Glitter (SPN fic)

[Sawyer]

More from the meme! There will be some spoilers for episode 7.14! Since it was sort of a filler episode there really aren't spoilers for any major plot stuff in the show, but I know that some people can be really spoiler-sensitive so I thought I'd warn just in case!

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Prompt from ladykorana: Between the stress of seeing Lucifer everywhere and managing his fear of clowns, it's no wonder Sam managed to pick up a good case of the sniffles from all the little kids running around Plucky's.

The illness doesn't really hit him full force until they're heading out after it's all over. At which point, every time Sam sneezes, glitter goes flying everywhere!

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With a grunt and a heavy sigh, Sam exits the car and lifts his hands, making circular motions in the air with his fingers.

“Let’s roll,” he says to Dean, his words slurred and followed by another exhausted sigh. His voice is sounding rougher now, rougher than it had been this morning when he’d mentioned a sore throat in passing during breakfast and ordered tea instead of coffee.

Dean gives him a once-over, taking in his glitter-soaked appearance. Sparkles in his combat-mussed hair, gathered especially down the part in the middle, and covering the entire front of his jacket and down his sleeves, shining and glimmering and shedding and making him feel like some sort of beaten up fairy every time he moved.

Sam lifts his arms and purses his lips, sheepish and embarrassed but so full of adrenaline and relief that he feels almost emotionally invincible. “Go ahead. Say it.”

As if he’s granting permission Sam drops his arms and Dean laughs the millisecond they’re at his sides. It’s full-bodied, uncontrolled, and tumbling out of him, suggesting raw joy and amusement that’s so contagious it makes Sam’s lips quirk upward too, even though he keeps his head bowed.

“I’m sorry,” Dean wheezes, holding up a hand and looking away as if the laughter is actually hurting his abdomen. “You look like you got attacked… by some PCP-crazed strippers…” He laughs through the last word, too, and Sam smiles and finally looks up.

“Dude one of ‘em… sprayed me with seltzer from his… flower…”

And Dean’s at it again, struggling to get words through the waves of laughter but Sam smiles too, because he can’t even count how long it’s been since he’s seen his brother laugh – or even smile – like this, and even though it’s at his expense this time he tells his brother to “carry on”.

“Sam,” Dean says finally; once he’s calmed, and goes on to apologize “for psychologically scarring you”, and takes the blame for the onset of Sam’s clown phobia.

“You know, honestly,” Sam responds, crossing his hands and puffing out his chest, “getting my ass kicked by those juggalos tonight was, uh. It was therapeutic.”

“You faced your fear,” Dean adds.

“Exactly,” Sam agrees, lifting his arms once more, as a gesture of airiness and freedom. “And now what else could a clown possibly ever do to me? I feel good.”

And he does, aside from the scratchy ache in his throat, bruises on his limbs, tickling in his lungs and nose, and the uncomfortable, sterile itchiness of the glitter on his skin.

*

It’s not five minutes after they’ve driven off, with Dean’s new rainbow slinky in the backseat and the Plucky doll that had been ironically tossed at Sam sitting discarded in the parking lot, when Sam starts to cough. Some glitter falls from his shoulders when they jerk, sprinkling the passenger seat.

“You alright?” Dean asks.

“Yeah,” Sam chokes. “Yeah, I’mb good. Thindk I mbight have indhaled sombe of it.” Now that the adrenaline from the fight has worn off, he can feel the inside of his face being taken over by the congestion. It’s claustrophobic and stuffy feeling. He clears his throat.

“Well here,” Dean says, and without taking his eyes off the road he reaches into the backseat and produces a half-empty bottle of Mountain Dew. “Take a drink.”

“Thangks.” The soda is flat and tastes like liquid candy, the sweetness burning Sam’s throat in a way that makes him wince. He’s not sure if this was Dean’s bottle or his own just a few days ago, but he doesn’t give it back out of consideration for Dean’s own health.

“HuhhTSSHISHHHhuh!” Before he even feels it coming, the sneeze explodes out of him, rocking him forward. His hair is in his eyes and it’s practically dripping glitter, a curtain of sparkles surrounding his face. “Hih! Hpt’CHSHCHEW! Uh.”

Dean turns to him, likely with a blessing on his tongue, but those thoughts fall quickly and he grins instead. “Dude,” he says. “Check it out. It’s like we’re at a Kesha concert.”

Sam peeks out from beneath his bangs and sees a cloud of glitter slowly deflating in front of him, floating onto the upholstery and the floor. He breathes out through his mouth and straightens painfully.

“It’s ind mby hair,” he complains half-heartedly, resisting running a hand through it because that would only leave his hair in worse shape and give him a hand covered in glitter.

Dean chuckles. “Alright, calm down, Princess. First decent hotel we find, we’ll stop and you’re taking a shower. Take it from me, that stuff is not easy to get out.”

“Eht’ISSSCHew! Sniff! Gross, Deand.”

“You know, Sammy, just a couple nights in Vegas and — hey, what’s wrong? You sure you’re okay?”

“Uh-huh.” Sam’s rubbing at his temples and sniffling almost pitifully, still taking in short breaths through his mouth. “Just a headache.”

“Man, those circus freaks got you good, huh?”

Sam huffs but he doesn’t answer, and instead rifles through the glove compartment, his sleeves shedding glitter with each movement. He comes out of his search empty-handed, and has less than a second before he’s forced to resort to twisting away from Dean and aiming sneezes into his sleeve.

“HehhMMPTSCHHEW! ISSHhh! ITSCHHhuh!”

There’s glitter decorating the passenger window now, and Sam can feel it peppering his cheeks from the way his hair aggressively brushes against his face, emitting sparkly puffs each time his head would bobs.

Sam sniffles and clears his throat. “We have ady tissues?”

Dean looks pensive for a moment, and then he speaks, his tone apologetic. “Don’t think so. But here,” he grabs a bandana and drops it in Sam’s lap, “this should do until I can get us a room.”

Sam blows his nose and says, “Thingk I got sombethindg fromb onde of the kids at Plucky’s.”

“Yeah, sounds like it,” Dean agrees. “Not surprising; you haven’t been sleeping much lately. And what with the stress from the whole clown thing…”

“NgTSCCHHEW! TSSSCH! Shut—huhISHHheh!—shut up.”

“Bless you. Want me to stop at a drugstore?”

“N – huh! – ndot yet. Sniff! It’s too late adyway. I cad wait undtil tomborrow.”

“You’re gonna be a mess tomorrow.”

Sam doesn’t argue.

Edited April 10, 2013 by Sen Beret

[stephab13]

Oh, gosh. It's so nice to get a lighter story :-) And that image... LOVE it. Awesome prompt, awesome fill!

[iluvsneezes]

Omg, I love this!! You have to write some more.

[shingetsu]

*fangirl squee* This is fantabulastic! I can just about imagine all the glitter...EVERYWHERE! Awww..poor Sammy. I loved how Dean gave him the banadana though. I loved...pretty much everything about this fic.

[SpookyScarySkeleton]

Ok continue ur one of my fav writers ok?? Update for me c: thank you

[Skyler]

Dean looks pensive for a moment, and then he speaks, his tone apologetic. “Don’t think so. But here,” he grabs a bandana and drops it in Sam’s lap, “this should do until I can get us a room.”

I honestly thought it said banana for a moment there... I was in creases!

[Sawyer]

Aww! Thank you guys so so much! You are the reassooonnn I write this stuff!

And yes, oh man, originally it DID say "banana" but I added the D in there as quickly as I could once TG pointed it out! How embarrassing! But also really funny when you imagine him just dropping a banana into Sam's lap. Oh my god.

[ID2006]

This is AMAZING, and when I saw this prompt I was totally thinking, this is screaming for a Kesha comment from Dean. Spot on, and wonderful job with the research, I really need to revisit this episode.

[Sawyer]

Yes!! Thank you! The Kesha thing, wow, you were thinking it too! How cool!

I think glitter is so pretty, and I love how sparkly Sam looked and how his hair got all messed up from it, oh my god, adorable! So I had to take this! I've also seen that episode a crazy amount of times so I had the ending scene basically memorized which made it a lot easier!

[sneezychick93]

Awesome story so far! Haven't read a story this good in a long time!

[Zwee]

OH SHOOT, GIRL. JUST YOU WAIT TILL I GET ON THE MEME. YOU ARE PERFECT.

[Sawyer]

YOU GUYS THANK YOU UGH WOW <33