Chapter Text
The next time Dean saw Cas, he didn’t mention the dinner invitation from Balthazar. It was a little surprising, since Dean assumed Balthazar had done it on Cas’ behalf, but perhaps Cas had just forgotten about it already. Dean knew he would definitely forget about it without the calendar on his phone. That was the only way he was keeping track of anything these days.
Between that and taking care of his brothers, sometimes he thought he was turning into a suburban soccer mom.
The days before the dinner were busy. His classes were picking up as they got closer to midterms and it was beginning to feel like he didn’t have time for anything outside of homework and work. Thankfully Bobby continued to be more than accommodating of Dean’s other responsibilities, but it didn’t feel right to Dean for him to shirk work. Besides the fact that they needed the money, it had been ingrained into him since he was a kid to keep going even when it seemed like too much. It wasn’t a habit he’d been able to break so far.
With all of that, it was kind of a surprise to wake up Thursday morning and see the reminder on his phone. As he pulled out the sack lunches he’d packed the night before and gave them to Sam and Adam, he made sure to remind them as well. With their afterschool activities and the drive, he’d have to pick them up and head straight over to Cas’ house.
Even after reminding them that morning, he pulled up to the front of the school to see a suspicious lack of his brothers. They were supposed to meet him at 5:30 and they both should have been out of the activities by five or so at the latest, so they should have been there. He looked down at the dash to see it was 5:33. Typical.
He put the car into park, glaring at the front doors, and pulled out his phone. Adam was still more likely than not to ignore a text or phone call from him, but Sam would usually answer. Hopefully he wasn’t locked up in a closet with a girl or something else equally distracting. Dean knew how that went.
“Where the hell are you two?” Dean said as soon as Sam picked up. He could practically hear the eyeroll on the other end, but ignored it. That was a response he was very used to.
“Just… dealing with a little meltdown,” Sam said. There were muffled noises in the background, but Dean couldn’t make out what they were. “We’ll be out in just a minute, I promise.”
Dean grumbled, but hung up and sat back to watch the front door and wait. A few minutes later, he saw Sam coming out, Adam a few steps behind him. As they approached, Dean noticed that there was something a little off about Adam’s face. He quickly realized that his youngest brother had a black eye.
“What the hell happened?” he asked as soon as the doors opened, wondering whether he should be angry or worried. Was this how parents felt about their children? If so, he wasn’t sure he liked it.
“I fell,” Adam said sullenly, drawing a snort from both Dean and Sam.
“I wasn’t born yesterday, kid,” Dean replied. “I know what the results of a fight look like. What I don’t know is if you started it or ended it.”
Adam opened his mouth to answer, but Sam beat him too it. “They started it, not him,” Sam said, glancing back at Adam in the backseat. His arms were crossed and he was studiously looking out the window. “But we ended it. Hopefully they won’t try that again.”
“Good.” Dean was a little miffed he hadn’t been there to help, it was his job to take care of his younger siblings, but he was glad they could take care of themselves. Next time though…
He looked down at the dash and swore, putting the car into drive and getting out of the school parking lot as fast as he dared. They were definitely going to be late, which was really not what he wanted since Balthazar had been nice enough to let Sam and Adam come with him. Hopefully there weren’t any cops lying in wait between here and there.
***
“Dean?” Cas asked when he opened the front door, only about five minutes after six thanks to the Impala's impressive speed on back roads. He blinked confusedly between the three of them. “What are you doing here?”
“Uh, dinner? Balthazar invited me, said I could bring my brothers.” Dean suddenly had the sinking feeling that the invitation hadn’t originally come from Cas and Cas hadn’t just forgotten to mention it in the last week. Shit.
Before Cas could reply, probably to politely tell them to leave, Balthazar appeared behind his shoulder, a huge grin on his face. “Dean, you made it!” he said, and bumped his brother’s shoulder. “I invited Dean over for dinner tonight, thought it would be nice.”
“I really don’t need you to-” Cas began to say, then cut himself off with a glance in Dean’s direction. “Fine. Please come in, Dean. These are your brothers?”
Dean made the introductions as they walked inside, a little distracted by the size of the house. It was obvious from the outside that it was huge, much larger than any house Dean had seen before outside of celebrity profiles in magazines or something. But on the inside, a little worn but still very nice, it was even more obvious. He wondered how many bedrooms there were and why Cas’ family had such a large house. Dean knew he had several siblings, but this just seemed excessive.
As they made their way further inside, Cas and Balthazar introduced them to the other siblings they happened to pass. None of them looked very much alike, which was odd for siblings. Even Adam looked similar to him and Sam, and they were only half siblings.
“Friends of your’s, brother?”
The five of them turned to see someone who was assumably another sibling. He was short, but looked to be a few years older than Dean. He had a huge smile on his face as he looked between them, seemingly delighted to see some people who weren’t related to him.
“Yes, this is Dean and his brothers Sam and Adam,” Cas replied, a hint of fond exasperation in his voice. Dean wondered why since this new brother had barely said anything. “And this is my brother, Gabriel. You should probably stay away from him.”
“Hey!” Gabriel exclaimed, though he didn’t look at all offended. “I resemble that remark.”
Dean just shook his head, amazed that Cas could have a brother who was even weirder than Balthazar, but Sam let out a snort of laughter. It made Gabriel smile even wider, eyeing him intently. Dean decided it was time to get on with things.
“So… dinner?” he asked, turning back to Cas.
“Of course. Michael and Lucifer should be done by now,” Cas said, and gestured further into the house. “We can go to the dining room while we wait.”
The dining room turned out to be another huge room with an equally huge table, probably comfortably seating around twenty. It seemed just as excessive as the rest of the house, but it was already almost half filled before the six of them arrived. The people at the table were mostly elementary school aged, which surprised him. He’d figured that even with Cas having several siblings, they’d all be at least in junior high by now, if not high school.
“It’s Thursday, so pretty much everybody but the little ones are out with friends or doing school activities,” Gabriel said, obviously seeing the confusion on Dean’s face. He patted a couple of the kids on the head as they passed, a softer smile on his face. “You can never really tell how many will be around for dinner, but this is about average.”
“How many siblings do you have?” Sam asked, eyes wide as he looked around the room.
Gabriel shrugged. “You’d have to ask Raphael,” he said. “He keeps the book. I always lose track.”
There didn’t really seem to be anything any of them could say to that bizarre non answer, so they all just took seats at the table. Dean felt awkward and out of place surrounded by so much of Cas’ family, but he figured Sam and Adam probably felt it even more acutely since they didn’t even know anyone here.
It only took a few minutes for two of Cas’ older siblings, probably about Gabriel’s age, to come in from the kitchen, dishes in hand. They ordered a couple of the older kids to go grab more dishes, which they did, and soon the table wa covered in food. Dean wasn’t sure if he was surprised or not that neither Michael or Lucifer really seemed to take notice of three strangers at the table.
The actual dinner was a bit of a crazy mess in Dean’s opinion. Everyone at the table just fell on the food, passing it back and forth seemingly at random. It was loud, which wasn’t really surprising how many people were in the room, but it was still a little overwhelming. He found it distracting to have so many conversations going on at the same time around him when he was used to having just his brothers and father at mealtimes.
Still, the food was very good, and there was plenty of it for everyone. He’d been a little worried there wouldn’t be enough with the three of them added, but apparently Gabriel was right about them not knowing how many people would be there to eat. They’d just prepared for a lot.
As people finished eating, they drifted off into the rest of the house, assumably back to whatever they’d been doing before dinner. Sam and Adam finished much sooner than Dean did and wandered off themselves. Dean just had to hope they wouldn’t get into any trouble.
“So… this is your family, huh?” Dean asked Cas when it was just them and a couple other hangers on at the other end of the table.
“Yes.”
Dean tried not to roll his eyes at the lack of forthcoming information to his question, but he knew by now that was just Cas. “How do you keep up with so many siblings?” he asked instead.
“It can be difficult,” Cas admitted. “The older ones of us divide the responsibilities and we have family meetings. We make it work.”
“Huh.” Dean was a little jealous of how close their family seemed despite how large it was, though he would never say that aloud. If they did make it work like he said, they were doing better than the Winchesters. And speaking of his family…
“Any idea of where my brothers got to?”
“I believe Gabriel took Sam on a tour, but I do not know about Adam,” Cas said, shrugging.
Dean sighed. “I guess I should go find them.”
They easily found Adam, who was sitting in the main living area watching tv. He didn’t look likely to up and leave, so Dean left him there while he continued to look for Sam. They checked all the common rooms on the first floor and found neither Sam nor Gabriel, and none of Cas’ siblings seemed to have seen either of them since dinner.
Cas assured him that Gabriel wouldn’t have taken Sam to the upper floor since that was mostly bedrooms, so Dean was at a bit of a loss. As they returned to the living room to double check that no one had seen them, he decided it was time to call Sam again. That kid had quite the record of disappearing from where he was supposed to be today.
The first ring went through and Dean frowned in confusion. There seemed to be an echo, faint but there. He noticed almost immediately that Cas was looking around in equal confusion, so maybe it wasn’t actually an echo.
“You hear that?” he asked, and Cas nodded, looking around the room. “Any idea where it’s coming from?”
It only took a few moments to pinpoint the sound to a closet on one side of the room. That was definitely not a place Sam’s phone should be ringing from, and Dean was beginning to get the feeling that he’d missed something. At his nod, Cas opened the door.
“What the hell?”
“Dean?” Sam asked, startled as he broke away from his lip lock with Gabriel. “What’s, uh, what’s going on?”
Dean crossed his arms over his chest, glaring between the two of them. “My brother is in a closet making out with my friend’s older brother apparently,” he said. “Seriously, Sam?”
Sam had the decency to look chastised, though Gabriel just looked smug. Neither of them, though, made a move to separate, hands still on shoulders and waists. At least Dean was grateful that all clothing seemed to be on and no hands were anywhere too mind scarring.
“I figured you wouldn’t miss me for a while, Gabe said he’d show me around,” Sam said, his voice way too innocent to actually be innocent. “It’s a really nice house, you know.”
“Yeah,” Gabriel said, smile just this side of lecherous, “just wanted to give him the whole grand tour.”
Dean heaved a heavy, put upon sigh. “Whatever,” he grumped. “Are you ready to go? We need to get back before dad gets pissed.”
Sam looked ready to argue until he caught sight of Adam, who was across the room pretending he wasn’t listening to them. They both knew that being out too late would make John angry which would make him fight with Sam which would scare Adam, and neither of them wanted that. There was already bound to be words about Adam’s blackeye.
“Alright,” Sam said instead. He planted a kiss on Gabriel’s cheek, then stepped out of the closet to stand beside Dean. “Let’s go then.”