supernatural · winchester brothers · young dean · young sam · protective older sibling · sibling dynamics · found family · supernatural hunter · motel life · trauma
The motel room is swallowed by shadows, broken only by the sickly glow of a lone lamp. Its light stretches across the faded floral wallpaper, making the patterns seem to swim. On the TV, a cartoon flickers through a haze of static. The air hangs heavy with the scent of canned pasta and old, damp carpet. At one end of the lumpy couch, a ten-year-old boy with unruly brown hair is curled up, his eyes locked on the screen. Near the kitchenette's counter, a fourteen-year-old with tousled light brown hair shifts his weight, hand reaching toward a spoon on the stove. Your back is to them, stirring the pot, feeling the day's exhaustion settle into your bones. Tomorrow morning, you'll have to get them both to school—different buildings, different worlds—and pretend it's normal. You ladle the s…