And he said “Let there be water!”
This time, not only did a water tap appear, an entire bar slowly took shape before his eyes. On it, top shelf whisky winked in the lights, and the labels for Coke and Pepsi stood side-by-side in a long row of names.
He smirked. Whoever said you can’t bend a few rules during creation?
“Hey,” Dean said, coming up behind the kid.
Green eyes flashed at him, then went back to the screen. On it, Mario and Luigi were jumping around. “Hey,” the kid said, unconcerned.
Dean’s eye was drawn down to the part of the arcade machine the kid was leaning on, widening when he saw movement.
“Hey!” yelled another kid, younger and with floppy brown hair, at his own arcade machine that couldn’t be taller than four inches.
“Dean are you–” Sam started.
“Yeah,” Dean murmured back.
It was them.
From the look of things, the Sam and Dean Winchester standing in front of them couldn’t have been more than ten and fourteen years of age, right about the time Sam was cursed. But– they’d been separated at that age, and these two definitely hadn’t.
“You can play if you want,” the younger Dean said, jabbing an elbow at the machine next to him. “They’ve all got controls made for Sam’s size, if he wants to join in.”
“How do you–“
“Just do,” younger Dean shrugged. “You kinda… pick up things while you’re here. Oscar’s around, if you want to see him.” He stared down at the machine, missing a control and letting Sam get the best of him in their match. Something was hanging over the younger Dean’s head. “He’s been checking things out. He doesn’t really want to… leave.”
Leaving was indeed the last thing on Oscar’s mind as he hesitated under one of the nearby chairs. Confusion left room for little else. He had no idea how he’d come to be there, and he was way too shy to ask the man that stood behind the tall bar. He could climb up there with ease if he wanted, but he avoided that side of the room.
It would all be so much easier if there was a way into the walls of the place. Every time he tried to find a vent, it was like it was in the corner of his eye. Never in front of him.
Instead, he’d taken to wandering under one of the tables. Sam and Dean had tried to show him the games in those tall, heavy cases, excited voices crowing about unlimited quarters!
Oscar had promised he’d give them a try. He needed to look around first, and clear his head.
Last he knew, he’d been left behind. But now he was back with his friends, in a place none of them really recognized. He didn’t want to leave, because it meant not being able to find them again.
Of course someone else would wander in while he was making the trek back to the human he knew. Oscar wrung his hands while he stood in the shadow of a chair, peering across the floor at the heavy, well-worn boots standing near the arcade machine. That was a tall human, one of the taller ones he’d ever seen.
There was no way Oscar could dart across the floor without the newcomer noticing him.
They were supposed to be safe in whatever this place was. The man at the bar had made sure Oscar knew at least that. He didn’t need to fear anyone that came in, and the promise was made with a confident wink.
Oscar, barely over two inches tall, hesitated anyway.
He shifted his bag around on his shoulder. There were snacks stuffed inside from one of the tables in the room, things he’d saved in case he didn’t feel like climbing back up later. Once he was sure he had the bag secured, he took a step out of the shadow of the chair.
And froze.
He found himself glancing up, up, up at the man’s face, eyes wide at the intensity there. He was so familiar, and at the same time not. Oscar glanced between him and the teenager whose back was turned to him.
"Oh,” he muttered. He thought he might understand. It was hard to wrap his head around it, but like young-Dean said. You kinda pick things up while you’re here.
His next steps were halting and unsure, but Oscar forced himself to walk further in the open anyway. He was just going to cross to the arcade machine. Yeah. Easy as pie, as humans liked to say. Then he could figure out what to do about the fact that there were two Deans.
And one was much older than his own.
Brothers Apart 