Take Care of My Baby

Sixteen

Both Cas and Dean pause in eating to look at the younger Winchester and actually comprehend his words.

"Run that by me one more time," Dean says.

Sam takes a deep breath. "My anniversary with Jess is this weekend, and I'm gonna ask her to marry me."

He tenses up a little, waiting for what he thinks will be a sudden shitstorm of Dean's wrath for not thinking the whole thing through. Sam nearly squeezes his eyes shut when Dean begins to talk, thinking that he's gonna get a reprimand.

"I'm proud of ya, Sammy," Dean grins as he reaches over to clap his brother on the back. And while, yeah, he's a little upset that he hasn't been consulted about the details yet, he can't hold the thing against Sam. As far as his brother knows, Dean has no interest in marrying, and one might even go as far as to say that he's opposed to it because of the heartache their mother's death caused their father. But Dean, in all honesty, doesn't mind.

"Really?" Sam asks incredulously.

"'Course I am, ya goof." He rolls his eyes and picks his fork back up. A little tension eases from the room, and even Sam finds his body relaxing. "You got a ring picked out yet?"

"Dean, I'm not an idiot. Obviously I have a ring."

"Well? Let's see it," the older man demands, making a grabbing motion with his hand.

Sam fishes the small velvet-covered box from the pocket of his jacket. He hands it over to Castiel and Dean, and both men lean over to see it. It's relatively simple; the ends of the silver band wrap around a small cluster of small garnets with one diamond in the middle. Despite its simplicity, it's a gorgeous piece of jewelery, and Sam must have saved like crazy for it.

"The, uh, the garnets are her birthstone," Sam points out a little awkwardly. He's already been asked by the jewelers why he'd pick something in such a striking shade.

"Jesus, Sammy, did you sell your soul to get this?" Dean laughs as he hands it back.

"Just about," Sam grins back. All of his summer and odd jobs have been dedicated to this purpose. He knows Jess will protest, but he wants her to know that he cares.

"It's beautiful," Castiel assures him, which earns him a semi-awkward smile from Sam.

"So, spill. Where you gonna ask her at?" Dean asks as he shovels a forkful of eggs in his mouth.

"Don't talk with your mouth full," the younger Winchester scolds him.

"Don't try to get out of the question."

Sam rolls his eyes. "I'm going to call and make reservations somewhere today."

"Somewhere nice," Dean amends, which is rewarded with a 'well obviously' bitchface from Sam.

"How're you gonna do it? Put the ring in the champagne glass? Wait until dessert and get down on one knee?" the older man asks.

Sam just shrugs. "I think I'll wait until we leave. Go somewhere nice and do it."

Dean nods in agreement at that. They fall into silence for a few moments after that, but eventually Dean says, "Looks like you got everything all figured out, Sammy."

"Yeah, I guess," he shrugs.

"You sound hesitant, Sam," Castiel points out. His voice is soft, but it's enough to startle both other men, as he's been quiet for most of their conversation.

"I'm just... worried."

"About what?" Dean asks, wrinkling his nose.

"What if she says no?"

Dean deadpans. "Sammy, both of you are madly, disgustingly in love with each other, and you've been together for longer than most kids your age. She ain't gonna say no."

"But what if she does, Dean?" the younger man shoots back. "What if she's not ready for the commitment yet? What if she wants to finish college first?"

"You two have been talking about this for a while, Sam. I highly doubt she'll change her mind," Castiel assures him. He knows the emotion that Sam is feeling very well, and he knows that in many cases, it's an unfounded terror. There's no reason why the man should feel so insecure about asking Jess to marry him; everyone knows that they're planning on it. It's just a matter of when someone asks.

Sam looks down at the place where his hands are folded in his lap and shrugs again. "I guess you're right."

"'Course he's right," Dean states with finality. "He's Cas, he knows what he's talking about."

Both Sam and Cas roll their eyes in unison, and Dean can't help but think that, if the two spend too much time together, they'll be an unstoppable force of persuasion. Set the two things Dean loves most in the world before him, and there's no way he can say no to them.

"You made the reservations yet?" Dean asks his brother, ignoring his thoughts as he stands up and collects the dishes from the table.

"Uh..."

Dean turns around and gives a pointed glare in Sam's direction. "Whattya say you go make them? Like, right now?"

"But-"

"No buts. You've obviously got a place in mind, so go," Dean waves him off, then turns around and begins to wash up. "Don't want the place to fill up, do you?"

The younger Winchester rolls his eyes, but he doesn't protest. He simply stands up and heads out to use the phone in the hallway for some more privacy.

Cas ambles over to Dean and slides his arms around the man's waist while resting his chin on Dean's shoulder. He can faintly see the crinkle of the older Winchester's eyes as he smiles.

"Hey, Cas."

"Hello, Dean."

Dean turns off the water and spins around so that he's pressed chest-to-chest with Cas. He puts his forehead on top of the smaller man's, trying to hide his expression, but Castiel catches it anyway.

"What's the matter, Dean?" he asks.

"Nothin'."

Cas wiggles his way out of the other man's grasp so that he can look into the man's eyes. "I may not be the best with people, Dean, but I don't need eyes to see that something is bothering you."

"Nothin' is bothering me. Promise." He solidifies the statement by pressing a kiss to the younger man's forehead.

Castiel isn't having any of that, though. He doesn't like seeing Dean upset, and if there's anything that he's learned about the man, it's that Dean will sit and stew in his own negativity until a tiny pinprick of an issue swallows him up in an ocean of anger.

He stares the man right in the eyes, and even though Dean won't meet his eyes, Cas places the emotion he's feeling through the set of his jaw and the flicker of sadness in his eyes.

"Are you jealous of Sam?"

Dean's entire body tenses, and Cas knows he's hit the nail on the head. His beliefs are further proved when the man gets defensive, grumbling and protesting, "Hell no! I'm proud of the kid. I ain't jealous."

"I can see it in your eyes, Dean."

They stare each other down for a few long moments. Dean's heated glare is unfaltering for quite a while, but with enough motivation from Castiel, he drops his barriers. Cas can see them fall just before Dean averts his eyes.

"Yeah, well. Can't really blame me for it," he mumbles as he buries his face in Cas's shoulder.

"Mmm," Cas murmurs encouragingly as he strokes Dean's hair. With just the right amount of love and patience, he can coax nearly everything out of the man.

"Always wanted to start a family. Maybe not with all the pansy-ass fanfare like Sammy, but..." Dean heaves a sigh. "It'd just be nice, y'know? Settle down with someone you love, maybe start a family. Thought I got over that stupid fuckin' dream a long time ago, though."

"Why do you need to get over it?"

"I ain't cut out for that kinda life, Cas. There's somethin' under my skin that always keeps me runnin'. This is the first house I've ever had, and sometimes I just feel so damn stir crazy from seein' the same walls all day," the man says. He doesn't straighten out his body, however, so Castiel presses a chaste kiss to the nape of Dean's neck and offers another encouragement.

"What else?"

At that question, Dean's body tenses and stills, and he stays like that for a long while. It begins to feel as though Cas is holding a mannequin as opposed to a living, breathing human being. A shuddering breath wracks through The older man's body, bringing life back into Dean.

"The only person I see myself settlin' down with is you, Cas. And it scares the shit out of me, and I know I can't have it." Finally, he pulls back to look into Castiel's caring blue eyes once again. "We'd have to buy some house way out in the middle o' nowhere, and I'd never get to flaunt you like I wanna. We wouldn't get some stupid little rings to show off to everyone that'd say "hell yeah, I'm taken by the greatest goddamn man in the world". So I guess I'm a little jealous that Sammy gets that shit. But I'm happy for him, and I'm gonna suck it up."

The words break Castiel's heart as he watches them pour from Dean's lips, and he desperately wants nothing more than to kiss those fears away and replace them with assurances that, yes, they'll be able to have those things.

He can't bring himself to say anything, however. Any words like that would be lies. He has no qualms with settling down with the beautiful soul before him, but society would turn up their noses - or worse, raise their fists.

The thing he can do, however, is show that Dean's emotions are reciprocated. Castiel doesn't feel that he's an eloquent man, despite what Dean might say, but he knows that the other man will respond best through a physical statement. He pulls Dean's left hand up to his lips and kisses Dean's ring finger. The gesture stands for something far beyond the simple action itself, and it warms both of their hearts to the point where it feels as though they're on fire. The man lets his lips linger there for a few very long and very intense moments before Dean turns his hand to caress Cas's jaw.

Cas gently places his fingertips on the other man's cheek and pulls him in for a soft kiss. Their lips simply linger together as they share their breaths, but it gets his point across. The tension seems to melt right out of Dean's bones, and when they pull apart, Dean is grinning once again like nothing ever happened.

"Feels like I'm growin' a vagina already," he comments with a laugh as the two untangle their limbs. Dean turns back to the dishes that remain in the sink. "Lookit me, washin' dishes and spoutin' a buncha girly shit like a goddamn housewife."

"A cute housewife," Cas quips with a smile.

"Can it, you," Dean says rather unmenacingly. He flicks a handful of water at the other man. Castiel can't just let that slip by, so he grabs the nearest dishtowel and snaps it across Dean's ass. The high-pitched gasp that it earns him sends Cas into a fit of hysterics that the both of them have never heard before.

"Oh, you ass!" Dean exclaims through a grin. He completely abandons the dishes in the sink and turns his full attention to wrangling a very squirmy Cas into an unmovable position against the cabinets.

"Dean," Cas warns breathlessly as he watches the man's hands slide down to his stomach. "Dean, no!"

"What? You're not ticklish, are ya?" The devilish grin on the man's face is a blatant indicator that he damn well knows the answer to that question.

Cas grasps Dean's hands in his own with a mantra of, "Don't you dare, Dean Winchester, don't you dare," but his slender fingers are no match for the roughened hands of a mechanic. Within seconds, Dean is tickling Cas, and the man is reacting with a spectacular variety of emotions ranging from angry threats to unrestrained giggling to panting pleas for a cease-fire.

"What? You're gonna give up so soon?" Dean asks over the racket that the other man is causing.

"I'm not giving up - oh, no, no, no, please!" Cas's voice trails off into another breathless round of laughter.

"Sure sounds like you're giving up!"

Cas stills Dean's hands, making him capable of delivering one of the most angry, soul-piercing stares that the younger man has ever given anyone. "If you would just play fair-"

"All's fair in love and war," Dean informs him during the next bout of tickling. "And this is definitely both."

Castiel notices that his methods of ending this insanity aren't working. Instead, he goes for the one weakness he knows will make Dean stop: he ducks his head and presses a long, sucking, wet kiss to the underside of the man's jaw.

"Shit."

Much to his delight, the results are immediate. Dean's hands flatten out on the hard planes of Cas's stomach as he maps out the terrain he finds there. Cas, for his own part, grabs two fistfuls of Dean's t-shirt and holds the man's lips pressed against his own. They're already in a pretty damn compromising position, considering that Dean had to wedge one knee between Cas's thighs to hold him in face, and now he uses that to his advantage by pressing his thigh into Cas's already hardening groin.

"I think I win," Cas whispers breathlessly against Dean's lips. He feels the smirk before he sees it.

"That's what you think."

Moments later, Castiel finds himself being lifted up onto the counter. He'll admit that he lets out a rather excitable squeak at that, but Dean grabs the back of his head and kisses it right out of his mouth.

Cas wraps his legs around Dean's waist as they battle for dominance. Dean loves the animal that Cas can turn into with almost the flip of a switch. It drives him wild and makes him crave the feel of fingers raking through his hair, nails scraping against his skin, and friction building in every place that matters. He knows that almost everything goes when Cas gets going.

Dean's shirt is almost over his head when the clearing of a throat startles the both of them. Cas yanks his head back so quickly that he whacks it against the cupboard. Shirts fall back into place, hair is patted down, and more respectable positions are taken as the two men turn to face Sam.

"Make-" Dean clears this throat, as it's already husky from the contact. "Make your reservations?"

Sam nods. "Yeah. This weekend. Saturday."

"Cool, cool," Dean nods back.

Sam rubs the back of his head and looks everywhere but at the very obvious erections that both men are sporting.

"So, uh, I'll let you guys..." he motions vaguely at the room, "get back to it then."

"Thanks, Sammy."

"Just... not somewhere I eat or sit or... touch." With that, Sam turns and leaves the room quickly.

Cas and Dean stand there side by side for a few moments before the latter man drops his head in his hands. "That was so embarrassing," he groans. Then, he turns his leech-like grip to Castiel, finding himself strung over the man in a matter of seconds as he withers in shame.

"You'll live," Castiel tells him with a reassuring pat to the head.

"No I won't."

"Shut up, Dean."

The words are so blunt that Dean can't help but snicker and further reinforces why Cas is perfect. He sticks his hands into the man's back pockets with a mischievous grin on his face.

"Well, your mortification certainly doesn't last long," Cas comments. Dean kisses the man's stupid, endearing smile off his face.

"Yeah, well. Thinkin' 'bout you in my bedroom is enough to keep anyone goin'."

And go they do.
♠ ♠ ♠
Back from vacation. Enjoy!