All This Time (Destiel, Sabriel and Michifer AU)

Pranking Lucifer

Dean rubbed at his damp hair with the towel, cursing Sam and Gabe as he removes said towel to find his hair still slightly pink. What the hell is in that paint?

Castiel was sulking in the corner of the room, picking drying paint off his arm and cursing Gabriel under his breath. Lisa just sat crossed legged on the bed, and Dean was fairly certain that he could hear her giggling under her breath while she watched him struggle.

Finally Dean gave up and threw the towel across the room in anger. "SAMUEL WINCHESTER YOU ARE DEAD," he shouts, storming out of the room to look for his brother. He was so caught up in his ideas of revenge that he almost failed to notice two things as he reached Sam and Gabriel's room.

One, he was still shirtless from taking a shower... although he had thankfully thought to pull pants on so he wasn't stomping around in his boxers.

Two, the sound of a once familiar voice drifting from the room. This last one caused Dean to stumble to a stop, sure the voice was quiet and rough from lack of use, but it was Sammy's. 

Moving with almost absolute silence, Dean crept up and peeked in through the slightly ajar door. The annoyance at the two younger teens simply drained out of him as he watches the scene in front of him. 

Gabriel was holding Sam's hand as the taller boy spoke, something Dean struggled to comprehend. His brother, who hadn't spoken in 4 years, was talking.

When Dean heard what Sam was saying, he understood, and felt his heart pang sadly for his little brother. All these years, even before they'd moved back to Kansas, Sam had been the one person Dean loved more than anyone else. He had always watched out for and looked after his little brother.

So when John had started beating them, Dean had done everything he could to watch after his pain in the ass little brother, but even he couldn't be there all the time and now those memories haunted him and left a guilty feeling in the pit of his stomach. 

So to hear Sam blurt everything out, well Dean was just glad his brother was talking again instead of holding it all in and pretending he was fine. (Not that Dean could talk)

"I'm so ashamed of all the times I let Dean down, he was always there for me and I just sulked in the deepest part of my mind and hid from it all, I let him down. I let you down, and I let myself down, and I don't know how to fix it." Sam was speaking again, his words reaching Dean and making him want to ignore his aversion to chick flick moments and hug Sam.

He was just resolving to do something with Sam, just the two of them spending much needed brotherly time, when Sam's next words reach Dean. 

"I had a plan, Y'know, one that would mean we could stay in Kansas, but I was weak and that meant I let you down."  

This surprised Dean, he hadn't been aware of any plans to try and stay. What the hell had his brother been up to?

His anger over the prank forgotten, Dean backs off and lets the two have their privacy.

He arrives back at his room deep in thought, unconciously running his fingers through his hair as he tries to figure out just how much Sam had been going through without him noticing.

He had promised Sammy from a very young age that he would always look out for him, and when their mother had died Dean, who had only been 8, had had to step up and fill her place the best he could with their father always gone. 

And now he felt like he had failed his brother on some level, and he'd been feeling this horrible guilt for 4 years.

"I assume Sam didn't help you was the last of the paint out."