Dean woke up. It wasn't morning. Well, technically 3 am is the morning. But no one in their right mind would be up at that time. But Dean was.
Wide-a-fucking-wake.
He only knew the time because his watch had a button that lit up the digital screen.
3:06.
Dean wondered why he was awake. Maybe it was because of all the naps he took? No. he was exhausted when he took those naps. And was pretty tried when he fell asleep. Why was he so sleepy lately? Was it because he was sick? Or because he was tiny… little things sleep a lot. Mice and hamsters sleep a lot. He remembered this classmate decades ago talking about his pet rodents. They slept a lot but were most active at sunup and sundown. Dean was even allowed to hold an orange and white teddy bear hamster named ninja. Ninja didn't do much. But he ate a sunflower seed that dean offered him. It was adorable.
They left that town a few short weeks later.
Dean rolled over on to his back, staring into the vast darkness. How many times did he nap in the past day? Five? Six? He fell asleep at least twice with Cas. No, wait, on Cas! That wasn't much better sounding. He let out a soft sigh, remembering the relaxed time he spent with his friend.
Almost unconsciously, his hand starting gravitating downwards under the blanket. Ok, maybe being awake at this time wasn't all bad. A large wind like sound to his left had dean sit up and stare at whatever that sound was. After the sound repeated, he realized it was Sam breathing deeper in his sleep. Oh yeah, he almost forgot that he wasn't along in the room.
He lay back down and brought both his arms out over his blanket. Even if Sam was deep asleep, he wasn't gonna do it here. Not with someone else in the room. He could be quiet, but there would be no way to clean up after. And as big as his blanket was, he still didn't want to use it.
After a moment of deliberation, Dean pulls himself to his feet and makes his way over to the bottle cap of water. Even though he shuffles around, trying to feel for it with his feet, he still nearly falls into it when it hits his shin. He kneels and cups his hands, taking a long drink from his hand. And then he washes his face.
He feels better.
He wipes his face off on an opposite corner of the giant blanket and drops down to another end of it. He lays down, shifts around and shimmies out of his pants. Dean is surprised to feel something hard in his pocket. Its his phone! He forgot about it. With what little night vision he has, he can make out the shape of Sam's head on his bed, face buried in the pillow. A little light filters in from the bottom of the door from the hall, reflecting the small amount of light off the small screen in his hand. Most doors in the bunker had a grate over the bottom part of the door. Dean wasn't sure why. Ventilation? Whatever.
It's not like he's going back to sleep soon anyway.
He touches the side button. Oh yeah, he turned it off when he was in Sam's pocket in the store. He kept his finger on the on/off button. The screen lit up brightly, making his eyes hurt.
And then the phone jingled with the wake-up tune. It was nothing more than a few bars but the short electronic tune boomed in the silence of the bedroom. Sam shifted and lifted his face from the pillow.
"D'n?" he questioned, eyes almost totally shut with sleep. He squints at the small light on his nightstand. He moves closer on the bed to see it. Opening his eyes a little wider he can make out the tiny face that the miniscule phone illuminates.
" r'you okay?" he blinks hard to try to wake up. A fist comes up to rub at the big eyes.
With his night vision totally gone from the light of the phone blazing in his eyes, Dean can barely make out the features of the giant, familiar face. It would be scary if Sam wasn't squinting like crazy at him.
"I'm fine. I couldn't sleep, I turned on my phone and it rang." Dean has to call out to his brother to make sure that he hers him.
"y'r alright." The sentence goes up at the end, like he remembered to ask a question. Sam's a little confused from waking up in the middle of a dream. Hunter or no, it's hard to understand things when woken up at ass o'clock in the morning.
"Yeah Sammy, I'm alright. Go back to sleep." Sam blinks hard a few times as his head drifts back down to the pillow he's still clutching.
Dean hears him mumble "sleep, yea, yellow….*yawn* wings." Before he faceplants back into the pillow.
"Sweet dreams, gigantor." Sam was breathing evenly in less than a minute.
Half an hour and 36% of battery left, Dean feels more relaxed. Not sleepy, but more tired than when he first woke up.
He closes his eyes and tries to sleep when he first hears the snatches of sound. Its faint and quiet but he hears the planging of a familiar tune. Not a guitar or ukulele, what-?
"I, once had a girl, or should I say, she once had me." The words are like the softest whispers, but are unmistakable.
Its Norwegian Wood!
The music drifts in through the grating in the door from the hall. Cas must be playing it in his room. All of the bedrooms were in the same basic area, even if Dean's room was around the corridor.
Castiel was listening to Beatles music earlier that day. He must be awake and listening to more. Dean wonders if Sam could hear the music. Probably not. Its hard to hear even to Dean's small and sensitive ears. Dean closes his eyes and listens to a few more classic songs before unknowingly drifting off into a peaceful slumber.
Dean wakes up a few hours later when Sam gets out of his bed. The rustling of the sheets were loud enough to wake him from his not-so-deep sleep. Sam pulled the sheets back over the bed and glanced at the night table on the other side of the bed. Dean lifted an arm and waved. (Unsure if Sam would notice that he was awake from that far.)
"Last day." Sam greeted. Dean sat up and reached his arms upwards in a stretch.
"Finally! Now I won't have to see your Rushmore sized mug every time I look up."
"Well, if I drop you in my pocket you won't see much of anything." Sam teased, offering his hand to the small man. Dean knew he was teasing. But it still made him pause for a moment. Sam could drop him in his pocket and go on with his day. But he wouldn't.
After washing up and using the bathroom, Dean half expected to find Castiel in the kitchen. It was disappointingly empty when they walked in.
"I'm thinking pancakes." Sam nonchalantly mentions, depositing Dean on the kitchen table. (With his handkerchief of course.)
"Black with burnt bacon?"
"That was one time! And it was years ago!"
"I remember it every time I smell maple syrup."
"Do you want pancakes or not?" he asked brusquely.
"With blueberries?" Sam rolled his eyes but smiled.
"Sure."
Even though Sam was the one on the constant health kick, Dean still liked sweet fruit even if it wasn't his first choice of snack. If it could go into a pie, he liked it. There were at least two bags of frozen blueberries in the freezer.
Half the pancakes Sam made were plain and the other were full of blueberries. Castiel liked fruit too. Sam made dean a small pancake, a quarter of the size of the rest of the pancakes, it was still much bigger than him. Sam squeezed out a drop of syrup next to the small pancake on a plate and set the plate next to Dean.
Two nice sized stacks of plain and blueberry pancakes were for Sam and Castiel. Sam ate his own stack, sneaking glances at his brother who tore off fluffy handfuls of the inside of the pancake, and carefully dipping it into the syrup and then into his mouth. Dean was extra cautious about keeping the sticky syrup off his hands and clothes.
It took a few minutes for Sam to remember to get a drink for Dean. He used the cap from the orange juice container like yesterday. Dean gave him a sideways look.
"No coffee?" Sam blinks. He didn't even think of coffee.
"Uh, yeah. Sure." He empties out the grounds from yesterday and measures in two big mugs worth of coffee. He's hoping the scent of the coffee will lure Castiel from his room. Dean wasn't the only one expecting to see him in the kitchen. Before he sits down, Sam wets a corner of a paper towel and passes it to his brother, knowing that Dean never liked to keep his hands dirty.
Later, they leave the kitchen. Castiel hadn't shown up. Sam covered his pancakes in saran wrap and left it on the counter. Well, he tried to do that. He actually had a bit of a fight with the cling wrap.
"It's not, clinging!" He whispered harshly. Glaring at the thin plastic in his hands. Dean was amused at how his giant of a brother struggled with the flimsy wrapping. A third of the wrap had folded over itself and was refusing to separate. Sam growled and balled it up in his colossal hands, throwing the orb of useless cling at the trashcan. But its weight was so slight, it descended in a graceful arc three feet in front of the trashcan. Both brothers had watched it's decent and after a moment, Dean picks up his head to smile at Sam and opens his mouth to say something.
"Not a word." Sam cuts him off. Dean shuts his mouth. He wouldn't say anything about the cling wrap. Not until he was at his proper 6'1 height. Maybe coat Sam's doorway with it while he was sleeping. Heh. Another prank on the list for prank war yet to come.
In the end, Sam covered the pancakes in tin foil. Grumbling all the while. Moments later Dean was scooped up rather roughly. Dean's yelp of surprise was lost as he fell backwards into the handkerchief he'd been standing on. He had trouble regaining his balance as Sam's sizable strides took them away from the kitchen.
"HEY!" he yelled upward. Sam stopped walking and lifted his hand to his face.
"Careful with the goods!" he hollered, the hand underneath him finally stable enough for him to stand.
"What are you talking about?" his forehead was a mass of confusion lines.
"You picked me up too fast. I wasn't ready for it. Be gentler." He crossed his arms and scowled at one hazel eye. The big face was full of guilt.
"Sorry. I'll be…gentler." He whispered sadly. Cue the titan sized puppy eyes of guilt.
Dean takes three steps to place his hand on a thumb almost the same size he is. He rubs his hand up and down the appendage in an attempt to show no hard feelings.
"I didn't mean it like that, just move slower like before."
"Sure thing tiny tim." Nothing says it's alright more than a round of teasing.
The next two hours were pretty dull. Not particularly boring. Just dull. Dean got Sam to give him is phone, which he used to navigate the internet, researching new hunts. Sam typed away at his computer, each click of the keys sounding more like dull thuds to dean. The most interesting thing was when Castiel came from kitchen with a mug of cold coffee and bedhead.
"Good morning Sam, Dean." He greeted them, snagging a chair and sitting across from Sam and by extension, Dean.
"'mornin." Sam replied.
"So in a few hours dean will revert to his normal size, right?"
"Yup."
"Thank goodness." Dean yells.
"What was the item that did it?" Sam points to a small box on a nearby shelf.
"I moved it over there for the moment. I forgot to put it ba-DON'T TOUCH IT!" he yelled when Castiel started to get up from his seat.
Dean flinched and covered his ears with his hands. That yell had been far too loud, bordering on painful.
"Sorry." Sam muttered when he saw Dean crouched over. Even Castiel gave a sympathetic wince.
Sam pushed his chair away from the table and paced to the nearest filing cabinet. He picked up the file that was laying on top of it. He passed it to his friend.
"This is the file the men of letters had for the item. It works by touch." Castiel looked through the file, and then at Dean. Than back at the file. And back to Dean.
"What?" Dean asked, a little worried as he shifted.
"This file is wrong."
"what are you talking about? That's the file for the object." Sam objected. Castiel restated his words.
"the information in here is wrong." Dean makes his way to the other side of the table. Castiel places the file down flat when he sees Dean approaching. He points to a line of text.
"It says right here: This item has the ability to shrink a person to anywhere between three quarters of an inch and one inch and a quarter depending on the size of the person." He picks up his pointer finger from the page and points it directly in front of Dean, who had strode on to the file.
"You are definitely bigger than an inch and a quarter of an inch tall."
"Really?" he can't exactly measure himself at the moment, but if Cas says so, than he is.
"There's a ruler around here somewhere." Sam mumbles, looking into drawers. Less than two minutes later, Castiel holds an old fashioned wooden ruler straight on the table and Dean tries to straighten his back as much as possible. Sam leans in close to see the verdict.
"You're just under two inches." Castiel declares, pulling the ruler away.
Sam takes a seat next to Castiel, lost in thought.
"So why is Dean bigger than what the file says?"
"Perhaps the spell is fading off of the…obelisk?" he asks, checking the description.
"Or dean is taller than anyone ever shrunk?" he gets blank looks from the other two.
"I mean, people were a lot shorter hundreds of years ago when this thing was being used. Anyone over five foot five was considered to be a giant!" he continued to ramble.
"So a six foot one Dean translates to a bigger, well, yeah bigger, shrunken person."
Castiel nods thoughtfully. "What Sam says is true. Humans were shorter centuries ago. Not much. But shorter." They all sit in silence, chewing on that idea.
"What time did you touch it?" Cas interrupts. Dean blinks. He doesn't know.
"I'm not sure I –uh, never checked my watch. I was eating lunch when it happened, but that could be anywhere from twelve to four." This yelling is re-agitating his throat.
Sam shakes his colossal head.
"It was closer to two. That was the last time I checked before I came into this room sometime later." He checks his wrist.
"Which gives us four hours, more or less to enjoy Tom Thumb." Sam reaches over to poke Dean but finds his path blocked by hands cupped over his brother.
"Stop picking on your brother." As Sam's hand retreats so does Castiel's. Revealing a tiny Dean who's face is unreadable, but looking at Cas.
"I'm sure that if you or I were at his size, we wouldn't appreciate being poked."
"But dean would still do it anyway." Sam pointed out. Castiel considered this for a moment.
"Yes. But be the bigger man." A choked off snort makes its way from Sam's throat. He grins widely and covers his mouth to hide sniggers.
"Be the bigger man? Cas, man, I've always been the bigger man. I've been the bigger man since my third year of high school. Dean always teased me about be a shorty before I shot up. So excuse me if I take the chance for easy revenge while I my brother is less than a foot tall."
"Keep it up Sammy. You'll find yourself swimming in your bed sheets one morning, me standing over you holding the obelisk with pliers!"
"Whatever peewee." Sam gets up and walks around the table, sitting down in his previous seat. Castiel cups his hand gently around a standing Dean. His palm surrounding Dean's small shoulders.
"Are you cold?"
"Not anymore." He pushes back into the warmth of the hand. In two seconds the skin tightens slightly around him and he finds himself on his back in the hand that's facing palm up.
Dean scowls up at the mammoth face. Castiel shrugs and pulls his phone out of his pocket, with earphones dangling from a socket. He asks a silent question. Dean nods. He places one earbud in his ear and the other on the table by his palm.
"Tell me if you need it closer or farther." Dean nods again. A harmonica plays a steady melody and dean lies down on the hand, underneath the relaxed curve of fingers, in a safe, warm cavern of Castiel's hand.
"Love, love me do. You know I love you! I'll always be true!"
Cas has been listening to Beatles songs since he came back. It's a coincidence. Just a coincidence. Yeah. Dean crosses his arms and attempts to stop a blush from coloring his cheeks. The music continues on,
And like that time slips away.