Short fic inside Dean's head during After School Special. I originally wanted to do more with this, but inspiration died and I ended up liking this short piece. Please share your thoughts. This is the first thing I've posted in years, so feedback would be amazing.
All of the sudden Dean felt like a big brother again. Like a big brother watching his little brother get beat up by the school bully. And that wasn't alright, had never been alright, with Dean.
This damn high school was making things complicated between them again. Their relationship lately was an uneasy balance where neither brother pried and their interactions were superficial. Not that Dean was okay with that, because he wasn't. And he was pretty sure that Sam didn't like it either. But they were both John Winchester's sons and stubborn was a way of life. Sam refused to see beyond his need to get revenge for Dean's death-and it was driving the very much alive Dean up a wall.
So after his multiple ineffective attempts at making Sam notice that Dean was back from Hell intact, Dean had backed off. Now their conversations focused on the job, and when it wasn't the job, weather seemed to be the topic of choice. Neutral and meaningless. And Dean wasn't sure how to fix it.
But this school was messing that all up. Here, he was constantly assaulted with memories of how it had been. How it had been Sam and Dean against the world and not against each other. How Sam had expected that Dean would beat up anybody that bothered, let alone hurt, him. And when Sam didn't want to fight. When his little brother didn't want to stick out and all he yearned for was a 'normal' life. When hunting was something their dad made him do and not Sam's reason for getting up every day. And while Dean loved the man his brother had become, sometimes he missed the way it had been.