Title: This Mask He Wears

Author: IndigoNight

Feedback: Yes please

Summary: Because when it comes down to it, Sam simply isn't normal.

Disclaimer: I do not own Supernatural or the characters

Spoilers: Not really.

Rating: PG

Warnings: None

Author's Note: So here it is, the first installment in my Angels Would Fall series. Angels Would Fall is basically a series of stories of varying length, subjects, genres, etc. one based off of, inspired by, or connected in someway to each episode. This one, being the first, is obviously off of the Pilot. Read, Review, Enjoy!

Sam was not a fan of Halloween. He never had been. On that one night of the year, even the idea of free candy hadn't really appealed to him.

He'd only ever once in his life gone trick-r-treating and he'd been too young to remember. He only even knew about it because among the few things left after the fire had been a picture of him in a, of all things, clown costume, being held by his mother, looking radiant in a renaissance princess costume and hold the hand of a four-year-old Dean who was dressed as a fireman. It had been taken only days before the fire.

Strangely, Halloween festivities had been one of the few things about normal life that Sam hadn't desperately longed for. Maybe it was that the thought of people running around trying to look like ghosts and witches and zombies for kicks was a lot less entertaining when he saw and fought the real thing on a regular basis.

Whatever it was, it had been a long standing annual hobby of him and Dean to every year evaluate and sincerely mock the local stock of oblivious normal people in whatever backcountry town they happened to be in.

"Look at that, like werewolves are really that hairy."

"I've seen gnomes scarier than that zombie wannabe."

"What the hell is up with the one? Vampires don't even exist, but if they did they'd be way cooler than that lame ass."

Sam could still hear the ghost of Dean's scornful comments trailing through his head even now, despite the fact that he hadn't talked to his brother in two years.

Last Halloween Sam had spent buried in the Stanford library, determinedly pretending that he wasn't passionately missing his big brother, smart ass or not. This year, Jess was making him go out.

As he smiled, laughing with his friends as they teased him for not being in the holiday spirit, he couldn't suppress the overwhelming knowledge that this year he was in fact wearing a mask. Not the fake plastic kind you bought at a costume store. No, it was still his face, still his usual jeans and t-shirt attire, but it was a costume nonetheless. This year Sam Winchester was dressed up as normal.

He knew that no matter now much he pretended, he wasn't, and never would really be just like everyone else. He could deny it all he wanted, but the truth was he was a hunter through and through.

But that didn't matter. He liked being normal, even if it was only pretend. He liked college, and sleeping in the same bed every night, and not having a near death experience every other week. And he loved Jess. He'd made his choice between what he was and what he loved.

So he plastered a smile on his mask, raised his shot glass in a toast, and let Jess drag him off to dance, holding her tight and kissing her.

All the while determinedly pretending that he wasn't passionately missing his big brother, smart-ass or not.