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If someone had asked you a few months ago what Lucifer’s son would be like, you would have had a few choice words for him. If someone had told you that you would have to be living with the son of the Devil, you would have called them insane. And if they had told you that you would wind up curled up on the couch with Satan’s literal spawn at every possible opportunity, you would have shot them then and there.
You were wrong.
Jack began living with you and the Winchesters a few months ago, helping out here and there with various cases while he worked on honing his powers. Things had a rocky start for sure, but as soon as Castiel returned things began looking up. Dean’s mood lifted exponentially, Jack had his rightful father back, and one of your best friends defied death once again. Dean seemed to trust Jack more and more with each day, and you could tell he felt grateful to the boy for bringing his closest friend back to him.
Life with the young nephilim wasn’t exactly what you would have expected. Where you thought there would be constant fights and bloodshed, there was shared candy and Netflix marathons, because Jack has a sweet tooth and a soft spot for Ashoka. What you thought would be venomous threats against you turned out to be random unprompted compliments, because Jack always tends to say exactly what’s on his mind. And where you expected there to be violence and mayhem spinning the Bunker into disarray, you got sudden hugs and regular quiet nights in, because Jack realized physical comfort is one of his favorite things about humanity.
“(Y/N)?” His soft voice called from the hallway outside your room in the Bunker. You shuffled out of your bed at the sound, quickly scurrying over to the door and opening it to meet the boy with a smile.
“Hey Jack!” You greeted in a pleasant tone. “What’s up?”
He offered you a grin. The nephilim shifted his weight from one foot to the other from his place in front of your doorway before he replied. “There’s a Scooby Doo marathon on TV right now,” he stated simply. Silence fell over the pair of you as he gazed at you with an expectant expression.
You realized moments later that this was all he wanted to say, and your eyebrows pulled together in confusion. “That’s great, Jack. But why did you come tell me?”
Jack’s expression soon mirrored your own, along with an added head tilt. “You do like Scooby Doo, don’t you?” You nodded, assuring him that yes, of course you like Scooby Doo. A bright smile spread across his face at this, and his posture straightened instantaneously. “Great! Then come on!” With that being said, he reached out and grabbed your hand to tug you along with him into the hallway. You had barely enough time to close your door before he pulled you into his room and got himself settled on the bed. He pressed his back against the headboard, crossing his legs criss cross.
You now took the time to close Jack’s door before turning and following his lead to sit on the bed next to him. You made sure to sit a good distance away from the boy in case he wanted space. Spoiler alert: he doesn’t usually want space. Instantly you saw him scooting closer to you out of the corner of your eye until his shoulder was brushing against yours.
Jack tugged the comforter over the pair of you before snatching the remote off of the mattress and flicking the television back to life. The sounds of the cartoon filled the otherwise silent room. This show was a bit of a joke between your little family, both for obvious reasons and reasons totally unknown to you. You also knew that it had been the first show Jack had any contact with, so it always remained close to his heart.
A couple of episodes passed in complete silence between yourself and the boy by your side, save for the shared chuckles each of you let out with each punchline. You weren’t entirely sure how it happened, but at some point all of the space between you was a distant memory. Jack was soon sat almost entirely in your lap at that point. His body leaned closer and closer into yours with each passing second. His shoulders slumped and slowly but surely his weight against your body grew heavier and heavier. His head bobbed every few seconds and his eyelids drooped as he fought to keep his glazed over eyes on the screen.
“Jack?” You addressed him, your tone soft as to not break the quiet atmosphere of the space. He turned his head to you. You could tell quite clearly that his eyes struggled to focus on your face, and he reached a frustrated hand up in an attempt to rub the exhaustion out of his vision.
“Mhmmm?” He hummed as the heels of his hands scrubbed furiously at his eyes. You were quick to reach out and grab his wrists, tugging them away from his face.
You leaned down to look into his eyes. It was then that you realized how small he had made himself in his exhaustion. He was usually a couple of inches taller than you at least, but with his form as slouched as it was, the top of his head just reached your chin. “How long has it been since you’ve slept?” You asked him in what you hoped was an authoritative tone. You weren’t usually the one that had to get onto Jack for things like this. Usually Sam or Castiel were able to make sure he was taking care of himself and you were more there as a friend than a teacher in self care, but with the state of the boy next to you, you couldn’t just let this go.
Jack let out another hum, and his eyes drifted off to fixate on a space just beside you. “I think… Five days?” He paused for a moment before shaking his head and correcting himself. “No, no. Six.”
Your eyes practically bulged out of your head at his admission. “Jack, you can’t do that to yourself,” you scolded. “We’ve been on a whole hunt since then! You’re telling me you didn’t sleep before, during, or after this past hunt?” He shook his head, confirming your words. A long sigh passed through your lips, and you brought a hand up rub at the bridge of your nose.
A beat of silence passed between you two, until suddenly Jack spoke up. “I’m sorry…” He whispered. His words slurred in his tired state, but you could make them out just fine all the same. His arms wrapped around your waist and tugged you closer to him so he could rest his head in the crook of your neck as he often seemed to do when he needed comfort or grounding. You simply shook your head and brought a hand up to rest against the back of his head. The other sat comfortably over top of the arm wrapped around the front of your body.
“It’s okay, Jack. I’m just… I’m worried about you, you know? I don’t want you to hurt yourself by pushing the limits like this. You might be half angel, but that other half of you is still human. You still need sleep, alright?”
He nodded against your shoulder, only to pull away moments later to look you in the eyes. Uncertainty danced behind his blue gaze before he even began to speak. The light of the TV cast a colorful glow over half of his face, the harsh shadows it created reminding you how sharp his features really were beyond the soft expressions he usually wore. A soft brown curl of hair dropped lazily over one of his eyes, and with the feeling of his breath fanning over your face, you suddenly became acutely aware of just how close he was to you. “Can you…” he began slowly, his brows pulling together as if being tugged by an invisible needle and thread. “Could you, maybe, stay with me? I was thinking that it… It might help?” His words came out as more of a question than a statement, and the unsure look on his face gave the same feeling.
Much to his delight, a small smile formed on your face as you gave him a nod. “Of course I can stay with you,” you insisted, as though the answer should have been obvious. It was anything but obvious to the young nephilim, but he wasn’t going to argue. “In fact…” You paused a moment to situate the blanket over your lap to your liking, ensuring that it was as soft as you could possibly make it before looking back up at the man by your side with a smile. “Lay your head right here.” You patted your lap to punctuate your sentence.
A grateful smile tugged at Jack’s lips at the offer, and he was quick to burrow underneath the covers and settle himself into a comfortable position. In the end, he found that he was most pleased with his head in your lap facing the TV, one hand tucked underneath your legs like they were a pillow and another resting on your knee above his head. This position alone and its proximity to you was enough to help him calm down to the point of a peaceful sleep, but as soon as he felt you playing with his hair, he knew that he would never want to sleep away from you ever again.
You hummed a soft tune, hardly noticeable over the sounds of the cartoon marathon still going on the television in front of the bed. Your eyes weren’t focused on the screen, though. Instead your gaze drifted downwards to rest on the man’s head in your lap. Your fingers continued to brush leisurely through his messy head of soft brown hair. His eyes fluttered closed, and he let out a hum of appreciation when your fingernails scratched carefully across his scalp. You went on like this for a few minutes, you carding your hands through his hair and enjoying how soft his locks felt between your fingers, and him sighing in contentment every so often to ensure you didn’t stop.
You didn’t plan on stopping, though. At least, not until Jack reached up and grabbed ahold of your wrist. His grip was loose, clearly knowing you would trust him enough to keep your hand where he wanted it without tugging it away. You watched in a mixture of confusion and wonder as the nephilim brought your hand over to his face to press a soft kiss against the inner part of your wrist. The touch of his lips against your skin was so feather light that you wouldn’t have known what he had done if you weren’t watching his actions the whole time. He trailed his thumb slowly over the back of your hand before planting another careful kiss onto your wrist and releasing you as though nothing had happened.
You, however, weren’t able to recover as easily as Jack was. You felt frozen in place. It wasn’t out of fear or disgust, that was one thing you were sure of. It was just… shock. Your eyes burned with would-be tears at the sight of this man you adored treating you with such care and affection. His touches were as soft and careful as could be. His gaze held what one could only describe as adoration. Everything about this interaction felt so foreign. It was the exact antithesis of what you felt in your day to day life. You were a hunter. You didn’t get the quiet nights, or the soft touches, or the gentle kisses. You got the monsters, the blood, and the tears that came with your job. But then along came Jack Kline, with his boyish smile and charismatic charm, and suddenly your life felt different. For the longest time you weren’t sure whether or not the change was a good one or a bad one, but in that one moment, with Jack’s nose brushing sleepily against your knee, you knew. It was a good change.
You realized then that you must have phased out just long enough for Jack to sense your shift in demeanor, as he began to speak. “Dean told me that if I find someone that I like, that I should kiss them. He said it’s a way to show that I care about the person, and I wanted to show you that I care about you,” he informed you, his words slurring together as he teetered on the verge of sleep.
You found yourself grateful for not only the dim light, but also for Jack’s unfocused state so you were able to hide the fact that your cheeks were burning enough for you to press the back of your hand against the to cool them down. “Dean told you that, did he?” You managed to force out through your shocked state. Jack nodded from his place in your lap.
“Mmmmmmhmm!” He hummed. He took a moment to shift around so he was able to hold even tighter onto your legs before continuing. “Said if I like s’m’body, I gotta kiss ‘em b’fore ‘nyone else gets ‘em. Don’t want anyone else gettin’ you…” Jack muttered. As the last few words left his mouth, he turned his face to press into your lap, brushing his nose over the blanket as if trying to fix it to his liking.
A soft smile formed on your lips, and you finally reached up and placed your hand back on his head. He let out a satisfied hum and leaned up into your hand before settling back down and allowing you to go back to your ministrations. “Is that all he told you about kissing?”
“No. ‘e said I should kiss ‘em on the lips, but I can’t reach your lips right now. ‘M comfortable here, but I promise I’ll kiss you for real later.” Even in his exhausted state, he managed to sound quite insistent on the matter. His grip on your knee even tightened slightly before loosening fully again.
“I’ll hold you to that promise then, Jack.” And with that, you leaned down and pressed a soft kiss to his temple. His lips quirked upwards in a smile at the feeling, and you both settled into a comfortable silence. You continued to run your hands through his hair until you heard him snoring softly, at which point you maneuvered your bodies so you could both be lying beneath the covers.
You slept late into the next morning curled up with the nephilim. You found yourself confused as to how you had managed to sleep for so long without Sam or Dean waking you up, but all of your confusion evaporated when your eyes landed on the note on your bedside table.
I know we always say no attachments, the note began in Sam’s neat scrawl. But I have a feeling this one is for the better. Dean and I caught a hunt a few cities over. Sleep in. You two deserve a break. -Sam
That was all the encouragement you needed to shift back around and tuck yourself snug against Jack once again, allowing yourself to bask in just one happy moment, because that was really all you needed in the end.
This was a good change.