A few days later, Cas was washing dishes when Dean wrapped his arms around him from behind. "Hello, handsome." Cas chuckled.

"Hello, Dean." he turned to smile at his friend, and Dean leaned forward to capture his lips with his own. Cas quickly turned his face back towards the sink- Dean's lips landed on his cheek. "How was school?" Cas asked quickly. Dean groaned and lay his head against the other boy's.

"Long. School's not the same without you." Cas snorted.

"Yeah, you probably have other friends now." Dean grumbled.

"That's not the point. None of them are like you, Cas." At that, the blue-eyes boy laughed.

"You mean none of them do like me."

"Cas, why are you being so sassy today?" Dean grinned- he liked when the author joked with him.

"I dunno." the boy mused. "Must be something in the air." Dean spun Cas around and pulled him close by his belt loops. Cas held Dean's chest away with a soapy hand. "Dean," he warned. "I'm trying to do the dishes."

"I'll just take a second." Dean promised, leaning towards the other boy. Cas scrambled away, ducking out of Dean's arms. He hurriedly picked up a stack of clean plates and scurried to the cabinet to put them. Dean slumped. "So you are avoiding me." he murmured. Cas didn't hear.

"Hey, Cas. Mom wants us to come over for dinner tonight." Cas looked up from his computer.

"Sounds like fun, it'll be good to see Sam. It's been a while." Dean nodded and turned his attention back to the phone with his mother.

"We'll be there, mom."

That night, Sam whisked Cas upstairs to his room as soon as the pair arrived at the Winchester home. Dean was invited into the kitchen.

"What's up, mom?" Mary Winchester only invited people into the kitchen when she wanted to have a private talk with them.

"I just wanted to know how you're doing lately. We hardly ever talk, I never see you anymore..." she gave him a pointed look and Dean grimaced.

"Sorry, mom. I've just been under a lot of stress lately." The moment he said it, Dean regretted opening his mouth. His mother pounced immediately.

"What's been so stressful, Dean? You always used to be so light, practically floating everywhere with your head in the clouds. Then we moved here, and you changed." Dean shifted uncomfortably before pulling himself to sit on the counter. He took a deep breath and looked at his hands.

"Life's just been tough lately. I've had a lot going on."

"I'm not getting any younger here, Dean." Mary joked. Dean smiled, then turned to look at his mother, surprised to find that there were wrinkles in the corners of her eyes, and grey at her temples. She really wasn't getting younger.

"I love you, mom." he blurted. Mary smiled gently.

"You know I love you too. Now talk to me, Dean. Tell me what's going on in that handsome head of yours." Dean looked back at his hands.

"I had a girlfriend for a few months. We never got really serious, just... stuff... and Cas hated her and she hated Cas so we'd agree he wouldn't bring Adam home if I didn't bring Eve home and things were okay, but-"

"Dean." Mary interrupted, hands on her hips. "I'm totally lost." Dean sighed.

"Sorry, mom." he took another deep breath and started back at the beginning while his mother resumed cooking. Dean appreciated that she stayed silent as he told her everything that had been going on, from his and Cas's changed relationship, to sleeping with Eve, to telling Cas about Eve being pregnant, he didn't leave out any details, ending his narration with the story of that morning, when Cas has repeatedly avoided his kisses. "And he's been doing it since the day he stood up for me with Eve." Mary wade her way over to her son until she was standing in front of him. She ran her fingers through his hair comfortingly.

"Dean, honey, you know I love you so much. But you've messed up. Cas won't kiss you because he's still hurt." Dean leaned his face into his mother's hand.

"He said we were okay. He said it was okay, though." Mary sighed.

"Cas is one of those people who bottles everything up, I think. He wants everything to be okay, he trying to pretend it's all fine. But Dean... he's got to be hurting. Imagine, for just a moment, if your places had been reversed. Imagine you had sex and then immediately had the person you were with start talking about their ex. Imagine you had come home to find the person that tormented you had had sex with your best friend- who you probably already have a crush on- in the bed the two of you share. Cas is hurting, and he's hurting deep, Dean." A tear fell from Dean's eye, and Mary pulled him into a tight hug.

"How do I fix it, mom? How do I make it better?" Mary's heart broke at the pain in her son's voice. She fought back tears of her own as she answered.

"I don't know, Dean."

Dinner later was a somewhat strained affair. Cas and Dean sat next to each other at the table with Mary at the head and Sam across from them. Mary wanted to fix everything for her boys- as she had long ago come to think of Cas- and Dean wanted to fix everything with Cas too. Sam could tell something was up between his brother and Cas, but he thought maybe it was that they were finally together and didn't want Mary to know. After the meal, Cas helped Mary do the dishes as Sam and Dean cleared the table. While Dean waited for Cas to come out of the kitchen- he suspected his mother was talking to him much as she had with himself earlier- he went with Sammy up to his room.

"Is everything okay with you and Cas?" his little brother asked innocently as he lay sprawled on the bed. Dean laughed hollowly.

"Why does everyone in this family have to be so damn observant?" he groused. "Not really, Sammy."

"What happened." As Dean explained the short version, Sam's eyebrows drew slowly down his face. When the older boy was done, Sammy sighed.

"You messed up, Dean."

"I know."

That night, Dean tried to talk to Cas about their problems- but the writer escaped to the bathroom to shower. He tried again when they went to bed that night, but either Cas fell asleep instantly, or he ignored Dean's quiet calling of his name. After a few hours of silence, Dean spoke in the dark.

"I don't know what to do, Cas." The author pulled Dean's arm around his waist and threaded their fingers together.

"We'll be okay Dean." And Dean wanted to believe him, he really did. But his mother's words kept ringing in his ears.