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“Sammy, you might be my brother, but there is no way in hell that I am babysitting for you,” Dean said blatantly. Amelia rolled her eyes, and gave Cas a pleading look.
Cas put an arm around Dean’s shoulders. “We’d be happy to watch Henry for you,” Cas said, giving Dean a small smile. Dean made an exasperated noise, but finally agreed.
So that Friday night, Cas went around toddler-proofing their apartment while Dean ordered a pizza for dinner. Once every pointy edge was cushioned and all the outlets had covers on them, Cas came into the kitchen and hopped up on the counter.
Before Dean could make use of his boyfriend’s additional height, the doorbell rang.
“Shit,” Dean groaned, pulling back and heading for the door.
“Watch the language around the child,” Cas warned. Dean shot him a smirk over his shoulder and opened the door, revealing Sam and Amelia, plus one rather annoyed looking toddler.
“Heya, Henry,” Dean greeted, immediately crouching down to make eye contact with the kid. He promptly hid behind Amelia’s legs.
“Sorry, he’s been doing that with everyone lately,” Amelia apologized, bending a bit to coax the little boy into the apartment. Henry obeyed, but still kept one little fist balled in her jeans.
Cas came over, adopting the same stance Dean had, before speaking lowly to Henry. “Do you like pizza, Henry?” he asked, his voice low and gentle. The child’s eyes went wide, and he nodded a little, his grip on Amelia’s pants loosening a bit. “We got some pizza for dinner, do you want to come see?” Cas held his hand out for Henry to take.
Henry nodded again, and let go of Amelia’s jeans completely so that he could grab onto Castiel’s hand. While Dean and Sam blinked in surprise, Cas led Henry over into the kitchen.
“Would you like to sit on the counter?” Cas asked. When Henry nodded again, Cas kept talking. “Okay. I’m going to pick you up, is that all right?” Henry gave a toothy smile and lifted his arms up in acceptance. Cas quickly scooped the boy up and set him on the counter. Henry squealed and giggled, kicking his legs in excitement.
“I think you guys are good to go,” Dean muttered, unwilling to speak too loud in case Henry heard and got spooked again. Amelia grinned and tugged a surprised Sam out the door and away.
Dean closed the door and stepped over to the kitchen. Henry fell silent again, but his brown eyes now seemed more curious than afraid. Dean only had to stoop a little bit to bring their eyes to the same level, and now Henry seemed a lot more interested than he had earlier.
Cas plopped some pizza down on a paper plate and put the plate down next to the pair before grabbing a slice for himself.
Henry laughed gleefully when Dean took one bite of the pizza and all the toppings came off with the cheese, falling and covering Dean’s chin and shirt with pizza sauce and pepperoni.
“Ha ha, very funny, kid,” Dean said sarcastically, but with a gentle smile, while he cleaned himself up. Cas tossed him a clean T-shirt from the pile of laundry waiting to be folded on the couch.
After dinner, they tried to give Henry a bath, but that mainly resulted in Dean getting soaking wet while Henry and Cas remained mysteriously dry. Finally he gave up, toweled himself off while Cas and Henry laughed at him. Around eight, when Dean was dry, they settled down onto the couch and popped in a movie.
To be honest, Dean didn’t pay any attention to whatever animated musical was playing. Instead, he watched how Cas played with Henry, how he held the kid gently to his side when Henry started to yawn, and how he gently ruffled the small child’s hair once Henry was asleep.
Dean scooted closer, draping his arm around Cas’s shoulders. Cas leaned back into his chest and let Dean take his weight. Dean leaned down, pressed a soft kiss to Cas’s hair.
“This is… nice. The kid thing, I mean,” Dean said softly, careful not to wake Henry. Cas smiled contentedly, sensing the question behind Dean’s statement.
“We’ll talk about it in the morning,” Cas said, nuzzling closer to Dean. They fell asleep only moments later.