1. Hug - Stan and Simon make a promise.
AU - ??? (Mystery BAU; cont. of shrunk Stan)
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5
“And that’s all you remember?”
Stan, sitting on the desk at only a few inches tall, nodded as he looked up at his towering big brother. Simon had always been the tall one, but this…
“That’s everything.” Stan’s hands wrung at the sleeves of his shirt as he hugged his knees close. “I dunno how this happened, I dunno why…”
The crack in Stan’s tiny voice as he trailed off made Simon’s heart sink. Ever since they lost their parents, it had been up to him to take care of his young brothers. He thought he could handle that, had been handling it for years now. Nothing could have prepared him for this.
Slowly, Simon lifted his hands back into Stan’s line of sight. The kid’s shoulders tensed up at first, but he looked up to see Simon’s eyes were glued to him. He’d never overlook Stan, no matter how small he was, and all he had to do was tell Simon to get away and he would stop.
Right now, though, all Stan wanted and needed was his big brother.
So Stan allowed Simon’s hands to close in and gently scoop him off the desk, uncurling his body to make things easier. As jarring as all this was, he trusted the fingers he was leaning back on. Even if they happened to be bigger than Stan now.
For just one second, Stan could swear he saw a crack in Simon’s facade; the slightest twitch of his lips, a few blinks that happened too close together. Miniscule details that Stan might have overlooked before all this.
Then, a little faster yet no less gentle, Simon drew his hands close, lightly pressing Stan over his heart.
“It’s gonna be okay,” Simon whispered, the resonance through his chest coupled with the sudden movement making Stan stiffen from head to toe. It was a very different feeling than anything he’d experienced before, and when Simon <i>wasn’t</i> talking, his heart plodded along somewhere within. “Whatever this is, we’ll figure it out. I’m not going anywhere, none of us are. Alright?”
As he listened, Stan found himself melting against Simon’s chest until all tension was gone. The warmth and softness of Simon’s shirt, the sound of his heartbeat… As alien as it all felt at this scale, this was safety.
Stan gave a yelp and Simon’s hand dipped all of a sudden as a newfound weight bore down on it. They exchanged a look to find that Stan was gaining inches rather quickly. Soon, one hand was not enough to hold the kid up. Reflex caused Simon to wrap his arms around Stan once he was able to, preventing him from falling in the midst of all this change. Simon was twice as thankful that he’d been sitting in a chair for this, or else Stan’s sudden weight in his arms might have knocked him over.
By the end of it, Stan came to stop at his regular size, lanky legs dangling over the edge of the chair. They sat in stunned silence before simultaneously hugging each other tight. Stan couldn’t be more thankful for Simon’s help and support, but they both had a feeling this wasn’t the end of it.
They were proven correct when, sometime after dinner, Stan once again found himself less than four inches tall.
