Hiya! So... Ficlets? :D I'd love to see some little kid Sam and kid Dean stuff, if you do that? I have this headcanon that Dean would always scope out the public library and take Sam there whenever possible, so that he could read to him, because Sam was always so invested in reading. I dunno, just a thought. Thanks!
A/N: Okay, I don’t write kids very often, so sorry if this sucks? But it’s a cute idea! Thank you :-)
The library was close to closing--they kept making those damn announcements, but Dean was less than a quarter of the way through reading this book to Sam. Wasn’t his kind of thing, talking animals and stuff, but Sam kept leaning over his arm to look at the page like he was looking at the TV or something, like he could look at the words and listen to Dean read and it was just as good as watching a movie. He was a weird kid, but if he kept that up, he was going to be smart as hell. Smarter than Dean ever had a chance to be.
So when they finally started shutting off the library lights, Dean stopped reading, keeping an eye on the front desk while he fished around in his pocket. They weren’t gonna have another chance, probably. They’d already been in this town longer than usual.
“Why’d you stop reading? What happened? We have to finish it before they kick us out, Dean!”
Dean shushed him and pulled out his pocket knife, gesturing toward the desk and the young woman working there. She was the one making the announcements, probably one of just a few people working there.
“Got a job for you, Sammy. I need you to go tell that nice librarian that you left your backpack upstairs and you need help finding it.”
“But my backpack is right here,” Sam protested.
“Yeah, I know that, and you know that, but she doesn’t know that. I just want you to play pretend for a while. Gotta trust me, alright? Just get her to take you upstairs and pretend to look for the backpack for a few minutes.”
Sam frowned, not convinced, and still not happy about the story being interrupted, but he knew Dean always had a plan when he asked him to do things like this. Usually Dean’s plans ended up getting them something good in the end.
Dean kicked Sam’s backpack out of the way and ducked behind a shelf as Sam ran over to the desk. Didn’t need the librarian noticing him there and telling Sam to get his brother to help him. Let Sam handle her--he was good with people. They liked him. Didn’t get the whiff of delinquent from him they got from Dean.
Most of the time, the little magnetic strip was somewhere between the pages of a book but sometimes... There. It was an older copy, the spine just a little separated from the binding, and that’s where the security strip was. Dean dug it out carefully, trying not to damage the book too bad when he jammed the blade under the little piece of plastic. He couldn’t help cutting the spine pretty deep, but nothing a little duct tape wouldn’t fix.
He stuffed the book in the waistband of his pants, under his jacket--Sammy might find it and blow the whole game if he put it in the backpack--and headed toward the front doors.
“Hey, Sammy!” he called up the stairs. “We gotta let these nice people close up. Come on, I got your backpack.”
“But Dean!” Sammy shouted as he came back down, the librarian following with an indulgent smile on her face, “we didn’t finish the story!”
“Don’t worry, little bro. We’ll come back tomorrow, okay? You just gotta be patient."
Sam frowned again as he shrugged his backpack on and walked toward the front door. He knew not to argue, but he didn’t think they were coming back. They hardly ever got to come back.
Dean just gave the librarian a grin and followed his little brother out, book still secure against his back. They might be stuck in the car by first thing tomorrow, driving away down the road to the next hotel or, if they were lucky, to Bobby’s to stay for a while, but either way, Sam was gonna know how the story ended.
He was a smart kid. He wanted books; Dean was gonna make sure he had them.