Hello Lovely Readers!
As usual, a Twitter comment inspired this little fic-let, so if you are from there, hello! (This is s9, no homeless Cas, no Gadreel)
Please, I encourage likes and comments!
Dean had only been gone for a few hours on a basic salt-'n-burn before Cas came to find Sam in the bunker's library. The younger Winchester was using the few inches he had on Dean to reach onto the top of a dusty shelf and pulled down a wooden box with some inscription on it. He blew air over the thing gently, and a veritable cloud of dust formed in front of him.
Sam coughed a couple of times, so he put the box down and walked away to let the dust settle. He saw Cas then, wearing a pair of clean black sweatpants and one of Dean's old Metallica t-shirts, leaning against the archway and watching him.
"Sup, Cas?"
Cas looked up at the ceiling for a moment as if summoning strength from above. "Sam," He intoned gravely, then let out a world-weary sigh. "Can you make me a peanut butter and jelly sandwich?"
Completely caught off guard, Sam looked the former angel over as he grabbed a dry cloth to dust the weird little box. "I mean, I can, but why? You make them all the time. They're your favorite."
Cas glanced away, lips pursed. "It doesn't taste right." A frustrated sound escaped him. "It's three ingredients, Sam. How am I messing it up?"
Sam could see it wasn't the sandwich bothering Cas; it was his new humanity that was the problem. Cas didn't ask for much; this was an easy way to help his friend adjust to being a human.
"Sure."
They went to the kitchen, and Sam saw the open jar of creamy peanut butter, the used knife lying on the tabletop. The grape jelly was lidless, and there was a dollop of jelly on the table. The small plate held a simple sandwich with a cartoonishly perfect bite out of the top.
Sam picked up the containers, but nothing was out of date, and they all smelled fine. He looked to Cas and shrugged. "Dunno. Can you describe what's wrong?"
Cas crossed his arms over his chest and his face fell. "I used to lead armies, Sam," he growled, unable to look at the younger Winchester. "How can I be this useless?"
"You aren't useless, Cas," Sam said gently. He picked up the sandwich and gently pried apart the slices of white bread, but he didn't see anything wrong with it. "It's not like people come out of the womb ready to do anything. We all have to learn, start at some point."
After a silent, tense moment, Cas cleared his throat. "Dean makes them."
Sam cocked his head. "Always?"
Cas nodded. "I've never actually made one myself. I figured I could work it out via context clues but," he looked down at his plate, and his shoulders slumped.
Sam went into the pantry, then pulled out a container of crunchy peanut butter, and his fancy whole wheat bread. Then he went to the fridge and pulled out strawberry jam and apple butter. He came back to the table, and Cas's eyebrows raised in curiosity.
"What's all that for?"
Sam grinned as he arranged the jars of peanut butter and jams in a double row. "We are going to use science to figure out what Dean does to make your sandwich."
Cas let himself grin, and Sam patted his shoulder. "Hold on!" He jogged to the library, then returned with a piece of paper and a pen. "It's not proper science if we don't write down the results."
"I don't mean to take up your time, Sam."
p"Dude, this is more fun than it seems. Besides, now I'm just curious what Dean does to make the sandwich taste better." /p
Sam got down a stack of clean plates, and Cas gathered up all the butter knives. They stood side by side and grinned playfully at each other.
"For science!" They said in tandem.
An hour later, the results had come in:
White B, grape jelly, creamy PB: "closest but still missing something"
White bread, grape jelly, chunky PB: "too crunchy"
Wheat bread, grape jelly, creamy PB: "too much fiber"
Wheat bread, grape jelly, chunky PB: "tastes too healthy"
White bread, strawberry jam, creamy PB: "strawberry is nice, but not the same"
White bread, strawberry jam, crunchy PB: "too many conflicting textures"
White bread, apple butter, creamy PB: "Disgusting. Apples go in pies"
They looked at the pile of partially eaten sandwiches. Cas's stomach was full from all the taste-testing, but he wasn't satisfied. He scowled.
Sam scratched his head with the end of the pen. "I seriously have no idea, Cas."
Cas chuckled drily. "Glad it's not just me, then."
Sam had poked through the pantry and fridge multiple times, but he still couldn't figure out what Dean's secret ingredient could possibly be.
Cas sat in one of the kitchen chairs, head propped up on his hand, and he sighed.
A thought occurred to Sam. Maybe...there was no missing ingredient. Not a sandwich ingredient. Maybe Cas was just missing Dean, and since he associated his PbJ with his best friend, it wouldn't taste right without him there.
God, why can't they just admit they liked each other already?
Sam pondered that idea, and a small part of him was annoyed that he'd lost time to this stupid situation. But, thinking about the fun they'd had, laughing and bopping Cas with the peanut butter only for Cas to chase him and get apple butter on his cheek, made the afternoon worth it. They were friends, and Sam was able to finally get a better sense of the Cas under the trenchcoat.
"We should clean this up before-" Cas was cut off by the slam of the bunker door. They looked at each other than the plates of sandwiches, unsure what to do.
"Hey, guys!" Dean called out, then walked into the kitchen and stopped. He stared at them, then at the mess. "Uh…?"
"Dean, it's not what you think," Sam said automatically.
His brother looked at him with his eyebrows raised. "Oh, please tell me what you think I think is going on. Because I'm seriously lost." Dean snickered.
"We were doing science," Cas explained. He held up their paper with their notes. "We wrote it down, so it counts."
"Okay…what were you two nerds trying to figure out?"
"How do you make a PBJ sandwich," Sam and Cas asked in tandem.
"Wha...?" Dean was honestly baffled.
"I tried to make one, but it didn't taste right," Cas said, and he motioned towards the other half-eaten sandwiches. "So Sam was trying to figure out what you do that's different. We can't figure it out."
Sam placed the last two pieces of white bread on the last clean plate and held it out to his older brother. "Please show us what you're doing differently. I'm going nuts trying to figure it out."
Dean barked out a laugh. "Nuts! Cause of the peanut butter?"
Sam pinched his nose, and Cas rolled his eyes. Still, Dean took the clean knife and made a cleared spot on the table to work. They watched him like a hawk as he covered one slice of bread with grape jelly, then the other slice with the creamy peanut butter. Sam and Cas looked at each other. That's it? They said silently between them.
"Oh, yeah," Dean snapped his finger, then whirled around and opened up the cabinet with the teas and coffee containers. He pulled out an almost empty bottle of honey. He came back, shrugged at this captive audience, then drizzled the honey on both sides of the sandwich before he gently smooshed them together. He handed the plate to Cas with a little bow. "Ta-da!"
Cas looked at it for a moment, then took a bite. His shoulders slumped, and he smiled in relief. "Honey!" Cas said excitedly around his mouthful of food.
Sam laughed. "Never thought of that."
Dean rubbed the back of his neck. "Well, you just lost your wings and seemed to need a little extra pick-me-up," he said simply, though his cheeks burned. "Not rocket science, guys. Now, who's cleaning up this mess so I can start dinner?"
Sam started to collect the plates and dishes. As he threw away the leftovers, he peeked over to see Dean and Cas sharing the sandwich and watching each other fondly.
END
Aw...I'm getting a cavity!
What did you think? If you want, I appreciate comments-they are the secret ingredient that make my PBJs taste so much better!
Want more fluffy domestic DeanCas? Check out my 15.19 fix-it fic "Happiness is in the Having" and its sequel; they are full of all the soft DeanCas we need right now!
Until next time, thank you for reading!