The next morning Adam woke up and turned over onto his back. He winced when his ass came into contact with the bed.

Remind me never to piss off Sam again he thought.

He never thought that Sam could be such a hardass. Adam stood up and went over to his mirror. He pulled down his shorts and looked at the damage.

"Damn," he stated. Sam could hit hard. Adam picked up his jeans from the floor and slipped them on. He walked to the kitchen and was met by Sam. Sam looked at Adam, but he averted his eyes. Sighing he grabbed the coffee out of the cupboard.

"You want a cup?" he offered his little brother.

"Sure," Adam answered.

Sam put some coffee into two cups and topped it with some boiling water. He stirred the two and handed Adam the one with sugar. The two boys stood in awkward silence while they drank until Sam cleared his throat.

"Dean has just gone to get breakfast. I'm sure he'll be back soon."

Adam nodded. Again, the brothers were engrossed in an awkward silence until Dean came through the front door. At first, he only saw Sam; but when he noticed that Adam was also standing there, he dropped the bags on the table and pointed to the spot in front of him.

"Adam. Here."

Adam looked at Sam; but he looked just as confused as his brother. He placed the cup down on the table and started walking to Dean.

"Dean?" Sam asked cautiously but Dean stayed silent; not even acknowledging that Sam had spoken. Adam reached the spot and looked up at Dean.

"Sir?"

"Did you or did you not swear at Sam last night?"

Adam looked stunned and turned to Sam.

"You told him?" Adam asked but Sam just shrugged.

Dean grabbed Adams chin and moved his head to face him again.

"Hey. Don't try and blame your brother for this. He wasn't the one who decided to swear. You were."

Adam looked down at the floor.

"I already told you last night that I didn't want to hear you swearing in front of me or your brother. Did I not?"

"Yes sir."

"Okay," Dean said as he turned to grab the bags off the counter, "You're grounded for a week." Dean sat down at the table and started taking the food out of the bag

"That's not fair Dean," Adam protested. Dean stopped and raised an eyebrow.

"Want to make it two weeks?" he retorted.

"No," Adam sulked. Dean let it slide and Sam sat down opposite him.

"Come sit down Adam," Sam said pushing out the chair next to Dean. Adam walked over to the table and sat down next to Dean; making a point of moving the chair closer to Sam.

"Is there a problem here Adam?" Dean asked.

"No."

Sam cleared his throat to get Dean's attention. He gave him a look to just leave it. Dean rolled his eyes and carried on eating.

Dean glared at Adam as he picked apart his food. He was seriously losing his patience. It was as if Adam knew exactly what to do to annoy him and purposefully did it.

"Adam. Stop playing with your food and eat it," Sam ordered.

"But I'm not hungry Sam," he whined back.

Sam sighed. He knew that Adam was still testing him; seeing if last night was a fluke.

"Fine. Then you can go up to your room and start on one of those assignments. I want to see how much you've done by lunch time."

"But Sam," Adam started.

"Wasn't a question. I'm telling you to go upstairs and start on the assignments."

Adam pushed his chair back and went to the stairs.

"And Adam," Dean added, "Maybe you should try and work on your respect too."

"Yes sir," Adam replied. Dean could sense a little attitude in his voice. He stood up and started walking over to Adam, but Sam stopped him.

"Dean," Sam started, and Dean gave him a look of disbelief, "Adam go upstairs."

Adam wasn't used to Sam undermining Dean's authority or overruling his decisions but still left and started his assignments.

Downstairs, Dean turned to Sam.

"Did you seriously just undermine my authority Sam?"

Sam sighed and knew that he may have gone too far.

"Dean I'm sorry but you were being a bit picky about it. He did what he was told."

Dean couldn't believe that Sam was challenging him.

"Excuse me? His attitude was out of line. I saw that he was being disrespectful, so I called him on it."

"He's a kid Dean. Of course, he isn't going to be good all the time. He needs to be allowed to be a kid."

"Exactly. He is a kid and kids need boundaries. He needs to learn to be respectful," Sam scoffed, "At the moment it seems like you do too Sammy."

"Are you serious Dean?"

"Completely. You may have authority over Adam but that doesn't mean that I don't still have authority over you. I'm in charge here. You don't get to go and undermine my authority and you certainly don't get to back chat me. You understand me Sam?"

Sam couldn't think of anything to say. Deep down he knew that Dean was right. As much as it annoyed him, Dean was in charge.

"Yes sir," Sam answered.

"Good. Now make yourself useful and go clean the guns."

"Yes sir"

Sam put his stuff in the bin and went to grab the guns.

"And Sam?"

Sam rolled his eyes but turned around.

"Yes Dean?"

"You ever undermine my authority or be disrespectful towards me again, and I won't hesitate to tan your ass," Dean threatened.

Sam swallowed hard. Dean wouldn't; would he? Sure, Dean had kicked his ass many times but not recently.

"Yes sir," Sam dropped his head and walked out.

Dean sighed and shook his head. Why did he have to be the eldest?