A/N1: set vaguely early S12

"Sometimes being a brother is even better than being a superhero." » Marc Brown

"You should've seen it," Dean said to Mary. They were in the map room, eating dinner. Dean was recounting their experience several years earlier with a cursed rabbit's foot. "I'm on the phone with Bobby trying to figure out what the hell is going on, I turn around and – " he affected a serious pout. "'I lost my shoe'. I'm telling you, it was full on Little Brother Sam. It was so sweet."

He grinned at Sam, clearly teasing him. Sam, however, seemed less than impressed.

"Yeah, after falling and ripping open both knees and getting dosed with some heavy duty painkillers – his fault – " he pointed at Dean with his fork. "And having every other unimaginable piece of bad luck fall down on me in the space of two hours, yeah, I lost my sneaker down a storm sewer."

He paused and smiled a smile that brightened his eyes and showed off his dimples and seemed a tiny bit smug. "But you know wanna know what was really sweet? The heroic lengths Big Brother Dean went to, to get that shoe out of the storm sewer for his little brother. That was really sweet."

"Aww, Dean," Mary said, honestly impressed. "Did you really get it back for him? That is sweet."

Dean blushed and cleared his throat and took a swig of his beer. "Yeah, well, it wasn't like I wanted to hear you complain about it for the next thousand miles," he muttered.

Sam chuckled and turned back to his plate but gave Dean one last glance, "Thanks, though."

And Dean, suddenly serious, nodded like it was the last word. "You bet."

##

A/N2: after Sam lost his shoe, when they walked into the motel room (that later started on fire) Sam is again wearing both of those sneakers. Since he was cursed and likely to die in the attempt, Dean had to have gotten it back for him.