I calmed down a lot after being adopted by Geoff&Jeff. Dean thought I got lamer. I thought I got saner (this, of course, is debatable). But I still had my triggers. And since I was calmer and tried hard not to be so wild as I had been, when a berserk button was hit the reaction was twice as powerful.

One Friday in fall Dean and I were enjoying ice creams and walking toward the pirate ship when we were stopped by three boys. They were our age and dressed in sharp school uniforms. They had been sitting on a stone wall but upon seeing us hopped off and blocked our path. We'd never seen them in this area before. They fancied themselves tough shit and seemed to be trying to make some sort of claim. Even though Dean's tall, he isn't muscular looking and I'm not the most imposing person in the world. If it had been me alone I would have fled. But my confidence always went up as high as it could when I was with Dean, so I was not afraid.

"Oi, you supposed to be a girl?" The one on the right started up.

I had to laugh at that. "It's good to know they're getting more and more original."

Dean didn't like it much when they laid in on me first, but since I was the more obvious target I always had to give the signal that my feelings weren't in danger of being hurt. Dean was my safety blanket and with him by my side insults slid off me like water for the most part.

It was when I didn't have him that they tended to stick.

"She supposed to be your girlfriend? Is a dyke the best you could do then?"

"Why? Trying to pick me up?" Dean said in a low purr and he made a kissing noise in the bullies direction. The boy gave a grunt of disgust and looked at his friends to make sure they heard. Honestly, any question about a bullies heterosexuality made them flip their shit. It was funny to watch. Now the middle one and the one on the right were plenty pissed. They approached in what they thought was a menacing way. I just watched them come with a bored look on my face and Dean had that glint in his eye as he smirked down at them.

"Give us your money."

"That's how you're gonna do it?"

"No style at all," I said with a fake forlorn sigh.

"I've seen more threatening Scottie dogs to be quite honest."

The one in the middle clenched his fists and bared his teeth at us. I took a lick of my ice cream and looked down at it with interest. But I never let him out of my peripheral vision, because as sure of myself as I was I knew not to lose sight of him.

"Give us your fucking money or you'll regret it! We ain't afraid to beat on at girl!"

"'You'll regret it'? This is getting worse and worse lads."

"And you'd be surprised I bet how many people aren't afraid to hit girls," I said with a sneer. "I could lay any one of you out if I got it in my mind too. You're lucky I'm retired."

"I'm not retired by the way," Dean supplied with a happy half-jump, landing on the balls of his feet.

"You lay us out?" The one on the right scoffed disbelievingly. "In your dreams bitch." the boys started to come toward us again and they looked pretty determined to start something. Dean sniffed at the air and made a face.

"All I smell is posh boy Franks. No threat detected."

The one on the left looked nervous. At least he seemed aware of the fact that street smarts came off us in waves. They were just about the least threatening thing we'd ever encountered. But the other two boys were drenched with cockiness and couldn't seem to tell they were in over their heads.

We were a bit overconfident.

One of the boys rushed forward and yanked my bag from my shoulder. All my nerves went on alert. Dean fell into a fighting stance and I warned in a low voice, "Give it back kid, you are not in any way ready to deal with this." The boys just laughed and began to riffle through my stuff. He cackled and pulled out my manikin by one of his legs, saying, "What the fuck is-"

And that's when I had a Dean worthy blackout.

Next thing I remember I was on my knees, one hand lifting me off the pavement and the other clutching my manikin fiercely against my chest. I blinked back to myself in surprise, then in a rush of panic pulled my little wooden figurine from my chest so that I could examine him for any damage. He was fine in appearance but I still meticulously checked his every joint and screw. All was well. I relaxed in relief.

Only then did I notice the red under my fingernails.

And I was it with a wave of pain. Every inch of me ached and I could feel my heartbeat hot and urgent in one of my cheeks and a few other places all over my anatomy.

"Glad you finally woke up."

I turned to see Dean leaning against the wall the boys had been sitting on. He held a spliff loosely in his fingers and he beamed at me so I could tell his statement was in no way sarcastic. He came to sit down next to me and he reached over to give my manikin an affectionate rap on the head with his knuckles. "Little guy in one piece?" I nodded. Before I even needed to ask Dean started to tell me what happened. "You went manic Franks! It was truly impressive. Launched yourself at the wanker with abandon. Guy now has scratches all over his face. I mean you got this close to clawing his eyes out, it was wicked." Dean's eyes sparkled feverishly in that way they sometimes do when he gets an adrenaline fix. "One of his mates tried to jump in which was like, perfect for me, so I ended up wailing on that pathetic little ponce. But then you got your doll and decided the best possible thing to do would be to curl yourself around it on the ground." I winced. So 'blackout me' was an idiot. Dean chuckled and ruffled my hair as if to say 'don't worry about it' and said, "So the dickhead started kickin' you which was not acceptable, so I pulled out my knife and they ran like cunts."

When he finished he pulled out his flask and passed it to me. I took it and hungrily gulped dawn as much as I could stomach in one go. After the burning died down I started to feel less pain which was nice, but I figured I probably looked a wreck and moaned, "My dads are going to kill me."

Dean rolled his eyes. "Not in a million years. Geoff&Jeff think the sun rises and sets with you. Even if there's initial anger it'll turn into attempted hugs and pastries in about thirty seconds."

The fact that what Dean said was true still confused me. What did my dads see in me? I was such a fuck up. I was always so paranoid they'd send me back, abandon me like my biological mum and dad had, but they never got too mad at me and there were always whiskey kisses and cups of tea waiting for me. And I felt sad that Dean still didn't have that, he didn't seem to mind, but it wasn't as if he knew what it was really like.

We got out of the street and went to sit where the boys had been on the wall. Dean informed me that id been in the street crouched into myself for a good fifteen minutes, "I was getting so bored Lion," he told me, but without a hint of actual annoyance. Dean never really got impatient with me. The thought that it was Dean and not my dads that believed I was absolutely perfect crossed my mind for the millionth time since I'd been adopted. But it was always like that, it had been since we met all those years ago.

We settled on the wall and I seated my manikin safely between the two of us. Dean looked at him for a long moment before asking, "What's with you and him anyway?"

It was like I'd been waiting for that question from him since we were eight. I'd been asking about him in different ways, from "Why do you carry that creepy thing?" to "What is it?" to "Ew, get it away" to "Why don't you leave it home love?" to "I'm sure he'd like to say here and protect all your belongings while you're at school". I would never have trusted leaving him at a foster house though, but even now he stayed with me. My dads, like Dean, never asked, but unlike Dean I could sometimes see the question in their eyes. Since it never really effected Dean he hadn't ever cared to ask, content with me having a handful of eccentricities. But how he was curious. Seven years after meeting.

"You never said. Except that one time when we we're drunk you said-"

"'He is me and I am him'?"

Dean nodded. I vaguely remembered that.

I'd thought about how to answer the question. But only a few years ago had I been presented with a perfect comparison. "Did you ever read Harry Potter all the way through?"

Dean didn't ask me why I had seemingly changed the subject. He knew this had to be related. "No. Reading is sorta low on the priority list. I didn't even know you had."

"Never had much to do at school during lunch."

"Oh yeah. That's when I'm dealing."

I elbowed him, reminding him that I wanted him out of dealing. Then I continued, "Well in the last book, technically in the sixth but really important in the seventh, you find out the reason that the bad guy can seemingly survive anything is cuz he's made these things called horcruxes, which are basically objects where he's put pieces of his soul. So that even if he's hurt bad he'll be fine if his horcruxes are fine."

"So your little dude is like that."

"Mhmm. I don't think I meant to put a bit of my soul into him. It was an accident, sort of a survival technique. I can go away into my head when I'm scared or something bad is happening, but if he's hidden away and safe I can always come back."

"Hmm," Dean hummed thoughtfully as he gave my manikin's little head a stroke. "Makes sense."

"Does it?"

"Yeah. Kinda useful really."

"Except when I feel like he's in danger apparently."

Dean laughed at this. "You should probably fix that."

"I'll get on it."

"So do you have others?"

I chewed my lip. "None as strong as him. But little ones where my soul has kind of accidentally bled out some more. I guess the next biggest one is the town I made for him that's in my room. I put a lot of time and effort into making a perfect little world for him. And I think I hid a bit of my soul in there now because I know it'll be save with Geoff&Jeff." I felt like I was forgetting something.

"Can people be whore-whatsits?"

"Hor-cruxes. And they aren't supposed to be, I guess because every person has their own soul anyway and adding another piece might be too much, plus if they're living their own life and get killed it isn't good for the main person, but in Harry Potter a human horcrux was made on accident, so it's possible."

"OK then. You're my horcrux Franky."

I felt a wave of love for Dean as he watched me with devoted eyes. That's what I'd been forgetting. If a piece of his soul was in me then a piece of mine was most certainly in him. Like we'd exchanged pieces the exact same shape and size so that they'd fit flawlessly in each other and not cause any sort of discomfort. I could tell he was doing that thing where he could read my thoughts because he was smirking from ear to ear, so all I said was, "You are so corny."

"Protect my soul Franky! Protect it with your very life."

"Wanker."

"You loooove me."

"Like I ever couldn't."

Dean leaned his head against my shoulder, ending up practically horizontal because of the height difference. Even if it should have felt awkward it didn't. He was my Dean and I was his Franky. Even if he climbed into my lap and curled up like a huge puppy, he could never feel wrong to me.

And all the pieces of my soul were happy.