Taxus brevifolia for transfixeddream

[springflingmod.livejournal.com]

Title: Taxus brevifolia
Pairing: Dean/Sam
Rating: NC-17

Written by inalasahl for transfixeddream!



Dean sat on the end of the bed, staring at the television, drinking a beer.

"Dean, are you sure about this? Maybe we can talk to him. He did let us go."

"He thinks he's a god, Sam. What's there to talk about?" Dean took another gulp of beer. "He won't be the first 'god' we've killed. Just the first one with a nuclear reactor inside. So, get to finding out how we make an evergreen stake that won't crumble to ash."

"If you're sure," Sam said sofly. "I think I have. Forest fire. Started raining, miraculously spared several hundred miles of Pacific Yew."

"What makes you think it wasn't natural?"

"Aeriel shot of the unburned section." Sam spun his laptop around. "That look familiar to you?"

"Holy --" Dean said. "Is that a sigil?"

"Looks like it. I think it's a misspelling of the one that keeps angels out."

"Maybe it's not for angels," Dean said. "No one's going to go to that much trouble and get it wrong."

Sam's eyes widened. "You think it's for -- against, whatever -- Cas?"

"Why else do it now? But would that even work? It's reversed. The sigil was formed by the unburned portion."

"Maybe not," Sam said. "Maybe whoever did it, did something to those trees to write the sigil, and the forest fire was just a coincidence that made it visible to human eyes."

"Worth a look, anyway. Let's go."

"One thing we should do first," Sam said. He held out a Sharpie.

"Ah, come on, man."

"It doesn't have to be where anyone can see. If it works ..."

Dean snatched the sharpie up. "Fine. But she's getting super unleaded all the way there."

---

They took the Impala as far as the road went, and then began loading backpacks for a hike. They'd barely stepped into the forest when a man approached them almost out of nowhere. "You boys lost?" There was something not quite right about him, and Sam immediately angled his stance in case of a fight.

"Just taking a look around," Sam said, fingering the knife hidden in his pocket. "These are public lands, right?"

"Sure," the man said. "And we do love visitors."

"Fav," a woman said reproachfully, melting out of the trees. "You'll scare them." She turned to Sam and Dean. "You boys must be the forest rangers who are supposed to come look around and see if you can figure out why this section didn't burn."

"Uh, yeah," Dean said. "That's us."

Sam narrowed his eyes. "I thought there was some rain."

"Oh, sure," the woman said. "But not that much, if you ask me." She waved her hand at the sky, indicating the current light drizzle, which was soft and warm. "This is about all we ever get around here. Where are my manners? I'm Flora," she said. "This is my husband, Fav. We're the caretakers here."

"Just the two of you? For all of this?"

"Oh, we used to cover a much larger area." Her face turned cloudy. "And we aren't the only ones who claim this territory." She sighed. "But we're not as young as we used to be." Sam and Dean looked at each other. The two of them didn't look any older than the Winchesters. She went cheerful again, with a slightly manic grin. "But no sense in dwelling. Moving here was good for us. If you can't adapt, you might as well fade away." Her husband walked over to her and put a gentle arm around her. "Some of my family went like that, you know."

"Uh, okay. Well, Aragorn and I should really start looking around while it's still daylight," Dean said.

"Oh! Don't let us keep you," she said. She pointed off into the distance. "There's a clearing about a mile that way. Our home is there if you need anything."

"Nice meeting you," Sam said. He and Dean walked off through the trees.

Favonius turned to his wife. "Forest rangers?"

"We can't eat everyone who comes through here, Dear. People would talk." She tucked her head against his shoulder. "Besides, I recognize these two. You remember that little business Mercury got involved in last year?" She shuddered. "Morta's been working for that new company, and she has some mighty uncharitable things to say about her new boss. They might be the only ones who can stop him. Let's just see what they do."

"I don't like having them in our forest. It's all we've got left."

"I know, Dear. But the wheel turns. Our day will come again."

---

The forest was dark. The sun nearly crowded out in places by the tree branches. But for all that, the forest was strangely beautiful. The trees were old, but healthy-looking, but there was nothing obviously special about them that either Sam or Dean could see. "Galadriel and Celeborn remind you of anyone?"

"That couple in Ypsilanti, the Carrigans. Hold Nickar and his wife."

"Right down to the faux cheer and the helpfulness."

"At least they didn't take any parts."

Sam stumbled and clutched at his head. Dean grabbed him. "Sam! You okay?"

"I started thinking about how long ago that was, and time -- my brain's still working it out with the different sets of memories."

"Well, sit down for a minute. And stop thinking." Dean pushed Sam down onto a log.

"I can't just stop thinking, Dean." Sam clenched his jaw and took a deep breath, bracing himself. "You know I'm remembering a lot now. Almost everything. Almost everything I did while I was soulless. The stuff I did. To people. To you."

"Yeah?" Dean said. His casual tone was belied by the way he tensed all over.

Sam stood up. "I remember that night after the fairy case. Lisa still wasn't talking to you. I remember asking you. And all the nights after that."

"We're not talking about that, Sam. That wasn't you."

Sam stood in front of his brother. "That list of things we're not talking about is getting pretty long, Dean."

"Yeah, I just make one bad decision after another."

"That's not what I meant."

Dean ran his hand over his face. "It was the only way, Sam. I swear to you. It was the only way to keep him around, and if I was ever going to see you again -- he had your body. So, if you need to talk about it, we'll talk about it. But damn it, Sam, can't you just take a swing at me and get it over with?"

"I knew it!" Sam said. "I knew you were blaming yourself." Sam shook his head. "You think I'm mad at you? I'm the one who --"

"It wasn't you!"

Sam looked away, off into the distance, as he spoke. "Yes, it was."

"Sammy?"

"I know you don't want to hear this, Dean. But that guy you spent those three months with before you got my soul back, that guy who put you in danger because he believed you could get out of any situation, no matter what, that guy who messed up your relationship with Lisa, that guy who wanted to have sex with his brother ... he was me. A part of me, anyway." Sam took a deep breath. "And the part of me that was in hell, well, that's just the part of me that knew better than to say it out loud. So, I guess maybe you should be the one taking a swing at me." It was Sam's turn to tense, waiting. He closed his eyes.

He felt a light touch on his shoulder and opened his eyes. "I'm not going to take a swing, Sam," Dean said. "Are you lying to me?"

"I know I shouldn't want that, okay? I've always known that. I just didn't care anymore. I wouldn't even tell you now, but I remember ... I remember how disgusted you looked, and I don't want you to thinking that you could have done something different. I've always been that way, without or without a soul." He turned away. "So, we should keep walking, I guess, and --"

"Hey," Dean said, bringing Sam back. "It wasn't having sex with you that disgusted me," Dean said. "It was thinking that you, the real you, that you would hate me if you knew about it. That you would hate it, and I, I wanted it anyway."

"What?"

Dean moved in slowly, giving Sam opportunity to pull away. He put his hands on either side of Sam's face and pulled his head down. "The only thing that could have made it better is if it had really been you. I wanted it to be you," Dean said and pressed his lips against Sam's.

Sam groaned and clutched Dean to him. "Dean," he began, losing the rest of the words inside Dean's mouth as their tongues moved against each other. He pushed his hands under Dean's shirt, needing the feel of skin against skin. Dean moaned as Sam's fingers brushed a nipple, and that was all it took for all the worry and fear to catch up with Sam. "Dean, I need, can we?"

"What, here?" Dean replied, but his fingers were already working on the snap of Sam's jeans.

"Here," Sam said. They fell down to the forest floor, still half-dressed, pushing their pants down as they went. But neither of them felt the ground, not aware of anything but each other. Sam rolled them until he was on top of Dean, their cocks hard against each other. "Like this," he murmured and went back to kissing Dean, learning again, now that that it meant something, the taste of every part of his mouth as he moved against Dean, letting their cocks rub together in the most delicious friction he'd ever felt.

It was almost too much how good it felt, and he began to shake, began to fear that he would shake apart, but then Dean was rolling them to the side, wrapping his hand around both their cocks, stroking them together. "I got you, Sam," he said. "I got you. Always."

Sam cried out as he came, and Dean stroked hard twice more, and then he joined him. Sam lay all the way back on the ground and let his breath catch up to him. Reality started to settle in, and he felt a little foolish, covered in pine needles, naked to the sky and covered in come. "Sorry," he said.

Dean just stood up and started pulling his clothes back on. "Dude," he said. "Don't be. That was fantastic." He looked around. "Besides, I don't think that was all us."

Sam nodded and dressed himself. "I think maybe we should find that clearing. We're not going to find anything out here."

---

They came to the clearing they'd been looking for, but there was no cabin. "Dude, that's a tree." It was a large tree and thick, the biggest one they'd seen yet in a forest full of big trees. It was at least as big around as a person was tall.

Sam shrugged. "Maybe that's their home. I mean, we already figured they weren't human." He walked around the tree, randomly touching a few branches. "Little known thing about yew, it can rot from the inside out while it's still alive, leaving a hollow."

Dean started to grin. "What?" Sam asked.

"Nothing."

"What?"

"I just missed you nerding out, okay?"

Sam fought his own grin, not too successfully. "I'm not a nerd."

"That why you begged dad for an R2D2 sleeping bag even though it wasn't waterproof?"

"I was five, Dean."

"Yeah, you started nerding out young."

"Shut up."

"Well! You boys sure are a treat." As before, the couple seemed to appear out of nowhere.

Dean jumped. "Lady, you have got to stop doing that. What are you?"

"I told you," she said. "I'm Flora."

Sam smacked his head and looked at Dean. "The Roman goddess of Spring and fertility," he said.

"My husband wanted to eat you, you know. But a fertility rite does us just as much good." She frowned, "Though, a woman is traditional. Still, I owe you a blessing."

She reached out her hand, and Dean reflexively clutched his abdomen. "No," he said. "We're good. No fertility blessings needed."

She pursed her lips. "Are you sure? I can't just leave with you nothing."

"Why don't you tell us how you stopped this place from burning?"

"Just a little phoenix ash sprinkled over everything. Makes anything impervious to fire. Never washes away either, that's why we like to use it for markings."

"Do you have any?" Sam asked. "We had some, but it was stolen."

"Are you sure that's all you boys want? Why, that's easy." Favonius snapped his fingers and a phial filled with a chalky black substance appeared in it. "Mind you be careful with that. There aren't an infinite number of phoenixes in the world."

"We will," Sam said, as he took the phial. But he was talking to air. The couple had disappeared.

"Nobody ever says goodbye anymore," Dean muttered.

Sam knew Dean wouldn't want a hug just then, so he settled for cuffing him on the arm. "We don't have to do this, you know. We can figure something else out."

"Like what? This is the best plan we've got."

"Like whatever! Look, I don't know, but I can tell that this is eating at you, man. It bothers me, too. I'm not saying we wait forever, but there's no harm in letting this be Plan B." He put the phial in his pocket. "You and I, we can get through anything, right?"

Dean bit his lip, and then he smiled. "Yeah," he said. He pulled Sam toward him and kissed him. "You and I, together, isn't anything that can stand against us."

Fin

Comments

[sangre-fria.livejournal.com]

Awesome! I wish we saw more of the old gods in the canon, to be honest. :D

Also, leave it to the Winchesters to inadvertently preform a fertility rite! XD

[inalasahl]

Thank you so much for the comment!

Even taking the resurrections into account, sometimes it's a wonder they've survived all this time.

[sangre-fria.livejournal.com]

Haha, exactly.

[transfixeddream.livejournal.com]

YAY author, you rock! I enjoyed this, particularly that you set it in s6 and managed to deal with RoboSam and his actions, and Castiel in so few words. And I'm stoked that you managed to work all three of my prompts into this which is awesome. Thank you so much! :>

[inalasahl]

I'm so glad to hear you enjoyed it! The three prompts thing just sort of happened that way (though since this is post-S6, I guess they aren't "April" showers per se), but I'm happy it worked.

[big-heart-june.livejournal.com]

this is really different and totally enjoyable! thanks so much!

[inalasahl]

Thank you for your comment! I'm glad you liked it.

[stormcloude]

I love pagan and Roman gods. There aren't enough SPN stories like this. Thanks for sharing.

[inalasahl]

Aw, that's a really nice thing to say. Thank you. Ever since they introduced Atropos into the show as someone who has been working for Heaven, I've been curious as to how that works.

[strangeallure.livejournal.com]

You pack a lot of plot into such a short fic. Very enjoyable.

[inalasahl]

Thanks! That's really nice to hear.

[electricalgwen.livejournal.com]

"Nobody ever says goodbye anymore," Dean muttered. HA! So true. :D

I like how much plot and emotional sharing you packed into a small space here. Very nice.

[inalasahl]

Thank you! I'm glad the story worked for you!

[killabeez.livejournal.com]

This exchange made me giggle out loud, and also made me stupidly happy:

"I was five, Dean."

"Yeah, you started nerding out young."

:D Nothing can be permanently wrong in the world if Dean is teasing Sam about being a nerd.

Love your old gods. Too cute!

[inalasahl]

Yay! I'm glad it made you happy. Thank you for your comment.

[mistyzeo.livejournal.com]

Such a cool concept!

[inalasahl]

Thanks!

[withdiamonds.livejournal.com]

Nobody ever says goodbye anymore," Dean muttered.

Poor Dean. :)

I liked this, it was well-thought out.

[inalasahl]

Thank you so much. I really appreciate you saying that.

[locknkey.livejournal.com]

This was a fun read. Thanks!

[inalasahl]

I'm glad you liked!