Chapter 41.

Sam and Eileen got back from a brisk morning run to find Dean and Anael in the kitchen, drowning pancakes in maple syrup. Dean looked up at them and said, "There's something obscene about sweating before breakfast."

"Or you could just say good morning." said Sam.

"Yeah, I could." said Dean, "Look, quick announcement, it's not what you're gonna think, but Anael and I are now sharing a room. I know that sounds ... "

"Doesn't matter how it sounds," said Sam, "Or what I think. If it works for both of you, I'm fine with it."

"Oh. Thanks."

"I told you." said Anael, "They'll accept it."

"Of course we will." said Eileen.

"Accept what?" said Cas, coming in with Jules.

Sam saw Dean's shoulders tense and knew that it was Cas's reaction he feared. E resisted the urge to try to make Cas aware, knowing that Cas would be, if anything, too aware of it. He was trying to appear casual, but Dean had excellent instincts and Cas had all the guile and artifice of a two year old.

"Okay," said Dean, "You may not understand this and you probably won't approve, but I'm not taking advantage of Anael and there's nothing sexual in it. We're just sharing a room ... and a bed. It's a kinda ... I don't know, mutual comfort thing." He fell awkwardly silent, looking as if he would rather be a million miles away.

"Oh," said Cas, "You mean like the sleepovers Jules and I used to have?"

"Yes!" said Dean, "Exactly like your sleepovers. I'll admit, I never really saw the appeal of them at the time, but now, I get it."

Cas smiled at him encouragingly. "That's good. Sleepovers are fun." he said.

"Yes, they certainly are." said Dean, "We're not really calling it anything, not yet. I know that complicates things for everyone."

"No it doesn't." said Jules, "You're still you, Anael is still Anael. You never once tried to force us to define our relationship before we were ready. We'll give you the same respect."

"Thankyou." said Anael, "That means a lot."

"It does." Said Dean, "Whatever this thing is, it's nothing I thought it was."

"Is that good or bad?" said Anael. Sam felt sorry for her, trying to navigate the moods of a complicated man, a Winchester, the most difficult Winchester, when she had barely begun Humanity 101.

He was relieved when Dean smiled reassuringly at her and said, "Today, everything seems pretty good, doesn't it?" and she smiled back, "Where's Charlie?" said Dean, "I was sure she'd be the first we'd have to explain ourselves to."

"Charlie got a call late last night and went to Burr Oak, for an urgent Harry Potterc marathon." Sam explained.

"I'm amazed you didn't go with her." said Dean.

"Two's company, three's an orgy."

"Not that there's anything wrong with that." said Anael, flashing a grin at Dean, who grinned back. Sam loved how relaxed they seemed. The awkwardness of the past few days was gone.

Dean thought he couldn't understand but he did. He knew very well the value of sharing a room and a life with someone on the same wavelength. Dean thought of relationships as passion and domesticity combined, but he seemed to have only just discovered the other part, companionship.

Maybe he had known that with Lisa, although he admitted now that he had never loved her, so the companionship was probably all he had in that relationship. Well, that and bendy sex and the chance to be a father to a child he had loved as if he were his own.

"So, have you moved your stuff into Dean's room?" Eileen asked Anael.

"Not yet," she said, "But maybe I should." She glanced at Dean.

"Yeah, you should." he said, "It's our room now. In fact, if you wanna change it at all ... I know my taste is not exactly sophisticated."

"No, I like it as it is." She said and Sam wondered how much of that was the angelic lack of imagination, how much a reluctance to offend Dean and how much a genuine similarity of aesthetic, but he saw the relief on Dean's face and knew that he had harboured some anxiety about what kind of makeover she would want.

Yet he had offered. He had called it their room. He said he didn't love her, but Sam was certain that he felt more for her than he had for Lisa and when they showed matching smiles or laughed at nothing or shrugged at the same time, it looked a lot like love to him. It looked, in fact, like his relationship with Eileen and he hoped, with all his heart, that Dean had found exactly that and was finally going to learn how it felt to be the object of an exceptional woman's love.

It didn't matter if Anael and Dean took a while to figure things out, they all had. Cas had the most excuse, having had to learn the whole tangle of human interactions and then still needing to decide that he was even allowed a relationship with Jules.

Sam's only reason for the delay was fear that his accursed love life would claim one more victim and either destroy or end Eileen's life. Though, to be fair to hmself, he had been largely correct in that. She had died twice and had endured Hell for a long time as a result of knowing him. In the end, both had put aside their fears and the decision had been a good one.

Dean could take as long as he wanted, go as cautiously as he needed. He was fnally willing to try, even if he couldn't yet call it love. He was open to something other than an assumption of failure and rejection and that was a breakthrough.

Dean poured yet more maple syrup onto his last pancake and Anael smiled. "Isn't that a little too sweet?"

"A simple rule:" said Dean, "Whisky can never be too strong, a woman can never be too hot and a pancake can never be too sweet. Sweet is good. Besides, it's basically tree sap. Anything that comes from a tree is healthfood, right, Sammy?"

"Not really." Said Sam, but he was too happy to argue it further. He had believed that Dean would eventually acknowledge his feelings for Anael but things were moving faster than he had dared to hope and Dean seemed very much at ease with most of it. Then there was a glimmer of unease.

"Charlie will get this, won't she?" said Dean. It mattered to him a lot. If Charlie didn't get it or didn't approve, that would be a problem.

"When does Charlie ever not get you?" said Sam.

Dean gave a small grin. "True." he said.

"Charlie gets everything." said Anael. Her admiration for Charlie bordered on hero-worship and for Sam, that was simply one more reason to love her.