Work Text:
Something warm and soft wakes Dean up from his dream and it's pressed against his cheek. Dean is still laying half asleep on his bed but he could swear that he hears purring. He puts his hand blindly on the softness and frowns when he feels.. fur? Thinking it's his sleepy mind playing tricks on him, he continues to pet the softness.
"Cas, when did you learn how to purr?" Dean mumbles, eyes still closed and sleepy. The purring continues while something wet but scratchy licks his cheeks and okay, now he's really confused. Rubbing his eyes to get rid of his grogginess, he blinks them open and sees wide blue eyes staring right through his soul. But these are not his blue eyes. No. It's a freaking cat. On his bed. The black and white cat licks Dean's nose and Dean has to sneeze. It scares the cat and, letting a startled sound, it runs away from Dean's room. Dean stays frozen on his bed, still thinking he's probably asleep. Looking around his room, he sees nothing else unusual. He frowns at the empty space next to him where Cas usually sleeps and curses under his breath as he spots the clock on the nightstand. It's almost afternoon. Why didn't Cas wake him up? What if something happened? Grabbing his knife from under the pillow he puts on his robe and peaks out into the hallway. He carefully starts to make his way down the hall. There are voices coming from the kitchen and Dean picks up his pace.
"No. No! Stop it!" he hears Cas' voice say sternly, clearly distressed and the warning bells in his head start full-on ringing. Dean clutches to his knife and starts running towards the kitchen. He yells Cas' name once and almost face plants when he reaches the kitchen. Something almost tripped him. When Dean finds his footing again and looks ahead, he sees Cas watching at him with concern. Cas is holding a black kitten. When Dean looks around he sees multiple cats sitting on the kitchen floor; small, brown, gray.. Literally almost every type of cat that could exist. And there must be at least twenty of them here. They are all eating something that is put on a few plates in the corner of the kitchen, right next to where Cas is. Then Dean looks behind him and sees a white cat with orange stripes laying on the floor happily cleaning himself, not caring that he almost made Dean trip. Not knowing what to say or even what the hell is going on, Dean just stares with his mouth open and tries to understand his surroundings. This must be a fever dream.
"It's not, Dean", he hears Cas say softly and notices that Cas is now standing next to him, still holding the kitten.
"You- It- It's not a- What?" Dean realizes that he must have said the dream part aloud.
"A dream. You are not in a dream, Dean." Cas lets the black kitten down on the floor and it happily starts to skitter towards the war room. Dean sneezes and Castiel smiles at him sheepishly. He reaches slowly for the knife in Dean's hand that Dean completely forgot about and puts it on the front pocket of his hoodie. Scratch that, it's Dean's grey hoodie, you hoodie thief (not that Dean's really complaining because Cas looks very cute wearing the over-sized clothing). Cas gives him a napkin and Dean gratefully accepts it.
"I'm allergic to cats", Dean grumbles and wipes his nose with the napkin.
"I know, I'm sorry. But I did read online that some people with a cat allergy have lived with cats despite being allergic to them and it actually helped them to get rid of it. Rid of the allergy, I mean. Not the cats", Cas states and something like hope flickers in his eyes.
Dean's eyes start to water and he rubs them with his hands aggressively. Not knowing what to do with the information Cas just bombed him with, he just answers: "Uh-huh."
Cas lets out a sigh and looks nervously around the kitchen. The cats have all finished eating and some of them are cleaning themselves happily purring while others have already left the kitchen. Cas picks up an elderly cat. Her fur is gray and long and she squints her eyes as she stares at Dean, judging him. Dean takes a few steps back while Cas smiles at the cat in his arms.
"This is Margaret. She is the oldest and the meanest one here. I was lecturing her about how not letting others eat and gathering all the food to herself is not okay right before you came here." Cas starts to scratch Margaret behind her ears and she bumps her head against Cas' jaw gently, still looking at Dean like he's the most evil thing in the universe. One of the other cats, the same black and white cat that woke Dean up, walks towards Dean and rubs himself on Dean's leg. He looks up at Dean with his blue eyes and let's out a quiet meow.
"You named a cat Margaret?" is all Dean can say as he looks at Cas dumbfounded. Cas chuckles and continues petting Margaret.
"Obviously. And that one is Remy", Cas nods towards the cat that's now laying on his back, his eyes demanding belly rubs from Dean. "I see that he likes you."
"But why are you giving them names? And more importantly, why the hell are they even here?"
Now Margaret and Cas are both glaring at Dean like he's said the most offending thing ever. Maybe he did, but Dean doesn't care. He wants some goddamn answers-
"Dean, this is their new home, it's the-"
"I'mma stop you right there, Cas. You brought them here? What the hell were you thinking?!" Dean spits out and Cas flinches slightly at the sudden hardness of his voice. Dean instantly feels bad but the anger and confusion are starting to drown him. He clenches his hands into fists and huffs out an annoyed breath, trying to get his temper under control.
"Dean, please listen-"
"No, you listen! We were supposed to go to the town today, together, to get groceries! So what, you just left without me and adopted a whole goddamn animal shelter? That's just fan-freaking-tastic! Why didn't you wake me up?!" Dean shouts, looks around the kitchen once again and pinches the bridge of his nose. "You didn't even get the groceries, did you?"
Holding Margaret tighter, Cas looks down at his feet. He shakes his head and stays silent. Dean takes a deep breath and runs his hand through his hair. Way to go, Winchester. He carefully steps closer to Cas, making sure he doesn't trip on Remy who's still laying on the floor. Margaret hisses at him and Dean holds his hands up in surrender.
"'M sorry Cas, I shouldn't have snapped at you", Dean says quietly and rubs his watering eyes again. God, they're itchy. Cas looks up at him and gives him a shaky smile.
"You have every right to be upset, Dean. I know you have been having nightmares and trouble sleeping. That's why I didn't wake you up this morning. You looked so peaceful in your sleep for the first time in weeks. So I decided to go to the store on my own and...surprise you."
Dean snorts. Talk about a surprise. Cas rolls his eyes before he continues.
"I was in the parking lot of the grocery store when a young girl approached me and handed me one of the flyers she was holding. She told me about the animal shelter and how the animals there weren't in a great condition. The flyer had all the information I needed so I drove there." Cas' eyes look sad and full of pain as he lets out a trembling breath. "The place smelled awful, Dean. It was a small shelter but it was full of cats. They were in too small cages and it was obvious they weren't looked after. I confronted the lady at the front desk about it but she just shooed me off. Said most of them would be gone anyway at the end of the week because nobody wanted to adopt them."
Dean puts his hand on Cas' shoulder, trying to ground him and not disturb the cat still on Cas' arms. Margaret gives Dean a dirty look but Dean ignores it and starts rubbing slow, soothing circles on Cas' back.
"They were going to kill them, Dean", Cas whispers and Dean's heart breaks. He berates himself for shouting at the poor guy and not being able to handle things with a calm manner. Cas doesn't deserve to feel like crap because of him. Margaret jumps away from Cas' hold (obviously tired of Dean's presence) and walks proudly away from them. Cas' hands aren't empty for long because as soon as the grumpy old cat disappears, Dean embraces him into his tight hold. He plays with Cas' neck hair and gives him a small kiss on the cheek. Feeling the ex-angel calming down, he loosens the embrace a little.
"I'm sorry, Cas", Dean repeats murmuring. "But you saved them and they'll be okay. You wanna know how I know that, huh?" Dean pauses for a moment. Cas grabs Dean's robe tighter and buries his head further into Dean's shoulder, shaking his head.
"They'll be okay because they have you."
Cas moves his head away from Dean's shoulder and looks up straight into Dean's eyes. Cas' beautiful blue eyes are full of wonder and love, they sparkle like stars. Dean thinks that for a moment his chest is going to explode from all the affection he feels towards Cas. He runs his hand through Cas' messy hair (making it even more messier because come on, who could resist that). Cas smiles shyly and leans in for a loving kiss on Dean's lips. They stay like that, holding each other until some angry meowing and hissing grabs their attention. Cas lets go of Dean and sighs. Dean immediately misses Cas' warm body so he takes his hand on his and rubs it with his thumb.
"I assume Paul and Bear are fighting again", Cas shakes his head and starts dragging Dean with him towards the war room. Dean laughs out loud and follows Cas willingly.
"You named a cat Paul? "
*****************
The bunkers door opens few hours later and Dean recognizes the footsteps coming down the stairs as his giant of a brother. The footsteps get closer to the kitchen he and Cas are in. He hears his brother mumbling something to the cats that were in the war room. Some lovey-dovey stuff and Dean cringes.
"Hey Cas, I got more cat food and the special blankets you mentioned Lilian and Cookie need! I also got the groceries and some antihistamine for Dean so he won't be bitching about-" Sam freezes when he finally steps inside the kitchen. His eyes widen as he looks at Dean who's sitting cross-legged on the floor with Remy on his lap and two other cats sleeping nearby him (Bamboo and Leaf, Cas had told him). Sam stands there mouth open, holding four full bags. Cas stands up from his seat around the kitchen table and takes the bags from Sam, mumbling a quiet thank you. Dean rolls his eyes because of course, Sam was aware of the cats before Dean. Of course he would be excited about it, the poor kid never got to have a pet though he always begged for one when they were kids. Hell, he probably helped Cas pick up the names for them, too. What a big softie.
"Heya, Sammy", Dean flashes his brother a grin. Sam just looks at him like Dean's grown a second head. Then a round, brown cat named Muffin waddles towards Sam, meowing happily. Sam smiles at the cat and picks him up. Muffin starts purring immediately. Then Sam looks at Dean again, smile fading, eyes calculating. His brows furrow in thought as he takes in the image of his brother gently petting Remy and looking like he enjoys it.
"So you're uh- you're okay with... all of this?" Sam asks carefully, those damn puppy eyes glinting. Sam looks like he fears Dean might explode any second and get a box, stuff every cat in there and send it to Alaska. Not that Dean blames Sam for fearing that. He knows he usually doesn't react well to changes, masking his fear and anxiety with aggression and lashing out to others. And he did lash out to Cas earlier. Sam starts to fidget nervously and Dean instantly wants to comfort his little brother.
"Yeah. I'm good", Dean smiles a genuine smile and continues rubbing Remy behind his ears. He's purring loudly on Dean's lap, seconds away from falling asleep. The tension from Sam's shoulders drop and he looks relieved. He looks happy.
"That's great, Dean."
Dean feels warmth spread through him realizing that for the first time in ages, Dean himself feels okay. Well, his nose is itchy and he's pretty sure he's gonna sneeze soon but ignoring that, he feels okay. Looking at Remy and noticing he's fallen asleep Dean's smile widens. He sees from the corner of his eye that Sam holds Muffin like a baby and scratches his stomach. And then it happens. Dean sneezes. Remy wakes up and bolts away from the kitchen like his tail is on fire.
"Aw, man", Dean whines and finds Sam and Cas watching him with amusement. Glaring at them, Dean stands up from the floor and his left knee creaks loudly. Wincing, Dean makes his way to the sink and Cas follows him. He wraps his strong arms around Dean's middle from behind and Dean leans to the touch. Cas hums contently and turns Dean around so he's facing him, grinning playfully.
"Take this, old man", Cas teases and hands Dean the antihistamine. Dean scoffs and pretends to look offended which only makes Cas smile bigger.
"Says you, Mr. I Have Been Alive Long Before Humanity Even Existed", Dean shoots back and wraps his arms around Cas as the ex-angel's lips let out a beautiful, deep laugh. They put their foreheads together and get lost in their own little bubble.
Sam, Muffin and a few other cats look at them from the table and Sam shakes his head, smiling warmly at the sight of the two most important people in his life.
"Trust me, you'll get used to that", he whispers to the cats and gets a few meows back as a respond.