Dean had been in the kitchen for a while now, making soup. Sam was still recovering and Dean's only thoughts at the moment were ways to cheer him up, or ways to somehow get him to digest something, anything, besides salad and water. Similarly, he hoped to get Kevin to eat something as well. Kevin had definitely improved drastically, but Dean still wanted to make sure he was okay.
Cas was sitting at the table, thinking. Dean had gotten used to it really; it was peaceful. Cas would often sit there, calmly and quietly, with a sort of smile on his face, just silently thinking about Dean didn't know what. It had started maybe a couple weeks after he'd fallen, and Dean, although at first worried, eventually learned it was something not to be worried about.
After sitting like this for an hour, which was the regular amount of time for Cas to be silent, he got up and went into the kitchen, seeing as to what Dean was occupying himself with.
Dean hadn't expected anyone to come up behind him, so when Cas greeted him he was startled. Dean jumped, then laughed, smiling at Cas. Cas recognized his jump, he'd seen it often back when he was able to fly back and forth and pop up wherever he pleased. However, Dean didn't smile back then. He often looked frustrated or upset by Cas' surprise appearances.
"Could I be of any assistance?" he asked, standing behind Dean. Dean looked at him, giving him his usual smile- Cas had noticed this smile was specifically for him- and then nodding.
"Yeah I guess I could use a hand... but I've gotta show you because it's not the usual recipe," Cas nodded, coming away from behind Dean and standing next to him at the counter. Dean breathed in, looked at Cas with a big grin, then looked at the counter.
"What?" Cas asked, as he always did, but Dean just laughed.
"Nothing. So listen, this is what we need to do first, okay?" he gestured towards a cutting board with his head. Sat on it were some vegetables, some chopped up already, others not yet. "So after cutting those up you just put them into this pot here and... well the next part's trickier..."
Dean hadn't always been much of a cooker. Cas knew this from the many times they'd gone to restaurants and gas stations, eating diner food and other things, back when Sam and Dean had been on the road. But now that they had, so called by Dean, "the bat-cave", and after settling in, and after the trials had been put on hold, Dean had needed something else to occupy his time with.
As he started to show Cas the other ingredients, he stopped, grinning big. Cas didn't bother asking as he knew the explanation would come soon.
"You know, Dad taught me this recipe. It was one of those meals... he made on occasion. Christmas time mostly... I guess that's one thing he managed..." he started to move about again, mixing the pot on the stove and then moving over so Cas could be in front of the pot.
"Basically, you just have to stir it for a few minutes... and then after that we add the spices," Cas nodded, finding it soothing to move the spoon back and forth in the pot. Dean walked around, opening a couple cabinets and taking out a couple things, when Cas' hand slipped. As his hand clumsily tripped over the spoon, some drops of soup fell onto the stove top and he heard a sizzling noise. His eyes scrunched in confusion, Dean walking over to see what had happened.
"What did I-?" Castiel watched as Dean picked up a rag and wiped up a little liquid that had fallen onto the stove.
"You got to be careful how you mix it, Cas. The soup actually has to stay in the pot," he was beaming, and Cas knew he was teasing. Today was one of those days... a day where Dean was relaxed and calm and... Cas liked to think of it as accepting. Accepting the circumstances and being grateful for the better things; Sam being alive, Kevin regaining his mental state, the knowledge they gained about demons... and other things.
Cas readily took over the stirring, the mixing spoon clumsily moving through the liquid. Dean sighed a little bit, taking part of the spoon, carefully maneuvering away from Cas' hand, he realized, and stirring it evenly for a couple seconds. Eventually, Dean's hand moved closer to Cas' and when Cas looked up at Dean he saw him blush furiously, his eyes quickly looking towards Cas to see if he'd had a similar reaction. He moved his hand away quickly, clearing his throat.
This hadn't been the first time this had happened. Dean was certainly conflicted towards such things... to which Cas wasn't sure why and felt a small bit of shame, out of habit, burn through him as well. He often would think upon this; he didn't understand why Dean would be ashamed at all. Was it him? Or was it something else.
"This'll need to sit for a while, so we can get out the extra stuff and start getting that ready," Dean hurried around opening the fridge, cabinets, and once he'd gotten what seemed a large amount of things, he set them all out on the counter and scanned over everything, mouthing the ingredients and looking up as if to mentally calculate the items in front of him.
"And-" Dean stretched out the word, "we've got all we need."
Cas watched this first time, as Dean seemed lost in his own world, and smiled as Dean hurried around, prepping and placing and dumping random things into the pot. Cas eventually came out from his little corner and stood next to Dean, walking back and forth with him until he was done and was simply stirring it all together.
Dean didn't acknowledge his presence for a long time, until he realized Cas was resting his chin on Dean's shoulder. It was a quirky thing he'd done only a few times, but Dean often noticed it before too much time had passed. He often did it to see whatever Dean was seeing, not quite having the same advantage when it came to height. When he noticed, instead of embarrassing him with it, he pretended not to notice, smiling to himself with the feeling of Cas' chin on his shoulder. After a couple minutes of just standing like that, Dean cleared his throat, a bad habit, and then turned towards Cas.
"It's all done now... we just have to wait for it to be done cooking," he said, nodding. Cas nodded right back, and with that they both exited the kitchen and sat back at the table.
After a couple minutes of silence, Cas interrupted the silence. "Your father taught you that recipe?" he asked, looking thoughtfully around the room.
Dean didn't respond for a couple minutes, then sighed. "Sort of, yeah. I mostly learned it on my own... but, uh, when he did make it... he only really made it once to be honest... I picked up on it, remembered it. Made it a couple times when I stayed with-" he smiled sadly for a second, hesitating, "Ben and Lisa... I mostly learned it from there."
"Meaning the recipe is mainly of your own invention?" Cas asked, looking Dean in the eyes. This was strange for Dean and he swallowed at the suddenness.
"Well I guess you could say that," he laughed, looking down at the ground quickly. After that, they sat quietly, Cas as usual in a state of silence and Dean, not quite as usual, doing the same.