Dislcaimer: The Winchesters, no-ot mine.

A/N: Just Dean being sick and Sam being awesome... As always look out for lurking typos.

"It's a Sneeze and It's a Broken Hallelujah..."

Dean shifted restlessly away from him, mouth clamped shut, face flushed and pale at the same time. The hectic color, made the freckles that danced across his chafed nose, stand out stark relief.

Sam thought to himself that the golden freckles made Dean appear younger, but he hated having them pointed out, so Sam kept quiet and just held out another bottle of cold medicine. It was the green night-time stuff and the last of their choices.

This bottle too was met with a grimace and then a wet sneeze was tacked on as if to punctuate his strong opinion. "HXXX-SHUGKKS!"

With a sympathetic wince, Sam offered another handful of tissues and a quiet, "Bless You."

A gruff, "Thangs." in return was followed up with massive amounts of gurgly nose blowing.

Sam set the medicine aside in defeat. He had tried every kind they had; the pills were all rejected because Dean's throat was too sore and the other three liquid kinds Sam had offered, Dean had deemed too disgusting for words. It was time to bring out the big guns. "Dean you've go to take something man, you're temps getting' up there, and the congestion sounds worse today, and you're really hard to understand with your stuffy nose talk." He gave his brother his most earnest look. When Dean only crossed his arms stubbornly, Sam switched to his pitiful little brother pout, pulling out the biggest, most puppyish eyes in his repertoire. This look had never failed him yet.

Dean didn't disappoint. With a beleaguered sigh, he ungraciously acquiesced. "Find. Bud if I buke, you're cleanig it ub."

After a few minutes of Dean's face turning an unflattering shade of green and an excessive amount of audible swallowing, he finally settled down and slept; albeit a very loud snorting sleep, but unconscious all the same. Sam took the opportunity to go out and restock a few things, including tissues, which Dean seemed to be going through at an alarming rate.

When he got back, he went straight to his brother's bed and plopped down beside him. Dean startled awake with a choking cough. Sam, apologizing for the rude awakening, rubbed Dean's back until the fit petered out and then helped him get his pillows re-situated. Dean gave him a weary, bleary-eyed look.

With a smile, Sam opened the bag on his lap and pulled out a plastic bottle filled with bright red liquid. He presented it with a triumphant flourish.

Dean was not impressed. He huffed. He sneezed, with head snapping force a few times, blew his nose gustily, and then muttered grumpily. "I already toog medicind. 'm nod takig ady more ride now."

Sam's smile only grew wider. "Dean, this you're gonna like. I went to this little pharmacy at the edge of town that an older lady in the grocery store told me about..."

A wheezing chortle interrupted Sam's story, "Yeah, you sure are a cougar magned."

Sam gave him a withering glare, but chose to overlook the comment in favor of sharing the good news he had for his grumbly brother. "Anyway, she told me about this place. They have all these flavors and they can add any of them to this generic kind of cold medicine. They can make it taste like almost any flavor you want. I couldn't believe it, they even had cherry pie flavor. See." He waggled the bottle at his brother. Adding with a smirk, "Guess they have a lot of finicky kids in this town." He pretended to study the bottle, "Hmmm... the label says for children 3-12 years of age. So, that fits you just right. 'Cause you sure act like you're about five when you're sick."

Dean sniffed his stuffy nose in disdain and frowned at his brother's snark. Sam was so predictable, Dean thought, he always had to have the last word. But as his brother's word sunk into his sluggish, snot filled brain, he realized what his brother had done. This conclusion caused his red, watery eyes to light up with little kid excitement. The promise of any thing pie flavored always sounded good to Dean. Reaching out, he gave Sam a benevolent, but firm pat on the knee that was pressed snuggly against his side. "You're a good liddle brother Sabby, even if you are a smart aleg."

Sam just grinned, replying teasingly, "Had a good teacher. He taught me how to be a good brother and how to be an even better smart aleck."

Dean huffed again, rolling his eyes at Sam's cheekiness. Then let loose a horrendous blast of a sneeze. "AAAAHHH-KIIICHH!"

Ignoring his dramatics, Sam passed over more tissues, waited while he had trumpeted into them, and then offered the trash can to dispose of the mess. Afterwards, he leaned closer and gave Dean's pink cheek a gentle squeeze, "Don't be a baby Dean." He chided softly. Then with a quiet murmur, he brushed damp hair off the hot forehead, didn't even care that it made Dean squirm. It was a brother's prerogative to be a pest after all, Dean had taught him that too.

~ The End. Thank you for reading and reviewing if you're so inclined.