Stronger Than Us Both

Giving Thanks & Getting Through

●Dean●

"So, what did my brothers say to you?"

"Cas," I laughed, touching his shoulders, "please just give me five minutes, then I will tell you everything." He nodded as he sat on his bed. I kissed him on the forehead, which seemed to calm him down until I changed into a pair of pajama pants and T-shirt and brushed my teeth. When I came back into Cas's room, he was propped against his headboard, flicking through his phone.

"Hey," I said quietly. Cas met my eyes, making my heart leap. "I owe you an explanation, don't I?"

"I just want to make sure they didn't scare you off." He actually was afraid his brothers would change how I felt about him. He was afraid he was going to lose me.

"Of course not," I told him, holding his face in my hands. "They would have to do a lot more to keep me from you." That soothed him more than I thought it would. I took that as a sign to continue. "Michael mostly repeated the same things your dad did: he wanted to know about my grades and after-school activities and my intentions with you. I kid you not, he asked what my intentions were with our relationship."

"And? What did you say?"

I smiled. "I told him that I value you and what I have with you over pretty much everything else. You're right up there with my family. And I assured him that my intentions with you were that of a gentleman."

Cas blushed a dark red, biting his lower lip. "You did not say that."

"I did." I shrugged. "Your brother seemed okay with that answer. After that, he was pretty much finished."

"And Luce?"

"I don't think he had a goal other than to torture me. Lucky for us both, it didn't work. He got bored after a while and left. Really, nothing else happened."

"That's surprising." Cas closed his eyes as he let out a puff of air. "I guess they plan on making you miserable over a long period of time."

"I'm sure they do it out of love."

"Pfft. Sure." Cas stood from his bed and started taking off the hoodie he'd been wearing since dinner. "I hope you don't mind me sleeping without a shirt on tonight; you're like a space heater."

I shot him a smirk, even though he wasn't looking at me. "No complaints here."

"Gentleman intentions, my ass."

I laughed but didn't move my eyes from Cas while he took his shirt off too. I had to admit, he had a nice body.

He threw his shirt at me. "Stop staring at me!"

"You're gorgeous," I blurted out.

"Shut up."

"No, really. I don't know how I got so lucky." Cas sat back down beside me, but I frowned when I noticed something. "I almost forgot about this." I ghosted my fingers over the scar on his shoulder, making him shiver.

"I wish you would."

A thought came to my mind suddenly, and I snapped my head up to meet his eyes. "Why don't you have my mom try to heal it? She does it all the time for me." Cas's eyes went wide, so I backtracked. "Sometimes when I'm sick, my fireproofing will short circuit along with my fire control. I've burnt myself a lot."