Chapter Text
“Today my dad made scalloped potatoes and a seasoned pork roast for dinner. The roast was only a little dry, and the potatoes were still a little undercooked, but I popped them in the microwave for a few minutes and they softened. They were really good. Since he met Dean his cooking has made so much progress. It’s not perfect, but it beats burned food!”
“Dean is such a good influence on him. It must be awesome having a professional chef for a boyfriend.”
“I bet potatoes and roasts aren’t the only thing they’re cooking together!”
“They’re so cute together. Have they baked pies together too?”
“Your dad is soooo hot!”
Claire read through each new comment on her tweet. Since her dad and Dean had started getting serious a little more than five years earlier, his cooking had begun to slowly improve. She was infinitely grateful for Dean’s patience and understanding. So many pans had been burned and food under/overcooked before Dean got him to invest in a new stove. That made a huge difference, and from there things just got better.
She had learned that while people loved hearing about her dad’s cooking mishaps, they loved hearing about him learning to cook even more. Her followers tripled not long after she’d announced that her dad and Dean were dating, and the number continued to rise since then. Now she had more than 20,000 followers, and shortly after she turned 18 she became verified. Her dad knew now what her Twitter was about but he didn’t care. He’d gotten a fantastic boyfriend that he was totally in love with. She’d opted to go to school locally, deciding on culinary school, much to Dean’s delight. Even her dad was proud of her. She was home every night, still making her regular updates about everything her dad tried making on his own, and now she added in her own foray into the world of gourmet cooking.
The night of her dad and Dean’s sixth anniversary she decided to surprise them by making tiramisu. It was Dean’s recipe, and she had spent an entire afternoon trying to get it just right. Pastries were not her strong suit, but she wasn’t bad at making them. Dean had suffered through many of her early experiments, and he’d been working with her to perfect her skills ever since. After her dad and Dean had bought a house together, one with a much bigger kitchen for all three of them to work in comfortably without bumping into one another, she’d really begun to work on her pastry-making skills. At Dean’s insistence she had gone to school first for business, and then to culinary school, which she was almost done with. When she was finished, Dean had promised her a job at any of his five restaurants. In the last three years he’d opened two new ones, another one in Los Angeles and one in Fresno.
The cake turned out perfect, and she placed it inside the pastry fridge Dean had added the year before. Just as she was closing the door, he came walking in the room. The anxious expression on his face alarmed her.
“Is your dad home yet?” he asked.
“No, he had an emergency quadruple bypass come in this afternoon. He’ll probably be home around eight. Why? What’s wrong?”
He ran one hand through his hair and for the first time she noticed how much gray there was. It looked good on him though.
“I, uh, it’s our anniversary today.”
“I know, I made the cake, remember?” She put her hands on her hips and narrowed her eyes. “Seriously, what’s wrong?”
“Nothing is wrong. I, I’m…” He reached into his back pocket and pulled out a little, black velvet box. She gasped when she realized what he was planning to do.
“You’re going to ask my dad to marry you!”
“Yeah, do you think he’ll say yes?”
“Of course he’ll say yes! He’s head over heels in love with you. Oh! You have to do it romantically, sweep him off his feet!” She hurried over and hugged him tight. “This is wonderful! Do you want me to make dinner too? I can, so you can shower and get dressed and stuff. How about Cornish hens in a lemon rosemary herb sauce?”
“Actually, that sounds really good. Write that recipe down, I’d like to try making it later. It would really help me out if you handled dinner. Thanks, hon.” He kissed her cheek before turning to leave.
“Wait! Can I see it?” she asked. He walked back over and opened the box.
“Oh…it’s beautiful, he’s going to love it!”
Dean touched the silver colored band and smiled. He’d gone with brushed titanium with polished edges and a rose design with tiny flowers and leaves etched into the band, going all the way around.
“Yeah? I spent a lot of time discussing with the jeweler what ring would be good for a doctor, especially a surgeon. She advised against stones as they could sometimes fall out. I had the scrollwork added because the band seemed really plain without it.”
“It’s thoughtful, hand designed, and something he will wear with pride. If he cries tonight, you better take pictures.”
He chuckled as he started for the door again. “New potatoes in a creamy garlic butter sauce will go nicely with the hens you’re making. And maybe see what vegetables are still in the fridge? Pick a nice blend of them.”
“You got it.” She saluted him before heading to the fridge to get out what she was going to need. Dinner had to be done before her dad got home. She had approximately two hours to create the perfect, romantic dinner her father and Dean deserved. Challenge accepted.
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Cas was tired when he walked into the kitchen from the connected garage, but the smell of food cooking instantly made his stomach growl. Claire was busy pulling something out of the oven and hadn’t noticed him until she was standing up and nudging the oven door closed.
“Oh, hey, Dad. How did the surgery go?”
“It went well. I had Ahmed stick around to give the aftercare lecture about diet and exercise. I wanted to come home and spend time with Dean. I feel awful that I had to work so late on our anniversary.” He sighed heavily as he loosened his tie. “Is he here?”
“He’s upstairs getting ready. I offered to make dinner for you both, and I made dessert too. Why don’t you go relax for a bit? He’ll be done soon.” She shooed him out of the kitchen, so he headed for the living room. The couch was so soft and comfortable that he didn’t even realize he’d fallen asleep until he felt soft lips pressing against his own. His eyes fluttered open to see Dean crouching in front of him.
“Sorry, long day,” he murmured before kissing Dean again.
“It’s alright, sweetheart. Dinner’s ready, you hungry?”
“Starving,” he replied. Dean stood up again, wincing when his knee twinged painfully. Cas got to his feet and followed him into the dining room where a candlelit dinner for two was waiting. He smiled as he took it all in.
“This is beautiful. Happy anniversary, darling.” He cupped Dean’s face and drew him into another kiss. Dean smiled happily as he took Cas’ hand and led him to the table.
“Claire made your favorite, Cornish hens. There are new potatoes, and she made a vegetable medley with roasted peppers, baby corn, purple, orange and yellow carrots, and pearl onions. Sure smells amazing.” Dean held out his chair for him, and he smiled lovingly up at him as he sat down.
“It sounds wonderful. You both make some of the most wonderful dishes.”
Dean sat down in his chair and opened the lid on the dish closest to him. It was the vegetables, so he used the spoon provided to add some to both of their plates.
“This all smells amazing.” Cas’ smile only grew wider as Dean added one of the Cornish hens to his plate, and then the potatoes.
“She’s fantastic. If she keeps adding experience, she’ll be a master chef with her own restaurant one day.” Dean was proud of how far Claire had come, and how many dishes she had already mastered. Heck, he had even borrowed some recipes from her to add to the restaurants’ menu.
“She loves you, you know,” Cas said softly as Dean picked up his fork and knife to start eating. He picked up his own and cut into his chicken.
“I know. I love her too, like she’s my own.” Dean picked up the bottle of wine he’d left open to breathe and poured them both some.
“I’m sorry I had to work today, I tried to reschedule my consultations and get Fergus to take over my clinic hours and I did managed that, except one of my patients had a heart attack. I’d already put in two stents, but the damage was so severe that I had to do a quadruple bypass. I’m hoping now that his health will continue to improve.”
Dean reached over to take his hand, bringing it to his lips and kissing it gently. “Sweetheart, I understand completely. You know I’d never hold that against you. Your work is important and anniversaries, while I like celebrating them, they’re really just sentimental, and not more important than you saving lives. You’re the most amazing man I’ve ever known.”
Cas smiled so wide every tooth in his mouth showed and his nose wrinkled up in the adorable way Dean loved. He was so totally and completely gone on this man.
“I love you so much,” Cas told him. Dean smiled back just as wide.
“I feel the same way, babe. I love you more than anything.”
Their meal was delicious, and Cas raved over all of it. He’d never be as good at cooking as Dean or his daughter, but at least he could make a variety of meals without burning all of it. He still preferred Dean’s or Claire’s cooking to his own.
When they were finished eating, Dean told him to sit tight while he cleared the table. Cas sipped at his wine as he waited for him to return. When his boyfriend came back he was carrying a beautiful, chocolate glazed cake. Perched on the top were a handful of raspberries with mint leaves tucked beneath them for garnish. It was gorgeous.
“Oh, that looks amazing! Is that tiramisu?”
Dean nodded as he set the cake down and got two cake plates out for them. He cut them both a slice and Cas eagerly took his. After he sat down, Dean picked up his fork and dug in.
“Oh…she did a fantastic job on this,” he groaned.
“Claire made this?” Cas took a bite of his own, his eyes closing as he savored the flavors.
“She wanted to. It’s her anniversary present to us. She doubts her pastry-making skills, but she has a natural gift for it.”
“I agree, this is possibly the most delicious tiramisu I’ve ever had.” Cas finished his piece and washed it down with the rest of the wine in his glass. Dean quickly refilled it.
“Leave the plates, I’ll clean it up later.” He offered his hand and Cas took it. Dean led him into the living room where they sat down together.
“I have a gift for you,” Cas announced as they settled back on the couch together.
“Is it sex?” Dean asked, waggling his eyebrows playfully. Cas laughed, but sex was part of what he was looking forward to later.
“Mmm, maybe later. For now, I have this.” He reached between the couch cushions to pull out a box made of leather and somewhat bulky. Dean knew it was a watch, probably the one he’d recently been admiring. He set his glass of wine on the coffee table and took it. When he opened it, there sat the watch he’d mentioned in passing a few months back that he was interested in getting, the Parmigiani Fleurier Toric Chonometre he’d seen when they’d taken a vacation to Italy just after Christmas. He’d laid eyes on the watch and known that he wanted to add it to his collection. They’d come back without it, but somehow Cas had managed to get one. It wasn’t cheap. He was in awe of his boyfriend in that moment. No one had ever paid attention to his likes and dislikes to this extent before, or gone out of their way to make him happy. No one had ever cared as much. It was why, for the first time in his life, he wanted to get married, because he knew that as much as he loved Cas, Cas loved him back just as much.
“Baby, this is awesome! I am wearing it when we go to that fancy hospital fundraiser next week. It will look amazing with my tux.” He took it out and switched out his Bulova for the new one.
“It looks good on you.” Cas set his glass on the coffee table and leaned against Dean’s side, content to watch as he looked at all the features this one had to offer. When he lowered his arm and shifted to look at him, Cas sat back up again.
“I have something for you too, sweetheart.”
“I thought a fancy dinner and mind blowing sex was my gift,” Cas joked, grinning at him. Dean chuckled before bringing a hand up to cup the back of Cas’ head so he could pull him closer and kiss his forehead.
“No, but I’m all up for the mind blowing sex part. First, I have this.” He reached into his pocket and pulled out the little, velvet box. When Cas looked down to see what he was doing, his eyes blew wide open.
“Dean?”
“Cas, I love you. I have never loved anyone as much as I love you. You and Claire? You gave me the family I always wanted, and I know I want to spend the rest of my life with you, but I want more than that. I want to marry you. So, gorgeous, will you do me the honor of becoming my husband?”
Tears were spilling down Cas’ cheeks as he watched Dean lift the ring from the box.
“Yes, Dean, I will marry you. God, I want to so much!”
Dean smiled as he took Cas’ hand, which was trembling so much it took him a few seconds to slide the ring on.
“I wanted to do something fancier, with diamonds or maybe sapphires since they remind me of your eyes, but after talking with the jeweler I realized that stones could fall out while you’re at work. So, I chose a brushed titanium band with polished edges, and I had the scrollwork engraved. It’s roses, since on our second date we went for that walk in the botanical gardens and you were gushing over the roses. I bought you some later, tucked one behind your ear before kissing you for the first time.”
“I remember. That was probably one of the most romantic moments of my life. This is definitely another.” Cas placed his hands on either side of Dean’s face and pressed his lips softly to his fiancé’s. “I love you,” he whispered.
“I love you too.”
“Is, um, Claire home?” Cas asked. Dean grinned and shook his head.
“No, I paid for her to spend a couple days relaxing at the Hilton. She left as soon as she was done making dinner.”
“Then I say we get started on that mind blowing sex. Emphasis on the ‘blowing.’” Cas stood up and Dean did too, wrapping his arms around the man and nuzzling against his jaw.
“I’m totally on board with that.”
“Does Claire know?” Cas took him by the hand and pulled him towards the stairs.
“Yep. I showed her the ring, wanted her approval on it. She loves it.”
“You’re so good to me. I am looking forward to marrying you,” Cas said as they entered their bedroom.
“Doctor Novak-Winchester. Has a nice ring to it, don’t you think?” Dean smiled and kissed him deeply.
“I love the sound of that.” Cas kicked the door shut, more out of habit than anything, and grabbed the front of Dean’s shirt. “Now show me just how much you want me.”
Dean was eager to do exactly that. Meeting Cas all those years back, he’d known there was something special about the man who couldn’t cook to save his life, and it hadn’t take him long to fall in love with the shy, quirky doctor with the killer body and huge blue eyes. If Cas wanted him to show him just how much he wanted him, well, he was going to prove that and more. Cas deserved it.