A Dark Path

Untitled Part 13

They arrived in Sullivan, Missouri a little after the night had already fallen, and they found themselves a cheap motel to settle in the for the evening. Sam was the one to go up to the counter to ask for a room with two beds, knowing that Cas was too awkward to be of much help and that Dean would be too anxious about the attendant looking at them and wondering why only two beds when there were three men. While they waited for Sam to return to them with the key cards to their rooms, Dean piled the free cheeses and grapes onto a plate, grinning at their luck at free food, though Cas wasn't entirely sure of how much joy such little pieces of food could garner. By the time Sam did come back, Dean had stuffed too much of it in his mouth, and his cheeks were puffed out. Sam rolled his eyes, but Cas twitched his lips fondly at the sight. It was nice to see Dean behaving like his old self, no matter how childish his old self was.

The room itself was pleasant enough. It was cheap, so it didn't have too much to offer, and the decor was basic to say the least. However, unlike some of the other places they had to have stopped at for the night, this place was void of mold, rodent, or stains. So, all in all, it was a nice place to crash for a few days. That, and it had hot water, which always seemed to make Dean enthusiastically happy. As soon as they had entered the room and Dean had claimed the bed closest to the door, he announced loudly that he'd be taking a shower first and headed straight to the restroom. 

Sam rolled his eyes in bemusement. "I swear, he's gotten too spoiled by the bunker."

Cas looked at Sam for a moment, before directing his gaze to the closed restroom door, with his head slightly tilted. He could hear the shower being turned on and a soft humming that was coming from the seemingly content hunter. "That's good though, right?" A spoiled Dean, he figured, was better than a Dean that didn't allow himself to have anything nice or luxurious. "It means he's happy there."

"Oh, yea, he's defiantly happy there. I'm not saying it's a bad thing. Dean always wanted a home, no matter how much he hounded me about the importance of hunting -traveling around the country, saving people, hunting things-, and I think finding the bunker was sort of a dream come true for him." He sighed. "I just kind of wish it wasn't something that had to have happened during a time like this." And Cas knew exactly what he meant by that. "It sort of sucks that almost as soon as he gets the home that he's always wanted, something bad happens, turns his entire world upside down."

"But at least he has it," Cas tried to keep in mind. "Better to have a home now, when he needs it to ground himself, than to be without." With the Mark, Dean was already restless as it was. He couldn't fathom what Dean would be like if he had to be that kind of restless out here in motel from motel without a place to return to ever.

"Yea, I guess you're right." Not feeling like continuing the conversation, but it was bringing up thoughts Sam would rather not think about, Sam turned on the TV and settled onto the bed closest to the window.

Unsure of where to settle himself down, Cas stood for a time, until he noticed that Sam kept sneaking peeks at him awkwardly. Dean had mentioned once that it was weird when only one person was standing while everyone was sitting. So, not wanting to make the young hunter uncomfortable, Cas decided to take a seat on the edge of Dean's bed, attempting to be mesmerized by the show that was now playing. 

The show was a little louder than what was probably deemed appropriate at this time of night, but Cas had the suspicion Sam had it at that volume as to drown out Dean's humming as he took a shower. Though Cas was usually enthralled by different shows on TV, and always found them interesting in their views of humanity, he was too distracted by the melody coming from the walls that separated himself from Dean. While Sam obviously didn't want to hear his brother's off-tune humming, occasionally singing, Cas found it endearing and wished he could it even more clearly.