"consequences & new beginnings"

Chaper 8.consequences & new beginnings

"Is Castiel coming?" Mary asked poking her head out of the kitchen

"Yes mom, don't make it weird."
"My special boy only turns 18 once." Mary teased, reaching over to try to pinch his cheek.

"Mom! It's a totally normal day. I told you I didn't want a big event or anything. I didn't even mention it to Cas, he just wants me to do a little car maintenance for him." Dean replied grumpily, straightening his glasses on his face.

"I know honey, it's just been so long since I've seen you two together, I'm just so excited the two of you are friends again."
"Yeah well don't make it weird. It's not some chick flick mom, no one is confessing their love at the dinner table all Hallmark-style. This is just car stuff and dinner."

"Right." Mary repeated back. "Car stuff and dinner."

Dean rolled his eyes. He hadn't planned for Sammy to be out of the house today, but when he nearly tripped over him on his way out the door to Andy's that morning he felt like his mom was up to something. And yeah he had tried to be totally normal when he asked Cas to come over this weekend for dinner without context, knowing that his mom would be extra from sun-up to sun-down. He took a moment to pull out his phone and look through the texts he had missed while picking up the house. Today was in fact his birthday. He had several texts, facebook messages, and skype messages about it already. It didn't feel like a big deal, but his mother insisted that it was. Being 18 felt no different than any other age, plus he was still in highschool. So his mom planned some special dinner she won't tell him anything about (even though he could totally smell a pie baking), and secretly sent Sammy to his friends house. Everything was still going to be normal.

.

The doorbell felt like it jostled him alert. There were those bees in his stomach again. It's fine, it's just Cas, there's no reason to be nervous. He took another breath and nervously adjusted his glasses on his face.

"Castiel!" Mary called out as she threw the door open. "Look at you dear, oh my goodness, you've gotten so tall. Please, come in come in!"

"Hello Mrs. Winchester, it's lovely to see you again."

"Oh please, you can call me Mary, sweetie."

"Cas, you made it!" Dean joked as he finally entered the room. Cas smiled back at him and wiggled out of his mother's grasp. Of course she couldn't stop herself from hugging him.

"Okay, I'll get to finishing up dinner, you boys go do whatever you boys do."

Cas took his real first steps into the Winchester residence and looked around. Dean gestured towards the living room and Cas followed expectantly.

"I don't wanna get dirty and then come back and eat. Wanna play a few rounds while she finishes dinner?"

"Play a few rounds?" Cas asked confused.

"You know like, a video game. I have Halo, Mario Kart, Mario Party, other non-Mario related games. Do you have a preference?"

"You're going to laugh at me but my father never bought us gaming consoles after we moved, so the only time I played video games growing up was over here. I'm afraid I'm not going to a terribly formidable opponent."

Dean laughed and tossed Cas a controller.

"Then I'll go easy on you I guess."

Cas smiled back and inspected the controller with intent. He was not, in fact, good at video games, Dean quickly learned. They started out with Mario Kart, Cas' body on alert and brow furrowed as he took the turns and slid off the map anyways. It took a few rounds for him to ease into it and finally settle on the couch next to Dean, but he eventually did. It was comfortable. They had only really been friends again for a month or so and Cas always seemed to take a moment to actually take his ease in a conversation, even if it was just a group conversation with friends. He always seemed tense upon arrival and took his time warming up, as if he didn't trust himself to be well received. Mental note: make sure Cas feels included