With an unspeaking appearance from @nightmares06‘s cursed Sam Winchester from our collaborative Supernatural AU, Brothers Adopted.
Reading Time: ~10 minutes
Jacob wasn’t allowed to venture off on his own. It hadn’t even been a year since his curse, and the size of everything could still stop him in his tracks sometimes to stare. The thimble they used for water should be too small to fit on his thumb, but he could dip both hands in it. Sam’s climbing hook was fit for a hefty backup weapon if he ever lost his silver knife, when normally it should be pinched in a couple fingers.
Jacob was small, and he wasn’t used to the way everything around him had gotten so huge, so harsh, so loud.
Oscar barely slipped an inch before his back impacted against something wide and warm, with a tough surface and a little give to it. A pulse thudded behind his back and he realized it was the human’s palm.
Then, fingers and a thumb bigger than him snaked into view. They curled around Oscar faster than he could cry out or even lift his own hands to push at them, and soon enough they tightened around his small body. The light from above winked out as Oscar disappeared completely in a fist that could probably smash half his home with ease.
He yelped when a voice, a deep, rumbling voice, boomed overhead. “Gotcha!” The word sent ice into Oscar’s every nerve ending.
A little story from Kara while her daddy was missing!
Kara sniffled, brushing away a tear as she curled into a ball.
Her dad was gone. Christian was gone, and she had no idea how to get him back.
Her tiny form was hidden away in the walls, just like he’d always told her to do if she was in trouble. Stay out of sight, out of reach, beyond notice by any humans. She had to choke down her cries, forcing herself to stay quiet in the vents.
She’d run long and hard to get away from that terrible, horrid room where he’d been taken from. Why? Why him, why now, why did she have to lose the last person she had in her life?
Her mom was gone, nice old Mikael had vanished a week ago, and now daddy had followed, grabbed in huge hands.
She blinked her grey eyes open again, and uncurled enough to creep along the vent. The metal was cold to the touch, but it wasn’t on. If she heard the clanking motors activate deep in the bowels of the motel, she’d be forced to find a new place to hide.
Ahead, there was a slit. She came up to it, peering out to see where she was.
One of the motel rooms stretched out before her, and she very nearly ducked back down. But there were no humans up and about, just one guy sitting on the bed down there. The television was on nearby, and she stared at it. Her dad had told her about televisions before. How they could show humans things that happened very far away.
This one had a white forest on the screen, and her grey eyes reflected the sight of gentle snowflakes landing on the ground.
It was so peaceful and idyllic. A scene that Kara would never be able to see outside of the walls.
She took a deep breath, holding the image in her head. Peace. She needed to get her daddy back so they could find some peace of their own.
The human shifted, and her terrified eyes flashed back to him. He was huge. Why did humans have to be so massive?
Him moving caught her attention to something she’d missed. On his shoulder, there was another man.
The human’s voice was drowned out by her shocked reaction. She almost scrambled away from the vent, then inched forward once more to see if she’d been imagining things.
But no. It wasn’t her imagination. There was a man on the human’s shoulder, and he looked as relaxed as anyone she’d seen. No fear, no worry. Casual words exchanged between the two of them as they argued over what they should do next. The human stood and snapped off the television, dispelling the image of the snowy forest.
Kara blinked, then her resolved firmed. When the human wasn’t around, she needed to talk to this new guy. Sam.
What if indeed! Poor Oscar is one of my smallest characters and Jacob is one of my tallest! This is such a cute AU idea. Jacob’s meeting with Bowman was so touch and go, because the little sprite snarked up a storm! Oscar is definitely not the same personality type, so it was fun to see how differently Jacob would act with his first tiny encounter with such a timid little guy.
There was nothing interesting on TV, but that didn’t really come as a surprise. Jacob didn’t watch a lot of television, and decent movies were tough to find on the channels offered by the kinds of small-town motels he chose on his frequent road trips. They went for basic, and that was always hit-or-miss.
Not that Breckenridge was particularly small. Jacob had chosen a little motel in the summer, however, a time when business in an area known for skiing could take a dip. Mountains stood tall and proud against the sky out the window while he lounged on the bed. It was a good place to stop and rest, even with the tacky decorations and worn-down character of the place.
While he settled on a channel showing old cowboy movies, Jacob mused about staying an extra day in Breckenridge. He could wander around and enjoy the mountain air, and the jagged horizon that stood tall and stoic all around. It contrasted with his usually endless horizon view back in Iowa, where the sky was a dome.
A quiet sound derailed his thoughts. On the edge of hearing, occurring between lines on the movie, Jacob thought he heard a rustling noise. It ended as soon as he heard it, but his ears primed to the sound to listen harder anyway. He pinpointed the source easily: his backpack.
The bright and cheery seven year old girl ran down the well-worn path of the burrow, and Arthur found himself catching her in his arms as she leapt the last few inches in her excitement. Her bright red curls bounced as she landed, giggling the whole way.
Arthur couldn’t hold in a smile at her exuberance. Moments like this reminded him why they’d moved out of the massive house. There was a false safety indoors, one that he’d seen through the moment he realized that a hunter lived there. Here, in this burrow, his family could be safe, with food they caught and grew themselves. Alyssa could thrive.
“What is it, kiddo?” he asked as he bounced her once in the air and let her drop to the ground. The little girl clasped his hand between hers, and dragged him towards the entrance.
“You gotta see!” she declared, almost digging her heels into the softened dirt under their feet. The last few days of rain had left everything moist. Damp walls, damp hair, damp clothes. The pit of coals burned bright, though, and there was enough heat in that room to keep the elderly warm.
The light increased ahead, and Arthur picked up his little girl to give her a piggyback ride through the last of the mud. Carefully dug canals throughout the burrow served to direct the water into the creek behind their home, but it never got rid of all the water. If the burrow ever flooded, Arthur knew they’d have to find a new home, but so far it had served them well.
“Look!” Alyssa giggled, kicking her muddied feet in excitement. Arthur had to put a hand on her legs to calm them, and he squinted.
Above the tall stalks of grass that grew in the field, blue skies shone. Dark clouds were hovering around the edges, threatening the sanctity of their home, but a rainbow stretched from one end of the world to the other. Arthur caught his breath at the sight, astounded.
Those years they lived in the walls, they’d never had the opportunity to come out of hiding and see something to precious. But now, it was theirs for the taking.
“Thanks kiddo,” Arthur breathed.
Alyssa giggled, and propped her arms on his head. This rainbow was her best find yet.
Walt quickly had to pull his hand out of Mallory’s grip, shifting to cover her mouth and stifle her cries. Noise was dangerous, noise could get them all caught or killed.
Normally, Mallory knew this as well as Walt, but right now she was beyond caring.
“Shhh, shhh…” Walt comforted his little wife, carefully cupping his hand under her small chin to tilt her face towards him. “You’re doing great, sweetheart.”
Mallory’s shoulders shook, and tears ran down her face, but she met Walt’s piercing, blue-eyed gaze with her own. Her face was red, and her hair was streaked with sweat.
“Give her this,” Katrine said, bustling over to press a moist torn shred of a paper towel into Walt’s hands. “On the forehead, cool her down.” She grinned at Mallory. “He’s right, you’re doing great,” she cooed, long years showing in the lines on her face. “Brennan will be back with food for everyone.”
Walt dabbed the cloth against Mallory’s face, brushing the sweat away. He pushed away any of his fears for her, knowing how dangerous labor could be. If he’d known it was like this, he wouldn’t have wanted her pregnant, or to risk her frail constitution. But when Mallory had been Katrine’s midwife earlier that year for the quiet Krissy, they’d kept both the men busy and out of the house.
The next contraction hit, but this time Mallory held in her cry. Her body seized up, almost writhing.
“Walt, hold her down! Don’t let her get hurt!” Katrine commanded severely.
Walt took Mallory’s hand again, letting her slim fingers grab onto his and clench with all her might. Another contraction hit, and then…
A little cry came from where Katrine was, and she straightened with a tiny bundle in her arms, wrapped in the blue and pink cloth Mallory had made just for the occasion. With expert ease, Katrine swaddled the child up and gave Walt a brilliant smile.
“It’s a girl.”
Walt almost didn’t breathe as the tiny bundle was placed into his arms. Mallory slumped down into herself, almost shrinking into the nest of fabric they’d set up for her.
“Did you hear that?” Walt asked, his face glowing as he looked from the tiny child to his young wife. “It’s a girl. Briella, that’s Mallory, your mom.”
Mallory opened her eyes slowly, and managed a smile of her own. Walt knelt on the floor, and held the baby out to Mallory.
Rumsfeld certainly had a time seeking out Sam and Dean while they were busy hiding in the walls… Dean finally had to give in and give him scritches in the end.
Dean froze when he heard a scuff, then a distant door creaking open. “Jacob wouldn’t come up here unless it was an emergency,” he said knowingly, a dark tone in his voice. The sound of someone saying Dude! drifted to the tiny people in the room, and it wasn’t Jacob’s voice.
Pointing towards the dusty piles of boxes and antiques, Dean explained. “The last place we saw them was in the piles of boxes. It’s our best bet to start, and we can branch out from there. Hopefully, with Jacob out of the picture, they’ll reappear. I really think we were getting somewhere last time with the journal.”
“At least the journal’s in one piece,” Sam murmured as his hand strayed protectively to his bag. It was the only one of its kind he’d ever seen, and he didn’t want to risk it. He already had to write in the margins and use up every millimeter of space so he didn’t risk running out of blank pages. With Dean’s shenanigans, he was going to be left without a journal inside of the year.
It might not be as popular a place to live due to the amount of humans that are in and out on a daily basis, but that is a trade-off for the sheer amount of food they’d be able to find. The kicker is with that many people around, there is no way to risk getting food during the day. All gathering trips would have to wait until no one was around.
Motels are a little easier because it’s less people around, but they also lose out on the amount of food available. It completely depends on the people who stay in the rooms.
Homes are the safest, but care has to be taken since the theft is easier to notice when it’s the same people around day after day.
Brothers Apart 