pathossam:

Dean sits in stunned silence for a moment, before turning to his brother. “Sam, what–”

“When I was sixteen,” Sam continues softly, like he didn’t just lay an earth shattering, gut wrenching, heart pounding revelation at Dean’s feet, “I came home really upset and told you I thought I liked guys. I was so scared, Dean. All I knew about being bi was the guys in the locker room muttering about beating up any queers that looked at them too long. But, you. You, you remember what you told me?”

Dean is stunned into silence. He remembers that day, yeah. Remembers how clean and freshly cut Sam was as a man-boy, and how blue his eyes were when he cried. He remembers holding Sam against his chest, feeling the protruding bones of his spine and thinking that Sam was both the most fragile piece of glass and strongest cut diamond in the world. He remembers pulling back and saying–

“You told me I could love whoever I wanted, that it didn’t make a damn bit of difference to you. That nothing in this world could make you turn from me or think any less. You,” and Sam smiles, thinking, a little bit of that sixteen year old left in Sam’s thirty-two year old grin, “you told me I could bring a goat to the prom.”

Dean smiles in spite of himself, pressing his shaking hands together. “Sammy, I–”

“You gave me permission to love you this way that day, Dean. And I’ve never stopped, not ever. I told myself if I ever got back out of that cage I’d, I’d tell you. So.”

Dean presses his side into Sam from where they’re sitting shoulder-to-shoulder in the dim light of Sam’s room. His brother has never been anything but brave, and so fucking smart to pick up on the hidden meaning he meant all those years ago, hoping he’d both never figure out, and hoping he would.

Dean turns his head to look at Sam, and Sam is already staring at him. Their eyes catch, and every year of their shared history plays between them. Every beautiful, painful inch, and Dean knows what he’s about to do will change nothing and everything.

“Shut up and kiss me, Sam.”