Two and a Half Years Later…
When Cas wakes up, it's because his cock is throbbing and engulfed in wet, sucking heat.
He groans and reaches down without opening his eyes to fist his hand in Dean's hair, earning himself a moan from the beautiful boy currently sucking him down. The vibrations shudder from Dean's mouth up Castiel's spine, sparking with pleasure and making him buck just a little before he controls himself.
Dean is working his tongue along the bottom of Castiel's shaft, sending tremendous sensations ricocheting through him, and he knows that he's not going to last long enough this way. He gently but insistently uses his hold in Dean's hair to tug him off
"Hey," Dean whines, voice husky from being used, "I was having fun with that."
"Hmm, I'm sure you were," Cas agrees, urging Dean up until he's close enough to nip at his full lower lip, stuck out just a bit in a pout. "But I have other plans for you."
Dean's face lights up in a playful grin. "Oh yeah? What's that, oh birthday boy?"
Cas groans and lets his head fall back. "Please don't remind me that I'm turning forty today." He eyes Dean warily as the boy straddles his hips, though he runs his hands up the slim, toned thighs just the same. "Or that I'm sleeping with a spritely nineteen-year-old."
Dean cocks an eyebrow and Cas can feel himself get harder at the sight. His Dean, his boyfriend, his partner in all things. He's overwhelmed, awed, turned on by how much he adores Dean. He wants to mark him up, to buy him a ring, to tattoo his ownership all over every piece of Dean's body and soul, and have Dean do the same to him.
Dean, oblivious to the revelations going through Cas' mind at lightning speed (although they happen almost every time he looks at him for too long, so it's not so surprising), just smirks. "'Sleeping with?' Just 'sleeping with' a nineteen-year-old, huh?"
Cas surges upward and bucks his hips to roll the two of them until Dean is flat on his back, laughing as he wraps his arms around Castiel's shoulders. Castiel doesn't resist the urge to kiss him hard, savoring the way Dean tastes like him. He glides one hand down Dean's body, letting his touch linger at ribs, a smooth, flat belly, and down to his hips. He circles back around to run a finger over Dean's hole and yanks himself away in surprise when he finds it already slick and loose.
He looks down at his lover with narrowed eyes. "You've been busy."
Dean grins, cheeky. "Yeah, well, if I'm just some kid you're sleeping with, I gotta put some work into this."
Without warning, Cas sinks a finger into Dean all the way, making his boy gasp and arch beneath him. He bends down to press sloppy, open-mouthed kisses to the hinge of Dean's jaw and down his neck.
"Oh, I'm sorry," he murmurs as he works another finger into Dean, making him writhe. "I must not have made myself clear. I'm in love with a nineteen-year-old." He pumps his fingers in and out slowly, scissoring them just a bit. They've come a long way in two and a half years, finding a happy middle ground between adequate prep and Dean's desire to feel Castiel for hours afterward. "Wildly in love with a nineteen-year-old." Dean keens and hitches his legs up to bracket Cas' hips, and he knows Dean's done with waiting. "Wildly, shamelessly, incredibly in love with you." The tenderness, the adoration in his words doesn't match the way he lines up and thrusts in, not quite fast enough for Dean and not quite slow enough to be a tease, just this side of too dry.
Dean cries out, always beautiful, and Cas sucks a mark onto the place where his neck meets his shoulder. He will never get tired of Dean bearing the evidence of their time together.
"Cas," Dean pants. He brings a leg up and around Castiel's waist to urge him on. "Fuck me."
Cas can't see a good reason to deny him.
He sets a slow pace at first, as usual. He worships Dean, kissing across his cheekbones, sucking his bottom lip and biting it harshly before kissing the hurt away. Dean is giving up breathy sighs and choked off moans, his fingers twisting in Cas' hair and his hips moving to take Cas in further.
Cas can't help the way his thrusts get faster, the way his own breath starts to come in pants, or the way he bites down harder and harder on Dean's neck as he approaches orgasm. He lifts one hand from where it was holding onto Dean's hip and wraps it around his cock, stroking rough and fast, always guaranteed to set Dean off.
"Cas," Dean cries, fucking up into his hand and back onto Cas' cock in a way that makes him dizzy with need. "Gonna come," he slurs.
"Good," Cas growls into his neck. "Come for me, little one."
It takes only a few more pulls of his cock before Dean is wailing and coming, his release shooting over his chest and belly. The sight, combined with the clench of his ass on Cas' cock, sends him hurtling over the edge after him. He barely has the presence of mind to pull out, and he manages to stroke himself through his orgasm, mixing his come with Dean's.
He groans and falls to the side so he doesn't crush Dean. Mindless of that and of the mess on his belly, Dean immediately crowds next to him until Cas finds himself lying on his back with Dean's head resting on his shoulder. He brings one hand up to card through Dean's hair, idly thinking that the sheets are going to need to be washed and they're both going to need showers before they go to breakfast.
Once he's caught his breath, Cas turns to press his lips to Dean's forehead. "Thank you," he murmurs.
"Stop thanking me for sex," Dean grumbles, but he's smiling. "And happy birthday."
Cas groans again, but holds Dean close. "Thank you." After a hesitant beat, "I love you."
Dean still isn't the most demonstrative person, at least out loud. He has never hesitated when it comes to touching Cas, either in private or public, but sometimes he doesn't feel comfortable saying the words. Cas doesn't mind, he knows how Dean feels about him, and he doesn't mind not having the words returned to him. He just doesn't want Dean to tense up or deflect.
To his utter relief, Dean does neither "Love you, too, ya big sap," he says, smile still lighting up his face. "Let's get up, I gotta feed you."
"We need to clean up first."
"Ca-as," Dean whines, and Cas laughs.
After a handsy, lengthy shower, Dean leads Cas into the rebuilt shared apartment by the hand. It's in a new building across town from the old one. It was a hard decision for everyone to make, since Cas insisted it had to be unanimous. In the end, no one was able to bear living in the same place Garth lost his life.
The new building is nice as hell. It's all big windows and light wood and natural lighting. It also happens to have an absolutely insane security system. Not only is each apartment individually alarmed with two deadbolts and a thumb lock (each of which Cas has a copy of the code or key to), the floor itself is alarmed, as well as having a twenty-four hour security team doing hourly patrols. They may have made a mistake, but Dean and Cas both agreed that there wouldn't be a second time.
They get into the kitchen and Dean fusses at Cas until he sits down, rolling his eyes. Dean sets the coffee to brew with a smile.
"Have we heard from Sam?" Cas asks.
It's Dean's turn to roll his eyes. "Are you kidding? The kid's in nerd heaven. I get one-word answers back from check-in, man."
"At least he's responding."
"I'd kick his ass if he didn't," Dean grumbles as he pulls the ingredients for waffles out of the refrigerator.
Sam has gotten a pre-acceptance to Stanford Law School. The choice major sent Dean into heart palpitations, then into gales of laughter. Sam has promised not to come after Dean as long as Dean doesn't steal from him (and stops teasing him about his hair). Sam's currently at a summer seminar for students intending to enroll at the university. The kid's a genius, and Dean couldn't be more proud.
"I'm sure," Cas says fondly, making Dean blush a little.
Before he can say something sassy back, Cole comes stumbling in, bare-chested and scratching his belly. "Breakfast?" He mumbles.
Dean silently points to the coffee pot with a spatula and watches in amusement as the teenager (Dean's only technically a teenager for another six months, so he can say that) makes a beeline for it.
Cole's new, and the first member of the crew who Dean tentatively proposed taking in. Cole's parents were in the military, and both lost their lives overseas. He's fifteen, and maybe he's a little obsessive, but he'll be good once he grows up and chills out a little.
He claps Cas on the shoulder. "Happy birthday, Cas," he mumbles, taking a seat one down from the older man.
"Thank you, Cole," Cas says, his voice ridiculous and rough and everything Dean has ever wanted. "We should continue your work with Jeff today."
"Hey!" Dean snaps, whirling around to glare. "No way, we are not working today. Charlie and Kevin are coming by, and we're all going to kick back and chill out and celebrate."
Cas frowns. "Dean, we-"
Dean turns back to the waffle maker and pours the first batch of batter in. "No excuses, Cas."
Cas huffs a sigh, and before he can argue more, a sharp voice interrupts.
"Are we still arguing about Cas' birthday?" Krissy asks as she takes the seat next to Cole. The boy doesn't move, but a blush colors his cheeks, and Dean has to turn back to hide a smirk.
Interesting.
Charlie's the one who found Krissy, and she's damn good. Her dad is gone, killed on a job that Krissy's not real keen on being upfront about. Charlie assured them that it's nothing that could hurt the crew, so Dean and Cas decided to let it go. Krissy's a good member of the crew, a solid team player, and she's probably a little bit actually crazy deep down, but she's also a badass, so Dean's a little scared of her even as he likes her a lot.
"Not arguing about shit," Dean says with a grin and a wink at her. She rolls her eyes. "We're celebrating today. Kevin and Charlie are headed this way soon."
"What about Benny?"
Benny went the way of Cas' predictions and is living on the straight and narrow. He married Andrea as soon as he could afford a ring (through questionable means, of course). He'll still come run backup if Dean needs him, but they see him more often when he brings his daughter, Elizabeth, up to the apartments to see everyone. As much as Dean likes to pretend differently, he knows he and Cas turn into equally huge piles of goo when it comes to the demanding little girl.
"They're gonna be here this afternoon with Bethy."
At that, Cas' eyes light up, and he looks adoringly at Dean.
He gets caught in that blue gaze, and Dean really thinks about it. About how he'd been so piss-your-pants terrified to go out that day to that fair. So much of his life was ruled by fear before he met Cas, before Cas gave him an opportunity to rule his own life. Before he then took that opportunity to settle his life nicely entangled with Castiel's own.
He knows he's making some major heart eyes at Cas, but he can't seem to stop until Krissy snorts.
"Burning the waffle there, stud."
"Son of a bitch!"
Later, Dean is sitting in Cas' lap, being extra obnoxious about feeding him on purpose to make the older man blush and roll his eyes, when his phone lights up with Charlie's number.
Charlie still holds the key to one of the new apartments, but she really isn't the type to stay in one place. Kevin, who was affected most deeply by the loss of Kevin and became even more of a recluse as a result, surprised everyone when he asked if he could go with her.
"I don't think I can do roof work anymore," he confessed to Dean late one night. "I just… God, I still get so goddamn twitchy." His eyes were determined when he looked at the older boy again. "But I can do this. I like the way Charlie does it, y'know? Less… Actual contact."
Dean understood, as did Cas. Now, Charlie and Kevin check in with them fairly often, but it takes a rare occasion for them to actually visit.
Dean answers the phone without looking away from Cas. "Heya, Bradbury. Where the fuck-"
"Dean," Charlie's voice is unnaturally stern. "Are you sitting down?"
He winks at Cas, who blushes again. "Sure am."
"Dean… I found Abaddon."
... And here we are! Thank you SO much for everyone who loved this story. This one means a lot to me, maybe smidge more than some of the others, and I'm so glad for everyone who liked it.
And now for, Some Answers to Questions You Might Have:
1. They find Abaddon. They dismantle her operation brick by brick. Any apprentices she has they either take in or get into the system so they can get the proper help. Abaddon herself is... Dealt with.
2. Kevin never goes back to roof work. He stays with Charlie for a few years before going legit and joining Sam in law school.
3. Cole and Krissy get together and head off into the sunset to terrorize the world as soon as they're adults.
4. Benny's daughter, Elizabeth, totes becomes a thief.