Chapter Text
“Yeah, Dad, I know, but it’s a big deal to him, so please just be cool, alright?”
“You keep saying that, but I don’t get it.” The tinny sound of John Winchester’s voice on speaker echoed through the car while Dean stared across the parking lot and watched his boyfriend amble about the gas station, moving from one snack aisle to another. “I spent years driving that kid to Little League practice just so he could sit in them damn bleachers and watch you play ball. He’s not even close to a stranger. Why the hell does he think that he needs to impress us?” Before Dean could respond, his father’s gravelly voice rose an octave as he began to laugh. “Fuck, Dean, I taught the kid how to drive stick! Believe me, after two hours of driving through the neighborhood without ever going over 10 miles an hour, I woulda thrown that kid outta the car if I didn’t already love him!”
Dean let his head fall against the steering wheel as he smiled to himself. “I know, Dad. Believe me, I do. And until twenty minutes ago, I didn’t know this was a thing for him, but I mean, I do kinda get it. And like you just said, it’s Cas . You know what he’s like. The little dude gets stuck in his head and nobody can break him out of it.” Dean lifted his forehead off the steering wheel and tapped the darkened screen of his phone as it lay on the dashboard. “Look, he’s gonna be coming out any minute. Just, please be nice, alright? I want this to go well.”
Again, John laughed, but the sound lacked anything close to mischief and Dean felt a sense of relief wash over him when his father said, “You got my word, kid. And I won’t say shit about you calling to give us a heads up, but if it comes up, remind him that he’s been part of this family for well over a decade, and he don’t have anything to worry about.”
Dean smiled as he let out a sigh of relief. “Will do. And thanks, Dad. Hey, he’s walking out now, so I’m hanging up. We’ll see you soon.”
The phone went silent and Dean grabbed it off the dash, sliding it into his jacket pocket.
Back when they were high school seniors—both not-so-secretly pining over the other—Dean and Cas had decided that they would go off to college together. They had been fixtures in each other’s lives since they were little kids, so it seemed only logical that their post-high school years followed that same trend.
The university that they settled on was about four hours from home (“Far enough to have your own independence, but not so far that you can’t come home on a weekend when and if you want to,” Cas’ father had told them when they had explained their plans for after graduation). To some people, that distance might have seemed absolutely dreadful (Cas was usually one of those people), but not to Dean. He and his baby would make that drive once or twice a month, so he was a pro at planning for that trip. He knew the route by heart, how much gas he’d have in the tank when he pulled into his driveway, and even the precise number of cassette tapes that would be necessary to carry him from start to finish. For that reason, he had initially been very resistant to Cas’ suggestion that they stop at a Kwik Trip less than thirty minutes from the Novak house; however, the closer they rolled to that first destination and the more Cas fidgeted nervously in his seat, the more Dean realized that this stop had nothing to do with food or fuel, and everything to do with Cas’ need to just breathe.
Before they had pulled off the highway, Cas had been a little vague on why he wanted to stop (“I know that we don’t need any gas, Dean , but contrary to what you seem to believe, people can in fact stop at gas stations for more than just gas .”), so when Cas opened the passenger door and dropped back onto the seat beside him empty handed, Dean became a little more concerned.
Earlier that day, they had been on the road for a couple hours when Cas explained that he was stressing about officially ‘meeting’ Dean’s parents, and since then, the air in the car had been far more stuffy than normal, and Cas had begun to fidget in a way that Dean had not seen from him in quite a while.
With trembling fingers, Cas worked to buckle his seatbelt and Dean remained silent, simply watching his boyfriend’s chest rise and fall with quick, short breaths. The seatbelt clicked and Cas moved his hands to his lap as he rubbed his palms along the thighs of his jeans.
“Hey,” Dean said gently as he placed his hand overtop of Cas’ fidgeting fingers. “You good?”
Cas didn’t respond immediately, but after a moment, Dean saw the slightest nod in response to his question.
“Come here,” Dean whispered as he unbuckled his own seatbelt and slid towards his boyfriend. Once more, Cas’ frantic fingers began to fumble with his own buckle, but he made quicker work of releasing it before almost throwing himself against Dean’s chest. For a moment or two, they sat together in silence until Dean began to feel Cas’ breathing slow. “They’re going to love you,” he whispered into the soft mess of Cas’ hair. “You know that, right?”