A/N: Hey Bookworms! I terribly apologize for the delays in getting these up. My finals are finally over so I'm going to try to be more frequent in updates. Thank you so much for the amazing response to this fic! The amount of people that have joined the bandwagon is absolutely insane! Thank you so much everyone!
Prompt by Sammi Dragneel: "Why is Sam deathly afraid of clowns? What did they do to him? Does Dean know? (You can choose the ages)"
So, this one was hard. I'm sorry it took so long to get to! A shoutout to sweetkiwi604 for her help and support and letting me brainstorm ideas for this particular request with her :)
Sam is 3 and Dean is 7 in the flashback while in present time Sam is 14 and Dean is 18.
Enjoy!
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Huffing out a breath of annoyance, fourteen year old Sam stalked into the motel room, his older brother following behind trying to muffle his laughter. Both brothers were covered in mud having just returned from a Wendigo hunt in the forest. None were too worse for the wear, just sore from all the trekking.
"Dude, shut up," Sam snarked eyeing Dean with irritation.
Dean laughed even harder as he shut the motel room door behind him and faced Sam. "I'm sorry, Sammy, but you legitimately fell on your ass when that clown turned the corner."
Sam groaned as he flopped onto his bed, not caring about it getting dirty. Their father had left them a block from the motel saying that a fellow hunter needed help. He instructed his boys to pack up after cleaning up and heading towards another town and messaging him their co-ordinates.
As the boys had rounded a corner, a man dressed as a clown was exiting a pizzeria having just finished a job at a kids' birthday party. Sam had practically jumped in fear and had tripped over his own feet, ending up sprawled on the pavement.
Sam glared as his brother started laughing uncontrollably again. "I hate you," Sam snapped. "It's not my fault, dude. I can't help it."
Dean's laugh faltered slightly as he straightened up and saw the slightly embarrassed and sorrowful look on his little brothers' face. Sam was right. No matter how much the kid tried, he always felt uncomfortable around clowns. Dean sighed as he picked up his duffel and rummaged through for some clean clothes.
On his way to the bathroom, he slapped Sam's knee. "Sorry, man. I didn't mean it like that. I'll take twenty minutes tops and then you can head in," Dean said before closing the bathroom door behind him.
Sam rubbed a hand over his face as he sat up. He didn't blame his brother for finding all this amusing. Anyone would. Hell, the reason he was afraid of clowns seemed pretty damn stupid to him too, but no matter how much he tried to rationalize it, he still couldn't shake off the bone deep fear he felt around those things.
And trying to rationalize about them involved thinking about them and Sam just avoided it as much as possible. As Sam waited for his turn in the shower, his mind wandered over to the incident that caused his fear in the first place.
x-x-x
Dean's face lit up with glee and he ran over to his father to hug him. John laughed as he ruffled Dean's hair, a fond smile lighting up on the father's face.
Dean had nervously and hesitantly asked if he could attend a birthday party he was invited to by a fellow classmate. He hadn't been too hopeful knowing that John preferred his sons not to socialize too much as they never stayed in one place for too long.
But John had seen the longing on his eldest's face and he couldn't say no. He chuckled as Dean ran back to the bed where he had been animatedly telling Sam a story about an evil dragon who terrorized a town and how Prince Sammy saved the townsfolk before John had entered the motel room.
"One condition, Ace," John said.
Dean nodded eagerly. He'd listen to any condition that John put forward.
"You have to take Sam with you. I'd take care of him, but I need to finish this job by tomorrow night. I can't leave him alone here," John explained.
Dean frowned slightly. He didn't mind taking care of Sam. In fact he loved it, but for once he wanted to be around friends. He wanted to be around people his own age. He sighed, seeing no other option. If he denied, he wouldn't be able to go to the party at all. Even around his friends, he could definitely keep an eye on his brother.
Dean nodded importantly. His father couldn't just drop the 'job'. Dean knew exactly where his father was going. "Okay, Dad. I'll take Sam with me," Dean agreed, smiling widely again.
…
Sam was trembling nervously as he held onto Dean's hand walking towards Mrs. Tanner's house where Dean was supposed to attend the birthday party. Dean had promised his father that he and Sam would be back before nine p.m.
"It's okay, Sam," Dean said softly, running comforting circles with his thumb on the back of Sam's hand.
Sam nodded as he looked up at his brother. "What if they don't like me?" Sam asked, voicing the one that had been bothering the three – year – old ever since they'd left the motel. They'd been living in another town before and some kids had invited Dean to their house to play and Dean had taken Sam with him. Those kids had made terrible fun of Sam and Dean had decided he didn't like them anymore and had marched his little brother out of the house. He'd rather stay with his baby brother than these freaks.
Dean looked to his baby brother and immediately understood the unsettling fear in the three – year – olds' mind. He stopped walking and turned Sam to face him. "Hey, these people are nice people, okay? Everyone will like you, I promise," Dean said. "Now smile."
Sam giggled as he smiled widely at his big brother. Dean always knew how to make him feel better. Even though he was nervous, he felt considerably better after his brother's reassurance.
…
Glancing towards Dean for the umpteenth time, Sam fidgeted nervously as he sat on a chair towards the end of the room. A number of chairs lined the wall at the far end of the living room so that parents of the kids attending the birthday party could sit. Dean had introduced Sam to his friends who all cooed over him, making Sam blush in happiness, and then Dean had told Sam to go sit on one of the chairs until it was time to eat since the games they were going to play could hurt him.
Sam didn't want to disappoint his brother so he'd obediently walked over to the chairs and had sat down.
He now watched as a man dressed up in bright white and red makeup and wearing a colorful polka dotted clown suit walked in. He couldn't control the anxiety creeping up in him. He wasn't used to being around so many people and he desperately wanted his brother.
Dean was oblivious to Sam's thoughts as he, along with his friends, gleefully ran over to the clown. The joker entertained the children crowding around him by honking his fake red nose, by squirting a few kids with water from a flower attached to his suit, making the youngsters laugh.
He then started blowing up long narrow balloons and folding them up into the shapes of animals, flowers and swords and handing them over.
Dean being in front of the crowd was getting pushed again and again towards the clown. That's when things turned awry. As the man twisted yet another balloon to hand over to Dean, he misjudged his position and ended up elbowing Dean hard, right in his face.
Caught off guard Dean gave a startled shout of pain and fell to the ground, losing his balance.
Sam trembled in fear as he watched Dean fall to the ground after getting hit by the clown. The toddler couldn't stop the flow of tears as he jumped off the chair and sprinted towards where his brother had fallen. Seeing Dean getting hurt like that frightened the kid and he pushed past the parents that were tending to his big brother and practically hopped onto his brother's lap, hugging him.
Dean's eyes watered in pain as he sat on the ground, clutching his nose. As he brought his hand away, he was startled to see blood. He was grateful for the elders around him who spoke to him in soothing tones and gave him a tissue to hold up to his nose.
"Don't worry, kiddo. I don't think it's broken," said the clown, looking guilty. "Just hold the bridge of your nose right there. That's it. I'm sorry, kid. I didn't mean to hit you," apologized the man.
Dean shook his head awkwardly as he held the bridge of his nose, moving the tissue away. He knew the clown didn't hit him on purpose. "It's okay," he said, drying his eyes with his free hand since they'd been tearing up with the throb that seemed to make itself imminent now.
He realized that there were a lot of people around him and as he tried to get up, he suddenly found his arms full of his little brother. He frowned as he felt Sam tremble around him, concerned as he heard Sam's sniffles.
"Hey, buddy. Wha's wro'g?" Dean asked, the clogged up nose making it hard to talk properly.
Sam just shook his head and clung onto his big brother. Dean sighed as realization hit him. Sam must have heard him scream as he'd gotten hit. Dean managed to hold onto his baby brother as he got to his feet with the help of the people around him and still held onto his nose, hoping that Sam hadn't seen the blood.
Because that would scare the kid too much.
Dean thanked Mrs. Tanner for the hospitality and kindly excused himself from the party. Mrs. Tanner smiled as she saw the two children walk away. Dean was a very well behaved kid and the way Dean had absently rubbed his hand up and down on Sam's back, the way he had carefully gotten to his feet not wanting to jostle the toddler too much…
It touched her.
Dean really loved his brother.
The older brother walked a few ways away from the house before gently convincing Sam to stand on his own. Sam sniffled as Dean set him down and then kneeled to his level. The younger Winchester gasped in shock as he saw the dried blood around his brother's nose and the bloody tissue in his hand.
"It's okay, buddy. I'm fine. It was an accident," Dean soothed.
Sam wasn't convinced. Dean was Batman. And Batman wasn't supposed to get hurt. His big brother was a hero. His big brother was invulnerable, wasn't he? How could a clown hurt him?
Sam quivered in fear as he clung to his brother again. "You're hurt," he said simply. "Batman doesn't get hurt."
Dean smiled softly as he held onto his little brother who was obviously still very shaken from having witnessed the incident. "Yeah. But I'm okay kiddo. Sometimes Batman does get hurt, but he's strong and doesn't let it bother him."
Sam shook his head in denial as he let go of his brother and looked at him. "No, Batman always gets the bad guys. He never gets hurt," he argued stubbornly.
Dean couldn't help but chuckle at how adorable Sam sounded. He then winced slightly as the action seemed to slice new pain through his nose. He sighed. "Okay, okay. But I'm okay, aren't I? I'm right here in front of you. This?" he indicating motioning to his bloody nose. "It's nothing. We get back to the motel and it'll be cleaned in a jiffy."
Sam bit his lip timidly. "You promise?"
Dean nodded seriously. "I promise."
Sam nodded, still a little uncertain but took Dean's hand as they started the small walk back to the motel.
Sam wasn't convinced. Dean never got hurt. He couldn't shake off the image of his brother falling to the ground, yelping in pain as the clown had hit him. He shuddered unconsciously, feeling only a little better when Dean's squeezed his hand in comfort.
Sam decided. He hated clowns.
They were evil.
x-x-x
Sam snorted as he remembered that day all too well.
How ironic to be scared of the one thing that had hurt his brother. It had been one of the first times that Sam had seen Dean get hurt. True, he was terrified every time his brother got hurt, but that was natural. They dealt with all sorts of monsters that could potentially kill them.
But then again, the fear wasn't irrational.
Sam still counted on his brother. He still thought his brother was undefeatable, was invincible.
So when something happened to him, Sam was always a mess. He couldn't live without knowing his brother was okay.
Be it a clown or a freaking vampire, anything that tried to hurt Dean did terrorize the younger brother.
So honestly, the fear was legit, right?
Sam knew one thing though, Dean would never find out about this. He knew his brother wouldn't really understand. He let himself be content. If laughing at Sam's fear of clowns made Dean smile and forget their worries for a while, it was worth it.
Sam smiled to himself as he heard the shower turn off.
It was definitely worth it.
END.
Hope you liked it! Once again, I'm still taking prompts :) Even if you've requested a chapter before, you are free to request again.
To those who are still waiting for their prompts, here is the order in which they will be up :
-madinalakesavedmylife
-FallingStar95
-krisha (Guest)
-strixx
-Cloudcity'sBookworm
-AvenaCookie
-The fan of supernatural
-AliceSunshine
-Jensensgirl3
I'll try to get them up as soon as possible! Thanks for all the support!
EDIT: JANUARY 6TH 2017:My absolute sincere apologies to everyone that has been waiting for their requests to get written so far, and to the ones who found this fic recently and decided to leave their own requests. I know my presence on has been scarce and I rarely post anything anymore, if at all. I am currently dealing with finals of my Bachelors degree along with a lot of stuff in my personal life, some good, some bad. I have a lot of the requests half written, sitting in my computer waiting to be finished. I cannot say when I will get to finishing them, but to everyone having been patient all these years, thank you. I have not abandoned this series. I just cannot promise it will be updated anytime soon. I am and will do my best to get the next update up as soon as I can. Thank you to everyone that has stuck around. It means the world to me.