When one of his first hunts after becoming human again ends in injury, Castiel is faced with the helplessness of his mortality. Through it all Dean is a constant presence at his side, ever the attentive caregiver, which only serves to increase the tension growing between them.
“There’s a diner I saw driving in, MJ's, I think. Looks promising -- they have lots of burgers,” Dean says.
“I do love burgers, though I’ve yet to find one that outdoes yours,” Cas says, and feels his heart do a little flip in his chest when Dean’s face turns a gentle shade of pink and he huffs out a pleased laugh.
“Flattery will get you everywhere, Cas.”
“I sure hope so,” Cas answers, completely serious, but as expected Dean takes it as a joke and snorts.
Dean looks up again and sees Sam coming back towards the car with a thumbs up and a grin.
“I’m guessing that means you found them,” Dean says, as Sam slides back into the passenger seat.
“Yep, all passed out right now waiting for nightfall,” Sam says, “Should be a piece of cake to take them out.”
“Awesome,” Dean answers, and brings the Impala to life.
In five minutes they’re seated at MJ’s, Dean next to Cas on one side of the booth and Sam across from them flipping through the menu with furrowed eyebrows. The restaurant has a Build-A-Burger option, so it was fairly easy for Cas to decide on a basic burger with onions, mushrooms, mustard, and ketchup.
“Mushrooms, onions, ketchup AND mustard? Cas, that’s gross and it definitely won’t be better than mine,” Dean says, squinting at him in distaste.
“I don’t expect it to be, but there’s a lot of flavors which is why I want to try it.”
“Hmm, well, you can have your weird burger and Sam can have his fancy salad, but I’ll stick to flavors that actually go together.”
Despite his protests at Cas’ burger, Dean’s still enamored with the fact that they even have a Build-A-Burger option and takes extra time to look through all the choices before he decides. Cas watches him, amused at Dean's excitement. The booth they’re sitting in is small and Dean’s thigh is pressed against his, warm and something his brain finds incredibly distracting. Cas decides to focus on sipping at his ginger ale instead, a new drink he hadn’t explored the first time as a human. It turns out he truly enjoys it. It’s tart and bubbles against his tongue in a nice way, smoother than cola and tastier than beer.
Cas has found that focusing on other sensations to take away from the ones he needs to be distracted from is a neat human trick whenever he gets overwhelmed, in both good ways and bad.
