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"What do you mean there was a C3PO cereal?" Sam's voice had jumped an octave from either heartbreak or outrage, or both.
Cas watched Dean roll his eyes.
"Sorry you missed out on it, man," Dean told his brother, and then took another big bite of -- according to the box on the table -- Fruity Dino Nugs. From the crunching sound his chewing made, milk would not soften the nugs for a considerable amount of time. After swallowing, he said, "I just barely remember them. They were kinda like Corn Pops, I think."
Sam had abandoned his sprouted-wheat toast to put his head down on the kitchen table. "C3PO's one of my favorites," he whispered into the wood.
"Mine too," Jack said with sympathy. He was eating his own bowl of breakfast: chocolate pudding topped with ghost-shaped marshmallows that were, for reasons Cas had yet to grasp, called Peeps.
("Sometimes Peeps are birds," Dean had said once, like it explained anything.)
"What was your favorite cereal that you do remember, Sam?" Jack asked.
Cas knew that just because Jack wasn't eating cereal at the moment didn't mean he wouldn't consume some later, maybe even within the hour.
Dean's chewing had slowed. Cas caught his eye and Dean looked away, as if the topic at hand was discomfiting.
"I don't know," Sam said, head still down. "I liked Rice Krispies and Cheerios, even though they were pretty boring." After a moment, he sat up like he'd just remembered something and looked at Dean with wide eyes.
Dean had stopped eating completely.
"Lucky Charms," Sam said, staring at his brother with a kind of intensity that struck Cas as rather more than a discussion on cereal required. "Those were a big fave."
Dean looked over at Sam. "They were." He kept looking.
Some moment of understanding seemed to pass between them: an apology, perhaps, and an answering forgiveness.
"Oh, I've had those," Jack said, nodding. "I liked the marshmallows."
"Shocking," Dean said, flicking his shoulder while Jack grinned.
After another fifteen minutes of eating and, in Sam's case, caffeine mainlining, Sam and Jack left to go shop at a store a few towns over that sold magical supplies they were running low on.
Cas stayed to keep Dean company. He took the clean, dripping plate Dean handed him and rubbed it dry with a dish towel. "Your childhood," Cas started, without having any idea, really, where he was going with the thought.
"Yeah," Dean said, like he fully appreciated the confusion. "Sometimes the food was good." He looked over at Cas and smiled softly. "There are good things here in the present too, though."
Cas returned the smile with his own, equally soft. He moved a little closer to Dean. They finished washing and drying the dishes. Each time they bumped against each other, something in Cas's chest tightened, helped him hold in everything he wanted to say and everything he knew he couldn't.