A/N

Thank you sammygirl1963, Christine, stargazer100 and Wunjo for the encouraging reviews!


Of all the things Jacob could have expected, this was not on his list. Nothing even close to this was on his list. And yet, here he was, staring down at a four inch tall man on the motel nightstand, and the little guy was holding out a hand to shake. As if Jacob hadn't just scared him into a panic. It was a stark contrast with the way the little guy - Sam, he now knew - had kicked and struggled before.

Jacob tried to swallow his guilt for a second as he recalled how those struggles hadn't mattered to him. He'd passively noticed them, and then ignored them. Because they had no effect on his capture of the smaller man.

Holy shit. I'm a dumbass.

He sighed faintly and focused on the offered hand. After everything, it'd be insulting at the very least to ignore the greeting. But Jacob couldn't help but wonder if he'd break that tiny hand if he tried to take it. He'd bruised Sam just by holding him before, squashing him in his fist so casually.

Jacob reached toward Sam with his uninjured hand, pausing briefly once it was a few inches away. His gaze flickered between his hand and Sam. Sam could be completely obscured in a fist. He was that small. And he was somehow still there, patiently waiting to shake Jacob's hand.

Jacob was positive he hadn't earned any of the inherent friendliness in this gesture, but he would accept it like a gift. His hand closed the distance with more care than he'd ever done anything. Jacob's lips thinned to a line as he concentrated on not squishing the bitty arm as his finger and thumb all but engulfed it.

Tiny muscles flexed between his fingertips. Jacob moved the arm up and down once, and then winced and withdrew his hand. The motion was so slight to him, but he knew he'd probably jarred Sam with it. Jacob had never felt so clumsy.

"Sorry. Uh. Nice to, um, meet you, Sam. I'm Jacob." Jacob managed a thin, sheepish smile that was hopeful despite himself. Maybe he had a shot at making up for what he'd done.

"Jacob," Sam repeated. He took his hand back, flexing the fingers by instinct. The sight of the human's massive fingers closed around it shocked him. He'd never been so close to a human since being cursed to see how much height he'd actually lost all those years ago.

Now he knew for sure it was a lot. More height than he would have thought possible once upon a time.

Sam could be held down effortlessly by just a finger. Trapped by a casual gesture. The fact that he wasn't trapped currently astounded him. In the back of his head, Sam knew he himself would be curious if he'd found someone so small in his room, trying to hide. After all the years he'd spent at this size, he honestly had no idea what his reaction would be. Trapping? Talking? Trying to coax them out of hiding?

It was impossible to say.

Dean was always the more impulsive between the brothers. Sam had no doubt he'd grab first, think later. Action before words, all the time. The complete opposite of Sam in many ways, who'd always wanted to learn and understand everything before taking action. It had made him far more suited to reading and research than his older brother. Now, of course, those options for reading and understanding the world were out of reach. Books just weren't a possibility for Sam anymore. On the rare occasion he'd discovered a book in a room, he'd never had time to finish them, especially since it took much longer to finish when the pages were larger than he was.

Sam blinked up at Jacob, holding his hand in front of him. It wasn't in much pain anymore. From what he could tell, there was only a small friction burn on the palm.

"Uhh..." Why was it so hard to think of anything to say? Again the desire to leave rose up in him again. Leave, take the cracker, get his family some food. But he was still curious, and if he wasn't going to be grabbed again, Sam couldn't resist a brief glimpse at being a human again.

"Sorry about sneaking in your room," Sam said begrudgingly. After all, he had snuck in during his search. While Sam knew he had no choice on his search for sustenance, humans saw a violation of privacy in a far more severe fashion. The intrusion alone would get most humans tossed in jail, Sam remembered. The cracker wouldn't mean as much on a human scale as the intrusion itself. "I just... needed food and didn't want to risk missing my chance."

Hearing that, Jacob's eyes strayed to the cracker. It wasn't even a whole cracker, and Sam had taken a bold risk to get to it. So much fear and danger faced down this guy every single day just because of the size of things, and he'd had to throw caution to the wind just to get some food. A meager ration that was probably just one of many in a series of meager rations. "Uh. Don't worry about it," he muttered, suddenly feeling like even more of a jerk.

Existing like that had to be hard. It was no wonder Sam was quick with that knife. He had to be. It was a matter of life and death for him.

And, in a careless moment, Jacob could have hurt the tiny man badly. Possibly bad enough that he couldn't ever fully recover, or that he'd be laid low for so long that it wouldn't matter how much food got dropped on the floor. It was impossible to get to something if you couldn't even rely on a quick sprint to get out of danger. He could have condemned Sam to a slow death with just one wrong move.

Jacob's family had never been exceedingly wealthy. His parents got by well enough, though when his dad died it put a real strain on the finances. Even with extended family helping where they could, Jacob's mother had worked multiple jobs for years to make ends meet and make sure Jacob didn't go hungry. With her recently remarried, that was only just starting to turn around.

He'd never experienced anything like what Sam's life had to be. The desperate act for such a small amount of food painted a very clear picture. It wasn't appealing or fair. From what Jacob could tell, Sam was no different from him apart from size. He'd sounded so upset when that knife got taken away ... his only defense in a world built too large for him.

Jacob self-consciously rubbed the back of his neck and shrugged. "You could say that you were here first, anyway," he quipped, trying to believe the lightheartedness in his words. "If you need food I do have more. If you want it." Jacob wouldn't be surprised if Sam refused. After all, Jacob had just been a colossal jerk; he hadn't given any reasons so far to believe that the offer was genuine.

Sam found himself frowning. You could say that you were here first… He'd been in the motel too long now. Years sealed away from the world, unable to even have a friendly discussion with anyone but his adopted family or Krissy's small family. It was cloistered compared to his life beforehand. Always on the road, a new motel every few weeks. Or, if they were lucky, a summer at 'uncle' Bobby's. New people, new faces all the time at various schools. Now he only saw a few familiar faces day in, day out.

Sam shook his head. "I… ah… you don't have to go out of your way. Really." He glanced down at the cracker he was standing next to. It might be a little dusty, but it could hold his family over for at least a week if they had to stretch it, and a week gave them plenty of time to scavenge other things. "This is enough for us to get by on."

Jacob couldn't help but stare for a few seconds. A few things battled for dominance on his face, but at the moment concern was winning, with shock bringing up a close second.

Us.

Sam had others like him that he was considering. That he needed to feed and protect. Jacob glanced down at his hand again. What if he had hurt Sam, or kept him trapped for longer? Jacob could have caused someone to starve because Sam couldn't get back to them with food.

Even if he couldn't hope to match his mistake with enough good deeds, he had to try to make up for it. Especially after hearing that some little fragment of a cracker was going to be used to feed multiple people. Jacob had a lot of food, by Sam's standards, and it'd be adding insult to injury if he sent the little guy away without trying to offer some of it.

He looked across the room at his backpack, where it sat on the table. "I've got some stuff in my bag. It's not any trouble for me, Sam. Honestly after the way I acted, I think I owe you."

With Jacob staring across the room, the prickle on Sam's neck was gone, and the human missed the way his eyes turned into twin balloons at the unexpected generosity. "O-only if you insist," he managed to get out, unable to believe the offer. It had been years he'd heard someone offer him food freely that wasn't one of his close family or friends.

Sam also lacked the animosity that Walt possessed for taking handouts from humans. After all, if he really thought about it, one thing that Sam would be determined to do if he found someone small, with no good way of getting food, the first thing he'd do was offer them his own food. Even if he was trapping them, he'd never want them to starve.

Walt, having lived his entire life small enough to fit in the walls of the motel, saw taking handouts as a failure. It meant that he'd been reduced to begging for his food. For a man who prided himself on his skills - even during lean times like this last month, a harsher time than anyone could have predicted - it was difficult to be able to bend his back far enough to ask or even accept help like that.

Sam's eyes followed the gaze of the human, staring across the room at the huge backpack lying alone on the table. If he hadn't spoke up, would Jacob have trapped Sam inside along with his belongings? Taken Sam away from his home out of curiosity, or the misplaced notion that Jacob could take care of him better than he could? It was a terrifying thought for Sam. To lose another family, after losing Dean and John years ago in such a complete and total manner. To never be able to hug Mallory goodnight, or argue with Walt about their different styles of collecting supplies.

"But I'm fine if you need the food," Sam finished, trying to pull out of his thoughts. This entire situation was turning his world upside down and making him remember the past he tried to keep suppressed. "The only reason I risked coming in here was because there's been so few people staying at the motel. Business will pick up again in a few weeks… things will be easier then."

Jacob looked back at Sam on the nightstand, incredulity on his face. Counting on business at the motel taking an upswing like that was tenuous at best. Sam could be as optimistic as he wanted, but that didn't necessarily make it true. This wasn't a tourist destination on anyone's map. Trails West Motel wasn't a total dive, but it didn't have anything around it drawing in customers. It was a place for people like Jacob, just passing through.

Having to count on people like that most of the time couldn't be an easy life. Some people would pass through without even opening their bags and leave in the morning. No food dropped, nothing but some gigantic, sluggish footsteps. If Jacob hadn't brought food in, that would have been him.

He had to break out of his thoughts before he pictured it too much. It was nothing he could change in the long term, but he could help a little bit now. "I'm sure it will be better soon, but in the meantime lemme get you some trail mix." He put his hands on his knees and pushed to a stand, and then paused.

Sam seemed to drop away on the nightstand. He was so small there. Jacob could barely see his face to read his expression anymore. At the same time, he knew his own face probably read like a billboard to Sam. Jacob backed off from the nightstand, feeling bigger than ever. He wondered if Sam could feel his footsteps.

He went to his backpack in a rush, unzipping a side pouch. A bag of trail mix was stashed in there, the top rolled up to keep it from spilling. He pulled the crinkly plastic bag out and turned back towards where he'd left Sam, honestly half expecting him to have disappeared. Either from running off or from all of this being one extended hallucination, he wasn't sure.

Yet there Sam stood, waiting patiently on the nightstand for Jacob's return. He unrolled the bag as he walked back and set it down carefully on the nightstand next to the alarm clock. The little guy took a cautious step back, warily eyeing the huge bag. "There, you take whatever you want. I promise it's no trouble for me." He offered a tentative smile and sat back on the bed, setting his hands beside him for lack of anything else to do with them.


A/N

Jacob has officially discovered an entire world he didn't know about, and Sam has moments where he slips up and lets out more information than he meant to. These two cute dorks.

Next: Coming July 24th, 2016 at 9pm est.

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