Title: Is that my name on the bell?
Author: Spinny Roses
Pairing: Sam/Dean
Fandom: Supernatural
Rating: PG-13
Warnings: Incest (Dean/Sam), religious overtones
Spoilers: Nightmare
Disclaimer: Don't own
Summary: The garbled words continue to flow from his lips, not asking for forgiveness, nor in supplication.

***

"Gloria in excélsis Deo. Et in terra pax homínibus bonæ voluntátis."

Dean tends to whisper this, thinking Sam can't hear him. Every night, over his brother's seemingly sleeping body. The words are horribly mangled, barely recognizable as Latin.

While it makes him wince, Sam's not about to tell him this. Not when Dean thinks that his brother believes that he isn't the religious one.

Dean's fingers rub Sam's in time with his words. There had been a time that Sam had been early coming home and had caught Dean with a rosary between his fingers. The way he treated his hand, it was if he had replaced the prayers and rosary with an old song and Sam's knuckles.

" Qui tollis peccáta mundi, miserére nobis. Qui tollis peccáta mundi, súscipe deprecatiónem nostram. Qui sedes ad déxteram Patris, miserére nobis."

Sam opened his eyes to watch Dean. He always had his head lowered, eyes closed as he prayed. The garbled words continue to flow from his lips, not asking for forgiveness, nor in supplication. No, Dean wouldn't ask for something like that.

The priest collars had surprised Sam. Before leaving for Stanford, he used to fall asleep to hearing the prayers, only in English back then, drift effortlessly from Dean. But watching him fiddle with it, making the sign of the cross when he thought Sam wasn't looking, made him realize what it meant to Dean.

Dean never had any respect for laws of man, nor did he have any need for the institutions created by humans. The exorcisms, so many exorcisms, the demons they had fought, and the thing that had killed their mother... it had proven to Dean the strength in religion. It had given him a reason to find more strength, even more to do what John had asked.

Maybe even enough to finally, finally protect Sam.

"Cum Sancto Spíritu in glória Dei Patris. Amen."

Dean kisses his knuckles and lifts his head, surprised to find Sam's eyes on him. Sam just grinned, pulling his brother's head down. "Your Latin sucks."

Dean starts to say something, but his words are swallowed into Sam's mouth as they kiss. Whatever forgiveness Dean asks for is set before Sam, not God, not asking for him to forgive his desires but rather every time Sam was hurt, every time their father caused another deep wound. Begging forgiveness for spiriting him away from Stanford, dragging him back into hunting.

And Sam, with tongue and lips, guides him through his ritual.

The End

***