Legal Disclaimer: I own my stuff, but not the original source material. That belongs to whoever. Also, the opinions and interpretations I use here may not reflect the same in said whoever that owns the source material. Look, I'm just a poor college librarian. Suing me isn't going to get you anything but tears.
Warning: This work may be offensive to some readers. Additionally, there's references to John Winchester's A-Plus Parenting and the consequences therein. Feel free to back out if need be.
Author's Note: Am I starting yet another multichapter fic? Yes. Is it because it woke me up in the middle of the night to start it? Also yes. Hey, and fair warning now, if you're a fan of John Winchester (somehow), this will not be the fic for you.
Submitting Info:
Stacked with: Hogwarts (Post Term 16); Ministry (Pre-Open); MC4A (Summer Year 5)
Individual Challenges: Red Dress; Young Again; Red Bull; Little Tykes; Red Wave; Happy Birthday (Y); Bi Rainbow; Rainbow Rainbow; Missing Rainbow; Hunter MC; Hunter MC; Criminal MC; Criminal MC; Neurodivergent; Tiny Terror; Booger Breath; Zed Era; Old Shoes; Above Average Natural; In a Flash; Two Cakes (Y); Eating Cake (Y); Green Ribbon; Greatest Gift
House: Slytherin
Ministry Challenges: August Bingo [A2](Camera);
Other Hogwarts Challenges: 365 [307](Suspicion); Insane House Challenge [888](Deaging); Days of the Year [Sept 18/Wife Appreciation Day](an important person in someone's life); National Picnic Month [07](Rose Pink); Video Games Day [15](Monster Hunter AU); Shark Awareness Day [07](Tropical); International Cat Day [17](Exotic); National Dog Day [11](Compact); National Indoor Plants Week [18](Mint Green); Teddy Bear Day [15](Family); Colors [14](Amber); Crystals & Gemstones [13](Hurt/Comfort); Tarot Reading [01](Stormy);
Other MC4A Challenges: TrB [2B](Deaging); SuB [3A](Reef); AU [1D](Deaging); Chim (Guna)["The Village" - Wrabel; Protection; Gnome]; Hunt [Su Items (Photo Album)]; Fire [x3](Young Again); Garden [Tools (Photo Album)]; Harvest [A&B (Licking); Items (Glass Figurine; Rocking Chair); Setting (Cottage); Tropes (Deaging)];
Representation(s): Sam & Dean Winchester; Team Free Will as Family; Implied Profound Bond; Chim Song Prompt; Aftermath of Hunt Battle; Background Apocalypse (Season 5)
Primary & Secondary Bonus Challenges: Grease Monkey; Abandoned Ship; Head of Perseus; In the Trench; Second Verse (Persistence Still; Found Family; Nontraditional; Sneeze Weasel; Middle Name; Spinning Plates; Unwanted Advice; Brooms Only; For the Vine; Lovely Coconuts; Younger You); Chorus (Odd Feathers; Pear-Shaped; Wabi Sabi; Machismo; Peddling Pots; Fire Song; Mouth of Babes; Tomorrow's Shade; A Long Dog; Larger than Life; Unicorn); Demo 1 (Under the Bridge)
Tertiary & Generic Bonus Challenges: Once (Santa Fe; Moses Supposes; Inchworm); War (Obstruction; Sanctuary; Ennui); TY (Ntaiv; Enfant); T3 (Terse; Toad); SN (Rail; Negate); FR (Gestation); O3 (Ox)
Word Count: 798 words
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Revelations of Youth
Part 01: Found
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Sam found the boy in the living room. For a moment, it worried him that the creature they had been fighting had managed to somehow sneak another victim into the abandoned cottage despite them keeping watch and the storm still raging outside. Then he realized that the clothes the kid was wearing were the same red flannel shirt and leather jacket that Dean had been wearing before they had separated to come at the creature from different directions.
Still in denial of the conclusion he was coming to, Sam looked around the wreckage of the living room with its merrily burning fireplace. There was no doubt about it. A vicious fight had gone down here. The remains of an old fashioned rocking chair was against one wall. The rose pink cushion that had been on it had been stabbed by the jagged edge of one arm. Against another wall was a busted mint green camera and a handful of overexposed polaroids spilling out from an ancient looking photo album with a peeling black letters spelling out the words exotic project and a discolored picture of what looked like a tropical reef on it. The amber shards of a broken glass gnome surrounded the unconscious boy's head.
There was no one else in the room.
Sam looked at the boy again. It had been a long time since Sam had seen him like this, but there was no denying that it was Dean, roughly age eight. The clothes he had been wearing earlier now spread out around him like a puddle, over-sized on the petite form that Dean now had. The only injury that Sam could see was strange bruising across the backs of the boy's hand. That didn't explain his current unconscious state, but Sam was willing to be that the sudden loss of twenty-plus years just might.
He had thought nothing of it as a kid, but seeing how small and skinny Dean looked now drove an idea that had been nagging him for a while. Ever since they had visited that pseudo-Heaven, it had been percolating in the back of Sam's mind that something had been fundamentally wrong with the way they had been raised, something even worse than the hunting and constant moving. Sam couldn't even remember a time during their childhood when Dean hadn't had the same pinched look to his face that he did now. Only the difference was that now as an adult, Sam could recognize it for what it was.
Hunger.
Sam only remembered being hungry for long periods a few times in their childhood. It had always been towards the end of one of the stretches when John had left them hold up in some motel room for weeks at a time. It had also been when they had been older and their age wouldn't draw as much attention from mandatory reporters (another part that Sam hadn't realized until he had been older and had learned more about the system through his classes).
But the boy laying in front of him matched the brother from his memories, even down to the faded bruise on his cheek that Dean had so often had. There was no denying now that he could use more than a few good meals. Something was shifting in Sam's mind, like a curtain blowing in a breeze, to reveal a suspicion that he had refused to acknowledge in the past. It was illuminated in that moment like the lightning dancing across the midnight sky outside.
Dean had been fixing Dad's messes for a very long time.
How far had Dean gone while doing that over the years?
Either way, the creature had been dispatched already, tidying itself neatly into a compact pile of ash that Sam had already gathered into the prepared container. All that was left was going back to their motel room. Whatever had caused Dean's return to childhood could be solved in the morning, if it didn't wear off by then.
Sam refused to admit that he wasn't looking forward to explaining to Bobby how Dean was potentially out of commission, despite how preventing an apocalypse was definitely an all-hands-needed type situation. Sam licked his lips nervously. He was really not looking forward to Castiel finding out. The angel could get a bit intense when it came to anything related to Dean, especially if it was potential or actual harm to him. All of them (except ironically Dean himself) knew that Castiel was only on their side because that was where Dean was.
Not quite certain if it could actually be called a prayer, Sam sent a fervent wish out to the universe that Dean was back to his adult self before Sam had to call for help and try to explain what happened.
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To Be Continued
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