Title: Just A Fact
Series:
Story's EndPairing:Sam/Dean
Rating: NC-17
Summary: When had they ever followed societies rules of right and wrong?
Dean didn’t see it happening at first. As tense as things had gotten between him and Sam, they had eased up. He hadn’t expected it too, not with the way Sam had questioned him the one night, but after a few days everything seemed to fall back to normal for them.
At least he thought it had.
Now he couldn’t unsee it though.
Because while Dean had been willing to forget the biggest mistake he’d ever made, Sam hadn’t. And Sam had decided to turn the tables. He wouldn’t force something between them. No. Because this wasn’t something he could force and he knew that.
Instead, he’d dropped it and gone a much subtler route.
It started with texts, asking when Dean would be home and what he wanted for dinner and if they should go out or cook. Nothing strange or out of the ordinary really. They took care of each other. The only reason it was anything out of the ordinary is they usually waited until Dean was home to talk about it. Now, Dean came home to warm meals waiting for him, or Sam ready to run out to grab a bite to eat with him.
Saturdays were days they usually worked on the database. It’d also become their night to just hang out and catch a movie. Today Dean had been forced to go in to work on a property so Sam had called to see when he’d be home.
“Girlfriend?”
Dean looked at his phone and then back at Alan, one of the guys they used to help with electrical work.
“What?”
“Sounds like you got plans with your girlfriend tonight.”
“Girlfriend? No, just Sammy.”
Alan’s eyes widened a bit and he just nodded. “Yeah. Alright,” the guy said as he finished packed up his things. “Let me know if you need me for anything else. Sorry I wasn’t able to get out yesterday.”
“No sweat. Thanks for coming out on a Saturday to get it done. I appreciate it.”
Alan smacked him on the arm as he headed out the door. He gave a wave and was out the door, calling out as he disappeared, “Have a good night with your boyfriend!”
It was only then that Dean realized exactly what his brother had been doing. Why he’d let things go.
He hadn’t. Not at all.
If Dean wouldn’t give in to Sam’s demands verbally, Sam had just decided to side step the argument entirely and started to act like his boyfriend. Dean hadn’t even noticed. They took care of each other, they had to once their father died, but Sam had started to take it to another level and Dean didn’t know what to do with that.
He sent a quick text off to Leda to let her know they’d fixed the electric problem and then put his phone away. Another quick text to the renter to let her know they were done finished up his work tonight.
Sam was already on the way home with Chinese take out from the place Dean loved.
It was a crazy idea. Sam wouldn’t do that. He couldn’t. Dean decided not to say anything and just see how the evening went.
When he got home, Sam had the food spread out on the counter. He smiled at Dean and grabbed a plate. “Hey, you got home quick.”
“Yeah, Alan was just finishing up when you called.”
“Everything go okay?”
“Yeah. Alan knows what he’s doing so it wasn’t bad just…”
“Boring?” Sam suggested with a smile.
Dean laughed. “Yeah. A bit. The renter isn’t too comfortable with a stranger in the house so I was really just babysitting him while he did his job.”
“Go get cleaned up and I’ll get everything ready.”
Dean did as he was told, threw on some flannel PJ bottoms that Sam had given him at Christmas last year and a clean tee shirt, then washed up. When he came back in Sam handed him a plate full of his favorites and pushed him in towards the couch. “I rented a couple movies. Pick something out.”
The movies were the sort Dean loved and he grabbed one and popped it into the player to start it up. He settled on the couch just as Sam came in and joined him. He handed Dean a beer and they started eating as the movie played.
Dean hadn’t been this aware of someone sitting next to him in a long time. Sam sat a little closer than usual but nothing worth noting. Except that now Dean was hyper aware. Because Sam had gone out of his way to go to Dean’s favorite Chinese place, picked up movies he knew Dean would love, and was now sitting on the couch with him.
It was a lot like their usual Saturday night hang outs, but the air was more like a date. He took a long pull from his beer and finished eating because he didn’t know how to handle this. And there wasn’t anyone he could call on this one. There was no well-meaning support group that covered raising your younger brother after your hunter father died, and you gave up the life but you’re still too wrapped up in each other and you’re probably in love but how the hell do you deal with it?
The thing was, he didn’t notice the subtle changes because they were good. It felt right. Dean wasn’t disgusted by Sam and what had happened between them. He was just … he knew it was wrong. But what Sam had said that night had played around in his head too many times to count.
When had they ever followed societies rules of right and wrong?
They were hunters by birth and training. They hadn’t just learned the job though. It had been a lifestyle for them. For two young kids who had needed stability and reassurance, they’d only had each other. Dean had trust issues and though he saw Sam struggle through it, he knew his brother did too. Bringing someone new into their lives was always dangerous. They’d been taught that since their Mom had died.
Being with Sam, it made a certain sort of twisted sense. But Dean would never push himself onto Sam. He didn’t want to think he’d done something to raise Sam into thinking this was okay. Even as he looked at that though, he knew he hadn’t.
That blame he could lay squarely at his father’s feet.
John Winchester had taught them to hunt and trained them to be the most efficient killers on the job. He’d taught them that nothing was worth a damn except family and everyone else was likely to get you hurt or killed.
And Dean, he couldn’t forget. He’d tried to act like he could, but the way things had turned out showed that neither of them had.
So he took a deep breath. When the movie ended, Sam got up and put another one in and Dean put his arm up on the back of the couch where Sam had been sitting.
Sam’s eyes widened when he came back to his seat but he didn’t say anything. He sat down and pulled one knee up underneath him, angling himself so that his back was a little closer to Dean. About fifteen minutes into the movie, Dean shifted slightly and they were pressed together, side to side, Dean’s thumb brushing over Sam’s shoulder absently.
Sam relaxed into his touch and Dean just smiled as he kept watching the movie. They didn’t move closer and neither tried to make it more than what it was, but when the movie was over, Dean let out a deep sigh.
“Hey, Sammy?”
Sam turned slightly to look at him and Dean couldn’t help but watch as Sam licked his lips. “Yeah?”
“Thanks. I didn’t realize how much I needed to just relax.”
Sam smiled. “Me too, actually. Good thing we got it tonight though. We have a lot of work to do on the database tomorrow.”
“Yeah, yeah. I know,” Dean said with a smile. “When is Bobby coming back for that journal?”
“Next Saturday. I’ll take it to the library and make copies this week, but he’ll want to see our progress when he stops in.”
“We’ll get it done. We always do,” Dean said.
And they would. Tomorrow, it would be a day of research and study, putting together the various bits of information from a hunter’s journal and adding it to the database they’d started, and trying to use it to fill in more of the Hunter’s Taxonomy project they’d started.
It would be time in their office space, brushing against each other almost constantly to confirm and debate and make sense of it all. And Sam would stand too close, brush up against Dean when he didn’t have too.
And this time, Dean would notice why he was doing it, and he just might reciprocate. Because maybe Dean couldn’t handle them being lovers, but maybe there was something about playing things slow and seeing what happened. Maybe, they could see if this could be something manageable between them.
Because Dean couldn’t deny it any longer. He was in love with Sam. And Sam was in love with him. And nothing and no one had ever stood a chance of getting between them.
That was just a fact.