He can tell himself it’s just normal the first few feathers he finds on the ground.
But when he finds almost a whole pile under the chair Cas sits in, Dean finally confronts the angel.
“Dude, what the hell? You’re like a damn Husky, but with fucking feathers. You sick or something?”, he asked, drawing Benny’s attention from the book propped open in his hands (the Iliad, based on the gold foil reflecting off the cover).
Cas glanced at the ground behind him, then back at Dean, a sheepish look on his face.
“It’s... no, I’m not sick.”, he said when Dean’s last comment fully registers. “I’m an angel of the lord, I can’t get sick.”
Dean just heard a soft snort from the vampire tucked in the corner of the library, but by the time he glanced over at him, Benny’s turned back to reading.
“I know that Cas.”, Dean said, looking a little exasperated. “But why are you dropping feathers?”
“It’s probably a molt.”
Dean waited for him to elaborate, but Cas instead chose to just stare at Dean, his head tilted every so slightly to the side.
He loves him, but sometimes Dean really just wants to strangle Cas.
“A molt? Since when do you molt? And what the hell does that mean? We’re gonna be cleaning up feathers for the next month?”
“No, it should only last a week or two. Less if I can manage to pluck most of the dead feathers.”, Cas said matter-o-factly. “They don’t happen that often. Maybe once every ten human years.”
Dean just glanced back over at Benny, hoping to find some kind of assistance, but he can tell by Benny’s face he is pointedly not looking up at them to avoid said assistance.
The motherfucker.
“Alright, well, you said it’ll last a week unless you can pluck the feathers. Need help doing that? Not like Benny or I have anything better to do.”, Dean said, not giving Benny a choice whether he wants to help or not.
“Speak for yourself, Winchester. I am reading.”, Benny called over, icy blue eyes giving Dean a death stare that from any other vampire would probably have Dean backing off, but with Benny, he knows better.
He’s a freaking teddy bear when it comes to Dean and Cas.
“A book that you’ve said yourself you’ve read like a dozen times. Stop being an ass and come help.”, Dean shot back, earning a grumble from the Southerner, but Benny just begrudgingly shoved his bookmark into the book, and left it on the table next to his chair.
He got up and walked over, still glaring at Dean, who looked unfazed and unamused.
Cas, meanwhile, looked both grateful and embarrassed.
“I- I mean, it’s fine, you guys don’t have to help, I can get most of it myself-“
Cas was shut up by Benny, who just flicked the back of the angel’s head lightly.
“Shut up and let us help you.”, he grumbled. He still wasn’t a huge fan of being awake during the day, as his body fought him being awake, but he endured it to stay on the same sleep schedule as the rest of them.
Cas just glanced between the two, looking for a moment like he was about to protest again, before a slight shimmer, like rising heat, passed through the air, and a couple seconds later, two large black wings were draped over the back of the chair.
Dean had seen Cas’s wings only a couple of times before, as he didn’t usually walk around with them in a corporeal form, as they could be annoying and cumbersome.
But they usually looked much sleeker and glossier than they did now. Even as Dean watched, a slight breeze from Benny moving caused a tattered feather to drift to the floor.
“Dude, you look like you got dragged around in the dirt.”, Dean said, lifting one of his wings gently, a couple feathers drifting to the floor as he did.
“I’m aware.”, Cas snapped, sounding annoyed.
“Oh, relax, angel.”, Benny said, leaning against the table, not really knowing how to handle Cas’s wings, so he just hung back for the moment. “Y’know he’s just teasing.”
Cas just grumbled something in Enochian at that, but stretched his wings out a bit more.
“So... what do we do?”, Dean asked, not exactly well versed in wing maintenance.
“Just find any that look tattered and pull them out. If they’re molting they’ll pretty much fall out.”, Cas said, leaning over slightly to rest his arms on the table, laying his head in his arms. “I’d go get a garbage bag or something, there will probably be a lot.”
“On it.”, Benny said, heading out of the room towards the kitchen.
Dean meanwhile ran his fingers through Cas’s wings, a slight shudder passing down the angel’s spine at that.
“Sorry.”, Dean said, pulling his hands away.
“ ‘S okay.”, Cas murmured. “Feels good. Don’t be surprised if I fall asleep.”, he said. “It feels nice to not have to try and contort yourself to get the old feathers out.”, he said.
Dean glanced over when Benny came in carrying a couple garbage bags, flicking one out as he walked in and handed it to Dean, who looped the drawstrings around the back of one of the chairs to keep it open, while Benny did the same on Cas’s other side.
Dean caught sight of a glint of blue, seeing Cas with his head turned to watch Dean with that usual lack of care that he’s been caught staring.
Dean just dragged a chair over, sitting down behind Cas’s wing, and started pulling through the feathers, dropping the ones that fell into his hands in the garbage bag.
They work in silence, Benny on one wing, Dean on the other, Cas staying still and quiet between them. He shifts a few times towards the beginning, but about half an hour in, Dean starts hearing soft snores coming from the dark-haired angel.
Benny looked amused at that, grinning slightly when he picks up on the snores as well, but just turns back to Cas’s right wing.
Dean finds it relaxing, just a simple task to do, especially one that’s helping Cas. He so rarely asks for help, that Dean’s glad for any chance to help him in some way, to make up for all the times Cas has helped him over the years.
It took the two of them a good hour to finish Cas’s wings, and when they do, they looked a little ratty, a lot of the feathers now in garbage bags, but Dean knows they’ll grow back. It’s better than how they looked after Cas had fallen. He still remembered the shadowy look of his wings then, barely more than bones with a few feathers clinging on.
Jack had restored all of the angel’s wings, as well as opened Heaven up fully again, essentially reversing everything Metatron had done.
Dean was glad. He knew Cas had hated the look of his wings before Jack had restored them, which was why this was the first time Dean had seen them in years.
He stood up and tied off the bag of feathers he had, almost the entire bag full of black feathers. They’d figure out something to do with them later.
Benny meanwhile had already done the same, and gently shook Cas awake, who startled for a second.
“Wha-“, Cas murmured, sitting up slightly, before he yawned, the yawn giving him enough time to remember why he’d fallen asleep at the library table, glancing back at his wings, stretching them slightly, and beamed.
“Thank you.”, he said, smiling at Dean and Benny. “That feels much better.”
“Good.”, Dean said, leaning over to kiss his forehead. “But next time, ask us for help.”, he said.
“Well, I’ll probably need your help again in a few days.”, Cas said. “When the feathers that didn’t get pulled today start falling off.”
“Oh no, the torture.”, Benny said, his voice dripping with sarcasm. “Just let us know when you want our help, cher.”, he said, ruffling Cas’s hair slightly, before he walked back over to the corner of the library, sitting down and picking up his book again.
Dean rolled his eyes at him, but just gave Cas a soft smile. “I’ll go put these bags in the armory, we can figure out something to do with them later.”, he said.
Cas just nodded, laying his head back on his arms, watching Dean head out of the library, just smiling softly as he closed his eyes again, and drifted back off to sleep.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
((A drabble? With actual dialogue? It’s more likely than you think!
But seriously, this is some of the first actual dialogue I’ve written in forever, XD. And please excuse any changes of like tense (past/present), I kept flopping back and forth for some reason and tried to get it under control, but it was making me not want to write it so I said fuck it and just wrote it XD.
Will be posted into my Denstiel Drabbles AO3 fic as well!))
