It takes them exactly seven minutes to get to Dean's house. Dean knows this because he keeps checking his watch every few steps. It's not that he's nervous, are you kidding? It's more like he's... Anxious, rather. Anxious to know how Cas will respond to the dump that he and Sam call home. Half of him wants Cas to react viciously and taunt him for having a sucky house, just so that Dean can have a reason not to like him. He fears that it's entirely possible that he likes Cas a little bit too much at this point, especially considering how he just met him today. But he can't help that the other half of him wants to run inside his house and clean it up before Cas sees, just so that he can impress him in the slightest. He would love to see those overly understanding blue eyes light up over how well he can fix things in such little time, would love to have that look of praise directed on him, would love to stare at those pink, plush lips forming a smile meant for him-
And THAT, is what he's trying to avoid. He's really hoping the Cas will turn out to be a bad person so that thoughts like those stop making unwelcome appearances.
They arrive at his house and Dean almost keeps walking to give off the illusion that they live somewhere else. But he doesn't. He might as well get this over with, he reasons.
They walk up to the porch and Dean gets out his key with one hand, since the other is supporting Sam. He clumsily unlocks and opens the door. The smell of alcohol immediately penetrates their nostrils and makes both Cas and Gabe slightly queasy, although they politely don't show their discomfort. Dean and Sam are unaffected since they're use to the heavy perfume of whiskey and beer.
Dean steps into the house, followed by Cas, who's carrying Gabe. Dean waits until his guests are fully in the house until he closes the door behind them.
"C'mon," Dean says, gesturing towards Cas, "There's a place where the lil' rugrats can play." He makes his way through a hallway and Cas obediently follows until they enter a living room. The smell of alcohol seems to have gone away slightly, or maybe they've gotten use to it. In the living room there's a giant playpen that takes up almost the entire room, only leaving space for a two person sofa, wooden coffee table, and small TV on what seems to be a bedside table. There are toys and trains and stuffed animals and cars littered all about the playpen, much to Gabriel's excitement.
"Down Cas. Down." Gabriel says as he opens and closes his fists in the direction of the toys. Cas puts him down just as Dean puts Sam down. Immediately, the toddlers crawl off to the nearest toy to officially begin their play date. Cas smiles at the eagerness of his brother and thinks of how good it will be for Gabriel to finally have a playmate his size. He looks to Dean to see if he's also smiling, but instead he finds him with a very distressed expression.
Cas' smile fades away as he asks, "What's wrong?"
This seems to rip Dean out of his scattered thoughts and he jerks his head to Cas, almost as if startled.
"Oh, uh, nothin' Cas. Just... just give me a second." And with that Dean turns around and walks out of the living room, leaving Cas to wait awkwardly as he watches the children at play. Cas looks around, spots the couch, and then sits down.
From a different room, he can hear Dean and an older man's voice arguing, who he assumes must be his dad. Even from this distance he can still hear the way he slurs his words together, as if drunk. He tries not to listen to the conversation, so he concentrates on something else. He thinks about how much summer homework he still has to do, how much time it will take, what subjects they are and blah blah blah. The harder he concentrates the more he tunes in on the conversation, he notices.
"How DARE you take the only set of keys! If I've told you once, I've told you a hundred %^*&ing times," Cas can't help but mentally censor out the bad words, "I have places to go and I need those keys!."
"It's not like you ever go anywhere." Cas hears Dean's voice crack. "Maybe if you weren't so DRUNK all the time, like you freakin' are right now, maybe then I would respect your wishes!"
By now the argument has turned into full blown screaming. It gets Gabriel's attention and he looks frightened, but it barely seems to bother Sam. Cas' stomach does an uneasy flip as he realizes how he must be use to it. Suddenly he feels very hot and uncomfortable. He doesn't like to hear Dean so agitated. He takes off his trenchcoat, folds it up neatly and puts it beside him.
It isn't long before Dean's storming back into the room. His angry footsteps startle Cas, making him jump up off the couch.
"Dean," Cas starts.
"I don't want to hear it man," Dean grumbles, refusing to make eye contact. "I just... You know what? Maybe it would be better if you just left." Dean makes his way over to the couch, picks the trenchcoat up and shoves it into Cas' arms with an unintentional roughness.
Cas isn't sure if he's more hurt or confused. He searches Dean's emerald eyes for signs that he's joking, but finds nothing in the cold stare. Cas exhales a breath he didn't know he was holding and slowly walks over to Gabriel, who is happily playing cars with Sam.
"C'mon Gabe," he says in an attempt to get his brother to comply to his wishes, "I'll play with you when we get home."
Gabe thrashes his legs and arms in Castiel's embrace as he tries to get put down. "Sam!" he cries, "I wanna play wit Sam!" Cas can see the tears in his brother's eyes and immediately knows how he feels. Neither of them want to leave their new potential friends, but there's not much to be done about that now. Cas, being the over prepared big brother that he is, reaches into his pocket and pulls out a lollipop of Gabe's favorite flavor. When he hands it to him the thrashing of limbs stop, but the tears rolling down his face decide not to.
Cas is in the door frame of the living room when he realizes he hasn't said his proper good-byes yet. If there was anything his mother had taught him before she passed away, it was good manners. He turns around and looks at Sam, who seems to look confused as to why his new playmate is leaving so soon. "Bye Sam," he says. Cas turns around even more until he's facing Dean. Once he looks at Dean, the look on his face gives his body an answer to how he's feeling.
Numb. He doesn't feel anything.
"Good-bye, Dean," he says barely above a whisper.
Dean wants to say something back to him. He fears that if he opens his mouth he'll say "No stay" or "Please don't go." Going back on what he said earlier will make him look like a wimp, and he can't have that. He doesn't trust his mouth enough to say a simple 'good-bye' so instead he gives Cas a small wave. Cas nods in return, repositions Gabe, and heads out of the Winchester house.