Oscar's sleep was unbroken for the whole night. He'd had a very eventful 24 hours, much more than his usual. And his body, grateful for so much extra food compared to the size of his daily meals before, fell into easy sleep on the soft pillow. Even his dreams, which were kaleidoscopic at best, didn't alarm him enough to prompt an early wake up.

Of course, the screeching call of an actual alarm clock was more than enough.

He sat bolt upright and clamped his hands over his ears as the noise assaulted them. Oscar knew the sound, but he'd never heard it from this close. It was always muffled by the walls and never bothered him, but now it was mere feet away and it set his heart pounding.

His eyes were also nearly overwhelmed. Mornings in his small house were always dim, and not much light ever made it into the room where he slept. Here, light filtered into the room in a much larger dose through a crack in the curtains. Open space stretched out in front of him and Oscar could barely comprehend it in his still-waking-up state.

The noise and the light and the soft pillow beneath him weren't the end to Oscar's confused sensory overload. He realized belatedly that there was a human very close by. Dean hugged the pillow close to himself, his arm wrapped securely over the makeshift bed. Oscar could see his chest move rhythmically with huge breaths.

It was too much all at once. Oscar groaned with worry and dove back under the cover of the shirt, curling up to try and drown at least some of it out. He really should have insisted harder that he walk himself home. It was safer there.

Sam didn't bother hiding from the noise of the alarm clock, but he did pull the edge of his flannel shirt over his head to try and block out the noise. He wished fervently that they could turn it down and still have it wake up Dean, but the teen was able to tune out the noise even at its loudest.

"Deaaaaann!" he moaned, squinting his eyes shut tight. "Wake up!"

The only way he knew that his voice got through to Dean was the way the pillow moved under them as the sleepy teenager pushed himself up. Dean leaned overhead and slapped the alarm clock off, silencing the shrill sound.

Then flopped right back down on his side and buried his head in the side of their pillow.

"Aw, come on! " Sam complained heartily. "Don't you ever wake up?" Shrugging off the shirt he was curled up under, he made his way over to the side of Dean's face. He could just make out the edge of one of Dean's eyes from where it was pressed into the pillow to block out the light. Sam knelt down, pushing at his brother's cheek in an attempt to get him back up.

"Lemme alone," came the muffled reply from somewhere underneath them. Dean's arm tightened slightly on the pillow as he hugged it close.

The continued shifting of the pillow finally drew Oscar out from under the shirt blanket. He looked around quickly, still shocked to find himself there. As Dean shifted, the whole world seemed to move with him, just like when he'd gotten up to silence the alarm clock. Oscar had only avoided tumbling by being curled up as tightly as he could.

Now, he hastily pulled his bag towards himself with one hand while rubbing the sleepiness from his eyes with the other. Kicking the shirt the rest of the way off of himself, he tried to stand on the pillow.

It wasn't nearly as easy as Sam made it look. Oscar toppled before he even stood up straight. The plush surface gave enough beneath his feet that he had a tough time figuring out how much weight to put down with each foot. A couple tries later, he finally got to a wobbly stand, with his arms held out for balance.

Sam was busy trying to wake a giant. Oscar decided on the opposite direction, still disoriented from waking up in such an unfamiliar place. He took some shaky steps along the pillow, watching his feet as he went. His instincts told him he shouldn't be so close to someone so big while they were asleep. It couldn't be safe.

Of course, he didn't fare that much better trying to get out of Dean's way. He lost his balance when the slope of the cushioned surface became too much, and no amount of pinwheeling his arms could prevent his tumble. He landed in a heap long before he could fall to the mattress, however, and realized with a jolt that he'd landed on Dean's arm.

Dean felt Oscar's small body land on his arm right away. Sleep fled at the memory that they had someone extra staying over, and he shifted enough to open at least one eye to check on the others.

He sleepily blinked a few times to try and clear his eyes, a darker shape coming into view. "Dude, haven't you heard of personal space?" Dean mumbled to the outline of his little brother, silhouetted in the morning sun. Sam was still pushing against his cheek, resolute that he needed to wake the teen.

Dean pushed himself up, sending Sam tumbling backwards onto the pillow in surprise. Lifting up the arm Oscar had fallen on, Dean gently ushered him back onto the pillow with two fingers to help his balance. "Watch yourself, Oz. We don't want you getting yourself in any trouble."

With both arms freed, Dean brushed his hair back, letting his mind wake the rest of the way up. He glanced over at the alarm clock and saw the time.

"Crap!"

Jumping out of the bed on the side away from the kids, he darted into the bathroom. He'd need to set the alarm clock for earlier the next time.

Oscar barely had his balance on the pillow again before Dean all but threw himself off the bed. Even though he avoided the pillow, it caused more than enough of a quake to send Oscar sprawling once more. At least he grabbed onto the shirt blanket to avoid tumbling too far. He didn't bother trying to stand again, since his luck had been abysmal with that so far. He sighed heavily and remained lying down for a few seconds more.

It was only a few minutes into the morning, and he'd already had a lot more excitement than he usually got in a whole day. Oscar took some slow, deep breaths to work through his short morning so far. It was almost like a funny story someone might tell him, except it had just happened. He'd landed on a human's arm only to get nudged back onto a huge pillow. How often could that happen to a person?

He finally pushed himself up to sit and rubbed his eyes tiredly while the sound of water running in the bathroom filtered back to him. "G-g'morning," he said through a short yawn.

Sam picked himself up in turn from where he'd sprawled with Dean's hasty exit. "Morning," he said in reply, pushing his hair out of his eyes. It was a mess, and he could only manage so much with just his hands.

He let his arms fall around his legs in a huff, watching after the bathroom door. He didn't have any other comfortable clothes to change into. Just the dollhouse ones that they'd bought, and those were currently out of reach over on the nightstand. Maybe once he was better and more practiced at climbing he'd be able to get to his stuff without needing Dean around, but for now he didn't want to ignore Dean's stipulation that he have a spotter while climbing. At least until he got the hang of it.

Sam stretched out his legs, figuring he'd worry about a change of clothes when they weren't going to be late to school. "So, you decided to stick around for the night?" he asked Oscar, glad to see the other kid around.

"Mmm." The faint sound was one of acknowledgement, though Oscar was a little fuzzy himself on how he'd ended up sleeping the whole night out in the open like this. "Think Dean put me on the pillow and it was comfy so I fell asleep," he finally replied, a sheepish chuckle accompanying the words. He really had planned on going home; sleeping anywhere other than in his house was an idea that had never occurred to him.

He tried to stand up again, getting to his feet much slower now. His arms were out for balance, though his shaky footing was more because of unfamiliar terrain than actually being at risk. At least the pillow wasn't moving now. "I guess I better go home soon since you guys will be out," he mused, then looked over at Sam thoughtfully. "Um. I can come back later to practice more, if you want."

"Yeah, definitely!" Sam said eagerly. He spotted his safety pin and thread over on the nightstand where he'd left them after climbing up. He couldn't wait to give it another shot.

Dean came out of the bathroom, still in a rush. He was trying to get his hair to stick up in the right direction after shoving his dark hoodie over his head. He snagged his notebook and a pencil from the table, shoving the pencil into the hoodie's front pocket. He paused at the table, looking it over and mumbling to himself to make sure he hadn't forgotten anything.

He ended up grabbing a granola and had it half unwrapped by the time he got back over to Sam and Oscar at the bed. "C'mon guys," he said distractedly, sweeping them up to his shoulder in one hand. "We can eat on the way. Gotta run." He had a piece of granola held out for each of them between his fingers by the time they caught their balance on his shoulder.

"Whuh ... but ... huh?" Oscar stammered, scrambling to get a secure position on Dean's shoulder. Every step he took covered a lot of ground. It was one thing to be in his hand and notice that. But Oscar was up much higher, and he felt every sway of the towering body that held him up.

He took the offered granola in a daze, almost an automatic reaction to having it handed off to him. His stomach was still reeling from being scooped up so quickly in Dean's hand with Sam. One second, he'd planned to sneak on home and stay out of the way until the humans returned. And now, he was deposited on the human's shoulder while Dean swiftly went for the door.

Oscar scrambled for a grip on the hood, his pale knuckles turning white he held on so hard. "B-but s-school is full of humans!" he stuttered out, his voice barely more than a frightened squeak. He couldn't fathom how Sam tolerated being around that many bigger folk all gathered in one space.

He glanced around at the room, his wide eyes shifting for a moment from fear to awe. He was seeing everything from a human height from where he was. The beds, the TV, the table, even the door to the bathroom didn't look as much like gigantic, immovable things to him. It was like the world got a little smaller around him again.

Sam stuck his feet out so they dangled over Dean's back, over the opening to the hoodie. "We'll be fine," he said confidently as Dean reached the door. "I've been doing this for two whole weeks now. No one can see us in the hood, and Dean sits in the back so there's no one behind him. I even snuck up to his shoulder yesterday while they were teaching and I could see the board." He didn't mention the way the chalkboard had been so far away, the words on it were almost blurred in the distance. It was better to be in the back and unseen than in front and spotted.

Dean tilted his head at them, able to hear every word since they were talking right under one of his ears. "You two ready?" he asked gruffly, ready to head out.

Sam punched Dean in the neck. "Next time you should wake up when you're supposed to!" he shot up at his brother right before dropping off the shoulder and out of sight into the folds of the dark hoodie.

Oscar opened his mouth to say more, but when Sam all but disappeared into the hood, he let out a squeak of surprise. Dean's hand was on the door and soon he'd be outside. Oscar's eyes widened even more, and he scooted himself towards where Sam had dropped off the shoulder.

With the strap of his bag clutched in one hand and his bit of granola hugged close with the other, he closed his eyes and let himself slide into the hood too. Oscar tumbled into the folds of thick fabric just as fresh air surrounded them.

"Oh, I dunno about this," he mumbled almost immediately, pushing fabric out of the way as he squirmed into a more comfortable huddled position. His bag was securely on his lap, the granola clutched in his hands on top of it. "T-two weeks?" he whispered, finding where Sam had ended up with his wide eyes.

Sam nodded, only just able to make out Oscar in the dim surroundings. This was much better than normal though. Normally he'd be all alone the entire day unless Dean was able to find a quiet corner to himself, which was hard to do at school. With ninth graders all around, Sam wouldn't be able to say much aside from snatches when he felt daring, and Dean could say nothing back.

"Two weeks," he confirmed in his own whisper. "Before that dad made me stay at the motel. They thought they'd have a cure by then and I'd be back to normal, but nothing was happening and I was bored on the motel room table all day. Dean was gone and I just got to see my dad until he got back."

Sam paused for a second, remembering that first day he'd snuck out. "Then I jumped in Dean's pocket," he said. He pointed at his side to demonstrate which pocket. "Here. He didn't even notice me until we were almost at school. Instead of taking me back like dad would want, he let me come with him. Ever since then, dad gave up fighting it. Though he did yell at Dean a lot that first day. Like it was Dean's fault I stowed away. And Dean just let him. He never told dad it was my idea."

Oscar wasn't sure what would be worse. Being trapped on a motel room table for a whole day, with no way to climb down or ... no, a shouting gigantic human was definitely worse. If he had to face someone so big actually yelling at him, he wouldn't be able to maintain eye contact. Oscar would be running as far and as fast as he could in the opposite direction in pure panic.

He thought about Dean, a huge human to them but still just a kid in the eyes of a fully grown adult human, standing up to someone shouting at him and keeping his little brother safe from that wrath. No matter how tall someone got, that would always be a noble gesture. Oscar stared at the food in his hands, that Dean had ensured they get even though he was in a rush.

It was humbling to think that a human that caring existed in a world full of gigantic, self-minded people that had, for better or worse, forced people Oscar and Sam's size into hiding.

"I guess he really really takes care of you," Oscar said quietly, comforted by the fact. He relaxed a little, but only a little; they were still outside, after all. "That's really nice."

"Yeah," Sam said with a smile at his granola. "Yeah, he does." He bit into it, letting himself sit back so he could stare up at the cracks in the hoodie beyond them. Small swaths of sky were visible, the blue occasionally disrupted by scattered clouds.

A/N

Sam is like "come back soon Oscar!" and Dean's like "TIME TO GO TO SCHOOL ALL ABOARD"

Next: January 11th