Chapter Text
The June air was warm, and a light breeze was enough to cool him off while he loaded his duffel bag into Baby’s trunk. A full tank, the open road, and an entire summer, maybe even more were ahead of him. He was excited for his future, finally.
Before he slammed the trunk closed, Cas came by, dropping his own duffle bag beside Dean’s after greeting him with a smile. They wouldn’t kiss on the street, but the intent was there.
“Are you sure you’ve got everything you need?” Mary asked for the umpteenth time, coming up to her son and checking him over as if he were ill. Sammy and John were right behind her, wearing amused smiles as they watched their matriarch freak out over her baby boy.
“Yeah, mom. Jeez. It’s a road trip, it’s not like we enlisted, which… You know, we could’ve.” Dean joked, reciprocating his mother’s hug.
“Don’t you dare joke about that, Dean Winchester!” She chastised him, and the only sane thing he could do was laugh. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Cas, staring at them with an amused glint in his eye, and a grin curving his lips.
John came up to them from where they were standing on the lawn, holding a white envelope in his hand.
“Cas, this is for you.” He handed Cas the envelope. When Castiel opened it, his blue eyes bulged and he closed it back up, wanting to hand it back to John.
“John, please, I can’t accept this.” Cas started, but John wasn’t in any mood for nonsense.
“Those are the four months of rent you’ve paid us. We’ve been saving them up for you, see it as a piggy bank you didn’t know you had.” John argued, and pushed Castiel’s hands back, wanting him to keep the envelope. “Besides, you’ll need all the money you can get if you’re really gonna be on a road trip all summer. Gas is expensive, and Baby ain’t cheap.”
Cas had moved in with the Winchesters when, a couple of weeks after his not-breakup-breakup with Dean, his family home went up in flames from a house fire. They’d all been sleeping when it had started, and the only one that had managed to escape had been Castiel, as his room had been on the lower floor. His parents had woken up too late, apparently, and had suffered the consequences. It had been a freak accident, or maybe… Maybe it had been a freaking miracle.
In the privacy of his own mind, a privacy he only ever shared with Dean, and only sometimes, he’d let it be known that maybe, only maybe, the house fire hadn’t been entirely accidental. Dean had never asked for details and Cas had never given them, but Cas was safe and on his road towards healing now, and that’s what mattered most to Dean.
“Are you sure?” Cas asked, not believing the words he was hearing. “A hundred per-cent positive?”
“Cross my heart.” John accompanied his words with the gesture of placing his right hand over the left part of his chest.
“Thank you, then.” Cas said, his smile was big, genuine, and thankful. “No one’s ever done for me as much as you have.”
“You got nothing to thank us for, Cassie. You’re family.” Mary said as she enveloped him in a hug.
A round of hugs ensued, as the family said goodbye for the time being. The idea was to come back sometime around mid-august, but who knows? Plans change, things happen. Maybe they could settle someplace nice, get nice jobs, and just work for a while, maybe do community college. Nothing was set in stone for them, and that was what they loved about their life at that moment.
After a tearful goodbye on Mary’s part (Dean would not admit to getting teary-eyed when saying goodbye to his mom), they were off, his right foot pressing down on the gas as they went on the interstate, his right hand intertwined with Cas’ on the bench seat.
“Let’s get out of this town, my love.” Dean said, smiling sweetly at his boyfriend. “Where to?”
“I don’t care. Not as long as I’m with you.” His heart would always melt when Cas would say sweet things to him, but he didn’t want to waste the opportunity he’d been given.
“Okay, off to the coast we go. Haven’t been to the beach in ages!”
With light minds and love-filled hearts, they made their way out of town and into their future, enjoying the thrill of not knowing what would come next. Only their wildest dreams could tell.
Luckily enough, Dean knew his way around those.
THE END.