OK so I've read a few too many "Dean plays the husband/bread winner role and Castiel the wife/subservient role" fics in the last few days and this is what came out of it. Set post everything…Castiel is human and working at the University…Dean doesn't exactly know what to do with himself now that he isn't hunting. Speck of angst, some fluffy schmoopy sloppy tears, and a happy ending. Slash, but fluffy slash not sexy slash. Not my usual but that's what the plot bunnies threw at me tonight.
Started out as a one shot, but if I get enough reviews I think it can stand another chapter or two. R&R!
The Financial Times
Dean knew Castiel had been making pretty good money working at the University in the five years since he had fallen, but he had never asked exactly how much or commented on the myriad new toys Castiel had started constantly bringing home in the last month. After all, some of those toys were for him….like the big screen HD TV, Blu-Ray player, and X-Box. He kind of liked it, but was growing concerned that Castiel wasn't managing his money wisely.
Castiel was the bread winner in the family these days, and impending poverty wasn't on his wish list. Just the fact that they were living in a 4,000 square foot house was totally unbelievable to Dean, but he hadn't protested when Castiel insisted on buying it. He was constantly waiting for the Foreclosure sign to go up outside though.
After the UPS man delivered a huge shipment from Amazon including a Kindle and new laptop for Sam and a bunch of stuff for the house like new curtains, sheets and comforters for all of the bedrooms he decided it was time to have a chat.
"Cas, you really need to save some money. You are spending way too much." Dean said, watching Castiel pull his new cell phone out of the box.
"I am saving Dean. My investments are doing very well." Castiel said as he inserted the battery and turned the phone on.
"In this economy? You have to be joking."
"No, Dean I'm not joking. There are investment strategies that result in gains even with the current state of the economy." Castiel said, flipping through screens on the phone without looking up.
"And you learned these investing strategies where?" Dean huffed.
"Common sense, Dean. I may not have had the best education in human interaction as an Angel, but I watched many civilizations rise and fall over the millennia. One tends to remember the things that cause their downfall. The current crisis, as you call it, is hardly the first time something like this has happened." Castiel said, finally looking up.
"But Cas, you've spent at least $10,000 in the last month. Not to mention buying this house two months ago. That's a little excessive isn't it?"
"$12,849.12 to be exact. The house was a Foreclosure and we got it for less than half of what it is worth. You don't like the gifts I bought you?" Castiel said, looking at Dean quizzically.
"Of course I like them, Cas. I never thought I'd have any of this stuff. That's not the point though. The point is that we need to have money to live of off too. We don't want to end up homeless and have to go back to Bobby's or something."
"I hardly think we'll end up homeless. We lived at Bobby's practically rent free for the first three years of my employment, so I was able to put away a considerable amount to invest."
"If you keep spending like this we will. Why do we need new curtains, sheets and comforters for three bedrooms we don't even use?" Dean said, pulling out one of the packages with a disgusted look at Castiel.
"We have guests quite frequently. They should be comfortable as well."
"Cas, Sam and Bobby are used to sleeping in crappy motels, they don't need fancy Egyptian cotton sheets…whatever the hell Egyptian cotton is."
"They don't need them, no, but I'm sure they appreciate them…and Egyptian cotton is exactly what it sounds like. Cotton grown along the Nile in Egypt." Castiel said, taking the package from Dean and opening it to inspect the thread count.
"How many credit cards do you have maxed out?" Dean said suspiciously.
"None, Dean. Credit Cards are not a wise thing to have. I simply use the Debit Card attached to my investment account." Castiel said, pulling out his wallet and opening it to reveal only one card and a big wad of cash.
"And the monthly expenses?" Dean said, his eyes wide in surprise at the large amount of cash.
"Auto-paid out of my regular checking account." Castiel said, as he picked up a box and handed it to Dean before taking a second box himself.
Dean followed as Castiel led him down the hall to the library. We have a freakin' library for God's sake. Why do we need a library? As they entered the dark paneled room with shelves from floor to ceiling Dean thought back to the day they had looked at the house for the first time. Castiel had been rather uninterested in the house until he saw this room, and Dean suspected that he bought the house simply because of it. When Dean saw that the full basement had been converted into a sound-proof shooting range he ignored the dollar signs attached to the house and let Castiel sign the papers.
"What's in the boxes?" Dean said, noting the return address was one of a rare book shop Castiel frequented.
"Books, Dean. Books I need to do my research. The research that pays for this house and everything in it?" Castiel said, pulling a particularly old and expensive looking book out of the box he had just deposited on the desk.
Dean sighed and left Castiel to rummage through the old books, wandering about the house idly and marveling at the fact that he was living in such a nice house after so many years of running from the law, staying in dive motels, and crashing on Bobby's floor. It just didn't seem possible that Castiel… dear socially awkward Castiel…could be the orchestrator of such a turn around in their lives. They were practically upstanding citizens. Castiel had become quite the social butterfly in fact, dragging Dean along to more black tie dinner parties than he cared to think about in connection with his job.
After his trip around the house he went outside to gaze at the finely manicured lawn. A lawn he didn't even have to mow because Cas was paying a gardener to take care of it. He sighed and sat down in the porch swing and began to fidget. This was the life he always dreamed of having, but somehow it wasn't working. It was all too much. Without hunting in his life he had little to do all day while Castiel was gone except play games, watch TV, and unload metric fuck-tons of ammo into the shooting range downstairs.
Dean looked up as Castiel came out onto the porch and sat down beside him.
"What's wrong, Dean?" Castiel said, putting his arm around Dean's shoulders.
"I don't know Cas. This is just all too much. I just don't know how to behave." Dean said, gesturing out at the lawn.
"I thought this is what you had always dreamed of. I saw it in your dreams when I was still an Angel. That's why I have worked so hard to get it for you." Castiel said, tilting his head in confusion.
Dean looked at the all too familiar gesture…one he actually missed because Castiel was so unbelievably confident and worldly wise at this point that he rarely did it anymore. He sighed and leaned his head onto Castiel's shoulder.
"It was…I mean is what I always dreamed of, but I don't even have to mow the lawn…everything is done and all I do is rattle around the house all day." Dean said, reaching for Castiel's hand and entwining their fingers.
"You don't like it?" Castiel said, disappointment evident in his voice as he stared at their hands.
"No…that's not what I mean Cas. I love it, but I'm useless here. I used to be the one that had to do everything and now I contribute nothing. I don't even know how much money we have or where it is all coming from." Dean said, sitting up and looking into Castiel's endless blue orbs until he caught his gaze.
"I'm sorry. I just thought you would be glad to have the weight of the world off your shoulders for a change. How can I make it better?" Castiel said, pursing his lips and staring back at Dean.
"That's just it Cas. You can't make it better. I have to find a way to fit in to this new life. You've adjusted so much better than I have." Dean said, standing up and leaning against the porch rail to look out over the flower garden and the 4 car garage that held only the Impala.
Castiel sat for a minute before getting up and placing his hand over Dean's in the rail. "Would you like to start by mowing the lawn? I can stop the Landscaping Service." Castiel said quietly.
"That might be a start, but we don't own a lawnmower."
"I can have one delivered for you tomorrow." Castiel said, pulling out his phone and opening the browser to look for a farm equipment company.
Placing his hand gently on Castiel's to stop him Dean said, "No, let's go buy one together. No more having stuff delivered, no more paying people to do stuff for us that I can do. Then we sit down and you show me the finances." "I've sat on my ass long enough. You can't do everything for us forever. Eventually you'll get tired of it."
"I don't think so Dean, but if this is making you unhappy we can do some things differently. I just assumed when you never asked about the money that you weren't interested, so I took care of it myself." Castiel said, reaching up to brush Dean's lips with a chaste kiss.
"You also need to spend some of that money on yourself you know."
"I do Dean, my books and the phone I bought for myself."
"But those are work things, and you always catch a ride with someone else to work or get me to take you. Maybe we should get you a car. The Impala could use some company in that big ole' garage."
"I don't need a car. I always seem to be able to get where I'm going." Castiel said, shifting uncomfortably as his eyes followed Dean's gaze to the garage.
"I don't need a big screen TV, or a Blu-Ray player, or any of the nice things you've bought me either. If we have enough money then we should get you a car. It'll be fun to go car shopping. Nice change of pace from stealing them." Dean said, grinning at Castiel.
Castiel rolled his eyes at the stealing comment and looked back down at his phone. After he tapped at the screen for a few seconds he turned the screen to face Dean. "I think we have enough, don't you?"
Dean's eyes went wide when he saw the amount of money in the account. "How the hell did you get that much money? I never thought I'd see that in my entire lifetime. That's like…movie star kind of money."
"Hardly…um…movie star money…but perhaps overly sufficient for our needs. Sam helped me at first, until I understood exactly how everything worked. After that I found a strategy that worked incredibly well and since we were living with Bobby at the time we really weren't spending that much." Castiel said proudly.
"We probably should give Bobby some of that for letting us stay so long." Dean said, still a little shell shocked that they were…well…rich. Maybe not multi-millionaire rich, but much, much more than he ever thought he'd have.
"I have Dean…I paid off the mortgage on his house and the junkyard before I decided how much we could spend on this house."
"What about Sam? Since he's gone back to school he could probably use some help with tuition."
"He has a scholarship, but I do help him out with living expenses so he doesn't have to work."
Dean looked at Castiel in disbelief. He helped everyone else before he spent anything on himself or me. Gathering Castiel into a huge hug he squeezed hard, trying to suppress the tears that were trying to escape.
"Unnghh…what is this for?" Castiel groaned as he was crushed by the hug.
"Because I was an idiot thinking you were wasting money on us when you helped everyone else before you thought of yourself or me." Dean said, squeezing even harder.
Castiel struggled and finally extricated himself from Dean's overly enthusiastic hug. "I appreciate the sentiment, but I was only doing what I thought was fair, since they both helped us get here."
"OK then, no more mushy stuff. You working tomorrow?" Dean said, turning away and brushing the back of his hand across his face nonchalantly to get rid of the stray tear that had managed to escape.
Castiel chuckled slightly at the sight of Dean brushing the tear away and smiled before saying, "I was, but I don't have to. I was going in to catch up on some things that need to be taken care of before we go on…vacation."
Dean turned back at that and looked at Castiel questioningly. "We're going on vacation?"
"Ummm yes…to ah…pick-up-our-new-car." Castiel said, looking down and running the end of the sentence together quickly.
"Wait…what? You already bought a car?" Dean said, pursing his lips and crossing his arms in mock disapproval.
"I was going to surprise you, but I didn't expect you to get upset over things so I guess I will tell you now. Wait here and I'll be right back." Castiel said, turning to go back into the house.
Dean watched him go inside and then started pacing, his mind racing with all that had just transpired. He jumped when a BMW brochure appeared in front of him. He reached out with trembling hands and took it as Castiel flipped the pages and pointed to a dark blue M3 Convertible.
"I ordered it for European Delivery. We go to the factory in Germany to pick it up, drive it on our vacation and then it gets shipped back for delivery here when we get home." Castiel said, handing Dean two plane tickets and looking at him hopefully.
Dean's breath hitched and tears began to flow down his face, leaving wet spots on the brochure as he stared at it in disbelief. After taking a moment to compose himself he led Castiel over to the porch swing and gestured for him to sit down. Holding out the tickets he said, "This flight doesn't happen to connect through New York does it?"
"Yes, why?" Castiel said, a confused look on his face once again.
"Your turn to wait here…don't move and I'll be right back." Dean said, turning quickly and running through the house to their bedroom. Rummaging though the boxes at the bottom of his closet he found what he was looking for and grasped it tightly in his hand as he ran back through the house and burst back out onto the porch excitedly.
Castiel looked up and started to stand, but Dean motioned him back down as he got down on one knee in front of him and took his left hand. Looking up at Castiel Dean locked his gaze and said, "We've been together a long time, and it's time we made it official. I've loved you for a long time, and I've told you before, but today? Dean's voice started shaking as he continued on. "Today I just…I can't…I…you've taken the most screwed up life on the planet and turned it into this…with no thought for yourself…only for others. You are the most amazing being on the planet and I'll do everything in my power to make you happy." Stopping to brush the tears away on his sleeve with a sloppy sniffle he finished with, "Castiel, will you marry me?"
"Yes, Dean. Of course I will." Castiel said, his eyes glittering with unshed tears as he leaned down to brush his lips across Dean's.
Dean opened his hand to show Castiel a ring box and opened it, revealing a shiny gold band. "I got this for you a long time ago, but I was too chicken to give it to you. You adjusted to being human so fast and you were out there hobnobbing with all the smart people and I just thought that eventually this high school dropout with a GED and a give 'em hell attitude wouldn't be good enough for you." Dean said, placing the box in Castiel's hand.
Castiel took the ring out of the box and looked at it carefully…his hands shaking. The inside of the band had been carefully engraved with their names, a tiny handprint between them, and the date of their first meeting in the barn all those years ago.
"There's room for one more date in there Cas…the date we get married in New York? Then we can change that vacation into a Honeymoon?"
One thing Dean hadn't seen Castiel do a lot since becoming human was cry, and he was surprised when tears started flowing freely down Castiel's face. "What's wrong Cas…I thought this would make you happy?" Dean said, rising to sit down on the swing beside of Castiel and pulling him close.
"It does, Dean...very happy. You just…beat me to the punch."
Castiel sniffed as Dean brushed his tears away and he pulled a matching ring box out of his pocket. Dean opened the box slowly and saw another gold band, this one shimmering with a radiance Dean couldn't quite take in. Engraved around the inside with an unearthly clarity were their names framed by a tiny set of wings and something in Enochian that Dean couldn't decipher.
"What does it say?" Dean said as he brushed his finger across the engraving.
"With my blessings, God." Castiel said quietly.
"But how? You aren't an Angel anymore. How did you….talk to him?" Dean said, feeling a tiny tingle like Castiel's Grace used give him coming from the writing.
"I didn't…you did. You asked him not long ago if it was meant to be…if you were good enough for me."
"But he didn't answer me." Dean said, wondering if he was imagining the tingle.
"You are holding the answer, Dean. He came to me after that to give his blessing, and to give me the ring." Castiel said, his eyes sparkling with a wonder and reverence Dean hadn't seen in a long time.
"You saw him? He…made this?" Dean said, looking at the ring in awe.
"Yes." Castiel said breathlessly, a smile lighting up his face like Dean had never seen. "I saw the face of God, Dean. After all the millennia of my existence…I finally saw the face of God!"
"Should I ask?" Dean said, not knowing if God would reach down and smite him for asking.
"Probably not. He will reveal himself to you in time. He said he would." Castiel said, with a slight giggle.
What's the giggle for?" Dean said, confused.
"Nothing…all will be revealed at the right time." Castiel said, smiling like the Cheshire Cat.
"Now that's just not fair, Cas. You tease me and I can't know yet?" Dean pouted.
"Compared to the amount of time I had to wait, your wait will be nothing." Castiel said, locking his lips with an imaginary key and throwing it away.
Castiel got up from the swing and took Dean's hand, leading him back in to the house. "I think I can find a way to occupy your mind in the meantime." He said, closing the door firmly and pushing Dean up against it with an aggressive kiss.
"I think you might be right." Dean said, returning the kiss with everything he had.