Chapter Two:

Life Lessons

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Months pass and Dean was taught his lessons much faster now. John had a feeling that once the baby is hatched, then Dean wont get as much one-on-one time for training. Mary assured the little one that he wont be ignored or be loved any less. Dean hadn't even thought of that but decided to dismiss it anyway. He knew his mom and dad loved him very much! The new baby will be a perfect addition to their little family. He would spend most nights curled up around the egg that was about a third his size and whisper to it as it laid there like a rock. Dean had started to doubt that it was a real egg at all when it refused to even wiggle to his very clever jokes.

John pointed out the double ridges along the top and then showed Dean his old egg with its single ridge that they'd saved under the sand to protect it from scavengers and the waves. John explained what the ridges meant and the new colors that formed all around it. Dean paid extra close attention to the egg after that and would excitedly swim about, letting every sea creature around know that his baby sister was going to be awesome! Of course it was going to be a girl. He was a boy but took his mom's single fin, so that means that the baby was a girl since his dad had two back fins. It's logic. Pure and simple. He didn't believe it when his parents said that it could be a boy or a girl and that fin numbers didn't mean anything but he just made a face at that. The baby was a girl because they already had two boys in the family and they needed a girl to even it out.

John sighed and didn't bother correcting him again because it could very well end up being a girl. No one would know until the baby hatched. All they knew for certain was that there was two ridges that hinted at two back fins, and that the baby was going to be brown on the back just like Dean, but blue and tan tones on the underside. Dean scoured the egg for spots but there was only one towards the front side, going by where the ridges meet. He didn't really count that spot. Dean pouted for half a day, pudgy arms folded tight over his chest. He wanted his baby sister to be spotted just like him so they'd match.

He distracted himself from the tragic disappointment by playing with his dolphin friends. Bemoaning his woes to their ears when he failed to let it go.

"Dean?" Mary approached him slowly, trying not to startle the pod of dolphins.

Dean shrank back once he saw his mom , away from the nest. He thought he was in trouble and hid behind some of the dolphins who caught on what he was trying to do and bolted in all directions. They knew enough not to get in the way of a gigantic concerned parent and their young vulnerable offspring.

Dean scowled after his friends before facing his mom, barely meeting her eyes. "I was jus playing." He whined to no one in particular.

"Shhh, it's alright, Baby." Mary softened and settled down on the ocean floor so that she had to look up at him hovering there. "You're not in trouble."

Dean swished a few of his tail fins around, causing him to turn back and forth a little in the water. "I'm not?"

Mary chuckled softly and lifted up her hand to cup underneath Dean's small form. Lifting a finger to gently stroke along his side. He settled down into her hand, tail extended down low between two of her fingers with his elbows propping his head up onto her wrist. Making sure he could fit his upper body on her hand at least, because he was nearly too long to fit, head to tail tip. Growing up faster and faster. His tail curled up to drape over her pinky finger.

"But I jus wan the baby to look like me an she's not an she's not even gonna like me 'cause I don't have two fins an she does, an she doesn't have spots an I do, and she's gonna look so different! She won' believe that I'm 'er big brother!" Dean breathed rapidly, wiping his eyes of the thick tears. Playing a little with the tears in the water that stuck to his fingers, suddenly fascinated that his tears were like a clear goo that he remembered his dad explaining that it was there to protect his eyes from the salt in the water. It was almost enough to distract him from his fretting. He didn't cry too often but this was just tragedy!

Dean huffed and slouched forward on her palm, burying his face into her wrist. "I just wan-us to be the same."

Mary shushed him again, "Dean, Sweetie... look at me, please."

He shook his head on her skin.

"Please?"

He finally angled his head up, arms folded in front of his face to hide everything but his eyes.

"Sweetie, our kind... almost none of us look the same. And that's ok! Look at me. Do I look like your dad? Or you?"

Dean lowered his eyes to her body that she stretched out a little underneath him. The smooth featureless chest that was pale blue that turned dark green towards her back. She twisted slightly to show him how dark it was next to her single fin. She flipped her tail up to shade him and moved her hand with him on it off to the side to better show off the long fins that ran next to her hips that later turned into her first tail fins. She had 8 tail fins altogether, four on both sides that led down to the two large ones at the end. Her fins were more ripply and wider than Dean's or his dad's. Like those fancy fish he'd seen in the coral reefs. She brought her hand back towards her front and relaxed her tail along the ocean floor. Plumes of sand swirled up around it and settled on most of her side fins.

He could just make out his dad sitting next to the nest and realized that he never really looked hard at either of them. It was always their face's and hands that he focused on. Now he could see that there was barely any resemblance at all between just the tree of them.

John's overall colors were deep sea-moss green and dark browns with near black hair. The two fins on his back were smooth and appeared stiff until he moved them with a purpose.

Dean looked up again at her raised eyebrow as she used her free hand to stroke through her long near white sand colored hair. Tucking it behind her side fan ears to keep it out of her eyes. She used the same fingers to very carefully tousle his own hair. He pulled down the longer strands to see that his was slightly darker than her hair, but not nearly as dark as his dad's. "Like pebble sand." He mused quietly.

"That's right. We all look different but that doesn't mean we can't blend in." She wiggled her tail in the sand to bury it's pale length under the grains. Making it nearly invisible to Dean's widening eyes. "It doesn't mean that we don't belong." She raised an eyebrow again, willing him to understand.

He blushed when he finally got the message and twisted his tail around in front of himself to play around with his fins on the sides of his tail. Five on each side. Counting them up and moving each one independently.

He noticed that Mary did the same behind him. Lifting each of her fins and giving them a little wiggle to send waves of sand up and about in the current. Dean laughed and dove off of her hand to swim through the plumes of sand. Kicking up even more sand and empty shells into the water and holding out his hands to see what fell into them. A pretty purple shell landing in his palm and his jaw dropped. His excited eyes went up to his mom's who beamed down at him.

"I think that's a good luck shell, don't you agree?" She leaned forward to try and see it better. All she could really make out was that it was purple. "Those are super rare." She stretched the truth a bit. Knowing that there were indeed hundreds of thousands of them from the journey they'd taken to get here. However, there were few of them this close to the shallows where Dean'd spent his whole life so far. So it wasn't entirely a lie. They were rare here.

Dean's fingers closed around the little purple shell with far more reverence than one would expect from a toddler. He beamed up at her, nodding enthusiastically and then suddenly swimming hard and fast back towards the nest. "DADDY! LOOKIT WHAT I FOUND!" He called out, little pudgy arms held in front of his head to better streamline his swim, but also to show his dad his find asap.

Mary laughed and turned around to follow at a much slower pace. She got there just as Dean was placing the purple shell onto the egg. Pushing it slightly into the egg as if he was rubbing it into the shell while excitedly saying, "Now you're going to have a purple spot and it will give you luck!"

John squinted at the logic behind that statement but kept his mouth shut.

Mary waved her hand at his cute but slightly misinformed statements and watched over them as John went to go grab something for them all to eat.

Months pass and it almost looked like Dean forgot that they were waiting for something to happen with the egg because when it moved for the first time, Dean was jolted out of his nap and backed up away from it in sudden fear. "Mom?" he pushed his tail against the egg and it moved again. "Ahh!" Hhe yelped and swam for it out of the nest, running headlong into his mom's hair and waking her up with a start. "Help! It's got me!"

Mary sniffed and jerked her head left and right, feeling something caught in her hair and quickly realizing what... or rather who it was. "Calm down Sweetie! It's ok! It's just me, Dean." She tried to disentangle him from her hair and he managed to get more caught up in it with all his thrashing. Screaming about tentacles trying to trap him and eat him alive. Her ears rang. She huffed, dropped her hands and nudge her mate roughly. "John. Your son is stuck in my hair."

John blearily blinked his eyes up at her from her lap and sat upright. "He's what now?" John's voice came out slow and confused. She just lifted up the bundle of hair and held back a chuckle at the situation. She can't remember if the kids back at the pod ever managed to get stuck in anyone's hair.

John angled her head away to assess the situation and found a knot the size of his fist with two terrified green eyes peering out of it. "You ok there, little clownfish?"

Dean's fear turned to indignation. "I'm notta clownfish!"

"Ok, ok, hold still." He smirked and started to pull out a thin clump of hair at a time from his twisted form. Freeing him one fin at a time until he was able to wiggle out from it at last. John kept on combing his clawed fingers through her hair until there was nothing but smooth flowing locks.

Mary was pleased that they didn't need to cut it off just to get him out. Though she did consider cutting it a bit shorter now. If this was going to be a regular thing since they sleep leaning against their cliff. Maybe shoulder length would be better. She found Dean half a tail length away, swimming listlessly between the two of them. Coming to the embarrassing conclusion that nothing was trying to capture and eat him.

"Ok, what woke you up?" John asked around a loud yawn.

Dean pointed his whole arm up at the nest. "It moved!"

Both his parents looked happy at that and faced the nest and noticed that the egg did move a little. Their excited chirps made Dean curious enough to come back up and join them. Wary of the long blond hair that flowed in the water next to him. "Is it 'upposed to do that?"

"Yes Sweetie, it means that the baby is ready to hatch!" Mary said and rubbed a finger along the side of the egg.

Dean swam up to the nest again and curled himself around the egg. "Don't wannit to fall!" He proclaimed and made sure that the purple shell was place back on top of the egg again.

Two days slowly creep by with hardly any of them getting any rest. John set about finding enough plant based food to store, so they wont have to leave the nest at all until the kid is a few weeks old. The hatching is late again and Mary hoped this wouldn't be a trend. She was scared that it was something that she did wrong but John reminded her that neither of them are very old as Merpeople go. Perhaps the older the Mermaid is when they lay the egg, the faster the hatching. All of their experience with reproduction was centered around the elders and their mates having top priority.

Mary let John's words wash over her panic. The egg was still moving, still viable. All they had to do was wait. She wasn't sure if she wanted Dean to be here for it or not, should something go horribly wrong. However, Dean wouldn't be dissuaded or bribed into leaving and they couldn't exactly abandon their kid to the care of the dolphins till the egg hatches, so they tried to brace Dean's little mind about the possibility that his baby sibling might not live.

There was always the chance that the infant wasn't fully formed, or, their gills were underdeveloped. Perhaps water wouldn't pass through the lungs as easy. Or any number of things that could go wrong. They were lucky with Dean's healthy hatching, maybe they wouldn't be so lucky this time.

Dean bawled after their talk about the stages of life and death, and how everything must eventually die. Their kind live longer than most everything else in the whole wide ocean, and Dean would have to witness death many times during his life.

Dean looked at the fish bones scattered about on the ocean floor and was near inconsolable. It took the rest of the day to calm him down, and promise that there was nothing wrong with the baby and that he or she will live a long happy life. Both parents regretting bringing it up to the little Merchild. He obviously wasn't old enough for that talk just yet.

Dean wrapped himself around the egg even tighter than before and refused to eat or sleep apart from it. "I promiss. Nothin bad's ever gonna happ'n." Dean swore to the egg in exhausted whispers. "I'll aways be here."

Dean's tired body slipped from the sides as he finally fell asleep. John was about to pull him away from the egg but Mary stilled his hand. The nest was big enough for the both of the babes and so long as one of them sat with their backs against the opening, there was no way either would fall out of the dug out crevice.

In the middle of the night, the egg jolted to the side and a crack formed along the top. Dean startled awake and at first pushed the scary moving thing away from himself before he woke up all the way. Then he dashed to the entrance to the nest and repeatedly slapped his tail against his dad's shoulder to wake him up. Dean was almost more nervous than his dad was as they watched the egg twitch and jerk. Mary was nudged awake and quickly pressed her face towards the nest opening alongside John with Dean resuming his curled position around the egg. The movements were more erratic than before, so he made sure to keep it from rolling around too much. Mary and John knew that when eggs hatch, it's supposed to be a solo job. The newborn has to use their new muscles for the first time while pushing the shell away from their bodies. It strains the muscles for the first time and gets the blood pumping through the body better. Teaching the body how to function with the fresh water and space given to them.

John hated having to pull his son back from the egg. Mary's hand replaced John's in keeping Dean from returning to the nest just yet. Her gentle grip kept him still.

"Dean, sweetie, this has to happen. The baby needs to exercise to live. It's how you were hatched, how I was, and your dad. This is how we are all born."

"But baby needs help!" He bawled, scrabbling tiny claws against his mom's hands.

Mary worried her lip as she turned to her mate for advice.

He shrugged and said to Dean. "Listen little Lionfish, if you can promise to not help, we will let you sit in the nest with them." It was a good thing that Dean was already becoming attached to his sibling, before they're even born. Neither wanted to dissuade that connection whatsoever. But the fact was, was that the offspring had to hatch on their own... right?

Mary watched Dean nod his little head a little over exaggeratedly and let him go. Dean swam straight for the egg, bumping into it in his haste and shooting terrified eyes up to his mom for the contact. She grinned and nodded once to say that that bump was ok, that she knew it was an accident.

Dean sighed heavily, his whole body put into the motion and made his parents chuckle. They watched and waited and gasped when the first fin emerged from the cracked shell. Pinched between the two halves. There was a tiny squeak before the fin was pulled back into the egg. The infant was heard shuffling around in there and tiny breaths made the small bits of sand grains on top move with the new tiny currents.

Dean was in awe. Peering down at the small one that was fussing and squirming.

"Baby is scared to come out." Dean proclaimed looking behind himself to his mom. "Nasty egg pinched the fin and it hurted her."

Mary hummed at that. Straining to hear what was going on in the egg that was so small to her. Relying on Dean's commentary.

"Breathin ok." Dean muttered, putting his side fan ear to the break in the egg. He looked over to his dad to see the relieved look in his eyes.

The little one pushed against the shell from the inside but the part it was pushing against was wedged up against the back stone wall of the nest so it didn't get far even after minutes of struggling. The egg went still for minutes more and everyone started to get worried that it wouldn't be able to get out of the egg without help. A whimpering cry heard from within spurned Dean on into ignoring his parents words and warnings and pulling the little shell open the rest of the way. Easily breaking the egg open wider until it was in pieces inside the nest. Dean pulled the little squirming crying bundle into his chubby arms.

Mary held up her hands to help out but dropped them at the sight of how large they were compared to the tiny baby. Seeing how her son was better suited for holding the baby than she was right this moment.

John pulled her to his side and kissed her deeply. "Another baby boy."

Mary wiped her eyes of the tears. Her fingers stroking the edge of the nest close to Dean's tail. Both of her babies were so small and this moment so tender, she wanted it to last forever. Feeling like she finally had what they'd wanted for decades. A family of their own, their freedom to live wherever they wanted, a chance to start new.

Dean checked over the little baby and counted up his fins, brow pinched at the fact that the baby had two extra arm fins than he had. The baby had a fin on their upper arms as well as their plump forearms and he just had ones on his forearms. Dean flipped the baby over and played with the two fins along the back. They were different than his dad's too. These had long muscle covered bones and joints along the top edges that bent like his arms did but where he had fingers, these just had one long bone in place of a hand. Thin fin like skin stretched between the fin bones to the baby's lower back.

The fins looked kinda like the wings he'd seen on something that dad once called a 'bird'. A whole school of birds would eat fish in the water and go back to the surface again to 'fly' off. Dean didn't have enough courage to ask his dad for more information about 'birds' because whenever he mentioned the surface, his dad would get cross with him. Warning him to never go up there. Ever ever. Dean played around with the baby's wings for a bit, seeing how far they stretched. The baby flapped them a few times and it moved a lot of water. Dean shrugged and flipped the baby back around.

Mary had to keep herself from diving in and taking the baby from Dean's hands. She would have, too, but the baby didn't seem to care that it was being manhandled so soon after hatching.

The baby even seemed to enjoy being held, and curled it's tiny little tail around Dean's own. Or what he could of it. Dean was five feet long and the baby was two and a half so Dean had a bit of difficulty maneuvering his baby brother. Every fin twitching randomly in every direction. Kicking up the sand from below the kelp lined nest. Dean spit out some of the sand that billowed up from one such tail swish and held the baby up to let the tail droop down.

The baby fussed at the loss of contact and started crying loudly. Dean gaped at the sudden noise and instantly pulled the infant to his chest, stroking his hands over the two long wing fins along the back to keep them from flapping out and around. Nearly taking out his eyes. He pressed one arm against the baby's back to keep the wings still and tight to the body as he quickly flipped the baby around to lay down on the kelp.

Dean looked to his mom for direction on what to do now but she just hid a chuckle at their antics. Sand continued to settle all around the two little ones.

"You're doing great." She assured and he smirked at that. Pride in those little green eyes.

Dean had a slight stammer when he's flustered, and tried to say, "Baby is sandy." as he brushed off the sand that stuck to his little brother's new scales. But all John and Mary heard was, "Baby is Sammy." and thought that that name was adorable and perfect.

Mary looked to John and he shrugged slightly. Sammy was good of a name as any since they completely forgot to think up new baby names. They'd been so worried about if they were able to have another offspring to worry about the trivial things that would happen after they had the second offspring. Like names, colors, and fins.

Sammy had more than any of them with the surprise addition of the upper arm fins. Almost no Merperson they'd met had those. She delved back into her genetic memories and found one distant relative with them, but that was it. She dug around a few more ancient memories of that Great Mother and was impressed with how well she'd moved in the water. Coming back to the present she beamed down at the infant. He will grow up to be a very fast and agile swimmer. She didn't say it out loud of course, not wanting Dean to become jealous already.

Dean pointed excitedly at the baby's face. "Spot!" and she had to lean in close to notice that there was indeed one tiny brown spot next to the baby's nose. Huh. Dean put Sammy next to himself as he rooted around for the shell and pointed out the single spot that was on the one side of the egg shell. "Spot!"

John said quietly, "I'm glad that's not what we decided to name him."

Mary couldn't keep herself from laughing at that. Dean was so happy to have something in common with his little brother that she couldn't belittle the discovery. "My boys are exactly alike!" she smiled wide at how happy Dean was after that declaration. Mary stroked her hand along Dean's back, covering him from head to tail fin in her hand to keep him from bouncing up and down too much. Her thumb rubbing ever so gently against the newborn's soft wavy brown hair and small jointed back fins.

Dean suddenly frowned up at his parents. "Don't worry Mom! He's like you too! He's got your eyes and Dad's hair!" worried that they'd felt left out.

Dean continued to describe the baby to them since he wasn't sure how much they could see. "His colors is blues on the bottom sides and browns on top! He can hide in front of you while swimmin!"

John was happy to hear the descriptions and noticed that from above, predators and prey alike wouldn't easily distinguish his shape among the sandy ground below, and from underneath looking up, Sammy's blues will match the ocean waters above. There was enough mixed contrast between the two colors that blended well that it will be hard for anyone to easily spot the little one.

John was able to gently coax Dean into letting little Sammy swim for himself for a few minutes, and the baby managed to get a few feet out into the water beyond the nest with both parents splayed hands underneath. He had just a few minutes of free swimming before Dean was right there again, pulling Sammy in close and backed up towards the nest with an adorable scowl sent up to his towering dad.

"Mine!" Dean declared and spun around with the squirming baby in his arms. It was tricky because Sammy was half of his size and weight and Dean struggled to hold the squirming baby upright. His tail swishing beneath the two of them doubly hard to keep them both from sinking. Even Dean's back fin was waving in the water to correct the angle he was taking them. Grunting at the hard task he'd given himself.

"Dean." Mary admonished playfully. "Can I hold him for a little while?"

Dean's scowl didn't last long when it was aimed at his mom and he sighed heavily before letting his grip on the baby loosen. Sammy uncurled his tail and his fins, sporadically moving each one and discovering how they felt in the water. Mary's hands were always underneath and formed a large cup in case the baby decided to stop keeping himself still.

Dean's breathing evened out again from the tough strain and his tiny fists kept clenching and unclenching at his sides. Eager to dive in and hold Sammy again should the baby need him. Sammy babbled and discovered his hands and stuck one in his mouth, the other nearly poking out his own eyes. Sucking on the fist he blinked wide hazel eyes up and around at the new world. Finally seeing it without his brother's head in the way.

John held his mate tight as she kept her hands steady underneath their kids. She leaned her head back to rest on John's shoulder and sighed happily. Things were perfect now.

For a long while after the hatching, Dean kept Sammy from exploring further than fifty feet from the nest at any given moment, and it was actually hard for John or even Mary to get some alone time with the baby. Resorting to bribery to get Dean to leave Sammy long enough for the badly needed training sessions that John had to teach the little one. They can't rely on Dean to always be there for him, and he'd need to know the basics if he were to ever want to venture off on his own to hunt for food. John gave up the solo training sessions and invited Dean along too. A refresher for the older brother as he taught the younger. John put Dean to work, telling him to play the part of a predator so Sammy could learn how to hide properly, and later, when Sammy grew bigger, how to take on a predator, and always, taught him how to become a decent fish hunter.

There were hundreds of species of fish in their territory and both of his sons needed to know which were safe to eat and which would try and hurt them instead. John even went miles and miles away to bring back a few of the deep sea creatures. Small ones that he could carry without killing right away. Sammy nearly threw up his lunch when he saw the big squid, and Dean nearly joined him at the sight of the large sea snake. Terrified of the squirming long tentacles and tails. John had his work cut out for him since the boys would need to know more about the deep sea creatures than they would these local fish and crustaceans. How to properly prepare the snakes and venomous fish so they don't make contact with the venom or poisons. Everything here in the shallows was very small and easy to kill, they needed to know how to defend against squid much larger than this. Against sharks and whales. Jellyfish were deadly even to Merpeople. John would wait for the jellyfish lessons until he was absolutely sure the boys could handle themselves against the more basic animals. Jellyfish weren't known to be very fast, so for now, he just told them to swim away from them and never to touch.

Time passed quickly, and after a few years, Sammy was finally big enough to join Dean and the dolphins in their playtime. Sometimes several different games were played at once. The dolphins were good at kelp twirling and bubble blowing among others that involved the surface and their favorite; air jumping. Dean was nested for a week when he tried to follow the dolphins up to the surface to join in the air jumping games. He couldn't even go for some air to blow bubbles like his friends and he declared that that was just not fair. He got another day added to his nesting for backtalk. Sammy stayed close as he could to his brother without incurring the wrath of their dad.

Neither had seen him so mad before. Mary had to come by and explain why they weren't allowed on the surface. That air was dangerous to them and that they should never spend time up above. Dean suspected that there was something they weren't telling them but didn't want even more time added onto his sentence. So he waited it out, grateful that Sammy chose to stay nested with him.

Since the surface was out of bounds for them, Dean had to settle for the daily play hunt. He wanted to have Sammy play with them for the longest time but their mom kept saying "Not yet." She and their dad talked a lot in secret but never brought it up with them. 'Grown up' stuff is all they'd say, then warn them again to stay away from the surface.

Today, their parents went hunting for their own food and put Dean in charge of taking care of his little brother. Dean was thrilled to be able to take him further away from the nest so he wasted no time in dragging him to where the dolphins had claimed their territory.

It was Sammy's first time so far from home and even thought he'd played with the dolphins before, they hadn't included him in the hunting game until today. It was a game that the dolphins and Dean invented the year before, where they'd find a colorful fish and take turns 'hunting' it down. A modified hide and seek game since there were very few places where a dolphin could hide without going 'out of bounds'. The pod members that caught the colorful fish would let it escape for a few seconds to get some distance first. A chirp would alert the next one in line know when to start swimming, thereby passing the hunt over to them. The trick of it, was to make sure that it was the same fish and not some other one that another random dolphin would catch and bring over.

Dean was excellent at the game because he was able to catch the fish without injuring it. If the fish died, the game was over and whoever killed the fish was the loser. Sam picked up on the more subtle rules of the game and caught several colorful fish in his wing fins and waited for Dean to get close before releasing them all at once in Dean's face. Laughing the whole time that Dean's left spinning in circles trying to pick out which one was which, in the group of fifteen.

Dean lost the game fish in the swarm as they all darted away too quick to follow. Dean spun angrily at his little brother. Hearing the dolphins click and whistle merrily at his embarrassment. Dean felt like a fool in front of his friends for the first time ever, and it hurt.

Sam was still chuckling and rolling around when his older brother grabbed a firm hold of his left wing fin and spun him around to face the taller boy.

"That's now how the game is played!" Dean shouted and hissed. Releasing Sam's fin with a jerk to make Sam's shoulder drop to the side. Tears started to form in Dean's eyes as he fumed but he blinked them back.

Sam's laughter stopped abruptly at the sudden change. Dean's never been this mad at him before. Ever. They had their arguments and disagreements sure, but he's never been so angry. "I - I just thought -" Sammy stammered. Backing up with tiny twitches of his tail fins and wings.

"Go back home! You can't play it right, then go home!" Dean backed up and he felt his face grow even hotter. The dolphins, startled at the quick movements and thrashing claws in the water sensed the change in the atmosphere and quickly moved off as well.

Dean had grown larger than nearly all of the dolphins and they were honestly a little scared of him in that moment. All of Dean's fins were splayed wide in a threatening pose. His fingers spread out to show off his claws and his lip curled in a snarl. Dean had seen his dad look like this before a few times, when he'd seen some shadows moving overhead.

Sam's eyes widened and his lips trembled in fear at the sight. He turned and sped off as fast as his fins could carry him. Feeling hurt, embarrassed, and above all, he was furious with himself for ruining the game for his big brother. For ruining his chance at joining in on any future games as well. For ruining everything. His brother didn't want him anymore. Didn't trust him.

Sam's cries were kept muffled under his hand as his wing fins were pushed to their limits. To get away from the pain and shame he felt. Dean never could catch him in their racing games and Sam knew it was the best way to escape this crushing feeling.

To escape the hate filled eyes of his own brother.

Sam used every one of his fins to swim far and fast. His heart beat thumped loudly in his ears and his eyes blurred with so many tears. Resorting to chirping to see where he was going since everything was too loud in his head.

He didn't even hear Dean's panicking desperate calls after him.