To say the house was movie material was going a bit overboard in Dean's opinion; Sam seemed to stand by the point that it was probably portrayed in every family friendly American film in existence. Its wrap around porch was adorned with cute outside furniture accompanied by small pots of flowers and little sculptures here and there. Mini flags and pinwheels resided in the garden below the porch, spinning happily in the wind. The flaky white paint flowed well with the navy blue trimming and the burgundy pigment of the door. Maybe it was a bit too moviesque.

Dean noted the intricate designs of the gremlin door knocker before he pounded roughly on the door. The older couple who was selling the house had requested they meet the potential buyers to make sure they found the rightful new fit. Castiel found it sweet how they wanted to meet them, while Dean found it a huge nuisance. What if they were denied the house because of their relationship?

"Oh, hello!" a grandmotherly woman answered the door decked out in a floral patterned cardigan that sickened the hunter but made him want to embrace her at the same time. He forced a smile when his angel introduced each of them respectively. Castiel shot a warming glare at Gabriel when the archangel smirked and purred at the woman causing her to send a dirty look his way and clear her throat. "Ah yes, the nice man I spoke to on the phone. I'm Mildred Barr. You must be the Winchesters?" Dean's eyes widened at the prospect that Cas had used his last name. He lightened up a bit at that as his heart filled with uncontrolled joy.

"We are," Castiel smiled softly; "Mind if we come in to have a look around the home?" the angel queried Mildred. She scurried out of the way silently and closed the door behind the boys. She stood back to allow them some exploring time always smiling softly.

Castiel and Dean slowly took in the well-lit entry way and living room beyond that; noting an adjacent modernized office space. The open kitchen revealed a family dining area centered inside three windows – one on each wall. Beyond a door just off the kitchen was a formal dining room tucked neatly away leading to a beautifully well-appointed sun room. The boys sauntered their way back into the living room, glancing at the old furniture before walking into a small foyer.

They led themselves up a white railed staircase admiring authentic cherry wood steps. A small boxed hall gave way to corridors on each side and a rather cozy looking sitting room directly ahead. The team soon learned there to be four, two on each side of the strip, bedrooms on this floor plus two partial bathrooms. A short flight of stairs lead them to a huge master bedroom the size of the full attic. Natural light flowed in through the rather large bay window illuminating the room in soft twilight.

The house was flawless in every aspect of the word. Sure, it needed a major paint job to get away from the deep earthy colors and more up-to-date furniture but it could not have been any better for the pair. "What do you think guys?" Gabriel asked tenderly from behind them somewhere. The hunter wrapped his arms around his angel leaning his head into his mess of waves, "It's near perfect." He whispered as if the whole room would fade away if he spoke with any vigor. The angel leisurely nodded his head in agreement, resting fully against Dean's side.

Near perfect was an understatement.


Team Free Will plus Gabriel sat stiffly on plush couches in the sitting room. Milly, Gabe now addressed the old woman as such, was mulling around downstairs pulling together a tray of various sweets as they awaited her husband's return. She did not feel right and proper selling their house without his presence.

Mildred had explained to the boys that they were selling so that the elderly couple could live out their days traveling the country together until they were just too old to do that anymore. Dean secretly hoped one day Cas and him could do that without it having to be a hunt. Of course given that angel's don't die… or age…

Those thoughts could go back to the deepest pit of Hell from wince they crawled out of. After Dean stomped on them and broke their resolve and ran them over a few hundred times with Baby.

Mildred brought up the pastries and set them on the coffee table before taking her own seat in a huge blue arm chair. They all spent the next half hour getting to know one another and generally having a swell time. Mildred seemed to like Dean and Castiel although they were certain she had not caught on to their relationship yet. They both yearned that she would not question who Dean would be living with if they made a deal.

Not more than an hour late for their appointment an older gentleman appeared. Dean concluded that it was Milly's husband as he crossed the threshold of the square room and pecked his wife on the lips. Castiel lightly gripped the hunter's upper leg as a sign of nervousness. Dean briefly laid his hand on the angel's giving him a quick hard smile before looking back towards the man. He seemed to have not noticed the contact or just didn't think anything of it as he moved to introduce himself.

"I'm Melvin Barr, nice to meet you," he shook each man's hand sneering almost undetectably at the couple sitting well within personal boundaries of one another. Castiel, however, caught the look and attempted unsuccessfully to hide more in Dean's hard side. The hunter calmly asked the angel to move over a bit mentioning personal space and breathing down his neck. Dean hated being this way to Cas but he for one had not caught the look and did not need this couple to turn them down because they caught on to them. "Which one of you lucky bastards are looking to buy?"

The hunter cleared his throat, standing to meet Melvin eye to eye, "I am, sir," Dean paused and glanced back at Castiel; "Actually, we are," he gestured back at the angel who stood sluggishly. Even to the most asinine person alive, it was quite obvious that the other man was an anxious wreck of tension and timidry. Cas extended his clammy hand expressing his hello almost unintelligibly. Unconsciously he placed a hand over his belly like he expected the couple to notice the slight roundness under the overly large t-shirt. Dean smirked a little at his angel's endearing behavior. That might buy them a ticket in or at least make the couple think he was just a very masculine girl.

Melvin scowled at the pair under a bright beam. He continued on with his probes; asking if they were first timers, why they chose the house, even if they planned to make any revisions to the current appearance of the home. Dean managed to find a way to politely answer that yes, they were going to paint the walls something drastically different that shit brown and puke green. Gabriel gave him an under the table thumbs up so many times that Castiel lost count and just began glaring at the two.

"Alright boy, you passed the preliminaries. Now, what pretty ladies get to join you and your friend here?"

The room went silent. Gabriel and Sam slowly cocked their heads towards one another giving the other a sour lemon look. Sam chanced a glance over to his brother thrown off by his deer-caught-in-headlights look. He could not believe that he had not planned an answer for this question.

Gabriel stared at Castiel with a smirk. It was now or never, his baby bro's time to come out of the closet to people who weren't his proclaimed family. Just as Castiel turned to answer, Dean threw on one of his best grins, slung an arm over his waist and proclaimed his undying love for the man next to him.

Melvin opened and closed his mouth once, twice, three times; clenching his hands by his side. He was seething in rage, bathing in sheer ire and contempt that it felt as if his eyes were burning holes right through Dean's when he looked up from where they once bore into the carpet. The old man drew his lips back in a fierce snarl, his heart beating dangerously fast in his chest. "You what now?"

Castiel ducked under the hunter's arm and hid behind him, why was this man yelling at them? They had done nothing wrong! All Dean said was true.

"I said, Cas here and I are happily together you judgmental fuck. I love him, he loves me. We're going to start a big o' family," Dean answered sweat as can be. His hand snaked behind him to grab hold of Castiel's. Silently he urged him to feel that everything was okay, he could handle this. Exactly what he hoped would not happen, was happening.

Melvin practically roared, "I will not have a couple of queers living under the roof I called home for many, many years. You can go to the fiery pits of Hell where you be-"

"Now Mel," Mildred tried to console.

"I will not have it, Milly. They can go whore one another out some place else - do whatever their kind does. But it will not happen under this roof. Not now, not ever. Do you understand me?"

"Dean and I do not whore ourselves out!" Castiel protested rather loudly, "We plan to start a family here… to be happy and provide here. Not go out of our way to soil everything we have worked for," the angel was trembling softly. Mood swings, Dean concluded to himself. That explained the reason he was so shy earlier and now… scared maybe? Angry was a definite possibility. That's just awesome…

"Melvin Eugene Brass! We will not throw a couple of fine boys out on the street just because you cannot be excepting of them. What they do in their own time is none of our business. I am so sorry, Honey. Want some tea? We'll sell you the house, I promise," Dean heard Cas sniff behind him and nod his head gently. He realized Mildred was trying to soothe him. His angel was actually crying.

Definitely mood swings. No more questions about it.

"But, Mildred-"

"You shut your trap, Mel and call the nice woman who said she'd help us the paperwork. We've got a house to sell."

Gabriel gawked at the old woman who winked at him in return. Woman knew who to get her way. The archangel concluded that he desperately needed to apprentice under her and soon.


Dean finished scrawling the r of his surname out on the documentation in front of him. He felt like he was signing his life away. Literally considering Castiel talked him into using his God given name rather than an alias. He tried arguing back that the angel had written out Castiel Winchester when that was not even close to his last name but quickly lost. The seraph was starting to get scary this way.

200,000 dollars later, Dean and Cas where home owners. The Brass's would be moving or selling their belongings over the weekend just a short five days away. The duo had already discussed using any left over money for basic furniture until they had a steady income. In the meantime, Dean had arranged to stay with Bobby who was only about a 45 minute drive out. Everything was coming together nicely.

The hunter said his thanks and goodbyes to Mildred, making it a point to ignore Melvin. If old dude wanted to be a dick, Dean could be ten times the dick. Hell, he was a better looking dick to begin with. He snickered lightly at his own joke before joining the trio by the door.

Sam and Gabriel had already decided that they were off to work another case to give their brother's some breathing room. Gabriel was already prepared to use it as a number one way to seduce the moose of a hunter that stood next to him.

Dean hoped in the Impala followed shortly by Cas who had gotten rung into a grandma death hug. The angel sighed and lent against the window, smiling tiredly at Dean. The hunter reciprocated the smile while throwing baby into drive.

"Want to grab some dinner?"

"Yes, please," Castiel blew out a puff of air, settling more comfortably in the plush leather seat, "But, uhm… no more burgers," he smiled sheepishly at Dean. The blond glanced over at the angel disbelievingly for a moment before belting out a deep chime of laughter.

"Bar food good?"

"Dean, I have no idea if bar food is good. We usually only dine at eateries."

"No, Cas, I mean – Never mind what I meant. We're eating bar food."

"That is fine by me, Dean," the angel giggled.

The boys waltz into a rather posh looking bar. Well, posh looking on the outside. The inside screamed great food and even better beer. If Dean was looking for a lay, this would have been the perfect bar to do so at. The women were just stellar.

"What can I get you boys?" their waitress, a rather skinny scantily dressed blonde girl, asked in a northern drawl. Dean leered at her for a millisecond before Castiel kicked him rather roughly under the table. He was so not used to this restrain yourself around the ladies thing.

Dean grumbled softly while looking at Castiel innocently from under his eyelashes, "I'll take the Cowboy," Dean winked suggestively at the other man who blushed light pink at the innuendo, "and lemme get your best seasonal."

Cas thought about growling at the woman in front of him when she chortled obnoxiously and batted her eyelashes at what was his, "and for you, Grumpy?" she deemed him.

"Fettuccine," the angel ground out not so polite like, "and water is fine." He watched in horror as she lent over to whisper something in Dean's ear that seemed to amuse him. He really had to restrain himself from snarling as she subtly flashed Dean her rather large breasts. It took everything in him not to attach himself to his lips when she casually ran her hand up his leg while walking behind him to serve another table. Although what disturbed him the most was Dean's total passiveness over the whole encounter, like he was completely okay with some woman rubbing up on him in the angel's presence.

"What was that about? What did she whisper to you?"

"Calm down there, Kitten," Dean chucked, laying his hand over the angel's on the table when he shot him a hard-on inducing glance. Cas probably would have felt something towards that look if he was not so inanely pissed, "She just told me that you looked like you needed a good lay. Do you, Cas?"

The angel's face lit up like a Christmas tree. Oh, "No, Dean, I do not require a 'good lay'. I would not mind you, though."

"Well, aren't I a good lay?" the hunter smirked sardonically. Cas was too much sometimes.

"Of course you are! I did not mean-"

"I know, Angel. God knows I know."

"What does my father have to do with this?" Castiel glowered righteously at Dean. Since when did he have the right?

Dean grinned in unadulterated adoration. When this baby was born, Dean was marrying the fuck out of his angel, "Nothing Castiel."

"Nothing, exactly. I do not mention your father at inappropriate times," Cas smiled at the hunter over the rim of his cup. Dean caught that he now understood the phrasing used earlier even if he did not appreciate its use. Dean relaxed back into his side of the booth, taking a swig of his highly refreshing beer.

They enjoyed a nice setting out. Castiel seemed to calm down into his normal self; mood swings seemingly gone. He managed to keep his weird cravings to a minimum although they seemed to be coming in full swing now. With both of them sated and ready to just sleep it off; they paid the bill and walked outside.

Cas intertwined their fingers, swinging their arms back and forth in a soothing manner, "I love you, Dean Winchester."

"I love you, Castiel Winchester," he smiled at the name. Cas looked up at Dean when they reached the back of the Impala. "What? It has a sort of ring to it that I like." He pecked the angel softly on the lips.

"I love you to the moon and back," the angel spoke again with a face so earnest Dean almost gave in and screwed the innocence out of him.

"Excuse me?" he asked softly.

"To the moon and back," Castiel reiterated with life, "I love you to the moon and back, Dean Winchester… past the closest star, other than the sun, to us into the next galaxy."

Dean shifted giddily, his heart swelling so large he convinced himself it would burst out of his chest. He was shining with delight as he repeated, "I love you to the moon and back, Cas."

The angel titled his head up kissing the hunter softly. He pulled back with a huge grin in place as he sauntered over to the car. Dean made his way over to the driver's side in no hurry; "Hey Cas?" the angel hummed a response, "What is the nearest star other than the sun?"

The angel twittered as he sat in the passenger's seat, "Proxima Centauri, Dean."

"Huh," the hunter mulled over the information, "of course you know," he mocked halfheartedly. He sped off into the cool late September night, unprepared for the trials to come later in the week but fully prepared to tackle them with his angel.

He figured as long as Castiel was picking out the curtains, there couldn't be anything to go truly wrong.

Notes:

Well, it's about that time for a new chapter. I enjoy the idea of a sweeter Cas; the thought pulls at something sweet inside of me.