Starstruck II: Saruman's Curse

Apartment 5, 6, 5678! (Tap Dancer AU)

Dean finally thought him and Sam had it all. When they first went to check out the apartment, Dean's first thought was it must be too good to be true. It was spacious, clean, and they each got their own bathroom. Plus, it was cheap enough that Dean could afford it on his own, so Sam didn't have to get a job and could focus on his schooling. Yes, the place was perfect, except for one major down side: the upstairs neighbor.

Neither Dean nor Sam had actually met the neighbor. They had seen him in the lobby of the building when they first moved in, but neither of the brothers had laid eye on him since. He was about Dean's age, so he was probably a college student at the local university. He was short when compared to Dean, although he was still taller than most. And there was one other thing they knew about him. He was a tap dancer.

Now, the brothers had nothing against the performing arts, they never had. But when the guy upstairs started practicing his new routine at 3 in the morning, Sam told Dean that he had started to wish for irrational things, like to have the art of dance erased from history. The tapping only happened at ungodly hours of the night, never at what Sam liked to think of as a reasonable time. Sam was still in school, despite having moved out of his parent's house, and he did like to get a good amount of sleep.

The brothers moved as soon as Dean was old enough to own his own place. Their mother had died while they were young in a fire. The grief had made their father, John, turn to alcohol. He was never a nice drunk. Dean wanted Sam to have as normal a life as possible, so he quit school as soon as he could, got a job at the local mechanics shop, and moved away from his abusive father. Dean was content with his life style, enjoying being alone with his brother and having his own place. Hell, Dean didn't even mind the tap dancer upstairs, but Sam was another story there.

Sam never saw the uglier sides of John like Dean did, so he never really understood why Dean was so insistent that he come and live with him. Sometimes, when Sam lay awake during the early hours of the morning with nothing to listen to except the constant tapping from above, he even started to regret his decision.

Dean, who was more of a night owl anyways, found himself, after a few months, enjoying the tapping. He had some of the patterns memorized, and would tap his fingers along to the beat. Often, once the tapping began, Dean would remove his headphones, pause whatever classic rock band he happened to be listening to that night, and drown himself in the familiarity of the beat from the mysterious neighbor above.

About once a week, Sam would have his friends Harry and Kevin from school over to study, which usually ended in them playing video games or watching stupid videos on YouTube. Dean liked Sam's friends, although he believed there might be something more to Harry and Kevin's "friendship" than they let Sam see.

Dean never tried to control Sam's actions, for fear of being like his father, so when they boys slacked from their homework he said nothing, sometimes even joining them when they needed a fourth member for whatever game they happened to be playing.

Today was a bit different, though. Harry and Kevin had come over to study, and they had stayed true to their word. It was finals week. Sam, with his three AP classes and 2 honors classes, was stressed beyond belief. Kevin, who had as many, if not more, honors and AP classes than Sam, was stressing as well. Even Harry, who didn't like to do more work than necessary (Kevin had written many of his papers for him), had his nose in a textbook.

It was quite late already, and the boys had shown no signs of leaving yet. Their first finals were tomorrow morning, Monday. Dean decided to interfere in the studying session.