A new fic! I know I shouldn't, but this has been in the works for a long time and I can never seem to get it to go away so I'm posting it to see what people think! It's gonna be angsty and it's going to be sad, so buckle up!

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Roman swings his bag over his shoulder, letting out a sigh of relief as he pushes his way out of the classroom. He feels restless, fingers itching to do something other than writing shit down. He's so done with school; he's been done with school for the past how many years. The only reason he turns up is because of football. And Dean, he'll always turn up for Dean, not matter how much he hates it, he's going to turn up because Dean wants him to.

Roman can't say no to Dean. Dean, his brother, brother in every sense other than blood. Dean is his adoptive brother, and has been Roman's brother since he was six years old. He can remember his parents talking to his auntie about how worried they were about Roman and Dean getting along. But that had never been a problem; he and Dean clicked straight away and have been inseparable ever since. Dean's only a couple of months younger than him, so they have the same social circle.

Dean's friends are his friends, and Roman's friends are Dean's friends. It's a good little set up, but Roman has some small problems. His first problem is Nikki, who is a wonderful girl and very pretty, and he'd probably take her up on all of her flirting if he swung that way. He's tried to tell her that he's not interested, but she's persistent. It's not that annoying, but he really doesn't want to hurt her. And then his other problem is Seth, Dean's best friend. Seth is a nice guy, cute too and he's gotten them out of trouble more often than not, with his master skilled puppy dog eyes. The only problem is, he has a huge crush on Dean.

That shouldn't be a problem, because Seth is a nice guy. But lately, Roman's been having these feelings; weird, confusing feelings towards his brother. It started when he and Dean were watching a movie together in Roman's room, and ended up falling asleep together in a tangle of limbs. Roman woke up painfully hard, with Dean's ass pressed firmly against his crotch. If Dean had felt it, he hadn't said anything. But since then, without being able to help it, Roman's seen Dean as more than his brother and all of these weird and confusing feelings have been fluttering around in his belly.

Especially when he's around Seth, the way that Seth stands extremely close to him, touching his arms and laughing at everything he says makes Roman want to punch him. He knows what it is, but he's not quite ready to admit it yet.

Roman heads through the corridor towards his locker, a smile breaking onto his face when he sees Dean already there waiting for him. They're both on the football team, so they always meet up to go to practice together. Dean grins widely when he sees Roman, pushing himself away from where he's leaning on the lockers.

"Hey Deano." Roman coos, ruffling Dean's curls. Dean swats at Roman's hand, glaring at him.

"Why you always gotta' mess with my hair?"

Roman laughs as he shoves his books into his locker and pulls out his gym bag. "Because I know it annoys you." Dean shoves his shoulder, muttering something under his breath.

"Everyone still up for Colter's later on?" Roman asks, swinging an arm over Dean's shoulders and guiding them towards the sports field. Colter's was a burger restaurant that they all went to on a Friday night, as a sort of tradition.

"I think so. Oh wait, John's had to bail, something about his brother coming back from college and a family gathering. But I think everyone else is still game." Dean says, pushing through the double doors. Randy's waiting for them by the steps to the changing rooms, legs dangling down from the wall with a cigarette tucked between his lips.

"Y'know, if the coach catches you smoking he's going to throw a fit." Dean says frowning. Randy just laughs at him, his free hand reaching out and ruffling Dean's hair.

"Don't tell me Deany-boy, you're worried about little ol' me?"

Dean scoffs, messing with some of the curls that have fallen in front of his face. "No. But you getting kicked off the team would harm all of us. So don't do it on school grounds, asshole." Dean plucks the cigarette from Randy's fingers and throws it to the ground, crushing it under the toe of his shoe. Randy groans at him and slips off the wall, he grabs Dean, getting him in a tight headlock before playfully messing up Dean's hair.

"Why you always gotta' ruin my fun, Deano?" Randy drags Dean towards the training room, managing to avoid the punches Dean's throwing towards his stomach.

"Roman! Tell Randy let go of me!"

Roman laughs, giving Dean a sympathetic look, "Be careful with my brother Randy, he's a fragile little thing." Dean just grunts, finally pushing his way out of Randy's grip. He rubs at his neck, scowling at Roman and Randy.

"You're both assholes, so guess who's going to be getting the corner peg in the locker room?" Dean smirks before turning and bolting towards the locker room. Randy groans, sprinting after him as Roman laughs and jogs behind. He's had the corner peg (the best peg in the locker room, as decided by the whole team) more than enough times; he'll let Dean have it for once.

xXx

"Roman, we went over this shit last week." Dean says, whacking him over the head with the text book they're working from. Roman lets out a heavy sigh; frowning as he looks down at the scrawls on his paper. He's never been very good at school, science especially, and usually he would just get the answers from Corey in class and pray that Corey had at least got some of the answers right. But after his Biology teacher caught him and Corey, that old plan was out of the window thanks to his mom and dad, and now Dean was doing his best to help him understand it all so that he could do his own damn homework.

Dean's smart, amazingly so, and this Biology shit is in his blood somehow. But no matter how many times he tries to explain it to Roman, he just can't get it.

"I know, I know. I just, it's fucking hard? I don't understand any of it, like, what do white blood cells do again?" Dean sighs, scooting closer to Roman so that they're legs are pressed against each other and their shoulders are touching. He leans over Roman's legs, circling something Roman had previously written down.

"They destroy microorganisms by engulfing and digesting them, and they produce antibodies against antigens on their surface." Roman swears that he heard at least half of that, but the other half is too busy processing the feeling of Dean pressed so closely against him. They've been this close before, more times than Roman can count, but this feels different. Like Dean's skin is burning against his own, erupting those butterflies inside of him.

"Alright, alright, so with question five, the answer would be antigens?" Roman tugs his bottom lip between his teeth, praying that it's the right answer. He feels bad about Dean sitting with him for hours on end, going through the same shit over again. A smile breaks onto Dean's face.

"Yeah! Told you you'd get it in the end." Dean says, giving his shoulder a pat. Roman grunts, leaning down to rest his head on Dean's back as Dean scribbles something on the paper.

"Only cos' I got you."

"Whatever, I only gave you a little bit of help. The answer came out of that brain you got holed up in there." Dean smirks, pushing the books and paper from Roman's bed. Roman lets out a sigh and wonders how he's going to cope when they have to start sitting finals. Dean's going to be focusing on his own stuff; he doesn't need to worry about Roman possibly failing every subject he's doing. Which he is, really, he hasn't had a great report card for a few years now. Their parents hadn't been too angry, knowing that Roman was pretty focused on his football and making the team, but they expected him to at least pass everything. He needed to if he wanted to get into a college; even the football ones expected passes.

He's going to do it, no matter how hard he has to work. He's going to do it because Dean says he can, and if Dean says he can, then he can.

Roman's not quite sure when Dean's word became law, but he figures it was around the time Roman got hit by that car and damaged his leg so badly the doctors were discussing his possibilities of being able to play sports again. Dean had been by his bedside though, telling him that he'd play football again. They both would, they'd make the team together. He couldn't let Dean down, so he didn't. Since then, whenever Dean's told him he can do something, he always believed that he could too.

Dean leans over the side of the bed to reach the remote for the television and flicks through the channels as Roman carts his fingers through Dean's hair.

"Y'know Brie and Nikki were talking about you again today." Dean notes as he finally decides on some crappy reality show.

"Yeah? Good or bad?"

"Good. Brie said that you'd make a good couple at prom. Nikki said that you should be prom king and queen, the usual." Dean laughs, looking up at Roman through his lashes. Roman can't help but stare at Dean's face and how it looks under the soft light of Roman's lamp. There are times when Dean looks like a total badass that would completely kick your ass if you got on the wrong side of him, but then there are other times when Dean looks like a child. A little lost puppy that just needs protecting and loving, and that's how he looks now; completely adorable and unguarded.

"Yeah well, I've already told Nikki that I don't like her like that. I personally think she should get with Randy, he's been crushing on her forever." Roman finally says, snapping out of his trance.

Dean scoffs, "Yeah, but Randy's a grade A asshole. She could so much better than him." Dean pokes Roman in the ribs and laughs when Roman squirms.

"He's not that bad. I mean, yeah, maybe he can be an asshole, but remember who took the fall for us all last summer when we broke Jenkins' window?"

Dean smiles, "Well yeah, but it was Seth who pouted and stopped Jenkins' pressing charges for criminal damages." There it goes again. Seth. Somehow, the two-toned fuck head always managed to weasel his way into their conversation.

"Seth could get out of anything." Roman mumbles, turning his attention to the show on the screen. It's irrational maybe, to feel suddenly deflated at the mention of Seth's name, but he can't help it. Dean talks about Seth more than he talks about anyone else, and well there's that word that Roman doesn't really want to say yet. Jealous. Of course he is, and he knows it. Dean's the kind of person that if you get his affections, you really don't want to let them go. Dean cares so passionately for everyone, but for a long time Roman had been the only person that Dean spoke about like he was some sort of God. "Did you hear about my brother Roman? He made first team football!" Dean would say to everyone when they were little and Roman had tried out for his first football team and got picked. Dean used to tell everyone about him, and for a long time he used to write to his old care worker, telling her all about him.

But now, all Dean seems to do is talk about Seth. Like he's got angels flying out of his ass or something, and Roman has to admit that he's jealous. He can't deny it, after so long of having Dean's undivided attention it's strange to have it directed at someone else. But it's deeper than that. Roman doesn't want Dean to talk about Seth when he's lying right beside him. He doesn't want Dean to talk about Seth with a stupid goofy grin on his face like some little love sick puppy. No, Roman wants Dean to look at him like that. It's wrong, Roman knows that, but he can't help it.

There's something about Dean, something that Roman has never come across before, that's made Roman feel like this. The brother thing, well they're not really brothers, right? They are, in their hearts and to their family and to their friends. But the blood flowing through their veins, no matter how much of Dean's is tainted with the colour of Roman's, it's a different blood. It doesn't make it right, Roman knows that, but it makes it a little bit easier to cope with. The fact that he's crushing on his brother is one thing, but falling for him is another.

It's slowly driving him mad, mad to the point where he feels like keeping a hold of Dean all around school so that Seth knows to back the fuck off. But he can't, because brothers are not meant to fall in with each other. It also doesn't help that their mother loves Seth to death, and is probably secretly planning their wedding.

Roman can feel a headache on, so he settles back and closes his eyes, letting the soft sounds of Dean's occasional laughter lull him into calm. He's so glad that it's the weekend tomorrow; the weekend means he can do his usual brotherly stuff with Dean. Their usual Saturday morning run before hitting the beach for a bit, then back home to get ready to see the whole family. The weekends are Roman's favourite, because if they were ever interrupted, even if only for a little bit, their mother went mad. It was the only real time Roman got to spend with his brother without precious little Seth Rollins getting involved.

"Thinking really loud, Ro." Dean mumbles, jabbing a finger into his ribs.

"Sorry, I can't seem to shut off tonight." Roman sighs, running a hand down his tired face. Dean sits up, giving him a worried glance.

"You wanna' talk about it?" He could. He could tell Dean about everything that's going through his head because he trusts Dean with his life. But he won't. Not yet, maybe not ever, because Roman doesn't want to complicate what they have here. Their brotherly relationship is stronger than those of most of their friends and their siblings. He can't ruin this because all of a sudden his body is betraying him, pulling his heart in on it too. No he won't, Dean means too much to him.

"Nah, I'm alright. Just glad it's the weekend, is all." Dean nods, though he's still giving Roman that look that he always gives him when he doesn't quite believe him. He's had the look so many times.

"Are you sure? You're not hiding something, are you?"

Roman scoffs, though there's a lump forming in his throat. "No, course' not Deano. Just a lot on my mind lately, y'know, trying to actually pass all my classes so I can go to college and not get killed by dad." Roman gently knocks his knuckles against Dean's forehead.

Dean's face softens as he lies back down beside Roman, pressing his body into him. "You'll do it Ro, don't worry. I'll help you whenever you need me, OK?" Roman's heart aches inside his chest as Dean snuggles against him.

"Thanks Dean."

Dean pats his belly, leaving his hand on Roman's stomach and gently tapping out a rhythm with his fingers. Every touch feels like a firework.

"No problem Rome."