Cas woke shivering on the sofa, blanket wrapped around him like a cocoon. Rain pounded heavily on the windows, and the wind howled, asking for someone to let it in. Cas squirmed, wriggling his toes and pulling his knees up to his chest in an attempt to keep warm. He frowned, nose wrinkling, as he tried to sort through his foggy thoughts, pushing sleep away. He had to get up, there was something important….
"Hey stranger."
Cas started awake, scrambling to get into a sitting position, and blinked at Dean, who was standing over him with a grin on his face, fully dressed. His voice was coated with a morning husk that Cas hadn't had the privilege of hearing yet; it brought back memories of the night before that made Cas blush a deep red.
Seeing this, Dean chuckled and crawled onto the sofa with Cas, pushing him gently into the cushions and kissing him softly on the lips. Cas wasted no time in responding, grabbing a fistful of Dean's sweater and pulling him closer. Dean sighed into the kiss, butterflies racing in his stomach, and he pulled away.
"How're you feeling, Cas?"
Cas blinked again, and attempted to sort through his thoughts and settle on a feeling. After a moment of consideration, he said "Overwhelmed."
Dean nodded, and sat back a little, giving Cas more space. "That's ok. We can talk now, or later, or never. Whatever you want."
Just as Cas was about to respond, his stomach growled rather loudly, and Dean laughed. "Maybe after breakfast." He reached out, eyes soft, to run a hand through Cas' hair, before getting up and walking to the kitchen. "Go get dressed, I'll cook."
The realisation hit that the reason Cas was so cold was the fact that he was stark naked, bar the blanket. As Dean set to work in the kitchen, Cas wrapped the blanket around his middle and tiptoed into his bedroom, hurriedly pulling on warm clothing and listening to the wind howling outside.
"Cas, food's up!"
How was Dean so calm? Cas wondered as he sat down at the table. Sure, Cas was on cloud nine after spending the night with him, but his head was pretty scrambled. What had it meant to Dean? Were they now dating? Partners? Was he just a rebound for Dean's loss of Lisa? They had broken up only hours before….
"What're you thinking about?" Dean asked softly, nudging Cas gently under the table with his foot.
Cas shook his head. "Nothing."
Dean sighed. "Do you wanna talk yet? You probably have questions, I know I do…"
Cas shrugged. Honestly, he didn't know what he wanted. What if the answers Dean gave were the opposite to what Cas wanted to hear? What if Dean told him that it wouldn't happen again? What if Lisa turned up and Dean took her back? What if-
"Just one thing, then, if you're still thinking," Dean spoke up, and cleared his throat a little. He waited for Cas to look up and meet his gaze before continuing.
"I didn't just use you for sex, or as a rebound for Lisa." Cas felt the tightness in his chest relax a little, and he sighed with relief. Dean kept talking. "I know it looks pretty bad, sleeping with you on the same day I broke up with her, but that's not how it is, I swear. I mean, like I said last night, I've liked you since I met you and last night I just…" Dean chuckled. "I couldn't resist anymore, y'know? Seeing you topless twice in one day kinda threw me."
Cas laughed, and found himself blushing again. Dean's smile widened, and his eyes lit up. "God, I don't half love it when you laugh."
They shared a moment of silence, in which Cas reached across the table to touch Dean's hand with his own. Feeling a little less overwhelmed and a little more like he'd won the lottery, he linked their fingers together across the table, raising his eyebrows as Dean sighed happily.
"Is there anything you want to talk about?" Dean asked, blushing slightly.
Cas licked his lips nervously and decided to ask the most important question. "What happened last night….do you think….will it happen again?"
Dean smirked, Cas' hopeful blue eyes searching his own, and he stood up, dropping their hands and walking over to Cas' side of the table. He leaned down, grabbing a fistful of Cas' sweater, and kissed him, tongue pushing Cas' pale lips apart and exploring his mouth. He felt Cas' hands go to his hips and pull him down closer, and so Dean, always a tease, pulled away, biting Cas' bottom lip gently as he did so. He put his lips by Cas' ear, grazing the skin.
"Only if you behave," he said, and Cas almost - but not quite - groaned out loud. Dean stepped back, winked, and walked over to the kitchen, filling a glass full of water, leaving Cas red faced and breathless at the table.
Cas decided to spend the rest of the day thinking, and as he thought, he drew. He sketched his old home, the large manor house with iron gates by the front. He drew two faceless lovers, sleeping on a couch that looked a little too much like Dean's in front of a fireplace that also looked a little too much like Dean's. He drew what he thought New York would look like when it snowed, streets empty, Christmas light glowing.
Dean wandered over from his office at some point and rested his chin on Cas' shoulder, watching him for a minute before Cas turned his head slightly and asked him what he wanted.
Dean smiled, and held up the pad of paper that Cas had drawn in nearly a week ago on his first day alone. "You didn't tell me you drew in this."
"I'm sorry, I forgot." Castiel hadn't in fact, forgotten - but he wasn't going to admit that he was embarrassed.
Dean flipped open a page and his own face stared out at him in pencil, soft grey lips parted. On the next page, it was his side profile, and the next page was his full body, dressed in the suit that he had been wearing when they had met. The next few pages continued in the same way, sketches of Dean pulling this pose or that.
"I was just practising." Cas mumbled, face burning red as he tried to focus on his current drawing rather than let Dean embarrass him with his old ones. But, apparently, Dean was having none of it.
"Cas, these are incredible."
"They're just rough sketches."
"No I mean it!"
"So do I."
Dean rolled his eyes and dropped the paper to the floor. Cas turned around at the sound, but Dean had already moved, taking his current sketch away and placing it on the coffee table.
"Dean, what-"
But Cas didn't get to finish his question, and quite frankly he didn't need to. It was pretty obvious what Dean was doing when he crashed their lips together, straddling his hips and making the sofa cushions sink.
This time Cas really did groan out loud, hands pulling Dean closer, trying to keep his head as he felt Dean bite his bottom lip. He felt Dean's hands slip under his sweater and shivered at the touch.
Dean moved to kiss Cas' neck, rocking his hips ever so slightly and grinning when Cas moaned, head arched back. He planted another kiss and sat up, to Cas' dismay. "Dammit, Cas, what do I have to do to convince you that I really do like your art?"
Cas shrugged. "This works well." Dean's laughter filled the room and Cas kissed him with swollen lips, hands tugging at the hem of his sweater.
"Wait wait wait wait wait, Cas," Dean panted just a few minutes later, after Cas had successfully removed Dean's sweater and was letting his hands roam. "Cas, it's getting late, we should have dinner first and then afterwards we can...uh…"
Cas frowned. "You want to stop and eat?"
"I'm just saying, it's already in the oven, I don't wanna burn the place down..."
"So turn the oven off." Cas muttered, tracing a finger down Dean's spine and making Dean forget how to breathe, so much so that he had to gasp for air when Cas kissed up his neck and bit his earlobe softly.
"C-cas, c'mon," Dean squeezed his eyes shut as he felt Cas' hand moving up his thigh. "If we eat we'll have a lot more energy."
Cas rolled his eyes and clambered not so gracefully off of the millionaire. Both of them sat there for a minute, calming down, getting their breath back, trying not to think of what they could be doing right now if it weren't for the food bubbling in the stove.
They rushed through dinner, burning their tongues on the food that was straight out of the oven. Once they had eaten their full and watered down their scolded mouths, Cas stacked their plates in the dishwasher, butterflies in his stomach, feeling Dean's eyes on his back.
Dean was standing by the door of his bedroom, waiting. Cas wasn't the only one who was nervous; Dean's legs had turned to jelly. It was one thing to go at it in the heat of the moment, no discussion or talking or thinking involved, but to plan it, to know that in a few minutes they'd spend the night together again….well, Dean decided he preferred the no talking kind of intimacy.
Nevertheless, he reached out, offering his hand to the man standing in his kitchen. Cas walked over and took it, wondering for a moment at how they seemed to fit perfectly. Dean tugged them into his room and kicked the door shut quickly, pushing Cas down gently onto the memory foam mattress.
Afterwards, they lay in silence, moonlight streaming through the small window and casting a silver glow around the room. Dean lay on his front, one arm slung lazily over Cas' chest, head nuzzled into his neck. Cas himself was staring at the ceiling, listening to his partner's breathing, wondering why he had slept with him again even though he hadn't quite got his thoughts in order about the first time.
He was happy, definitely; Dean was, naturally, the perfect lover, and Cas seemed to get the impression that he wasn't that bad either. The thing that Cas was struggling with was putting a name to it. They weren't boyfriends, as far as he knew, they weren't even dating, but it didn't feel like casual sex. The way Dean said his name, the way Dean sometimes stopped just to look him in the eyes with that awe...it wasn't casual. The cuddling afterwards certainly wasn't either, with Dean's finger trailing down Cas' side, letting him know that he was ready to go again, if Cas wanted to.
This time, they didn't talk. They fell asleep together, bathed in moonlight, not too sure what would happen when they woke up the next morning.