Day 44: Sun Room (4th Shift)

[mizuhomaiden]

As soon as she had the chance, Sheena ninja'd herself out of the cafeteria and away from the conversation she'd been semi-forced to have. She probably could have just clammed up and told the boys to go away, but she'd kind of owed at least Endrance some kind of explanation. It wasn't everyday the embodiment of darkness pops up and delivers a

Comments

[theroadsofar]

Dean turned at the voice.

And got his first glimpse of Lelouch...although seriously, "Fancy Nancy" would've been way more appropriate.

For some reason, Den had been thinking of an older guy, like one of those stiff college professor types whose idea of a big weekend was which book to pull out their ass this time. There was that split second where he wasn't sure if he was facing a guy or a chick, except the voice that came out was totally a deep guy's voice and another second and he could see that wasn't a chick's body, either. And the face? Now Dean hoped Lelouch was gonna grow some hair on his chest, 'cause it was either that or be stuck as a Calvin Klein model for the rest of his life. That was assuming that puberty finished with his voice and caught up with the rest of him. He almost, almost felt bad for the kid.

Dean fixed the crooked grin on.

"Yeah. You Lelouch?" Dean couldn't help raising an eyebrow at the kid. "Y'know, I thought you'd look different, I just gotta say."

Dean motioned for them to move away from the bulletin board, partially 'cause they were blocking it and mostly cause that one cat was drawing in a friend and he wasn't gonna break his neck by stepping on a kitten or something. Dean headed off toward one of the coffee tables and a free couch, making sure to keep from limping on the gimped ankle in front of a damn high schooler. Much less one who looked like he was the unlucky bastard who ended up as Juliet in the school plays or whatever. Dean perched himself on the corner of the couch's armrest, pulling out the journal.

He flipped through the pages to show it was blank, holding it up so Fancy Nancy could take a look at it himself. This time he didn't fumble with the pages despite all the bandages.

[theroadsofar]

Dean's grin just got wider, and maybe a bit more shameless. "You think I should be wearing cowboy boots or wrestling gators? Pretty sure I could manage a redneck accent if it'd help with your mental picture, Jules."

He snapped the journal shut, reaching up to scratch at the side of his neck with a bandaged hand as he passed off the journal with his other. It occurred to him that Angel might want it back, but with Howl as Angel 2.0 - or, really, anyone but Sam, who had every reason to be sharing a room with him, unlike his other roomies - Dean didn't think Angel was coming back, especially if no one else had seen him either. Wasn't like he'd need this then, and Dean sure as hell wasn't gonna need two journals to keep up with his notes on possible hunts.

[allroadslead]

Lunch had been quiet enough-quieter than it had in a long time; might've been a reason why he'd decided to leave Dean alone with...whoever it was Dean had been eating with. Sam stepped into the Sun Room, looking for Dean as soon as he did. He wanted to let Dean know about tonight, that he needed to see Skuld first before they met up. Could probably leave a note, but he preferred talking to his brother in person when he could.

Dean usually wasn't too hard to find; Sam had had enough practice locating him, and it wasn't any different this time: over by the couch, accompanied by-

-Lelouch? Lelouch. Great. This was...excellent.

He didn't know if Dean had approached Lelouch or the other way around (both were entirely possible) and he didn't really care. He didn't want Lelouch anywhere near his brother. It was enough that Lelouch posed a danger. Sam had no idea if the mind controlling effects wearing off after a night was a one-shot deal, but he wasn't willing to risk it. The possibility of Dean somehow finding out the truth of that night, whether revealed inadvertently or on purpose, though, was as big, if not more, of an issue. One Sam definitely didn't want to deal with.

It did occur to him that he was perhaps more concerned with Dean finding out he'd lied about the entire incident than about Dean getting hit with the damn mind-spell again, but...But he knew how to deal with Dean in trouble. He'd done it his whole life. What he didn't know how to deal with was if Dean ever realized how much Sam had-

Either way, he wasn't leaving Dean alone with Lelouch. He wanted to be there, at least, so he could drag Dean away if it came down to that or at least make sure the conversation didn't steer in the direction of that night. He doubted Lelouch wanted this fact out anymore than he did, but he wasn't about to leave it up to the odds. Of course, he couldn't necessarily do anything without tipping Dean off. Still, he could-stand there. And try not to act suspicious.

And maybe figure out who'd approached whom first 'cause he'd like to know that, as well. Though getting Dean out of there was more of a priority.

Sam walked over, coming up from behind Dean, eyes on Lelouch even as he tapped Dean's arm with the back of his hand. "Hey," he said, working to keep his words casual. "Been looking for you."

[theroadsofar]

Dean glanced up as Sam joined them. For having been a dead guy last night, the kid looked like he was taking it well - maybe Sam hadn't really died, and they'd all been tripping balls on the same thing, but still. Even thinking you were dying had to screw around with a guy's head. So far Sam seemed to be taking it in a stride, and Dean wondered if maybe he was taking it better than he was. He couldn't shake the memory of seeing his brother getting torn apart like that, and knowing in his gut there wasn't a damn thing he could do, that that split second it took to scramble across the wet tiles in the morgue just wasn't gonna be good enough.

Still, he was standing there alive right now, and Dean'd rather have Sammy alive and deal with the possibility he was losing his game instead of the alternative.

Dean turned his attention to Lelouch, who seemed to be in a hurry despite being surrounded by nurses and probably expected to hop right over to Arts and Crafts like a good little patient and draw something with the toddler crayons. Big-boy crayons. Whatever. Dean held up his hand.

"Hold up," Dean said. He moved over on the couch, getting up from the armrest and sitting down so Sam could get some room if he wanted. Dean lounged back in the seat. "Okay, I know I said a favor in the future would be cool, but I think I'm gonna skip the part where it'd be a booty call."

Other guys weren't really his thing, no matter how girly Fancy Nancy looked, and while he wouldn't have minded a hook-up if it was with a (moderately) hot chick, he didn't need Lelouch trolling his high school pals for it. Dean was pretty sure he'd fulfilled his jailbait quota for the day when he got his ass possessed and got jiggy with Yuffie, which was something he was probably glad he'd been out for now that he thought about it. Dean pointedly ignored the look Sam was probably shooting at him, the slightly bitchy one when Dean maybe didn't roll his way or wasn't trying hard enough to be all touchy-feely with the civvies.

Although...he did need to keep Sam busy, if only to buy him some time to figure out how he was gonna tell him the truth, and he didn't want him stumbling upon anything in the meantime. Dean wanted it from his mouth, not some Ice Queen's patient files on him. If there was anything Dean thought Sam could get a kick outta, it was research, doing the whole info-gathering thing Dean honestly could've done without. He'd rather just be actually hunting and killing these things, if he had his way.

"Info's always useful though," he gestured at Sam, jerking a thumb his way. "This's my friend Valentine McKee. Contact Val if I'm," Dean didn't want to say not around 'cause really, he wasn't planning to die until his year was good and up, "busy. He's got a good head on his shoulders, so it's pretty much like telling me."

What they could really use was an arsenal and Bobby, not necessarily in that order. Somehow Dean doubted Lelouch was hiding either up his skirt, so he wasn't gonna waste his time asking. Info though. Dean had seen some of the posts on the bulletin board, but with the number of notes tacked on daily, he could be stuck there all day glued to it. And anyway, as much as he wasn't one for doing heart to hearts with civvies, he'd rather be doing that then slugging his way through research and papers: that was Sammy's hard-on, not his.

[allroadslead]

Lelouch didn't seem to want to linger; in fact, he looked ready to book it out of there as soon as he could, though for what reason, Sam wasn't entirely certain. Either he hadn't wanted to be here in the first place or there was no point in him talking to Dean now that Sam was there. What Lelouch would've wanted with Dean, anyway, was another question altogether. There was no way he wanted to do anything to Dean again; as much as Sam was aware-very aware-that Lelouch and Suzaku had hardly gotten the short end of the stick, he was also aware that the entire incident had been a giant screw up for everyone involved. He doubted Lelouch wanted a replay and Lelouch must've known that for Sam, there was precisely one person he'd look to first if anything ever happened to Dean again.

All of this would've been moot for the time being if Dean had just turned and left-Sam wasn't about to give himself a freaking headache over this unnecessarily when he had about twenty other things on the list that could do the same-but no. Dean chose that moment to want an interview. He knew his brother wasn't big on talking to civilians (not that Lelouch could quite be considered one, but that was beside the point), that most of them weren't worth his time beyond what information they could offer. Considering everything Lelouch was willing to share was already written down, Sam had no idea what the hell Dean was thinking, but-

Oh man, was Dean sitting down? This would indicate staying for a length of time which…Damn it, Dean was sitting down. And making it clear enough that Sam probably should sit down, too. Which he should. He couldn't stand hovering. He wanted to leave, but he couldn't show it. Dean was sharp enough to pick up the slightest thing off about Sam, and so Sam sat down on the armrest and briefly thought about how the level of awkward could be jacked up even higher.

-Followed by Dean making the introductions at the same time Sam spoke in the exact hopes of trying to keep Dean from actually giving him a different name than the one Lelouch already knew him by. Apparently, interrupting his brother was harder than he thought. He ended up saying, "Sam," right over top of Dean, and this wasn't going well at all, was it?

He cleared his throat. "Sam," he said again, adding pointedly for Dean's benefit, "We've met."

Which could mean anything from we chatted once over lunch about the weather to we nearly killed each other and may or may not still share mutual feelings of doing so right now. He didn't bother fumbling for an explanation as to why there was a discrepancy in names the way he might've done with someone else. Lelouch knew perfectly well why.

Not that Sam didn't occasionally toss the Explain Your Way Out of This torch over to Dean in general. Often when it was Dean's fault their cover was even blown in the first place. His brother would likely make an explanation on his behalf.

Seriously, why had Lelouch even made that offer? Had he not expected Dean to take him up on it or was something else going on? The thing was, Sam was kind of counting on Lelouch not wanting to have what went down leak out to anyone else-not even to Dean-as much as Sam didn't want that happening, or more. As far as he could tell, judging from his talk with Suzaku, this was the case, but Sam didn't know for certain or whether it would last or if things would change. Or had changed. Sam really wasn't gonna sit here and watch Lelouch tip Dean off.

Never mind. They couldn't get out of it now. He had the sudden urge to step in front of Dean so that Dean couldn't get hit by Lelouch's glowing eye a second time, but doing that wasn't an option. Sam settled for staying where he was next to Dean, still watching Lelouch with maybe a bit more intensity than was normal.

[theroadsofar]

Dean would've stepped on Sam's foot if only he was sitting close enough.

Lucky for him, he was just barely outta reach.

"Sam's his middle name. Hates his first name, beats me why he gets all anal about it," Dean interjected quickly, and it took everything he had not to shoot a glare at his brother. Since when didn't Sam just roll with him on names or at least say something so Dean would know to let him take point and not contradict him like that?

Dean tried not to crack up when Lelouch got all flustered: dude, the kid looked like he had to be sixteen, if not older, and definitely old enough to be foolin' around. Didn't some chicks love that whole Jules, Calvin Klein look? You'd think the kid never got laid with how he was acting. Anyway, if Lelouch had been a chick and older, Dean might've pressed hard, but he just enjoyed the show, before getting back to business.

To be honest, there was a ton of messages on that board every day, and he wasn't about to read every single one when half of them were people playing hangman or writing bad poetry. Dean didn't hover there for every second of his day and he knew well enough to admit that yeah, maybe he wasn't on top of his game, and that he was downright distracted. Anyway, as far as Dean was concerned, it wasn't so much knowing what to run from, but what was out there and if there were patterns, points of origins these things were coming from. If they didn't hunt them down at the source, then it was gonna keep happening all over again, and when they were the only hunters in town, Dean wasn't too optimistic about their prospects.

"Any of the attacks," Dean said. There was a little bit more leeway in how much he could reveal on what they were, given that everyone knew about the monsters and spirits, but he wasn't gonna go out and say he was a hunter, either. "Any patterns, places where it's happened before. Any history on the building would be awesome. Sam's a hardcore history nerd, so he'd love it if you had anything on the building or the surrounding area. It'd totally make his day, wouldn't it, Sam?"

Dean exchanged looks with Sam and while he still had on that friendly smile, he was also hoping the kid would roll with this time and not keep dropping bombshells like he'd already met this guy before and not even think to give him a head's up. Seriously, Sammy knew better than that. Dad had trained them to be consistent with their damn covers, at least when they were talking to the same person. Maybe he'd been switching up his aliases a little more than usual here, but it wasn't like he was outright contradicting himself or Sam. Yeah, this was a high schooler they were dealing with, but the truth was he had no idea who these people talked to.

Most of them probably weren't possessed. He didn't think this guy was.

But as far as Dean knew, there were still some demons out there, whoever had been out in that field when he'd been possessed himself, which meant he didn't want to be too open about their intentions. Even if that new tattoo on him cockblocked any more repeat possessions, demons could still be nasty sons of bitches even if they weren't forcing their way down your throat and hijacking your body.

[allroadslead]

Sam was indeed out of reach, and entirely aware that he was. He shifted, in a possible acknowledgment that yeah, maybe he should've made it clear he'd already met Lelouch when he'd dropped by initially, but honestly, he hadn't thought it'd been necessary. His plan had been to just leave at the time.

But evidently, that plan was out of the question, so now he was here, watching Lelouch grow ever-indignant over Dean's comment. It might've been amusing if things weren't already so damn awkward. Sam considered briefly giving Dean another look the way he might've done if they'd been with a different witness, but he decided that he didn't really feel like defending Lelouch from Dean's lack of tact.

The kid, though? Wasn't a bad actor at all, and as much as Sam was loath to admit it, he did appreciate it somewhat. It meant he wouldn't have to worry about Lelouch accidentally tipping Dean off. Deliberately tipping Dean off was another story entirely, but he doubted, too, whether Lelouch would bother putting in the effort of feigning innocence if he wasn't looking to pretend as if nothing had ever happened. Unless there was a third intricate level to this whole charade, but that was...complicated to the point where Sam wasn't sure if it was all that plausible. Maybe it was.

Either way, for the time being, it seemed he and Lelouch had somehow ended up on the same page, with roughly the same goals. How had that even happened?

Dean looked at him and Sam looked back, matching the smile easily enough, but unable to quite make it reach his eyes.

"It's true," he agreed-as if there was any other option. Not that he particularly minded this set-up here; Dean had done much, much worse than accuse him of being a history buff. Dolls came to mind, but man, he wasn't gonna revisit that right now. Or ever.

Besides, he actually had been intending to seek information on the history of the building...though he'd gotten, well. Sidetracked. For good reason, but still. He really did need to stay on top of things despite what else went on and this was kind of a reminder on that.

He glanced back at Lelouch without dropping the polite smile, figuring there was no other choice but to play along. Treat it as if he didn't know the guy as anyone other than some patient he'd talked to once.

"Anything you have, we'd really appreciate it," he went on. "But if we're keeping you right now, I'd be happy to talk to you another time."

The absolute untruth of that statement, he was sure Lelouch would pick up with no trouble.

[theroadsofar]

At least Sammy rolled with that.

Didn't change the fact he was totally kicking him as soon as Lelouch took off.

"Helps to know what you look like, Boss," Dean drawled sarcastically. Seriously, was this guy for real? Dean had run into his share of uptight pricks, but running into some kid who should be playing hooky or getting people to buy him beer and instead decided, no, he'd rather skip all the fun stuff and just get right to the stick in the ass was a new one for Dean. "You know my bat-signal, so I think we're all good for now. Thanks, man."

He threw it out almost as an afterthought. And Sam acted like he didn't try.

Dean had no idea where it was that Lelouch could be in such a hurry to get to. The guy made it sound like he had a full schedule of appointments and Dean was starting to wonder if he'd even bullied some unlucky bastard into being - what was it, "PA"? Yeah, PA. What would that even pay in Landels? It wasn't like you had the incentive of free food when apparently the kitchens were serving God's Hamburgers all day, every day, so unless he wised up and got some smokes or something, Dean just couldn't see who would put up with this guy if he was like this all the time. Kid needed to live a little. Y'know, do whatever it was kids did, and while Dean knew perfectly well his childhood hadn't exactly been normal, he'd still made time to fool around, have a little fun.

Well, couldn't see what else they could cover for now, except wait and see what Fancy Nancy came up with. Dean lifted his hand in a lazy wave as he lounged back against the couch, but he was already debating what he was gonna kick first - closest part of Sam was his little toe, but if he scooted over fast enough, he could totally get his ankle. Dean kept his expression friendly, not wanting to give his little brother any warning.

Served him right for almost screwing them over like that, even in front of a high schooler.

[allroadslead]

Okay. So this wasn't exploding into the fiery ball Sam had been expecting at first. Didn't mean it still couldn't get there within the next sixty seconds, but the odds were getting lower and that was about as much as he could ask for.

He sat through the exchange, waiting-seemingly patient on the surface-for Lelouch to take his leave. At least Lelouch wasn't wasting any time taking the opportunity provided for escape. Dean would notice, of course, that Lelouch was being a bit hasty in leaving, but Sam didn't think it'd be possible for Dean to read all that accurately into it.

He still wanted to know how Lelouch had ended up talking to Dean in the first place, but as he obviously couldn't ask Lelouch, he'd have to bring that up with Dean. Once Lelouch was gone. What this meant after, too, was another question. He hadn't given a huge amount of thought to Lelouch as of late, but this encounter had suddenly shoved to the forefront the problem of what the hell he was supposed to do. Nothing had been their semi-truce so far. It was kind of working for now, but-no, it wouldn't last. He knew better than that.

And not for the first time, he wished he could've just packed Dean into the Impala and left. He didn't want to deal with this. Any of it. He just...he just wanted Dean.

Sam nodded. "Sure," he replied, starting to stand up, effectively ending their part in the conversation, too. "Thanks."

[theroadsofar]

The second Lelouch was gone, Dean scooted his ass over the couch and aimed a kick at Sam's ankle.

"The hell was that all about?" Dean hissed. "Dude, you're getting sloppy."

And Dean wasn't kidding either. Sam knew better than that, he really did. For all those looks and getting on his case about not being all Civilian Therapist, at least Dean could keep his aliases straight and make sure Sam's were consistent. Dean's smile dropped as he scowled at his brother, and while he didn't think he needed a second kick to get his point across, he'd be ready to do it again if he had to. It wasn't like he needed to know where Sam was at all times like a stalker, but it'd help if he knew who he'd talked to, even if maybe Sam wanted to keep some of the pillow talk to himself. Dean's jaw set as he stopped just short of glaring at Sam.

Dean was pretty sure he'd saved their cover (hopefully), but he really didn't need a repeat of this. They should be focusing on hunting, finding out what was going on, and not tripping up on the stupid details like if Sam was gonna go with his real name or go with Val and really, this was all stuff that should be taken for granted as being on track.

At least they might have a lead, even if Dean wasn't too convinced this kid would be able to come up much with the building. It couldn't hurt to have another pair of eyes though.

[allroadslead]

Sam had about half a second to feel relieved that Lelouch had finally left before Dean kicked him sharply in the ankle.

"Ow, jeez," he snapped, more out of principle than anything else. He turned around and fixed his gaze on Dean. Getting the sudden irrational feeling that something was going to blow apart right here-that right here would be when all the secrets came tumbling into the open-he huffed out without thinking, "You really wanna talk about who's getting sloppy?"

For which he immediately felt guilty about; Dean had nothing to do with what'd happened that night with Lelouch or the night before with the sedation or...getting dragged to hell. But the accusation of being sloppy hit a little too close to home because he remembered spending six months thinking, If it's not perfect, Dean will die, and after he got sent back, Dean died again, anyway. And the truth was, he had no idea what he was doing now. It just seemed like whatever he did, it wasn't enough or it wasn't right, that he wasn't good enough to keep his brother safe. Sometimes, he really wished he could blame it on Dean. Or something else entirely. It'd be easier.

Except no, he shouldn't have said that and now he kind of hated himself even more. Which he previously hadn't thought possible. He averted his gaze and shifted his weight, uncomfortable. The only thing he could think of to do was walk away really fast, but that was a little too low, even for him.

Christ. How the hell had they ended up here, anyway?