(A/N- I have the bad case of writers block. I'm not sure if it's contageous so please be cautious. Anyways in the process of rewriting one of my potential stories I thought up a few little one shots. Pure Fluff, watch out.)

Hair

At ten Dean Winchester was good at a lot of things. He could fire off most weapons, and knew how to handle the kickback. He could use all forms of knives, and even kept one stowed inside his boot at all times. He could turn a mopey, bitchy, five year old Sam into someone much more tolerable, especially to their marine father. He was mature enough to take care of his sister and himself whenever his dad was gone on lengthy trips. And that included getting them to and from school, helping a nerdy Sam with homework, feeding them with the meager amount that their father left, and putting Sam to sleep at appropriate hours (upon most occasions).

However what Sam was asking him to do now was near impossible. Never in a million years did he think this problem would arise.

Sam tugged at her lengthy hair that had been knotted in some weird fashion. Braiding she had called it. While Dean and Sam had been at the library, unknowingly to the younger one, picking up books to assist their father on his latest hunt she had spotted a circle of girls near the kids section. Dean wasn't too concerned with his little sister as she ran off to see what they were doing. When she came back her hair had been tied in some girly fashion, and Sam was now lovingly touching the tail asking if her brother could do it too.

"Sure." He responded without thought. Dean frowned and studied the hair. He'd tied knots before. His father had deemed it important that his son know how to tie a decent knot. How hard was it to braid? The further he had studied it though the more he realized he had no clue how the hair kept together like that. He could probably twist two pieces together and tie it off at the end but even he knew that it would just unwind. How on earth did that circle of girls know how to do that?

He thought about distracting his sister and asking them himself, but he didn't need to ask a bunch of girls how to do anything. His pride spiked and he led Sam to the librarian's desk to borrow the books he had tucked under his arm. Tonight when he'd undo her hair to help her get ready for her bath he'd inspect the knot further.

Once finished at the desk Dean thought better and shoved the satchel of books at Sam. "Go wait by the door Sammy, I have one more thing I need to get." He waited for her to nod and went back to the desk.

The librarian had been a tad disturbed by some of the selections the boy had made. Kids his age did not need to read about such troublesome things, but she smiled dutifully when he returned to her desk. "You need anything else love?"

"Do you have any books on hair?" Dean fumbled with the zipper on his hoodie trying to look casual.

"Hair?" The librarian's eyebrow shot up. This was the last thing she'd thought he'd request. "What do you mean by that sweetie?"

Dean wrinkled his nose at all the endearments but continued. "I need a book that might show me how to- braid." He stated the final word as more of a question, he wasn't sure if his five year old sibling had gotten the word correct in the first place.

"Braiding? Now why-" The woman paused and looked to the little girl by the swing-out doors playing happily with the hair she had wound in a braid. It seemed like the little girl was taking such pleasure from such a small gesture from the girls still chatting excitedly in the children's section. Her heart warmed up at the boy's intention. He wanted to do his little sister's hair. Her mind started working double time trying to recall the best book they had on hairstyles. Something big enough that the boy, or girl, could do something different if they wanted, but something that had plenty of pictures and easily written descriptions. "Stay here for one second sweetie."

She jumped up from the desk and retreated to the back office. There she located a box of damaged books. A while ago an older book had been returned with an entire chapter on up-do's torn out. The kid had been fined for the price of the book, but since the pages were gone they couldn't put it out anymore. Now as she flipped through the remaining pages she was pleased to see definite pages with multiple braids, and ponytails. The instructions seemed simple enough too, with plenty of pictures.

When the book was pressed into the boys hand he seemed confused. Rather than stamp the book and ask for his card she simply handed him the book. "Don't I have to check it out?"

"No." The woman shook her head and smiled. "The book was returned damaged, but-" She wiggled her fingers at the book and waited for the boy to hand it back. She flipped to the page he would have wanted, and returned it to him with the opened page. "There is a few pages that will show you how to do a simple braid, and a few other simple styles if you sister wants them."

Dean inspected the pictures and the words and nodded. It didn't seem too hard he could accomplish a simple braid. "Do I owe you anything?" Seeing as his father wasn't due back until tomorrow he had to keep what little money he had towards food.

"Not a thing sugar." She returned to her seat. "Do promise though that if you run into any trouble you ask me for help. I have one girl of my own at home, so I am pretty apt at doing any hairstyle you could think of."

Dean smiled brightly at the woman and nodded. "Thank you. I will." He tucked the book under his arm and returned to his bored little sister. Sam during the wait had long since abandoned the braid and was now pressing one half of her face against glass door watching the trees shift against the wind. Dean waited behind her and squeezed her shoulder getting her attention. "Come on runt, I'll make some mac n' cheese when we get back to the motel room."

"Do we have weenies?" Sam chirped as Dean took the book bag from her. The notion of food didn't distract her though while Dean slipped the obnoxiously pale pink book into the bag. Why did Dean have a pink book? Even she hated the color.

"Yeah, we have weenies." Dean thought back to the container and figured there might be one left over. His sister could have that.

The walk home was uneventful, and during dinner Sam was keen enough to notice that her brother's meal lacked any of the hot dog bits. So while Dean had gotten up to fill a few cheap plastic cups with water for them she shoveled a few into his bowl. Dean noticed but thought better, and ate them without comment.

It wasn't until Dean had the bath full and carefully undone the braid that he shooed Sam into the motel's bathroom to bathe. He quickly washed and rinsed the dishes, so he could focus on the book he'd been given. He went into the weapons duffle and dug out a small length of rope. He cut a bit off and knotted one end. Dean unraveled the twisted up material until it resembled unruly hair. He carefully tried to imitate the picture using his little dummy, but he wasn't sure how one held on to three different strands and not let one fall.

When he heard the sound of the tub draining he still hadn't gotten it. None of results had resembled what Sam originally had her hair look like, or what the picture depicted. A deep part of him hoped that when she came out she had completely forgotten about the desired hairstyle.

Sammy opened the bathroom door in her large sleep shirt and hopped excitedly over to her brother. She gave a wide grin and shoved a brush at her brother though. "Braid?"

Dean sighed but kept a straight face. "Let's do that tomorrow, runt. That way you could have it braided all day." And he could get some more practice in.

"Braid now, and tomorrow!" She dropped the brush in her brother's lap and sat down in front of her brother like the girls at the library had told her to.

Dean reluctantly picked up the brush and started to brush out the tangles. It wasn't a very manly thing to know, but he'd learned early on that Sam would cry if he started from the top, so he dutifully started detangling the bottom and slowly worked his way up. When the brush went through without problem he put down the brush and with shaky hands divided the hair into three parts. As cleanly as he could he started to weave the strands together. By the time he'd made it to the bottom and tied it off he frowned. It looked worse than it had on the rope. Strands were sticking out, and a large chunk of hair had been missed from the front. Before Dean could take it out and try again Sam had felt him finish and jumped up to return to the bathroom to see the end result. She flopped up the wet, messy braid, and gave a small cry.

Dean shut his eyes and sighed. Great, he knew she wouldn't like it. He kept his eyes shut as her feet pattered back across the grungy carpet to him. Unexpectedly though he felt a wet kiss on his cheek.

"Thank you." She giggled happily.

As Dean opened his eyes again Sam was flouncing about the room tossing her braid in her hand. She didn't seem too disturbed that the braid was a pale comparison to the one she had done before. She didn't even seem to mind the large unattended strand.

"Do you want me to try it again?" Dean asked hesitantly. He knew he could probably do better.

"No. I like it." She hopped back to her brother. "It's pretty."

Warmth swelled in his heart. He had been petrified of disappointing her, and even after seeing the mess he'd created she'd stayed upbeat and thanked him. If a simple braid made her this happy he'd be more than willing to read through the book and see what else he could probably do.

But not tonight.

He stood up and scooped the giggling five year old in his arms. "Ok Sammy. Time to brush teeth and then bedtime."

"Okay!" Dean sat her on the sink so she could reach easier, before she let go of her hold around his neck though she gave him another quick kiss. "I love you!"

"I love you too runt." Dean said softly.