#and they could've done much more ineresting things with them in season eight than they did tbh

[scoutdoesstuff]

aaaannnnd here's the ficlet for august 28th. this day's tea is called jin guan yin and according to google (so forgive me if it's completely wrong), it's sometimes referred to as the Iron Goddes of Mercy. it's an incredibly metal name, so i ran with it and started thinking about what supernatural characters i would grant mercy to.

the answer is all of them. for the purposes of this fic, though, i chose three lol and sketched out what a certain alterative chunk of season eight might look like if kevin, benny, and charlie had different journeys. (dean/cas/benny is implied with this one as well, with some minor but explicit dean/benny)

“Thank you,” Dean says to the other man. Kevin’s never seen him before, but Dean looks at the new guy like how Marcus used to look at Suzie McDonald but in a grown up way, so Kevin thinks the new man is safe. Sam seems to both respect the guy and be afraid to turn his back on him though, so Kevin’s only ninety percent sure about that assessment.

“Cher, you’re not putting me out, I promise,” the other man says, eyes soft on Dean. Yeah, there’s definitely something going on there. “Have you heard from the Angel since you last saw him?”

Something happened between Dean and Castiel but no one will fess up to Kevin what it was. He really doesn’t like that. He likes Dean’s reaction to the other man’s question even less.

Dean smiles all big and bright in a way that means whatever’s going to come out of his mouth is bullshit. “You know Cas,” he says, rubbing the back of his neck and looking anywhere but the other guy in the eyes. “He’s all around. He’ll pop up sometime.”

“Cher,” the other guy — Benny — says, eyes never leaving Dean’s face.

Dean swallows and stares at the floor.

“We haven’t seen him,” Sam says from by the doorway to the houseboat. He’s leaning against the wall with his back to it, arms crossed. Sam’s body language has taken a nose dive since they entered this place, but Kevin can’t quite put his finger on why yet.

“I’ll reach out,” Benny says, still watching Dean. Dean looks up once and nods.

Sam and Dean don’t stay for much longer. Benny follows them out to the car and Kevin scuttles over to a nearby window to creep on them as they walk down the houseboat’s gangplank. Benny’s hand rests on the small of Dean’s back. Sam wanders off to use the restroom before the brothers Winchester pile back into the Impala and Dean uses that moment to press a quick kiss to Benny’s lips.

Kevin gasps like his mom does when something juicy happens on her soap opera.

(He will take that fact to his grave).

Benny wraps his arms around Dean. Dean presses his face into Benny’s shoulder. They stay like that, gathering peace from each other, until Sam bangs open the bathroom door. Kevin wonders how much Sam knows, how much Sam pretends to not know, and how much Sam really doesn’t know about his brother in that moment.

Kevin’s an only child. He doesn’t really get this sibling shit, but there’s definitely some stuff going on under the surface there.

The brothers say their goodbyes to Benny and Benny begins the trek back up the gangplank. Kevin busies himself with one of the nearby bookcases. Yeah, he spied on them, but he’s not stupid enough to get caught. Then Kevin gets distracted by the books on the shelves. This Benny guy is really well read, but in a weird way. The Pirates of Penzance are smushed right next to Dracula which is leaning against what appears to be an exorcism manual from the sixteen hundreds. Who the fuck is this guy?

“See anything you like?”

Kevin nearly shits himself when Benny’s voice comes from about three feet closer than Kevin was expecting.

“Sorry, kiddo,” Benny says, stepping back. “Didn’t mean to scare you. Dean says I oughta have a bell put on me.” Benny pauses, frowning. “He said the same thing about the Angel, but I honestly just kinda thought he was going deaf. Might be something to it after all.”

“Are you and Cas —?” Kevin starts to ask before he thinks better of it.

“How much did you see through the window?” Benny asks, but in that really annoying way that adults do when they know the answer to something and just want you to fess up.

Kevin refuses to fess up.

Benny waits. Benny is much better at awkward silences than Kevin is.

“Most of it,” Kevin says, pissy, when he can’t take it anymore.

“Yeah,” Benny says, quietly. “Me and Dean and Cas. We’re something.”

Kevin chews his lower lip for a second. He doesn’t really know Benny, but Dean’s people instincts are usually pretty damn on point. If Cas is really in trouble, Kevin’s not sure he wants to bring it down on their heads now that he’s finally gotten a safe place to hide. But if Cas is really in trouble, and Kevin can help him, Kevin wants to. For all of his weirdness and baby bird awkwardness, Cas has been a pretty decent friend to Kevin and Kevin doesn’t want to leave him hanging. Not many cosmic beings would sit next to a kid and listen to him cry about how his whole life just got upended. Even fewer would do it multiple times.

“The tablets had some information about inter-angel communication,” Kevin says at last. Benny perks up, but in a subtle cool guy way that’s suave and makes him look like an action hero with a lead. “I don’t know if it’ll help,” I don’t know if we can communicate like that is what Kevin means, “but it might be worth a shot.”

“You are handy in a pinch aren’t you, kid?” Benny says, like he’s genuinely impressed. Kevin tries not to preen.

“Only if you stop calling me kid,” Kevin says, hoping he sounds kind of like someone who could be taken seriously.

//

They take their findings to Dean and Sam about a week later, who listen to Kevin’s breathless infodump and Benny’s smoother summary intently. Sam doesn’t say much besides “it could work” and Dean kind of hums to himself for a minute.

“I know someone who could maybe help with the wavelength part of it,” he finally says.

Another two days later and Charlie Bradbury raps sharply at Benny’s houseboat door.