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Dean growled and buried his face in the pillow but the whining that had just woken him only grew louder. “Dee!”
“Sam, ‘s your turn,” he grumbled into the fabric before pulling the blanket over his head.
“He’s calling for you, not me.” Sam sounded just as exhausted as Dean.
“Don’t care. Your turn.”
Rustling, the squeaking of a mattress, then Dean heard footsteps and Sam’s quiet talking. When the whimpering still didn’t stop, Dean peeked at his brother from under the covers and caught a glimpse of big, blue eyes immediately catching his. “Deeee!” The baby in Sam’s arms started struggling against the Winchester’s hold.
“Told you, he wants you.” Sam shrugged and gripped the squirming toddler who had almost managed to break free. “Cas, c’mon buddy, stop it, you’ll fall! Y’know what, here. You go to Dean and I go back to bed. Deal?”
Castiel reached out his small hands towards Dean over Sam’s shoulder. “Dee!”
“No, c’mon Sam, put him back into the crib,” Dean protested but Sam ignored his words and set Cas on the bed next to Dean’s shoulder.
“I’m not gonna listen to him whine for the next couple hours, Dean. It’s 3.30 and I intend to get some more sleep. You deal with him.”
“You act like it’s my fault that witch turned him into a baby!” Dean grumbled and glared at Cas who had started to crawl close enough to get a good look at Dean under the blanket.
“Dee?” Tiny fingers grabbed the blanket and pulled it down a few inches. Dean sighed and rubbed a hand over his face. It seemed like he wouldn’t get his four hours of sleep the third night in a row.
“Who could’ve known you’d have a ‘profound bond’ with Cas even when he’s a baby? He’s not a mama’s boy, he’s a Dean’s boy,” Sam mocked from the other bed and lay down.
Dean growled again and turned to his back, watching Cas climb onto the pillow from the corner of his eye. “I do not have any kind of bond with some baby.”
“Technically, that’s still Cas.”
“I thought you wanted to sleep so shut your mouth.”
A quiet chuckle, then Sam went silent. Turning his head just in time to see Cas reach out his hand towards Dean’s head Dean grabbed it. “Oh no, no hair pulling. We talked about this, Cas. No.”
“Nooo?” Damn it, those huge blue eyes really made it hard to say no but Dean had experienced Cas’s love for hair pulling in the past four days almost as often as Sam had.
“That’s right. No.” With a sigh Dean turned back onto his side to look the toddler in the eyes. “What do you want, Cas? You don’t eat, you don’t sleep, all you do is squealing, whining and babbling. I get it, you’re an angel, you don’t need no sleep, but Sammy and I do. Don’t you understand?!” It was ridiculous how exhausted and exasperated he sounded but four days with barely an hour or two of sleep would do that to you.
Baby Cas looked at Dean for a moment as if to try and figure out what he was saying, head tilted slightly like he always did, almost making Dean laugh. Almost. “Cu’ll?” the timid answer, voiced more like a question, eventually came.
Dean blinked and stifled a yawn before he asked, “What?”
“Cu’ll.” Cas crawled even closer until he was facing Dean’s chest, then it took him two tries to roll onto his back and bump into Dean. Finally he turned his head up to the hunter and gave him a toothless smile.
It took Dean several seconds to understand, the he furrowed his brows. “You want to… cuddle? Seriously?”
Cas’s smile grew even bigger.
“Ugh. Fine. Whatever. You gonna stop whining?”
Of course, this time he didn’t get a response, just more smiling Cas staring up at him with those ridiculously blue eyes. “We really need to have a talk about your behaviour when you’re back to normal,” Dean muttered and pulled the blanket from under Cas to cover him with it, causing Cas to scoot even closer and earning him a happy coo. Then Cas stuck his thumb into his mouth and sucked it. Finally it was quiet in the motel room again and eventually Dean dozed off, a content Cas snuggled up to him.
***
“Ow!” Dean’s eyes flew open. “Cas, no hair pulling! Dammit!”
“Dee…” How did a baby manage to sound this apologetic? To top it off, Cas petted Dean’s head and stroked his hair.
“He’s been staring at you for the past half hour or so,” Sam informed Dean and grinned. “Was just waiting for him to do that.”
Glaring at his brother, Dean sat up. “You think that’s funny? Why didn’t you stop him?”
“He seemed happy and wasn’t constantly babbling or complaining for once.” Sam effortlessly dodged the pillow thrown at him. “I think he’s bored. Maybe we should get him toys?”
“I swear, the only good thing about this baby is that he doesn’t poop,” Dean grumbled and watched Cas trying to climb into his lap with defeat. “Whaddaya think of that, Cas? Toy sound good?” Instead of answering, Cas held on to Dean’s shirt and pulled himself onto Dean’s lap. “I take that as a yes.”
“What about breakfast?” Sam asked, barely able to hide the grin spreading over his face. Cas’s obsession with Dean was truly comical and he couldn’t wait for the angel to get back to his normal age and trying to explain his way out of this.
“Ugh, yes. I’m starving. Get him off me, would you? I gotta change.” Gently, Dean tried to heave the toddler off his lap but Castiel’s little fists were clenched into the fabric of Dean’s shirt.
Sam just couldn’t hold back his laugh anymore. “I don’t think he wants that.”
“C’mon, Cas, go to Uncle Sammy for once. Please, just go to him.”
Wary eyes looked up at Dean. “Sa’y?”
“Yes, Sammy. Over there. You can pull his hair, gotta be way more fun anyway with all that long floppy stuff.”
That earned him a bitchface from Sam but somehow it seemed to do the trick, Cas turned in Dean’s lap and stretched out one hand towards Sam. Dean used the chance and loosened Cas’s grip on his shirt, then handed the baby angel over to Sam who made sure to keep his hair out of Castiel’s reach.
When Dean returned from the bathroom two minutes later, Cas had secured one of Sam’s hands in his steel grip – seriously, babies shouldn’t be able to hold on to stuff like this – and was sucking and chewing on it experimentally.
“Please take him back, my entire hand is covered in baby drool,” Sam complained.
Now it was Dean’s turn to grin. “No way, I gotta drive. You keep him.” He snatched the car keys and was out the door before Sam could keep on complaining. “Think we should get him a toy first and then breakfast?” he called from the passenger seat as Sam locked the door to their room.
“Yeah, definitely, then he might stop using me as a chew toy…” the younger Winchester grumbled as he walked over to the car, trying to pull his hand from Cas’s mouth.
A couple minutes later Dean pulled into a Walmart parking lot. As soon as he got out, Sam handed Cas over to Dean and hurried into the building. “Bitch,” Dean mumbled and held Cas at arm’s length. “No drama in there, got it?”
Cas just tried to fit his entire hand into his mouth and stared back at Dean.
“Good. Let’s get you a toy.”
With the baby on his arm Dean walked through the sliding doors and looked for Sam. His brother was already waving from the baby section. “Check this out, there’s tons of baby stuff! How are we supposed to choose something?!”
“Uh…” Sam was right, there were hundreds of toys, strollers, different kinds of baby food, diapers, clothes and decor. “We could let him choose, right?”
“Do you really think that’s a good idea?” Sam was sceptical.
“You got a better one?” Not even waiting for an answer, Dean started strolling through the aisles. In his arms, Cas looked around with fascination, stretching out his hands now and again and babbling unintelligible things to himself.
When Dean walked past a shelf with animal toys, Cas squealed into his ear and made grabby hands. “Dee! Dee! Bee!”
As Dean looked around to find what had caught his attention Sam burst into laughter. “Figures.” He grabbed the bumblebee toy Cas was staring at and held it closer to the toddler’s face. “Guess that’s it,” he said as Cas desperately tried to get his hands onto the box and almost wiggled out of Dean’s grip.
“Here, take him for a sec,” Dean said and handed Cas back to Sam. “I’ll go grab us some ear plugs, we’re gonna need ‘em if this spell lasts much longer.”
Just as he was about to pass the next aisle, something caught his attention and he stopped dead in his tracks. “Dude, come here. We HAVE to buy this!” he called back to Sam.
A moment later Sam looked around the corner. “What?”
Dean was already down half the aisle and grabbed a piece of clothing. “Here. Look it at. It’s perfect!”
“Dean, we’re not gonna -” Sam started but was interrupted.
“Hell yes we are!”
Rolling his eyes, Sam followed Dean through the store. After they had grabbed ear plugs, some beer and food, they paid and walked back to the car. “Put him in the backseat, Sammy, he’s gotta wear this right now.” Dean pulled the tiny beige trenchcoat from the bag and attempted to pull it over Cas’s arms. Since the baby was more interested in the bumblebee toy it took a couple of tries but finally Dean stepped back and grinned at Sam. “Now he officially is a baby in a trenchcoat. I gotta take pictures, when he’s back to normal I’ll never let him forget this.”
“I really don’t get why Cas would fall in love with you, all you do is tease him,” Sam murmured under his breath but his brother heard him nonetheless.
Instantly, Dean’s face turned bright red. “What the hell are you talking about?!”
“You know exactly what I’m talking about.”
Dean nudged Sam and tried to hide his embarrassment. “Shut up and hold him, I need a picture of Baby Cas with Uncle Moose.”