COM: The Dragon Sleeps Tonight 3

The time on the trail together gave Sam plenty of time to think.

He couldn't quite stop glancing at the strange pair of Winchesters they'd found. It was hard to argue that they weren't the same guys. Dean's spike of dark-blond hair and confident swagger stood out in all the people Sam had ever met, but then there was the other Sam...

Not even the length of one of his fingers, and tucked against Dean's neck like it was normal.

Drifting back from Dean and Castiel-- the large dragon leading the way as he sniffed out his human counterpart's trail-- Sam couldn't resist engaging his tiny self, fascination in every bit of him.

When did one get the chance to talk to themselves from another universe?

Though neither Dean seemed overly interested in chatting each other up currently, with the human one still glowering at everyone teasing him and the dragon smug at having the last word. Not to mention having proved he could backtrack Dean's trail without breaking a sweat.

Their loss.

"Hey," Sam said companionably as he leveled off next to where his smaller counterpart was sitting.

The other Dean gave him the side-eye, determined that Sam wasn't talking to him and walked stubbornly on without a break in pace. As was his usual when he was busy mulling over something else (likely the fact that not ten paces ahead was a dragon version of himself he’d nearly tried to put a bullet through not long ago).

Sam's counterpart looked up at him, making him feel suddenly very over-sized despite the giant dragon who had taken point, and broke out into a huge grin. Those tiny hazel twins of his eyes shone with an equal curiosity.

"Hi!" the young kid called out brightly.

Sam had a matching grin on his face. "Wow. Just wow," he breathed. "Uh. I wanted to talk? Did you...?"

Younger Sam looked between Dean and his counterpart, patting his older brother's neck and then nodding. No words were needed between them, just as Sam already knew what his older counterpart meant.

Dean let out a huff, and stopped in place. Not once did Sam have trouble keeping balance on his shoulder, a skill Sam wished he had himself sometimes with his Dean. This kid made it look effortless to stay on a walking, moving person.

Reverently, Sam held out his hand, marvelling at the fact that his downsized version was just barely the size of his pinky as the kid stepped carefully from Dean’s shoulder to Sam’s hand.

“Whoa,” Sam whispered, and the kid nearly stumbled when his hand wavered slightly in midair. He steadied it, his second hand coming up for support, cupping around the first. “S-sorry about that… This is out of this world…”

“You’re telling me,” his younger counterpart commented, his head tilted back to take in every detail. “Out of all the weird stuff we’ve had happen, I never expected this.” He waved at Sam, his gesture wide to try and encompass all of the hunter.

“You two kids behave,” Dean groused from the side, already forgotten in their awe of each other.

They glanced back at him, twin bitchfaces a perfect mirror despite their scale.

“I’m older than you,” the taller reminded him, a smirk on his face.

The dragon walking beyond them turned his neck to see what the big holdup was, and chirped his own addition to the argument. Cas turned as well, one hand against Dean’s forearm as he translated. “Age has nothing to do with being the little brother.”

Dean chirped insistently, and Cas let out a put-upon sigh as he was compelled to finish the statement for all to hear. “Bitch.”

The dragon stretched his legs, contentedly flexing each limb to show he was content with the amended translation.

“Shall we continue?” Cas asked the rest. “We must see if we can return to our own world before we mess up the timeline.”

The human Dean shrugged. “How much can you mess it up?” He jerked his head at Sam. “Unless I’m missin’ somethin’, he’s never been livin’ it up as a borrower, so there’s not much you can change more.”

Sam looked him up and down, unable to deny the ache he felt at seeing his older brother-- whether he was Dean from years ago or not-- returned to his humanity. “Guess not. Might mean you have a chance to keep yourself human.”

“It just means our worlds are different,” the smallest Sam piped in from his place on his counterpart’s hand. He’d sat out of the conversation until now, awed to see the dragon his brother had become from far enough back to appreciate his full size. “We can learn from each other.”

Dean rolled his eyes with a scoff and stalked off towards the other two to catch up to Dean and Cas. “Just don’t forget we need to send them back! ” he grumped over his shoulder.

“Is he always like that?” Sam asked the kid in his hand.

“Is yours? ”

Sam couldn’t hide a smirk at the comeback. It had been shot back at him without a wasted breath, exactly what he’d expect of himself. “Fair enough.” He lifted him up. “Shoulder?” he asked, genuinely curious. They might have a lot in common, but he had no idea what his preferred perch on a person would be.

It didn’t exactly come up much.

The younger Sam bobbed his head in agreement. “Shoulder’s best. Pockets are not a fun way to travel.” He wrinkled his nose in such a familiar expression, small-scale, that Sam couldn’t hide a laugh.

“You got it, kid,” he said as he held up his hand.

The sensation of tiny feet and tiny hands grabbing hold of his collar and hair for support made the hairs on the back of Sam’s neck rise up, goosebumps covering his arms. It was all made weirder to think that it was a tiny version of him there, moving the collar out of the way to carve a spot to sit next to his neck much like the kid had been sitting with Dean moments before.

“You all set?” Sam asked when the movement tapered off, waiting to start walking for when he was certain he wasn’t going to shake the guy free with his first step.

The next part that followed was just as startling. He might have seen the kid pat the alternate Dean’s neck for answer before but hadn’t expected that same motion to be used on him minutes later. Two tiny pats followed by a “You got it!” that sounded identical to his same statement seconds before this attempt. The main difference between their voices was his was deeper and reverberated more because of his size, while the smaller Sam’s was light and might drift away on an errant breeze.

With the assurance between them, Sam set off at a quicker pace than before to catch up with the others. If it wasn’t for the size of his own brother, cutting a swath through the forest, he might have lost them completely because of his distraction. The dragon lead the way and they followed.

---

Sam spent a moment getting settled again once his large counterpart took off in the direction of the others, working hard to avoid worrying him. He’d insisted he could do this, and he wasn’t about to admit the older man’s stride had caught him off-guard.

It was nothing like Dean’s, short and cocky and full of swagger as he walked around. Even when he ran, it was lower to the ground and done with quick economy of movement, the few times Sam had clung to his collar during a chase.

Sam’s was longer and more loping, making his shoulder bob more during each stride. Smaller Sam wondered if his own was like this. He’d never given much thought to it; at his size, he wasn’t about to have anyone riding his shoulder anytime soon. If he did, something had gone badly, badly wrong.

“Holding up alright there, pint-size?”

The voice jarred Sam from his thoughts, nearly making him lose his grip. The last thing he’d expected to hear from himself was that same nickname Dean had given him all the way back the first day they’d found each other. He blinked, gathering his thoughts.

“I’m fine!” he called up, his voice raised instinctively as his-- Sam’s-- ear was higher up than Dean’s while they were talking.

The older Sam nodded to himself, what Sam could see of his face thoughtful. “So you really lived most of your life like this? Without Dean?”

There was a bit of sadness in his voice as he asked the question, and Sam remembered hearing that this Sam had lost his dragon brother nearly right at the start, kidnapped and tortured. He put a hand of consolation on Sam’s neck again, leaving it there to show his support this time.

“It’s not like what you went through,” he reassured him. “Dean tried… he really tried… to save me back then, but dad dragged him out. And once I knew it was him, and more importantly, he knew it was me, he instantly did his best to fix what he could. Neither of us ever… dealt with what you did.”

The taller Sam frowned. “You still lost your family for that long,” he said sternly. “It’s more than anyone should have to deal with.”

Sam switched to patting his neck. “I’ve long come to terms with it. I had a family to help me through that time, and now that I’m back with Dean, he’s become a part of that family. It’s enough.”

Up ahead, the dragon had stopped in his tracks, head down to the ground. As they cleared the last group of bushes, Sam felt some of the tension relax from his shoulders.

Different universe or not, the Impala was home.

Dean was sniffing at the doors, chirping a mile-a-minute at his counterpart with Castiel’s head on a swivel trying to keep up with translating before tossing his arms in the air to get him to slow down. Dean’s human counterpart was leaning against the driver’s side door with a smug grin on his face.

“Put her back together myself,” he said smugly in response to the last statement before the Sams arrived. “Some sprites blasted the front off a while back, and when I was working with her I installed the panic room for Sammy.”

Sam came up to the side just in time for Dean to open the door wide to show off what he could. The dragon couldn’t quite get low enough to peer in, but Cas knelt down and let out an impressed whistle. Sam peeked over their heads, spotting a metal case built in directly under the driver’s seat.

“It’s mine,” the smaller Sam explained when he saw his counterpart’s interest. “I don’t need Dean to get in and out of the Impala, and it’s a strong enough room that breaking in is either impossible or will take too much time. I can get out first.”

Sam pursed his lips, equally impressed. “Inventive,” he admitted.

This served to make Dean even more smug. He slammed the door closed and strolled slowly past the others to the trunk. “You’ve got it,” he said.

Sam held up his hand to his shoulder, letting his tiny counterpart get into his hand. “So, you have a way to send us back to our world?” he asked curiously.

“Believe it or not, we’ve dealt with this a few times before,” Sam piped up from his hand. “The only change in the spell we need is blood from one of you to tell it what universe to point the doorway at. The rest will take care of itself.”


“That means, whatever you were doing when you were there, you better be ready for the second you step through,” Dean warned as he gathered up the supplies. “We can’t control that part here.”

Sam nodded in understanding and let his small self onto the roof of the Impala to survey their preparations from a higher perch. With Dean moving about so quickly, it seemed an easier option.

The smaller Sam immediately set off towards the trunk, hitching up his satchel. Dragon Dean watched, his green eyes carefully focused on the incredibly small person he was watching, still unable to believe that people could live at that size. His own brief excursion when shrunken had been quite enough, and nothing he wanted to repeat. Shrinking had taken away the natural body armor his body possessed, making his skin too thin to keep animal claws from dealing damage and even too weak to withstand his natural fire.

Dean straightened, a book held in hand. “Everyone ready?” he asked gruffly.

“Be ready to offer up your blood when Dean tells you!” Sam called from his spot on the Impala.

“And stay close together,” Dean warned. “We’ve only tried this on one person at a time before.”

The older Sam nodded. “Got it.” He pulled out his silver knife and held it at the ready.

The words Dean spoke blended into each other as he incanted. Sam normally had a great memory for Latin, but there was something about this spell that made them slip right out of his mind as they were spoken. Maybe the way it focused right around him and the other two.

Dean lowered his long, sinuous neck down, his shoulders hunched forward as he tried to stick as close to his brother and partner as he could. Castiel put a reassuring hand on his eye ridge.

The air around them swirled into a twister, encompassing all three.

“NOW!” Sam shouted from the Impala, and the other Sam wasted no time slicing his palm open.

The air ripped around them into a reassuring green and blue aura and Sam felt the worry leave him. This was right.

He gave one last wave to the strange Winchester pair they’d found, then leapt into the vortex, Cas and Dean close at his heel.

---

The air swirled shut and the dust fell to the ground. Dean sighed, wiping his brow. “What are we, Grand Central Station?” he griped.

Sam smiled as he looked at the deep furrows in the ground where the dragon version of his brother had stood. “I don’t know, they weren’t so bad,” he said. “Got to see me at the right size, after all.”

Dean puffed up his chest. “I’d make a pretty badass dragon,” he said as he offered Sam a path to his shoulder with his hand.

Sam rolled his eyes. “So long as no knights in shining armor try to rescue any princesses from you,” he said dryly.

“Rescue from me? All the ladies love me!”

FIN