Oh man, I have got to admit, I am excited about this chapter. It was actually kind of hard to get it out though. I'd never written Chuck before, and the cloud of season 15 is still kind of hanging over my head. That did make it surprisingly tricky for me to get this out.

That out of the way, on with the chapter! WOOHOO!

Chapter 21: You Turned Another Page

Even as self-absorbed as Sam could be at times, Dean knew he could feel his glare at the back of his head. In fact, he was sure that's why his brother had yet to face him, instead focusing entirely on his phone and refusing to turn around. Impressive, considering it'd been going on for about fifteen minutes now, just after Sam had snapped awake when it had gotten tossed at his face in a move Dean refused to admit was passive aggressive jealousy.

Chicks got mad about a guy being in contact with another chick. He wasn't going to allow himself to react negatively, well too negatively anyway. It was no secret that he'd never had any love for Ruby, had never trusted the bitch. Even the times she'd been right about things clawed at him, not wanting to admit it for the points it would give her. Sam had always seemed willing to offer her the olive branch, willing to hear her out about things and gave her way too much trust. It had been like he didn't remember a literal demon had killed both of their parents. But no, give a demon a shapely body and apparently that was enough to get on Sam's good list.

Okay, that was ranging into jealous chick territory. He needed to bring the focus back on less… relationshipy kind of stuff. She was a shady, untrustworthy bitch. That was more than enough reason to hate her. He didn't need to get into all the sleeping with Sam stuff.

"So you talked to her huh?" he asked angrily. "She's off the grid for who knows how long and suddenly she has info for you? You called her, didn't you?"

Dean tried not to think how that could be taken either way. He was not jealous of his own damn brother.

"I did..." Sam admitted softly, his shoulders hunched up and still refusing to face him. "Last night. We went to a hotel and… well she..."

"Oh god, Sammy! Do not tell me I was sloppy seconds to that thing!"

"NO!" Sam said so suddenly and loudly it actually took Dean back a little bit. He'd spun around on the bed to meet his brother's gaze, his eyes a little wide and panicked. "No, I swear I didn't! I mean, she wanted to… but I didn't. I wanted to get you angry because I called her to do research, but then she got pretty handsy so I got out of there. I promise, Dean."

He felt awkward for the accusation and he didn't entirely understand why. He had never been cool with what those two did, but before it had always been as a concerned relative. That was there too, and the sloppy seconds thing had mostly been a joke, but the way Sam looked so scared that he was actually mad about it caused him to actually feel bad about it. Yeah, okay it was a slice of jealousy right next to a big old helping of properly paranoid but he had to admit the jealousy was there.

"Hey," he found himself saying, "I believe you. I shouldn't have accused you of that… and you know what, even if you had it's not like I have room to judge. You literally came in to see me getting a blow job."

"Yeah," Sam admitted with a snort. "That probably would have gone pretty differently a month ago."

"I guess that should be a thing?" he asked, though he wasn't really sure. "I mean, does it count as cheating if the one I'm involved with is you? Should it only be us now? No girls, like ever again for either of us?"

His younger brother gave an awkward cough and glanced away. He was making a face like he wanted to say something but also didn't want to at the same time.

"I've been trying to get you to be less… open with people for years."

"Sam, I had my dick in you last night. Say the word sex and stop acting like you're a good little virgin boy still in college."

"Hey, I lost my virginity way before college!" he snapped before rubbing at his face. "You know what, it doesn't matter. I just... Look, I think we both know I'm the more romantic of the two. If someone is involved with a person then they should be loyal, but it's also that this is not exactly orthodox. I think it's something we should think about and decide on but before that it might be best to avoid getting other people involved in it."

"Yeah, probably best not to spring that on a girl. Hey, I'm Dean and this is my brother, Sam. You a fan of sandwiches?"

"Ugh, dude. Seriously?"

"Alright fine. So we stick a pin in that for now," he said as he rubbed the back of his neck. Honestly, the whole thing was still weird but as long as they could both own up to what they wanted it wouldn't cause too big of a crisis for either of them, hopefully anyway. "Anyway, what do we do about the location the bitch sent us?"

"I don't know," Sam admitted. "I made it pretty clear to her unless it had to do with Lilith we'd be better off far away from each other for now. She'd always given us good leads though, and it's not like we have anything else to go on. Besides, it is close."

Dean couldn't help but note it sounded more like Sam was trying to convince himself more than him, but he didn't say anything about it. It was clear something had gone down, something more serious than his brother was admitting to. As often as he defended her, almost to the point of singing her praises, it felt weird now that he seemed to have lost his attachment to her. Just what had happened between them after their memories had come back.

"Wait a minute..." he breathed as things started to click together. Sam in the hospital, beaten up and panicked, scared and describing a woman who'd been following him. "Son of a bitch! It was her!"

He wanted to kick himself for taking so long to put it together! Okay, he'd been distracted by having this whole double life thing playing out in his head, not to mention the whole incest incident he'd had to deal with, but it felt like he'd brushed off a clue too important to have been ignored.

"She was following me," Sam explained. "She needed to get in contact with me about something."

"And that involved putting you in the hospital?!"

Sam opened his mouth to say something before he just looked down at the phone again. It was clear he was shutting off and wasn't going to answer any of Dean's questions, which just pissed him off. Something was going on and he wanted to know what.

"Look, we got into a big fight about it. I wasn't happy with how she acted either. She didn't even bother to try and tell me who I really was," Sam admitted. "I don't want to go over every single thing that we said to one another. Can we just drop it and look into this lead? It's not even that much, just the fact she said she saw some demons around the area. If we don't look into it soon then the lead might go cold."

It was a weak excuse but Dean didn't point that out. He was right about one thing. They had lost a lot of time and it would be better to get onto the whole saving the world thing. It's not like they had time to sit around and argue. How many seals were even left anyway?

"Alright. Let's go," he agreed.

The hunt, such as it was, had mostly been a bust. After hitting several locations looking for anything even close to demonic activity and getting nothing Sam had wondered if Ruby had made it up just to give him something in some kind of attempt to get back into his good graces. Either that or she'd been spotted when she'd been scouting around and they'd long since fled, leaving no traces of their presence.

Not that the two Winchesters had been able to conduct much of a search aside from vague questions to the people in the area of the city block before they'd stumbled onto something that was much… much more important at the moment.

Sam risked a glance up from his laptop to see Dean laying out on the bed, reading through the novels. Honestly, he didn't think he'd ever seen his brother speed read so quickly before. He wasn't completely against books but he certainly didn't seek them out too often, not wishing to look like the nerd of the pair. Though considering Sam was the one currently looking up a book series that could only be described as a small cult classic and reading over archives of comments on the novels and… fan works, maybe he would be called the nerd at the moment. He'd already saved a couple pages to his bookmarks despite himself, a few interesting and descriptive stories catching his eye.

"This is freaking insane," Dean suddenly stated, deep into another book. "How's this guy know all this stuff?"

"You got me," he mumbled, only barely paying attention. He probably should be more attentive, and freaked out… Well, okay, he was freaked, but it wasn't easy to be so alert when he was currently halfway through a scene where apparently his fictional brother had accidentally spilled pumpkin pie mix all over his equally fictional self and was currently making sure none of it went to waste and licking it all up.

Sam didn't see why he'd be helping make Thanksgiving dinner without a shirt on to begin with, but he wasn't going to argue with someone who had apparently decided to celebrate the real holiday by posting the story. He'd seen the porn his brother watched. There were worse setups out there, and the writer was rather imaginative about describing dripping liquid pie mix and where exactly it could get to so it could be chased down by Dean's tongue.

"I mean, I'm full frontal here, dude!"

"You sure are," Sam mumbled, wondering if there was a store nearby he'd be able to pick up a pie.

"How come we haven't heard of them before?"

Yeah, it would be for the best to focus on the actual fact there was a real author out there who knew so much about them and not the amateur ones who pretended to.

"They were pretty obscure. Almost zero circulation. Uh… started in '05 and the publisher put out a couple dozen before going bankrupt. The last one, No Rest for the Wicked ends with you going to Hell."

He closed the pages he didn't want Dean to see before he spun the computer around for him to read. Dean at the very least seemed to be amused by the fact there were fans, though irritated at the complaining about the story.

"What's a slash fan?" he asked, causing Sam to shift a bit. With their new arrangement as it were, he wasn't sure how to really broach that topic. He'd made it clear to Dean he wanted it, that it was meaningful and special to him, but deep down he knew it was on the base level something wrong, something only someone sick in the head like him would want. Just like the blood, just like his drive to destroy what had hurt Jessica and his desperate desire to sell himself off to save his brother, there was something dark and twisted in him. It would never go away, and it seeped out and tainted other things around him. He didn't know if Dean was enjoying their new dynamic or just putting up with it, and Sam didn't think he really wanted to know if he'd tainted Dean too or not.

"We should try and find this guy," he said, more to distract him than anything else. Though now the idea of suggesting pie and trying out some of the ideas felt more filthy than intriguing to him.

He really needed to get this figured out in his own head, and soon. He knew what he wanted but it still felt so wrong to admit it.

It wasn't helped by what they'd discovered afterward. Chuck came off as rather squirrelly, meek and easily scared. Not exactly the most intimidating guy in the world, especially while in his underwear and a filthy looking robe. Actually convincing him had been a lot harder than they'd been expecting as well. They'd both assumed he'd known it was all real, had been publishing the story of their lives on purpose for some reason.

Only for apparently that reason to be trying, and failing, to make money and nothing else.

When he'd finally realized they were telling the truth, it had been kind of annoying to hear him wax on about how bad the writing of their lives had been, dragging up the death of their parents and Jessica while he threw his little pity party about the fact he seemed to think he'd caused it all to happen. The novelty was starting to wear off, and Sam kind of wanted to hit him over it but refrained. It wouldn't give them any clue what was going on to knock the guy out, no matter how good it might feel.

Though it was getting more and more tempting after they'd been called back to the writer's house with news on his latest chapter, apparently all about how Sam was going to end up in bed with Lilith of all people. The demon that had killed his brother, who liked to ride around in little girls and torment people for kicks, who'd drug Dean off to a nightmare so foul and evil it had nearly broken him.

Inside a comely dentist or not, it was insane to even suggest it that he was torn between wanting to smack Chuck upside the head for even suggesting it or laughing.

He went for laughing, the whole image just too stupid for him to handle any other way.

"You have got to be kidding me? Me and Lilith?"

"So what happens after the fiery demonic whatever?" Dean spat out, clearly annoyed.

"I don't know," the writer admitted. "It hasn't come to me yet."

It was hard to believe that his brother was willing to believe that crap, but sure enough he ended up grabbing the manuscript and leading Sam out of the house. The mood between them felt tense, and it didn't seem remotely fair at all, like he was being punished for a crime he hadn't committed yet and had no plans to. It only got worse when Dean determinedly tried to get them out of town, only to be informed the bridge was out and they were stuck in town, despite Dean several times asking for alternate roads or options to leave.

Sam was a bit surprised Dean didn't think to pray for Castiel to show up and zap them out of town along with the Impala, but he could only guess that he no longer trusted the angel to do him any kind of favors. Either that or in his panic he wasn't thinking clearly. He wasn't going to suggest it himself. In fact, his mind was already turning about what they could do if they stayed in town.

They had no clues on Lilith at the moment, none whatsoever. He was fed, not freshly but he could manage if he had to. It could all be over tonight, killing the monster and being done with it. No more pressure on Dean to be the chosen savior, no more leader of Hell, no more broken seals. They could actually have something peaceful.

It seemed Kripke Hollow was going to host them for a while. Wouldn't it be best to take advantage of it?

Though it seemed the only thing Dean was interested in the moment was getting some lunch, which Sam couldn't disagree with. It would be best to get some food for whatever came that night.

"Hey, this could be a good thing. I mean, if this is what puts us on the path to Lilith, then all we got to do is get off the path," Dean pointed out.

"How do you mean?" he asked, curious.

"It's a blueprint of what not to do. I mean, if the pages say that we go left-"

"Then we go right."

"Exactly. We get off book. We never make it to the end. It's opposite day. It says that we, uh, we get into a fight. So no fighting."

He could agree with that. He wasn't exactly in the mood to squabble.

"No research for you..." Dean added.

And suddenly the mood was there.

"No bacon cheeseburger for you," he pointed out, knowing how petty his tone sounded. Seriously, he was going to start forbidding him from doing stuff again? Granted last time had been with Wesson and Smith, and Dean had been sort of right about going back to the apartment room being dangerous and largely pointless, but that didn't give his brother the right to just demand what Sam did with the day.

"This whole thing is ridiculous," he muttered after they'd ordered.

"Lilith is ridiculous?" Dean asked.

"The idea of me hooking up with her is." The idea of even considering such a thing made his skin crawl.

"Right, cause something like that could never happen," his brother shot back at him.

Was he… was he really using Ruby against him? Was he honestly doing that? Sam scowled and looked away, wishing he'd never confessed to going to meet her. It was so clear that Dean was jealous and he was using this nonsense to be mad at him without admitting it.

"Dean, for the first time, we have warning that Lilith is close," he bit out, trying to get him to see reason.

"So?"

"So? So we've got the jump on her. If we know when she's coming, we know where she's coming, then this is an opportunity."

"Are you..." he snapped before cutting himself off and looking like he was trying to calm down, like he was counting to ten in his own head. "It frustrates me when you say such reckless things."

"Well, it frustrates me when you'd rather hide than fight," he threw back.

"It's not hiding. It's playing it smart," Dean replied coolly, and that seemed the end of it. It would be smarter to set a trap while they had the advantage, but he supposed Dean would rather waste another three weeks than actually do something.

The angels had been dead wrong. Their little improv theater with a new life hadn't taught Dean a damn thing about what needed to be done.

It didn't seem like there would be any changing his mind any time soon either, his brother determined to 'play it smart' and hide all night when he got them a hotel room that was clearly meant for hooking up. Great, he was staying in a place that might as well be the best little whore house in Texas for as subtle as it was. A couple hours ago the atmosphere might have been kind of intriguing considering their new relationship but Dean was going full big brother mode and it didn't seem sex was on the table for the evening.

Noooo, apparently he was supposed to be off boinking Lilith's brains out instead. It still sounded so stupid when he thought about it. The only thing he wanted inside of her was the knife.

He only felt more infuriated when Dean shooed him into the room and started giving him instructions on how to behave himself like a good little boy. No research, no looking into things, no work at all. Just sit back and watch porn or something. He could swear he was getting made fun of, like he was a kid all over again. Though when he saw Dean snatching up his computer he couldn't help but feel even more pissed.

"Dude, come on!" he snapped, livid at this point. Was he really going to go this far in trying to control his behavior for the evening? Did he really trust him that little?

"Just call it a little insurance," he said as he put hex bags around the room to shield it from Lilith finding the location and then left.

Sam could not believe this. He was getting more than pissed off at this point as he sunk down on the bed. It was clear Dean was trying to protect him but he was wrong on this. This was their chance. Didn't he see that?

Then again, it's not like this was a new pattern for them. They argued over what they should do a lot, and it didn't help that they always took turns in being right. It would be easy to blow him off if Dean was always wrong but… he wasn't. Granted, he wasn't always right either, sometimes Sam was but it…

He sighed and rubbed his face in his hands. If he went down that road he'd be going in circles the whole night. Best not to touch it. He needed to do something to distract himself. It made him wish he'd thought to print out the pie story before his dick brother had stolen his computer.

Then again, maybe he could get some stuff done even without that. Fishing out his phone, he dialed the number of Chuck to see if he could get some answers straight from the horse's mouth.

It didn't take long for the guy to arrive, which didn't even surprise him at this point. Chuck had probably already seen it in his visions. He was actually too tired to think about it, and something had been gnawing in the back of his mind ever since finding out about the books in the first place.

"Um... I was just wondering how much you know. About me," he admitted, wanting to beat around the bush just in case he was wrong and the writer didn't know.

"Have you seen visions of me when I'm not with Dean?"

"Oh... You want to know if I know about the demon blood," Chuck surmised.

Damn it. So much for the hope he was in the clear on that one.

"You didn't tell Dean," he pointed out. It kind of felt like it was something that would have come up.

"I didn't even write it into the books. I was afraid it would make you look unsympathetic."

"Unsympathetic?" he asked. Just what was he driving at?

"Yeah, come on, Sam. I mean, sucking blood? You got to know that's wrong."

He wanted to argue that point, but what would that even accomplish? He knew it was wrong. Of course he did. But so was breaking and entering, and stealing, and a lot of other things he'd had to do over the years. Hell, stabbing a demon inside a living human was wrong, and it would have horrified the two of them a couple years ago. They didn't have a chance to try to exorcise every single one of them now though, too many to even try to keep up with.

"It scares the hell out of me. I mean, I feel it inside of me. I... I wish to god I could stop," he admitted.

"But you keep going back."

"What choice have I got?" he asked. "If it helps me kill Lilith and stop the apocalypse-"

"I thought that was Dean's job," Chuck interrupted. "That's what the angels say, right?"

"Dean's not... he's not Dean lately. Ever since he got out of hell. He needs help," he breathed out. He knew he'd get punched by his brother for even suggesting this but he wasn't strong enough to do it, not anymore. "I got to carry the weight this time. He's looked out after me all my life, and now we're..."

He drifted off for a second before looking over at Chuck, swallowing thickly. The words seemed to have gotten stuck in his throat, but a thought had occurred to him.

"You know, don't you?"

Chuck blushed a bit in answer, shuffling his feet and stuffing his hands in his pockets.

"Apparently I know a lot of things," he replied evasively.

"That's it!" he snapped as he grabbed the smaller man by his jacket and yanked him close.

"Ahhh! Please don't punch me in the face! I bruise easily!" Chuck cried out, flaying and tugging away with all the effectiveness of a baby trying to get away from their parent.

"Don't you fuck with me!"

"I thought that was Dean's job now!"

Sam saw red, snarling at him.

"Do I look like I'm in a joking mood?" he hissed in the writer's face before he meekly shook his head no. "Good, because I'm not. In fact, I'm getting very, very pissed off right now, especially at you."

"What did I do?" he whined out.

"Oh I don't know, you bring up Jessica like she was a damn plot point instead of a person! You take all the suffering my family has ever gone through and tried to sell it! You told Dean I was going to screw the oldest demon in the world that I want dead more than anything and now he's thinking I'm going to cheat on him!"

"I think he's more worried you're going to get yourself killed actually."

"Well I'm not planning on doing either!" he yelled as he jerked the guy back and forth.

"Okay! Okay, I believe you! Just stop shaking me! I'm sure you're both a very faithful and safe guy who would never put yourself in unnecessary danger!"

Sam frowned deeply but let him go.

"It's not… it is necessary," he bit out. "If I don't do it then Dean will have to. I need to protect him."

"And you're going to do that by lying to him again?"

For all the physical intimidation the hunter had been doing, it felt a bit like he'd just gotten slapped himself. He didn't even have an answer to that.

"I… You need to leave," he bit out.

"Are you sure? Because it seems like maybe you have some stuff you might want to work out."

"Chuck?"

"Yeah?"

"You're aware I have a gun stuffed in the back of my pants right this second, right?"

"Uh… So I think I better leave then."

Sam rolled his eyes as the writer scurried off and he locked the door behind him. Yeah, that hadn't been as productive as he hopped for.

Walking over to the table by the bed, he picked up the hex bag and rolled it over in his fingers. Dean had been right before, but Sam had been right other times. There was no way to know for sure what would happen, no matter what Dean believed and no matter what Chuck said. He was going to end this. He was going to protect his brother. He just had to.

It was several hours later, dark out by this point, when Dean finally returned. Sam didn't even have a chance to ask him where he'd been all day before the man was grabbing things and shoving them into a duffle bag.

"Come on. We're getting out of here," he said as he packed as quickly as he could.

"What? Where?" Sam asked.

"Anywhere, okay? Out of this motel, out of this town. I don't care if we got to swim, we are getting out," he said as he looked around for a few moments. "Dude, where are all the hex bags?"

"I threw them away," he replied without any hesitation.

"You what?" Dean asked incredulously.

"Look, if Lilith is coming, which is a big if-" he tried but his brother just verbally ran over him.

"No, no, no. It's more than an if. Chuck is a prophet. Cas showed up, and apparently this hack is writing the... gospel of us."

It should have been unbelievable, but Sam had been waffling between all of this sounding stupid and willing to use it to get his hunt on Lilith done and over with. At this point did it even matter how Chuck knew?

"Okay," he said simply.

"Okay. Let's get the hell out of here then," he said as he went for the door.

"No," he said with a shake of his head. "I don't know if I can take her but there's only one way to find out. I say bring her on."

"Sam..." Dean tried before just stopping.

"You think I'll do it, don't you? You think I'll go dark side," he accused.

"Yes!" he yelled. "Okay? Yes. The way you've been acting lately? The things you've been doing? How you ripped Alastair apart like it was nothing, like you were swatting a fly. Cas told me, okay?"

Sam felt like his guts were being torn out. He was always going to be the screwup, wasn't he? He was always going to be wrong in Dean's eyes. Didn't matter what he did, didn't matter who it saved, somehow it was still wrong. The demon who'd personally tortured his brother in Hell, and he'd killed him, gotten revenge for his brother, had stopped this horrid and evil thing and somehow that was bad?

"I'm never going to be good enough for you, am I?"

"What?" Dean asked. "Sam, this isn't about some standard or-"

"I mean good as in a good person!" he yelled angrily. "I've used my abilities to save people! I killed a demon that has spent who knows how long hurting others for the fun of it! I mean, the things he did to you alone should be enough for you to have wanted him dead on principle alone! I managed to pull it off and you're treating me like I'm the monster!"

"I'm not-"

"You just admitted you think I could go dark, Dean! Because I stopped something evil! You've threatened to hunt me! No matter what I do, no matter who I save I will never be a good person in your eyes! I'll always be the freak!"

"I didn't say that, Sam!"

Sam glared at him before scoffing.

"Yeah, but you might as well. I am the freak. The thing that can kill demons with his mind, that demons can't hurt with their powers, that lusts after his own brother like I think I could have a relationship with you."

"Sam… that's..."

"It's sick and you know it," he sighed out, the fight seeming to leave him. He hadn't wanted to confront this before in their last room, but there it was. Why even try to deny it? "I look at you and I see something happy, something content and comforting, some happy ending like I thought I could have before with… I look at my brother and see those things, normal and safe. But it's not normal, and I'm twisted enough in the head to think it actually could be. And I'm dragging you down with me."

A hand grabbed his arm and yanked him close, Dean looking him right in the eye.

"That's how you see us?" he asked, his tone a little light. "You see us safe?"

Sam supposed it did sound like a pipe dream. Maybe he was imagining it though, but Dean almost sounded hopeful. Was he not getting the part where Sam was confessing to feeling guilty about pulling Dean down with him over his warped feelings?

"I… I want that," he admitted. "I want to keep you safe, Dean. I'm doing this for you."

"If you were concerned over doing anything for me, you wouldn't have gotten rid of the bags," Dean muttered before walking away and slamming the door shut behind him.

The younger hunter was left standing there for a long time, wondering just how he'd gotten so far off track of everything and how he was even supposed to fix the mess that was his life. Maybe Dean was right after all. Maybe he was just playing this smart.

Maybe he should try to fix this?

He was pacing around the room when the sudden arrival happened, catching him completely off guard.

The door burst open and Dean rushed in but he wasn't alone.

"I am the prophet Chuck… aaaaand there's no one here. What?" the writer said as he looked around, looking very confused. "Where's the… where's the dental hygienist?"

"You mean the one Lilith is apparently riding around in?" Sam asked. "She's not here."

"What, she didn't show up yet?" Dean asked.

"I wouldn't think so, since the hex bags are supposed to hide the place," he replied. "I put them back."

"How'd you make more so fast?" Chuck asked, sounding confused.

"I didn't. I just had thrown them in the dumpster across the parking lot. I grabbed them after Dean left and put them back," he explained. "Wait, what's even going on here anyway? What's Chuck going to do against Lilith anyway?"

"You… you didn't burn them? But you were supposed to burn them," Chuck said insistently. "That's what I saw?"

"Huh. So you can be wrong. That's good to know," Sam replied, not even bothering to hide his sarcasm. "Kind of like I saw saying you were wrong about me sleeping with Lilith this whole time."

The writer looked a little dazed at that as he rubbed the back of his neck.

"Yeah… I guess I was. Huh."

"Wait a minute. You were all gung ho about fighting Lilith earlier. What changed?" Dean asked, and Sam actually felt a little sheepish.

"I… I mean… I just thought about it, about us and the last time I'd ignored what you'd wanted and… It just hadn't been worth it. If you think we need to wait to fight Lilith, then I don't want to upset you by going behind your back again."

"Oh. Well, that's… uh… considerate of you," Dean admitted, a little flushed before frowning, clearly annoyed. "Think maybe you can do that from the start next time?"

"Fine, but you gotta stop bossing me around," he muttered. "And give me my computer back."

"The nights not over. You're still not doing research."

"No, he just wants to finish his pie story," Chuck mumbled, causing both brothers to stare at him. "I… Right. I think I'll just go home now. I need a drink."

The door closed behind him after he'd shuffled out, causing Dean to look at Sam, confused.

"Pie story?" he asked as Sam blushed. "Something you're not telling me, Sammy?"

He coughed into his fist and firmly shook his head.

"Maybe we can table that for now and talk about where we stand with each other instead," he said, only in small part to save himself the embarrassment of admitting he'd been reading unpublished porn about the two of them, and more than that kind of liking it.

"I didn't force you."

"What?" Sam asked, confused.

"That's what you said before. I didn't force you, and you know what else? You didn't force me either. We both did it because we wanted to. Look, it is weird. It's probably always going to be a little weird. We're not going to walk down the road holding hands or see romance movies and start necking. You're never going to propose to me and we're never going to be normal. But this, it makes you happy, right?"

"Well… mostly. It also makes me a bit nervous and scared too."

"That's probably the most normal thing about any relationship. We just got to work at it," Dean stated before walking up and ruffling his hair before Sam could bat away his hand. "So I freaked out first, then you did. We're probably going to do it a lot more, and that's fine. We'll work through it. But I'm here because I want to be. It's a bit weird, yeah, but it's not sick."

Sam risked leaning forward, just to test it, and sure enough Dean's lips met his without a flinch of revulsion or even a moment of resistance. When hands cupped his face, he felt like he could melt in the comforting warmth of his palms, and he found himself smiling into the kiss.

Yeah, he could handle weird.

End of Chapter 21

Longer than usual, but I think that's alright. You don't really have to stick to a story format of length in every chapter. Besides, a few previously have been a bit short so this can make up for it. I mostly had to get major scenes from the episode in there and that took up some room, but it was better than just wring, "Come on, you've all seen the episode, right?" instead of an actual chapter.

Anyway, please let me know what you think.