Supernatural One-Shots

Houses

A/N - I found myself drifting away from continuing this fic after I started writing it, but I was really happy with the way it turned out when I did finish it. High School AU, because who doesn't secretly adore those kind of fics. Cliche as they may be.

Dean sat slumped against his bed, plucking at the strings on the old guitar and absentmindedly adjusting the tuning pegs. Cas was listening as he gazed out the window, picking at the loose thread on his jeans.

"Your house is cool," Cas mentioned lightly, as his eyes followed light drops of water falling from the sky onto the pavement below.

Dean scoffed behind him. Cas turned around and frowned.

"What?" Cas asked, somewhat indignantly.

Dean abruptly broke off his picking of the guitar strings, and gestured around him. The rainfall outside grew heavier.

"You call this 'cool'?" Dean laughed, an edge of bitterness seeping through. "My bedroom is literally an attic."

"Hey, it's nice," Cas protested, suddenly feeling defensive of it. He looked down to the floor of Dean's bedroom, running his fingers over the old wooden floorboards. Cas liked how they were firm and solid to the touch, despite their age.

"It's enough," Dean conceded. "There's a kitchen and a bathroom and room for Sammy and I to sleep, and Dad when he checks in. But I wouldn't call it 'nice'."

"It's perfect," Cas insisted, still looking at the floor. "It's small, but it's perfect."

"Your house is perfect," Dean muttered as he looked back down at the guitar, flushing slightly. Cas rolled his eyes.

Cas wanted to escape his house - or manor, rather - more often than he wanted to be around it, which was unfortunate because Dean always insisted on visiting Cas's house whenever they hung out after school. Today, Cas had finally put his foot down and demanded their venue be Dean's house, far away from his family's sterile white walls.

So Cas met up with Dean at the end of the day, and joined him at the Middle School gates to pick up Sam. Cas smiled fondly when Dean strode forward to throw an arm around his little brother's shoulder, ruffle his brown hair, and teased him about the stack of books in his arms, the content of which Cas noticed were several grades the fourteen-year-old's senior. Sam pushed him off, sassily commenting about Dean being jealous just because he couldn't possibly wrap his Neanderthal head around comprehending the same books. Ending, of course, with Dean calling him a 'bitch' and Sam automatically responding with 'jerk'.

Way too selfless for his own good as usual, Sam offered Cas shotgun seat with a cheerful smile. They drove until they reached the dilapidated neighbourhood, which Cas observed through the Impala's window as they travelled past, and pulled up at the rundown, one-story house at the end of the street. A woman with long brown hair made her way over when the boys got out of the car, and Dean relaxed considerably at the sight of her, after being visibly on edge for the majority of the car ride.

"Ellen!" he called out, pleasure evident in his voice. "Good to see you."

"Hey there boys," the woman - Ellen - smiled back, pulling them in for brief hugs. Sam squirmed playfully when she planted a kiss in his hair.

"And who's this?" Ellen asked warmly when she let them go and noticed Cas, who was leaning against the hood of the Impala.

"Oh, this is Cas," Dean said, looking back and smiling at him dazzlingly, hands in his pockets. "He's my... friend from school."

Cas forced himself to stop staring at Dean's smile and instead move forward to shake Ellen's hand.

"It's good to meet you," Cas greeted, mirroring her smile. "I've heard a lot."