FIC: Ketchup and Cheese (gen, implied Sam/Dean, 10x12)

Title: Ketchup and Cheese
Rating: gen
Words: ~450
Notes: on the 10x12 comment meme,amberdreams wrote a prompt which someone should fill for real. I stuck to the beginning of it - the concept of Sam going on the case alone. Also, this is unbetaed, just a quick little thing for the fun of playing 'what if' , no impressive literary intentions.

Summary: If Sam had the conversation at the bar, how might he have told the story?

"To fucked up childhoods", she says.

They clink.

" My brother, he -" Sam continues, hesitates. When he speaks again, his voice is deeper, eyes lost in a memory she can tell she's only getting the cleaned up version of. That's OK, it's not like he's getting the full versions of hers. "O ur dad dropped us off for a few hours, took him a week to stumble back" Sam grimaces, as if he isn't going through his second whiskey with her with the sun not even halfway down. She wonders, for a moment, whether he has kids of his own waiting at some crappy motel. "A friend of the family came all the way from Dakota to get him straight".


She doesn't say "wish I had a friend of the family to come get me back then".

"We only had a bunch of boxes of macaroni and cheese, and I wouldn't eat it. So he – my brother - he went into a McDonald's and grabbed" - he digs his hands into an imaginary container, fingers stretched wide, holding up with cheeky pride a huge amount of "- all the ketchup he could hold". For a moment, his dimples show. "Left a trail of ketchup packets all the way back to our room. And he made something he called Hot Blooded" -

"Like the song? Cause it was red ?"

"Yeah" his smile widens but his eyes are lowered and soft, like he finds it ridiculous, and disgusting, but will personally punch anyone who made fun . "Red, spicy. It was basically mac 'n cheese swimming in ketchup, but he insisted it was something completely new. And I ate it. And for days he practiced squirting ketchup at my head whenever I got out of the shower"

She laughs. "That sounds disgusting".

"You should have tasted his macaroni and cheese and marshmallow fluff. He didn't take out the cheese flavoring"

"Yup, gross"

He seems on the brink of protesting, but concedes. "It was. But, my brother. You know" his voice goes rougher, eyes looking away. "He was lookin out for me. I knew it"

She isn't sure what to say. He's telling the story like a funny anecdote, she doesn't know how much to acknowledge the rest. "Did you eat it?"

He nods slowly, eyes far away. "Yeah. Told him it was exotic". He smiles, sad but sweet, as if getting banged up harder made him softer, appeased him about this .

Their eyes meet, and for a second he's with her, she can see what he's like. What he's like for his brother.

She'd loved someone like that once. Three times at least, really. The further down the line you go, the more you have to love to try again.

His phone rings.

"I should go", she says.

10x12 another thing (fidge logic, creepy)

So wait - the whole premise in the beginning, of a monster who takes people and leaves behind their clothes.
Why.
Why would Hansel stop, in a public place, to strip down unconscious children and leave behind their clothes,
then produce from somewhere age and size appropriate clothes (he'd need to carry a collection) and dress unconscious children on the street - or drag them naked away? WTF?

Why even bother dressing them at all? I mean - they're bad guys, why bother dressing the kids for a day or two only? OK, naked can be very uncomfortable, but why not just take them in their clothes? Particularly since leaving the clothes pints to the disappearance.

Also. Underoos. How does Sam know, and *seriously*, Hansel dressed Dean in underwear? Ick! I'll just hope that was a joke on Sam's part.