This fic is heavily inspired by What It Means To Be written by SinSlash on I have permission to write/post this and will be sending the link to SinSlash as thanks! Reviews are appreciated greatly, and if you sign in to review I WILL reply!

Title:The Second Sort of Family

Prologue

Harry wasn't exactly hiding from Alastair. He'd simply wandered away during a time when he knew that the Demon wouldn't be paying attention. Harry wanted to stay away from Dean Winchester but he just couldn't; something about Dean called to Harry's…maternal instincts or something, he wasn't quite sure. All he knew for certain about it was that Alastair wasn't getting angry when Harry healed the Hunter; instead the Demon was starting to take the opportunity to create new and more painful ways to torture the man. The Wizard had a feeling that the Demons were trying to figure out the limits to his Magic.

Why else would Dean's spleen and kidneys be decorating the floor without the sweet release of either death or unconscious?

Harry didn't speak as he gathered up the detached organs and hit them with a cleansing spell. He moved toward the Hunter and gently held them to the man's shredded abdomen, pushing as much Healing Magic as possible through his hands; it took some time but slowly the internal bits got where they needed to be, connected properly and all. The nervous system was regrown and reconnected and finally the skin was repaired; all in all it could have taken an hour. Or a day. Time in Hell is a funny thing; you really only ever knew when a year had passed because of the Demons. Harry wandered away once he was finished, Dean's blood on his hands.

They didn't speak.

They never spoke.

More time passed. Dean was subjected to more and more intensive tortures that Harry healed faithfully; they still never spoke. Harry watched though; that was part of his torture, to watch others get tortured. Dean was the only one they allowed him to heal but Harry could see that he was breaking. It was becoming harder for him to say no. Harry couldn't allow that so, without the Demons becoming aware of it, Harry used one of his Healing sessions with Dean to disconnect the man's nervous system in the hopes that it would help. It gave a brief respite but then Alastair got more creative with his words. Harry disconnected Dean's hearing. Alastair got very angry and put Harry on a rack for what could have been a year or a day or a century for all he knew. The Demon had forgotten that Harry wasn't afraid of physical pain; that's why his main torture was to watch others helplessly. They allowed him to Heal Dean in an effort to break him faster because if Harry's best efforts didn't stop Dean from breaking, Harry would quite likely break.

Once Alastair released him in frustration Harry Healed himself, cleaned up, repaired his clothing, and set off to find Dean. The Hunter was a mess so Harry set to work, getting everything put back where it belonged and spelling away the accumulation of blood and grime; the pit was a very dirty place. Harry found all the bits of Dean's clothing and repaired it as well, dressing the exhausted Hunter carefully. He reconnected Dean's nerves and hearing and stood to walk away; Dean spoke to him for the first time.

"Thank you."

Harry gave the Hunter a small smile over his shoulder.

"Don't. It's my fault they're coming at you so hard."

When Harry came back the next day Dean was less of a mess than he had been for a very long time. It had hurt more, though, for having not felt anything for so long. Once the mostly superficial wounds were Healed Dean stopped him to talk again.

"Why do they let you heal me?"

Harry gave the man a suspicious glance but answered without looking directly at him.

"They're trying to break me. If you break despite my best efforts, they know it will snap the last hold I have over my sanity."

Dean reared back in shock.

"But didn't you ask for this?"

Harry turned to face the Hunter fully, head tilted inquisitively. Dean stammered a bit but finally got his thoughts out.

"When you made the deal for your powers, didn't you know you'd become a Demon?"

Harry laughed bitterly.

"Hunters always think all Magic comes from Demons. Read the unedited Bible; Magic users have been around far longer than your kind and it had nothing to do with Demons."

That went against everything Dean knew about the Supernatural so he ignored it for the moment; maybe he could get more information.

"How did you end up down here, then?"

Harry laughed again, much more bitterly this time.

"The International Confederation of Wizards passed a law demanding that I make a deal with a Crossroads Demon to end a war. I had no choice; I wasn't actually even involved with it. The bitch made the original deal for my soul without my knowledge or consent. When they came back for me they realized that I hadn't sealed the deal so I refused until they…modified it a bit."

Dean had more questions than ever now but Harry left before he could ask them.

The next day Dean seemed completely unharmed except for the hooks keeping him on the rack; he looked sick, however, and that concerned Harry. Before Harry could try and diagnose anything (because wouldn't it just be his luck if Dean caught the flu or something) Dean spoke.

"My little brother is addicted to Demon blood. He's ignoring everything we know about the world and gulping down Demon blood like its Mountain Dew."

Harry leaned against Dean's rack in thought.

"That's…pretty disgusting. Do you know why?"

Dean told Harry the story of Azazel and the army, and Alastair's claim that the Demon blood Sam was ingesting worked to free up his 'demonic abilities'. Harry nodded distractedly.

"So what he really needs is a method of keeping those pathways open without the gross intake of bodily fluids."

Dean wanted to argue but his point of view had slowly started change over the last several decades in Hell. He laughed humorlessly.

"Do you know I've been down here for almost forty years?"

Harry shrugged, meeting the Hunter's eyes.

"I've been down here for around twelve hundred."

Harry wandered away but Dean had a new hope; if Harry, who didn't look any older than thirteen, had kept his sanity for over a thousand years then Dean sure as fuck could keep his for less than half a century.

They spent the next year getting to know one another better. Dean came to believe in natural Magic, and Harry learned that not all Hunters were like the horror stories told to Wizarding children; Dean had been surprised and hurt to learn that Hunters were portrayed as such horrible, evil beings to children. Then again Wizards knew that there was a difference in the Magic and sought to learn these differences; Hunters didn't know and didn't seem to care one way or the other. Dean could see that point of view but that didn't mean he liked it.

This particular day they were discussing their Deals. Dean told Harry about trading his life for his brother's, and how he'd been given a year to say his goodbyes. Harry told Dean about trading his life for Wizards all over the world; his 'modification' promised that nothing would ever be done in the scope of 'planned evil' to harm or kill one of the Natural Magic users. Dean tilted his head, a mannerism he'd picked up from Harry.

"Will that keep them safe from Hunters?"

Harry shrugged.

"It's possible, but I'm not sure because Hunters rarely plan."

Dean had to agree with that and decided to change the topic to pie; before they got very far into it there was a strange light invading the room and Dean grabbed his shoulder with a hiss. An oddly monotonous voice filled the room, telling Dean that he was free from Hell; Dean refused, to Harry's shock. The light seemed to pull at the Hunter, but he refused to budge.

"Not without Harry!"

Finally the light seemed to give up and Harry didn't hesitate to lambast the idiotic Hunter. Before Dean could even defend himself the light was back, pulling on them both. Just before they were separated (they were buried on different continents, after all) the voice spoke again.

"You will be reunited in one week's time."

Then they woke up.