Twirl Around And Take A Chance
Series: Fluff Is My Jamstiel
Fandom: Supernatural:
Pairing: Sastimmy/Jamstiel (Jimmy Novak/Sam Winchester/Castiel)
Rating: General to Teen and Up
Tags/Warnings: Witch Sam Winchester, Hunter Novak Brothers, Jimmy and Castiel Are Twins, Brief Allusions to Canon-Typical Violence, Off-Screen Character Death - Tyson Brady, Bones the Dog Returns, Slow Burn
Series Summary: When a young man dies and the grieving family loudly proclaim that their child was killed by a witch, hunters John Castiel and James Constantine Novak are on the case. What they find isn't nearly so simple as a demon-dealing witch killing for power they can gank and be done with it, nor does it make it any easier for the brothers to just move on to the next case. This is the story of how natural witch and herbalist Sam Winchester met the infamous Novak brothers and gave two weary hunters a place to finally call home... but just the fluffy parts.
For: @fluffyfebruary challenge!
Prompt: Day 1: Hello
Read on AO3
WHEN A DEATH attributed to "complications during illness" turned up in the news with the family of the deceased blaming a witch, most people would put it down to the grief and seeking someone to blame for their loss. Most people, however, were not hunters who specialized in tracking down and putting an end to more supernatural predators. When word of the young man, Tyson Brady, and his death being attributed by the family to the work of a witch reached James Constantine Novak and his brother John Castiel Novak agreed that it sounded like their wheelhouse, off they went to Palo Alto, California. They were expecting to find the usual evidence of foul play, hex bags or sigils or even sulfur as usually accompanied cases of death by witch.
They found nothing of the sort, and the interviews only made things more confusing.
"It was pneumonia complicated by anaphylactic shock," the coroner they spoke to said, shaking her head. "More the latter than the former. Damn shame, kid would've recovered from the pneumonia if he hadn't been allergic to yarrow flower."
"Yarrow flower?" Jimmy repeated, glancing at Cas.
"The herbal remedy the kid took for the pneumonia," the coroner said, showing them the portion of the report. "Stuff works a treat so long as you're not allergic to any of the components. The kid had no idea about the allergy, either, 'cause he would've had to disclose known allergies before Wesson would mix up the remedy."
"Wesson?" It was Cas's turn to prompt for more information, returning Jimmy's glance as he did.
"Sam Wesson, the local herbalist," the coroner answered, then frowned at them. "And don't either of you go blaming him for that kid's death, either. He's the one who called the ambulance and tried to stabilize Tyson when he started seizing. Poor guy was a wreck when the kid ended up dying en route, even though it wasn't his fault."
"Family certainly seems to think otherwise," Jimmy couldn't help pointing out. The coroner scoffed.
"Grief will make a perfectly rational person look for the devil under the bed when it's just a creaky floorboard," she said, shaking her head. "Tests don't lie. There was no foul play involved, just illness, allergies, and bad luck."
Bad luck did not exactly rule out foul play when one was dealing with the supernatural, so they were on to interviewing friends of the victim.
"Brady wasn't a victim of anything except his own stupidity," Jessica Moore told them bluntly as she set their ordered coffee down on the table, even managing to put Jimmy's black coffee and Cas's soy mocha with extra whip in front of the correct twin. "He could've gone to Sam ages ago when he just had a cold and gotten fixed right up, but the idiot had to be stubborn and try to power through it with alternating shots of Monster and the knock-off NyQuil because he didn't want to 'be a bother' during finals. Well, now he's dead and we're all very bothered, so great planning there, genius!"
"Mr Brady knew Mr Wesson well, then?" Jimmy asked carefully as he emptied a packet of Stevia into his coffee cup.
"Better than just about anyone else aside from his brother and maybe me," she answered with a shrug. "Those two were friends for years, ever since being assigned as roommates Freshman year."
"Oh my god, they were roommates," Cas intoned in a deadpan. Jessica snorted, then giggled, her face practically lighting up with genuine amusement at the bad meme joke.
"Maybe they could've gone there if Brady wasn't terminally straight," she said. The smile slipped off her face at the oblique reminder that her friend was now terminal in a different sense, but she shook off the melancholy quickly. "Anyway, if Brady had just gone to Sam when he first got sick, we wouldn't be having this conversation because he'd still be alive."
"Mr Brady's family seem to believe Mr Wesson is at fault for their son's death," Jimmy said leadingly, and was treated to a ferocious scowl from the young woman.
"Those people," she snarled, "are some of the worst closed-minded bigots I've ever had the misfortune to throw out of my cafe! They hated Brady attending Stanford, never called except to complain, and actually tried to override Brady's will. The moment they found out Sam's a licensed herbalist who doesn't attend church, he might as well have been Satan himself in their eyes, even though none of us had any idea Brady would have an allergic reaction to Sam's potion!"
"Potion?" Cas repeated, eyes narrowing.
"Brew, tea, tonic, whatever you want to call it," Jessica said irritably. "He knows his herbs and he knows what he's doing. Brady just had to be stubborn and wait until he was about to be hospitalized for freaking pneumonia before he would admit to anyone that he needed help, and he paid the price for it. He's the only one that's actually to blame for his own death in any way, and the sensible people around here all know that."
It was a quiet Castiel who led the way back out of the cafe to their somewhat worse for wear Lincoln Continental, Jimmy at his heels and half distracted by his notes.
"So do we go interview 'Dean Smith' next, or go straight over to Wesson's place?" Jimmy asked when they were in the car with Cas behind the wheel and he still hadn't said anything.
"I'm starting to doubt whether this really is any of our business," Cas admitted, eyes on the space beyond the windshield. "Jessica's testimony matches up with the coroner's report, and her insights into the Brady family..."
"Probably all the more reason to be thorough," Jimmy offered. "I mean, we probably aren't the only hunters who caught wind of this. We should probably get the full picture so we can put the word out one way or the other, and if it turns out there's nothing supernatural going on then we can make sure no hot-headed idiots come storming out here with guns locked and loaded for a guy who works with herbs."
"Probably," Cas agreed. "Alright. Smith next, then?"
They found Dean Smith at an autobody shop advertising a free tire rotation with an oil change. Given that the Lincoln was past due for an oil change by a couple of thousand miles, that seemed the best way to get a lead in to talk to Smith.
It was also where their investigation took a sharp left.
"Stay the hell away from Sammy," Smith growled at them when he slapped the folder with their bill down on the counter.
"Excuse me?" Jimmy blinked, exchanging an uncomfortable glance with Cas. "We're just--"
"A pair of hunters rolling into town because a couple of fundie blowhards started crying 'witch' and it made the papers," Smith interrupted, rolling his eyes at them. "I was all up in the inner workings of your car, boys, I saw the wards you got on her. I know hunters when I see 'em. And I'm telling you now, stay away from Sammy. The kid's already grieving the death of his best friend. He doesn't need you coming up here and running your mouths about witches and evil and making him feel even worse about Ty being a moron."
"We're actually hoping to prove that he wasn't responsible and there wasn't anything supernatural going on," Cas spoke up to Jimmy's surprise, his eyes steady on Smith. They narrowed when Smith grimaced. "But you already know we won't be able to do that."
"Look," Smith sighed, leaning forward on his elbows and staring them down as he lowered his voice. "I'll level with you. There was spellwork going on, what with Sammy's potion in Ty's system trying to wipe out the sickness. Hell, if it had just been a cold instead of pneumonia plus way too much caffeine and shit on top of sleep deprivation 'cause of finals, then Sammy hitting Ty with an EpiPen could've meant he'd have made it to the hospital for the allergic reaction and been cured of everything by the next morning. But it was pneumonia, and he did have a cocktail of bad decisions and no sleep beforehand, so all the EpiPen did was slow the inevitable.
"That ain't on Sammy, though he's still tearing himself up with what ifs and should've knowns no matter how many times me and Jess try to tell him it wasn't his fault," Smith huffed. "He's still hearing that harpy mother of Ty's ranting about godless heathens and bad influences because Ty's will says he wants to be cremated and his ashes planted with a tree here in Palo Alto instead of his body being hauled off to Wichita to be buried like she wants. Not to mention the shit those assholes Walker, Creedy, and Kubrick pulled last year."
Jimmy and Cas exchanged another speaking look. They weren't familiar with Creedy or Kubrick, but Gordon Walker was rather infamous for his extremist views about vampires and his bad habits of using newbie hunters as bait for the covens. There had been more than a few relieved sighs around the Roadhouse when the news hit that he'd been arrested and was being held without bail, and Jimmy was certain it was only a matter of time before he got taken out of the picture entirely.
"Perhaps," Cas said at length, "it would help Mr Wesson to hear from someone who is not a close friend that Mr Brady's death was not his fault."
"And if his - and your - experience with hunters is mainly extremist assholes," Jimmy added, "perhaps it would help for him to meet a couple who understand things like nuances, extenuating circumstances, and shades of gray."
Smith stared them both down for a long moment before he muttered something that sounded like "gonna regret this" and straightened up to his full height. It wasn't that much taller than Jimmy and Cas, but he looked plenty imposing as he folded his arms over his chest. "He won't be at the shop, not today. The funeral's tomorrow so he'll be at home getting Ty's final resting place ready in the garden. Do not take weapons into the garden, period, and if you hurt him I have a sawed off shotgun and plenty of experience of my own disposing of bodies. Capiche?"
"We 'capiche'," Cas nodded. Jimmy paid the bill for the oil change with the cash he had on him, knowing a fake card wouldn't fly with Smith, and accepted the scrap of stained paper with a scrawled out address in return.
"So what do you think?" he asked as he and Cas settled into the Lincoln and Cas turned the key.
"I think Smith did a bit more than change the oil and rotate the tires," Cas said with a head tilt as he listened to the way the engine practically purred to life. "And he undercharged us. 'Smith' probably isn't even his actual name, but he answers to it as if it is so it's been a few years at least since he changed it."
"Since he got out," Jimmy guessed. "You think he was telling the truth about Wesson?"
"I think he believes that he told the truth," Cas temporized. "So did Jessica. Whether or not they really were, I won't know until we talk to Wesson directly."
"Guess that's next?"
"Not quite. First, we should find a deli or something and pick up lunch."
Jimmy stared at his brother for a moment, but Cas didn't say anything else, so Jimmy gamely hauled out his laptop and, with the help of the autoshop's wifi, searched up a list of possible places to get lunch to go. The one Cas chose from the list wasn't one Jimmy would have picked, but then Jimmy figured that his twin knew what he was doing when, after they placed their orders, he added that they would also like "Sam Wesson's usual" to go.
"Oh, are you boys off to see the wizard?" the man behind the counter asked, grinning as if he'd told a joke. The grin faltered a little when Cas just stared flatly at him.
"We're not exactly in the mood for jokes right now, sorry," Jimmy said. "Not exactly the best time, you know?"
"Ah, got'cha," the man winced. "Real shame about Brady. He was good people. Stood up for me as best man at my wedding when my wife won the coin toss for who got Sam, even managed to pull together a decent stag night despite there being just the two of us for it."
"You knew him well?" Jimmy asked when Cas continued to stare. The man shrugged, one hand lifting to waggle back and forth.
"I know Sam, mostly. He introduced me to my wife, and Brady was their friend so we hung out sometimes, but he was pretty focused on med school," the man shook his head. "Funny how someone so dedicated to becoming a nurse could be so careless about his own health."
"Well, I've heard that doctors make the worst patients," Jimmy said with a shrug.
"Yeah, guess so," the man shook his head again, then shook himself a little. "That'll be twenty-three seventy-five. Six minutes, okay?"
The food smelled really good when it was eventually handed over and Cas gave the keys to Jimmy to take his turn driving them out of town and partway up into the mountains, not quite far enough for there to be a lot of trees, but enough that the houses were further apart than most California real estate would allow, even in northern California. Jimmy felt his heart skip a beat as they drove past a house with a covered carport that held a beautifully maintained classic black 1967 Chevy Impala, something about that car tugging at him. From the way Cas turned his head to look back at the car, Jimmy knew his twin felt it, too.
The house for the address scrawled on the dirty paper was one further, practically next door despite the wide lot between them. The lot was far from empty, either, with a low green painted fence topped with poles and trellises practically draped in climbing vines that extended from the side of the house up to barely two feet from the road and back towards what must have been the exact edge of the property line. The inside beyond the fence was an incredible riot of colors with so many different plants arranged in patterns that must only make sense from above, spots here and there where the greenery had overtaken as the flowers were out of season.
"Smith really did mean garden, didn't he," Jimmy whistled, staring at the sight as he pulled the car to a stop in front of the fence, still mostly on the street. He'd be willing to bet the Lincoln that every single one of those plants, even the ones that looked purely ornamental, had some other, more mystical meaning or purpose. Belatedly, he remembered Smith's admonishment against bringing weapons into that same garden and hastily removed his gun and knife to stash them under the seat. When he looked over at Cas, however, his brother was still sitting there staring towards the garden. "Cas...?"
"Can you feel it?" Cas asked, voice hushed to barely above a whisper. "It's so alive, so aware, reaching out beyond the boundaries imposed but so welcoming..." Cas turned his head finally to look at Jimmy and his eyes were bright with awe and wonder. "I haven't felt anything like this since Lebanon."
Well. That was hopefully not grounds for full-on panic, but it was somewhat less reassuring than Cas had probably meant it to be. Yes, the forest around that defunct bunker in Lebanon had felt incredibly warm and welcoming to the pair of them, but it had turned out that the reason for that was a dryad whose loyalty had been bound to the secret society that had once operated out of that bunker before they were wiped out. She had thought Jimmy and Cas were the new generation of her former masters, and had not reacted well to learning that they didn't know what she was talking about or have any intention of just taking up residence in some middle of nowhere bunker. As sensitive as Cas was to natural energies, it had nearly broken him when they had to kill the raging dryad whose own binding forced her to attack any perceived threat to these "Men of Letters".
After that, they couldn't have stayed there even if they had wanted to, not with the way Cas felt so sick from her death even though Jimmy had been the one who had dealt the final blow. They had used the spell marker in their bloodline keyed to the wards to get into the place and promptly turned everything over to Bobby Singer, and the last they had heard from him he'd taken to running operations out of the place while he restructured the hodgepodge of wards that had been left behind and clearly weren't as effective as the old group had thought. Jimmy hoped he had all the luck with the place, especially since he and Cas had already benefited since then from the information Bobby had found, even if they never visited anymore or talked about it beyond "Bobby's new place". For Cas to voluntarily mention Lebanon, that garden had to be something really special.
And powerful.
"Is it safe?" Jimmy asked at length, rather than remind Cas of any of the bad that had happened. The look he got almost made him wince for how knowing it was, but Cas just nodded.
"Nothing in there will hurt us unless we hurt Wesson," he assured Jimmy, which actually didn't help much. Especially with the way the back of Jimmy's neck was beginning to prickle in a very familiar way.
"He knows we're here," he said, nodding towards the house portion of the property and a large window with a crystal suncatcher in the shape of a dog and cat hanging near the top. "We probably shouldn't keep him waiting, especially since we brought him lunch."
"Maybe that and the way the garden is singing will earn us some good will," Cas sighed, quickly divesting himself of his own gun and knives.
The brothers got out of the car and, after a silent debate, headed towards what looked most likely to be the front door, Castiel carrying their bags from the deli while Jimmy followed with his hands held loosely and pointedly empty and open at his sides. He was the one to knock, knuckles rapping against the wood rather than touching the old metal door knocker that felt prickly to his senses. Then they waited, side by side, Cas projecting as much of an appearance of outward, stoic calm as he ever could and Jimmy struggling to match him as he tried to prepare himself for whoever - whatever - was about to open the door.
He was not expecting the dog.
The door opened inwards and the first figure through the door was a good-sized golden retriever who paced forward two steps and sat on the threshold, muzzle lifted to regard the two hunters and show off the silver chain and heart-shaped engraved tag. The dog sniffed at them very obviously, then gave a rather dismissive-sounding chuff and turned away to look back through the open door with a low whine.
"Bones, be nice," a tired baritone voice said from inside the doorway. Jimmy heard Cas catch his breath and tore his gaze away from the dog - a dog named "Bones", apparently - to look up at the speaker, and froze.
Oh...
Taller than Smith had been with a similar broad-shouldered build, Sam Wesson should have been even more imposing a figure than the mechanic who had given them his address. His posture, however, was not precisely slumped or hunched, but withdrawn, as if he was trying to make himself seem smaller without being obvious about it. Chesnut hair hung damply around his face and shoulders, and the eyes that peered at them wearily through rectangular-lensed glasses with silver wire frames were the most striking mix of green and gold and brown Jimmy had ever seen. They were also red as if he had been crying, and Jimmy was abruptly reminded that according to pretty much everyone they had spoken to this man was mourning a long time friend whose death he felt responsible for.
When neither Jimmy nor Cas could find anything to say, the man before them - entirely too beautiful even in his grief - began to fidget slightly. "Uh... hello?"
"Hello, Sam," Cas breathed, then flinched. "Mr Wesson. I apologize... ah...."
"We're very sorry for your loss," Jimmy said softly as Cas trailed off under the weight of Sam's uncertain stare. When that stare shifted to him, he added a little lamely, "We, ah, brought you lunch. And we've been duly threatened by Mr Smith not to hurt you."
"Dean sent you... with lunch?" Sam asked, looking between the two of them with some confusion.
"Not so much sent as gave us your address and threatened to dust off his shotgun and some, ah, 'old skills' if we weren't being truthful about our intentions being your continued safety and good health," Jimmy admitted, and was rewarded with a lessening of tension in those broad shoulders and a remarkably eloquent eye-roll.
"I am so sorry about him," Sam sighed, reaching up to remove his glasses and rub his eyes. When his hand lowered again, he didn't put the glasses back on, and Jimmy was struck again by how amazing the man's eyes were. "I swear sometimes he thinks I'll just waste away to nothing if I don't have someone babysitting me."
"Shows he cares," Jimmy said with a shrug. "And lunch was technically my brother's idea. His sense of natural energies is better than mine even if I'm usually more adept with people, so I listened when he said we should get lunch before coming here."
"Your garden is beautiful," Cas murmured in a tone Jimmy almost didn't recognize for the rarity of hearing it from his brother. "Once I could hear it clearly from the street, I realized how its song clings to your friends. They've all left pieces of themselves here with you, and carry part of you with them. The song is exquisite."
"Thank you," Sam mumbled back, ducking his head so that his hair fell further into his face like a curtain he could hide behind. It made Jimmy's fingers twitch to reach out and brush it back again. The moment faded as Sam cleared his throat. "Bones, stand down, they're friends." He looked up again through the fall of his hair and managed a weak smile. "I hope you brought lunch for yourselves as well."
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Despite Danny's best efforts, no matter how much time past, Amity Park refused to see Phantom as a hero.
Sure, there were pockets of support, particularly among teens, but most of the town blames Phantom for the property damage, saying if he didn't fight the ghosts then it wouldn't be so bad, to that time he got mind controlled by Freakshow and "attacked" the mayor. It wears him down. It wears Tucker and Sam down. Jazz can only try to support them all.
Then one day, a member of the Justice League visits. Someone minor, and kinda a jerk... maybe a Wonder Twin? Zan? Whatever. They don't investigate; they don't look deeper. They listen to the town folks and declare the ghost hunters, Red Huntress and the Fentons, to be the official heroes of the town.
Worse? Danny Phantom is officially considered a villain to the Justice League. Tuck hacks into the Watchtower and confirms that they have a file (a heavily inaccurate file) about how to defeat Phantom.
Danny doesn't think he can do this anymore.
A few weeks later, a young villain escapes into Amity and demands (begs) that Danny help them escape from the hero after them. No idea who, I can't find a lot of info on teen villains in DC, so let's fudge some ages and make it Kyd Wyckyd from the Teen Titans cartoon. Danny agrees, because to hell with the Justice Losers, and they defeat the hero, becoming friends in the process. Kyd confesses that they became a villain after being ostracized bc of how they look, and they've been trying to avoid villain organizations because HIVE was abusive, but it's really hard to be a villain alone bc of all the heroes.
Sam gets an idea. Tucker agrees with the idea. Jazz is just happy they'll end up making friends.
The next day, the Teen Villain Alliance is formed, ready to assist with any teenage illegal shenanigans their allies might get into.
Some notes:
It's created to be a healthier option for teen "villains" to connect with others and support each other.
It's more important that this is for Teens rather than Villains. They're tired of adult villains taking advantage of them. The TVA would rather ally with a teen vigilante than with an adult villain.
Again, no idea who the teen villains are, but Klarion is definitely here. He leaves the Light for the chaos of the TVA. Maybe Ember is there too?
Timeline wise, this is around when Tim is still Robin, but Damien has arrived at Wayne Manor.
This is because, when it comes time to try to infiltrate the TVA, they'll have a convenient child-assassin who has none of the monitors of a teen hero that Phantom immediately picks up on.
Damien, who at this point has been abandoned by his mother, dismissed and scolded by his father, and has had no success at carving his own place in the family, jumps at the chance. He is then surrounded by peers who don't insult him or try to change his behavior (too much; jazz is trying to help him find healthier methods of expressing himself). He... might not want to continue being a spy.
Danny, Sam, Tuck, and Jazz are the founding members.
Danny reinvents himself as the High Prince of the Infinite, Prince Phantom Dark. He got kingship from fighting Pariah Dark, but since he's still alive, he's only a prince. He steals the last name Dark as an intimidation tatic against those in the know; only Danny would have the balls to claim family with Pariah.
Sam works as a powerless villain, but she might no be powerless? Either way, Danny gives her a bunch of repurposed Fenton tech, and she buys the rest with her parents credit card. She does NOT care if that's traced back to the Mansons. She would choose something goth, maybe something spider related or even bat?
I love Pharaoh Tucker, so I think he should get magic powers? Since pharaohs of old were considered the balance between the real and the divine. He's still a tech guy, now he's a tech and magic guy.
Jazz isn't really a villain, more of a team mom who's planning on using everyone's psyche's as her thesis paper. You know what, that's her callsign, she's Psyche. Sometimes she flirts with Nightwing.
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