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Castiel is watching Emma play in the sand with her bucket and spade when Dean joins him on the lounger. A cold spurt lands on his back and he gasps.
“Dean!”
“It’s just sunblock, don’t want you to get sunburnt in this heat,” Dean assures.
“But it’s cold, and we put some on when we got here!” Castiel whines.
“It won’t be when I rub it in, besides, it needs reapplying,” Dean says with a smirk. Castiel cranes his neck round to see Dean with a massive grin on his face. He rolls his eyes playfully before refocussing on the horizon in front of him. Dean’s hands begin to massage his back, rubbing in the white lotion. It’s more than soothing and warms up quickly.
“Hmm, that’s good,” Castiel mumbles. Another gasp when Dean dollops sunblock on the back of his legs before he chuckles and lets Dean rub all that in too, cheeks heating when he feels Dean’s hands get dangerously close to his groin. “Dean! We’re in public,” Castiel hisses, laughing and turning over.
“So what? At least you’re protected,” A wink and Dean wipes a finger of sunblock on Cas’ nose, leaving an obvious white smear. His antics are childish but they make him laugh and before Cas knows it, Dean’s laughing loudly. The people next to them are looking but Cas decides not to care and grabs for the bottle of sunblock in Dean’s hand.
Successfully attaining it, Castiel holds it up high as Dean tries to get it back. After a few moments, Cas has Dean pinned down to the lounger, laughing.
“Cas! You… gah!” Cold sunblock dribbles onto Dean’s back in retaliation, but it rubs it in with a glorious massage which has Dean humming quietly. “Thought you were complaining about this being a public place?”
“Things change, I guess.” Dean rolls out from underneath Cas and thrusts out a hand to him. Cas takes it and stands up, pressing a quick kiss to Dean’s cheek before they head towards Emma who’s still invested in building a sandcastle.
“Daddy look!” Emma shouts as soon as Dean is close enough. “It’s so big, a dog can live in it!” Her blonde hair is windswept and her smile is ear to ear.
She keeps looking at him expectantly, and he feels when Cas rests his chin on Dean’s shoulder.
“I think she’s asking for a puppy,” Cas prompts.
“Oh…” He turns his attention back to Emma. “Oh no… we’re not getting a puppy, sweetheart,”
“Pleeeeaaaasssee?” Emma looks up at him with wide eyes.
“What have you been teaching her?” Dean grumbles to Cas. He feels Cas grin and shrug his shoulders.
“Don’t think I could say no to that face.” Cas says. Dean throws Cas off him with a shake of his head and crouches down to Emma’s level.
“Em, I know you really want a dog, but we can’t get one, okay?” He brushes her hair back from her face as she sticks out her bottom lip with a pout – now that she got from Dean. “We’ll talk about it when we get home, c’mon, I’ll race you to the water – Cas is gonna lose!” Dean smiles and takes his daughter’s hand and dashes for the water.
Part way there he lets Emma take the lead and she squeals as her toes get wet in the cold water. Dean lifts her up and over his shoulders, running into the water with Cas close behind him. The water is cold, but he doesn’t make a show of it and he dips down until Emma is yelling at him not to get her wet.
Dean stands again, spinning around in the water and then kicking a wave in Cas’ direction, spraying him with water.
“You can’t get me, Emma doesn’t want to get wet!” Dean says, jigging Emma on his shoulder.
“Cheat!”
“Daddy! Splash Cas!” Emma instructs.
“Yes, my princess,” Dean grins and kicks water at Castiel again who cowers away.
“This is two against one, this isn’t fair.” Cas steps closer to the two and reaches up to Emma, tickling her. She kicks Dean in the chest accidentally, prompting Dean to take her down from his shoulders and dangle her over the water.
“Noooo!” She protests. Dean teases her until they’re back on solid ground where she runs back to their loungers and wraps herself in her towel. Hand in hand, Dean and Cas join her, Dean wrapping Cas’ towel around Cas’ shoulders.
They all sit quietly, drying off in the sun, worn out from the day. Dean can tell Emma is falling asleep so he helps her get changed into shorts and a t-shirt before doing the same himself.
“C’mon, Em, time to go home,”
“I don’t wanna leave though,” She objects, eyeing Dean with sleepy eyes and a yawn.
Dean smiles, presses a kiss to her forehead. “We’ll come back,”
Placing Emma on his hip, he grabs all their kit which fits mostly into one backpack and shoulders it. It’s amazing how much you can hold when you’ve only got one hand free. Cas takes the rest of the stuff in another bag and heads off the beach with them, holding Dean’s hand. Dean knows as soon as they start their three-hour drive home, both Emma and Cas will be fast asleep, but he doesn’t mind, he has his two favourite people with him.