Epilogue because all of my stories have epilogues. You guys have been a beautiful audience. Thank you so much for the kind words and for reading this little story of mine. **squeezes you all**
18 months later.
It's May and as usual, it's warm and it's raining. It always rains here, but Dean doesn't mind. Living in Seattle, when it rains, it pours, and if it's not raining, then you've probably crossed the border into Oregon.
Dean stampedes into their mercifully tiny apartment, whooping, yelling. "I'm a genius! I am a goddamn genius!" He yells. "Cas, baby, where are you? We have to celebrate!"
Dean gets no response, so he wanders into their bedroom, where Castiel is propped up, scribbling away in his ubiquitous sketchbook. He looks up, glasses falling down the bridge of his nose. Castiel frowns at him, seeming like he doesn't give a shit about Dean's great news, about the fact that Dean, the genius, has just finished his first semester of his freakin' bioengineering PhD program with a 4.0 GPA. Dean shivered when he thought about it. Most people couldn't even define bioengineering. No doubt about it, Dean Winchester is a genius.
"It's 10:30." Castiel whines. "Dean, where were you?"
He smiles coyly at him and launches himself into the bed like an overexcited toddler. Castiel yelps in surprise and the papers go flying from his hands, much like they did the first night they ever hooked up and Castiel had thrown the papers he'd been grading on the floor. On his hands and knees, Dean reaches in and nuzzles the side of his face, kissing his jaw and then his cheek.
"I was at the office, cleaning out my desk for the summer, when I saw the email. All A's, baby. Your boy finished up with a 4.0 GPA this semester. Holy shit, I didn't even think I'd make it through this semester in the beginning!"
This time Castiel lets out an overexcited whoop. "Holy fuck! No wonder you're so amped! Congratulations! You are officially on your way to being Dr. Dean Winchester!"
Castiel throws the rest of his papers on the ground and with inhuman strength, pulls him on top of him, giving into a deep kiss and Dean thinks that it's fully reminiscent of that first night now. He kisses him back, ridiculously excited now.
Dean sighs and leans into him, kissing him again. Pulling away, he glances down at Castiel, whose glasses have almost fallen off his face by now. A smile creeps onto his face. "Say it."
Castiel frowns. "What?" Then it occurs to him. "No, Dean. I am not calling you that."
Dean pulls himself up, so one leg is on each side of Castiel's slender frame. "Say it." He coos. "Come on. I deserve it."
"No! I don't care if you're going to have more degrees than me and it'll officially be your title. I am not calling you that! I hate that fucking show, Dean."
"I'm your…." He croons. "I'm your…"
Castiel growls and takes off his glasses. "You're my Dr. Sexy." He grumbles, his face turning red.
Dean squeals again and collapses on top of him, kissing him again, grinding into him, showing him that it may be 10:30 (they're old now) but sex is more than required for an occasion like this. Castiel groans and returns the kiss, his own hips involuntarily bucking up to meet him. It's been two years, but Dean still wants to devour him, every inch of him.
Dean's distracted when his phone rings.
"Don't answer that." Cas hisses, carding his fingers through Dean's hair, short nails on his scalp making him shudder. Dean almost doesn't, until he notices the ring tone.
It's No Scrubs. Jo's ringtone. She's currently 175 miles away, living in Portland with Anna, but she still manages to cock block him at every opportunity. Dean groans and lifts himself off Cas, pulling the phone from his pocket.
"Christ, your timing is still terrible. That's never going to change is it? " Dean said. He looks down at his boyfriend, who currently is managing to look pissed off, aroused and amused, all at once.
"I was calling to congratulate you, you asshole." She says.
Dean softens. "Thanks, Jo. You were the first person I told."
"Dr. Dean Winchester. I can't believe you're going to be a fucking doctor, Dean-o." For once, Jo is both good-natured and genuine.
"How's work? How's Anna?"
"Work's great. The glamorous world of being an assistant at a boutique PR firm, lowest rung on the totem pole, you know. Big thrills, big chills." Jo says drily. She really wanted a promotion and more money. "Anna's fabulous, of course." Her voice perks up when she says her name and Dean's glad, so glad, that Jo won that bet between them.
"Still glad you finally decided to make it official. It took long enough." Dean chuckled. "Charlie's coming through in a few weeks. One of her bands is touring the coast and she's hitching a ride. We'll have to get together."
Charlie, somewhat unsurprisingly, ended getting a job managing a number of punk bands for Victory Records. Castiel jokingly calls her a sell out, but she's happy.
"Duh. How's Cas?"
"He's below me."
"Sick! Dean! I didn't want to know that! Why the hell would you answer your phone while you were having sex?" She cries, making exaggerated retching noises.
"We weren't having sex yet." Cas calls. "As usual, I can hear you, Jo."
"Hey, Cas! Anyway, I'll let you… get back to that. Congratulations buddy. I'm happy for you. I love you."
"Love you too, little Joey Potter."
Dean hangs up and puts the phone on silent. "Now where were we?" He murmurs, leaning against Castiel again. "Oh yeah, I'm Dr. Sexy and you're my nurse."
Castiel groans at his horrible joke, because Dean's jokes are always terrible, but kisses him anyway.
The next day, a Saturday morning, the first day of his summer, Dean's basking in being able to sleep in for once, no labs, no papers calling his name when Castiel's phone rings.
"Cas." He moans as the horrible sounds of Melt Banana rouse him from delicious sleep. "Cas, turn off your goddamn phone or change your ringtone, for the love of God."
Dean opens his eyes and realizes Cas isn't in bed. Dean moans again, and answers the phone without looking at who is calling. "Yes? Who is calling Cas Novak at… uh, 11 on a Saturday?"
"Dean?" A familiar voice says. "Shit."
"Sammy?" He mutters, sitting up. "Why are you calling Cas? Is everything okay?"
"Um, it was supposed to be a surprise, but Cas chose the absolute worst time not to answer his phone. I'm outside your apartment and there's some guy looking at me like he thinks I'm a treat. Uh, so can you let me in?"
Dean sits up immediately. His eyes dart around the bedroom. There are clothes everywhere, he's as nude as the day he was born, he's sure he has several dozen hickeys, not to mention the fact that Cas is nowhere to be seen. Plus, a surprise? What the hell kind of surprise is this?
Dean pulls on his clothes and hears Cas in the shower, singing some god awful song, showing that Sam was apparently early for Dean's "surprise." Dean takes a look in the mirror and tries to smooth down his sex hair, checking his neck and shoulders for Cas-sized love bites. Castiel hadn't gotten any less aggressive in the last two years and last night they'd had a lot to celebrate, with Dean's grades, the onset of summer and Castiel's still-recent promotion to head case manager at his job.
Dean stumbles out of the bedroom and presses the button that allows Sam to enter the apartment complex. He hears loud, stomping feet a minute later, indicating that the moose has arrived. Dean opens the door and all 6 feet 4 inches of Sam comes stumbling in, immediately wrapping him up into a tight hug
"Oh God, I've missed you!" Sam yells, literally lifting him off the ground. "Shit! I can't believe Cas didn't answer. I knew I was early!"
Dean gasps for air, his feet scrabbling for purchase on the linoleum. It seems in the last six months, his brother has lost every inch of fat caused by the medication and has apparently taken up weight lifting. Sam sets him down and grins at him. Dean is disgruntled at his hair, which skims his shoulders, long enough to be braided. Sam's jaw is quivering somewhat girlishly, his eyes sparkling with love for his older brother.
Castiel picks the exact wrong time to emerge from the shower, or perhaps the exact right time, because the emotional moment is ruined as Dean's very naked, dripping wet boyfriend saunters from the shower, with a towel wrapped around his head. It's Dean's turn to laugh as Sam's face turns white and Castiel screams bloody murder and scrambles into the bedroom and slams the door.
Fifteen minutes later, after Dean has recovered from laughing and Sam and Castiel have recovered from their collective humiliation, the three of them are seated around the oak dinner table that Castiel bought at Goodwill, drinking coffee, with Castiel explaining Sam's sudden appearance in Seattle.
"It was supposed to be a surprise." Castiel grumbles. "I was going to surprise you with breakfast, then tell you I'd paid for a plane ticket for Sam to come visit for a week."
"The plane was early. I didn't want to wait, so I called a cab. Figured I'd save you the trouble." Sam says, shrugging. "Although now I wish I had waited."
Castiel turned pink and Dean just laughs, leaning in and giving him a big kiss on the cheek. "Best surprise ever."
Sam rolled his eyes and made a face. "You guys are like stuck in that 'new couple phrase' aren't you? I swear, I thought I'd be getting away from that coming here. First, mom and Victor, now you and Cas. I thought you'd be done with constant PDA by now."
"Never." Dean declares. "Cas is too cute when he's embarrassed, which is almost always."
"Victor and Mary are still going strong?" Cas asks with interest. "How strange that it took a divorce and dating her divorce lawyer to finally make her happy."
"We never do things the normal way." Sam says, shrugging.
"Winchesters are freaks." Dean added. "Except I guess now she's Campbell?"
"Pretty much." Sam says. "Speaking of Winchesters, don't hate me for bringing it up, but dad is in AA."
Dean thought about saying something sarcastic, but decided against it. Sam was willing to forgive his father, but he always had been. Sam was in many ways the stronger one, despite being damaged beyond belief by his father's absence and his father's genes, since they'd found a relative on their father's side that had it. Sam knew now where his chemical imbalance came from and he forgave John Winchester for that too. Dean would never forgive his father. That was one demon he wasn't willing to exorcise.
"You're still doing well?" He felt dumb asking, because for once, it was obvious.
Sam had been there 15 minutes and once again, Dean was amazed at what a new man he was, yet again. Sam's eyes were bright and clear, his speech sharp, and unless you knew his past, you'd never suspect everything the younger Winchester had been through, the battles he'd fought inside his mind.
"A little over a year, no relapses. No change in medication either. They finally found the right mixture of drugs." Sam says triumphantly.
Schizophrenia was a war that would never be over, but Sam had at least won a few battles.
Dean nodded. "Jess?"
"Beautiful, stunning, smart and just a little less crazy than I am." Sam admitted, a smile spreading across his face. Sam had met his current girlfriend in his shrink's office. Major depressive disorder, but when she was smiling, it lit up the room.
The Winchesters never went about anything normally, not even courtship.
"That's good to hear, Sammy."
"What about you two?" Sam asks. "How'd the semester end up? Cas, how's the new gig? "
Dean cackled, his ego from the night before returning. "Straight A's." He boasted. Then he said it again, simply because he could. "I'm going to be Doctor Dean Winchester."
Castiel cringed a little bit, probably because in the heat of the moment the night before, he'd yelled "OH DOCTOR!" And Dean had already decided to never let him live it down.
"My new position is going swimmingly. Somehow, even being the head case manager at a rehabilitation center is less glamorous than teaching brain dead freshmen social theory, but it's much more fulfilling. I love it, I really do. I feel like I'm finally giving back." Cas says.
"Hey, don't forget how we met." Dean teased, elbowing him. "Am I brain dead?"
"No, Dean, you're a doctor. You're Doctor Sexy." He deadpanned.
This time it was Dean who blushed. Leave it to Castiel to get the last word.
THE END!