When Castiel finally heads to bed that night, Dean is already there, sound asleep with his back to Castiel's side of the mattress. He smiles to himself. Dean looks so peaceful when he sleeps.

Castiel peals off his shirt and tosses it to the side, then does the same with his jeans. He can put them in the hamper tomorrow. Right now, he just wants to sleep.

He lies down in bed as quietly as he can. The mattress squeaks quietly, and he freezes, making sure it didn't wake Dean up. When he's sure he's in the clear, he allowed himself to adjust his position, making himself more comfortable.

"Cas?" Dean says quietly.

"Hi, Dean," Castiel whispers.

Dean just hums in response. 

"Are you awake?" He's obviously somewhat conscious, but whether he's awake enough to actually speak isn't clear.

"No," Dean mumbles.

Castiel laughs softly. "Okay."

A few moments pass in silence, long enough that Castiel half expects Dean to be sleeping once again when he finally breaks it.

"Dean?"

Dean lifts his head off his pillow, but evidently decides that's too much work and lays it back down.

When it becomes clear that that's all the response he's going to get, Castiel just whispers, "I'm sorry."

That gets Dean's attention immediately. He rolls over to face the boy and props his head up on his hand. "Cas, sweetie, what are you —"

"About earlier," Castiel clarifies. "I'm sorry I was so short with you."

"Oh." Dean rests his head back down on his pillow and closes his eyes. "M'kay, that's fine."

"Dean?" Castiel says uncertainly.

"Hmm?"

"What did you think I meant?"

Dean feels around the bed until he finds Castiel's hand, taking it in his own. "Nothing. 'Night, Cas. I love you."

"No, you clearly thought I meant something," Castiel says.

"No, not really."

"Then why'd you get up so fast?"

"I'm still lying down, Cas," Dean says, as if that answers his question at all.

"Dean —"

"I'm too tired for this," Dean says. "We can talk in the morning, okay?"

Castiel sighs. "Okay, but don't expect me to forget."

Dean rolls onto his back, resting his hands comfortably behind his head. "Wouldn't dream of it."

Castiel slides into the space between Dean's arm and his body, resting his head on the boy's chest. Dean wraps his arm around him almost out of instinct.

"Good night, Cas," Dean murmurs.

"Good night, Dean."

~~

It's a bit disorienting, waking up in a house he hasn't been in for years, and the fact that Dean isn't here doesn't help. It takes him a moment to remember where he is, and then another moment to remember that today is Thanksgiving. Well, isn't that a great thing to wake up to!

Castiel smells the coffee as soon as he steps into the hall. Dean couldn't have been up too long if he's just now drinking it.

Dean looks up from his cup when he sees his fiancé. He offers him a brief wave before returning his attention to his phone, exiting whatever app he was using, too quickly for Castiel to figure out what it is.

"Whatcha doing?" Castiel asks.

"Reading an article about Thor: Ragnarok," Dean replies.

"I thought you didn't like that one."

"I hate it," Dean says. "But it was really an article about Chris Hemsworth and Hiddles, so —"

Castiel scoffs. "Did you just unironically call him Hiddles?"

"Yes I did," Dean replies. "You got a problem with that?"

"I'm kinda concerned for your mental health, but otherwise, no, not really," Castiel says. "What's the article about?"

"Just the whole 'Get Help' scene," Dean says. "Not very interesting."

"You never read," Castiel reminds him. "I have a hard time believing you're reading something boring."

"Okay, it's nothing you would find interesting," Dean corrects himself. "Whereas I would — and have — spent hours at a time watching interviews with Benedict Cumberbatch, so I'm very easy to impress with this stuff."

Castiel chuckles. "Well, you have a point." He sits down at the table across from him. "So, are we going to talk about last night? Because I've been thinking it over and I've yet to come to an actual conclusion about it."

"What happened last night?" Dean asks.

Castiel gapes at him. "Seriously?"

"Oh, you mean Jack?" Dean proud his head up on his have about looks at him expectantly. "Is he coming?"

"Yeah, we're moving the party to Sunday," Castiel says. "He's on SNL on Saturday and Ellen on Monday, so it's the best we could do."

"Oh, right, 'cause he just released another album," Dean says. "Forgot about that."

"Wait, really? When was that?"

Dean shrugs. "I don't know. Like, real weeks ago or something."

"So right after the Grammy nomination period closed," Castiel remarks. Interesting strategy. If he has a few hit singles from the album, it will probably give it a better chance at a nomination, at least for pop vocal album if not album of the year.

"Wait, no, it was before that," Dean says. "Like, right before."

"So it's been more like a month?" Castiel asks. "But want he just taking about recording a new album last time we were down there, like, three weeks ago?"

Dean shrugs. "I don't know. Maybe he was starting his next one early."

"I'll have to ask about that." It doesn't make a whole lot of sense, unless he's planning on pulling a Kanye and releasing 52 albums in a year — the biggest joke Castiel has ever heard.

"Good plan," Dean replies.

"And I'll buy the album on Spotify today or tomorrow, just so I can say I've heard it before he comes up," Castiel adds, mostly talking to himself now. "And maybe order a hard copy, just because I like owning physical CDs."

"You do that," Dean says, though he clearly doesn't care.

"I just went off on such a tangent, I totally forgot to actually talk about what I wanted to talk about," Castiel says.

"I liked that tangent," Dean says, and it's hard to tell whether he's trying to stay there conversation, or if he just likes showing off that he knows more about Jack's career than Castiel does.

"Okay, but I still have to ask," Castiel says. "What was last night about?"

"You have to be more specific," Dean says.

"I told you I'm sorry, and you had a mini freak out."

"Did I?" Dean shrugs dismissively. "I don't know. I was probably just tired, wasn't thinking straight."

Castiel eyes him skeptically. Did he really forget about it? And it was a bit of a knee jerk reaction, sure, but there has to be some reason for it. He was thinking about it all night, and he couldn't figure it out. What else would he be apologizing for? And what would get Dean to freak out like that?

"You're not going to accept that as an answer, are you?" Dean asks.

"No, not really," Castiel says.

Dean shakes his head at him in exasperation. "Fine. I just wasn't sure what you had to be sorry for. I totally forgot that you snapped at me, so I was nervous."

"What, you thought I did something worse?" What would he have done?

"I thought you were going to do something worse."

Carried cocks his head to the side, squinting his eyes. "What do you mean?"

"I mean..." Dean sighs, dropping his hand on the table with a soft thud. "I mean you have a habit of... overreacting."

"I mean, yeah, when the media constantly makes a big deal out of everything I do, I can't help but —"

"No, not like that," Dean interrupts, seemingly a bit frustrated by his inability to phrase this right. "Overreacting is probably the wrong word. You..."

"Dean." Carried reaches across the table and takes his hands. "I love you, but you gotta spit it out."

Dean chuckles softly, mostly as a brief, awkward break in the conversation. "I don't know. You just... You have a history of not handling things well."

"You mean a history of suicide," Castiel finishes for him.

"Well, yeah, pretty much." Dean smiles slightly at that. "You make it sound like you constantly die and come back to life when you say it like that."

Castiel shakes his head, amused. "Yeah, yeah. You were saying something?"

"Um, yeah." Dean pauses, thinking this through. "I just, after the terrorist attack, you kinda held it together. Like, really well. And I'm just..."

"Waiting for me to fall apart?"

Dean nods. "And you just said you're sorry out of the blue, and I was afraid that, for some reason or other, you'd finally had enough." He smiles, his brief attempt to get rid of the depressing air between them. "But I was wrong, and it's all good!"

"Mark the time and date," Castiel says with a smirk. "Dean Winchester just admit that he was wrong."

"Well, don't get used to it," Dean says. "I've never been wrong before, and I'll never be wrong again."