Chapter Text
Sam rapped his knuckles on the open door quietly.
The Assistant Chief Operating Officer was scribbling in what Sam knew was mostly illegible calligraphy on a legal pad, and nodding into a phone, but he glanced up to beckon the attorney into the office. “What difference does that make?” he was growling. “By my calculation, that’s still four percent off the original estimate. Off is off, and I don’t care by how much.”
He wondered vaguely which contractor was being raked across the coals this time. He took a seat across from the desk and stretched his long legs. He started to place his files on the desk, but received a sharp glare from its occupant, and held them in his lap instead.
“Maybe that’s something you should have looked into before you called,” the man grumbled. “The legal team is here for a meeting. I need to go. Please don’t contact me again until you’ve thought through every solution and can give me the actual bottom line, which I expect to be undeviated from the estimate we agreed to at the beginning of this comedy of errors.”
Sam watched the phone crash into the cradle. “So-“
The man lifted a finger to hold him off. “Did you catch all of that, Balt?”
A voice came over a cellphone resting on the desk. “I did. And I wish you wouldn’t frighten off the best construction contractor we’ve got available to us.”
“Who’s frightened? I didn’t frighten him. I informed him. Everyone appreciates clear expectations, Balthazar.”
“If you say so. Anyway, good work. Glad you took care of him. I’d have just gone ahead with the new pricing and we’d be behind schedule and above budget.”
“Hm. As it is, we’re just behind schedule.”
“Only by a week, my friend. Relax. Did I hear that legal is there at the office?”
Sam smirked. “Hello, Balt.”
“Did you hear that, Sam? You’re a whole legal team by yourself!” Balthazar teased.
Castiel’s scowl was persistent, but his cheeks pinked very slightly. “It seems more appropriate to say that the legal team is here for a meeting than my husband is here to have lunch.”
His boss snickered over the phone. “It seems more intimidating, you mean.”
“I’ve told you, I don’t intimidate people. I give clear-“
“Clear expectations, yes, I know,” Balthazar laughed. “Enjoy your lunch with legal. See you on Saturday, Sam!”
“Bye, Balt!”
Castiel jabbed at his phone with his finger. “You’re early.”
“I’m not.”
“By my watch, you are.”
Sam was trying not to smirk. Castiel always had a difficult time transitioning from his work persona to the loving husband Sam knew was hidden under the rumpled suit and askew tie somewhere. “And by my watch, you’re gorgeous,” he purred at him.
He just liked the view when Castiel’s face turned redder. “That’s not what I…I said watch. Timepiece. Not…not watch like seeing,” he babbled.
“And I’m watching you. And you’re gorgeous.”
“Close the door,” he hissed.
It was too fun to get a rise out of the man. “I thought you said people would get the wrong idea if I closed your office door when I came to visit.”
“It’s better than them hearing…”
“Hearing what? That you’re gorgeous? I’m sure they already know.” Sam’s smirk was beyond his control now. “Just wait until I start telling you what I’d do to you if the door was closed.”
Castiel’s eyes widened. “That’s enough,” he whispered hoarsely. “You’re here to eat lunch. That’s all.”
It seemed that no matter how long they had been doing this, having lunch together every Friday, Castiel had built up no immunity to Sam’s teasing, and likewise, Sam had never grown tired of doing it.
“Now. Did you want the sandwiches I made or did you bring something?” Castiel said grumpily.
Sam lifted the folders on his lap. “This is all I brought with me.”
“You can put them on the shelf there. Not on the desk.”
“Because they’ll immediately be swallowed into the vortex of confusion you have here?”
Castiel frowned down at his own desk in dismay. “Yes,” he admitted in a weary voice. “Probably. I swear I just cleaned it off yesterday morning.”
Sam gave him a sympathetic smile. “I’m sure you did. You know, if you wouldn’t insist on everything being on paper instead of electronic, maybe-“
“That’s no good. I have to be able to write on things. I can’t read something if I can’t also write on it.”
He wasn’t sure what that meant, but he shrugged. “Okay. Whatever works for you.”
Castiel had been reaching into the small refrigerator on his side for their lunches, but he spared a moment to send a tiny, grateful smile Sam’s way. “Thank you for that.”
Sam blinked at him with pleased surprise. “For what?”
“For not trying to argue with me about my methodology. I know you don’t agree with it. No one does. But it works for me, and it’s nice that every so often someone just lets me be myself without trying to change me.”
A flare of possessiveness, of protectiveness, burst in Sam’s chest. It struck him sometimes, for seemingly no reason at all, just how fiercely he loved and adored this man. “I would never want to change you,” he whispered back with an intensity that seemed to come from nowhere.
Castiel stared at him for an instant, then lowered his gaze. In that small spanse of time, something shifted, and the powerful, intimidating administrator softened into that sweet, unsure lover Sam had devoted himself to all that time ago. Somehow, no matter how capable and confident Castiel was in front of the rest of the world, he would yet always seek out Sam’s affection. It was quiet, simple, a small drop of Castiel’s chin, a lift of one ear, and Sam could nearly feel the shy ache emanating from the man suddenly. It didn’t matter how much professional clout the man had, or how successful he was, or all the projects he had managed and people he had led. Castiel would always want Sam’s validation.
He reached to brush fingertips across the back of the man’s hand. “You are exactly what I want,” he whispered.
Castiel’s eyes were low, and so was his voice. “I’m sure there are plenty of things about me you wish were different,” he pressed.
“Are there things about me you would change if you could?”
This made blue eyes widen. “You? Of course not!”
The sincerity made Sam chuckle. “Then why would you assume I would change things about you?”
Those eyes seemed like enormous wells all of the sudden, like Sam could just fall in and get lost there. “Because you’re you. And I’m me.”
He smiled. “And what does that mean?”
“It means I still don’t understand,” and now that deep voice was hoarse and strained, as if Castiel were physically holding himself back from saying more.
“What don’t you understand?”
“Mr. Seraphim?”
Castiel flicked his sharp gaze at the door, and Sam watched with eternal fascination the way his lover straightened and cooled in an instant. “Yes?” he said in a hard voice, so different from that which he had used with Sam.
His assistant shifted her weight on her feet anxiously. “I’m sorry to interrupt. I just got paperwork that Cecily is being transferred from Mr. Crowley’s office to Abby Donn’s as soon as tomorrow!”
The man took a deep breath in through his nose and lay his hands flat on the desk, flooded with papers. “Well. We expected that. He hemorrhages assistants like no other administrator in the organization.”
“Yes, sir. But that means that Bartholomew’s team will be one short when we begin work for the summit! That means…that means…Sir, that makes me the most senior one on the Canyon project! What are we going to do?
Castiel stood and looked her in the eyes. “Haeli? You are extremely capable. This Canyon project will be nothing for you. If someone told me you had built the Grand Canyon yourself, I’d say, that sounds like the woman who has been my right hand for over a year now.”
She swallowed hard, but allowed a shaky smile.
“You can handle this Canyon assignment. That’s why I put you on it. There were others more experienced on the team, but I didn’t care about them, did I? Because I knew you were there, and if no one else did what they were expected to do, I knew you would pull it off. It’s the only reason I’m not flying out there to oversee it myself. Because I know Haeli is on it. And therefore, I don’t need to worry about it getting done and getting done right.”
Sam watched the young woman beam under Castiel’s praise.
“So I’ll accept no excuses, and you will not panic about losing Cecily, because I’ll assign you whichever support staff you prefer, and you’ll get it done, just as I knew you would when I gave you the project.”
“You gave Cecily the project,” she argued softly.
“Did I?” Castiel shook his head. “Just because she was in charge, that doesn't mean she was the one I was counting on. This isn’t a setback, Haeli. It’s your turn to finally show them all what I’ve already known. You’re a leader. And after you pull off this project, I suspect I’ll lose you to bigger and better things elsewhere in the organization, but that’s all right, because I knew within a week of working with you that you were a woman who could move mountains. Walk onto this project with confidence, even if you have to fake it at first, and the others will follow you. It’s too important for me to leave it to anyone else. That’s why I gave it to you in the first place. Because I trust you.”
Haeli’s smile was still shaky but lovely. “Yes, sir. I promise I’ll do my best.”
Castiel shrugged cooly and looked back down at his paperwork. “I’m not worried.”
When the young woman pulled the door closed behind her, Sam was glad for the privacy. “Cas?”
“Hm?” The man placed the bag of sandwiches between them. “Did you want turkey or peanut butter?” He slid the turkey sandwich to Sam without bothering to wait for the reply he knew would come. “Where were we?”
Sam sighed happily. “I wouldn’t change anything,” he murmured to himself.