Chapter Text
Chapter 1
"Hey there, baby."
The answering bark that his laptop lets out echoes around his little dorm room. Dean looks up from where he's been scribbling on his notebook. He hadn't even looked at the screen when he answered the bleep-bleep-bleeping of Skype, having expected the call. Saturday nights are sacred, the little bit of one-on-one time they've both carved out for themselves over the past year of college. Dean's missed out on too many of them as is, between classes and exams and socializing in a way he'd never thought he would actually enjoy.
Socializing, he thinks, that apparently he got so fucking caught up in that he forgot all about his dog.
Because Ruff is scratching and biting at her paw, worrying away at what is definitely a big slash on her foot.
Dean stares at it in surprise, his heart suddenly seizing up in his chest - she's hurt. Ruff is hurt, and he didn't even know it, and Jesus fuck, why didn't Cas tell him?
"Before you start panicking, it's not a big deal, she's fine."
Cas's voice distracts him from the sandpaper scratching at his throat. Familiar tan fingers appear somewhere at the edge of the frame and suddenly, Dean's boyfriend is leaning over gangly dog limbs, struggling to get the cone on Ruff. She snaps at his teeth, not angry exactly, but with very much the petulance of the puppy she still thinks she is, even going on three years since they brought her home.
"Ruff," Cas snaps. "Settle down."
She barks at him, a trite sound of irritation and smacks Cas in the face with her tail.
Despite himself, Dean snorts. "Sassy mutt," he mutters.
"Don't call her names, Dean," Cas scolds. It's a familiar, practiced exchange - Ruff sasses them both, Dean calls her names and then Cas scolds him for it. Familiar, he thinks, enough to calm the pitter-patter of his rapidly beating heart and soothe the anxiety of not being there - of not being enough - for his family.
"What happened?" Dean asks.
"She went chasing after a rabbit. Got caught in some bramble, nicked her foot with- dammit, Ruff, sit!"
The command in Cas's voice is enough to get Ruff to behave, but isn't quite enough to stop the whine that tugs at Dean's heartstrings. Damn dog, always able to get him right in the gut.
"You're okay, mutt," he comforts. He wants to be there, wants to be petting her and whispering into her floppy big ears instead of telling her through a screen. He doesn't even know if she hears him. It isn't like dogs can understand Skyping.
Cas finally straightens up, having settled the cone around her. Ruff reaches out the second he's moved away, trying to get to her injured foot to lick at it. An injured bark escapes her when her nose bumps up against the cone and the look she shoots Cas is one filled with so much goddamned woe, Dean has to chortle.
"Don't make faces at me," Cas tells her gravely. "It's for your own good."
"That's the second time in as many years," Dean comments. "The mutt needs to be more careful."
Cas turns wide, worried eyes to him. "Do... do you," he stumbles. "Do you think we're doing something wrong?" he asks in a rush. "I should watch her more carefully, maybe change our walk routes to less dangerous-"
"Cas," Dean interrupts. "Babe, we're fine. She's a dog. She's gonna get into shit, it's what they do."
Cas stops, breathing in deep. His hand reaches out to pet at Ruff's head, absently rubbing at her chin. Ruff's indignation vanishes almost instantly. She leans into him, throwing her head back to allow him full access. The sight of it makes Dean miss home so hard, his heart feels like it's going to fucking balloon out of his chest and fly away.
"I just... I worry."
"Yeah," Dean murmurs. "I do too."
They both fall quiet, content to sit together the way they always do. He chose this, going to college in a city that was six hours away from home. Just as Cas chose to stay back, still living with his mom, with Bobby and Sam right across the street, still with his family. They were both better for it, needing to figure out their shit on their own for a while, needing to be their own person - or so Cas had said when he'd kissed him the day he'd left. Dean would be lying if he said he isn't glad for it; he's made friends and he's learned to do things for himself and enjoy it instead of doing it out of sheer obligation.
And still, every time he sees Ruff on screen, sees Sam worry about his own college applications, Dean wonders if he should transfer. If he should just pack up and head back to where his family is.
"I'm coming home," Dean says suddenly. "For the weekend."
It's the middle of term. Thanksgiving break is only a few weeks away, but he can't, Dean thinks. He can't wait anymore - he needs to see Ruff, needs to kiss Cas and feel the rough stubble of chin against chin, needs to bury himself so deeply in Cas that he won't resurface for the entire time he's there.
Cas inhales sharply. "Dean, you... are you sure?"
Dean nods. His fingers are itching to palm Cas's cheek, so he curls them around his pen instead, tightening his grip and clenching his fist.
"Yeah," he says. "I have only the morning class on Friday, so I'll drive down then. Monday's sociology class can eat my ass."
Dark brows draw down to the center of Cas's forehead in a familiar scowl. "Don't diss sociology," he says. "Too much investment in STEM and not enough in the humanities is the-"
"-reason why the world is dying," Dean finishes. "Yeah, yeah, I've heard it before."
And he has too. Cas is an English major with a minor in anthropology. Dean's heard all about how “engineering students have problem solving skills based in logic and numbers but not critical thinking skills of how they impact the world, Dean, they don't ever think about the why of what they do and it's killing us all!”
And the sight of Cas, squinting at him with his dark glare, Ruff cuddled against his side even as he works up to delivering his usual tirade, is so fucking beautiful, that it strikes Dean for the first time.
This is his home. Cas is his home.