AN: How nice to get such lovely comments! I've responded to them at the end of the chapter.
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The little coffee shop felt familiar, almost homey to Sam, but he'd bet Dean hated it on sight. It was the kind of place Sam would have enjoyed studying when he was still at Stanford a lifetime ago, except this one was populated by people of all ages, with nary a hipster in sight. Instead, three young moms sat together and chatted while their various offspring colored in books or watched the cartoons playing on the TV hanging from the ceiling. Two men in suits talked quietly at a table in the back, and two white-haired ladies nursed large coffees on a plush loveseat that sat next to a fake fireplace. Other than the kid behind the counter with a customer service smile, nobody else was there.
"Blech," said Dean, sotto voce over Sam's shoulder. They'd been working their way down main street, since the best Bobby's information could tell them was that Yemoja and Oshun should be somewhere in the tiny downtown, so they were making their way through all the stores. It was tiresome, but they didn't really have a better plan, and the death toll in Montana was still rising, the affected area getting larger by the hour.
Still, Sam wanted to sit for a few minutes. His sleep had been plagued by nightmares of whatever evils his subconscious could dream of for soulless Sam to perpetuate. Every time, Sam felt like he had under Lucifer's control – completely trapped and unable to stop his body from doing horrible things. And to be honest, he was kind of afraid of finding the Ibeji. He had a terrible feeling that they'd take one look at him and refuse to talk to someone who could basically feed his brother to a vampire, among other things.
"What do you want? My treat," said Sam out loud, snared by the smell of java. He could drink any coffee, really, but he'd developed a taste for the good stuff. Dean shrugged, liking to pretend he didn't appreciate it too, so Sam ordered him a white chocolate espresso just to mess with him. As he did, the taller of the two old women grabbed her companion's arm.
"Letty," she said in a stage whisper. "I think my blood pressure medication's giving me hallucinations. Either that, or a whole lot of gorgeous just walked into our little coffee shop."
"If you're hallucinating, I'm having the same one," replied Letty pushing her glasses up higher on her nose and staring at the Winchesters openly. "Good lord, Kay. I'm not sure my heart can take it!"
"But what a way to go!" Kay said, and both women snorted in laughter.
Sam could feel his cheeks heating, but Dean reveled in feminine appreciation, even though females in question were old enough to be his grandmother. He turned and grinned at the women. "Afternoon, ladies," he greeted.
"Honey, that voice could get a girl all hot and bothered even if you were reading a eulogy," Letty announced, making the young moms giggle into their coffee and her friend elbow her – even as she snickered too.
Dean's smile brightened, lapping up the attention as Sam handed him his coffee. "So I've been told, though never exactly like that."
"Well, hot stuff, like you and your brother, we are anything but ordinary," was Kay's contribution. Something about her words arrested Sam's attention and he looked more carefully at the surprisingly sharp eyes behind the women's glasses. The surprisingly sharp pairs of gray eyes.
"May we join you?" he asked politely.
Dean raised one eyebrow but didn't argue.
"Hell, yes!" called Letty. She was shorter than her friend, but not tiny. She had simple clothes: jeans, white tennis shoes, and a black t-shirt that read OSG (one sexy grandma). Her skin was pale and wrinkled, and her hair was snow white and artfully poofed around her head. She had deep smile lines. Her friend was just as innocuous. Like Letty, Kay was slender, white haired and wrinkled. Her hair fell in gentle waves to her shoulders and her t-shirt was navy with a UConn Huskies logo. Neither woman wore any jewelry, including wedding rings.
But Sam had a feeling there was a lot more to them than met the eye. He thanked them as he and Dean sat down, then Sam leaned slightly forward. "Yemoja and Oshun, I presume?" he asked softly. The women didn't look upset or even terribly surprised by the question, but sharp eyes turned even sharper, speculative.
"We go by Kay and Letty now, but yes," Letty said.
"I'm Dean Winchester, and this is my little brother Sam," said Dean smoothly. Sam had impressed on him the importance of being honest with the deities or manifestations or whatever they called themselves.
"You want our help," said Kay shrewdly. It wasn't a question.
Letty reached for Dean's arm. "May I?" she asked.
Dean nodded, looking slightly wary, but not too worried, and Sam endeavored to calm his own heartrate a little. Dealing with powerful beings was always risky. They didn't behave in normal, human ways, and were often capricious and not bothered by human suffering. But they needed the help, and lore stated these two were helpful when they chose to be.
Letty laid her right hand on Dean's wrist. Kay laid her left hand on Sam's right wrist at the same time, and he noticed that the women's other hands were next to each other on the table, knuckles just touching. Letty looked pointedly at Sam's left hand, and he slid it over so his pinky touched Dean's, completing the circuit.
Sam didn't feel anything, but Letty sucked in a sharp breath. "Breathe, dear," encouraged Kay under her breath. Then both women's eyes briefly glowed silver. It wasn't like when an angel's eyes glowed; it was much more muted than that, and if Sam hadn't been looking directly at them he would have missed it completely.
Letty jerked her hands onto her lap and blinked a few times. She looked okay, but a little shaken. Kay patted her shoulder. "Just relax a minute. I'll get you some water."
"I got it," offered Sam, jumping up. As he returned from the counter with a glass, he asked Letty, "Are you okay?"
"She will be," Kay answered in her stead, getting an eye roll from the other woman. "Seeing like that is painful for her."
"So, you're older," Dean said knowingly.
Kay narrowed her eyes. "Young man, I'll have you know we are exactly the same age."
"She just acts older," sniffed Letty, sounding almost back to her spunky self.
"Well, someone has to be responsible."
"And that's you? What a joke!"
Sam and Dean couldn't help but share a little smile despite the oddness of the entire encounter. This dynamic was so familiar.
"You recognize us, don't you?" asked Letty, catching the gesture. Her eyes were sharp again.
"What do you mean?" asked Sam, as Dean shrugged his confusion.
"Other ibeji recognize us, even if they don't realize it," Kay said with finality.
"We aren't ibeji," Sam argued immediately, and Dean kicked him under the table. He knew it was because they were supposed to play nice, but he couldn't pretend. There was a reciprocity to ibeji that they would never have, because he was not and never could be worthy of Dean.
Four gray eyes and two green stared at Sam with such intensity that he half expected his skin to start on fire and it was all he could do to not squirm. If he hadn't faced John Winchester's x-ray vision from an early age, he'd certainly have run.
"Oh, honey." Letty patted Sam's hand, and it should have felt patronizing. Instead, Sam had the strong impression that she understood perfectly, perhaps more perfectly than anybody else ever could. "Who else would go to Hell for another? Turn down Death for them? Who else's love could survive without a soul, or with one that's been demonized? Who else would put one person above the entire world? Show love through betrayal?"
"Shhh, Letty. You're mixing up the past and the future." Kay put an arm around her friend, whose eyes had filled with tears.
Kay lifted her eyes to the brothers. There was sympathy there, but it was outshined by a fierce protectiveness. "You may be Ours," she said, "and you may have the most beautiful jimagua I've ever seen, but you have caused my Kehinde pain just by being here. Nobody gets to cause her pain."
"It's not their fault, Taiwo," soothed Letty. "I only feel the pain they feel. Have felt. Will feel. And they did not call Eshu. And you know Whose fault their pain is."
"Still. Nobody causes Letty pain." Kay was implacable. "Or they have to deal with me. So if you wish our help, you will come to a place of convergence where our power is the greatest and submit to an inquest at midnight one of the next three nights. If you pass the test, we will help you."
"What kind of test – " Sam started to ask, but Dean spoke right over him.
"If it's dangerous, I'll do it. Sammy's been through enough lately," he snapped.
Sam started to respond, but Letty caught his eye and gave a tiny shake of her head. Again, Sam had the sense that she understood perfectly, and that she was saying he should just let the other two have their little pissing match.
"Both or none. It is the way of the ibeji," said Kay. But their was approval in her gaze now, and more sympathy. "For what it's worth, I am sorry. I know you don't lack courage, either of you. But you have to be perfectly in accord for us to help you, and you are slightly out of sync now, as if the balance has been upset just a bit. Be sure you know what you're doing if you choose to find us." Then she took a long drink of her coffee and suddenly looked like a regular old lady again.
Something Letty had said had caught Sam's attention, even more than the mention of an inquest. "You said what…what we've gone through is someone's fault. What did you mean by that?"
Letty brightened a little at the question. "The First One hates all ibeji. He betrayed his only companion, and has been jealous ever since. So, where ibeji have changed all of history sometimes – Castor and Pollux, Romulus and Remus, even Marie and Pierre Curie. But he hates them so much, he's also used some ibeji to cause terrible, terrible harm. Caesar and Brutus. Jason and Medea. Abelard and Heloise." She and Sam both winced at the last one, and they both ignored the identical looks of tolerant amusement their respective companions sent at them. "And you are his favorites, so he delights in making you – "
"That's enough of that," interrupted Kay. "You know we can't give everything away." She looked at the brothers. "I wish we could. And for what it's worth, if anyone can kick his ass, it's you two. Now we have to get going. Letty needs a nap after that."
"I'm 84 years old in this guise. I think I can take care of myself by now," argued Letty, but she stood. She's said it loudly, except for in this guise. It reminded Sam for the first time in a while that they were in the middle of a coffee shop, but it didn't seem like anybody else had noticed anything weird about their little tete a tete.
"I'll be the judge of that," responded Kay loftily. "Since you always get distracted when it comes to looking after yourself."
"Wait." Dean stood too. "Where -- ?"
"Give me your number and I'll text you the coordinates," offered Kay, firmly back in her modern old lady guise.
Letty tsked. "Anything to get their number. You're a shameless old biddy, you know."
Kay took the card Dean offered with his number without batting an eyelash. "You know it. This is the most sex appeal I've seen since that wrestler in Greece. And who are you calling old, you hag?"
"You mean that one who called himself Adonis? Please. He was barely a sip compared to these drinks of water."
The two women kept up their argument seamlessly as they made their way out of the coffee shop, between greeting the rest of the patrons by name, giving the kids hard candies out of their giant old lady purses, and reminding the teenager behind the corner that he had a biology test to study for.
"Stop it," Kay was saying. "Wallace will get jealous."
"Wally? You know we only get together to play Canasta."
"Oh, is that what they're calling it down at the old folks' home now?"
"You are the oldest sex addict I've ever met." Letty sniffed, slipping an extra candy to the smallest child.
"I love how you pretend to be such a prude. Don't forget, I know all your secrets. You act like some shrinking virgin and you'll miss out on the best years of your life. You do anything off color now and everyone just assumes you're senile. It's like a free pass! Put all that experience to good use."
"You're nothing but an old reprobate –"
And they were gone. Despite everything going on, everything they were facing, and the truly terrifying hints the women (deities) had dropped, Sam and Dean couldn't help it. They looked at each other and burst out laughing, and they couldn't immediately stop. It felt good.
"Now what?" Dean asked when they finally got control of themselves.
"Lunch?" Sam suggested, having heard his brother's stomach making noise. "I think we have a lot to talk about."
Dean's expression grew grim, and he glanced down at a new text. Sam could only assume it was the promised coordinates. "Yeah," he said, looking back up. "You could say that."
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AN: Apparently, I like writing spunky old ladies! (Anybody remember Barb? LOL) Some notes: Castor and Pollux were twins from Greek and Roman mythology. Romulus and Remus were the brothers who supposedly founded Rome. Marie and Pierre Curie were groundbreaking husband and wife scientists in the late 1800's and early 1900's.
Julius Caesar and Marcus Brutus were close friends until the latter became convinced that Caesar's rule threatened the Roman republic and participated in Caesar's assassination. Jason of the Argonauts completed a great mission with the help of his wife Medea. He then put her aside to marry a young princess and Medea...didn't take it well. Peter Abelard and Heloise were real people with a truly twisted story that ended up with Abelard castrated.
BruisedBloodBroken: Thank you for the lovely, encouraging words!
Shazza19: My pleasure! I looked up the Wanek book because you mentioned it and it looks amazing! Thank you for bringing it to my attention, and also your kind words.
bagelcat1: I was looking for something else when I stumbled onto the ibeji and just had to run with it. I'm trying to explore the idea without getting too schmaltzy. And I have a weakness for protective Dean myself!
printandpolish: Now if only the boys would acknowledge that, right? I always love to see comments from you.
sfaulkenberry: I try to set my stories all different places, but I'm afraid there's no specific reason for South Carolina except that I hear it's beautiful. Della's Hollow isn't a real place, but the forest where the old ladies hang out is. Pictures of it remind me of the old growth forests of the northern part of Michigan's lower peninsula, which I love. The platonic soul mates thing has so much potential that I doubt I'll really do it justice, but I'll have fun trying! And I wanted to branch out from seasons one and two and preseries a little. I'm so glad you're reading!
Atlasina7: Thanks! I appreciate your comment on where I set this story, since it was a hard choice. I hope you keep enjoying the story.
Lena: One of many reasons I love you! I shouldn't be surprised that you feel the same way about labels. I know they can be helpful, but only if they aren't given too much power.
I know what you mean about mourning the show. I'm trying to treat that with an SPN Facebook page and lots and lots of fanfiction (reading and writing both)!