"Sammy, where the hell did you put my knife?" Dean shouted through the yard.
"Why are you asking me?" his brother yelled back.
"Don't play the innocent, bitch!" Dean turned to glare at him. "I saw you with it just five minutes ago!"
"I don't have your fucking knife, jerk!" Sam was looking at him and Dean could make out his bitch face without problem.
Sam and Eileen's house was in the middle of a quiet neighborhood, a homey two-story building that had been their home on Earth where they'd raised Dean Jr. (which just proved that Sam was a walking cliché). It wasn't Dean's cup of tea, his own home with Cas in the middle of nowhere was more comfortable for him, but this fitted Sam perfectly.
"What are you arguing about again?" Cas appeared on the porch.
"Dean thinks I stole his knife," Sam complained.
"How am I supposed to cut these things up without it?" Den gestured at the vegetables on the desk next to him.
Cas walked over to him and with a swift movement pulled out the knife in question from behind the big bowl sitting in the middle of the table. He handed it over by the handle and raised an eyebrow.
"Told ya," Sam said triumphantly and turned back to firing up the grill. It had turned out he was an awful cook in the kitchen but a pretty decent one out of it. It had been one of Dean's biggest shock in the afterlife.
"Shut up," Dean grumbled as heat crept up his cheeks, and took it from Cas grudgingly. "Aren't you supposed to be on my side?" he asked his angel.
"I like to point out when you're wrong," Cas smirked a little.
"Yeah, when we are arguing," Dean waved between them. "But we should be a united front against the world. You should defend me like a good boyfriend."
"Even when you're wrong?" Cas frowned.
"Especially then," Dean nodded seriously.
"Don't listen to him, Cas," Sam quipped up. "You should always correct him. That's the responsible thing to do."
Cas looked at him with a squint.
"How many times have you told Eileen she wasn't right?" he asked with honest curiosity.
Sam opened his mouth and then closed it. Laugher burst out of Dean. Sucker.
"That's more like it," he kissed Cas' nose and started on his work.
He could feel Cas roll his eyes at him fondly before he went back inside to help Eileen.
The little gathering they had planned was family only. Seeing that they counted a lot of people family, that didn't narrow it down much. Lucky that Sam's yard was pretty big and Heaven's perk was that they didn't have to worry about disturbing the neighbors. Mom and Dad would be over any minute to help with the last of the preparations.
Dean was just a little stressed about that, since the first and last time John and Cas had been in the same room the angel had decked John with a perfect right hook, which would've broke a living human's neck with the force put into it. Dean hadn't known if he should've laughed or cried at it. He'd kind of expected it, Cas had never had a good opinion on the oldest Winchester and had never tried to hide it.
John had handled it well, all in all. Dean had hardly recognized him when he'd simply gotten on his feet and muttered a "You must be the angel then." Mary had taken it upon herself to explain that Bobby and her had already been through with John about a couple things concerning his treatment of his own sons. ("Told me about your guardian angel, too. Guessed he'd be protective.")
The John in front of Dean had been more like the man he remembered from his early childhood and the one they'd met when they had traveled back in time. Heaven brought out the best in everyone and it made Dean a little frustrated that he couldn't hold his resentment for his father a little longer. At least Cas had seemed to in the same boat, because hurting one of the souls in his care wasn't good for business and this version of John, who finally had the peace he hadn't had in his life, didn't deserve such a treatment.
It had been almost smooth sailing after that. John's only problem with Cas hadn't been his vessel or even his not-human status, which Dean would've expected. No, it had been his job, because apparently being Heaven's God-appointed boss could make a strain on any relationship and Dean deserved better than that. It had been one of Dean's most morbid experience in his whole existence.
Before they had taken off to Sam and Eileen's this afternoon, Dean had made Cas promise not to punch anyone. Seeing that there were only the four of them yet, they were good so far.
Dean was done with cutting up the vegetables pretty quickly and he took them over to Sam, then left his brother to see if he could help with anything else inside.
Eileen was half-sitting on the kitchen table, Cas across her leaning against the counter and signing at her. There was a glass of iced tea sitting beside both of them.
"Wow, you seem really busy," Dean spoke up. Following Cas' eyes, Eileen looked at him like he'd just caught her cheating her diet or something (which wasn't probable, Sam was the health-freak in the family), then shot a look at Cas and started signing rapidly. Dean could make out the words why, tell and come and from Cas' response want, watch and face. It was enough information for him to put the pieces together. "Thanks, sunshine. You're so busted by the way."
"We're finished," Eileen pointed at the prepared plates, drinks and snacks behind her back.
"I see how it is," Dean crossed his arms over his chest. "You thought you can just chat while we work our ass off outside."
"I would hardly call it tiring work," Eileen said the same time Cas muttered, "Yes."
Dean didn't like this teaming up thing, but he guessed the two of them hadn't really had the opportunity to bond outside of Heaven and couldn't deny that them liking each other was kinda cool – not for him and Sam, apparently, but in general.
"Iced tea?" Eileen asked, nodding at the pitcher behind Cas' back.
Dean looked out the window where Sam was still working on the grill, then at the stuff that still needed to be carried out. The only thing left to do was the music, but Charlie was in charge of that and they couldn't do anything about it until she arrived. So really, it wasn't much of a question.
"Sure," he grinned.
The tea was perfectly cold, Cas' side was pressing against his, and he was gonna have his family together in a couple minutes. Everything was great.