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The rain starts out light, the occasional drops grazing their faces and Dean’s bare arms, their cool welcome amid the day’s scorching heat. Dean wouldn’t even have paid attention, his sole focus on getting back to Baby and on with their search. Cas has slowed his steps, however, and when Dean looks over his shoulder, about to make his impatience known, he finds himself stopped short. The angel is walking with his face tilted up, and he is smiling, a private, delighted smile that Dean hasn’t seen on him before.
“Cas?”
The angel’s eyes swivel to meet his.
“Wanna stop, wait out the rain?” Dean hears himself ask.
Cas looks hesitant, clearly surprised by the question. The consideration it shows.
Dean notices the patter of rain hitting the leaves around them growing louder.
“Come on,” he decides, “there was that bus stop or whatever just around the corner, remember?”
They reach the shelter seconds before the rain turns into a pour. It’s really no more than a narrow wooden bench, covered by a rickety roof, but it’ll do. They sit, the rain pelting the leaves and the ground. They get spattered, but it’s really more of a mist, pleasantly cool where it finds bare skin.
Dean is about to say something to that end, again tease Cas about wearing his trench coat even in today’s heat. Yet when he glances at the angel, there is that smile again, the softest curl of lips.
Cas is enjoying himself. The spectacle that is a sudden summer downpour, Dean realizes. He smiles fondly when he sees the angel’s nostrils flare, Cas breathing in the fragrance of the rain soaking the forest floor.
Dean wouldn’t have noticed. Wouldn’t have taken the time.
He does now. It’s the effect Cas has on him.
Dean leans back, lets himself feel the brush of Cas’ shoulder against his own. The drops hitting his fingers and the lower parts of his arms. He shivers, realizing the water is rapidly cooling down the air. It won’t last, though. Once the rain has let up, the heat will be even worse than before, moist, making breathing a bitch and moving even worse.
Cas is unfazed by the drop in temperature, a glance his way confirms. Dean envies him for being able to enjoy this so fully, losing himself in the moment. No one ever took the time to show him how to do it. To slow down and just be. Appreciate things like this. And their life as it is now doesn’t allow much room for contemplation.
Cas looks peaceful, his smile serene and his eyes wide with wonder as he watches the rain fall, listens to it hit the foliage, tracks its path as it drips down onto the ground, forming puddles and little streams in the dirt.
Dean draws a deep breath as he follows Cas’ example. Lets the angel’s ever-steady presence by his side calm him down and allow him the simple pleasure of watching. Breathing in the freshly cleaned air.
Did Cas take the soft noise for a sigh? Dean wonders when the angel glances at him. Next he knows, Cas is giving him a smile that is so unguarded and open, it makes Dean’s heart clench and his throat grow tight. It keeps catching him by surprise, the things Cas makes him do. The things he makes him feel.
Dean is halfway to berating himself for the silliness of thinking along these lines when he shakes his head: It’s fine. Actually, it’s more than just fine, sitting here in comfortable silence, sharing in Cas’ awe.
When the rain has faded to a quiet drizzle, Dean speaks up: “We better get going.”
He doesn’t hide his reluctance, but they still have a job to do. Cas knows that.
Dean sets off with quick steps toward where they left Baby at the trailhead. When Cas doesn’t catch up right away, however Dean slows down until they are side by side again.
The job will still be there if they take just a little longer, but the moment will be gone if they don’t.