The wall stopped Chase's forward motion immediately. His breath left his lungs in a startled oof and all the panic jarred from his mind, chipping away like paint. A tingling numbness spread to his arms and legs following the impact, and he would have crumpled right to the floor if not for something catching his arm. He sagged instead, his mind picking up the pieces of his situation while he breathed deep, raspy breaths.

"Jesus Christ," he wheezed, shaking his head. He finally peered up at Dean, noting that a man who normally fit on his hand stood much taller than him. Chase narrowly avoided simply staring at the details he'd never hope to see at his normal scale. "Are you half brick or something?"

A strong arm helped Chase back to his feet, nearly pulling up the small teen. "Well I figured the world was already against me in the size department," Dean drawled, glad to see his plan to head Chase off had gone off without a hitch thanks to Sam unwittingly herding the kid. "So I made sure me an' Sam ate our wheaties growin' up."

In fact, it was actually the opposite, with their family scrounging to put food on the table with four mouths to feed. Not once had Walt or Mallory faltered, but the result was Dean was fairly scrawny when they'd first encountered Jacob. Tall (apparently, now that they got to see their humans at the same scale), but thin.

He was finally getting past that, if Chase's reaction was any indication. His impact on Dean's chest didn't even wind the now-taller man.

Sam made it over with a huff, and put a hand on Chase's back. With any luck, he was tall enough, and broad enough, to block sight of Jacob. At least until the kid calmed down. "You," Sam managed while he tried to catch his breath, "can run." It had been a long time since he'd even attempted anything close to that.

Dean didn't let go of Chase's arm, refusing to take the chance he would bolt again. "Now, did you get hurt at all?" he asked with gruff concern, worry reflecting in his green eyes. He didn't want to get anyone hurt on their account.

Chase let out a dry chuckle before taking another deep breath and shrugging. Now that the initial scare was wearing off, he focused on Sam and Dean. The room looming around them, with its deep shadows and building-sized furniture, could wait, as could the concerned Jacob sitting several feet away from them. Several feet, he thought, was like a small sports field compared to himself and the Winchester brothers.

With a wince, Chase rubbed his chest where he'd smacked right into Dean, but found that there were no injuries there. At most, he would bruise. Other than his pride, his body seemed unhurt by his run. Miraculously, running full tilt into Dean hadn't even gotten him a mark on his face.

"I'm fi-" his assessment cut off into a cough. It was light, but persistent, and with each repetition, his shoulders hunched further and his breathing became tougher. Chase blocked his coughing with the sleeve of one arm while his other hand patted at his pockets, fumbling into them for something.

He pulled out a small, white, L-shaped canister with one open end and took a long, slow drag from the inhaler. His eyelids fluttered as relief spread from his core to the rest of him. One more quick breath of the medicine saw him relaxing his shoulders.

"Totally fine," he repeated in a voice that still hinted at the recent asthma attack, returning his inhaler to his pocket. He glanced between the two of them, noting that Sam could practically use his shoulders like an armrest. He was nearly as tall as Jacob would be. "What?"

Both brothers stared down at Chase in amazement. For a moment, the sight of something so small and intricate like an inhaler caught them off guard.

For so long, they'd had to scrape by for a living with only what they could find. As a result, most of the tools and materials they found had a tendency to be oversized compared to them. The knives tucked away in their jackets were an exception. Both blades were from their human lives, an exception and not the rule. The same went for Dean's amulet, which still hung around his neck.

Chase and Jacob were used to having items sized to them, like the inhaler, pens, notebooks… a million different objects specialized for whatever was needed.

After they recovered from the sight of the inhaler, concern set in. "Jacob didn't tell us you had asthma," Dean said, his brow furrowing. The walls alone might be a danger for Chase with the dust inside. "Are you sure you're going to be okay? We can scrap the plan if we have to, and figure something else out."

Chase waved a hand dismissively. His grin was exasperated, but genuine, with the medicine already helping to relax his breathing and enable him to get the oxygen he needed to really think about things. "Really, I'm fine, it's just 'cause of the sprint," he assured them, letting out one more sigh.

"I can run, but only for a while," he quipped, finally answering Sam's comment.

Chase shoved his hands into his pockets. After some deliberation during which he took in their faces at the same scale, he glanced around the room. The furniture still towered overhead, but he knew he'd be alright. Logic had at last taken control in his head.

To test himself, he slowly leaned so he could see around the other two. Jacob sat in front of his door, watching with curious concern on his huge face. Chase gave him a brief wave, which Jacob returned. Chase watched that hand closely. It was the size of a car.

"So, uh," Chase began sheepishly. "Welcome to your side of the fence, I guess. Sorry for the run-and-panic act..." Chase could feel his cheeks heating up with embarrassment even before his voice trailed off. He'd just made a complete ass of himself. It happened again when a loud voice spoke up from beyond Sam.

"... Everything alright over there?" Jacob finally chimed in. After laughing at the absurdity, his concern had returned. Chase was so small that Jacob couldn't even see him with Sam in the way.

Sam slowly stepped to the side so he was flanking Chase on one side and Dean was on the other. This opened up their line of sight towards Jacob, and let him see his hexed buddy without a blocker in the way. With a hunter on each side, Dean finally released his hold on Chase's arm, but remained at the ready. As entertaining as it was to watch Sam fumble around his sprint, he didn't want to risk Chase having any more problems with breathing. Now, he was their responsibility.

Before anything else, Sam offered Chase a warm smile to reassure him. "It's not as bad down here as it looks. You just have to remember that's still Jacob over there, and we're safe with him. He hasn't changed just because you got a little smaller."

Sam's hazel eyes assessed Chase and Dean to answer Jacob's question. "I think everyone's in one piece," Sam called over to the only normal-sized human in the room.

That made Dean turn his stern attention back on Jacob. "No thanks to Godzilla!" he snapped, a touch of actual annoyance in his tone reserved for himself for missing that one key detail when Chase had gone for the hexbag. "What were you thinking, standing right next to him? You remember exactly how it felt to see your mom walking around when you were down here!"

Jacob grimaced, and if he could have balked he would have. Instead, he remained right where he was leaning against his door, keeping that respectful distance. He'd never wanted to scare anyone their size, but the fact was that he was tall. Dean was right. He should have seen it coming. Remembering his mom, all five foot five inches of her, standing so close, he could only imagine what he must have looked like to Chase.

No wonder he bolted. Jacob really was about Godzilla-sized. "Sorry ... Chase..." he forced out with a weak, sheepish smile.

Chase snickered. The sight of Jacob, looking over 100 feet tall and built like a skyscraper, cringing from Dean's scolding was priceless. Dean couldn't be any taller than Jacob's index finger was long, and yet he had Jacob pouting like a scolded puppy over there. The sight might just be worth the short spell of panic.

"Dude, it's not like I gave you much time to step away." He looked at his hands and realized he didn't have the hexbag anymore. After a brief look around, he spotted it on the floor a few steps away. "I just kinda grabbed the thing."

Jacob chuckled again, shifting slowly so he sat cross-legged. "I really shoulda thought it through better, though. Glad no one was hurt in your high speed collision."

Dean scoffed as he stalked over to the hexbag and snatched it up. "Like a little collision like that would be enough to hurt me. I'm just glad Chase survived it in one piece."

Instead of giving the hexbag back to Chase, Dean tossed it to Sam. Sam caught it in one large hand without a problem and stowed it in his satchel without missing a beat.

Dean pointed at Chase. "Sam's gonna hold onto that while you get your bearings. Don't put your inhaler down at all, and watch your step. This is a lot different from what you're used to. I can probably track the hexbag or the inhaler down if we lose them, but there's always a chance that they fall somewhere out of reach, and then we're back up shit's creek with no paddle in sight."

Chase's eyebrows shot up and he nodded, actually speechless for a whole second or two. Dean had scolded him before, and it was nothing new to him. Back when they were looking for the cure for Jacob, Dean had unleashed a lecture or two on whoever was near enough to hear it. It was just his way.

It was entirely new to see it at a scale that put Dean taller than Chase for once. The small teen had never held illusions about winning height contests, but he was used to Dean being the size of an action figure, if much more fiery. Now, he had to look up to meet that intense gaze, and he almost couldn't hold the eye contact. Dean made up for his size in fervor, without a doubt.

"Yeah, dude, it's always in my pocket. Like always, since I was a kid, that's nothing new," he promised. His family had moved from Jiuquan to the American Midwest for the cleaner air almost entirely because of his condition. He'd learned to deal with it the best he could.

"So..." Jacob chimed in again, smiling at the sight of his best friend standing so small on the middle of his floor. "What's it like?"

"It's like all that 'Godzilla' stuff completely fits," Chase shot back. A grin of his own lit up his face. "You shake the fuckin' ground, dude, holy shit."

"He's actually doing a lot better," Sam chimed in loyally. "You shoulda seen what it was like the first time we ran into him. Aside from all the grabbing."

"Just imagine seein' that guy comin' at you when you're tryin' to climb down from a table," Dean grumbled to the side. Chase pulled a face that definitely said yikes without ever saying a word out loud, and Dean went on indignantly. "Snatched me right off my rope." His hand absently brushed the hook dangling out of the duffel slung over his shoulders. A thick black thread from a sewing kit they'd found in an occupied room years back served as the climbing rope. "Godzilla, Jolly Green… whatever fits at the time."

"Dean never gets tired of coming up with nicknames," Sam snickered.

Chase shrugged. "Hey, whatever floats, right? And Jolly Green. Holy shit." He laughed at that while eyeing up just how huge Jacob looked. Even sitting down, he towered over all of them. Now that Chase had come back to his senses, he could see his friend for what he really was. Huge, powerful, big enough to block out their view of the sky with a single hand, but basically harmless.

Jacob had been careful about his size since he shot up like a weed in high school. A lot of people had tried to give him shit about it, and get a rise out of him. Jacob had always shrugged it off. Dean might be a whole new level of that kind of teasing, but Jacob had practice.

"So, Jacob," Chase spoke up again, his grin widening. "What's it like being the only one tall enough to ride a roller coaster? Holy shit, you practically are a roller coaster, aren't ya? Any seatbelts in those pockets?"

Jacob rolled his eyes. "Fuckin' dork. You guys are like a travel-sized comedy act. You'll find out eventually."

"Your pockets were about the same," Dean pointed out dryly to Chase, remembering their time while Jacob was hexed. It was back before Jacob had started wearing shirts of his own with pockets against his chest, something that both Winchesters endorsed completely. It gave them a much-needed view of where they were going, even though they were still reliant on what the human whose pockets they were in decided to go. Jacob, at least, let them weigh in on his decisions when they could talk to him.

Pocket on the front or not, the ride would never be as smooth as sitting shotgun in a car and gunning the gas down an old country road. "Who needs roller coasters when they've got giants around?" Dean asked metaphorically. More than once, the height or the feeling of the ground dropping out from under them as Jacob knelt down had him green in the face and clutching to whatever was closest… the shirt fabric, his duffel, Sam.

"He's right though," Sam said, in agreement with Jacob's words and getting off the topic of roller coasters. "You will find out what it's like if you want to help us. It's the safest way to travel." He gestured around the room. "But first, you might want to get the hang of things before we go to a building that might have a vengeful spirit in it. We know this room inside and out after all the time we've spent here."

Chase looked around at the furniture, curiosity prompted by Sam's words. He really looked at it this time, rather than vaguely noting its size before running in fear. Everything stood tall and still, like cliffs. Jacob's dresser might as well be a mountain, and the bed was so big that they could walk under it like entering a huge cave. Frayed edges of the blanket stood out in stark contrast, each fiber like rope.

As used to this as I can get, he thought to himself. He turned where he stood, his shoes brushing against tall carpet fibers, to get a look at the desk.

He'd first encountered Sam near that desk. When he'd stopped by for a visit, Chase had seen something duck behind one of the legs. Jacob, ever careful and watchful with his small friends, had quietly made sure Sam was alright before letting the little guy (who, Chase reminded himself, was actually pretty tall by proportions) chill on his hand so they could all hang out. Dean hadn't liked that idea much, but Chase had been quietly amazed by the trust displayed between them. And of course, the tiny tirade Dean had gone on, going so far as to climb Jacob to lecture the others for putting Sam's then-broken arm at risk.

"Guys, I'll still help," he assured them, a grin returning to his face. Already some of his usual unworried demeanor was returning, relaxing his shoulders and his expression. "But yeah, getting used to stuff is a pretty solid idea. Do I get to learn how you do your grappling hook thing?"

Sam had to laugh at that, warming to the subject. This was his world, and if anyone knew climbing, it was him. "If you're up to it," he said. He shifted his satchel off his back and opened the flap on top. Inside, a scattered collection of objects was mixed in with his own grappling hook, including the ever-useful aluminum foil and the hexbag itself.

Each brother had their own style hook. Dean's was a single prong, curved to catch onto the edge of the furniture they scaled. Sam's, on the other hand, had three prongs, and each of them looked deadly at their scale. Hooks like Sam and Dean's could spear a person straight through, just like they were made to slice into the roof of a fish's mouth and trap it long enough for the fisherman to reel it in. They'd confiscated them when a man with a large amount of fishing supplies stayed at Trails West, drawn to the room by Dean's knack.

They didn't always know what Dean's ability was bringing them to, but it always turned out useful. He was beginning to learn to refine it, even going so far as to track Jacob down by locking onto his necklace when he was first hexed.

Sam hefted up his own hook, letting the clear fishing line slip through his fingers. Dean held up his to display it and the black thread he used.

"It's up to you if you want to try," Sam told Chase. "We never got around to showing Jacob how to climb furniture that week he spent down here with us. Maybe we can even rustle up a hook of your own to use after the case."

Chase looked up from the sharp barbs of the hooks to meet Sam's eyes. His eyebrows lifted slowly, and he actually considered the idea. After the case, there was no reason he couldn't continue to learn about things from their perspective. If nothing else, it would be interesting, even if there wouldn't be an abundance of cases where they needed a pocket-sized Mandarin translator. He could learn, and in the meantime he could set aside the nerves that spurred his earlier sprint.

"Sure, yeah. Who's gonna say no to learning that badass shit? I might not be able to go as hard, what with the whole lungs-not-accepting-air-sometimes thing, but hey, that'd be kinda cool."

He reached out to hesitantly brush a thumb over the barb on one of the three prongs of Sam's hook. Even at normal scale, he'd have to be watchful of that point. It'd definitely leave a scar if Sam ever had to use it for a backup weapon. It struck Chase just how real that possibility was. If he kept coming back to try the hexbag, he'd get a lot of insight to an entirely different worldview.

He shuffled one shoe on the carpet fibers beneath them. Rougher and springier than he ever noticed, they hardly budged from his movements. It would take a lot to get used to it, even if he kept coming back to their size. "At least the first case is pretty simple, right? Talk to some folks and find ... whatever."

Sam let himself grin at that. "We're thinking it's a vengeful spirit. Once we figure out who it is, we should have no problem finding Jacob a grave to dig. The bones need to be salted and burned to put the spirit at rest again." He stowed his hook back in his bag and Dean followed suit.

The talk of the people they'd found reminded Sam of something he'd only taken a cursory look at before their plan to enlist Chase. "Actually, they left us at least half a message before Jacob scared them away."

"So damn close," Dean muttered and Sam shot him a look. "What? The book was working."

Sam slipped a hand into his satchel and closed his fingers around the comfortingly familiar binding of his journal. "Dean almost had them playing charades with my journal, and one of them burned a message into it." He gave Dean a glare as he started to page through the book.

What?! Dean mouthed in annoyance, continuing his plea of innocence.

"Well maybe if you didn't ruin it every time you borrowed it, we wouldn't have to go through this!" Sam shot back with a hiss. The red drop of paint was almost blinding for Sam when he passed it by, and then he got to the page with the burn marks. "What if she'd set the entire book on fire?!"

Chase snickered. Sam and Dean snipped at each other like an old married couple, as Chase had seen the week Jacob was small. Now, he could see it up close and life-size. He wondered how the longer car rides could go for Jacob, with the brothers bitching at each other about something for long stretches of highway.

Knowing Jacob, he listened in and didn't mind.

Gingerly running a fingertip over the burned etching in the page, Chase lifted the corner of the paper. The drawing was so delicately burned in that it hardly showed on the other side; there were no holes in the paper. Chase frowned faintly, wondering how exactly someone could have managed that. They certainly didn't use a match.

"Looks almost like she was starting a pretty intricate drawing, there," he remarked. He could actually feel faint tremors in the floor as Jacob shifted to try to peek at the tiny book. Chase looked over his shoulder at his huge friend. "Good job, dude, you stopped art right in its tracks."

Jacob's cheeks warmed, once again guilty over sending the mysterious little couple running. "I kinda figured Sam and Dean were the only littles in the whole building. There wasn't even a soda machine in the lobby, no resources for people to use."

"We'll just make sure Jacob keeps away long enough to find them again, and talk to them," Sam said as he tucked his journal safely away. Seeing all the various types of damage it had taken in the recent months, along with the wear on the binding from Dean propping it open to draw demon traps inside the walls of Jacob's room made Sam more determined to safeguard his journal.

Recently, Dean had begun to expand his radius. The walls of the house would soon be covered in the same symbols, protecting Jacob's family and friends so long as they were under the roof.

Jacob didn't comment much on the amounts of paint that vanished into the walls by way of Dean's cocky, bowlegged walk.

"Sounds good," Chase mused, before shrugging lamely. "Guess I'll just have to ask 'em later. For now ... hey, mind if I try throwing one of those hooks? All that stunt stuff you guys do looks fun."

Both brothers shared a look, and Dean shrugged. "Might as well get you some real practice," he said to Chase, offering his hook. "This one's easier to toss, but harder to catch on an edge."

"After, we should at least show you what the walls look like before we go," Sam added. "That way it won't catch you off guard if we have to follow them anywhere."

Chase grinned and nodded. With the initial excitement worn off, the novelty of being their size had begun to sink in. Sam and Dean may not have asked to be reduced to almost a twentieth of their true sizes, but they really rose to the challenge. That kind of stubbornness couldn't be taught, but a part of him admired it anyway.

He took the hook in both hands, before fumbling to hang onto the coiled black thread tied to it. It was more like thin rope in his hands now. He brushed a thumb over the texture with some awe. "Holy shit," he breathed.

Chase hefted the weight of the hook thoughtfully, and then looked over at Jacob again. His enormous friend, a living mountain, still resigned himself to his seat by the door. He hadn't made a single move to come closer since stepping around Chase during the panic of a few moments ago.

Jacob smirked and raised his eyebrows. "Gonna give it a try?"

Chase held up the hook to show it off, letting it catch some light and gleam. "Just you watch, I'll be more badass than you by the time this is all through," he assured him, and then added, "Hey, dude, you don't have to sit all the way over there, it's all good. Panic's over, right?"

Jacob's smile became more genuine and he shrugged. "Well, if that's alright, then. I wouldn't wanna miss you trying your best to be a badass."


A/N:

So, I'd say that went as well as they could hope!

There will likely be a short break in posting after the new Zelda game comes out!

Next: May 3rd, 2023 at 9PM


Adding in this author's note for all my followers here, and will keep it on all chapters going forward:

If the worst happens and fanfiction shuts down, you can find all my stories on both archive of our own and deviantart, posted under the nightmares06 account. You can also find our story tumblr, which contains a ton of information and answers that are only posted on that site, along with artwork for the stories and future plans we have. That can be found under the brothersapart tumblr account. I can't put links in chapters, but googling "Brothersapart tumblr" should bring it right up!