Here’s a ficlet about Dean dragging Cas to the movies to see Pacific Rim because reasons. Set in Season 9 and grossly fluffy.
As soon as Cas is situated in the bunker, looking like himself after a long shower and a proper meal, he tells them everything. About the traveling, living in shitty motels and sometimes, with the homeless, about the angels pursuing him, everything. They go to bed at 4 am, exhausted from talking through most of the night, worried but glad to be together again.
But it’s not like they can pick up the next day and start hunting angels or something. They don’t even know if they should. They don’t know anything. So unless those sons of bitches come after them, they’re not about to go in blind. Cas, though, looks like he wants to, if not go after them, do something, because he’s almost thrumming with nervous energy. He can’t though, they know that much, not when he’s just fresh into humanity. So Dean and Sam try to direct that energy towards helping him transition into humanity, show him the ropes so to speak.
There’s only so much they can show him though, the guy learns pretty quickly and having been among humanity for so long, hell, having seen humanity develop, he knows the basics. And well, as the learning stops being interesting, he starts getting kind of mopey and really into the library. Spends hours holed in his room with a pile of books and only comes out with some coaxing from Dean when his stomach starts protesting. But when Dean sees him disappearing with a sandwich into that black hole of a room, he figures enough is enough and it’s time to initiate phase two of Humanity 101. Having a good time.
He barges into Cas’s room a few hours later, dressed and determined.
"Cas!" He says too loudly, inciting a squint from Cas who’s huddled on the bed with not one or two but four books in front of him, seeming to be reading all of them at once. Christ.
"What? I already ate, Dean." He replies, looking back down at his books.
"No, c’mon, we’re going out. You’ve been reading in this dark room for hours, that shit’s not good for your eyes, man."
Cas looks at him like he finds him the most annoying thing in existence. Ever. He sighs a little dramatically and closes all four books. Dean just flashes him a toothy grin.
"Where are we going?" He asks, sounding as if it’s physically hurting him to be pulled away from his books.
"We’re gonna go see a badass movie and have a good time, alright? Those books will be here when you get back."
He grumbles all the way through getting dressed, Dean can hear the fucker complaining from outside the door and all the way out of the bunker and into the Impala.
"Cas, will you shut up? You’re gonna have fun, I promise and if you don’t you can stay in that room and read all the books you want okay? I won’t bother you about doing crap again."
Cas looks interested at that idea, perking up a little. Dean shakes his head, sighing.
"What are we seeing?" Cas says, as they’re arriving at the small parking lot of the movie theater a town over.
"Pacific Rim. It has giant, like godzilla giant aliens and people in giant metal suits fighting them. And it’s the apocalypse. Without angels and demons. So, awesome.”
Cas looks a little skeptic but gets out of the car anyway, the two of them making it into the dark theater just as the previews end, each with popcorn in hand.
They find a seat at the back even though the theater’s mostly empty, at Dean’s prompting.
"Is this your first time at a movie theater?" Dean whispers. Cas nods at him distractedly, while shoving popcorn into his mouth, his eyes already focused on the movie. Dean grins and settles in for a good 2 hours of awesome.
He can’t help but sneak little glances at Cas, wanting to make sure he’s enjoying it. He seems pretty into it, eyes glued to the screen, even chuckles a few times, though not always when someone makes a joke. And then Yancy is getting wrenched out of the jaeger and a empathetic pang goes through him for Yancy yes, but mostly for Raleigh, and he hadn’t even noticed Cas tensing up but then there’s a hand clutching at the back of his, sudden warmth tugging at his own.
He looks over to see Cas leaning forward towards the screen, face twisted up in surprise and horror. Then it’s over, he’s gone and Raleigh is screaming after him and Cas finally notices where his hand is. He pulls it away sharply and looks Dean in the eye. Something passes between them, electric in the dark room, the sounds of fighting on the screen fading for a second. Dean breaks it first, swallows thickly and mumbles an it’s fine as h looks away. He can still feel Cas’s hand though, a distracting phantom sensation. He rubs the hand against his jeans, trying to focus on the movie.
Dean makes it through the most of the rest just fine, the movie is actually pretty damn awesome so it’s not like it takes much to focus. But then Cas’s hand is back clutching at his arm this time when Raleigh looks as good as dead. Dean knows he can’t be, they can’t kill the protagonist after all that but Cas doesn’t know movies like he does so he’s staring at the screen, looks seriously worried and Dean wants to kiss the look off his for a second.
Okay. Where did that come from? But yeah there it is and it wouldn’t be the first time be thought that if he was being honest with himself. Cas is really close, radiating warmth and touching him and it’s doing it for him, unfortunately. Sad scene and all. So maybe this movie thing was a bad idea. But before he can think himself into a panic Cas’s hand loosens but he’s also he’s right there, grinning at Dean because Raleigh is alive after all and him and Mako are having their moment.
Dean tries to grin back as best as he can, seeing as he’s really turned on and well on his way to a boner just because Cas touched him on the arm what the fuck.
Cas finally stops touching him as the credits roll and he forces himself to think about old people having sex so he can calm himself down. Which, gross, but pretty effective.
They walk out in silence, the theater too filled with noise for them to talk but as soon as they’re in the lobby, Dean tries to make his voice sound normal and turns to Cas.
"Well?’ he says, knowing that Cas loved it but wanting to hear it anyway.
Cas rolls his eyes a little. “You were right, I enjoyed it. Tremendously. I especially found the idea of the drift really fascinating. I mean theoretically…” Dean zones out as Cas gushes, distracted by the thing that just happened. Okay. So. Dean’s not an idiot, he’s felt a connection between them before and he knows that they stand too close for friends and stare too much and he doesn’t mind so much. But he doesn’t sit in dark rooms with Cas for long periods of time much so he didn’t know it could be like that. Maybe it’s time they did something about this profound bond thing because whatever that was, he wants more; preferably somewhere more private and with less clothes on.
"… so do you think we would be" he hears Cas say as they get into the car.
"Sorry, what?"
Cas looks at him like he knows he’s talking to a 5 year old. “Drift compatible, Dean. I mean we do have a bond so do you think that would mean we would be drift compatible?” He cocks his head at Dean, looking like he’s half joking and half like he’s really wondering,
Yeah, he’s too much of a mess right now to even go near that. “I don’t know, Cas. Yeah, probably. We’d totally kick a lot of kaju ass though, am I right?” He says, taking his eyes off the the road to grin at him for a second. Cas smiles back at him warmly.
Yeah we’re compatible, alright, drift or not, Dean thinks to himself, really fucking compatible apparently.
