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With the change from summer to autumn came Dean’s favorite seasonal pastime - drinking spiked apple cider with Sam and Cas, getting entirely too drunk for their ages, and talking shit through the night. Sam and Dean had a tradition every year since they were old enough to drink. Well, not legally old enough, but when had the brothers ever strictly stuck to the law anyway?
Surprisingly, Dean had only seen Sam plastered a few times, and each time it was incredibly entertaining. Sam got dumb when he was that drunk. Dean couldn’t even lie; it was hilarious.
Tonight, it was confusing.
“That’s the thing I don’t understand about New Orleans, how can it even be below sea level?”
Dean zoned back into the conversation. Damn, drunk Sam made Dean look like a genius. Well, not a genius, but at least a high school graduate.
“How can people live there if it’s underwater?” Sam continued babbling like an idiot.
Dean and Cas exchanged an exasperated look and then burst out laughing.
“Sam,” Cas spoke up after wiping away a tear from laughing so hard. This was a side to the angel that the brothers were still new to. “Below sea level doesn’t mean underwater. It is how elevation is measured, but in the case of New Orleans, the elevation is actually due to human intervention, such as-“
“You know who we could ask?” Sam asked as if he didn’t even hear Cas explaining.
Dean squinted at Sam as his brother nearly jumped out of his seat as if he’d had the best idea anyone had ever had.
“Dude, Cas was talking!” Dean smacked Sam on the chest to chastise him.
Sam didn’t even flinch.
“Benny!”
Dean’s cider almost came out of his nose.
“I, um…I don’t talk to him anymore,” Dean sputtered out. He was caught off guard hearing Benny’s name. He hated the clenching feeling in his chest.
“Oh,” Sam said, tilting his head the way Cas did, but Sam had a way of making it annoying instead of endearing. “That’s surprising. For a while, you talked to and about him all the time. If I hadn’t known better, I would have thought you were fucking him!” Sam erupted into obnoxious cackling.
Dean stopped dead, cider halfway to his mouth. Cas wasn’t so lucky. He had already taken a sip, but it was now spewed out across the table.
“What?” Dean opened and closed his mouth in confusion, trying to find the words. Dean turned his attention to Cas, trying to figure out what reaction he was supposed to be having.
Cas was trying to wipe up the cider he’d spit out, but he looked up and met Dean’s eye. Cas shrugged and went back to cleaning up.
“Sorry, was that bitchy to say? I know you’re weird about those kinda jokes,” Sam didn’t really look sorry, but Dean didn’t know what Sam was apologizing for in the first place.
“Why are you apologizing? And more importantly, why did you say that?”
Sam groaned and rolled his eyes, “It was just a joke, Dean. Relax!”
“That’s what I’m confused about? How was that a joke?”
“Because,” Sam sounded like he was losing his patience, but it should have been the other way around. “You talked about Benny so much, it was like you guys were a couple!”
“We were a couple!”