I thought this chapter would be a nice little wrap up for the story. I really enjoyed writing this. Even if the chapters were all short and not in the usual prose that I write, it was a fun experience. Once again I want to thank Sabrieleeweenashipper for the request. It was a total treat to write.

Chapter 22: Dean

There's a lot that Sam can change about Hell, but a lot more than will never be affected. Its creation is old, the walls sturdy and powerful. He can remodel all he wants, but the foundation is never going to change.

The ten years to one month thing is a punishment that he hates. A guy like him who loves research and extra time to do his business should be ecstatic but the fact is God's prison holds more power than even he has. He'd loved to fix the time issue, but there's just no he's going to be able to do it.

So these monthly visits that Dean and he have agreed on really kind of suck, because it's only a month for his older brother, and it's a full ten years for him. The Boy King can only assume it is a punishment for his selfish actions when he'd been younger, running away from his brother so many times without too much thought about how his brother felt to be abandoned. Now he's without the presence of him almost constantly and it's like a hole in his gut.

"You're brooding. We decided on a no brooding rule last time," Dean reminds him, and Sam has to nod his head in agreement, but he doesn't stop frowning. They get one day to just come to Earth and enjoy themselves, a day of just brother time. He should be enjoying himself, but it's hard to know it's going to be another decade before they see each other again in Sam's time.

Though he supposes a month is agony on Dean too. They'd tried much more often, but the fact is the universe needs running and if demons are left behind too long they think they can get away with causing shit on their own, and angels have so many abandonment and daddy issues they make Dean look downright well adjusted in comparison. Neither side can afford to be unsupervised. Once a month, decade, is the compromise. No contact from either side on their day off, no emergencies that can't wait, no one is to bother them.

They both hate the sacrifice of getting so little time together, but it has to be done. Once Sam had figured out how to absorb the grace of Lucifer into himself, to take total control of Hell, he'd told Dean how to do the same so he could look over Heaven. It had gotten Michael off the board, Adam back on Earth free to live his life without an angel inside of him or trapped in the cage, and now both brothers were determined to make this saving the world thing actually stick this time.

It's going well so far, but Sam is still lonely.

"Sorry," he says as he grabs his beer and sip it down. The music playing on the jukebox sucks, of course because Dean picks it. Sam knows for sure that a lot of the songs the ruler of Heaven picked aren't on that damn box, and that Dean is using his powers in the most childish ways. He can't judge though giving his own uses of power for fun. "I just don't want the day to end, and it's already dinner time."

His need for his brother is always something that hits Sam in hindsight. He has tried pretending too many times he can be independent, on his own, but at best he has just found replacements for him before. Hell, Jessica is a party girl with a quick wit and even the same damn birthday. He'd been so obvious with that one, it is actually kind of pathetic he never acknowledged it when he was with her when she was alive. These visits are precious, but it aches to know he has to go back soon.

His toys are waiting for him, and he'll love, play with and debase every one of them as they like, but he'll still be kind of lonely. No, no kind of about it, he'll be totally lonely. He needs the distraction of work, torture and sex. It keeps his mind off things.

"How's Cas?" he asks, just to keep the conversation from getting as sour as his mind is right now.

"Good. He's good," Dean said with a soft smile. "Responsible enough to be the right hand and all that. He keeps me from goofing off too much."

"Behind every good man is a devoted angel, huh?" Sam asks.

"Oh trust me, I'm the one behind him," he replies with a waggle of his eyebrows that would be obscene and that Sam would find gross if he didn't himself now put his dick into about two dozen different people now. Again, no room to judge.

"I'm glad you two are getting along," he says instead, because he should be a supportive younger brother. It skitters around in his mind like a bug he could invite Dean down to Hell for a bit, both him and his angel, but he never does. He's afraid if he asks, he'll never let Dean go. He'll cling to him and demand he stay, or maybe he'd be shameless enough to beg. Fear of the fact he wouldn't mind doing either keeps him from ever broaching the subject. He honestly doesn't know if he or Dean are more powerful and if it came down to a fight if he tried to force the subject, well it would be frankly embarrassing if the world ended over a fight like that.

He's more afraid that Dean wouldn't fight him over it, and would be more than happy to stay with him in Hell. So Sam never asks, because he can't be that selfish. Because if Dean visits, and he stays, and Heaven is left alone then the angels would panic and no doubt cause trouble all over again. Either way, Earth would be kind of screwed.

Distracting himself in the sex isn't hard, but no matter how many people he has, they'll never be Dean. Not even Jess can be Dean. He has to accept it. Maybe in a few thousand years this whole co-dependency issue will have waned, but he kind of doubts it.

"Dude, seriously, if you're going to keep brooding, I'm putting on Heat of the Moment on," Dean warns before the jukebox suddenly explodes in a fiery crater of debris and the wail of the damned. He continues to sip his beer as people scream in fear and running out of the bar with terror clawing at their minds from the sudden display of hellfire that would drive any mortal insane. It was totally a called for response.

Him blowing up the jukebox. Their running not so much. They were completely overreacting.

"Jerk," he mutters in his beer.

"Bitch," Dean laughs, no doubt already making note of everyone driven insane by the experience so he could fix them up with his Heavenly powers before he goes back topside. It's not a new thing for him to clean up his younger brother's messes, even before they'd become cosmic rulers of all of creation. It feels so utterly normal and comforting that Sam feels himself smile despite himself. He supposed they do have a few more hours before the next decade has to pass before he has this again, and his brother can always find a way to make him smile.

End

Well, I do so hope that everyone enjoyed this. Honestly this story was supposed to end on an orgy, but honestly I couldn't do it and leave Dean out of the narrative. I think this was a much more interesting story anyway.