Forever Young.
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A bare-footed Sam Winchester sauntered out of the kitchen, his rumpled sweatpants, tee-shirt and bird's nest of hair clearly indicative of a little brother who had not long ago rolled out of bed.
Dean looked up from his ritual of gun-cleaning which he still religiously carried out every day, and a smile curved his lips at the sight.
Sam was chewing on a bright orange carrot, like some giant Godzilla-sized rabbit.
x
"Dude, carrots! This early in the morning?" Dean teased.
Sam pushed the heavy veil of hair back from his face as he replied "So? You should chew down on one too Dean. It takes that morning camel taste from one's mouth and peps you up."
"Coffee attends to those needs perfectly, Sammy. I don't have to raid your stash of rabbit food for that," Dean scoffed
Sam just huffed at his brother's on-going aversion to vegetables and made his way to the couch.
A companionable silence fell over the room, the only sounds being the swish of rags as Dean polished his little armoury of guns, and the crunch of the carrot as Sam sunk his teeth into it, biting off chunks with relish.
X
"You know, Sam," Dean reminisced with a grin, breaking the silence. "When you were a kid, I can't remember how many times you turned up your nose at any vegetable I'd put on the table; your staple diet was Lucky Charms, soup and Cheerios, and look at you now, Mr Vegetable Man himself. "
"It's not that dad left us much money for anything more elaborate, Dean," Sam answered, chewing his mouthful of carrot.
"Yeah, but I do remember when you turned vegetarian," Dean teased.
"Dude," Sam threatened. "You are not going there!"
But Dean continued on regardless, smirking at the memory.
"Aw come on, dude. You were a cute chubby twelve-year old when you decided that veggies were you new best friend forever. If I recall, you had a massive crush on Sadie Brown, but she liked skinny tall guys and you my little brother, were definitely out of her league. Just think if she could see you now, Sammy; an over-tall skinny Sasquatch. You might just be in with a chance!"
"Shut up, Dean. That was baby-fat, it wore off as I became a teen," Sam pouted with a frown.
"Baby-fat, my ass," Dean snorted. "We were at the school for two months and you stopped eating all the stuff you loved and nearly starved yourself to death, just to score with the freckled-faced Sadie!"
A well-aimed piece of carrot caught Dean on the nose, making him smile, gratified at Sam's satisfying response to his baiting. "Sammy that is just so you! You never did grow up from being that twelve-year old chubby little dude!"
X
Sam unwound himself from the couch, pulling himself to full height and making a bee-line for his big brother.
"You gonna back up what you just said, man?" Sam bitched. "You wanna take on this chubby twelve-year old."
Dean's grin couldn't have been wider as he stood up to face his brother.
"Bring it on, dude," he answered, and anyone peeking into the bunker at that moment would have seen two tall hard-bitten hunters acting like a couple of kids, as they laughingly wrestled around the room, oblivious to everything but their moment of joy in each other.
X
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