AN: Thank you Mummabro, Master's daughter, taytay127, smalls907, Alouette, eiralu, and legsinger, for the complements in the last two chapters. Also, Master's daughter was the 100th reviewer. Thanks! If you would like to make a song request, I'll work your song into the story in some way. Think of it as a tiny reward. In any case, I hope that you all have enjoyed the Dean and Cas weekend extravaganza. Here's a little more before they head back to the work week.
Cas awoke the next morning in a knot of Dean. This sort of sleeping arrangement would take some getting use to. He hadn't yet opened his eyes, but he could feel that Dean was awake. His fingers were tracing paths up and down his arm. Cas cracked open his eyes then and looked into Dean's face which was right in front of his. "Finally." Dean smiled. "I thought that you would never wake up."
"Uh, sleep more." Cas closed his eyes again and pressed his head in closer to Dean.
"No, you slept enough, wake up." Dean kissed his head and rolled onto him a little more.
"What time is it?" Cas was waking up more by the second.
"Probably eightish. I don't know. My phone is on the nightstand."
Cas reached over a lazy arm and swished it about over what felt like the nightstand until he came to the phone. He handed it to Dean. "So, just how early is it really?" He asked as Dean checked.
"That's not important." Dean put the phone back on the nightstand.
Cas laughed at him. "Really, what ungodly hour is it?"
"It might be six." Dean rolled back to his side a little, but Cas didn't quite let him. "I have been awake forever. I totally thought that it was later."
"Anymore awesome dreams to share?" Cas played with the hair at the back of Dean's head and pressed a light kiss to his shoulder.
"Those faded away hours ago." Dean moved one of his hands down to Cas' thigh and pulled it up to him more, rolling a little on top of him. "Do you really need more sleep?"
Cas faked a yawn and stretched out under Dean. He closed his eyes and pretended to be drifting off. "So, tired. Just can't seem to stay awake." He was donning the voice of every overacted death scene found in the movies. Each word was stilted and he was having trouble keeping the smile off of his face. His troubles increased though as he felt a rough hand moving up his thigh to a more central location. He would have trouble now convincing Dean that he was not awake.
"Really, Cas. I think that you are quite awake." Dean smirked at him. Cas smiled back and there was no reason to pretend anymore. They moved together more. Dean's bare chest pressed down to his. Dean's necklace was creating a little knot of pain so Cas reached up and moved it aside. Dean sat up then, one leg on either side of Cas. He reached back behind his neck and undid the necklace. He reached down with it and put it on Cas, reaching behind his neck to fasten it. "It looks better already."
"It looked good on you." Cas reached up and touched it. He had missed the feel of it around his neck this past week. It was kind of like having a little bit of Dean with him even when he was miles away.
"I want you to have it." He seemed to notice the surprise on Cas' face, "At least for now. I think that it is easier to get through the week if you have a little something to look at as a reminder. It's why I wanted the picture before."
"Well, that worked out well for you didn't it?" Cas laughed as he remembered just how bad the picture was that Gabe sent to him, not to mention the extras that Gabe sent.
"Might have to take another one." Dean reached over and plucked up his phone again.
"No, way." Cas batted at his phone holding arm. "I am so not letting you take a picture of me like this." Cas swiftly flipped Dean off to the side of the bed and pulled the blankets up over his face.
Dean laughed at him and pulled at the blankets, "Challenge accepted." The sheets and blankets were becoming a jumbled heap around them, but Cas held part of them firmly to his face. "You can't fight this Cas." Cas laughed a little but it was muffled beneath the blankets.
"I can, and I will. Nothing good can come of that picture. You should wait until I am actually up and dressed." Cas could tell that Dean was not giving up, but instead he was changing tactics. Dean's face was pressed down into his neck now. The rough scrape of his stubble sending a rush through him. The press of his lips moved slowly down the length of his neck toward his pulse point. His grip on the blanket was loosening. Dean's hands slowly ran up his sides sending his skin into convulsions. He could feel Dean moving away from his neck now and down to his chest. Dean's hands now moved up to Cas' shoulders and down his arms. Cas no longer held the blanket in place, but his face was still covered.
Dean made his way to Cas' stomach then. Cas felt the blanket slide slowly away. He opened his eyes and looked down at Dean while he pressed his lips into a pattern covering every square inch of his stomach. Then Dean looked up at him and raised his lips from their path. His grin was at once mischievous and everything that Cas had come to believe was sexy. Cas sent him what he hoped was the same grin. He was angling for devil-may-care, but felt that he might not have hit the mark the way that Dean had. As he did this, though, Dean's hand raised and he snapped the picture. "Gotcha."
"Cheater." Cas allowed his head to slip back.
Dean came up to his face. "Are you complaining?" He leaned down and pressed a kiss into his lips to stall an answer.
"Hmm, you never fight fair" Cas kissed him back.
"Like I said, are you complaining?" Dean laughed a little and they continued this volley of kisses and comments until there was nothing else that needed to be said, but much that could be done.
Cas and Dean decided to make breakfast. They made their way downstairs some hours later, hoping to get it all done before Bobby chose to get up. It would be hard to beat the king of the early risers, but Dean said that he would at least appreciate the effort. Turned out that Bobby had already been up for awhile and had made coffee. He was sitting at the table reading from a tattered old book.
"Morning old man." Dean tossed off jovially as he made his way over to the fridge.
"Seriously, I am not that old. I could pass for your brother." Bobby took a gulp of coffee.
"Yeah, much, much older brother." Dean chuckled as he pulled out the breakfast ingredients. He and Cas had formed a plan for the breakfast duties before coming downstairs, and each fell into his role.
"Good morning, Bobby." Cas sat across from him and began peeling potatoes.
"Morning, Cas. Ready for the ride home?" Bobby grunted out barely looking up from his book.
"I think so. Figure, I'll head out after breakfast. I might stop by Sam's on the way back, just to say hi." Bobby looked up at Cas' words. The knowing glance was exchanged, without Dean seeing it. At least now Bobby would know that he had taken his advice about talking to Sam.
"I went out and took a look at the bike. Looks like Dean did a good job." Bobby's voice was light and full of pride. Why couldn't this man be Dean's father? How different things would have been.
"I am pretty lucky. I would have just let the bike rot, I think. Dean was pretty determined to do this, though." Cas noticed Dean's glance back at him. He seemed happy. The moment was warm and comfortable.
"Sounds like Dean. Once he gets something in his head, he's like a dog with a bone. He's a handy guy to have around the shop that's for sure."
Dean decided to speak up then. "You two could stop the Dean love fest anytime you know. It is getting all kinds of awkward for me." Cas could see the smile curling up the side of Dean's mouth though. Cas stopped peeling the potatoes now and began chopping them up into small pieces just like the other day.
Bobby had returned to his reading and Cas enjoyed the moment. Bobby broke the silence as Cas was finishing the chopping. "So, I guess I'll be seeing a lot more of you around here now."
Cas got up with the potatoes to deliver them to the pan that Dean had prepared on the stove. "What makes you say that? You think that I'm going to need some follow-up on the bike?" Cas sent back the questions over his shoulder.
"Nah, just seemed like you might want to visit Dean sometimes when he has work to do for me on the weekends. I have a lot of weekend jobs that he normally would be doing. This weekend was a rare light one. I plan to put him to work later today though." Cas could tell that Bobby was trying to make it clear that he understood their relationship. He was doing this with both parties in the room, it seemed, so that there could be no future awkwardness. Of course, with Dean, comfort would always be a hard won prize.
Dean was shifting about in a way that told Cas that this was making him feel uncomfortable. "Would you mind if I came back here from time to time while you worked?" Cas looked over at his face while he asked.
"Of course not." He muttered almost inaudibly toward the cooking eggs. "You're good company and marginally helpful." Dean turned to him a little with a half smile, trying to lighten the mood with humor.
Cas tossed an arm around Dean's waist then in a half hug, and said over to Bobby, "Ah, did you hear that Bobby? I'm marginally helpful."
Bobby laughed at him. "Cut it out you two. You're going to make me throw up from all this sappiness. And I aint even had my breakfast yet."
Dean made a slight move to the side and slipped free from Cas' arm. "Don't blame me. I'm just trying to get breakfast ready. Cas apparently wants to distract me so I burn your bacon."
"Yum, burnt bacon." Bobby muttered.
"Blech." Cas replied returning to his seat.
"Bobby, can you believe that Cas here doesn't like bacon? Seriously, can you even imagine not liking bacon?" Dean stirred up the eggs one final time and then brought the pan over to the table.
"Sounds like you are dating a real weirdo, Dean. It's still early though. You can probably escape before you get too committed." Bobby laughed at the look of surprise on Dean's face. Dean apparently thought that he had redirected the conversation away from his relationship.
Cas looked up at Dean and said, "You heard the man. You could still get away. You planning on escaping me and my bacon-hating ways?"
Dean ducked his head sheepishly and walked back over to the stove. "Nah, I think that I'll just stick it out and try to reform you."
Cas was smiling again. It felt like his face was going to crack. It was funny how such a moment of banter could mean so much more than the simple words that were spoken. Dean's words were an approximation of affection that, for them, was progress. It was progress not for the words, but for the fact that Bobby was in the room when they were spoken. Bobby went back to reading his book, ignoring the incredibly happy Cas sitting across from him. Dean kept cooking away with his back to them. He began humming an unfamiliar tune. Cas filed it all away in a happy mental file. He planned to revisit this simple moment again and again over the next week. Dean is happy, and I had something to do with that.
Review, Fav., Follow. The next chapter will have one more final scene with Dean and Cas before Cas returns home. We also get a little Sam tomorrow. 'Till then.