September 14th excerpt:

“But seriously,” Dean complained, still stuck on the height thing. “You gave me problems about my height when you’ve got this Sasquatch around?” He jabbed a thumb at Jacob. “He’s taller than Sam!”

Jacob frowned skeptically, but resisted the urge to say what immediately came to mind. Of course he was taller than Sam. Aside from being taller than most people, he had a significantly unfair advantage over the sprite-sized guy.

September 13th excerpt:

One giant walking in the woods makes a racket, but two is almost enough to chase even the clouds away,” Bowman groused, though there was a smirk in his eyes.

“We’ve already been over my ‘stalking’ skills, haven’t we?” Dean asked sternly, the glint in his eyes belying the serious tone he’d taken. He cracked the first grin he’d had that day, glad to see their old friend, hale and hearty despite the trials of the last few weeks. Sam and Dean had very few people they’d consider friends, and Bowman was one of the exceptions who knew and associated equally with both brothers. “Good to see ya, small fry.”

September 9th excerpt:

“You’re giving everyone your pissy face,” Sam said under his breath, just loud enough for Dean to make out the words. He was still glowing from the awe he’d received from Jacob, able to feel the teenager’s eyes on him every step of the way while he climbed. Sam was impressed with himself for impressing the tallest person around. He didn’t want Dean scaring off Jacob.

Dean ignored Sam and stalked past Jacob. “We’re taking the Impala!” he said in annoyance. “I know the way.”

“… Alright,” Jacob replied. Dean’s actions caught him off guard a second time, blowing past him in his haste. He was glad Dean was so determined to get right to helping the sprites, and chose to think nothing of the attitude he was getting. Bowman had mentioned that Dean was an intense human, Jacob just hadn’t realized how intense.

The Lounge || Sams of a Feather (4 of 4)

While Dean went to order, Sam knelt down next to Oscar, his drab clothes matching the small kid’s the best out of the group. “I grew up in a motel, too,” he said, looking between the spritely Sam and Bowman and Oscar. “When we visited Wellwood, it was a lot brighter than my old home.”

“You went to Wellwood?” spritely Sam repeated, respect in his face.

Sam grinned. “And Dean went and snatched Bowman right out of the air, so you better watch out if you ever run into him.”

As expected, Bowman bristled. His wings puffed up and he straightened. “He better not try,” he warned. “I’ll bop him if he does. Just figures I’d wait to meet him and he’d try to grab me!”

Oscar smiled faintly. “W-well, Dean’s not the worst human to grab ya,” he admitted. He shared a look with the Sam next to him; they’d both been grabbed at first, only for it to turn out to be one of the best things that could have happened to them. If they had simply run away, their stories never would have begun.

“Do you really, um, bop humans? That’s real brave!”

Jacob, feeling like more of a giant than ever with such a tiny kid at the table, rested his head on his arms. “He definitely will if he gets the chance,” he replied. “Hell, Sam might join him if the human earns it.”

Spritely Sam snickered. “You should know.”

After ordering food at the bar, Dean enlisted the kids help in carrying it all over to the table with the new trio at it. Dean had the drinks on his tray (since he didn’t quite trust his younger-self alone with the mugs of beer), while the other Dean had the food on his tray, and balancing carefully on it was Sam with the smaller tray of food and drink.

“Whoa, that’s awesome!” the teenager declared when he spotted the glider sitting on the table.

“C’mon, put the tray down!” Sam bugged him, almost hopping in place where he waited.

Both Deans did so, the teenager mussing up Sam’s hair for the barked commands.

“We’ve got a round of drinks on the house,” Dean said, passing off a mug for Jacob and putting his own to the side. The younger Sam bolted to the small table sitting at the center of the table, putting his tray down and separating the drinks and food.

“Pine tea,” Dean said as Sam put a mug down on an empty spot, “milk for growing bones, and juice.” He gave his younger self a smirk.

“Plus the bartender gave us these mintcakes!” Sam announced, his short arms just able to reach to place one in each spot. “Oscar, ya gotta try one!”

The mention of food caught Oscar’s attention, to no one’s surprise. His eyes lingered on the glider for a second more, but soon enough he turned to wander curiously towards the table and his own Sam. “Mint cakes?” he echoed, already eyeing one of the places next to a glass of milk.

“No way,” Bowman said, following. He reached the table just as Oscar did and stared dubiously at his setting. The steaming pine tea and mintcake looked like they could have been made in Wellwood itself. “How–”

“The man at the bar can make any food we want!” Oscar explained with a delighted grin.

Jacob sat up so he could spy on the miniature settings on the table. The tiny cakes were familiar indeed. They looked no different from the ones Sam had shared with him.

“Better try it out, Bowman. Make sure it’s up to par.”

Bowman shot him a glare, even as he picked up the mug of tea. “I don’t know what that means!” he groused, before taking a sip.

“Do ya like it?” Oscar asked, watching Bowman closely. He’d never seen someone with wings before, so both Bowman and the new Sam fascinated him.

Bowman sighed and shrugged. “It’s like my aunt made it,” he admitted begrudgingly.

“Dean, you should try!” the younger Sam enthused, holding up an extra mintcake for his brother.

Giving his older self the side-eye, the teenager sat down right by where Sam’s seat was. “Mintcakes?” he asked dubiously, reaching out and letting Sam put one down on his fingertip.

His worries washed away the moment he bit down on the candy-sized morsel. “This is almost as good as pie.”

“Told you,” Sam said smugly.

Dean finished off his bite, then begrudgingly drank the juice the original Dean had ordered him. It was good, just not as good as a ice cold mug of beer. He eyes that up, then looked for something else to distract him.

Bowman and the newest Sam were obvious choices.

“How fast are you, anyway?” Dean asked, poking at one of the sprite’s leafy wings.

The offended wing twitched back from the contact and fanned open. He barely resisted slapping his wing against the intruding hand; Dean was just a kid. This one was, anyway. More than one of most blasted humans should be more confusing.

Faster than anyone in Wellwood!“ he boasted proudly.

"Where’s that?” Oscar asked, already up on his chair and swinging his legs back and forth. He’d made some progress on his mintcake but now he watched Bowman’s twitching wings.

Jacob smirked. “He’s got a point, Bowman. Not in Wellwood now.”

“So, I’m plenty fast,” Bowman protested. “Right, Sam?”

“Faster than my glider,” Sam said indulgently. “And faster than the other sprites. He sneaks out to race the others at night.” He looked up at the teenager, smiling. It was like looking into a mirror of the older brother he’d lost so long ago. His Dean would be older, like the other one sitting with them, but it was nice to remember. “We’ll have to show you after we eat.”

“While you eat, how ‘bout you tell us what brought you to Bowman?” the other Sam offered. “We’ve got a collection of stories going so far, and I have a feeling you might have one of the more interesting ones.”

“Then maybe I can try the glider?” asked the younger Sam from where he was sitting, his legs kicking back and forth under the seat.

Spritely Sam smiled and nodded. “I think I can manage a ride or two,” he said, eyeing up his younger self and judging his size. “There’s a few extra belts in my supplies I could rig up.”

September 3rd excerpt:

Jacob was greeted by the sight of a man in a leather jacket and jeans, hair in a casual spike and fierce green eyes. It had to be the very same Dean Winchester he’d talked to the day before.

Jacob could have sworn he saw a quick motion on Dean’s chest, ducking out of sight near the pocket there. Holy shit, he briefly thought, and willed himself not to glance directly at the pocket. Bowman had mentioned that if Sam wasn’t on a shoulder, he rode in a pocket. Either Jacob had tricked his own eyes, or someone was hiding there even know.

The Lounge || Sams of a Feather (3 of 4)

Bowman scoffed and his wings twitched. He turned away from Jacob in time to see another Sam approaching. Even with the Lounge working its strange effects on his mind to make everything seem okay, Bowman was stubborn. “This is really weird,” he commented, looking between the two Sams. “Do you know how to swordfight? What if a possum pokes around?”

The Sam that had just arrived arched an eyebrow, exchanging a look with his doppelgänger. “Most humans don’t swordfight,” Sam explained, putting his hand in his jacket. He withdrew his knife.

Spritely Sam looked it over approvingly, then pulled out his own. “The knights all use swords,” he told Sam. “Scar trained me himself when I was just a kid.” His cheeks turned red. “He caught me playing around with the weapons, trying them out.”

Dean chuckled. “No matter where you are, it’s hard to keep you out of trouble,” he said fondly.

“Look who’s talking,” his Sam countered.

Bowman smirked, but couldn’t tease his own Sam about it without inviting it back on himself. They both had a knack for finding trouble right at its source. They’d found their Jacob in the most touch-and-go first meeting they could have managed. “Well, he’s way stronger than anyone else in Wellwood, so I think Scar would have taken him on even without catching him messing with swords,” he pointed out. “Blasted strength can even keep me from flying off.”  To punctuate the complaint, he nudged at Sam with the edge of his wing.

While the banter moved back and forth up on the table, a small figure made his way towards them down on the ground. The Lounge’s smallest occupant, Oscar had a lot of ground to cover if he wanted to go meet the newcomers.

Luckily, the bartender always seemed to make sure no one was in danger. Oscar could walk right up to Dean’s boot without worry. “Um. Dean?” he called up, as loudly as he could. He even tugged lightly at a shoelace. “Can I come up and see?”

It wasn’t the voice, but the tugs that let Dean know Oscar was there. He glanced down, feeling a slight bit of vertigo when he saw Oscar standing all the way down by his boot. Even more than when Sam was on the ground, Oscar gave Dean the feeling that he was a building.

Shifting his boot away from Oscar, careful not to tug the kid off his feet, Dean knelt down and gently scooped him into a hand with a light finger. “Wait until you see these two,” he chuckled, ruffling Oscar’s hair. “I might even have to pry the other kids off the arcade machines.”

Lowering his hand right next to Sam, Dean let Oscar slide right off, barely waist-high next to his little brother. “I’m gonna go grab some drinks for everyone, any requests?” he said, pushing himself up and looking at Bowman. Everyone else, he had memorized. Spritely Sam was still Sam at his core.

Bowman was almost distracted by the young nestling-sized kid staring at him with wide eyes. He did a double take, and then decided he would challenge the skills of whoever was making the drinks. This was no Wellwood, after all. “Pine tea, if they have it,” he replied with a smirk. “If not, water would do.”

The next time he glanced down, Oscar had wandered closer to him and Sam. The vibrant greens of their clothes was a stark contrast to his own drab greys.

Oscar straightened when he saw Bowman looking at him just as curiously. “Um. I’m Oscar, and I live in a motel. When I’m not here, I mean. This place is better.”

Dean left with the attention on Oscar, leaving the others and the newest Jacob alone.

The Lounge || Sams of a Feather (2 of 4)

Dean gestured towards the bar, a wistful smile on his face as he realized just what was bothering the little guy. This was the first Winchester who didn’t have his brother with him. “Just a place to chill for a bit before you go find your own Dean. Plenty of booze to go around.”

Bowman stood near Sam, if only to keep close to the only familiar part about the room. He stared up at this ‘Dean’ that had called him by name, but just like his own Sam he’d noticed the figure on his shoulder.

That was a weird sight. He’d grown up knowing Sam to wear the greens of the forest, in the proud uniform of the knights. The other Sam didn’t even appear to have a sword on him.

He crossed his arms. Even as he addressed Dean, their Jacob hesitantly wandered over to join them. “What is ‘booze?’ ”

Jacob glanced at Dean with wide eyes before chiming in his answer. “It’s a human drink, Bowman. Means it has alcohol in it.”

“Dude, you just missed the mini-us,” another deep voice joined in. The oldest of any Jacob there wandered over to greet the newcomers. “There was a Jacob that got cursed, apparently. They left before you guys showed up, but you’ll probably get to meet them next time.”

Bowman leaned away from the even-more-giant giant and then glanced to his Sam. “One of him is sprite-sized? ”

Jacob waved a hand at the two very green little guys on the table and grinned. “Stands out almost as much as you do, buddy,” he greeted. “Dude, did you teach your Sam to fly?”

Sam grinned encouragingly. “Bowman thinks he taught me to fly,” he said as he caressed one of the wings of his glider. He could see the attention it was getting, and from looking around the Lounge at all the other Sams, could understand why.

He was the only one, aside from Bowman, wearing the colors of Wellwood.

“I ended up in the Wellwood when I got cursed,” Sam explained as Dean sat down, a fascinated look in his eyes for the leaf glider. The other Sam started to climb down so he could join them. “Figured if I can’t fly like they can, I’d just make my own wings.”

To demonstrate, Bowman stretched out one of his own wings next to the glider. The wingspan was nearly the same, and there was definitely a resemblance between the two. After years of poking at Bowman’s wings, Sam had been able to make his own, and all teasing aside, Bowman was proud.

“We look after Wellwood as a team,” he boasted, shooting both the Jacobs a grin. The younger one shrugged sheepishly and Bowman snickered. “Even gave that giant right there a reason to think twice.”

Jacob nodded even as he joined the others in sitting at the table. He held up his hand to show off the bandaging over the back of it, hiding a long gash in it. “Sam jumped up onto my hand when, uh. When I tried to grab him.”

Dean snorted, and his Sam sent him a scolding look. “Yeah, uh, so far we’ve seen all the Jacobs making… quite an impression,” he said with a smirk. “We’ve got big and tall over here,” he nodded at the oldest Jacob, and then at the next table over where a matching set of cursed Sam and Dean played a game of pool, “who managed to get sliced up twice for grabbing those Winchesters. Shorty by the bar definitely regretted grabbing Sam…” That Jacob still had a black eye to match his sliced hand. “The only one who made it out in one piece is half-pint, who’ll be back later. So far as I can tell.”

“Dude, don’t miss out on saying high to him when he gets back,” the older Jacob said, lightly punching the newest Jacob on the shoulder. “Seeing double is already a trip, right? Imagine seeing yourself pocket-sized.”

“Pocket-sized?” Bowman interjected with a wary glare.

The taller Jacob put his hands up in surrender. “I’m sure someone else said it before me,” he insisted. When Bowman only gave him a flat look in return, he shrugged in defeat. “Either way. You guys have fun chillin’ in the Lounge, it’s a great place. They’ll even make whatever food you want.” He gave a wave to his younger self, who returned it in a daze, and then wandered over to see what his own Winchesters were up to.

The Lounge || Sams of a Feather (1 of 4)

Welcome to the AU lounge! A place of relaxation conceived and helped designed by all the readers and visitors to the world of Brothers Apart! Stay awhile, kick up your boots, and have some pie!

Current AUs in the Lounge:

Brothers Together (Teenager big Dean; tiny kiddo Sam; tiny kiddo Oscar)
Brothers Apart (The original Dean and Sam)
Brothers Lost (Big Jacob with the tiny bros)
Brothers Found
(Big Dean and Jacob, tiny Sam)
Brothers Adopted (Big Dean, tiny Sam and tiny Jacob)

****** Departing
Brothers Asunder
(Big Jacob, spritely Sam and Bowman)

****** New Arrivals


The door to the Lounge opened, and two green blurs swooped in, one spiraling around the other, who kept up a steady pace as he always did.

Sam Winchester, a knight of Wellwood, was surprised to find himself in a darker area, one that had no resemblance to his home in the forest. There, sunlight trickled in through the vibrant green leaves, giving life and warmth to the sprites who called it home.

Here, there were no trees rising up into the air. Instead, walls hemmed them in, containing a large space that was full of massive tables and chairs, laughing voices–

Sam pulled up on his glider, nearly halting in midair as he saw who was in the room.

“D-Dean?” he said in disbelief, spotting a man leaning over a pool table aiming up a shot to sink the eight ball.

Then, he nearly twisted in place, seeing another man dressed just like Dean at the bar, joking around with a slice of pie.

“W-what is this place?” Sam asked, his voice shaking.

“How about you land before asking questions!” Bowman answered, even as he banked around to take hold of the handle bars atop Sam’s glider. With his extra momentum, he dragged the glider forward through the air so Sam didn’t plummet, and aimed them for one of the many tables.

As much as Bowman wanted to meet Dean Winchester himself, he wasn’t about to shirk his duties. When Sam flew with him, they had to look out for each other.

“There’s two blasted Jacobs, too,” he groused as he lead the slow dive to their landing. A glance behind showed that the Jacob they knew was still waiting in the (annoyingly square) doorway.

“Dude, what the hell…” the newest Jacob muttered, staring around the room. Hesitantly, he stepped across the threshold so the door could close behind him, and followed the descent of the two green shapes he already knew among a room full of people he only thought he knew.

The new entrants to the room had not gone unnoticed by anyone. With their green clothing and vibrant wings, they stood out among the drab colors of a dive bar, nearly glowing in the luminescent light.

And, naturally, were recognized.

“Bowman!” one of the Deans called, the one loitering around the pool tables. A broad grin split his face as he saw the sprite landing on the table with a second winged ally.

He didn’t get the sense from Bowman that he was the same sprite they’d met a few cases back, but that didn’t much matter in a place like this.

“Who’s that with him?” Sam asked, motioning for Dean to give him a lift.

Dean scooped him up and dropped him on his shoulder with a bit more casual of a motion than normal. “Dunno,” he said, wandering towards the new trio. His eyes widened as the other person came into focus, removing belts that held him to a pair of wings designed much like Bowman’s.

Sam?

The spritely Winchester looked up, briefly filled with hope as he saw there was a Dean standing there. A mountain of disappointment hit him as he saw a second figure sitting on his shoulder, his face falling. He glanced around, looking for a Dean without a Sam.

But there was none.

“What is this place?” he asked again, looking back at the original Dean and Sam.

August 31st excerpt:

“There’s a motel in town,” Jacob said, remembering. “I can just grab a room there for tonight, we’ll meet there when you roll in and then come out to the woods, sound like a plan?”

“Sounds like a plan,” Dean confirmed. “Send a text when you’ve got a room, we’ll set up our base of operations there in case we’re around for longer than a few days.”

“Since you’re so great at camping,” Sam said under his breath with a grin, getting Dean to nudge him with one of the fingers spaced around where he crouched. Raising his voice, Sam finished off the call. “Bowman, don’t worry, we’ll be there soon and we’ll figure this out. Just hang on.”