"Why did I think this was a good idea?" Dean mumbled to himself as he pushed their cart through the aisles of the supermarket. Gabe was grabbing every candy coated, sugar laden item the cart could carry.
"There is no way you are going to be able to eat all of that." Dean said as Gabe threw another box of cookies into the cart. "And there's no way I'm paying for them."
"I ate all the food, I'll pay." Gabe said and added some twizzlers to his growing collection of snacks.
That made Dean relax a little bit. He could just focus on replenishing the food Cas actually ate, while his brother worked on ensuring that his teeth rotted out of his head.
"I should get these for Cas." Gabe laughed and picked up some peeps.
"I don't think he would like those at all." Dean said looking over the creepy marshmallows.
"But their birds. Get it, he likes birds. Tough crowd." Gabe muttered as he put the peeps back on the shelf.
Dean finally managed to get them out of the junk aisle and into the produce section. Dean had been in Cas's fridge and cupboards enough times now to know what items were usually in there. He grabbed a bag of grapes, some carrots, and a whole whack of lettuce. His man didn't get the kind of body he had by eating peeps, that was for sure.
"Ok, where's the deli counter?" Dean asked. Cas liked sandwiches, so deli meat was on the list Dean was checking off in his mind.
"Uhhh, over here I think." Gabe said and started walking in the direction he thought they should go.
Turns out it was actually at the exact opposite end of the store.
"Good guess Gabe." Dean said with an eye roll. He ordered a bunch of weird, but delicious sounding meats from the little old lady working in the deli. She could barely see over the counter to take his orders, and was incredibly slow getting everything together. She was kind though, so Dean was happy to wait. Gabe on the other hand, was getting antsy.
"I'll go get coffee cream and milk. I'm so over being at the grocery store, we already got all the important stuff." Gabe said as he walked away.
Dean watched him leave and looked down at the mostly full cart of junk food. Important stuff, right. Dean was tempted to put some of it back on the shelves and save Gabe from the diabetes he was inevitably going to give himself, but decided not to. Instead he spent his time at the counter wondering how on earth Gabe didn't weigh substantially more than he did.
"Are you still here?" Gabe asked as he put a two litre carton of chocolate milk into the cart along with a sugary specialty coffee creamer.
Dean accepted the last of his deli meats from the little old lady behind the counter and thanked her.
"Yeah, that was the last of it. You forgot the normal milk and cream." Dean sighed.
"Cas likes chocolate milk." Gabe countered and crossed his arms over his chest.
"I'll go grab it. You take this and wait in line." Dean said and pushed the cart towards Gabe.
"We're leaving?!" Gabe perked up. "Ai yi captain! I shall await your arrival at checkout."
Gabe squared his shoulders and confidently pushed the cart towards the front of the store.
Dean went to the dairy section and grabbed some plain milk and creamer. He grabbed some cheese as well, since he wasn't sure if there was any left in the house. As he carried his armful towards the checkout to meet Gabe, he walked passed a cooler full of flowers.
Dean stopped and looked the cooler over. Would Cas like flowers? Was that something couples like them did? What if Cas thought it was the lamest thing ever and threw them in the garbage before he dumped Dean and tossed him out of his apartment?
Dean shook his head. That may have been the dumbest thought he ever had. Dean wasn't exactly the 'romantic' type, but Cas kind of made him wish he could be. Cas deserved flowers. He deserved everything. Dean walked over to inspect the flowers more closely.
He looked at all the different bouquets, but was drawn over to the selection that were already placed in vases. He didn't know if Cas had any, so if he was going to pick some up it would be better if they came with one. Right? Dean was definitely over thinking this. He was going through his mental Cas checklist.
Cas liked it outside, so he probably liked flowers. What was his favorite color? Dean kind of thought it would be blue, but that was most likely because his eyes were blue. It had quickly become Deans favorite color after meeting Cas anyways. Maybe green? He likes … trees. Dean ran his free hand through his hair and tried to remember if Cas had ever mentioned it to him.
Finally, Dean opened the cooler and grabbed a vase the had a whole bunch of different colored flowers in it. He had no idea what kinds they were, but they were pretty.
Dean took his dairy products and flowers to the checkout before he could psych himself out and put them back.
"There you are, yeash, hurry up." Gabe said as he was unloading the last of the cart onto the checkouts belt.
"Sorry, I, uh, got distracted." Dean said as he placed the milk and cheese with everything else.
"I am not getting those." Gabe said as he eyed the flowers. "I've been way to nice to Cas today already. I draw the line at buying my brother flowers."
Dean laughed. "No, these are from me. Do you think he'll like them?" Dean asked nervously.
Gabe rolled his eyes dramatically.
"Uuuugh. Stupid Cas and his stupid boyfriend." Gabe muttered.
"That's not helpful, jerk." Dean said as he looked over his flowers.
"Like its not bad enough knowing you're boning my brother, now I'm helping you woo him. He's already thoroughly wooed Dean."
"I, uh." Dean blushed. He was kind of the bottom in this relationship, not that Gabe needed to know that.
"Ewwww." Gabe moaned. "Ok, so Cas is doing the boning then. Gross."
"Gabe, just, shut up." Dean said as his face darkened a few shades.
"Ok, yeah, sorry, I guess. Yeah, he'll love them, and probably turn into a goopy mess on the floor when he see's them. Happy?" Gabe said as he pulled his bank card out of his wallet to pay for their food.
"No." Dean muttered. He was actually kind of happy to have confirmation that Cas wasn't going to think Dean was weird, but he could have done without every other aspect of the conversation that just took place.
They took their haul out to Cas's car and filled the trunk up.
"Do you think we over did it?" Dean asked looking at the ridiculous amount of food there.
"Nope. Finally, Cas is going to have some food for me in his place." Gabe said as he rubbed his hands together hungrily.
Dean was about to question Gabe's definition of 'food' but thought better of it and closed the trunk instead. He walked over to the driver's side door with his flowers.
"Nuh uh big boy. Hand those over here."
Dean looked down at the keys in one hand and the flowers in the other. Which was Gabe talking about?
"The keys." Gabe said as he took in Deans confusion.
"What? No. I'm the driver." Dean said.
"Well I'm not the flower holder, so sorry about your luck." Gabe said as he held his hand out for the keys.
Dean sighed and surrendered the keys to Gabe. As he got into the passengers side he carefully balanced the vase full of flowers on his lap and looked them over.
Gabe started driving them home in near silence. Only the sound of some top forty music station was playing quietly through the cars speakers.
"Are you sure he's going to like them?" Dean asked again. He didn't know why he was so worried about this. He could have just walked passed the cooler full of flowers and saved himself all this unnecessary worrying. But then, Cas wouldn't get flowers. That thought bothered Dean too. Why was his brain battling him over this?
"Don't buy people flowers very often hey?" Gabe asked as he briefly looked over at Dean.
"No. Not just cuz anyway. Sometimes I take flowers to my parent's graves, but I don't have to worry if they like them or not." Dean said.
"Whoa, bummer." Gabe said heavily. "You don't have to worry now either Bucko. Cas is going to love them. Quit worrying about it."
Dean just sat looking seriously at his flowers.
Gabe sighed.
"Ok, here's the deal. Bleach your brain after I say this. Word can't be getting out that I'm giving relationship advice, it'll destroy my image." Gabe said and gave Dean a raised eyebrow while he awaited confirmation that the brain bleaching was a go.
Dean looked over at Gabe and nodded.
"Quit worrying about the flowers. Like I've told you umpteen times now, he's going to love them. Everybody likes getting flowers. Hell, I had a girl I was kind of serious with send me flowers once and it was awesome."
Gabe stopped at a red light and turned to face Dean while they waited for it to change.
"Repeat this and I will murder you." He said as he pointed a finger at Dean.
Dean just laughed and waited for Gabe to continue.
"Cas is the best, he should have a man who buys him flowers. Now, he does. It makes me happy to see my little bro so happy. I know I give him a hard time, but he's the most important person in the world to me. So, just, take care of him."
Gabe turned back to the road as the light changed back to green. Dean just smiled and put his head back against the head rest.
"I will. Thanks Gabe." Dean sighed.
"Now get with the bleaching." Gabe said as he turned left to get to the apartments.
"Brain bleaching commencing." Dean said and closed his eyes for effect.
They arrived back at the apartments and took as much as they could carry upstairs. It took them two trips, since Dean didn't want to carry anything in the arm that had the flowers. What if he dropped them and it was all for nothing?
By the time they got everything upstairs and starting putting everything away it was already quarter after three. Cas should be home soon. As though the thought made it happen, Deans phone started ringing in his pocket. Dean pulled it out and saw that it was Cas, he knew it would be.
"Hello." Dean said as he answered the call.
"Hello Dean." Cas answered.
After a moments silence, Cas started up again.
"I'm on the bus, I got out a little bit earlier than I expected. I should be home soon."
"Awesome." Dean said dreamily.
"It is." Cas laughed. "I need to go grocery shopping, so I might have to run out again right away when I get back."
"We already went. We just got back actually." Dean told him.
"You guys went grocery shopping for me?" Cas asked. The amazement couldn't be more clear in his voice.
"Yeah, we had a day to fill while you were off playing with birds." Dean said through a smile.
"I don't play with birds." Cas said, and Dean could hear the eye roll.
"No?" Dean asked.
"Ok, sometimes I play with birds." Cas admitted.
"I knew it."
"You got Gabe to go to the grocery store? Dean, are you magic?" Cas asked over the rising noise on the bus. They must be at a stop.
"No, I'm not. Just very convincing. Are you magic? I think I heard somewhere that elves are magic." Dean teased
"Oh blech." Gabe said from the living room.
"Shut up." Dean called out to Gabe before returning to his phone call.
"You didn't let Gabe pick anything did you? He doesn't really eat 'food' per say."
"Ugh, yeah, you're telling me. We got grown up food too. But, your cupboards are also stocked up with the tooth fairies dream haul." Dean sighed.
The bus started getting louder. It was after three, there must be students heading home from school.
"Why are teenagers so loud?" Cas asked. "I should go. I'll be home soon."
"Alright, We're at your place. See you soon."
"I love you." Cas said, and Dean was pretty sure he heard a woman groan in the background.
"I love you too" Dean said through his smile and ended the call.
Cas couldn't seem to go anywhere without women falling in love with him. Dean was once again glad Cas was gay and oblivious to his power over the women folk.
"Cas will be home soon." Dean filled Gabe in.
"Then that's my cue to leave." Gabe said as he stood up.
"Alright." Dean said as he watched Gabe pick up his bag of twizzlers from the coffee table.
"I'm not sticking around to watch Cas get all melty. You guys are probably gonna kiss and stuff." Gabe said with a shudder.
"Yeah, we're gonna smooch it up." Dean said to get a reaction out of Gabe.
It worked. Gabe wrinkled his nose at Dean and walked passed him to grab an armful of sweets from the cupboard. He stopped at the freezer to grab one of the many pints of ice cream he picked up and headed towards the door.
"I'll be at your place, eating away the pain that mental image just caused me." Gabe said as he opened the door.
"Don't wait up, we're probably gonna do it." Dean said as the door was closing behind Gabe. He could hear the groan through the mostly closed door, followed by a loud "I hate you Winchester."
The door closed the rest of the way on its own.
"No you don't." Dean said to himself.
Cas was going to be home soon. Dean kept himself busy by making the bed and tidying the few things there actually were to tidy. Once that was done, he sat on the couch and watched Meg do her weird little bird things until the front door started opening.
Dean shot up from the couch and looked over at the flowers he had sitting on the table. His heart began racing, and he reminded himself to calm down.
"Hello?" Cas called out as he came inside. His head was down as he removed his bag from his shoulder and slung it on the nearest chair. He looked up and saw the flowers sitting on the table, and his eyes widened.
"Hello." Dean said back as he walked over to Cas.
"Dean, what's, what are those?" Cas asked curiously as his eyes were drawn back to the flowers on the table.
"Flowers. I figured you would know that, you know, being outside so much."
Cas smiled and looked at Dean.
"For me?" He asked.
Dean reached out to grab Cas's hand and pulled him in close.
"Yeah, they're for you. Do you like them?" Dean asked.
Cas looked back over to the flowers before turning his gaze up to Deans.
"I love them." He said quietly.
"Good." Dean said and physically relaxed. "I had this horrible idea that you would hate them and break up with me." Dean said.
"You're an idiot." Cas said before laying a long, sweet kiss on Deans lips.
When their lips parted Dean rested his fore head against Cas's.
"I know." He laughed softly.
"Where's Gabriel?" Cas asked as he looked passed Dean into the living room.
"My place, something about eating his pain. I don't know." Dean told him.
"Drama queen." Cas said with an eye roll. "You're dirty." Cas added as he looked Dean over.
"Oh yeah, I did some work on your car today. I should have changed." Dean said looking down at himself as well.
Cas looked dreamily into Deans eyes.
"Why are you being so nice to me?" He questioned Dean.
"I'm always nice to you." Dean said pulling Cas in tighter.
"You're being extra nice." Cas said.
"I missed you." Dean said a little sheepishly. "Gabe helped a little with the car."
"Oh no."
"I watched" Dean laughed. "He didn't do anything to it. I almost managed to ruin that stupid Hawaiian shirt of his, but Karen saved it."
"That's too bad, that shirt is an abomination." Cas said. He knew exactly the shirt Dean was referring too.
Cas turned his head as much as he could in Deans grasp and looked back at his flowers.
"I can run home and change into clean clothes." Dean offered as he released Cas.
"Or you could shower here, with me. I have some of your clothes somewhere. Sweat pants for sure. Oh, I stole your sweat pants by the way." Cas informed him.
Dean laughed.
"That sounds perfect." Dean said as he walked over to Cas's room.
Cas stood in the dining room looking at his flowers a little bit longer.
"You coming?" Dean asked.
"Yeah." Cas smiled and went to join Dean.