Chapter Text
Dean Campbell had everything he wanted. Hot boyfriend, a mom who loved him for who he was, the star quarterback with prospects of scholarships to college and a kick-ass car. Yes, he had everything. Well, maybe not everything. He was missing one thing, his brother. Their parents had divorced when they were both very young. In fact, Dean was only five when they split. John took Sam and moved out of state, Mary stayed in the same town as her parents.
Despite never being able to talk about John, this never stopped the hole in Dean’s heart that his brother belonged in from growing. He vowed to himself when he turned 18 that he would go looking for Sam. He never once thought that it would be this easy.
*****
October 12th
School had been going for a few months now and Dean was, as always, surrounded by friends. “Hey, baby,” he said and pulled his boyfriend Cas closer. “Did you finish the homework for Mr. Turner’s class?”
“Of course I did,” Cas replied and gave Dean a sound kiss. “You need to finish your lunch. You know how bad gym is after if you don’t,” Castiel practically scolded him, seeing most of Dean’s food left on the plate.
Sighing, Dean started to eat again. “Hey, bro,” Gabriel slid in across from them. “You see the new kid? He’s like a fucking tree. I just want to climb him.” A sly smirk grazed his face.
Castiel just looked at his older brother and shook his head. “Can you be appropriate? Some of us are trying to eat.” He rolled his eyes and went to finish his food. “Plus, do you even know his name?”
“Uhhh…” he had to think. They did have a class together, despite Gabriel being older. “Winnnnn...chester?” he said, in a questionable tone. “I don’t remember his first name.”
Dean started to cough violently, the name alone caused him to swallow wrong.
“Babe, are you okay?” Castiel was overwhelmed with concern.
Dean just nodded. “Just went down the wrong pipe. I’m fine,” he said before taking a big gulp of water. “How old do you think he is?”
“Younger than me, but wow is he smart...and cute.” Gabe had a dreamy look in his eyes.
“I don’t need to hear about your crushes, Gabe.” Cas shook his head. This wasn’t the first time he heard about a crush of his. All of Gabe’s crushes never seemed to reciprocate his feelings and Cas always felt bad for him. “You sure this one is even into guys?” he teased.
“Shut up, Cas,” Gabe grumbled, bit into a sandwich and sank into his chair.
The rest of lunch Gabe didn’t say anything. Cas’ words hit him hard. He had a long history of falling for straight guys, and Cas tended to remind him of that on occasion. That started when Gabe started to get feelings for their cousin Ambriel’s best friend, Balthazar. He had honestly given up telling anyone about his feelings for a long time after that. They often picked on him about any even remotely attractive man that came into their lives.
“I gotta go get ready for gym,” Gabe mumbled when he was done eating and got up. “Stupid brother and his stupid boyfriend. How come he gets a stupid boyfriend?” he muttered to himself as he walked to the locker rooms to change.
After lunch, Dean gave Cas a long kiss. “I’ll see you after school to give you guys a ride home,” he said and got up to also go get ready for gym.
“You better.” Cas winked and smiled with a slight blush.
“Don’t...don’t you dare tease me, Krushnic.” Dean licked his lips, winked back and left to go to the locker rooms.
When he got in the locker room, he watched Gabe leaving one of the bathroom stalls with his clothes in his hands. “Did you just change in the stall? Since when do you change in the stall?” Dean looked at him confused.
“Since always, Dean,” Gabe said softly, passing him to go shove his things in his locker and run out to the gym, not looking at anyone.
“That was strange.” Dean shook his head and went to change.
In the gym, Gabe was avoiding everyone’s eye contact, more so to the new student who seemed to tower over him.
Sam just sat on the bleachers, looking down at his hands. This was the third high school he had been to, and he was only 15. His dad promised that this would be the last, but he said that last time. Watching everyone file in, Sam reluctantly got up to join them.
“Listen up! I want everyone to welcome our newest student. Please introduce yourself,” Coach Henriksen singled out Sam.
“Uhm, I’m Sam...Winchester. I’ve moved around a lot so I don’t really have a home town. But I hope to be here for the rest of the year at least,” he said nervously with a tiny wave.
“Sam…” Gabe said very softly to himself, kicking himself that he had already forgotten his name.
Dean took a deep breath to keep himself cool, knowing the brother he had wanted to meet his entire life was standing feet away from him.
“Thank you, Sam. Okay! Campbell, Krushnic! Captains. Let’s play some dodgeball.” He clapped.
Dean and Gabe went to the front of everyone and Coach Victor took out a quarter. “Dean, call it in the air,” he said and tossed it.
“Tails.” The quarter landed on the ground. Tails it was.
“Okay, you pick first.” Victor pat Dean on the shoulder and stood back.
“New guy, Sam,” he said with a small smile.
Gabe just looked at Dean and glared. “You did that on purpose, didn't you?” he grumbled.
“You bet your ass I did.” He wasn’t about to admit what the real reason was. He was just going to let Gabe think what he wanted. Sure, it was a nice bonus that Gabe would be distracted having the guy that he so boldly proclaimed his crush for on his team.
They spent the next few minutes picking out their teams then splitting up. “You cool, Sam?” Dean asked as they did some stretches.
“Yeah, thanks. I’m sure that’s the only time you’ll want to pick me first. But I appreciate it,” Sam said softly. He felt like being picked first was a pity pick because he was the new guy.
“Don’t worry, Sam. If you can dodge a wrench, you can dodge a ball.” Dean nodded. “Besides, you’re like seven feet tall, you’ll do fine.”
Sam just rolled his eyes at both comments and went to line up to play. Coach Victor blew his whistle, and both teams ran off to grab the balls that were lined up in the middle.
Red rubber balls were constantly flying from one side of the gym to the other. Ping after ping, people were tagged out to wait for the next game. Before anyone knew it, the only people left were Sam, Dean, Gabe, and one other teammate of Gabe’s, Cole.
“Give it up, Krushnic. You and Trenton have nothing on us.” Dean tossed the ball he was holding and pegged Cole in the arm. “HA! Take that, Trenton!”
“You watch out next game, Campbell.” Cole rubbed his arm and walked over to the side. “Stupid quarterback has a cannon for an arm,” he teased, knowing his friend could hear him.
“Gets us winning games, don’t complain,” Dean added with a chuckle. “Okay, Krushnic, just us and you. Who are you going to go for first?” Dean glanced at Sam then back to Gabe with a subtle eyebrow wiggle.
Gabe was the only one with a ball in play and he looked between the two of them for what seemed like forever.
“Gabe! Just throw the damn ball,” Coach Victor broke him from his zoning out.
“Sorry, new guy,” he whispered and tossed the ball.
Seeing the ball was inadvertently going for Sam’s head, Dean ran and jumped, catching it as Sam ducked. Out of sheer reflex and the fact that he almost pegged his brother in the head, Dean instantly threw the ball back, hitting Gabe hard in the gut. Holding his stomach, Gabe doubled over on himself and dropped to the ground.
“Crap…” Dean said and quickly went to Gabe. “Hey, are you okay?” He looked concerned. Surely if Cas found out he hurt his brother, it wouldn’t be good.
Gabe groaned and tried to stand. “Let me take you to Mrs. Tran.” Dean helped him up.
Coach Henriksen blew his whistle. “You two are excused, rest of you, line up. Let’s go again!”
Dean helped Gabe down the hall to Mrs. Tran’s office. “Son of a…” Gabe grumbled and got up on the bed. “Why did you throw it so hard?”
“Sorry, it was going for his head, and I just couldn’t let that happen.” Dean sat down by him while Mrs. Tran checked him out.
“Why? You got the hots for him too? Isn’t my brother enough for you? Have to go after the new kid?” Gabe glared at him. “You know I think he’s cute, that’s why you picked him, so I couldn’t. You did that to distract me, you jerk!” He let out a hiss as Linda touched a sore spot.
“Gabe, it’s not that. I promise you it’s not that.” Dean looked down. “Please believe me.”
“Why should I? You rocket launched a dodgeball at me because of him.”
“Gabe, you have to promise me that this stays here. You can’t tell anyone, not even Cas.” He looked up with a very serious face. “Promise me.”
“Fine, what is it? Why is he so freaking important that I’m risking internal injuries?” He groaned out again.
“Mr. Krushnic, I assure you that you do not have any internal injuries.” Linda came back with some over the counter painkillers. “You’re going to have one heck of a bruise, but you will be fine.” She went back to her desk to write down his visit.
“Gabe, I think Sam’s my brother.” He sighed. “My mom and dad split when we were very little. My mom told me about him, and he’s never left my thoughts. Sam Winchester. My dad’s name...John Winchester. Gabe, I’m certain that’s my brother.”
Seeing the raw emotion from Dean was something only Cas got to experience. Gabe had never seen Dean this serious or what appeared to be on the verge of tears. “Your...brother?” He sat up slowly after taking the pain medicine. “I’m sorry, I didn’t know.” He shook his head.
“I don’t think he does either.” That thought broke his heart. “Please don’t tell him.”
“Secret is safe with me. But dude, your brother is hot.” Gabe smirked.
“Shut up, Gabe.”