Morning Shorts: Sharp as a Knife (SPN)

[mhalachai]

Going to start a new thing, Morning Shorts. I write these in the hour before I go to work. I'm going to count them as a writing exercise. Not sure how many I'll do, but at least they have a name now.

Sharp as a Knife
A Supernatural story
by mhalachaiswords

Disclaimer: Supernatural belongs to the CW and those nice folks. No profit has been made from this fic, and the only benefit to me is personal satisfaction and the creative process. I hope you enjoy.
Genre: Gen, oneshot, Dean-erific
Rating: PG for swearing
Words: 413
Spoilers: Set early season one, no mention of anything after the pilot. However, if you read this with season two in mind, you'll come to an interesting conclusion at the end.
Note: This occurred to me yesterday in my art class, while I was painting a lovely mountain scene. Instead of writing meta, I wrote fic, as I am wont to do.

~~~~~~

Dean had walked into Stanford, prepared to find his brother gone soft, lost his edge, that hunger that made a hunter.

He wasn't prepared to find Samuel Winchester more dangerous than ever.

When they were growing up, Dean kept an eye on Sam, just like Dad ordered him. Sam was little, so he needed someone to protect him. Then Sam shot up like a beanstalk, gangly and awkward, but even as a teenager, he'd still had that softness to him. Dad was forever trying to beat it out of him. But Sam was smart and quick on his feet, and he got the job done.

Before he left for college, when he was training every day, Sam was at least as good as Dean at hunting (not that Dean would ever admit that to Sam). They were Winchesters, just like the gun, Dad used to say. Deadly, efficient.

When Dean walked into Stanford, he'd expected to find his brother rusty, more a danger to himself than anything.

He wasn't prepared to find Sam more like their father than ever.

Dean didn't understand it. He'd been forced to take a 'vacation' the previous winter, when he'd broken his arm pretty badly. After a week without exercise, without target practice, his reflexes had dulled. It had taken him two weeks of hard work to get back to where he'd been before the accident.

Sam, on the other hand, was still razor-sharp after being out of the game for four years. Fighting reflexes, aim, speed, all better then they had been before Sam bailed on the family. Sam said he hadn't told Jess about his former life. Was he sneaking out of their bed at dawn every morning to get in a little pre-class knife-throwing practice? Heading to the shooting range while Jess thought he was studying?

Dean meant to ask Sam about it, but then Jess died and it was a bad time to be asking how Sam had been hiding part of his life from his dead girlfriend.

True, it was less work for Dean if he didn't have to worry about fighting evil and saving Sammy from himself.

He told himself that he wasn't upset that Sammy didn't need him any more.

He told himself that he wasn't worried at what kind of crap Sam must have been pulling at Stanford to keep his skills up.

Mostly, he told himself that he wasn't worried at how much like their father Sam had become.

--end

Comments

[jessara40k.livejournal.com]

Wow, that was great. What else can I say?

[morgie.livejournal.com]

I approve of morning shorts!

[fufumira.livejournal.com]

I have to say I am not really into Supernatural... but just recently figured out who played who... Wow was I picturing the wrong faces. Still love your fic.

[azraelz-angel.livejournal.com]

You know you bring up a valid point. Sam did seem awfully ready when Dean came to get him... I think I'm going to like these morning shorts. :)

[mhalachaiswords.livejournal.com]

:D Thanks! Sometimes I just need to address these little ideas that come to me, without making big fics from them. It's more interesting this way.

[mhalachaiswords.livejournal.com]

Thanks! I contemplated working on one of the WIPs, but I find that when I only have an hour, I can't get into the story as much. Here, I write a whole story and I'm done and can go to work with a clear mind.

Plus, making a pun on underwear in relation to the SPN boys was too cute to pass up.

[mhalachaiswords.livejournal.com]

hey, before I started watching, I was convinced that Dean was Sam... I think it's the mental association I have of the actor who plays Dean being on Days of Our Lives, and his character had a sibling called Sam.

[mhalachaiswords.livejournal.com]

I speak from experience when I say that if you don't use a physical skill (running, throwing, whatever), you lose the edge very quickly. That's why we practice.

yet Sammy was all up on being hunter-boy, ya know.

I'm sure there's a pile of first season meta out there, but I didn't get into the show until a month ago and I have no idea where to look for early meta. So I'll make my own :P

[fufumira.livejournal.com]

For me it's coz Sam played Dean on Gilmore Girls.

[tthjinni.livejournal.com]

That was beautiful.

[(Anonymous)]

Hey, I approve of anything that gives us more Mhalachai fic.

-- Guile

[mhalachaiswords.livejournal.com]

Thanks :) I have a few unanswered questions, that I'll probably have to put into fic form. Next up might be why Dean was so close to pull Sammy from the fire, minutes *after* he drove away in the pilot.

Unless the answer is that Dean is a stalker. Which might be it too.

[tthjinni.livejournal.com]

Do you have the s1 discs?

[mhalachaiswords.livejournal.com]

I do. Was it addressed in there?

[tthjinni.livejournal.com]

Yep.

I wish I could find my DVD player remote so I could tell you which one it is...

But what you want is the long deleted scene from the Pilot, the one that starts out looking just like the scene did in the Pilot where Dean drops Sammy back off at the house. The stuff they deleted was pretty key to explaining why Dean was all of a sudden THERE to rescue Sammy.

[gwionfawyr.livejournal.com]

*bows in awe and humbleness at your story-telling abilities.* Damn it, now I have to go watch SPN.

[mhalachaiswords.livejournal.com]

Okay, good. I'll look at those when I get home. And here I was, thinking it was come kind of conspiracy, as opposed to a time limit :D

So, I haven't seen last night's ep yet: On a scale of 10, how would you say it ranked?

[mhalachaiswords.livejournal.com]

Hell, *I* want to watch SPN and I'm still at work. I think they'd frown on that. (Even if the download speed here is phat)

Glad you liked!

[mhalachaiswords.livejournal.com]

As do I :)

[tthjinni.livejournal.com]

LoL. Yeah, it was a time limit thing. And the missing scene makes it all make sense, actually.

Last night's episode? Well, that was a 9, easily. One of my most favoritest yet. *grins*

[mhalachaiswords.livejournal.com]

Oh man... I'm not going to have a chance to watch it until late tonight. The fact that I'm impatient for that makes me realize exactly how fangirly I'm being.

*sigh* Oh, those boys.

[tthjinni.livejournal.com]

And BTW, rewatching the beginning of the Pilot right now - and you were spot on with what you wrote. No way in hell Sam kept that edge without practicing, training.

Did you notice when he's packing his bag to go with Dean, he's putting a knife in the bag? He kept his weapons. Sammy didn't give it up. Not completely.

[tthjinni.livejournal.com]

You'll enjoy it. Alot. You'll be tempted to murmur "Oh, boys" more than once.

[mhalachaiswords.livejournal.com]

I was about to say that I read a very interesting fic recently where we see that Sam keeps up his old ways, like this time he was at a huanted house... and I the I realized it was yours. Can you tell it's Friday?

It's interesting how Sam was always saying he wanted a normal life, but really, he wanted something he'd never known. Can you think that someone like Sam would have not gone in to help people? Would have stood idly by when danger was afoot? No way. That's not John Winchester's boy. And no matter how much Sam might object to the title, he really is his father's son.

K, time to bail from work. TGIF.

[tthjinni.livejournal.com]

I was about to say that I read a very interesting fic recently where we see that Sam keeps up his old ways, like this time he was at a huanted house... and I the I realized it was yours. Can you tell it's Friday?

Thanks. That had me cackling out loud. Scared the hell out of one of my cats. Glad that the fic was memorable enough to stay with you. *giggles some more*

[neviditelny.livejournal.com]

*loves you*

And Sam was awful prepared, wan't he?

[penyn-1600.livejournal.com]

God I love Dean. And it's true, Sam is becoming somewhat like John, at times.

[goddessvicky.livejournal.com]

oh you know how it is. Dean knew he would have to give it another go with little Bro. He wasn't going to be alone. He doesn't know how to be alone yet. He's too attached. At first it was to John, now it's to Sam. The boy would be lost...

[quicksilvereyes.livejournal.com]

Me too!

[quicksilvereyes.livejournal.com]

I really like these little insights into the characters' minds. They really flesh them out ;)

[mhalachaiswords.livejournal.com]

Sam *was* awful prepared. As if he expected the worst to occur.

Or else he just missed the killing.

Or Dean.

Or else he just thinks it's cool.

I dunno. But really? Don't care :P

[mhalachaiswords.livejournal.com]

Dean is just so *broken* and he needs a hug. Or his daddy. He's like 8, intellectually, and there's nothing that will fix that.

Poor Dean.

And Sam = John in so many scary ways. Only not in that "Will go to the Dark Side" in that Luke Skywalker =! Anikin Skywalker way.

One day, I'll write that Sam=Luke meta.

One day.

[mhalachaiswords.livejournal.com]

Glad you like it :) I like to examine these missing scenes, the ones that "might have been"

Plus, SPN is rock.

[penyn-1600.livejournal.com]

Sam=Luke...that's an apt comparison, now that you mention it.

Poor Dean. I think he's just built up this idea of family in his head and now he's losing everyone he cares the most about one by one (not that he had many people to begin with). I don't know what he would do if he lost Sam.

[jaydeyn-sitari.livejournal.com]

Ooh, very nice point about Sammy. And you're right, I don't see him giving up completely on the hunt, not when he can help people. :) Even when he was all scholarly.

:)
Jaydeyn

[alydhe.livejournal.com]

I have no idea who these people are but the fic is good. I especially liked the line:

He told himself that he wasn't upset that Sammy didn't need him any more.

*melt*

BTW, did you catch any of the House marathon today? I'd never seen House before today but I've very much fallen in love with it. ^___^ Yay House/Wilson!

[mhalachaiswords.livejournal.com]

I figure that he was training all the time, calling it exercise or whatever for Jess, but can you see Sam letting those skills slide? Even if he'd left that life behind? Nuh-uh.

[mhalachaiswords.livejournal.com]

Glad you liked it, even if you know not the fandom. Supernatural is love.

Didn't catch the show -- I don't have cable. But you've inspired me to ask if any of my friends have the DVDs so I can start at the beginning :P

[alydhe.livejournal.com]

Glad to be your inspiration! And you should, itsogood. ^__^ The last episode they showed on the marathon was the one where House was shot twice by a former patient. My heart was in my throat for half the darn episode. lol.

[emony2.livejournal.com]

Ok, so that last line: Mostly, he told himself that he wasn't worried at how much like their father Sam had become. - was a total killer. Lovely piece.

Em