Cas floated through his days after the trip to the city. He edited Charlie's manuscript to within an inch of its life and even returned to his little project. Each night the dreams came. Some nights were so vivid that he would swear that it had been more than a dream. He felt as though he had been in a very real room with very real people.
Each morning he would snag coffee and toast to take to his office, where his family believed he was just editing away. He did do that a little, not as much as he was writing though. Pam had called him during one of his writing sessions. She asked him how soon he wanted to move in. It was all Cas could do to just reign in the enthusiasm. He wanted to say immediately, but he knew that such a life change would involve careful conversations with his mom and dad. It wasn't for permission. It was for peace that he made the effort.
Given that, he told Pam that he could be in the place by the end of the month. She seemed to be completely fine with it and even told him that he could start moving in some things earlier if he needed to do so. She told him that she could send him the keys, but he asked her to just hand them off to Dean instead. They had already made plans to meet up later in the week, plus their families were supposedly getting together for dinner too. Was that happening tonight? He tipped his head back, trying to recall just what was happening. He decided on the easier approach.
What day of the week is it, and is your family coming over tonight?
He waited for several seconds, which was about the maximum wait time for a Dean Winchester reply. It's Tuesday. It is displayed on the phone that you just used. And yeah, we are invading your house tonight.
Good. I was bored.
Seriously, come to the city then. It is too hot to go out and the ac is on the fritz.
Why do I want to enter that fresh hell?
You can rescue me in the convertible and drive me the fuck out of here.
Cas considered the option. It sounded way better than what he was doing, which involved a whole lot of staring at his computer screen. He had edited some items in his inbox, and had felt the beginnings of restlessness taking form. Restlessness just led to Dean thoughts, so going to visit him was like cutting out the middleman.
I can be there in an hour. You owe me a tour of your apartment, for inspiration. I could also use a second set of eyes for when I pick out furniture, which could happen today, if you are interested.
Anything, just get me out of here. See you in an hour.
He dialed Charlie's number next. She picked up on the first ring. "Hey, Cas. What's shakin'?"
"Not much. You want me to drop off your fully edited manuscript when I come into town today?"
"Hells yeah. You are crazy fast. Was it horrid? Be honest." She sounded like she had been worrying over it in the extreme.
"Nah, you rock, as always. You have a ton of little things that need sprucing up, but the story is going to be a major hit. My parents need to pay you more."
"Run interference for me on that." They both laughed at the thought.
"So, I'll be there in like an hour. Gotta convince dad that he doesn't need the convertible."
"Coolio. I'll go get dressed. Call me when you get close." They hung up and Cas practically sprinted out the door.
His dad was out in the flower garden with an over large watering can. He was wearing ridiculous looking rainboots, patterned with pink with bright yellow sunflowers. "Wow, Dad. You look amazing." No time like the present to lay on the ironic charm.
"Well, I like to impress the city folk that like to drive by hoping to see how the other half live." Chuck grinned as he poured water over a long row of peas.
"So, why isn't Joseph helping? Isn't that what you hired him for?" Cas leaned up against the top of the garden fence. He was enjoying the added effect of the massive sun hat perched on his father's head.
"He's out there." Chuck waved out past the barn toward the tractor that Cas could now see running off in the distance. "Plus, this is a garden of salvation."
Cas raised an eyebrow. "What does that even mean?"
"It means that in the house is your mom, and out here is salvation."
"Oh, no, dad. What did you do now?"
"I blame your brother. Michael's a little shit. Remind me that I feel that way the next time that I tell you to just walk a mile in his shoes or how everyone deserves a little understanding."
"Okay, what'd he do now?"
"Would you hate me if I ran away from home and left you and your mother to deal with him?" Chuck poured out more water over the next row until the can was empty. He wandered over to the hose to refill. It would have been easier to just drag the hose around, but Cas knew that this wasn't about making watering easier; it was about making it last.
"I'd completely curse your name to all that would listen. I'd likely look for you at first though, and if I ever found you there'd be Hell to pay. So, tell me what happened." Cas climbed up onto the fence and took a seat on it. Michael stories were rarely short.
"So, you know I went into the city the other day right?" Cas nodded. "Well, popped in on your brother at the office. He was a total wreck."
"Ah, shit. That means he and Lucy are fighting again." Cas knew where this was going. Michael would likely come home for a week or two. It would be all awkward between them.
"You know it. Must be a day ending in Y. Anyway, it gets worse. So, apparently Lucy was so mad at him that she said that he couldn't read her manuscript. Said that she expected someone else to do it."
"No. Please say that you dove into relationship counseling mode alpha. We do not want this job."
"Oh, I tried. Shit, did I try. I was in his office for over an hour. You know, they should just break up. The crisis of consciousness though was overwhelming. I mean, they break up and we are stuck reading her stories, and you and I both know what kind of Hell that is. We've got two more books on her contract. Now if they get back together, we get less Lucy stories, but your brother stays in the least functional relationship imaginable." Chuck came over closer to the fence with his watering can and began pouring out water over the row of sunflowers that were a deeper shade of orange than the ones on his boots.
"So the end result was…?"
"The end result was that I agreed to take the manuscript. He assured me that it was great, that I'd totally enjoy it. I know what I'll enjoy, not watching their stupid little mating ritual every damn time one of them gets their panties in a bunch. I seriously don't need this. Don't they know how old I am"
"Meh, you are a young pup, dad. Well, glad you got stuck with it and not me. I had to read it the last time and that was pain."
Chuck set down the watering can and leaned on the fence next to Cas. "Oh, Cas, you don't know Hell. You haven't asked why I'm out here avoiding your mom."
"Oh, no. What'd you do?"
"Yeah, that. So, I maybe kinda tried to get her to take the manuscript last night."
"Well, she just said no, right?"
"Uh, I maybe kinda tried to convince her through sex." Chuck looked off at the distant landscape.
"Oh, God, dad, why. T.M.I. You are talking to your youngest most impressionable progeny right now."
"It's not like I shared the graphic details. You do know that we have sex. You wouldn't be here otherwise."
"Damn it dad, enough. I like to think that that is something from the long long ago. Better yet I don't like to think about it." Cas drummed at the sides of the fence and continued, "So you told mom that you wanted her to read the manuscript."
"Yeah, and that went poorly. She saw through my endeavors." He paused on the final word for emphasis. "I slept on the couch last night. She didn't kick me out of bed, but I certainly felt like I wasn't welcome there. She was muttering about it even over breakfast. Thus I am gardening."
"Hmm, sucks. You know we have dinner guests tonight. Hope you can patch things up before then."
"Yeah, that might happen. Any thoughts on how I do that?" Chuck turned back to the garden, but only to face it. He leaned back into the fence with his elbows.
"Well," Cas had thoughts, but not so much on that. "I could make a deal with you that might help."
"Listening."
"So, I could take the manuscript off of your hands. I could even tell mom that I am reading it for you both. I could even add that you were out here feeling plenty bad about how you treated her, his absolute sun, his goddess, his every good thing." Cas grinned fully as he glanced over at his dad.
"Okay, I know I shouldn't look a gift horse in the mouth, but you want something huge don't you?"
"For starters, you can loan me the convertible today so I can go into the city."
Chuck looked at him steadily. "Done." He pulled out the keys. "That is not even close to everything, so spill, and don't forget to include why you want to go to the city."
"I'm gonna drop off Charlie's fully edited manuscript, and I'm gonna see Dean."
"You know Dean is just coming over tonight with his family. You could just see him then."
"It's a rescue mission. His AC is on the fritz."
"Okay, but there is more. I'm totally bracing for it." Chuck looked like he meant it.
"There is more. I'm moving out at the end of the month. I don't know how to tell mom, so I thought that you might help with that." Cas looked at him, hoping.
"Oh, Cas. That's a whole other Hell for me." He paused as if considering his next words. "Still way better than reading Lucy's manuscript, so you have a deal. Let me ease her into the idea first. Also, let's make sure that it isn't tonight that we start sharing this. She's gonna be concerned enough with putting on a good show for her guests." He handed over the keys to the car and added, "I'll leave the manuscript on your desk. Good luck with it and the rest."
Cas swung his legs off of the fence and started heading for the car. He turned back at the end. "You're okay with me moving?"
"Yep. You deserve a little freedom. Your mom and I love you. You don't have to live here to have that. Your mom, she may be a little smothering, but I hope you know just how much you mean to her. You living is everything she could have ever hoped for. I think she will be upset that she doesn't get to have the pleasure of your very alive face at the breakfast table every day."
"I'll still be here a lot. Make sure she knows that."
"I will, and I'll hold you to it too." Chuck came up to him and pulled him into a hug. When he released him he said, "Now, go have fun. Love you, son."
"Love you too, dad." Cas walked off to the car, the warm sun baking the air around him. He smiled and hummed a tuneless melody as he got into the car and backed out of the yard.
Cas raced down the highway to the city. He was starting to feel like this was going to be a rather regular occurrence. He pushed in a cd that was hovering out of the mouth of the player. The volume was turned up. He did not turn it down. He got to the city and the songs became a string of REO Speedwagon's greatest hits. He rounded the corner to the apartment complex and Dean was sitting out on the front steps in a grey t-shirt, gloriously tight and blue jeans, also gloriously tight. The stereo was blasting out "I Can't Fight This Feeling Anymore" and it was in the full lung belting chorus. He was singing along as he pulled up to Dean, and he felt like it was just so appropriate. Dean sauntered over to the passenger side of the car and leaned in.
"Is it safe to get in?"
"Get in. You are interrupting the song." Dean got in and pulled on the seat belt. Cas pulled away from the curb and continued to sing at the top of his lungs. Dean looked amused. "Don't act like you don't know it. You so know this song." Cas kept singing then and drummed at the steering wheel.
Dean sang along, although Cas wasn't sure he could really hear him over the volume of the stereo. The wind blew through their hair, and Cas decided to take the long way to Charlie's place. Life was bliss, and he intended to prolong the moment. The song ended and Dean reached over to the volume to turn it down. "So, where we going?"
"Charlie's place. I need to drop off her manuscript." Cas pointed to the back seat where his satchel rested. "After that, it's you, me, and furniture searching adventures."
"Sounds like a solid plan. So, when's your mom having us all over tonight?"
"Like sixish. You can ride back with me and go home with your family." Cas glanced over to see if this plan was also solid.
Dean was glowing golden sunshine, and Cas turned back to the road to focus. "That sounds good. Keeps me from having to hang out in my apartment while they fix the air. You don't even know how grateful I am."
"You could have just driven yourself somewhere. You're just doing me a favor by helping out with the furniture selections."
"When I get too hot, I lose all sense of self-preservation. I would have just kept on sitting in that place like a lobster in a slowly heating pot." Dean reached back and turned up the stereo a little. The playlist had moved onto "Eye of the Tiger" now, and Dean said, "Hell yeah." He turned it up louder and started playing air drums while singing, so beautifully out of tune.
Cas was laughing and singing at the same time. He took the car along the road that hugged the lake. The water glimmered a gorgeous blue under the too hot sky. He stepped on the gas more and loved the feel of being sucked back into the seat more. Dean seemed happy with the pace too. They were in a place of certain bliss. Cas gave them two more songs worth of driving before he scooped up his phone. "Here, call Charlie. Tell her we're almost at her place."
He turned down the music as he turned onto Charlie's street. "No, it's Dean. Cas told me to call and tell you that we were almost to your place." There was a pause as Charlie said something. "So, you live on Jefferson?" Another pause as they drew closer. "Yeah, I think that Cas took the most roundabout way to your place. Looks like he's parking though. We must be here." Dean looked up then and Charlie was in the upstairs window of a brownstone on the corner. She pulled open the window and looked down at them.
"Hello, bitches."
"Hey yourself." Cas called up to her, "So, you coming down or are we coming up?"
"Coming down. You got my story?" Her hair blew back a little in a fire blast of red. The breeze was doing little to curb the heat. Cas was already ready to get moving again.
"Get down here and see for yourself." Cas waved her down as he said it. She closed the window and looked like she was bounding away from it. She was out on the front steps locking her door and jumping down to the sidewalk like she knew how to fly. Dean got out and offered her the front seat.
"Nope. I want the back. I can spread out there and look at Cas' edits." They got in, Charlie in the back and she started rifling through the satchel. "Yeehaw, Cas. You totally red marked the shit out of this." She leaned forward in her seat and squeezed a noisy kiss to his cheek. "Love you so much, bae."
"Ditto, bae." They cracked up. Dean just rolled his eyes.
"Seriously, you need to drive. It is hotter than a witch's tit." Charlie and Cas both stared at Dean as he said it. "What?"
"Wow, you kiss your mom with that mouth?" Charlie said.
"You literally just greeted us with a giant 'hello bitches' so I don't see where you get to be all offended." They grinned at each other as Cas pulled away from the curb.
"So, where to, buckaroo?" Charlie leaned up into the space between them.
"You tell me. I need some furniture, like maybe a couch and a dinette. I could probably use some shelves too."
"You aren't bringing anything from home?" Charlie asked.
"Not much. I think I want a new bed too." He added as an almost after-thought. "Something bigger."
"Oh, planning some entertaining, are we?" Charlie waggled her eyebrows up left and right.
"No plans, but there's something about the thought of hauling that twin bed to the city that just seems wholly unappealing." He glanced at Dean and saw the nod of approval.
Dean said, "So, what about Clausen's over on 4th?" He turned to Charlie for approval.
"Oh, that place rocks. So much vintage stuff. Cas will have a field day." She slugged Dean lightly on the shoulder. "You are a keeper."
Cas turned the car down a side street toward the general direction of 4th Street. Their destination a few miles ahead. Dean cranked the stereo back up and Charlie started singing to "Blaze of Glory" by Bon Jovi. Dean started to turn it down. "Ugg."
"No, ugg. Bon Jovi rocks. Crank it." Charlie commanded. Dean reached back and cranked it up. And despite his displeasure earlier, he was mouthing the words right along with Charlie by the second chorus. Cas felt warm inside, in a way that was not the oppressive heat of summer. It was not the singular moment either. It was a warmth that came from wanting something that he never knew he had been missing, something that felt quite tangible in this moment. Charlie had been his friend for some time, his only friend. And Dean had fallen into his life maybe a month ago. Was it only a month ago? Yet somehow, every lonely moment, every hopeless time, was lost now in this too full, too potential rich segment of his existence. He couldn't imagine anything better than what he had within an arm's reach in this car. He looked over at Dean and sent out a silent prayer of gratitude that Dean came back that day at the hospital. He pulled into a parking spot on 4th and as he shut off the car, he looked to Charlie and sent out another prayer that was roughly the same. He felt blessed, and hoped that it would always be this way.
Clausen's was an oddity in so many ways. It was a furniture store. It was a vintage clothing store. It was a knick-knack brick-a-brack emporium. It was magical and it was all housed in a 10,000 square foot brick building. "I'm just gonna wander around for a bit first. You two go do your own thing while I scope out the place." Charlie saluted at Cas as he marched off to his lone shopping. He heard Dean comment to Charlie about Cas going off on his own.
He also heard Charlie say, "That's just Cas. He needs to wrap his head around things sometimes, and people distract him."
He wandered off to the couch section and tried out several. He sat on them in a bouncy way. Some time later, he looked off into the corner and saw an Asian screen. He made his way to it and on the other side was a teal and black couch. On the couch was Dean. "Oh, sorry. I'll go wander off over there."
"Don't be lame." Cas plopped down next to him. "So this one seems nice."
"Yeah, I thought so." Dean stretched back into the couch a little. Cas watched him out of the corner of his eyes. "Charlie said that you needed space."
"Just for a moment to get my head in gear. She knows me well. I'm good now." He stretched back into the space next to Dean and silently marveled at how nice it was. "I'm getting this couch."
Charlie came over then. "Well, you two look cozy." She plopped down on the other side of Dean. "Yeah, this is an excellent couch. The color is awesome."
"I think I'm gonna do a '50's theme, get some funky colors and trim out stuff in chrome." He was eyeing the rest of the space in front of him for further inspiration.
"Then I have the dinette for you." Charlie sprang up then and reached out to him. He took her hand, and she pulled him up. Dean followed them through a maze of couches and chairs. There were beds too, scattered here and there. "Just look at it." Charlie pointed down at a dinette that likely came from the 1950s. It had that same kind of white formica top that he had just seen in Ellen's diner, only this one had flecks of silver in the top.
"Awesome."
"And, get this." Charlie pointed at an odd mismatched collection of vinyl chairs off to the side. They were not even the same colors. One was bright, fire engine red, the next was navy blue, the next teal, the next bumble bee yellow. "You buy these to go with the table and you'll have the most awesome look ever."
Cas turned to Dean and asked, "What do you think?"
"It seems neat. I could picture Ellen doing something like this in the restaurant, so that means that it works with your '50's theme."
"I'm getting this one too." Cas was pretty happy. He set the chairs around the table and looked at them together. "Yep, this is the thing." He stepped away for a moment and looked off to the beds. Could lightning strike three times? He made his way to the beds and began trying them out one by one. Corpse pose, fetal pose, sit bounce, each posture made an appearance. There was a memory foam one, and Charlie jumped onto it next to him.
Dean came over and peered down at them from over the headboard. "You two look cozy." He repeated the words just like Charlie.
"Dean, it's memory foam." Cas rolled into a fetal position. "It remembers me." Dean came over to his side of the bed and shoved him over.
"Move it. Let me see." Cas rolled closer to Charlie and Dean laid down next to him. "Yeah, this might be the most awesome bed ever. You should definitely get this."
Charlie rolled over and faced him. Her eyes flitted between Cas and Dean on the other side. She grinned. "We are totally having a movie night courtesy of this bed."
"Consider yourselves invited." Cas rolled onto his back and moved his hands up over and under his head.
"Well, let's get this stuff purchased before you both fall asleep." Dean slid off the bed and reached out to Cas.
"So comfortable. Don't make me move." Cas closed his eyes.
In his best impersonation of the Terminator, Dean said, "Come with me if you want to live."
Cas opened his eyes. "Didn't Sarah Connor say that line?"
"In the new one." Dean's hand was still over him.
"Well, now technically it is a very popular line that has been spoken by most of the primary characters in the films as well as the comics and television series." Charlie began.
"Oh, God." Cas took Dean's hand and let himself be pulled up. "We just opened up a can of worms with Charlie, the likes of which we shall never escape."
"Do we run?"
"Oh, seriously. I'm not that bad." Charlie came around to their side of the bed.
"Hmm, she seems to be okay now. Running might still be on the table later," Cas said. She slugged him a little on the shoulder.
"Whatever. Let's go, dorks."
They decided not to take most of the items with them that day. It had been enough to pay for them. Dean had volunteered to help him pick up the items later with a borrowed truck. Cas quickly accepted the plan. They did take a box of small items that day though. Cas had picked out a couple of books with old binding, Wuthering Heights, Jane Eyre, Macbeth. He was happy with the purchases. Charlie added to the pile a small golden cat statue that waved. Dean stood behind him with a record player and several albums.
Cas had assumed that Dean's purchases were going to occupy space in Dean's place. They weren't, as he would discover later. They dropped off Charlie, and Cas got another loud cheek kiss from her. She surprised Dean by leaning over and doing the same thing to him. "I had fun you two. We should totes do this frequently and often." She bounded off in a gleeful skip.
"She's a little ray of sunshine, huh?" Dean was grinning straight ahead as Cas pulled from the curb.
"Yeah, she really is. I tried my damndest not to make friends during the whole, you know." He ran a hand up through his hair needlessly. The wind from the drive was already whipping it around into a wild chaos. "She just kept coming around though, and then it went from meetings to lunches to just hanging around her place whenever I could get up enough energy to make the trek into the city."
"She's great. I'm glad you made an exception for her." Dean reached back to the box in the back seat and pulled out the little golden cat. He held it up and made its little arm wave at Cas. This drew a little laugh from Cas.
"She may have questionable art tastes." The trip back to the apartment went quickly. Cas immediately went to the parking garage fully intending to get the tour of Dean's apartment.
"Oh, I completely forgot that you were planning to tour Casa de Winchester."
"You still up for it?" Cas found a spot near the exit and pulled in.
"Uh, yeah. Just don't want you to think that I have anything awesome going on in there. I never seem to have time to do anything with the place. It's rather utilitarian. Your place is already way cooler given the purchases made today."
"Not gonna lie, we found some great stuff. I bet your place is great too. Mostly, I just want to see where you hang your hat." They got out of the car and Dean picked up the record player and records. Cas scooped up the box and they marched out with the products of a day well spent. Dean juggled his record player over to one arm while he fished out his keys. After a little rearranging he got the door open and hip bumped it open wider.
"Welcome to the place." He walked up to the counter that wrapped around the front of the kitchen and set his record player there. On the other side was a dining room table. Cas set his box there. Dean had a massive stockpile of boxes on the table and along the wall behind it. There was a short beat up black coffee table in front of two leather recliners.
"You don't have a couch." Cas observed out loud.
"Wow. That's the first thing you noticed. What about the part where you go, 'awesome, dude has kick-ass recliners.'"
"Wow, dude has kick-ass recliners." Cas smiled as he plopped himself down in one of them. Dean stood off to the side with his hands on his hips. "What do you do when you have more than two people over?"
"That's what laps are for." Dean waggled his eyebrows a little and walked over to the curtains, drawing them back a bit to let the light in.
"On a more serious note, what do you do when you have your parents and friends over at the same time?"
"Oh, I don't really have much company. Most people just stop in to pick me up, then we head off to places more interesting. Had mom and pop over for dinner a few times. We spent most of our time at the dining room table. Mom and pop loved the meal too much to migrate away from it."
"You cook?"
"I dabble. If you hang around long enough, I might throw a steak together for ya. Or maybe you should have salad. You look like a salad guy." Dean smirked.
"Dude, totally love steak. Salad is not a meal." He got up and stretched long and tall toward the ceiling. Dean was watching him. His smirk fell away. "So, show me the rest of the space. We gotta get going soon if we are going to get back to my parents place for dinner tonight."
Dean cleared his throat and said, "Not much else to show. I mean it's pretty much this space and then my bedroom over there." Dean stepped over to the bedroom, and Cas followed him. Dean stopped in the doorway as if to say, yeah take a peek and then move on.
Cas leaned past him and then took a step more fully into the space. "What's that?" He pointed at the corkboard on the wall that had clippings and a map marked with red pins. There was a cold spot in the room that he had passed through on his way to the map. It burrowed past his skin and into his bones.
"Uh, that is a bit of a project." Cas moved closer and looked at the clippings. The cold lingered. He turned back to Dean and waited for more of an explanation. "I've been looking into Sam's death."
"I thought that he just died in an accident or something. My dad said something about bad wiring in the building that he worked in or something like that." Cas reached out to one of the clippings and read the article a little.
Dean huffed out a sigh and came over to Cas' side. "I've seen a lot of fires in my time, but I've never seen a fire like that one. I don't believe that it was an accident. I've been tracking fires around the city since then, to see if it has happened again. This one was unique though."
"Are you saying that someone caused it?" Cas turned to Dean and watched him look over the wall of evidence.
"I think that it is very likely that someone caused it." Cas wanted to ask him what made it unique, and why did he think that it was arson, but Dean seemed to become rather sad. Cas didn't want to say or do anything that would cause that to continue. He wanted to be a comfort. Dean reached up and pressed his hand to one of the articles on the edge of the wall. It was not overlapping any of the other articles and was a little separated from the others. Dean pulled his hand back and it rested on the desk beneath it all. Cas looked at the article, an obituary for Sam. He reached over to Dean and settled his hand on Dean's shoulder. Dean stiffened for a moment.
"I'm sorry. I wish that there was some way that I could help." He let his hand slip back to his side.
Dean said, "Thanks, Cas." He stalked out the door then, and turned back adding, "Come on, I hear there's this dinner party that we are supposed to be going to or something like that."
"Oh, we want to be fashionably late to that." Cas followed him out to the living room. Dean scooped up the record player. "Are you bringing that with you?"
"No. We are dropping your stuff off over at your new place. Pam gave me your key the other day." Dean held out his key ring and wiggled it in front of Cas for a second.
"Oh, cool. Let's do this thing." They wandered down the hall with Cas' stuff and Dean's armful of records. "Why are you bringing the record player and the records though?" Dean unlocked Cas' apartment and they went in.
"Housewarming gift." Dean said it all matter-of-factly and set it on the floor under the window. He walked back to Cas and took the small box that he had been carrying and set it next to the records.
"I thought that you were getting those for yourself."
"Nope. It was a secret contest with Charlie to see who got to be your bestie." Cas walked over to the records now and looked at them. They were all classics from the '50s. "I stuck with your theme."
"Did Charlie know about this contest?"
"No, that is the secret part. I just figured I'd get you something that every new apartment should have, music."
Cas stepped back from the records again and looked at Dean. "So, the results of the contest should be a secret too."
"I totally won, huh?" Dean grinned.
"Well, to be fair, Charlie didn't know, and had she known, she would have gotten a better gift than golden cat that waves. However, I do think that your gift is one that would be hard to beat. Thanks, Dean. Really."
"Okay, success. Now let's go get some grub." He threw his arm over Cas' shoulder and dragged him from the apartment. Cas liked the way that the friendship was going, the warm embers of it burning away in his chest as they walked along together.