tebtosca: (Sam and Dean S8 walk away)
[personal profile] tebtosca
Springfling reveal time! Did anyone guess this was mine??


Title: Set Out Running
Pairing: Sam/Jensen
Rating: R
Word Count: 729
Warnings: S8 AU fix-it fic (kinda)

Summary: Sam hits a dog, but it's never really about that.

Author's Notes: Written for [livejournal.com profile] spnspringfling as a gift for [livejournal.com profile] annie46! Special thanks to the lovely mods for running this great challenge, and to [livejournal.com profile] fiercelynormal for the quickie midnight beta.

This was written an hour before the deadline on Kat's iPad from a hotel room at #Vegascon while I was drunk on JDM's pheromones. So make of that what you will :P




Sam hits a dog, but it's never really about that.

After the vet stops yelling at him, he asks Sam why he's staring.

The name tag on the vet's white coat says "Dr. Ackles" but all Sam knows is this man is wearing his brother's face.

The vet places the dog in Sam's arms. Up close like this, Sam can see the shadow of every freckle. Sees the line of them across the bridge of the vet's nose, but also sees where they stop whereas Dean's continue across the tops of his cheeks like the stroke of a paintbrush.

So not Sam's brother's face at all, and yet.

Sam holds the dog but doesn't stop staring.

==

Jensen likes tequila and strawberry jelly beans and celery sticks slathered in peanut butter. He drives an old Hyundai with a radio tuned to 80s synth rock and wears pale pink button ups under his white vet coat.

There are no salt lines in his path.

No, not Sam's brother at all, and yet.

==

Sam spends seventy-four days, sixteen hours, and twenty-seven minutes in his dead brother's car with his palms over the echo of handprints on his dead brother's steering wheel.

He hits a dog and sees a missing swath of freckles that make him take his hands off that wheel.

After Dr. Ackles stops yelling and Sam stops staring, the words leave Sam's mouth unbidden.

"Have dinner with me tomorrow."

==

"I'm not really good at this relationship thing," Jensen says, sipping his Merlot as he looks at Sam over the light of a candle melting red into the table.

My brother is dead and I am alone but you look so much like him that you make my soul ache, is what Sam thinks in reply.

"I understand," are the words that come out of Sam's mouth instead.

Jensen puts the wineglass down and takes Sam's hand in his. His fingers are smooth and graceful and not calloused at all.

"I think you just might, Sam. I think you just might."

==

Sam tries to stop thinking, and it almost works.

In the soft moonlight of the bedroom, Sam explores the slope of Jensen's back with his eyes. Freckles across the sharpness of shoulder blades, pale skin covering the staccato dips of vertebrae.

No scars, at least not on the outside.

"Hey, babe," Jensen will awaken later, face slack and skin warm with sleep. He'll smile a lazy smile, full pink mouth curling up at the edges in greeting.

He'll slink down Sam's body and put the full pink mouth around Sam's cock, suckling and tonguing and pulling deep into his throat until Sam wraps his hands around his head just to have something to cling to as he falls into the abyss.

The full pink mouth is not Sam's brother's mouth, and yet.

==

The "relationship thing" takes the shape of Jensen's high school sweetheart. His name is Matt and he has bright blue eyes and dog tags around his neck and shrapnel in his leg from war.

Sam respects veterans and all they've seen. Thinks about grizzled faces and the end of a bottle and the sweat-dampened sheets from fire-tinged terror.

He thinks about Dean.

When that happens, he can no longer look at the face that is not his brother's face, and he gets in the car to start the interrupted twenty-eighth minute of the sixteenth hour of the seventy-fourth day.

Jensen's arms are already wrapping around the love that he lost, even as Sam drives with the ghost of his own.

==

Dean comes back to him, the echo of handprints on the steering wheel no longer an echo at all.

"Did you even look for me, Sam?"

For seventy-four days, sixteen hours, and twenty-seven minutes, I ached for you. In every moment after, I ache for you still, is what Sam thinks in reply.

"I hit a dog," are the words that come out of Sam's mouth instead.

"Was there a girl?"

Sam thinks of strawberry jelly beans and freckled shoulder blades and full pink mouths in the hazy blush of daybreak. Thinks of his brother's face that was not his face but was the only face that Sam had left. The face Sam's brother will never be able to understand or forgive.

"You left me to die for a girl."

And yet.

Date: 2015-03-31 02:51 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] souslelys.livejournal.com
GOSH! I love this so much. Sam's so lost, comparing Jensen to his big brother and gah all the beautiful longing in this fic.

Sees the line of them across the bridge of the vet's nose, but also sees where they stop whereas Dean's continue across the tops of his cheeks like the stroke of a paintbrush.

Such a beautiful picture.

Excuse me while I prefer this to S8 forever.

Date: 2015-04-04 08:17 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] tebtosca.livejournal.com
Thank you, my dear! So glad you liked it! And, yes, preferable to S8 for sure lol

Date: 2015-03-31 02:59 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] ash48.livejournal.com
Oh good god. Just kill me why don't ya.

Achy in the best possible way.

Jensen's arms are already wrapping around the love that he lost

*guh*

Date: 2015-04-04 08:17 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] tebtosca.livejournal.com
Thanks, bb! So happy you enjoyed it <3

Date: 2015-03-31 03:22 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] ephermeralk.livejournal.com
I really enjoyed this one, girl!

Date: 2015-04-04 08:17 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] tebtosca.livejournal.com
Thank you, bb! <3

Date: 2015-03-31 03:31 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] deirdre-c.livejournal.com
SO GREAT!!! So much OH SAM. OH DEAN. (plus, you made cherie's head explode, which is always a good thing)

I am suspicious about this "Matt" fellow though. AU Jared (who strongly resembles Sam, except with a strange bob haircut) is going to have to have a word with him.

You are glorious!! *___*

Date: 2015-04-04 08:18 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] tebtosca.livejournal.com
AU Jared with a BOB hahahah, you have ruined this fic for me because now this is my new headcanon :D

love you, bud <3

Date: 2015-03-31 03:58 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] madebyme-x.livejournal.com
Awesome!!! This was one of my highlights, I loved what you did with this pairing and the 'fix it' vibe you gave it just worked for me. Thank you, it's a gift to us all :)

Date: 2015-04-04 08:18 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] tebtosca.livejournal.com
So glad you enjoyed it, thank you! <3

Date: 2015-03-31 05:12 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] reddevilpoes.livejournal.com
this is sheer genius! It rips my heart to shreds.

Date: 2015-04-04 08:19 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] tebtosca.livejournal.com
Thank you! And I'm sorry for ripping your heart haha <3

Date: 2015-03-31 05:33 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] amberdreams.livejournal.com
never guessed, but I am notoriously bad at the guessing game - loved this one though...

Date: 2015-04-04 08:19 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] tebtosca.livejournal.com
Haha glad it was a surprise! Thanks, bb <3

Date: 2015-03-31 07:03 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] elwarre.livejournal.com
oh hun. oh. can this be my new s8 headcanon, please?

Date: 2015-04-04 08:19 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] tebtosca.livejournal.com
This should be everyone's new S8 headcanon lol

thanks bb <3

Date: 2015-03-31 07:45 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] gorkonelka.livejournal.com
this is just too good to be only on paper. I need flashback ep like this one :)

Date: 2015-04-04 08:19 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] tebtosca.livejournal.com
haha that would be one hell of a flashback :P

Thanks for reading <3

Date: 2015-03-31 11:45 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] fiercelynormal.livejournal.com
Such a beautiful, hurty fic. You'd never know you were under the influence of JDM's pheremones! <33

Date: 2015-04-04 08:20 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] tebtosca.livejournal.com
thank you for letting me borrow your iPad and listening to me cry in my bathrobe lolol <33

Date: 2015-04-01 12:11 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] qafaddiction.livejournal.com
this was kind of bleak and heartwarming at the same time; a melancholy combo

i don't know how one could write fic after seeing j3 in person, because one would, of course, be dead

Date: 2015-04-04 08:20 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] tebtosca.livejournal.com
melancholy, indeed! Glad you liked it, bb <3

Date: 2015-04-01 12:25 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] cassiopeia7.livejournal.com
I love you FOREVER for writing this. Seriously, it's perfect and you may have single-handedly fixed my major issue with S8. FABULOUS job!! ♥

Date: 2015-04-04 08:21 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] tebtosca.livejournal.com
haha it was my own fix-it fic for S8 too, so I feel you, bb! Love ya girl, and thanks for the rec when it was still anonymous! <3

#SunshineAndErection & SpringFling Recs

Date: 2015-04-01 10:41 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] livejournal.livejournal.com
User [livejournal.com profile] souslelys referenced to your post from #SunshineAndErection & SpringFling Recs (http://souslelys.livejournal.com/43638.html) saying: [...] adore post-apocalyptic stories and I adore this wonderfully written one <3 Set Out Running [...]

Date: 2015-04-08 12:27 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] dawnstarrising.livejournal.com
I much prefer this version! The whole first half of season 8 made me grit my teeth.

Date: 2015-04-08 01:09 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] amypond45.livejournal.com
Oh man, I could swear I already read this and left a gushing comment but here I am again SO DAMN GLAD I read this and here's me gushing: I LOVE THIS! Any time there's loss and a "ghost" of one of them and angst and longing and one of them missing the other one I'm a desperately happy puppy -- and you fixed Season 8 too! Thank you!

Date: 2015-04-08 02:56 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] emmatheslayer.livejournal.com
This was wonderful and so amazingly written excellent job so tragic and I just love it

Date: 2015-04-08 03:18 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] jj1564.livejournal.com
I've always fast-forwarded any of the honey-toned scenes with Sam and Amelia, and now I can fast forward while thinking of this instead! So beautifully sad, just perfect, loved this line, poor Sammy...

"My brother is dead and I am alone but you look so much like him that you make my soul ache."
Edited Date: 2015-04-08 03:18 pm (UTC)

Date: 2015-04-09 02:53 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] nindevotee.livejournal.com
Yeah, I never understood the whole Amelia thing. Sam had better chemistry with a rock. My favorite person for Sam was Sarah. That aside I do prefer Jensen to Amelia. Awesome take.

Date: 2015-04-09 02:54 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] runedgirl.livejournal.com
And yet..... I love the economy of words, and how well they packed a punch. Also? Good times :)

Date: 2015-08-14 04:08 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] quickreaver.livejournal.com
I don't remember if I caught this during the fling, but I've sure as hell caught it now! Dammit, you can do so much in such a short span. Brilliantly sad!

Date: 2015-08-14 05:37 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] sandymg.livejournal.com
Oh, wow. That was just gorgeous.

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