Seize the Day, Suffer the Night
Hour 2: 1:00AM-2:00AM
A Supernatural AU
by Laurel (Sailorhathor)
Chapters: 2 of 24
Rating: This chapter, Parental Guidance Suggested for Children Under 13. Overall, rated Adult for horror, sexual content, and bad language.
Dates: This chapter was written June 2007
Word Count: 3,256
Overall Summary: Today is the longest day in Dean Winchester's life. Over the next 24 hours, he'll have to win a prank war, fight wise-cracking demons, rescue his siblings from a succubus, figure out why the patrons at a strip club are spontaneously combusting, save his brother from a deal he made with a blood-thirsty Asian creature eleven years ago, and all without getting sacrificed. And on his birthday! Do big brothers ever get a day off?
This Hour: Sam remembers what happened eleven years and one day ago to cause him to make the deal that's come back to haunt him today. He and Dean discuss what Dean remembers, which is limited, and then Dean sets off another prank war. The hour ends with the Winchesters finally, for once, getting "paid."
Timeline: Alternate Universe after the Supernatural episode "Crossroad Blues." (There's also a Winsister, but many of the events of the series have still happened.)
Warning: Winsister AU! Contains spoilers for several episodes of Supernatural, especially the second season. I do not plan for there to be any Wincest in this story; I want to present a more realistic brother/brother/sister relationship this time. One chapter will have Wincest (Sam/Winsister) overtones, though, due to a succubus, but there will be no actual sex. The actual sexual content happens between Winsister/OFC, Sam/OFC, Dean/OFC, and Dean/OMC in future chapters.
Author's Notes: I got Kripked again. It happened last year with the season finale, and it's happened again with this story. STDSTN was planned out and begun well in advance of "All Hell Breaks Loose Part 2," but it shares some similarities with it anyway (the whole "one brother saves the other from a deal they made in the past to save the other's life" storyline). Oh well. I'm still writing it. I'll just say that Megumi is most definitely not a Crossroads Demon and leave it at that.
Thanks to Rekka for help with the Japanese. You rock, Rek!
I am a huge Japan geek and love staff weapons/polearms. You'll see that love reflected here.
I just made up the empathy demon.
Recently I asked if anyone wanted me to name a character after them for fun. One person to respond was my friend Moosie, whose real name is Heidi. Because she's fun to mess with, expect there to be as many Heidis in this story as I can cram into it. evil grin
Fanfic Challenges: "Seize the Day, Suffer the Night Hour 2" was written for the following fanfic challenge prompts...
24 Prompts: #22 Lie
Album Mix: Motley Crue Shout at the Devil Track #1 "In the Beginning"
Variety Pack 100: #91 Birthday
Paranormal25: #49 Demons
Coclaim100: #78 Secrets
1:04:36... 1:04:37... 1:04:38... 1:04:39AM...
There is yelling coming from the top of the stairs. Dean is screaming something and Midori responds in an angry tone. The commotion draws Sam's attention from his practice.
Midori's voice is authoritative; Sam cannot make out what he is saying. But Dean is screaming loud enough for anyone to hear.
"Stop protecting that thing! I'm warning you, get out of the way!"
Midori is saying something else as Sam makes his way to the living room to see what's going on. Dad calls from another room, "What's all the fighting about in there?"
"I figured it out, Midori!" Dean yells.
Midori says something in that authoritative, cold tone.
Dean growls back, "No, you'll regret it! Get out of my - "
Sam gets to the bottom of the stairs just in time to hear the scuffle. He looks up and gasps. "Dean!"
Dean is making choked noises of pain. His hands close around the blade, but Midori still slides it in deeper, and Dean lets out a wail through gritted teeth, his eyes squeezed shut. Only the tips of his toes are on the sixth step now. He dangles there.
"Deeeean!" Sam hears himself scream.
Blood drips on the stairs below John Winchester's eldest child. There is a wet sucking sound, and Dean tumbles limply down the stairs, landing facedown at Sam's feet.
Now, the room fills with screams.
Sam kneels beside Dean and turns him over into his lap. "Dean... Dean?" He shakes him. The blood forms a pattern like an orchid blooming in the fabric of Dean's white shirt. Flecks of blood on full lips. There is no response.
"What... oh Christ... what the hell have you done?!" Dad screams from somewhere to Sam's right.
A girl starts to cry. It's Tenshi. "Midori, what happened?!"
Midori says nothing. Just stands at the top of the stairs with the little one at his side.
Dad is breathing so loudly that his breath comes out in angry howls. "You son of a bitch... you killed my son... you killed my son!" Sam recognizes the next sound very well; it is the ch-chick of a shotgun being cocked. "I don't care if you are a kid, I'll fucking kill you!"
Sam cannot take his eyes off Dean's face, which is almost peaceful. He sees feet moving to one side. First, Dad's brown hiking boots charge toward the stairs. Smaller, feminine feet clad in sandals step in front of him and brace as Tenshi pushes against Dad. "No, NO, Mr. Winchester, don't, please, no! You can't kill my cousin! Please, no, put the gun down!"
"Stay out of this, Tenshi!"
"Mr. Winchester, pleeeeeease!" she wails.
"Let go of my gun!"
Sam is unaware of the fact that his sister has even entered the room. He now sees her familiar plaid sneakers coming slowly toward him, so he looks up. Brook's face is a mask of shock and potential hysteria as she gazes down on the lifeless shape in his lap. "Sam, what's going on? Is he... Dean's hurt..." She bonelessly goes down on her knees, looking at Dean. "He's breathing, isn't he?" Brook asks in a shaky voice.
Tenshi continues to beg for her cousin's life. "Oba-san, tell Mr. Winchester to put the gun down! You can convince him. He wants to shoot Midori! Tell him he can't!"
"Look what he did to my son!" Dad yells.
Sam is unable to see anymore because his eyes blur with tears. They form prisms through which he sees his sister reach out to shake Dean's shoulder. "Dean... Dean?" she says with growing panic.
"Winchesutaa-san, remember that you are a guest in this house," the grandmother reminds him calmly. Sam always knew there was something deeply disturbing about that woman; this just confirms it.
Dad yells again, "Do you see what he did to my son?!"
The tears roll down Sam's face and he can now see Dad take aim.
Tenshi screams. Her arms go up and freeze in mid-air as a voice from halfway down the stairs commands, "Ugokuna!"
Sam shudders at the inhuman sound of the voice. He wipes his eyes on the back of his hand, clearing them again, and realizes that everyone is frozen in place like statues. Everyone except him, the grandmother, Midori, and the child on the stairs.
Megumi. She's never spoken before. "Oyasumi!"
The frozen people close their eyes and simply fall to the floor, unconscious.
Sam looks around him, sobbing in shock and confusion. "What... what... what did... you do?" he stammers.
Megumi walks slowly down the stairs, stepping callously into the puddle of blood that had run from Dean's body. The boy, Midori, stays at the top and looks down upon the scene. Sam can hardly take his eyes off those black patent shoes standing in the middle of the crimson puddle. That is, until she speaks again.
"Sam-kun," Megumi begins, "do you want to save your brother?"
"Yes!" he immediately cries. "Is it possible? Tell me how!"
The child smiles without opening her mouth. The look she gives Sam is predatory. "I believe we can make a deal."
"Sam? Sammy?"
Dean's voice startled Sam out of his thoughts. He blinked and looked at his watch. 1:22AM. Funny how memories running through a person's head could consume their time so completely. "Uh... hey."
"Are you okay? You seem distracted."
"Just thinking about stuff."
Dividing his attention between watching the road and Sam, Dean asked, "What kinda stuff?"
Sam tried to make it seem like no big deal, giving a shrug. "Just stuff in general."
"You seemed kinda freaked out," Dean pressed. "The look on your face was pained."
Brooding to himself, Sam didn't say anything for several seconds. He picked absently at a loose string on his jeans. "I was just thinking about the time we stayed with the Nakamuras. Remember that?"
Dean started to smile, then looked confused, but ultimately settled on an uneasy grin. "Ohhh yeah, I remember. Tenshi's family. That was quite a while ago; why are you thinking about them?"
"I was just wondering what you remember about the two weeks we stayed there."
"Hm." Dean obviously searched his memory, as he was quiet for a short time, staring out the windshield into the dark. "Dad took us there to train. Tenshi's father is a hunter and martial arts expert, and Dad thought that would be good for us. Remember, we each had to pick a weapon and try to master it?"
Sam tapped his first two fingers against his bottom lip, almost lost in thought. "Yeah. I picked sais. Brook picked the naginata." He had to smile a little at that memory; Brook had, at first, chosen a weapon Nakamura-sensei thought would be too hard for her to master because she was a girl, which had made her feel insulted. She wanted to master whatever her brothers could master. Tenshi had stepped in to try to smooth things over by showing Brook how "cool" the female martial art of naginata-jyutu and its weapon could be. In the end, Brook was happy.
Dad had threatened to tan both the boys' hides if they teased Brook about it being "just a girl's" martial art because it would probably upset her, and after all they had gone through to make her happy, Dad didn't want to do it all over again. There was nothing easy about Brook's training, but John knew how boys could be with their sisters.
Dean grinned too. "Yeah. And I picked the zanbato."
The blade, dripping with blood, juts out from between Dean's shoulderblades. Sam shuddered all over. "Uh huh. The zanbato."
"Damn, that thing was heavy. I thought I was such a badass." Dean suddenly fell silent, his brow furrowed in confusion. "Did I ever master it? I can't remember."
Swallowing hard, Sam replied, "No." He shook his head a little. "No."
"Yeah, well, it was a long time ago. Midori and I trained pretty hard. It's a shame I didn't pass my test. I think we had to leave early because Dad got a lead on the demon, or something."
Sam nodded. "Or something."
"They had their grandmother living with them, too. She was pretty creepy," Dean laughed. "And some kid... I think she was Midori's little sister. Masami...?"
"Megumi," Sam corrected in a choked voice. He cleared his throat to cover for his fear of what the day held.
"Yeah." Growing quiet briefly, Dean pretty much forgot the child as soon as he'd mentioned her, thinking instead of Tenshi. Tenshi was three years younger than Dean, and one year older than Sam. She and Dean still saw each other whenever they had an itch that needed scratching. "I last saw Tenshi about two months ago. That is one sweet piece of - "
"Dean..." Sam gave him that look that said he was about to say something piggish.
"Have I ever shown you the picture I took of her in a bikini?"
"Only ninety-nine times."
"Wanna make it a hundred?" Dean snickered.
He accidentally drove over a large rock, shaking the car. Brook snorted in her sleep and mumbled, "The hamburger's mine," from the back seat.
Dean and Sam looked at each other and chuckled. "Talking in her sleep. Watch, watch." Dean chuckled again and spoke loud enough for Brook to hear him. "The hamburger, Brook?"
"It's my hamburger," she repeated, sounded disoriented. "I got it."
"Oh? Well, if it's yours, why don't you show it some love and give it a great big hug?"
Sam snickered quietly, peeking over the seat to see if his sister would do it.
Brook clumsily hugged the air. She made an unintelligible "mmuh" sound when she did.
"Oh, God, Brook, you squeezed it so hard that ketchup squirted out all over your dress," Dean said, his voice shaking with repressed laughter.
Her face scrunching, Brook groaned, "Ohhh."
The two boys laughed to themselves. "Watch this." Dean let out a mock scream and tapped the brake hard.
With a surprised "woooop" sound, Brook slid forward and connected less than gently with the back of the front seat. Boosh! She then flopped helplessly down to the floorboard with a loud bump.
Sam giggled heartily into the back of his hand. Dean feigned innocence, saying, "Oops."
A second later, Brook's annoyed face popped up over the top of the seat. She grabbed the back of Dean's head by his hair. "Are you suicidal?"
"Hey, watch the hair!" He batted at her hand.
"You're asking for it, onion head. It's on," Brook declared.
Sam knew instantly what she meant. "Oh no, no no no! Not another stupid prank war!"
"You want it, you got it," Dean replied.
"No!" Sam gestured wildly like a referee calling time-out. "You guys are not doing this."
"You don't have to participate if you don't wanna, Sammy," Dean said with a shrug.
"Yeah, right. I always get pulled in against my will."
"So just give in now and make it easier on yourself." Brook started sucking on the end of her finger.
Looking at her out of the corner of his eye, Dean said, "You give me a wet willy and I won't buy you anything at Taco Bell."
"Taco Bell? Yay..." She started to climb into the front seat between them.
1:49:22... 1:49:23... 1:49:24... 1:49:25AM...
"The drive-through should be open for at least twelve more minutes..."
"I've got ten."
"Your watch is fast, Sixxer."
"Oh, and they just love it when people pull into the drive-through right before closing."
"Put a sock in it, Sammy. I'm hungry."
Dean drove the Impala up to the speaker. A voice came through it that said, "I'm sorry, but our drive-through equipment isn't working properly. Please come into the dining room to order."
Looking confused, Dean mumbled, "Then how did you just... okay!" He parked nearby. "What do you guys want?"
Dean memorized all the Supreme Tacos and Burrito Supremes and stepped out of the car. "Okay, three Tacoed Supremes, a Surrito Bumpreito, and a couple of Diet Cokes..."
Brook gave him a dubious look. "Dean? Don't fuck with our food."
He returned an impish grin. "Now would I do that?"
As soon as Dean got inside Taco Bell, Brook took out her cell phone.
"Who are you calling at this hour?" Sam asked.
"Dean." She dialed and waited for him to answer. They watched him through the large glass windows of the restaurant.
"Hello?" said Dean.
"Is Rick there?" she questioned in a funny voice, trying to disguise her own.
"No, you got the wrong number."
"Oh, sorry. Just tell him Heidi called when you see him."
"I don't know anybody named Rick," Dean replied in a slightly annoyed tone.
Brook hung up with a grin.
"What are you doing?" asked Sam.
She snickered. "See, we're going to call Dean all day asking for Rick. Then, at the end of the day, you call back telling him you're Rick and you want all your messages."
Shaking his head, Sam chuckled as he said, "I'm not getting involved in this."
"Oh come on, you know it'll drive Dean crazy." Brook grabbed one of his ears, pulling him closer. "And you know we're going to drag you in anyway."
Swatting off her hand, Sam paused as he gave it some thought. "What about Caller ID?"
"I blocked it."
"Star 69?"
"You can block that too," she sing-songed, rolling her eyes. "You think I'm going to prank call someone without knowing how to do it right?"
"Hm." Sam paused again, looking up at the car's roof. "I'll consider helping you if you promise to go easy on me."
"It's a deal, bruthah." They linked their pinkies and shook on it.
"Hey, you know what, I just realized something." Tapping his watch, Sam continued, "After midnight. It's January 24th."
Brook grinned. "Dean's 28th birthday. Ooh, let's pretend we forgot, then right before midnight tomorrow night, spring a surprise party on 'im."
"That's really cruel." He watched Dean through the windows, giving the teenager at the counter their order. "Let's do it," Sam finished with a devilish smile.
As they both snickered, looking at Dean in the fast food restaurant, something small and black zipped past their older brother, slamming into the condiment island. It grabbed handfuls of ketchup packets and squeezed them. Ketchup squirted up into the air like a fountain.
The employees behind the counter, and Dean, began to laugh like they'd never seen something so funny.
Sam and Brook both jumped. "What the hell is that thing?!"
"I don't know. Some kind of demon," Brook replied, and leaned over the seat to get the duffel bag they kept in the floorboard of the backseat, half stuffed under the front seat, for emergencies. Both their voices became hurried and frantic.
Sam watched the creature for a moment, trying to figure out what it was so they'd know what kind of weapons to take. "It's got a face like a Comedy mask."
"Like those drama masks? Tragedy and Comedy?" Brook labored to drag the bag over the seat as quickly as she could.
"Yeah." Sam watched as the monster's face changed into the Tragedy mask. It turned to Dean and the Taco Bell employees, and they all grew sad. Some began to cry. "A small black creature, the size of an adult raccoon, with an expressive face that makes you feel whatever emotion it wants by just showing it to you. What did Dad say that was?"
Brook brought the bag into her lap, and she and Sam started digging through it. "Uhhh... covered in fur... feeds off emotion and the center of human feeling, the heart. Very fast, reminded Dad of the Gremlins..."
"Real gremlins?"
"No, the ones from the movies."
"Empathy demon!" Sam suddenly yelled, and grabbed a curved sickle-like knife. Brook took one of the handguns. They piled out of the car.
"How do we kill it?!" she called as they headed toward the restaurant, where Dean was currently trying to aim his own handgun at the demon while it hopped from table to table. He was also hindered by the fact that he couldn't stop crying.
"Either cut off its head or deprive it of emotions."
Brook nodded. "You can kill practically anything by cutting off its head."
He gestured toward her gun. "That'll hurt it, but won't kill it. Drive it toward me," Sam instructed, holding up the knife.
Several minutes later, the Taco Bell was a shambles, with overturned tables and thrown food everywhere. The empathy demon lay in the middle of the counter with its tongue sticking out, dead. One of the employees was shaking Dean's sleeve to try to get his attention.
"You killed it, you killed the monster! That thing has been terrorizing us for months. How can we ever repay you?" she asked.
Taco Bell was officially closed, and the Winchesters were on the road to Hollywood again. Dean munched on a Crunch Wrap Supreme. His lap was full of them.
Sam and Brook happily chewed on their own favorite Taco Bell goodies. There were more where those came from piled around them.
With a mischievous grin, Dean said, "I love it when we get paid," and drove on.
1:59:57... 1:59:58... 1:59:59... 2:00:00AM...
(The actual fight with the empathy demon will be fully detailed in the next hour through flashbacks.)
Japanese:
Oba-san Grandmother
Ugokuna! Don't move!
Oyasumi! A way of saying 'Goodnight.' Sort of like telling someone to take a rest, take a nap. XD
-kun A suffix used when addressing a boy.
Hour 3: 2:00AM-3:00AM
Seize the Day, Suffer the Night (c) 2007 Demented Stuff
Supernatural is (c) 2005+ Kripke Enterprises, Wonderland, & Warner Brothers/The CW Television.
Back to Ashes of Dreams...
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