(Untitled)

[badblood_rising]

Earlier that day, Sam Winchester had freed the Devil himself from Hell, and now he needed a drink.

There was something called the Hub and something called the Catscratch, but the Winchester was closest and after everything he'd gone through that day, Sam could somehow accept a mysterious bar practically named after his family more than a long walk

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[babyviper]

It wasn't important how O-Ren had confirmed her sources-- she wasn't even sure she could say, not with how her heart beat at the possibility of the world turning over. This was why you didn't going around forming attachments, she tried to tell yourself, because you'll only be freaked out when their own family members appear and disappear.

Okay, maybe it had something to do with how the last Sam hadn't even liked her, and she knew if she had a sibling by blood... well.

All of it was enough to make O-Ren want to throw up with terror.

Instead, she made sure her appearance was spotless before she went to look; hair brushed, clean skirt, nice t-shirt and cardigan, her swords polished and cleaned immaculately even if they would just stay in their sheaths at her hips.

And then she went first to the Winchester, on a hunch. She saw her target, and slid onto a barstool, folding clammy hands neatly into her lap.

[badblood_rising]

It was hard for any hunter worth his salt (and salt was worth a lot in their world) not to notice someone slide into a bar with swords at her hips, no matter how small and otherwise unassuming she appeared. Sam hadn't had more than one drink, so drawing a connection between the ridiculous conversations of the day and this moment wasn't that difficult.

"Let me guess," he said slowly, taking a sip of his godawful drink. "Dean's little ninja?"

There was a joke here about Dean's fixation on Busty Asian Beauties, but Sam wasn't drunk enough or twisted enough to go there yet.

[babyviper]

"He called me that?" O-Ren asked, her anxiety melting for a moment into horrifed bemusement. She bit back the automatic response that she wasn't a ninja, she was technically an assassin, but she doubted it would win her the kind of favor she was looking for here.

"My name is O-Ren," she finally said, and her mother's training beat out her fathers, because she bowed a little. "I'm not technically a ninja."

[badblood_rising]

O-Ren. Why did that sound familiar? Was there some Japanese myth with that name?

Should Sam maybe stop trying to decipher everything like it was a trick? Maybe. This was just a kid that Dean had taken in, that had had a tough childhood not exactly but kind of like Dean and Sam. Sam reminded himself not to look beyond that.

"Nice to meet you, O-Ren," he said, trying to give her a friendly smile. "I guess you know I'm Sam."

[babyviper]

She was so surprised that she smiled, quick and bright, before she remembered to be solemn and come across as not insane. "I do," she nodded. "I didn't know the other you very well, but I'd like to... to do that. Dean and Angua are important to me."

Momentarily struggling for something to tie it together, she suddenly looked up from where she'd been looking at her hands. "Ara! I had another me here too, before. I know how weird that part is."

[badblood_rising]

The smile was actually kind of cute, but it was gone so quick Sam didn't have a chance to appreciate it or try to warm himself with it. Emotionally exhausted, that was what he was. The alcohol was just there to numb them all into silence.

"You did?" He didn't mind having his attention drawn to something that wasn't apocalypse related in any way. "How long between you and her? You don't remember anything either?"

[babyviper]

Her hands wanted to engage in some kind of nervous wringing, but she forced them to stay still. "About a year, maybe two, from what I can tell, but she was me at the end of my life. All my math and questions... I'd say she was thirty. I'm from a different time."

[badblood_rising]

Thirty qualified as the end of a life? Sam arched an eyebrow doubtfully, but didn't argue it. "I'm from later, apparently," he said. "Not by that much though. I don't suppose it gets any less weird?"

He was asking this of a fourteen year old girl, but right now she was the best source of information he had.

[babyviper]

"It just gets weirder, mostly," O-Ren admitted. "Sometimes it feels like it's trying to upset you. Things happen, people and objects appear that shouldn't." She shrugged, trying to be calm and not give too much away.

"But it's not all bad. Strange things happen, but they're not all bad strange."

[badblood_rising]

That didn't make much sense, but nothing had ever made much sense in Sam's life, so he accepted it, filtered the knowledge away for later and tried to prepare for it.

"Yeah," he agree quietly. "I've got my whole family here, practically." But after the greeting he'd gotten from his dad, the shit he'd gone through with Dean and how lost he was with Jess, that didn't sound nearly as appealing as it should have.

[babyviper]

"Lucky, ne?" O-Ren's smile was slight and wistful. "I'd give almost anything to see my parents again. It if weren't for Dean and Angua, I don't know what I'd do."

Which brought her to her reason for visiting: to earn his favor.

"Wait right here," she instructed, and then slid off her stool, disappearing out the door so that she could pick something up. When she returned, it was with a simple paper lantern-- a delicate paper square on a wooden base.

She held it out, bowing low and traditional. "Okaeri nasai."

[badblood_rising]

Having nowhere else to go, Sam obeyed, keeping his seat warm and sipping at his drink as he waited for the girl to return. He had to set down his glass when she came back, and blinked slowly, gaze shifting between her and... was this a gift? Bobby knew Japanese. Sam could probably stumble over three words, one of which was 'sushi'.

But she was definitely offering it out to him. "Uh... thanks," he said uncertainly and reached out to carefully take the lantern. It wasn't anything fancy, but it was obviously handmade and something to be handled with respect. "What's this for?"

[babyviper]

"A welcome present," O-Ren said, panic flaring up mildly. "I don't know if it translates. Mama always said that if you don't know what you should do, you bring a gift." A practice her father had always groaned at, really, but all options seemed viable.

[badblood_rising]

"I.. uh... Wow," he said, still marveling over it. But finally he grinned at her, tentative and a little shy but sincere. "Thanks. That's really nice of you, O-Ren." Neither of them knew what to do in this situation, apparently, but the little gift made things better.

[babyviper]

That, in turn, made a smile flash across her own face, quick and bright like light off glass. She couldn't remember the last time anyone had called her really nice and it had been true.

"It was very hard for me when I came here," O-Ren confessed. "If it wasn't for Angua and Dean...." She shook her head. "Believe it or not, I have a lot more going for me here. It doesn't have to be bad."