Garlic and Cold Spots 4

In the morning, Jacob rolled over and managed to land himself on a fold of the shirt. It left him at an uncomfortable angle, and he woke up faster than he had intended. Sitting up blearily, he could see some light was trickling into the room. The sunrise snuck up on them all. He stretched his arms over his head and felt his back pop, and he was resigned to being awake for the day.

They had some work to do, if they were going to prevent anyone else from getting crushed. He stood up and shuffled to the cup of water Dean had left them, washing his face and scrubbing some of the sleepiness out of his eyes.

The sound of splashing drew Sam away from his own sleep. He blinked his eyes open blearily, barely able to focus on Jacob a few inches away. “Hey,” he managed to croak. Jacob nodded at him to return the greeting. Sam rubbed a hand on his face to help clear away some of the fog, and ended up in a huge yawn.

It took a few more minutes of staring straight up at the ceiling of the nightstand overhead, but Sam eventually managed to pull himself up off of the shirt and stand. At least he and Jacob had managed to catch some sleep the night before while Dean was driving. From the angle of the rays that slid past the curtain, probably jostled open by Dean laying down the salt the night before, it had to be around ten in the morning, at the earliest.

When he was finally standing, Sam didn’t bother splashing water in his face to wake up. He dunked his entire head, and shook the water from his eyes, making his hair fly out and splash at Jacob. He gave his adopted brother a wry grin, water dripping from his chin. “Whoops.”

Jacob blinked a few times as excess water dripped down his face and past his eyes. He ran a hand down it to brush most of the water off, and flicked the droplets at Sam. Sam’s longer hair had one advantage; it flung water droplets farther for tricks like that. In the end, it helped them both wake up faster.

"Okay, I guess I'll accept that I might have, in some way, earned that," Jacob said with a put-upon sigh. "Jackass." He stuck his hand in the water to fling a little more water back at Sam before backing off quickly to avoid further splashes.

He picked up his satchel and pulled it over his head. Already he felt far more ready for the day than before. After so long carrying it, it just felt strange not to have the bag around. It was well worn but cared for, even with the small scratch on the leather near the clasp.

"Think Dean's awake already?"

Sam paused in the middle of scrubbing the water off his face with a corner of the flannel shirt they’d slept on. He listened to the room beyond, separating the sounds out just like Walt had taught him to. In all those lessons he’d never imagined he’d be using them to tell him if his brother was awake.

The room was silent, and peaceful. There was no running water in the bathroom beyond and only the gentle chirps of birds and the occasional hiss of tires driving by outside broke the quiet. After a moment he could even discern the slow, subtle breathing of the hunter, blending into the outside noises.

“He’s asleep,” Sam assessed. “But he’ll probably wake up in no time. He shoulda shut the drapes better last night. There’s no way he’ll be able to stay asleep in a bright room like this.”

Grabbing his own satchel, Sam hiked his way to the edge of the nightstand. Indeed, Dean’s arm was draped off of the bed beyond, completely lax. One solid stream of daylight snuck into the room, from a crack in the curtains no more than three inches wide. Easy enough for Dean to overlook after an exhausting day of driving. Motes of dust drifted slowly in the light, occasionally disturbed by Dean’s breathing. It would send them into a steady swirl, evening out just in time for another deep sigh.

Sam judged the room. “We should even have time to check things out before he wakes up,” he suggested. “You could probably use some practice after the last few weeks.”

It was important that they didn’t let their skills get rusty. Even with Dean around, there were other humans everywhere. They’d need every bit of their ‘ninja skills,’ as Dean called them, if they were ever discovered.

Jacob grinned sheepishly. He couldn’t argue Sam’s point at all. Excepting the times that he and Sam had helped Dean seek out evidence on a case, he hadn't had much practice scoping out a room. Not since they'd left their life in the Trails West Motel behind. Sam had already been well learned in the ways of the smaller folk, but Jacob was only a beginner. Hell, his first outing without their adopted father along for extra guidance had resulted in his capture.

Thankfully, that capture had led to Sam being reunited with his big brother. By the craziest luck, Dean had checked into the very same room in which Jacob and Sam were hidden away, hunting for supplies. Had it been any other human, Jacob might not be living so freely now, if he was living at all. He needed to stay in practice to avoid being caught by someone else who might not treat him as well as Dean had even when he didn’t know what was going on.

"You're probably right," Jacob muttered in answer, joining Sam near the edge of the shelf. They could make a round before Dean had to begin his own investigating for the day. The two smaller brothers were likely to end up in the inner pocket of a suit while Dean went to interview the witnesses. That pocket was tighter than Dean's other pockets, but they couldn’t chill on his shoulder while he talked to people.

"Maybe later we can check out the walls, too," Jacob suggested. They had yet to find any other people their size. Even with all the weirdness happening around this motel, it was possible that some of the smaller folk might be hidden away here.

---

Oh crap, Oscar thought, practically holding his breath. If he heard correctly, they were going to come searching for people in the walls ... did that human have them bringing people out that he could also capture? Oscar sidled along the nightstand and slipped behind it, hoping they'd go do their exploring of the room while he found his way to an exit and got the hell out of dodge.

He shouldn't have come back to the room. Oscar's curiosity had drawn him back like a moth to flame. He'd already wrapped up a handful of salt from one of the piles left by the human in a scrap of cloth. Salt was good for all kinds of things, and they'd just left it lying around like weirdos.

He'd checked out Dean's duffel bags too. One was full of clothes, all freshly washed based on the smell. The other had made him fall back to the carpet from where he'd climbed up. It was full of weapons. All kinds of weapons. It was like glimpsing one of the few action shows he’d heard playing on the motel’s TVs growing up. Humans had a fascination for huge weapons, though Oscar never imagined he’d actually see one.

He'd been on his way to the nightstand to climb up when Sam had stepped out. Oscar had managed to hide before being noticed, and he cursed his own stupidity. The M&Ms up on the nightstand weren't worth the risk of putting himself this close to those two or the human. He took a slow breath, glad he was behind the nightstand and harder to find. He leaned, very slowly, to peek around the side once to see where those strange other guys were.

---

Sam nodded to Jacob’s suggestion. He was curious himself to find people their own size. It would be reassuring to find people like them out in the world. After weeks of being exposed to at least one human constantly (though being around Dean was nowhere near as nervewracking as it would be to be around any other humans), finding people like them would be a breath of fresh air. Dean never talked loud on purpose, but no matter what, he'd loom overhead. Even sitting on his shoulder, they'd be overshadowed by the older hunter.

Sam chose a direction and gestured for Jacob to take the other way. "We'll scope things out and meet in the middle," he said, taking charge naturally. Years of being either alone or with Jacob had adjusted him to making the decisions, instead of following along. It was hard to slip back into that with Dean sometimes. At least with Jacob, he didn't have to worry about it.

---

Oscar was practically holding his breath as he watched. He saw one of the two step into view, his leather satchel lightly swinging against his side. He walked with the familiar gait of scoping out the room, a very slight crouch and alert eyes flicking in every direction to take in rapid details. That was something Oscar knew well. They were going to snoop around while their human ... keeper? was asleep.

The guy wouldn't find much but salt. Oscar sure wasn't going to stick around to be found. Before the other one could step into view and double his chances of being seen, Oscar ducked back behind the nightstand. He wended his way around the back, hoping to duck under the bed the human rested on. It would be harder for the human to spot him there than under the other bed.

He shuddered at the sight of the hand hanging over the side. It was so huge. Every finger except maybe the pinkie was bigger than Oscar's scrawny, three-and-a-quarter inch body. He'd be easily overpowered by a hand like that. He had to get past it.

He darted towards the front of the nightstand, stooped a little in a sneaking walk. Cloth wraps for shoes muffled his footsteps as if he were a mouse scampering along the ground. His eyes were glued to that hand the whole time as he passed it.

His focus was so sharp that he didn't notice the other person rounding the corner until he crashed right into him.