Author's Note: I was watching "The Switch" last night and this scenario just popped into my head. Nothing big, nothing serious, just a quick little domestic ficlet written in about an hour's time.

"Hey Dean! Phone's for you. It's Sam.", one of his fellow mechanics, Jason, called from across the garage. Dean quickly slid from under the car he was working on and lifted himself up, heading for the office.

Sam was on a business trip for a few days, leaving Dean and their six year old son son, Luca, at home without him. Sam had quit his job at the firm after giving birth to stay at home with Luca, but recently decided to go back now that their baby was school age. It didn't really affect their normal routine that much besides the occasional trip Sam was expected to go on. Sam's boss loved him and his schedule was flexible. He was always home before Dean in time to get dinner on the table and did his work in their upstairs office when necessary.

Dean and Luca being alone usually meant breakfasts consisting of sugary cereal, sloppy pb&j sandwiches thrown in Luca's lunch box, dinners at the local diner, and lots of Die Hard and Fast and Furious marathons before bedtime. Dean liked to call it quality, father-son bonding time. The time difference between their home in Kansas and New York was minimal, but because Sam was always in and out of this or that meeting, he had been calling at random hours of the day. Just that morning, Dean had awoken to find he had three missed 2 a.m. calls from his husband.

He reached for the unhooked phone and was quickly stopped by the garage receptionist, Anna. "Don't you dare, Dean Winchester. Wipe your hands off before you touch the phone.", she scolded. Dean rolled his eyes, but obliged, taking the offered rag from her hands. It was his shop after all. He could do whatever wanted.

"Hey Sammy, how's it goin out there?"

"Dean?", Sam's voice came through the speaker, garbled from the bad connection. As far as Dean was concerned, with the amount of money they were paying for unlimited data, long range coverage and all that crap, the phones should always work. Bad connection be damned.

"Yeah, I'm here.", he said adjusting the phone from his end as if it would make a difference.

Sam yelled something that sounded like "Hold on a sec." and Dean heard the muffled sounds of movement and swearing in the background.

"I'm back.", Sam's voice said clearly. Dean guessed he had found someplace with a better signal.

"Everything okay?", Dean asked.

"Yeah, it's great. I'm just getting out of the shower and I have lunch with the board in about an hour. The reception in my room sucks." Dean smirked and cast a quick glance around him to make sure no one was listening in before leaning against the counter.

"The shower huh? You still naked?", he asked suggestively.

"Down boy.", Sam replied with a laugh and Dean could just imagine him flashing that big, goofy smile. "I don't have a lot of time cause I have to get going, but I need you to do something important and you're not going to like it."

"What is it?"

"Dean, seriously. I don't want you to freak out and start acting all...Dean-y. You know how you get."

"Just tell me Sam.", Dean barked, losing his patience.

Sam sighed reluctantly. "Luca's school called. There's been a lice outbreak in his class."

Dean's mind stuttered to a complete stop. "There's been a what now?"

"Lice, Dean.", Sam said in exasperation. "You know, little bugs that live in hair? A huge pain in the ass for all grade school parents? Lots of kids get them, it's not a big deal."

Dean huffed. It made him itch just thinking about having blood sucking parasites crawling all around his scalp and he shivered a little bit. It just wasn't normal. He could hunt demons and every other kind of evil creature in existence without breaking a sweat, but he had a thing about insects as Sam would say.

"So, are you on your way home or what?", he asked. There was no way in hell he was dealing with this alone.

"What?" Sam asked incredulously. "No. I can't leave until tomorrow night. And even if I could, you still need to start taking care of the lice before they get out of hand and he gets an infection. It's in the early stages so we should be able to get rid of them quick."

"Cool, I'll just take him to the emergency roo-"

"You can't just take him to the emergency room Dean. It's lice. This is not a life or death situation."

Dean rubbed his fingers over his eyes. He felt the beginning of a bad headache coming on. "I'm drawing a blank here Sam, what do you want me to do then? Just bring him home, put him in front of the tv and feed him some chicken soup or somethin?"

"For starters yeah, but you need to do a few more things. Do you have a pen?"

And so, Dean found himself standing in front of his impala and staring at the small brick building of Singer Elementary. He hadn't been there since Luca's Christmas recital and his preschool registration two years before that. Sam was the one that usually picked him up from school and went to all the parent-teacher conferences or whatever.

He took a deep breath before walking in and was immediately assaulted by an array of brightly colored walls and the smell of chocolate milk. He muttered to himself trying to remember the room number Sam had given him. His eyes scanned the walls for the right room number 103. He heard the chaos before he saw it.

The room was loud, tiny humans running around grabbing jackets and book bags. Kids zipped past him every which way, yelling and chattering. As he approached the inside of the room, every adult head in the room turned to stare at him. Dean suddenly felt like a piece of meat on display. The other moms were blatantly staring at him with interest. A few of them waved and even gave him flirtatious smiles, but some frowned at him like he was some potential perverted creep or intruding on their little mommy territory.

A petite blonde boldly walked over to him and held out her small hand for a shake. "Hi, I'm Meg. I haven't seen you at pick up before. Are you a parent or...?"

"Uh, parent.", he answered. "My son Luca is in this class." Her eyes widened in surprise. "Oh.", she said in understanding. "You're Sam's husband. Girls!", she called to the small congregation of moms. "This is Dean, Sam's husband., she introduced, gesturing to his form.

He nodded at them in acknowledgement. "Ladies." They all whispered excitedly to one another and he just knew they were talking about him. He swore he even heard one of them mumble, "Figures. All the good ones are gay."

"I'm Matty's mom, but you probably already knew that.", Meg chattered, waving a hand dismissively.

Dean gave her a blank stare. Who the hell is Matty?

"Matthew Masters.", she continued. "He and Luca are good friends."

Nothing.

"The boys have a play date every week."

Still nothing.

"He spent the night over your house last weekend.", she said drily.

Oh. He remembers now. The little shit that ate his boogers, cried the entire time and almost destroyed Dean's model car collection.

He pointed at her. "Right, Matty. Great kid you've got there.", he lied, laying it on thick. Meg ate it up and smiled brightly. He was saved from the awkward conversation by a brown blur that he eventually recognized as Luca wrapping himself his leg, excitedly.

"Daddy!"

Dean picked him up and placed a hand on his son's head to ruffle his hair before remembering what he was here for. He snatched his hand back like it was on fire. Dean groaned internally when he saw the confused and dejected look in Luca's brown eyes. Sam's parting words rang in his ears. "I swear if you traumatize our son over this, I'm going to cut your balls off when I get home."

Dean gave Luca a small smile and placed him on the floor. "Come on kiddo, go ahead and get your stuff."

Luca scratched at his head. "Nurse Janski says I gots lice. What's that?"

"They're um...little bugs that live in your hair.", Dean said parroting Sam. "We need to go to the store and pick up some special shampoo and other stuff to get rid of them."

Luca nodded and Dean watched as he ran off towards a set of brown cubbies in the back of the room, grabbing his belongings from the one with his name written over it and scrambling back to his father. Dean helped him get dressed and threw the ninja turtle shell book bag over his shoulder, gently pushing Luca towards the door. He was glad to be getting the hell out of that zoo.

Dean walked through the double doors of the store with Luca tucked safely at his side. He picked him up and deposited him into the main portion of the cart. Luca giggled with glee as they wheeled off into the store.

"Okay, we've got garbage bags.", Dean said throwing them into the cart.

"Check!", Luca shouted, grabbing the box.

"Gloves."

"Check."

"Shower Caps."

"Check."

"Organic, non-chemical, lice shampoo with tea tree oil." Sam had been adamant about getting exactly the right kind. "And... snacks.", he listed off, reaching out and adding in some jerky, cheese sticks, and barbecue chips into the cart. He also snuck a six pack in there for later. He was going to need it.

"Check and check." Dean turned towards Luca and held up his hand for a high five. "Ready to kill some bugs?"

"Yeah!", Luca cried, smacking his little palm against Dean's.

Luca sat in front of Dean on the floor in nothing but his Captain America underwear, eating a box of coco puffs and giggling at the cartoons on the tv. Dean took a quick swig of beer before pulling on the latex gloves and picking up the tweezers and comb. The instructions were crap, so he just decided to wing it. He parted Luca's wet hair and cringed when he saw a small, black bug scuttle across Luca's scalp and disappear into the thick strands.

He leaned back against the chair and sucked in a breath, clutching at his stomach. "I think I'm going to be sick.", he whispered under his breath. He wished Sam would have just let him shave Luca's head like he wanted to. He seriously considered going to get his clippers from under the sink before thinking better of it. Sam would kill him if he did. Luca felt his tension and looked back in concern, his brown eyes large and innocent just like Sam's.

"What's wrong?", he asked worriedly.

"Nothing. Everything's good champ. You're okay.", he reassured him, manually turning Luca's head back to face the tv. Dean bit back the bile and roast beef sandwich he had for lunch that was threatening to come back up and combed up one of the eggs, wincing as he tapped the comb into a bowl of warm soapy water. Gross.

Dean's brow was furrowed in concentration as he combed through Luca's brown mane and picked out more bugs and eggs. He jerked slightly when one got too close to his hand. "Daddy?", Luca's tiny voice piped up.

"Hm?"

"Are you scared of the lice?"

"Heck no, I'm not scared... Why? Are you?"

Luca bit his lower lip before slowly nodding up and down. It was then that Dean knew he had to man up. Something in his son's voice reminded him that Luca was just a little kid and he was watching him; looking at his dad to know how he should react to the world around him. Like he had watched his own father. If he was acting like a little pansy about a couple of bugs, then any fears Luca had would be multiplied by ten. Someone had to be a grown up about this and preferably not the one who had just recently learned to wipe his own ass.

"There's nothing to be scared about buddy, trust your old man on this one. They're not going to hurt you. Here look.", he said showing Luca the bowl. The lice looked like tiny specks in the water.

"They look like ants!", Luca assessed, sounding surprised. His six year old brain had probably morphed the lice into giant, flesh eating spiders or something equally as preposterous.

"See? I told you. Nothin to worry about. Are you still scared?"

Luca slowly shook his head no.

"Good, now we're both not scared." Luca beamed up at him.

"Daddy?", Luca asked again a few minutes later.

"Yeah bud."

"Are you going to throw up?"

"Probably kid. Probably."

Dean carried Luca into his room and placed him on the bed, pulling the covers over his little body. He kissed his forehead and turned out the lights, softly closing the door behind him. He sighed in relief. It took an hour of diligent combing, bagging, two baths, delivery pizza, and a round of Disney movies before Luca had passed out on Dean's chest, drooling on his Metallica t-shirt.

After texting Sam to let him know how everything went, he trudged downstairs to throw the last few loads of laundry into the washing machine. All of Luca's stuffed animals, toys, sheets, and clothes had been either bagged up tightly or washed in scalding hot water. They would have to stay there for days until the lice eventually suffocated and died.

Just to be safe, they were going to have to wash and check Luca's hair everyday for a week. By the time he finally got into bed, Dean was exhausted. He closed his eyes, but just couldn't get comfortable no matter what. The bed felt too big and empty without Sam's giant limbs taking up practically every inch of available space. The minutes ticked by and he was no closer to going to sleep than before. Dean rolled over and felt a small tingling sensation at the back of his head. He ignored it and buried his face in the pillow. The tingling grew to a full on itch and he scratched at it in annoyance. Then came another tingling by his ear. He scratched at that one too. In the middle of going at his head for the fifth time, it dawned on him.

"Son of a bitch!", he growled and punched the pillow before crawling out the of the bed and going to find the lice supplies.

Sam turned the key and walked into the house. The smell of bacon permeated through the air. He dropped his bags by the door and set his keys on the table. Something about being all the way in New York while Luca had lice didn't sit well with him. What if his baby needed him? And yeah, maybe he didn't exactly trust Dean 100% to handle it. Sam had apologized profusely to his boss and took the first available flight home, hoping to surprise them both.

He heard laughter and music coming from the kitchen and followed the sound. He laughed out loud when he saw Dean and Luca dancing around the kitchen in just their underwear, both with shower caps covering their hair. Dean froze mid step at the sound of his laughter.

"Papa, you're home!", Luca shouted launching himself at Sam. Sam cuddled the boy into his chest.

"We cooked breakfast!"

"I see.", he told Luca. "Huh, guess I wasn't needed after all. Looks like you two have it all under control."

"Daddy killed all my lice!"

"Did he now?". Sam said raising an eyebrow at Dean.

"Mm-hm, he did." Luca pulled Sam down to his level and cupped a hand around his ear to whisper loudly. "He almost threw up too.", Luca told him seriously. Sam snickered and Dean scowled.

"Can we stop talking about the friggin lice already? " Sam held up his hands up in surrender and kissed Dean. Luca made a disgusted sound and wiggled to be put down, not wanting to witness his parent's affection first handed. He took off towards the table and climbed into his chair, chugging down a glass of apple juice.

"Trying out a new look?", Sam asked fingering the powder blue shower cap.

"I started itching last night so I just. Yeah.", Dean explained.

"Aww, poor baby.", Sam cooed, palming the side of Dean's cheek patronizingly. "Maybe we should check you for nits."

"Not happening Sam.", Dean replied slapping his hand away. "I already shampooed or whatever and I'm fine. It was probably just me being paranoid. You're not getting your sasquatch hands anywhere near my head.", he said scratching his head through the plastic.

Sam rolled his eyes. "Whatever you say Dean."

"Ow!" Dean hissed, yanking away. He turned around to glare at Sam, holding his head protectively in one spot. "Are you trying to kill me?"

"You're worse than Luca. Come on man, suck it up. I have to comb through it." Dean grumbled and sat back, feeling the comb being yanked through his hair once again. That was it. He grabbed the comb from Sam and flung it across the room before storming off into their bathroom, angrily locking the door behind him.

Muffled buzzing sounds could be heard filtering through the door and into the room. About ten minutes later, Dean came back out brushing his head and shoulders off with a small towel and with no hair. A complete buzz cut. Sam stared, mouth hanging open. He couldn't believe Dean had actually cut off his hair. It would grow back eventually, but still.

"Would you stop? Blink or somethin." Still no response from Sam. "Does it look that bad?", Dean asked self consciously. He wasn't big on vanity, but he's never been practically bald before either.

Sam finally recovered from the shock and shook his head. "No, no. It's kinda turning me on actually."

Dean smirked. "Yeah? You like it? " He walked over to the edge of the bed where Sam sat.

"Absolutely. You look hot. Like Jarhead hot."

"You have a sick obsession with that movie Sammy."

"Hey, it's a good film!", Sam protested. Dean ignored him and pulled Sam close, capturing his mouth in a fevered kiss.

"So I kinda missed you when you were gone."

"Hmm, I missed you too.", Sam replied, kissing Dean again. In between kisses, Sam fumbled with Dean's jeans, pushing him back and dropping to the floor on his knees. He dragged Dean's pants and boxers down to his knees, taking Dean hand and stroking him to hardness. Dean shivered when Sam's mouth ghosted over the tip before swallowing him to the base, swirling his tongue around shamelessly. Fuck, Sam was good at this. Really, really good.

The sensation of being surrounded by Sam's warm mouth took away all rational thought. Especially when Sam hallowed his cheeks and sucked him in harder. With a groan, Dean lost it. His knees almost turned to jello, Sam holding Dean up by the hips, taking all he had to offer.

Dean's green eyes filled with lust and he pulled Sam up roughly by the arms. "Get on the bed and strip private.", he commanded. Sam grinned wickedly, catching on to the game they were playing.

"Sir yes sir!", he exclaimed with a salute.

Turns out this whole lice thing wasn't so bad after all.

Fin