A/N (Long one this time, sorry guys!)
Hello readers! Now, if you've read some of my other stories, you'll know I am very fond of 'writing backwards' or showing one thing first and then the build up to it later. So that is what I'm going to do here; show the "New Line" first, what James and Henry changed and what life is like now, and then I'll go back in time to get little glimpses of how it came to be. I will try to make this as clear as possible when writing.
Other notes (feel free to ignore). I'm sorry if it's dumb but I love my little OCs Leo and Robbie so much, I couldn't resist from sneaking them in this story too. I just can't seem to start fresh when it comes to Dean and Cas's kids anymore, because if I did Robbie would most likely cuss me out while Leo would probably be giving me his most heartbroken expression and ask if I don't think they're good enough for the role. Haha.
Last part of this long-ass note, I swear. TO BREX / BREXENE! I don't have your account to PM you so I guess I just have to put it here. So. Dis what happened yesterday. I was just chillin like a villain on my bed, checked my email, and I literally squealed when I read your review. I was like WHAT? Someone out there is talking to other people about this fic?! Oh Jesus Skateboarding Christ I was blushing so hard. I had been so self-conscious of this fic that I deleted it a while ago. And now I am really glad I brought it back, that im working on it again and that people are enjoying the read. GOD I was like "no way! WHAT?!" So Brex, dear, thank you!
Thank literally everyone who reviews and supports this! Seriously you are all rad! *lines you up to kiss you all on the foreheads like minons*
Sorry for the extemely lengthy authors note.
Next chap will be up soon! See you then, readers! \(U ㅅ U) *waves*
It was seemingly a peaceful night, crickets were chirping and a light fog was curling delicately through tree branches, and not much could be heard besides the usual rustle of leaves in the cold, dark air. Two young men were the only things that broke this spell of silence- a tall, lanky one with longish, dark brown hair, and a shorter but powerful-looking man with a head of tousled black hair and a sharp jaw. They were running feircely, pumping their legs as fast as they would go as they charged through the dense forest, branches whipping past as their silver blades in hand flashed in the dim moonlight. They were sprinting after a single person, persuing with hunter-like reflexes. As the single person tried to quickly change direction, the two weren't very far behind as they skidded amongst the dried leaves and kept following.
"They're getting away!" The shorter one hissed out to the other one, gripping tightly to his blade as he struggled to keep going at this breakneck speed. "No shit, Sherlock!" The other one quipped back quickly, huffing out breaths as he pushed through a few obstructing branches. "Dad's gonna be fuckin' pissed if we don't gank her." He continued, and the two veered quickly to the right as the hooded figure made another attempt to thow them off its trail.
Suddenly, the demon completely came to a standstill, as if she were pushing against an invisible wall. The cousins skidded to a stop, looking at the trapped demon with matching grins on both of their faces. They exchanged a glance, both their eyes shining with accomplishment.
"You fuckin' little half-dicks..." The demon snarled, her dark black hair falling over her face, tiny wisps giving her the eery appearance of a cracked china doll.
Henry chuckled. "Trust me. I'll take that as a compliment."
The demon's hair was straight and black, falling down her back in a single sheet, and her face was plain and makeup-less. Not like the blonde, red-lipsticked time-traveling triplet Mammon. She'd been killed close to twenty-five years ago now.
James looked smug as he tucked his hands into his grey overcoat. "Don't fuck with us Winchesters. And especially don't fuck with half-dicks."
"That sounds difficult yet oddly arosing." Henry quipped. "Like, which half is it? The left?"
James crossed his arms. "We talked about this crudeness, remember? And you ruined my perfectly good one-liner."
The demon looked infuriated. You would be too, by the way the cousins mocked their prey by acting like it was little more than a mouse caught in a trap.
"Well?" Henry asked, squaring his shoulders with his shorter cousin James. "Should I take out the trash, or should you?"
"Sorry, I would if my puny, lady arms that 'can't even lift' weren't so tired." James feigned exhaustion.
"Fuck you and your memory. I said that like three days ago!" Henry laughed, rolling up the sleeves of his flannel. "Okay. I guess I could use a little practice."
He strode forward, and the demon laughed at him, eyeing his newly bared forearms. "What are you gonna do, punch me? Are you fucking kidding me?" She laughed again.
"Hey, 'kidding me' and I are strictly just friends." Henry smiled, and James slapped himself hard on the forehead. No one who else knew talked to demons like Henry.
The demons lips curled up unpleasantly. "I've seen your type before, bad boy." She purred. "You just want to break the rules. Why don't I give you a little taste of what hell has to offer, angel?"
James cringed at the desperation, like a caged animal that was trying to talk their way out of it. Many demons offered many different things; sex, deals, promises they'd never keep, James had heard it all before.
Henry flicked his eyes over her, smirking. "Oh, so tempting." His voice was dripping with sarcasm, and James snorted into his palm. "I'll have to say no." Henry replied with a smirk. "But I can still have you screaming my name."
He had Gabriel around in this life. So, things were different for him. He didn't have to have a cripplingly painful accident to learn his new skill. Gabriel showed him the right way from the start. He was no longer sloppy, tearing up the whole room either. One small rope of shadow was all he needed. It flicked out like a whip, quickly wrapping around the black, corrupted soul. The demon's eyes flew wide with terror. That was also an expression James was used to seeing. Henry thrust outward and uprooted it as easily as pulling a weed.
The black spattered onto the trees, and Henry stretched his arms, going and cracking his back. "All in a day's work, right Jimmy?"
"One down, probably a billion to go." James smiled back at him, having to reach up to clap him on the shoulder. "Let's go home. I'm fucking starving."
"I didn't know you and 'starving' were in that close of a relationship yet." Henry began cracking up.
James snorted. "I hate you."
Henry ambled next to him, throwing his arm over James's perfectly short shoulders and pulling him close, ruffling his black locks which had him groaning in protest. "I hate you too."
...
"If you two touched my stuff when I was gone I swear to God!" Henry bellowed as he saw his two little siblings, who were fifteen and thirteen, sprint out of sight, giggling, right when he and James finally clunked up the front steps to the bunker. "Jess! JC! Get out here now, you li'l shitbags!"
Henry looked to James and smiled. "Dude, I don't know what I'd do without you to keep me sane."
"Amen to that." James laughed. "C'mon, I need a drink."
The two were silent as they sat on the couch, quietly taking sips of their beers.
"Is it just me, or did you feel...I dunno, weird today?" James asked, lifting his eyebrow a little.
"Oh my god yes." Henry finally laughed. "Like...man, I don't even know. Just weird."
"Hennnrrryyyy..." They heard one of the kid's voices call out, it sounded like John Castiel, who went by JC, the fifteen-year-old.
"What'dya want?" Henry called out in irritation, setting his beer down with a clink on the side table.
"Did you pick up that new video game for me?" JC came into the room, all gangly arms and legs, bright red hair flopping into his face.
"Dude, I was hunting a goddamn demon!" Henry preteneded to be mad. JC crossed his arms and lifted his eyebrows in expectation, and his little sister, thirteen-year-old Jess, peeked her brown-haired head around the corner. "Well? Did ya get it or not?"
Henry groaned, and slipped the game from a his interior pocket, trying and failing to stop the smile from getting on his face as he saw the two teenager's faces light up as they rushed forward.
"Fuck yeah!" JC called out, snatching up the game. "Thanks Henry!"
"Now get out of here, Fedex." Henry gently poked fun at the fact that they had no idea where his red hair came from. He waved him away and the two sprinted away down the hallway.
"I don't see why they don't ask Fenris to do it, lazy bastard." Henry called out, to the wall where he knew his eldest brother would be sleeping.
"I'm sick, fuckface!" Fenris called back, his voice slightly muffled from the wall and slightly hoarse.
"Well, I just wanted to say that you did a good job today, setting up that trap." James laughed. "It's nice getting away, huh?"
"Yeah," Henry clinked his beer with him. "I wonder if things would be weird without all this family."
"Definitely would be." James replied. "I wonder if Leo and Rob are coming back from their hunt with couzie Kate."
"They'll probably be back soon. Did you see Cas was cooking up a storm in the kitchen? We're probably going to have the whole fam over for dinner tonight." Henry tipped back his head to rest on the couch, looking at the ceiling.
"It's weird, Jimmy. I never really let it sink in how lucky we are, you know?" He took another sip of beer. "I mean, our parents are always talking about how Hunter's can't afford family. But look at us, man. I've got my parents and Fenris and Jess and JC, and you've got your parents, Leo and Robbie, who are what, eighteen now? And our li'l sixteen year old couzie Kate, and Uncle Adam and Uncle Samandriel.."
Henry blinked and screwed up his face. "I wonder if that demon put a curse on us or something."
"What, like, a curse to make us appreciate our lives?" James chuckled. "I don't know. I'll ask Cas if he thinks something's up."
They were able to get a small moment of silence before they had to get up and rush around again.
The phone trilled loudly. "Hennnnrrryyyy, the console's not connecting aggaaiinn!" Jess was calling from another room.
"Fine! I'm coming!" Henry got up and stalked down the hallway.
"James, phone's for you." Dean shook the phone, his arm sticking out of the doorway from the kitchen.
James took the phone, brushed off the floury fingerprints, and put it to his ear. "Hello?"
"Tell dad we'll be home for dinner, kay? This body was just a little bit harder to move than usual. Did you know that a person's body that was possessed by close to a hundred demons at once gets really, really heavy?" James's little brother Leo's voice sounded from the other line, incredibly enthusiastic like it always was.
"I can't say I did know that, Lee." James answered. "Yeah, I'll tell dad. Need help with the equipment when you get back?"
"Yeah," Leo admitted. "I might need some help, I'm still learning how to clean it all."
"Alright. See you soon." James laughed as he heard Leo's twin brother yell out at him. 'Stop stalling and help me shovel, you slacker!'
"Yeah see you soon bye!" Leo shot out and the line finally clicked.
James passed by the youngest of his cousin's room and had to supress a laugh. He saw Henry's large back in between the small backs of his younger siblings, as the three half-archangels stared at the game on the tv, Henry knocking his broad shoulder with JC's scrawny one. "Stop cheating, you asshole!"
"The green car's not me, dumbass! That's Jess!" JC insisted.
"Haha! You're getting beaten by a teenage girl!" Jess laughed, and Henry knocked her on the shoulder with his." Ow!"
James chuckled to himself as went to head out back to help his little brothers in with their hunting gear. Henry was right. Ever since he woke up today he'd just felt really off, but not necesarily in a bad way.
Maybe they were lucky.
" 'Bout time you showed up." Robbie huffed, lugging a heavy duffle full of equipment. Robbie and Leo were two years younger than James, and he had black hair like James but had Dean's green eyes. He acted a lot more like Dean than any of his siblings, but he did have a soft spot for classical music. All of them were like Cas in at least a small way.
"How'd the hunt go?" James asked, giving him a hand to lift the duffle onto a counter where they sterilized the weapons.
Robbie grinned at him. "Pretty good. What about you?"
"Clean as a whistle." James bragged, throwing up the OK sign. "Me 'n Henry are like peas and carrots."
"I hate your references, you know that?" Robbie laughed. "You're such a nerd."
James took out the first bloody weapon and cringed. "Sheesh, dude. What's all this?" He indicated to the strange clumps of..whatever was on the thing.
"Eh, ran into a hoard of the undead. No biggie." Robbie joked. James laughed.
"Ever just stop and think about how fuckin' weird our lives are, Bobby?" James asked, careful not to cut himself of the sharp edge of the machete as he pulled it from the duffle.
"All the damn time." His green eyes met James's blue and Robbie winked. Of course James loved spending time with his cousin Henry, but his brothers were alright too.
"Jamie? Li'l help?" James's other little brother, Leoniel, all honey-blonde hair, blue eyes and freckles, called out as he struggled to carry one of the large bags where they kept their clothes. It had just been the two brothers and their cousin Kate, Samandriel and Adam's daughter, on this hunt for close to three months.
James went out and helped him with the other bag of clothes, hoisting it over his shoulder. "Shit, Leo, these stink." He laughed. "We're gonna have to run the washer for days to get this all clean."
"So-rry!" Leo rolled his laughing blue eyes. "Not like you smell like a rose either, princess!"
...
James hadn't had a dinner with the whole family together like this in months. He and Henry were always off on their own, saving people, hunting things, and it was nice to come back home for a couple weeks before they'd go off for a little while again.
Too bad Uncle Adam and Uncle Samandriel didn't stay for dinner tonight, but they promised they'd be here tommorow. It was funny to James how the seating always worked out, his brothers on one side and Uncle Sam's on the other. Jess, the only girl in the family, always sat next to JC. Fenris always sat next to Henry, and James always sat smack dab between his younger brothers.
Tonight, James was sitting across from red-haired JC. He hated when Henry was opposite of him because he'd pull shit like kick him under the table or tickle his leg, making him jump and ram his knees on the table as his leg jerked back. That bastard.
Dinner looked awesome. There was a big, juicy steak and bread and corn on the cob. They needed a lot of food aroud with growing fifteen year old JC and James's eighteen year old brothers. They ate like starving people, too. Teenage boys are worse than locusts, James though with a shake of his head.
Dean spoke up a few minutes before dinner was over. "Henry? James?" The two perked up, setting down their forks.
"I'll bet you two were feeling strange today." Cas then spoke up, and the two eyes quickly met and pulled apart again. How would they know?
Dean cleared his throat."It's about time we told you what happened a long time ago." He looked around the table, crowded with familiar faces, and he couldn't help but wonder what life would have been like in that awful old time line. At least he'd never had to find out.