Hanging out with Cas was nice. Real nice. There were few times in the past where they just hung out. Like regular people. But nine episodes and three hours later, Dean was getting restless. He's not used to this much downtime. The last time he'd been laying around this much… well, his leg was broken! But even then he was able to drag himself around the cabin, go to the bathroom, and get food from the fridge. Dean looks down at the giant palm beneath him and places his hand on the warm skin. When was the last time he touched someone for this long? The last time he had sex? When was the last time he even had sex?
Dean Winchester cant remember the last time he had sex.
Why wasn't he so scared about that?
Sex was fun! But that's all it was. Fun for a little while. Pushing away the pain to forget for a moment and then he leaves and there's nothing but a memory that fades.
Dean tilts his head up and watches the big face above him follow the screen. Cas's resting face was always so stern. A corner of the big mouth twitches with the hint of a smile as something on screen amuses him. That small smile makes him happy. He quickly turns his head to the screen because he's been staring at Castiel. Not cool. But then again, Cas has never minded before, because he just stared back. They had these staring contests sometimes, just, looking at each other. Those blue eyes catch him and hold him down.
He wonders if Sam ever noticed their intense staring contests.
Nah.
He shifts around, trying to get to a more comfortable position. After thirty seconds of failing to get comfy he gives up and stands. He touches his toes a few times and stretches. The spacebar clicks and the show pauses. The music pink girl is on screen. What was her name? Nonnon? Something like that.
Dean picks his head up. This time the blue eyes are watching him.
"I'm not used to laying around this much." He admits. "There's almost always something to do."
"And now there isn't. What would you like to do?" Cas was right. There wasn't. No deadline. No saving the world crap. No leviathans. No duchebag angels. Well the angels were still out there. But a good amount of them were flightless and on earth. Kevin was studying the tablet in Garth's warded houseboat studying the angel tablet. Thinking of which, they should check up on him soon. But right now there was nothing to do. There were always hunts. The good ol' ghosts, vamps, werewolves and other creepy crawlies. Sam was probably looking up some right now.
He missed the easy hunts. The kill-or-be-killed. Back before they got messed up with demons, angels, leviathans, heaven, hell, purgatory and the goddamn apocalypse. He's lost track of how many times he saved the world. Three? Four?
Oh yeah, the last time he had sex his daughter grew up in a few days and tried to kill him.
He tries to forget that.
What he needs after this is a good old style hunt. Like a vamp nest or a ghost. He'll start checking the news as soon as he gets big again.
Correction: he'll search once he uses a proper bathroom and shower.
He waves his arms around.
"I dunno. Just wanna move!"
Dean's been known to have periods of sloth like laziness. As few and far between as they have been lately. He won't do anything for hours, usually hiding away with a tv or laptop. Usually a wank session happens. But the inactiveness only lasts for hours at a time. Then its back to work. Even research is better than this!
Ok, scratch that. Hanging out with Cas is better than research.
"So move around." Castiel replies. His other hand lifts to scratch at his face.
Dean never knew that scratching skin makes a sound before he was shrunk. Cas's nails over his stubble sounds like sandpaper on wood.
Dean stands up. And walks up the hand and on to the cuff of the sleeve. He notices blue and purple skin peeking out from the cuff of the shirt. Sam said that Castiel came a little banged up.
Castiel blinks.
"Dean. What are you doing?"
"Moving around." He continues his trek up the forearm, stepping over and around folds in the shirt. It was a little big on him.
Wait.
Was this Deans shirt?
Yes. Yes it was.
Well, not like he can wear it now. He continues for a moment before it hits him.
Castiel is wearing his shirt. A warm ball settles in his chest, its recognized as possessiveness. He's not taking back his shirt. Cas can keep it.
Castiel shifts slowly, and dean grabs on to the shirt to keep his balance. Castiel lies his head on the table, ear pillowed on his other arm to watch dean closely. The upper arm is now at a more horizontal angle. Easier to tackle. Dean pops his knuckles dramatically and begins the climb. Which is more of a walk really. He's walked steeper hills.
"I'm not a climbing toy." Castiel whispers, a little amused.
"Quiet. Climbing toys don't talk." He digs his foot into the skin underneath in scolding. He walks up the upper arm within three minutes. Pausing at the head in front of him, he pauses for a moment, planning his trail. He crawls up the shoulder, over the collar of the shirt. The big head is leaning so that the chin is pretty much touching the shoulder. He walks up the side of the head onto a field of stubble. The small, rough, short hairs bend under his small feet.
"What are you doing?" the question rumbles under his feet even though the jaw not far from him didn't move and the question was whispered so quietly.
"Conquering the mountain. I'm almost at the summit." Dean continues up into the hair. Castiel's hair is short but thick, allowing Dean to walk on top of it rather than wade through it. He pulls on thick strands and manages to make his way to the top, where the skull began to curve downwards.
"The mighty Dean Winchester has conquered the mountain beast!" He raises his arms in victory.
"The mighty Dean Winchester is giving the mountain beast itches." Castiel rumbles beneath him. Dean laughs and starts his way back down when his foot slips into the hair. Scratch that, his entire leg sinks into the thick dark hair, and he can't pull it out! Oh he tries, but it only makes his other leg sink more.
"Uh, the mighty Dean Winchester might need some help." He hears a soft and long exhale beneath him, and then large fingers move into his sight. They pat the surface of the hair ever so gently, searching. When a fingers find the thing they were looking for, it gently touches his front. Dean wraps his arms around it as best as he can. As he's slowly pulled away he wraps his legs around too as soon as he's able. Dean feels like a koala bear. The finger curls into the hand, dean lets go and falls off into the palm as soon as it gets close enough.
The hand closes around him, enclosing him in a small cave. There's still space around him. He can feel the hand moving down like an elevator. Minus light and monotone music. The moving stops and the fingers pull back revealing Castiel sitting up.
"First of all, never do that again." Dean nods an agreement.
"Second of al never do that again." That gets Dean to laugh. Its at that moment that Sam walks into the room.
"Dinner's ready." He announces. As if responding to roll call Dean's stomach growls. He grasps his stomach with both hands. Climbing Cas really sapped his energy. He briefly wonders how much of a workout he got.
"I see you're ready for dinner." Dean looks up at the familiar face.
"Climbing a mountain works up an appetite." He sasses back. Cas stands up and follows Sam back into the kitchen. Dean noticed that Castiel enjoys eating in the kitchen more than anywhere else. Dean finds his space invaded by the now familiar handkerchief. Cas wraps it around him gently. Always gently. Dean's sick of being treated like a china doll.
There's a large bowl on the kitchen table. The contents look suspiciously green from what Dean can focus on.
"There's salmon salad for me and Cas, and fish and mashed potatoes for the carnivore." Sam points to a plate that has small pieces of fish and potato on it, as well as a cap of water. Cas sets him down on the plate. Dean rushes over to the food and eagerly digs in.
Sam and Cas serve themselves salad.
"This looks interesting." Cas comments with no undertone.
"it's pretty good." Sam confides, passing him the ranch dressing.
Once the edge of the hunger was taken off Dean checks Castiel's plate. He recognizes lettuce. The tomatoes are small though, they must be cherry tomatoes. The black olives are easy enough to recognize. There's also small, beige balls and something white and circular too.
"What's in the salad?" he calls out to Sam.
"Lettice, tomatoes, chickpeas, salmon, olives, heart of palm." He looks over his plate and shifts the contents with his fork. "That's it."
"Heart of palm? This stuff?" Castiel points to the white circular object with his fork.
"Yeah, it's from palm trees. It might be a vegetable." He pauses. "or a fruit. I don't really know."
"Sammy doesn't know something? I'm surprised!" dean mocks. But he says it in a regular voice, so he knows that neither of the giants can hear him. But even if they could hear him, they cant make out his words. Dean's tired of yelling to be heard. Especially when it hurts his throat like this.
Not long after, Sam and Cas are done with their salads.
"So Cas, you ate all your veggies, how about dessert?" Dean looks up at his smiling little brother. And up, and up, and up because Sam is standing up now.
"What did you have in mind?"
"How about…" Sam's gaze locks on the miniature hunter. "Pie?"
"Pie? Okay." Castiel's gaze slides over to the smaller hunter. He cant tell what's on his face but his shoulders are hunched. Sam opened the fridge and pulls out two containers.
"We got blueberry and lemon cream. Which I'm pretty sure is lemon meringue." He sees that Castiel still doesn't understand.
"It's a lot of heavy cream mixed with lemon juice and pulp. Its mixes so that it becomes light and fluffy. It's been in the fridge a while, but it should still be good."
"I'd like the blueberry please." Castile had never tried lemon meringue before, but he tried blueberries before, he knew he liked those. Sam passed him a small plate and the pie in the container.
"Would you like to share with me Dean?" the little head nodded. Sam passed Castiel two spoons. Castiel used the first one to break off the front corner of the pie, piling the spoon with berries, filling, and the crust from the bottom. The bowl of the spoon is full and heavy with the pie as Castiel slowly places it on Dean's plate.
Dean's eyes grow big at the portion of dessert before him. Its not an entire slice like last time, but the portion is still bigger than him, and is gently oozing purple blue filling off the spoon and on to the plate. Without thinking Dean saunters over to the spoon, drags two fingers through the filling and brings it to his mouth.
This is some damn good pie.
Cold, but still good.
He rolls up his sleeves and plunges his arms into the filling around a berry and brings it forward, careful not to get his shirt dirty. He manages to break off some of the bottom crust, scoop out some berry and a handful of filling on top of that makes a nice mini-pie slice. He drops to a sit and goes to town on his handfuls of pie.
He's to invested in the dessert to notice that Castiel and Sam are exchanging "isn't he adorable this tiny" faces with each other. The exchange only lasts for a few moments, both men enjoy their own pie slices in relative silence.
Sam perks up at the sound of tiny coughing. Dean has his mouth tucked into his elbow, hacking. Sam leans in close and offers a finger of support.
"You alright?" Dean swats the large digit. Sam pulls it away but doesn't move away.
"I'm fine. It's the preservatives."
"Preservatives?"
"They've been making me cough. It coats my throat and I cough to get it off. It's happened before." He waves his hand in dismissal.
"No biggie."
"That's why you've been coughing?! I thought that was because you were sick!" Sam tries really hard not to raise his voice above a soft whisper. It hard to do that when you want to yell.
"I was sick. But the coughing was because of preservatives." He insists. Sam sits up and sighs, dragging a hand down his face.
"I wish you told me that sooner." Dean shrugs.
"Forgot." Sam sighs again.
"How's your pie?" Castiel diplomatically asks.
"Creamy."
"Awesome!" Since both Castiel and Sam weren't close to Dean and his megaphone was forgotten in the main room, all they hear is a small sound coming from Dean.
Later, once all the pie is gone (Sam finishes the rest of Dean's portion in two bites.) it's unanimously agreed that all three of them should watch the next star wars movie. Since Sam and Dean watched 4, 5 is the next one on the list. Apparently this Tay girl showed Castiel the first Star Wars.
Dean had wanted to be the one to show him that.
Dean didn't see the silent exchange that happened over his head. Sam had been the one to take him away from the table and then brought him to the bathroom to wash off the pie. After that they arrived in the movie room. It was a room for enjoying tv, and lounging. It was previously a nice sized office now stuffed with an overstuffed old couch that Dean found at a yard sale three weeks ago and rented a u-haul to get it here, as well as two armchairs and a Lay-Z-Boy from the same yard sale. The day had been filled with dragging, sore backs and Dean owed Sam a solid favor for dragging furniture into the bunker.
Sam had told Castiel to meet him there after he stacked the dishes. He forgot that Dean couldn't see that far. Well, to be fair, Dean never told him that everything more than a foot away from him was blurry. When Dean realized that they were going to watch in the movie room, he debated on telling Sam.
On the one hand, he knew the movie by heart and would know what was going on, he'd be able to hear the dialogue.
On the other the screen would be really far away. Like several miles away. Not at all like the laptops he's been using the past few days.
Sam had noticed that Dean was being unusually quiet. Especially with the movie coming up, he'd usually be chattering on about AT-AT's or Hoth. A closer look showed that the little face was thinking deeply. A few moments later Sam lifted his hand higher to his face and interrupted.
"Don't blow a gasket thinking too hard. What's on your mind?" Dean jumped a little, his thought bubble popped by the loud voice.
"It's nuthin."
"A lot of thought for just nothing." Sam wasn't going to let this go. Dean caved.
"I can't see things well, being tiny. Things more than a foot away get blurry. If we all watch here, I won't be able see the screen." He confides.
Sam hadn't thought of that. He hadn't known- that meant that Dean couldn't even see most things at his tiny size! Dean knew that face. Sam was internally berating himself for not knowing something.
"S'okay Sammy. Its not that big a deal, I know the movie by heart anyway." While that may be true, Sam still wants Dean to see the screen. Castiel enters the room with a bowl of pretzels and plops down on the opposite end of the couch. Movie night was nothing new. Usually Dean would take the middle seat and Sam and Cas at the ends of the couch.
"We cant watch here. Dean won't be able to see the movie." Castiel's head tilts in confusion.
"He can't see things more than a foot away." Blue eyes narrow at the hand Sam has cradled to his chest.
"It's blurry!" Dean defends himself.
"So what can we do?" Castiel moves to the main question at hand. Sam thinks for a moment.
"I can bring my laptop here. You can sit on the corner and I'll put the laptop on a chair and we'll watch from the couch-"
"but you guys wont be able to hear it if its too far away and it'll be too loud for me if you can." Dean interrupts. This wasn't a good idea after all.
"What if Dean watches online from the laptop on a chair and we watch on the tv with the dvd with the volume lower?" Castiel interjects.
The Winchesters ponder this. It seems like a good medium. It was set up as Castiel suggested, the only hitch was setting the movies at the same time. But soon enough all three of them were enjoying the movie. The chair Dean and the laptop occupied were to Sam's immediate right, close enough for him to turn his head and check on the occupant on his computer. Dean fell asleep three quarters through the movie, lulled to slumber by familiar sounds of a galaxy far far away.
Once the movie ended, Sam gently picked up his little big brother and wished Castiel a good night, heading to his room. Dean snoozed on his heating pad while Sam went to the bathroom and changed into pajamas. It was early, but not so early that going to sleep was impossible. He sat down on his bed watching the little man, whose eyes were closed in gentle slumber. The curse would soon be over, and Dean would turn back to regular Dean. Sam thinks that this mini-vacation has been good for his brother. Forcing him to stop and relax for a change.
Maybe he should keep ahold of that statue for future use.
Nah.
But maybe he thinks as he turns off the light and slips under the blankets.
Maybe.