A/N I'm going to post every day for the next few days as we start to get into the meat of the story. So hold on!
Castiel had made several attempts to engage Dean in further conversation when he returned, but he was met entirely with short responses. Dean did his best to sound completely nonchalant and unbothered, but Cas could recognize his distress for what it was. Eventually he gave up and simply settled into his own bed, letting himself get lost in thought while Dean browsed through the computer over on the opposite end of the room.
When Cas woke in the morning, Dean was asleep on top of his computer, still in his clothes. He sighed, but made the conscious decision to give Dean some dignity. He got up quietly and headed into the bathroom, making sure to close the door just loud enough to wake the hunter. When he left the bathroom, he found Dean gathering clothes from his duffel as if he had never been asleep. Cas let Dean shower first, and when he himself was done showering a breakfast sandwich and coffee had materialized and were waiting for him.
"I figure we'll make it to just inside Pennsylvania today, then make it up to Pinehurst early the next morning. Sound fair?"
"We may be able to make it tonight."
"I told you, this is probably nothing, no reason to rush. Enjoy the time out of the bunker." Dean insisted, but he knew Cas probably had picked up on the fact he was going easy on him. Truthfully, Cas did seem fully healed, but there was no reason to risk discomfort or some other complication.
"Alright." the former angel gave in. He sat on the edge of his bed, taking a bite of the offered sandwich.
"Good, right?"
Cas nodded. He had yet to find a food he really disliked, but he figured Dean was steering him towards good choices.
"Wait till you see the snacks we have for the drive. I think you'll be impressed." Dean tossed a large bag onto the bed next to Cas.
The angel's eyes widened as he absently pawed through the bag. There were definitely more options than the two of them could reasonably eat over the remaining journey.
"I may have gone a little overboard." Dean admitted. "But hey, you gotta try everything. We have to figure out what your favorites are." He approached the bag and pulled out a rather large pouch of licorice. "And importantly what your opinion of this is." He tossed it back in the bag. "Just let it be noted, the wrong answer will make me think less of you as a person forever."
Cas turned his attention back to his sandwich but he caught the small smile that played on Dean's lips as he gathered up and packed the snacks to go. He didn't comment on how Dean seemed to be in a much better mood.
Dean meanwhile tried not to think about how he was overcompensating for his hasty exit when he bought all of this food. The new day was a blank slate, and they could move on from here.
The trip up through Pennsylvania was fairly uneventful. Music, open roads, and one fought-over bag of licorice (much to Dean's delight and then irritation). This time at the motel they didn't get into any overly deep conversations, and the lack of vulnerability made for a much more relaxed evening. This time the movie ended once more with Dean asleep on Cas' bed. Learning from his experience, the angel snuck off and moved over to the other one before giving in to sleep himself.
The pair arrived at Pinehurst just before noon the next day.
Dean spoke with the front desk man, getting the key to take a look. They parked their car and started through the labyrinth that was this outdoor storage facility. Very different to his dad's, this place was far from clean, but had much less of a murderer's basement kind of vibe. The alley ways leading up to the storage units were narrow and covered in slush. Dean started to remember why he hated upstate New York in the late fall. The roads might be clear, but everything else always seemed to be covered in some amount of snow from October through February. Cas would describe the snowy woods near the roads as "aesthetically pleasing" but Dean mostly focused on places like this, full of dirty slush just waiting to soak through the bottoms of your jeans.
He stopped outside a door, reading the number. "Unit 74, this is the one." Dean slipped the key in the lock and popped it open, rolling up the heavy metal door. He stepped back for a moment, letting a little dust clear before peering in. He could see why the call had described it as a mess.
Books were piled high, spilling out of boxes. There were old antique looking relics piled high, a broken lamp across the floor. There was no working light inside, so Dean flipped on the flashlight on his phone. He and Cas pressed inward, carefully sidestepping the broken glass.
Dean stopped Cas. "Keep your eye on the ground… Dad had trip wires installed in his." He advised.
Cas nodded, slowing his step, and examining each footfall before he made it.
The unit wasn't too large, and once Dean felt fairly confident they had cleared it without finding any potential traps, he relaxed slightly.
"It doesn't appear as if anything was taken." Cas mused, looking around.
"No…" Dean muttered, seeming distracted. His phone began to buzz in his pocket and he pulled it out, looking at the name before flipping it open. "Hey Sam, we're at the unit now." He switched the call onto speaker.
"You two find anything?" The voice over the phone prompted.
"Nothing yet." Cas replied firmly.
"It look like someone went through it?" Sam pressed.
"No, but something's weird man." Dean finally stated.
"Weird how?"
"Like… weird weird. Bobby has this lock up, less than thirty minutes from Dad's, and he never mentions it to us? We knew about his other lockup, over in Indiana, and two more in Maine and Utah, but not New York?"
"Bobby had all sorts of things we didn't know about." Sam said.
"Yeah but… something just isn't right." Dean insisted. "There's no devils trap on the inside of this, no guns, no trip wires. Hell there's not even a string with some jingling cans."
"Perhaps this unit is full of more personal items than hunting items." Cas suggested.
"Seven states away from his house?" Dean asked, incredulously. He pawed through a box. "There is just nothing supernatural in any of these boxes that we've found so far. I have an encyclopedia set in this one… this box is a china set… couple lampshades over there… it's old stuff, but nothing that screams Bobby…"
"Maybe he couldn't get rid of his wife's stuff, but wanted it farther away." Sam suggested. "It would explain why he never bothered to tell us."
"Maybe…" Dean conceded. "I don't know…"
"And if that's the case… then the break in was probably just a break in." Sam paused. "The guy said a handful of other units had been broken into too… we thought that they were looking for Bobby's but maybe it really was just someone looking for easy cash."
"Yeah…" Dean frowned, taking a step back. "Well anyway. It's probably going to take a couple hours to go through this stuff, make sure there aren't any surprises hidden away in these piles."
"Give me a text if you find anything interesting." Sam pushed.
"Yeah. I'm gonna drag Cas up to Duff's in Amherst when we're done." Cas looked up at the mention of his name. "Then we'll head back down, probably crash for the night somewhere in Pennsylvania again."
"Alright. Keep an eye on the weather, it's supposed to get cold up there."
"Thanks Mom, I'll make sure Cas wears his coat and winter hat." Dean mocked, rolling his eyes and hanging up. He looked back to find the angel staring at him.
"I don't have a hat." Cas observed, confused.
"No, I didn't mean… never mind." Dean turned his attention back to the boxes. "Let's go through them, make sure it's all as boring as it looks. Go slowly… the last thing we need is to pull out a supernatural grenade." Dean hesitated. "Or a normal grenade for that matter."
Cas nodded, grabbing the box closest to him and beginning his search.
When they finally stepped out of the unit, Dean cursed, not expecting the light rain and stepping right into a puddle. "Oh, come on. Drive all the way across the country for boxes of useless books and a cold wet rainy side of nothing."
"And buffalo wings."
Dean hesitated, looking back at Cas, straightening up a bit, obviously immediately in slightly better spirits, but still somewhat bitter. "And buffalo wings." He locked the unit and headed back to the main office, stopping off and ending payment on the unit. He was informed that they had until the end of the month to clear it out or it would go to auction, and Dean agreed, knowing full well that it was someone else's problem now.
Dean's mood only continued to improve as they left Pinehurst behind for Amherst, and by the time they pulled into the parking lot for dinner, he was practically grinning. "And look at that, not too crowded yet. The night just gets better and better."
Cas had always been amused by how food motivated Dean was, and this time was no exception. Only now he could actually experience what Dean was passionate about. Before, food had no meaning, no real flavor he could discern. He would drink a beer with Dean because it became obvious early on it was expected, but he didn't get anything out of it.
Now he found himself being shown an entire new part of life, and was excited by just how excited Dean seemed to be to show it to him. He sat with the hunter, accepted the offered beers, allowed Dean to pick a pile of food and chicken wings, and happily sampled everything he was offered.
It didn't hurt that Dean seemed to have very good taste when it came to food.
Dean had to admit that he had been pretty annoyed by the seemingly pointless trip to the storage unit, but that had faded. Right now he was surprised by how good a time he was having. Cas was enjoying himself. Conversation was right in that sweet spot of fun "this one time" stories that never got old. The wings were as good as he remembered from the last time they rolled through town, years ago.
The hunter returned from one last bar run to the table with his hand behind his back, sporting an ear to ear grin that Cas had come to recognize was one of usually mischievous self-satisfaction. He tried to stifle his smile as Dean struggled to hide his own amusement.
Dean brought his hand out from behind him and offered the object to the former servant of heaven.
Cas held it in his hands, and looked it over, confused at first but then slowly coming to realize the layers to the joke. A simple knit hat, to be worn in cold weather. On it, the words "Hot Wingz" with two angelic chicken wings and a halo overhead.
Dean cracked almost immediately, never able to keep from laughing at his own declared hilarity.
Cas found himself unable to resist a widening smile. Dean's laughter was contagious and he gave in to Dean's insistence putting the hat on for a picture that was quickly sent to Sam. Cas gave it one last look before slipping it into his trench coat pocket.
Both of them were pretty relaxed as they headed out into the cold from the bar restaurant, back towards the impala. Slipping into the car, Dean paused.
"What is it?"
Dean shook his head. "I don't know." He took a brief look around the interior of the car before shrugging and writing it off. "Weird feeling."
"Something wrong?"
Dean shrugged. "Don't think so." He started the car, and after another moment's hesitation put it in gear. "Nope, seems fine."
Cas smiled again, relaxing into his spot beside the hunter. He settled in, feeling good about being on the road again.