Written for comment_fic on livejournal.
Spoilers start here:
Two months later, and they had gotten back into old patterns. Car, guns, salt. It was't what they thought it would be. It's just now, with all the battles raging, they're saving a handful of people from a thousands of demons rather saving a townful of people from a few demons.
A lot goes unsaid. But Dean and Sam know each other, and most of the time they can tell a lot from a look, or from a gesture.
So when Dean borrows Sam's phone and he notices that Sam never erased the message from the day that it all happened, Dean can't help but smile. Probably wants to hold it over my head that I had a chick flick moment, Dean thought. But he knew, though, that Sammy saved the message so that he could hang on to Dean's voice saying that they're family.
Sam notices that Dean is looking at his saved messages. Sam realizes what Dean must be looking at. "It's not what you think, Dean."
"What's not?"
"The message, Dean. I can tell you noticed. It's not ... I'm not keeping it because I'm still mad."
"I should hope not."
"It's a reminder. Of my choices - of everything my choices _caused_. That's the only reason I keep it."
Dean just gave a smile, secretly pleased that Sam felt so touched by the message that he was actually embarrassed to admit it. Not wanting to bust his balls too much about it, Dean said, with a wide smirk, "Don't worry, Sammy. I know you're just saving it so you can use it against me next time we argue about Dad."
"That's not it -" Sam said, taken aback.
"Whatever, let's go scavenge for dinner. Man, I miss clean food."
Sam stood there in shock, feeling like Dean had ripped something out of him with those words. Dean never used to be this callous, he knew. But he also knew that after what he did, he was lucky that a few cruel words were all Dean gave him. So he kept his mouth shut, deleted the message from his phone, and never spoke of it again.