Five (almost) boringly normal moments in the lives of Dean and Grace Winchester
((A/N: For winchesterjerk's mun, who requested "My life would suck without you" for Dean and Grace in the iTunes meme. Also, justprompts's puzzle pieces picture prompt. Because Dean and Grace fit together like pieces in a puzzle. This is just them in normal people situations being normal for them. Which is cute. Awwww, feel the cute. Feel it!))
I
Grace was glad Dean was with her. She really, really was. Hospitals sucked, but they sucked even more when your appendix burst, and the doctors were keeping you in one for a couple of weeks. But as glad as she was that not even intimidating nurses could pry her twin from her side, she knew that he was skipping school to be there. He was skipping a lot of school.
Normally, she wouldn’t have cared. But normally, he wasn’t skipping school for her. And without him there, she didn’t have anyone to bring over her homework. That just wasn’t okay.
“Dean, you have to go back to school.” He was sitting next to her in her bed, and she was nudging him a little bit. “You can’t skip two weeks just ‘cause I’m in the hospital.”
He just looked at her for a minute. “But what if you need me here? Y’know, to keep you company or stuff like that? And who’ll walk with you in the hallways?”
“There are doctors and nurses and a whole hospital full of people. And you’ll still be here in the morning, and school’s only seven hours, so there’s enough time to walk and watch movies and stuff after.” Grace might have been a little groggy from the painkillers, but she was full of good points. ”And I need my homework.”
Dean looked like he was thinking about it. “Okay, fine. I’ll go back to school tomorrow, and get your homework.” He didn’t sound happy about it. “I’m getting tired of the nurses and the hospital food, anyway.”
“You should try to sneak me in some outside food.” Grace normally wasn’t big on junk food, but the hospital food, except for the jell-o, tasted like cardboard. “I really, really want a cheeseburger.”
II
“Wake up, squirt. It’s time to hit the road.”
Grace groaned, and didn’t even bother opening her eyes, or rolling over to look at her twin. “What time is it?”
“Six.” He sounded entirely too cheerful for someone awake at six in the morning.
“Then I’ll talk to you again in two hours.” Grace shoved her face into the pillow.
“I told you last night we'd be getting up early.” For some reason, Dean sounded amused. Unfortunately, his early morning perkiness was not contagious.
“Bite me.” It came out muffled, since her face was shoved into a pillow, but Dean still heard her loud and clear.
And he bit her.
Grace sat up immediately, and stared at him. “Did you really just do that?”
“Woke you up, didn’t it?’
“You bit me!”
“Not hard!”
“There’s a mark on my shoulder! And salvia. Ew.”
“Well, yeah. I did bite you. You should probably wipe that off.”
Grace wiped it off with the corner of the blanket, and got out of bed. “You’d better watch your back, Dean. Because I’ll bite you back.”
“You might wanna brush your teeth, first.” He pointed at the bathroom. “And take a shower. So we can get going.”
Grace did as he suggested, but threw both of the pillows on her bed at him first.
III
Ordering breakfast could be hard early in the morning, when you were only half awake and the menu had four pages of breakfast food. But ordering breakfast when you were dealing with all of those things and trying your best to ignore your twin brother’s very loud thinking about what he wanted to do with the waitress currently shoving her chest in his face while pouring him coffee? That was just brutal.
As soon as the waitress had finished pouring the coffee (she had, miraculously, managed to keep her chest out of Grace’s face while doing so) and left, Grace smacked Dean’s arm from across the table. “Stop thinking so loud!”
“What?” Dean had a clueless look on his face, and she couldn’t tell if he was doing it on purpose or not. He took a gulp of his coffee. “What did I do this time?”
“What do I usually smack you about, when you’re thinking too loud?” Grace turned her attention back to the menu. “Do you know what you’re getting yet?”
“I picked fifteen minutes ago. Hurry up, you’re taking forever. Just order waffles or something.” Dean looked over the menu again. “They even have some with blueberries.”
“Don’t want waffles.” Grace was reading the menu over the rim of her coffee mug. “You just want me to hurry up so the waitress that was popping out of her top comes back to take our orders.”
“No, I want you to hurry up so I can eat. I’m hungry.” Dean drank more coffee.
“That, and that waitress was popping out of her top.” She turned the page. “If you’re that desperate for food and boobs, just order without me. I don’t care. You don’t have to wait.”
Dean shook his head. “Nah. I’ll wait. Just hurry up, or I’ll pick something for you.”
“You sound like dad.” Grace peeked at him over the menu for a second, and stuck her tongue out before turning the page again.
“Yeah, but he actually follows through when he says that. We both know I won’t.” He laughed a little when he said it, and winked at his new favorite waitress in the history of waitresses when she walked by.
Grace finally folded up her menu. “Get your waitress friend over here. I’m ready, and we both need more coffee.”
Ten minutes later, after Dean’s full monty, Grace’s cornflakes, the waitress’s phone number, and fresh coffee had been delivered to the table, Grace was stealing eggs off of Dean’s plate and Dean was swatting her hands away.
“If you wanted eggs, why didn’t you order any?”
“I didn’t want them at the time!”
IV
“Hey, you awake?” Grace felt a poke in her side.
She didn’t even open her eyes. “No. Stop poking me, and pay attention to the road.”
“I am paying attention to the road. It’s why I had to ask if you were awake. I couldn’t see.” Dean poked her again.
Grace yawned, and re-settled her pillow and blanket. Even though she was a full-grown adult, she was still small enough to comfortably curl up and sleep in the front seat of the Impala while Dean was driving. “Well, I’m awake now. What d’you want?”
“What makes you think I wanted something?” He glanced over at her, innocent look on his face.
“If you just woke me up for the sake of waking me up, I’m going to kill you.” She wouldn’t, really. She wouldn’t even hit him. It was simply a case of Grace’s bark being worse than her bite. She knew exactly why he woke her up, and really couldn’t blame him. Driving at night was boring and quiet.
“Killing someone while they’re driving is usually a pretty bad idea. Leads to car accidents.” Grace could see the smirk on his face.
“Yeah, well. Then I can sleep forever and spend all of eternity getting my sweet revenge.” Grace may have laughed a little bit. Maybe.
Dean snorted. Grace had been promising revenge for nearly everything he’d ever done to her for years, and never actually acted on her threats. “The thought of that is scarier than any monster I’ve ever faced.”
“Damn straight it is.” Grace gave in to the fact that she wasn’t going back to sleep any time soon, and sat up straight in the seat. “That’ll teach you to wake me up in the middle of the night.”
“You know, you’re not nearly as intimidating as you normally are when you’ve got bed head and you’re wearing a matching set of Care Bear pajamas.”
“Are you making fun of my Care Bear pajamas?” Grace gave him the best fake glare she could.
“Only because the hood on that sweater has ears.” Dean reached over, and tugged on one of the ears for emphasis.
Grace swatted his hand away. “You’re only jealous, because they don’t make these in your size.”
Dean laughed out loud this time. “Yeah, that’s it. Exactly. I’m bitter.”
V
“I’m never drinking again.” Grace paused, and squinted at Dean through her sunglasses. “Ever.”
“That’s what you said last time.” Dean pointed out. “Welcome back.”
“Tell me you have coffee. If you don’t have coffee, I’m disowning you.” She finally made it all the way through the door, and closed it softly behind her. She left the sunglasses on, even though it wasn’t exactly bright in the room.
Dean pulled the sunglasses off for her, realizing that seeing probably wasn’t the easiest thing in the world when you’re hungover and wearing sunglasses in a dark room. And he was remembering all of the times she’d done it in the past that had ended up with her tripping over something and falling over. “Don’t worry, I’m prepared. I’m always prepared. It’s the boy scout motto.”
“You were never a boy scout.” Grace narrowed her eyes at him, and reached over to take her sunglasses back. When he shook his head, she sighed, and gave up. “I was a girl scout, though. I had every badge in the brownie handbook.”
“For some reason, I’m not surprised.” Dean shoved a mug of coffee into her hands, and put the sunglasses safely out of her reach. “Want some toast?”
Grace set her mug down, and jumped up on to the counter. “You’re my favorite twin.”
“Good. Just for that, I’ll actually make the toast for you, instead of handing you the bread and plugging in the toaster.”
“I thought I wasn’t allowed near toasters anymore, anyway, after that last one caught fire.” She still had no clue how it had caught fire. It just did. It was a really old toaster, anyway, and nobody got hurt. Well, nobody except the toaster.
Dean shrugged, and put bread in the toaster. “You’re going to have to figure it out again eventually. You want butter or jelly or both on these?”
“If you’ve got strawberry jelly, both would be awesome.” She really did have the best twin in the world. “Remind me to make you some cookies later, once I feel like I can operate the oven without giving myself some nasty burns.”
“I’ll put a sticky note on the fridge.” Dean held up a container of strawberry jelly almost triumphantly. “Strawberry jelly and butter it is.”
“Hooray.” Grace said it in a monotone, and drank more coffee. “Thanks, Dean.”
There was another shrug, as Dean finished buttering and putting jelly on his sister’s toast. “Yeah, well, can’t have you setting fire to the toaster every time we get a kitchen.” He handed her the plate. “And every time you make yourself toast, it gets soggy. I don’t know how you eat it.”
Grace bit into her toast, and grinned at her brother. “Neither do I. You always get the bread to butter to jelly ratio perfect. I’m never going to be able to eat toast made by anyone else. I’m just going to show up at your doorstep every time I want some.”
Dean smirked, and bit into his own slice of toast. “What makes you think I’ll keep making it?”
“You can’t say no to me.” It was Grace’s turn to shrug, and she took another bite of her toast.
“Yeah, you just keep thinking that.”
“Oh, don’t worry, I will.”
I
Grace was glad Dean was with her. She really, really was. Hospitals sucked, but they sucked even more when your appendix burst, and the doctors were keeping you in one for a couple of weeks. But as glad as she was that not even intimidating nurses could pry her twin from her side, she knew that he was skipping school to be there. He was skipping a lot of school.
Normally, she wouldn’t have cared. But normally, he wasn’t skipping school for her. And without him there, she didn’t have anyone to bring over her homework. That just wasn’t okay.
“Dean, you have to go back to school.” He was sitting next to her in her bed, and she was nudging him a little bit. “You can’t skip two weeks just ‘cause I’m in the hospital.”
He just looked at her for a minute. “But what if you need me here? Y’know, to keep you company or stuff like that? And who’ll walk with you in the hallways?”
“There are doctors and nurses and a whole hospital full of people. And you’ll still be here in the morning, and school’s only seven hours, so there’s enough time to walk and watch movies and stuff after.” Grace might have been a little groggy from the painkillers, but she was full of good points. ”And I need my homework.”
Dean looked like he was thinking about it. “Okay, fine. I’ll go back to school tomorrow, and get your homework.” He didn’t sound happy about it. “I’m getting tired of the nurses and the hospital food, anyway.”
“You should try to sneak me in some outside food.” Grace normally wasn’t big on junk food, but the hospital food, except for the jell-o, tasted like cardboard. “I really, really want a cheeseburger.”
II
“Wake up, squirt. It’s time to hit the road.”
Grace groaned, and didn’t even bother opening her eyes, or rolling over to look at her twin. “What time is it?”
“Six.” He sounded entirely too cheerful for someone awake at six in the morning.
“Then I’ll talk to you again in two hours.” Grace shoved her face into the pillow.
“I told you last night we'd be getting up early.” For some reason, Dean sounded amused. Unfortunately, his early morning perkiness was not contagious.
“Bite me.” It came out muffled, since her face was shoved into a pillow, but Dean still heard her loud and clear.
And he bit her.
Grace sat up immediately, and stared at him. “Did you really just do that?”
“Woke you up, didn’t it?’
“You bit me!”
“Not hard!”
“There’s a mark on my shoulder! And salvia. Ew.”
“Well, yeah. I did bite you. You should probably wipe that off.”
Grace wiped it off with the corner of the blanket, and got out of bed. “You’d better watch your back, Dean. Because I’ll bite you back.”
“You might wanna brush your teeth, first.” He pointed at the bathroom. “And take a shower. So we can get going.”
Grace did as he suggested, but threw both of the pillows on her bed at him first.
III
Ordering breakfast could be hard early in the morning, when you were only half awake and the menu had four pages of breakfast food. But ordering breakfast when you were dealing with all of those things and trying your best to ignore your twin brother’s very loud thinking about what he wanted to do with the waitress currently shoving her chest in his face while pouring him coffee? That was just brutal.
As soon as the waitress had finished pouring the coffee (she had, miraculously, managed to keep her chest out of Grace’s face while doing so) and left, Grace smacked Dean’s arm from across the table. “Stop thinking so loud!”
“What?” Dean had a clueless look on his face, and she couldn’t tell if he was doing it on purpose or not. He took a gulp of his coffee. “What did I do this time?”
“What do I usually smack you about, when you’re thinking too loud?” Grace turned her attention back to the menu. “Do you know what you’re getting yet?”
“I picked fifteen minutes ago. Hurry up, you’re taking forever. Just order waffles or something.” Dean looked over the menu again. “They even have some with blueberries.”
“Don’t want waffles.” Grace was reading the menu over the rim of her coffee mug. “You just want me to hurry up so the waitress that was popping out of her top comes back to take our orders.”
“No, I want you to hurry up so I can eat. I’m hungry.” Dean drank more coffee.
“That, and that waitress was popping out of her top.” She turned the page. “If you’re that desperate for food and boobs, just order without me. I don’t care. You don’t have to wait.”
Dean shook his head. “Nah. I’ll wait. Just hurry up, or I’ll pick something for you.”
“You sound like dad.” Grace peeked at him over the menu for a second, and stuck her tongue out before turning the page again.
“Yeah, but he actually follows through when he says that. We both know I won’t.” He laughed a little when he said it, and winked at his new favorite waitress in the history of waitresses when she walked by.
Grace finally folded up her menu. “Get your waitress friend over here. I’m ready, and we both need more coffee.”
Ten minutes later, after Dean’s full monty, Grace’s cornflakes, the waitress’s phone number, and fresh coffee had been delivered to the table, Grace was stealing eggs off of Dean’s plate and Dean was swatting her hands away.
“If you wanted eggs, why didn’t you order any?”
“I didn’t want them at the time!”
IV
“Hey, you awake?” Grace felt a poke in her side.
She didn’t even open her eyes. “No. Stop poking me, and pay attention to the road.”
“I am paying attention to the road. It’s why I had to ask if you were awake. I couldn’t see.” Dean poked her again.
Grace yawned, and re-settled her pillow and blanket. Even though she was a full-grown adult, she was still small enough to comfortably curl up and sleep in the front seat of the Impala while Dean was driving. “Well, I’m awake now. What d’you want?”
“What makes you think I wanted something?” He glanced over at her, innocent look on his face.
“If you just woke me up for the sake of waking me up, I’m going to kill you.” She wouldn’t, really. She wouldn’t even hit him. It was simply a case of Grace’s bark being worse than her bite. She knew exactly why he woke her up, and really couldn’t blame him. Driving at night was boring and quiet.
“Killing someone while they’re driving is usually a pretty bad idea. Leads to car accidents.” Grace could see the smirk on his face.
“Yeah, well. Then I can sleep forever and spend all of eternity getting my sweet revenge.” Grace may have laughed a little bit. Maybe.
Dean snorted. Grace had been promising revenge for nearly everything he’d ever done to her for years, and never actually acted on her threats. “The thought of that is scarier than any monster I’ve ever faced.”
“Damn straight it is.” Grace gave in to the fact that she wasn’t going back to sleep any time soon, and sat up straight in the seat. “That’ll teach you to wake me up in the middle of the night.”
“You know, you’re not nearly as intimidating as you normally are when you’ve got bed head and you’re wearing a matching set of Care Bear pajamas.”
“Are you making fun of my Care Bear pajamas?” Grace gave him the best fake glare she could.
“Only because the hood on that sweater has ears.” Dean reached over, and tugged on one of the ears for emphasis.
Grace swatted his hand away. “You’re only jealous, because they don’t make these in your size.”
Dean laughed out loud this time. “Yeah, that’s it. Exactly. I’m bitter.”
V
“I’m never drinking again.” Grace paused, and squinted at Dean through her sunglasses. “Ever.”
“That’s what you said last time.” Dean pointed out. “Welcome back.”
“Tell me you have coffee. If you don’t have coffee, I’m disowning you.” She finally made it all the way through the door, and closed it softly behind her. She left the sunglasses on, even though it wasn’t exactly bright in the room.
Dean pulled the sunglasses off for her, realizing that seeing probably wasn’t the easiest thing in the world when you’re hungover and wearing sunglasses in a dark room. And he was remembering all of the times she’d done it in the past that had ended up with her tripping over something and falling over. “Don’t worry, I’m prepared. I’m always prepared. It’s the boy scout motto.”
“You were never a boy scout.” Grace narrowed her eyes at him, and reached over to take her sunglasses back. When he shook his head, she sighed, and gave up. “I was a girl scout, though. I had every badge in the brownie handbook.”
“For some reason, I’m not surprised.” Dean shoved a mug of coffee into her hands, and put the sunglasses safely out of her reach. “Want some toast?”
Grace set her mug down, and jumped up on to the counter. “You’re my favorite twin.”
“Good. Just for that, I’ll actually make the toast for you, instead of handing you the bread and plugging in the toaster.”
“I thought I wasn’t allowed near toasters anymore, anyway, after that last one caught fire.” She still had no clue how it had caught fire. It just did. It was a really old toaster, anyway, and nobody got hurt. Well, nobody except the toaster.
Dean shrugged, and put bread in the toaster. “You’re going to have to figure it out again eventually. You want butter or jelly or both on these?”
“If you’ve got strawberry jelly, both would be awesome.” She really did have the best twin in the world. “Remind me to make you some cookies later, once I feel like I can operate the oven without giving myself some nasty burns.”
“I’ll put a sticky note on the fridge.” Dean held up a container of strawberry jelly almost triumphantly. “Strawberry jelly and butter it is.”
“Hooray.” Grace said it in a monotone, and drank more coffee. “Thanks, Dean.”
There was another shrug, as Dean finished buttering and putting jelly on his sister’s toast. “Yeah, well, can’t have you setting fire to the toaster every time we get a kitchen.” He handed her the plate. “And every time you make yourself toast, it gets soggy. I don’t know how you eat it.”
Grace bit into her toast, and grinned at her brother. “Neither do I. You always get the bread to butter to jelly ratio perfect. I’m never going to be able to eat toast made by anyone else. I’m just going to show up at your doorstep every time I want some.”
Dean smirked, and bit into his own slice of toast. “What makes you think I’ll keep making it?”
“You can’t say no to me.” It was Grace’s turn to shrug, and she took another bite of her toast.
“Yeah, you just keep thinking that.”
“Oh, don’t worry, I will.”