Chapter 21

Sam woke up lazily late, 9:17, as the LED alarm clock would read, which was shamefully late for a Winchester, but even so, Dean was right there with him. However, Dean wasn't sleeping. He had been up for hours, just watching over his little brother. He wasn't sure if it was his Hunter instincts or his feline intuition, but he could feel that something was odd in the air. Something unusual was calling him, but it was just a faint call in the back of his head. Nothing his very-human reason couldn't push out.

Dean greeted Sam with a long, wet, sticky good-morning lick that left visible drool down the side of his face and matted his hair up like some British rock star. "Naaaaasty!" Sam complained through a bunched up face. "Good morning to you, too." He expelled hot breath as if he was visibly sick. "Gosh, you need to brush your teeth!"

Dean's head jolted back as if saying 'You're one to talk' and Sam understood him. Dean emphasized his point by leaning in real close and sniffing Sam's mouth before closing his eyes tightly and sticking out his huge feline tongue. "Yeah, yeah. I'll brush my teeth too."

Sam crawled reluctantly out from under his big brother and the soft, warmth his fur provided into the frigid air of the motel room. Dean eagerly followed him and they both listened as the bed squeaked and groaned as the combined weight of an about 500-and-something pound tiger and a 160 pound young man relieved it of its strenuous duty.

Sam headed to the bathroom before he noticed Dean wasn't following him. "Dean?" He looked back and saw the tiger gently, but purposefully pawing at the door. "Another bathroom break?" Sam asked. "But you haven't had anything to eat or drink before you became a cat, have you?"

Dean shook his head back and forth, which made Sam feel a bit guilty. Dean had the appetite of a tiger when he was just a gluttonous man. Now he actually was a tiger. Sam had to figure Dean was starving, but was being incredibly patient with him since they were both new to this.

Sam checked both sides of the motel to find that they appeared to still be the only two residing there. Even so, he opened the door and they carefully made their way back to their outdoor bathroom foliage. First, because Sam didn't want anyone to see him in just his briefs. That was reserved for his brother and any girl he was killing some time with. Not the whole world. And second, because Sam was being followed by a gargantuan tiger that was likely almost 11 feet long. That gave Sam an idea for the walk back.

They got to their brush and went about their business. What was normally a man-culture faux-pas didn't seem so off-limits now, or Sam just cared less. He unabashedly watched Dean pee with a strange intrigue. He was a tiger pissing like a dog with the awareness of a human. It was an odd sight to see. Dean noticed his brother watching him and Sam could have sworn the tiger blushed. "What?" Sam defended himself. "I'm sorry, it's just so weird. You're a tiger peeing like a dog. You can't blame me for looking. Plus, it sounds like you have a fire hose going over there. Where's all that liquid coming from?"

Dean seemed to swell with pride at those words and continued his business as Sam finished and waited patiently. After a couple more minutes, Dean was done and the brothers carefully made their way back to the motel room. Before they got there, as they walked under outdoor wrap around portico that shielded all patrons as they entered and exited their room, Sam stopped and looked up.

"These are standard rooms, Dean." The feline looked up at him showing no sense of understanding where he was going with this. "That means the flat roof should be 10-feet high. Let's figure out how tall you are." Sam had seen the other tigers at the zoo. They were big, but Dean seemed oddly and maybe supernaturally bigger in every way imaginable. Where the other tigers stood at what Sam would have guessed to be about three-feet-tall when resting on all fours (a height placing them around Sam's waist), Dean was clearly taller. Dean rested at the middle of Sam's stomach, approximately four-feet-tall in height.

Looking around to be extra careful they weren't spotted by anyone, Sam led Dean out from under the portico roof and into the gravel parking lot. "Can you reach that roof?" Sam asked, knowing that if he could, Dean was at least a ten-feet-long tiger. Dean pushed with his front paws until he was standing on his hind legs with his paws easily resting on the top of the portico roof. Dean well exceeded ten-feet in length. Dean was actually able to look at the top of the roof, as his eyes just barely reached over the precipice.

"Holy shit, dude!" Sam exclaimed in amazement as Dean gracefully brought himself back onto the ground, done being a circus performer. "I don't know the exact length, but you're probably around 11-feet-long or so, and that's not even including your tail. I think you're the largest Bengal tiger in the whole world. Dean did what Sam could only describe as a 'cat dance', clearly proud of his un-worked-for claim to fame.

"I wonder why that thing would make you into such a huge tiger. Wouldn't he want to make you into something defenseless? Or just kill you?" Sam watched as Dean sat carefully on his hind legs, like a circus performing cat, and patted his chest with his big front mitts. "Possibly." Sam agreed. "Maybe it is out of his control and his victims just turn into whatever animal suits their personality." Sam speculated. "And you're an above-average man by human standards, so maybe that translated into your tiger body?"

Dean bobbed his head back and forth in a 'maybe' gesture before getting rigid and excited and looking out toward the town. "Oooooh." Sam exclaimed as a thought crossed his mind. "You think that the other victims aren't dead? Just transformed?" Sam asked. "That would make sense." Sam nodded a bit surprised even to himself that the idea of people being transformed into animals 'makes sense' in his line of work.

They reentered their bedroom and let some light in. "How about I shower up and stuff, then get us something to eat, and then we get to work?" Sam suggested. Dean hopped up and down excitedly at the mention of food. With each hop the entire room rumbled as if a car was being bounced like a basketball on the floor. "Dang, I just cannot get over how huuuuuge you are." Sam stated again in bewilderment. Dean beamed with pride again. It was clear, that us much as it likely sucked to be an animal, Dean did enjoy hearing Sam comment on how 'huuuuuuge' he was.

Sam stripped and headed into the bathroom. He left the door open, just in case Dean needed something in his new tiger body. After all, for all the grace Dean was miraculously showing in his feline form, the fact of the matter was that he was brand new to the whole thing. "Call if you need anything, okay?" Sam called out as he turned the shower on in the over-sized tub. He almost debated taking a bath since the tub was so big and had those snazzy jets in the side making it almost seem to be a hot tub, but the ring of mud and dirty tiger fur dissuaded him from that.

Sam stood under the hot shower, glad to be out of the cold air of the motel room for a bit before he actually started shampooing his long hair. He closed his eyes and leaned back into the stream of hot water to rinse his hair off before he was nearly knocked off his feet by a sudden heavy force. He opened his eyes and saw Dean's massive form standing scrunched-up in the tub with him. "Dean!" Sam shouted. "What are you doing? I'm trying to shower!"

Dean just looked at him with pleading eyes. "Cats don't need showers man! That's why they lick themselves! That's why your tongue is so bristly."

Without budging from the tub, Dean stuck his tongue out as he stared at his now outstretched paw before his face. He took one slow lick and his face scrunched up. Dean Winchester may have been an over-sized housecat now, but he was not licking himself!

Dean maneuvered himself between Sam's legs so that he could fit his whole long body into the tub better and looked up at his little brother, who was now forced to stand straddling him. "Dude!" Sam cried out. "Personal space. I'm naked!" Dean looked at him with squinted eyes and a tail that gestured toward Dean's large body. "You're always naked now?" Sam asked. "I know." Then Dean rubbed his head against Sam's thigh. "Yes, I know I was snuggling with you while you were naked last night, but that was different." Dean shook his head in disagreement.

Sam finally caved in, as it seemed he always did. "Fine." He groaned. "But the only balls you'll be licking are your own!" Sam warned, which induced a disgusted face from his brother and an out-stuck tongue. "I'm just joking." Sam sighed as he caved in even more to his big brother's wishes. Wishes that Dean would never had even dreamed of, not even in his worst nightmares, in his human body. Sam figured being a cat just made things different. "I'll make sure to wash you off." Sam whined lightly. "But you owe me for this!" He warned. The tiger yipped excitedly and appreciatively.

Standing with a giant tiger between his legs, trying not think about how that tiger was actually his once-very-human brother, Sam finished washing himself before 'suddzing up' Dean's gorgeous striped coat. Surprisingly to Sam, Dean began purring like a giant housecat. It must just be an animal thing to love being petted. It was no real shock to him. Almost every human loves a good back-scratch or massage, and what were those if not the human equivalent to being petted?

As Dean continued his purr-serenade for Sam, the little brother finished rinsing the big tiger off as best as he could since neither of them were really able to move. Dean was just too big! The fact that he managed to squeeze himself in the tub and under Sam at all was just another testament to how clever and resourceful Dean was, even as a tiger.

They both exited the now-fur-laden tub, which Sam was certain would need to be Drain-O'd after they checked out due to the abundant size of Dean's body and the countless fur that covered it. Sam looked at the small motel towels and sighed as he could feel the goosebumps setting in on his wet body. There was not going to be enough towel to go around, so he figured he'd let Dean use it all. After all, if Sam dried wet, no biggie. If Dean dried wet, he'd have to start calling him Fluffie.

Sam squatted down in front of his brother and began toweling off the very obviously appreciative cat. Even just drying the tiger off, each towel they had was soaked through, but it did a good enough job. Sam grabbed his brush and brushed down Dean's coat before brushing his own hair.

Sam stood and looked down at the 500-or-so pound tiger in the bathroom with him. "Hungry?"