A/N : This is a bit more angstier and has many a bro-mo's. So, be warned? Or enjoy? lol. I mean, c'mon, this is SPN we're talkin' about. Is there a more sadder show?

What prompted this chapter? - Okay, anyone who knows J2 or has seen panels know this song. I mean, have y'all seen Jensen singing this to Jared? If you haven't, you need to. Like, right now. Because the love those two have for each other ... gosh. Make a person feel even more lonely, why dontcha? Also, I could've used the song by Kodaline, but that has the lyric "though we don't share the same blood ..." and while that song has even more Winchester potential than this one, I felt that that one lyric would bring up too much angst that I didn't want to bring forth.

Anyways, the following song belongs to NEEDTOBREATHE and Gavin DeGraw.

Sam Winchester was nervous.

And to think they weren't even on a hunt.

Nope. This was the kind of nervousness that one felt sort of embarrassed about and then felt embarrassed about feeling embarrassed. It was the sort of nervousness that came from changing your mind around 30 times, each time taking a different decision, before settling on the one you had decided on the first time.

Sam wiped his sweating palms against his jeans, fidgeting for a comfortable position, then checked his watch.

Two whole minutes had passed since he had last checked it.

He could feel Dean's occasional glances thrown his way but he couldn't be bothered about it now. Not when it was almost time and he was this close to having an anxiety attack.

He had convinced Dean to park in the middle of nowhere with their burgers and then stopped him from getting out of the car once Dean had parked near an empty field. His flimsy excuse of "let's just listen to music" had been received with incredulous eyes.

And then he had damn near ripped the tape out of his hand, the one that Dean was about to put in the stereo, while screaming "NO, I MEANT THE RADIO!".

Finally, Dean had lost it and told him to stop being a bitch, cursing him black and blue. Which in turn made Sam all the more guilty, which triggered Dean's Big Brother response and he had sighed and relented.

The icy silence was broken by some song they couldn't even understand that was apparently on today's Top 10. Dean kept shooting him dirty glares when Sam refused to change the station, proclaiming that it was his favourite song, shuddering internally.

That hadn't even been the first lie.

Funny how the 'lies only lead to more lies' line was actually more truer than people realized.

Sam grimaced as he remembered their conversation from that morning.

"Dean?"

"Hmm?"

"You hungry?"

"Sure. Get me a Mountain Dew and my usual, will ya?"

Car keys. Sam fumbled with them for a moment before clearing his throat meaningfully.

Dean looked up.

"What?"

"Uh ... you wanna come?"

It was around this time that Sam had started sweating. He hadn't stopped since.

"To the ... burger joint?", Dean asked with a frown of confusion.

Sam nodded.

"Nope. Got my own errand boy, don't I?", Dean smirked, before turning back to his magazine that he was lazily flipping through.

"Dean ...", the whine had slipped out from Sam's lips before he could stop it.

Damn big brothers.

Dean had just looked back at him, now more confused.

"Sam, you're the one who's hungry. If you don't want to get the grub, then fine. Stay here", Dean said with a shrug.

"I am!"

Which, because the universe hated Sam, came out louder than Sam meant it to.

"... hungry", he added more quietly this time.

Dean stared at him.

"Oookay, genius. So, go get it. I'm not coming with", Dean spoke slowly.

Clearly done with the conversation, he went back to his reading.

Sam fidgeted, wracking his brain for ideas.

"I can't drive!", Sam blurted out, then coloured furiously.

"What? Why not? You feeling okay?", Dean sat up from the bed where he had been splayed on.

"Uh ... yeah?"

"Is that - why does that sound like a question?"

"'Cause I'm not sure?"

"Sam ..."

"My, uh, my hands hurt."

Sam resisted the urge to squeeze his eyes shut at the lame excuse.

"What did you do? How long?", Dean asked, taking Sam's hands in his', carefully palpating the skin to check for injury.

"From now - uh, I mean, like, two days. Before. Ago. Uh, since two days."

Dean scowled suspiciously at him.

"They seem fine ..."

"I know ... but they hurt."

Sam winced at the lie. But it was for a good cause, he reminded himself.

"Fine. Stay here, get an ice pack maybe fo -"

"NO!"

Dean reared back at Sam's sudden shout.

"What the -"

"I mean, I'm coming with you."

"Why?! To hold my hand?"

"I haven't, um, decided what to get."

Dean sat back heavily on the bed, a hand coming up to rub his forehead, before he looked up at Sam, face a mask of patience.

"Let me get this straight. So, your hands have been hurting enough for you not to be able to drive and you hid them from me. For two whole days now. You are hungry and now you want to come with me to choose your food from the three crappy burgers from a crappy diner?"

Sam blinked.

Then nodded.

He squeezed in the little brother look, just in case.

Dean blew out a breath and Sam caught a whisper of something that sounded like 'too old for this'.

His brother stood up, shook his head, before picking up his keys and making his way to the door.

"Well, come on, Miss Diva. Haven't got all day."

Sam sighed in relief and followed him out, grabbing his jacket on the way.

At least one problem was out of the way.

It had taken a lot of secrecy before, too. Research that had nothing to do with a hunt, sudden bouts of grins at his idea working out.

Which made Dean steal glances at him ever so often, wondering whether his little brother had finally lost it.

It also kinda increased Sam's anxiety since all this was for his brother.

A song he had heard a few days ago and the newspaper from two days ago had come together as a fully formed plan in his mind.

He couldn't use his phone in case Dean overheard. So, convincing Dean to stop at a phone booth for him to wish a happy birthday to a friend from Stanford, "Jacob from Political Science" in fact, took more effort than he had thought it would.

Sam wondered if Dean realized how much he had taken his advice to heart and gradually avoided contact with his Stanford friends before stopping altogether.

Not to mention he had never known a Jacob.

His "research" had also revealed an abundance of radio stations.

Whatever his trouble counted for, here they were. Alone with the radio playing.

On Mother's day.

The food was just a bonus.

Sam jumped when the song ended and the announcer's voice came on and moved to nudge the volume knob higher. Dean snorted, rolling his eyes.

Sam hid a nervous smile.

"And now for our next song request, we have Sammy Singer for his brother Dean. With the message : Thanks for being the mom we never had. Very sweet. This will be our last song today, folks. Have a wonderful Mother's day and see y'all tomorrow! This is 'Brother' by 'NEEDTOBREATHE'."

Dean had stilled, staring in shock at the stereo before turning to Sam who twitched a smile and a helpless shrug.

"This is - you did this?", Dean croaked. Sam nodded, wondering not for the first time whether this was a bad idea. Dean didn't seem ... angry. Or whatever Sam had been expecting him to be.

Sam watched slyly as Dean turned back to the radio as the beginning strains of the song came on. He was sure that his brother had never heard the song before.

"Ramblers in the wilderness

We can't find what we need

We get a little restless from the searching

Get a little worn down in between"

Patching each other up after a hunt, holding the other up when it seemed like things were hopeless. Jess, dad, Madison, Jo, Ellen, Ash, Bobby ... each other ... so much loss. They still searched, or at least, had searched. Now ... now, they were just worn down.

"Like a bull chasing the matador

Is the man left to his own schemes

Everybody needs someone beside 'em

Shining like a lighthouse from the sea"

"As long as I'm around, nothing bad's gonna happen to you."

"I'm here. I'm here, Sam. I'm not going anywhere."

Dean turned away from where he had been staring at the stereo to look at Sam.

And Sam could see all that he himself wanted to say in Dean's eyes.

Dean swallowed and turned back to the stereo again.

"Brother, let me be your shelter

Never leave you all alone

I can be the one you call

When you're low"

Dean cooking for him, Dean patching his wounds, Dean after his first failed date, Dean smiling proudly at his scores, Dean teaching him to shoot ... just Dean Dean Dean.

Sam swallowed back tears and looked out the window. He wished he could tell Dean how much he meant to him. How much he was grateful. How much he loved and looked up to his big brother. But it wasn't the Winchester way.

For now, this would have to do.

"Brother, let me be your fortress

When the night winds are driving on

Be the one to light the way

Bring you home"

And it was everything they had ever wanted to say to each other.

The next few lines, however, was what Sam had been most nervous about. Apart from the radio station research, there had been also some ... practice. When Dean had gone out for dinner or was cleaning Baby for the umpteenth time.

Sam cleared his throat quietly.

"Face down in the desert now

There's a cage locked around my heart"

This time another voice softly accompanied the verse as Sam joined in.

Dean's head snapped up so quickly that Sam swore he heard his neck crack.

It hadn't been that difficult to memorize actually, and even though Sam knew he couldn't sing to save his life, nothing was too embarrassing to try for Dean.

"I found a way to drop the keys where my failures were

Now my hands can't reach that far"

His eyes watered as he met Dean's eyes, the hidden meaning not hidden anymore.

The fact that Dean had stuck by his side after the demon blood and the apocalypse and fucking Lucifer (damaged goods ... a familiar voice whispered), had been the only thing that had kept Sam alive.

Because Dean hadn't just reached for the "keys". He had thrown them away, wrenched open the cage's bars with his bare hands and just declared that Sam was not trapped anymore.

Big Brother Magic.

Stone Number One.

"I ain't made for a rivalry"

This time it was Sam who nearly broke his neck as another voice joined his'. Dean had a small smirk playing on his face, as he softly sang. But his eyes were bright with unshed tears.

Huh. Apparently Dean had heard it before.

Memorized it, no less.

"I could never take the world alone"

They could never take the world alone.

They could fight, get hurt, throw punches, spit words, shoot and kill and watch the world burn around them. But they could never survive, never exist alone.

And Sam was taken back to another time, years ago, when Dean's deal was still due. And they had still hoped he could get out of it.

Dead or Alive.

"I know that in my weakness I am strong"

Maybe they had just been naive.

Or was the right word hopeful?

"You're my weak spot, Sammy. You are. And I'm yours."

"But it's your love that brings me home"

Now, singing (let's call it singing) to something that was just about ... them, it felt like a new era. And Dean would tell him not to sound like something out of a Hallmark movie.

Maybe Winchesters couldn't have chick flick moments the normal way. But they certainly could rock it to some modern Rock.

They did bring each other home. They were home.

And Dean had always been Sam's home.

Sam grinned slowly, Dean mirroring his expression.

"Brother, let me be your shelter, never leave you all alone. I can be the one you call, when you're low", the radio was barely a murmur in the background as the two of them screamed the lyrics at the top of their lungs, grins wide, and tune very off.

And it was the best.

"Brother, let me be your fortress, when the night winds are driving on", Dean tapped his chest with a fist before pointing to Sam. "Be the one to light the way, bring you home".

Sam's eyes flooded again, even as the smile never left his face.

His chest hurt from the overload of emotions he felt for Dean. And there would never be enough words.

So he let his eyes speak for him.

Dean would understand.

Dean smiled softly at him, letting go of the walls he had built so strong around him and Sam swallowed at the pure love shining through Dean's eyes. His brother wasn't one to talk, preferring to let actions speak for themselves. And it wasn't as if Sam doubted Dean's love. He saw it everyday in the way Dean bought him his coffee just the way he liked, distracted him when he was working himself into a funk, knew just when to joke around and when not to.

He knew it.

But to actually feel all that adoration directed at him ... was overwhelming, to say the least.

So, he remained quiet, watching his brother sing the next verse.

"And when you call and need me near, sayin' where'd you go? Brother, I'm right here." It was like Dean had written the words himself, with Sam and this place and their life in mind. Sam swallowed back tears yet again, wondering why his brother was so against chick flick moments when he could bring forth one in Sam as easily as breathing.

Stanford and "If you need me, I'm just a call away, Sammy".

A vague memory of fading and "... my job - pain in the ass little bro - I gotcha".

"And on those days, when the sky begins to fall, you're the blood of my blood, we can get through it all". And it was a reminder and a promise all in one.

They had gotten through it all and they would. No matter what the world threw at them.

"You make a move on him, you'll be dead before you hit the ground. You understand me?"

"It's you and me against the world."

Because they were brothers, blood of my blood, and that was all the hope they ever needed to go on.

And if anyone had passed that way in the next few minutes, all they would have heard is two loud, terrible voices singing along to some song from inside a classy car.

In that moment, the two brothers inside wouldn't have cared.

In that moment, all that existed was the two of them.

Or maybe, that's the way it had always been.

A/N : Was that an abrupt ending? I couldn't figure out how to write the moments after the song ends. So, Voila. Took the easy way out lol. Anyways, let me know what you think!

And yes, I did add Jensen's chest pat and point towards Jared. How could I not? lol art imitates life imitates art imitates ...