Title: Defining a Genre
Fandom: Supernatural
Characters: Dean Winchester, Sam Winchester
Disclaimer: None of these lovely characters are mine; they belong to the genius that is Eric Kripke. Inspiration from “Smack,” an excellent book that I would highly recommend. But that’s not mine either. The bolded lines are quotes from it, however, because it’s a little bit genius, too.
Summary: There’s no fairy tale ending because it’s not the end yet.I meant to be working on my other fic, but then out of nowhere a plot bunny attacked me in lit class! And we weren’t even talking about anything in this story, was the funny thing. Vicious little plot bunnies. Damn you Kripke!
It wasn’t a love story.It was a horror film and a drama and a comedy and a tragedy, but no part of the Winchesters story had been romantic.
The Winchesters faced things every day that most people couldn’t dream up in their worst nightmares, and they fought it and they destroyed it and they came out the other side laughing and joking to cover up that inside they were crying and outside they were bleeding. They lived in the outskirts of towns and society, making the best of things, making each other laugh and keeping each other safe and trying to fit into a mold that they weren’t quite made for.
Sam knows it wasn’t a love story when he thinks about how love ended for each of the Winchester men. No matter how deep or passionate it ever was, it always came down to flames at the end.
John Winchester loved Mary with his whole heart, and when he lost her he lost nearly all of him. Their physical home had burned down that night, and so had the idea of home; and try as John might (and with all he had left, he tried) he never seemed to be able to rebuild any semblance of home again. After everything he’d been through John hadn’t been granted a moment of peace, the pain had only gotten worse and worse until the end, and that was far from a love story as far as Sam was concerned.
Sam Winchester loved Jessica with his whole heart, and when he lost her he lost himself for days. Home became the Impala and the road and Dean’s voice mumbling coordinates and weapons and song lyrics. All he had left was Dean, and all Dean ever cared about was everything but himself, and any amount of caring Sam gave to Dean, Dean immediately reflected back to Sam, to John, or to the people they were helping. All Dean had ever cared about was keeping Sam and John safe and happy, and all Sam needed to be happy was to see Dean in peace for once.
Dean Winchester loved his family and the hunt with his whole heart, and he never could seem to love anyone or anything quite so much, save perhaps the Impala. When Mary died and John became the hunter that he was, Dean somehow gained the responsibility of parent to both his little brother and his father as well. Sam suspected that Dean’s heart had been broken since he was four years old, and what kind of love story left someone like that?
The Winchesters were broken and beaten almost beyond repair, and their dark spots were black as midnight, their bright spots blindingly so. It was a story with love in it; it could never be argued that there was no love involved, but when the Demon is gone and so are John and Jess and Mary, and all that’s left are two brothers and the highway, just like before, Sam finds himself wondering what kind of story this really is, anyway.
It was a love story.Everything their lives had ever been about had centered around, and boiled down to, love.
It was love for Mary that started the hunt, and love for Mary that continued to fuel it. It was love for Jessica that brought Sam back into it. It was love of the hunt and love of the adrenaline rush that kept them diving into fights again and again. It was love for each other that kept them alive all this time.
Dean knows it was a love story when he thinks about how love has ended for each of the Winchester men. John Winchester had loved more deeply than most people could ever understand; he loved so deeply that in the end he had died for it, and wasn’t that what romantics were always talking about anyway? John gave his life for Mary, he gave what little was left of him to honoring her memory and to fighting for her. He gave what little was left of him to keep his boys safe; his only family and the only thing he had left to love. He gave all that he had left to keep Dean alive, in the end. If that’s not love, what is?
Sam Winchester lived for love. For Jessica, for the memory of Mary, for Dean and the memory of his father. He came back to the fight out of love for Jessica, and he stayed in the fight out of love for Dean and John. He threw his whole heart into it and still had room left over for empathy and compassion and hope; he still had room left over for Sarah, and for Dean. Sam felt love more deeply than most people could ever understand; he had been loved his whole life and not matter what else happened, that love never faltered. Sam had always known that he was loved, and had always loved, no matter how far away he was.
Dean Winchester had loved and felt love more deeply than most people could ever understand. Every moment of Dean’s life had been about love, he lived for the hunt that was in reality a crusade for love. Never once did Dean doubt that his family loved him, just as surely as he loved them. His heart wasn’t as big as Sam’s, at the end of the day there wasn’t much room left to love anyone but his family, but that was enough for him. Dean loved his family with more dedication and devotion than most could fathom; he would give his life for them in a heartbeat and often nearly did. Some people would say it was dysfunctional and unhealthy, but damn if Dean’s whole life wasn’t a dysfunctional and unhealthy mess anyway, so it didn’t really bother him that all he needs to be okay is for Sam to be safe and happy.
It was a love story, but it was never your conventional Hollywood kind, and if it was a fairy tale, it was a twisted one. There were heroes and villains; demons and angels; Heaven and Hell; triumphant victories and earth-shattering losses; and constant battles. But when it’s all over and the Demon’s been destroyed, there is no happily ever after, there’s just what there was at the beginning again: two brothers, a stretch of road and a new case, new people to help and a new job to do.
It’s not a fairy tale ending by any means, but when the sun comes up and Dean and Sam slide into the Impala and take of for Illinois, with the radio blaring Kansas and Sam clicking away at the laptop, Dean decides that there’s a reason for that. There’s no fairy tale ending because it’s not the end yet, and Dean’s pretty sure he’s okay with that.
Sam still won’t believe this was a love story, but he’s at home and so is Dean, and he’s pretty sure he’s okay with that.
Tags: dean, fairy tale, fanfic, john, love story, sam, smack, supernatural, winchester
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