Destiel; Nightmare

Day One

The Rune of Truth showed stark against his shoulder. Now both his shoulders were marred, one with the ruin, the other with Castiel's handprint.

"Dean?" Sam asked hesitantly. Cautious of his brothers reaction to the mark.

Dean lifted his eyes off of his shoulder to gaze at his brother. Assessing him, assessing his own feelings. Shocked. That's how he felt. He was surprised and didn't know how to react.

"I-I am ok." He finally said.

"Ok." Sam responded, still guarded, "lets just take this one step at a time. We should go back to the bunker, see what else we can dig up on this mark."

"Ok."

They heard a flap of wings and saw empty space meaning Cas had left, presumably to meet them there.

And they didn't talk the whole drive home.

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"It doesn't look like there's a way to reverse it. We just have to wait it out." Sam said as he leaned back in his chair, sighing.

Dean didn't answer. He just stared at the book in front of him as he had been doing for the past two hours.

"Dean!"

"What?" Dean said. His attention finally caught.

"I said are you ok?"

"Not really. My back is sore, the rune is still burning slightly, and I've been having freak out moments this path month because of mom dying again." Dean said in one breath. After he finished his eyes widened, clearly he had not expected that all to come out. In all honesty what he meant to say was his trademark "I'm fine."

"Oh." Sam said after a beat. "Do you...do you want to talk about it."

"Yes. But I probably won't. Shit!" Dean exclaimed. "I hate this mark!"

Sam just looked at him and debated asking more. On the one hand, Dean did deep down want to talk. On the other, if it weren't for the mark he would remain stubborn in his silence. But this was a rare opportunity. To finally hear what Dean keeps bottled up. That made up his mind.

"Dean." Sam started to get excited now. "When I rented Moulin Rouge and made you watch it with me, did you really get something in your eye?"

"Yes, tears." Dean said and glared at his brother.

Sam smiled wide.

"They loved each other you ass!"

"Mmhhmm. And when I heard The Princess Bride from outside your door and you said you had just turned on the tv and it was just there."

"I lied." Dean grumbled out.

Sam smiled again, but then it faded. He looked at his brother curiously and hesitantly. "Hey Dean, why did you come get me to help you find dad?"

At this Dean took a breath. "I just, um," he let out a sigh, "I didn't want to be alone. You left without saying goodbye and it killed me. I came to Stanford whenever I was in the area just to see you and you looked so happy. I knew when you ran away, you were running from me too so I tried not to bother you. But when I didn't hear from dad and thought the worst, I just didn't want to live the rest of my short life alone. I wanted one final hunt with my brother before I was officially on my own." Dean didn't look Sam in the eyes the entire time he spoke.

The younger Winchester didn't know what to say. How do you respond to something that you broke. How does he bring ease.

Sam knew his brother didn't want to do the hunt alone, but he didn't see it the way his brother did. And Dean had to know that.

"Dean...that....look. I was running from dad and hunting, you just got caught in the mix up. I didn't mean to cut you out of my life. But I knew I couldn't truly break away without breaking from you. Breaking from the thing that kept me there for so long. And I see now that I didn't really break away. I just took a break. And you didn't pry me out of my life. You just brought me back to where I was supposed to be. I felt out of place with dad and at Stanford. But hunting with you is home Dean. So please don't feel bad. The bunker is our home, and you and Cas are my family."

Dean just nodded. After two minutes Sam spoke again to lighten the mood.

"Hey Dean." The smile returned. "Speaking of Cas...lets talk about your relationship with him."

I regret everything in this chapter. I feel like I could have done this far more gracefully, but here we are.

-Adia Rose