They pull off to the side of an empty highway sometime after midnight. Sam rouses from a weak doze just in time to watch Dean slide out of the car and circle around to the front. When it's obvious Dean's not just making a pit stop for his bladder Sam unbuckles and follows him out.
Dean climbs onto the hood and then elbows his way up until he can stretch out, reclining against the windshield even though they're in Iowa and they haven't hit a car wash since Indiana. He pillows his head on his arms and lets out a long contented sigh.
"Dean," Sam half-whispers, half-laughs, "what're you doing?"
Dean makes an expansive gesture at the sky. "I'm takin' it all in, Sammy. It's a beautiful night, right?"
And... it is, it really is, Sam has to admit. They're a couple of weeks from midsummer; the night air is warm but not cloying, and the sky is a clear dark wash of stars. All around them the land is flat-- just fields and grass, with nothing at all to obstruct the view. The low soft drone of crickets offers up a counterpoint to the ticking of the cooling engine.
Dean pats the hood next to him. "Park it, Sam."
Sam hesitates before climbing gingerly onto the edge of the hood, hooking his feet up on the front bumper. The car dips beneath their combined weight.
"Too bad we're out of beer," Dean murmurs, but he doesn't sound like he actually minds.
Sam leans back on his elbows so that he's propped up next to his brother's knees. "Dean," he starts, "what're we--"
Dean kicks him, not even hard, just a warning. "Can't a man enjoy the serenity of nature without an Inquisition?"
"Yeah, Dean, but since when have you given a crap about nature, serene or otherwise?" Sam tilts his head up and back until he's eyeing his brother from upside-down.
Dean scowls. "Maybe that's why I'm doin' it now." He kicks Sam again and then leaves his leg there, pressed up against Sam's side. He's quiet for a long moment before he goes, "Hey, Sammy?"
"Yeah?"
"Remember when we were kids," Dean says, "and we'd be out with Dad, and he'd tell us to wait at the car but we could never stand to stay inside. So we'd climb out and sit up on the roof and look at the stars, if there were any, and you'd tell me about the constellations or whatever."
Sam smiles. "I remember. You called me a nerd because I knew more than just the Big Dipper and the Little Dipper."
Dean snorts. "Well, you are a nerd. But I liked it, liked listening to you talk. You always got so excited about knowing things."
"I was good at it," Sam murmurs, more to himself than anything.
The crickets sing, and a breeze whispers through the long grass as gently as a promise.
Sam says "Dean--" at the same time Dean goes "Sam--", and they both laugh uncomfortably.
"This is totally chick flick, isn't it?" Dean says.
"Lifetime Network for sure," Sam agrees, and then he lets his elbows slide out until he can stretch back and lay his head on Dean's leg.
Dean jerks a little in surprise. "What--"
"Shut up. It's easier to see this way." Sam blows out a long breath and then lifts his arm. "See that up there?"
A moment of silence falls across them. Finally Dean says, "Which?"
"The four bright ones in a row, there. Remember that one?"
"Orion's Belt," Dean says, and Sam doesn't have to look to know he's smiling.
"Right. Now, look just north of there..." He points a fraction higher.
Dean shifts minutely-- not away, but closer, pillowing Sam's head a little more comfortably as if by accident. "Don't think I remember that one," he mumbles softly, and something in his voice makes him sound very far away. "Better tell me all about it, Sam."
So Sam just lays there and tells his brother all about the heavens, until his voice gives out and the horizon starts to glow and the stars slip gently from the sky.