Title: Watching
By: nancy
Pairing: Sam/Dean
Rating: R
Warnings: angst, language, incest, spoilers for S4
Summary: Sam can't stop watching Dean.

Sam couldn’t stop watching Dean sleep.

Stretched out beside his brother on the crappy motel bed, Sam’s eyes traced every part of Dean’s face. Not that he didn’t know it by heart already, just to reassure himself that it wasn’t a delusion. That was the reason his fingers remained knotted with Dean’s fingers. The warm skin against his was necessary to make sure Dean wasn’t a figment of his imagination. There’d been enough realistic dreams in the time after Dean had been taken from him to make him question himself, even a couple of weeks after Dean’s return.

His thumb trailed over the back of his brother’s hand, drifting lightly through the sparse hair. Dean shifted restlessly in his sleep, eyelids twitching and his breath hitching as a frown furrowed his brow.

Sam leaned in closer and murmured against Dean’s ear, “You’re safe, Dean, you’re home.”

It took a few seconds, but the frown faded and Dean sighed deeply. He rolled over onto Sam, face pressed to Sam’s midriff. His breath tickled Sam’s bare stomach, their skin sticking together in a way he might have thought unpleasant before Dean’s stint in hell; now, Sam didn’t take anything for granted when it came to being with his brother.

Dean’s arm moved over Sam’s hip as he burrowed closer. Sam put his own hand on Dean’s back, relishing the contact, and wishing for more. They hadn’t done more than sleep together since the return and Sam wasn’t going to push. Dean got a little skittish when Sam kissed him, or his hand lingered, but it didn’t matter. Sam was patient enough to last through whatever his brother consciously needed for space. When he slept, Dean got as close as he could, the nightmares driving him to seek Sam in whatever bed their shared.

Smiling wanly at his sleeping brother, Sam murmured, “I love you, Dean. I can wait.”

It might have been his imagination, but Sam thought Dean relaxed even further after those words.