Dean had been prepping himself all day for when he was going to tell his brother, he'd decided that he'd tell him at dinner. So, he was draining the pasta when Sam came into the kitchen to grab the chili flakes.
"Hey, uh, Sammy." Dean started, clearing his throat and avoiding his brother's eyes as he watched the water drain from the spaghetti. "I know I've been kind of, um, unfair to you lately."
Sam threw up the chili flakes and caught them again one-handed. "This is about the fight you and Baby had, huh?"
Dean nodded. "Yeah. About that. Sam..." He sighed and took the pot, pouring the pasta into a large bowl. He set it down, looked at it for a second, and then finally looked to Sam. His little brother had a puppy-eyed look in his eyes. Dean's hands felt extra clammy.
"Sam...I..wanted to tell you this for a long time and I don't know how, and you know I hate all that sappy stuff, so...I wanted to tell you..I'm bisexual." Dean said, a little less confidently than he was hoping.
Sam got this look on his face like 'that's it?' "Oh," Sam answered. "I mean..thats..it?"
Dean was visibly surprised. "That's it?" He echoed.
Sam laughed. "I mean, Dean, I thought it was going to be something, you know, bad."
Dean gaped at him. "You don't think that's bad?"
Sam smiled. "Dean, I thought you...knew I knew."
Dean was speechless. "If you're embarrassed of me or something..I'll..I guess I'll.." He stammered, and Sam put the chili flakes down on the counter, and next thing Dean knew his face was pressed into a shoulder covered in flannel.
"Dean, no, I'm not embarrassed. Who do you think I am?"
Dean enjoyed the hug for another second. Here comes round two.
"I'm..seeing Cas." He blurted.
"Dean. I think you're seriously underestimating my observation skills." Sam's chest bumped with laughter underneath Dean's cheek. They were quiet as Sam smoothed down his back and Dean shut his eyes.
"Thank you for telling me." Sam said quietly.
Dean let out a breath of air he didn't know he'd been holding.
"And just don't put too much sauce on the pasta this time, okay?" Sam asked before leaving to sit down.
"So-" Sam started, clearing his throat as he sat down at the table. "I mean.." Sam looked at Cas and Dean. They stared back, Cas took a little bite of his food and looked at Sam with a confused expression. "You're..you guys are like, a couple now?"
Dean shrugged, twisting his fork in the pasta. "Yep."
"I mean, like-" Sam seemed a little flustered. "I mean...you guys are just acting so..normal."
Dean began twirling his fork around, and he didn't look up at Sam again. "Yeah, well, it's gonna be different this time around." Dean mumbled. "He's...more important to me than that."
"Thank you, Dean." Cas said shyly.
"We're taking stuff slow." Dean told Sam. "For him, sure, but..mostly for me."
Sam smiled a little, he seemed proud of his brother. "It just seems so..I dunno, unusal for you, that's all."
"Fine, you want a kiss?" Dean looped his arm around Cas's shoulders and kissed him on the side of the head on the temple. "There," He said curtly, pulling away and clearing his throat, continuing to eat. Cas blushed and dipped his head.
Sam's eyebrows tipped upward like he was looking at a puppy playing with a kitten or something.
Dean scowled. He thinks we're cute? Oh, hell no.
"Hey. We're two very manly men who just happen to like each other, okay? Shuddup." Dean looked down at his pasta and tried to force the blush off his face.
Sam chuckled a little. "You guys are actually kind of c-"
"Sammy, if you say the c-word I swear to God I'm going to rip your lungs out." Dean said grumpily.
"This is even worse on the cute-o-meter than those awful safari carseats. I think I might puke." Baby teased.
"What part about manly men don't you understand?" Dean shot back, pretending to be angry, but had to hide a smile under his palm. He'd actually rather have the teasing- it meant Baby thought it was normal enough to tease, and wasn't doing that awful tip-toe around it thing.
Dean's cell phone suddenly began ringing in his pocket. "Well, if you'll excuse me, i have to answer my manly phone and take a manly call."
"Dean, I don't believe technologies such as phones have specified genders." Cas spoke up, his eyes all squinty and confused. Dean guffawed a little, standing up and tipping Cas's head toward him and kissing his hair, then began to walk away as he answered his phone.
"Hello?"
"Dean! Geez, I haven't talked to you in forever! I mean, I know I stopped by after the fall, but I was going to be passing through the area anyway and I knew I had to call you! How's everyone doing?"
Dean smiled. "Hey, Charlie."
"Charlie!" Baby piped up happily behind him, grinning widely. "Tell her to floor it and get her ass down here asap!"
Charlie sounded confused as she spoke up again. "..Dean? Who's that?"
Dean cleared his throat. "Uh..see, we were on a case and someone put a..erm..spell on our car."
Charlie gasped loudly on the other line. "Holy crap! Your Impala's a human? Tell me, is it like the perfect gijinka?"
Dean brought his eyebrows together. "What the hell's a gregenka?"
"No, Dean, it's gijinka, and never mind." Charlie then spoke up, even more exciteable than before. "Omg, can I talk to Baby?"
Dean shrugged. "I don't see why not. But wait, hey, what time do you think you'll get here?"
"Uh...I think by tommorow." Charlie answered. "Okay, now let me talk!"
Dean rolled his eyes, came over and handed Baby the phone. Baby smirked, took the phone, and leaned back in his chair, grinning.
"Hey, sweetheart." He said in his rough voice, tipping back in his chair and crossing his ankles on the table.
Charlie squealed a little bit. "Dean, this better not be a joke!"
"I wish it were a joke, babe. I'd way rather be a car right now." Baby told her, grinning a little more.
"You're a DUDE?!" Charlie asked in astonishment. "Holy shit! I knew Human!Impala would be a guy! Oh my god, I so called it! All the other fans can kiss my ass!"
Baby laughed and covered the mouthpiece, calling out to Dean. "Hey, Dean. At least someone knows what's up."
"Well, not saying Fem!Impala wouldn't be hot. She so would. But I mean, obviously, it makes perfect sense. Like they had a male siren and it's pretty obvious that family means so much more than a hot piece of ass, I mean, I'm sure you're still a hot piece of ass but-" Charlie was rambling, and Baby and Dean tussled as Dean tried to wrench the cell phone back.
"Hey, Charlie?" Dean spoke up again, shoving Baby's reaching hand away. "Um, I'm gonna have to let you go. But we'll see you soon, okay?"
"Okay! Peace out!" She said excitedly before the phone line finally went dead.
Dean laughed when he saw that smug look on Baby's face. "Wipe that stupid expression off your face, you old piece of scrapmetal!"
The day passed by easily and that night was movie night again in the old bunker, and even though a lot had happened since they watched "Benjamin Button", things still felt a lot the same. Tonight it was once again narrowed down to two options, "Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets" or "2012".
"Dean. Harry Potter is so much better than some crappy, fad of an apocalypse movie." Sam rolled his eyes.
"It was not a crappy apocalypse movie! It was an okay apocalypse movie!" Dean shot back.
"All in favor of 'Harry Potter' raise their hand." Sam spoke up, raising his own, and Cas also raised his hand.
"Cas!" Dean gasped in irritation.
"I'm sorry, Dean, but the movies your brother picks often prove to be very good."
Sam shot Dean a bitchface and Dean flipped him off. They started the movie, Dean made popcorn and Baby kept commenting that the flying Ford Anglia was hot, laughing when it booted the luggage out of the car and driving away. ("I swear to God if I could, I would have done that to you guys too many times to count.")
"Well, you keep saying she's hot, but what does she look like?" Sam asked with a mouthful of popcorn.
"Well, red hair, obviously. And little blue overalls, same color as the paint, but they're all tattered from living in the forrest. But she's got wings and her hair always is in a little braid with twigs and leaves in it." Baby sighed and squished his cheeks. "She's a tough little nugget like me, getting smashed by that tree and still being able to drive like that!"
And Sam had to explain that there were things called 'fictional characters' and that it wasn't usually the best idea to get crushes on them.
It wasn't long before Cas fell asleep, leaning on Dean's shoulder. The movie finally ended and Dean gently shook his shoulder.
"C'mon, Cas, movie's over. Time for bed." Dean rolled his shoulder a little. "C'mon. Like hell I'm carrying you again."
Cas groaned but didn't wake up. Dean rolled his eyes but smiled.
Dean grunted and he picked him up, transferring him from the couch into his arms, Cas's head lolling to his shoulder as he lifted. "Heavy bastard," Dean joked into his ear.
He shot Baby and Sam a look that could kill. "This never happened, you hear me?"
"Geez, Dean, enough with the PDA!" Baby said extremely sarcastically. Sam and Baby hadn't even seen the two kiss on the lips yet.
"PDA stands for Public Display of goddamn Affection, and last time I checked I'm in my own fucking house." Dean shot back, a tiny smile on his lips.
"Goodnight Dean." Baby called after him, but there was a kindness to his tone.
"Goodnight, Baby." Dean began making his way out of the room, turning around with Cas's face peeping over Dean's shoulder, and Cas smiled.
Baby sputtered and spoke up. "Yeah, right! Did you see that smile? That fucker was not asleep!" Baby laughed, nudging Sam on the elbow. "That sneaky little angel was just too lazy!"
Sam smiled a little. "Dean wanted to carry him. He's acting like he did in high school."
Baby shrugged. "Some of his best dates were in high school. You know, the night I talked to him...he told me he was 'happy enough'. I think we can get rid of that stupid second word now, huh?"
Baby looked to Sam, who had a faraway look on his face. "Hey, I swear you'll find someone, okay? And tell Dean I told you you get to drive me every single date you guys have. No exceptions."
Sam chuckled. "Like that'd work out."
They suddenly were interrupted by the doorbell ringing. They exchanged a glance. Who the hell would be ringing the doorbell now? It was almost midnight!
Baby went to get the door. "Sam. Behind me." He barked, as Sam started to creep up next to him. Baby opened the door, but instead of a person it was a greenish, rolled up tarp, with a tiny plastic model car of the 1967 Impala, the kind they sold in toy stores, smack dab on top of it.
"It's our missing arson!" Sam said in disbelief. "How they hell did it get here?"
The model car had a message carved into the plastic, scraping off the black and revealing the white plastic underneath, it was probably carved with a knife. On the trunk it said in crude capital letters "FIND ME", and on the roof it continued with "IF YOU", finally on the trunk, "WANT TO PLAY".
" 'Find me if you want to play?' " Sam spoke aloud. "This is from Gabriel, isn't it?"
Baby didn't answer, but was instead examining the model car with sad eyes, turning it over and over in his hands and smoothing down the carved letters with his thumb.
Sam drew his eyebrows together. "Hey, Baby, you okay?"
The man hesistated but shook his head. "I need some time to myself." Baby held the car in one hand and pulled out his pack of cigarettes with the other. "God dammit."
"I'm sorry. We're trying to get you back to normal, Baby, we just...don't have much to work with here." Sam shoved his hands in his pockets. "I'll..I'll leave the door unlocked for you, alright?"
Baby nodded silently, and Sam softly shut the front door. Baby slid down the wall and sat with his legs outstretched, placing the model car on his lap and lighting his cigarette and taking a long suck, feeling the hotness fill his human lungs and he closed his eyes, pretending for a second it was exhaust.
He opened his eyes again and looked at the model car, turning it over in his hands. He traced the fender with his thumb and flicked one of the little toy wheels. He ran his fingers over the windows and played with the rear veiw mirror.
He leaned back against the wall, shutting his eyes, letting his fingers trace over everything on the model Impala, feeling every line of the little plastic car. He breathed out a puff of smoke, sighing on exhale, "Fuck you, Gabriel."
He felt something different. A tiny hairline crack that was not meant to be there. Baby stiffened and opened his eyes. He followed the crack with the pads of his fingers all along the base. He dug his thumbnail into the crack, and surprisingly, it gave.
"You think you're so clever." Baby said to himself, running his nail through the crack and prying open the model centimeter by centimeter. "I'm getting my damn body back, Gabriel, and you can't stop me." He said through gritted teeth, his nail was tearing but he kept going the length of the car.
The plastic model finally opened with a tiny pop, falling perfectly in half. On the bottom half, carved into the grey plastic of the model's floor, numbers with letters.
Coordinates.
'Find me if you want to play.'
Baby dropped the toy in disbelief and the two halves clattered to the floor. He could practically taste the petrol and miles of road gliding under his tires. He jumped up, threw the door open and hollered excitedly inside. "Sam!"
Little note:
•Gijinka (擬人化; Western term Humanization) is the Japanese meaning of "humanoid", "personification", or "anthropomorphic". I just felt like Charlie would know that kind of thing, seeing she's a fan of pretty much everything, and would refer to Baby like that. She probably likes anime too.