Standing Together

Chapter 142

Dean and Castiel are sitting on the couch together, doing a grand total of absolutely nothing. Castiel is snuggled against him, his feet curled up on the couch, and Dean is holding him close, which may sound cute, but it's not very entertaining.

"Hey, Cas?" Dean says after a while.

"Mm?"

"Do you wanna go out?"

Castiel's brows draw together. "Go out?" They're already dating. Hell, they were dating for so long, they've already been engaged for going on two years. What is Dean on?

"Yeah, go out," he says. "Go get dinner or something."

"Oh." Castiel thinks about that for a moment. "We could order a pizza."

"Well, we could," Dean says. "Or we could actually go out. We could even order a pizza and eat it at the pizza place."

"Why?"

"I don't know. I feel like we never do anything," Dean says. "I just want to have a low-key date night to shake it up a little."

"Oh."

Apparently, that's not the response he was looking for, because he adds quickly, "Unless you don't want to, of course. If you wanna just get a pizza, we can do that, too. It's up to you."

Personally, Castiel doesn't really care what they do. He's not too keen on having a date night, but he also knows he'd be bored if they didn't, too. But if Dean wants to go out, they might as well do it. Castiel kind of wants to take a nap, but he's sure he'll enjoy their night if he can just gather the motivation to stand up.

"Where do you want to go?" Castiel asks.

"I don't know," Dean says. "Olive Garden? They have really good breadsticks."

"Sure," Castiel says. "Can I take a shower first, though? I haven't showered in, like, three days."

"Yeah, sure," Dean says. "I gotta shave, anyway."

Castiel looks up at him and rubs his hand against the stubble on Dean's face. "But I like the beard."

"And I like looking exactly the same every time I leave the house," Dean says. "On the off chance someone snaps a picture of us, I refuse to debut my not-quite-beard tonight."

"Maybe we shouldn't go out, then."

Dean scoffs. "Seriously? My beard is the deal breaking?"

Castiel chuckles. "No, I'm just messing with you."

"I should've known," Dean says. "You're not that mean."

"No, I'm not," Castiel agrees. "But I do really like the beard."

"Tell you what," Dean says. "I'll shave it for today, and then I'll grow it back out for you. It'll only take a couple days."

"Okay," Castiel says, "but I'm holding you to that."

~~

"Hey, Dean?" Castiel says loudly, struggling to be heard over the noise of the shower.

"Sup?" Dean asks from the bathroom sink, where he's currently in the process of shaving his beard and breaking Castiel's heart.

"Have you showered at all in the last few days?" Castiel asks, something that didn't occur to him until now.

"No, thus the beard," Dean says. "Why do you ask?"

"Maybe you should take a shower before we go, too."

"Eh," he says. "I'm good."

"Dean!" Castiel whines. "You can't go to Olive Garden when you haven't showered in days."