For the wonderful Val-Creative, who truly is a bright light of inspiration.
Sam watched as Dean played mindlessly with the bright slinky in his hand. Since the disaster at Plucky's two weeks ago, the slinky had been in Dean's hands on and off. It even had a name; Diego. Why ever Dean would name a slinky „Diego", Sam had no idea, but Dean had muttered something about a hippie-orgy and that had been info enough, thank you.
Normally, it would worry Sam that Dean would get so attached to an inanimate object. When the thing wasn't in eyesight, it was kept in the glove compartment, so „Diego", to quote his brother, „could happily slink around all day". Sam really regretted getting Dean that slinky.
Also, Sam might or might not have tried a few exorcisms and sprayed Diego occasionally with holy water and rock salt. Sue him.
The thing was, Sam would have gotten rid of Diego a long time ago. He really would have, but every time he thought about letting Diego unceremoniously disappear, he remembered a particular scene many years ago that made him hesitate.
About twenty years ago, somewhere in Oklahoma -
"Sam, put that annoying thing away," John said, unnerved. He had just had a fucking tiresome ghost hunt, he was exhausted and ached everywhere, and he wanted just a bit of peace and quiet. Sadly, this was not possible at the time, because apparently recent toys were incredibly loud. And annoying.
"But, Dad, it's not annoying, it's a Game Boy. They're like,awesome!" Eight year old Sammy replied, not quite catching yet upon the bad mood John was in. Dean, who had been fiddling with some cassette tapes, straightened up.
"Sam." One syllable, and Sam shut the Game Boy off without another word, though not without a pout. Dean exhaled quietly, and got back to sorting out the cassettes.
John had just been falling asleep when he heard it again. He shut his eyes tightly, trying to ignore the sound that came off that annoying toy, to no avail. He growled, marched to the boys' room and threw their door wide open.
"Sam! It's way past your bed time! If you don't put that damn thing away, I'll do it for you."
Dean, who had been asleep (John didn't know how he possibly could have slept through all that beeping) jerked awake. Sam looked like he might cry. John sighed.
"Look, I didn't mean to yell, Sammy, but I'm really tired. It's late. Last chance to turn your... Game Toy off before I confiscate it, yeah?" He tried, in a gentler tone. Sammy nodded hesitatingly ,and finally shut it off. John turned with a gruff "sleep now" and walked back to his room.
Present Time -
Well, the story ended with John throwing the Game Boy out of the car window on full speed not even a week later. Sammy had cried and screamed and thrown a full-blown tantrum, to no avail. Dean had looked like he didn't know what side to pick. So he had said nothing, which resulted in Sam almost throwing another fit, accusing his brother not taking his side.
A few weeks later, when Dad had been gone on another trip, Dean had dumped a colorful bag in Sam's lap and told him to never breathe a word to Dad, and, for god's sake, "keep it from him".
When he opened the bag, there was a brand new Game Boy. Sam had hugged his brother and thanked him repeatedly, with Dean just muttering "yeah, yeah" awkwardly.
Years later, when Sam had realized that that had been an attempt of Dean to let Sam be a child for a little while longer, it was at Bobby's. He remembered the Game Boy because on a dusty shelf somewhere at Bobbys', he caught a glimpse of a slinky gathering an impressive amount of dust. The slinky had lost all of its rainbow colors, and also didn't look much like a bouncing spiral anymore.
This had been the slinky John had accidentally stepped on when Dean was around eleven, and had thoughtlessly said it was high time Dean stopped playing with such silly toys.
Dean never touched it again.
Diego bounced happily from the Impala's hood to the ground, projecting a grin on Dean's face. Yeah, Sam could probably deal with Diego the Slinky a little while longer.
Diego bounced back and knocked over the open can of beer, short-circuiting Sam's laptop. Dean fell of the Impala laughing.
Then again, maybe not for much longer.