Standing Together

Chapter 48

Castiel tries his best to ignore the cameras trained on him as he leaves the airport. He's made it through a week in LA; he can make it to the car with no problem. Then he'll be back home, safe and sound and hiding from everyone.

He finds Dean waiting for him at the door to the airport, wearing a plain black hat with a newspaper in front of his face — not very inconspicuous, but at least people couldn't see his face, because he wouldn't want to deal with a bunch of groupies hounding his fiancé.

Castiel takes Dean's hand, and the boy immediately puts the newspaper down and leads him to the car. It's a pretty good system.

"How was California?" Dean asks as if they didn't talk every day while Castiel was away.

"Too many cameras," Castiel replies. "I just want to go home and do nothing in the privacy of our house."

Dean chuckles. "You picked a great time to come home then, because we're probably not getting back until nine, and it's completely socially acceptable to go to sleep at nine."

"Funny how that works out," Castiel says with a small, tired smile.

"It'll be nice, though," Dean says. "My bed felt way too big without you to share it with."

~~

The first thing Castiel sees when he steps into the house is the vase of flowers on the kitchen table. He glances over at his fiancé, who's oblivious to the weird look he's getting as he puts Castiel's suitcase down.

"What are those for?" Castiel asks, getting the boy's attention.

Dean follows his gaze to the vase. "Oh, this little girl was selling them outside the grocery store for some charity thing," he explains. "I figured it would be a nice little surprise when you got home."

Castiel can't help but smile. He wraps his arms around the boy and presses a kiss to his cheek. "You're the best."

"I know."

"Would it be super rude of me to just go to bed and have us catch up later?" Castiel asks. "It's been a long week and I haven't really gotten a lot of sleep."

"Too busy missing me?" Dean asks teasingly.

"I mean, you're not wrong," Castiel says. "It was really boring, being there alone."

"If you ever have to go back again, you should go during the spring," Dean says. "That way, I'm done with football so I can annoy you the whole time, and you'll never complain about being alone ever again!"

"That's a great solution," Castiel says. "I'll make sure to not do that."

Dean chuckles. "I think it was a beautiful plan, if I do say so myself, but you do you."

"Okay, now I'm actually going to bed," Castiel says. "Are you coming with?"

Dean shakes his head. "I took a nap after practice because waiting for you was too boring. I'll join you eventually." He presses a kiss to the boy's cheek. "Good night, Cas."

"'Night, Dean."

Castiel heads off to their bedroom alone, but he's too tired to really care. He carefully hangs his trench coat up in the closet, smoothing it down so it doesn't get wrinkled. He's not sure when he's going to wear it again, but he's not planning on going out in public again, so it may sit here for a long time.

He strips down to his boxers and climbs into bed. Dean's bed is a lot more comfortable than the hotel's, despite this mattress probably being a tenth of the price of the hotel's. Maybe he's just gotten used to this one, or maybe he subconsciously equates it with Dean's presence. Either way, he likes it.

Castiel's half asleep when Dean finally comes to bed that night. The door hinges squeak as Dean opens it, and there's a minute or two of near silence as Dean strips his clothes off, then lies down next to the boy.

Castiel reaches over without opening his eyes, wrapping an arm around the boy's bare torso. Dean puts his hands on top of his fiancé's, absentmindedly twisting his ring around his finger for a few moments.

"Goodnight, Cas," Dean whispers.

Castiel just hums in response.