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"Son of a bitch." Dean groans as his car, no, his baby, sputters and dies. He pulls off on the side of the highway in the middle no bumfuck nowhere.
"Shit." He hisses as he throws it in park. "We’re out of gas." He throws his head back against his head rest and sighs.
A small chuckle comes from the passenger seat and Dean glares over at Cas, who is now laughing.
"And what the fuck is so funny there, Cas?"
Dean’s tone makes him laugh even more. “Because I was right and you were wrong.”
"Yeah, well, don’t get too excited. We’ve gotta walk a couple miles up the road to the next gas station."
"I told you to stop at the one that was 50 miles back there!" He gestures behind him, "The sign said that that was the last one for a while." His chuckling has now turned into frustration at the other man for not listening to him.
"Well, I didn’t feel like listening to you." He opens his door and climbs out, slamming the door behind him.
Cas follows, slamming his door as well.
The hot, Nevada sun blares down on them and Dean sheds a couple layers, leaving only his t-shirt and jeans. Cas, on the other-hand, doesn’t seem to be phased by heat and continues to wear his trench coat.
Dean grabs the gas can out of the trunk and begins walking down the road, Cas just a few steps behind him.
The silence and the fact that Dean feels uneasy with Cas walking behind him like this, makes him even more agitated than before.
He stops walking and waits for Cas to catch up to him.
"Everything alright, Dean?"
"Just…stay next to me, okay?" He doesn’t say anything else as he turns to continue walking, Cas jogging to catch up to him, and they quickly fall into step with each other.
They’ve been walking for, what seems like, forever when they arrive at the gas station.
Dean throws the gas can on the floor and begins to fill it up.
"So, Cas. Now that you’ve got your…umm…car. Do you know anything about taking care of it?"
"I know that it requires fuel when the gauge inside the vehicle tells you so." He smiles.
Dean rolls his eyes, “Yeah. I figured that much.” He chuckles. “I meant like changing the oil, checking radiator fluid, tire pressure, you know…all that shit.”
He shakes his head.
"I figured. Well, I could…you know…teach you all that stuff…if you want." He clears his throat.
"Why do you want to teach me?"
"Because, I don’t want you stranded on the side of the road by yourself. It’s dangerous out there."
Cas smiles at Dean’s concern for him, “I’d like that very much.”
"Awesome." He smiles as he twists the lid back on the gas can.
They finally get back to the Impala and Dean puts the gas in.
As Cas is about to climb inside the car, Dean stops him, “Wait. Don’t get in yet.” He twists the gas cap back on the Impala and drops the can in the trunk.
He walks over to the front of the car and pops the hood. “Come here.” He smiles.
Cas walks over, intrigued as he peers into the engine.
"I know that it looks like a lot, but it’s pretty simple once you break everything down. This," he points, "is called a dipstick." He pulls out the stick and examines it and then wipes it off before he put it back in. "You use it to check your oil." He pulls it back out, "See?" He shows it to Cas, "Oil is kind of a honey color. You don’t want it to be too dark, because then that means that you’re gonna need to change it soon. But you also gotta make sure that it’s not milky either, ‘cause then that’s a head gasket issue, and that shit costs a lot of money to fix."
Cas just nods, taking it all in as Dean continues pointing at other objects and explaining their functions.
He’s never seen Dean like this; so excited and willing to teach about something that he cares about. It’s refreshing.
"Take care of your car by checking these things, and she’ll take care of you." He finishes with a smile.
"But, you didn’t take care of her by not putting fuel in her, Dean." He teases.
Dean chuckles, “You’re never gonna let me live this down, huh?”
"Never." He smiles.
They climb back into the car and drive to the same gas station. Dean fills up the car and makes sure to stay on top of it as they continue their drive back to the bunker.
A few days pass and Sam greets them at the door, “Hey, guys! How did it go?”
"Nothing we couldn’t handle." Dean smiles at him as he and Cas walk right by him.
"Where are you two going?" He asks nervously.
They ignore him, “Cas, go get your car and bring it around so we can park it in the garage. It’ll be better to work on it in there.”
Cas quickly grabs his keys and heads out the front door to move his car.
Dean quickly disappears to his room and reappears a few minutes later, smiling from ear to ear.
Perplexed, Sam asks him, “What the hell is going on?”
"Hmm?" Dean looks over to him, obviously not paying attention.
"Dean! What are you and Cas doing? And why the hell are you so excited about it?"
"I’m gonna show him how to take care of his car! Long story short, the Impala ran out of gas on the way back, and it led to me telling him everything about cars. It’s all we’ve talked about for the past couple of days." He grins as he heads down towards the garage.
Sam rolls his eyes, but he’s glad that his brother and Cas have found something to bond over other than all the shit they have to deal with.
A couple hours go by and Sam hasn’t heard a peep from either of them, so he decides to go investigate.
As he opens the garage door, he quickly wishes that he hadn’t.
Dean has Cas laid out over the hood of his car, kissing him fiercely.
He walks back inside, smiling. He’s glad that they were able to get over their “machismo, i need to stuff my feelings down for him” thing.
A few minutes later, Dean and Cas reemerge inside the bunker, Cas standing a little too close to Dean for Sam’s liking and his hair is even more disheveled than normal.
"Umm…Cas and I…we’re..uh…." Dean tries.
"Just leave us alone." Cas growls as he pulls Dean by his hand towards his bedroom.
Dean tries to protest, but he can’t bring himself to even care anymore.
Sam can hear the door slam and he’s genuinely glad at how large the bunker actually is.
He can get really far away from those two idiots.