(no subject)

[weary_head]

Dean sat where Angua had deposited him, staring after Angua's back as she went to rummage for pie ingredients. Sam was still at the bar, still hunched over his glass, shoulders tight and too long hair falling over his ears and into his eyes.

It made him look younger than he was, younger then the new lines around his eyes and mouth betrayed, and Dean's heart twisted a little tighter in his chest.

Sam would be okay here. Somehow, Dean could make that happen, and if not Dean than Jess or Dad or Twerp or any combination of people left on the island that loved him. The only person in the way of that was Sam himself, but Dean would find a way around that, too.

He just had to find a way around whatever it was that stood between them, first.

Sam had arrived on the island spitting words like apocalypse and Lucifer from his mouth, and those scared Dean, but not nearly as much as the look in Sam's eyes when he said them.

Dean sighed, tucking himself further into the booth, watching with an anxiousness barely contained while those around Sam came and went. Occasionally he looked away, out into the jungle beyond the Winchester, to his hands and the small but growing marks on his palms his own fingernails had left behind, but always Dean's focus shifted back to Sam at the bar.

"Fuck," he murmured, twitching helplessly as the long line of uncertain questions restarted themselves in his head. What the hell happened to us?

Comments

[babyviper.livejournal.com]

"I have to figure out how to do that," O-Ren said. "It's important. You only get one first impression, unless you're here, where you might get two, but that's not a good thing." She rubbed her hands on her skirt. They were getting clammy.

[weary-head.livejournal.com]

"Don't overthink it," said Dean, even though he knew she would anyway. "I already told him about you, and you're a good kid." He smiled at her over the table. "Don't worry about the rest. He's had the same hard life as me, he'll get it."

[babyviper.livejournal.com]

She tried putting her hands on the table, hoping they wouldn't leave any sweat there. It was ridiculous. She couldn't remember sweating when she'd offed Bill, so why should this be any different? There wasn't even the added pressure of making a kill.

"Nobody trained me for this," she sighed. "And he didn't like me before."

[weary-head.livejournal.com]

"He was an idiot before." Dean never blamed Sam being nervous over the stab wound, but he ought to have figured out O-Ren hadn't been in her right mind once he got to know her.

Besides, if there was one thing he could say for sure, Sam was different now. "Just be yourself."

[babyviper.livejournal.com]

"If you think so," O-Ren said, relaxing only by a fraction. "Is he from the same time?" Her brow tightened as she tried to frame it correctly. "You know, how things get." She was a perfect example of it.

[weary-head.livejournal.com]

"No, he isn't from the same time." Dean's hands tightened around each other on the table top. "He's a lot different than the Sam you knew. Been through a lot more."

[babyviper.livejournal.com]

"I'm glad you have him back," she said, nodding a little. "It's been kind of hard, right? Not having him here?"

[weary-head.livejournal.com]

"Kind of hard." Dean chuckled low. "Pretending you haven't noticed me being a giant, mopey asshole." He pointed a finger. "You are learning some social etiquette."

[babyviper.livejournal.com]

"Maybe," O-Ren conceded, "but if I had a brother and he disappeared...." She shook her head. "And then that thing, where people fell asleep, that happened." A frustrated breath. "It had to be hard, to get to go home and then be brought back here."

[weary-head.livejournal.com]

Dean shook his head. "It was only hard 'cause I couldn't find him. Here's where I want to be, O-Ren, and it will be as long as you guys are around. Sam's back now, things are gonna get better."

He sighed and rubbed a hand over his eyes, dry and scratchy like he hadn't slept in a week. "Like they were, I promise."

[babyviper.livejournal.com]

"I'm glad he's back," O-Ren said. "I'm going to make him like me this time around. You'll see." It might have been pointed out to her before that such goal-oriented ways of thinking could be a downfall.

On the other hand, things having to do with other people were a whole other sort of challenge.

[weary-head.livejournal.com]

"Yeah?" said Dean, smile tugging at his lips. "I can see you have a battle plan. Go on." He spread his hands. "Lay it on me."

[babyviper.livejournal.com]

"Well, I'm going to start with not having any psychotic breaks," she said. "And then I'm going to-- I don't know, really." O-Ren sighed heavily, allowing herself to slouch a little.

The rarely seen almost-teenager inside made a brief appearance as she looked around and then muttered, "This place sucks."