There were shouts coming from outside, lots of them.
"COME BACK YOU LITTLE SHIT."
"GIVE ME THOSE."
"GET OFF MY STUFF."
Cas was vaguely intrigued, but also fairly scared. He'd only just arrived home from work and the world seemed to be ending out back. So he went upstairs and peered out the window that overlooked his and his neighbour's back yard.
Then very quickly ran down the stairs and around into his neighbour's yard. That fucking cat.
"Balthazar!" Castiel shouted as he skidded to a stop before running onto his neighbour's lawn, the ginger cat ran to him and jumped into his arms, purring loudly and holding a pair of boxers in his mouth.
Cas' new neighbour stood in front of him, panting and gaping as Cas quietly took the boxers from the cat's mouth and held them out towards him with a blush, "this is one way to meet your neighbour, I guess. Sorry, Balthazar likes to steal underwear. It was my brother that got him into the habit by always using mine as toys, so now he just thinks all underwear is a toy. I'm Castiel, by the way."
"Dean," the other man had moved closer and taken the boxers back off Cas, "yeah, that is definitely one way to meet your neighbour." Dean grinned and shook Castiel's hand, "don't sweat it, I was just a bit surprised when I came to get my washing in and saw that."
Cas smiled as Dean shook his hand, this had gone better than the last time at least. Cas' last neighbour had tried to get the cat re-homed due to it's underwear thieving habit.
They'd also tried hurting Balthazar, so Cas reported them and they had been so annoyed that they got fined for animal abuse and Cas had 'got away' with his cat being a menace that they moved.
"Well, uh, nice to meet you," Castiel waved at Dean and backed away cradling Balthazar gently, who still hadn't stopped purring.
"See yah around, Cas," Dean grinned and waved back.
"You are a menace," Cas mumbled as he got back into his own house and scratched Balthazar's ears, the cat just meowed and flicked his tail contentedly. Cas put him down and watched as he bounded away to torture the fish.
Castiel sighed and frowned as he remembered Dean had called him 'Cas', there weren't many people who called him that. Only Gabe really, Anna always called him by his full name or by 'big brother', which Gabe found hilarious for some reason.
It was probably a TV reference.
With a shake of his head Cas moved into the kitchen to get Balthazar some dinner, the cat appearing almost like magic when the lid came off the tin of food. Castiel smiled as Balthazar resumed his purring and tucked in to his food, Cas made himself a sandwich and wandered into his living room to relax with a book and some music.
After a couple of hours Balthazar jumped up beside him and curled into his side, snuggling his head and front paws into Castiel's lap and purring even louder than usual.
Cas blinked at him and narrowed his eyes, "what did you do? Because if you've damaged something I swear I'm going to give you up for adoption." Balthazar mewed and closed his eyes as Cas smiled softly, one hand moving from his book to tickle Balthazar's ears as he continued reading.
He'd never get rid of him, really.
"I come bearing a purring whirlwind of menace," Dean grinned as Cas opened the door in surprise, Balthazar sitting comfortably in the crook of Dean's arm and purring loudly, "I swear all he does is purr and get under your feet, though I guess it's my own fault for leaving the door open."
Castiel glanced between Dean and the cat and blinked, "I am so sorry, if you want him to keep out of the way just put a gate on your door, I'll pay for it if you want to do that, I'm sorry," Cas babbled.
"Hey, woah," Dean reached out and put his hand on Castiel's shoulder, "its okay, really, I think he's great," Cas sighed in relief as Dean smiled genuinely, "I'm only bringing him back 'cos I'm going out and this was the only way I could stop him from going back into my house when I went to leave."
Cas took Balthazar from Dean and Dean waggled his fingers at the cat, who caught them in his front paws and nipped them gently, then licked his fingers and pushed his head into them to get scratched.
Dean grinned as Cas laughed and thanked Dean for returning Balthazar, waving as Dean walked backwards down his drive and saluted before turning to his car.
And his car was gorgeous. Sleek and black and classic and Cas hated his own a little more after seeing that.
Castiel held Balthazar up in front of his face and glared at him, "why do you have to be a menace? At least Dean's nice about it. Or else you'd be in trouble." Balthazar reached out a paw and patted at his nose, making Cas snort and pull him back to snuggle against his chest, Balthazar pushing his head under Cas' chin and meowing loudly.
"Oh have you? Have you been on an adventure into the evil person's house?" Balthazar meowed again and Cas laughed, "yes, the new person is a lot nicer, I agree." Balthazar purred and let out a smaller mew, "okay, okay your highness. Food it is."
Cas didn't like people who used baby voices with animals, but he couldn't begrudge them for talking to their pets. Sometimes it was the best conversation Cas had all day.
His door shut with a click as Cas turned away to get Balthazar food, not realising Dean had listened to him talking to Balthazar with a soft smile on his face as he locked his front door up properly.
Castiel wandered around the store, it was his shopping day and he'd resolved to get some extra things to bake a pie for Dean. Partly because he could bake those better than cakes and partly because he'd managed to find out from Dean that he liked pie better.
But mostly because it meant he could spend longer in the air conditioned store, it was excessively warm outside and Castiel almost debated just wandering around topless for the rest of his day off.
The reason he was going to bake Dean a cake was because he'd been just so accepting of Balthazar it almost hurt. He never hung out his boxers so Balthy couldn't steal them, and Dean let him in his house (and even helped Cas bathe him when he came home covered in paint one evening, in Dean's own bath, that was interesting) and looked after him as if he was his own pet.
Dean had even bought him some treats which he kept in his own kitchen. In a week Dean had been a better neighbour than the couple who lived next door to Cas since he moved in. He didn't even have Balthy when he moved in, he got him about five years afterwards for company.
It wasn't like Cas hadn't had relationships in that time, but when Cas broke up with his then long-time girlfriend he had felt so lonely that he adopted Balthazar almost as soon as he saw him.
He remembered falling in love with the tiny, ginger kitten in a heartbeat, the people at the pound said he was a handful, and Cas had seen this first hand when first allowed to sit with him because Balthazar just. Didn't. Stop.
Cas took him home that day because it was just the distraction he needed, he'd already kitten proofed the house and bought toys and it was the best decision he ever made, Balthazar had shown him unconditional love for the past three years, despite what everyone said about cats being evil and standoffish.
He'd had partners since, but they didn't last long because a couple of them had tried to get him to get rid of Balthazar and the others just didn't even try and make the effort.
Unlike Dean.
Was it wrong to crush on your neighbour that you'd only known a week?
Cas shook his head and threw more items into his cart, moving quickly through his shopping list and getting the bags into his car as he mused on whether this was a normal thing or not.
Though he supposed anyone who cared for Balthazar as much as he did would end up being a crush of his, since very few people accepted his problematic feline.
Castiel realised he'd been staring into his open boot with a start, he looked around and aside from a strange look from a child no one had noticed. Good.
It didn't stop Cas from blushing as he returned the cart and jogged back to his car, the engine spluttering into life as he prayed it didn't conk out on him.
Again.
He managed to get home with his car in one piece, though his nerves weren't since it cut out twice on the road. Thankfully not the freeway though, but if it was doing this again it'd only be a matter of time before it happened on the way to work like last time.
He'd only had it 'fixed' four months ago, and was worried how much more it'd cost this time since clearly what they did didn't help.
Cas sat in his car mulling over what he could cut out to repair it when there was a tap on his window.
Cas jumped and yelped, half throwing himself away from the window in shock, the seatbelt stopping him with a jerk before looking to see who'd got his attention.
Dean was leaning on his roof and laughing. Topless. Oh god.
Cas took a few seconds to compose himself and undid his belt, then opened the car door as Dean moved away. Dean had smears of grease up his arms and on his chest, and one right in his nose. Presumably from where he'd scratched it.
It was slightly impossible to not stare.
Dean waved his hand in front of Cas' face, "hey, ground control to Major Tom, did you hear any of that or did I actually scare you way more than I thought?" Dean was grinning and Castiel blushed, ducking his head and hoping the heat of the day would hide it from sight as he mumbled about not hearing what Dean said.
He watched through his lashes and bowed head as Dean's smile softened and he chuckled gently, "well, I was just saying that your car sounded like it was gonna explode.
Cas cringed, "tell me about it." he pinched the bridge of his nose and sighed, "I was just debating what parts of living I could give up to get it fixed. It was looked at four months ago but now it's just doing," Cas waved his hand at it, "that again. Whatever they did, did nothing."
Dean frowned and looked at the car, he rubbed at his shoulder slightly in thought and Cas resisted the urge to reach out and run his hands over Dean's body.
Only just.
"I could take a look?" Cas jumped and gaped at Dean as Dean blushed, and oh god that was adorable, "I mean, I keep Baby up and running so yours will probably be a breeze compared to what I had to go through when I first got her off my dad. Sorry, Baby, I don't mean that, I'm just trying to reassure the guy," Dean stage whispered the last sentence to his car behind his hand and Castiel laughed.
"Dean, I couldn't possibly ask you to do that for me, I can't pay yo-"
"You didn't ask, I offered," Dean grinned as he leaned past Cas to pop the hood and moved to the front of the car, "and as for payment, dude, what do you take me for? You don't need to pay me. Or if that makes you feel weird then pay me what you can when you can. Don't worry about it."
Cas gaped slightly and Dean nodded at the boot, "you might wanna get your groceries inside though especially if you've got any frozen stuff. Then come gimme a hand and I might be able to teach you a few things," Dean grinned.
Cas snapped his mouth shut and nodded, he quickly took his shopping inside and noticed that the hood on Dean's car was up as well. Balthazar was looking around it curiously and Castiel called him away, Dean glanced over and grinned as Balthazar jumped down and sauntered away.
When he went back out Cas moved to stand by Dean, not too close, but close enough to see that Dean was tinkering with something in his engine. "Can you see what's wrong?"
"Yeah, whoever 'fixed' this before did a shoddy job," Dean glared at the offending parts before sighing, "they didn't replace something that needed to be replaced, they just kinda tightened it and put a bit of fixant on there. Whoever you went to, Cas, don't go there again. Looks like they did a shoddy job on purpose so you'd go back. Lemme guess, they gave you a 'deal' if you had to go back again?" Cas nodded, dumbfounded and Dean's glare deepened.
"I... Had no idea. It was just a shop that I've seen a few times so thought they couldn't be too bad..." Cas offered Dean a cold can of coke as he wiped his forehead and remembered he'd brought them out, Dean accepted it easily, his glare turning to a grin.
"Well, good job I'm here now, huh?" Dean opened the can and took a long swig, closing his eyes and sighing happily, "good call on the coke."
"Dean, your hood is up, do you not want to sort your car first?"
"Hm?" Dean asked as he poked around Castiel's car a bit more, "oh, I was just cleaning Baby, she doesn't need much tinkering these days," Dean grinned as he walked over to close his cars hood gently, stroking the metal gently when he did.
Cas watched him go, the swagger in his walk highlighted by the way his legs bowed slightly at the knee, and Castiel tried very hard to keep his mind away from the gutter as he thought of what uses those bowed legs could have.
He wiped his forehead again and took a long drink of his own coke.
Dean appeared at his side with a toolbox and started to take bits of Cas' car apart, Castiel watched in fascination as Dean talked him through the bits of his car that needed to be changed, and how much it would probably cost. He groaned when he had to do another quick fix on the car and told Cas what parts to order to get it fixed, then laughed and promised to supervise when Cas looked like a deer caught in the headlights.
Cas sighed in relief and stood up, he'd been leaning against his car and his shirt had stuck to his back slightly. Castiel cringed and took his shirt off, using it to wipe his face and then rolled it into a ball as he threw it towards his front porch, landing it on the fence there with a practised ease.
He turned to ask Dean something and saw Dean was staring at him and gaping slightly, Cas blushed and coughed, awkwardly rubbing the back of his neck.
Dean seemed to shake himself and smiled warmly, "sorry, Cas, just, uh, wasn't expecting that." he nodded towards Cas' shirt, "or that," he said, waving his hand over Cas' chest.
Cas glanced down and realised what Dean meant, most of his clothes were rather ill fitting because he couldn't really afford a nicely tailored suit, and he liked his t-shirts to be a bit more baggy so people never really knew what his body was like when he wore clothes.
He was actually quite slim, and toned. Years of swimming and running would do that for you.
Cas repeated this to Dean and Dean laughed, agreeing that those would definitely give him that build, revealing that he used to run too but had never taken up swimming due to his job being quite physical so he didn't need to have the extra muscle control.
That and he was afraid he'd drown.
Castiel laughed loudly and leant forwards onto the car with the force of it, when he'd mostly recovered he wiped at his eyes and stood up, to see Dean grinning at him as if he was proud of making Cas laugh that much.
Balthazar chose that moment to run and jump at Dean, who caught him easily even though he was startled enough to yelp.
Which just set Cas off again.
Cas lay in his bed that night and grinned as he remembered the rest of the afternoon, Dean had fixed his car, and made Cas get in and turn it on while he watched and made sure everything was gonna hold before he stopped tinkering.
He'd then sat on Castiel's doorstop with a couple of beers and played with Balthazar while chatting to Cas about what brought him to move next door.
It was to be closer to his brother, and a little further from his dad, it seemed. His brother, Sam, had gone to college and that had sparked a lot of fighting between him and his dad, with Dean caught in the middle of it. And Dean had just got sick of it.
It'd been a few years now, and Sam had graduated and got a job as a lawyer, but his dad was still bitter that Sam didn't want to follow on the family business, and no matter how much Dean wanted to it was never enough because one of his sons decided to leave the nest.
So Dean had left too. He'd swapped to his uncles garage and just left his dad to run the other one on his own, until he stopped being an ass.
Castiel had remembered the fond look on Dean's face when he talked about Sam, it instantly removed any trace of annoyance from his dad's antics and was fascinating to Cas.
He kinda wished he could make that look appear on Dean's face.
Cas shook his head and sighed, Balthazar jumped up onto the end of the bed and stretched out over Castiel's feet, purring softly as he settled to sleep.
With a yawn, Cas checked his alarm was set and then snuggled into his pillow more deeply, falling asleep with the memories of Dean's smile and body to give him good dreams.
Work. Was. Hell.
And traffic on the way home was even worse.
Castiel gritted his teeth as he crept along behind the cars in front, it normally took him half an hour to get home and today he'd already spent 45 minutes just not moving.
He sighed as the traffic report belatedly told him to avoid his normal route. It would be helpful if they were a bit more... Well, helpful. He tried to not be too annoyed, they could only report things as they found them out. But at this rate Cas wold have been better walking home.
Thirty more minutes later he pulled into his driveway and got out of the car, slamming his door as Dean came out of his house, Balthazar bounding out ahead of him as Dean leant on the half- fence between their houses and smiled.
"I hope you don't mind, I fed him 'cos he was getting antsy."
Cas scooped up Balthazar who was pawing at his knee and hugged him gently with a sigh, the cat pressing his head into Castiel's chin and mewing happily now he knew Cas was home.
"I don't mind, thank you, Dean. I really appreciate it. Let me cook you dinner to make up for going out of your way."
"Oh I'm not going out of my way, Cas, but I'll still take you up on the offer of dinner," Dean grinned as he pulled his door shut then jumped over the fence and moved to scratch Balthazar's head.
Castiel grinned as he lead the way into his house and put Balthazar on the table, where he proceeded to sit and clean himself, then took pans out of the cupboard, "how's spaghetti bolognese for you?"
"Perfect," Dean said with another grin, "though if it's better than mine I might have to ransack your home for the recipe," Dean winked as Cas laughed.
"Well to compare I think you'll have to make me yours or else I wouldn't know what I was missing," Cas grinned and started chopping an onion.
"Deal," Dean's smile widened as he looked genuinely excited.
Dinner passed in a blur of flirting, joking, and general conversation. Dean actually moaning when he tried Cas' bolognese and Castiel was glad he was sat down or else he could have embarrassed himself. A lot.
As it was he managed to make a joke about cooking for Dean more often if it got him to make those noises.
Dean just winked and sucked spaghetti into his mouth.
Cas had to look away.
When they'd finished eating Balthazar jumped up and licked their plates clean, Dean laughed and joked about Cas not needing a dishwasher and asked if he could borrow him a couple of nights a week.
Castiel laughed loudly, "sure, he's hell though. Won't do anything you say and will just get fur everywhere." Balthazar looked at him like he was offended and stuck his nose in the air as he jumped off the table and into Dean's lap, curling up and kneading Deans thigh as he purred loudly.
"I think you hurt his feelings," Dean grinned as he scratched the cat's ears and the kneading intensified.
Cas watched for a bit with a soft smile on his face before Dean asked what he was so happy about, though the same soft smile graced his face too, "people don't tend to like Balthazar, and it's very rare when someone does that they put up with him kneading their leg, they normally shriek and push him away."
Dean frowned and hugged Balthy gently, Balthazar pushed himself into Dean's arms and rested his head on Dean's shoulder, tucking his front paws underneath his chin and waving his tail about lazily.
"How could you not like him though, he's adorable, aren'tcha?" Dean directed the last word to Balthazar, who meowed in response, "yeah, yeah, don't get too big headed," he used the same tone with Balthy as he used all the time, Dean grinned as Cas laughed.
Dean glanced at the clock and sighed, "well, Cas, Balthazar, it's been a lovely evening but I'm gonna have to dash, gotta go visit Sammy tomorrow and getting up at ass o'clock in the morning to do so. So early night for me." Dean kissed Balthazar's head gently before standing up and depositing him in Castiel's lap.
For a moment Cas thought he was gonna kiss him too before he straightened up with a cough and clapped a hand to his shoulder, "thanks for the bolognese, Cas, I'll cook for you sometime next week," Dean winked and then showed himself out of Cas' house.
Cas' kitchen suddenly seemed rather empty.
Cas heard the rumble of the Impala just as he took the pie out of the oven, he grinned at the perfect timing and moved to the front door still holding the dessert.
Dean got out of the car and waved at him, Cas nodded back with a grin as he saw Dean's eyes widen when he saw the pie.
With his duffel bag over his shoulder, Dean moved to lean on the fence, "dude, is that pie?"
"It is, want some?"
"Hell yes!" Dean dropped his bag on the floor and jumped over the fence, "oh god, it's still warm." Dean said (see: moaned) as he noticed Cas holding it with oven gloves.
"Yep, fresh out of the oven, have a seat," Cas nodded to the two chairs on his porch and wandered back inside, he quickly cut two slices of pie and put a scoop of vanilla ice cream on each of them, sprinkling chocolate flakes over the top before taking them both outside and handing Dean one.
Dean looked at it like it was the best thing he'd ever seen, he carefully cut the point off and scooped it into his mouth, and if the moan he'd made at the bolognese was pornographic, well, that one should have been illegal.
Cas's eyes widened and he blinked slowly as he tried to control his breathing to not give anything away, he sliced into his own pie and savoured the taste, closing his eyes and rolling it over his tongue before he swallowed and sighed.
He glanced to his right and saw Dean watching him closely, Cas blushed and carried on eating his pie, after a few minutes he saw Dean turn back to his pie with slightly pink ears.
They finished their pie in companionable silence and Dean signed, putting the plate on the floor for Balthazar to lick and then sliding down the chair and stretching his legs out as he closed his eyes happily.
"Today, was amazing." Dean grinned, "saw my baby brother and spent a day with him goofing off, then come home to a good friend and pie. Cas, you're awesome." Dean opened one eye and turned the smile to Castiel.
"Thank you, Dean. But it's the least I could do for you helping me with my car, and looking after Balthazar for me." The cat in question jumped onto Dean's lap and curled up, closing his eyes and purring happily when Dean started to scratch behind his ears, "and Balthazar appreciates it too."
"Damn right he should," Dean laughed, "but I appreciate your appreciation, buddy, glad to have been accepted," Dean's voice softened as he addressed Balthazar, but Cas was still pleased to note that it wasn't a baby voice.
"I think he appreciates you appreciating his appreciation," Cas grinned as Dean laughed.
"Lets not go down that road, we'd be here forever," Cas laughed and nodded.
Balthazar stretched out and draped himself half over Castiel, he raised his eyebrow at the ginger feline but scratched his head anyway.
"I'm glad you had a good day, Dean, and I'm glad I could finish it off in a good way too." "Dude, pie is never bad. Even when it's not good, it's not bad. It's like sex. Always satisfying." Dean snapped his mouth shut and blushed as Cas grinned and agreed.
Dean coughed and smiled shyly as he made to leave, he moved Balthazar's butt off him and flipped him onto Castiel's knee, making the cat make an indignant noise that had Cas laughing hysterically for a few minutes before Dean could actually say goodnight.
But the sight of Cas laughing was so captivating Dean didn't mind. Cas' face seemed to open up and his eyes crinkled adorably, his nose scrunched up and his laugh sounded almost angelic.
When Cas had calmed down, he hadn't noticed Dean staring at him with a goofy smile and gentle eyes, Dean gave him a one-armed hug and said goodnight, jumping over the fence and retrieving his duffel from the floor before saluting at Cas and going into his own house.
Cas needed to get a grip on himself. Dean was just being neighbourly. It wasn't a two-way crush.
It was a friendship.
At least on Dean's side.
Yeah, that was it.
Castiel paced around the vet's office, he felt like a father in a hospital. Which in a way he supposed he was.
He glanced at the clock again, he was sure at least half an hour had to have passed, but... No. Just two minutes.
With a groan he flopped into one of the chairs and dropped his head into his hands, the receptionist gave him a sympathetic look as the cleaner mopped up...
Cas sucked a breath through his nose and closed his eyes. Choosing to not remember that the reason the cleaner was out here was because of his cat.
Balthazar. So much blood from such a tiny animal. It was horrible.
His fucking ex-neighbours.
He was just happy that he was in when they did it, or else Balthazar might not even have been alive to bring to the vets.
He was also happy that Dean had fixed his car the day before so he didn't have to worry about it dying on him when he rushed to the vets.
"Cas?!" his head snapped up as Dean barrelled into the vets and sent an apologetic look at the startled receptionist, "hey, are you okay?" Dean jogged to Castiel's side and crouched down next to him, putting one hand on his shoulder and combing his hair away from his face with the other.
"No," Cas managed to sob slightly before Dean pulled him into a tight hug.
"Hey, Cas, it's okay, I know, let it out, buddy, go on. It's okay. I know." Dean stroked his back while Cas gripped his jacket and cried, "what happened?"
"T-the guys wh-who lived i-in your place. Be-fore you. Th-they kick... Kicked him. Dean, they kicked Balthazar into the... Into the fence and then ran away laughing."
"WHAT?!" Dean shouted, then blushed as he glanced around, "what? Cas, you're joking. How could... Why did they do that?"
"They never liked him," Cas sniffed as Dean handed him a tissue from the table, "they tried to get him taken off me just so they wouldn't have to deal with him, they left because they tried to hurt him and I reported them, so they got a fine and then obviously now they just wanted to hurt me 'cos I 'got away with' him being how he is."
"Okay, I'm trying not to think of those air quotes as 'cute'," Dean copied the movement and Cas snorted and shoved him slightly, smiling at Dean as Dean grinned, "but seriously, Cas, that's just shitty. Have you reported them?"
Castiel nodded, "yeah, as soon as I got Balthy into the vet's arms I rang and reported them. They're gonna canvass and see if anyone else saw them." Cas frowned, "how'd you know I was here?"
Dean blushed, "I got back and your car wasn't there, so I looked around for Balthy figuring I could keep him company if you were stuck in traffic again and saw the open door so went to see if something had happened, then I saw blood trail. I freaked out a bit, not gonna lie. I was about to dash into your house then one of the others told me you'd rushed Balthy here and I bolted before they could tell me why after pretty much slamming your door, so sorry if it's broken."
Cas blinked and opened his mouth to respond as the vet came over to them both, Castiel's head snapped up and Dean's followed close behind, both of them asking "is he okay?!" at the same time, earning them a warm smile from the vet.
"He's fine, it was a broken leg, granted it was a nasty one with the bone out, but he's fine. More shook up than anything, he's got painkillers to take, but how is he with taking pills?"
Cas sighed and dropped his head into his hands in relief, mumbling "impossible" through a shaky laugh, Dean's hand stroked his back comfortingly again as the vet snorted.
"Well, you could hide them in his food?"
"I'll have to crumble them into it, and even then I'll be lucky."
Dean laughed, "I'm sure between us, Cas, we'll get him to take them," Cas raised his head and smiled at Dean, "he can't beat the both of us!"
Cas laughed and agreed, the vet told them what Balthazar would have to take, and said they wanted to keep him in overnight just to make sure there was nothing they'd missed but they could go see him if they wanted to.
Castiel practically dove for the door as Dean smiled after him.
"Don't you want to go too?"
"Uh," Dean coughed and blushed as the vet spoke to him, "well Balthazar is kinda Cas' cat, I'm just the neighbour..."
The vet made an 'uh-huh' sound as Cas poked his head out from the door, "Dean? Do you not want to see him? I think he'd be grateful."
Dean tried to hide his smile from the vet as he followed Cas into the room to see Balthazar drunkenly flopping about and mewing pathetically, the volume only increasing when Castiel spoke to him.
The two of them sat down with their knees touching as Balthazar flopped his head onto the pillow their knees made, mewing pathetically with his legs splayed out awkwardly, one of them in a cast and another shaved and wrapped up in a spot where the IV must have been.
"Hey buddy," Dean said softly, stroking Balthazar's ears in the way he liked, making the cat calm and start to purr, even though it was a lot quieter than usual, "you gave us quite a scare there, don't do that to your dad again, okay? I don't think he could take it."
Castiel snorted and wiped at his eyes with a smile, he leant down and gently buried his nose in Balthazar's fur, the cat pressed up into Cas' face and the purring got stronger as Cas sighed and hugged him gently, not moving Balthazar from where he'd flopped onto the both of them.
"See? He'll be okay," the vet smiled as she moved back into the room, "you can leave him here, I promise to update you with any changes. Who should I contact to pick him up tomorrow?"
Cas frowned and opened his mouth to speak, about to tell the vet that he'd be in work till five, when Dean spoke up, "well, Cas is in work tomorrow so I can come pick him up. Day off," Dean grinned at Cas who was looking at him in pleased surprise, the vet gave them a gentle smile and agreed, she took Dean's number after Castiel confirmed this was alright.
When they got back home Dean got out of his car and sat on Cas' porch as Cas got out of the car slowly, "you didn't have to do that, Dean."
"Of course I did, I love that little menace." Dean grinned, "besides, if it helps you out, I'm happy to do it," Dean blushed slightly as Cas gave him a soft smile.
"Thank you, Dean. I don't know how I can repay you for all this," he waved his hand at his car and cringed as he saw the blood trail from the fence, then glanced down at Dean's sad look and saw the blood on his shirt from where he'd cradled Balthazar to him.
"Well first you can get changed, and then bring out some soap. I'll help you scrub this clean so it's like it never happened." Dean stood up and waited for a second before blinking and turning around, he went into Cas' house as Cas hadn't stopped to lock the door and peered through the doorway.
"What are you doing?" Castiel asked as he moved behind Dean, hushing his voice though he didn't know why.
"Just checking to make sure they didn't wreck any of your stuff," Dean mumbled as he made his way slowly through the house, Cas went cold as he realised that that could have been a possibility.
After a few minutes of looking, though, it turned out they were being paranoid for no reason.
It took them an hour to scrub away the blood drops that Balthazar had left, there were none on the actual fence but they kept finding others on the driveway when they looked away then back again.
Finally they'd done and poured the water down the grate at the edge of the sidewalk, Castiel sighed in relief as they turned around and there were no more spots staining the ground.
Dean gently took the bucket and sponge from Cas' hand, and threw both the sponges they'd used away then put the bucket by Cas' porch.
"Come on, Castiel, I think we need a drink after that," Dean slung his hand around Cas' shoulders and Cas leant on him heavily with a nod.
Dean moved them to Cas' living room and got them both a beer from the fridge, twisting the lids off before handing one to Cas and sitting down next to him with a huff.
They talked until it got dark, and then a bit more until Cas started yawning.
"Are you gonna be okay on your own?" Dean asked gently and Cas started. He opened his mouth a couple of times to speak before actually taking a shaky breath, "I've not been on my own in this house for three years... I..." Cas shook his head, "yeah, I'll be okay, sorry, Dean. Just tired. You go ahead and go to bed, thank you for today, I really appreciate it."
Dean frowned and glanced around, "Cas I don't wanna leave you on your own if you're not gonna be okay."
Castiel smiled at Dean, "really, I'll be fine. Thank you, Dean."
Cas moved to get up and stretched, his back popped slightly and he groaned, when he looked back at Dean, Dean was staring at him and quickly looked away with a blush, "Cas, I'm serious, you went through a trauma, man, you sure you're okay?"
"Dean," Cas sighed fondly, "if I didn't know any better I'd say you were trying to get into my bed."
Dean's blush deepened, "would right now be a really awful time to admit to that being the case? 'Cos if it is forget I said that," Dean smiled shyly and rubbed the back of his head, looking away as Castiel gaped.
"S-say that again?" Cas blinked and stepped forward as Dean looked confused.
"I... Uh... Wouldn't mind spending the night in your bed? With you." Dean clarified quickly when Castiel blinked at him again.
"Well... I... Uh..."
"Forget it, Cas," Dean laughed and stood up suddenly, "that was a dick move, you've had enough trauma today without finding out your neighbour has been crushin' on you since practically day one, sorry." Dean shrugged awkwardly and went to leave, "I'll, uh, leave you to it."
Dean went to leave and Cas jumped forward, catching Dean's arm gently before he knew what he was doing, Dean looked at him in surprise and Cas' blush matched the one one Dean's face from earlier.
"You, uh, you can stay if you, um, if you want to. I'd... I'd actually kinda appreciate that. I don't think I could be alone after three years of constant companionship." Cas finished and rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly, imitating Dean again.
Dean smiled gently and turned to face Castiel, he moved forward slowly and hugged Cas gently, "let me go get some sweatpants and a change of clothes for tomorrow and then I'll be right back, okay?"
Cas nodded shyly as Dean let him go and gently cupped his cheek, stroking his thumb across Cas' cheekbone. Castiel leaned into it and Dean's smile widened slightly before he was moving towards the door again, a lot less jittery this time though.
Castiel cleared up their beer bottles and turned off the TV, he hadn't been watching it, and Dean had only put something on as background noise, Cas didn't even know what channel it was on. Though the amount of lens flares on the film was impressive.
Dean appeared as Cas turned off the light in the kitchen and closed the door, locking it carefully and putting the chain across the door before moving back to stand in front of Castiel.
"Hi," he said shyly.
"Hello, Dean," Cas said with a smile then jerked his head for Dean to follow him upstairs. Dean got changed in the bedroom while Cas got changed and brushed his teeth in the bathroom.
He normally slept in just boxers so it was a little weird getting into bed with sweatpants on when Dean went to brush his own teeth, but he was sure he could deal with it.
Dean appeared back in his room and turned the light off then swore slightly, Cas laughed and moved to get his phone, he flicked the light on it on and Dean grinned at him in thanks.
"Yeah, I didn't think that through, you know your room better than I do," Dean said as he moved towards the bed and his smile softened, "weird, is that your normal side of the bed?" Cas nodded with a confused frown, "ah, well that makes it easier, 'cos this one's normally the one I sleep on too." Dean slid under the covers and sighed as he lay on his side facing Castiel.
Cas shut the light from his phone off and checked his alarm before curling up and facing Dean.
"Thank you, Dean. I really do appreciate this."
Dean snorted, "hey, you should appreciate that I'm being a gentleman and wearing sweats. I normally sleep in boxers or commando," Dean winked, "but for you, I'll cover up."
Cas gaped slightly and wriggled, "same, I didn't want to just expose myself to you though."
Dean laughed and pushed his face into the pillow to muffle it, "Cas," he gasped when he'd done, and that sound didn't do things to Castiel's cock. Nope, "the last thing you have to worry about is that. In fact, I'd appreciate it." Dean smiled and blushed as Cas did the same thing.
Cas laughed and took off his sweats, "thank god, because I think I might have gone mad if I had to actually sleep in those."
Dean laughed and removed his own sweat pants, laying down slightly closer to Cas, Castiel could smell him over the space between them both now.
He smelled faintly of cologne, and a little of grease, and a bit of soap, and of mint, and of musk, and Cas needed to stop breathing so slowly and deeply because he was getting light headed.
Dean reached out slowly and moved some of Cas' hair off his face, his hand tracing down Castiel's cheek as he did so, "Cas, don't be alarmed by this, but I wanna see pictures of your last neighbours so I can punch them if I ever see them around here again."
Cas laughed, rocking his head forward into his pillow like Dean had done earlier, he was mirroring Dean a lot it seemed. When he'd recovered he made the comment that he didn't want Dean put away for assault, no matter how justified, Dean snorted out a laugh and snuggled closer to Castiel.
Cas unconsciously shuffled forwards and towards Dean's warmth, Dean had left his hand on Cas' cheek after moving his hair and it had moved to the back of his head when Cas has rolled his head forwards to laugh.
Dean grinned as Castiel realised this and his breath hitched, with a slow but precise movement Dean moved his head forwards and within an inch of Cas', glancing at Castiel to make sure it was okay.
Cas was holding his breath, but tipped his chin forward to close the last of the gap between them, letting the breath out in a sigh as their lips met and Dean kissed him gently.
They pulled apart after a few moments of gentle kissing and smiled, Cas kept his eyes closed and felt Dean huff out a laugh over his lips before moving back in, Dean shuffled closer again and pulled Cas' lips back to his, pressing them together more firmly and rolling his tongue against Castiel's bottom lip.
Cas sighed again and opened his mouth, letting Dean move his tongue to explore the warmth as Dean let out a small groan, he moved closer again and pressed himself against Cas as tightly as he could without losing the kiss.
With a groan in response to the heat lined up against his body Cas pushed back into the kiss Dean was giving him, twining his own tongue into Dean's mouth as Dean explored the inside of his own.
Dean leant over and slowly rolled Cas onto his back, then broke their lips apart to roll on top of him and gently lower his weight over Castiel.
"This okay?" he murmured, sounding slightly breathless.
"Very," Cas whispered, moving his hand to behind Dean's head and pulling him for another deep kiss, "you could do what you wanted to me and it would be extremely okay."
Dean groaned and moved so his forehead rested on Castiel's, "Cas, don't say things like that. You've got work tomorrow. You need to sleep."
"Beauty sleep?" Cas asked with a grin and Dean snorted then moved his head to look down at him, his eyes adjusted to the slight light that filtered through the curtains from outside, Dean ran his eyes over Castiel's features and Cas felt himself blushing, he just hoped it was too dark to tell.
"Nah, you don't need any of that kind of sleep, you're gorgeous." Dean smiled gently and kissed both of Castiel's cheeks before kissing his lips again, "but you do need sleep, today has been hard on you, so just sleep, I'll be here when you wake up."
Cas sighed into the air between them, "one more kiss?" Dean laughed and moved his lips back onto Cas', they drew out the kiss for a few minutes before Dean pulled away then planted a quick, gentle, and chaste kiss against Cas' lips.
"Sleep, gorgeous, I'll go get Balthy tomorrow and keep him company, then we can fight with him to get him to take his meds when you get home from work."
Dean rolled off Castiel but pulled him close to his side, Cas yawned and mumbled an agreement that sleep was a good idea after all, Dean snorted again and wrapped his arm around Castiel's shoulder, making Cas cushion his head on Dean's chest, and let his other hand trace gently up and down Cas' side.
Cas squirmed and shoved Dean's hand away, then froze in horror as Dean laughed and poked at his arm, "oh my god, you're ticklish. I'm so gonna use that in future."
"Tickle me and I'll hurt you," Cas tried to sound menacing but the tiredness trickled into his voice, making Dean laugh more and push his hand over his mouth.
"Yeah, yeah. Whatever you say, tiger. Stop with the empty threats and sleep." Dean tangled the fingers of his spare hand with Castiel's and brought it up to his lips, kissing each of the fingers gently before resting them on his chest and hugging Castiel closer around his shoulders.
Cas tangled their legs together and sighed again, snuggling closer to Dean as he began to drift off.
"I mean it, Cas, I'm gonna punch your ex-neighbours."
Castiel fell asleep with a soft laugh and Dean kissed the top of his head gently.
"Incoming ball of menace!" Dean called as Cas opened their front door and Balthazar ran at him, meowing loudly, before jumping into Castiel's arms and purring loudly while pushing his head under Cas' chin.
"Hello to you too," Cas said with a bright grin, scratching the top of the cat's head as Dean came out from the kitchen wiping his hands on a towel and smiling.
"Dinner's just about done," Dean smiled as Cas sniffed the air and smiled appreciatively.
"Burgers?"
"Burgers. Only the best for the anniversary of when we both finally manned up," Dean sauntered towards Cas and Balthazar to plant a kiss on Castiel's lips, making the other man hum in happiness, "welcome home, gorgeous." "Good point," Cas smiled as Balthazar wriggled away to go torture the fish. As usual. Dean moved closer and wrapped his arms around Cas' waist as Cas twined his around Dean's neck with a happy sigh.
"I love you, Dean."
Dean laughed and kissed Castiel again, deeper and slower this time, "I love you too, Castiel."
Cas buried his nose in the juncture of Dean's shoulder and neck while they swayed to the music coming from the kitchen. Castiel hated to admit it, but he still couldn't tell most of Dean's music apart from each other. He only knew he quite liked it and enjoyed it even more when Dean danced with and sung to him as it played.
"Come on, Romeo," Dean grinned into Cas' hair, gently tickling his sides making Cas yelp and hit his arm, "let's eat."
"Gladly," Cas responded, giving Dean a gentle but loving kiss before moving to remove his shoes and jacket, watching as Dean bounced down the hallway whistling along to his music and finished dishing up the burgers.
Cas had never been so happy to get a new neighbour.