The Best Of Me

Chapter 8

*21 Years Ago*

Dean woke up before Cas the following morning and rolled over in bed to find the guy lying on his back fast asleep.

He couldn't help but smile at the little line of drool coming out the corner of Cas' mouth as he slept peacefully. It was beyond him why Cas had stayed with him for this long. The two of them have had this secret relationship for months now, which was longer then Dean ever thought it was going to last.

He just kept waiting for Cas to find someone better or to finally realise that he could do so much better than someone like Dean Winchester. Cas definitely deserved better and he had told them multiple times, but it didn't seem to matter.

Cas liked him, for whatever reason that was beyond Dean to understand, but Cas liked him and Dean knew that the man would do anything for him because he would do anything Cas.

After watching Cas lying beside him for a few minutes, Dean figured he should probably get up. So, he carefully climbed out of bed, not wanting to wake the other guy as he pulled his jeans on and a tank top and made his way out to the kitchen.

By the time he had the table set and finished serving up the bacon, Cas finally emerged from the bedroom wearing his signature trench coat as he rubbed his tired eyes.

"Good morning." Cas called out sleepily causing Dean to snort because the man probably just woke up, smelt the bacon and walked straight out here.

"Good morning, sunshine. Coffee?" Dean asked already pouring two cups.

Cas immediately nodded and sat down, staring at the eggs and bacon in front of him.

"Have I ever told you how amazing you are?" Cas asked.

"Only every time I cook for you." He responded placing Cas' coffee in front of him before he sat down and started to eat.

They spent most the day outside. Cas offered to help with the last of the weeds in Bobby's garden, but Dean declined, telling Cas to study for his test. But, of course, Cas didn't really study much, too busy watching Dean work in tight jeans and a tank top that exposed his muscles, Cas had no chance of focusing when his boyfriend looked like that.

Dean realised that he was a distraction, so while he worked he quizzed on Cas the Russian Revolution to help him get some studying in before his history test next week.

That night the two of them stayed inside the cabin. Cas sat on the couch while Dean started the fire in the small fireplace before he joined Cas on the couch who instantly moved over and wrapped his arm over Dean's shoulders.

"I saw the scars on your back and chest last night... What happened?" Cas said softly, his voice uncertain like he wasn't sure if he should be asking about it or not.

He glanced over at Dean who's eyes were focused on the small flames of the fire, but Cas didn't miss how Dean's body tensed slightly under him.

"If you don't wanna tell me, it's okay." He quickly added, not wanting to make him uncomfortable.

"My dad." Dean muttered, not taking his eyes off the fire as he spoke. "He's an aggressive drunk and just looks for a fight. If I talked back to him, I got hit. If I didn't say anything, I got hit. Hell, some days if I blinked, I got hit. But, on the bad days, he'd use his belt. Most of the scars are from the belt."

He always tried to hide his scars. He didn't want people to see and ask questions, he didn't want anyone to know. Not even Lee or Jo know about the scars. Sure, they had seen him with bruises that they knew were from John, but they didn't know how bad it got. And he would make sure that they never do.