don't F E A R the R E A P E R

[Dean Winchester]

a modern day warrior
mean, mean stride
today's tom sawyer
mean, mean pride.

though his mind is not for rent
don't put down as arrogant
his reserve, a quiet defense
riding out the days events

The beat of the song, pounding so loud the hunter could feel it in his steps, was almost like an introduction for him. Rush, "Tom Sawyer". As if his theme were playing to make his entrance known into the small town bar. He opened the door almost expecting heads to turn but they did not. This small town had that kind of vibe. The "everybody knows everybody" kind of thing. It was the place where strangers do not show very often and when they did it usually meant some kind of trouble. As he strode up to the bar his black boots pounded on the floor almost in sync with the beat of the song. He wore a brown leather jacket covering a gray t-shirt and a pair of worn blue jeans. Hidden in his waist band was a gun and in each of his boots was a blade.

The bar was lit lowly, the smoke that filled the air made it appear even darker. Dean strode up to the bar. The months were taking their toll on him. He only had a few more left and deep down he did not want to die, he did not want to go to Hell. He did not want to become what he was supposed to become. They were no closer now to finding a way out of his deal than they were six months ago. Dean was getting tired. He wanted it to be over but at the same time he did not want to leave his brother and his sister. His mind was full of more thoughts than he could handle and at times he wanted to explode, but he couldn't. He was a warrior. He was a fighter and he was no the head of the family, since his dad died. Dean needed to remain the strong one. He needed to keep it together for his siblings. Watching Meghan deal with Ash's death has been one of the most painful things for him to witness. She is the reason he needs to be strong though this, Sam is the reason. Dean was quickly losing his ability to show any kind of emotion at all.

That is not to say that Dean was cold and heartless. Far from, he simply hid it well. Emotion is a great weakness when shown. So Dean rarely shows it. Right now he felt he could not afford to. He looked up at the bartender as she made her way over. An attractive woman with strawberry blonde hair that was pulled back, but a few strands hung in her face. Dean looked up at the beauty and smirked, ordering himself a beer. The girl smiled at him, blushing a little before getting him his beer. After a moment or so she went back to her work and Dean was left alone to his thoughts, and his beer. He turned slightly to look over the bar as he sat on a barstool on the far end of the bar. Things were peaceful in this place. It was quiet. A small town, the kind they sing about in country songs. It was a place to relax and Dean wanted so badly to be able to relax, but relaxation was no longer achievable for him. Dean was going to Hell and there was no way to relax with that thought in his mind.

[Ruby Hawthorne]

<sup>There was a blond sitting in a motel room a few miles out from the bar. Her senses prickled, caught onto the Youngest Winchester, who was sleeping, only 3 doors down, and did a check to make sure he was okay. Silver eyes scanned page after page of an ancient looking book infront of her, while a multitude of others took up the remaining space on the big bed. The girl growled low in her throat, tossing the book aside, catching it before it hit the bed for fear of ruining it's ancient pages. We couldn't have pissed resources on our heels, now could we? How could there be nothing in wiggling out of a crossroads deal? There were cheats one everything. Why weren't there any here, dammit? She knew Lilith had to have something to do with it, the demonic little bitch. Rubella scowled, carefully removing herself from the mattress and over the books, still being able to retain the look that she was huffy while doing it. She was amazing like that.

Ruby checked on Sam one more time, for what seemed like the millionth time since Dean had left for God knew where. Sam could take care of himself, she reminded herself, rubbing at her throbbing temples. She crouched, snatching up her boots and tugging them on over her black jeans. Grabbing her brown jacket and her phone, she closed her eyes and wished for an escape from the mind numbing pulsing of her brain. She felt the instinctual catch of her breath, before she opened her eyes and emerged from the shadows of the nearby bar. Well Hell. This would do nicely. Walking in through the doors, she paused, her eyes scanning the crowd. Trickster in the corner, two hunters, a table of veggie vampires, and then there was Dean. How coincidental. Or was it? She couldn't be too sure these days. She watched him for a few minutes, noted his tense posture, the way he gripped his beer tightly, watched everyone closely. He knew his time was halfway up, he knew that there was no way out of it, and deep down inside, Ruby knew he didn't want to die. But she admired how strong he played around his family.

She strolled towards the bar, just in his blind spot, and asking the female bartender softly for a beer. The light was dim, but if she tried just a little bit, she could see as if it were day, which had always been a neat-o little trick. Receiving her drink, Ruby took a healthy swig, before striding up beside Dean and taking residence in the stool next to his. She took a moment before speaking, catching the warmth from his skin, such a humanly warmth, the emotions radiating off of him that he hid so well around everyone. "You know, if you keep makin that face, it'll get stuck that way. Imagine trying to have sex and all you're doing is glaring at the chick." She said casually, like it was really any business of hers how his face stuck and how it affected his sex life. "You should ask that bartender if she'll give you a massage. That should loosen ya up a little" She smirked, looking at him from the corner of her eyes for a moment, before back out to the small crowd. He was probably gonna kill her, and she didn't blame him. She could be an annoying bitch sometimes, but it was why she loved herself so much.</sup>

""

[Dean Winchester]

He enjoyed his time alone to think. His time without Sam and Meghan, a time when he could clear his head and regain his composure. He sipped his beer in peace, calm, quiet. There was nothing there to bother him. Nothing could distract him from his distractions. He did not even notice the girl walk up to the bar and had no idea she was even there until the demon spoke. Apparently something could distract him. He looked over at her, moving only his eyes almost as though he was glaring at her, and part of him was. She was the last person... well second to last person that Dean wanted to see there. Bela Talbot was probably the last person Dean wanted to see.

"What do you want Ruby? You followin' us again?" She always seemed to show up. Dean was sure she was probably stalking his brother. She said she wanted to help, to prepare Sam for life without Dean. Part of Dean did not want his brother and half-sister to live a life without him, the other part knew they had no choice. Dean did not quite believe Ruby though. There was a strange connection they had, that was obvious. Dean knew that some day he was going to be like her. He looked at her and saw a possible way to keep his humanity. If he could figure out how she did it after all those years, then maybe he could do it too.

On the other hand she could be lying. Dean had no way of knowing. Demons were notoriously good liars. He knew he could not trust her but part of him wanted to. Sam said they could, for now, that she was trying to help and Dean tried to tell himself that was good enough. So he tolerated her. After taking another sip of his beer he turned in the barstool and faced her. He smirked, his cocky smirk. "You spend a lot of time imagining sex with me Ruby?" He joked with her, tolerated her. He tolerated her more than he tolerated Bela Talbot, which was saying something. Bela was at least human, or so she said, and Ruby was a demon. Yet he probably trusted Ruby more. The blonde demon was starting to get under his skin and he was unsure if that was a good or bad thing.

[Ruby Hawthorne]

<sup>Ruby almost laughed when she saw Deans face, his expression saying that he was mentally watching his free time quiet hours go out the window. Hadn't he learned yet that she was always following them? That she was always there along side them, or in the shadows, waiting to help. And no, that didn't sound creepy at all, thank you very much. "I'm doing fantastic, Dean, thank you for asking." She said sarcastically, making a light scolding face, one a mother uses to tell her child that they weren't using their manners very well. And his first question, of course, had been "What do you want, Ruby" How polite was that? "I want to annoy the living Hell outta you, Dean. It's my soul purpose in life" Ruby said, rolling her eyes simply to express the sarcasm as if he hadn't already heard it.

She took a swig of her drink, setting her elbows down onto the bar and studying the boy beside her. What a wonderful life he could have led had he lived a normal life. He would have been even more beautiful, she knew, like in his youth, where he had nothing to worry about but life, family and hunting. She wished she could be taken back to those days, days where he didn't look so worn and...well...approaching Deaths door. It was times like these where she wanted to snatch him up right then and there like a lost dog and hold onto him tight.

Ruby wasn't sure why or how she'd kept her soul, or humanity or whatever it was. She'd just had. She thought it was a curse on many occasions, on some, a blessing. It was a two sided gift, what she'd been given. A gift which she desperately wanted to return, without the receipt. She willed herself to know how she'd stayed the same inside, but she couldn't remember. She needed to. It could help Dean. Speaking of, she watched as he faced her, before grinning at his question. "Of course, Dean. I don't have a family, remember, so I have all the free time in the world to imagine having sex with you." She rolled her eyes easily, as if to say 'in your dreams' but only in her wildest dream. Damn! Foiled again. "Anywho, to clear things up, I don't want something, right now, I'm not following you tonight. Here by coincidence, I promise, and I don't imagine you in my sex dreams, Winchester." She said before leaning a bit towards him and lowing my voice. "Do you image yourself having sex often, Mr. Winchester? Or do you just do it when I'm gone or have no one to screw you?" She tossed him a sexy playful smile, before settling back in her seat once more, in her own space. She took a long healthy swig, before watching Dean once more out of the corner of her eyes. Well this was gonna be a fun night</sup>

""

[Dean Winchester]

Dean glared at her and rolled his eyes. "There's a reason I didn't ask Ruby. It might be because I don't care." He looked over at Ruby, looking her up and down and tried to suppress the thoughts running through his mind. Tried to remind himself that his thoughts were of the woman that was being possessed and not the demon within. It wasn't that Ruby was "hot" it was that the woman she was possessing was. He looked down for a moment, trying to put that cocky smile back on his face. He needed to be that way now. He needed to play that tough guy card, couldn't let anyone see the real him, least of all this demon bitch.

He smirked as she commented on her sex dreams. "You're right, those dreams are of Sammy aren't they." Dean squirmed at the thought of that demon bitch touching his brother. Though he was unsure if it was anger about her touching him or him touching her. Sure, Dean admired the way the demon looked. She mentioned his dreams and it made Dean smile a little. If she only knew. Ever since that day with the Witches. There was just something there, something Dean could not get out of his head no matter how much alcohol he drank. Nothing was making those thoughts, those dreams go away. Dean was beginning to feel like he was drowning with no hope for escape.

Dean rolled his eyes and turned away from Ruby. That seemed to be the only thing that helped, except it didn't. He fought the urge to turn back to her, among the many other urges he was feeling that involved her. He listened to her words and rolled his eyes. "Trust me Ruby, there's always a girl around when I want one. They just can't seem to resist me. I'm just so damn charming." His voice, though arrogant and cocky was drenched with sarcasm as well. He was not his usual cheery boyish self right now. Dean had come to the realization that he did not want to leave his siblings. He did not want to go to hell and he did not want to become a demon. He also realized that they were fighting a war they would never be able to win.

[Ruby Hawthorne]

<sup>Ruby grinned at Dean, shifting her elbows so they were comfortably on the counter of the bar, her long legs crossing over one another to hide what was under the black skirt she wore. She was pleased to note that Dean had probably never seen her in a skirt before, which was not to say she didn't own one. No. It was just that when you were riding in to save a couple of pansy ass boys, you kinda didn't want your panties flashing to the world and whatnot. But on a night such as this, when her soul purpose for the evening was to take a breather and relax, she really didn't want to worry about people trying to kick the shit out of her in a skirt. Her eyes, like polished silver in the dim light, watched the small crowd of bar folk, people who lived mostly normal lives. Tonight she could try and fit in, but she knew, inside, that she could never fit in. It was a depressing thought, to be 100% honest. "You really dont care?" Ruby asked, cocking an eyebrow as those metallic eyes turned on the eldest Winchester boy. "Why Dean. I'm hurt." She faked a pained face, raising a hand to her chest, those trademark black boots shifting as her legs uncrossed and recrossed, a light smirk replacing upon her features. He might not care, but that didn't bother her...not much.

His comment about her having dreams of Sammy almost sent the beer flying from her mouth onto the nearest passerby. Though she managed to swallow without problem, she couldn't help her eyes widening ever so slightly. Not that Sam Winchester wasn't a hottie or anything, he was just too..."little lost puppy" for her tastes. "Rest assured, Big Brother, this mind won't be dreaming anything sexual about Sammy." She smirked at him, sensing his distaste for the image his words put into his head. He despised her for being a demon, and she certainly wasn't good enough for a Winchester boy in is eyes. Surely she would try to backstab them and taint them with her filth. Wasn't that what he was thinking? Rubella had come to expect little else from Dean than his purely black and white judgment. Sadly, though, she had no idea why she even gave a rats ass. It had to be because he was attractive to her. That was the only reason she could come up with, that she even allowed herself to think about. And yes, sure he made a special appearance in a few of her dreams, but she was logical enough not to rely on what a dream had to tell you.

Ruby found herself slightly disappointed and annoyed when she watched Dean turn away from her, but she didn't say anything about it. This was a free country, and people could damn well turn away from people as they pleased. His next words sent a scoff from her lips. She heard his tone, laced with confidence in his abilities, and wanted to instinctively prove his cocky ass wrong. She couldn't, of course, because what he said was more or less true, but that wouldn't stop her from trying to knock him down a few notches on the Arrogance meter. "I wouldn't say it's the charm that has them ensnared, Hotshot. I'd say it was a fact that when you're on the prowl, women see you as a hot piece of ass who will give them a good time." ...wait...was she knocking him down, or boosting him up? She really couldn't tell at this point. "Not to mention that you give off the whole vibe that a chick'll be safe with you, and then the whole 'nothing more than a one nighter' written all across your face. If a woman is looking for that, then you got her set for the night" She took a swig of her beer, wondering when the hell she became an expert at analyzing human emotion towards the opposite sex. She didn't even try to meet Dean's eyes, because she knew she probably sounded like a loon, but that didn't keep the sexy smirk off her face and the glint out of her eyes. "If a chick is looking for that. Which a lot of girls who actually give a shit about their reputation aren't. Call me old fashioned. I like a man who can actually please a girl for more than one night instead of hafting to switch to keep a girl from finding out how...lacking they really are." Ruby smirked and shot Dean a "Which means you won't ever be able to get this" look, one hand playing with the folds in her skirt while the other tipped the lid of her beer to her lips. She could tell he wasn't a very happy camper at the moment, so she was hoping to cause a stir in him. Pull that fight in him to the surface.</sup>

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