Chapter Text
“Yeah, Sammy, we’re good.” Dean leaned against the window frame and looked over at Cas, who had collapsed onto the bed like a cat in a sunbeam. “Why do you think I didn’t tell you until after we’d moved in? You and Eileen have your hands full with little Caity.”
Dean rolled his eyes fondly. Even though Eileen had reassured him that they were using traditional Irish spelling for Caitlyn, it still seemed hipster-y to spell it “Caity.” The baby was adorable, though. Spitting image of Eileen so far, though her eyes were definitely Sam’s. And she was still keeping them up through the night, so Sam did absolutely not need to be helping them lug boxes out of the bunker, into the Impala, and then into his and Cas’s new house.
Cas, who as of right now, was snoring softly, splayed out on the bed. He still hadn’t adjusted to being human, not completely, so he tended to take on too much and then crash. He’d adjusted before. He’d manage it again, Dean was sure. It would just take time.
Until then, Dean had it covered. He finished the call with Sam and went into the kitchen to finish unpacking there.
The second pot of coffee was brewing and the bacon was sizzling by the time Cas made his way into the kitchen the next morning. His hair was sticking out in all directions, and he was wearing an AC/DC t-shirt raided from Dean’s side of the bureau. Not that Dean was complaining. It just made Cas look even hotter.
This was even better than the first time Dean had cooked a meal in the bunker. This wasn’t just his kitchen. It was his and Cas’s kitchen. This was their slice of the apple pie life, and come to think of it, they could even make an apple pie here. The oven needed a test run of some kind, right?
“Wow,” Cas said, rubbing the sleep from his eyes. “Are you going to make breakfast like this all the time?”
“I dunno. Maybe?” Dean shrugged as he flipped a pancake. “At least on special days like day-after-move-in-day.”
“I was unaware that there were any particular rituals for day-after-move-in-day,” Cas said with a little half-smile. “Are there any others I should know about?”
Dean briefly considered stating that they would need to christen each of the rooms of the house separately. Cas might even believe him. But he had a feeling they’d end up doing that eventually anyway. Also, the risk in Cas believing him was that they’d both end up collapsing from exhaustion and dehydration from trying to pull that off in a single day. Better to stretch it out.
“Nah,” he said instead, “we get to do whatever the hell we want. So, first day semi-retired from the life. What do you want to do with it? Got any hobbies you want to try out?”
Cas opened his mouth to answer, then shut it as a familiar progression of guitar chords sounded from one of the drawers. If he still had the ability to smite, Dean thought his phone would’ve been reduced to ash, just by the power of that glare.
“We can just advise, remember?” Dean said. “Just because someone’s calling doesn’t mean we’ve got to hit the road. Go ahead, grab it and see what it is.”
He’d tried to sound flip about it, but Dean wasn’t too happy they were getting calls already. Not that monsters ever cared about good timing, but the calls had been getting fewer and farther between these days. That’s why they’d decided it was time to move out of the bunker, after all. They wouldn’t actively search out hunts anymore, would basically play Bobby on the phones for the most part, and just take cases when it made sense. If things were going to pick back up, well, then, that was just the universe punishing Dean for trying to carve out something for himself.
“Hello, Garth,” Cas said as he returned to the table. “What do you need?”
Cas still wasn’t big on the small talk.
“That sounds like a fairly simple … Surely there’s someone closer … Fine.”
Yeah, that didn’t sound too good, at least in terms of their enjoying their first full day in their new home.
“So, where are we off to?” Dean asked as he set Cas’s plate in front of him. He thought about topping off Cas’s coffee and decided that’d be a little too domestic. Besides, he still had half a cup.
“Vamp nest just outside of Omaha. Somehow, everybody else between here and there is tied up with some other thing,” Cas grumbled. “There’ve been five deaths in the last two days.”
“Yeah, that can’t wait,” Dean agreed. He topped off both of their coffees. “At least it’s not far. I might even make it back before dinner.”
Cas turned his glare on Dean. It was just wrong how terrifying and sexy that was all at the same time.
“’I’?” he asked. “What do you mean by ‘I’?”
Shit. He should’ve known that wouldn’t go unchallenged.
“It’s just some vamps,” Dean said with a shrug. “No need for both of us to waste the day going up there.”
“Then why don’t I go? I caught the phone call.” Cas crossed his arms and leaned back in his chair.
“It’s not that I don’t want you along,” Dean said.
“No, it’s just that you don’t think I can handle hunting as a human. I thought we’d been over this.”
They had. Multiple times. They just had yet to get to the part where the two of them agreed.
“It’s not that you can’t handle it,” Dean said. “You’re just getting used to being human again is all. Like yesterday, you totally knocked yourself on your ass by trying to carry everything in by yourself. At once.”
“A bit of over-exertion is not …”
“It’s a sign that you’re still thinking like an angel,” Dean said. “I’d just feel better about it if your instincts had finished recalibrating.”
“I am not an engine. I don’t ‘calibrate.’”
No kidding. It’d be way the hell easier if he was.
Dean sighed. He knew when he was beat. And at least it was just some vamps.
“Fine, can we rewind a few minutes?” he asked. “We might even make it back before dinner.
They did not, in fact, make it back before dinner.
“I can’t believe you, Dean! What were you thinking?” Cas pulled the gauze tight on Dean’s forearm and slapped some tape on it. He wasn’t gentle about it.
“I was thinking that vamp was about to rip your throat out!” Dean snapped. “This is nothing!”
“It’s not nothing! You said I need to recalibrate. Well, so do you! It’s not like I can just heal you anymore!”
There it was. That tone. After all, it was being in love with Dean that got him sucked into the Empty, all to save Dean’s damn life, only to end up back here as a human. None of the powers he was used to having. None of the super-strength. He was bound to start resenting Dean for it sooner or later. Dean had hoped it might be a little later than the day after moving in together, but maybe it was best to get it over with now.
“I told you, that’s not important, Cas. You’re patching me up just fine, same as Sammy would do if I’d been hunting with him.”
Something about Cas’ scowl changed. Dean tried to convince himself that was a good sign. He was afraid that it wasn’t.
Cas finished securing the bandage and rolled Dean’s tattered sleeve back over it carefully.
“Let’s go home,” Cas said finally. The anger had leached out of his voice, leaving it raspy and empty.
“Yeah,” Dean agreed. “Home.”