A Birthday Wish
Even Cas was feeling the ache of their fight. There had been a group of demons hiding out in one of the abandoned warehouses, and it had been a good long battle.
As the Winchesters and Castiel walked into the local diner, all of them exhausted, the angel was puzzled when Sam pulled out a slightly battered, brightly colored box and handed it to his brother as they sat down in the nearest booth. He was even more confused when Dean's face lit up as he tore into the paper, revealing a box of gun ammo.
"They're made out of iron and there's holy water and rock salt in each bullet," Sam explained. "Also, a pentagram is engraved on the top, along with an internal capsule filled with dead man's blood."
Dean grinned at hearing that, holding the box in his hands as if it were gold.
Looking up at his brother, the grin still on his face, he said, "Dude…they're a work of beauty."
Castiel looked between the two brothers, trying to figure out what was going on, but failing. When Dean got up to use the restroom, however, Cas looked at Sam and said, "That was a thoughtful gift, Sam. Why did you get it for him?"
Sam laughed and arched an eyebrow at him over the top of his menu.
"I custom made those, actually, and I gave them to him because I knew he'd like it."
Still befuddled, the younger hunter's answer giving him no clarification, he tilted his head and repeated his question.
"What I meant to ask, Sam, is what is the purpose of making them and giving them to him?"
Sam laughed a second time and shook his head as he flipped a page of the menu and said, "Because it's his birthday, Cas. You do know what a birthday is, right?"
Nodding, the angel said nothing more, remaining silent even when Dean came back from the bathroom, unsure of how to react. As Sam ordered a salad and Dean got his usual burger, Cas surreptitiously stole glances at the older hunter's profile, wondering why Dean hadn't told him, and why he'd had to find out secondhand from Sam.
The angel suddenly felt distinctly uncomfortable as he sat there next to them, the table in front of him devoid of food of any kind. He may have been weakened, but he was still an angel. He would never admit to either of his friends, but he actually missed eating food. He didn't miss the hunger, no; but he most certainly did miss the taste of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. Everything just tasted like…molecules to him, now, and it was a bit depressing. For all of their failings, humans had gotten one thing right: peanut butter.
All too soon, they were done with their meals. As they left the diner and headed for the Impala, Cas stopped.
"I'll…I'll see you back at the bunker," he said, and then disappeared in his customary fashion.
The instant he was back at the bunker, he headed for Dean's room. Yes, it may have been intrusive and wrong, but he wanted…no, he needed to get Dean a present, and so he was going to have to look and see what the hunter might want most. And the only way to do that was to go through Dean's things.
As much as it turned his stomach, he simply dealt with the guilt that it brought up, not caring. Dean's birthday was more important.
After digging through his things relentlessly, his fingers landed on a slip of paper…and six words in Dean's handwriting caught his eye. I miss being on the water.
Being an angel, Castiel had always felt an affinity towards water: it was ageless, and it never changed. It cycled through different stages, but it was always the same. There were different kinds, fresh, salty, briny, and so on, but water was water, always made from the same atoms and diatoms, and never relenting. It could evaporate, but it always re-condensed and reformed, and he felt the same way.
No matter how many times he had thought he was dead, he had come back. Never exactly the same, but the core of him never changed. He was an angel of the Lord.
Realizing that his thoughts were wandering, Cas looked at the rest of the paper and decided that he could work with six words.
Six words was enough.
The instant Dean walked through the door, Cas grasped his wrist…and they were gone.
Looking at him as if he was insane, Dean glared at him and wrenched his hand away, saying, "Jesus, Cas? What the hell was that for? You can't just zap people without warning them, first! I mean, you could cause some…serious…damage…"
His voice faded as he looked at where the two of them stood.
"Uh, Cas…what…what is this?"
The angel looked at him, his head tilted in his usual way, and said, "Happy birthday, Dean."
They stood on a small catamaran, which was sitting on the edge of a very large lake, and, at first, Cas was unsure if he had made the right decision, thinking that he might have misread the meaning behind the words that he'd seen written down…but at seeing Dean's expression, he knew that he had gotten it right.
"Cas…this…this is for me? I mean how…how the hell did you get…? No, you know what, I don't care. I just…can I take her out?"
Castiel nodded and gestured to the back of the boat, where the rudder and the boat controls were, and watched with a faint smile as the hunter scrambled over to it, acting less like the thirty-seven-year-old man that he was and more like a ten-year old stealing his parents' car for a joyride. With an unexpected ease that spoke of years of experience, Dean maneuvered the boat out onto the lake, taking them away from the shore and towards the center of the lake. He hadn't even bothered to ask Cas where they were, but he also didn't seem to care.
After a moment, the angel said, "The boat belongs to a Robert Quackenbush. He's out for the next two weeks on a business trip. I thought…well, I hoped that you might like it."
Dean looked back at home, a broad grin on his face, his green eyes bright.
"Dude…it's the best present ever."
His smile got even wider as the wind caught the sail and they picked up speed. Unaware of it, Castiel made quite a sight, standing next to the mast, his hair and coat being blown about by the wind, looking like someone who had never been on a boat before. Of course, he had, but never when he'd been so close to being human.
The experience was liberating, to say the least.
He looked back at Dean and stared at him, watching in fascination as the hunter's body slowly relaxed the further they got out onto the lake, as if the distance was somehow helping him.
Castiel wanted to ask, but he said nothing.
However, after several long minutes of nothing but the sound of the water against the side of the boat, Dean shifted the catamaran so that it no longer caught the breeze and let it drift. He then said, "Man, I wish it was always like this. Just…the traveling without the worrying. God, is that even possible?"
He dropped his hand from the rudder and laid down on his back, and Cas moved from the main sail to join him.
As he sat down next to him, Dean added, "Bobby taught me a lot of this. Used to take me fishing when Dad wasn't around. We…well, we never told anyone." He propped himself up on his elbows and looked up at Cas and sighed out, "Wish I could've shown Sammy."
The angel didn't know how to reply, so he said nothing.
But then Dean said, in an uncharacteristically soft tone of voice, "Thanks, Cas…"
He simply nodded.
"It was nothing. Sam told me it was your birthday. I…I took a look in your room for an idea. I hope you don't mind."
Cas turned his head and did his signature head tilt, his eyes squinting against the bright light that was reflecting off the water, his expression worried. He then looked away, unsure of what the hunter's look in response meant, feeling slightly uncomfortable under his scrutiny. After a brief moment, Dean replied, "No. I don't mind, Cas."
They said nothing more and enjoyed the silence, but after a few minutes, Dean broke it.
"If…if all of this crap is ever over; you know, the stuff with the end of the world…I'd like to take a trip. You know, just the three of us. Like this."
Intrigued at his words, Cas turned his head back in his direction and was met with a look that he'd never seen before. It was a sort of quiet focus, and it was all focused on him. Green eyes met blue, and the angel had never felt so off-balanced before by just a look.
Dean's hand touched his.
It was barely noticeable, his left pinky just crossing over Cas' right hand, and he would have thought it an accident, but then Dean said, "It'd be nice to get away," and looked up at Cas…and then back down at their hands, where they were connected by mere centimeters of touching skin.
Castiel looked down.
In a low voice, he managed to reply, "I'd like that, Dean."
When he looked back up, he was met with the most blindingly bright smile that he'd ever seen on the man's face, and he felt his own mouth straining to do the same. Dean then leaned in a pressed a faint kiss to his right temple and murmured into his hair, "Thanks for the birthday present, Cas…"
Cas smiled.
They spent another three hours on the small catamaran, enjoying the time that they had, and then Cas took them back to the bunker, where they found Sam looking about ready to murder someone.
"You…you didn't call, you didn't text, you didn't…!"
Cas looked guiltily at Dean, realizing his blatant mistake, and Dean chuckled and said, "So, I guess you forgot to tell Sam where we were going."
"It honestly never occurred to me. I am sorry for neglecting to tell you of my plans," Castiel said, turning an apologetic look over to the younger brother. "They were rather last minute and I didn't think that we'd be gone so long."
Dean just chuckled as Sam shook his head.
"Cas was just giving me my birthday present, Sammy."
Sam's eyebrows shot up, and Dean shook his head but didn't respond. Instead, Cas responded for him and said, "I took him out on a boat." Sam's expression relaxed, and he let out a soft chuckled and replied, "Good choice. Can't go wrong with something like that."
Castiel shrugged.
Dean smiled.
"It was great. I won't forget it, Cas," he said, clapping a hand on his shoulder, letting it linger longer than it normally did. And as he pulled away, it slid along his shoulder and down his arm, fingers just barely brushing his wrist.
The angel simply smiled and stared at Dean a moment longer than necessary as he walked out of the room. Sam noticed the look, but said nothing.
However, after a few moments, Sam said enigmatically, "He can't say it, Cas. I'm sure you know that by now…but that doesn't mean it isn't there."
The younger Winchester left the room, and Cas stared after him…and, after a moment, he figured out what Sam had meant. He stared after the direction that Dean had gone in, and made a hasty decision. In a soft flutter of wings, he was in the older hunter's room. Dean startled at his sudden appearance, his coat and plaid shirt thrown to the side, leaving him in just a black t-shirt and jeans, boots already tossed in the same corner as his jacket and button-up.
"Cas…? What-"
Before he could say another word, the angel stepped forward and grasped his wrist in a similar gesture to what Dean's had been only minutes before, and used the leverage to lean forward and press a kiss to the hunter's temple, vaguely aware of the shudder that ran through Dean's body at the intimate contact.
"When all of this is over, Dean," Cas said, echoing the hunter's words from earlier, "I'll take you and Sam on that boat trip."
He pulled back just far enough for blue to catch green and gave him a lopsided smile.
"If you don't mind, that is…"
Dean's mouth hung open, his lips moving as if to form words, and then finally managed to get out, "I…I'd like that, Cas…", accidentally repeating Castiel's words from on the boat, and, at hearing them, the angel smiled. Just as he let go of Dean's wrist, however, the hunter unexpectedly leaned in and wrapped his arms around him, in a hug that was reminiscent of a more desperate emotion. Castiel then felt lips brush against his ear as Dean whispered, "Don't ever change, Cas…"
When they pulled back, Castiel gave him a small smile and a nod.
"I don't plan to, Dean."
And with that, he disappeared, unaware of Dean falling hard on the end of his bed, grasping onto the edge of it tightly as though if he let go, he would fall. He didn't see the glimmering, hopeful look that now lingered in the hunter's eyes for the first time in years.
He didn't see or hear the muffled sob of relief, pressed into the crook of an arm, green eyes bright with unshed tears at the fact that the thing that he'd been silently wishing for every year on his birthday since he'd met the angel had finally come true.
THE END
A.N. - This was written for SPN Writing Challenge on Tumblr, for November 2015. The prompt was travel: boat.