This goes with Traditions as part of my DeanBenny series Love At First Bite.
Bad Day, Fresh Start
Benny knew something was wrong when he came home to find several pies cooling on the table as well as a few dozen cookies and from the rattling in the kitchen it seemed that Dean was far from finished. It was hard to press the frustration swelling in his chest down, he knew Dean was a stress baker and the nice clean organized kitchen would be in disarray for weeks, but it was something he really couldn't complain about when he remembered the younger man's alternative was drinking until he passed out.
Although once in the kitchen, even knowing about Dean's way of handling stress wasn't enough to prepare him for the state his boyfriend was in. There was flour and various pie filling smattering his clothes, hands shaking as he crimped the edges of yet another pie shell, there even seemed to be a glob of butter in his hair which was sticking up in every direction possible, but the worst was the far off look on his face and sparkle nowhere to be found in his green eyes. Dean didn't even seem to notice him, not even when he came up behind him and covered flour covered hands with his own, pulling them away from the pie crust.
"What's wrong mon petit ourson?" Several moments of silence followed but Benny knew better than to push Dean when he was in this state, the wound was still fresh. Finally Dean squeezed his hands, knuckles turning white and cracking, then a horrible chest heaving sob came from the man in his arms.
"I lost my job, some customer bitched that I took too long restoring his car which cost him more money than he agreed to spend and Gordon said he couldn't afford to lose any more clients or money because of my slow ass." Somewhere in the rushed explanation Dean had turned around to sob into Benny's neck, clinging to him like he was the only thing keeping him standing and maybe Benny was at that point.
"Now, now sugar it's not the end of the world."
"But what am I supposed to do now? No shop is going to hire me if I got fired from Gordon's and it's not like I'm good at anything else. All I am is a useless fuck-up and now I'm a burden on you."
It broke Benny's heart to hear Dean talk about himself that way, "You're not a fuck-up, Dean. You're not useless either and you sure as hell ain't a burden on me just because some dick had a stick up their ass." When Dean went to protest Benny silenced him with a kiss pulling away and letting go of the man so that he could turn off the oven, "I mean it darling, this is just another bump in the road as far as I'm concerned."
"But-" Dean let out a startled hiccup as Benny swept him off his feet and carried him out of the kitchen to the small bath room, where he began to pull at the ruined clothes.
"Not another word about it, at least until not until we're both clean and have had something to eat. Since I'm guessing you haven't eaten anything since this morning or realized that you have butter in your hair." Benny tried not to laugh when Dean a hand through his hair and wrinkled his nose when he can in contact with the aforementioned substance.
"Gross." Benny nodded in agreement kissing the man once more before beginning to strip down himself. It would be a tight squeeze in the shower, but they had made it work before, though in those situations it was purely sexual.
Now the action of running his hands over Dean's bare freckled skin underneath the warm spray of the shower was only meant as comfort and a reminder that he was with him and would always be with him no matter what happened. And Dean returned the flavor after taking a moment to grab the body wash they shared and even once clean they remained under the water until it ran cold.
But not a word was spoken as they dressed and returned to the kitchen, well Benny returned to it, Dean simply hovered in the doorway and picked at the bottom hem of his t-shirt, "Sorry about the mess."
"Its fine darling, nothing the dishwasher can't handle." Even if Dean looked better than before Benny knew that the younger man was tearing himself apart inside. It was painful to watch and he wanted nothing more than to wrap his arms around Dean and hold him the rest of the night while whispering sweet nothings to him, but they needed to eat it first. He cleared an area of the counter and by some miracle found two clean pans as well as bologna and Muenster cheese in the fridge. They would definitely have to get groceries after today, but Benny focused on slicing the bologna in half and pan frying it, doing his best to not make a face as it cooked. Dean had sworn that fried bologna was delicious even going so far as to call it the poor man's bacon, Benny had never been able to get past the smell of it to try, but he knew it was a comfort food for Dean growing up and made it anyway even if it made the kitchen reek for hours after. In the other pan he began to make himself a grilled cheese, it was far from the extravagant dinners that they had gotten used it. In fact it reminded him of when they first started dating and both of them had just enough to get by the small chuckle that had escaped him quickly died when he heard a sniffle.
"How can you be so calm about this Benny?"
"Like I said before, this is just a little bump in the road, we'll get through it." Dean let out another small noise and Benny watched from the small bar as Dean walked over to the kitchen table where the pies sat.
"We could've just had pie for dinner you know, going to have to get rid of this shit somehow."
"We'll just have to make some room in the freezer, then you can send a few home with your brother when he visits." The sandwiches were done and Benny found the paper plates left over from when they first moved in, there was no need to dirty anymore dishes, although it probably didn't matter at this point.
"I guess." Then Dean went quiet, picking at the sandwich rather than really eating it, the first sign of depression in the Winchester. For a moment all Benny could do was watch as Dean tore the sandwich apart, long and surprisingly nimble fingers twisting and pulling. Even calloused, scared, and grease covered, Dean's hands were beautiful and they could make such beautiful things, like the carefully crimped edges of the pecan pies on the table and the delicate lattice crust of the cherry and apple ones.
"You know, I might be losing Garth, he was talking about going back into dentistry." Dean's head shot up, eyebrows pinched in confusion. "If he goes I'll need to hire someone else and it might be awhile before I find a suitable replacement."
"What are you trying to say?"
"I guess what I'm trying to say is that maybe you can fill in at the bakery until you find a shop that'll hire you or maybe until you decide that you want to open your own restoration shop." Green eyes lit up and Benny could see the excitement Dean was trying to hold back.
"You do realize that you'd be stuck looking at my face basically every hour of the day, right?"
"Can't say I see a downside to that, sugar. Besides who said I'd just be looking at your face?" A small smile graced Dean's lips, the first smile Benny had seen since coming home.
"Let me think about it."
Two weeks later Dean announced to Benny that he should take down the 'Now Hiring' sign in the window, he was going to be around for a while and that he would be in charge of the pies from that moment on.