The pizza place was a nice change from the angsty atmosphere of the bar, and Dean found himself wondering why he didn't bring his kid brother to places like this more often. The dining room was clean and well lit and half-filled with families who'd made the easy decision to dine out for a late dinner. But it was the arcade that caught and held Sam's attention, and Dean enjoyed just watching him go.
Sam moved from machine to machine, pointing out all the best ones to his brother and advising him on which ones would net them the most tickets. According to Sam, they had killer keychains at the prize desk, and if they worked together and then pulled their tickets, they could get one and share it. Dean had no idea how Sam knew all of this, considering he couldn't remember the last time either of them had indulged in the sort of downtime that included blowing off steam in something so innocent as an arcade, but he was enjoying the show nonetheless.
Sam looked like he was 12 again. He looked … happy.
Dean hadn't seen that unguarded, uninhibited look on his brother's face in years. And all it had taken to bring it back was one night where Dean didn't put his owns wants and needs selfishly ahead of his brother's.
He gave himself another mental kick in the ass.
"Hey, I'm gonna order our pizza. You go get started." Dean said, heading for the food counter. But Sam just nodded, already distracted by a game of skeeball.
Dean walked away, grinning and shaking his head. He suddenly felt more like a proud dad than he did an older brother.
And when he reached the counter, his grinned kicked up a notch. The girl taking the orders looked to be about 19, and she was easily the prettiest girl had ever laid eyes on. When it was his turn to order, Dean cranked the Winchester charm up to blinding.
"Can I help you?" She asked smiling, pen posed over the printed order form.
"Yeah, can we get a pizza? Half meat-lover's, half veggie crap?"
She chuckled. "Yep. Half meat, half crap it is." She checked off two boxes on the form. "Anything to drink?"
"Two sodas."
The girl nodded. "That everything?" She made a move toward the register to ring him up.
Dean nodded, "Well, that and some good conversation." He smiled that high-voltage, Dean Winchester smile as he fished out his wallet. "I'm here with my little brother. We're new in town, and it'd sure be nice to hear about the sites?"
The girl studied Dean for a moment, liking what she saw. She shrugged coyly. "Sure. Come find me later and I'll give you my number. You can call the next time you feel like sightseeing."
Dean grinned. "I'll do that, uh … Janie." He glanced down at her name tag. "I'm Dean by the way."
She smiled. "Your pizza should be out in a few minutes, Dean." She handed him the receipt and a numbered paper cone for the table "You can sit over in the arcade if you want. Put this on the table so Jay can find you, and he'll bring it out."
Dean winked. "Will do. Thanks." He moved away and went back in search of Sam. He found him engaged in a raucous game of air hockey with an adorable girl who looked to be just about Sam's age.
And he was laughing.
Sam was laughing. He was laughing and playing air hockey with a girl and exchanging witty conversation like he'd been doing it all his life. Suddenly Dean wondered if he should have brought along the holy water. Sam glanced up then and saw him and nodded.
"Almost done," He called.
Dean shrugged. "Take your time, little brother. Pizza's on it's way." Dean picked a quiet table away from the worst of the chaos and placed the cone squarely in the middle. He'd no sooner sat down than the drinks arrived, with the pizza only a few minutes behind it. He'd pulled one long, luscious, stringy slice onto his plate when Sam thumped breathlessly down across from him.
"I'm starving." Sam blurted out, flipping the hair out of his eyes and bypassing his plate to lift the slice right to his lips. "This looks good, Dean. Thanks for getting veggie lover's." He said with his mouth full.
"Dude. Trainwreck." Dean complained.
"What? This?" Sam opened his mouth wide to show the carnage and then grinned at his brother's disgusted look.
Dean shook his head. "What are you? Twelve?"
"Nope. Not twelve. Just suddenly starving. I can't remember the last time I was this hungry." Sam took a long sip of his soda.
Dean smiled. If arcades were going to be this good for Sam's notoriously picky appetite, he'd have to make sure to hunt them down every chance he got.
"So, who's the girl?" He asked nonchalantly.
"Bonnie."
Dean mentally sighed. Sometimes his brother could be so clueless. "Yeah, and?"
"And what?"
"So you know her or what?"
"Yeah, seen her at school. She's cool."
"Yeah?" Dean prodded. "You, uh, you like her?"
Sam shrugged. "She's just nice is all. She's in a few of my classes."
But their conversation just then was interrupted by none other than Bonnie herself. She stopped at their table and nodded at Dean, then turned to Sam. "Hey Sam, quick! The Hurricane Blitz is free. It's eight tokens but we could share?"
Sam abandoned his slice and looked at Dean. "Oh! Yeah! We've been waiting on the Hurricane Blitz for a while." He explained. "It's had a line the whole time. You mind?" He asked Dean, already rising.
Dean shook his head. "Go for it, little bro." He watched as the pair navigated their way across the room to a tiny glass booth clearly meant for one. They each fed four coins in and then crowded inside together. Rising wind buffeted the two as they huddled together, laughing. And Dean had to chuckle as the simulated 70 mile-per-hour wind got hold of Sam's ridiculous hair. He heard Bonnie squeal as the counter quickly counted up to 72 and then stopped, holding. The couple inside the booth held on to each other for dear life as their hair and clothes whipped around them.
Dean could hear Sam's telltale, all-out laugh from across the room.
As quickly as it started then, it was over. And Sam and Bonnie were back at the table, laughing and talking over each other in their excitement to explain to Dean just how hurricane-force winds felt. And Dean was taken by surprise when Sam stepped aside to let Bonnie slide into the booth ahead of him. Sam scooted the plate he hadn't bothered to use over to her and leaned toward Dean as she grabbed a slice off the veggie side of their pizza.
"Dean! You have to try the Hurricane Blitz!" Sam practically gushed. "It's crazy!" He picked his abandoned slice up off the tray and tore off a huge bite, talking around it. "I thought it was going to blow us right out of the booth."
"And it only went up to 72!" Bonnie explained, excitedly. "Imagine if they could find a way to do the cat-5 winds. Those are over 150 miles per hour." She took a bite and talked around it, just like Sam. "That will blow your house down and uproot all your telephone poles nicely!" She looked at Sam just then and he looked back.
"Schweeeet!" they both said together and laughed like crazy people.
Dean was sure the boy sitting across from him in the booth was possessed. Where was his moody, emo brother - the one with the sad eyes and the nonexistent appetite? And who was this new kid who was laughing and talking easily to a near stranger - a girl no less - and who looked like he was genuinely enjoying himself?
This wasn't Sam.
This was some vastly improved, normal childhood Sam - some kid who lived in a real house and walked into the same school in the same town every morning. This Sam knew how to smile and to laugh and to have fun, and he'd probably never had to kill a single wendigo or exorcise even one angry spirit ever in his life.
Dean's eyes watered up again and he had to take an emergency drink of soda to keep from choking up. Would this night ever stop making him want to cry? He sat there smiling and laughing along with the two excited kids across from him in the booth as such a feeling of loss welled over him that he could barely contain it. And he had a sudden epiphany.
This was the kind of life Sam was meant to have - one filled with pizza and arcade games, with friends and laughter. This … this moment in time was so above their typical dingy motel room existence that Dean couldn't even process everything he was feeling.
Bonnie's dad rolled over to their table just then, though, and suddenly all the lights went out in the house.
"What the hell is this?" He barked.
Dean frowned as Bonnie suddenly jumped guiltily and dropped her half-eaten slice of pizza on her plate. "Dad!" she blurted. "Dad, this is Sam from school. And that's his brother. We were just talking."
The man practically snarled at them. "I know who they are." He made a rude gesture for Sam to stand up, which he did immediately. Dean rose too, suddenly afraid the man was going to sucker punch his little brother.
"Let's go!" He barked at his daughter, reaching into the booth and grabbing her roughly by the wrist. "You're not gonna be seen sitting cozily in a corner booth with two boys - these two, no less."
Dean's eyes narrowed as Sam blinked in surprise. "Mr. Haliday, we were just talk…" Sam tried to explain, but the irate man was having none of it. He ignored Sam and addressed Dean. "I work at that bar in the middle of town. You think I haven't seen you both in there night after night, trying to hustle pool and hook up?" He turned on Sam then, snarling, "You stay away from my daughter, or I"ll make your life a living hell. You got that?" He dragged Bonnie away then as she shot Sam one horrified, apologetic look, and Dean watched as the two exited the pizza place and headed across the parking lot.
Sam suddenly looked lost. He glanced over at Dean and swallowed hard, and Dean could tell he was trying not to cry. They both sat back down in silence, and Dean tried to make it better.
"Sam …" He started.
But Sam just shrugged and smiled sadly, fiddling with his napkin, "It's no big deal, Dean. Don't worry about it. He doesn't know us. Not really. He has no idea what we're really like."
Dean took a drink of soda to crush the emotions rising in his throat. "So, you wanna finish up there and see if you can beat my score in skeeball?" He offered. "Although, I gotta say, my score is pretty phenomenal." He smiled.
Sam looked toward the window, and Dean knew it was because his eyes were tearing up and he didn't want his big brother to see. He cleared his throat. "I think I just wanna go back to the motel Dean, if you don't mind?" He looked at Dean pleadingly. "I think I'm getting a headache."
Dean nodded. "Okay. You want me to box that up?" He gestured to the two slices of pizza remaining. They were both veggie lover's.
But Sam shook his head. "Nah, I'm done." he said, rising from the booth. "Do you mind if we just go now?"
So Dean slid out from the booth where his brother had been laughing just moments before and tried not to think about the happiness in Sam's eyes and the rumble of his all-out laughter that had been so effectively quelled by the harsh words of Bonnie's dad.
And as they left, Sam reached into his jacket pocket and brought out the impressive string of tickets he'd won. He handed them to the little boy sitting with his mother at a table next to the door and smiled.
"They have some killer keychains." he said, and winked.
