Title: Unanswered Questions

Author: tarotgal

Fandom: Supernatural

Rating: PG-13
Pairing: Sam/Dean

Disclaimer: Not my boys!

Written for my own SPN comment meme.
Prompt: Sam has a cold (or whatever) and crawls into Dean's bed in the middle of the night.
Dean wakes up in the morning and is just like AWWWW and cuddles the shit out of Sam all day, ofc.

Unanswered Questions

Sam tries to remember and realizes his memory of the night before is spotty at best. He remembers getting drenched in the ocean. He remembers taking out those sirens with Dean’s help. He remembers the part of the drive home where the passenger window wouldn’t roll up and Dean accused him of breaking his baby. He remembers feeling shitty when he crashed in bed, knowing the alarm was going off in five hours so they could get on the road to Nebraska for the next job. He remembers waking himself up with snores twice and, embarrassed, forced himself to sleep on his side. He remembers getting up several times and lapping cold water from the tap, knowing the best thing for a sore throat was hot tea or gargling warm salt water but not caring. But that’s all he remembers.

“Sammy? Did you hear me?”

Sam swallows and winces at the pain. “Uh, yeah. I don’t… I don’t know.” There’s expectation in the silence, and Sam fights for an answer. “I guess… I must have been cold.”

“Cold? It’s a bazillion degrees here.”

Sam closes his eyes. “Yeah. But… I think I might have caught something.”

“So you brought it over here into my bed?”

“Um…” The answer was yes, of course. He was here in bed with Dean, no denying that. However it had happened, they were both pretty aware of where they were now.

“Still doesn’t answer my question. Why are you here spooning me?”

Sam suddenly wants to die. And not just because he has absolutely no idea why his body is wrapped against his brother’s back, matching the curves of the legs perfectly despite their height differences, and his arm is slung over Dean with his hand flat on Dean’s chest. And not just because he feels like death warmed over, like he’s actually still out there in the ocean maybe. But because he freaking has to sneeze and doesn’t know where tissues are and isn’t sure he can stand to move out of this position and it’s coming up on him pretty quickly now and tickling all the way from the back to his nostrils and oh god it’s about to come and the only thing he can do is turn his face toward the pillow so he doesn’t sneeze on the back of Dean’s head but he knows he’s going to shake the bed and Dean’s going to kick him out and “HETSCHUHHhmmmm!”

Dean moves, and it’s like a spell is broken thanks to that damn sneeze. The comfortable position is no more and the bed suddenly feels cold as cool air is forced between them. Dean rolls onto his back, then his other side, facing Sam. He gives his brother a full look-over. Then he stretches his arm out and slides it under Sam’s neck. His fingers play in Sam’s hair, stroking, petting. “Sounds like you’ve got one hell of a cold coming on. Better get some sleep while you still can. C’mere.”

Sam rubs a finger under his nose but scoots closer. He bends a little to put his head on Dean’s chest, where it’s warm and loud with the steady, reliable thumping of Dean’s heart. He wraps his arm around Dean’s middle and hugs him like he’s hugging a teddy bear—a real live, big brother teddy bear. Dean’s one hand still pets, but the other takes over where Sam left off, rubbing at Sam’s nose.

Sam’s nostrils flare at the touch and he just can’t help it. “eh-PITSCHhhh!”

“Gesundheit,” Dean murmurs, not flinching even a little. “Don’t think you’re done, are you? Caught yourself a sneezy cold, didn’tcha?”

Sam jerks in place, trying and failing miserably to hold back another sneeze. “hhhhhhh’IKLShuhhhh!”

Dean adds another finger to scrub at Sam’s nose. “’S what I thought.”

The added pressure makes the tickle back away a little. Sam turns his head and sniffles a little, nuzzling into Dean’s chest.

“Just close your eyes. Try to rest. You’re not going anywhere today.” A face nuzzles Sam back, searching amidst mussed bed hair. Lips finally find skin and place a soft kiss.