Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

“Listen, I don’t think this is another Wendigo case” Sam said, head hung over his hashbrowns as he balanced a small book and a journal in his lap.

“Oh yeah?” His brother said eloquently into his breakfast.

Sam flipped through the book for the 5th time in as many minutes before looking back at the notes in his journal: ‘Cannibalism, voice mimicry, evidence of cooking, relocated home base (?)’. He frowned at the last note, and underlined ‘cooking’ several times, his pen tearing through the paper slightly with the movement. 

They'd tracked something to this sleepy little Wyoming town, something that had stolen a couple of kids and apparently lured them out of their beds and into the woods by sounding like a friend from their school. But when Sam and Dean had gotten to the abandoned Dollar Tree that the kid's tracks led to, their trail ran cold. All he and Dean had found there was one of the kid's shoes, the embers of a large fire, and a big unopened spice mix bottle labeled 'Geryon's Greatest Grilling Rub!' from the 'Triple G Ranch' Brand.

Sam had barely succeeded in convincing Dean that no, they probably shouldn't trust a random spice mix that they found in a monster's lair. He wouldn't be surprised if his brother had swiped it anyways, though.

“I mean, sure, the cannibalism and mimicry aspects ARE both there, but that’s where the similarities start and end.” Sam finished, leaning heavily into his hand.

“Mmhmmmph” Dean practically moaned, his mouth full of pancake.

Sam’s head snapped up. “Are you even listening right now?” He asked incredulously. Dean glanced up at him with unapologetic green eyes, chewing a massive bite with excruciatingly slowness. Behind him, the diner's front door jingled open, and a young couple walked in. The kind waitress that Dean had attempted to hardcore flirt with earlier led the two to the booth across the aisle from them. The diner was empty, otherwise.

He turned his attention back to his brother as Dean finished chewing, and then swallowed. “Why, are you saying something important? Or just nerding out like usual?”

Sam kicked him under the table. Dean hissed in pain and tried to kick him back, but Sam swiftly moved his own legs out of kicking range. 

“It IS important, asshole. I don’t think our case is Wendigos. It’s something else entirely”

“So what is it?” Dean asked, pouring more syrup on his pancakes. Sam watched with barely concealed disgust as the syrup flowed over the top of the stack and created a veritable moat inside the plate’s rim. Usually he’d say something about it, but he knew was a useless endeavor. 

“I don’t know,” Sam sighed honestly, flipping through his journal again.

Dean chewed thoughtfully on his spongy pancakes, using the side of his fork to cut his next bite. “Is it the cooking thing that’s getting you?” 

Sam paused for a moment.

“Yeah.”

“Could just be a weird one, Sammy. We’ve seen crazier, after all.” he mused. “I mean, if I was always hungry for human flesh, I'd probably kill for a nice sear on my meat, or a little barbecue sauce… salt n' pepper... I mean fuck, that spice rub did look pretty good.”

“Why the hell do you sound hungry right now? You’re eating.” Sam deadpanned, giving his brother an unimpressed glare. 

Polishing off his pancakes, Dean grinned back. “Not anymore- I just finished.” he said smugly, pushing his plate to the middle of the table. “besides, it’s not my fault you brought up barbecue” He teased.

“I really didn'-”

“Whelp, I’m gonna go take a leak. Don’t die while I’m gone” Dean interrupted, getting out of the booth and scooting past the waitress in the aisle, who was bringing the young couple their meals.

Sam huffed, turning back to his journal. He eyed it warily for another moment before sighing and closing the damn thing. He could give the investigation a rest until they were back at the motel room, but right now his breakfast was getting cold.

Just like our case, he thought glumly.

Eating his lukewarm hashbrowns, Sam listened in on the conversation of the couple in the booth across the aisle. He was used to eavesdropping in places like this. Locals had all of the good gossip, after all- and even if the conversation wasn’t case related, it was usually better than overthinking the case with the limited information they had on hand.

“Seaweed brain, why do you have food dye with you?” he heard a feminine voice ask, sounding like she was holding back a disappointed sigh.

“Why do you think, wise girl?” He heard the boy reply with a slight New York accent, “I’m missing mom’s blue pancakes, but it would be a little too weird to ask the employees here to make that. So…. I was thinking maybe I just… mix this with my syrup?” Sam could almost hear the smirk on this kid's face. Who the hell makes blue pancakes? He brought his own food dye?

When Sam heard the syrup dispenser click, he risked a glance at the couple’s table. He watched as a lean boy with inky black hair, probably around 17 or 18, absolutely drowned his pancakes in syrup, and then used a dropper of blue food dye to ‘add color’ to the monstrosity.

The girl’s long-suffering sigh graced the air, and he chanced a peek at her next. She had blonde princess curls, was also leanly built, and about the same age as the boy. She was currently wearing a look of mixed resignation and disgust on her face.

That's probably exactly the face I made at Dean earlier, Sam mused. He returned his attention to his plate, but kept half an ear on their conversation, just in case.

The couple seemed pretty normal, probably not monsters in disguise, and besides their shared streak of gray and general fitness, seemed like stock-standard local teens getting a bite to eat. Maybe not local, actually, based on the boy’s accent. They both wore orange shirts, but that wasn’t too unusual. He hadn’t been able to read them because of the angle he was at, but thought that he could make out the word ‘camp’ on the blonde's tee. Summer camp counselors? Maybe there's one in the area.

Sam started on his now cold eggs, eating slowly and catching snippets of conversation from the other table while they talked and he chewed. 

“Y'know, Grover seems to be doing really well-”

“D’you think Nico and Will would go on a double date with us?”

“-we should IM Thalia soon! I miss her-”

It all sounded extremely normal, until the tone of their conversation shifted suddenly, the tones of their voice going dour all at once. 

At the same moment, it somehow got far harder to listen to their conversation- and not just because they'd dropped their volume. It felt almost like he was listening through a layer of white noise, but Sam was still able to hear them, if he concentrated hard.

“Percy, we need to find them tonight.” The blonde said softly. When Sam chanced another glance their way, he saw the way her hands were clenched into fists on the table’s laminate. “Apollo said they were twins, Percy. They were 7, and now they’re just gone.” 

Sam felt his brow furrow as the boy- Percy - replied. “I know, wise girl. We’ll find those monsters and kick their asses, alright? Hopefully the kids are okay, but it sounds like the… others who were taken were… eaten pretty quickly. Maybe we should go after breakfast instead of tonight?” he suggested. Sam paused with his bite of eggs halfway up to his mouth when he heard that. Calling people who might have taken kids 'monsters' was one thing. It was a objectively correct way to refer to the kinds of assholes that would do that- But 'Eaten?'

That raised an entirely different set of red flags for Sam. The hunting kind of flags. On top of that, he and Dean were hunting a monster that ate humans. There were plenty of those out there, sure, but what were the odds of them hunting a different monster, in this sleepy town, that had also kidnapped a couple of kids. What were the chances of two sets of twins going missing in a town this small, in a time period this brief?

Slim to none, one would think. Or maybe hope.

There was a pause as the girl shook her head, and Sam caught the movement out of the corner of his eye. “We can try, but knowing our luck, we’ll only find their hideout after nightfall. The dark should help hide our approach but…"

Sam's eavesdropping was abruptly cut off when Dean sat back down across from him in the booth, making silverware clatter against porcelain as he picked something out of his teeth with his pinky nail.

He scowled at his brother, and tried to eavesdrop on the teens again. His efforts were fruitless though, because the strange staticky feeling was harder to listen through. He'd only heard it when he tried to listen in on them specifically, and Sam got the sense that he wouldn't have noticed the sensation at all had if he hadn't been actively trying to hear their conversation.

It was frustrating, to say the least. But as he paid the bill and pulled Dean out to the car, he knew that those kids would be their best lead today. If they were hunting the same kind of monster, then… great?! But one way or another, two seven year old kids taken from their parents wasn't pretty, and he and Dean had always been willing to help with the non-supernatural kinds of monsters anyways.

Chapter Text

Annabeth strode through the the sleepy streets of Ten Sleep, Wyoming after breakfast like a woman on a mission. Because she was. On a mission, that is.

She'd overheard the men in the booth across from them mention 'wendigos' as she and Percy sat down, and seen how the taller of the two had been able to still listen in on their conversation even after she pulled the mist around her and Percy's booth- which she'd done in an effort to stop mortals like him from eavesdropping.

Of course, this just meant that they weren't ordinary mortals- Clearsighted, at a minimum, and if the snippets of their conversation were to be believed, then they were probably hunters.

She'd heard about Hunters before, but usually greek demigods didn't get much convergence with the group- the monsters that they dealt with usually only hunted demigods, where the monsters that hunters dealt with could go after just about anyone.

Anyways- Annabeth was observant, so of course she noticed when the sleek black impala the men had entered after leaving the diner started "subtly" following her and Percy around town.

That said, Percy was just as observant as her.

"So… when are you going to turn around and tell them to leave us alone?" He asked out of the side of his mouth. They were currently poking around abandoned store fronts just off the main road, and Percy's hands were shoved into his jacket pockets, probably fiddling with riptide. Annabeth knew he was prone to capping and uncapping it in his pockets or under tables when he didn't want others to see him fidgeting.

Annabeth sighed as she peered into what might have been a bakery, once. "I'm not sure I will, honestly."

Percy frowned at her for a moment, dark brows furrowing adorably over his sea-green eyes, and then turned to pointedly glare daggers at the dark impala hiding at the end of the street. Veeeery Subtle.

"Why not?" he hissed at her as they ducked into an alley next to the once-bakery- an effort to get out of the noontime sun.

She sighed as they continued walking between the buildings. "If they are what I think they are, then they might actually be helpful." she admitted cryptically. Annabeth hated doing this to Percy, really- but at this point it was second nature for her to keep un-confirmed theories to herself. Usually, that meant keeping people in the dark until she could get confirmation for them, or one of their friends weaseled it out of her by force. Or bribery. Or guilt tripping.

Her boyfriend barely had time to level her with a Look before the other end of the alley was darkened by the exact car they'd been "avoiding".

The demigod couple came to a stop as the the dark impala parked, and the two men they'd seen at breakfast stood out of it. The car doors thumped shut, and she took in their appearances more directly now that she had an excuse to do so.

The shorter one was older, by at least a few years, with cropped short hair and a brown leather jacket layered over his tee and flannel. The taller one had shaggier hair and a bomber jacket over his buttoned up flannel. Both men wore sturdy, practical jeans and worn leather boots.

"Finally decided to come say hi?" Annabeth called with barely disguised amusement, watching from the corner of her eye as Percy gave her a look that clearly asked 'Are you fucking crazy?'

Her boyfriend had a point, of course. Monsters were one thing, but humans? Mortals? They could just be downright crazy sometimes. From Percy's perspective, these were two strange adult men that had been following them- Sure, he and Annabeth were no slouches in a fight- but he definitely wasn't eager to tangle with the kind of mortals who were okay with following two lone teens around town.

"Hey There- we're with the FBI, and overheard that you might have a lead on that missing twins case here in town?" The taller man asked easily, pulling an ID that might have fooled an ordinary person out of his inner coat pocket, flashing the laminated card before pocketing it again. The two stopped about six feet away from her and Percy, still blocking that direction of the alley off, but otherwise intentionally non-threatening in their demeanor.

Annabeth hummed, planting her feet as she sized up the men. She kept her face carefully blank, trying to think of the best way to play the situation. She was sure now that they were hunters- the demographic apparently often posed as authority figures to interview victims and their families- which wasn't a terrible strategy, the tactical back of her mind admitted- It was just far too easy to tear away if you had the right connections to fact check their backgrounds. Not that she and Percy did, but-

"Bull." Percy called out, interrupting Annabeth's silent plotting. Damn it, Seaweed Brain, She mentally facepalmed.

This was what she got for keeping her theories to herself. When she glanced over, Percy was already lowered in a defensive position, right hand twitching in that way it did when he wanted to grab riptide out of his pocket but wasn't sure it was a great idea yet.

"Seawe--" she tried to interrupt.

"What are you two really? Eidolons? Venti?" Percy guessed quickly, his eyes darkening like a stormy sea as they flicked between the strange men.

"The fuck did you just call us?" The shorter man asked incredulously, voice gruff as he entered a defensive stance not unlike Percy's own.

"Wh- no?! No. We aren't-" The taller man started to defend, putting one hand up placatingly and the other in front of his partner. His eyes looked a little panicked, probably worried that they'd messed up their singular lead by coming on too strongly.

Annabeth sighed, long suffering as she abandoned all hopes of playing this situation with actual tact. "You're hunters, right?" She asked loudly, voice cutting through the fray. The men's gazes both locked onto her, clearly surprised.

"How'd you know that?" The taller one asked cautiously, his expression now tinged with suspicion.

"Call it a hunch." Annabeth started, before realizing that maybe transparency would be a little more helpful than obfuscation. "But… maybe don't talk about Wendigos so loudly the next time you're out to breakfast?"

Silence stretched in the alley for a long moment, the men looking a tad sheepish as they realized their obvious mistake. "You kids hunters too?" The slightly shorter one asked quietly. There was a hint of concern there, and she saw the way his eyes flicked behind them, as if looking for an adult to attach them too.

"Not quite." She responded at the same time as the taller man said "I don't think they are."

Their eyes snapped to each other for a moment, sharp gray meeting intelligent hazel. "Annabeth." She introduced herself in lieu of answering the unspoken question of what they were, if not hunters. Then she gestured to her right, ignoring the son of Poseidon's look of concern and protectiveness. "And this is my boyfriend, Percy."

"I'm Sam. This is my brother Dean." The taller of the two introduced, looking over the teens as the silence stretched once again.

"You're right, by the way." Annabeth began speaking. "It's not a Wendigo. It's a Cyclops. Or a group of them, more likely."

"Annabeth?" Percy hissed, looking with concern between his girlfriend and the mortals.

"Cyclops?" Dean grumbled, pulling a leather bound notebook out of his Jacket to flip through. Sam leaned closer to his brother to peer over his shoulder at the thing, and Annabeth vaguely recognized the thing as the same journal that sam had been flipping through that morning.

"You probably wouldn't have seen one before." Annabeth admitted, curiously eyeing the journal, which looked thick with newspaper clippings and notes. What she'd do to lead through something like that…. she shook it off. "It's not really up your alley."

Sam looked up at that, eyes narrowed past his brown bangs. "It's up yours, though?" He filled in the blank.

Annabeth paused a moment before carefully nodding, watching as Dean shut the notebook firmly in frustration. Percy was protectively glued to Annabeth's side now, still out of the loop but picking up clues fast.

"What exactly do you guys hunt?" Percy asked, interest piqued behind his suspicious expression.

Dean looked up, sharing a look with his brother. It was obvious that they wouldn't be pulling back the curtain for these kids, if they admitted what they did- they wouldn't be stripping two teens of their innocence by admitting that a lot of the things that went bump in the night were real.

"Vengeful spirits, mostly. Vampires, werewolves… demons too, on occasion." Annabeth nodded along as Dean spoke, but Percy's eyes widened with realization. "more… folkloric or christian than our kind of monsters." Annabeth murmured quietly to Percy, for his benefit.

Percy nodded, glancing back at the hunters with a mote more respect in his eyes. His posture relaxed ever so slightly, trusting the daughter of Athena's word, especially now that he had a clearer picture.

Sam cleared his throat, watching the two demigods awkwardly before speaking again. He obviously had a lot of questions, but was holding them back in favor of the case. "So. Those twins?" He ventured cautiously, concern in his voice. "We can help, if you'll let us."

"Fuck 'letting' us- I'm not letting a couple kids get mixed up with monsters just because we haven't seen this kind before." Dean crossed his arms over his chest, looking down at the teens. There was a cockiness there, sure, but also a hint of genuine concern behind his gruffness.

"We can handle ourselves." Percy pointed out with a frown, more to his girlfriend than the mortals across from them. "Yeah." Annabeth agreed, putting a hand on his shoulder, "but they mean well. And they'll probably just keep following us if we don't let them help."

Percy snorted quietly, peeking over at the men. "Like Mrs.O'leary? What, are they gonna give us puppy dog eyes next?"

"No, more like you when I want to do things on my own." She deadpanned, pulling her backpack off to check for extra weapons.

"Hey!" He practically whined "I take offense to that!"

"You don't need to follow me to the library every time I go, contrary to popular belief." She teased with a grin, before producing two celestial bronze blades out of her pack with an unnessesary flourish, watching out of the corner of her eyes as Sam's eyes widened and Dean's narrowed.

"Alright." She spoke up, holding the two daggers in one hand and turning away from Percy. The men had been kind enough to not interrupt the demigods, though they'd obviously been trying to listen in again. She took a few steps forward and held the weapons out to Sam and Dean.

"Listen up, because here's how this is going to go."

Chapter Text

Dean wasn't particularly happy, right now. Following his kid brother's lead on a case was one thing, since Sammy generally had a good head on his shoulders, and Dean knew he could trust the little nerd. But following a few actual kids' lead on a case was a whole different fucking can of worms- and hunting something that these kids apparently specialized in? A Cyclops?That was more like a can of- Beans, or… Spam. Or something.

He thumbed at the bronze dagger he currently held, twisting it slightly in his palm to watch the odd way the weapon reflected the sunlight, and scoffed to himself. Honestly, Dean wasn't convinced that he shouldn't just drag his brother out of Ten Sleep and book it a few states away, until they were dealing with their own brand of weird again. But here they were, letting a couple teens lead them towards a group of warehouses in the fading afternoon light, gravel crunching under boots and sneakers alike.

That was the heart of the problem though, wasn't it? These two were kids, despite their near adulthood, and the four of them were on their way to go save a couple even smaller kids.

A pair of seven year old twins, Dean thought to himself, shaking his head in disgust. There was no way in hell he or his brother were walking away from two kidnapped children, especially in a situation they could help with, relative strangeness aside.

Dean squinted ahead at Percy and Annabeth again, sizing them up. Blondie reminded him of his brother, in the way that she was obviously whip smart and stubborn as all hell. And the other one? Well…

Dean liked to think that being raised as a hunter, growing up looking over his shoulder and learning what evil looked and moved like had sharpened his instincts into something near infallible. Not that he'd ever be able to say something like that aloud without Sam laughing his ass off… but still. Dean knew to trust his intuition when it came to danger.

Finally slipping the dagger into his belt, Dean followed behind the group at a distance, watching the way that the dimming sunlight bounced against the bighorn mountains and off the heads of the three in front of him. Sam's hair was a shiny brown, which was getting shaggier- kid needed a haircut. Orange bounced off the girl's blonde princess curls, which were pulled up into a messy pony, and shined on the boy's almost unnaturally inky black hair.

They were just kids, though. He and Sam had done their usual tests for making sure that Annabeth and Percy weren't any of the usual kinds of supernatural- Silver knife, Holy water, speaking the name of god, and all that rot. They were just a couple of teens. A couple of freaking weird teens, but not demons, or shapeshifters, or werewolves, or spirits. Just kids.

But even with all their tests, something about Percy unsettled Dean. The tean set off his hunting instincts in at least ten different ways, even if he couldn't pinpoint what that was actually doing the spooking. Maybe it was the delinquent attitude that reminded him of himself as a teen, but that couldn't be it. Dean had dealt with wayward kids before, and often surprised Sam that he actually wasn't all that terrible with them.

Maybe it was the way that the kid had readied his stance for a fight instinctively after Dean and Sam exited the car earlier. But… that shouldn't be it either- he'd never begrudge another hunter, even weird ones like these kids, that kind of instinct. After all, he and Sam were grown adults who had cornered who had cornered them in an alley. It would have been more suspicious not to be scared or prepare for a fight of some sort, in their position.

Sam and Annabeth were talking each other's ears off, though they were both keeping some cards close to their chests. Dean was glad to see it, honestly- that his brother wasn't immediately telling all of their family secrets (not that Dean thought he would)- But also that these two kids weren't 100% trusting a couple random Hunters. Dean would probably have scolded them for acting like dumb asses if they did, honestly…. After Sam had wrung them for more information about the kind of monsters they dealt with, what killed them, etc etc.

When Percy suddenly looked back and met his eyes, the feeling of being in danger intensified for a moment before settling back down, somehow. He saw an appraising look in the kids eyes that matched his own, and watched as the 17 year old slowed down to detach from his girlfriend and Sam to join Dean a few yards back.

"Sorry." Percy offered easily, meeting his eyes again with a sidelong smile. He was only about an inch shorter than Dean, which might have pissed him off on principle if he wasn't used to Sam being a downright Sasquatch of a man now that they were both adults. No one person needed to be that tall, dude.

Dean frowned at the unprompted apology. "The hell for, kid?"

"For… being scary. It's not really something I do on purpose, you know?" He responded easily, as if they were talking about pizza toppings or something. "My friends keep saying I have a resting asshole face, now. That, mixed with whatever other vibes you've been picking up from me…." Percy trailed off, shoving his hands in his jacket pockets. The kid had a furrow between his thick black brows, and looked vaguely uncomfortable, which was having the unfortunate effect of making Dean feel like an asshole.

He was an asshole, of course. But it seemed like the kid didn't like appearing scary, or just didn't see himself that way, and Dean's obvious suspicion hadn't made it any better. So he felt like even more of an ass than usual.

Percy cleared his throat though, which knocked him out of his thoughts. "Anyways. You guys didn't have to come along. But you are, so… thanks."

Dean watched the boy in disbelief for a second before realizing he was serious. "Of course we had to come along!" he argued somewhat gruffly. The idea of leaving a couple kids to go fight a monster and save two other kids was out of the god damned question.

The teen cracked a grin at that, like Dean had just passed some sort of test. "Technically speaking, you didn't." He pointed out. Then Percy skipped back ahead to join up with the others, a hand settling protectively on his girlfriend's back as he matched pace with her and Sam.

Huffing a sigh, Dean slowly sped up to join the group, at his brothers side. He watched as Percy threw him a sidelong grin over their smarties, and couldn't help the smile that tugged at his own lips.

Alright, so maybe this kid wasn't as dangerous as his instincts had been telling him.

Or maybe Percy was just as dangerous as his intuition had been screaming at him. Just… not to him or Sam.

Dean watched the way Percy's eyes softened, watching Annabeth and Sam yap about silver killing werewolves, and supposed he could live with that.