Dean and Sam looked at the two children who suddenly appeared in front of them, the 12-year-old and the 8-year-old. Even Cas tilted his head at them with curiosity.
The younger versions of ... them.
"It can't be," Sam said, as he and Dean gave each other confused and rather terrified looks. But as the 12-year-old recovered from his astounded fear, he shoved the younger boy behind him, drew a knife from his boot, and got into a defensive stance against the three large men as he snarled, "Get away from us or die!"
"We're not going to hurt you," Sam said, trying to calm them, though he and Dean were both thinking Unless you're evil .
"They are exactly who you believe them to be," Cas said, still staring at them. Dean and Sam stared at Cas for a moment, and then Dean turned to the two kids and said, "Relax, it's okay. Dean and Sam, right?" Dean felt as he said this that words had never seemed stranger coming out of his mouth.
Young Dean stayed in front of young Sam as he demanded, "How do you know that? How did we get here?"
Adult Dean thought fast. "We're friend of your dad's. John Winchester's your dad, right? See, ahh, a w-i-t-c-h cast a s-p-e-l-l to transport you somewhere far away, thinking that your dad would freak out if he thought you were alone. But your dad's really smart so he sent us here to take care of you until you can go home again."
Young Dean looked hesitant but he seemed to buy the story. Young Sam came out from behind Dean and said, "Where's Dad?"
"Hunting," adult Sam answered.
"He's on a business trip," young Dean corrected, shooting darts of a glare at adult Sam.
"Right, that's what I meant," Sam said reluctantly, looking at the pleased ignorance that rested on his younger self.
"Look, kids, you're gonna be just find. We'll get you back as soon as we can," Dean said, "But the three of us are just gonna talk in the corner for a minute. Grown-up stuff."
Young Dean objected, "I'll come, too."
"Uh, no, this is just some um ... unrelated matter that we need to discuss in private."
Young Dean rolled his eyes and muttered "Bullshit" under his breath, but he remained with little Sam as the adults went to the far corner of the hallway to whisper.
"What is going on here?" Sam asked worriedly.
"I do not know. But it is clear that they are you. A soul cannot be faked, and I can see yours."
"Then how?"
"I will need to look into this," Cas said calmly.
"Yeah, I'd say that's a priority," Dean answered.
"Agreed. In the meantime, make sure they don't die. For obvious reasons," Cas said.
"The space-time continuum will explode if they do?" Dean asked.
"Of course not," Cas said, looking at him strangely, "But if they die, so do you."
"And all the things we've done would be reversed?" Sam asked.
"Of course not," Cas said. "Don't you know anything about time travel?"
"No."
"Just find out what you can, Cas," Dean said. "We'll take care of ... ourselves. But Cas? Leave by the door, so you don't scare the rugrats."
Cas nodded and exited, as Dean turned back to the young versions, who were now considerably more relaxed and a bit bored.
Dean gave them a wide grin and said, "My name's Deke and the Ginormotron over here is my brother Stan. We're all gonna have a great time together."
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Author's Note: The idea for this was inspired by a prompt and fic at comment_fic (Bite Sized bits of fic), which is a multi-fandom prompting community over at livejournal
Prompt was child!Dean and child!Sam are brought to the future where Dean and Sam have to take care of them
