Although the situation was new and unpredictable, Castiel's sense of freedom and Dean's sense of companionship didn't fade. Instead, throughout the rest of their day, Castiel working in the house while Dean toiled in the fields, their acceptance was only reinforced.
Wiping a hand over his face, Castiel stepped back from preparing supper. He had finished his whole day's work early with his new-found vigor and in the haste, had completed their nightly meal an hour before Dean was due back in. Yawning, the man turned his blue eyes to the back of the house, where his bedroom door laid ajar, revealing the tempting sight of his neatly made bed. It had been a trying day, with all the new discoveries concerning Dean. He did have extra time, he rationalized as his feet carried him to the room seemingly out of their own volition. He would wake when Dean made his way back into the cabin, anyhow. Removing his boots, Castiel curled up on top of his comforter, the cooling breeze from his slightly open, adjacent window lulling him into a quick nap.
Dean took a moment to catch his breath, wiping his bandanna across his uncomfortably perspiring face. It had been spring for less than a month and the heat had already made its strangling way into the valley. Shaking his head under the slightly cooling shade his hat provided, the farmer grabbed his hoe from the dry earth and began the short trek back to the barn, thoughts turning to Castiel as they always seemed to.
The morning, to put it simply, had been unexpected. Even in his wildest dreams, he would've never considered it happening and now here it was: he was in love with another man, who reciprocated the feeling. Dean didn't truly know what the driving force behind their almost natural seeming progression from friends to lovers was, whether it was the pain they endured together, or their mutual loneliness, but whatever it was, he was ready to accept it. And accept it he did, with a happy heart and a light smile he hadn't felt since before his accident. He wasn't alone, he wasn't without his best friend, and he didn't have to hire anyone he would feel uncomfortable trusting. In short, it was perfect.
Catching a smile spreading across his face, Dean didn't have the heart to wipe off the almost goofy feeling expression and set the farming tool just inside the barn door when he arrived. It was almost supper time, and he was eager to see Castiel, especially after their close, chaste encounter at dinner. Pitching hay with now little difficulty into the horses stalls, the farmer checked the latches upon the gates before exiting the slightly cooler space to head for the cabin.
The path, although unchanging from the thousands of other times he'd taken it, seemed longer this time, almost as if delaying his time to seeing Castiel. But, he reminded himself as he neared his front door, waiting always seemed longer when there was reward at the end. And oh, the reward this time was better than anything Dean could have imagined.
Stepping into the darker space, Dean took off his hat and set it on the peg near the door, fully expecting to turn and see Castiel plating up their supper as he always was. But, instead, he saw their meal warming on the stove, the house quite with the other man nowhere to be found. Eyebrows pulling together in slightly puzzlement, Dean glanced out back, finding Castiel wasn't near the water pump either.
"Cas?" He called softly, making his way to the back of the house where the blue-eyed man's door laid open. "C-" Dean said once more, halting his words when his gaze fell upon the form in front of him. There Castiel lay, legs curled up ever so slightly to match his arms, which rested close to his chest that was rising and falling with deep, sleep slowed breaths.
"Tired?" Dean whispered, barely audible in his tone as he leaned against the door frame, a soft smile tugging at the corner of his lips as he recalled the first time he had caught Castiel like this. It had been the other man's first day, and while Dean was out tending to the horses he'd agreed to have a rest. However, when the farmer returned, he found Castiel asleep. At the time, instead of waking the man, Dean had simply gone out to the living room, feeling sympathy spread through his body as he thought of Castiel's circumstances. He hadn't thought much about it then, but now, looking back, Dean realized his quickness to sympathize and desire to help Castiel had been borne of love; a quick developing, profound, crazy love that had taken him a year to accept.
However, now that he accepted it, he didn't have to keep his distance. Eyes falling softly upon Castiel's peaceful face in this realization, Dean walked silently across the room and sat softly on the other man's bed, the mattress dipping ever so slightly under his weight.
"Cas?" He murmured softly, reaching up his fingers, which wanted to tremble, to his friend's stubble covered cheek, stroking the surprisingly soft, fine hair gently. "Hey, rise an' shine." Castiel vaguely felt a soft presence dip the bed near him, but in his sleepy state, didn't wake fully and slipped back into the comfortable world of his own mind. However, at the slightly rough, calloused fingers stroking upon his cheek, the man opened his blue eyes softly, just in time to hear Dean's soft accent urge him to join the world of the conscious.
Stopping the rush of nerves that coursed through him at the new proximity, Castiel smiled and looked up to Dean's gentle face. "Sorry, I thought I'd wake just by the sound of ya comin' in," he admitted, leaning into the farmer's touch carefully. Dean maneuvered his hand to cup Castiel's cheek fully, meeting the blue eyes before him with a barely there smile. "That's alright. I just thought ya might like to eat that delicious meal ya made."
Castiel sighed in contentment, stretching ever so slightly as he nodded, Dean's hand against his cheek sending a comforting and somehow new warmth to rush through him. "Yeah, I'm mighty hungry now," he answered, clearing his throat of the sleepy roughness. Dean stroked his thumb along Castiel's cheek in careful reverence and stood. "I'll go serve it up, ya stay here and wake up a bit," he offered, hesitating for but a moment before he bent down and pressed his lips to the other man's forehead.
Castiel nodded and watched the other man go, sitting in slightly stunned silence for a minute. They seemed so easy and natural, their interactions now. In fact, instead of feeling discomfort linger at the back of his mind with their most recent exchange, Castiel instead felt warmth and contentment, along with something else he didn't bother to identify at the moment. All that mattered now was he had Dean and Dean had him, and everything seemed somehow right in the world.
Pulling on his boots out of simple, respectful habit, Castiel made his way out to the kitchen, finding Dean just finishing placing the meal on the table. Sitting at his place, the blue-eyed man watched Dean sit, giving him a soft smile. "Thank ya, this looks delicious." Dean commented, the words now somewhat of a tradition at their suppers.
Although it had been said more often than not in the past year, Castiel found genuine gratefulness in Dean's tone and eyes each time the sentence slipped from his lips, the words never failing to cause a flush to burn over his neck. "Thank ya," He responded softly. Dean smiled as he dug into the meal of corn bread and grilled chicken, letting out a soft hum at the taste of his favorite bread. "So," he began, wiping at the corner of his mouth before continuing, "it looks like it'll be a fairly dry year. If there's not enough rain for the crops, we might have to take three or four hours every day cartin' water over to the field."
Castiel listened to the conversation topic as he swallowed a small bite of chicken, nodding thoughtfully. "I hope it doesn't come to that but if it does, we can always get it done. Hirin' people on a day's wage wouldn't be a bad option either, if it got real dry."
Dean listened carefully, hiding his trepidation at hiring others. He only hired Gabriel because he had known him for a while, and only approached Castiel because empathy and desperation won over his hesitant side. But, the other man did have a point, they couldn't possibly haul water each day and expect to run the rest of the property. "Yeah, I may have to think about doin' that," he responded, finishing up his meal not long after as comfortable silence surrounded them.
It was always like this. They didn't need to have unnecessary conversation fillers between them to feel happy in each other's company, and instead said what had to be said and left it at that, both content to listen to the gentle, barely detectable scraping of forks against flatware.
"You look tired, ya should get to bed." Castiel commented, knowing how hard Dean worked that day simply by the far off look in his eye when he stared at nothing in particular. "Yeah, I think I might." Dean responded, watching for a few minutes as Castiel went about his routine of clearing up the table, wiping down the counters, and finally, turning to do dishes.
Rising from his chair, the farmer went around the cabin and lit the few lanterns, a soft, familiar orange glow falling over the previously shadowed furniture. Turning from his task as he blew out the small flame of the match, Dean's eyes caught upon Castiel, head bent over the wash basin as he scrubbed at a particularly stubborn spot on the skillet. He must've seen this exact moment a few hundred times within the past year, but now, it caused Dean's stomach to flutter pleasantly. Lips turning up into a soft smile that caused very slight wrinkles to show at the outer corners of his eyes, the farmer walked over as Castiel finished the last dish.
Placing his hand on the other man's forearm, Dean gently moved closer, still going slow as to not move too quickly for either of their comfort levels. "I thought you were goin' to bed." Castiel said softly, still just as happy to turn and face the farmer, his back now resting against the kitchen counter. "I couldn't go without sayin' goodnight, could I?" Dean countered, eyes searching the other man's face for any inclination he was too close. Castiel nodded, licking his lips subconsciously.
Dean, detecting no uncomfortable resistance from both Castiel and himself, leaned forward and pressed his lips ever so gently against the other man's, the feeling new and exciting, yet at the same time old and calming. Castiel leaned back up into the kiss, suddenly finding an unidentified urge within himself to deepen the chaste kiss.
Tilting his head slightly, he took Dean's lower lip between his, tasting the farmer for the first time, as all their earlier kisses had been dry, chaste brushes of lips. However, now, with Dean responding in kind to the more intimate gesture, Castiel could detect sweet cornbread and coffee between the other man's lips, along with a clean, almost water-like hint of coolness, something he figured must've been Dean's unique taste.
At the unexpected but not unwelcome deepening of their kiss, Dean moved his hand from Castiel's forearm to around his lower back, stepping forward ever so slightly to brush their bodies together. Hearing Castiel suck in a sharp, surprised breath through his nose, Dean nearly backed off, thinking he had gone too far. However, his worry was instantly quelled by Castiel wrapping his still damp hands around his neck, fingers experimentally stroking at his short, soft hair. Without hesitation now as his breathing picked up, Dean poured all of his pent-up feelings into the now extremely intimate kiss.
Castiel sighed into the warm sensation and simply pulled Dean closer, their hesitant brush of bodies now a sure press of closeness. As naturally as if they had been kissing for years, the blue-eyed man parted his lips slowly, letting his tongue barely slip out to trace the farmer's full lower lip. Surprised at the sudden action, Dean locked up for half a second before responding enthusiastically to the new sensation. Slowly, he let his tongue slide in turn from his own lips, the touch against Castiel's nearly electric. It was unlike anything he had ever felt before and in a bold move, he let his tongue wrap sinuously around the other man's.
Castiel groaned and shifted against Dean, his first instinct being to pull him closer before he realized what the wonderful sensation flooding through him was: lust. Gasping as he broke the trance of the kiss enough to realize his erection was dangerously close to being pressed against the farmer's thigh, Castiel pulled back, breath coming in short pants.
Dean felt Castiel's retreat and sharp intake of breath, the break in their kiss making him, too, realize his hardened state. Utterly shocked that a simple amount of kissing could cause in him such a strong reaction, Dean felt his face flush in embarrassment as he looked down to his boots and tried to shift and hide his obvious arousal.
"Well then, uh," he stammered, licking his lips of Castiel's taste, "good night, then." Castiel cleared his throat. "Good night," he responded, finding his tone low and gravelly in his current state.
Dean quickly walked off into his room, and after a few moments, Castiel did the same, retreating to his room as his face burned in shame. Had Dean felt his erection, was that why he had been so flustered? Or, he thought, biting the inside of his cheek, had the farmer been in a similar state? Unable to pull a definitive answer from his recent memories, Castiel set about stripping down to his drawers, readying for bed.
However, when he crawled beneath the thin comforter, he found his erection persistent despite his best efforts to calm it with the routine of normalcy. Not having felt this desperate since he was a teenager, Castiel reached down to smooth his fingers along his lower abdomen, hesitating although he was only in his own presence.
He had only done this a few times during his adolescent years, and even then it had filled him with a dirty feeling shame. However, his pure love for Dean had made him question what society discerned as moral and immoral, and in a personally bold move, the blue-eyed man slipped his fingers beneath his drawers and let them curl around the damp, hot, hard flesh of his arousal. Groaning without thought at the sensation he hadn't had for a year save for in his dreams, Castiel rolled his hips up into the solid presence of his hand, another gasp slipping from his lips before his senses came about him, forcing him to go quiet.
Dean turned his pillow over to the cool side, trying to do anything to stave off his current erection. Sure, he had masturbated before and had slowly gotten over his shame upon the personal subject, but at the moment, with his current arousal caused by Castiel, it did feel slightly wrong, as if he had used the other man.
However, at a sudden sound coming from Castiel's room, he snapped to full alertness, curiosity furrowing his brow. Surely that hadn't been... However, he didn't have to wonder for long when another, louder gasp sounded from the blue-eyed man, who was only separated by the thin wall between their rooms.
"Oh..." The farmer whispered to himself, his indecision suddenly resolved at what Castiel was currently occupied with. Licking at his dry lips that still tasted of the other man, Dean, too, reached beneath his drawers and palmed his erection, which was quickly becoming slick with precome. Letting out a moan before he could help himself, Dean clamped his mouth shut and forced himself to quiet as he slipped a thumb over the weeping slit of his arousal.
Castiel released his cock for but a moment to lick a long, wet stripe along his precome salty palm before he returned the improved, slick sensation to himself, already feeling warmth build in his lower abdomen. Muffling a groan he felt building in him, Castiel began to let his mind wander to thoughts of Dean, a brief image of the farmer's bare torso beginning to develop from his memories.
This image didn't last long when he was suddenly pulled back to reality by a rather loud moan of pleasure that definitely wasn't his. Eyes widening, Castiel felt arousal rush hotly through him, and quickened his pace on his cock, letting out an experimental, breathy groan to test the waters as he twisted his hand on the upstroke.
Dean, after a few moments of time he took to enjoy the sensation of his own fingers, once again heard a sound of sheer arousal come in Castiel's deep, rumbling baritone. Arousal punching into him and causing him to veer closer to the edge faster than ever before, Dean bit his lip and let his middle finger massage the sensitive bundle of nerves located on the underside of his erection, feeling a blurt of precome leak from his slit. He dared then to groan loudly, stilling his hand to wait for a response, heart pounding wildly with arousal and nervousness.
Castiel had now increased the speed on his cock, his fingers playing on the taut, hard flesh, teasing himself closer to orgasm as he heard another groan from Dean's room. Breath now coming in short, ragged, pants, Castiel nearly bucked his hips up off the bed with the quickness of his pace, small yet audible whimpers slipping from his flushed and parted lips at each stroke.
"Nnngg.. Dean!" He cried without thought, thrusting but once more up into the tight, solid heat of his own fist before orgasm overwhelmed him, long, white stripes of come painting his chest, his every nerve ignited and sensitized at the feeling.
Dean, now working his fingers quickly over the smooth heat of his arousal, strained to listen intently for the small sounds Castiel was now letting out at a consistent pace. Closing his eyes to let himself boldly imagine just how the other man looked, Dean's fast stripping of his cock soon turned into erratic jerks. Close, so close, he thought desperately as he squirmed desperately on his own mattress. Then, at the sudden cry of his name coming through the thin wall, Dean lost it.
"C-Cas!" He responded in turn, breath coming in pants as he came, the hot, viscous substance dripping over his fist, which was still wrapped around his cock. Catching his breath, Dean slumped back against his pillow, fumbling for a wash cloth on his bedside table to wipe himself off. Once the task was done and he was clean enough to sleep, Dean relaxed back into his bed, thoughts muddled by his recent release. He would worry about it tomorrow, but now, he thought as his eyes closed, he would rest.
Castiel licked his lips, which were dry from the earlier rate of his breath. Had he just masturbated with the vocal aid of Dean? Cleaning up quickly, he decided that, yes, it had just happened but he, like Dean, was too sated to think it over. So, with the same mindset of taking care of the worry come morning, Castiel slumped down into bed, eyelids falling to lure him into a hasty sleep.