Drabble dump (Supernatural, Doctor Who, Torchwood, Buffy)
Title: The Man Who Never Was
Fandom: Supernatural(/Doctor Who)
Characters: Dean
Rating: PG
Prompt: Supernatural, Sam/Dean (or Sam+Dean), falling through the cracks in reality
Note: You don't need to have seen any DW to understand this. Basically there are cracks in the universe and if you fall into one your existence is erased.
"Two queen-sized," Dean tells the clerk, then frowns. "No, I meant one."
She sighs and smacks her bubblegum and goes back to change the entry in the computer. He takes the keys and finds his room and doesn't hold the door open for the person who isn't behind him.
When he drags his shirt over his head for a shower, his amulet snags on the cloth, and he feels a rush of emotion as he untangles it. Who was it that gave it to him all those years ago? Was it Dad? It must have been. He shakes his head and yelps when the showerhead turns on cold.
In dreams, his mother burns over an empty crib, and the ghost of weight in his arms drags him down as he escapes the flames.
"It's just . . . he was my little brother." The guy Dean's trying to interview has his head in his hands. "And I always took care of him, and I never really grew out of that, you know?"
"I know," Dean says without thinking, and then stops, because no, he doesn't know. He's never had a brother.
In the car he keeps the music down and keeps glancing over at the passenger seat, and when the spirit that's been causing the trouble has him pinned against the wall he croaks something like "Sam" and doesn't know why.
Suddenly there's blinding light, white and pure and burning. Dean squeezes his eyes shut and when he opens them again there's no spirit, there's never been a spirit, and why is he on the floor?
There's a crack in the opposite wall, long and jagged, with a dip in the middle like a creepy smile. It's glowing, reaching for him, and he inches towards it because it's the most frightening thing he's ever faced. It wraps around him like a blanket, like the arms of a little brother he's never had, and when it's gone there's never been a Dean Winchester at all.
*
Title: Two-for-one
Fandom: Supernatural
Characters: Dean, Adam, Death
Spoilers: s5 finale, mid-s6
Notes: AU from mid-s6
Rating: PG
Summary: It seems to have been a unanimous decision that Dean is Adam's primary caretaker, which to Dean seems like a pretty awful decision that he wasn't allowed to vote on.
"Two souls for the price of one," Death says, "he simply wouldn't let go." But Dean wonders if maybe the old man isn't getting a little sentimental. Then he remembers there's no sentimentality in death and tries not to think about it.
Sammy's not in bad shape, not yet, but Dean supposes his lucky two-in-one deal didn't quite cover both walls. He doesn't like that he's glad Sam didn't get the short end of the stick, but there it is.
Adam doesn't say a word for a week, and Dean doesn't know what to do. For all Adam is his littlest brother, he's hardly spent an hour with the kid when he wasn't a ghoul or an angel, and if he's honest he preferred the ghoul. At least he hadn't needed to be force fed cold pizza.
Bobby's gone hunting and gathering at the minimart and Sam's buried in books in the panic room. It seems to have been a unanimous decision that Dean is Adam's primary caretaker, which to Dean seems like a pretty awful decision that he wasn't allowed to vote on. So he snags a beer from the fridge, because he needs it, and gets another for Adam because hell, he probably needs it too. Drinking ages are overrated anyway.
Adam drinks it, which is surprise enough, but then he says, "Got anything stronger than this?" and Dean decides that yes, he thinks he needs a shot of Bobby's best whiskey too.
*
Title: To Sleep, Perchance to Dream
Fandom: Doctor Who
Characters: Rory/Amy, Eleven
Spoilers: all of s5
Rating: PG
Prompt: Author's Choice, Author's Choice, "When I wake up yeah I know I'm gonna be / I'm gonna be the man who wakes up next to you / When I go out yeah I know I'm gonna be / I'm gonna be the man who goes along with you." -500 Miles by The Proclaimers
For twelve years Amy waits for her imaginary Doctor, and for twelve years Rory waits for Amy.
She stops waiting, and the Doctor comes back. Rory can feel her slipping through his fingers already.
Two years later, and he thinks tomorrow, just until tomorrow and she'll never slip away again but he's wrong. Venice and Upper Leadworth, and he just wants to go home and get married. Silurians. He saves the Doctor, hears her yelling, and he thinks I've finally let you go. But she was never really his to begin with.
When he opens his eyes in Rome he's got two sets of memories, perfectly paralleled stretching all the way back behind him, but one stretch iswrong because there's no one there to wait for. He holds on to dream-Amy with both hands, even though she's dripping through his fingers like water, and feels like he's sleepwalking.
Tomorrow, he thinks. I'll marry you tomorrow. He only needs to wake up first.
*
Title: Dreaming
Fandom: Torchwood
Characters: Owen
Spoilers: s2 Reset & onwards
Rating: PG
Prompt: tw100 #218: Dead of Night
The darkness is flat and still, the only sound bare feet on wood. He stops to peer at the glowing LED display on his clock: 3:23. Damn.
It's the dead of night. How ironic. He digs his fingers into the cut on his palm, tearing stitches, trying so hard to feel. He pinches his arm; considers slapping himself and then realizes the bruise tomorrow will be permanent. If he bruises anymore.
3:24. If he feels something maybe he'll be able to wake up.
He'll never wake up again, he knows. He'll never sleep again either.
Dead of night.
Bugger.
*
Title: The best, worst, and stinkiest things come in small packages
Fandom: Supernatural
Characters: John, Dean, Sammy, Adam
Spoilers: 4.19 Jump the Shark
Rating: PG
Prompt: Supernatural, John & Weechesters!, one day Dad comes back with a new little brother for Dean and Sammy
They think something's changed when Dad comes home and makes them sit down on the ratty motel sofa like a family meeting from those cheesy sitcoms Dean watches when there's nothing else to do.
They think something's weird when he starts breathing funny, and wringing his hands, and shifting his posture like he's not quite sure how he's supposed to stand.
They know something's different when he brings out the baby.
"This is Adam," Dad says. He holds the one-year-old awkwardly, like he doesn't quite remember how. "He's your new little brother."
Sammy is eight, and just learning that the world doesn't work like that. There's no magic stork to bring you a baby from the sky. "No he isn't," Sammy says, and frowns at the baby's small face. "He needs a mommy for that."
"He did have a mommy, but she died." Dad looks away. "Like yours."
Dean is twelve, and he knows enough about the world to guess where Adam came from. "And he's our brother?"
"Yes," Dad promises. "So you boys take good care of him, all right? I won't be gone for so long anymore."
Sammy scowls. "Take him back." It doesn't feel right. The family is SammyandDean(andsometimesDad). There's no room for another brother in the mix.
Dean rolls his eyes. "It doesn't work like that."
"Here, Sammy, do you want to hold him?" Dad carefully hands him the baby, showing him where to put his hands so he won't drop him. A moment later Adam starts to wail, and all three wrinkle their noses.
"Eugh." Sammy holds the baby out to Dean as Dad digs frantically through his bag for a fresh diaper. "Can we take him back now?"
*
Title: Color Math
Fandom: Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Characters: Oz/Willow
Rating: PG
Prompt: Buffy the Vampire Slayer/Angel, any character, the colour of M&M's matters
"Have the M&Ms offended you somehow?"
She grinned and spilled a pile of red candies into his palm. "Yes. They're very bad M&Ms."
"Oh. Guess we'd better get rid of them, then." He frowned in mock concern, his brow furrowing. "Think we'll need the Slayer?"
"I think we're ready to handle these ourselves." Pillowing her head in his lap, she selected a yellow one and waved a hand towards the small piles to the side. "Buffy can take care of those nasty blue ones."
"Smart thinking. Those crafty blues." He fed her another yellow, and she reached up to return the favor with red.
"No, no," she scolded good-naturedly, swatting his hand away from the orange pile. "Those aren't for you."
"I think we can take them on if we work together." He bites off half the M&M and offers her the other. "Yellow and red make orange."
Fandom: Supernatural(/Doctor Who)
Characters: Dean
Rating: PG
Prompt: Supernatural, Sam/Dean (or Sam+Dean), falling through the cracks in reality
Note: You don't need to have seen any DW to understand this. Basically there are cracks in the universe and if you fall into one your existence is erased.
"Two queen-sized," Dean tells the clerk, then frowns. "No, I meant one."
She sighs and smacks her bubblegum and goes back to change the entry in the computer. He takes the keys and finds his room and doesn't hold the door open for the person who isn't behind him.
When he drags his shirt over his head for a shower, his amulet snags on the cloth, and he feels a rush of emotion as he untangles it. Who was it that gave it to him all those years ago? Was it Dad? It must have been. He shakes his head and yelps when the showerhead turns on cold.
In dreams, his mother burns over an empty crib, and the ghost of weight in his arms drags him down as he escapes the flames.
"It's just . . . he was my little brother." The guy Dean's trying to interview has his head in his hands. "And I always took care of him, and I never really grew out of that, you know?"
"I know," Dean says without thinking, and then stops, because no, he doesn't know. He's never had a brother.
In the car he keeps the music down and keeps glancing over at the passenger seat, and when the spirit that's been causing the trouble has him pinned against the wall he croaks something like "Sam" and doesn't know why.
Suddenly there's blinding light, white and pure and burning. Dean squeezes his eyes shut and when he opens them again there's no spirit, there's never been a spirit, and why is he on the floor?
There's a crack in the opposite wall, long and jagged, with a dip in the middle like a creepy smile. It's glowing, reaching for him, and he inches towards it because it's the most frightening thing he's ever faced. It wraps around him like a blanket, like the arms of a little brother he's never had, and when it's gone there's never been a Dean Winchester at all.
*
Title: Two-for-one
Fandom: Supernatural
Characters: Dean, Adam, Death
Spoilers: s5 finale, mid-s6
Notes: AU from mid-s6
Rating: PG
Summary: It seems to have been a unanimous decision that Dean is Adam's primary caretaker, which to Dean seems like a pretty awful decision that he wasn't allowed to vote on.
"Two souls for the price of one," Death says, "he simply wouldn't let go." But Dean wonders if maybe the old man isn't getting a little sentimental. Then he remembers there's no sentimentality in death and tries not to think about it.
Sammy's not in bad shape, not yet, but Dean supposes his lucky two-in-one deal didn't quite cover both walls. He doesn't like that he's glad Sam didn't get the short end of the stick, but there it is.
Adam doesn't say a word for a week, and Dean doesn't know what to do. For all Adam is his littlest brother, he's hardly spent an hour with the kid when he wasn't a ghoul or an angel, and if he's honest he preferred the ghoul. At least he hadn't needed to be force fed cold pizza.
Bobby's gone hunting and gathering at the minimart and Sam's buried in books in the panic room. It seems to have been a unanimous decision that Dean is Adam's primary caretaker, which to Dean seems like a pretty awful decision that he wasn't allowed to vote on. So he snags a beer from the fridge, because he needs it, and gets another for Adam because hell, he probably needs it too. Drinking ages are overrated anyway.
Adam drinks it, which is surprise enough, but then he says, "Got anything stronger than this?" and Dean decides that yes, he thinks he needs a shot of Bobby's best whiskey too.
*
Title: To Sleep, Perchance to Dream
Fandom: Doctor Who
Characters: Rory/Amy, Eleven
Spoilers: all of s5
Rating: PG
Prompt: Author's Choice, Author's Choice, "When I wake up yeah I know I'm gonna be / I'm gonna be the man who wakes up next to you / When I go out yeah I know I'm gonna be / I'm gonna be the man who goes along with you." -500 Miles by The Proclaimers
For twelve years Amy waits for her imaginary Doctor, and for twelve years Rory waits for Amy.
She stops waiting, and the Doctor comes back. Rory can feel her slipping through his fingers already.
Two years later, and he thinks tomorrow, just until tomorrow and she'll never slip away again but he's wrong. Venice and Upper Leadworth, and he just wants to go home and get married. Silurians. He saves the Doctor, hears her yelling, and he thinks I've finally let you go. But she was never really his to begin with.
When he opens his eyes in Rome he's got two sets of memories, perfectly paralleled stretching all the way back behind him, but one stretch iswrong because there's no one there to wait for. He holds on to dream-Amy with both hands, even though she's dripping through his fingers like water, and feels like he's sleepwalking.
Tomorrow, he thinks. I'll marry you tomorrow. He only needs to wake up first.
*
Title: Dreaming
Fandom: Torchwood
Characters: Owen
Spoilers: s2 Reset & onwards
Rating: PG
Prompt: tw100 #218: Dead of Night
The darkness is flat and still, the only sound bare feet on wood. He stops to peer at the glowing LED display on his clock: 3:23. Damn.
It's the dead of night. How ironic. He digs his fingers into the cut on his palm, tearing stitches, trying so hard to feel. He pinches his arm; considers slapping himself and then realizes the bruise tomorrow will be permanent. If he bruises anymore.
3:24. If he feels something maybe he'll be able to wake up.
He'll never wake up again, he knows. He'll never sleep again either.
Dead of night.
Bugger.
*
Title: The best, worst, and stinkiest things come in small packages
Fandom: Supernatural
Characters: John, Dean, Sammy, Adam
Spoilers: 4.19 Jump the Shark
Rating: PG
Prompt: Supernatural, John & Weechesters!, one day Dad comes back with a new little brother for Dean and Sammy
They think something's changed when Dad comes home and makes them sit down on the ratty motel sofa like a family meeting from those cheesy sitcoms Dean watches when there's nothing else to do.
They think something's weird when he starts breathing funny, and wringing his hands, and shifting his posture like he's not quite sure how he's supposed to stand.
They know something's different when he brings out the baby.
"This is Adam," Dad says. He holds the one-year-old awkwardly, like he doesn't quite remember how. "He's your new little brother."
Sammy is eight, and just learning that the world doesn't work like that. There's no magic stork to bring you a baby from the sky. "No he isn't," Sammy says, and frowns at the baby's small face. "He needs a mommy for that."
"He did have a mommy, but she died." Dad looks away. "Like yours."
Dean is twelve, and he knows enough about the world to guess where Adam came from. "And he's our brother?"
"Yes," Dad promises. "So you boys take good care of him, all right? I won't be gone for so long anymore."
Sammy scowls. "Take him back." It doesn't feel right. The family is SammyandDean(andsometimesDad). There's no room for another brother in the mix.
Dean rolls his eyes. "It doesn't work like that."
"Here, Sammy, do you want to hold him?" Dad carefully hands him the baby, showing him where to put his hands so he won't drop him. A moment later Adam starts to wail, and all three wrinkle their noses.
"Eugh." Sammy holds the baby out to Dean as Dad digs frantically through his bag for a fresh diaper. "Can we take him back now?"
*
Title: Color Math
Fandom: Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Characters: Oz/Willow
Rating: PG
Prompt: Buffy the Vampire Slayer/Angel, any character, the colour of M&M's matters
"Have the M&Ms offended you somehow?"
She grinned and spilled a pile of red candies into his palm. "Yes. They're very bad M&Ms."
"Oh. Guess we'd better get rid of them, then." He frowned in mock concern, his brow furrowing. "Think we'll need the Slayer?"
"I think we're ready to handle these ourselves." Pillowing her head in his lap, she selected a yellow one and waved a hand towards the small piles to the side. "Buffy can take care of those nasty blue ones."
"Smart thinking. Those crafty blues." He fed her another yellow, and she reached up to return the favor with red.
"No, no," she scolded good-naturedly, swatting his hand away from the orange pile. "Those aren't for you."
"I think we can take them on if we work together." He bites off half the M&M and offers her the other. "Yellow and red make orange."