Chapter Five:

Dean had not spoken one word to Sam on the way home. He had been dressed and ready to leave before Sam woke up, silently packing up the Impala, and waited in the driver's seat for Sam to get dressed.

Two and a half hours later, Dean pulled up to Sam's house, popped the trunk, helped Sam take his things inside, practically ran back out to the car, and sped off.

Sam had never felt more rejected. Every time he even attempted to open his mouth to explain, to tell Dean what had happened and how much of a big deal that it really was not, Dean had turned up the radio.

Subtle, right?

Finally, after the fourth time of trying, Sam was just frustrated enough to seethe quietly all the way home. He didn't even look at Dean when they arrived at his house.

He let Dean push the subject, and the night before, away for the time being. It still stung painfully, though, that Dean obviously didn't care enough to even try to talk about it. And worse, the look in those gold eyes…

Sam had needed a drink, (maybe several) to get through that night.

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The next week went smoothly enough. His classes were flourishing, surprising him with how involved and heavy their in-class discussions were going. It reminded him of some of the college classes he had attended in person, and he tried to run the material they had to go through in as interesting a light as he could, so that everyone could see why reading was one of his greatest passions.

The classes, however, were the only good thing he had going for him. His personal life was for shit.

Dean had not contacted him in any way after Saturday. He had waited until Wednesday before calling Dean's cell, and even then only limited himself to two calls a day. He had tried to catch Dean after work on Thursday, only to have himself blatantly ignored. And then on Friday after school, he saw Dean's patrol car and purposefully drove 20 miles over the speed limit with the same results.

Fucking shit, he was tired of it.

Saturday, he did nothing, knowing that Dean was at work. He forced himself to accept that he had to back off, leave Dean alone. If he pushed too hard, somehow he knew that Dean would run away even further out of his reach, maybe even out of the country.

And was he the only one who saw the irony in the fact that a vampire was running from a hunter for completely sexual reasons? It made him chuckle a little when he had had a few glasses of whiskey.

Of course, his carefully put-together resolve went to hell only two weeks after that. Sam finally couldn't take the distance anymore and after so many nights and day dreams involving him and Dean, it was a marvel of his own stubborn pride that he had lasted this long. That, and he felt that this childish act of Dean's had gone on long enough. Edward was certainly lucky that Sam could cover up his thoughts; otherwise he'd be suffering just as much, if not more than Sam at this point.

He visited the Cullen house on a Sunday afternoon, when the sky looked swollen with rain and the promise of thunder. Sam hardly saw the point of knocking, a very human courteously, when the vampires in the house could have heard him coming from a mile or more away. He did it anyway, and waited for an answer.

It was Dr. Cullen that opened the door with his wife, Esme, at his side.

"Hello," Sam greeted them both, "I'm Sam Winchester, and I don't think that we've met before,"

"No, but Esme and I have heard a great deal about you from everyone else," Dr. Cullen nodded in return. "My name is Carlisle, and this is my wife, Esme,"

"A pleasure to meet you Mr. Winchester," Esme said with a warm smile.

"Call me Sam," he said smiling back. He liked Dean's 'brother and sister' already. He could feel that they were both good people.

"So, Sam," Carlisle opened the door wider, gesturing him inside, "What brings you here? Nothing the matter, I hope?" He asked the second question with a certain amount of trepidation, and Sam didn't want any of that.

"No, everything's alright, I just wanted to speak to Dean, if he's here…"

"Sam?" A voice called from the top of the stairs.

Sam looked up and found Dean staring down at him in wide-eyed surprise. "What are you doing here?"

"Well," Sam said, deliberating a moment before deciding to be blunt, "You wouldn't speak to me when I tried elsewhere, so I hoped you'd stop running away from me if I came to your house,"

"I wasn't running away-!" Dean started, moving down the stairs slowly.

"Yes you were Dean! After that Saturday, you wouldn't even look at me! Now, will you stop being a baby about this and just tell me why?"Sam moved toward him.

"A baby?" Dean stopped in the middle of descending the steps, looking completely thrown for a loop, "I was protecting you!"

"From what, Dean?" Sam raised an eyebrow, staring the vampire down.

"From ME!" Dean shouted angrily, and then looked away abruptly.

"From…?" Sam let out an exasperated breath, "Dean, you didn't hurt me! And I don't exactly remember asking you to stop."

"What do you mean I didn't hurt you? Did you see you after what happened?" Dean cried back, totally serious and convinced that Sam must be out of his mind.

Sam just rolled his eyes. "Dean, you would have known if you had actually hurt me. I can protect myself,"

Dean still looked at Sam as if he were insane. "Yeah, sure…"

At the look on Dean's face, Sam could only laugh. "You really have no idea do you?" Truthfully, Sam was relieved. At least now he knew why Dean was so careful around him, avoiding him at all costs.

Sam walked up to the steps, stopping just a few short of Dean.

"Try and touch me," Sam challenged.

"What?" Dean asked, astounded at this sudden strange request.

"Seriously, if you're so big and tough, you should be able to take me down easily." Sam continued. "But I'm betting you can't,"

Dean's brows furrowed. He was getting annoyed at this new attitude, this teasing, demanding version of Sam. He got that Sam wanted him to see the human was not as delicate as Dean knew he was, but Sam just didn't know what he was getting himself into, what he was asking for.

He sighed, his shoulders sagging as he prepared to walk back up the stairs. "This is ridiculous Sam, you don't get it…"

The last thing Dean heard was an angry grunt and then he was thrown into the wall, hard. Harder than a human should have been able to manage. Logic, however, was lost on the vampire as he pushed away from the surface and glared at Sam, his blood pumping a mite faster.

"Don't you run away again, Dean. I get it, I really do: you're scared that you won't be able to control yourself around me, that you'll end up hurting me." Sam shook his head, "The thing is Dean, you really shouldn't underestimate anyone you meet." He said before pushing Dean again.

Dean was prepared for the shove this time, though, and it didn't move him to the wall again, just a few inches back and with just enough force to really piss him off. His instincts took control, and before he could stop to think, he shoved Sam back using all his speed and most of his strength.

Sam flew through the air, his body cracking against the wall next to the door with brute force before sliding down to the floor. He landed back on his feet, stepping away with a false expression of calm on his face, leaving behind an indent of his form and a crack on the wall, his body rigidly tense and mind awhirl.

Seeing that his violence didn't invoke the right reaction only spurred Dean forward, ignoring the shouts from somewhere to his right as he charged at Sam again. Sam was ready this time, but he didn't move an inch, ignoring every fighting instinct he had as he waited for Dean to come at him. Barely a second later, Dean's fist caught the side of his face with enough power to knock him through the glass of the front door. He landed on his ass this time, but sprung to his feet quickly before Dean followed through with another blow.

Dean was seeing red. None of his hits had done damage at all. A more primal part of his brain had taken over, killing his sense of intelligent thought beyond ideas of battle and annoyance. Why couldn't he hurt this being, this human, when he was so much stronger and faster than Sam? Sam… The name echoed in his head, something like cold distant reminder that there was a reason to stop himself…

Sam knew that Dean was struggling internally. He saw the way Dean's eyes practically glowed in the dying light of the day, the shadows becoming more pronounced and sharp on his features, making him look dangerous and lusciously sexy. It was making it hard to concentrate on why he had riled Dean up in the first place.

They exchanged blows, knocking each other back and circling like vultures to try to find weak points in their defenses. It was exhilarating and fun, freeing for both of them to see the more primal, fierce pieces of themselves, opening a new connection between them.

Then, the fight got really interesting.

Sam had finally managed to pin Dean to a tree, securing the vampire with his wrists by his sides and feet on the earthy ground. He was smiling devilishly, heaving breaths at the continuous release of his mental power. Dean writhed against the bonds, glaring, growling, and grumpily at Sam before he seemed to pause to consider his options. Sam was so sure that he had this in the bag, he wasn't even checking Dean's emotional output; otherwise, he might have realized something devious was brewing in Dean's mind.

Without warning, Dean heaved himself forward, but instead of being hindered by the invisible restrains, a second Dean seemed to burst free from his body. The doppelganger lunged at Sam, who was too mystified by the sudden development that he went down under the force of Dean's body. Sam prepared himself to be beaten to a pulp now that he had been captured, but this Dean just held him hostage, grinning down at him fiendishly.

Sam allowed himself a moment to come to terms with what had just happened, looking between the Dean that had him pinned and the Dean still caught against the tree, before he submitted beneath the second Dean and let loose a breathless laugh. He smiled back at the Dean atop him, releasing the real Dean from the tree.

"So that's your power, huh?" He asked once the real Dean had walked up to where he was. "Duplication?"

"Yeah," Dean said, pulling himself back together again before offering a hand to Sam "Didn't think I would have to use it against you," He admitted, smiling sadly.

"I know, I'm just full of surprises," Sam grinned, but his expression softened at Dean's look. "Do ya believe me now? Or do you still think I can't handle you?"

"No one can handle me," Dean automatically joked, smiling genuinely, but then conceded. "Sam, I didn't mean to push you away. I really thought that I hurt you that night. I just thought that by staying away from you…"

"That you would be protecting me. I know, Dean, but I'm not made of glass. I can protect myself; I think that I more than proved that today." Sam pointed out, surveying the damage to the trees and finally looking back at the house, wincing at the state of the front door.

"I say that anyone who can hold his own against Dean for more than five minutes gets a gold star," Alice's lilting voice said. She leapt down from some tall branches, along with Edward, Rosalie, Jasper and Emmet.

"Didn't know you had it in you, Mr. W," Emmet smirked along with Jasper, both of them receiving an eye roll from Rosalie.

"Damn, and I'm really supposed to promote non-violence to my students," Sam smiled at them, mockingly snapping his fingers. "And, outside of school, just call me Sam. It's not like you're not all older than me or anything,"

The conversation flowed easily from then on, stretching out late into the night before Dean and Sam went back to Sam's house to retire. And Sam was convinced that he had never made a better decision than to provoke Dean into a fight in his life when Dean kissed him goodnight.