There's not much of note to remember about their semblance of a childhood. Each town was just more of the same; years upon years of identical grey-walled schools and damp motel rooms and greasy diner food.
And Scooby-Doo.
The motels they stayed in as kids rarely had TVs that worked, and the ones that did had very few channels that they could watch. On those rare occurrences when the screen wasn't too staticky, and the programmes were age appropriate, Scooby-Doo was invariably shown.
Sam had never loved cartoons as much as his brother, preferring instead to sit quietly and read, or draw, or, after he'd learnt the truth, research. But Dean still remembers when Dad left them alone, and they spent hours in front of the crackling screens, laughing at the antics of Scooby and the gang. Even as they got older, Dean still loved the show, although he would never admit it to anyone, least of all Sam.
Growing up with monsters gave Dean a certain affinity with the Scooby Gang. As a kid, he'd wanted to be just like them, vanquishing monsters, saving people, being heroes. When Dad was away on hunts, Dean would pretend that he was with Shaggy and Scooby and Daphne and the rest, solving the mystery of the week and unmasking another shady lawyer or real estate developer. Then he would come back with stories of eating giant sandwiches with Shaggy and Scooby, and kicking Fred's butt in races against the Mystery Machine. Maybe one day he'd take Dean with him - and maybe even Sammy when he's older - and they'd fight monsters together; just them and the Scooby Gang.
Growing up with monsters also meant that he knew that criminals in masks were the least of their problems, but Dean elected to ignore that little truth. It was far easier to pretend it was just a person Dad was going up against every week than a real, live monster. Easier still to pretend that he'd always come back fine, because the Scooby Gang never got hurt, and his dad was just like them. Better, even. He sometimes even believed it, because Dad always did come back. Perhaps not fine fine, but he was back, and that was good enough in Dean's book.
Dean's childhood was built around Scooby-Doo. He watched every episode, leaning in close to the screen so that he didn't miss a second. Sometimes, when he was bored, he'd rope Sam into acting out scenes from it with him. In those days, Sam had done it with relatively little grumbling, all too happy to do something other than sit around the motel.
The same can't be said for now, when Sam insists they shouldn't go along with this when they get sucked into the cartoon for real. But this had been Dean's fantasy as a kid, one of the few highlights to spending so much time along, and he's not going to give it up easily. Besides, he knows Sam loves it just as much as he does, one look at his brother proves that to him. And, just for a single moment, they get to live in a world where monsters are just people and the good guys always win. It's everything Dean hoped it might be, and the child within him wants to go back. But he knows that he can't, so he'll just keep pretending, riding round in the Impala, defeating the bad guys, his team at his back. The two worlds aren't so different after all.
A/N: The tag for 13.17 is all but completed - it just needs a final edit and tying up, so hopefully I'll post it either tomorrow or Tuesday. Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoyed! Please leave a review if you have a moment.