apocalypsos | Fic: Sudoku (Supernatural)

Title: Sudoku
Author: Troll Princess
Fandom: Supernatural
Rating: PG
Word Count: 1,000 words
Spoilers: "Devil's Trap"
Warnings: Bad language
Disclaimer: If I owned the Winchester boys, they'd be cleaning my apartment right now so I don't have to.
Summary: Dean develops his own geeky fixation.
Author's note: Hell, Dean and I share so many other things in common, why not my shameful addiction? *snickers*

*****

Sudoku

*****

They're not the goddamn crossword puzzles, that's why.

See, Dean had never been much of a words guy. He regularly failed his literature classes and let's not even get into the natural disaster that was every single language course he'd ever taken. He distinctly remembered one Spanish class where he mangled his response to one verbal test question so badly he asked the teacher if she was wearing her favorite underwear today. Fortunately, she let it slide because she couldn't stop laughing. Unfortunately, none of the other students could, either.

But numbers ... okay, numbers he got. He passed his history courses mostly because he barely ever forgot a year or a date, and he aced every single math and science class he ever took through what he would always say was dumb fucking luck. Wood and metal shop were always more useful A's, anyway.

So, yeah. Not the crossword puzzles.

Who the hell knows who ___ Lupino is, anyway?

*****

"Dude, what's this supposed to be?"

Sam leaned across the booth and grinned at the comics page Dean was staring at with what Sam always thought of as his confused monkey face. Not that he'd ever call it that out loud, of course. He liked his balls just fine where they were. "Oh, that? That's sudoku."

"Come again?"

"You've never heard of sudoku?"

Dean frowned at him and gave the obituaries Sam had commandeered a meaningful look. "Yeah, I must have missed out on whatever geek puzzle craze was going on in the midst of fighting all that evil."

Figures he can't answer an simple question without sarcasm, Sam thought with a roll of his eyes. "It's not that hard, you know. It's just addictive."

Dean shook his head and shoveled a forkful of scrambled eggs into his mouth, but Sam noticed he didn't take his eyes away from the comics page.

"I could show you how to do it," Sam piped up.

Dean gave him a look.

"No, really, all you've got to do is --"

"You seriously think I'm actually going to do this stupid thing?"

"It's just a puzzle, Dean."

And then Dean made a face and Sam almost threw a napkin at his head, but the waitress came to refill their coffees and Dean got into some heavy flirting and Sam ducked into the bathroom. When he came back, he decided not to mention that his pen had suddenly disappeared from his side of the booth and reappeared in Dean's hand as he very casually tried to do the damn puzzle without Sam making a big deal about it.

Just for that, Sam decided not to suggest he use a pencil instead.

*****

A week later, Sam found a rolled-up sudoku magazine stuffed under the front seat of the Impala as they were riding along the highway to the next job. Dean made a face when he unrolled it, but Sam flipped through it just the same. Half of the puzzles were already done. "Care to explain this?"

Dean just shrugged. "Gotta do something while you've got your nose buried in library books, Sammy."

"You're supposed to be researching, Dean."

"Yeah, well, you're better at it anyway," Dean grumbled, and snatched the magazine away before tossing it into the backseat.

*****

"Hey, ten bucks says I can finish before you can."

Sam looked up from yet another wholesome diner breakfast as Dean waved another copy of the newspaper at him and couldn't resist a smile. "Funny, that may be the only time you've ever bragged about that."

Dean decided to whack him upside the head with the newspaper instead.

But he still finished his puzzle faster.

The big jerk.

*****

After they connected with Dad again, Sam came back to the motel room one night after retrieving Chinese takeout for dinner to find Dean sitting across from Dad at the motel room's lone rickety table, waving a pencil in midair as he shoved a worn sudoku collection towards his father. Sam recognized it as the third one he'd gone through. Their father looked as if he were trying desperately not to smile, arms crossed as Dean quickly described the rules.

"-- so if you've got a nine in this row and one in the one under it, then the other one should be in this box here, which means --"

If Sam were a real bastard, he thought, he'd make sure to call Dean "geek boy" the next chance he got.

*****

Dean woke in the hospital to the hiss and beep of machines, to a soft sterile atmosphere he recognized all too well. Scratchy blankets, medicinal scents, the night sky clear through the room's windows. For a moment he felt a brief flash, a shock of bright light and a pungent hint of diesel off to the right, and then it was gone as quickly as it had come.

His eyes took a moment to adjust to the light, and it was like a click in his brain, a flip of a switch. The sudden dark presence of a pair of bodies, the sense of the familiar wrapping him in warmth. Dad slumped over in the chair on the opposite side of the room with too much stubble and darker circles than usual under his eyes. Sammy with his head rest on the bed next to Dean, one of those big paws of his clasping Dean's hand. His palm was sweaty, but Dean figured waking him up bitching about the dampness would be a shitty way to start things off.

There were flowers, cards, a few family photos that made Dean feel better than any medicine ever would.

But on the nightstand was a handheld sudoku game.

Dean couldn't help but chuckle at that.

And when Sam woke up at the sound, he laughed, too, in between the tears.