Will You Settle For Love, Ch 1
Once the Leviathans had been taken care of, it was shockingly easy for the Winchester brothers to decide it was time for them to duck out of the hunting lifestyle. They weren’t going to take the Favre-retirement option; bowing out when they felt they were finished and staying that way was an agreement they’d come to surprisingly quickly over a couple of beers in a roadside bar in Montana.
Yeah, just a few beers. Dean had ditched the hard stuff a few months back, and Sam was overwhelmingly relieved but never said a word about it. It wasn’t a conversation that needed to be had. Dean already knew Sam was concerned about how much he’d been drinking, so it wasn’t necessary for either of them to discuss the fact that he’d cut back significantly.
Sam made them new IDs, really good ones. For now, they didn’t share a last name, which sucked, but it was a necessity. Deciding where they were going to settle down wasn’t quite as simple a task.
Their relationship had grown over the years; morphed into something (unknown to the outside world) that had become more than just some fucked-up incestuous thing. They were, for all intents and purposes, a couple. Neither had any other sexual partners, and their feelings toward each other were clearly not simply sexual or simply familial in nature. They were faithful, monogamous, and, well, fuck it, in love. Wherever they ended up, neither Sam nor Dean had any intention of hiding what they were to each other, except for the whole ‘blood related’ part. Out of respect for those who may have disapproved, they’d hidden it for long enough. Now, though…well, now it was just the two of them.
They missed Bobby. The real Bobby and the ghost Bobby. But when the time came, they honored his wish for them to help him move on. It was the right thing to do, but as Sam and Dean both knew all too well, the right thing was almost never the easy thing. There were days when both of them would have given anything to feel his hand on their shoulder in support, or to hear him call them ‘idjits’ just one more time. The loss of Bobby was at the end of a long, long list of people they’d lost over the years. It was time now - time for the brothers to make their way in the world on their own.
Maybe it was coincidence, but probably not, that they decided to settle down in Iowa. It was colder there in the winter than Sam would have preferred, but not as cold as the New England states. Dean couldn’t say he was purposely choosing from the short list of places where gay marriage was legal, but yeah, it was a possibility. Not that getting married was something they had discussed, or were thinking about (at least as far as what they’d shared with each other), but living in a state that allowed same-sex couples to marry seemed practical. They didn’t want to settle down somewhere they’d be ostracized and judged constantly. Sam would have been happy to live in Virginia or Louisiana where it didn’t get quite so cold, but once they found the little town of Clinton, Iowa, he decided he could live with the weather.
It was a nice town, not tiny but definitely not a metropolis, maybe thirty thousand people. There were clean parks there, jobs to be had, a university, cheap rent, quaint little shops and restaurants. Right up on the banks of the Mississippi River, too.
Dean had always liked being close to the water. The circumstances of his life up to this point hadn’t exactly been conducive to hobbies like fishing or boating, but somehow just being able to see a river or a lake, even the ocean, gave him a sense of calm. He figured they were close enough to Davenport that anything they needed and couldn’t get where they were was just a short drive up the highway to the closest ‘big city’. Well, ‘big city’ by Iowa standards, anyway. And certainly ‘big city’ enough for Dean’s tastes. You’d never catch him settling down in Boston or Atlanta, that was for damn sure.
Sam was relieved when, after spending a day wandering around Clinton, Dean had simply said, “This might be the place.”
“You think so? I like it.”
“I know you do, Sammy. Let’s just spend the night, get a newspaper, see if that diner over there can whip up a proper apple pie. All right?”
“Sure, yeah, that’s - that’s a good plan, Dean”, Sam responded with one of those big dimpled smiles Dean was finally getting used to seeing again these days. It had been surprising how long it took after they disappeared before Dean realized how much he missed them. Too wrapped up in his own misery at the time, he guessed, but they were moving on from that now. There were scars, emotional and physical, injuries that would never completely heal, losses neither of them could imagine recovering from. But sticking with each other and staying out of hunting was definitely moving in the right direction, the brothers were certain of that more than anything else.
After a week in a motel, they started looking at rentals. Apartments at first, but then they found this little house that was barely inside the city limits. It had a driveway, an attached carport to protect Dean’s baby from the elements, a nice yard in the back, two bedrooms (as if they were ever going to have guests), and the rent was dirt cheap. They signed a lease the day before Sam’s birthday and got the keys, walking into the house with nothing but the duffels that held their clothes and weapons.
The place was empty. For the first time in their lives, Dean and Sam realized they were going to have to make a significant amount of purchases; plates, furniture, some chairs, maybe even a bookcase. If they had a place to live, there was no point keeping all their books (and everything else they owned) in the trunk of the car.
Once again, a newspaper was purchased, and Dean immediately found full-time work at a body shop. He would have preferred mechanic work, but he had just as much experience with auto body work as many times as he’d put the Impala back together. And the place needed someone to start right away, which was crucial. They used up the last of their fake credit cards to buy simple groceries, kitchen supplies and a bed (well, a mattress for the floor, anyway). After that, they cut up the cards and agreed that real jobs were the way to go from now on. Honest work, legit paychecks - if they’d left behind hunting, they were leaving behind credit card fraud and pool hustling too.
Well, maybe a little pool hustling every now and then wouldn’t hurt anything.
It took Sam a week to find work, but when he did, he was thrilled. He didn’t have Dean’s real-life work experience, so he was afraid no one would hire him to do anything. The chain bookstore in town was offering only part-time work and shitty pay, but it came with health insurance benefits. Real insurance, not faked cards. Of course, both of them figured they’d be spending far less time in hospitals due to no longer chasing after monsters. It was a nice feeling, though, the security of knowing Sam could get medical care if he got sick or injured or had a freakout (which were much fewer and farther between these days, thank Whoever) and not have to worry about sneaking out AMA before anyone figured out that his insurance was bogus.
Dean had a little cash saved up, so they spent their first Saturday morning after they moved in trolling yard sales. By noon, they had a tiny kitchen table that fit into the trunk once it was taken apart, as well as two wooden chairs and an old TV they’d shoved into the backseat of the car.
Bed, TV, food, table…the basics. They’d work on the rest with time.
There weren’t too many neighbors, but those they had were quick to welcome them. The brothers introduced themselves as Sam Winchester and Dean Smith. Mrs. O’Malley from across the street had brought them a plate of homemade cookies. The Lopez family two houses down knocked on their door to say hello and offered them a six-pack of Michelob. They were a nice couple, married close to twenty years with a teenage son named Manuel and a ten year old daughter, Pilar. Sam and Dean invited them in to chat, and Sam ended up sitting on the floor of their empty living room with Manuel and talking a long time.
Sam was happy to find that the two of them had a lot in common; the boy came from a fairly humble background but had dreams of making his way off to a university in a couple of years if he could get a scholarship. Manuel already had an advantage over Sam, having attended school in the same district since kindergarten. He happily shared his experience of having procured a scholarship to Stanford even though he’d ‘moved around a lot as a kid’, leaving out the details, of course.
“You take the SATs yet?” Sam asked.
“Not for a few months. As soon as junior year starts, I’m going to sign up.”
“Well, if you find yourself needing help to get ready for it, just let me know.”
The boy flushed slightly and replied, “We don’t really have money for a tutor, but thanks for offering.”
“Kid, I’m not a tutor. Just your neighbor. I would have done anything to have someone help me when I was your age. I just did the practice books alone in the library after school, listening to the other kids talk about their private test prep classes.”
Manuel nodded and smiled up at him with a look of relief. “I know exactly what you mean.”
“Right, you get it. So really, just come talk to me if you need anything.”
As this conversation was happening, Dean was learning about their other neighbors from Mr. and Mrs. Lopez (‘Rita and Jorge, please’). Dean and Jorge shared beers leaning against the counter as Rita and Pilar sat in their only two chairs; Rita contributing plenty of neighborhood gossip and their daughter happily coloring away in a book. It turned out Mrs. O’Malley had been widowed for eight years, there was a strange family down the street who home-schooled their kids and never looked at or spoke to anyone else on the block, and Jorge had gone to high school with the guy who ran the shop where Dean had gotten hired.
“He’ll shoot you straight, Dean. He’s a decent guy, I think you’ll like working there. That car of yours is a beauty, that’s for sure.”
The two of them started in on a conversation about old muscle cars while Rita and Pilar had a quiet conversation in Spanish.
After a few minutes, Jorge asked, “Sorry if this is a rude question, but you and Sam…” His look filled in the blanks.
Without hesitation, Dean responded, “Yeah. We’re together. Have been for a long time. I was hoping that wouldn’t be an issue.”
“It’s not, really. I mean, not for me, not for most folks around here. You still run into your ignorant bigots now and then, same as everyplace else, but our neighborhood, our town, isn’t really like that.”
Not knowing she was even listening, Dean was surprised to hear Rita pipe up, “Oh, I heard Mrs. O’Malley speculating with Stephanie the other day, talking about how you guys were just as cute as two buttons. Stephanie, she’s in the blue house across the way, teaches at Pilar’s school. She’s not married, but she’s a predatory serial dater. New boyfriend every few weeks…”
Jorge cut in there. “These guys are barely moved in, honey, can we try not to overload them with too much gossip already?” he asked with a smile in his eyes.
Sam and Manuel joined them again then in the kitchen, and the Lopez family made their way out, telling them to ask if they needed anything while the brothers thanked them for their warm welcome.
“Nice family”, Sam said, as the door closed.
Dean agreed. “He asked, you know. If we were ‘together’. I told him yes.”
“Well, we already decided there wasn’t going to be any more sneaking around about it, right? Hopefully no one’s gonna call Fred Phelps on us.”
Laughing, Dean responded, “Rita says we’re already just running around the gossip mill of the block like everything else. Nobody’s making a big deal.”
Sam moved in a little closer then. “So no big deal if I do this?” he asked, catching Dean’s mouth in a passionate kiss and holding his head still with his hands.
Pulling back to catch his breath, Dean shook his head.
“How about this, then?” Sam reached for the hem of Dean’s t-shirt and pulled it up and over his head, discarding it on the kitchen floor. “Or this?”, ghosting his fingers over first Dean’s left nipple, then his right, eliciting soft moans as a reward.
“Fuck. Bedroom, Sam. Come on.”
Leaving Dean’s shirt on the floor, they moved into their room and quickly shed the rest of their clothes before crawling onto their mattress. “Oh, if they all knew how you looked like this, Dean, all spread out for me, your cock all hard and leaking, face so flushed…”
“Forget the neighbors, Sammy”, Dean growled, grabbing him by the shoulders and bringing him for another long, hot kiss. Sam’s aw, shucks persona that he shared with people they met was no match for his filthy sex talk.
Sam could tell just from his brother’s touches and his position on the bed that he wanted Sam to top this time. They didn’t really have a ‘usual’ since both of them enjoyed giving just as much as receiving. It was easy enough for either of them to figure out how the other wanted things to go on any particular occasion, especially since they’d been doing this off and on since they were teenagers. It was only in the past couple of years, though, that they’d made the decision to be monogamous.
“Sure, okay, just try to keep the noise down, Dean, I think we left the window open in the living room.”
Just the thought of anyone happening to walk past on the sidewalk and hear them was an incredible turn-on for Sam. Unable to keep up the teasing, he lowered himself and took Dean’s dick into his mouth as far as he could, sucking and licking for all he was worth. The whole time, Dean’s hands were fisted in his hair. Small, quiet sounds of pleasure and whispers of his name only motivated him even more. Pulling off just long enough to grab the bottle of lube strategically hidden under the mattress, he slicked up two of his fingers and gently pushed them inside Dean’s entrance as he returned his mouth to his brother’s cock. With as much patience as he could muster, he worked Dean open slowly with his fingers, moving from two to three within minutes.
Eventually, Dean was thrusting up into Sam’s mouth then back down onto his fingers, and he breathed, “Please, Sam.”
“All right. You know I’ll take care of you. You ready?”
“Yes, Christ, I’m - yes, I am, I’m ready, just…”
The rest of Dean’s demand was swallowed when Sam thrust his slicked up dick into Dean’s ass. He moved quickly, but still gently, until he was buried all the way inside, as deep as he could get. Chests and legs and arms pushed against each other, there was practically no space at all between them. Sam started rocking in and out of Dean with shallow thrusts, but sped up when Dean crossed his ankles behind Sam’s back and pushed, using his brother’s body for traction.
Beads of sweat quickly formed on Sam’s brow, dripping onto Dean’s face and into his hair. He couldn’t wipe them away, because he needed both of his hands braced on the bed to keep up the pace, but neither of them really cared. They were lost in what they were doing, as so often happened, even after all this time - nothing else registered except for the intensity of the sex and the emotion that always encompassed it.
The friction between Dean’s cock and Sam’s abs was enough that Dean came without a hand on him inside of ten minutes. His whispered ohohohSamohSam, along with the spasm of his inner muscles, had Sam following him almost immediately.
Neither of them bothered moving to get cleaned up, just repositioned themselves so they were side by side. They both had new jobs to start tomorrow. Legit work in a nice town where old ladies brought them cookies.
Chapter 2