May 20th excerpt:
Dean rubbed his face. “Okay. We can just…” He looked at the kid again. The little guy was crying while they argued. “Sam, did you hurt him?” Dean held out his hands expectantly. “Lemme see ‘im.”
That got Oscar’s attention. He looked up quickly only to duck his head again, too intimidated by the teenage human. He looked so stern. Ready to scold Oscar for sneaking around in their room to steal food.
It’s time for the sneak peek earned earlier last week for our upcoming debut of Brothers Kept! Starring Stan and his new borrower, A Friend in Need is coming soon!
Under the watchful eye of Dean’s new owner, Dean tried to dodge the girl’s grab out of instinct. The sight of those hands descending sent his pulse skyrocketing.
There was no use in dodging. He stood a very slight 3.82 inches tall, as his records listed, and under 14 ounces. There was no way for him to fight back against even a single wisp of a girl.
The fingers closed in, expertly pinching around his chest to prevent him from running off. The ring finger and pinky curled around his stomach and waist, and he was left with only his legs dangling free, both arms sealed to his sides.
Dean struggled, his face going white as she plucked him up out of the cage and he saw the yawning abyss stretching out under his feet. Probably no more than two feet up in the air, low enough down to have to look up at everyone, but more than ample a height for Dean to be severely injured if her grip slackened. She could even claim it was an accident if she hated him enough.
The box appeared underneath, and those thoughts vanished as Dean was dropped inside, hitting the ground with a small cry of pain he tried to stifle. He leapt to his feet but was too late to try and get out as the darkness over his head sealed him in, blocking out all light except the four slim slits cut into the box for air, one on each side.
Stan somehow managed to turn his grimace into a friendly smile when the attendant stood and handed him the tiny box. He had to remind his stiff arm to relax enough to take it from her.
“If you’ll be needing supplies, you’ll find we have a wide selection of just about everything to take care of the little things. Plenty of nutrients in the food brands we carry, and state-of-the-art–,”
“Actually,” Stan interrupted her again, hoping he looked less green than he felt, “I just remembered, I’ve got frozen goods in the boot, I really should hurry home. But I’ll take care of it soon!"
Flashing her a grin, Stan tucked the box against his middle and headed out of the store before he could be physically ill. He paid no heed to her startled "Take care!” after him.
Artwork and inspiration for the story all from @wolfie180g!
(2/2)
The new au takes place in a world where borrowers are known and are treated as pets. When Dean was cursed, he was caught and shipped to England and put in a pet store. The lady we see handling him in the snippets isn’t the one who captured him, but simply a person who works there. Stan happens to walk into the pet shop and sees Dean.
@torchmlp asked:
AFIN – Both Sam and Dean are cursed. Sam and Dean are captured and shipped over to Europe at some point in their lives. Borrowers are well known in this world and are caught and sold as pets. When Sam and Dean are captured, Dean is separated from Sam in some way (bought by someone, moved to different location?) and Dean is put up for sale in a pet store where Stan comes and finds him
This is it! The background for Brothers Kept!
In Kept, borrowers (my supernatural-style borrowers) were discovered in the ‘50s. Ever since then, they’ve become highly sought after pets for the wealthy and rich (anyone that can afford the high costs of adopting a living, breathing person).
In America, borrowers are a very uncommon sight due to their rarity. American borrowers are even more costly than regular ones. The Winchesters grew up on the road with their father, not paying much mind to the little people. They knew they existed, it was just that borrowers were so rare they didn’t consider them in their day-to-day lives.
Until the curse.
When they tried to find help to seek out John Winchester, they were caught and shipped overseas, processed for sale. Sam, being young and impressionable, didn’t take long to sell, while Dean, angry, betrayed and mouthing off, got stuck in the store for… years. Constantly put down, disciplined for bad behavior, ignored by customers…
Then one day Stan happens by the store and discovers a borrower in a leather jacket and jeans with scratched out messages on the side of his cage that are a cry for help, and can’t turn his back on him.
We’ll have a second preview later on this week since the story name was guessed as well, A Friend in Need.
His gaze shifted again to regard the other cages and the patrons perusing them. The people of both sizes that he saw appeared entirely different than himself and Dean. Most of the borrowers were dressed in bright outfits, practically bouncing at the front of their cages to catch someone’s eye. The humans were all enamored of them, a child further down prodding his fingers against the glass to tease one.
Dean was visibly very different from the rest. His clothes were darker, almost as though they were advertising him as an edgy biker character of some kind. Yet he was clearly unused to the attention Stan was showing him, and was less than comfortable with it.
A cold spike shot through Stan’s insides when he noticed something in the back corner. Tucked behind a hamster water bottle where the average patron would miss it, there were little tick marks scratched into the glass. Stan tilted his head and noticed words put there and scratched through. Words that broke Stan’s heart to read.
Please save me
Kill me
Stan’s brow pinched together as he reached a numb hand to lightly touch a fingertip to the glass on the other side of Dean’s scratches. He wished he could wipe them away, fix all that had made the poor bloke so miserable.
~~~
Dean couldn’t look away from the man.
Green eyes that put Dean’s to shame, a shock of red hair that looked perfectly wild and a pale complexion that nearly matched the borrowers who never saw the sun, the man touched the glass near Dean with a long finger that outsized the borrower.
Captivated by the intense gaze, Dean couldn’t help but lean forward and flatten his hand against the side of the glass to see the sheer difference between them. Compared to Stan’s fingertip, his hand was too small to fill the entire area, the tips of his fingers falling just short. He could make out every crevice and crack, the whorls of a fingerprint clearer than the words Dean had carved into the wall of his cage.
Dean was small. Insignificant. Nothing, a voice whispered in his mind.
A shock ran through Dean and he drew back from the fingertip like the glass had burned him, quickly pulling his sleeve down over his hand and trying to scrub away the scratches like the leather could possibly fix the mess he’d made.
Everything in this story was inspired by @wolfie180g‘s picture of Dean and Cas!
This will be coming for sure in at least one AU! In Brothers Unexpected, Oscar is found by Dean and is heading for an unsettling confrontation with Dean’s father, whether he wants to or not!
Pushing past Dean, John dug under the pillow on the teen’s bed and looked slightly mollified to find the colt hidden away. “Guess there’s hope for you yet,” he muttered as he held out the gun. When Dean didn’t reach for it, John paused, his eyes falling to Dean’s hands. Which were obviously hiding something.
“What’s in your hands, boy?”
In Dean’s hands, Oscar shook. He hadn’t even had time to yelp in surprise when Dean swiftly picked him up, and the sight of a new human in their midst locked his voice up. When he’d asked Dean if he could stay, he hadn’t even thought this far ahead. He hadn’t thought about what he’d do when another human shoved his way into the mix.
That voice, after weeks of Dean’s quiet, felt like it shook the air. Even Dean’s teachers and classmates didn’t command as much attention as his father did. Oscar remembered hearing tall humans like that from his haven in the walls.
They always scared him when they yelled, even if it was only over a sports game.
Now, at least, he had someone on his side to look out for him. Still, even with the cave-like protection of Dean’s cupped hands around him, Oscar’s timid nature took priority.
He took a chance to lean to the side, and peek between two of Dean’s fingers. The sight almost froze him. Dean’s father was tall, and his face even more enigmatic and world-worn than Dean’s. He was stern, frustrated even. Oscar ducked away with the knowledge that the human had to have seen him.
Left with no other options, Oscar curled into himself, hugging his legs close and hiding his face. Don’t hurt me, he pleaded silently, eyes shut tight.
AU: Brothers Saved
Timeline: Sam is 10, Dean is 14; the day after Dean wakes up for the first time.
“Did Dad show you how to defend yourself?”
Dean stood on the table in the kitchen of Bobby’s house, his arms crossed tight around his chest. He was doing what he could to avoid showing how nervous he was here, surrounded by everything looming overhead.
Including Sam, but the wide look in those hazel eyes was ground for Dean, keeping him focused away from how his little brother had turned into a Godzilla.
‘N-no,” Sam said, fidgeting where he sat.
For a moment, Dean wished their roles were reversed. It was fleeting, because he’d never want his little brother in harm’s way, and having Sam full sized and uncursed meant Dean had done his job right, but it also meant that Sam was the one who would need to protect them if anything happened.
“Dad was too busy when they left,” Sam told him. “He told me to keep the house shut tight and Bobby said go to the basement if anything bad happens, and keep you with me. Bobby gave me this.”
From his jacket, Sam pulled out a gun. Dean stiffened, more from the sight of Sam holding a gun than from the size of it. His little brother knew how to shoot, but having Sam carry around a concealed weapon…
It just felt wrong.
For so long Dean had tried to protect Sam from this lifestyle, and now it had risen up to consume them both in return.
Sam put the gun down on the table not far from Dean, and the surface shuddered under his boots. Instinctively, Dean ducked against the side of the nearby soda can, his small hands soaked instantly in condensation.
He was not going to get used to that.
Sam drew away, worry dancing in his eyes for Dean’s skittish reaction. Dean chose to pretend it never happened, strolling casually over to the gun.
Bobby kept all his weapons in good repair, and this one was no different. The cool metal gleamed at Dean as he reached into his own jacket, pulling out his trusty colt. The gun had been cursed with him, though he would never be able to restock the bullets inside or repair it. Eventually, there would be no way for Dean to use it and it would become nothing more than a curiosity.
Like me, shot an annoyed voice at Dean in his mind that he had to shrug off.
Dean held up his colt to the big one, comparing the sheer scale difference. It was a long moment before he tucked his away, always so fascinated, once he was past the shock, at how strange everything seemed after the curse took effect.
Turning sharply on his heel, Dean regarded Sam sternly, almost making the younger boy jolt to attention. “Shooting guns is one thing,” he said, “but you need to know how to defend yourself when you don’t have a gun, or if you lost it. Once Dad gets back, you need to ask him for some hand to hand combat lessons.”
Sam stuck a lip out. “But I don’t want to learn from Dad!” he complained. “He’s always so bossy, and he never listens.”
Dean certainly didn’t have any defenses against Sam when those big warm hazels were turned around on him. “Can’t you teach me?”
For a long moment, Dean stood there with a look of shock on his face. Normally, training Sam himself would be the first thing he thought of, but now… Sam could pluck him up between two fingers. How could he possibly teach combat?
“S-Sam,” Dean started uncertainly, “I don’t think that’s going to work. I mean, you’re–” he gestured up at Sam and how he looked overhead even sitting down, “and I’m –” Dean stepped back to the soda can, cutting a hand across the condensation to display how he would never reach the top.
“So?” Sam blurted, then covered his mouth when the volume made Dean flinch. “S-sorry…” He hunkered his shoulders. “I just– you’re really good at teaching. If you just show me what to do… I learn fast, honest!”
Dean’s eyes softened. Despite his protests, there was something warm and good inside his chest to hear that Sam still wanted him as a teacher.
“Sure, Sammy. Whatever you want.”
Hours later, they could be found just like that. Dean standing on the table, showing off a combat move as best he could without someone to practice on, and Sam mimicking him.
Dean was proud to say that Sam was just as quick of a learner as he’d promised.
These story parts might go in no particular order, so there’s a chance you’ll see things from the night before later on. I’m just writing as they come to me.
April 1st excerpt:
After a few minutes of typing diligently away and loading up various pages, Sam realized he could feel eyes on him with more focus than before. A slight flush rose to his face, and he didn’t turn around at first, continuing to work despite the fact that he knew both of the other humans were watching him.
Sam used the arrow key to scroll down on his current page, putting off the time until he turned around to give his bright red blushing a chance to die down. Once he was sure it would be safe, he turned and paused.
The difference between Dean and Jacob couldn’t be more obvious. Dean almost took up Sam’s entire line of sight resting his head on his arms a few inches away from the laptop to watch Sam work. Jacob, on the other hand, was a small figure sitting on the thick plastic of the older Dell Inspiron, a few inches away from the trackpad. He wasn’t supposed to be so small. He was supposed to be bigger even than Dean, and it was unsettling. Sam would much rather have both his humans looming overhead as they were meant to.
February 28th excerpt:
Jacob definitely heard the tone in Dean’s voice. There was a smirk bigger than Dallas on the hunter’s face right now, and Jacob knew it. Not that he wouldn’t expect it. Perhaps it could be considered funny, if he weren’t the butt of the joke. He wouldn’t say anything to offend the folks who were used to being this small, but… he definitely liked being tall better.
That damned shit-eating grin on Dean’s face was probably bigger than he was right now.
February 15th excerpt:
Dean absently hummed the music from Smoke on the Water as he slipped behind the trees, going deeper in. Only a few stray rays of sunlight made it this deep into the trees, the rest of the area lit by a deeper green from the leaves blocking the light. Once he was sure Logan wasn’t following, Dean relaxed with a sigh. “That wasn’t in the plan,” he muttered to himself, and to his tiny brothers, who could finally come out.
January 2nd excerpt:
John’s anger melted as Dean’s voice rang out from near Sherlock’s feet.
“Dean…” he breathed as he looked down at the tiny man, awkwardly shuffling to sit at the end of Sherlock’s bed. It still made his heart race to see either of the brothers on the floor. Dean had managed to catch their attention quickly this time, but John always feared the idea of him or Sam being unable to make themselves known to their larger flatmates.
January 1st excerpt:
Taking a deep breath, Dean brought himself to his current conundrum. He needed a way into Sherlock’s room without going all the way back around to the entrances they commonly used. All he needed was a little crack in the wall, some weak spot… Dean pressed his hands to the wall, pushing at a spot that had what looked like a water spot.
He hissed when it gave under his touch, and delicately pushed it just enough to squeeze into the walls. From there, he didn’t have far he could go considering how small the slip of wall was between the bathroom door and the door to the hall, but it was enough for Dean to find another crack that lead to Sherlock’s room. Old buildings had their uses, especially for people who lived in the walls.
And then Dean was in a room with two giants, one clearly angry.
Brothers Apart 