A Comforting Hand

by thefabulouspadalecki

Short wee!chesters fluff because they are adorable. I saw a gif a while ago on Tumblr showing Dean with his arm outstretched to where Sam is while he's asleep and saw people saying how maybe he does that so Sam could grab onto it. So I wanted to make a story about why he does that! Very short, one shot.

A Helping Hand

An 11 year old Dean walked around the plain white motel room, checking that the door was locked, the salt lines weren't broken and if Sam was okay. Yawning tiredly, he flicked his little brother's head after deeming everything was fine, "Sammy, time for bed so stop reading. Gosh I have a nerd for a brother."
The light haired brunet looked up from his book and glared at the elder, "And I have a jerk for one! Okay, I'm going."
The younger leaped up from his little nest on the worn couch, tucking his book under his arm. The room they were sleeping in was small, and looked even tinier due to the two twin beds crammed inside. After checking that the rifle by the end of his bed was loaded with rock salt, Dean climbing into his bed and Sam went into his own. Dean was a little upset and annoying their dad wasn't back from his hunt yet; he was starting to run out of excuses for his inquisitive sibling since it was way past business hours to keep using the "he's working" one. As Sam was about to put out another large book for his age, his older brother promptly threw a pillow at him, "GO TO BED. God, you're going to lose your nose in those freaking books."
With those words, he turned off the lamp and fell asleep, ignoring his brother's whining.

A light weight placed on his hand brought Dean out of his dream of eating mountains of pie. Thinking it was a fly or some kind of a prank, he brought his other hand to swipe at it blindly. Instead he felt soft, trembling skin that he recognized; Dean's eyes flew open and met teary brown ones. "Sam? What's wrong?" he instantly went into 'protective big brother' mode and shot up, patting his bed as an invitation for the little brother to climb next to him.
His angry green gaze scrutinized the room but found no threatening monsters or intruders, only a sniffling seven year old. Sam crawled into his older brother's arms and didn't answer; Dean tucked his head under his chin, and passed his finger through brown hair comfortingly just as Mom used to do for him. "Sammy, are you okay now?" He looked down after a few minutes and grinned, his little brother was fast asleep, a smile etched onto his small face. Ever since then, Dean always slept with his arm outstretched to him so he could grab onto it if he had a nightmare. Even when they were adults since Sam never stopped needing to reach for it.