#having many thoughts about sammy this evening morning :( none happy :(

[scoutdoesstuff]

as proof of life for my fic homestead (and because i needed a little bit of goofiness given the growing dumpster fire in my country) have some babified Jack times. unbeated, may or may not make it into the final version of this chapter, but it made me happy to write so i'm posting it

Re-babified Jack decides that he loves peas.

He was a big carrot fan the last time around. He couldn’t get enough of them, to the point where he turned orange for a few days while Sammy was gone. It was all he would eat and Dean was worn down to the point that he wasn’t going to argue as long as Jack was eating. Then Jack turned orange, prompting Dean to panic because maybe their indestructible nephilim baby wasn’t as indestructible as he thought.

Dean had panic researched until three am in the morning that night only for Jack to wake up the next morning a more normal human baby color.

Dean made it a point after that to mix up Jack’s diet a bit, even if the kid whined at him about it.

Regardless, this time around it wasn’t carrots that the kid was mad about, it was peas. Carrots weren’t on the no-no list, though, thank god, just not as popular as the last go around.

They’d burned through the cans of Gerber’s mashed peas stashed in the back of the pantry fast enough that Sam had done a mid-week grocery run just to keep them knee deep in blended peas. Dean found himself exploring the idea of making his own baby food again — if only so they wouldn’t have to make so many damn trips to the grocery store for peas of the blended, mashed, and/or squashed variety.

Sam had returned from his latest grocery store sprint to find Dean sandwiched between his laptop, three cookbooks, and an increasingly fussy Jack Attack at the kitchen table. After unloading their latest hoard of green baby food into what had become the de facto baby food cabinet in the kitchen and watching Dean attempt to coax a smile out of Jack for five minutes with no luck, Sam had scooped up the kid and offered to see if a nap was in order.

It was nice to see Sam confident enough to cuddle Jack and offer to be the Main Dad for a moment, so Dean had kissed Jack Attack on the forehead and seen them their way.

He’d forgotten how badly Sam could get tripped up by baby things. Dean is buried in Food Blogger Instagram, mourning how so many people could make recipes that looked so delicious but would ultimately taste like ass, when he hears a sharp yelp come from the bedroom side of the main hallway. Dean counts to fifteen in his head. With nothing else heard, he goes back to trying to find a split pea soup recipe that would taste good and also not require endless fussing. It’d be something nice for the colder months since it looked like babified Jack was here to stay, even if it wasn’t going to be consistent. It’s also be nice to have something that both Dean and Sam could eat with the kid so they weren’t drowning in nothing but literal baby food.

“DEAN!”

Dean’s head snaps up towards the doorway. Sam didn’t say anything else and Dean didn’t hear his gigantic ass heavy tread coming towards the kitchen. The kitchen chair squeals as Dean pushes himself to his feet, palming a handgun into the back of his jeans as he goes.

Sam yells again. Dean moves faster.

“Sammy, where are you?” Dean bellows, hurrying down the hallway. None of the sensors had tripped recently and they’re re-upped the wards last week. Jack had been grumpy but physically fine less than ten minutes ago. Dean feels his chest tighten when he didn’t get a response from Sam.

Dean checks Sam’s room first since it was closer to the kitchen and when that’s empty he breaks into a run towards his own. It takes no more than thirty seconds to get there but by god does it feel like hours.

Dean bursts into the bedroom to find Sam standing stock still with his back to the door. He appears to be holding Jack but Dean couldn’t be sure from this angle. He doesn’t have the patience to find out, for that matter. Dean grabs Sam’s shoulder and spun him around.

Jack cooed up as Dean, happy as a clam and recently changed by the look of it. Dean’s gaze moves upwards to meet Sam’s and to ask his brother what the hell he was thinking he was doing. Christ, was Dean not stressed enough?

Sam’s face and entire right shoulder are covered in regurgitated peas.

“Help,” Sam says, eyes wild. “Dean, help.”

Dean bursts out laughing.

“Dean, it’s like the Exorcist, help,” Sam says, somehow verging on whining while trying to talk without moving his lips.

Dean can’t stop laughing. He makes sure his handgun in the back of his jeans is tucked securely away with the safety on and then scoops Jack out of Sam’s arms.

“Did you decide to share your peas with Sammy?” Dean coos at Jack. Kid still has some yuck around his mouth, so Dean hustles them over to the sink to wash him up.

“Not. Funny,” Sam hisses, still without moving his lips. “I tried to burp him and he just —“

Dean cackles. “Gotta move faster than that, Sammy!”

Sam whimpers. Dean lets him suffer for a few more seconds as he cleans up Jack’s face and makes sure the kid’s clothing come out mostly unscathed from the eruption of Mount Jacksuvius.

When Dean turns back around, Sam is roughly where Dean left him, arms stuck out away from his sides and eyes pleading.

Dean giggles again.

After his shower, Sam spends a good chunk of the rest of the day in the library, searching the stacks for what’s left of his dignity.

Dean makes split pea soup for dinner.

tagged list: @casenergies, @fic-over-cannon

#my fic #spn #tagged folks feel free to ask to be untagged #and if you'd liked to be tagged just let me know #christ fam #what a week

[presidentbidean]

sammy :(

#txt #having many thoughts about sammy this evening morning :( none happy :(

[kaywinchester]

Last Resort

anon asked: Hey! I love your work! Do you think you could do a sister!reader fic where Dean, Sam and Cas are away on a long hunt, and the reader (younger, maybe between 11-14) has a panic attack? Since her brothers nor Cas can help, Crowley shows up... Thank you!

Word Count: 1,762

A/N: I know panic attacks can be different for a lot of people, so I kind of just made the panic attack in this story how mine usually are. I also set this before the boys found the bunker since Crowley is still around.  *Also not my gif*

“Hey, wake up.... Y/N c’mon wake up.” Sam said as he shook your sleeping form. 

You rolled over to your side and blinked your eyes open slowly, adjusting to the light shining in from the hallway.

“M’what?” You mumbled.

“Y/N, Cas called us. Dean and I have to leave to go help him, it’s important.”

“What’s going on?” You wondered, looking over at the clock on the nightstand to see that it was 2:30 in the morning. 

“We’ll call you and explain everything later, but we have to leave. We might be gone for a few days but I wanted to let you know.” Sam said frantically.

“Okay, call me in the morning.” You said, still half asleep and not really understanding what was going on. 

Sam nodded and shut the lights off as he and Dean gathered their things before leaving the motel room. You rolled to your other side and fell back asleep within minutes.

....................

You woke up the next morning and sat up in bed, looking around, you were confused as to why Sam and Dean weren't there. It took you a minute but you remembered Sam waking you up. Just as you were thinking about where the hell they went, your phone rang.

“Sam?”

“Hey, how’re you doing?”

“Uh, where are you guys and when are you coming back?” 

“Sorry for leaving in such a rush. Cas called us about some other angels that are going around taking people out. Normally he’d be able to handle this himself but they're moving pretty fast.” Sam explained.

“When will you be back?”

“Not sure, but this one might take a few days. Maybe a week at worst, but we’ll keep you updated.”

“What about food?” You asked, glancing at the small motel kitchen. 

“Dean went on a supply run after you fell asleep last night, the fridge should be stocked. We wouldn’t leave you alone if we thought you couldn't handle it.” Sam said.

“Okay, well, hurry back.” 

“We will. Gotta go, we’ll talk to you later.” “Stay safe, Y/N/N.” You heard Dean say in the background.

....................

It had been 4 days since the boys left and you were bored out of your mind. You had opened snack after snack, watched way too much tv, and even snuck two of Dean’s beers. You knew he would notice and be pissed off but you didn't even care at the time. 

Just when you thought you would be fine by yourself, you weren't. 

The paranoia started to set in, which happened often when the boys would leave on longer hunts and not take you with them. Sometimes, you were able to brush it off and be patient until they got back. Other times like this, it was like a nagging feeling of terrible thoughts that would set off a panic attack.

There was a string of bad thoughts that kept rushing through your head. Wondering if Sam and Dean would be okay, if they were going to make it back safely, or if they were already dead and you just didn’t know it yet. 

These thoughts sent you pacing back and forth around the motel room. You chewed your lip as you imagined Sam and Dean walking through the door with their bags, trying your best to calm yourself down. 

You sat down on the edge of the bed as you felt your breathing picking up, feeling so panicked and uncomfortable, being alone for longer than you were okay with. You wanted to call Sam and Dean to check in but you didn’t want to be a bother. Your brothers knew that you had occasional panic attacks, but they didn’t know the extent of them. It was also a little embarrassing, so you decided to keep it on the low. 

That’s when your phone rang, seeing it was Sam, you answered almost right away.

“Sammy?” You breathed out.

“Hey kiddo. What’s up?” Dean answered instead.

“Uh, hey.... nothing much.... Is Sam there?”

“Yeah, he just fell asleep in the passenger seat. Is everything okay?”

“Everything’s fine, just um.... when will you be back?”

“We just finished up actually. We were able to track down the last string of dickhead angels so were on our way back right now.”

“How long?” You asked a little too eagerly. 

“Should be there in about 4 hours, could be less.... You know how I drive.” Dean let out a chuckle. 

“Ok great, hurry back.” Was all you could think of saying before hanging up the phone. 

....................

Sam stirred in his seat, waking up and turning to Dean to see his phone in his hand. “What are you doing with my phone?”

“Y/N called, she was just asking where we were.”

“Oh. How is she?”

“Good... sounded a little weird though.”

“What do you mean weird?”

“I dunno. She’s probably just getting impatient.”

Sam took a moment to think about how Dean worded that, realizing you might've been having an episode.

“No more stops tonight, let’s get back as soon as possible.”

“Why?”

“She might be panicking a little bit, we’ve been gone for almost a week.”

“She’ll be fine, she just needs to get used to being on her own.” Dean started being insensitive. 

“Dean, I don’t think you know how panic attacks work.”

“She doesn't still have those, does she?”

“Yes, as far as I know she does, and depending on the person, they can get pretty bad.”

Dean didn't say anything after that and continued to drive faster. 

....................

You sat on the floor up against the motel bed and talked to yourself in your head, praying to Cas since your brothers were still a long ways away. You repeated the same message over and over, expecting to see Cas pop up in front of you, but it never happened.

You started to panic even more that you started to repeat your cry for help out loud, not to anyone directly, but in hopes of feeling like someone was listening. 

You weren’t expecting it but someone was listening. 

And that someone was Crowley.

Crowley appeared after minutes of you talking, it scared the shit out of you, making you spring up from where you were sitting. 

“What the hell are you doing here?” You questioned.

“Well, someone is a little uneasy from what I heard.” He glanced back at you.

“Why are you even listening to me?”

“You clearly wanted someone to, and I was in the area.” Crowley said jokingly.

“Sam and Dean aren’t gonna like it when they see that you’re here.” You said as you backed up out of habit.

“Sam and Dean aren’t going to be here for a while now are they love? I might as well give you some sort of company.” He smirked, as he pulled out one of the kitchen chairs to sit down.

“Why are you acting nice?”

“Who said I was acting? The king of hell can’t do little Winchester a favor?”

“Why would you want to though, it’s pretty unlike you.”

“Let’s say I owe you and your brothers one, I can’t always be ruining things can I? That would just be bad for my reputation.” Crowley sassed.

You scoffed at his sarcastic remarks, then realizing that he did a good job of distracting you from how you were feeling.

“Thanks” you gave a small smile, accepting the nice gesture Crowley gave. 

“No need... Well, I guess my work here is done.” Crowley sighed. “Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have business to attend.” Before you could turn around to hear what Crowley was talking about, he was gone. Moments later, you heard a familiar car engine pull up in front of the motel room. 

Perfect timing.

You drew the curtains to reveal your brothers emerging from the car, with Cas already walking up to the door.

You let out a sigh of relief as you welcomed all three of them inside.

“Hello Y/N.....” Cas paused and looked around with suspicion growing on his face.

“What’s wrong?”

“I had a sense that one from the opposite side was lingering in this vicinity.”

“Okay, I literally understood none of that.”

“There was a demon here at some point. I’m sure of it.”

“Y/N, what’s he rambling about?” Dean asked as he hauled in the last of the things from the impala.

“Uh, I don’t know.” You lied.

Sam could see right through you face and knew something had happened. You didn’t look okay.

“Y/N, was there someone here? Did something try to hurt you?” Sam asked, grabbing Dean’s attention, stopping him from what he was doing.

“Well, Crowley...”

“Crowley!? Was he here?” Dean’s voice boomed.

“Dean, can you please not make a big deal...”

“Big deal!!?”

“Dean, dude seriously chill out. Just tell us what happened, Y/N.” Sam interrupted.

You told the three boys everything that happened. Sam immediately felt bad that he wasn’t there. Dean was worried that his little sister dealt with panic attacks this bad, but he still wasn’t happy that the king of hell just decided to pop in without warning. 

“Y/N/N, why didn’t you tell me over the phone?” Sam asked.

“I didn’t want you to worry. Plus, you were too far anyways.”

“Well next time that happens, you call us, no matter where we are. I promise, you mean more to us than our work, we’d drop everything, even if we were miles away just to get to you.” Sam explained.

“Yeah, what he said.” Dean chimed in.

“Wow, I love how much you care.” You joked.

“You know I love you Y/N/N..... but I’m gonna have to lay down some rules with Crowley, and one of them is no dropping in when I’m not here. I don’t trust that shady punk.”

Sam rolled his eyes and shrugged his arms, motioning for a hug which you gladly accepted.

“Nothing but chick flick moments over here. Get a room.” Dean scoffed.

“Shut up!”

“So, where is Crowley now?” Cas asked innocently.

“Were you even listening the whole time?” Sam asked confused.

“No, there is many things being said over angel radio.” 

“God dammit, Cas.” Dean said as he got up to grab a beer out of the fridge. “Who drank my beers?”

“Wasn’t me...” Sam shrugged. 

You knew you were in big trouble, forgetting about the choices you made earlier. So you slipped out the front door to let Dean cool down, but he had other plans. Sam quietly ratted you out as he motioned to the door that had just shut.

“Y/N! Get back here!” 

Requests are open again!

Tags:

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[lengthofropes]

POVs series

Part 2: Sam

(Part 1: Cas is here)

----------

words: 3,3k | smr: Sam’s POV as Cas returned from the Empty | read on A03

rating: general | warnings: none I guess?

----------

I’ve never seen Cas drinking through a straw. I’ve never seen him having a milkshake either, but here he is. On the backseat of Impala, with Dean sitting next to him and laughing as hard as he possibly can. 

“What is so funny?” Cas frowns at him, sounding sincerely confused. Dean can’t answer cause he’s literally choking with snickering. To be honest, yeah, this is one of the funniest things I’ve seen in years.

“You’re… you’re just slurping so loud!” Dean finally manages, wiping a laugh tear from his eye. "Cas, you gotta…” and he can’t finish the sentence because he's breathless with laugh again. 

"I don't understand. Is this supposed to be a dessert?" Cas asks. 

“Yeah, we can’t make a decent milkshake at home, so I thought you should try it here” Dean’s still giggling, but slowly calms down. “I know you like peanut butter with strawberry jelly, so maybe you'd like a strawberry milkshake too” 

“Oh. This is too sweet” 

And I swear Dean is slightly blushing now, I swear! This is even funnier than Cas slurping, but I’m holding back a smile cause yeah, this is too sweet.

“Yeah, umm… No, I just… I though you’d like it…”

“I like it, but it’s too sweet.” Cas looks at him and adds “The milkshake”

“Oh!…”

This time I can’t hold it back and just burst out with laughter.

“What’s so funny again?” Castiel is confused even more, I can see in a back view mirror. 

“Nothing” - Dean to Cas.

“Shut up!” - Dean to me. But I just can’t stop.

“Gimme that!” - to Cas again, taking the milkshake from his hand and slurping even louder than Cas. "It's not too sweet it's just perfect!"

We haven't laughed like this for a long time, too long.

Through the months Castilel’s been absent, times were tough sometimes. Me and Dean, we had to sort out a lot of stuff, and believe me, it wasn’t that easy.  

We talked about a lot of things, then. We started with the simplest.  

What are we about to do now? Continue hunting? Get ourselves a decent jobs? Should we move somewhere else? 

Move, huh. We weren’t ready to, at that point, guess we’re not ready still, not sure if we actually want to. Not sure, we know where to, how to, even. So many things have changed, we needed at least something to stay the same, stay solid for us. So we kind of… continued our usual routine in the bunker, with an exclusion of hunting for a while. We needed a rest. Probably, sticking up with the domestic stuff helped. You wake, make yourself breakfast, you eat, you read or watch movies, you make some calls, you exercise, you shower, you sleep. You do groceries, laundry, cleaning. You, being normal. Functional, pretty much. Slowly accepting your new world and the life you're now living. Like, piece by piece, understanding and acceptance comes.

Bunker felt so... I don’t know, remarkably unoccupied those days? 

Weird, cause we used to live here on our own, sometimes for weeks. Sometimes even months. But now it was… I guess it’s just knowing, that this time someone won’t come back here, this knowing… it made it hard to walk those corridors. I missed Cas. I missed Jack, too. But… you know. 

First month we stayed at the Bunker on our own. I mean, of course I went to see Eileen, it’s the first thing I wanted to do after everyone returned. I don’t even know how I can describe the feeling when I've read the message from her. I… 

We were driving home. With Miracle, sleeping on the backseat. And Jack’s “I’m not coming home” still too loud in our ears. And my phone beeped. It was her. She was the first person we got a message from. 

“Hey, Sam” 

That’s it, “Hey, Sam” - and it’s easier to breathe. I remember, I couldn’t text her back, just kept looking and looking at my phone.

“Eileen?” Dean asked.

“Yeah… yeah. She’s… she texted” 

I literally could add nothing to that. Dean just smiled, but didn’t say anything.

Rest of the road we called and called everyone, checking, laughing on loudspeaker, explaining, repeating the story about Chuck all over again. It was good. Those were the moments worth fighting for - hearing the voices of your family again. We were so happy, so relieved. And free, at last.

Next day the first thing Dean said to me, was that I need to go to see Eileen. 

“Nope, now! Pack your shit and go! ‘Cmon, Sammy, do me a favor, huh?”

Not sure I need to explain the argument between us, cause I didn’t want to leave him alone. Or should I say, the argument inside my head between me and me, the one who cares about my brother, and the one who loves Eileen. But well, he insisted, he insisted hard. And I’d lie if I say, to see her alive and well, to finally hold her, wasn’t on top of my needs. 

So yeah, Dean understood me even better than I did myself. He assured me, that everything’s gonna be fine, and he has work to do - go to the vet with Miracle and buy all the things we need to make the bunker a home for her, too.

I came back home in two days. Eileen went for a long trip to meet up with all her friends, and she promised to come to the bunker in few weeks. And stay for a little longer. Dean was pretty excited, though, even asked why the hell I didn’t bring her back with me immediately. So yeah, visiting her friends was a nice excuse to… 

He needed time. 

I didn’t tell him how heartbroken she was, when I told her Cas was gone. 

He needed time. And I needed to stay close. Because even if I’ve lost my dearest friend, Dean have lost way more than that.

Dean seemed “normal”. Not sad, not unnaturally cheerful, not heartbroken, not… anything. And it was scary as hell. I didn’t try to talk to him. He didn’t try to talk to me. Geez, at that time, I didn’t even knew how exactly it all happened. How did Cas summoned the Empty? Why it took him? But I just waited. I just think it’s time, when…it’s time. Because one thing I knew for sure, something in Dean has changed. Changed very deep. And it wasn’t a grief, no, that was something else. 

One morning I saw him looking at himself in a bathroom mirror. I just stood at he door, not to interrupt, cause the look on his face was… like he was examining himself, actually seeing something for the first time. Figuring, if he likes it or not. 

So, I was there, and I was waiting for him to be ready to share. Giving him time and space. 

Dean quit drinking. 

He just stopped. I didn’t bring it to his attention, that I’ve noticed. It’s just one day I passed him a bottle of beer in the kitchen, and he mumbled something like “nah, I’m good”, and next day I saw him opening the fridge to pour himself some orange juice. And the next day, we were watching something, and I put a cold six pack on a table. He didn’t touch it. So I just quit offering. 

I didn’t ask.

 Now Dean is siting next to Cas on a backseat. Today, it’s been two weeks since Jack brought him back home, but Dean is still always around him, ready to catch him if he is dizzy again (yeah, it still happens sometimes), or he’s disoriented, or unexpectedly weak. Cas feels much better, though. But we constantly keep an eye on him. Well, I’d say I try to, but Dean doesn’t seem to let me, you know?  Actually, it’s the first time he left the bunker in these two weeks. He rarely even leaves Cas’ room, though, maybe only when he cooks for him or goes to the library to grab another book. When Cas falls asleep, he walks out, and we usually talk in the kitchen or wherever. 

 When we go to sleep to our rooms, Dean doesn’t stays in his for long. 

Two months ago he couldn’t sleep in his room, too, but the reasons were different. I remember constantly finding him in the morning, sleeping anywhere else but his bed. Face on the table in the kitchen, in the armchair in the library, on the couch in his cave. One time I’ve found him in the backseat of Impala in the garage. Dean used to drink himself to sleep, when times were tough. Now that he quit, he just stayed up until he passed out. No need to be genius, to figure he’s been having nightmares. No need to be genius, to figure what those nightmares were about. I still see the burning ceiling in my dreams, rarely, but yeah, I do.

And yeah, he told me he’s having nightmares. He told me not to worry about it, cause it’s a normal reaction, and it will pass. 

What he didn’t told me, Jack did.

That day, I woke up and went to the kitchen to fill my water bottle and go for a jog. Jack was there. Just standing next to the fridge, drinking milk.

To be honest, at first I thought I was still dreaming. But then he raised his hand “hi” and I… 

“Hi Sam!”

“Jack… is it really you? I mean… hey!” I’m not sure if I supposed to hug God but well, I did. And he hugged me back and for a moment it felt like everything is back as it used to be. As it used to be, yeah. Our kid drinking milk in our kitchen.

It was 6 in the morning, and I’ve had one of the most complicated conversations I’ve ever had in my life.

Jack told me everything. About the deal Cas made to save him. About the price of that deal. 

About Dean praying to him every single night for the past weeks. 

Jack was good, though, he coped very well with all his new responsibilities; hell is fine, Earth is fine, new Death is great, heaven is getting some renovations, and angels are finally calm and satisfied. The only problem is the Empty. Since he detonated himself in front of Cosmic Entity, he has no idea what was  happening there. If Chuck was able to bring angels and demons from there, it changed, apparently, after the explosion, because the structure of the void has been damaged.

“Every time I try to reach it, it’s like I’m walking in the dark, like I’ve lost the path and I have no idea where I should go. I tried to summon the Entity, tried to open the portal - nothing works.” Jack looked concerned and dreary. “I don’t know what is happening there. I can only guess, everyone’s awake there. And they all are supposed to rest, supposed to sleep. If I made them suffer…” He looked at me with remorse in his eyes. “Castiel is there too. Sam, what if he…”

I felt sick. What if Jack’s right? What if all the dead angels and demons are going crazy in there? What if Cas sacrificed himself again only to suffer for the eternity?

“They all deserve to rest, and I need to make sure they are. And I want him back, Sam. I want my father back”

“Yeah… yeah. We all do. We just didn’t think it is somehow possible again”

“I’ll make it possible, I promise. I’ll keep trying. But I don’t know if I should answer to Dean’s prayers. I cannot fill him with hope, I need to make sure…”

“Yeah, you’re right. I don’t think he’ll be able to handle it, if we end up failing…”

“He probably thinks I’m an asshole” Jack grinned bitterly. “Or that I’m too busy, or I forgot…”

I didn’t know what to say to that. I didn’t pray to Jack cause I missed him too bad, and I didn’t think I’ll ever see him again. And about Castiel, I just understood it’s impossible to bring him back, the second everyone else have returned. If that were possible, Jack would bring him back with everyone else, too. I didn’t realise there may be a different possibility.

“You really think you can do this? Bring him back?” I asked instead. 

“I have to. And I will” He looked at me, stubborn and determined. “I just need time”

I took a deep breath. That was heavy. Seeing Jack again, knowing the truth about Cas. Stay silent for Dean. This is not the first time I have been hiding something from my brother. But at least now it is more than justified.

Next week Eileen arrived, and things got a little better. Dean was very happy to see her, though, like, really glad. The three of us been spending a lot of time together, constantly chatting about everything, watching movies, cooking, even playing board games. What can I say? Eileen is a ball of sunshine, of course everything’s better in her presence. 

And I knew Dean felt better, too. Since there were no news from Jack in weeks, I decided it was a good tactic, to keep the bunker filled with people we love. So, I called everyone, and the next month was full with friendly visits. 

Kaia and Claire came first and stayed for few days, they were on a hunt in a town nearby. Then Jody and Alex joined us. They both took two weeks leave from work and decided to spend some of it with us. Gotta say, I was upset when they left. Not least because Dean stopped making delicious “special occasion” pancakes for breakfast.

Charlie and Stevie called. They were on a vacation too -  just left to travel around Europe for a month. Yeah, good for them. They promised to meet up with us as soon as they come back. 

Donna couldn't make it to us, cause she was too busy. Things were relatively quiet in Stillwater, but her deputy got sick, so she had to work a little harder those days. So me, Eileen and Dean went to visit her instead. Those were two good days, a lot of hugs and donuts and the latest police gossips. 

The next stop was Garth's house, and Eileen was extremely excited to meet the whole werewolf family. Little Cas and Sam grew bigger and Garth warned us to be careful now with their teeth. Good point. We didn't stay for long though, just for dinner, but Eileen is now Gertie's bestie, and Gertie calls her "giant's girlfriend".

Not long after we got back to bunker, Bobby stopped by for a beer. He was doing well, too, same as all the rest of the survived refugees from the Apocalypse world. They all quit hunting and settled in Lebanon, living their lives peacefully. It was good to see him, all clean and calm. He deserved his retirement.

That was, actually, the exact moment I realised I don’t want to hunt anymore. I’m done. No more blood on my hands. 

Yeah, there’s still a lot of things to hunt in this world. But I just don’t want to. But we’re still the last men of letters. Why not to become…a mentors? Turn bunker into headquarters again? We can’t just leave all the lore, all the knowledge here, untouched.

This thought has firmly settled in the backyard of my mind. Yes, we'll come back to this later, for sure. When we will figure out all the things. 

A nice month, yeah. Then Eileen went to help her friends with a little ghoul problem. I must say, I’m still overprotective, but at least I agreed to let her go by herself, since she gave me The Look. Okay, three of them will be there, one ghoul. They can handle it. Besides, “Girl needs to have fun sometimes, Sam!” and yes, she needed some space. And she promised to keep me updated. 

It was the evening I’ve received “All done! That was too easy, I’m disappointed. We’re driving to their place now, it’s couple of hours. Facetime you soon!” No, I wasn’t relieved, because I wasn’t worried, honestly! But still went to Dean’s cave, where he was watching something, to tell him the news.

“Hey, got a message from Eileen, she kicked that ghoul’s ass”

“Ha! I didn't doubt her!” Dean grinned at me, making a sound of the TV quieter.

“Yeah, she probably will be home in few days. Listen…”

I didn’t finish. Bright light filled the corridor.

“Sam. Now” I couldn’t even see his face, but Jack’s voice was loud and high with emotion. 

“What?? Jack??” I screamed back.

“What is happening?” Dean ran out the room, facing the light in the hallway. “Jack?? Sam, what’s going on?” 

“Sorry, I didn't have time to warn you. It happened all at once. Sam, I'm coming in, I found the entrance. I can do it, I know. Explain to him, tell him…” And he disappeared.

We were standing there, shaking in shock.

“What the hell is going on? Explain me what? Sam? The fuck is happening? Was that Jack?” 

I wasn’t ready for this, it happened not the way I imagined. I though I’ll have enough time for this conversation. What was I suppose to do? Explain? How?? 

Dean was looking at me, eyes wide with concern. Okay, okay… just gonna tell it the way it is, calm and slow.

“Yeah, it was Jack…” And my mouth turned dry.

“….and?” Dean kept looking at me “Explain what? Sam, cmon! He was worried, goddamit! What’s going on?”

“Okay, okay… He, umm. For the past months he’s been trying to get to The Empty” 

Dean was speechless. He turned pale.

“He couldn’t get there, he couldn’t even summon the Entity to talk. He thought it was because of the explosion. But he, umm, he kept on trying. He promised me he will keep trying.”

“He… promised you?” 

“Yeah… He appeared here, a little more then a month ago. He…” It was hard to look into my brother’s eyes, but somehow, I did it. “Dean, he was trying to bring Cas back. All this time”

His expression was unreadable. Something between anger, fear, disbelief and shock. 

“And you didn’t tell me…”

“Because he asked. Because he wasn’t sure how long will it take. He wanted to tell you, when he’s ready to do it. And I didn’t want to tell you too, because if we fail at this…”

“Okay, shut up” He leaned into the wall, all trembling, trying to calm his breath. “He said… he said “Now!” Does it mean… Sammy, what does it mean?” 

There was a plea in his eyes. So much fear. And a plea.

“Yes.” I put my hand on his shoulder. “You've heard him”

Dean grabbed my shoulder.

“Sammy…”

The bunker started to shake -  the walls, the floor, as like an earthquake. 

“Sammy… the dungeon”

And we ran, as fast as we could.

So yeah, today we finally went to buy Cas some closes, although he seems to like all those Dean’s hoodies, he looks like an E.T., when he wears them.

Nothing extraordinary, just basic stuff like jeans and shirts and sweaters. Though Dean bought him a cowboy hat, and I swear I could hear quiet “Not again..” from Cas. But he scored with picking one of the world’s ugliest sweaters that I’ve ever seen - blue, with a giant yellow bee on the front. Dean’s face was pure shock when he saw that one, and he immediately put it out of the shopping basket, shaking his head. But the second Cas got distracted with his shoelaces, Dean put that ugly piece back and quickly went to the checkout. 

Now he’s drinking strawberry milkshake in the backseat.

It’s a movie night tonight. Eileen makes popcorn.

#destiel fic #destiel #dean winchester #sam winchester #castiel #fieryfrankie #seraphcastiel #becauseofthebowties #casjpg #userdainty #holmesemrys #scottstiles #ugh sorry probably lot of mistakes and typos here:))) #I'm too lazy....dasdfghjkl #and there's a lot of missing pieces here. I saved some explanations for the further chapters ggggg:) #fic tag

[malewifegradyruewen]

An Untitled Original Work Goes To Pride

happy pride!! the auow crew is gay so ofc i had to do something for pride!!

i’m realising now that i’m basically writing fanfic for my own writing but it’s fine somebody’s gotta do it

this takes place the summer before auow actually starts, so no Sammie content (or Logan, Benji, or Ellison)

disclaimer: i've never been to pride so most of this came from google and a vague memory from walking through a Christopher Street Day festival in Germany two summers ago

masterpost

trigger warnings: biphobia, swearing, light violence mention, ask to tag

word count: 1018

tagging: @fire-sapphics @damischs @zoyyanazyalensky @love-pyramus @ketterdamkid @pencilwritesshiz47 @tiergan-andrin-alenefar @mermistahawk @dirty-racoon @tommyinnitt @enbies-and-felonies @sophia-not-sofie @imaramennoodle @littlemisscupcake @cadence-talle @knifescythe @anaccidentwaitingtohappen @completekeefitztrash and lmk know if you wanna be added/removed!!

They could see the mass of people from blocks away. Thousands of brightly dressed people, with all sorts of signs and accessories to help them stand out in the crowd. Music blared louder than any concert Mally had ever been to.

Gina had swapped her all-black look for black jean shorts and purple converse to go with a t-shirt she’d tie-dyed and cropped. Leo had been slathering on sunscreen, but was growing increasingly more distracted as they drew nearer to the crowd. Andre’s fanny pack was covered in buttons and pins that the group had applied the night before in preparation for the event.

“Woah, Mally, this is insane,” Leo said. “There’s so much going on!”

“I know, right?” she said gleefully. “Come on, we can’t be late to watch the parade!”

She led the group of friends through the crowded streets of the festival, weaving past vendors and corporate booths. The crowds were thick, but she expertly dodged people, making sure to hold onto Andre's hand so the chain wouldn’t be broken. Finally, they arrived at the curb where they would have an unobscured vantage point.

“They’re starting!” she pointed. “Look!”

There it was, in all its glory. The Philadelphia Pride Parade was just beginning, and they’d arrived just in time.

“I can’t believe we’re actually here!” Gina said, bouncing on the balls of her feet. “I never thought I’d be able to go!”

“I know, right? My parents are so chill. I never thought they’d go for this idea.”

“Where are they today?”

“Uh, they took my sister to a museum, I think. But come on, let’s watch the parade!”

The four kids watched gleefully as the parade went by, waving at performers and screaming along to the music. They collected beads as they were thrown into the crowds, collecting several dozen and putting them all around Andre’s neck.

Partway through the spectacle, Mally turned to Gina and said, “Hold this.” She thrust the little flag she’d been holding at her friend and pulled her backpack off. She unzipped it, reached inside, and pulled out a bisexual flag. “This is for you, I totally forgot about it this morning.”

“Oh my God, Mally, thank you so much!” Gina exclaimed, hugging her friend. “I love it, thank you!” Her excitement was infectious as she unfolded it and wrapped it around her shoulders as a cape.

Mally whipped out a lesbian flag and followed suit while Gina showed her new accessoriy off to the boys. Leo grabbed a little container of bubbles out of his pocket and started blowing them in Gina’s face while Andre threw some of his beads around her neck.

When the parade ended, their chain linked up once more as they visited different booths and got countless freebies. Rubbery wristbands choked their forearms, while Leo’s shirt became plastered with stickers. Andre suddenly had not one, but four pairs of bright orange sunglasses on his face, all sporting a logo for a company none of them had ever heard of. After a bit of wandering, Gina stopped to buy a snack.

“You spent eight dollars on a pretzel?” Andre asked.

“What?” she defended herself. “I was hungry! Plus, I got a sticker,” she added, peeling off the backing and adding it to the collection that had amassed on Leo’s shirt.

“That’s still a lot,” Andre said skeptically.

“Yeah,” Gina agreed, her mouth full of pretzel. “It’s not even that good.”

“I’ll eat it!” Leo grabbed at it, but she dodged him and left him to stumble to catch his balance.

“Mine,” she said, grabbing Mally’s arm and moving on to the next vendor.

They continued in this fashion for nearly an hour, wandering the market-like plaza that had been erected on the grass. The energy level of their friend group dropped, but the party kept going stronger than ever. They passed all sorts of people, from kids younger than themselves to people who looked old enough to be grandparents. There were too many flags to keep track of, and dozens of outrageous outfits.

As the group made their way through the park, they came to an open, grassy area, where people had spread out blankets and were eating food, watching their kids run around, and just relaxing. The friends sat down on a patch of soil under a tree, soaking up a bit of shade. As excited as they were to be there, they had to admit their energy was dwindling.

Just then, a tall man in jeans and a baseball cap came up and stepped on Gina’s flag, knocking her backwards onto the ground. “Hey!” she yelled. “What the fuck!”

“Bisexual is just attention seeking,” the man said gruffly. “Pick one or the other. Don’t be greedy.”

“What the hell, dude?” Mally cried, standing up. “What’s your problem?”

“Bisexual isn’t real,” he spat. “She’s just a straight who’s trying to feel special.”

“Oh yeah? Think again,” Gina said, untying her flag and standing up. Before anyone knew what was going on, the man was on the ground, spitting curses at her.

Mally knew what was happening next before Gina could tell her. She gave a small nod before Gina grabbed her face and kissed her square on the lips. Andre and Leo’s cheers in the background only boosted her confidence. After a moment, Gina backed up and spat in the man’s face.

“Straight my ass. I’m here, I’m queer, and I strike fear into the hearts of my enemies!” she yelled as the man scrambled to his feet and ran away.

Mally turned to her and gave her a high-five. “Didn’t think we were gonna have to use that trick. Good thing we were prepared.”

“That was awesome,” Leo said. “You pushed him really hard.”

“Yeah, I was not expecting that,” Andre chimed in. “And yeah, good thing you guys were prepared.”

“Team effort,” Gina smiled at Mally.

“Yep,” she laughed back. “Is your flag okay?”

Gina bent down to pick it up. “Just a bit dirty, I think. Your gift isn’t ruined.”

“Awesome,” Mally said. “Now, who wants ice cream? It’s on me!”

#jolie's shitty writing #auow

[jay-and-dean]

Firefly Chapter 7 : Eighteen and twenty-eight years old

By Roonyxx and Jay-and-dean

Pairings : future Dean x reader ?

Summary :  40 years in Hell, but he didn’t spend all this time all alone, he had her.

Prepare to know what happened during those years Dean never talks about. To immerge yourself in Hell, only lit by the mysterious kid growing here…

And to see some of your favorite villains again : Crowley, Lilith, Lucifer… And also Sammy and Jack…

Serie Warnings : Hurt!Dean, Hell (torture, even if we tried to not give it graphic descriptions, creepy demons, blood, violence), swearing, angst, future fluff and smut.

This story is in both Reader’s POV and Dean’s POV

Wordcount : 4330

Note : This is our second collaboration. We can’t both edit the same post, so we decided we would post 1 chapter/2 each, like we did for Same.

We both worked as much on this story and it’s the result of both our brains but also both our hearts.

Please, if you want to show love for this story, don’t forget we were together in this.

This story will be around 10 chapters and we intend to edit it every Saturday if nothing delays it.

Firefly Chapter 1

Firefly Chapter 2

Firefly Chapter 3

Firefly Chapter 4

Firefly Chapter 5

Firefly Chapter 6

Jay’s Masterlist

Roonyxx Masterlist

——————————————————————————

She wasn’t moving at all. Sitting on the bench in the middle of this ocean of life, she watched people walk by. The sun had gone down now, after moving from building to building, making giant shadows change the whole city constantly.

She was overwhelmed, unable to move at all. Her eyes were drinking the world like new born baby’s ones. None of her muscles moved for hours, her fists clinging at her dress, her heart bleeding in silence for Dean.

A few people stopped to ask her if she was okay, but she couldn’t answer, her voice locked in her lungs…

But she finally got up.

After days of hiding in alleys, and walking on boulevards, escaping weird men yelling at her in the dark of night… It started to rain. A heavy, pouring storm rain that made her dress heavy and washed the dust out of her. And that warm loud summer rain somehow woke her from her torpor.

She had to live, and learn everything about life because that’s what Dean wanted for her… But Dean wasn’t here, and he will never be. So she came back to that bench, soaked and shaking, and started to cry for him. She had to be happy for the man she loved, and couldn’t without him… 

Her tears only calmed with the rain that day. And even when her eyes stopped crying, her heart never stopped weeping for Dean a single second.

Not when she got up from that bench to find a map of the city on the subway station, not when she found clothes, and ripped that stupid dress of her body… It was still weeping when she first found people in the street and asked her where to find food. It was screaming inside her during her first night in a foster home for homeless people… When she fought for the first time to escape men again. 

Her heart was weeping for Dean the first time she laughed, seeing cartoons in a TV store front, when she found out about drugs and abuse, cheating, wealth... when she started to be hungry, when she fell of exhaustion in an alley…

And even if her eyes stayed dry, her soul kept crying when the demons attacked.

Lilith had sent them after her as soon as the Queen noticed Y/n was no longer in Hell. She was hiding in an abandoned building when dozens of demons attacked her, she fought with teeth and nails to get them off and she won, but that wasn’t the end… Lilith kept sending more minions and, exhausted but determined to live, Y/n had only one option left.

She faked her own death. With the help of her powers and some research in the nearby library and in the maze of knowledge she had memorized over the years, she tricked the demons into believing she was dead, and used a certain pattern of sigils to hide herself, cloaked from every supernatural being.

Finally she was free.

So things went easier. After a little while, she met her own little angel : Sue. An older lady who offered Y/n shelter when she caught her dumpster diving her diner. Sue found Y/n a little odd at first, everyone thought that of her, but just as with every person Y/n had met on her way, Sue liked the happy girl she always seemed to be, enthusiastic about the very simpler things ; so she offered Y/n a job as a waitress in her diner.

_____________

 Y/n’s window was rolled down as the loud music blasted through the speakers of her raven black 1967 Ford Mustang as she drove to work, still the same job at Sue’s diner. And she was smiling wide on her way, because she loved every single thing about this job. 

She parked her car in the lot and made her way inside to take her light blue apron.

“Morning Y/n! How are you doing today sweetie ?” Sue asked.

“You know, same old same old.” Y/N shrugged.

Tying her apron on her, Y/n smiled kindly. She looked so different from what Dean had known, and hopefully different enough so no demon passing by ever recognized her. Her hair was tied together and no longer falling on a waterfall in her back. No more fancy dresses but only jeans and all the t-shirts she liked, with rock bands on it, or her favorite movies posters... 

Sue sighed and put her hand on Y/n’s shoulder.

“Are you still working on freeing Prince Charming ?” she asked Y/n with an apologetic smile. 

“Yes, I promised I would get him out and I won’t stop until he is” she said determinedly. 

When Sue had just found Y/n she kindly offered her to stay at her house until she could get on her own feet. Y/n dreamed a lot about Dean, some dreams worse than the others, so after the third night of her guest screaming Dean’s name, Sue had asked her who he was. Y/n couldn’t tell her everything so she said he was the love of her life and was wrongly imprisoned, and that she had promised to get him out.

“He’s a very lucky guy to have you, Y/n” Sue told her.

“Yeah, I just… I miss him so much…” Y/n said as she made the last knot on her apron.

“I know sweetie, but if you truly love him, he’ll come back, just wait and see” she smiled with that protective expression she always had when it came to her protégée, even if she seemed sometimes perplexed about all those stories she told.

She gave her her note book to write down the orders.

“Yeah I hope so” Y/n clicked on her pen and made her way into the diner to take up the orders of all the customers. 

It was a quiet day, she loved this little diner, the food was amazing and it even had a little jukebox she often used. It had given her a shelter, money to live, but also an identity and friends. A life.

Her smile faded like it did sometimes, Dean would have loved this diner too… She thought back to all the things she discovered on Earth.

She did everything Dean had told her about : She went to the movie theater, she learned how to drive (thanks to Sue), she had a date or four, went to a party, she got drunk a few times. She danced alone and with others, kissed a girl and travelled a little. Her appetite for life was never ending, so she had driven to the ocean and dived, she had smoked weird things once and ran in the forest, she had woke in the middle of the night to go buy ice-cream, she had sang in the shower and stayed home for an entire weekend crying while watching bad tv shows… And she even lost her virginity to a sweet boy. But nothing could get her mind off Dean, calm her weeping heart or divert her from her goal.

Every night she looked up at the stars and imagined him by her side, she could use her power to create an image of him that existed out of a million little stars, well more like a million little fireflies.

A lot of time had passed since she last saw him, her heart broke at the thought of him down there for so long. He must have forgotten her by now, if his soul even survived those many years.

A throat being cleared pulled her from her daydreaming. She turned to find a man smiling at her.

“Oh my apologies, what can I get you, sir ?” she asked the man, there was something unpleasant about him, he had dirty blonde hair and she didn’t like the way his blue eyes were traveling her up and down.

“Are you on the menu ?” he asked her with a sly smile.

Y/n sighed deep, why were a lot of men on Earth such… pigs ?

“No sorry, I was just joking” the man began. “I’ll take a coffee with some pancakes.” 

Y/n wrote his order down and left with a forced smile. 

He was the only customer today so Y/n handed the paper to Sue so she could make it and sat down at the little bar. She was watching the man in the mirror that hung on the other side of the counter. She couldn’t shake the eerie feeling she got from the man, he looked normal, but she could feel something… something powerful radiating off him.

The bell pulled Y/n out of her haze as she took the coffee and pancake to the man.

“Here you go sir, enjoy your meal” Y/n said as she dropped the food at his table.

“Thank you.” 

She was starting to leave when his voice stopped her.

“Can I ask you a question, miss ?” he asked as he took a bite from the pancake.

“Yeah, of course” Y/n shrugged.

“You haven’t been here for long have you ?” he said as he looked at her.

“Uhm no, not very long. Are you from around here ?” Y/n asked, he was just a normal guy, it was impossible for anyone to find her anyway. 

“Oh no not at all. But i didn’t mean this diner...” he kept on eating nonchalantly, he swallowed. “I meant Earth.” 

Y/n’s eyes went wide, she turned and ran towards the exit only to bump into the man who was just sitting at the table behind her half a second ago. 

“Who are you” Y/n asked as she stepped back from him

A deep sigh left his mouth.

“It hurts me that you even have to ask that, Y/n” he blinked and his irises turned to a fiery red.

Y/n ran towards the kitchen to get Sue. She pulled open the door and shrieked as her dear friend fell on her with her eyes burned out.

Dead.

“No ! Sue !” Y/n started shaking, cupping her friend’s face. “WHAT DID YOU DO TO HER ?” Y/n screamed to the man walking in casually.

“She put too much milk in my coffee, so I ended her” he shrugged nonchalantly.

Y/n stood up, her eyes a flare as she widened her arms to unleash her powers. Two fiery tentacles wrapped around the man’s legs.

“You’ll regret this” she said, her voice sounding like a thousand people at once.

The man gave her a sly smirk and snapped his fingers, her powers stopped immediately. She thrusted her hands forward to him, but nothing happened. Fear shone in her eyes as she looked at him in disbelief.

“It’s time we should head home, Y/n” he stepped closer to her, his fingers tilting up her chin.

“We have a family to start” he whispered against her lips with a dark chuckle.

“L-Lucifer” she gasped. 

 His arms wrapped tight around her and before she could blink she was back in Hell.

The suffocating smell of sulfur and blood made her cough, her whole body started to shake as she started to desperately gasp for air, her lungs crushed by the most powerful anxiety she ever felt. Her arms reached to her enemy in a pleading scratch, like he was strangling her…

“Home sweet home, baby” he cruelly cooed in her ear, his breath heavy on her skin. 

She pried her arms between them to push out of his embrace. He chuckled as he let her go and she fell backwards, scrambling away from him.

“Stay away from me!” she finally managed to yell at him, her eyes flaring back to life as she was losing control over her powers.

He tilted his head at her as he watched her, his steps following her every move.

“You are such a pretty thing, I see some potential too. But I was told you were,” he hummed in thought “a pain in the ass. And I’m starting to see why.”

Her eyes were scanning everything, the bloody walls, the frozen air all around her, the never ending screams, the smell of fear and fire. 

No she couldn’t be back in Hell…

With a turn of his wrist she was lifted up in the air, she tried to fight his power, but he was too strong… She couldn’t take on the Lord of Hell…

“Y/n, I’m only going to tell you that only once : You will obey and be helpful” he said with every step until he stood nose to nose with her, his eyes drinking her in.

She gave him a sweet smile before she spat in his face.

“Never” she told him.

His hand came up to wipe her spit away, he licked his hand clean, humming at her taste. 

“As you wish, Y/n. Then my little slave needs chains...” he sneered.

Iron ropes wrapped around her as soon as the word left his lips, they burned into her flesh making her scream in pain. She fell heavy to the ground at his feet.

“For eternity” he finished as he sat down on his throne.

“No p-please, no chains… everything but chains” she begged him.

“Oh no baby, I know what you used to do when you’re set loose, but forget about that, he isn’t here anyway, no reason to go wandering. Jeal told me all about you and your little lover.” he said as he crossed his legs over each other.

“H-he isn’t ? H-How” she asked, suddenly able to ignore the pain of the iron digging in her flesh. 

How was that possible ?

“He got out, Heaven’s plans. Now stop asking or I’ll gag you too” he sighed, looking at her. “I’ll make you your own little cage, like they did for me. No way you’ll get away from this one. And don’t think your daddy will help, he still thinks you’re dead. Everyone does.”

She whimpered in silence, only one thought on her mind. He was free… 

Dean Winchester was alive.

________________________

Dean’s Pov 

  Dean woke up in a little painful whine, he opened his eyes and wiped the sweat off his face and neck, watching the ceiling, trying to focus on the contour of his body, the sheets and the pillow. He took a deep breath to calm his heaving chest. 

Another nightmare.

And this one wasn’t the violent surviving of Purgatory, it wasn’t the burning guilt of old fights with John, the crushing pain of seeing Sam die ; it wasn’t the despair of losing Mary again, the disturbing memories of being a demon… It was the worst : Hell.

And among the worst, the tortures and the screams, tonight’s nightmare had to be about the cruellest idea demons ever came up with : fake hope.

In his dream, he was laying on the floor of his cell, barely able to breath because of the blood drowning his lungs, and he felt her hand, her tiny soft fingers wrapped around his wrist to ease his panic. She whispered sweet things to him but when he lifted his eyes to see her face, only Alastair was there, laughing loud and sharpening knives. 

Dean stretched and shook his head, like he could get rid of those memories like that. He couldn’t let nightmares get to him, and he couldn’t let his past crush him. 

With his guts still aching from the dream, he forced himself to get up. Staying in bed only made the memories clearer, and the trauma cut deeper. He knew only another hunt could ease the pain. 

Maybe, just maybe, if he saved enough people, he would finally expiate.

The bunker was silent, even Sam was still sleeping so early in the morning. Walking to the kitchen, he frowned : His knee was still hurting and the bruises on his face and collarbones too. 

Damn demon.

He turned to enter the kitchen and jumped a little.

“Hi Dean, sorry I scared you” Jack said, looking up from his bowl of cereal, his big eyes going to the hunter’s wounds quickly. “How are you ?” 

“I’m fine. What are you doing up so early ?” Dean grunted, going straight to the coffee in his long grey robe. 

“I have trouble sleeping lately” the boy answered, frowning in confusion like he often did. 

“Try whiskey” Dean muttered low in a sleepy grunt.

“Alcohol is really not a solution to my problem I think” Jack turned to him, even more confused.

“I was kidding” he sighed, sitting in front of the young boy.

Sometimes Jack really was Castiel’s son…

The hunter scratched his scruff and took the cereal to plunge his hand in the box, eating some while reading the joke behind it.

“I hear a voice in my head” Jack sighed. 

Dean looked up, ready to make a mocking joke but he noticed a genuine worry on the boy’s face.

“A voice ?”

“Yes” Jack searched Dean’s face. “At first I thought maybe I overheard something on the angel radio, but… It seems different.”

“What does it say ?” 

“I don’t really understand it” Jack shrugged.

“Understand what ?” Sam asked, scratching his head while entering the room with his hair in every direction and the left side of his face still swollen and bruised. “Wow, everyone is up early this morning ! What am I missing ?” 

“Jack says he hears a voice” Dean repeated, getting up to get coffee now it was ready. “But he doesn’t know where it comes from or what it says” he groaned slightly. 

Please don’t let that be bad news again…

Dean sat heavily, rubbing his tired eyes while his brother interrogated Jack. How long had he been hearing the voices, were there several, was it constant… The boy only had a very few answers.

“We need to find where it comes from, Dean” Sam states, making his brother grunt again in his coffee mug. 

That didn’t sound like a good old fight and kill hunt, it sounded like trouble.

_____________________

  Dean pushed the heavy metal door and went down the stairs, overhearing his brother, Jack and Castiel talking in the library. 

Reaching them, he almost threw the bag on the wooden table, not daring to ask any question seeing the three too serious faces looking at him.

“I guess no good news” he mumbled deep in his throat looking down to grab a beer from the bag.

“Dean” Castiel started with his worried voice, making the hunter look instantly slightly annoyed. “The voice comes from Hell.”

“Hell” Dean repeated casually, taking a sip of beer to wash the word from his mouth. “There are a lot of voices in Hell, it’s pretty loud down there.”

When his eyes fell on Sam, a shiver roamed his back. He had the face, Dean hated that face, the “you’re not going to like it” face. So he put his beer down on the table and sighed.

“What is it ?” he finally asked.

“The voice, Dean” Jack said. “It’s calling you.”

“Me” Dean’s eyes widened. “There can be another dude named Dean in Hell !”

“Dean…” Sam sighed. “Who could be calling you ?”

Dean’s first thought went to Bobby. They had freed him from Hell a few years ago, he was supposed to be in Heaven, and Crowley had decided differently… Maybe someone they lost ? An innocent locked in Hell by mistake ? But Rowena was on the throne now… Would she do that ? 

“How can you hear a voice coming from Hell ?” he shook his head. “Do you hear them all ?”

“No” Jack said. “Only this one.”

Dean sat and took a deep breath, realizing this would mean that he would have to visit Hell... again. After those break in, the nightmares were always worse, and last time he had to deal with a panic attack in the shower. 

“Okay” he stated. “What is the plan ? And how do we know it’s not a trap ?”

_____________________ 

 “So your plan…” Rowena frowned from her throne, her long dress nonchalantly falling on the floor. “Is letting the boy follow a voice like a dog on a leash ?” 

Dean’s face was stern, his arms tense, his heart a little compressed in his chest.

Each time he smelled that horrible sulfur mixed with blood smell, it was like he could feel the chains and the needles and hear Alastair’s voice all over again. Then he had two choices in his mind : Either he accepted it, and stayed with the demon’s croaky voice in his head for days, or focused on what had made him hold on for years back then : the secret girl’s soft touches ; but then the fear was replaced by the crushing feeling of despair and sadness, at knowing he had been fooled that bad, into believing innocence exited.

“More or less” his brother answered. “Rowena, you have to admit it’s something new… And if there are leaks in Hell…”

“Yeah yeah…” the witch sighed. “But don’t come crying when your little baby angel comes back traumatized. This is not a place for kids.”

Oh the irony.

“It’s not there” Jack cut them with a frown, looking around.

“What do you mean it’s not there ?” Dean grunted. “You were sure it came from Hell !”

“It does…” the boy stated. “Just deeper.”

“Deeper ?” Sam shook his head, but turned to Rowena, immediately trusting Jack as always. “Is there a basement in Hell ?”

“A basement ? Hell is a multi-dimensional…”

“Answer him” Dean cut her, losing patience.

Rowena got up and demons entered the room. She gave orders about getting the records, about the cage, and all. After a few very long minutes, a demon in an old man vessel came closer to the Queen, whispering something in her ear.

“Oh really ?” Rowena said. “Why am I not aware of all this ?”

“Because they’re all empty, your Majesty” the demon shrugged. 

“What is ?” Sam insisted with a flustered move of his hands.

Rowena sat again.

“There are cages, like the one that held Lucifer once. Smaller ones, but for all we know, they are all empty.”

“For all you know ?” Dean raised his voice a little. 

“No one uses them” Rowena shrugged. 

“They held an angel during the war between Heaven and Hell” the demon spoke, his voice shaking a little, obviously uneasy in front of the Winchesters. “I-in the dawn of time, but the angel was killed by Lucifer before Michael locked him in the cage… We kinda forgot where they were.”

“Take us to them” Jack ordered Rowena with this frown of his.

Rowena looked to the demon that didn’t move, his eyes on Dean, like the hunter could suddenly decide to kill all of them.

“Merihem, take us to those cages” Rowena called him. “Chop chop.” 

____________________

The light of Hell’s fire didn’t reach that deep in the pit, like the sun in the deepest ocean.

Dean was holding the torch like it was his lifeline in this vertiginous nightmare of deafening silence. Everything was threateningly pitch black, a perfect representation of the fear of dark, a big cold lonely nothingness… With stairs in the middle. 

“I didn’t know there was anything deeper than Lucifer’s cage” the Queen’s voice echoed weirdly in the void.

Suddenly, the stairs stopped and Dean banged into metal bars. He lifted his torch to see what was behind it, but the cage was empty.

“It’s here” Jack whispered. “I can feel it.”

Sam opened the empty cage, his arm hair ruffling at the touch of the same metal that held his soul for so long.

“Nothing” he said, holding back his own trauma probably as hard as Dean did.

“Dean…” a weak voice made them all jump, coming from the dark.

“Who is this ?” the hunter grunted, taking a few unsure steps to the next cage, firmly holding his torch in front of him with an almost trembling arm.

“Dean…” the voice now whined.

Sam put his hand on his brother’s shoulder to make him wait for him. They looked at each other, using silent words and joining their flames to fight the pitch black ahead of them. 

Even used to all kinds of nightmares, Dean wasn’t so reassured in the deepest of Hell, called by a weak and plaintive voice coming from the darkest of darks.

Something moved in the cage in a deafening metal noise, a shadow fleeing the light. The brothers both let out a shaky breath, moving closer with the demon and Rowena way behind them.

Dean swallowed, finally distinguishing a body, hunched in the opposite corner of the cage, shaking. Extremely long hair was falling around the pitiful form, chained heavily even inside the cage. 

“Who are you ?” he asked again. “You’re calling me, why ?”

No answer.

“Who is this ?” Sam turned to the demon that had guided them.

“I-I have no idea” it answered. “No one came here in years !”

“Dean ?” the voice seemed to struggle thinking straight.

“Jeez” Sam muttered. “For how long has she been there ?”

She ? Dean thought, realizing now it was indeed a woman, her thin delicate hands were clinging to the floor.

His heart was racing in his chest, from being in Hell, from the fear of what he would find, and from something else, something confusing, like an emotion flying in the air around him.

The girl finally lifted her face to them, teary eyes frowned at the light of the flame, her shaking hand open in front of her to soften the burning of the torch.

Dean felt hit violently in the chest, his breathing stopped in a strangled gasp as everything he certainly knew started to crumble in the back of his mind. He opened his mouth but nothing came out… After swallowing twice, he finally managed to speak.

“Firefly ?”

Next Chapter on @roonyxx​‘s blog

________________________

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[scribbleb-red]

i like your face - a morning au

“I’ll get the drinks,” Neil says as soon as they walk into Eden’s.

Andrew raises an eyebrow.

“No one needs to get stabbed tonight,” Neil says. “It’s Hapless Sam on the bar.”

“Spoilsport,” Andrew mutters, but doesn’t move with Neil when he heads to the bar.

Hapless Sam is the new barman helping Roland, stepping in for a few months whilst Ebony, the usual yin to Roland’s yang, is off to have surgery.

Hapless Sam is also the bane of Andrew’s life. He never gets a drinks order right. He constantly peppers them with bad one liners. He also once tried to pick up both Neil and Nicky and Aaron in one night - only stopping when Aaron suddenly duplicated and Andrew stuck a blade under his chin. After that, Roland stepped in.

But the bar was overrun tonight and if Andrew had to so much as look at Hapless Sam - well, someone is going to prison and someone is leaving in a body bag. And you don't need to be a genius to figure out which.

So Neil goes to the bar and Andrew keeps an eye on him - on the red of his hair, the sway of his hips, a new quirk that he had to know drove Andrew crazy. It should be illegal for someone like Neil to have any kind of rhythm - but Neil wasn’t a bad dancer. He was sinuous and unreal, if a little self conscious, and Andrew really really needed a drink before that happened again.

Because it will, promised the voice in his head. Nicky will never rest until Neil dances again. Even if it killed Andrew. He suspected it was partly because Nicky wanted him to dance too.

Neil came back an achingly long time later. There was something odd about the way he looked at Andrew, half a question hovering right beneath his skin.

He set down the tray and Nicky chitters, Aaron glowers, Kevin reaches forward expectantly.

But there’s a yell from the bar and Andrew looks up to see Roland’s furious face, Hapless Sam’s horror.

He catches Roland’s eye and the frantic look there - the way he's turned to stare at Andrew tells him everything.

“Don’t fucking drink anything,” he says to his table.

Aaron puts his glass down. Kevin looks torn but relents under Andrew's stare. Nicky frowns and leans back.

Neil however sways on the spot. His eyes are blown wide, two black pools ringed with the finest circle of ice blue. Andrew reaches for him and Neil reaches back. He looks sad and confused.

"N'drew..." he slurs, "Did I do su'thin bad?" There's a tinge of British in there, a twirl of French.

Andrew tugs Neil down beside him, stomach hollowing because he doesn't know what Neil's taken but it's clear he's taken something. Rage pools in the empty cavern of his chest. He goes to push Neil at Nicky - Roland clearly knows something and he wants answers - but Neil makes a noise in his throat and catches hold of Andrew's sleeve. Even high he's not crossing lines. Andrew aches with that knowledge.

"What did I do?" Neil asks again. "I don' have none secrets."

It takes a moment for Andrew to realise Neil thinks this was his fault. That in some part of this idiot's head, he believes Andrew would drug him again.

"It wasn't me," Andrew says, voice low. "You're okay Neil."

"Stay with Nicky, I'll talk to Roland." And probably gut Hapless Sam, whose fault it inevitably is.

Neil makes that whining noise again and Andrew wishes they didn't have an audience. "Don't wanna kiss Nicky."

"Who said anything about kissing?"

"Not Nicky. Only you."

Nicky's guilty look sets Andrew's teeth on edge.

Andrew needs to talk to Roland but can't leave Neil with the Monsters. Fortunately, Roland comes to them bearing a new tray of drinks and a harried expression.

"Fucking hell guys, I'm sorry. None of you drank those, right?"

"Don't worry Sammy's been banished to the kitchen, he's not doing anything like this again and--"

Andrew is up and in his face within seconds - pinioning Roland against the wall, arm across his throat, knife pricking his side.

"What has he taken?"

Roland notices Neil, gulps.

"It's a new syrup - they call it Goblin Juice and it looks just like lime cordial - Sam thought it was lime for the soda. Fuck Andrew do you need the knife? Ow fuck fuck fuck okay stop, it's made using shrooms. Non addictive. Just meant to make you happy - kinda soft."

But of course Neil was the one who drank it. If it had been any of the others, perhaps no one would have even noticed - maybe even celebrated the free high.

But Neil...

Kevin and Aaron are helping themselves to the new drinks when he lets Roland go. Nicky looks pale and nervous and is holding a shot but not drinking. Neil has flopped back on their sofa and is staring at Andrew, a wide smile on his face that Andrew immediately hates.

"I really like your face," Neil says when his brain catches up and realises Andrew is paying attention again. "You have a good face."

Andrew shoots daggers with his eyes at Roland and the barman flees, promising free drinks for the night and the next, forever, whenever.

Neil smiles and reaches for Andrew again as he comes back.

Andrew is not drunk enough for this shit, especially when Nicky coos. "Oh he's so cute. He should have gotten high sooner."

Andrew wants to warn his cousin to back off but Neil has wriggled around and nuzzled his face against Andrew's shoulder. It's heedlessly distracting. It's dangerously adorable.

"Do yous like my face Nyandrew?" Neil says. "I really really like yours. Look at your face. Hey is my head still attached?"

Andrew sees the way Neil is teetering, wraps his hand across the back of Neil's neck and tugs him close. It's not a hug. It's for the idiot's own safety that's all. However, apparently for sky-high-Neil, silence and gestures isn't an answer.

"You don't like my face?"

The slight tremble in Neil's voice is what makes Andrew swallow his frustration and reply. He can't stand that tremble. "I like your fucking face." "I like yours too." And then Neil's finger boops Andrew's cheek.

"Nose," he says. "Good nose."

For. Fucks. Sake.

But it's kind of hilarious (and ruinously cute) as Neil - gentle as a moth wing - strokes over Andrew's cheek and along his temple, finds the bridge of his nose and the swell of his lips.

"Good face."

Andrew contains himself by a miracle. He's fairly sure Aaron is filming this.

"If that footage goes anywhere but the trash, I'll fucking stab you."

"If you were going to stab me, you would have done it a long time ago brother."

"No stabbing," Neil says. "Too many witnesses. Oh hey, look at the fireflies."

Neil lifts one hand to the empty ceiling. There are no fireflies. This is Eden's. Andrew wants to take Neil home but doesn't think putting him in a car is going to do much good right about now.

"You like my face," Neil sighs and sits back. "Even all of this."

"Yes," Andrew says. "Because of all of this."

It's not the scars, it's because Neil survived. That he should have broken and yet still held himself together by tooth and claw.

"I didn't drug you," Andrew says, close to the shell of Neil's ear. "I promise."

"Okay," Neil says. "Good. I don't wanna kiss Nicky."

And there it is again, the second time Neil has mentioned this. Andrew looks at his cousin, who has escaped with Kevin onto the dancefloor.

They'll have a little chat later, when Neil isn't on another planet.

"You're the best," Neil says. "I'll kiss you."

"Not tonight."

Because even if Neil is warm and flush against him. Even if Neil is soft and pliant and willing. This is a man who has been drugged and cannot give consent. Hell, he's watching fireflies that don't exist and stroking Andrew's chin, like he's forgotten Andrew has teeth. Neil is not okay.

Aaron leans back in his chair. "If it's molly, he could be flying for hours."

"It's some kind of shroom shit."

"So even longer then."

Andrew's fingers tighten on Neil's shoulder. "So we can't wait this out?" He should have asked Roland that.

"Probably not, no. Take him home. I'll bring the others."

And for once Andrew decides to trust his brother. He gathers Neil and his loose limbs and leaves Aaron to manage Kevin and Nicky. It’s a one of the hardest things he’s ever done but Bee’s buzzing voice tells him it's time to let Aaron prove himself, standalone.

Neil is awful as they leave - smiling at everyone and everything, even things that aren’t there. His eyes shine and every time he looks at Andrew, there’s a draw of breathe like he’s never seen him before.

“You are,” Neil says, “the best thing. The abs’lute best thing. Hold me up and keep me sage, no safe. Mean safe. You me safe.”

And Neil cannot sing but his voice is sing song and full of wonder.

Andrew is going to gut Hapless Sam like a fish from chin to pelvis.

They drive home - slowly because Neil keeps getting distracted by things Andrew is doing, like blinking (your eyelashes are so white, like snow flakes Andrew) and breathing (but look how you move, so amazing). But Neil is so soft and happy and obsessed, it’s hard to be angry.

Columbia is dark, their house musty with absence. They’ve not visited for a while and Andrew had been hoping for something slightly different tonight.

Neil apparently had too. “Yes? Andrew? Yes?” He says.

“No,” Andrew says. And he never thought he’d hate seeing Neil obey - not with this - but there’s hurt and confusion and concern and a thousand layers of emotion on Neil’s face when he hears it this time. All the feelings Neil must usually keep tucked away when it isn’t always yes for Andrew.

Andrew relents, “Just this,” he says as he settles onto the sofa, guiding Neil down with him. Neil’s reaction is instant - dopey smile and arms that snake around Andrew in a loose but escapable hold.

“Warm,” he says. “Strong.”

The hours tick by in highs and lows - Neil is happy in phases, then almost crying in others. He tells Andrew things that cross his mind, about Andrew, about the Foxes and exy. He hides in Andrew’s hoody when he sees shadows crawling and is convinced they’re from his father.

Andrew does his best to soothe and protect - it’s all in Neil’s head and Andrew isn’t a soft man, but he keeps Neil close and lets him talk. A few years ago he couldn’t have done this. But a few years ago he and Neil were new and still cutting each other on their sharp edges.

Aaron herds an unhappy Nicky and an almost paralytic Kevin inside. Aaron seems sober but that could just be in comparison.

“Our cousin,” Aaron tells Andrew, “is a fool. But you care about him and shouldn’t kill him for doing what you asked.”

“What did he do?”

Aaron shrugs. “Just a kiss I believe. But might explain a bit more why your nut-job boyfriend knocked himself out that time.”

“That was cos imma liar,” Neil chimes with all the confidence of the truly seshed. “Liar liar liar.”

“Not anymore.”

“Yeah. Not with you.”

There's water and toast and Neil naps at one point but Andrew doesn't because he knows what's next - and he's right. Neil is sick for what feels like hours but isn't. Aaron brings more water. A small part of Andrew wonders if his twin actually likes seeing Neil so ridiculous.

Turns out he's right about that too.

Aaron tells him when Neil is hurling up his guts that seeing Neil like this, seeing Andrew with him like this, makes more sense than anything he's seen prior.

"You're everything to him." Aaron doesn't say that Neil is everything to Andrew but the implication is there.

And when Neil is finally in their bed, safe and asleep, Andrew calls Roland and leaves a warning. Hapless Sam had better be fired or there wouldn't be an Eden's Twilight.

He stays awake and stays awake. He falls asleep around 6am.

Neither of them stir until well into the afternoon and when Neil does, he buries his face in the pillows and groans.

"Oh my god. Andrew I'm so --"

"Shut up." Andrew doesn't want apologies for this. He sees the embarrassed pink of Neil's ears, the flush on his neck. "Stop."

Neil groans again and Andrew knows he must feel like shit right about now. That he's mortified. That he's worried. That Andrew has the power to make it right.

Something wicked flickers in his gut.

"Hey junkie," he says. "I like your face."

-The End-

Notes:

#morning au #andreil #aftg #andrew minyard #neil josten #post canon #all for the game #absolute fluff #even if there's accidently non-consensual drug use #it's not deliberate #no one is an asshole #neil is very soft and sappy #he really likes Andrew's face #eden's twilight #very very fluffy

[misskikuwrites]

A Helping Hand

Bederia Week 2021: Day 1 - First Impressions

Bede/Gloria (dressedinpinkshipping)

Tags: fluff, light angst, babysitting

Words: 7,612

@bede-x-gloria

-

Babysitting felt a world and a half away from training Pokemon. All her skills as the Champion were of no use here- there was no battle to be fought, nothing she could power through with brute force. She had to be delicate. Kind. 

 She had to figure out how to entertain a toddler when she'd never done anything like this by herself before. The living room was covered end-to-end in an array of miscellaneous toys, from plushies to colourful blocks and toy cars, none of which gave her any ideas for what to do. With Pokemon, they found ways to entertain themselves. She could explore with them. Battle with them. Train them. Even swishing a toy from side to side was a form of training with Pokemon, and the ball she’d lob across the campsite turned into a competition for her Pokemon to see who could retrieve it first. She couldn’t do any of that here- not with little Samuel. Not with his baby sister, Gracie, asleep in the nursery down the hall. Sitting on the carpet next to Samuel, Gloria tried to remember the times she'd accompanied her mother to watch over them. She’d tagged along for the fun of it, not expecting that one day she would find herself babysitting the two of them alone. 

 And, with Gloria's mother at work, she had no one else to turn too. 

 Samuel shuffled over to a crudely-made tower of blocks, immediately knocking them over. Gloria pursed her lips, stomach churning, and edged over to him. 

 "How about we build a tower?" she offered, and slowly began to reassemble the tower. 

 Samuel watched for a moment. He followed Gloria's movements as she stacked one block on top of another, balancing them precariously as the tower grew taller and taller. Without warning, he shoved the blocks again. 

 "Hey!" Gloria gasped in shock. "Don't do that, we're trying to build it, not-" 

 She paled as Samuel whimpered, his face scrunching up, cheeks beginning to flush… 

 "No, no, that's okay! You can knock it down!" Gloria hurriedly stacked another tower and deliberately toppled it. "See? That's loads of fun!" 

 Samuel squeaked a precious laugh. "Gen!" he said, staring at the blocks. "Gen!"

 "Gen? Oh, you mean 'again?'" 

 "Gen!" 

 She could do that. Wrecking the towers Gloria painstakingly constructed was a simple and easy way to keep Samuel entertained- at least, it was for the first dozen or so towers.

 "Gen!" Samuel said, his laughter trickling out. "Gen!" 

 "Again…?" Gloria sighed. 

 She'd lost count of how many she'd made - not that she'd been keeping track in the first place - and it had quickly become monotonous for her. How it still managed to amuse Samuel was beyond her. 

 "Why don't we do something else? Look, Mr Wooloo wants to play with us, too-" 

 She turned around to grab the Wooloo plush when Samuel let out a whine. 

 "Gen!" 

 "But I've already built a ton of towers-"

 "Gen!" His whine turned into a wail. "Gen! Gen! Gen!" 

 "Okay, okay, okay!" Wooloo plush thrown to the side, Gloria snatched the blocks off the carpet and stacked them for Samuel once more. "There, another tower!" 

 He knocked it over with glee, bubbling with laughter as the tower collapsed. His smile was so innocent and happy, Gloria couldn't help but stack tower after tower for him to knock down. As boring as it was, it kept Samuel occupied and - more importantly - content. She made another for him, and retrieved her drink bottle from her bag in the meantime. The tower collapsed, and Samuel burst into a fit of giggles as the blocks bounced left and right over the carpet. 

 His enjoyment was so simple, it made Gloria smile. She didn't understand what was so amusing about a tower of blocks falling over, but Samuel's laughter was sweet, his smile adorable, and she shucked off any grievances she had about repetitively making towers for him to knock over. It was worth it if it made him happy. 

 Soon enough, Gloria found ways to keep herself entertained as she made tower after tower for Samuel. She began adding different things to the tower- first, she placed the Wooloo plush on top out of sheer boredom. The blocks collapsed by themselves, and Samuel shrieked a laugh. When she went to build the next one, she stuck a toy car on top. Then the square-shaped toy ambulance in the middle of the next tower. Each odd addition made Samuel laugh, from the Rolycoly figure that wouldn't balance by itself, to the Wooloo plush Gloria placed on top of her head. He cackled when the Wooloo fell off Gloria's head, and she held back a snort of laughter. 

 Perhaps looking after Samuel wouldn't be so bad after all. 

 A slowly building cry reached Gloria's ears. She'd spoken - well, thought - too soon. Gracie had woken up. A quick glance at the clock on the wall told Gloria that it was well under the hour or two Mrs Jones had expected her daughter to sleep for. She got to her feet, swallowing her trepidation, and made for Gracie's room. 

 "I'll be back in a second," she told Samuel, "I'm just going to grab Gracie." 

 A whine followed her, silenced beneath the disgruntled cries coming from Gracie. Gloria braced herself before opening the door to the nursery, and was hit with a wall of noise. Gracie, still swaddled in her blanket and lying on her front, screamed for all her tiny lungs were worth. The tremendous volume that came from such a little girl was unbelievable, and Gloria had to stop herself from flinching as she swept the squirming baby out of her cot. 

 "Hey, hey, it's okay," Gloria cooed, holding Gracie close to her chest and patting her back. "I'm here, you're alright."

 She didn't know what else to say, what else to do, and dug through her memories to try and recall what her mother had done in situations like this. 

 The scream doubled in volume. No, that wasn't right- there was an echo now. A scream by her ear, another by her leg. Samuel had followed her, and was matching Gracie's efforts with his own wail. He planted his face against Gloria's leg, arms wrapped tightly around her, and howled. 

 Gloria's head spun. She tried to step towards the door, barely able to move and completely unbalanced by Samuel clinging to her. Both her hands were occupied by holding Gracie up. She had nothing to spare to calm Samuel, or even to try and pry him away from her leg so she could move more than an inch at a time. 

 "Samuel, what's wrong?" she asked, speaking over Gracie's cries in her ear with a grimace. "Hey?" 

 She couldn't kneel down with him stuck to her like a Komala on a log, and was paralyzed with one foot through the door. Despite everything in her body telling her not to, she forced the leg that Samuel was holding onto forward, tugging herself out of his grip. It made him scream louder, but Gloria had no choice. She hurried back to the lounge with Samuel howling at her heels. 

 "Look, look, we're back. I'll build you a tower again!" She knelt by the blocks, Gracie still crying against her front, and balanced the wailing baby on her lap so she had a free hand to stack blocks with. 

 Samuel stood, unbudging in the doorway, and cried. 

 "Sammy? Look, I've made a tower for you!" 

 He wasn't looking. 

 "Come on, I had to get Gracie up!" she pleaded with him, and resumed patting Gracie's back in a soothing rhythm when Samuel refused to look at her. "Shh, shh, it's okay," she said to Gracie. 

 Her head throbbed. Ears ringing. 

 Wait, no- that was her phone. 

 Now, of all times?! 

 In a split second of panic, she wondered if it was Mrs Jones calling to see how things were.

 Gloria wanted to scream. She overpowered the urge to throw her own tantrum and tugged her phone out of her pocket. On the screen, accompanied by a candid photo of him taken in the Wild Area, was Bede's name. 

 Bede?! 

 She almost didn't answer it, wincing beneath the onslaught of cries piercing her ears, and decided she needed to brush Bede off quickly so he wouldn't call again. Distractions were the last thing she needed right now. 

 Gloria hiked Gracie higher in her arms and answered the call, her Rotom phone hovering by her ear. 

 "Sorry, Bede! Now's not a good time," she said quickly, and shuffled on her knees over to Samuel. "I'm kind of... in the middle of something!" 

 She patted Gracie's back in a firm, steady rhythm, trying to sooth Samuel at the same time by wiggling the Wooloo plush with her other hand. 

 "I can certainly hear that," came Bede's voice in her ear, drowned out by the cries in the room. "What have you gotten yourself into this time?" 

 Gloria bit her bottom lip, the lump in her throat tightening in shame. Her inadequacy was crushing, dragging her heart into the pit of her stomach, and she didn't need, or want, Bede to find out. 

 She felt like a failure. 

 "Shh, shh, Gracie. Shh..." Gloria murmured, well aware that Bede could hear her, and kept trying to comfort the crying baby in her arms. Gracie hiccuped and whimpered, burying her face in Gloria's shirt. "There, there." 

 Samuel's wails got louder as Gracie's softened, and Gloria wished she had more arms to spare. She could only comfort one child at a time. 

 She could only talk to one person at a time. 

 "Look, Bede- I have to go," she said. Forced the words out. Pushed him away. "I've got my hands full right now." 

 Despite the throbbing of her heart, the need not to be alone. 

 "Sounds like you could do with some assistance." 

 Her brain short-circuited. "I- What?" 

 "I happen to have some spare time on my hands, so if you require some help-" 

 "Please!" Tears pricked her eyes. She held Gracie tighter, ready to crumble to the floor herself as her pride shattered, as her voice wobbled. "Please…" 

 A pause. 

 "Tell me where you are and I'll be there as soon as I can." 

 -

 Bede hung up, immediately calling a Sky Taxi for Wedgehurst. He exhaled a heavy sigh and dragged a hand through his hair as his racing heart began to settle. 

 That was not how he'd expected that call to go. The script he'd spent all morning preparing, the words he'd gone over again and again in his mind, had flown out the window the second Gloria had answered. Cries loud enough to make him flinch had wiped his brain clean. Desperation hidden in the Champion's voice had turned his attention away from the reason he'd called in the first place. 

 He couldn't very well ask her that when she was struggling enough for it to reveal itself in her voice. And, for a moment, it sounded as though she was on the verge of tears. 

 Bede climbed into the Sky Taxi as soon as it landed in Ballonlea, and repeated to the driver the address Gloria had given him for a house in Wedgehurst. His heart sank in trepidation as they took off. The question lingering on his tongue could wait- he would swallow it down for her until whatever was going on in that house was under control. 

 To reign in his desires was simple enough when it came to Gloria. For her, he would. 

 In the meantime, he had other things to worry about. Mainly, the screams of children he'd heard during his call with Gloria. He could only begin to imagine what was going on in that house, and hoped he'd arrive in time to prevent the chaos from getting any worse.

 -

 Gloria's heart lifted when she heard swift knocking on the front door. 

 "It's unlocked!" she called, hopefully loud enough to be heard over Samuel's tantrum. He refused to calm down, and Gracie was beginning to grizzle in her arms. She wouldn't stay put, squirming this way and that, and had taken to sucking on Gloria's shirt in her frustration. 

 The door swung open, and Bede strode into the lounge, his eyes widening at her. Gloria's breath caught. She stiffened beneath his gaze, waiting for his judgement in the form of a snarky comment, for him to scoff at her predicament. He said nothing, and walked over to her in silence. 

 "Here." He reached for Gracie and said, "give her to me." His eyes lingered on Gloria's for the moment it took for her to relinquish the baby to him. 

 He hefted Gracie into his arms and pulled her out of the blanket. He began to bounce her in a way Gloria had seen her own mother do in the past. 

 "Seems like she's hungry," Bede said, raising an eyebrow at the wet stain of slobber on Gloria's shirt. Gracie mouthed at Bede's Gym uniform shirt, as if to confirm his suspicions. 

 Gloria blinked, her brain taking a few seconds to catch up to reality, and she nodded. 

 "There's- uh, a note. In the kitchen." It was difficult to speak beneath her shock. "Her bottle's in the fridge." 

 "Alright. Leave that to me, then." He turned on his heels, Gracie having quietened completely in his arms, and made for the kitchen. "In the meantime, try making some faces and noises at him," Bede suggested, glancing over his shoulder at Samuel, who was now crying on the floor again. "The weirder, the better. I think you'd be good at that." 

 Gloria frowned at Bede, pursing her lips in confusion, before signing. He seemed to have a knack with Gracie, and she had little pride left to spare after failing spectacularly at babysitting, and so she wandered over to Samuel and sat beside him. 

 But… to make faces at him…? 

 Gloria quickly made sure she was out of Bede's line of sight, and took a deep breath. 

 Here goes nothing…

 "Hey, Samuel. Look at this!" 

 Samuel sniffled and peeked up at her. His eyes fixed on Gloria's face. He blinked. Sniffled again, and then laughed. He pulled himself off the floor as Gloria smooshed her cheeks, poking her tongue out at the same time, and made whatever weird noises she could. 

 And it worked. Samuel laughed.

 "What about this?" 

 Gloria dragged her palms down the sides of her face, pulling her cheeks and curling her lips into another strange expression. Again, he laughed. It wasn't long before Samuel had no tears left to shed. The room descended into amicable silence, into peace, and Gloria found that she could breathe again. She sighed, releasing the pent up tension in her chest all at once. 

 It was a miracle. No, more than that- Bede had worked some sort of magic. His mere presence had settled the torrent of nerves in her gut, and he'd known just what to do to calm Gracie down, picking up on the fact that she was hungry as well, and his suggestion for Gloria to pull faces at Samuel had worked like a charm. He'd gotten too much right for her to put it down to chance. This was more than luck. More than a good guess- Bede had experience with children. 

 He'd floored her completely. It was so unexpected, she didn't know where to start in order to comprehend what had happened. The chaos she'd been struggling under had lifted in an instant when Bede arrived. She sat on the carpet next to Samuel, pretending that the Wooloo plush was making weird noises and not her, with her gaze continuously drifting to the kitchen. Swift footsteps, the click of the fridge door, and the trickle of running water came from the room beyond what she could see. Her heart thumped warmly in her chest as her mind conjured images to fit the sounds that reached her. 

 She wanted to see, wanted to watch, Bede in action. This was a side to him she'd never seen before, and it set something fluttering away in her lungs. He never ceased to amaze her in ways she wouldn't have imagined when they first met. Who knew that the snobby, arrogant boy that had acted like everyone else was beneath him was hiding such skills? There were so many layers to Bede, so much she still didn't know. He continuously shattered the shallow first impression she'd had of him again and again, from their first battle, to meeting on the pitch in front of the world, to him leaving his past behind and taking up the role of the Fairy Gym Leader. 

 Bede had turned out to be so much more than she'd given him credit for. 

 Gloria was impressed, and grateful, but more than that- she was awestruck. Speechless in a way that left her breathless. Almost giddy. It made her smile like an idiot to herself. Her heart skipped when Bede returned to the lounge, with Gracie cradled in his arms and a bottle of warm milk in hand. 

 Arceus, it stole Gloria's breath away. She watched as he stepped over the discarded toys to the couch, and gracefully sank into it without jostling Gracie an inch. He lowered Gracie onto his lap so she rested against his arm, and brought the bottle to her mouth. She latched onto it and began to suckle away eagerly.

 "If you keep gawking at me like that, I'm going to take offence," Bede huffed. His eyes lifted to meet Gloria's. She sucked in a sharp breath and snapped her attention back to Samuel. 

 "Sorry!" she squeaked as her cheeks began to flush. 

 She'd been staring. Gawking, as Bede had pointed out. How could she help it when he was tending to Gracie so expertly? She was struck once again by how skilled he was with babies, both Pokemon and human. 

 "I was just surprised, that's all," Gloria said quickly. She nuzzled the Wooloo plush into Samuel's side, making him giggle. "It's like she's your own child or something, with how easily you calmed her down." 

 "Are you insinuating something?" He raised an eyebrow at her, unamused. 

 "No!" She flushed darker, darker than before as her heart leapt into her throat. "No, I just mean that you're such a natural with kids, it's- y'know, impressive!" 

 Gloria breathed a panicked laugh. Coils of embarrassed heat tightens on her cheeks, and she knew she was blushing hard. 

 "You're way too young to have your own children, for sure." She waved that suggestion off quickly. "Well, I know you're almost eighteen so it's not completely impossible- but that's not the point," Gloria said that last part in a rush, almost stumbling over her words as she realised where her mind was going. 

 "I just- what I mean is-" She couldn't think past the blood rushing to her head. 

 "Take a breath, Gloria," Bede said. He cleared his throat, focusing on bottle-feeding Gracie.

 Her heart pounded in her ears. Thoughts swirled into a mess in her mind, tangled on the idea of Bede having his own children and the insinuation behind that. She tried to follow his suggestion and catch her breath, to calm herself down in order to clear her muddied thoughts. 

 "How come you're so good with kids?" Gloria asked instead. 

 There was no point trying to figure out what she'd been trying to say in the first place, all she could think about was that in the future, perhaps Bede would be doing this with his own child. A baby with platinum blond hair like his, soft curls framing round, pink cheeks. It made her heart ache. 

 "Your wife will be super lucky…" she mumbled. 

 Bede coughed. "I don't have a wife." 

 "Y-You heard that?!" 

 "You're hardly quiet enough for me not to hear."

 "Sorry…!" She peeked over her shoulder at him to see his gaze skip away from her. Pink coloured his cheeks, the sight making Gloria's blood sing through her veins as her breath caught. 

 Arceus. When he blushed like that, her heart danced something wild in her chest, fluttering and dizzy, and she wanted to fix that image into her mind forever.  

It made her want to say something more. 

 "It's… it's true, isn't it?" Gloria continued, "since you're great at cooking and with kids, you'd make a great husband- unlike me! You've already seen my attempt at babysitting today, and I'm horrible in the kitchen." She laughed briefly at herself. "I'd need someone like you if I was ever going to get married, 'cause I'm hopeless otherwise!" 

 Bede's eyes shifted back to hers. He held her gaze for a moment of silence, and something unreadable in his expression made her pause. 

 "Woo woo," Samuel sounded, and Gloria turned to tickle him with the Wooloo plush. 

 "...Someone like me?" 

 It was the depth to his voice that stole Gloria's attention back. Bede's words were soft, his tone low and thick, and the intensity in his gaze made the Wooloo plush slip from her fingers when their eyes met. Heat swam behind those violets that pinned her to the spot. 

 What was he saying? 

 "Sorry?" Gloria blinked at him. Nerves flittered about in her stomach as though she was missing something. Something that she'd said, something that had happened, and it sent her heart racing. 

 "You said you'd need 'someone like me,' if you were to get married," Bede said slowly. 

Silence fell. Gloria couldn't think. She couldn't breathe. There was so much more to his gaze, to his expression, than she'd realised. 

 "I…" Had she said that? 

 "Someone like me?" 

 It was a question. A deeper meaning to those three words. A suggestion. 

 Was there more to it? 

 An offer? 

 "It doesn't matter since I'm never getting married anyway," Gloria said quickly. She tore her eyes away from Bede, swallowing the lump in her throat and the rising panic building in her chest. "I promised I wouldn't, and I'm not going to break that." 

 "You promised?" 

 Shit. 

 She'd said too much. 

 Her heart plummeted. It drained the blood from her face, froze the nerves in her stomach, and bled ice through her veins. Chilled her to her core, to the marrow of her bones. 

 Heavy. 

 She felt heavy. 

 "Gloria?"

 "Forget I said that." She stood. Turned her back to him. 

 "Why? Who did you promise that to?" 

 "I said- forget it!" 

 Too loud. Hands trembled into fists at her sides as Samuel whimpered. Pain prickled behind her eyes. Tears.

 An apology lodged in her throat but she had no voice to give it life. Her lips wobbled. She pressed them tightly together for a moment, forcing her breath down. Held it in her lungs until it burned. 

 She exhaled it all at once. 

 "I shouldn't have said anything."

 It hurt to speak, to step dangerously close to the precipice of what she'd buried for so long.

 Terrified to fall. 

 "I can't- I don't want to talk about it," she said. The tremor in her voice began to fade. She shook her head, pressed her hands against her face with a breath of shame. "I'm going to the loo." 

 Gloria hurried away before Bede could reply- if he was going to say anything at all. She shut herself in the bathroom and doused her face in cold water until she could think again, until the shadows receded from her heart. 

 The promise she'd made years ago had surfaced as it did sometimes, but never had it hurt like this. Like a void had encapsulated her heart. It ached. Something had shifted, and what had been a lifelong promise that she'd always been eager to uphold now felt like a looming wave towering above her, about to crash over her life at any second. To destroy everything. 

 Gloria swallowed, letting water drip from her face as she measured her breathing. In and out, in and out. 

 Everything was fine. She was fine. 

 She wasn't in love with Bede, so there was nothing to worry about. Her promise was still in place, still intact. She hadn't broken anything. 

 The memory of that night came back to her. Her mother's tears. Being held too tight in trembling arms. Hearing those words, unable to comprehend what it meant, unable to believe it. 

 "He's gone." 

 The echo of her mother's voice tightened the knot in Gloria's throat. Droplets of water, of tears, fell from her cheeks. 

 "He's gone… Papa's gone…" 

 Air hissed through her teeth. She squeezed her eyes shut to force back the heat building behind her eyes. 

 "I'm here," her own voice replied. Ten years younger, it still sounded like her. "I won't go anywhere. I promise." 

 A simple promise made the trembling stop. 

 "I promise." Those words she would keep. "I'll stay with you forever… no matter what." 

 I won't leave you.

 Gloria wiped the water off her face, stealing those memories away. A lingering ache in the hollow of her chest remained, but its blade had dulled. She could endure it. 

 She had to. 

 Even if it meant closing off her heart so she would never experience the pain of that day again, she would do it. She saw what it did to her mother. The kind of pain that love brings. 

 And Gloria wanted none of it. 

 -

 The air was stiff and awkward in the lounge when Gloria returned. She sat beside Samuel as if nothing had happened, as if she hadn't left at all. Out of the corner of her eyes, she saw that Gracie had finished her bottle and that Bede had propped her up on the couch using the cushions to steady her. She was currently sucking on a ring of brightly coloured plastic keys. 

 Gloria desperately wanted to break the silence, to say something, anything, but she didn't know where to begin. The weight of her memories remained over her shoulders. She'd snapped at Bede. Regret and shame swallowed her voice, guilt sitting in the back of her throat so she couldn't form any words. 

 He'd come to help her, gave up his free time out of his own volition, and she'd snapped at him. She couldn't get any more pathetic if she'd tried. 

 "What have you got there?" Gloria asked Samuel. He pushed a toy car back and forth over the carpet, trying to blow a raspberry between his lips to mimic the sound of the engine. 

 "Cah!" he said, before returning to his noise making. 

 Her heart throbbed. She picked up the angular ambulance and pushed it alongside Samuel's car, but her energy was spent. She couldn't fake enthusiasm when her chest felt so heavy. 

 "How did you end up with these two?" Bede asked. 

 Gloria looked at him out of reflex, out of surprise. He'd broken the silence so easily, and raised an eyebrow at her curiously. 

 "They obviously aren't your own children, and I assume you haven't acquired two new siblings in secret… which leads me to believe that you're babysitting for someone else." 

 She blinked at him, nodding slowly at how succinctly he'd come to the correct conclusion. 

 "Oh, right. I never explained, did I?" She pursed her lips sheepishly before gesturing to the two young kids. "This is Samuel and Gracie. They're the kids of my mum's friend, Mrs Jones. She needed someone to babysit on short notice since her sister went into labour a week early and there's no one else to take her into hospital. The rest of their family is in Kanto, and her sister's husband is away for work, so…" 

 Gloria shrugged. "I've helped my mum babysit them in the past, but she's at work, and Mrs Jones really needed someone… I've never looked after them on my own before." 

 "That much was fairly obvious. It was quite chaotic when I called you, from what I heard." 

 Gloria scoffed in indignation. "That's only because I had to get Gracie up! She was crying in her room and I had to leave Samuel to get her, and then he started crying too!" 

 She huffed at Bede, folding her arms in protest, when she spied the slight tilt to the corner of his mouth. It was the barest hint of a smirk. Soft amusement lit up his eyes, and it made Gloria realise what he was doing. Riling her up so she'd bark at him and fall into their natural rhythm. The air that had been suffocatingly thick had eased away, lifting the hold of silence over the atmosphere. Bede had coaxed her into speaking her mind to him again. Into returning to normal. 

 She sank in surprise, and the heat of her protest died. Finally, she could find the words that she wanted to say. 

 "Look, Bede, I'm… sorry about what happened before," Gloria said. "I shouldn't have snapped at you like that. It's just… it's a subject I'm not comfortable with. I hadn't meant to say anything about it in the first place, but then…" 

 She trailed off with a sigh.

 "That's alright. I see now that I shouldn't have pressed you about it," Bede said. "I'm sorry about that." 

 A sliver of pain dug into her heart at his words. 

 "The promise I made as a kid, it still means a lot to me, and…" She swallowed. Took a breath. "I know most people would probably think it's stupid and ridiculous, and it's hard for me to explain, I haven't told many people about it before-"

 Her voice stuck in her throat. 

 "You don't have to explain," Bede said softly. 

 "But…"  

"If it puts you on the verge of tears to even think about, you don't need to explain it to me." 

 He'd noticed the tears building in her eyes. 

 "I'm sorry…" It came out as a whisper, but in the quiet, she knew he'd hear it. 

 "For what? I can't see that you've done anything wrong here." 

 "You don't even know why I snapped at you and you're being so kind," Gloria sighed. "I feel like I owe you an explanation, at least." 

 "Only when you're ready for it." He shrugged and said, "everyone has something they're not comfortable talking about- I don't want you to have to force yourself to explain it to me because you feel like you should." 

 She nodded slowly. 

 "Besides, I may have an idea about what it is anyway, so I'm not completely in the dark as to why it upsets you so much." 

 Gloria blinked at him. He turned his gaze away from her to dangle the drool-coated keys in front of Gracie's grabbing hands. 

 "You do?" Somehow, the fact that he already knew something about it loosened the jumble of knots in her gut. 

 Gracie caught the fluorescent green key and tugged it towards her mouth as Bede nodded. 

 "You've mentioned a thing or two about it previously," he said, "if what I believe you're talking about is correct." 

 All the bits and pieces she'd let slip in the past. The words that had spilled out in vulnerable moments, hissed under her breath, fragments of pain that had broken through her walls. 

 He'd remembered them.

 "Probably," she said quietly. 

 How much he knew, how much he'd pieced together, she couldn't tell. Perhaps he'd gotten the wrong idea completely- but knowing Bede, that was more than unlikely.

 "Then I don't need to know any more," he said. "If it makes you uncomfortable to speak about, then don't force yourself on my account. I don't need to know every little thing about you in order to be your friend."

 His words softened her heart. She filled with warmth, with a sense of peace, and it made her smile. 

 "Thanks, Bede," she said, tilting her head as she smiled at him. "That's really sweet of you to say." 

 His expression froze for a split second, and Gloria wondered if she'd said something wrong when he cleared his throat and focused on playing with Gracie, jangling the keys in front of her when they fell from her mouth again. 

 "How come you're so good with kids?" Gloria asked, realising she'd never got an answer from him when she'd asked previously. 

 It was like he knew exactly what to do- when to give in and let Gracie grab the keys, when to tug them away from her and keep up the challenge. The self-satisfied look he gave Gloria, the pride glinting in his eyes, made her heart skip. He was so damn attractive even when gloating, and she folded her arms as if that would protect her heart from the influence of his smile. 

 "This is nothing special," he said, and shrugged. As if his smirk didn't clearly say otherwise. "Just the basics everyone knows, really." 

 Gloria scoffed, despite the way her chest fluttered from the mirth in his voice. His words dripped with amusement, teasing her and making her heart dance like a puppet on a string, and Arceus, it made her pout at him in return. Protesting how easily she reacted to him, although she found that she didn't dislike how it made her feel. It was a rush, a spark of emotions through her body. Strange and foreign as it was, it wasn't a bad feeling. Not one she hated at all. 

 If anything, it actually felt pleasant. 

 "What does that make me, then, if I don't even know the basics?" Gloria said, throwing those words back at him with a huff. "Since everyone knows it?" 

 She raised an eyebrow pointedly at him, not about to let him off that easily without an explanation. 

 "I may have picked up a thing or two somewhere," Bede said. 

 "Uh-huh." 

 She gave him a blank stare. Unimpressed, unbudging. She wanted to know. Her curiosity had built into a fervour, a blooming desire to figure out this secret of Bede's that he was taunting her with. She feigned hurt, and turned back to Samuel. He burst into giggles when she pushed the toy ambulance up his back and let it topple forward off his shoulder. He picked it up and tried to place it where she had to make it fall again. Movement in the corner of her eyes made Gloria turn. Bede sat beside her, laying Gracie down gently on her back on the carpet, and placed the Wooloo plush square on her stomach. He gave the stuffed Pokemon a wiggle, making the legs flop wildly, and Gracie broke into a smile. 

 It was so unadulteratedly cute to see Bede play with Gracie like that, and Gloria's heart squeezed firmly in her chest as she watched. He glanced at her for the briefest of moments before focusing his attention on the wriggling baby in front of him. Gracie gave a squeak of laughter when he booped her nose with the Wooloo. 

 Gloria felt giddy just watching him. 

 "The orphanage was short-staffed at times," Bede began. He spoke while playing with Gracie, not once pulling his attention away from her. She was completely enraptured by the Wooloo plush. "Those of us old enough to take care of ourselves were enlisted to help with the younger children. It was easier to learn how to amuse them than be surrounded by screaming babies all day." 

 "Oh." She didn't know what else to say. His explanation, his experience, was far from anything she'd imagined, and a wave of guilt crashed over her for trying to drag that out of him. 

 Especially when he'd been so understanding to her. 

 "Children are easy enough to amuse. What works for one usually works for another," he said with a shrug, "as long as you aren't too worried about your pride." 

 He leant over Gracie and blew a raspberry at her, and she laughed. A sweet, innocent laugh that made Gloria want to melt. Her insides were turning into goo. 

 "You'll pick it up over time, don't worry." Bede turned to Gloria and quickly booped her nose with the Wooloo plush. Samuel laughed, and he received a boop as well. 

 Gloria bit back her laugh, her lips trembling with mirth. Bede looked so free, so full of life, that she didn't dare laugh - even out of adoration - in case he thought she was laughing at him. She wouldn't risk spoiling the moment. 

 "You think so?" she asked. 

 He looked at her, his violet eyes softening with his smile, and said, "of course I do. Anyone can learn how to take care of children, or how to cook. It just takes time- and a bit of advice." 

 Her mouth twitched into a smile, and without thinking about it, she leant over Gracie as Bede had done, and blew a raspberry of her own. It brought a string of giggles out of Gracie, and Gloria's heart lifted. 

 "You're a quick study," Bede noted. 

 She beamed at him in return. "It helps that I've got an expert teacher." 

 -

 Time passed easier after that. There was no more crying, no more grizzling- Samuel and Gracie were content at last as Gloria fell into a natural pace with Bede. She followed his advice, taking note of the slight difference in the way he played with the two children. Often, they shared silent glances. A smile, a knowing look, as Gloria mimicked the little techniques that Bede used. After a while, he picked Gracie up when she'd had enough of lying on the carpet, and sat her in his lap. She jangled the plastic keys in her hands, happy once more. 

 Gloria's heart swooned in her chest. Bede was so utterly endearing with the kids, so sweet and kind and adoring that she could hardly take it any more. Her lungs were filled to the brim with delight, and Arceus, she was almost overcome with the desire to hug him. It was impossible to contain how she was feeling. Giddy and breathless and flustered all at once, she focused on making Gracie laugh by playing peekaboo behind the Wooloo plush instead. 

 Anything to keep her wandering gaze from returning to Bede. It was completely unfair how he made her feel- he was gorgeous and adorable at the same time, great with kids and skilled in the kitchen, seemingly perfect despite the flaws she knew he had. 

 He was so damn attractive in every way. 

 She huffed to herself and swallowed that thought. 

 This isn't a crush, she reminded herself. Stop thinking about how amazing he is and pay attention to the kids! 

 The fluttering in her chest refused to abate. It was a strange kind of nervousness, one that she hadn't felt before until recently, one that only occured around Bede. It made her lungs feel like they were too full of air, too light. She was weirdly self conscious. Overly aware of every movement, every gesture and noise Bede made, all her senses had honed in on him. 

 The space he occupied in her mind, in her heart, had grown immensely without her knowing. 

 Gloria couldn't tell if that was a good thing or not. 

 Footsteps clicked up the driveway, stealing her and Bede's attention towards the front door. It swung open, and Samuel shot to his feet. 

 "Ma ma!" 

 He tottered over to his mother as she took in the surprise visitor in her house. Her eyebrows lifted curiously. 

 "Mrs Jones, this- this is Bede," Gloria said quickly. 

 "Oh, yes. I thought I recognised you!" Mrs Jones clasped her hands together as she nodded at him. She swiftly picked Samuel up and sat him against her hip, planting a kiss to the top of his brow. "You're the Fairy Gym Leader, right?" 

 Bede stood, carrying Gracie, and stepped over to Mrs Jones. He extended a hand to her politely. 

 "That's correct," he said. "It's lovely to meet you. We had no trouble with Samuel and Gracie at all- I hope you don't mind that I assisted Gloria while you were away." 

 Gloria got up and dusted herself off while Bede greeted Mrs Jones, slightly flustered by his white lie. 

 'No trouble at all' was not how she would've described the way things went before Bede arrived. 

 "I don't mind at all," Mrs Jones said. She set Samuel down and took Gracie from Bede. She smiled pleasantly, and Gloria was once again amazed at how easily Bede slipped into his Gym Leader persona. Polite, graceful and charming, he made first impressions count. 

 "My sister's husband caught the next flight back, so I was able to come home early," Mrs Jones continued, "but it looks like I didn't need to worry about these two at all."

 Gloria beamed a smile, trying to make it as genuine as possible. Next to Bede's confidence, she felt too stiff and forced. 

 "Everything went well," Gloria said. "Gracie woke up a bit early, and had her bottle at… about eleven thirty, I think."

 Mrs Jones nodded. "I'll make sure she has her afternoon nap, then." 

 She gave her daughter a kiss on her round cheeks, making Gracie smile. Samuel pottered around after his mother as Gloria gathered her bag and swung it over her shoulder. As foreboding as babysitting had felt when she'd first begun, she no longer wished to flee the two adorable children at a moment's notice. It had been an experience she wasn't likely to forget for some time. With Bede by her side, she felt like she could conquer anything. 

 Well, almost anything. The emotions fluttering in her gut weren't something she wanted to tackle, or acknowledge, for now. 

 -

 After a quick goodbye to Mrs Jones and her two kids - Samuel whimpering when he realised they were leaving - Gloria and Bede exited the house and stepped into the streets of Wedgehurst. The lazy afternoon sun bathed them in warmth, and Gloria stretched her arms high above her head and breathed in the moment of peace. 

 "I'm glad that's over," she sighed. 

 They headed down the street, passing cozy houses adjourned with blooming gardens. In the distance, bleats from Wooloo and Dubwool filled the air. 

 "I don't know how I would've managed without you," Gloria said. She shot him a smile. "I thought you had terrible timing, calling me when you did, but it turned out to be perfect." 

 Bede stopped. "About that…" 

 Gloria turned to face him. A few feet behind her, he paused. "What is it?" 

 "The League Gala is happening the week after next." Bede held her gaze. His voice, softer than before, sent her heart racing. "Are you going with anyone?" 

 She froze, jaw hanging slightly open. Then swallowed, fumbling with her tongue to form an answer. 

 "Yes, I- I'm going with Hop," she said. 

 He looked away. "I see." 

 Gloria's heart plummeted into her churning stomach. "Why- Why do you ask?" 

 Did he not have anyone to go with? 

 Did he, perhaps, want to go with her…? 

 "I thought I'd ask in case you had forgotten about it," Bede said, shrugging. He continued walking, and passed her with quick strides. "You tend to get distracted quite easily, after all."  

She skipped to catch up with him, and glanced at him out of the corner of her eyes as they walked. 

 "I wouldn't have forgotten about that," she said. 

 Gloria let out a huff. It was foolish to think that he'd brought up the Gala for any other reason. Foolish to think he'd ask her to go with him, when he'd be attending with Ms Opal as he had last year. 

 Besides, Hop had already agreed to go with her. The strange weight in her gut persisted, despite reasoning with herself that she was being ridiculous for getting worked up over it. 

 She wondered how she would have answered if he had asked. If she hadn't been babysitting, if Samuel and Gracie hadn't been screaming their lungs out when Bede called, would he have asked her? 

 Would she have wanted him to ask? 

 She slowed, gaze following Bede as he continued on ahead for a few steps. He stopped, and turned not a moment later when he'd realised she wasn't beside him. The question in his eyes gave her no answer to the thoughts clouding her mind. She shook them off, stepped up to Bede as though she'd never left his side. 

 Some questions aren't meant to be asked, she decided. 

 It was better this way. She already had enough to deal with- the warmth in her chest, the fluttery feeling that spread through her veins, returned as she walked beside him. She felt comfortable at his side. It felt natural, normal, to walk in amicable silence towards the station where Bede would catch a Sky Taxi to Ballonlea. The time they’d spent babysitting together had turned what could have been a disastrous and exhausting few hours into a cherished memory for her. It felt like she’d discovered some hidden nugget, a buried treasure, behind the carefully crafted walls Bede always functioned behind. He probably didn’t realise how much that meant to her, that he’d let down his guard - whether deliberately or not - and revealed another side to himself that few had ever seen. 

 It made her feel… special. Trusted. Valued, even. It reaffirmed in her mind what Bede truly was to her- a friend. He was someone she could rely on in a pinch, someone who wouldn’t judge her for her failings, for her idiosyncrasies, for the secrets she couldn’t yet voice. He may not have asked her to the gala, but she knew he would be there, and that fact alone eased the trepidation she felt towards it. 

 Gloria smiled to herself as they walked, cementing that feeling in her heart.  

#bederia #bede #gloria #btyu #dressedinpinkshipping #bederiaweek2021 #bederia week 2021

[hello-im-not-a-possum]

Werewolf Thomas x Merman Sammy.

This might end up taking multiple chapters, in addition to me digging in too deep, this ship in general just gives off a petty enemies, to reluctant allies due to supernatural circumstances, to ‘hey you’re not as bad as I thought.’, to friends, to lovers vibe.

Occam's razor indicates that the simplest explanation to a scenario is also the most likely scenario to be the true one.

For example: when an animation studio suddenly closes down and gets condemned, people who are on the outside looking in are much more likely to blame the studio's poor money management than go look for some extraordinary truth. That, paired with the workers of the said studio also coming out to site the terrible conditions of the place as an added cause for the studio's demise. When people have to work long hours with little pay to show for it in a dingy, gloomy, constantly-falling-apart studio that clearly wasn't going anywhere except six feet under or lower, they aren't exactly motivated to work hard or happy.

The Hunger was intense, growing beyond mere gnawing and was now consuming the cursed mechanic. The first change he felt was his teeth, the Curse deciding it was easier to make them all fall out at once so his new ones would grow in. He cut up his own tongue on the newly-made fangs. Call it an act of mercy or an act of mockery, but the tongue followed the teeth's example, falling out altogether so that the tongue of a wolf could grow in.

No one batted an eye when a majority of the studio's former workers left with some of them being untraceable, the lucky ones moved on to greener and happier pastures, others simply got a change in scenery, and sadly, accidents happen all the time in such an unsafe studio, people got severely injured in there all the time, so it was gut-wrenching for many, but not a shock to discover that it was common for unlucky people to lose their lives in the Dancing Demon's domain.

His entire body burned on the inside and outside, taking off his clothes did nothing for him as his new, thick coat grew in, a coat that was the same pitch black as his hair, at least, most of it was. The change did not hurt as much as he thought it would. As painful as it sounded when his bones became a crackling choir that reminded him of fireworks, it was not pure agony, he was sore, afraid, and so, very, very, hungry, but he was physically fine.

No one suspected anything like somebody intentionally sabotaging the many pipes that pumped ink through the entire building, that would just be silly! It was more than obvious that the pipes got the same treatment as the rotting wooden walls: they were ignored until it was too late. With all the wood, paper, flammable ink, candles, no windows, and avid smokers in that place, it was only a matter of time before that place went up in flames.

Colors began to dim and fade out leaving him with vision that could only see black, white, and the several shades of gray inbetween them. The trade off with his senses made itself clear as his sense of smell and hearing both grew stronger, he could barely think as the smells and sounds his human self had been blind to came to him at full force, overwhelming the mechanic. He held back the urge to scream and call for help, he knew none would come, unless it was the dogcatcher at this point. However he would not hold back the urge to whine, whimper and cry, as pathetic as he looked and sounded, he would at least give himself that mercy, even if he didn't deserve it.

No one thought the ink machine was anything more but an expensive and stupid project that definitely sped up the studio's already fast decline, but only with it's mere presence. Honestly, a machine that made models out of ink, wouldn't it be cheaper and easier to make a statue of your beloved mascots out of plastic or something like that?

Thomas yelped in surprise when the tail grew in, it felt like somebody gave his spine a good sharp yank. He was furious, scared, even remorseful as he knew he was responsible for this happening to himself and possibly others knowing Mr. Drew, and by god, did he want to sink his teeth into something.

No one except for crazy cross-clutching worrywarts who want to spoil every one else's fun and or conspiracy theorists would assume that the Little devil darling who graced the comics and silver screens for at least a decade would have literal satanic magic going on behind the scenes, no matter how screwy the man in charge seemed.

He was starving all day ever since the ritual, but now that the changes were over, he felt hungrier than ever before, like his stomach was a black hole that would make him consume everything in his path.

No one would ever seriously suggest that magic was real and led to being the studio's final nail in the coffin instead of becoming its savior like it's founder had wanted it to.

In the moment, Thomas Conner believed that Occam's razor was bullshit.

The mechanic knew what he'd seen, he knew to an extent what he took part in, he saw what happened to some of the unluckier members of the "Missing" studio workers, and most importantly of all, he experienced what he just went through. There was no 'simple' or 'normal' explanation for it; the ritual failed and as a result, he and a handful of other people had gotten cursed.

Here the new wolf was, squeezing his now much larger body underneath his bed to do nothing but cower like a frighted animal while trying to convince himself not to panic or to eat his pet snake. Keeping his human mind at the moment was both a blessing and a cur- -some extra salt to rub into his fresh wounds.

On one hand, the fact he was still smart enough to know better than to jump out the window and follow his nose for food like his instincts were telling him to was a lifesaver that kept him safe from animal control. On the other hand; if he was a beast in mind, he would at least be doing something more productive than sulking in his apartment thinking about anything else other than how badly he got fucked over, how his life was in shatters and how he had nobody but himself to blame for it (Well, aside from Joey, but that wasn't the point).

While far from ideal, his current plan was to remain under that bed, try his best to go to sleep, and occasionally chew its legs to stop himself from going on a rampage. He might not be the most supernaturally informed person, but he had seen enough werewolf horror flicks to know that nothing good would come if he gave into his hunger or if he tried to leave. Best case scenario; he'd become as sick as a dog after eating something he found in the garbage. Worst case scenario; Somebody decides that he'd make a great living room rug and BANG!

And then, his ears perked up as he heard the song.

It was a simple, repetitive tune, made with a music box maybe? It was the first time he heard it yet it felt familiar to him. The song itself was muffled, used a lot of ambiance in its melody, and if he strained his ears enough, he could almost pick up the sound of a voice singing along with it, but it was far too faint for him to tell who or what was singing, let alone what the lyrics to the song were. It sounded nice in spite of it's strangeness, but it gave him goosebumps. He knew it wasn't playing from the radio, he only kept it on when he was fixing something at home.

The curious wolf struggled to push a window open with his snout to figure out where it was coming from. He was making progress, the song did sound slightly less muffled now that he was poking his head out the window. Was it just him, or did the tune become faster? And it was also louder and more frantic, and he swore that the constantly repeating motif sounded like something he knew. The mechanic never considered himself to be a man with a keen ear for music, but he knew he heard it before.

Three short notes, three slightly longer notes, three more short notes, again and again and again repeating endlessly...---...Wait a minute. Thomas didn't recognize that pattern from a song, he recognized that that was a call for help!

"Don't do it..." He grumbled to himself as he put his paws up on the windowsill. "You don't know what'll happen, or if you'll even get there in time. Just go back inside and you'll figure out what to do with yourself in the morning."

The song, almost as if it was aware he was trying to ignore it like he was ignoring his hunger, grew louder and faster.

"Don't give in..." The wolf turned back. "You can't help anyone like this anyway, you'll only end up hurting yourself."

It... started to die down, back to its regular, chilling melody and grew even softer. Flickering away like a candlelight in the cold.

"Don't..." The wolf let out a very tired sigh as he looked out the window. "Oh fuck me."

Thomas leapt out the window and sped towards the source of the song, not caring who or what saw him in the city that never sleeps, he bolted directly into the forest. He tried to block out the new sounds of various creatures he couldn't hear before as well as the new smells of the earth underneath his paws and the plants all around him.

Strange marks were on the ground, they looked like someone dragging themselves through the dirt and the marks themselves smelled vaguely of fish and ink.

The song, while faint was very close, he was hot on the mysterious caller's trail! In fact, the wolf's new sense of smell started to become useful as he picked up some familiar scents in the woods; the smell of ink, smoke from a fire, and the smell of cologne- Wait, he recognized that specific cologne, it was that fancy European brand that the "missing" hot-headed music director used to keep himself from smelling like cigar smoke, vomit, and despair.

And the voice of the singer in the distress call 'song' did sound like him now that he was close enough to hear it. He felt a pit of dread in his stomach that almost made him forget his hunger. He knew that the musician was far too prideful to call for help for anyone unless this was his very last option and his will to live made the difficult task of overpowering his ego.

Squelch.

Almost confirming his fears and adding a new one that he was too late, the mechanic made the mistake of looking down and saw that he stepped on a severed leg. A black, tar-like substance that smelled like ink and rotten meat was squeezed out of the part of the thigh that should've been attached to a person.

"...Mr. Lawrence?" He hesitantly called out, thankfully getting him an exhausted groan in response. "Lawrence, where are you?"

"Here." A hoarse yet relieved sounding voice answered. "Look down."

The wolf looked down into a shallow pool to see what had become of the musician. If he was being honest with himself, he wouldn't deny that the music director was always easy on the eyes, and while the curse effected him drastically, that fact about him didn't change.

The water was clear enough to show off the musician's jet black, fish-like tail which glistened in the moonlight, the still human half of his body went through some changes as well; his hands were webbed and clawed, unlikely to properly hold any instrument, let alone use it, his torso, arms, and neck had patches of black scales scattered about haphazardly like splashes of paint on a canvas. Aside from the siren's new set of teeth (which looked like they could haunt anyone's nightmares), waist-long hair when it was previously shoulder length hair, and glassier eyes, the man's head seemed relatively unchanged.

"Could you stop gawking!?" Sammy re-positioned himself to keep his tail out of sight, or at least he tried to, the damn thing was two thirds of his body and he didn't exactly have something to cover himself up with. "I'm not exactly 'thrilled’ about this... Change, for lack of a better term."

"That's one way to put it." The mechanic almost let out a sympathetic chuckle. "I’d never thought I’d be saying this, but it’s great to see you haven’t died yet.”

“Why thank you.” The merman sarcastically responded. “That’s exactly why I went through all the trouble of literally singing my fucking lungs out!” He exclaimed while gesturing to a pair of charcoal-black things that the wolf previously thought were rocks. “To hear you tell me that ‘it’s great I haven’t died yet’.”

The wolf rolled his eyes.

“So why did you go through all the trouble for summoning me here then? Aside from the whole ...fish thing, you seem perfectly fine.”

“It... wasn't intentional.” The fish-man begrudgingly admitted, his voice sounded bitter, but his eyes shone with fear. “I wasn’t thinking about who or what would hear me or come at the moment. My body was falling apart before my eyes and all that was on my mind during it was; ‘Oh god, I’m going to die here, aren’t I?! And if not, my life will be ruined beyond repair!’. And when I sang out as a panicked response, you became the first to show up. Nothing more, nothing less.”

The siren swam to the other side of his aquatic prison and sighed resignedly.

Tom’s ears folded back in guilt, It didn’t take a genius to figure out that the musician was cursed by the failed ritual HE played a giant part in. As strongly as he disliked the musician, it didn’t feel right to leave him like this; alone, scared, and immobile in a place that could even spell out his death if he was unlucky enough.

He walked over to the other side of the pool and laid down beside the edge of it.

“Hey, you don’t need water to breathe, right?”

The siren looked confused.

“I’ve been breathing air just fine, in fact, I think one of the few advantages to this new body is that it replaced my old lungs with healthier ones. Why are you asking?”

“Climb on my back and I’ll take you out of here, granted, I don’t know where we’re gonna go, but where ever it is, it’ll be better than sitting around waiting for your pool to dry up.”

The merman, while hesitant, did climb up on the wolf man’s back, wrapping his arms around his neck to keep him from falling off, the wolf stood up and ran deeper into the woods.

#bendy and the ink machine #thomas connor #sammy lawrence #fanfic #sammy x thomas #body horror

[wiypt-writes]

Leave No One Behind

Ch2- The Red Sea Diving Resort : Part 2 Co written with @icanfeelastormbrewing​

Just a reminder- episode Warnings: Bad Language words. Allusions to death and serious injury.

Leave No One Behind Masterlist // Main Masterlist

Part 1

Later that night Ari headed out to meet Kabede who took him to the refugee camp. It was dirty, crowded, there was hardly any food…and then there was the woman. She’d shouted at both Ari and Kabede for bringing her to the camp exclaiming that her father had died, her husband was missing and her son was sick. Ari left feeling like shit, determined to do what he could, as soon as he could.

By the time he arrived back at the resort it was already dawn. As he parked the jeep he spotted Hannah walking down the sand towards the main part of the resort dressed in a pair of denim shorts and a tank top. He gave her a shout and she stopped and turned to face him, her hand shielding her eyes from the rising sun.

“You’re up early.” he smiled at her.

“None of us have been to bed.” she shrugged “We had too much to do, making the place habitable. We’ve figured out what each of the staff do…oh, and we also now have functioning showers. Max and Sammy got the hot water running.” she smirked slightly, nodding at him “You should take one…”

“Do I smell that bad?” he teased.

“Not considering you’ve been in those clothes for like, what? 48 hours?”

“Fuck knows.” he shrugged.

“How did it go?”

Ari took a sigh, his hands dropping to his hips “Honestly? It was horrible. There’s hundreds of them crowded in there Han. They’re sick and…”He ran a hand over his face as Hannah waited for him to continue “There was one woman there, she was crying, saying she’d left her home for nothing and she’d lost her husband and…”

“Well I know how she feels.” Hannah said softly as her hand moved to her neck involuntarily, and Ari saw her eyes flutter shut when she realised her necklace wasn’t there. She’d left it at home, for the same reason his Star of David chain was on his bedside table in his apartment- they were too obvious, invited too many questions, pointed to a part of their real lives and they couldn’t afford anything at all to do so.

“Firefly…you know, if I could change anything, about what happened…”

“But you can’t Ari.” she said softly before she took a deep breath “Andy knew the risks, we both did…” and just like that the walls were back up, and her face had recovered. “Come on, we should get some breakfast and then you can fill everyone in properly.”

With that she reached out to gently touch his arm before she headed off towards the hotel.

Ari watched her go. He hadn't reacted to her soft touch, not even a smile back or even a squeeze of her hand. The skin on his arm was burning where she had placed her hand but he was frozen on the spot consumed by guilt. Guilt about what he had just witnessed a few hours prior and guilt about what he was sure Hannah was feeling thanks to his desire to bring up Andy, once again, to purge his guilt. Fucking asshole, Levinson.

She reached the spot by the tables at the back of the resort where Max was stood having breakfast. He watched the rising sun glowing on her shoulders' skin, her hair blowing due to the sea breeze. Again, fucking asshole, Levinson.

"You ok, Cracker?" Max asked Hannah when she reached him by the back of the building.  He was concerned about the sad smile on her face.

"Yup." She answered and in a flash Max saw that sad simile turn into a wicked grin. But before he could ask what it was about, Hannah had stolen the toast that was in his hand and entered the building.

"Thank you for breakfast, Maltese Falcon." she quipped.

Max stood there, looking at her and then at his empty hand before sighing and following her back in. What was with these lot and fucking up his meals? 

Ari chuckled lightly as he watched the scene. That was the Hannah he had met all those years ago, the annoying but lively little sister. Firefly. He ran his hands through his hair before stretching a bit and heading back to the main building to freshen up and give instructions to the team.

Half an hour later they all had finished breakfast and the local staff were busy doing their assigned chores. Rachel had explained she had been talking to them and had instructed them to resume the usual jobs each one of them had been doing when the previous owners ran the resort. She had made a list with the names of the staff along with their designated tasks, and had asked them to address to her for any doubt or question, as she was the general manager of the hotel. 

When Ari made sure none of the staff were within earshot, he started to explain the situation the refugees he had visited the previous night with Kabede were in.

"It’s worse than we thought. We have to do something as soon as possible." Ari said and stopped as he could hear a pair of men from the staff speaking in Sudanese.

"It's too dangerous to speak here." Hannah said looking over her shoulder to where the voices came from.

"They are just discussing who cleans the kitchen floor." Rachel offered.

"Still. We need to come up with a way to speak more privately." Ari added.

"We could do it on the beach...." Sam started.

"Wait. The boats! We could tell the staff we're looking for diving spots, testing the waters." Jake cut in.

"Great idea, Jake. Let's go for it." Ari grinned.

"Have we unpacked the wetsuits yet?" Max asked looking at Hannah and she shook her head.

"We don't need them. We arrived only yesterday and we want to explore the surroundings there's nothing odd about that." Ari conceded.

They hopped on one of the boats and Jake steered it a few hundred yards off the shore where he cut the engine and allowed the soft waves and current to simply hold them in place as Ari began telling the group about his trip to the camp and his thoughts on their first run.

“Friday's holy to Muslims, so we'll have less military on the street.” Ari nodded as he took off his jacket. The sun was already blazing hot and he could feel it on his arms as he folded the jacket, dropping it to the floor of the boat. “We need a dark night, darkest Friday of the month”

“When is that?” Max asked.

“In two weeks.” Rachel answered him.

“Two weeks. Two weeks it is, then.”  Ari nodded. “Kabede's going to get two trucks from the locals, something inconspicuous that we can park out front of the hotel.” he said, pointing out of the boat back to the shore.

“We should do a dry run.” Sam said, “Familiarize ourselves with the terrain.”

“Jake, we gotta make sure the Navy's on time.” Ari looked at the man.

“What if they can't be?” Jake asked.

“I don’t care, tell them they don't have a choice.” Ari said, an air of urgency in his voice as he shrugged.

“I said, we should do a dry run.” Sam spoke again and Hannah looked at him, taking a deep breath as once more Ari ignored her bother.  

“Max, you and Rachel go with Kabede to get the trucks.” he instructed and Sammy gave a sarcastic scoff of laughter.

“Guess we're not doing a dry run.”

“They're dying, Sammy.” Ari said softly, and everyone turned to face him.  “They're sick, and they're starving. And we're not gonna sit here and enjoy Aziz's fucking cooking, working on our suntan while they're out there suffering, not if we can do something about it.” Max glanced at Hannah who was looking at her feet, before he sat up and cracked his neck. She winced and looked at him.

“I fucking hate it when you do that, you jerk.” she glared, reaching over to shove him. It wasn’t a particularly harsh push in his chest, but it threw him off balance enough to make him wobble backwards, almost sending him over the side of the boat.

“Easy Cracker!” he said, as the rest of the team gave a soft chuckle, the tension of the moment relived slightly as he pointed at her “Just so you know, I go in, you’re coming with me.”

She snorted and looked around, and Ari smiled as Max took a deep breath.

“Sam?” Ari looked at his friend who simply shrugged

“Better start making arrangements.” he replied, raising his eyebrows.

***** Over the next two weeks, in between the preparation they were making for the Mission, the team spent their time ensuring the Resort was cleaned up as much as possible, so that it at least looked passable from the outside. The days consisted of breakfast, work, lunch, work, dinner, drinks, work, bed. They’d done a supply run, stocked up the bar and collected the first supply box that had been shipped out from Ethan which to Hannah and Rachel’s’ delight contained a number of LPs which the girls spent a lot of time listening and dancing to.

The mood was largely light, growing serious when they were planning the mission in depth but overall it was happy, despite the few disagreements Ari and Sammy had over a few minor points. But then, one Wednesday morning drew round, and the mood was noticeably much more sombre. For good reason.

“You ok?” Max asked as Hannah reached into the middle of the table for the coffee pot. She nodded and made herself a drink before she simply turned made to walk away.

“Red?” Jake looked at her, but she ignored him and headed away from the table.

Max watched her go before he turned back to the table. He shared a glance with Ari who was watching Hannah’s back, before he turned his blue eyes to the table, his head bowed slightly.

“What am I missing?” Jake frowned.

“It’s 4 years today since her husband died.” Sammy said gently, looking at Jake.

“Oh, shit.” Jake said with a sigh “Sorry man.”

Sammy waved his apology off and watched Hannah out of the corner of his eye.

"How did it happen? I mean I know you were all on a mission but..." Jake inquired out of curiosity but in an attempt to not hurt anyone with out of place comments or questions as well.

"Jake." Max warned but Ari cut him off, his eyes fixed on the table.

"No, it's all right." he shook his head slightly.

"Ari you don't ..." Sam began to say.

"No, it's not necessary, Ari." Max added looking at Sam and then Ari whose eyes were still fixed on the table avoiding anyone's gaze.

"Sorry, I didn't want to..." Jake frowned as he glanced at Ari who shifted in his seat.

“Ari, are you ok?” Rachel asked him, frowning slightly.

"I'm alive. He isn't. So yeah, I should be ok." Ari replied still not looking at any of his team mates

"What do you mean?" Rachel spoke again, her tone cautious.

"He pushed me out of the way.” Ari spoke slowly “We were ambushed. Most of the team managed to get to a safe place, but Andy and I were stranded. He wouldn’t leave me, because ‘We leave no one behind’ he said. Then there were shots. They were shooting in the dark and a bullet impacted on a rock behind us and ricocheted"

Ari’s voice was steady like he was explaining a story someone had told him hundreds of times. He lifted his head before continuing and everyone could see his eyes watering.

"He pushed me out of the way and took a bullet that was meant for me, straight in the chest." he said looking at Jake.

"Fuck" Jake muttered.

"Fuck indeed" Ari conceded.

Sam and Max looked at each other and sighed. Rachel was unable to take her eyes from the table surface, struggling for something comforting to say and Jake lit a cigarette as he scratched the back of his neck. 

There was a moment’s silence before Ari suddenly stood up and strode swiftly away from the chair.

“Ari…” Max also stood, as if to stop him but Sammy gently grabbed his arm.

“Let him go.” Sammy said.

Max took a deep breath and dropped back into his seat.

********

Ari approached Hannah where she was sat on a large rock cluster at the far end of the beach just before it curved round the shore. But before he could open his mouth she spoke.

"I'm fine, Ari. I just needed to be alone" Hannah said startling him.

"How did you..." he asked.

"I can recognize your smell. Ok, erm, that sounded weird. What I mean is I can recognize the smell of the tobacco you smoke. It's different from Sammy's or Jake's." She explained without looking back at him.

Ari chuckled softly and asked for permission to sit her. "May I?"

She turned her head and looked at him, nodding. Her eyes met his for a few seconds before she turned her gaze back to the sea. 

“I’m sorry.” he spoke softly, “I really am…”

“Yeah, you keep saying, Ari.” she said with a sigh, “But there’s no need. I don’t blame you, you know.” She turned to look at him.

“I was convinced you did.” he said gently, the pair of them staring out at the sun bouncing off the blue water. “That’s why I never reached out to you. Shitty excuse I know but…”

“Would you?” she asked, turning to face him. “Blame me I mean, if it was the other way round and Sarah had died. Would you blame me?”

“How would I know? She left me.” Ari sighed.

“I know. Sammy told me… But still, you know what the answer would be…” Hannah looked at him. “And yeah, for a long time I was angry.” she conceded “Maybe at you too at first, but mostly at him for having to be the hero…but, that’s what you do isn’t it? When you’re out there and you have a split second to make a decision that you think is going to work out…”

Ari didn’t reply, because she was right. He wouldn’t blame her. Knowing what it was like in the field, as a team it was just what you did. You took risks, you watched each other’s 6. You were prepared to make the sacrifice play. With a sad smile he shook his head, looking down at his hands.

“You’re right. I wouldn’t” he said, looking back up over the ocean. “Guess you can still read me like a damned book Firefly.”

She scoffed “I’ve never been able to read you Ari, I thought I could but…”

Ari took that for what it was, a direct stinging barb about him breaking off their relationship, or fling, whatever the hell you could call it. And he deserved it. He had never given her an explanation.

“Andy was a great guy…” Ari cleared his throat. “I’m glad you found each other and got married. You deserved one another.”

“Just wasn’t meant to be huh?” Hannah sighed. “Ironically he’s been dead now longer than we were together…” She fell silent for a moment before she let out a snort “You know, about 6 months ago I went on a date. Just a guy I know from around…”

Ari felt his heart skip a beat. He had taken for granted Hannah would still be grieving and wouldn't be interested in dating. But then again, what did he know? It was over four years now since he had last held a proper conversation with her. She had obviously tried to move on and she had the right to do so. Only he wasn't sure as to why the thought of her going on a date with someone other than Andy made him sick to his stomach. Nevertheless, he smiled and looked at her “Yeah?”

She nodded “I wasn’t gonna but both Mama and Sammy told me I should, that I needed to get out and meet people…” “They’re right.” Ari said, smiling softly.

“Well I wish I hadn’t bothered.” she looked at him “It was a disaster, nothing in common…and he ate his lasagne with a fucking spoon, who does that?”

Ari laughed loudly at the look of disgust on her face “Maya, and she’s 7.”

“Exactly.” Hannah smiled, “and then to top it all off Andy’s sister saw me. I didn’t realise that until the next morning when his mother turned up at the surgery and unleashed absolute hell, calling me every name under the sun.”

“Seriously?” Ari frowned.

Hannah nodded “Mama nearly slapped her.”

“Han, that’s…that’s not fair.” Ari shook his head “They can’t expect you to live your life alone in mourning.”

“Well they clearly do…”

“Then they’re fucking idiots…” he said fiercely “You’re not even 30 yet. Andy…well, he would want you to live your life, be happy.” “Yeah I know.” she said, before she gave a soft laugh “You know, we used to play that game in bed at night. You know the one, the whole would you move on if I died…question. Andy told me he’d run off with a Bond Girl…so I replied that if Simon Le Bon came knocking I’d be off like a shot…”

Ari gave a snort.

“And then it got serious, and he told me…” she took a dep breath, swallowing as the lump formed in her throat “He told me that if it came to it, my heart was more than big enough to love someone else but still remember him.”

Ari glanced at her and sighed as he saw the tears trickling down her face. Automatically he reached out, his arm wrapping over her shoulders. For a moment she tensed, and Ari thought she was going to push him away but she didn’t. Instead she leaned into him slightly, her head resting on his shoulder.

“I never thought I’d find myself actually having to answer it for real.” she said, her voice broken. “Not so soon after us getting married anyway…”

Ari felt a fresh wave of guilt wash over him. She had said didn’t hold him responsible but still, hearing her broken voice as she spoke of Andy made him feel beyond remorseful because the simple fact remained that he was to blame for tearing her life with Andy apart, no matter how much of an accident the whole situation had been.

Eventually she sat up slightly, his arm still round her as she wiped at her face. “Sorry.”

“What for?”

“This…” she gestured to her face and Ari shook his head.

“Don’t…” he said softly “There’s no need to apologise.” he gave her shoulders a squeeze and then he had a sudden idea. “You know, seeing as it’s the first time we’ve all been together in years we should do something tonight, celebrate him a little.  A few drinks, camp fire…” “Yeah.” she smiled at him. “I’d like that.”

“Well then that’s settled.” he smiled, as his stomach gave a huge growl.

Hannah looked at him, and raised an eyebrow “El Lobo Hambriento huh.”

Ari couldn't help but smile at the use of her old nickname for him. He believed her when she had said she didn't blame him and he took her calling him The Hungry Wolf  for what it was, an olive branch of sorts. The line drawn in the sand. But he also didn’t miss the change of pronoun. She had avoided using My instead switching to The. He was once Mi Lobo Hambriento…but that was another story.

For now, the mere fact she’d called it him in any way was music to his ears. His hopes of being able to rekindle whatever friendship they both may have had once were a damned site higher than they had been. So, he let out a loud laugh and gave a sheepish grin.

“It’s been a long time since you called me that.”

She looked at him and gave him a little smile “Well, somethings never change huh?”

He held her gaze for a second before he gave a little sigh and stood up “Well, not wanting to ruin my reputation, I gotta eat…”

He offered her his hand and she took it and he pulled her to her feet. Dropping his hands back into his pockets he walked alongside her back towards the outdoor area where everyone else was sat eating.

“So I take it that it’s safe to assume, seeing as you never left, that Duran Duran’s lead Singer never showed up on your doorstep?” Ari teased and she laughed, genuinely before she looked at him.

“No.”

“His loss.” Ari said, shrugging and she smiled at him again, a genuine smile that warmed the very depth of his soul.

******

The day of the first mission rolled round, and Ari was like a coiled spring. It was planned as best it could be. They went over the maps, the plan, the route again, and their various roles. It was decided that for this one Hannah would be running with them, whilst Rachel would remain behind at base. Sammy was insisting that his sister ride with him and Ari, which Ari wasn’t bothered by in the slightest. If truth be told he was looking forward to it, but the way Hannah had rolled her eyes and merely called her brother a fucking idiot had made him chuckle.

They were fiddling with the military radios that they’d been installing in the trucks, soldering wires, tuning frequencies, Ari slotting an aerial onto his when Jake called over.  

“They're on.”

“Good.” Ari nodded, jumping down from his truck, satisfied both radios were working. “Leaving here in 12 minutes!” he yelled, clapping his hands together.

“All right.” Jake called back.

Ari made his way back into the resort as Rachel dismissed the staff with a thankyou in Arabic

“What did you tell 'em?” Ari asked

“That we were scouting diving spots and that we'd be back in the morning.” she said.  

“Good.” he nodded. At that point he heard some kind of vehicle trundling in the distance.

Hannah and Sammy, who were packing their medical kit also heard it. The siblings shared a glance before Sammy stood up and opened the wooden shades of the window of the hut they were in, and they both glanced out to see a bus approaching in the distance over one of the hills. Looking at one another again, they both exited and began walking across the sand. Max, who was stood by the side of the main building looked at them, waving them over before he glanced back at the approaching bus. The three of them joined Ari, Rachel and Jake at the front of the resort, Ari shooting a glance round at his team.

“You expecting someone?” Max asked.

“Roof. Now. Take the spear gun.” Ari instructed him. Max looked at Ari then down to the half-eaten sandwich in his hand. Hannah reached out and took the food off him with a grin as he rolled his eyes and jogged away to get in position.

As the bus drew closer, Ari turned his head to look up at Max who in turn stared down at him, the spear gun poised whilst the bus stopped outside the main entrance. Hannah instantly spotted the Sudan Ministry of Tourism logo on the side. The doors opened and a large man appeared, clipboard in his hand.

“Ah! Not an easy place to find.” he greeted them cheerily in a prominent German accent “You need better signage, for sure.”

Jake looked around, locking eyes with Ari who turned back to the new arrivals, his face passive as the man continued to talk. Rachel stepped forward and started to converse with him in German, Hannah tilting her head slightly to the right as she caught the odd word, enough to make her understand that Rachel was asking him what he was looking for.

The words “Red Sea Diving Resort” came across loud and clear, however, to the rest of the team and Sammy looked down, scoffing slightly, smile on his face as he shook his head.

“It is, but we are still under construction.” Rachel said, switching instantly into her cover role of Angela.

“Well, we're still months away from opening.” Ari added

“We just drove eight hours from Khartoum because of this.” the man said, his tone less friendly as he pulled out one of the diving resort brochures from his pocket “Huh?” Rachel took it from him no one quite sure what to do.

“Come, come. Alles gut. Alles gut.” the man started beckoning the people off the bus as Rachel turned and handed Ari the brochure. “Ja?”

Ari took the brochure and smiled at the man, as Hannah looked up at Max on the roof who was watching, a puzzled expression on his face as the tourists headed off the bus and into the resort.

“Show them out the back…” Ari looked at Rachel and then to Hannah. “Get them a drink, let them take in the view. In the mean-time have the staff set some of the tables out inside, and then meet us in the kitchen.”

They did as they were told, and once the loud excited chattering between guests outside made Hannah assume they were happy, Rachel nodding and laughing with a few of them, the two women headed inside, where the guys were already waiting, Max once more eating. Hannah hopped up onto one of the counters at the far side of the room, her legs gently swinging as she sat. No one said anything for a moment, Rachel standing and watching the movement in the main room through the lattice wall screen.

“Well, you have to send them home.” she said, turning to Ari.

“We can't do that.” he said as he leaned against one of the wall columns, his hand resting inside his open dark denim shirt, fisting slightly in the black T-shirt he had on underneath.

“Yes, we can. We point them in the direction of a real hotel.”  Sammy said, his back resting on the refrigerator.

“Colonel Madibbo sent them here. The last thing we need is to get complaints about this place.” Ari sighed, looking at his watch. “Fuck, we're an hour late.”  

He strode forward and glanced into the room, watching as he folded his arms, running his hand over his beard.

“So what do we do?” Hannah asked, watching him.

Ari shook his head, thinking for a moment. There was really only one thing they could do.

“Check 'em in.” he said after a moments pause, his hand held out at the side of his face before he turned to look at everyone “Give ‘em rooms”

“Check them in?” Sam asked in disbelief.

“Yeah.”

“Are you crazy? This is a fake hotel.” Sam shook his head.

“So fake it.” Ari pressed.

Max chuckled from behind him, and Ari turned to look at him before he spun back to face the group as Hannah spoke.

“Ari’s right.” she said gently, and Ari looked at her, surprise evident on his face. “We send them back it’s gonna open a whole can of worms and before we know it our cover is blown.” she shrugged and looked round at the team before her bright blue eyes settled on her brother’s “What else can we do?”

Sam’s mouth fell open and he turned to his sister “You’re out of your mind!” he shook his head “You’ve no idea what-“

“Don’t talk to me like I’m a kid Sammy.” she cut him off, her voice stern.

“Ok, ok, look…” Ari said, breaking up the siblings squabbling “We all knew this could happen at some point, right?” “We did?” Sammy said, sarcastically.

“I didn't.”  Jake shook his head.

“Well…” Hannah shrugged, hopping down from her perch, looking around with a soft smile “Our fake hotel just became a real one.”

****

Chapter 3

#leave no one behind #Ari Levinson #ari levinson x ofc #ari levinson x original female character #red sea diving resort #chris evans #chris evans characters

[luci-in-trenchcoats]

A Nightmare In A Dream (Part 4)

Summary: Six months after reuniting with the Winchesters and her brother, things are going good for the reader. She and Dean are happily together and occasionally stay with her brother, Matty, and Sam, who has been getting him used to normal life. Life appears to be heading in a good direction when the past has a way of creeping up again and dropping a bombshell on them all...

Pairing: Serial Killer!Dean x reader

Masterlist

Square: AU!Dean

Word Count: 4,400ish

Warnings: mature (language, angst, death/murder, drugging/kidnapping, family drama)

A/N #1: This is a spin off of A Dream In A Nightmare and takes place ~6 months later. It’s recommended that fic is read prior to this one...

_____

“Rise and shine boys,” you said with a yawn when you parked next to Sam’s truck around seven in the morning. Dean stirred in his seat, Dylan cracking his neck. He took off the shirt over his face and rubbed his eyes, blinking wearily a few times. The three of you got out, Sam stepping out onto the porch with a gun by his side.

“You guys in one piece?” he asked.

“Yeah, we’re good,” said Dean. Sam walked over and gave Dean and you each a hug before turning his gaze on Dylan. 

“You sure he’s not playing us?” asked Sam.

“We’re pretty-”

“Maggie, stop!” said Matty from inside as a giant blur of fur came rushing outside. The dog sat down and looked up at you, wagging her tail. Matty popped out and threw his head back. “Good girl.”

“Uh, Matty,” said Sam, Matty already pausing as he walked over to get the dog. He stared at Dylan, getting a small smile in return.

“Hey, rascal,” said Dylan. Dylan looked surprised when Matty ran over and hugged him tight. “Hey. It’s alright.”

“I thought…” he said with a shaky breath. He was crying and you squeezed your eyes shut. God, if Dylan was lying to you, it would destroy Matthew. When you opened them Dean was nudging your side.

“Look at Dylan,” he mumbled in your ear. It took a moment to realize that the loud crying wasn’t coming from Matty. Dylan had his head buried in your little brother’s shoulder, his back heaving. “When’s the last time he got a hug you think?”

“Eighteen years old,” you said. 

“I’m okay, Matty,” said Dylan, wiping his face off. “I’m just really happy to see you.”

“Are you gonna stay? Dylan can stay right?” he asked, looking over at the three of you. You nodded and they both smiled. “Oh! This is my dog, Maggie. I just got her. She’s really good at tricks. Remember we were gonna get one?”

“I remember,” said Dylan, giving her a few pets. “You’ll have to show me later. We had a long night.”

“Why don’t you head back to bed, Matty? It’s still early,” said Sam.

“Okay. You guys gonna be here when I wake up?” he asked.

“Yeah, we’ll be here,” you said. “You’re making breakfast later, alright?”

“Alright,” he said. He headed inside with the dog and shut the door the four of you going up to the chairs on the front porch.

“Still want to hurt him?” you asked. Dylan shook his head and took a deep breath. “He doesn’t ever need to know what you said.”

“Thank you,” he said. “He seems good.”

“He is,” you said. “Before I fall asleep, can we go over this?”

“Sammy, like we texted on the way up, Dylan has some information about Lewis, about what happened when we were kids,” said Dean.

“I looked into some stuff last night while you guys were driving,” said Sam. “Dylan, you can tell your piece first.”

“Lewis is a grade A piece of shit,” said Dylan. “We can all agree on that. But he was pushed into becoming one. Or should I say, he gave into being one due to circumstance. You knew Lewis as your neighbor, right? Younger guy with a lot of money, parents recently died?”

“Yeah,” said Dean, sitting back in his chair.

“All that is true. What you didn’t know is that Lewis was married. He had a daughter too. The parents, along with Lewis’ wife and daughter, all died in a car accident,” said Dylan.

“I mean, that’s sad and explains where the money came from but-” said Dean, Dylan shaking his head.

“Lewis earned some of his fortune through his parents passing, that part is true. But he made a lot of it another way. Working at Winchester Corp. Junior Vice President, reporting directly to John Winchester,” said Dylan.

“No Lewis ever was a member of the corporate board,” said Sam.

“Because Lewis isn’t his real name. He bought a new identity for himself. He changed his appearance, dyed his hair, lost weight. By the time your family met Lewis, John Winchester had no idea he was actually speaking to his former employee.”

“Who was he?” you asked. “Lewis.”

“He was Jim Hockley,” said Dylan.

“Wasn’t that the guy that drove drunk and killed his family?” said Sam. 

“You did your research, Sam. Yes, that’s what every paper, media outlet, even police report said. Except Jim was never in that car. John Winchester was. He got drunk at a corporate family party but you boys know your father. He could fool the best of them,” said Dylan.

“Dad didn’t have a drinking problem,” said Sam. Dean sighed and closed his eyes. “Not back then. After the attack, yeah, he did but-”

“Sammy, dad had problems. You were little but mom and dad fought about it. He pushed her once. I saw and pushed back. I never broke my two fingers on the swing set,” said Dean. “We just said that. It was a one time thing though and as soon as he realized he’d grabbed me too hard…”

“So dad was a drunk,” said Sam, scratching his head.

“Yes, he was,” said Dylan. “Jim left this party to go do some work up in the office for a few hours. John took it upon himself to drive Jim’s company car and take his family home. He ended up driving straight into a pole. John in his inebriated state was fine. Jim’s parents and wife were killed on impact. The daughter, due to her grandparents protecting her in a split second, didn’t die. John sobered up quickly, the daughter crawled out the back, and in that moment, John realized his life was about to be over if there was a witness. So he grabbed a shard of broken glass and stabbed the only witness. John quickly got out of there, made his way back to the company, cleaned himself up and went back to the party. Twenty minutes later police came and arrested Jim on a slew of charges. He was drinking at the party too so he was easily over the legal limit. Jim didn’t understand any of this until his lawyer provided an autopsy report on his daughter. There was an inconsistency and Jim put it all together. He confronted John while out on bail and he all but admitted it. John had no remorse. Jim knew he couldn’t win the court case so he ran. He ran, changed his name, and set out to destroy John’s life. One child for another except Jim wasn’t going to be satisfied with just that. He wanted John to suffer and making his child suffer for the rest of their life seemed like a good compromise. It’s never been about you Dean. You were unlucky was all, just like Y/N was.”

“What do you mean?” you asked.

“Sam, Jim’s family. Look up a picture on your phone for me,” said Dylan. You turned your head, Sam going still after a moment. “Yeah. I know.”

“Y/N, you look just like her, the daughter,” said Sam, spinning the phone around. At first glance you would have thought that was you in the photo on the screen.

“He saw us out to dinner one night he said. It’s when his little plan all came together,” said Dylan.

“But last night, you said the stuff about the FBI and my dad hating Y/N,” said Dean.

“Dean, your father made so many of his millions running drug through the company. He traded that information for witness protection for him and Sam. You though, you your father made a deal with Lewis that day he attacked your family. He’d let Lewis have you if he left Sam alone. So you stayed out, on your own, the FBI gave protection for the information and by the time you took over the company again, the company was clean of any past indiscretions. You would have never known. The FBI never gave two shits about Lewis. As far as they were concerned, your family was attacked because of a drug deal gone wrong,” said Dylan.

“What about the hating me part?” you asked.

“Well...Lewis didn’t happen upon our family on his own. John saw us first, right after Lewis confronted him. He offered to tell Lewis who we were so he could have his daughter back if he left the Winchesters alone. Lewis came up with a different plan.”

“So you’re saying our dad killed Lewis’ parents, his wife, murdered a little girl who he could have saved, offered me to Lewis and offered up Y/N too all to save his own ass?” asked Dean.

“Unfortunately, yes,” said Dylan.

“Telling stories without permission?” said Lewis from out of nowhere. You jumped as he walked around the corner of the cabin, a large gun in his hand. “No one move.”

“I swear,” said Dylan, staring at you. “I didn’t-”

“Oh, I put a tracker in your back years ago,” said Lewis. “Wasn’t your fault. Sounds like the kiddos know the full story now. Here’s how this goes. Dean-”

“Shut the fuck up,” said Dean. He stood up and stepped down onto the grass, the rest of you following after. “Just shut the fuck up. I am sorry your family died you waste of human space, I am. No matter who you are and what you’ve done to all of us, they didn’t deserve that and especially a child. But we were kids too. All of us and Matty. You killed our moms. You killed their dad. You hurt all of us. You already got your fucking revenge. You have a problem with John, then fine but that is his problem. We never did a damn thing wrong and we’re done being afraid of you.”

Lewis looked back and forth a few times before his gaze fell on you.

“I’d be ashamed if you were my father,” you said. “I used to think you were evil. Now I know you’re just pathetic.”

“I’m too deep in this now,” said Lewis, aiming his gun. “I know you’re right. I’ve known you’re right for a very long time. So don’t move and none of you will even feel a thing.”

You heard a shot and Dean shoved you to the ground. He felt all over you but you weren’t hit. You sat up with him, Lewis laying on the ground, coughing up blood. To your left your saw Matty, holding a shotgun.

“Okay,” said Dylan rushing over when Matty went a little wide eyed. “It’s okay.”

“He was…” he said.

“I know. Let’s go put this back inside. Maybe Maggie can show me a few tricks now, huh?” said Dylan. “You got him covered?”

“Yeah. Take care of Matty,” you said, Dean walking over and picking up the gun Lewis had dropped. When they were out of view Dean cocked the gun, Lewis trying to take a deep breath.

“Go ahead. I deserve it,” coughed Lewis. Dean aimed the gun lower and shot him in the leg, Lewis groaning. “Kill me.”

“I give you about four minutes before you bleed out. I want you to enjoy every single one of those,” said Dean, putting the safety back on the gun. 

“Your father is a coward. He killed your family as much as I did. He wanted to give Sam and you both to me. He never cared for you. If he wanted to find me, he would have done it years ago,” he said.

“You kill bad people, Jim. You don’t hurt the innocent ones. When you don’t know the difference or just don’t care, that’s what makes you a monster. Don’t worry about my father. I’d be more concerned with where you’re going to wind up very, very soon.”

Lewis didn’t say anything more, just groaned a few times before he went quiet and still. 

“What do you want to do with him,” said Sam eventually. 

“I’ll take care of it. You don’t know how to clean up a body,” said Dean. “Y/N, go make sure your brothers are okay.”

“John offered my family up to slaughter,” you said.

“He lost any good will I had for him at murdering a little girl to save himself. We’ll figure out a plan for our dad. At least he’s not actively trying to kill us,” said Dean.

“But he wanted Lewis to catch us. He didn’t care, Dean,” said Sam.

“He’s not going to get off, Sammy. I think we have an answer right in front of us,” he said nodding towards Lewis. “Dad’s only cared about his own survival, right? He doesn’t know Lewis is dead. We get him to confess to the past murder, point the evidence towards Lewis’ death, get him caught in a trap.”

“It’d be easier to kill him,” mumbled Sam.

“Which is why we’re gonna talk about it in a little bit. Lewis just died. I need a minute, alright? Thank you,” said Dean. He walked off and over to a shed on the property, finding a tarp inside and tossing it over Lewis. He walked off around to the back of the cabin, leaving you and Sam to yourselves.

“Just because Lewis said that stuff to Dylan doesn’t make it true,” said Sam.

“You said you researched. Did you ever come across Jim Hockley?” you asked.

“It lines up with what Dylan said. Lewis was smart, he could have…” said Sam, rubbing the back of his neck. 

“Do you think your father is capable of something like that?” you asked.

“Sadly, yes,” said Sam.

“We don’t…” you said, Sam turning towards you.

“Could you kill Dylan if you had to?” he asked.

“If I had no other choice, I could,” you said. “To protect my family.”

“Does that include me and Dean?” he asked. You made a face and Sam smiled. “Stupid question.”

“I guess the question is, is John a threat to us?” you asked.

“I don’t think that’s the question, Y/N,” said Sam. “Dean said it himself. When you don’t care about hurting innocent people, that’s when you become a monster. We both know what Dean does to monsters.”

“I know. Come inside. I need some coffee,” you said. You went into the cabin, Dylan sitting on the couch with Matty, giving a quick smile that everything was alright. Sam veered off into the kitchen as you watched Dean sitting on the back porch step.

After you had two cups in hand, you went outside, taking a seat beside him.

“Thanks,” he said, taking a sip from the mug you handed him. “Those guys okay?”

“Yeah. The nightmare is over to them it seems,” you said.

“Still a nightmare,” said Dean. “That dream we had, living back home in town, marriage, kids, getting Matty a place nearby, Sam too...it was all just a stupid dream, wasn’t it.”

“Lewis is dead in the front yard. I’d think we should be celebrating.”

“My dad single-handedly destroyed your family. Your parents were murdered. Your brothers have been detained for well over a decade. You were forced to kill. How in the ever living fuck do you not hate me with every fiber of-”

You grabbed his face and kissed him, Dean surprised at first but slowly easing into it. You broke off and cupped his cheek, Dean’s green eyes staring straight into your own.

“I love you and I’m always going to love you, De. What John did is on him, not your or Sam or anyone else. You are still the person I know loves me and will protect me and gives my brothers a chance,” you said. You took his free hand in yours, Dean closing his eyes. “We are still going to have all of those things.”

“I don’t deserve you,” he said, opening his eyes and giving you a sad smile. 

“Yeah, you do. It’s almost over and then we can go live the rest of our lives safely,” you said.

“It’s already happening,” said Dean, rubbing his hand over his face. You cocked your head and he took a deep breath. “I called the old FBI touch point guy I had when I was a kid a few minutes ago. I told him my father reached out to me and was in trouble with something but wouldn’t say specifics. I told them where to meet my dad.”

“You know where your dad is?” you asked.

“Yeah. He didn’t know to be hiding from us so he didn’t,” said Dean.

“How does that solve anything?” you asked.

“Because my father is about to get into a shoot out with the FBI and he will not walk away from it,” said Dean.

“How do you know?” you asked. 

“Because I told them he said he murdered a little girl,” said Dean. “I told them he admitted to Hockley’s daughter murder. He’s too much of a coward to leave alive.”

“Are you sure that’ll work?”

“I’ll know in about an hour I suppose.”

Two Hours Later

“Lewis is officially disposed of and never to be seen again,” said Dean, washing up his hands as he came back inside the cabin. You were settled on the couches around the TV, watching the news coverage. “Is dad dead?”

“Shot himself,” said Sam. “They had the house covered and he started spewing nonsense from what they’re saying before he did it. He admitted to the accident and the girl apparently. I’m sure your PR department is having a field day with this.”

“They’re going to re-open the DWI case and Jim Hockley’s disappearance,” you said.

“You’re probably gonna have to give a statement,” said Sam.

“That’s fine,” said Dean. He took a seat beside you and wrapped his arms around you, pulling you back into his chest. He kissed the top of your head and you looked up, Dean’s eyes a little red. 

“S’okay,” you whispered. “It’s done with, Dean.”

He tugged you up and you went back to one of the bedrooms, Dean leading you over to the bed to lay down. 

“You want to take a nap?” you asked.

“Want to be alone with you for a little while. I just got my dad killed. I don’t...I don’t know how to feel about that,” he said, laying back on the bed. You went with him, wrapping yourself all around him as he sighed. “I loved him and I’m not sure that he ever loved us. Even after knowing everything he did to us, got done to us...I don’t want to feel bad about what just happened but I do.”

“Dean, do you remember when you told me about that time your spilled your dad’s whiskey on him in his office? You were about nine, you said.”

“Yeah?”

“Do you remember telling me what your dad did when you ruined his suit pants? Your mom and Sam were out shopping. It was just you two. You remember how he punished you?”

“But they had to be $500 pants at least. They were expensive. The alcohol was probably another hundred,” said Dean.

“Are you saying that accidentally wasting six hundred dollars deserves a hand on a hot burner?” you said. Dean shook his head and closed his eyes. “You had to lie about how you got it too. Dean. Even before your father destroyed Jim Hockley’s life, he was an abusive drunk that hurt his own family. Who knows what more he would have done to you as you got older. I know you loved him and I want you to grieve if you need to. But just feel however you need to. Be upset about it, be happy. Just don’t feel guilty for whatever you need to feel.”

“I’m sorry I doubted you, when Lewis said that stuff over the radio,” he said.

“Did you doubt me? Or did you just think ‘no, she wouldn’t’ a lot?” you asked. He blinked and you shrugged. “You looked so confused. It was so obvious you were confused, De.”

“I just...I got overwhelmed,” said Dean. “It’s so rare I’m not in control that I don’t think I knew what to do.”

“This time you do,” you said, carding your fingers through his hair, Dean closing his eyes. “Be overwhelmed and fall apart, Dean. I’m right here.”

“Y/N, you have all your shit you’re going through too,” he said.

“I might fall apart too,” you said. “Just stay close and we’ll get through today like we have every other bad one.”

“I love you,” he said.

“I love you too, Dean.”

Three Weeks Later

“Matty! We’re gonna leave without you if you don’t hurry up,” said Dean from near the front door. You’d been back home in town for close to three weeks. Dean had given a statement about his father that was a lot angry but sad enough to make it clear John had been a lone wolf in his operations. Sam was officially alive again after a very long discussion with the FBI. Dylan had his new identity and was learning most days with Sam and Matty. Your brothers were making plans about what to do with themselves but it sounded like they were both interested in college at the moment. “Matthew!”

“I’m coming!” said Matty as he jogged down the hall from your old bedroom. He slipped on his sneakers and was out the front door before the rest of you, the five of you piling into Dean’s SUV.

“Should be about half hour. Hopefully we can avoid traffic,” said Dean.

“I want nachos,” said Matty. “And a hotdog. And a beer.”

“He is 21,” you said when Dean gave you a look.

“You don’t want that watered down crap. I mean, we’re gonna drink it, but were gonna get you an IPA later on, then you’ll see what beer is,” said Matty.

“How about a pale ale instead?” said Sam.

“Sammy. Lager,” said Dean.

“Matty how about a wine cooler? They taste like fruit juice,” you said.

“Oh, that sounds yummy,” said Matty.

“Maybe we can get some on the way home,” you said. Dean rolled his eyes but smiled, driving along with the radio on low. “Hey boys. Dean and I have something we want to tell you.”

“You’re getting engaged, finally,” said Sam.

“In the bahamas,” said Matty.

“On the not so secret vacation you have planned for all of us coming up,” said Dylan.

“How do you know about that?” you asked.

“You guys are kinda obvious when you’re up to something,” said Sam. “You sure you want Matty around a bunch of college aged girls? He’ll have to beat them off with a stick.”

“Me? No way. I’ve never even had a crush on a girl. Or kissed one,” said Matty.

“You’re cute and sweet. You wouldn’t have any trouble,” you said. “But yes, we’re going on vacation, spoil sports.”

“It’ll be a lot of fun,” said Dean. “And no, we’re not getting engaged.”

“We’re not?” you asked.

“Well it’s gonna be a surprise,” said Dean. “Don’t worry. It’ll come when it comes.”

“Alright, alright,” you said.

A little more than a half hour later you were parked, Sam walking ahead with the guys while you hung back with Dean.

“How you feeling today?” you asked as Dean grabbed a green cooler out of the back.

“Alright. I was watching the news this morning. For a split second, I felt bad for Jim Hockley. If dad hadn’t done those things and made him snap, he’d probably be CFO right now or something,” said Dean.

“I think Jim died a long, long time ago. A monster replaced him.”

“Do you ever think I snapped? Like after I accidentally killed that guy as a teenager and found out I liked it?” asked Dean, sitting down in the back area of the SUV.

“No. You never snapped. You never have,” you said.

“What makes you say that?”

“Because you know the difference about good and bad and how there is a gray area to all of it. You care about innocent people, you always have. You didn’t snap, Dean,” you said. “That’s what makes you good. You stop the monsters. You’re not one of them.”

“You doing okay today?” he asked.

“Yeah. Nervous about Matty but he looks like he’s doing good so far,” you said. “I guess we have to get used to normal is all.”

“Eh, normal for us,” said Dean, leaning back. He nodded across the way towards a group of guys tailgating. “One of them killed his wife for the insurance. Got away with it.”

“Dean. After vacation,” you said. He chuckled and nodded. “Want to go watch some football?”

“I would love to, sweetheart. I really would.”

_______

#supernatural #spn #dean x reader #dean winchester #spn reader insert #supernatural reader insert #serial killer!dean x reader #dean winchester x reader #dean reader insert #dean x #dean winchester x you #au

[arcticfox007]

Somewhere to Belong

Bonus! I’m posting this next segment faster than I anticipated because I was really excited about writing it <3

Destiel December Challenge 2020

Day 14: Hot Cocoa

This is a continuation of previous days in the challenge, you can find them on my masterpost or on AO3. Day 15 will technically wrap up the story but depending on how long it goes I may also do an epilogue. 

***

               On the night of Christmas Eve Dean couldn’t sleep. Things had been going so well for him that he’d become convinced it was going too well. Which was, of course, ridiculous, but since when had anything gone the right way for him? He stared at his ceiling trying to will his brain to shut the hell up and let him get some sleep. He told himself that there was absolutely no reason to believe it would all come crashing down. He and Cas had been getting along amazingly well, Sam was happy that Dean was happy, and it was Christmas tomorrow and he was fairly certain his gift to Cas would go over well. He even deviated somewhat from his normal gift for his health freak of a brother because he was feeling the Christmas spirit or whatever. So, yeah, if only his mind wouldn’t keep turning to all the ways tomorrow could go wrong, maybe he’d be awake enough in the morning to enjoy the holiday.

               Ten minutes later Dean knew he wasn’t going to fall asleep anytime soon. He let out a frustrated groan, pulled on warm socks, and added a sweatshirt over the Christmas PJs Charlie had gotten him (yeah, they were ridiculous, but they’d promised Charlie they would wear them, and they were warm and soft so he couldn’t really complain). He begrudgingly made his way to the kitchen, thinking that maybe eating more pie would help him feel better. Sam kept doubting his ability to consume all the pie he and Cas had baked, but Dean was determined to make sure no pie was left behind. He smelled chocolate as he walked into the kitchen and found Cas turning off the stove.

               “I don’t suppose there’s enough for a second cup of whatever smells so amazing?” Dean peers over Castiel’s shoulder having long ago stopped complaining about personal space. Cas smiles softly and starts pouring the hot cocoa as Dean notices there are already two mugs out on the counter. Cas then throws extra marshmallows in Dean’s mug, without Dean even having to ask.

               “I had a feeling you would have trouble sleeping. I know you and Sam haven’t had many happy Christmases.” Dean takes the offered mug from Castiel, a lump forming in his throat as it occurs to him that not only does his angel (and surely there’s no harm in just thinking of Cas as his angel) know him well enough to anticipate that he’d have a hard time sleeping, but he’s also aware enough of how much Dean dislikes the cold seeping into the bunker with all the snow, that he made him a hot drink. With extra marshmallows.

               “Thanks Cas. Want to hang out by the tree?” Cas grabs his own mug and follows Dean out to the couch they had moved by the tree earlier. There’s one blanket tossed over the arm and Cas drapes it over Dean’s shoulders before sitting down himself. The sit in comfortable silence for a few minutes as Cas gazes at the tree and Dean tries to not gaze at Cas. Dean smiles fondly at his mug as he drains the last of the hot chocolate his maybe more than best friend had made for him. Even when he and Cas had fought over the years, even when he’d felt betrayed by Cas, he’d never failed to try and look after Dean. As much as Dean had been furious at the angel over many times over, he also knew that he didn’t have much ground to stand on. In fact, he sometimes worried that Cas had learned a little bit too much about being a Winchester – most of Cas’ mistakes were made in the attempt to protect those he cared about. Most days Dean still wasn’t sure how he could possibly deserve someone like Castiel in his life. Cas really would have gone with him to what he’d thought was his death only a few months back, just so Dean wouldn’t have had to go alone.

               “Dean,” Cas says softly. “Merry Christmas.”

               Dean glances at his watch and notes that it is technically Christmas now.

               “Merry Christmas Cas.” They sit contentedly side by side for a few moments longer. Eventually Dean has an idea. He wasn’t sleeping anyway, so maybe he and Cas could exchange gifts privately now, rather than trying to find time to ditch Sam tomorrow.

               “Hey, Cas. You said you wanted to exchange gifts with just us, right? We could do that now if you wanted.” Dean was somewhat nervous about what Castiel would think of his gift, especially since he’d put so much work into it. Cas’ face lights up at Dean’s suggestion.

               “Yes, if you’re not tired. Can – can you go first though? Mine’s… a bit unorthodox.” Dean was now intensely curious but brushed that feeling aside in favor of the anxious anticipation of giving Cas his present.

               “No problem. It’s not under the tree though, and you need to be quiet so we don’t wake up Sammy.” Dean grabs Cas’ empty mug and drops the dishes off in the kitchen before coming back to drag Cas down the hall towards the living area.

               “Is it in your room?” Cas seemed confused. Dean just laughs softly and pulled him a bit further down the hall. Dean stops in front of one of the doors and opens it up without hitting the light switch. Dean takes a deep breath to calm himself, weaves his finger’s through Cas’, and pulls him into the dark room, closing the door behind them.

               “Hold on, let me find the switch.” Dean fumbles around for a few seconds and then switches on the string lights draped around the room. Cas doesn’t say anything for a long stretch of time, his eyes wide as he takes in the bed with a navy-blue bed set, the giant stuffed bee pillow that Dean thinks is called a pillow pal or something, the used dresser they had dragged out of storage and set up an old boombox on top of, the mismatched mirror and cork board with pins, the desk with the laptop Cas often uses next to a charging station, and the constellation themed throw rug on the floor. The walls had been painted a pale blue and there were two framed posters of what Dean thought were botanical gardens on the wall. The door Dean had closed had a hook on the back, with a soft robe and ridiculous fuzzy bee slippers that Sam had managed to find somewhere.

               “Dean – I – what is all of this?” Cas’ voice is timid as he reaches out to touch the microfiber comforter on the bed.

               “It’s yours. I know you’ve been camped out in a different room, but I couldn’t set all this up in there without you noticing.”

               “Mine? I… I don’t actually need to sleep or anything.” Dean smiles at his friend and moves over towards the dresser, opening one of the drawers to show off more of the gift to Cas.

               “Sure, none of us need Charlie’s Christmas PJs, but we’re all wearing them anyway. Look, we got you a few changes of clothing if you ever want them. There’s also a wardrobe we can drag up here if you need more than a few hooks for hanging up stuff. The bookshelf by the desk is mostly empty because Sam and I thought you’d want to move your books from the other room. Also, I know you can research in the library but you can also work in here if mine and Sam’s bickering gets to be too much. Um, anyway, I just want you to feel at home, because this is your home as much as it is ours Cas. You always have a place with us. I really hope it helps you to feel like you belong here with us.” Dean’s face had gone a bit red and he cuts himself off before he becomes too incoherent. He’s still a bit nervous but then Cas’ arms are around him before he even realizes that the angel had moved. Cas’ face is buried in Dean’s neck and after the initial shock wears off Dean returns the embrace.

               “Thank you. Thank you, Dean. It’s beautiful.” Cas’ voice is muffled by Dean’s neck but Dean gets the point regardless.

               “I’m really glad you like it. I’m hoping this means you’ll be here with us more often.” Cas nods weakly and then draws back from the hug, looking around the room again with something akin to awe on his face. It’s amazing to Dean that an angel who used to live in Heaven could feel anything like awe while looking at the small room in the bunker, but maybe this is more of a home than Castiel has had in a long time, maybe ever. Dean spends a few more minutes showing Cas everything in the room and offers to help Can move over anything he has stored elsewhere. Cas hugs the bee pillow when he thinks Dean isn’t looking and Dean plays along as if he hadn’t seen. Dean can’t help smiling at how happy he’s made Cas, it makes up for not having realized that Cas was missing this in the first place, at least a little bit.  

               “Thank you again, Dean. I’d like to give you your gift now, if that’s okay.” Cas looks almost shy when he looks up at Dean through his eyelashes while sitting on his new bed. Dean’s breath catches for just a second, Cas’ beauty just hits him like that sometimes.

               “Sure Cas,” Dean says a bit breathlessly, “lead the way.” Dean follows his angel back into the hall thinking that, while he’s sure he will love whatever Cas got him, the best present is knowing that he possibly had helped Cas feel like he really did belong here with him.

***

@galaxycastiel, @jellydeans, @my-favourite-hellatus, @nguyenxtrang

#destiel december 2020 #destiel december #destiel fic #destiel #supernatural #supernatural fic #spn family #spn fic #spn #castiel #dean winchester #sam winchester #charlie supernatural #christmas fic #fluff and angst #fluff #christmas fluff #arcticfox007writes

[angelkurenai]

Imagine Sam finding out you and Dean are dating, even though you thought Dean had already told him.

“Seriously, Dean, if you keep singing in the shower at that bloody hour again, I'm going to have to join you.” there was no mistaking your voice, especially as he pushed the door open and entered the room.

“Oh hey Sam!” you greeted with a smile as soon as you saw him, soon adding with a frown “Weren't you supposed to come by two days ago, what happened?”

But his brother's voice, with a smirk that he felt like he could see crystal clear even behind the bathroom's door, beat him at it “In the shower, the singing or both?”

“In the shower.” your voice sounded far too sweet “To drown you!” ah there it was.

“Ouch! That hurts alright?” his brother voice was full of fake hurt but Sam only noticed you rolling your eyes as you helped him with his duffel bag “If anything, you should be happy you get to spend your time with me, even more so these past couple days. People tell me I have a unique way of lighting up a room!”

“Hm is it maybe called arson and all those people witnesses?” you raised an eyebrow and Sam would have laughed if it wasn't for the way everything was happening and, even more, if it wasn't for what he had just noticed. His lips parted and his brows furrowed deeply. He almost narrowed his eyes at the image but he didn't get to say a thing as he glanced back at you and Dean having a conversation, even through the closed bathroom door.

“Now that was just mean. Do you have no heart at all?” he could even hear the pout in his voice and he nearly rolled his eyes.

“When your signing wakes me up before ten am? No, none at all.” you replied casually, taking a seat in front of your now open computer “Maybe we should make a rule about that one too hm? Not a single sound before ten am, much less singing, otherwise... well, I can think of a punishment or two.”

Sam tried not to dwell on that “too” part but it was impossible when it kept ringing in his ears. Just when had the two of you set up any other rules before? And what kind of rules were those? Even more, did Sam want to know those rules? Did he want to know the reason behind those?

“You're truly ruthless sometimes.” Dean's voice brought him back to reality and he didn't know if he should be thankful or not. Between his own thoughts and reality, he didn't know what was worse.

“And here I thought you liked that.” the smirk on your face was a mix of playful and serious and Sam didn't know what to be scared of more. If anything he always knew to trust that you were the most logical one out of the two of you, if not everyone he knew to begin with, so he shouldn't pay that much attention to it. However, he was starting to doubt your own sanity as his eyes jumped once more on one of the two beds in the room. In fact on the only bed that was perfectly made, to the point that he didn't question if someone had been there, he was almost entirely sure that nobody had slept there. He let a single hint of doubt slip in his brain though for his own sanity's sake this time.

Maybe you had actually slept there and had done a perfect job of tidying up the bed. Yes, that seemed possible enough. He tried to make himself believe it too.Third-wheeling wasn't his problem, not really. It was everything else that could come from a relationship between the two of you that he didn't know if he could take. More than anything, it felt too weird to him to think about how the man who was his brother was sleeping with the girl he saw as a sister and tried to protect for so long. Besides, Dean didn't have the best of reputation when it came to relationships and Sam didn't want you to end up heartbroken if it didn't go well, let alone things to become far too awkward afterwards. Having to part ways with you because you couldn't stand to be around his brother was something that scared him to no end.

And so he tried to convince himself it was all only in his mind.

“Come on (Y/n)!” being brought back to reality he realized he had missed a great part of the conversation “This is serious. It's like- You know what it's like? I need attention or I'll die! That's what it's like.”

“Honey, if you're hoping of an 'I love you, is that better?' then too bad. After everything you've put me through this morning? Die.”

“Oh my poor heart. That hurts!”

“And I can find ways to hurt you more, Winchester. Not in a good way mind you.” you said with a smirk and Sam for a split second contemplated what hurting him in a good way could really mean but pushed away the thought as soon as it came.

“Alright, alright I get it. No morning singing after an entire night of-” and then the bathroom's door finally opened and Sam almost sighed in relief because it meant he didn't get to complete the sentence “Oh hey Sam, didn't hear you coming in?”

“Yeah” Sam huffed, pursing his lips for a moment “Of course you didn't. See you were really busy talking about-” he shook his head with a sigh “I don't even get what, really.” he rubbed his eyes “But I'm going to ask because I think I'm going to lose my mind otherwise.”

“Are you ok? You look a little... pale?” you asked softly, frowning in worry at your best friend “Do you maybe wanna lay down? There's a spare bed if you-”

And that was all he needed “Spare. Sp- Wait, are you two sleeping together?”

You kept the frown for a second, glancing at Dean, before blinking at him “Only when we're done having sex.” you joked a bit, as if to tease him when you didn't understand why he'd ask such a question, but he knew that it was also 100% serious as true.

“You- You-” Sam stuttered, unable to really form a proper sentence in his head let alone say it out loud “Wh-what?” he blinked what felt like a thousand times.

“Come again?” you frowned, tilting your head “Sammy is everything ok?”

“Oh I don't know, is it?” he asked back “You two are- you're- What is it that you are exactly? Because I- I can think of many things but I don't even want to believe that you're- you're having- Oh please tell me you're joking.” he said almost shakily.

“Wait-” you raised a hand to stop him “You didn't know?” he was about to say that he was entirely in the dark about when you turned with a hard glare at Dean “You didn't tell him?”

“I uh...” Dean started but he was more at a loss for words than Sam.

“Tell me what? When?” Sam asked softly but didn't press because a) what was the point when he already knew the answer to it anyway? And even more importantly b) Dean seemed to be in worse trouble than when he initially was when Sam walked inside the room.

“That we are dat- That we are dating of course!” you told Sam anyway before your head shot in Dean's direction “Dean? Please tell me that you did tell him?... Dean?!”

“I uhm I may-” he rubbed the back of his neck “I may or may have not... forgotten about it?”

“Seriously?! Three months! We agreed you'd tell him three months ago, Dean, and you forgot?! All this time I thought he knew and you just-”

“Alright, I- I think that's my que. We- we need beer don't we?”Sam talked mostly to himself because you were too focused on Dean and what he'd done or not done anyway “Ι'll need the alcohol and you... well, you'll need the bottle to threaten him.”

#supernatural #supernatural imagine #supernatural fanfiction #supernatural one shot #supernatural x reader #dean #dean winchester #dean x reader #dean winchester x reader #dean imagine #dean winchester imagine #dean fanfiction #dean winchester fanfiction #dean one shot #dean winchester one shot