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“Eeeeeeeeeee the number you have dialed does not exist. Please check the number and try again.”
Bobby growled and slammed the phone back down as Shadow came barreling in, covered in…something. “Gurrampa, wherre Dada an’ Daddy? I wanna show dem dis!”
She held up a sheet of construction paper, covered in muddy, stinky finger painting. Bobby winced for the dent she’d likely made in his spell ingredients. No matter how well he locked them, Shadow always managed to get into them. Apparently she preferred painting with herbs and powdered rocks than the chemical, Crayola finger paints.
“Gabriel is busy with his brothers, and Sam went out with Dean. That’s why they left you with me,” Bobby reminded her, setting the damp paper on his kitchen counter. “But your dada isn’t answering his phone, so…”
“Otay I fin’ him!”
Bobby grabbed seconds too late as his granddaughter slipped through a shadow.
* * *
“Dude, what did that crazy guy mean, ‘give you perspective’? We hunt monsters! That’s all the perspective we need.”
“Let’s just figure out where he sent us before we worry about what he was or how to get back. There’s no point in getting arrested before we can do anything because we didn’t know what was going on,” Sam argued.
Dean snorted, but trotted over to a newspaper machine anyway. “Hey, it’s - Sammy, what can time travel?”
“WHAT?”
* * *
“HONEY, I’M HOME!”
“He’s not here.”
Gabriel shrugged easily. “More time to spoil my munchkin.”
“Shadow took off to find Sam to show ‘im a picture, and Sam’s phone went haywire. Dean’s not answering either. You want to mojo the lot of ‘em back?” Bobby growled.
Gabriel frowned. Shadow doing a fast one wasn’t new—there was a reason he tried to leave her with a super-powered babysitter, whenever possible—but the phone was new. “ I gave Sam that phone. There’s no way for it to get disconnected.”
“Call it yourself.” Bobby stomped back to the stove and rescued his pot of spaghetti from boiling over. “But supper’ll go cold if you don’t move your feathers, bird brain.”
* * *
“DAAAAAAAAAAAADAAAAAAAAAAAAA!”
Dean and Sam both looked up at the sudden noise in the diner, but the small child didn’t seem to be a threat—until she climbed into their booth and latched onto Sam’s waist with a death grip.
“Dada, Dada, yoo come home. I has picturre!” Shadow squealed, hugging him. “An’ yoo purromise play me!”
“Hey—uh—I’m not your dad, little girl. You’ve got—oof!”
“Yoo mai dada! Yoo come see picturre naow!”
“Hey kid, my brother’s not your dad. Let him go,” Dean insisted, leaning forward. He shared a worried look with his brother. Time travel or djinn, something was up.
“Yoo meanie face. Yoo shut up!” Shadow stamped her foot, glaring at Dean and burrowing into Sam.
“You think she could be mine?” Sam asked quietly. “If we are in the future? It’s been eight years, so maybe…”
“Hey kid, who’s your mom?” Dean asked. “She around here?”
“Maemmy naot laeke yoo. Yoo mean herr,” Shadow stated positively.
Sam tried not to laugh at Dean’s face. “Sounds like you,” he teased. “And she does know both of us.” He looked down at the little girl who had pushed her way into his lap and was snuggled against his chest.
“Yeah, but—a kid? Why? You know we can’t hunt with kids.”
“Cuzzin hunt,” Shadow refuted. “He good hunturr.” She grabbed one of Sam’s arms and wrapped it around herself, giving a smug look to her uncle.
Sam choked at the realization on his brother’s face. “Dude, you—”
“No. NO. I am not teaching my kid to hunt, Sammy, don’t you remember growing up? Hell, I don’t even want kids! I can’t have kids, not on the road.”
“Dean, we don’t even know—”
“Yoo naot be mean mai dada!” Shadow bristled, sitting up in Sam’s lap. “Yoo be nice, orr Daddy get yoo!”
“… daddy?!? ”
* * *
Gabriel flew through the nearby town, finding nothing, when he vaguely heard Daddy in his daughter’s distinctive lisp. Sending thanks to his Father for angel radio, he swooped into a small diner outside Texas.
“Shadow! Don’t run away from Bobby like that!” he scolded, leaning into Sam’s space and ruffling her hair. Shadow squealed and reached for him as Dean checked himself from reaching for his gun. “And how’d you tw—well hello. You’ve lost a few years, sexy.” Gabe leered at Sam and sat in the booth beside him, letting Shadow bounce between their laps.
Dean scowled and settled for holding the diner knife meaningfully. “You want to tell us who you are? And who that—” He jabbed the knife at Shadow, who hissed at him. “—is?”
Gabriel just laughed at his brother-in-law’s scare tactics—and Sam’s instinct to soothe Shadow, even before he knew her. “First off, point a weapon at my daughter again, and you’ll lose your arm. That’s a promise, not a threat. And yes, I know exactly who you are, Dean Winchester, and I can squish you like a bug.” He rolled straight through Dean’s protests—apparently he wasn’t ready for a stranger to know his name.
Too damn bad. “I, however, am Gabriel. And if your brother remembers his Sunday school lessons, that’ll tell you everything you need to know. Now, you two are late for supper, and that just won’t do.” He snapped his fingers just as Sam’s mouth fell open in realization, and suddenly they were seated back in Bobby’s kitchen.
“The ARCHANGEL? ” Sam gasped, staring avidly at Gabriel. “But—”
“Daddy! Dada! I has picturre!” Shadow squealed, crawling elbows and knees out of Sam’s lap.
Gabe just grabbed and lifted Sam’s left hand with his own, showing off his wedding ring and the one which appeared on Sam’s hand. “Blissfully married since November, my sexy moose. And I do mean bliss .”
Dean lunged out of his chair, finally whipping out his gun and training it on the angel. “What the hell is your game, monster?”
“Siddown, idjit,” Bobby growled. “Before you hurt yourself. Gabe, you want to tell me why these two look like they’ve been through some de-aging commercial?”
“They’re from the wrong time. Can’t get a handle on when they’re from, though.” Gabe shrugged.
“Do you—”
“DADDY! PICTURRE!” Shadow screamed, stomping her little foot.
Sam looked from Gabriel to Shadow as the angel rose and lifted his daughter to his hip, letting her show off her finger painting. “So, wait, we…she called me Dad!”
“Dada, actually. Yeah, you’re a father. Stepfather, technically, but that’s beside the point. Her mom’s Nyx, the goddess, by the way. Grumpy old fart now, but she was something else back in the day.” Gabriel shook his head at the memory, then hugged his daughter. “Course, she didn’t tell me about Shadow for a few thousand years.”
“Excuse me?!” Dean snarled, and Gabriel finally snapped his fingers, turning the gun into a banana.
“Shut up and sit down , Dean. Your own son—and angel boyfriend—will be here any minute, and if you say anything to hurt my little brother, I swear I will smite your jumped-up, self-righteous ass right now.”
Dean spluttered, staring at the archangel, a slurry of words falling from his lips mostly centering on ‘ angel,’ ‘boyfriend’, and ‘son.’ Then he dropped back into his seat, stunned into silence.
“Dada!” Shadow continued shrilly, pushing her picture into Sam’s face. “Yoo laeke?!”
Sam, already grinning from the look of pure shock on his brother’s face, smiled at the haphazard handprints, recognizing the distinct smell of sage oil and amaranth powder.
“Of course, sweetie, it’s beautiful.”
Shadow glowed in pride before a knock at the door startled them all.
“Knock knock!”
“CUZZIN!” Shadow squealed, bounding from Sam’s lap, painfully for the new father, to be swept into the arms of her second most favorite person. Sam instantly recognized him as Dean’s son, for he was the spitting image of the elder Winchester, save for his bright blue eyes.
“Play kitties me!” Shadow squealed as the teen lifted her above his head. She flailed away from his tickling fingers, but he had no trouble holding her.
“Shadow, look who I brought,” the teen prompted, turning her towards the door and she squealed happily.
“Naot Cuzzin!” She laughed and Sam couldn’t help but beam at the joy on her face. He didn’t even protest when Gabriel slipped under his arm, the archangel laying his head on his shoulder. Shadow frowned as the two of them shifted half out of view, the stranger still invisible.
“You smell funny. I naot laeke it.” She announced promptly, causing both of the new arrivals to laugh loudly.
“He smells fine to me.” Dean’s son shrugged and Bobby turned.
“Get in here, both of you. Where’s your gal?”
“Oh, Vita insisted she had to stay at the shop today. Trust me, we tried. She works too much. What happened to Dad?”
“He and Sam got knocked with a time switch. Say hello from 2005, boys!” Gabriel teased, trying to grope his moose and getting pushed away for his effort.
“Time switch?”
“So...you’re my son? And this is your friend?” Dean eyed Dio warily.
“Cuzzin an’ Naot Cuzzin maeke kitties wit’ Veeta,” Shadow chirped from Steve’s arms. “Big me say dey maeke mai boy, but dat still naot naow.”
Bobby huffed in amusement at his granddaughter. “Steve, Dio, and Vita are together. As a threesome. A Shadow from the future came back to inform everyone that they’ll eventually give birth to her soul mate,” he translated.
“So she...”
“Time-travel is an archangel ability,” Gabriel confirmed for Sam. “Apparently also a pagan goddess one, along with shadow-walking and ID’ing people by scent. She’s a whole bundle of crazy powers.”
“She’s a kid . And a threesome? With him?” Dean objected.
Steve frowned as Bobby whacked Dean’s head. “Shut it, Marty McFly.”
“Hey — I am not playing Back to the Future .”
Bobby snorted. “Don’t go diving back into the closet after we finally dragged your ass out of it.”
“What about Dean’s ass?” asked a quiet voice, heralded by a soft rush of wings. “I still do not understand why a small room for clothing is a metaphor for being homosexual.”
Dean glanced up, meeting eyes the same shade of blue as his son’s. “Cas?” he guessed.
“Hello Dean,” Castiel answered, immediately frowning. “Your soul is too young for this time. Gabriel?”
“Our boys got swapped with 2005, I’m guessing.” Gabriel shrugged, eyeing Sam with a leer. “Personally, I can’t wait to try model 1.0.”
“Lay a hand on my brother and I’ll gank you, archangel or not,” Dean threatened. Shadow hissed.
Dio took the distraction to mold himself to Steve’s back. “This mean we get a free pass to fuck whenever we want?” he murmured to his boyfriend. “I mean, he’s distracted...”
“That goes for you too, lover boy. Hands where I can see them,” Dean snapped at Dio.
Cas frowned. “Dean, is this because of what Dio is? Because I can assure you, not all demons are bad...” He trailed off at the growing red in his mate’s eyes.
Shadow, annoyed that the attention had shifted from her to the others in the group, leaned back in Steve’s arms and shouted at the top of her lungs.
“UNCA! MEANIE FACE UNCA MAEKE NAOT CUZZIN SAD!”
Gabriel yelped, lunging forward. “Shadow, no!”
“What in hell is Dean doing to my kid now?”
Gabriel let his head hit the table, causing Sam to jump and look down at him in concern. “Gabriel?”
“Kill me now.”
The tall blond now standing in the kitchen had his arms crossed over his chest, then he grinned broadly, lifting Shadow from Steve’s arms.
“Now, pumpkin, you can’t go scaring me like that.”
“No one play kitties wit’ me.” Shadow pouted up at her uncle.
“Who’s that?” Sam whispered to Gabriel, who rolled one shoulder.
“You wouldn’t believe me if I told you.”
There was another rush of wings and this time, Gabriel resisted the urge to bodily harm himself as another man appeared in the kitchen. Bobby just huffed.
“I ain’t feedin’ all you.”
The man blinked in confusion. “Archangels have no requirement for sustenance, Bobby. Do not worry.”
There was an audible crack, and both Shadow and the blond man had apparently turned into cats; the blond a full-fledged lion and the baby demi-goddess a black kitten.
“Who the hell are these guys?” Dean snapped, one hand on his gun as the two felines wrestled on the floor.
“I am the archangel Michael. This is my brother Lucifer. I see that you have already met — ”
Dean cut him off with a round of vehement curses, pushing himself out of his seat. “Come on, Sam. The crazy is catching.”
Sam looked up from where he was still watching over Gabriel. “Dean, calm down. Bobby thinks it’s okay.” He looked to the older man — a father figure from their youth — for confirmation.
Bobby snorted. “You idjits’ve been through a boatload of crazy on top of a mountain of fucked up, but this family’s the closest I’ve ever seen you two to happy. So shut up and deal, Dean.”
“You expect me to believe that my brother is married to an archangel while his stepkid plays with the devil as cats and my son’s dating a demon and a witch ?”
Michael frowned at the hunter. “Do not speak so poorly of my brothers, niece, and nephew, Dean,” he warned.
“Uncle Mike,” Steve interjected. “It’s okay, he’s just freaking out. You know how Dad can be.”
“Dean,” Castiel said softly, laying a hand on his shoulder. “I assure you. You and Sam could be no place more safe than here.”
Shadow used her uncle as a springboard to jump into Sam’s lap. “Dada, yoo play too! Yoo an’ Daddy!”
Gabriel snorted. “Shall we, moose?”
Dean glared from across the kitchen as Sam wavered, clearly tempted by the opportunity. “You mean...you’d change us into cats? You can turn me back, right?”
“Well, unless you want to give beastiality a try... yes , Sam, I can change you back.” Gabriel rolled his eyes at Sam’s stiffness. Clearly Sam 1.0 had a lot of unbending to do. “Archangel, remember?”
“Speaking of which, where is Raphael? Aren’t there four of you?” Sam looked around at the sudden silence.
Steve cleared his throat when the silence became too much to bear. “Raphael...”
“Raphael betrayed his family.” Michael announced suddenly. “And caused us all much pain. We do not speak of him.”
“Oh...” Sam said softly. “Sorry...”
“Sorry, but Raphael is worse than the Devil ?” Dean questioned, still avoiding the lion on the floor.
Lucifer reached out a paw and bopped Shadow’s head with it, inciting her to pounce on him again. “I can hear you, you know,” he drawled. “And yeah, Raph was always a massive dick.”
“In a roundabout way, he did do us a great service, though,” Cas mused, smiling at his son. “But let us speak of something else. How did you two come to this time?”
“Some guy came up yapping about us needing perspective, and next thing we know, we’re in Texas 2013,” Dean growled. “I don’t even know where the Impala is.”
“You an’ Sam took her to town earlier today an’ ain’t been back yet. I’m guessin’ it was a swap, not just throwin’ you idjits forward,” Bobby grunted. He began pulling bowls out of the cabinets and ladling spaghetti into them. “Now if everyone will stop yakking, the humans need to eat. Shadow, stop playing for a minute and eat your supper.”
“But kitties!” she whined from her perch atop Lucifer’s head.
“You c’n play kitties later. Sam, grab her.”
Sam stood and picked the kitten gingerly off the lion’s — Satan’s? — head, holding her awkwardly against his chest. “Does she do this often?” he asked.
“About every day,” Gabe grinned, playing with Sam’s bowl of food. “Plays off all the calories we manage to stuff her with. You’d be amazed.”
“Fledglings do use a lot of energy as they are growing, so it is not that unexpected,” Michael supplied fondly.
“Just wish I hadn’t gotten the crash course.” Steve laughed, leaning back against Dio’s chest.
“Our son woke in the middle of the night with his wings were growing in,” Castiel explained. “It was extremely painful for him.”
“Naot laeke wings...” Shadow muttered, burrowing into her dada’s shirt, still a kitten. “Hurrt.”
“Shadow’s hurt as well, although they grew in much slower,” Castiel added.
“She — you have wings?” Sam asked, looking down at the kitten curled against his chest.
Shadow opened a green eye at him. “Li’l wings. Naot big laeke Daddy’s an’ Uncas’s.”
“I bet they’re pretty,” Sam said, petting her tentatively and smiling when she began to purr.
Dean glanced from the kitten to his son, still being molested by the demon. “You have wings too?” he asked skeptically.
“Only on weekends,” Steve snarked.
Sam snorted. “That’s your son alright.”
Steve tilted his head back, lightly kissing Dio’s cheek and Dean tensed in his seat.
“Move, unless you want a face full of feathers.”
“Considering your reaction last night, I don’t think I’d mind,” Dio smirked, but obediently took a few steps back.
Steve tilted his head from side to side, rolling his shoulders, then the air behind him seemed to waver and shift then two deep iridescent blue wings burst from his shoulders. Dean sucked in a sharp breath, involuntarily bumping into Castiel as he leaned back.
“Son of a bitch,” he breathed.
Shadow pouted, again relegated to the background. “Cuzzin! Look!” she insisted, transforming in Sam’s arms from kitten to winged toddler. Her wings were small and charcoal gray, glossy with health. Each wing had two hand-sized extensions as though they were small “fingers” on her wings, but they looked more like mutant wings tacked on as an afterthought.
“What’s wrong with hers?” Dean asked, eyeing the mutations.
“Don’t you insult my baby,” Gabriel growled, petting Shadow’s wings and pulling her and Sam close. “She’s only half archangel, so she doesn’t have the full three wings.”
“Yoo say mai baby wings purrty,” Shadow pouted at him, her vestigial wings fluttering impotently.
“Of course they are! Your dada thinks so too, don’t you Sam?” Gabriel gave Sam a pointed look, and he hastened to agree.
"They're beautiful!" Sam said quickly, hesitantly sliding his hand over their daughter's wings and Shadow beamed happily, purring if that were possible.
Dean turned his head back to his "son" and instantly slammed a hand to his forehead upon finding him liplocked with the demon.
"Oh come on! I thought I said hands to yourself!"
Dio stepped back, but kept one arm right around Steve's waist underneath his wings. "Hey, you said it yourself. I can't resist that Winchester charm."
Castiel laid a hand on Dean’s shoulder, over the mark he didn’t yet wear, and gave him a heavy look. “Dio and our son are fated to be together, Dean, along with the young witch Vita. It has not been an easy truth to accept, for either of us, but...it is true. They are written in Heaven’s books, just as we are.”
“An’ don’t you forget it,” drawled Lucifer, stretching across the crowded floor. “Now someone rub my belly.”
* * *
“I notice that no one mentioned our dad,” Sam inquired of Gabriel later, both of them watching Shadow play “angel tag” with a cohort of cupids.
“He...hasn’t been around in a while. Spoilers, sorry.”
Sam shot him an unamused look. “And this —” Sam gestured expansively from the yard, where his supernatural stepdaughter squealed and played, to the house, where his brother was coming to terms with his gay angel, inhuman son, and demonic son-in-law. “—isn’t a spoiler?” He lowered his voice. “How did he die?”
Gabriel sighed. “You’ll see him again,” he promised, mentally cursing his mate’s perceptivity. “I mean, God is your father-in-law, so —”
“And that isn’t a crazy thought,” Sam mused. “Hell, when I woke up this morning, demons were real, but angels were just a...a religious myth. Yeah, I always believed they watched over me, but...”
Gabriel leered. “He sees you when you’re sleeping, he knows when you’re awake...” he teased, grabbing Sam’s ass suddenly. “ Still rock hard. You sure you aren’t up for a little test drive?”
Sam’s bitchface was cut short by a loud squeal in the yard. Shadow was hanging from a cupid’s ankle, apparently having caught him midflight.
“THAT’S MY GIRL!” Gabe cheered. “GO GET ‘EM!” He took off to detach his daughter —still absurdly scared of heights when she wasn’t flying herself—and Sam marveled quietly at the golden wings dwarfing the rusted junkers. The cupids scattered in the face of the archangel as he lazily winged over to Shadow, and Sam watched her drop trustingly into his arms.
“I will need to collect my garrison soon, Gabriel,” called a voice at Sam’s side, and he turned to find a dark-haired man —another angel?—at his side. “Good evening, Sam. I am Luke, captain of this garrison of cupids.”
“You know...” Sam began, hearing Gabriel’s distant “Hear that? Bedtime, kiddo!”
“Michael informed the Host of the situation with you and your brother once he became aware of it,” Luke confirmed. He smiled slightly at Shadow’s fervent denials behind them.
“I still can’t believe everything that’s going on,” Sam confessed, watching his —mate? husband? archangel? —land with a double armful of squirming toddler.
“No, Shadow, it’s —okay, one more round,” conceded Gabriel, in the tone of all smitten fathers. He pouted at Sam’s questioning look, blustering “she’ll just sneak off to play with Luci all night otherwise.”
“Night...isn’t that her mom? So isn’t it normal for her to be nocturnal?” Sam asked, piecing together the tidbits he’d learned throughout the day.
“Look at you, Mr. Smartypants! Yeah, and you don’t want to know what it took to get her to sleep at night instead of crawling all over us.”
Luke smothered a laugh. “Anything for my easiest gold couple,” he deadpanned. At Sam’s questioning look, he explained, “All the couples written in Heaven’s books are ranked based on their importance to God’s eternal plan. Gold is the highest rating, and usually the most difficult to match up. You and Gabriel come together much easier than, for example, your brother and Castiel.”
“I went through fucking Purgatory with those two,” Gabriel growled. “The sexual tension nearly killed me.”
“But...I didn’t know you were a cupid,” Sam said, surprised.
Gabe laughed. “That wasn’t an expression, kiddo. The three of us really did end up in Purgatory together. That’s where Shadow found us, actually. Fluffy little kitten just waltzes out of the back of a cave and starts playing with Steve...craziest episode of Meet the Family I ever saw.”
“I think I can empathize.”
Gabriel laughed and slapped him on the back. Luke smiled at their easiness and bowed his way out, saying “I’ll go visit Dee while they are playing. Do send my cupids home once Shadow tires herself out, Gabriel.”
A vague wave was all the acknowledgement he received.
* * *
“Look, there is no way we’re —”
Castiel watched Dean’s emphatic hand motion impassively. “I understand if you do not wish to engage in sexual congress with me, Dean. It took us many years of miscommunication and repressed emotions to admit our feelings for each other.”
Dean whirled with a finger pointing at Castiel’s face. “And that’s another thing. Stop going on about my ‘feelings’! I’m not your Dean! I’m not gay!”
“Angels do not inherently possess a gender, Dean. It is merely my vessel which is male.”
“Not helping!”
Castiel trailed after Dean as he pushed his way out of the bedroom they regularly shared. “Is there anything I can help you with, Dean?”
“No! Just flap yourself out of here!” Dean growled, making his way to the kitchen and the whiskey bottle.
“I will stay on the couch tonight if that will make you more comfortable,” Castiel offered, disguising his hurt.
He heard a muttered “not sleeping in your man cooties” from Dean’s direction, but ignored it as he turned away.
He should have known that Dean would not accept him as readily as Sam accepted Gabriel.
Dean finished the whiskey in near record time, but throughout all the cabinets and fridge, he couldn’t find another bottle. Castiel didn’t say a word when he snuck past him, heading out to the nearest bar.
A couple shots later Castiel didn’t seem like such an issue, and Dean was catching the eye of a lovely blonde at the other end of the bar. He was about to get up to go talk to her when a hand clamped down on his shoulder and someone sat down next to him.
“Hey Pa.”
Dean flinched as Steve sat next to him. The bartender came over quickly.
“Anything for you, kid?”
“Can I get a Coke?”
The bartender nodded, but Dean scoffed. “Don’t tell me my kid’s too pussy to drink.”
Steve rolled his eyes, sipping his soda. “I used to drink, extensively, but I’m not the world’s greatest drunk.”
Dean sighed, shaking his head. “What are you doing here?”
“You shouldn’t be out here alone,” Steve said simply. “Just because you’re not from this time doesn’t mean you don’t have enemies out here. I also wanted to bring you this.”
He pulled a small photo package from his pocket, offering it to Dean. Dean took it cautiously, thumbing it open.
“What is this?”
“Pictures. Duh.” Steve smirked and Dean glared at him, pulling the pictures out.
“Dude, is that...”
“Uncle Sam? Yep.”
The picture was of Sam and Gabriel, both in tuxes and smiling brightly at one another.
“That’s from their second wedding.” Steve explained.
“They had two?”
“Yeah, Sam had been magicked into a female body for the first one, so all the archangels took female bodies to make him feel more comfortable. And Adam, but that was less his choice, and more Luci being a dick.”
“Who’s Adam?”
“Spoilers. Look at the pictures.”
Dean sighed, flipping to the next picture, which was a shot of himself and Castiel in tuxes as well, his arm around Castiel’s shoulders and holding him close.
“Dude, what the hell is this?”
“Papa,” Steve sighed. “I know our family is weird as hell, but look at you. Look at Uncle Sam. You’re happy. ”
Dean sighed, shaking his head as he flipped to the next picture, one of him and Steve at the wedding.
“Why do we look pissed in this pic?”
“That was when you were still mad at me for dating Dio. Uncle Gabe just shoved us together for the photo, and I was pretty sure you hated me, so it was pretty tense for a while.”
“You thought I hated you?” Dean asked quietly.
“Yeah, but we worked it out.” Steve shrugged.
Dean looked at Steve sadly as he flipped to the next picture, which of one of the entire family. He recognized even Lucifer and Michael and a strange blond between them, Steve, Dio, a brunette who must be Vita, Sam holding Shadow, and Gabriel with both arms around Sam’s waist. He sighed, shaking his head, and tucked the pictures in his pocket.
“Look, I know you don’t drink, but I think it’s my fatherly duty to get drunk with my son and teach him how to pick up chicks.”
“Dad, I have a boyfriend...and a girlfriend...”
“Shut up and drink with me.”
* * *
It was past midnight when a low roar drew up outside the house, headlights beaming through the living room window.
Castiel sat up at “fucking time travel, man” in Dean’s familiar growl, Sam’s quieter voice blending into the creaking of the porch steps.
“Dean,” he breathed in relief.
“Hey there, Cas. You didn’t wait up for us, did you? How long were we gone?” Dean pulled him into an easy kiss, flipping a finger at Sam’s joking retch.
“I’ll just find —” Sam began, disappearing up the stairs and calling for his mate.
“I missed you. Younger you is not the same,” Castiel declared, leaning against Dean.
“Yeah? Well, I missed you too, and younger me doesn’t know what he’s missing. Now let’s go find our bed, huh? Before Sam and Gabe get loud with the makeup sex.”
“They’re not the only ones who shall be loud,” Castiel promised and Dean smirked, catching his lips in another kiss.
“I swear to Goppa,” Steve muttered from the couch. “If any of you have loud make-up sex, I will invite Dio over and none of you will sleep for a week.”
Dean sighed and snuck another kiss from Castiel before heading over to where Steve was hiding beneath the couch pillow.
“What happened to you?”
“He went out drinking with you. Apparently you deigned it your fatherly right to teach him the proper people he could date.”
Dean shook his head, rubbing Steve’s back. “Come on, kiddo, let’s get you to bed.”
Steve groaned and Dean blinked in surprise when his son turned suddenly into a cat, which then held both his front paws up. Dean laughed, lifting Steve to his chest where his son-cat curled up into a small ball and began to purr.
“Nice to know he’s capable of making himself portable.” Dean laughed and Castiel smiled, following them both upstairs.
* * *
Back in 2005, a quiet man watched Dean and Sam from the corner outside their motel. They were both silent about what they’d seen, though Sam tried to bring it up before Dean quickly cut him off.
“Let’s just forget it, okay?”
Sam sighed, before nodding, shrugging as he disappeared into the motel room. Dean stopped at a nearby trash can, taking out the pictures that Steve had given him and holding them out over the can. After a moment he sighed, pulling out the picture of himself and Castiel.
“Fucking time travel,” He sighed before slipping the pictures back into his pocket.
From the corner, the guise of an elderly man faded away to reveal a young, attractive man with a steel-gray fedora.
“I love my job,” Luke laughed, vanishing back to his own time with a flap of his wings.