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There was something very odd about Benny, and Sam was determined to find out what it was. Dean accused him of being paranoid, but Sam was certain that Benny was not the normal guy he claimed to be. “Dude. You’re just saying that because your girlfriend ditched you for her ex. Calm down. Benny’s a nice, normal guy, you’d love him if you would just get your head out of your ass and give him a chance. You were like this with Cas, too.”
“And I was right, wasn’t I? Cas’s family is psycho!” Castiel’s dad was the kind of guy who believed he was God, and his oldest brother, Michael, played along with it. They didn’t approve of Castiel hanging out with Sam, and when they realized the Winchester brothers were a package deal, they tried to make Castiel stop hanging out with Dean. Castiel told them all to go to Hell and cut off contact. Now he was dating Meg, who’d turned out to be a decent person once she was away from her own psycho family.
Dean rolled his eyes. “Cas’s family is psycho, but now Cas is your best friend too! If you’d just give Benny a chance, I think you’d like him.”
“There is something weird about him. Just you watch.”
“Yeah? Give me your reasons. What’s so weird about him?”
“One, his garden. Nothing ever fails, or runs into bug problems, and he gets the best vegetables and flowers in the state. Two, no one normal loves water that much. Running out in the rain? Practically living down by the river in the summer? He doesn’t get enough of being in the water being on the college swim team? Three, he’s just weird! His teeth… have you ever gotten a good look? I swear he’s got fangs.”
Dean folded his arms and gave Sam an unimpressed look. “You’re paranoid. He’s a good gardener and he loves the water… okay, maybe that ain’t normal, but it’s not something to shun the guy over! And maybe the guy's incisors are a little pointier than normal, but your hair's just as freaky, how it's so long and you don't have to do anything to it to keep it perfect.”
Sam was determined to prove that he wasn’t being paranoid. He’d taken to following Benny around, watching him swim, trying to figure out why his instincts were telling him there was something wrong with how he approached the water. Benny’s coach certainly wouldn’t agree – he was great, the star of the team, one hell of a distance swimmer.
Benny noticed, of course. His good friend’s little brother, taking any excuse to be close to him – especially when he was dressed for swimming? Quite the ego trip. He’d heard Dean talk about the kid all the time, and Castiel corroborated what could have been big brotherly pride. He caught Dean after their American history class one day. “You notice Sam bein’ odd lately?”
“You mean other than his obsession with you? If he’s bothering you I can tell him to knock it off. No promises he’d listen.”
Benny ducked his head. “Nah, I think it’s kinda sweet.”
“Sweet?” Dean stared blankly at him. “You think it’s sweet that he thinks you’re some sort of weirdo or possibly psycho and is stalking you to figure out how?”
“Oh is that what it is?” Benny stared at his hands. “He may be a little late gettin’ home from swim practice, then.”
Dean’s face clouded and his hands clenched into fists. “Why? What are you thinking you’re going to do to him?”
“Not gonna hurt him. Just wanna talk, see if I can’t straighten things out a bit for him. May take a while.”
Dean relaxed. A little. “Good luck getting him to talk to you. Have fun. Do what you can to make him see sense.”
After swim practice, Sam liked to leave right away. The sooner he was out of there, the less chance there was that Benny would catch him spying on him. He tried to leave, but this time, Benny got out of the pool and headed for him instead of for the locker room. And his clothes.
Dean was never going to let him live it down if Sam got flustered by the guy he’d been calling a weirdo walking toward him still dripping from the pool and wearing a Speedo. Those things did not leave much to the imagination. Dammit. Benny may be some sort of supernatural plant monster, but he was a hot one.
“Hey, Sam. Mind hanging here for a bit? Need to talk to you.”
Sam swallowed hard. “Um, sure. I’ll be… I’ll be here after you… get dressed. Promise.”
Benny gave him a half-smile and walked to his bag, grabbing his track suit and quickly pulling it on, along with his shoes. “All right. Come with me?”
“I… should tell Dean…”
“Dean knows I was gonna talk to you after practice. Don’t worry. I’m not gonna hurt you. Just wanted to talk alone.”
“Dean knows?”
“Dean knows.”
If Dean knew, that meant that if Benny did do something to Sam, Dean would know who to blame. Benny knew that Dean would kill him if anything happened to Sam. Sam nodded. “Okay. Where are we going?”
“Where else? Bit cold to go in the river, but we can go to the river.”
“O-okay.” Sam slung his backpack over his shoulder and followed Benny. The whole trip, he couldn’t shake the nerves. What exactly he was so afraid of, he couldn’t define. Benny wouldn’t hurt him, not if Dean knew where Sam was… but what if Dean didn’t know? What if Benny had lied?
Benny stopped at the river and found a giant rock. “This is my favorite place to get some sun. Nice and warm long into the fall. Dean tells me you noticed I’m not exactly what you’d call a normal guy?”
“I, um…” Sam blinked a couple of times while he processed that. Benny knew. Suddenly Sam felt foolish. Dean had probably been right all along, Benny was just a guy. “Sorry?”
“I’ll show you, but you gotta understand, it’s gotta stay between us. At least for now. You can’t even tell Dean.”
Sam swallowed hard, but he nodded. “I won’t tell anyone. Even Dean.”
“All right.” Benny stripped down, even removing the Speedo. Sam tried not to flinch, but Benny didn’t seem to think it was weird to be standing there butt naked for no apparent reason. He laid down on the ground, pulling his arms into his body, and he started to… Sam couldn’t describe it. His whole body shifted, changing color and growing scales and losing limbs. Only Benny’s head remained human-shaped, but it was covered in dark red scales that matched the body. His body was entirely serpentine.
Talking seemed to be more difficult, and Benny had quite the hiss. “Thisss isss my true form. I can take human form, or full sssnake form, but thisss isss who I am. Asss you sssay, not eksssactly normal.”
“Dean wouldn’t believe me even if I did tell him. You’re telling me he doesn’t know? Does Cas?”
“No. Neither. I left my people. Mossst of them are cold-blooded killersss, pardon the pun. I’m hiding out here, where people don’t know.”
“So why tell me?”
“Easssier to jussst tell you than have you sssniffing around, talking theoriesss with Casss and Dean and maybe getting them to notissse. I’m not dangerousss, not to you or anyone elssse in this town, but people don’t like thingsss that are different.”
“No, they really don’t." Sam took a deep breath. As weirdness went? This... was pretty weird, but Benny was harmless. "Okay. Thanks for telling me. Sorry about the stalking. Your secret’s safe with me, I promise.”
“Thanksss.” Benny reversed the process, losing his scales and growing back his arms and legs. He dressed quickly. “Gotta say, I was a little disappointed when Dean told me why you were stalking me. I thought it was a crush.”
Sam huffed softly. “Well, you… weren’t entirely wrong there. I mean, there’s a reason I was paying enough attention to you to notice the weird things…”
“Yeah? You still like me, even if I got scales sometimes?”
“I do.” Sam looked up, and Benny’s smile dazzle him. “If you still like me even if I’m a stalker sometimes.”