Chapter Text
Chapter 4
God, she is so fucking beautiful.
Dean reaches out to clasp Claire’s tiny fist where she’s thrown her arms over her head. Her golden hair splays out on the pillow like it’s some silken blanket, and Dean wants to cry at how utterly perfect his little girl is.
His other little girl - older now, but still as much of a baby as she ever was - whines from next to Claire, raising one floppy brown head to eye him warily. It’s hilarious, he thinks, the way Ruff’s taken to protecting Claire. After being unsure of this tiny humanoid creature who’s taken up all of her daddies’ attention, she had apparently decided that if she couldn’t beat ‘em, she’d join ‘em.
So much so that she growls at Dean when he’s next to Claire. Like she’s doing now.
“Stop that.”
He swats at Ruff gently, booping her on the nose. She growls, laying her head by Claire’s tummy, eyeing him with the same stink-eye she reserves for the rabbits she chases in the park.
“I just got her to sleep, Ruff,” he says. “If you wake her up again with your growling, I swear to God…”
Ruff sniffles and then bumps her head against Claire’s hip. The six month-old huffs and Dean freezes, praying like hell that she isn’t gonna awake. He loves her, but for all that’s holy, the kid can scream up a storm.
To his relief, Claire doesn’t wake up, but rolls over instead and throws her little arms over Ruff’s back and buries her face in the crook between the bed and Ruff’s head. Ruff sniffs at Claire’s hair, wiggling until she’s comfortable and then settles down. One ear is raised, though, a sign that she’s still on alert, and Dean’s heart clutches so tight, he thinks he might get a heartburn from it.
Son of a bitch.
And he thought the sight of Ruff as their ring-bearer, in her little tux and bowtie, was the cutest thing he’d seen. How the fuck is any man supposed to look at this not have his eyes burn the way they do right now?
“Are you bothering the baby and the dog again?”
A pair of strong, warm arms curl themselves around his waist and Cas presses his face into Dean’s back, kissing in between his shoulder blades softly.
“I’m not bothering them,” Dean protest. It’s half-hearted at best, and Cas snorts before he turns Dean to face him.
“Oh?” he hums, leaning their foreheads together. “Pray tell, what were you doing then?”
“I… uh… just…” Dean glares at him when Cas chuckles. “Shut up.”
“I didn’t say anything,” Cas points out.
“You were thinkin’ it,” Dean grumbles.
“Such a slave driver.” Cas’s voice is teasing as he leans in for a kiss. “Even trying to control what I think.”
Before Dean can retort, a soft, sharp cry breaks through the quiet from behind them. Ruff is up in a second, barking to get their attention, and the sound of her sets Claire off and the next hour is a whirlwind of barks and whines and baby cries as they try to get both the girls to settle down.
“Shit fuck,” Dean says as he rocks Claire back and forth.
"Language," Cas reminds him. "Or Claire's first word is going to be fuck."
Dean makes a face. “Tell me again why we decided to do this?”
Ruff whines from next to him, annoyed at having her tiny human taken away. Cas pets her on the forehead, scratching her until she settles, and then turns to Dean with a raised eyebrow.
“Don’t pretend you don’t love it,” he says mildly.
It’s Dean turn to huff but he doesn’t protest the statement.
Yeah, he does love it. Even it’s a cuckoo pile of crazy.
-end-