January 29th excerpt:
With that out of the way, Dean seemed to be starting to come around. His legs shifted in place, slowly stretching each muscle like a cat might. His eyelids fluttered, and a groan filled the air around Jacob and Sam.
Compared to them, Dean was big.
January 28th excerpt:
Jacob paused out of respect for Dean’s sheer size. His face was half buried in a pillow, as was his usual, but the sound of his breaths was loudest from where they stood. He was almost twenty times their size, and it was not a difference to take lightly.
After a moment of indecision, Jacob looked to Sam and held up his hands, one flat with the palm up and the other in a fist over it. “Loser wakes the giant?” he asked, his voice so low almost no sound came out.
“Loser has to jump over to the bed to wake the giant,” Sam countered, a smirk growing on his face.
Brothers Adopted started off with a bang when Dean Winchester discovered a tiny kid in his room. With no idea Jacob Andris was actually family, saved by Dean’s estranged little brother, Sam Winchester, he trapped him under a vase to get to the bottom of why Jacob was in his room. Sam soon showed up to stage a rescue, caught out in the open by Dean, who swiftly figured things out. But…
What if Dean never woke up and found Sam in his room? What would become of Jacob?
“S-Sam, look, I appreciate this, but don’t get yourself caught because of me, okay? I’m sorry I didn’t run fast enough. But you still have a shot here, and who knows? Maybe he’ll let me go?” Jacob tried to offer a casual smile like he actually believed the suggestion.
He tried.
Sam ignored the suggestion as he aimed again. “I’m not leaving you,” he insisted. “Aside from the fact Walt’s already going to kill me, I’m not losing another brother.” He grew silent for a moment with memories of his older brother in mind, then launched the hook in the air. This time it landed on the top. Cautious, Sam carefully drew it towards himself, praying it would catch on the book.
The shot was no good. It slipped off, tumbling towards Sam. With a fast grab, he snatched it out of the air. “Son of a bitch,” Sam hissed, using one of his brother’s favorite curses from when he’d been a human.
He stepped back for the next shot, preparing himself.
The room around them was silent as the hook sailed up into the air. The human over on the bed shifted, but didn’t wake up. Sam froze when the hook landed on the book with a barely audible thump, glancing towards where the huge man was lying.
But he never woke up.
With a sigh, Sam started to tug the hook towards himself. He didn’t know what he’d do if the human woke up. Despite his brave words, his stomach was clenched with fear. No amount of bravado was going to help save them if the man saw him. Sam’s knife would only go so far. It would be like trying to fight a dragon with a pig-sticker.
A few more throws later, and there was no progress. Every time the hook thumped so faintly on top of the bible above, Jacob felt like it made the loudest slamming noise he ever heard. He was astounded that the human never woke up, only shifted once or twice. Something had left the man tired, which was very fortunate for the two on the table.
Or unfortunate, as it was beginning to look. Jacob’s nerves were frayed beyond recognition. He stood at the edge of the small room formed by the glass, his hands pressed against the side while he watched that hook continuously fail to catch on the book or budge it in any way.
It was too heavy. Even Jacob would have a hard time moving the thing. To them, it might as well be a bus.
“Sam,” Jacob hissed, halting him before he wound up for another throw. Jacob’s shoulders slumped and he sighed. “It’s not gonna … I mean, even if you somehow manage to pull it down, it’s gonna make a noise he’ll definitely hear. There’s only one climbing rope between us, man.” Jacob rested his forehead against the glass with a quiet thunk and stared at his boots while he let the implications sink in.
Jacob was trapped and the only thing that’d get him out of there was the human asleep across the room.
“He doesn’t realize there are more people like us. Don’t get caught just because I messed up. You’ve got a chance!” Jacob shuddered and he felt a sting in his eyes for what he was asking Sam to do. Asking his adopted brother, the man who’d looked out for him ever since the curse, to abandon him to the whims of an enormous human.
Matching tears sprang to Sam’s eyes, making him blink fast to ward them away. He swallowed thickly, staring across the room at the human that occupied it.
Jacob was right.
If their situations were reversed, they might have a chance. Even if the hook caught on the edge of the bible, Sam wasn’t strong enough to pull it off. Not from below, with no support to draw on. Not with just a thin fishing line to pull with and a hook that wasn’t made to hold onto the pages of a book.
No.
“No,” Sam repeated aloud. Sudden determination filled him even as he was enveloped in hopelessness. “No, I’m not leaving you! He could do anything, he could take you away… he could…”
He trailed off, staring in at Jacob. His unsaid words died on their ears.
He could kill you.
January 8th excerpt:
“As far as I’m concerned, I’m the normal one in the car. It’s you two that are the giants. And I think I’m adorable.”
Stan had to laugh at that, light and friendly. He wasn’t ridiculing Dean’s perspective, but basking in the relaxed banter going on between them. Once he was assured Dean did exist, his next concern was how he would be to work with. He imagined someone so small would find human beings monstrously large.
Despite being outright called a giant by Dean, Stan didn’t feel like a monster at all.
December 26th excerpt:
The detective frowned when he caught sight of the line leading from the opened cage to the floor, and the little shadow of what must have been Dean dashing from it.
Ignoring everything else, Sherlock closed the distance between himself and Dean easily, slamming down a hand like a barrier in front of him and scooping him up to eye level.
“What do you think you’re doing??” he demanded, more confused than anything else. Sherlock was not fond of the feeling.
( Putting these together since the one without a character came in first and I had already planned to throw Jacob at that one )
AU: Giant Jacob AU
Timeline: Before the story begins
Twigs and leaves crunched under a heavy boot as Jacob hiked among the trees, staring around avidly. The pines, straight and tall, stretched high overhead, deep green needles hiding the darkening sky from sight. The air was filled with the fresh scent of those pines, as well as distant maples, and the crisp aroma of a mountain lake. Even as the day came to a close, birds and squirrels bustled about on the branches, chasing each other or holding conversations in their squeaks and chirps. There was a slant to the world that came as an unfamiliar obstacle to Jacob, a native of the flat lands of Iowa.
It was the perfect terrain for hiking. Despite Colorado coming with more chill than he was used to, and thinner air than he usually breathed, it was well worth the trip.
Back at the campsite, his friends were less enthusiastic about the wild outdoors themselves. Camping was a time of relaxation, they’d say. To Jacob, hiking in the trees was relaxing. A chance to get away, take it all in, and live in his own thoughts.
A faint twinge on his back, little more than an itch, prompted Jacob to stop in his tracks. He shifted his backpack around, and then glanced up once more. The evening was getting darker. Knowing his friends, they’d need help getting a fire started.
He turned back towards the campsite, using the slope of the earth and a natural sense of direction to point him in the right direction. He didn’t want to be caught out here when it grew too dark to find his way between the trees.
He didn’t make it three steps before a strange tugging sensation clenched in his middle. With a wince, Jacob stopped again and shut his eyes tight. The thin air around him became thinner and his heart pounded in his ears as though he was suddenly underwater. There was a prickling at his arms and chest, and the sound of more twigs breaking.
Did I fall down a hill?
He opened his eyes, and then closed them again in confusion. When he opened them once more, the scene before him was just as confusing. Jacob stared around him, with the waning sky a canopy overhead, ringed by the mountain range that created a wall across the country.
He could see the sky.
He was taller than the trees.
“What the fuck,” he muttered, his face a mask of shock. His voice, quiet to him, rumbled out of his now-massive chest and made the tips of the trees quiver. They didn’t rise past his shoulders.
The prickling on his arms came from the branches that now poked into him like twigs. Now, an entire pine branch felt like what a pine needle should feel like. He brushed a hand over one branch with his brow furrowed, and flinched when the spindly wood creaked and then snapped from his touch.
“I need help,” he murmured, and now bird and squirrels could be heard scolding him from safely below the tree level where he couldn’t see them. He looked straight down. Past a chest broader than a house and jean-clad legs that towered over some apartment buildings, his boots were planted on the ground, crushing undergrowth that moments ago he’d need to push aside or navigate around.
If Jacob were to guess with his severely-confused senses, he was over a hundred feet tall.
It wasn’t possible. He had to have hit his head on something. It was a hallucination, taking the sensations of the forest around and warping them. He could still smell the maple and the pine, and the mountain lake, he could still feel the chill in the air, but it all took a backseat.
Jacob’s heart did flips as the confusion grew, and he took a lurching, dizzy step. It was clumsy, and he nearly dropped down to his knees in the confusion and vertigo. He was up to high. Jacob had to blink lightheadedness away that could be from the thin air or from the soaring sensation that came with just one step.
People didn’t just grow like this all of a sudden.
He needed to find someone. He took another step with a grimace, and the strange height didn’t go away. If he could just get back to the others, he might be able to find out what had happened to make him grow.
Small dots of flickering orange led him back. Jacob didn’t need his sense of direction as much, now that he stood taller than the trees. He walked towards the campgrounds, glancing down with every step. If there was another hiker down there …
He didn’t want to think about that.
The trees shook as he walked, and many branches snapped against him before he even noticed he was brushing against them. He was too big, the fabric of his hoodie and jeans too thick.
As he walked, more lights flickered to life in the treeless patch that was the main campground park. Jacob could just make out the tiny squares of light that came out of RV windows, and the tiny stars that wavered to and fro near the campfires. Flashlights. He’d probably barely be able to hold one in his fingers if he really was big.
He just needed to find his friends and their tent. They’d get a park ranger to use a phone with signal on it and call for help or something. Then he’d be fine.
Since he was in a hurry and he could hear people talking ahead, Jacob took longer strides to get back. His boots crushed more saplings and left huge indents in the ground, and he didn’t realize until it was too late that a lot of those voices were screaming.
He reached out to push at one tall pine tree, leaning it aside with a prolonged creak, and found the campgrounds in chaos. The fires weren’t surrounded by happy people talking and laughing. The flashlight beams wavered because people were running, shouting to each other.
While he was so preoccupied with how confused he was, Jacob had never considered how frightened they’d be.
“Wait, wait,” he said, his voice booming over the campers that now stood no taller than his fingers. Fuck. I did this wrong. “Please!”
His words didn’t reach them. No one stopped their panic. Tents collapsed as people tore themselves out of them, and belongings were scattered in the pandemonium. Already, some of the fastest runners had reached their cars and the engines roared to life with an urgency that mimicked the shouts from the people.
“No, no, please,” Jacob said again. He let go of the tree and shuffled forward only a step, then lowered himself down. One hand reached for the ground to brace himself, and he hoped that making himself less towering might help.
A boom echoed over the chaos, a loud one, and suddenly a spray of stinging pain lit up in his arm. Jacob jerked his hand back and, in one fluid motion, pushed his sleeve up in surprise. His arm sported several tiny pinpricks of red.
Another shot rang out, and the spray of buckshot from the gun hit his other arm this time. “Ow!” Jacob yelped, falling backwards to a seat. The forest shook, pine needles fell, and more people screamed.
They’re terrified of me, he realized. There was another shot, and he flinched. This one missed him somehow. Despite being the size of one of the nearby hills, someone had missed him.
Because they were so scared they couldn’t see straight.
Jacob’s heart sank and he scrambled back with his hands until he could stumble to his feet. His backpack, now giant along with him, broke the top half off of a younger tree as he whirled around and ran. He couldn’t stay there while everyone was in a panic. Not while he could barely see the ground. Not while they were shooting at him.
He could try again later. Someone had to be able to help him.
( Presenting a special Halloween-edition sneak peek of the giant Jacob storyline! Everyone stay safe tonight, and watch out for Samhain! )
A snapped twig, then a rustle, and then a splash drew him out of sleep and Jacob pushed himself up partway to look around. Then, he heard a quiet sound mixing with the rushing water of the stream.
His gaze shot downwards to find a person not ten feet from him, sitting in the streambed. It was only a kid, he realized, with grubby shorts and a shirt with splashes of color on it. The little girl’s pigtails were mussed and she sat in the water with both hands clamped over her knee, but she stared with wide, teary eyes up at Jacob.
“Woah, hey,” he murmured, slowly lowering his head again so he didn’t loom over her. One tiny hand left her knee in a flicker of movement to brush at her eyes before clamping over it again.
“Y-y-you, y-you’re a giant,” she pointed out as Jacob lay down again. The stream wasn’t deep at all, so he could still see her clearly, and she actually seemed more upset about her knee than about how close she sat to a giant.
“I am,” he admitted in a quiet voice. “And you’re all wet. Did you slip?”
He kept thinking the hunters would come running to drag the little girl away from him, to keep her safe from his potentially dangerous movements. But they didn’t come, and Jacob was on his own with the tiniest kid he’d ever seen. She had to be around ten, he guessed absently.
She shook her head, and then sheepishly nodded. “I-I was … sneaking up on you …” she admitted.
Jacob offered her a tentative smile. “You were? I think it worked. Looks like you might have banged yourself up, though,” he replied. With his free hand, he took a chance to slowly lower it towards the stream so he could point at her knee that she so diligently covered with her hands.
His fingertip, bigger than her head, was only a few feet away from her, and she stared at it in more awe than terror. Something about the innocent wonder on her face lifted Jacob’s tired, weary spirits.
When she looked past his hand to his face again, though, she was frowning again. “I hit it on a rock,” she told him, lower lip pouting and quivering just a little. If Jacob didn’t pay attention, he’d miss it.
“Let’s get you out of the stream first, okay?” he said gently. His voice was quieter than he’d ever managed to make it, but there was no chance of her missing it. Once she nodded, Jacob’s hand closed the distance.
He pinched his thumb and first finger around her little waist, and she removed her hands from the forming bruise on her knee as he lifted her from the gently rushing water. Jacob set her down on the dry ground opposite the stream from himself and his hand retreated hastily.
She didn’t make a peep. Instead, she sat propped on her hands and stared at his huge hand.
“That’s gotta be better, right?” he prompted.
She nodded, and then, like kids are wont to do, checked on her bruise with all the seriousness she could muster. “My daddy’s gonna need to get me a ice pack,” she determined.
“That sounds like a good idea,” Jacob said. “I think you should go and get one from him, okay?”
She got to her feet with a wince. Her teeth bothered her lower lip as she tested putting weight on her injured leg. Once accomplished, she gave him a hopeful look. “Can I come back and talk after, mister giant?”
Jacob smiled and remained where he was lying down to avoid startling the trusting child. “I don’t think so,” he told her. Before she could sling her protests at him, he put one finger in front of his lips. She mimicked the motion with wide, surprised eyes. “I need to stay quiet out here, and my friends wouldn’t want you getting in trouble, okay?”
“I can play quietly!” she insisted, then closed her mouth and pursed her lips.
Jacob chuckled. “I bet you can. But if someone else finds out this is where you’re coming, then other people will find out I’m here, right? There are some people who are scared of giants and they might try to … take me away,” he explained, sparing the kid the details.
She looked worried and glanced over her shoulder. “So you’re a secret,” she surmised. Jacob nodded, and the girl drew herself up proudly. “O-okay. I can keep a secret, I’m not a snitch like Paul at school!”
“I’m really glad,” Jacob answered, his smile lingering. “You go get your ice pack, okay?”
The girl sighed, still looking disappointed. She stared at him for a few seconds more before turning and jogging away between the trees. Jacob saw her look back several times before she passed out of sight.
Every step Dean took closer to the table, Jacob felt like his heart beat a little harder. He was frozen to the spot, his hands planted against the glass and his eyes staring straight upwards. He shook at the sight of how imposing Dean was, looming over the table like he did. Jacob almost couldn’t see him past the edge of the bible. It was like Dean was directly above, casting his enormous, oppressive shadow on purpose.
Jacob was useless to do anything. Sam was vulnerable out there. His knife wouldn’t really stop Dean. It might slow him down a little bit, but that was all. At best, they’d have an annoyed giant on their case, and who knew how he’d react to that? Jacob suspected the only reason he was still alive was because he hadn’t done anything to make the hunter think he was hurting anyone.
What would happen if Sam managed to score a good cut with that knife? How quickly might Dean’s mind change? Jacob’s hands shook and he punched once at the glass again, furious and terrified that he’d gotten Sam into this situation.
Trapped, unable to defend himself, while a giant stared down at him.
“You have to run! Y-you gotta at least try! Sam, get out of here before he grabs you!” Jacob insisted, staring at the back of his brother’s head. Willing him to leave, to try to save himself.
Dean’s mind checked out halfway through the desperate, shouted words. Sam.
Sam.
Artwork by @mogadeer!
A Brothers Found short story.
It was the light that woke him.
Sam Winchester, cursed to live at four inches in height, was not used to waking up to bright sunlight in his room. For years, he’d lived under the floorboards in the Trails West with his adopted family, staring up at what little light managed to trickle between the floorboards. The dark confines of their home were warm and safe, welcoming for the people who were smaller than a hand.
So opening his eyes to a brightly lit open space was the last thing Sam expected to see.
Looking around the room didn’t clear things up for him. His memories of the night before were still fuzzy and unfocused, mixing up with the varied dreams he’d had. Sam sucked in a gasp of surprise when he saw a massive human lying in a bed only a foot away, peaceful breaths of air drawn into lungs bigger than Sam… or his bed… or even his home.
Sam curled his legs closer, trying to make himself as small as possible while his mind raced. What had happened? He didn’t remember getting caught… at least not since Jacob first got his hands on him.
Then he spotted Jacob lying in the other bed, his face just as relaxed as the other man’s, and the memories came rushing back.
A bit of the tension unwound from Sam’s back. That man lying so close by was Dean. Sam’s determination had lead him and Jacob to the hunter’s doorstep, culminating in a reunion that was long overdue. Sam calmed his breathing and did his best to relax, repeating to himself that he was with his older brother, and Dean would never let anything happen to him.
That fact was clearly underlined by Dean’s reaction to the bruises covering Sam’s torso. It was the outcome of a mistake by Jacob, holding Sam just a little too tight, and the teenager was repentant. He’d helped Sam and driven the cursed man over eight hours to find his older brother, and so Sam had forgiven him.
Dean was a harder sell, especially only seconds after discovering Sam was alive. Sam had prevented Dean from putting more than an impressive bruise on the kid, and had a feeling that if he’d let Dean keep going, Jacob would have been tossed out of the room with no other thanks.
There was a shifting on the bed Dean was sleeping on, and Sam found himself curling more of the blanket– which, when he looked down at what he was sitting on, discovered it to be a black t-shirt– around himself so he didn’t feel so exposed.
Green eyes blinked tiredly open and Sam could swear his neck tingled as they glanced around at the room. It was a full minute before comprehension fell over Dean’s face, and he saw Sam sitting there, arms around his knees and trying his best to hide in plain sight.
“Hey,” Dean said softly. His eyes briefly flicked to Jacob to make sure he was asleep, then back to Sam. “How you feelin,’ pint-size?”
Nerves or not, Sam couldn’t hide a roll of his eyes at the nickname he had a feeling Dean would never give up on. At least, not from the look in his eyes. “I’m fine,” he said, more insistent than he meant to be. A doubtful look crossed Dean’s face, and Sam knew he wasn’t hiding his nerves as well as he thought.
Sam hunched his shoulders. “Just… not used to being out in the open like this,” he said hesitantly. It felt like he was admitting a weakness.
Understanding filled Dean’s eyes, and the hard look that always seemed to be on his face softened. “You fell asleep after the hunt,” he said in an attempt to explain. “I… wasn’t sure where else to… put you.”
The same hesitation filled Dean’s voice, and Sam realized his older brother had no better idea about how they were supposed to handle things than he did. For some reason, that made him feel a little better. He might not know what he was doing, but neither did Dean.
“Maybe…” Dean was scanning the room while he talked. “I’m sure we can find somewhere hidden for you to stay. Y’know… if you wanted to.”
Sam looked into those green eyes, trying to ignore the way they were the size of his head, and saw hope, and fear, and nerves that almost equaled his own. He remembered the night before, when Dean almost didn’t want to believe that Sam was back.
“Of course I want to stick around,” Sam said, his voice so soft that Dean found himself leaning in. Sam twined his fingers together, focusing on them more than the gigantic hunter. “I just… should get my stuff from my home. I didn’t say goodbye to anyone there when we left. Wasn’t… really sure we’d actually find you.”
“Well, you found me,” Dean said, grinning at Sam. After a second of contemplation, he moved his arm and Sam found a hand reaching towards him. He tried to not flinch, but stiffened completely and squinted his eyes shut.
Something large touched the top of his head, then lightly ruffled his hair. Sam opened up his eyes to see Dean’s hand already retreating back to his side and realized it had only been a fingertip.
“You’ll have a hard time losing me, ever again.”
There isn’t a full AU for it, but there was a prompt way back a year ago that I wrote for Dean (It was called Cursed Dean at the time). I probably won’t be able to find the time to do anything more with it, but there’s the possibility of a collaborative AU with neon where Sam is the tall one and Dean is the small one.
Dean’s hand went to his amulet, the memory of his younger brother, big hazel eyes staring hopefully at him as he opened the gift coming back as clear as day. He would never risk taking it off, afraid of losing it to an errant gust of air, or slipping into a crack to vanish forever.
After all, that same brother was now a towering giant, wherever he might be. If he found Dean, he would simply catch his older brother and drop him into a cage. Maybe worse, depending on the way their dad had trained him. Dean would cling to those memories like a lifeboat, knowing he’d never see Sam again.
Sammy…
Those memories would never leave him, but here and now he needed to stay sharp. He came up to the end of the vent, suspended up in the air almost six feet. The design of the motel had never made sense to him, but who was he to question it?
No one would listen to a man that stood under four inches tall.
Dean leaned against the grate, staring out into the immense motel room.
The vertigo hit him, as it always did, but this was more important than his fears or the thought of getting teased because he was afraid of heights. Those eyes, seen so briefly in the room earlier, haunted him. Soft, familiar hazels that forced his mind into the past, to a time before he’d been cursed. So many years ago now… soon he would have lived over half his life under this infernal curse.
At the table below, the man that had checked in earlier was sitting with a dusty old book. One huge hand turned the page with a loud crinkle, smoothing it carefully down. Fluffy brown hair was scattered messily about, in clear need of a good brush. Dean’s hand went to his own hair instinctively, trying to fix his spiky style. Cutting it himself didn’t make it easy, but he persevered.
While Dean was distracted, he accidentally leaned too much of his weight on the grate. With a loud, echoing Creak! the air vent slid shut, sending him to his knees without warning. He slammed into the metal ground with a loud (to his ears) thump.
He froze.
For a long, heart-stopping moment, there was nothing but silence.
Then, it came. The most terrifying sound he could have heard.
A shifting of fabric in the motel room outside indicated the human standing. “Hello?” rumbled a curious voice from outside, making Dean shiver once with worry. The human was tall enough to see into the vent while standing if he wanted to, and if he realized what was hiding from him in there…
Dean didn’t move, simply trying to wait it out. The human would just assume he heard the motel settling, just like anyone else. No reason to check the vent, no way to see Dean in there.
No such luck.
There was a creak from the vent again. The human was moving it. He needed to get out of there, now. If he got caught by such a huge human, the largest he’d ever seen, there would be no hope of escape.
Dean went to run, and fell flat on his back. His satchel! When the grate had closed it had snagged the strap, effectively trapping the small human.
Original Ask || Part 1 || Part 2 || Part 3 || Part 4 || Part 5 || Part 6 || Part 7
Brothers Apart 