"Dean!" Cas called from the floor, hating that his voice was so shaky.
"Yeah?" Dean answered, coming back into the living room and leaning against the doorframe.
"I, uhh, I think the power just went out." Cas inched a little closer to Dean, trying not to make it look too obvious.
"I'm not that surprised, this is one of the worst storms we've had here in a couple years."
"Really? Is it that bad?"
Lightning clashed in front of the living room window, making Cas jump and his heart rate race.
"Nah, it's not too bad. A little thunder and lightning never hurt anyone."
"That's not true," Cas said quickly. "People die all the time from getting struck by lightning."
"No they don't, Cas, not all the time. You're always reading those phony websites that blow everything out of proportion."
Dean smiled reassuringly at Cas and then went into the kitchen and grabbed a lighter and a couple of candles.
He lit the candles first, setting them on the coffee table next to the puzzle he and Cas had been working on, then went to work on starting up a fire in the fireplace.
Cas wrapped his arms tighter around himself, missing the warmth Dean's body had been providing him when they were sitting next to each other.
The fire started, Dean stood up, throwing his head back and smirking proudly at Cas, earning himself an eye roll from the man sitting on the floor.
Dean knew he should be leaving, but Cas looked so miserable that he just couldn't manage to pull his eyes from him. Sighing in defeat, he grabbed the blanket from the back of the couch and took back his previous position against Cas's side. Throwing an arm around him and the blanket over their legs, he started working on the puzzle again.
Cas curled himself into Dean again, breathing in his scent and wishing he would never leave. With Dean there beside him, he could almost forget about the storm outside. He felt himself slowly start to drift off into unconsciousness.
"There we go, all finished" Dean said triumphantly, looking down at the completed puzzle. He glared down at the top of Cas's head, "no thanks to you."
"Aww, you know you love me," Cas mumbled, stretching a little.
"Yeah, I guess I do," Dean said, starting to get up.
"No, stay," Cas muttered into Dean's shirt, wrapping his arms around Dean's torso.
"I gotta get home, babe. The storm's getting worse. The last thing I need is to get stuck out in the middle of the road at this time of night."
Cas heard a loud clash of thunder and jumped again. He was willing to beg Dean to stay if that's what it took for him not to leave, but he also didn't want Dean to know he was scared of thunderstorms. His brothers had teased him about it ever since he was little and he didn't want Dean to think of him any differently.
Trying to play it nonchalantly, he tightened his grip on Dean and said, "just stay here tonight. The roads are too bad to be driving out there right now."
Dean rubbed Cas's back but made to stand up again, "naw, I should go." He and Cas had never spent the night together and Dean wanted to make sure that their first time was perfect.
"Dean-Dean, please. Just...don't go. Please," Cas said, his jaw starting to quiver as the storm outside intensified.
"I'm just gonna go to the bathroom quick," Dean said, hurrying from the room. He had to tear his eyes from Cas. The man had Dean's resolve shaking like the windows in this storm. He stood in the bathroom for a few minutes, talking himself into leaving, and took one last final deep breath before going to back to the living room.
In doing so, however, he saw Cas curled up on the floor, repeatedly banging his forehead against the couch cushions. Just like that, his power shattered like broken glass and he knew he wouldn't be able to leave the apartment no matter what happened outside. Inside, his Cas needed him.
He hurried into the kitchen before Cas could look up and see him staring from the doorway like a psycho. Coming back into the living room, he cleared his throat, causing Cas to look back up at him and rub his forehead.
"I've got all we need to last the night," Dean said, holding up another blanket, a couple pillows, a metal coat hanger and a bag of marshmallows.
Cas cocked his head to the side with a questioning look, but when Dean sat right in front of the fire, what he did with his hands was out of Cas's line of vision. It didn't take long until his curiosity got the best of him and he found himself scooting forwards to sit by Dean.
He had bent and twisted the metal hanger into a handle with two little pokes coming from it. Smiling proudly at what he'd accomplished, he pulled two marshmallows from the bag and stuck them onto the pokes.
"What on earth are you doing?"
"What, you've never had s'mores?" Dean joked.
"No, but aren't you supposed to cook them outside?"
"What? How could you never have had smores?"
Cas looked at Dean through his eyelashes with his head tilted down and his eyebrows raised.
Dean shook his head, remembering the strict, boring upbringing Cas had had to go through. "As soon as it's warm enough, you and me are going camping. And we're going to stuff ourselves with s'mores."
Cas grinned, "that sounds wonderful."
He watched as Dean browned the marshmallows slowly in the fireplace, the warmth of the fire on his front and Dean's arm around his back had him slowly feeling more and more sleepy.
Slowly eating the hot, sticky marshmallow Dean handed to him, Cas closed his eyes as he savored the taste. He couldn't believe he'd lived his entire life without knowing something so easy could taste so good.
"What'cha think?" Dean asked around his own mouthful of marshmallow.
Cas grinned widely, bits of white stuck all throughout his teeth.
Dean snorted, ducking his head and then looked back up into Cas's eyes. Smiling, he leaned forward and captured Cas's sticky lips with his own.
Cas forgot that there was a storm right outside and that they were in the middle of a blackout. Dean consumed all of his attention and he couldn't be more grateful for it.
Leaning back with a content sigh, Dean shifted on the floor to sit parallel to the fire and pulled Cas down onto the soft carpet with him. Cas tucked their blankets in around them while Dean readjusted their pillows and then Cas faced Dean as he laid down on the floor.
"Good night, Dean," he said with a light smile, slowly closing his eyes.
"G'night, Cas," Dean whispered, pulling Cas closer into his chest and wrapping his arms around him.
Holding each other close, they settled in for a long night as the forgotten storm raged on outside.
