CYPHER

Sleep deprived

Dean woke up for what was like the fourth time since he had tried to fall asleep .

He was so exhausted but his brain was strangely excited and would not rest so he found himself waking for strange reasons , with his brain replaying almost every scenario that he had witnessed within the past few days over and over again .

At first, the reason he had been unable to sleep had been quite simple , it had been because he had been unable to sleep as he was plagued with how Blade had looked as he read Carlos' note .

He had tried to tell himself to keep calm that he would talk to Blade later on and they could resolve it when everyone was sufficiently rested , but his body would not obey so he had ended up getting up and trudging up the stairs to look for Blade who he had promptly found so deep in thought that he did not notice Dean outside his room for almost six minutes , when he had eventually turned and noticed Dean , Blade had looked quite depressed .

So Dean had spoken briefly to Blade , urged him to not think about whatever it was that was bothering him and instead go on to sleep and then, he had left, ready to go to sleep but the sleep just would not come no matter how hard he tried to fall asleep .

He had even drank milk , albeit not the usual warm one but he had still not fallen asleep and now his eyes hurt like crazy since they were too heavy to keep open .

Dean got out off the bed again , there was no point lying around if he could not sleep , he could look around for something that he could do , hopefully it could tire him enough that he soon fell asleep .

His illustrations of the steels in the middle of the journal caught his eye and Dean remembered that he had never completed the journal .

He pulled it out and flipped to where he had stopped , his father's handwriting, an unidentifiable dance of swirls stared right back at him , hopefully his father's handwriting might put him to sleep .

He had no such luck as he only got more excited with what he was reading .

The autobot had always been WIC just like Dean had suspected technology , it and a series of other machineries that they had built just for fun .

As Dean read more of the journal , he realized that he might have an idea of where the fail - safe would be located .

But it was just an idea that desperately needed to be checked out so Dean got out sheets of paper , the ink stone and the brushes.

He began to illustrate what he now knew of the autobots , stopping every few seconds to consider his work before continuing again , drawing some pieces two , five or even six times before he was satisfied with what he had drawn .

He compared his new drawings based in the information he had been collecting and compared with the illustrations he had first made , the new ones were suite advanced with more features .

He worked silently for a while as he was still stuck on a particular thought because he still could not figure out why Alec had left him this book .

If he managed to secure the fail - safe of an autobot, that did not change anything as it was just one autobot in the midst of hundreds .

There was nothing that they could do with just one autobot .

The door suddenly opened up startling him as Jade walked in with swollen eyes , he looked around before heading for Dean , his steps too precise to have been the product of sleepwalking .

He sat by the edge of the bed and stared at all the papers that Dean had spread out while Dean tried to focus on fail safes and where they might be ko

" I knew you would not be sleeping ".

Dean nodded , looking up briefly to smile at Jade .

" That was not my fault, I am super exhausted and I tried very hard to fall asleep but it did not work ".

Dean pointed at the cup that still had a bit of milk inside for Jade to check out .

" Besides , your eyes are swollen too . Are they swollen from too much sleep or from no sleep at all ? "

Jade frowned as he touched his eyes , massaging the added weight away .

" They have always been like that , they swell up even when I close my eyes for just a couple of minutes ".

Dean only nodded as his attention was occupied by the illustrations and journal, nevertheless , Jade went on talking about his eyes, practically droning .

" That is why I use loads of eye cream , and even then I have to be really meticulous about the product I am using because a lot of eye creams do not work for cases as bad as mine .

But then last year, I found this really good product that worked so well ".

Dean said a short thanks , in appreciation of the end of the monologue but when he looked up , he found that Jade had only paused to rub his under eyes .

" Anyway as I was saying , that product was magic and also cost a lot but it did work wonders , I would have told all my friends to also use Win cosmetics but I don't have any ".

Dean paused what he was doing and looked up at Jade's face to find him already staring at him , Dean regretted reading up on all the subsidiaries if the WIC now.

Jade's eyes were different as they stared at him with a resolve that Dean had never noticed .

" Only very few people , a very few people know that Win cosmetics is a subsidiary of WIC and I thought I was being an asshole for even doing this but it seems my suspicions were right after all ".

Dean sat up straighter , he did not like the look on Jade's face , for some reason he looked like a completely different person with his voice becoming edgier and thicker and his eyes losing their light so disappointingly .

Dean smiled though .

" You are right , Win is a subsidiary that is not formally associated with WIC because of taxations and a lot of people are not aware of this . I am surprised at how you know this kind of information just from using lots of cosmetics ".

Jade's nostril flared as he ended up smiling slyly at Dean .

Dean sighed before getting up from the position he had been sitting in for a long time now.

He turned to drink the rest of the water that he had been drinking for a while now while contemplating Jade's questions .

There was a reason he had to answer it , He did not want Jade trying to figure out any mystery or telling the others .

" Your Patron looked exactly like you , What are you playing at here , Dean ? What Is going on here ? ".

The tone of his voice had changed quite a bit , it seemed that Jade could be aggressive when he wanted to be .

" Dean , are you the gamemaster ? "

Dean blinked, completely floored by the question .

He had not even thought that far yet but it made sense that Jade suspected him, he would have suspected himself too.

Dean chuckled slightly and stood up .

" Jade , if I was the gamemaster , would I alert the rest of you on the possibility of there being a gamemaster ? Would it not have been better to just keep doing whatever it was that gamemasters are supposed to be doing ? "

He watched as Jade squinted his eyes, considering What Dean had said .

Dean watched him till his face broke out into a relieved smile .

" You are right , that explanation makes sense , I was just worried for nothing ".

Dean nodded his head and went back to his work .

" Come take a look at this ".

Jade scrambled to join him where he was and Dean showed him all of the new illustrations he had made and had him read specific parts of the journal .

Jade did it all in silence and then when he was done , he looked up at Dean.

" If this is possible, It is going to be life alternating for us , you know that, right?"

Dean nodded , looking back at the papers .

" Which is why I have to do it on my own , I just wanted to show you too ".

Jade was quiet so Dean looked up again. wondering if Jade was once again suspecting him of being the gamemasterbut Jade was not looking at him in a suspicious manner .

Jade instead had a weird smile plastered on his face , It reminded Dean of what he thought the emoji for cringy should looklika dek

" What is wrong with you ? "

Jade grimaced more and avoided Dean's eyes .

" Now that you have given me a piece of you , I feel as if I should give you a piece of me too , I mean it is only fair " .

It was Dean's turn to grimace now as he watched Jade who suddenly began laugh awkwardly .

" I do not want a piece of you ".

Jade coloured like a strawberry and began to stutter.

" That is not what I meant , I was trying to say that since you gave me information on what you were working on , it would be only right for me to do the same ".

Dean nodded and was about to tell him that there was really no need when he suddenly blurted it out .

" I got some raw glycerin bars and nitric acid !!! ".

" What ??!? "

" Did I not tell you to get rid of that idea and quit mentioning it ? "

Jade smiled quite foolishly and stood up, trying to escape the room .

Dean tried to quickly think of how he handled Jaymie wanting to do things that he did not think were safe , it came to him at once .

Fake interest, that way they would involve you and you could easily monitor them and keep them safe .

" I am surprised you remained quite determined with your idea, keep me posted, I would like to see how it goes ".

Jade's eyes brightened as he ran over .

" Of course , I will keep you posted about everything , I knew you would come around and like it ".

" Like what ? "

Dean and Jade both jumped as they turned around to appraise May who was sporting a very large frown .