When Sam's overweight imaginary friend made himself visible to him, the elder Winchester reckoned that of all the weird shit he'd seen, this took pride of place in his top ten along with psychotic giant teddy bears and tiny bare-nippled fairies!

What made him silently chortle though, was the expression on Sam's face. His ginormous baby brother looked exactly like he used to when caught out doing something that neither John nor Dean would have approved of.

And when he ordered Sam to the library to have a little 'talk' about the elephant in the room, it was only by exercising all his self-control that he didn't burst out laughing at Sam's hunched shoulders and hangdog gait as he wretchedly obeyed.

Of course it was par for the course that any imaginary friend of a Winchester would turn out to be an exotic magical creature, even if it was motivated by good intentions!

:

Even so, Dean felt wounded in his big brother persona at the idea that Sam had been so neglected that he'd had to fall back on an imaginary friend, but there was a kernel of truth in it.
The elder Winchester had been torn between providing his father with back-up and tending to his sibling and at times, more often than not, John's needs won out over Sam's, defined by the danger of the hunt.

Logically, Dean understood that neither he nor Sammy carried any blame for the way they were brought up nor for the neglect that was rooted in their father's life-style.
John had made the choices for them and his children had been forced to follow his lead.

:

When the Impala pulled away into the night on the road back to the bunker, Dean was more than happy.
Sully was a good guy but the elder Winchester hated to share Sam with anyone. They weren't kids any more and their relationship had evolved into something more than just brothers.

He stole a quick glance at Sam. His brother had his brooding face on, the one that boded nothing good.
Before Sam opened his mouth Dean knew exactly what he was about to say. And he did so NOT want to hear it. When his sibling pronounced the hated word 'cage' and said his piece, ready to sacrifice himself for the good of all and so leave his big brother anguished and alone, Dean vowed to himself that it was never going to happen

Heart beating faster than a drum, he pulled the Impala into the road-side.
"What part of ' You are not gonna go back into the Cage' don't you understand Sam?" he growled.

:

Sam turned the patented eyes on him. "Dean... that has to be where the answers are. God is telling me to go there and get advice from Michael and Lucifer."

"You're fucking joking? Right! Those two would tear you to shreds before you could get a word in edge-wise. All you'd accomplish is to get tortured for another hundred years and this time there's no Death to pull you out.
Apart from that, Brainiac, you'd need the four rings to open the Cage and I don't see them dangling on the Impala's key ring."

"There might be another way of getting in... a back-door, like the Purgatory one." Sam countered.

"Yeah, if that was the case, don't you think Lucifer would have used it to get his ass out of there? Anyway, I don't care shit. There's no way I'm gonna okay you going back, even if the damn hole opened up by itself.
Let the angels and demons figure something out. The darkness affects them too." Dean's eyes bored into his brother. "I can't lose you again, Sammy, not ever."

"I let the darkness out, Dean. I'm the one who has to fix it," Sam insisted averting his eyes, unable to digest the torment in his big brother's gaze.

"Right. How much crap have we had to clean up that wasn't our fault, Sam? Someone else can take on the 'superman saves the world ' cloak this time. We've got more important stuff to do."

:

Sam only had time to roll his eyes at Dean's illogic, before he was yanked into his big brother's arms.
"You're... going.. nowhere.. Sammy, " he murmured, interspersing his words with nuzzling little nips at Sam's neck. "And... if … by .. any...chance.. it .. has.. to … happen...I'm going.. with ..you."

"Dean, there's no point in us both being in danger, I..."

Dean emitted a low growl from deep within his throat and cut off the rest of Sam's words with a fierce kiss.
He didn't want to hear any more. All he wanted was to hold his brother tight, ravish his mouth with kisses and fuck him into incoherency, all of which he was going to do as soon as they got back to the bunker.

For tonight at least, he was going to make sure that Sam would be focused on one thing only, his big brother on him, around him and in him, swaddled in an all encompassing blanket of Dean Winchester.

The end