January 6th excerpt:
Dean had far less self-control, his face darkening. “What kind of person tortures a–"
He was cut off when Sam hauled him back from the table, taking a few steps away to give Stan a breather. “Dean, he thinks we’ll punish him like that,” he hissed under his breath. “Did you see the way he tenses up? Especially if you raise your voice?”
My entry for the 2018 Brothers Apart tumblr contest. I wanted to write something with @nightmares06‘s Walt Watch, since he’s one of my favorites and he recently had some huge character development in the latest story of the Brothers Apart AU. This is set sometime in the weeks/months after the first story, after Sam has left with Dean under the assumption that Walt didn’t survive the events of that story.
Hope you enjoy it! Reading time approx. 10 minutes.
Walt knew something was wrong before he had time to fully wake up. Something like a heavy weight settled over his heart and he sighed without opening his eyes. Life had thrown him too many strange new things in so many months. Sometimes he wondered if he would ever have some semblance of what he had before.
Before Mallory … before Bree … his family had been fragmented, time and time again. What had he done for fate to lay its hands on him like that not once, but twice? He didn’t even know what had become of Sam.
That boy … Walt had known what he was, and hadn’t cared. In his old life, he was as much a danger to Walt as any other human.
Seeing that little face, full of fear he tried to hide, had decided for him. He and Mallory had been no match for those plaintive hazel eyes, full of tears the boy didn’t want to release. Walt still remembered the mumbled excuses about chick-flick moments. He didn’t even know what that meant and he could tell Sam’s heart wasn’t in the words.
The boy had lost his family. Just like Walt and Mallory had lost their baby girl not a year before. They might not understand everything Sam lost, but they understood that. There was no turning him away.
And now he was gone. Mallory was gone. Walt was alone, if not for–
“Walt?” Krissy’s voice was cautious and quiet, but Walt had known the girl long enough to recognize something else in it. Worry. His pale blue eyes opened at last to take in the concerned shadows on her face.
January 5th excerpt:
“I- I…” Flustered by the question, Stan cleared his throat and tried again. “I’ve never had anything like this. I really wouldn’t know where to start.”
A prime example came in the form of the brownish liquid Sam had given him. Stan eyed it suspiciously; he didn’t like the way it bubbled, but he approached it anyway. He had to at least give it a try.
Stan was still hesitant as he pulled the cap closer, leaning in to give the drink a sniff. It smelled unlike anything he’d ever encountered before– not that that was saying much– and when he leaned over, a particularly persistent bubble rose from the depths and gave a large pop. This startled the little guy, and he jumped back in surprise, managing to put a few inches between himself and the uncomfortably active drink.
January 4th excerpt:
The trip to grab food went without a hitch. Sam hovered his other hand over Stan to block him from sight of the attendant at the window. It was odd how peaceably Stan sat there, letting the brothers talk over him the entire time. If they didn’t address him directly, he didn’t go out of his way to catch their attention.
January 3rd excerpt:
Dean’s boot came in to smash the ashes into the ground, breaking Stan out of his reverie, and made him duck a little closer to the edge of Sam’s hand. That hexbag had been Stan’s size, likely bigger than him, and now it was crushed into nothing.
Maybe that’s how they’ll do it, something morbid in the back of Stan’s mind thought. Crushing. Relatively clean, takes less than a second.
January 2nd excerpt:
Kneeling down, Sam motioned for Dean to keep watch. The older brother backed against the wall, standing next to where Sam flattened his hand against the ground to let Stan off.
“Be careful,” Sam cautioned in a whisper. “We’ll be right here. If I hear anyone coming, I’ll knock on the wall.”
January 1st excerpt:
With the music barely loud enough to be heard, Sam relaxed a little, lifting up his cupped hands to peer inside. “You okay?” he breathed, forming a crack with two fingers that was just big enough to make out Stan’s tiny form huddled inside.
Stan could feel the tension leaving Sam’s hands just before they lifted. The quieter, darker environment he found himself in helped him relax a little, too, and he lowered his hands and picked up his head to find concerned hazel eyes peeking in at him.
He felt heat rising in his neck, and he was grateful for the darkness of the little alcove Sam had made with his hands. Stan was pale by nature, and the slightest blush was obvious in his complexion. Ever since Dean had told him to calm down, he’d been trying to do just that, in the hopes of appeasing him and his brother. He could only hope that such skittish behavior would be forgiven.
For @torchmlp.
They won my Oscar Halloween Contest an age ago and requested a body swap story with Jacob and Sam, set in the Brothers Found AU (created by myself and the wonderful @nightmares06 and you can find more info @brothersapart).
This one is set not long after the first installment of that AU (and well before Jacob in Wonderland … for reasons). Shenanigans are unavoidable with a body swap and these poor dorks have a lot to navigate here. And of course, I had to end it off on the cheesiest note possible.
The night after a hunt was always the toughest part to adjust to. The bone-deep exhaustion clung after finding the latest monster and killing it before it could hurt anyone else. Jacob was glad Sam always convinced Dean to let him stay in the motel room for a night after the fact.
He was new to this. He had a lot to learn, but after reuniting the four-inch-tall Sam Winchester with his brother, Jacob’s eyes were open to the job. They could help people. He could help people.
Like he’d helped Dean get his little brother back after years not knowing he was even alive.
Jacob settled in for the night after a still-terse but friendly acknowledgement of Good work from Dean. The guy was leery of him for accidentally hurting Sam, but they’d come a long way. The bruise on Jacob’s eye had healed up already.
He didn’t have much time to reflect on the hunt before he rolled over with a sigh and dropped off to sleep.
~~~
Waking up after a hunt was tough, but at least Jacob’s aches had already disappeared. He breathed in a sigh and shifted in bed, only to find that he’d managed to tangle his legs in the blankets.
What the hell?
He sat up squinting and reached out to tug the fabric cocoon off, only for his hands to jolt back. As he blinked himself awake, Jacob found himself definitely not in the same place he’d fallen asleep.
There was only one bed, shoved into the corner, and thin, plain blankets had replaced the patterned motel ones. He glanced around and found what could almost be a laundry bag near the bed, next to a pair of leather boots that didn’t look like his. As he observed more of the room, he found that it had no lighting in it whatsoever.
The only lighting came from …
“Oh, no way,” he muttered. The opposite wall wasn’t really a wall. Jacob stared hard at it and the shape of a book, tall enough to flatten a truck, was all he saw there. Monolithic books stacked at the other end of the room and left only one opening out.
There was a dixie cup near that opening that came up to his torso.
December 31st excerpt:
Stan crouched low in Dean’s hand as it moved, bracing himself through the movement. He couldn’t keep his grip forever, though, especially when the hand tilted beneath him. A yelp died in his throat as he was passed to a new palm.
Sam’s palm.
After Stan sat himself back up, he froze at the sight. He found he had even more room in his new spot, much more than he ever found in Nicholas’ hands. Glancing at his fingers, cupped and bloodstained as they were, wasn’t comforting in the slightest. If Stan thought Dean’s fingers were tall, he was sorely mistaken. There probably wasn’t a single one of Sam’s that Stan could stand a chance at outsizing.
Aw, I love this AU!
We’re a little behind schedule for writing it due to rl things, and ended up tackling a bit of a different story for a bit that was easier to write at the time, but we’ll be getting back into it soon, and once we get moving again, we’ll be able to excerpt it.
For now, I’ll leave you with this:
Protectively pulling Sam half into his lap, Dean parted his frozen lips. He hadn’t talked since Sam dropped unconscious over an hour back, and his voice cracked. “P-please,” Dean pleaded. “Don’t take him.”
John’s heart sank to hear the desperation in the absolutely tiny voice. “I’m not going to,” he promised quietly.
He convinced himself to tear his eyes away, glancing up and down the street. It was dead quiet, no one around at this hour. He was alone with two absolutely tiny kids freezing in the snow.
“Where are your parents?” he asked gently, turning back to Dean. “Are they nearby? Did you get separated?”
Brothers Apart 