"What the Fuck, Sam!?"

Sam bolted upright in bed, his heart instantly kicking into a gallop as he thought about Dmitri; the vampire lying next to him, asleep.

But not for long; Dmitri also jolted awake upon hearing Dean's loud, startled exclamation.

"Dean I-"

Sam barely uttered two syllables before his older brother had a serious choking grip on his boyfriend.

"Stop!" Sam felt befuddled, along with all the other emotions coursing through him. Usually there was bit more preamble to Dean's fits of rage and rash behavior. This was too straight forward, even for him.

"Dean!" Sam physically pulled at Dean's arms, trying to get him to let up on his hold around Dmitri's neck, but it wouldn't budge.

Dmitri's eyes turned black, and his body pulsed with strength from the sudden adrenaline rush. He struggled against Dean's grip and won, effectively sending him reeling, unsteady on his feet across the room.

"Dmitri, take it easy!" Sam tried not to sound as panicked as he felt; seeing those dark vampiric eyes really made him worry that maybe he and Dean were dead meat walking, at this point.

But Dmitri exuded an impressive amount of self control, and he seemed to be calming himself down.

"Sam, do you want me to fucking kill your boyfriend? 'Cuz that's what it looks like; you bringing him here and letting me see you two in fucking bed together!"

Dean was more than mad. This was full blown rage and jealousy. It scared the living shit out of Sam, even more than Dmitri's vampire nature had just moments ago.

"I'm leaving." Dmitri threw his hands up in surrender and tromped towards the door, looking very miffed indeed.

But Dean got in the way. "You're not going anywhere. We're going to have a nice little family chat. Stick around for the party."

Dmitri rolled his eyes and looked at Sam, who looked pleadingly right back at him. He decided to stay.

"Sit down." Dean ordered. "Both of you, sit the fuck down."

Sam obeyed immediately, and Dmitri less urgently so. They were about a foot away from each other, sitting on the side of the bed.

Dean finally took a deep breath. He ran his hand through his short, spiky hair and contemplated what he should do about Sam and his pet vampire.

"What am I supposed to do with you two? Huh, Sam? You realize just what kind of position you're putting me in? Dad told me to protect you! I'm not exactly doing much protecting by letting you have sex with friggin' vampires!"

Sam frowned and looked away out of embarrassment. He knew he was being unfair to his older brother.

"He's got nowhere to go, Dean. His family skipped out on him."

"Oh you mean his nest? Yeah his nest is cleared out and you know what? For all we know, his ma and pop are getting a posse of vampires together to take us out! You ever think of that, Sam? No… You've been too busy sucking his dick to find out if he's plotting to kill us!"

Dmitri gulped hard, but kept quiet. He felt legitimately ashamed and scolded for the second time that day.

"He's my boyfriend, Dean." Sam pushed back. "I… I trust him. He's been nothing but good to me; I'm going to fight for him. And so help me God, if you kill him, I will never forgive you."

The eldest was taken aback a little at Sam's sudden ultimatum. And in true Winchester tradition, he couldn't help but feel like this was his fault. He did let Dmitri go the first time. And there was also the distinct possibility that if Dean were the one fulfilling his brother's sexual needs, then Sam wouldn't find it necessary to go and find himself a vampire boyfriend.

So yes; this was all his fault.

"Sixteen days." Dean finally said. "Dad will be back in sixteen days, and we're leaving town again. Sounds like we'll be heading East. You have sixteen days to get whatever the hell this is out of your system. If you don't, dad will kill your little boy toy here. And there won't be any warning, and it won't be pretty."

Sam nodded vigorously, and he truly looked like the fear of God had been instilled in him. Fucking finally, Dean thought to himself.

"Alright. Now you can get out of here." Dean motioned for Dmitri to leave, and the teenager barely had time to grab his clothes before getting ushered insistently out the door.

Once Dmitri was gone, Sam kept a careful eye on Dean, who paced restlessly with an unreadable expression.

"Dean?" Sam piped up cautiously.

Dean's head snapped up to look at his baby brother. He was so conflicted. He wanted to be upset and indignant, but at the same time he just wanted to kiss Sam and persuade him to drop Dmitri and just be with him.

But Sam didn't see any of that. Sam only saw hurt in those eyes.

"I'm sorry." He tried weakly.

"I know." Dean answered unexpectedly. "I know you're sorry Sam. But this is… this is my fault."

Sam was genuinely surprised at Dean's confession; also a little confused, but he let Dean go on.

"If I hadn't led you on that one time… If we hadn't…"

Realizing what Dean was getting at, Sam frowned.

"Don't you dare apologize for that, Dean. I did that on my own. I wanted to do that. And besides, it was years ago. This situation has nothing to do with back then. I like Dmitri. I really do."

Dean nodded, and looked away. He didn't want to look into Sam's eyes as he said, "But you would drop him, for me, wouldn't you..." It was a statement; not a question.

And Sam knew it was 100% true.

"I don't know Dean." Sam lied. All of a sudden his relationship with Dmitri seemed cheap and groundless in comparison to what he had with Dean. But he'd done so much to defend his relationship with Dmitri he couldn't just pull out now. And besides… Dean wasn't really asking him to give up Dmitri; he wasn't really offering himself as a substitute… Right?

"Are you saying we can-"

"Hell no." Dean put Sam's train of thought six feet in the ground. "Sam we're brothers. It's wrong on so many levels… We can't be doing stuff like that together."

Sam felt a little twinge of hope in his chest when he realized that Dean was basically preaching to himself; working at convincing himself, and not Sam.

That meant there really was a chance.

"Dean…" Sam lowered his voice to the point of it almost sounding like his brother's. "You know I'm always here, if you change your mind."

The eldest just shook his head. Sam half expected him to leave again. But he didn't.

"Sam we've got to get our shit together. I'm serious about dad comin' back. If he… if he gets wind of any of this… the vampire, or… us… He's never going to leave us alone ever again. Is that what you want? You'd have to forget finishing high school and all we would do from now on is hunt with dad."

"No. That's not what I want. I want to finish high school and go to college."

Dean smirked, a little amused; but he let his brother dream. It was good for kids to dream.

"Alright Sammy. So what are you going to do?"

Sam felt the knot in his stomach getting tighter. "I'm not sure." He wanted to pull Dean near and kiss him; to remind him of that connection they had, and to hopefully win Dean over in the long run.

But he didn't. Instead he just sat there like a lame duck.

In true Winchester form, he just let his feelings fester. They both did.

Two weeks went by at school without too much event.

But Dmitri was getting worse. Now he couldn't even give Sam a simple kiss without having to pull away to calm himself down; to repress the vampire nature and resist drinking his boyfriend dry.

"I really want to turn you, Sam." The vampire whispered into Sam's ear.

They were alone in an alleyway behind the school, and the taller teen had the hunter pressed back-first against a brick wall.

Sam felt a little scared upon hearing the unmistakable growl behind his boyfriend's voice. He knew this was the vampire side talking.

"Don't." He was hardly begging; he just wanted to make sure to assert his opinion into the discussion. Just so there wasn't any misunderstanding, of course.

"We really should. It makes so much sense… We can be together forever, Sam. Vampires live for a very, very long time. We can live together, and not have to worry about hurting each other."

Sam shivered at the way Dmitri was whispering in his ear in such a low tone. It all sounded like it might make a little bit of sense….

But there was Dean. There would always be Dean. No matter how fulfilling a relationship might be with Dmitri, Dean would always be the one Sam actually wanted. He even occasionally indulged in imagining that Dmitri was really Dean, when they were together.

"I can't." Sam breathed. "I'm sorry, but… I don't think I can do this anymore."

Dmitri pulled back abruptly and looked at Sam, his eyes still a little dark. "What? You're breaking up with me?"

"I'm sorry." Sam felt tears threatening to develop in his eyes and he blinked rapidly, trying to stave off a flood for as long as he could. "I'm leaving town in a couple of days. I don't think I'll ever see you again."

"But you don't know that for sure. Hey, you know Stanford's only a few miles from here. You can go there. You said you wanted to go to law school, right?"

Sam nodded. And the idea made him seriously consider trying to keep a long-distance relationship.

But he couldn't. Winchesters didn't do long-distance relationships. Hell, Winchesters really didn't do relationships, period.

"I can't promise anything, Dmitri." The hunter finalized. "If I end up going to Stanford I'll look you up, okay?"

Dmitri smiled a little upon hearing that he just might see Sam again someday. "Hey don't I get a kiss goodbye?"

Sam let Dmitri kiss him again, and it felt good. But he also felt sad, and guilty, and remorseful that all this time he'd been more-or-less using this wonderful, strong person as a surrogate for the real target of his affections.

And Dmitri was strong. He was stronger than anyone or anything Sam had ever seen. He'd never seen anyone fight his own nature as hard as Dmitri had. And he just kept fighting.

And he'd been so kind to Sam; so understanding, and loving.

And sexy.

Despite the fact that he was a vampire, it was almost as if he were…

An angel.

When Sam pulled away from the kiss he realized they both had tears running down their face.

"I'll see you later, Winchester."

And with that, he was gone.