Note: I decided to try and sleep without my meds and it went really badly so now I'm gonna go watch Rick and Morty until the sun comes up. But first! Here's a 2am chapter for old times sake 😏

Y'all are fluff starved lol so I tried so hard to do fluff for you guys this week and I'm not sure how fluffy this turned out. For some reason it was a super hard chapter to write. Lmk what you think?

Thank you so so much for all your super sweet comments the last few weeks. You guys are so amazing and kind and funny, and I hope you all know you're making the world a better place just by existing <3

Anna is fifteen.

Cain, Abel... and Their Little Sister?

Sam gazed into the still darkness of his fourth cup of coffee. He'd been up since three chugging caffeine, and he still felt drowsy and half-asleep.

Across the table from him, Anna had one earbud in, her hands wrapped warmly around her favorite coffee mug, and she was watching an animated show on her phone. She looked bored at best and miserable at worst.

Sam wished they didn't have so much shit going on. If he didn't have so much work to do today, he could've brought her somewhere and made the day count for something. He could feel Anna's childhood slipping away from them just like his and Dean's had. Like it had never been there at all. If they weren't all very careful, they would one day look up and see that she had transformed into one more world-weary Winchester adult. It was the last thing Sam wanted for her.

"What?" Anna asked bluntly.

Sam raised his eyebrows in question.

"You're staring at me lookin' all... I don't know. What?"

"I'm just tired," Sam told her with an assuring nod. "I guess I'm kinda spacey, Ladybug. I'm sorry."

Anna frowned a little bit, and he could see the gears in her head starting to turn. When she turned her eyes back down to her phone, it was clear that her attention didn't move with them. She kept sighing, and she was scritching her nails against the outside of her coffee cup anxiously.

Sam tried to shift his own attention back to the old tome in front of him, but it was hard work. He was making no leeway despite the countless hours of research, and there was a familiar hint of hopelessness working its way into his midbrain. But this was important, and whether it felt worth it or not– that didn't matter. The only chance they had of getting the Mark off Dean's arm was in scouring every resource they had until they found the tiniest hint of a solution. Painstaking as this plan was, it was all they had.

"You want more coffee?" Anna offered.

Sam looked up from the page he was skimming and saw Anna reaching a hand out for his cup. "Sure," he said.

As he passed her his cup– about a third full of cold coffee– his eyes lingered on hers. She looked exhausted– bags under her bloodshot eyes and half-mast eyelids that seemed incapable of making the climb to finish opening.

"You okay?" he asked.

Anna appeared startled by the question. She straightened her spine a little bit and shoved a handful of curly hair out of her face. "Yeah," she said. "You?"

"Yeah," Sam said, confused. "How'd you sleep last night?"

Anna shrugged and turned her back to him so she could fill their coffee cups. He thought maybe she would give him a more substantial answer eventually, but Anna didn't say anything else.

"Still having nightmares?" he pushed, trying to be careful.

Anna was quick to shutdown. But if you approached her in just the right way, she would give you at least a small glimpse into what was going on inside her head.

If he could get at least that much, then maybe he could help her. Maybe it would help him focus if he wasn't sitting their feeling guilty about leaving Anna to feel like crap all day.

"Not as much," Anna told him and sat down again, setting a fresh, steaming cup of coffee in front of him.

Sam nodded. He didn't know what to do with that, if he was being honest. But after a minute or so of silence, Anna spoke again.

"It's been forever. I keep wondering when they're finally gonna just go away." She looked up at him curiously, her tired eyes asking him to give her some sort of an answer.

But there was nothing he could say that would zap away her trauma. It was work and tears combined with the passage of time that finally made the pain start to dull little by little. Sam almost thought Anna should have known that by now.

Her life had been one hit after another, despite how hard he and Dean had always tried to protect her from that kind of existence. The hopelessness seemed to be building in her system, though, optimism be damned. It was there in every change in her speech patterns and posture as she got older and older. Anna had never been the happiest kid, but she'd been at least been a hopeful one for a while. She'd at least been able to relax from time to time. She'd seen the world in color, and now it seemed like she was losing that ability.

"I don't know," Sam admitted to her. He hesitated before going on, unsure if she would hear what he had to say and withdraw, or if she would respond the way he hoped. "I think talking about it might help."

He watched her look purposefully away from him. She was staring off somewhere, her mind working like crazy. He wished he could crawl inside her head sometimes. Anna had this way of thinking that he couldn't wrap his mind around. Sometimes she seemed to speak in metaphors, and other times she spoke like the teenager she was, and then there were times that she spoke like a grown woman, a hunter, and a Winchester.

"It's not really anything..." Anna trailed off and took a sip of her coffee. She breathed in the steam and set her cup back down. "It's just like what happened that night. It's just... I don't know..."

Sam frowned slightly but then remembered that it was important to appear calm and understanding with Anna. She would shut down if she got the slightest indication that she was upsetting you. It was just difficult watching her struggle to string words together. She was trying not to withdraw, that much was clear, but she was also having to fight the instinct to do just that. "You mean with Abaddon?"

"Yeah," Anna murmured. "But more with... you know. She just looks at me with that knife in her chest, and she tells me all things Maya told me."

"You never did say what exactly she told you," Sam said gently.

"Just... Just how stupid I was. And I was," Anna said sharply, her eyes suddenly gray with anger.

"Anna..."

Anna grit her teeth and wrinkled her nose, and Sam could see that she was preparing to end their conversation. He knew he had to tread carefully.

"I don't wanna talk about that part, okay? I'm trying to get through it. But I have to admit that I got her killed if I'm ever gonna move past it. Isn't that the whole stupid point? Trying to forgive myself?"

"No," Sam said in exasperation. It was time to throw caution to the wind and talk some sense into her. "Anna, maybe the reason you're still having nightmares is because you're still convinced that this thing was your fault. You said in your dreams, your mother stands in front of you with a knife in her chest and tells you that you were stupid. That sounds like guilt to me."

"Well maybe it's deserved," Anna said, and Sam's heart ached at the shining of her eyes.

"That's crap," he told her. "Abaddon and that other demon– they did this. It wasn't you. You don't have anything to feel guilty about."

"Tell that to my subconscious," Anna deadpanned, her eyes dry again.

Sam recognized her turn into grim humor and tried to salvage the moment. "Anna, I'm telling it to all of you. What happened to her was not your fault."

"Whatever," Anna said. "Are you reading about Abaddon?" she asked and sat on her feet on her chair, leaning her elbows against the table.

"No," Sam admitted defeated. "It's about the Mark. I'm lookin' for answers."

"Like always," Anna sighed. "I can help," she offered.

"No, I got this," Sam said. She was going to have a normal Saturday. She deserved to spend some time ignoring all the crazy problems her family was facing. What was the point in trying to keep her out of hunting if she was always stressing out about things like the Mark of Cain and the demon Abaddon anyway? "Why don't you go see what Dean is up to? Maybe you two could go spend some time together."

"You want me to bond with Dean?" Anna repeated, looking like she wasn't sure if she wanted to frown or laugh at him.

"I want you to have some fun," Sam corrected. He tried to look lighthearted. "Come on, it's Saturday. You're fifteen. Go eat junk food and watch a movie."

Anna shrugged like she didn't care either way. "I'll go ask him, I guess."

Sam nodded and watched her go. He took a deep breath and thought about all the nightmares he still had. He'd dreamed of his mother accusing him too. He carried a lot of guilt over her having died in his nursery. And that guilt had only increased ten fold when he'd learned that she really did die trying to protect him from Azazel. Didn't matter that she was the one to make the deal in the first place. It was only proof that there was something innately Sam that meant getting your family killed when you were trying so hard to save them.

And speaking of saving them... He had research to do.

()()()

"I don't know how a person can cheat at bowling, but you totally are."

Dean laughed and slung his arm comfortably around Anna's shoulders. "That's not cheating. That is pure talent."

"More like pure luck," Anna argued and shoved his arm off her shoulders. Dean watched her make the bitter face that Sam was always making, her arms crossed over her chest, and smiled.

"If you ever want lessons-" he said cockily.

Anna gave him a flat look. "You taught me how to bowl, dumbass."

Dean almost started laughing again just at the look on her face. "Yet somehow you haven't gotten a single strike? Impossible."

Anna wrinkled her nose at him and narrowed her eyes. "You're so gonna regret that," she told him matter of factly. She straightened her spine and moved over to the lane. She looked up at him again. "Can you move this, Hercules?" she asked, gesturing to his ball. It was the heaviest one he could find, and Anna had been making fun of him for it from the moment he picked it up.

"What you can't lift that?" Dean teased. He leaned down to pick it up, but was surprised when Anna grabbed it and shoved it at him.

"Challenge accepted," she deadpanned.

At the look on her face, Dean couldn't help himself. "I'd like to see you bowl with it."

"I'm not a dude, Dean. You can't goad me into doing stuff to save my ego." She grabbed the ball again, though. "But I am kinda curious."

Dean smirked. He couldn't tell if she was genuinely curious or if his teasing had worked the way it always did on their brother. It was hard to keep himself from laughing as he watched her practically limp to the end of the lane with the ball in her hands. "Don't hurt yourself."

"Shut up."

His smile grew. Times like this, he was reminded of her ten-year-old self. The determination and stubbornness combined with a lighthearted liberty. It was only too bad that she didn't get to have these normal moments more often. It was cute, though, watching her struggle to get her fingers to stay in the holes and then hold all that weight in one hand.

"This is so unnecessary," Anna was grumbling. "No one needs a ball this heavy. Literally nobody. It's so unnecessary."

"Yeah, yeah. Just do me proud, alright? Get a strike."

"Not with this one, I won't," Anna scoffed. She didn't even bother stepping up the way she usually would, just swung her arm back and forward again, letting the ball go.

Dean actually hurried forward, prepared to catch her, when she started to stumble with the loss of all that weight. But Anna steadied herself and turned to look up at him with an embarrassed smile. She was clearly hoping he hadn't seen that. But he grinned back at her, letting her know that he had totally seen that.

The sound of pins crashing against each other drew both of their attention back to the lane. Both their jaws dropped in one motion.

"Did I just bowl a strike with your toxic masculinity ball?"

Dean only half heard what she was saying. His chest filled with pride, though, as the pins were being set back up. "Maybe you did learn something from me."

"You're so conceded," Anna said, fake sobbing.

Dean felt even more pride at that. "I'm givin' you a pass, but only because it's The Breakfast Club."

He moved forward. But while he was waiting for the ball to come back so he could take his turn, Anna spoke quietly from behind him. "Hey, can I ask you something?"

Dean didn't like the sound of that. But he didn't like the tremor in her voice either, or the way she looked so frickin' small when he turned around. So he said, "'Course."

Anna sat down hard on one of the hard plastic chairs set up near their lane. The bowling alley was full, and this was a terrible place to sit and have a serious conversation, but Dean knew Anna was likely to change her mind if they didn't do this immediately. So he sat down next to her and tried to brace himself.

"What?" he asked. He felt her shoulder move against his when she shrugged sullenly. "C'mon, spit it out. I can take it, I promise," he said with a playful smile as he jostled her with his elbow.

"What did you tell Sam the other day?" Anna asked softly, like she was prepared for him to shut her down. And Dean wanted to. But he didn't know if he could. "Cause, like, ever since then, he doesn't even sleep anymore. He was worried before, but now he's panicked. And I can help," she said, her voice rising in pitch.

"Rugrat, we don't need your help, okay? This Mark– it falls into the category of things you don't need to worry about."

"Well, whether I need to or not, I am," Anna griped.

Dean worked his jaw, trying to decide how much to give her. He could tell her the truth, but he didn't know if that would hurt more than it would help. Anna was smart, and she was strong, but she was a kid. And it felt so wrong to put anything on her shoulders. She already carried too much. Just like he always had.

"Come on," Anna requested. "Spit it out. I can take it, I promise."

At the mimicry of his own words, Dean gave her an indignant smile. Smartass. "Funny girl," he quipped and tweaked her nose. But he decided that she could. She could take it. "Cain told me something," he explained quietly– more so because they were in public than because he was being gentle with his sister. "About this Mark. About me."

"Well, what did he tell you?" Anna asked, looking seriously into Dean's eyes.

It always startled him a little bit when she looked right at him. Anna had this rawness about her that Dean had never seen matched by anybody else in the world. He thought it was because she'd experienced so much crazy bullshit growing up but had been encouraged to let that out more than he and Sam had growing up. Of course, she was usually pretty guarded regardless. But in those moments when she really looked right into your eyes, you were likely to find yourself feeling exactly what she was feeling. And Dean could feel her confusion, her desperation for answers, and above all, her weariness.

Anna had only just lost her mother, and she was still miserable just about every day, because she couldn't seem to get through that pain all the way. And she was sitting here, knowing that there was a threat to her brother, and she didn't know the exact nature of that threat. For all Dean knew, she could be thinking that Cain had told him he would be dead inside a week unless they found a cure.

The way Anna worried, Dean didn't want to let her go on thinking anything like that.

"It's not what you think, Rugrat," he promised. "I'm okay, alright?"

Anna looked for the briefest second like maybe she felt better. But then she didn't. "Can't you just tell me what he said?"

Dean tilted his head back, looking up at the ceiling in frustration. Flashing, colored lights looked back at him with mockery in their eyes. It was all a reminder of how badly he was failing. This place... the upbeat music, the friendly laughter, the colorful lights, and just the overall normalcy of it all... this was what he wanted for Anna. And even while they were here, she couldn't be here. She was too worried about him.

He wished he could take the worry away. He was miserable anyway, so he might as well shoulder her misery too. At least then maybe Anna could be happy. She deserved to be happy.

But he'd already fucked that up. She was already in pain. And the only way to ease that– even just a little bit– now, was to tell her the truth.

"You know the story," Dean said, "about Cain and Abel."

"Duh."

"Cain told me that my story will end the same way as his began." He dropped his voice even lower. "He said my fate is to kill Sam."

Anna's face showed true horror for a minute. But as she processed that information, the expression dulled until her eyes had returned to their usual breed of cynical youth. "That's stupid," she said.

Yeah, he hadn't been expecting that. "What?" Dean said dumbly.

"It's stupid."

He just frowned, waiting for Anna to make a little sense. That had been some heavy shit he'd just laid out, and she was gonna sit there and say that's stupid?

Anna sighed. "You're not Cain," she told him, sounding almost put upon that she was even having to explain this to him.

He knew the kid was tired, but this was important stuff, so Dean didn't give her an out. He just waited for her to keep talking. And Anna didn't disappoint.

"You read the story, right? I mean Cain and Abel were brothers, but you and Sam are best friends. You've been through some pretty bad shit, and you never turned on each other. Cain got a little jealous and committed fratricide. Dude's got issues."

Dean hated to admit that it almost made sense. But he thought back to Cain's face, the stench of his own sweat as their fight neared an end, and the heat of Cain's breath over his face as the words were spoken. It certainly had felt like some sort of prophecy. "Anna, this isn't about me and Sam. It's about Cain. This Mark on my arm is his. It's poisoning me. The point is, I'm gonna reach a point someday where I ain't me anymore."

"No, you're not," Anna said, this time sounding irritable.

Dean suspected that it had more to do with fear and sadness than anger or annoyance. So he looked at her with gentle patience instead of arguing anymore.

"I don't care what that Mark makes you want, it's not gonna make you into a different person. You're still my brother."

"Hey, that ain't changin'," Dean promised, leaning down to be closer to her. He could feel Anna pulling away, could feel her anger shielding her from him. And he hated that. He wanted to be her protector for as long as he could be. He certainly didn't want her to think of him as a threat.

"Then stop giving up," Anna snapped. She was speaking a little too loudly, and there were heads starting to turn. "Fate doesn't mean anything," she said vehemently. She mumbled something else, but Dean didn't hear her exactly, and before he could ask her to repeat herself, she'd already stood up and stormed over to the counter to take her bowling shoes off.

"So much for a relaxing weekend," Dean grumbled and gathered their jackets and his wallet so he could go meet Anna at the counter. Neither of them said anything to each other again until they were outside in the parking lot. "What did you say?" Dean asked before they got in the car.

Anna stood on the other side of the car, her curls blowing every which way as the wind interrupted them. She looked too old and too young, and he wanted to give her a hug and pull all the complicated shit into his own mind. She thought too much, and she was too damn smart, and he was sick of it. All that big brain of hers did was hurt her.

"I said Cain and Abel didn't have a sister," Anna told him tersely. She got in the car and slammed her door shut.

Dean just leaned his head back in thought. That was true. And so was everything else Anna had said. But the problem wasn't that Dean didn't have a reason to fight. He had every reason. And he was planning to fight until he couldn't anymore.

But Anna had something Dean didn't have. Faith in him.

And it was possible that that was exactly what she'd meant.

La Fin