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Cas had the brightest smile on his face. The one that had those baby-blues twinkling and brought out the laughter lines at the corner of his eyes.
“Hey, Sunshine!” Dean said, crouching by Baby’s back tire and looking up at Cas.
Dean stopped cleaning and wiped his hands on his jeans as he stood.
“You know I’m not crazy about surprises, right?”
The way Cas was standing with his hands behind his back was concerning. Not in an apocalyptic, ex-angel about to do something stupid way. But Dean would bet all of Sam’s fraudulent investment accounts that his gorgeous boyfriend was up to something.
Cas nodded.
“So, what have you got there?”
“Got where?”
Cas’s smirk was telling. He never managed the stoic poker face he used when staring down other celestial beings when it came to Dean, and they both knew it.
Dean closed the distance between them and reached around behind Cas.
“Oh, this? No, it’s not for you.”
“Hmm. Not for me, eh?” Dean said as he tried to wrench the oblong package out of Castiel’s grip.
Dean choked on his saliva when he saw what it was. He couldn’t stop himself from letting out a growl.
Cas took a half step back, suddenly not looking quite as pleased with himself.
Damage control mode necessary.
Gently, Winchester.
Thank Cas for the thought calmly and respectfully. Do not lay into him on the need to keep Dean's beautiful old lady original.
“Not that I’m not grateful, Cas. But Baby’s stereo works great, in case you hadn’t noticed.”
Cas shuffled from foot to foot.
“I, uh, well, I spoke with Sam. He said you yelled at him when he tried to use what was it...a converter to get music, not on cassette. So I thought maybe, that um…”
Cas trailed off, making a grab for the new car audio system from Dean.
Dean held it above and slightly behind his head, out of Cas’s reach. If Cas really tried, it wouldn’t be that hard, but Dean would make him work for it.
“Sam’s right. The cassette deck works. I got a stack of ‘‘em—recorded and blank. What else do I need?”
There was definitely something Cas wasn’t saying.
Dean gave Cas a half-shrug while he waited for Cas to find his voice again.
“It’s just I thought that I have all the music I like digitally.”
“Yeah, and?” No point reminding Cas that the driver picked the music; Dean knew Cas fully understood the rule.
When he stared at his boyfriend, Cas’s face was a delightful shade of pink, and he was chewing on the corner of one chapped lip.
“You can get all the music you like on your phone too. Jack said something about some albums being digitally remastered—whatever that means. I also thought that…I could more easily return the favour. After all, you gave me that mixtape of your top Zep tracks.”
The lightbulb went off in Dean’s head. Now he felt like a total asshole.
“You wanna make me playlists of your favourite songs for when we’re off on different hunts, huh?”
Bingo, Yahtzee! We have a winner.
How could Dean say no to that? Maybe Jack could mojo a way to make the damned newfangled thing look like an original.
Dean, shaking his head gently, offered Cas a fond smile.
“Okay. You gonna stick around while I fit it?”
“Of course, Dean. You can thank me properly later.”
The smug expression told Dean what form of appreciation Cas was expecting. Dean needed no additional encouragement to agree to that form of expressing his gratitude.