Work Text:
March 8th 2010
Cas drummed his fingers on the steering wheel nervously. He was picking up Ben alone for the first time, and he was nervous. You see Dean usually took the two hour drive from Wichita to Lawrence to pick him up, but he was away at some conference, and Ben still wanted to come over to play with his little sister.
It wasn’t that Cas didn’t love the kid, of course he did, he saw Ben as his own son in a lot of ways, but he never clicked with him like Dean did, and he was scared that this car journey would be filled with awkward silence.
Cas, waited, and waited, and soon the masses of children streaming out of the school slowed, and he started feeling nervous for an entirely different reason. Where was Ben? Was he hurt? In trouble? Oh god, Cas thought, did I come to the wrong school?
He eventually decided to get out of the car, and scope out the place. Cas walked up the entrance of the school and glanced inside. Logically he knew he should go in and ask about Ben's whereabouts at the front desk, but... something in his gut told him not to.
Suddenly he heard crash from the distance, he listened closer and realized it sounded like someone was being shoved to the ground, and those were definitely the jeers of high school bullies.
Without a second thought he sprinted to the side of the school, where the noise was emanating from, and white hot rage filled him.
Ben was being pinned on the side of the school by a clearly older assailant. His bag was on the ground, it's contents spilled all around. Three other guys, all juniors or seniors from the looks of it, were gathered around cheering the first guy on.
Cas ran forward ripping off Ben’s attacker, pushing him to the ground.
“Why don’t you bastards pick on someone your own size?” He growled, grabbing Ben, and placing him behind him.
The guys looked taken aback for a second before the man scoffed, “As if you could take me grandpa.” He threw a punch, which Cas sidestepped, and he fell to the ground.
One of the guys behind Cas, ran forward, bashing him in the ear. Cas groaned, clutching his head.
“That’s it. Leave me and my son alone .” He fumed before turning around and hitting him straight in the jaw.
He fell to the ground with the impact, whining.
The final two guys charged him simultaneously, but Cas easily blocked their attacks, he ends up pushing one to the ground, and kicking the other in the groin. They all ended up a groaning pile on the ground, but soon came back to their senses and scattered.
Cas spun around, kneeling on the ground, his eyes filled with worry. “Benny,” He uses Ben’s pet name from when he was a kid, “Are you alright?”
“Yeah… yeah I’m fine. Thanks.” Ben said quietly.
He sounded scared… oh god, did I scare him?
“I shouldn’t have lost my temper like that, I’m so sorry Benny.” Cas said, ashamed.
“W-what are you talking about? That was wicked!” Ben beamed. “You were all like ‘Leave me and my son alone’ and then BOOM!” Ben fakes a right hook, “You almost freaking knocked him out!”
Cas laughed in relief... okay that was quite enjoyable.
Cas grinned, “Yeah, don’t tell your Mom I’m endorsing this, but… fighting can be kind of fun. Especially when it’s against douche bags… don’t tell her I said douche bags either.”
Ben giggled. “Your secret is safe with me.”
Cas and Ben kneel down, and started repacking Ben’s backpack.
“Ben… what were those older guys bullying you for? Does that happen a lot?” Cas asked, the smile slipping off his face.
“Uh… they just found out I have two dads, I was talking about how excited I was for you to pick me up, and some people put together that you were different from Dad, and… yeah.”
Cas’ heart skipped a beat, trying to focus on the words other than ‘how excited I was for you to pick me up’.
“No one has ever done anything like that before… honestly I thought those kinds of bullies only exist in movies.” Ben shrugged.
Cas made up his mind to call the school about it later, but for now he’d leave it be.
“You know it’s okay to have two dads right? Even to have two dads, and a mom?”
“Yeah I know bitch.” Ben smirked, “I have an awesome mom and two awesome dads… what’s wrong with that?”
Cas’ heart soared.
“Don’t tell Dad I said that though! He’ll never let me live it down.” Ben added frantically.
Cas smiled, “I wouldn’t dream of it Ben.”
The pair got up and started toward to car, Ben took Cas’ hand, and looked up at him.
“Hey, where'd you learn to fight like that?”
Cas paused, before answering truthfully, “The Army.”
Ben’s face lit up, “Awesomeee~! You gotta tell me all your stories!”
Cas chuckled, agreeing to Ben’s demands.
“Buckle up first.” He said, after getting into the car, and Ben happily obeyed.
“I love you kid.” Cas suddenly admitted, slightly startling himself.
Ben didn’t seem to think much of it, he looked up with a smile, “I love you too Dad. Now c’mon you promised me stories!”
And suddenly the car ride didn’t seem so daunting.