FIC: Stargazing (1/1)
Rating: G
Spoiler Warnings: None
Word count: 675
Character(s): Wee!Dean, Wee!Sam, John
Type of story: Pre-series
Disclaimers: I’m just borrowing the characters of Supernatural. Eventually I will give them back, scarred, but otherwise okay.
Summary: “Teach me about the stars, Dad.”
Prompt: Marshmallows, leaves, constellations
Author's Notes: Written for http://community.livejournal.com/spn_thur_nights/ and stars91. If I got the constellations wrong please don’t shoot me! Enjoy!
The air is warm around him, making him drowsy. He allows it. The circle of salt around their small encampment and the protection sigils he’s carved into the bark of the trees around them will keep them safe.
The fire in front of him has died down and is only smothering now. His eyes meet Dean’s and he smiles as his son once more places a stick with marshmallows above the embers. Lord knows how many of the sticky, sugary lumps Dean’s had already. Good thing Sammy isn’t all that interested in them or there would be zero chance of them getting any sleep tonight. Sammy on a sugar high is worse than the scariest pissed off spirit he’s ever encountered.
Dean has grown quite a bit over the summer. He’s getting taller and it will not be long before he can see his old man in the eyes. His shoulders are starting to fill out too. For a kid his age he moves with a lithe agility that makes John proud. In the warm glow of the fire it strikes him how much of Mary he sees in the boy’s face, in his eyes.
Sammy on the other hand is all long arms and legs that have yet to discover their role in life. At best his youngest reminds him of a newborn colt, just learning to walk and run. And where Dean has inherited Mary’s face, her mind is all Sam’s. The kid is quick silver bright just like she had been.
With a content sigh he leans his head back against the tree stump he is sitting against and he closes his eyes for a moment. It doesn’t last long though.
“Dad?” Sam asks softly, and John opens one eye to look at his son.
“Yeah, sport?”
“Teach me about the stars, Dad.”
“What do you want to know?” John asks, dreading the answer already. If Sam’s after how they were formed John is going to fail him, because he has no idea. School was something he didn’t pay all that much attention to as a kid. But Sam saves him the trouble.
“The constellations.”
“Okay, that I can do. Come here, Sam.”
Sam climbs into his lap, back resting against John’s chest, head on his shoulder, gazing at the start strewn sky above them. John puts his arms around Sam and points.
“See that one there? It looks like a W.”
“It’s a butterfly,” Sam says, and John blinks for a moment. Then he sees it too. If he draws a line across both the V’s that make up the W it does look like a butterfly.
“Yeah, it does look like that. That one is called Cassiopeia. She was the queen of Ethiopia.”
“That’s a country in Africa,” Sam knows.
“Yeah, it is. Now go a little to the right. See that one that looks like a pan?”
“Yeah.”
“It’s really called Ursa Minor, or the Little Bear.”
“Is there a Big Bear too?”
“Yes, over there. See it? It’s also called the Big Dipper.”
Sam giggles at that and points.
“What’s that one, Dad?”
~:~:~
An hour later Sam is sleeping where he still sits in John’s lap. John simply holds him, enjoying the feel of his youngest son breathing against him.
The fire has completely died down by now and behind it Dean is curled up on the soft layer of old leaves that covers everything here. With his eyes closed and his face relaxed he looks younger than he really is.
With a sigh John once again looks up at the night sky. His eyes seek out one star and he finds it near Cygnus or the Swan. He doesn’t know if it is part of that constellation or not and doesn’t really care. It’s her star, brighter than all the stars around it, just like Mary had been brighter than everybody around her; just like her kids are brighter than everyone around them. And for just a moment it’s as if she’s right there with them.
The end