Dean couldn't believe Cas' progress from when they'd first met to over a week or two later. He'd gotten out full sentences and could understand a conversation between two people without having to look over at Desirae for help. He didn't always keep up and add his input in time, but it was still incredible. Dean didn't have words for how strong Castiel was. If it had been him he was sure that giving up would've been an option more than once already, but Cas just kept going. Sure, his speaking was often very slow and jagged with odd pauses but it made sense. He was using bigger and bigger words each day; he remembered more phrases and terms on his own. Dean could see that Castiel was coming back.

Every night was a new nightmare though sometimes it was hard to tell. There were times where Cas was just left in his enclosure for hours and maybe even days, food came up now and again but that was it. Those dreams weren't particularly painful but they were disorienting, Cas' mind was so disconnected during that time that whenever they woke up from those it was tough to get their bearings straight. Dean wound up lying in bed and staring at the ceiling for at least an hour after the first one.

While those nightmares weren't as intense Dean still felt pretty shitty about it, he knew that Bobby was experiencing them too and Charlie would have if she slept at a normal time. Though that morning he'd woken up with no trouble, in fact he wasn't even sure there had been a nightmare to begin with. He concluded that Cas must not have had a very good night. That thought only felt truer when Dean realized that Cas wasn't in bed with him.

Dean threw his legs out of bed and got up, he'd gotten pretty used to his new room, and the floor didn't feel odd to him anymore. "Cas?" he called after a yawn, he wasn't too worried, Cas didn't cause much of a fuss lately so it was probably nothing big.

There wasn't an answer though that didn't mean something was wrong. Dean got up and walked out into the hall; he could hear some voices echoing distantly and followed them without much hesitation. The closer he got the more he recognized, Bobby was laughing at something and Jet was talking fairly loudly over him, and he was pretty sure he could hear Sam too.

"Am I the last one up?" He asked as he walked into the room. As he'd expected the three he heard were present, Desirae was there too but she wasn't loud enough to be heard over the others. He didn't see Cas or Charlie though, which made him feel a bit skittish. "Where're Cas and Charlie?"

"Yes you're the last one up," Bobby told him with a smirk, "And Charlie took Cas aside for a bit, she wanted to be alone with him."

Dean raised an eyebrow, "Oh? Guess I'll leave that alone then…" He didn't want to admit it but he missed seeing Cas already, he liked it when his days could start with just a glimpse of that pretty face.

"You look like a kicked dog," Jet mocked him playfully, "Sit down and chill, Cas didn't fall off the face of the earth."

"That's not what I was doing," he pouted but dropped down on the couch anyway. Desirae waved at him and he waved back, "You have breakfast yet?" He asked her and she shook her head.

"We were fighting about what it'd be."

"We were not fighting," Jet argued back, completely dismantling his own protest.

"You guys should be ashamed," Dean laughed, "Leaving a kid with no breakfast, what kinda dads are you?"

Sam smirked though he tried to hide it, "Hungry ones."

"I keep tellin' 'em to make both breakfasts but apparently that's not an option," Bobby sighed in the way that Dean remembered from when he was a kid and Sam would argue about dumb stuff with him. It was a fond memory, really. They had silly fights that Bobby would be completely exasperated over, he'd try to solve it but neither Dean nor Sam would cooperate and give up their side.

"What breakfasts are we fighting over?" Dean looked at the boyfriends, "Lemme guess, Sam wants it healthy and Jet wants it sweet?"

"Nail on the head," Jet grinned and Sam frowned.

"She shouldn't have pancakes every day, we're trying to take care of her, not spoil her!"

"I see both sides," Dean said quickly before Jet had a chance to retaliate again, "How about I make something?"

Seeing as how Dean was the best chef in the room none of them really wanted to argue that. "What're you gonna make?" Sam asked skeptically hesitant.

"Whatever it is you're all gonna eat it, no more fighting." Dean got up and walked off to the kitchen. On his way he noticed something slightly different, there was music playing down one of the halls. He looked over, telling himself that it was probably Cas and Charlie trying to hide a conversation but his interest was piqued. It sounded familiar and he couldn't help the burning curiosity that led his steps over to the room.

He very carefully turned the doorknob, thankful that Cas would be too distracted with the music playing to hear him. Peering inside he saw Charlie sitting with a little mp3 player dock and some speakers, Cas' back was to the door so most of what Dean saw regarding him was just wings and pretty feathers. Charlie paused the song before Dean got a chance to figure out what it was.

"Just try, okay?" She said with a hopeful smile, "I'm pretty sure you'll enjoy it."

Cas' wings fluffed a little, it was subtle but Dean noticed it. He was anxious, why Dean wasn't sure but he knew that Cas was uncomfortable in some way. "Alright," Cas said softly, "I'll sing for you, but I don't know if I can do what you need me to."

"I don't need you to do it any sort of way; I just wanted to be here when you try it again." Charlie was reassuring at least, "If you don't want to you don't have to."

"No, let me try." Cas' voice wasn't dismal or unhappy just uneasy, Dean figured he'd leave them to it without interruption. Not that he didn't want to hear, he just closed the door a little bit more to be less noticeable while he eavesdropped.

The tune started up again, Dean recognized it this time as the same one Cas had sung in that video before his graduation. Castiel took a slow breath as he anticipated when he'd come in and tried to sing. Dean didn't expect much, Cas was getting good at pronunciation and stringing the words together but he was nowhere near close to being able to sing again. It was fairly clear, too, when he started up. His usual pauses still came and he wasn't able to keep up with the lyrics. Dean smiled to himself though, because to Cas' credit he was still entirely in tune with the song.

Cas stopped after a little bit and Charlie turned the song off. Cas was quiet, Dean couldn't imagine what he was thinking but Charlie chimed in seconds later, "That was awesome, Cas!"

"Wha- really?" Castiel was more than surprised; Dean could just see the wide-eyed look in his head.

"Yes really!" Charlie clapped and by the sound of it jumped on Cas. "You're even better than I thought you'd be, that's incredible!" She was laughing and soon it spread to Castiel too. Dean got up and slipped away after that, he couldn't linger too long because Cas would undoubtedly notice him. His face hurt a little from how strongly he was smiling, it felt good, he was glad he could witness that moment between the two.

Dean walked into the kitchen and started getting his ingredients together, he'd have to make a combination of Sam's favourite things and the stuff that Jet liked too because otherwise he'd never hear the end of it. Bacon and eggs were staples; just those would satisfy Bobby and himself so they were an obvious choice. However the next question was how to make the eggs; both him and Bobby liked them sunny-side up (Dean would deny it if anyone said he was copying). For Sam he figured he'd make an omelette because he could toss a bunch of veggies in it without worrying.

A lot of thought went into his breakfast making, Dean wasn't deemed the best in the kitchen for nothing and he didn't intend to let anyone down. Cas still ate like a horse and Desirae wasn't too far off either, for her size anyway. Whatever he made them had to be big – they'd eat anything so it wasn't too big of a gamble. Just make extra of everything else that he made and that was good enough.

Food was underway in no time at all and Dean found himself enjoying this random day in his life. Just little things had happened, nothing major, but he felt like it was one of those moments he'd remember.

And then a flutter of wings pushed him around and he stumbled, "Hey! Cas I'm making food," he laughed and turned to see the smiling face of his angel.

"Good morning, Dee." Cas said and leaned in to kiss him. Dean cherished that more than he would care about the meal he was making. "Sleep well?"

"Yeah, you didn't?"

Cas shrugged, "I slept a little while, I might nap later."

"You better," he leaned in to steal another kiss and turned back to make sure he didn't burn anything, "I'm making food, any special requests?"

"Hmmm," Cas hopped up onto the only clean counter and sprawled across it, wings draped on either side as he looked up at the ceiling. "Can I have pizza?"

"No Cas," Dean was pretty sure Cas was just playing around, but he'd be lying if he said he was 100% sure.

"Okay, then whatever you make is fine." Castiel purred a little, the sound sent a small shiver down Dean's spine.

He looked over and smiled at how relaxed Cas was, just casually lying across a random surface with no worries as to what might happen next. That's all he could really ask for when he saw Cas and it made him happy to witness it over and over again. "You look like you're in a good mood," he said and went back to his task.

"Yeah," Cas hummed, "I am."

Dean knew why and he knew that Cas knew why, there was no need to ask. He couldn't begin to understand how happy it made him to know that Cas was content, he just loved the feeling. "So what did you wanna do today?"

"I was hoping I could…" Cas paused longer than normal, Dean's first hint it was deliberate. "Would you be okay if I flew a little today?"

Dean turned around again, confused more than anything, "You don't need to ask me, Cas. You can fly if you want to."

Cas blinked a few times and nodded, "I… guess so. You trust me to make judgement calls?"

"Some, yeah." Dean admitted truthfully, "I know you're not gonna go too far, I can trust you to fly around the property to have a little fun. Your wings are strong and you know how to use them, so you falling isn't that big of an issue."

"It still scares you though, doesn't it?" Cas sat upright, his tone was so understanding and so much closer to human than Dean remembered hearing the first times Cas spoke. He liked it but he didn't like it aimed at him.

"Flying always freaks me out, that shouldn't stop you from having fun." He shrugged uncomfortably and turned away to use cooking as an excuse not to make eye contact. It was almost done anyway; breakfast was a quick meal to put together if you knew what you were doing.

"I'm sorry," Cas whispered, "I don't understand why you hate it, but I know you do…"

Dean stopped. "Cas, you don't think my fear of flying means I hate that you do it?"

Cas was quiet for a few seconds, "You do hate when I fly, I remember how you reacted."

"That's not because of you," he turned to face Cas again and walked over to take his hands, "I'm afraid of flying because of something that happened a long time ago. I love that you have wings, that you can use them to do things no one else can do. You're good at flying and you love to do it, I remember how you reacted too. I can't even explain to you how much I enjoy seeing you happy, seeing you having a good time, laughing, smiling…"

"Then," Cas held tightly to his hands, "why do you…"

Dean exhaled as smoothly as he could though it wasn't much better than Cas' speaking patterns. "My parents died when I was young; they were on a plane flying to a vacation spot, I don't remember where. The plane went down, took all the passengers with it."

Cas nodded somberly and leaned over to kiss Dean's cheek, "I'm sorry," he said with a gentle nuzzle before moving away again, "I can't imagine what that was like."

"It's alright," Dean smiled and hugged Cas tightly; he hated talking about it even though it had been so long. Castiel held onto him too, Dean couldn't pull away when he thought it was over. Cas had picked up on the fact that he wasn't as 'alright' as he said he was. Dean let himself nestle against Castiel, enjoying the embrace for what it was.