You can come back," she said. "You just need to stop-"

"I'm not stopping anything," Seth interrupted. "My sexuality isn't a choice, and I'm not going to live the rest of my life here pretending to be something I'm not. So I guess this is goodbye."

He barged past her and walked quickly down the stairs, not giving his father or his brother one glance. He exited the house, making sure to slam the door after himself. He then began to walk through the streets, making his way to the only place he could go.

After about fifteen minutes of walking, he knocked on the door of his boyfriend's apartment. The door soon opened, and Seth was quickly pulled in by the concerned man.

"What are you doing here, Seth?" he asked, glancing at his still red cheek. "Did someone slap you?"

"It was my dad," Seth sighed. "The news about me being gay is out properly now, and I've been kicked out. I didn't have anywhere else to turn."

The tears he had been holding back started to fall, and he was immediately wrapped in Randy's arms.

"Shh, it's okay," the man said softly, rubbing Seth's back comfortingly. "You're safe with me. I'll protect you."

Seth was silent for a few moments after he told Dean this, and when he spoke again, his voice was very quiet.

"He did at first. Protect me, I mean. And it was amazing. But then..."

"He changed?" Dean questioned softly, and Seth nodded. He looked down at the carpet, a few tears falling down his cheeks. He jumped slightly when Dean's hand went near his face, but immediately relaxed when he felt his tears being wiped away.

"It's alright," Dean whispered. "I'm nothing like Randy. I'm going to protect you from him, I promise."

Seth nodded. He definitely believed that.

A/N: Ryan is just a creation of mine. He's not really that important - he probably won't make another appearance.

Anyway, I hope that you enjoyed the chapter! I apologise again for the late update. I'll try to get the next one posted sooner.

Reviews are always appreciated! Thank you for reading, and I hope you all had a good Christmas, if you celebrate.