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“What do I do, man? Fuuuuuck…”
Benny winced, shifting his cell to the other ear at Dean’s wail as he put down the bowl of cornbread batter he had been mixing. Cornbread was wonderful and all, but the tone of Dean’s voice told Benny he had more important things to deal with right now.
“That bad, huh?” he asked, wiping his hands on a dash rag. “Better get your perky ass over here then.”
On the other end of the line Dean was conspicuously silent. Usually, he would flirt or snark back, harmlessly since he and Cas were thicker than the all-natural honey Cas had given Benny for this birthday last year. But all Dean did now was sigh before signing off with a soft ‘see yah”. Now Benny was really concerned.
It wasn’t like Cas and Dean didn’t ever fight. Quite the contrary. Benny had his suspicions that the two enjoyed bickering over the littlest things because, as Cas had explained once in the overshare of a lifetime, the “make-up sex” was of the sort that produced multiple orgasms.
He wondered what sort of fight would actually make Dean sound so upset.
Soon enough, Benny found himself answering the door, only to receive an armful of tearful Winchester.
“He’s going to dump me Benny, for sure! I don’t know what to do!” Dean choked out as Benny managed to brace them both enough to keep them from ending up on the floor.
“I doubt that, brother,” Benny told Dean, shaking his head as he awkwardly pulled his friend inside, closing the door behind them. Dean had been drinking, a lot apparently since he only got weepy over movies where the dog died and when he got totally shitfaced. Not a good sign then.
“Cas probably loves you more than your Momma does, and that’s saying something,” Benny said, leading Dean over to the sofa in the living room. The room might have been a bit on the small side, but the sofa was large enough to sit five grown men and was comfortably piled with a miss-match assortment of pillows and blankets, one of which Benny now grabbed to wrap around Dean. It would give him something comforting to fidget with while Benny sorted him out, and he knew from experience that Dean liked to be insulated when upset.
“Cas ain’t gonna leave you, Dean,” Benny said firmly, dropping his grip onto Dean’s shoulder and giving him a comforting squeeze. “He loves you.”
“He doesn’t even wanna look at me,” Dean said, another tear dripping down his face. “He said…he said—Fuck, Benny, what am I going to do?” he swayed forward miserably, and Benny rubbed his back soothingly.
“Well, right now you’re gonna sit tight here while I go get you something to drink,” he replied, then huffed a little when Dean looked up at that. “Something non-alcoholic, brother. You know my place is dry.”
Shaking his head, Benny got up, heading back to the kitchen to see if he had any cocoa left. Dean was probably cold from walking over from the bar.
As he pulled two mugs down from the pantry he heard a soft knock at the door. Humming softly to himself he went to answer, already having his suspicions as to who his newst late night guest would be.
Sure enough, he opened his door to find a pathetic looking Castiel on his step. Cas stood, drooping and shivering slightly as Benny paused in the entryway.
“Benny…” Cas said, giving him the most kicked dog look the man had ever seen. “I—I don’t know what to do,” Cas face crumpled and man moved to let him in. “Dean—he’s going to leave me, I know it.”
Sighing, Benny held his arms out for Cas, who gratefully fell into the hug, pressing his face miserably into the larger man’s shoulder. Cas’ distress was a quiet distress. Benny suspected that it had something to do with his shit-all family situation. Letting out his grief or anger at home would only trigger punishments, so Cas had simply learned to stuff down his feelings rather than live with them.
Now Cas was clinging to Benny like his friend was the only thing keeping him from drowning in his own emotions.
“He walked out, Benny,” Cas said, breathing out the words like they were being punched out of him. “ I never meant—what am I going to do if he leaves?”
Patting his friend’s back sympathetically, Benny stood back. “That’s not gonna happen Cas,” he said firmly. “What is gonna happen is you are gonna come have a seat and I am getting you some hot cocoa. You’re shaking like a leaf and I’m not going to let you pass out on my kitchen floor.”
He grabbed Cas by the shoulders, guiding the distraught man through the kitchen to the living room. Castiel, in his misery, was mostly in the room before he saw Dean, who looked just as frozen as Cas upon the sight of his boyfriend. Giving Cas a gentle, but firm, push, Benny herded him over to the couch.
“Now you two talk while I grab us all that drink,” he said, turning back to the kitchen with only the smallest pang of guilt at the pair of stricken looks they gave him. The two obviously needed to work some things out in private.
He paused at the counter, waiting till he heard the tentative murmur of voices before pulling down another cup, hesitating for a second before pulling out a pot too. This situation called for some homemade cocoa, if only to give the boys some time to talk their issues out. Whistling to himself, Benny set about boiling milk and all that, drawing out the process until he was sure he wouldn’t be interrupting anything when he returned.
Going back to the living room, he found the two piled together on the couch, Dean breathing softly as he slept, head in Cas’ lap. Cas was slowly running his fingers through Dean’s hair, that look of wonder that he sometimes directed at Dean breaking off slightly only when Benny quietly handed him his mug.
“You two get everything sorted out?” Benny asked, voice quiet as Cas gently blew on his drink.
Taking a sip, Cas nodded. “He drifted off as soon as it was clear I was sorry, and that I’m staying,” Cas looked across at Benny, a slightly lost look in his eyes. “He thought I was going to leave, that I hate him and find him unattractive,” Cas looked down at Dean, who slept on, unaware of the attention being directed at him. “I never meant to make him think that.”
Benny frowned, perplexed because he couldn’t see any reason for Dean to reach such a conclusion. “You know what triggered it?” he asked, taking a sip of his own drink.
Cas frowned. “He was texting Jo, and she insinuated that he is fat. He asked me what I thought. I told him he is not fat, but he is chubby.”
Benny gapped. “You what now?”
“I like that he's chubby,” Cas said, confused and slightly defensive. “I love his tummy, and I told him she was wrong! I said he isn’t fat!”
Dean stirred, causing Cas to start guiltily and pet at Dean’s face to sooth him.
“Benny?” Dean asked, voice slurred a little from sleep and drunkenness. “Geh’over here, man,” he grumped, wiggling in Cas’ lap and lifting his legs slightly.
Benny chuckled and moved over to sit next to them, settling himself comfortably under Dean’s legs. “Brother, I gotta tell you,” Benny drawled as soon as Dean settled back down. “Next time you wanna say something like that, if you feel the absolute dying need to even go there, you had better start with ‘I love you’ and end with ‘I love you’. Or I’m going to have to smack you upside the head. You owe me a bag of cornbread mix by the way.”
Although he looked perplexed, Cas nodded at Benny’s suggestion. “I’ll keep that in mind, although I don’t understand the bit about the cornbread.”
Benny just huffed, settling back down into the couch as the conversation dropped into comfortable silence. He wasn’t too upset about the cornbread, this was a nice way to spend the evening too.