Chapter Text
When Sam went home that night, he wasn’t sure what to feel. He knew he told Dean that he wanted to hunt again, but he wasn’t sure what that would look like. He would have to uproot his entire life here. Sure, he didn’t have a spouse or really friends, but people would notice if he just went missing. People at work, his clients, maybe the waiter at the diner that he ate at every other day. They never had to figure out how to leave a life when they were younger, they had always been hunters. They had never known anything else, until Sam had run away from his family and blown his own life up.
He also didn’t know how to feel about his dad being dead. It was hard to actually believe that John Winchester was actually gone. He wondered how it happened, and how long ago. Did his dad know about Castiel? That one of his sons was married? He also felt sort of hurt that Dean got married and he didn’t even know. He wasn’t really sure of what happened to his womanizer of a brother, but he seemed happy, and he wasn’t going to say anything about it. He was happy his brother was happy, even if it hurt a bit that Dean was the one still in the hunting lifestyle yet the happy one.
The final thing was Castiel himself. An angel? Sam wasn’t really sure how he felt about that one either. A lot of information had presented itself to him, and he wasn’t sure on any of it. Everything seemed different now. He wanted to know how Dean started dating the man, and how they even met, but he wasn’t sure how he was going to ask. Dean seemed like a completely different man, but also the same somehow.
Sam wasn’t sure about a lot right now, but he knew that his brother would help him through whatever he needed. The first thing he needed to do though was to finish this hunt and leave his life behind, again.
Dean also had a lot of feelings that he didn’t know what to do with. His brother was back and knew he had a husband, a husband who is an angel. His brother wanted to join the life again even though ten years ago he swore that he would never see his family again. Swore that he didn’t want anything to do with the lifestyle and left without looking back. Dean never heard another call, couldn’t find him past Stanford, couldn’t find him when their dad died, and couldn’t find him when he got married. It had been a punch to the gut when he couldn’t find him for his wedding. It hurt just as much as the first time Dean called Sam’s number and the call beeped and informed him the number was no longer in service.
Dean remembered that being the first time he had cried in a while. He didn’t even cry when his brother left because it didn’t seem permanent then, it didn’t feel permanent until Dean tried to call him. Dean was lost in his thoughts laying in bed until Cas pulled him out of it.
Cas sat on the edge of the bed, taking off his shoes before laying down next to Dean. He tucked himself into Dean’s chest and looked up at him.
“How are you feeling?” Cas knew that Dean had problems with his feelings, more so when it came to family, especially his brother. Cas let the silence between them grow, waiting for Dean to answer.
“I want to be so happy he finally came back, that I have my brother again; but part of me is so fucking angry that he even left in the first place and decided that now he can do the job. That his life was too boring or something and now I’m enough for him.” Dean voice came out choked.
“Dean, you were always enough for him. You are enough as a person.” Castiel had repeated this same mantra to Dean in the many years he had known him. He fought every day to get Dean to remember this truth, but he still had days when he felt like it was a lie.
“You say that Cas, but he left me. He left me and didn’t look back.”
“You don’t know that he didn’t look back at all. He may have but may not have been able to find you or it may have been too hard for him as well.”
“I just don’t understand him anymore Cas.”
“I guess you are just going to have to talk to him about it, Dean. I know you hate it, but sometimes it is the best thing to do.”
“How did I get a husband so wise?” Dean teased.
“I think you are just very lucky Dean Winchester.” Cas said as he leaned up to kiss Dean.
The next morning comes way to soon for Dean. He doesn’t want to leave the warm blankets of the cocoons Cas had pulled around them last night, but someone is insistently knocking at the door, and Dean has a suspicion of who it is.
He grumbles as he pulls himself out of Cas’s arms and opens the door. Sam’s hand is still positioned to knock when the door swings open. He takes in Dean’s messy appearance and figures he woke the two up.
“Sam, what the hell are you doing here at four in the morning?” Dean grumbles as he rubs a hand down his face.
“I was up looking through the details of the case and I think it’s a rugaru,” Sam excitedly rambles off.
“So, we just need fire to kill it unless you and Castiel have some other way of killing creatures now, but anyways fire,” Sam continues, not noticing his brother’s annoyance.
“And you needed to tell me this at four in the morning Sammy?” Dean groans. He can hear Cas shifting behind him and he internally curses at his husband because he knows angels don’t sleep and Cas just doesn’t want to deal with case rambling right now.
“Oh, were you sleeping?”
“It’s four in the morning, of course I was sleeping.” Sam pauses, looking past Dean and into the room where Castiel is still laying.
“Shit, I didn’t realize. We used to have such a different schedule, but I guess angels like their sleep or something. We normally go at a case until it’s solved only catching a few hours,” Sam starts rambling again. Dean sighs, pulling his brother into the room.
“I don’t want to disturb Cas, I’ll just go,” Sam protests but Dean keeps pulling him inside. He starts making coffee before turning back towards Sam.
“Angels don’t sleep.” He deadpans, staring at him husband. Sam’s eyes narrow and he turns to look at Castiel who still hasn’t emerged from the blankets or shown signs of being awake.
“Do they do something angel sleep-like or something?” Sam asks.
“No, he just doesn’t want to get up and be an adult and help. He wants to cuddle,” Dean fights a grin as the blankets finally are flung back to reveal Cas. Cas glares at his husband, running a hand through his already impossibly messy hair and gets out of bed. Sam looks between the two of them in confusing.
“I don’t understand.”
“I’m pretty sure Cas cuddles me into having a normal-ish sleep schedule. Angels don’t need sleep or to eat really but Cas does. He says it makes him feel normal around us,” Dean explains as he hands his husband a cup of coffee.
“That’s… interesting.” Sam smiles at the two of them as Dean hands him his own cup. No one says anything while they drink their coffee. It’s Castiel who breaks the silence.
“So, a rugaru? Fire?” He grumbles. Dean laughs and runs a hand through Cas’s hair.
“Yup. Not too hard when we have an angel on our side. Even if he is grumpy.” Cas swats Dean’s hands away and informs him that he is going to go get breakfast and they can hunt once they have all eaten. And with that, Sam and Dean are alone.
“I’m really sorry about waking you up. I shouldn’t have come.” Sam looks down at his feet and rubs the back of his neck.
“It’s fine Sam. Just don’t do it again or Cas might kill you.” Dean laughs. Sam smiles at that.
“Speaking of Cas, how did you two meet?” Dean is caught off guard by his brother’s questions, but he remembers Cas telling him to open up to his brother. He takes a deep breath.
“We met after I got out of hell.” Dean starts. Sam’s eyes widen at that.
“I made a stupid deal to save Bobby. The demon gave me three months and I took it. I didn’t tell Bobby until it was too late. He did everything he could, but the hounds still drug my ass downstairs. It was Cas who hauled my ass back up.” Sam nods as Dean continues.
“I didn’t know what the hell had yanked me out, all I had was this huge handprint on my shoulder.” Dean pulls up his sleeve revealing the hand mark that was still burned into his skin.
“Eventually Bobby and I summoned him, and he came and blew a bunch of shit up and I stabbed him in the chest and then he just kind of stuck around. He sort of defected from heaven and started hunting and joined me after Bobby stopped hunting. I started falling for him watching him learn to hunt and there were a ton of things keeping us apart but eventually he nearly died which gave me the kick in the ass that I needed and then we dated and got married.” Dean finishes. Sam nods. It’s kind of adorable how his brother fell in love. Sam sighs and asks the question he has been dying to know.
“What happened to dad?” Dean groans again and rubs his hand down his face.
“After you left, Dad and I hunted together until I made that stupid ass deal, which I would make again, but he didn’t really do anything when I got dragged down. When I was topside again, he told me it was stupid and that I made a mistake, but I didn’t really see it that way. I hunted with him for a while until I met Cas.” Dean paused, catching his breath.
“Man, he really hated Cas. He wanted to kill him, told me that we can’t be friends with monsters, but Cas isn’t a monster. I told him to go to hell and I didn’t see him for a while. I invited him to the wedding, but obviously he didn’t come. He did call and tell me that no son of his was going to marry a man. About a year after we got married, I ran into yellow eyes again, and Dad was on his trail, and I was dying again after a car crash. I was really dying that time, but Dad made a deal and saved me, and I shot yellow eyes but there wasn’t anything I could do. I don’t know why he did it, but he did.” Dean had tears in his eyes as he finished. Sam pulled him into a hug.
“I’m really sorry I wasn’t there Dean. I was so angry and I’m going to regret it for the rest of my life.”
“It’s alright, Sammy. I shouldn’t have let you walk out that door.”
“I would have left anyways Dean. I would have left at night or something.” Dean is about to answer when Castiel comes back into the room. He takes one look at Dean and knows that the two have at least opened up a conversation. He puts the food on the table before moving forward to press a gentle kiss to his husband’s lips. Sam looks away with a smile and starts pulling food out of the bag. He didn’t think he would ever start hunting again, but he couldn’t be happier that he found his brother and was able to share in a happy life with him again. He wasn’t sure what really came next, if he would join his brother and hunt or go off on his own. He wasn’t sure where the paired even lived. All he knew was he had his brother and a new brother-in-law and there was a rugaru waiting to be hunted. It seemed liked everything was starting to slot back into place and his world retipped itself onto the axis it had tipped off years ago.
“Let’s eat, we’ve got a rugaru to gank.” Dean shouts as he moves away from his husband for the food the man brought.