Mint and apricots

7. Drill sergeant mode

It had not been more than ten minutes since Cas had reached the living room with his cellphone, when Jody knocked on his apartment's front door.

After all, the woman lived in the same building, only two floors below – which only confirmed Dean's theory that she and Castiel had made a blood pact in first grade and because of it they could never spend too much time apart. If Cas had been able to hear those thoughts buzzing in Dean's mind when Jody arrived, he would have given him an admonishing glance, one of those that usually managed to make the youngest of the couple grin. Instead, when Cas appeared on the doorway of the guest room, a couple of minutes later, he merely nodded in his husband's direction.

Reluctantly, Dean left his brother to the care of Jody, while struggling to return her smile. The doctor greeted Sam with quiet warmth, but the boy's response was muffled by the bedroom door closing. At that point, Dean had nothing left to do but follow his husband to the living area, dragging his feet like a child at the end of summer holidays.

Both of them sat on the sofa and stayed there, waiting. After a few seconds, Castiel put his arm around his partner's shoulders, caressing his shoulder in an attempt to quell the spark of resentment that still shone in his eyes. Dean understood his message and made an effort to be good for as long as possible, but after ten minutes of absolute silence the immense heat he had felt building up inside exploded in his stomach.

"Son of a bitch... son of a bitch!" he snarled, jumping to his feet and starting to walk around the living room with long strides under the amazed eyes of Cas, who had felt him slip away from under his fingers without warning. "I'm gonna kill him. I swear I'm gonna kill him. As soon as Jody gets out of there and tells me that everything is fine, because everything has to be fine, I'll take the car, go to that walking shit's house and take him out!"

Once he adapted his pace to his reasoning, his husband sighed and leaned his elbows on his knees.

"Dean..."

The thirty-year-old knew how to recognize the start of one of his sermons when he heard the tone.

"No, Cas, not this time. Don't look at me like that" he stopped him, shaking his head and raising his index finger in his direction to prevent the rest of the lecture. "I don't care what you have to say, I have to kill him and I have to kill him tonight."

Cas frowned and his eyes narrowed.

"Dean," he repeated, more resolute this time, and the other man turned back to him with a look of pure exasperation.

"What?"

Without conceding anything in terms of severity, his husband let his gaze wander from the entrance of the corridor leading to the sleeping area of the apartment, only to return to the fury in his eyes.

"You have to calm down," he added in his forcibly measured tone, marking his point as he would have done with a drunkard about to scream among the beds of a nursery. "Jody is visiting Sam in the room next door."

As much as he was ready to admit that his husband was often right, as well as the gift of being able to bring him back to Earth and to an acceptable behavior to the average human, this time Dean put his foot down, feeling the nails sticking in the palms of his hands.

"Yes, exactly, and do you remember why? Because that asshole beat my brother bloody and he... he... Christ, Cas, can't you understand how I feel? I couldn't help giving my father a hard time, when he gave Sam a slap, and now that insane pig dared..."

He had raised his voice without even realizing it, yet Cas did not seem to have the strength to stop him, not that evening. As soon as his husband started shouting, he pressed a hand over his eyes and took a deep breath to remain present to himself and look for a way to mend the rifts that had torn Dean's sense of measure.