AN: Because this is a work in progress, I'm posting each section as an individual chapter. Maybe that'll motivate me to finish the fic faster.

This is part of my Wyoming!verse. Each scene/chapter takes place at a different point in time during Sam and Dean's retirement to Wyoming. They're in a nonromantic/nonsexual (queerplatonic?) primary partnership with each other, as you know if you've read the other stories in the 'verse.

I.

Dean peeks into Sam's room and finds his brother lying in bed with his back to the door. It's only six o'clock in the evening on a Wednesday. They got home from work around half past four. Sam was quiet in the car and disappeared into his room not long after arriving. Dean wondered if Sam had a crappy shift at the hardware store but decided not to ask. Sometimes, a man just needs space to decompress.

But Dean wants to know what to make for dinner.

"Sam? You asleep?" he says.

"Mmmm," says Sam. "What do you want, Dean?"

"Nothing. Just, deciding what to cook later. You sure you're okay?"

Sam's quiet for a moment. "I've got a headache. It's not a big deal."

Dean takes a few steps into the room, uncertain whether to offer Sam comfort or leave him alone. "Do you want anything? Water? Some Advil?"

"I took one already," Sam says. "And I'm not thirsty."

Dean lingers where he stands, unsure what to do. He wants to help, but he doesn't want to irritate his brother. Maybe if he lays a damp towel over Sam's brow or on his neck, it'll soothe him.

"Get over here."

"What?" says Dean.

Sam stretches his arm out behind him, toward Dean.

Dean only hesitates for a moment, before crossing the room to Sam's bedside. He looks down at his brother, unsure what Sam wants, and Sam curls his hand into Dean's shirt and tugs. Dean toes off his shoes, and Sam scoots further in on the bed, leaving room for him. Dean lies down behind Sam, careful not to jostle his brother too much. He rests his head on the pillow and curls his body around Sam's, wrapping his arm over Sam's waist.

Dean's nose is an inch from Sam's long hair, and he can smell the shampoo Sam uses. Sam's hulking frame is all hard muscle and soft t-shirt, running hot, and the nearness of him comforts Dean in the most primal, visceral way. But Dean's sixth sense—the one tuned to Sam's body, mind, heart, and soul—twitches with the knowledge that his brother is in pain. He wants to make Sam feel better, and as much as he understands that cuddling feels good, it's not going to cure a headache.

"Sam," he says. "You sure you don't want me to get you another Advil? Maybe some ice'll help."

"Dean," says Sam, his voice low and deep. "I'll be fine. Just stay with me. 's all I want."

Dean pauses. "Okay."

They're quiet for a few minutes.

"How bad is it?" Dean asks.

"A four," says Sam.

Another long pause.

"Something happen?" says Dean.

Sam doesn't suffer from headaches often, but when he does, it's usually because of an emotional trigger. Stress, anger, sadness, frustration. It makes Dean nervous, more often than not; he's afraid the headaches are some long-term side effect of Sam's mental wall being torn down after he came back from Hell and got his soul back. He's afraid that Sam's hit his head and passed out too many times, and there's something seriously wrong with him. Dean took Sam to the clinic last year to have him examined and tested, much to Sam's amusement and annoyance, but the doctor assured them that Sam was in good health.

"No," Sam says. "It's just a headache."

Dean decides not to press Sam about it.

Sam grabs the other pillow on the bed and hugs it to his chest, trapping Dean's hand between the pillow and Sam's upper abdomen. Dean's presses his cheek to the back of Sam's shoulder and closes his eyes, trying to relax and zone out the way he often does when he and his brother cuddle. It happens when he cuddles with Cas, too. It's the same type of zoning out that kicks in whenever Dean has sex, except without the heightened senses and the tingling, sensitive skin. His brain shuts down, and he goes to this warm, peaceful space in his body.

When he's with his brother, his awareness narrows down to the weight and heat and size and shape of Sam's body next to his, the smell of Sam's skin that hasn't changed since he was a baby, Sam's breathing and Sam's pulse. It calms Dean so deeply that it puts him to sleep if he and Sam cuddle long enough. All of Dean's emotional and psychological baggage temporarily disappears. Everything's okay.

When he opens his eyes again, he realizes that he dozed off. Sam's breathing slow and shallow against his chest. Dean's pretty sure he's asleep, which means the headache must be fading out.

Dean decides to stay with Sam, until Sam stirs.

They can order take-out for dinner.