A Hunters Heart

What Could Have Been

It was around 10 in the morning when Dean woke up. The first thing he recalled from this sleep was the lack of nightmares. Maybe it's 'cuz Cas is here... he thought, but immediately rejected the idea that Cas would do that for him. Or even could do that with faded grace. He sat up in his bed and heard his stomach shake. Hungry. He put on pajama pants and an old, worn out, ACDC t-shirt and trudged out of his room. He was still tired when he passed Sam's room, but the sight before him woke him up entirely.
On the bed was Sam, asleep in a sitting position with his waist up against the headboard of the bed. That part was normal. The strange thing about this picture was what Sam held in his arms. Wrapped up in Sam's arms was an asleep Lexi. It was obvious that they fell asleep like that and Lexi hadn't just curled up next to him. No. Sam was embracing her against his chest. Lexi's light snores were muffled by Sam's shirt and Sam's head bobbed off to the side.
Dean smiled. He knew Sam had a thing for her the second they met, but how obvious he made it was painful. Dean closed the door to Sam's room so they could have some privacy. He walked towards the study in hopes of continuing the case.
As Dean walked into the study, Castiel walked out the other exit, towards the kitchen. Cas had glanced back and gave Dean a nod, to acknowledge his presence, but continued walking. It was obvious that Castiel had been working all night. On one of the tables, piles of books towered over a small pad of paper and an open book. The open one was obviously Stans In Infernis Porta, but now it had a few english translations written in between the lines of Enochian.
Dean sat down across from the books and opened one, pretending to be busy. He didn't want to have to deal with Cas this early in the morning. He knew they were going to have to learn to mend their relationship. They might not be able to get back to the way they used to be, but they had to get along to some degree, for the case.
Dean was absentmindedly flipping through the worn and torn pages of some old book when he looked up and saw Cas placing a mug of steaming hot coffee in front of him. Dean's reflexes kicked in and he reached for it, sipping the hot liquid and enjoying it's almost bitter taste. It took him a few seconds to realize that Cas had just brought him coffee. Cas had just brought him coffee. Cas just brought coffee to Dean. There's something off about that. Dean looked to the angel who was making his way to the other side of the table.
"Cas..?" He asked, gesturing to the mug.
"Yes, Dean?" Castiel spoke, seeing nothing wrong. But, as Dean once again gestured to the mug, Castiel's eyes widened. "Sorry, it must be a force of habit." he said dismissively, "would you like me to empty it into the sink?"
"No!" Dean answered, almost too quickly, "just, get back to translating." Castiel seemed to take this as a gesture of friendship and smiled. He then looked down and continued to translate the book.
Dean didn't notice. He was too focused on the cup of coffee. He was immediately snapped back to a memory of not-so-long ago.
~Dean put two cups of coffee on the Men of Letters' table. One for him, and one for Sam.
"Sammy," he said, "We've got to talk."
"Damn, Dean! If this is your idea of the sex talk, it a little too late for that!"
"NO! Ew. God, no. No, this is about Cas." Dean pulled a small black velvet box out of his jacket pocket and set it on the table. Sam's eyes widened as he realized what this was.
"No way!"
"Yeah," Dean said, he looked down, failing to hide the smile on his face.
"How are you gonna ask him?"
"That's what I need help with. Cas is into all that romantic crap. I like it well enough, but nothing I find does him justice."
"Okay. Try taking him out for dinner."
"There isn't a place I could find that fits. Everything with the stereotypical "Proposal" vibe isn't... us." Sam couldn't help but smile at this. His brother was finally going to be happy.
"I've got a feeling that no matter how hard you look, any place that screams 'proposal' isn't going to be your guys' thing."
"That's why I need your help, Sam."
"Okay, well, when do you want to..." Sam tried not to laugh at what he was about to say, "pop the question?"
Both brothers smiled at this.
"This weekend, one year from when I finally mustered up the courage to kiss that sonovabitch."
"Wait. You waited until NOW to tell me!"
"I've been a little pre-occupied."
"Okay, you know that diner that we passed? The one that we thought there was a shifter at, but it just turned out to be a mugger?"
"Yeah...."
"There was an empty warehouse next to that. Kind of like a barn." Dean nodded, signalling he was still listening, "Take him there."
"You're kidding me. That place is a dump!"
"I'll go help you clean it out. you can set up a table in the middle of the room. Make him dinner. Burgers. Bread with honey. You know what he likes!"
Dean started nodding. "I can see where you're going with this!". Suddenly, they heard footsteps draw near. Dean pulled the ring-box back into his jacket pocket and took a sip of his coffee. By the time Cas had walked into the kitchen, the only remnants of the conversation were floating in the brothers' minds.~
"Dean. Dean!" Cas had been trying to get his attention.
"Sorry, what?"
"I was just telling you that I've got most of it figured out, but there are a few syllables that I can't decode."
"Just keep trying. I'm sure you'll figure it out." Dean said, still distracted by the memories lingering in his mind