Archery is a lot different than using a gun, Sam has found. So he practices with his bow every day, out in the wilds between Home and Domina, reusing his arrows so he's not letting any go to waste. He's gotten the hang of it enough to go hunting successfully, taking out small monsters and gathering up money or items dropped. Meat to cook, hide and claws and eyes and everything that could possibly be used or serve some sort of purpose.
He often takes Avandrel with him to go hunting, her being a hunter herself. She's got her own weapons, experience, and for some reason a want to make sure Sam stays safe. Wants to watch his back. He thinks it probably has something to do with him being maybe the first human ever to actually be polite and civil with the elf, even in the face of her initial wariness. He's not real sure, and he hasn't really told her (or anyone else) that much about himself. His skills, and his reason for those skills in the case of Avandrel and Tsukishima, but that's about it. Tsukishima also knows Sam's father was military.
It's been, what, a month since he'd woken up here? And he still hasn't mentioned Dean or the last thing Sam remembers to anyone. (Well he had shown the sketch he'd done up of Dean's face to a couple people in Domina, just to find out if they'd seen him, but beyond that...)
Even though the memory of what he's still convinced must have been his death often wakes him up at night, startles him awake. At this point his seventeen-year-old roommate seems to have gotten used to it. Maybe he's used to nightmares himself, who knows? Riku doesn't share a lot, just as Sam doesn't share a lot.
He's still holding out hope that his brother will show up, but at the same time the thought worries him because this could still potentially be some sort of afterlife. And if Sam's dead, Dean needs to go on living. He needs to find that yellow-eyed bastard demon and take him out. For Mom. For Jess. For Dad. For good.
Hope doesn't prepare him for the sight of Dean or the sound of his voice on the stairwell as Sam's coming back from practicing with the bow. He drops the thing, drops the arrows, and he feels his heart jump to his throat. No, he wasn't prepared for this in the slightest, seeing Dean's face again, and he has to look up to do so, because Sam's on lower steps and Dean is higher up, and as long as it's been since he's seen his brother, it's been even longer since he's had to look up in order to do it.
He hasn't so much missed Dean's voice because he hears it in his nightmares constantly, yelling his name, trying to reassure him that he's okay, that everything's okay, they'll fix him up and it's not even that bad-- Scratch that, yeah, he's still missed his voice, and just about everything else about him. Even the annoying things. Because he's his big brother.
And now... he's here.
Is it really him? Is it really Dean? Short and bossy, annoying, protective, untidy, unhealthy-food-loving, mullet-rock-listening, serial-flirter Dean?
SLAMS INTO THIS
He often takes Avandrel with him to go hunting, her being a hunter herself. She's got her own weapons, experience, and for some reason a want to make sure Sam stays safe. Wants to watch his back. He thinks it probably has something to do with him being maybe the first human ever to actually be polite and civil with the elf, even in the face of her initial wariness. He's not real sure, and he hasn't really told her (or anyone else) that much about himself. His skills, and his reason for those skills in the case of Avandrel and Tsukishima, but that's about it. Tsukishima also knows Sam's father was military.
It's been, what, a month since he'd woken up here? And he still hasn't mentioned Dean or the last thing Sam remembers to anyone. (Well he had shown the sketch he'd done up of Dean's face to a couple people in Domina, just to find out if they'd seen him, but beyond that...)
Even though the memory of what he's still convinced must have been his death often wakes him up at night, startles him awake. At this point his seventeen-year-old roommate seems to have gotten used to it. Maybe he's used to nightmares himself, who knows? Riku doesn't share a lot, just as Sam doesn't share a lot.
He's still holding out hope that his brother will show up, but at the same time the thought worries him because this could still potentially be some sort of afterlife. And if Sam's dead, Dean needs to go on living. He needs to find that yellow-eyed bastard demon and take him out. For Mom. For Jess. For Dad. For good.
Hope doesn't prepare him for the sight of Dean or the sound of his voice on the stairwell as Sam's coming back from practicing with the bow. He drops the thing, drops the arrows, and he feels his heart jump to his throat. No, he wasn't prepared for this in the slightest, seeing Dean's face again, and he has to look up to do so, because Sam's on lower steps and Dean is higher up, and as long as it's been since he's seen his brother, it's been even longer since he's had to look up in order to do it.
He hasn't so much missed Dean's voice because he hears it in his nightmares constantly, yelling his name, trying to reassure him that he's okay, that everything's okay, they'll fix him up and it's not even that bad-- Scratch that, yeah, he's still missed his voice, and just about everything else about him. Even the annoying things. Because he's his big brother.
And now... he's here.
Is it really him? Is it really Dean? Short and bossy, annoying, protective, untidy, unhealthy-food-loving, mullet-rock-listening, serial-flirter Dean?
"Dean?"