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When Castiel’s eyes blink open it’s 3am. The spot next to him, where Dean usually sleeps, is cool, the smell of discomfited omega permeating the air.
Castiel huffs a soft groan and pushes himself into a sitting position, rubbing sleep out of his eyes and then standing to pad out into the hallway, following the scent of his mate until he reaches the nursery.
The nursery’s been finished since Dean was six months along and ever since then the young omega has been spending quite a bit of time in there, making sure everything is perfect and soaking up the atmosphere.
As Castiel comes to stand in front of the door he can smell Dean as if the other man were standing right next to him. He pushes open the door and peers inside.
“Dean?” Dean is seated in the rocker he and Castiel made together, his arms encircling his swollen belly, and moonlight cascades over his face in slits as it shines through the wooden blinds on the baby’s window.
The omega looks up and Castiel enters the room, looming in the doorway, attempting to stamp down the concern he’s certain Dean can smell rolling off of him in waves.
“Is everything alright?” Castiel knows everything is not alright, but he doesn’t want Dean to feel pressured into talking. Sometimes it takes Dean awhile to open up, even after being mated to Castiel for nearly three years.
Dean’s eyes meet Castiel’s and flick away almost immediately.
Castiel heads deeper into the room and stops when he’s standing over Dean, pushing comfort out into the air, hoping Dean will accept it. He kneels down before his mate and stares up into Dean’s eyes.
“Dean.”
Dean stares back, his eyes wide in the diluted darkness. “What if I’m not a good dad?” He finally asks. “What if I-” he pauses, worries at his bottom lip. “What if I fuck her up somehow?”
A weight settles on Castiel’s chest as Dean stares at him, pleadingly, desperately. This isn’t something they’ve covered. While Dean’s probably been worried about it all along, it’s not something he’s ever voiced. But they’ve been through much together already; their families disapproval of their difference in age, Dean’s father disagreeing with Castiel mating the omega so young, Dean feeling fat and unworthy of the alpha’s attention when his belly first started to grow, and they can get through this too.
A beat passes between them before Castiel sits cross legged on the ground, pulling Dean’s swollen feet into his lap and pressing his thumbs into the balls of one foot and then the other. They’re still soft from the bath the pair of them took together just hours before, and as Castiel massages Dean lets out a sigh.
He kisses the tops of Dean’s feet, then his ankles, and his shins, as his hands slide up Dean’s bare calves, kneading and massaging as he goes.
“Do you want to be a father, Dean?” Castiel asks quietly, his eyes trained on his mate’s knees where his lips fall gently, pressing into the omega’s warm skin. He already knows the answer, but he wants Dean to hear himself say it out loud.
“‘Course I do, Cas. That’s why I went off the pill in the first place. You know how much I want a little Novak-Winchester running around the place.”
“I do.” Castiel’s lips move up Dean’s naked thighs, the feel of his omega relaxing allowing Castiel to relax himself. “And will you love our daughter with all your heart no matter what she does; no matter who she chooses to be?”
Dean huffs gently. “You know I will. Our daughter’s gonna be bad ass, I can already feel it.”
Castiel chuckles. His fingers skirt along the hem of Dean’s over-sized night shirt, and he brings his gaze to meet Dean’s before asking, “May I?”
Dean nods and helps Castiel push at the shirt until it bunches up just beneath the omega’s chest, revealing his stomach. There are stretch marks running along the lower part of his abdomen, long, beautiful lines that are almost silver in the moonlight.
Dean had had a complex about them at one point, obsessing over them in the bathroom mirror, but Castiel had kissed them until Dean’s face had turned pink and his shoulders had relaxed. “I still don’t like 'em,” he’d murmured as Castiel had rubbed soothing oils on them. And maybe that was so, but he hadn’t complained about them again.
Castiel places both hands on either side of Dean’s belly and brushes a kiss against its middle. “Dean,” he says with his eyes glued to his mate’s belly. “You are the most amazing man I know. You’re compassionate, and giving, and smart, and beautiful, and our daughter will be lucky to have you as her father. There isn’t a thing in my mind that gives me pause about raising a child with you. I trust you with our child’s life just as easily as I’d trust you with my own.”
Dean’s smiling now, mostly with his eyes, but it’s better than the distress he was emitting earlier. He looks down at Castiel with that fond look he gets when Castiel says the right thing and cups the alpha’s face in his hands, rubbing a thumb over Castiel’s bowed lips.
“So you got no worries about this kid coming, huh, Cas?”
“Of course I do, Dean. I’ve never raised a child before; and I’m sure we’re bound to make countless mistakes, some she may even hold against us for years. But knowing I’ll have you to parent her with gives me faith that things will end up alright.”
There’s a real smile on Dean’s face now, lopsided and happy. “You’re such a sap, Cas.”
Castiel chuckles. “I know.”
Dean bends as best he can, his belly stopping him less than half way, and slides his mouth over Castiel’s, his scent shifting completely from stressed to trusting. Castiel grips the omega’s wrists lightly, rubbing his thumbs over Dean’s pulse points, kissing into his mate all the love and support he can manage.
“Come back to bed?” Castiel requests when they pull away.
Dean nods. “You’re gonna have to help me up though. I’m not as spry as I used to be.”
Castiel stands from the floor and helps Dean up, one hand curled around Dean’s, another at the small of the omega’s back.
They walk down the hall together, and Dean allows the alpha to guide him into the bed and pull the covers up around Dean’s shoulders before climbing in behind him. The sheets are cool and soft as they slide around in them, trying to get situated, Castiel’s arms coming to wrap around Dean from behind, and as they still Dean slides his finger’s between Cas’.
As they lie there together Castiel lets his teeth graze gently over the mark he left on Dean almost three years prior when Dean was a bright eyed 18 year-old and had his whole life ahead of him. Instead he’d given up a college scholarship to attend a local community college where he’d be closer to Castiel, and allowed the 29 year-old to claim him.
The memory makes Castiel smile, Dean’s eyes so bright and eager, his scent telling Castiel it was everything he wanted, and Castiel shifts just a little bit closer to Dean.
“Love you, Cas,” Dean mutters, his body relaxing against the alpha’s.
Castiel kisses his mate’s mark. “I love you too, Dean."