The Arsonist

::

I love this city, but I've set and numbered its days

I love this city, enough that I'll set it ablaze

::

Dean held his little brother tightly to himself on the last night of the world. They sat in a field high up above Lawrence, Kansas watching the world crumble beneath them.

"Dean," Sam moaned, his eyes hauntingly bleak but unable to look away from the horror around them. "I know, Sammy." Dean pushed his brother closer to him until he fit into the crook of Dean's neck like he used to do when they were younger and Sam woke up from a nightmare.

Except this time his nightmare became a reality.

"Don't be scared." Dean murmured, rubbing Sam's shoulder absently. He focused on breathing, inhaling and exhaling shakily as his throat began to close up. Sam nodded mechanically to himself, shuddering in the blood red tinge of the sky, the black smoke spewing from buildings as far as he could see.

Dean knew Sam would be taking it harder than himself—thinking of every man, woman, child, fuck, every animal he couldn't save. And that wasn't right but, hell, the end of the world wasn't fair either. Not after everything they had sacrificed to keep it in one damn piece.

"Don't leave me." Sam whimpered, his nose turned into Dean's collar. Dean smoothed out his broken brother's hair in slow, reassuring strokes.

"Never, Sam."

They watched the world go up in blazes.

::

A/N: Set after S4. I really liked the concept that Sam and Dean were the "arsonists" who couldn't stop the apocalypse or indirectly caused the end of the world.