"Dean?" Lance crouches next to him, Dean ignores him. "How you doing buddy?" Lance rests a hand on Dean knee.
That gets Dean's attention, and he looks up, shocked. He remembers being called buddy when he was very small. It's been so long, he's half forgotten it, but for just a second, Lance's words bring back an image of his mother crouching next to him and placing a hand on his knee in much the same way, calling him buddy and asking if he was okay.
Lance barely knows him. Why's he treating him this way? Come to think of it, why does he care that Dean spent the night outside? Why does he care if Dean's cold or sad or hurt?
It's a second before he can force his voice to work, but finally he manages to get out, "I'm doing." Lance looks at him skeptical.
"Well are you feeling any better, do you wanna talk about it?"
"What is it with you people and thinking talking fixes everything?" Dean says, looking back down. "Does it really matter if you say it? It's still there. It doesn't fix anything."
"At least tell me what drove you to sit outside in the freezing cold all night long without a blanket." Lance argues moving to sit cross legged on the floor.
"I didn't wanna bother Keith." Dean says. "So I just did what I used to when I was little when Dad didn't want me to bother him."
"What do you mean bother Keith, he's getting way better, he even ate a waffle, nothing you do 'bothers' us."
Dean coughs and sniffles pitifully before answering. "I was coughing and sneezing, and that's kinda loud. I wanted Keith to sleep, and I didn't wanna give him a headache or something. It used to work fine when I was little, I thought it'd work okay now too."
"Dean, a little coughing isn't going to hurt anyone, except maybe you, you should have told me, I could have given you some medicine and it would have been fine. Look Dean." Lance takes a deep breath keeping his calm voice in check. "Were not your dad. You've got to remember that. Were your friends and we care about you, we don't want you sick, or hurt or dead, and that's something you'll have to live with now."
Dean looks at Lance for a second, then finally admits, "I don't know how." Lance bites his lip and thinks for a moment.
"Well, the first step is gonna have to be accepting your dad is gone, and that we aren't him." Lance says softly, standing back up to his feet.
"I know he's gone, it's just…" Dean looks away for a second. "Shit, Sam explained this to me once. He called it programming or something. I didn't really get it. He's the one who went to college, he understands all that."
"It's gonna take awhile to do what he was talking about, but yeah, you're basically programmed the way you are, and you need a re-programming, I get it, so just work extra hard to see when your doing one of those things, and then stop yourself, tell us when it happens and we can help you catch it." Lance says he looks over his shoulder to the kitchen to where he left Keith.
Dean laughs a little. "You sound like my Uncle Bobby." Lance laughs knowing all about uncles, Coran had been like his favorite uncle, in space, but now Lance is on earth and he's still out there. Lance wrings his hands and glances back to the kitchen for a second.
"You okay?" Dean asks. If there's one thing he recognizes, it's nervous gestures. Lance bites his lip, he doesn't want to cut the conversation with Dean short, that would seem rude, but Keith hasn't made any noise in a while and Lance wanted to check on him.
"Y-yeah, I'm fine." Lance said shoving his hands in his pockets. To stop his nervous tick.
Dean coughs a little, then says, "Bullshit. You can go, it's fine. Whatever it is you need to do, I'm sure it's more important." Lance gives him a look.
"You did it again." Lance says. "I'm just gonna check on Keith, I'll be right back." Lance says going into the kitchen, leaving Dean with Cas as company.
Dean stares after him, confused. He did it again? That wasn't programming, that was fact. Right?
"How are you feeling Dean?" Cas tries from his end of the coach.
"I'm g-" Dean pauses. "I've been worse." he amended. There. Progress. He still sounded okay, but he wasn't technically lying anymore. Cas smiles.
"So better?" he asks
Dean nods. "Better." He glances towards the kitchen. "What do you think they're doing in there?" Cas shrugs.
"I don't know." Cas smirks. "Ten bucks says I can get them to kiss by the end of the day." Cas holds back laughter.
Dean shakes his head. "You're on." Cas grins, he had read something the other day, about mistletoe.
"Where can I get mistletoe." he asks with a sly smile.
"Why the hell would I know where to buy mistletoe?" Dean asks. "I couldn't even tell you where to get normal Christmas decorations."
"Is mistletoe not normal?" Cas asks confused. "Well in that case Lance probably has some in the bottom of his closet, he has everything there."
"Do I even wanna know why you know that?" Dean scoots away a little bit, trying to muffle a sneeze.
"I mean, he had boxes of tree decorations in there, and lots of blankets, and like five heating pads." Cas points to the heating pad in Dean's lap.
Dean glances down at it. "Fair, but now I'm scared of the bottom of Lance's closet. What else do you think he's got in there?" Cas shrugs.
"I just hope he has mistletoe." Cas says standing, he creeps to the kitchen doorway, peaks in then dashes down the hall to go through Lance's closet. All the while Dean is trying not to laugh for fear of breaking out into a coughing fit.
Unfortunately, that didn't really work out, so he just shoved his face in a pillow and hoped nobody would notice, but that didn't work either because Lance came in with a bottle of cold medicine.
"Dean, your coughing isn't going to get better unless you take some of this." Lance says pouring it into a small cup. "What were you laughing at… and where is Cas."
"Cas is learning to regret his life choices." Dean says, then glances over at the little medicine cup. "Whoa, I thought they only had those in movies."
"Ha ha, now down with it, or no Christmas cookies for you, and I think there's a package for you on the porch if your up to getting it, if not I'll grab it while you take the drugs.
Dean obediently took the cup, trying to process all of that at once. "First of all, why the hell is there a package for me? I've gotten maybe two pieces of mail in my entire life. Second, you have Christmas cookies? Like, legitimate Christmas cookies? Not cardboard cookies with a bunch of marker on them? And I've had actual drugs, this doesn't have as much kick."
Lance gives him the stink eye. "Just take it, I'll grab the box for you." Lance says walking to the door, he opens the door and lift the Christmas gift off the welcome mat and then hands it to Dean in exchange for the empty medicine cup.
Dean grabbed some salt out of the pocket of his jeans and raised it threateningly while he slowly pulled the present open. Then immediately poured it all over it. "If those assholes think they're gonna get me with a Christmas present, then they got another thing coming."
"Dean what are you doing?" Lance asked with a bored voice and a annoyed stare.
"Making sure it's not possessed or cursed or something." Dean says, looking up like it's the most natural thing in the world. "It's happened before. There was this one time, when we were kids, and I didn't check a package, and the dinosaur toy almost ripped Sammy's throat out, and Dad made me sleep on the floor for a month-" He freezes. "I - um - I mean - I did it again, didn't I?"
Lance nods. "Yep. Just enjoy it please, Keith and I are making Christmas cookies and where actually is Cas?" Lance looks over his shoulder to the hall for a moment.
"Looking for mistletoe." Dean says. "And you were serious about the cookies? I thought that was a joke."
"Nope not a joke, and why does he need mistletoe, where does he think he's gonna find some?"
"The bottom of your closet, since apparently that's where everything goes to die." Dean lifts the little mug out of the package. It had a bunch of classic cars imprinted on it. "Cool! More coffee and whiskey for me."
"Okie dokie then." Lance claps his hands together. "I'll just pretend I didn't hear that, and I'm gonna let Cas look, because I know he'll find it." Lance turns and heads for the kitchen.
"Son of a bitch, you really do have mistletoe in the bottom of your closet?" Dean says. "Why don't you keep normal things down there? Like guns, salt, and crowbars?"
Lance turns and put a finger to his lips and backs his way into the kitchen without another word. Cas comes creeping down the hall with a smile on his face.
"Guess what Dean." he says excitedly
"You found Narnia in the closet too?" Dean guesses, but doesn't mention that he used to think that could actually happen and would heavily guard closets.
"What?" Cas asks dead pan, he literally had no idea what in the world that is. "What is… Narnia?"
"A magical land full of talking animals and bitchy witches. You get to it from the back of a closet." Dean smirks. "At least, you do in the book and the movie. Don't actually try. It's not real."
"Oh, you got my hopes up." Cas says with a smirk, he was learning how to be sarcastic, and he was actually really good at it. At least that's what Lance said.
"Alright, if you didn't find Narnia, did you find one of those secret passages that lead to a bunch of people with buttons for eyes? Don't let them sew your face, by the way. That'd be messy." Dean sneezes, but keeps smiling. This is fun.
"What?" Cas asks his eye widening and face full of concern. He may be good at speaking sarcasm, but that didn't mean he could understand it all time.
"I'd tell you that one's not real and it's only from that Coraline movie, but most stories have some basis in fact, and I actually did have to deal with the crazy button people once, so I'm being serious when I say you should at least watch your back," Dean pats Cas's shoulder reassuringly, "but I doubt that's a problem here."
"Uh, ok." Cas clears his thought. "I found the mistletoe." he says getting back to the subject. "Where should I put it?"
Dean glances around the apartment. "I can think of about twenty different places, but since I'm trying to get ten bucks out of you, there's no way I'm helping." He stands. "I'm going to see the Christmas cookies." He turns and heads off to the kitchen.
I hope you liked that chapter, it was nice and sweet for you guys, it's always calm before the storm... life is full of up's and downs... good things never last? ok, I'm trying to say something not so light and fluffy is just around the corner, so sit tight. but let me know what you loved most about this chapter! the first person to comment on this chapter will be mentioned in my next one! Lot's of love! -Sam