It was both crazy and perfectly logical at the same time. After everything, here was Dean Winchester, married to an angel of the lord and a male one at that or, at least, one in a male vessel. He wasn't even gay and yet this other man had his heart. Yes, Castiel had Dean well and truly on a leash.
"You are so whipped man," Sam rolled his eyes, sipping a beer one Christmas.
Feeling the familiar cool of the gold ring on his finger, Dean laughed "Hey, there are worse ways to be whipped, Sammy."
"Sure," Sam scoffed and Dean considered how the tables had turned.
Then a little head of dark hair popped up from behind the TV, accompanied with bright blue-green eyes wide and curious. Subtly, the little girl cocked her head to one side "What's whipped mean?"
"Never you mind, M," Dean raised his eyebrows, meaningfully.
A small smile pulled at the little girls mouth "And what's crap?"
There was stunned silence for a few moments as the brothers stared at the seven-year-old, frozen. Then Sam chuckled, eyeing Dean with a smirk "Oh, Cas is gonna kill you."
Yeah, Dean had a family and a reasonably normal one at that, aside from the whole two dads thing. They had two kids, Robert John Winchester and Mary Ellen Winchester who both seemed reasonably well-adjusted, considering the circumstances. Both knew about monsters, all the stories had been recounted numerous times and, the older they got, the more details were given. Early on Dean and Castiel had decided on a policy of honesty with their children.
"Dad?" Robby threw the baseball back to Dean "Can I ask you something?"
Once the ball was safe in his hands, Dean replied "Sure."
"Why haven't you ever taught me or Mary to hunt?" he asked.
Dean glanced over to where Mary was laid on her stomach, headphones in and book open. The tip of her nose was starting to burn rosy in the heat of the sun. Suddenly, he was scolding himself for not packing sun-cream this morning. Just because she was growing up now didn't mean he could get sloppy with her safety. She was only eleven after all.
Blinking, Dean tossed the ball back to his son "I have."
"Yeah, I know there's the self-defence training and the shooting practise-"
"And the lock-picking."
"And the lock picking but, I mean, that's just general stuff, what about tracking demons or taking down wendigos or-"
"Robby," Dean caught the ball and held it still for a moment "This sort of stuff isn't fun or glamorous or anything good, I don't want either of you ever going through what Sammy and me went through growing up. I'll teach you how to ice a demon in theory, I'll teach you how to protect yourself but I'm not going to teach you how to go looking for trouble."
Never did they ever feel in danger. God had granted Dean and Castiel two children who were biologically theirs which meant they were blood relations of a whole army of angels. Dean would often tell both his children, in all honesty, that angels were watching over them. Plus there were more than a few hunters who would skin alive anything that threatened the youngest Winchesters. Dean had never anticipated his kids would be this safe.
"Happy new year!" Gabriel said as he flashed into their living room on New Year's Eve.
Stunned, Dean jumped "Jesus Christ."
"Nope, guess again."
Castiel poked his head round the door and shouted from the kitchen "Gabriel, you're not supposed to flash in, we could have had people over."
"Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know," he rolled his eyes "But I am an archangel, it wouldn't take much to just-" He snapped his fingers, smiling mischievously.
Standing, Dean eyed Gabriel sceptically "You still scare me."
"Uncle Gabriel!" Mary bounded in, white fluffy angel wings on her back "Where's your costume?"
The archangel scrunched his nose in disgust "What are you wearing?"
"I'm an angel," she spun so her white pleated skirt fanned out into a bell "Because this is a costume party, so what are you supposed to be?"
Cheekily, he smiled "I'm the archangel Gabriel, master trickster and, most days, your father's worst nightmare."
"Yeah but Pappy could have said that sort of thing except he understands the meaning of a costume party," Mary rested her hands on her hips, those Mediterranean eyes turning stern.
Stammering a moment, under her gaze (yes the great archangel stammering under the eyes of a thirteen year old) Gabriel finally came back with "I don't think Cas is your Dad's worst nightmare, M."
"Oh no, I am," Castiel winked.
Sam, who had been upstairs with Robby, helping with face-paint, walked into the room at that moment "So whipped."
The doorbell rang and Castiel looked meaningfully at Gabriel. With a sigh, the archangel caved and snapped his fingers. In a blink of an eye, he was in a, very convincing joker costume "The things I do for you."
The family still moved around a lot. After all, years of hunting had left Dean with a criminal record as long as his arm and his face still popped up on America's Most Wanted every so often. The longer they stayed in one place the more likely it was that someone would recognise him. Plus, Castiel was working on setting up his own church based on the teachings of a new Bible that included the Winchester Gospels. What better occupation for an angel than a preacher? Setting up a whole new branch of Christianity, however, meant moving from community to community setting up churches before moving on to the next town. Despite this, Dean especially put a lot of stock in the education of his children. They generally moved between semesters.
"Robby, M, you guys ready to go?" Dean called as he loaded the last box into the back of the van. A few paces away, Castiel was shaking a few hands and giving some last-minute pointers to the man who would be running the church in that town now that he was leaving.
Robby came out first, yawning as he picked up his backpack from by the door "How long's the drive to our new house?"
"Six hours," Dean replied, as he shut the van door with a thick thunk.
Rolling his eyes, Robby sighed "Can't Pops just flash us there?"
"Mary Ellen, you get your ass over here!" Dean shouted across to where Mary was hugging her friends goodbye and making false promises to write. Then he turned back to his son "You can't just use your Pops's angel powers for everything."
Groaning, Robby headed for the car "But six hours Dad." Dean barely resisted pulling out the 'when I was a boy' card.
"Suck it up," he called after his son as Mary appeared at his side.
Her blue-green eyes were sad as she looked up at him "I'll miss this town, I like the people here."
"Well you can write and call them once in awhile," Dean tried to sound comforting but, in his heart, he didn't even believe his own words.
Still, Mary smiled softly in appreciation of him trying "I've done this too many times to even hope that we'll keep in touch."
With a sigh, he draped an arm around her shoulders, pulled her into his side and dropped a kiss on the top of her head "I'm sorry M."
"It's okay, Dad," she shrugged a little before pulling away towards the car "There'll be friends in the next town, too." Robby had always chosen to stay away from other kids his age, to avoid the pain of separation when they had to move on but Mary had never been that way. From the beginning, Mary had been a social creature, she could make friends quickly. Every time they moved on though, Dean watched a little bit of his daughter's heart break.
But, as always, they simply picked themselves up and got on the road.
So now the family were loaded into the impala, Sam behind them in the van, moving to the next town. On the back seat, Mary and Robby were sleeping, as they often did when the family drove through the night. Dean remembered them dreaming in car seats when they were little more than toddlers. Beside him, he felt more than saw Castiel staring up at the moon, blue eyes wide.
"Cas?"
"Hm?"
"Do you ever worry?" Dean asked, glancing across at his husband before refocussing on the road.
Cocking his head to one side, Castiel frowned "About what?"
After a moment of silence, Dean sighed "Everything."
"Be more specific Dean," Castiel demanded, dead-pan. It had been more than twenty years and Dean still wasn't quite used to how abrupt his husband could be.
Dean's brow furrowed "About what this life does to our kids."
"Of course I do but I don't see what other option there is," was Castiel's reply. He glanced back at the sleeping teenagers.
With another sigh, Dean shrugged "I don't know, we could get a ranch or something."
"A ranch?" Castiel seemed sceptical (not surprisingly) "You mean a large farm?"
The look on the angel's face was enough to make anyone laugh, but Dean managed to hold it together "Yeah, 'cause we wouldn't have to see people so no-one would recognise me from those-"
"Dean, how would their life be any better if we always had to hide?" Castiel retorted "And we're doing God's wor-"
Green eyes turning dark, Dean growled "God's work my ass."
"You married a preacher, Dean, God's work is exactly what we're doing."
Dean almost wanted to stop the car and argue properly but he also didn't want to wake up the kids "We're telling people the truth, I don't think the big man upstairs would consider it his work."
"That's a matter of opinion."
"Cas," Dean said sternly.
In response, Castiel turned his bright blue eyes on Dean "Mary and Bobby are fine, Dean. When we first met you never thought anything like this would be possible. Now we have a family and a reasonably normal life, things could be a lot worse."
"I know," the hunter reached across to take his husband's hand "I just wish I could give them everything."
Smiling gently, Castiel ran his thumb over the back of Dean's hand "I think all parents feel that way, Dean, but we can't we just have to do our best and that's exactly what we're doing." Though the words didn't quite settle either Dean's guilt or his worry, he found it within himself to push the feelings aside. Castiel turned his eyes back to the sky, though his hand lingered on Deans. That warmth was enough to calm his mind, for the moment.
