More small giggles made it out of Oscar, though his eyes were still a little wide from the thought of climbing a tree. He'd seen them before on the TVs in the motel. He'd never had a chance to see a real one, but if the pictures were any indication, trees were so tall. Much bigger than Dean was now. Even though Sam had climbed them when he was human sized, it still sounded so impressive.

The world outside that big motel room door was so much bigger than Oscar could really comprehend. Even now, standing on the carpet in one room, the floor stretched out on either side, with piles of dustbunnies populating the shaded areas under the beds. Dean was like a tower in front of him even though the teen was seated on his knees.

Oscar found himself wondering what it was like to be big enough for that big world out there, only to lose that and end up as small as Sam had. He couldn't decide whether or not it was worse than growing up knowing everything was too big for him.

"I-I guess it's too bad Dean can't practice with us," Oscar mused, joining in with Sam's light teasing.

"It's okay," Dean said, letting their teasing roll right over him. "I'll getcha when it's time for hide and seek. I'll definitely win at that." He shuffled back a few inches from where the others were to give them some space down on the floor. He took his eyes away from the two kids on the floor to glance around the room and scope out hiding spots, trying to build up a plan for when they got the chance to play one night. His hiding spot would have to be the best if he was going to be hard to find for two kids smaller than his fingers. They'd have the home field advantage.

Oscar chuckled, glancing to the ground as Dean shifted. He could feel the rumblings in the floor from Dean moving, and he wondered what it would feel like if he was under the floor. Oscar didn't go under the floorboards of the motel much, only once or twice as a shortcut. It unnerved him to think of the heavy things hanging just overhead, even knowing they probably couldn't fall through.

He glanced over and saw Sam picking up the long thread attached to his pin, gathering it up in his hands. Oscar glanced down at his own pin and closed it up, reeling in his thread, too. "S-Sam, when you visit my house, I have an extra bag like this one," he said, turning slightly to show off the bag hanging at his side. "You can have it so you don't have to leave your pin anywhere. Yougotta have a bag for supplies you find. Anything could be useful!"

"Really?" Once again, Sam's eyes grew wide at the thought of having a bag of his own. Anything made for his size, really. It wouldn't even be something that Dean picked up at the store from the girly section like his spare clothes.

He whipped around to stare up at Dean, catching his older brother completely off guard. "Can we go to Oscar's house? Please? "

"Ah…" Dean flailed around for a second with his thoughts. "If Oscar wants to go back, I don't see why not." He couldn't even gather his thoughts together enough to remember his decided upon nickname for the younger kid. Not with those potent hazels pointed right at him and dialed up to full power.

Oscar perked up. He hadn't meant right now, but Sam's excitement was a little bit infectious. It was no wonder that Dean couldn't resist. Even Oscar was swayed by the idea almost immediately. He hoped his house didn't end up being disappointing to the older kid, who was probably used to better-constructed homes in general.

"Y-yeah, I guess we can go see it now," he agreed, his smile returning. "I gotta unload my bag sometime anyway, it's so full." And it was full, overladen with rice and some other small bits of the Chinese food from the night before. Oscar wouldn't have any room if he found something around that he could fashion into a tool.

Remarkably, Oscar could actually think about making tools and things, instead of the next meal. With his new friends around, he'd already had more than one meal in a day, and so the usual desperate drive to make sure he could eat was not so pressing. He couldn't help but be very happy about that, and there was a certain brightness in his eyes that wasn't usually there.

"That's right." Reminded by Oscar's mention of how full his bag was, Dean sprang to his feet to grab the peanuts they'd told him he could take. They'd told him he could have them, which for Dean was as good as giving the small kid their word.

The teen's face fell when he saw Sam and Oscar flinch back from him when he was on his feet. He tried to give Sam a reassuring look, letting him know that he'd always be safe no matter what, even standing on the floor, but to his dismay the distance between them… a distance that was simply Dean's height… kept him from being able to see Sam's face clearly.

They were so small.

He hurried away to get the food. He didn't want to extend his time standing over them anymore than they wanted to stand down by his feet. It was a sharp, painful reminder to the teen of his failure to protect Sam that fateful day a month ago.

Dean was quiet as he got out the container of peanuts and thought about how Sam would be able to carry more than one or two in his arms. He couldn't exactly just take a handful like Dean could… An idea hit and Dean grabbed a napkin, tearing off a smaller piece.

With a bundle of peanuts wrapped inside, Dean came back over to the other two and knelt down. "Think you can manage this?" he asked quietly as he held out the packet to his younger brother.

Sam snatched it away. "You bet!" he declared.

Oscar's eyes were wide as he beheld the bundle in Sam's arms, almost as big as the bag he wore over his shoulder. The rumbling in the ground from Dean's footsteps was entirely forgotten at the sight of how much food they were letting him take. It was so little compared to Dean, but it was so much for Oscar. Just that bundle alone could last him a week or two under normal circumstances.

Just one peanut was almost as big as his head. There were several in the napkin that Dean had bundled up. And the food filling up Oscar's bag should last a long time, too; he'd tried to grab things that wouldn't spoil or attract ants. He didn't need bugs or mold encroaching on his small home when he was taking care of it on his own.

His smile was practically beaming and he was almost bouncing on his feet. He was doing so much better getting food with their generous help than he ever did on his own, scraping by meal by meal. It began to seem more and more fortuitous that he'd been captured by Dean, as backwards as that seemed.

"Okay, well, the best way to my house is from that vent over there," Oscar reminded them, pointing across the floor to the vent opposite the beds looming overhead. Even with one of the beds "in the way," it was a clear shot straight to it thanks to all the space underneath the furniture.

Sam and Dean both looked towards where he indicated. Dean hesitated, then went to offer them a lift like normal.

This time, Sam tried to wave him off. "I want to try walking across the floor," he said beseechingly, his eyes hopeful. "I want to do things myself."

Dean paused, his hands halfway there. "Alright," he said in surprise, lettings his hands fall again. "Just… let me know if you need a hand, okay?" Feeling out of place if they were going to be walking around, he got up and hopped onto the bed so he could watch them from above and not be completely in the way.

Sam grinned and waved at him from the floor, still amazed at how much Dean was letting him do. This would be his first time walking across the floor on his own since the curse, and as nerve wracking as it was when he glanced around at the huge expanse, at least they had the older boy watching out for them.

Oscar's eyebrows shot up at the sight of Dean peeking over the edge of the bed. It was so strange to think that normally, that could be one of the most heart-stopping sights he ever looked up to see. But now, he just grinned and waved like Sam before adjusting his bag on his shoulder to get started.

He took the first excited steps towards the vent, looking over his shoulder to make sure Sam was following. He angled towards the bed, since a brief shortcut underneath it would make their trip a lot shorter. The space under the beds was easily over twice Sam's height. They would fit without any trouble, and it'd be like the ceiling above to Dean, except they'd be under a mattress that creaked a little with every shift Dean made.

"It won't take long to get there at all," he mused. "Sometimes it feels like the floor is so wide and it'll take forever to get across but I always get there faster than I expect."

Sam clutched the bundle of peanuts close to his chest as he ran a few steps to catch up to Oscar. He stared up at the 'ceiling' above them, unable to take his eyes off the mattress. He was right under the bed, yet it had become an alien landscape. His head was on a swivel while they went, staring at the dustbunnies that lurked nearby, some close to the same size as the two kids.

Above them, the bed creaked loudly as Dean shifted to a new position. The thought of someone so huge moving right above them sent a slight chill up his back, but he knew as well as anyone that as big as Dean was, the bed would have no problem supporting his weight. Their dad was much, much bigger, and the mattresses were just as fine with that much weight.

"Walking across the room now's a lot different than it was when I was normal-sized," Sam said as he blinked up at the world around them. "It's so… open."

Oscar had to pause to think on the phrase normal-sized. To him, this was his normal. He was still amazed that there was someone like him who didn't see all the looming furniture and huge humans as normal. Sam was a human once. He could be almost as big as Dean, but he wasn't due to some curse.

Oscar wondered what it'd be like if Sam managed to break his curse. Would he still remember that people like Oscar were out there, just trying to get by? He seemed like the kind of person who would, and Oscar smiled softly.

"I don't really walk across the floor most of the time," he admitted. "Even when no one's here I don't like to be out in the open ... mom always told me to be ready to hide fast. We always gotta be ready to hide."

"Y'know," Sam said, his brow furrowing, "I don't think I would have understood that before I was cursed, but now…" He glanced around at the darkness under the furniture. He thought about what things would be like if the person sitting on the bed overhead wasn't Dean. How afraid he'd be. "I get it now. I spent so long just sticking close to Dean I could almost forget how… small I am now."

Oscar nodded absently. To him, small was his usual. Even among his own kind, he was a runt and he knew it. He had hopes of stretching out a little more by the time he was fully grown, but for now, small was his whole life. He'd never known anything different, so he couldn't relate to Sam's musings.

"Well. At least Dean is around, to make sure other humans don't get you. I just learned the other way 'cause I don't have a human," Oscar pointed out, just as they reached the edge of the bed before the wide expanse of empty carpet before the vent. Usually his lessons were to wait, watch, and listen. But he already knew where Dean was, and he could hear the human's breathing above. Oscar shook his head, trying to forget how nerve wracking that was supposed to be. He'd found a safe human.

"I always run for this part," Oscar said with a grin. "Wanna try a race?"

"Yeah!" Sam said, enthused by the idea. Even with all the energy they'd burned through playing tag he was still raring to go. He'd never turn down a challenge, not after living with Dean all his life. Up until a month ago, they'd been shooting challenges at each other constantly. For a time, he'd been afraid that would stop completely. Having Oscar around was showing them that there were things they could still do together. It just took having a new perspective around to show them what they had.

Dean poked his head over the top of the bed, trying to spot the two he could hear talking under the edge of the bed. "Didja need a judge?" he asked hopefully, still trying to stay involved with the other two despite his size difference.

The creaking above reminded Oscar of the third person directly overhead. He took a step or two forward and craned his neck back so he could look up at the human that peeked down at them. A smile came to his face even while he shifted his bag up under his arm so it wouldn't go swinging into his side with each step.

"Yeah, okay," he replied, having no problem at all including Dean in the little game. He was a little proud of himself for coming up with it all by himself, considering he didn't often play when he was on his own. He never had time too. Now, he was full of energy just from being able to eat more and he was happy that he had friends to spend so much time with. He wished the month could last forever.

"Awesome!" Dean vanished from overhead, going to get off of the bed from the side. With the two kids safely under the front of the bed he didn't need to worry about stepping down onto the floor.

Sam watched as the socked feet touched down against the ground, eyes wide at the sight of how big his brother was from the ground. The ground shook under them as he walked over to the vent, sitting down by the side.

"Ready?" Dean called out.

For his part, Oscar had to fight the urge to dart back under the bed and hide as far back in the shadows as he could. Normally the sight of a human walking around from that close was a very very bad sign. Oscar had gotten a glimpse of that truth when Dean first scooped him up. The difference between now and then was that before, he didn't have any knowledge of his own safety to cling to in order to avert panic.

Even so, he didn't realize he was holding his breath until Dean sat down opposite them. He let the smile back onto his face with the human no longer in motion shaking the floor. He glanced aside at Sam, before calling "Y-yeah, I think so!"

So far away, Dean didn't spot the lingering nerves on the other two. He held up his hand with a challenging smile. "Ready… Set…"

As he counted down to the race, Sam tried to shift the peanut bundle to a better position for running. It was like he had an overstuffed backpack to hang on to with no way of sealing it shut.

He wasn't going to spill any of the food. Not after everything Oscar had done for him.

Dean dropped his hand. "Go!"

A/N

What better way to say 'thanks' than with food?

Next: February 3rd