My Greatest Mistake

6. Dinner

Dinner was always a hectic affair in the Novak household. There were seven people in the house, and none of them were very proficient in cooking. Since it was never agreed upon who would be the designated cook, the responsibility rotated. The night that the Winchesters came over it happened to be Castiel's turn.

He had apologized profusely to the brothers, stuttering and blushing, before Sam smiled at him and offered to help. Dean then demanded to be included as well, as had Balthazar, after convincing Gabe join in on 'the party,' as he had put it. That was how, fifteen minutes later, the five of them were sitting on the floor covered in flour, laughing so hard they were clutching their stomachs.

They hadn't meant for it to end up this way, but when Gabe 'accidentally' knocked over the flour bag onto Dean's head, war had broken out. Dean had retaliated by throwing the bag at Gabe, who ducked, and it hit Sam instead. The youngest Winchester had then mistakenly thrown the flour at Balthazar, who yelled "food fight!" and chucked it at Cas, the only one still attempting to make dinner. The supposed cooks had taken one look at each other, and the kitchen, before collapsing in laughter, and remained that way until Lucifer had pushed open the swinging door leading to the wrecked room.

"Pizza," he said weakly. "You were supposed to be making pizza. How can you mess up pizza?" He stepped more into the room, taking in the full extent of the damage before grabbing the flour bag. With a sudden movement he turned, and threw the bag at Cas. The room erupted as flour was again thrown at everyone. Anyone who entered the room became ensnared by the flying powder, and soon Michael was the only one not participating, save Raphael of course. When he finally ventured to open the door, the eldest Novak was hit full on by a handful of flour.

"What on Earth," he began, before Lucifer took the bag - which, surprisingly, still had quite a bit of flour in it - and emptied its contents onto his twin's head. The whole room fell silent until Michael grabbed an open carton of eggs off the counter and threw it at Lucifer.

War broke out, and this time, they meant business. Alliances formed within seconds: Sam, Dean, Cas, and Lucifer joined together to oppose Micheal, Gabe, Balthazar, and Crowley. The two sides fought ruthlessly and mercilessly, each hoping to win the majority of the kitchen. The island in the middle of the room served as a moot point - no man's land - and also as an excellent shield for the flying food debris. Dean was quick to dub their alliance 'the Light Side,' and it's members 'Jedi Knights,' before revealing the others to be 'Sith Lords' who were part of 'the Dark Side.' To no one's surprise, the names stuck.

The super nerds are revealing themselves, Cas thought wryly after ducking an egg hurtled over the island by Gabriel. And I'm one of them, he added internally, before throwing a slice of salami in retaliation.

By the end of the war the Light Side had won the fridge, counters, and appliance areas, successfully rendering the Dark Side incapable of fuelling up on ammunition. The Sith, however, had more floor area, as the space behind the island was uncluttered by basic kitchen materials, and was larger to begin with. They declared it a tie in the end, based on the fact that that was the only option where the outcome was not another battle.

They were out of food, anyways. At least, food they were willing to waste. Gabriel refused to let anyone touch his Lucky Charms, and Lucifer vowed that anyone who so much as considered using the coffee would "feel the pain of having their balls slowly sawed off with an excruciatingly dull and rusty knife." The fear of this fate, mingled with the agreement that coffee was sacred and should be used only for good, ensured an ending to the fight.

In the end, they still had pizza. It turned out Micheal, upon hearing the yelling coming from the kitchen, took preemptive measures and ordered in. The door bell had rung just after the fight ended and, covered in various food detritus, the eight had gathered in the living room.

After a brief scuffle over who had control of the TV, which resulted in food being smeared across yet another room, they were all seated in various locations watching the new Sherlock episode and eating their pizza. Cas - seated beside Dean on the floor in front of the coffee table - realized that for the first time in quite a long while, he was truly and genuinely happy.

Grinning, he gazed around the room, noting with satisfaction that even after only knowing the brothers for a few hours, his family was already treating them like their own. Sam was sitting on the couch with Gabe and Balthazar, chatting animatedly about his theories for the episode as it progressed. Cas watched them for a few moments, enjoying the way the boys' faces lit up whenever they discovered a new theory.

He diverted his attention back to Dean, and entertained himself with watching the way his eyebrows pulled together when he was thinking about something. Smiling softly to himself he noted the flour dusting the quarterback's hair, and suppressed the urge to reach out and brush it away.

That's not something friends do Castiel, he reminded himself, and that's all you can be: friends. Saddened, he turned his attention back to the TV, and there it remained until the show ended.

Dean turned to him then, and thanked him for the pizza. He looked regretful, and explained, "As much as I'd like to get involved in another epic food fight, the two of us had better get going. We both have homework, and Sammy here has to get up early tomorrow for math club, the dork."

"Oh, no, that's fine," Cas answered. "Thank you for coming over and proving to my brothers that I actually talk to people."

Dean just smiled, and led Sam away from the twins. "Before those pranksters can use my brother's brain for any more of their evil purposes," he explained on their way out.

Dean, Cas was slowly realizing, was a bit of a drama queen.

When the Winchesters had gone and the Novaks were finally settling down for the night, Cas realized that he was glad he had gotten detention. He thanked Mr Singer silently, and closed his eyes, picturing Dean smiling and laughing until he feel asleep with the quarterback's green eyes imprinted in his head.

||A/N: Hi yes my boy is gay thanks that's all.

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