Author's Note: Written for comment_fic on livejournal. Prompt: Dean and Ben, "Once Upon a Time."

"Once upon a time there was a boy named Ben and he was a very good boy."

"Lame!"

"What?"

"This better not be a story about a boy named Ben who learns how great it is to clean his room or some crap."

Dean raised an eyebrow. "Do you really think that I would tell you a story like that?"

"I want a story about a giant robot fighting a dinosaur."

Dean smiled. "Okay. Once upon a time there was a giant robot and a dinosaur."

"Who was bigger?"

"The robot was taller, but the dinosaur was better with the ladies."

Ben smiled and nestled into the covers, persuaded that he was about to get a decent bedtime story.

Dean continued, "The robot and the dinosaur fought all the time. And do you know why?"

"Because they hated each other?"

"No, because they loved each other."

"That's stupid."

"Yeah... I know..." Dean swallowed, then continued, "So anyway, the giant robot and the dinosaur would drive around beating up evil monsters. They thought they were helping people."

"They did help people, right?"

"Yeah, buddy, they helped a lot of people. But it turned out that some really jerky smart monsters were planning to trap them. They wanted a big war that would kill everybody but their side, and they thought they could get Robot and Dinosaur to help them."

"But Robot and Dinosaur would never do that!"

"Uh, well, it's complicated."

Ben's eyebrows furrowed as Dean continued, "Look, Robot never wanted to have anything to do with fighting. So he left Dinosaur and found a beautiful princess who loved him very much."

"A robot princess?"

"Yes, a robot princess. But then the monsters deactivated her so Robot would be mad enough to get back in the game."

"That sucks."

"I know. So then, um, well that wasn't the first time they did something like that. Or the last. And they thought it was about some jackwad with yellow eyes, but he was just working for some jerks who wanted a big showdown between a monster named Luce and a monster named Mikey. But anyway, Robot and Dinosaur started making mistakes. Really, really bad mistakes."

"Because the monsters tricked them?"

"Yes. But also because they just... it's just hard to make the right call, sometimes. Like if you have to choose between two things, and you don't think you can live with either of them. So they made mistakes. And they were mad at each other. Really, really, really, really mad."

"Did they fight?"

"A lot."

"Who won?"

"Neither. Their friends told them to knock it off and go back to fighting monsters."

"Their friends sound a lot smarter than they are."

"I don't know about smarter... okay, maybe a little smarter about some stuff... Anyway, they kept finding out that all the monsters were bigger and better and smarter than they thought, and that the whole world was run by monsters. So they were pretty pissed."

"So then they kicked some ass, right?"

"Well... They tried to stop Luce and Mikey. But then the only way to stop them was for Robot to jump into a hole and lock them in from the inside."

Ben jumped up and said, "But Robot can't go without Dinosaur!"

Dean tried not choke. "I know, buddy. But Luce and Mikey were a lot bigger than even a giant robot and dinosaur. So Luce killed their friends, and he was beating up Dinosaur, and Dinosaur thought it was all over..."

A pause, then Ben asked, sounding worried, "Then what?" Dean screwed a smile on his face, tried to act like there was nothing hard about telling a story.

"Then Robot saved him. He smacked Luce down into that hole like the worm he was. And Dinosaur never really believed he could do it."

"But Dinosaur was wrong."

"Dinosaur was wrong. Big time wrong. Robot stopped the war. And then their friends weren't really killed after all."

"How come?"

"Because it turns out monsters don't run the world after all."

Ben's eyes widened. "Really?"

Dean nodded. "Really. So then Dinosaur understood that it's okay to believe in things."

"Like in happy endings?"

"Yeah," Dean said, fake smile on his face.

Ben frowned. "But Robot is still trapped."

"Yeah."

"Is Robot waiting for Dinosaur to rescue him?"

"Um. Robot actually made Dinosaur promise to leave him there. Otherwise, the monsters could run everything again. And it would be all their fault. Again."

"Oh. Is Dinosaur going to keep his promise?"

Dean paused. "I don't know."

Ben settled back down into his bed, young eyes filled with some thought that Dean couldn't decipher.

"That was kind of a weird story, Dean. I don't like the ending."

"Me neither."

"Are you going to figure out a different ending?"

"Don't know if I can."

Ben looked annoyed. He said, "That's such a little bitch answer."

Dean raised his eyebrows. And, for the first time in months, he laughed. He leaned over to kiss Ben's forehead and said. "You're right. I'll figure something out."

"Good night, Dean."

"'Night."

"Dean?"

"Yeah?"

"Even though your story is totally messed up, you tell it good. You tell it your way, not like in storybooks."

Dean paused for a moment, then said, "Thanks," as he turned out the light.