Oscar’s shuddering never stopped. His heart pounded in his little chest and he had his arms tucked close to his chest while he gripped the strap of his cloth bag in terror. Wide eyes stared up at the human and waited for one of those enormous hands to return.
Oscar couldn’t stop anything that happened to him. He was too small.
“B-but I …” he began weakly, only to falter again. He took a slow, rattling breath and felt the telltale sting of more tears in his eyes. The human had asked him not to run off. Would he stop Oscar from trying? “I-I just … I don’t …”
Jacob’s eyes widened. He let go of the tiny arm and his thumb released the little guy’s legs in pure surprise. The fear on that little face became more obvious just before it disappeared behind the miniature hands. The tiny person drew his knees up to his chest and curled into a protective ball, shoulders bouncing in time with his frantic sobs.
Mallory found herself accidentally ripping the fabric in her aggravation, instead of her nimble fingers slipping between the threads to coax them apart. Dethreading like this was the best way to get workable string, that wasn’t too thick for their delicate skin. Coarse fabric might be fine for humans, with their impervious skin, but it would chafe a person Mallory’s size.
Walt had the audacity to tell her that she needed to stay in the house. As though he couldn’t stay home for once and watch their toddling daughter, only just now taking her first steps.
Bree sat to the side on the floor, enthralled with the fabric toy Mallory had made for her. She hefted it up with a quiet squeal of enjoyment, her mouth widening in a toothy grin. She already had all her front teeth, and the back ones were starting to peek out.
It wasn’t that Mallory didn’t love spending time at home with her daughter. It was the fact that Walt always wanted to keep her inside. He never brought home the right colors for fabric, and she just wanted a chance to go out searching for herself. She could always just leave one night, she supposed, but that wasn’t fair to anyone. At least she knew that Walt was going to be out. He would fret if she vanished, but they couldn’t leave their daughter alone to search.
A scraping sound came from the entrance to their small home under the floorboards, and Mallory glanced up. Walt could be seen coming in with a sheepish look on his face. His hands were tucked behind his back.
Mallory stuck her nose up and turned back to her fabric.
She did her best to ignore him as he came over to her, one hand gently stroking down her back. He gave her neck a kiss, and she tried to squirm away, refusing to let him win his way back so easily.
“I thought things over,” Walt whispered, and that caught her attention. His voice was truly contrite.
She turned to him to grace him with a raised eyebrow and a severe look on her face.
Walt knelt down, his right hand still behind his back. “I talked to Katrine,” he said honestly, but continued before she could berate him for going to her best friend behind her back. “She is going to watch Bree for us tomorrow, so we can go out.” He gave her a hesitant, hopeful smile, pulling his hand from behind his back to reveal a purple snapdragon.
Mallory gasped in surprise as her hands flew to her mouth. The scent that washed over her meant it was a real flower, carefully gathered from outside where the motel they made their home in planted its gardens.
She took it carefully, stroking the soft surface of the flower petal.
“I don’t want to keep you locked up inside,” Walt said, his blue eyes full of remorse. “I just don’t want the humans finding you. You don’t even have a way to defend yourself! I need you – we need you. So… I’m sorry?”
Mallory sighed, and wrapped her arms around him to forgive him. She planted a soft kiss on his lips before nuzzling into the crook of his neck. “So where are we going while Kat watches Bree?” she asked, a pleased smile on her face.
Walt put two hands on her shoulders, pushing her away so they could look into each other’s eyes. “I was thinking we could spend some time under the overhang,” he said, his eyes glittering with mischief.
The overhang was one of three places in the motel that they could actually sit outside and watch the world pass them by. Fresh air, the wind on their faces, and enough cover to keep out of sight of any birds of prey that might hover around. Too high up for the humans on the ground to see them. There was another place Walt knew of, one he hadn’t shown her, that he used for his leatherwork. He would stretch out the hides of any rats he found and killed in the motel and leave them to tan.
They’d lived there since before it was a motel, back when Trails West was simply a bed and breakfast. Walt knew the layout of the place better than anyone alive, better than even the humans. He knew where to tap into the water so no one would notice, he knew (and had built, as the humans built) many ways in and out of the rooms near where they lived.
“That sounds wonderful,” Mallory said, leaning her head against his chest and listening to his heart beat. It helped calm her, and took away the rest of her anger from earlier.
Bree giggled over in her place on the floor, and tossed her fabric up.
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.
Jacob watched them go with wide eyes, practically holding his breath. A small part of him worried that they might not come back. That they would get caught and sent to jail, or that they’d simply run away to leave him behind. He had to tell himself that they wouldn’t have left their bags if they planned to do that.
Once they were far enough ahead, he scooted forward just a bit and sat himself down. He had a good view of the fence they hopped over, and the field beyond it too. He’d keep watch for their return.
In the meantime, he looked curiously down at their bags. They were so tiny, and he couldn’t even see the zippers on them. Jacob smirked at the sight of the claimed quarter sticking out of Dean’s bag.
Jacob lifted a hand, ready to scoop them up again in preparation for the hike. Then, Dean’s insistence from before barked in his memory and he paused. Hesitantly, he lowered his hand instead to make his fingers a ramp up to his palm.
“You guys shouldn’t be on the ground in the woods while I’m walking,” he explained.
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.
Brothers Apart 