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Sam notices the first one when they’re driving out to a hunt. They left the bunker fairly early in the morning with a long drive ahead of them, Cas staying behind with Jack. Dean yawns and grabs his coffee, looking surprisingly peaceful for someone who hates mornings. Sam looks over at him about to mention it, when he sees it.
“Dean. Is that…?” Sam looks confused.
“What? What are you looking at? I got something on my face?” Dean wipes at his cheek and checks in the rearview mirror, brow scrunching.
The freckle doesn’t move.
Sam keeps staring at it in confusion - Dean doesn’t have freckles, where did this thing come from? Dean keeps looking over at him like he’s crazy until finally he’s had enough.
“You gonna be this weird the whole drive? Seriously, if I’ve got food on my face just tell me, don’t stare at me like a creep.”
Sam turns back to the front silently. He must have just not noticed it before, Dean certainly didn’t seem to notice anything weird when he looked in the mirror. Maybe it was the lighting…
******
He notices another about a day after they get back from their hunt. Dean comes out of the Dean cave into the kitchen looking rumpled like he fell asleep on the couch. Sam looks up from his snack as Dean runs a hand through his already wild hair. About to tease him for being an old man that can’t stay awake through a movie anymore, Sam pauses when Dean stretches out his neck. Right there below his ear… Sam squints and, sure enough, there’s another freckle. Actually, there’s a few now that he’s really looking, a spatter of them leading down his neck. Those definitely weren’t there before, and Sam can’t blame it on the lighting this time.
“Dude. I think you need to start using sunblock or something,” he says.
Dean looks at him like he’s started speaking Klingon. “What are you on about?”
“You’re, like, growing freckles, Dean.”
Dean just hums, and grabs a couple beers. The light from the fridge shines on his face and Sam notices he looks a little pink, only proving what he’s saying.
“Seriously. You don’t want to get melanoma, man, get some sunblock.” Sam lets it drop for now, knowing he can bring it up again when they go grocery shopping later that week.
(“I don’t need sunblock!”
“Yes you do, Dean, you never used to have freckles!”
“They’re just freckles, Sammy, come on!”
“But it could become something worse! Dean-”
“No! Leave it alone!...I need some pie.”)
******
They have another hunt a few days later that doesn’t take them long, but does end with a very dirty Impala. Sam thinks Dean will wash his Baby as soon as they get back to the bunker, but he must be more tired than Sam had thought. He mumbles something about washing her tomorrow and heads straight for his room. Sam stares after him, surprised, but he figures Dean did do all the driving and they didn’t stop for a break.
The next day is warm and sunny, so Dean takes the Impala outside to wash her off. Sam follows him out after a while to see if he needs anything and maybe try to convince him, again, to put sunblock on. Dean’s jamming to the Led Zeppelin blasting from his phone and doesn’t notice Sam walking up behind him. He’s washing Baby’s hood with his shirt off and Sam’s eyebrows shoot up when he sees the spray of freckles spanning across the back of Dean’s shoulders.
“Dean, seriously?” Sam says judgingly. Dean jumps a little and turns his music down a little.
“What? Suddenly you don’t like Zepp anymore? How are we even brothers.” Dean looks at Sam incredulously.
“No, Dean, you really need to use sunblock, you’ve got a crazy amount of freckles on your back now. How did those even show up so fast?” Sam is stumped. Dean never had freckles, he can’t figure out why they would suddenly start showing up so fast.
Dean looks away, and Sam notices how pink his cheeks look. “I don’t need sunblock, Sammy, it’s nothing.”
“It’s not nothing, Dean, your cheeks are starting to get burnt out here. Obviously your skin is more sensitive than it used to be, it’s fine. Just put some damn sunblock on,” Sam insists.
“Fine! Fine, give me the stupid sunblock and go away.” Dean snatches the sunblock out of his hand and glares at him. Sam gives him what he knows Dean would call his bitchface, but lets it go. Sam’s sure he isn’t going to use it, but at least he took it. Baby steps.
******
Sam drags Dean into the motel they’ve been staying at for this hunt. It’s over, thankfully, but the monster had gotten a good swipe in at Dean’s leg before they could finish it off. Sam dumps him on the bed and leaves him to get his pants off while he grabs their first aid kit. He hands Dean the whiskey and starts stitching up the gash. Many years of practice means he’s done quickly even though it’s pretty long.
“Too bad Cas isn’t here, huh?” Sam says as he goes to grab a washcloth to clean the blood off Dean’s leg.
“What? Why.” Dean shoots him a weird look from where he’s leaning back on the bed.
“Uh, because he’d have you fixed up in less than a second?” Sam mimics Cas’ two finger healing touch, looking at Dean like he might have hit his head in the fight.
“Oh, right. Yeah. Too bad.”
Sam gives him one more look before focusing back on his wound. He wipes off all the blood as gently as he can, then notices an odd collection of freckles on the inside of his thigh as he stands back up.
“What, have you been sunbathing? How the hell did you get freckles there?” Sam demands.
Dean pushes him away, looking weirdly embarrassed. “Shut up. No.”
“No? Man, you’re being really weird about these freckles, just. Be safe,” Sam says, exasperated that Dean is being so stubborn about sunblock, of all things.
Dean chokes on the sip of whiskey he had just taken, his face turning red. Sam laughs at him. “Man you must be getting old, can’t handle your whiskey anymore?”
Dean doesn’t say anything, face still red. He gives Sam a shove before moving back on the bed, clearly done talking for the night. Sam shakes his head and gets ready for bed himself.
******
Sam keeps an eye on Dean’s growing amount of freckles in the next couple weeks, his vague concern slowly growing. Strangely enough, Dean doesn’t seem to go outside any more or less than he used to. They seem to have caught a bit of a break, no hunts popping up near them. Sam found a couple, but Donna was closer and had it under control so they didn’t have much to keep them busy. Jack seemed happy to have them all around to keep him entertained and Dean was enthusiastically introducing him to Star Wars today. Cas sat with Sam in the library where he was supposedly reading some of the Men of Letters’ old journals. He kept getting distracted thinking about Dean’s apparent skin problem and finally gave up on research for the day.
“Hey, Cas, have you noticed Dean’s been getting a lot of freckles lately?” Sam suddenly spoke up, causing Castiel’s head to shoot up and look at him with wide eyes. “Sorry, didn’t mean to surprise you.”
“You did not. Um, no? I… hadn’t noticed,” Cas said hesitantly.
Sam looked at him skeptically. Really? He sure had looked surprised. And how could he not have noticed all those freckles? They were spreading across Dean’s face like he was Pippi Longstocking.
“Huh. Well, he never used to have freckles before about a month ago. I don’t know, I’m just a little concerned.”
“Concerned?” Cas looks awkward, unsure of himself, though Sam’s sure it’s just because the two of them don’t often have heart-to-hearts or whatever.
“Well, yeah, I mean, he’s so stubborn about not using sunblock, I’m just concerned he might end up getting skin cancer or something if he doesn’t start. But he just blows it off like it’s nothing to worry about.”
“I’m, uh, I’m positive Dean is… fine, Sam. I promise, you do not need to worry about him,” Cas says haltingly before clearing his throat and leaving the library. Sam stares after him, perplexed, but then realizes Cas is an angel, he must mean that he would heal Dean if it became an issue. Still, Dean shouldn’t be so flippant about it and just expect Cas to take care of it. Sam huffs a sigh and goes back to the journals in front of him.
******
Sam and Dean are eating breakfast while Cas sits quietly with them when Jack bursts in, breathing hard. Cas is immediately on his feet, concern written all over his face.
“Jack? What’s wrong, what happened?” Cas demands.
“It’s nothing, I just…” Jack looks up at Cas, eyes fearful.
“Oh. Bad dream?” They all relax a little as Cas pulls the boy over to the table and sits him down. “Do you want to talk about it?”
“No, it was, it was stupid. It just... felt real.” Jack sighed, looking down at his hands. Dean patted his hand as he stood up to grab the kid some cereal.
“Bad dreams always do, kid,” Dean said, setting the bowl down in front of him. “It’s all good.”
“How about some hot cocoa?” Cas offered, knowing it was his favorite. Jack smiled up at him, already feeling a little calmer.
They all sat quietly together as Jack ate his breakfast and Cas made him his drink. He set it down in front of his son, patting his back and softly kissing his forehead comfortingly. Sam knows they started talking about something as Cas sat down, but he couldn’t hear them. All of his focus had zeroed in on Jack and the little freckle that had just bloomed on his forehead.
All of a sudden everything became clear. Sam felt like the events of the past month were slapping him in the face for being so oblivious, but how could he have known that freckles really were angel kisses? No wonder Dean had been so uncharacteristically happy on that early morning drive. Sam felt his face start to burn thinking about the freckles on Dean’s neck and thigh and how defensive Dean had been. And his back! Oh, Sam did not need the visual of Cas leaning over him to kiss across his back that came with that. Distantly he heard his name being repeated and his wide gaze slowly traveled to Dean and then Cas, realizing now why Cas had seemed so awkward and unconcerned.
“Sam? What’s got you turning into Clifford the big red moose over there?” Sam’s gaze snapped back to his brother at that.
“You- Cas- The, the… Freckles!” Sam could barely speak. Dean turned almost as red as Sam, glancing over at Cas who was shifting awkwardly in his seat, avoiding eye contact with all of them.
“You going to say something or just keep staring at us like a fish?” Dean finally said after a couple of minutes waiting for Sam made it clear he wasn’t coming up with anything better than that garbled mess. Sam closed his mouth and took a deep breath. Dean looked like he was bracing himself as Sam stood up. He moved around the table and hugged his brother tightly until Dean relaxed.
“I’m really happy for you two, it’s about time.” Sam pulled back and looked at Cas. “I definitely did not need to know exactly where you have been kissing my brother, but still.”
“I mean, you don’t know all the-”
“No!” Sam cut off his smirking brother. “Don’t. Just. Leave it at I’m happy for you, okay?”
Dean chuckled, looking genuinely happy as he pulled his brother back in. “Thanks, Sammy,” he said softly, Cas smiling at them both over Dean’s shoulder. “Means a lot.”
Dean straightened up and smirked over his shoulder at Cas. “Come on angel, let’s go make some more freckles.”
“Dean!”