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Cas losing his Grace and becoming human had its ups and downs. A whole lot of downs, and one or two ups, if Dean was honest. Helping him learn about what foods he enjoyed now that they didn’t taste like molecules was fun. Cauliflower was an absolute no, but pb&j was a bigger win than Dean was anticipating. Later on, teaching him about the bathroom and all of its ‘delights’ on the other hand … not as much fun.
(Do not ever, under any circumstances, ask Dean how that went. And if you ever find a bunker closet with eighteen different brands and styles of toilet paper and flushable wet-wipes, firstly Cas deserved to be picky with this new experience, and secondly no you didn’t.)
Learning the signs of needing sleep, hunger, not over-reaching when getting something off the top shelf … all the boring crap that humans spend years figuring out. And it wasn’t until Cas had an issue with one thing or another that Dean realized that there was something else to learn that he did naturally. But somehow, it took almost a week of watching the signs before figuring out there was another lesson on the horizon.
It started as just a dark shadow and stayed that way for a day or two, but then it became noticeable stubble. Dean made plans to have a shaving lesson but then he got curious. What would the angel look like with a beard?
Over the following months, Dean watched with fascination and growing attraction as the growth evolved. He purchased specialty beard care tools and spent an embarrassing amount of time teaching Cas just how to cultivate the frankly intimidatingly impressive facial hair coming in. Dean wasn’t sure if it was Cas himself, or maybe Jimmy had been a follically gifted vessel first and it carried through to Cas’ ownership? Details didn’t really matter though, the beard was amazing wherever the genetics came from.
Dean would find himself hugging Cas way more often than usual, gently rubbing his cheek over the soft beard as he did. He bought teeny scissors to help keep it neat and even. Cas would patiently allow Dean to trim, condition, and brush it probably more often than necessary. Cas didn’t even say anything when Dean spontaneously (after days of agonizing over how to make it happen) started to pet it during movie night. Dean was still trying to figure out how to casually find out how it felt to kiss that beard when a call came in from one of Sam’s contacts.
As far as cases went, it wasn’t necessarily tricky or risky, so Sam was going to head out on his own, but at the last minute he invited Cas to go along. Unfortunately for Dean, who had been envisioning all kinds of manly cuddle sessions and chick-flick-free smooching moments, Cas agreed.
Dean relaxed for a few weeks as following the case’s resolution, Sam took Cas on a weird veggie eater’s wet dream tour of different specialty farmer’s markets along the way home). When they finally got back almost seven weeks after Dean’d last seen them, Dean had a good home cooked artery clogging meal waiting for them, and a solid plan on getting his fingers back in that beard.
Sam walked by Dean in the hall by the garage and winced as Dean slapped him on the shoulder, heading right to the laundry area with his duffel bag. He called out a promise to meet in the kitchen as soon as the wash was started. Dean absently agreed and turned away. Sam paused and got Dean’s attention.
“Oh by the way, I went ahead and taught Cas how to shave since you kept putting it off.” Sam gave Dean a thumbs-up and continued to the laundry room.
“What?!” Dean felt his whole body lock up in shock as his face fell in dismay. He ran to the garage, finding Cas bent over and grabbing things out of Sam’s backseat. “C-Cas?”
“Hello, Dean. One moment.” Cas grunted as he stood up, gripping his own bag and a heavy looking crate. He turned as Dean stepped forward, half reaching to help with the crate. Upon seeing Cas’s face, though, his knees almost gave out.
Sam’s laughter rang out from behind him. “I KNEW IT!”
“Shutup, Sammy!” Dean hollered, looking at Cas’ confused but blessedly bearded face. He blushed sheepishly. “I’ll explain later.”
