#chayya the charlie/jo/benny friendship is for u <3

[good-things-do-happen-dean]

the world begins anew | destiel | post-s15 softness. again

tags and the rest under the cut bc it got long!

The change is abrupt.

Right after the last of Cas’s grace burns out, he strips off his old clothes, toes out of his shoes, and walks stark naked out into the rain, eyes closed but turned to the heavens, arms outspread. It’s baptism. It’s absolution.

Sam goes inside to get him a towel, but Dean can only stand frozen and watch the Angel Castiel wash away into the earth, and Cas the human be reborn.

Now that Cas is human, he doesn’t wear his trench coat anymore. It’s a struggle to get him in shoes, let alone a suit and tie. He’s always padding around the bunker in (very distracting) low slung sweats and Dean’s ratty old shirts and bare feet, and Dean has to tear his eyes away from the sharp lines of his hipbones peeking out from his waistband.

When it gets chilly, he adds a chunky sweater on top, a couple of sizes too big, sleeves long enough he can use them as a sort of potholder for the steaming mugs of coffee he drinks just shy of boiling. He works at the cuffs until there are thumbholes, which delight him. He switches to old jeans, old enough that the denim has gone faded and soft, and thick woolen socks that match his sweaters, for when he crunches outside with Jack over a thin layer of frost. They spend a lot of time out there together, long walks through the woods surrounding the bunker and packed lunches. And they come back in, noses and cheeks red from the cold, grinning like mad about an interesting rock Jack found, or a perfectly preserved set of tracks, or a bird call they heard echoing through the trees. It’s the little things. The tiniest things Dean hasn’t thought about for decades, maybe ever.

That first winter, they do Christmas. Dean says it’s for the kid, but it’s for all of them, really. A celebration of surviving, of living beyond.

It’s a big deal, too. Everyone comes out. When they’re all together, Dean realizes their network is big. Bigger than he ever thought, spreading out over the years, the roots of a great tree. There’s him and Cas and Jack, of course. Sam and Eileen.

But then there’s Jody and Donna and the girls. Krissy, too, who becomes fast friends with Alex. They spend the tree-decorating tossing unstrung popcorn at the back of Dean’s head. Claire and Jack get along like a house on fire, it turns out.

Garth and Bess and all their kids. Claire catches a shot of Cas with little Castiel in his lap, both of them with their heads tilted, regarding each other earnestly with wide blue eyes. (Dean gets that one framed.)

Then there’s everyone who was shaken loose at the end. From upstairs, from downstairs, from just next door. Bobby and Rufus and Missouri. Charlie and Kevin and Linda. Max and Alicia. Ellen, Jo, and Ash. Benny. It turns out Benny, Charlie, and Jo are inseparable, for some reason. Dean can’t quite make sense of that one, but he grins himself stupid at the three of them chatting away in a corner of the library.

It’s better than he could ever have hoped. The bunker is full of life, finally, after so many years. Long unused bedrooms are dusted off and cleared out. They set up a huge tree in the map room that stretches up nearly to the top of the stairs. They do cocoa and gingerbread houses and they pile into cars to see the Christmas lights on main street. They decide to do movie night, but there’s no way they can all fit in the Dean Cave, so Charlie sets up a projector outside and they bundle up. (Cas smiles a little sadly at Clarence the angel.)

They can’t all stay forever, but they promise to come back. For birthdays and holidays and just when they feel like making the drive. And before people start peeling off, they take a family photo.

It’s Jack’s idea, or it’s Garth’s, or it’s Kevin’s, maybe. But hell if they don’t make the trip to the Target in Lincoln to get matching Christmas pajamas for all 29 of them. It’s the most obnoxious thing Dean’s ever done, and he can’t get enough of it.

Bobby and Ellen roll their eyes, but there are spots of pink high in their cheeks from the eggnog, so they do it anyway. Rufus puts his on without saying a thing, and stands right in the middle, holding up a sign that says, “Chag Sameach!” Charlie plops an elf hat on Kevin. Garth wears a Santa beard that’s way too big for his face. They set up a tripod all the way back in the library to get them all in the shot, crowded in front of the Christmas tree.

Dean isn’t sure if they get one with everyone looking at the camera before Alex and Krissy hold up a sprig of mistletoe as high as they possibly can, laughing when Sam bends to stand under it, bends even further to kiss Eileen. Claire snatches it from them and holds it over Cas with an exaggerated wink at Dean, shrugging and saying, “I don’t make the rules,” when Dean blushes scarlet.

Then everyone’s in on it, merry from the eggnog, and Dean asks Cas quietly if this is okay because they still haven’t figured out this decade-plus-long thing between them even now, and Cas just says yes, plain and simple. It’s quick, chaste, even, just a soft brush of lips, but when Dean pulls away, Cas is looking at him with stars in his eyes in his ridiculous reindeer footie pajamas, except Dean is also in ridiculous reindeer footie pajamas, and he can only hope Bobby clicked the remote to capture it. Everyone cheers. Even Claire cracks a smile as she rolls her eyes at them and says, “You’re welcome.”

Some of them have to head back to their lives. Some of them stick around for longer. Charlie and Ash set to streamlining the database Sam created. Benny takes up a permanent post in the kitchen, which nobody complains about. Claire decides to give school a try, for real this time, and enrolls at Kansas State. She gets a little place with Kaia in Manhattan, but they make the drive back to the bunker nearly every weekend. 

And now that it’s all finally out, finally in the open after years of longing and secrets and heartbreak and, eventually, trust, Cas moves into Dean’s room. They cover the walls with photos, at first mostly from that Christmas. The big one with everyone, even though Kevin’s eyes are closed and little Sam is mid-sneeze from Garth’s beard. Little Castiel in Cas’s lap. Ash wrapped in a string of Christmas lights, and Charlie and Jo doubled over laughing in the background. Claire and Jack with their arms around Cas, Jack’s head tilted against Cas’s shoulder. Missouri and Patience holding up their gingerbread creation. Ellen sandwiched between Rufus and Bobby on a couch, toasting something or another. Kevin after the movie night, cocooned in blankets, Max and Alicia on either side of him. Benny and Linda, another unlikely duo, mid-arm wrestle, Jody, Donna, and Bess cheering Linda on. Krissy and Alex with that sprig of mistletoe almost over Sam and Eileen.

The one Bobby managed to catch of their first kiss, or, really, right after it. Cas with his reindeer antlers and Dean with his Santa hat, both of them in those ridiculous pajamas, still crowding into each other’s space, smiling like the world was beginning anew. Because it was.

tagging: @joharvele | @contemplativepancakes | @fluffiestlou | @never-forever-more | @emblue-sparks | @tearsofgrace

#destiel fanfic #deancas fanfic #spncreatorsdaily #i cannot stress enough how much this was just supposed to be cas getting cozy jammies too bc i was >:( about the promo for the next ep #oops #anyway everybody lives together in the bunker deal with it #also it's me so benny is alive #and while i'm at it i'll just bring back everyone who died #big cosmic shift is bound to change things right?? #chayya the charlie/jo/benny friendship is for u <3 #mine.fic #destiel