AN: Okay – another chapter and things get moving more here. I should update pretty quickly with the next chapter because I actually have a plan for it! Be prepared for some angsty backstory though – they are the Winchesters after all...
They pile out of the apartment with Gabriel shouting about searching for Dean's porn collection and not so subtly suggesting that he expects to find something homosexual in it.
Castiel watches Dean tense and prepares to step in, but Dean continues walking so Castiel simply glares reprovingly at Gabriel before closing the door. He can hear muffled snickers from behind the wood.
Balthazar and Lucifer practically bound down the hall and out the door, while Dean walks on at a more sedate, yet determined pace.
Castiel follows closely beside him, finding that he immensely enjoys the simple sensation of walking near him. It's strange for Castiel to be so fond of someone that he's only just met, but he tries not to linger on it in his thoughts.
When the reach the car Balthazar opens the back door and bows with a flourish of his hand, saying "Your carriage awaits you..." while Lucifer snickers from his place in the front seat.
Dean flips him off before climbing in and Castiel hides a small smile at the disdainful look Balthazar gives him in return. He climbs into the backseat with Dean as Balthazar heads for the passenger's seat.
"I haven't had nearly enough caffeine to deal with this shit." Dean grumbles under his breath as the engine starts up. Castiel answers with a sympathetic smile.
"No, seriously." Dean insists "How the hell do you deal with these guys?"
"You know we can hear you up here, Dean" Lucifer snaps from the front seat, but is ignored.
Castiel allows his mouth to turn up at the corners and answers "I suggest imbibing copious amounts of alcohol."
Dean's eyebrows raise and he says "And here I thought you were the goody-goody" Which brings snickers from the front seat and scoff from Balthazar that sounds suspiciously like "Hardly"
Castiel feels a slight blush creeping onto his face as Dean looks about questioningly and demands "What? What do you mean?!"
He glances towards Castiel and inquires "Cas?"
Castiel shakes his head, refusing to speak so Balthazar answers for him "Come on, Cassie - tell Dean about the pizza man."
Castiel once again feels the urge to knock heads together. Balthazar always has to bring it up. It's quite ridiculous really and not nearly as unsavory as Balthazar makes it out to be. Still, it's not the sort of thing that he wants to discuss with anyone who wasn't directly involved, let alone Dean.
Dean waggles his eyebrows and asks with a sly smile "Yeah, Cas - what's this about a pizza man?"
"Don't forget the baby-sitter" Lucifer pipes in and Dean eyes widen in a fashion that Castiel didn't actually know was possible.
Castiel shakes his head firmly. "It was many years ago." he says, his tone indicating that he will say no more on the matter.
"Oh, come on, Cassie!" Balthazar prompts, but Castiel refuses to budge.
After a few moments Dean shrugs and says "Don't worry about it, Cas. We've all done things we're not proud of." It's clearly an offer to drop the subject and Castiel is momentarily overwhelmed with gratitude.
Balthazar mutters from the front "I'm proud of everything - and everyone - I've ever done." which elicits eye-rolls from the entire car and Castiel is forgotten as the subject.
DEAN
The rest of the ride is oddly relaxing, with Lucifer and Balthazar chatting amiably about the merits of certain clothing stores versus others and Dean is thankful for a moment to breath. He can hear himself think again and it's wonderful.
Or it would be wonderful, if his mind wasn't so hung up on solving the mystery of Cas and the pizza man. And baby-sitter. What the hell is with that? Did Cas sleep with a guy who had a girlfriend or – shit – a threesome? Stop! He commands himself. It's none of his concern.
He tries to turn his mind to other things, like how he's gonna chew Sammy out for this whole thing when it's over. Of course he knows his Sasquatch of a brother is just trying to help him adjust to everything. But this is not the answer, he's pretty damn sure of that.
"Right! Here we are." Balthazar announces as they pull up to a small men's boutique. The outfits in the front look like something out of an African safari movie and he's pretty sure they cost as much as an expedition.
They pour out of the car and Balthazar says "Okay- I've gotta go look for some things down the street, so I'll come fetch Dean when I'm ready." Lucifer nods agreeably at this.
"Fetch?!" Dean scoffs in irritation "I'm not a damn toy..."
Balthazar mutters something that sounds like "I know - such a shame." before sauntering off.
Dean growls in frustration, but forces his anger down and returns his attention to Lucifer and Cas. "Let's go" he grumbles, striding into the shop without waiting for the others.
He's aware of Lucifer murmuring about him being a touchy one and finds himself smiling when Cas defends in an undertone "He has every right to be - you've all been rather difficult."
As soon as they're inside a smiling dark-skinned woman greets them, hugging Castiel and Lucifer. "Rachel – lovely to see you again!" Lucifer greetings warmly. He gestures to Dean and says "This is Dean-"
Dean cuts him off and adds "Their newest victim." And offers his hand to her with a grin. She answers with a cool smile that tells him she doesn't appreciate the humor. Cas however, seems amused.
Rachel gestures to the racks of clothes and says "You have run of the store as always. I'll be in the back doing inventory, so just shout when you're done."
Lucifer nods and thanks her briefly, before moving off into the store among the racks and calling for Dean to follow.
Dean has never before thought of shopping as a physically straining activity, but with Lucifer piling clothes higher and higher in his arms, Dean is beginning to feel like he is at a gym rather than a boutique.
Cas follows close and offers to assists him several times, but Dean refuses. After all it'd be pretty pathetic if he couldn't carry a pile of shirts and pants on his own. Finally after what seems like hours, though he doubts that thirty minutes have in fact passed, Lucifer guides them to the changing rooms.
"Right, strip off and in you go" he says, gesturing to one of the doors.
Dean rolls his eyes and says "I think you got the order reversed there. I'm not striping off until I am behind those doors."
Lucifer grumbles that Dean is no fun, whilst Cas simply averts his eyes at the mere mention of Dean undressing. Dean finds it oddly endearing one on hand and on the other realises that the idea of stripping in front of Cas is not an unpleasant one. He hurries into the dressing room before his thoughts can travel any further down that path.
Lucifer organizes the chaos of clothes into outfits and tosses them into Dean one by one for him to try on and parade around in. It's stupid and he feels like a freakin' Barbie doll or something, being put on display.
On the other hand Cas' eyes seem to linger on his hips when Lucifer gives him a dark pair of jeans with a very flattering cut, and Dean realizes he doesn't mind at all.
"Okay, last outfit, Dean" Lucifer says, tossing a moss green shirt and black jeans over the top of the door to him. "I think this is the one you should wear for your party tonight."
Dean freezes for a moment oh hell he's got to throw a party?! No body mentioned that. "A party?!" he demands in fury, dropping the clothes and striding angrily from the dressing room to confront them.
"No one said anything about a damn party. Care to explain?" he growls, then wonders why Cas and Lucifer's gaze lingers briefly on his shoulder before skittering away.
Shit He's not wearing a shirt. He clenches his jaw for a moment, biting down the string of curses begging to roll of his tongue. He waits, eyes defiant for someone to ask about the scar stretching sickeningly across his skin, but the question never comes.
Instead Cas answers quietly "I apologize, Dean. I believe we all assumed you knew, since you're familiar with the show. At the end of each process everyone has some sort of event to finalize it. In your case it will be something of a house-warming party."
Dean nods sharply, saying "Right" before striding back into the dressing room and slamming the door. His hands worked, forming fists and then releasing for a few moments in an effort to calm himself.
He hears Lucifer and Cas speaking in urgent tones and a wave of gut-wrenching anger overwhelms him for a moment. Fucking assholes barging into his life and exposing him like this – he could break something. He sucks in harsh breaths reminding himself that it's not their fault they saw his scar. They weren't trying to make him feel vulnerable.
Suddenly Cas' voice comes softly from the other side of the door "If you desire we can cancel the party, Dean."
He hears a noise of protest from Lucifer, but Cas ignores it and says "We can stop all of this right now if you truly wish it."
Dean slumps down onto the floor as the fight drains out of him. Everything's so infuriating one minute and then Cas steps in and suddenly it's all fine. He finds himself smiling wryly at it and is thankful for Cas' offer. He's tempted to take it. But Winchesters finish what they start, no matter what.
He stands and says "Thanks, Cas, but I am never gonna pass up a chance for a good party." With what he hopes is a convincing amount of raucous bravado in his voice.
"Very well." Cas says and Dean can hear the smile in his voice.
"I hate to interrupt this touching moment, but could you get the last outfit on please? We've got a schedule to keep." Lucifer interjects and Dean almost flips him off before realize Lucifer wouldn't see him.
Instead he grumbles under his breath a bit and slides on the black-wash jeans, which fit snuggly, but comfortably. The shirt is a rich moss tone and has military style shoulder epaulettes. He slides it on and is almost done buttoning it up when his phone rings.
He grabs it without checking the caller id and answers "Hello?" with it pressed between his shoulder and ear.
"Hey there. How's the Pretty Woman make-over going?" Charlie asks brightly from the other side.
Dean groans in response and finishes buttoning his shirt, stepping out of the dressing room. "That bad, huh?" Charlie asks sympathetically. "I do feel bad for you, having your Saturday high-jacked, but I'm also kinda bummed that I'm missing the montage!"
"Believe me, it's not as much fun as you think it is." Dean grumbles as Lucifer nods appreciatively and instructs Dean to stand in different positions.
"Not for you, but for me it'd be awesome. Better than any rom-com make-over that's for damn sure." Charlie counters with a laugh.
"Hold on" Dean instructs her as Lucifer turns him towards the mirror. He surveys his reflection and smiles at what he sees. It's not the sort of thing he'd usually pick out, but there is a certain appeal to it.
"Cas, what do you think?" he finds himself asking. Cas, whose gaze had been roaming everywhere but Dean jumped slightly at hearing his name. However he composed himself quickly and scanned Dean before answering "It suits you very well."
He can hear Charlie shouting at him through the phone so he presses it back to his ear and returns to the dressing room.
"Jesus, would you tone it down?!" he growls as he catches a few words of a sentence that are practically screamed at him.
"Oh, there you are." Charlie says in her normal tone, before adding. "Who is Cas – wait – the Castiel guy?! You've got a nickname for him?"
Dean cuts her off with a harsh "Shut up" as he wriggles out of the jeans.
"I don't blame you, Dean. I've watched the show a couple of times and even I think he's pretty dreamy..." Charlie continues as if Dean had never spoken.
"I am too busy for this." He snaps before clicking his phone shut. He's hanging up on a lot of people lately it seems, but he can't bring himself to care. Sure he'll have a dozen or so messages from Charlie later, calling him a Klingon or Death Eater for hanging up on her but he'll just delete them.
Once he's dressed back in his clothes he exists the dressing room and sees that Lucifer and Cas are already having a majority of the clothes rung up.
He carries the last outfit over and Lucifer greets him by saying "Balthy just called – he won't need you for a while longer. I've got to get these clothes back to your lovely apartment – so Cas will have you to himself for a while."
Dean doesn't miss the wink Lucifer gives Cas, but Cas ignores it. Dean smiles, because Cas he can handle, and says "Okay. Fine by me."
Lucifer, weighed down with bags, snarks "So glad you approve." Before heading out the door.