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It was supposed to be a routine hunt, just a nest of vampires a hop, and a skip outside of Lebanon. Nothing Dean and Cas couldn’t handle by themselves, even if Cas was now human. They had been on a few hunts after they kicked Chuck’s ass and while it had been a learning curve, the ex-angel was doing great. Cas was already a skillful warrior and had years of experience fighting alongside him and Sam. As experienced as Cas was, the guy had still been an angel before the human race was even a thing. Even if Cas had briefly been human before, instincts were still a bitch to overcome. More than once, on impulse, Cas went to smite a monster with his non-existent grace. Luckily, Dean had a feeling this might happen and had always been nearby to gank the bad guys before they ripped his husband to shreds. It happened a few times, but on their recent hunts, everything had been fine. Cas didn’t try to smite anything and he looked like a badass taking down a werewolf with a silver stake.
Dean had started to give his husband more leeway with hunts, trusting Cas to be safe when they had to split up. So, he didn’t think anything about loading up the ex-angel and taking a short trip to gank some vamps. They’d go in, behead some son of a bitches, and grab some pie on the way back home. Things didn’t go smoothly, the nest was much larger than Dean had been anticipating. Dean was slashing away at anything that moved and while he took a few hits here and there, he was managing. The bodies dropped and when he thought he was in the clear, he turned to check on Cas. His husband had gotten his fair share of kills, but there was one more left. Cas was backing away as the vamp was advancing towards him. Dean’s eyes grew in horror when he realized Cas’s machete was on the floor and the guy had nothing to defend himself with. Dean was on his way, but Cas’s not-so-forgotten reflexes kicked in and his hand smacked on the vampire’s forehead. He had one second of oh crap expression on his face before the vamp had him pinned to the wall, with its teeth ready to sink into his neck. Dean grabbed the vamp’s shirt and pried him off Cas, but the vamp turned and broke free from his hold. Dean lifted the machete but before he could strike the vamp grabbed him and tossed him. He could feel the wind in his hair before he landed into a wall. Dean groaned as he pushed himself up, his body fussing at him, screaming he wasn’t twenty anymore. Dean quickly shoved himself up before the vamp had a chance to make a meal out of him. The monster never made it, Cas had his machete, swinging it down, and the vamp’s head went flying off. It was badass seeing Cas take down the vamp, even could have been hot if Dean’s side wasn’t throbbing in pain.
“Dean!” Cas cried, falling to his knees. His hands were about to land on Dean before he remembered he couldn’t heal him. “Are you okay? Where does it hurt?”
“I’m fine, Cas.” He groaned, holding his hand out so Cas could help pull him up. His legs shook for a moment and he heard some popping, but by all accounts, Dean felt fine. He smiled at Cas, but the smile fell when he saw the guilty look on his husband. “Dean… I’m so sorry.”
Dean sighed, running his hand over his face. He couldn’t just tell Cas it was fine because it wasn’t. They went through too much to end in a bloody death by one single vampire..Still, Dean could completely blame Cas, in the grand scheme of things, he’d always be an angel longer than he would be human. “Hey, we lived, that’s what counts. We’ll work on the whole slapping forehead thing later.”
Dean smiled, but his awesome charms didn’t make Cas feel any better. His husband insisted on helping Dean back to the Impala, and he could tell Cas beating himself up the whole time. He messed up Cas insisted he drive them back home, but Dean put his foot down and said he was driving. Cas looked even more crushed, but before Dean could say anything, his husband hung his head low and got into the passenger’s side. It left Dean gutted, he trusted Cas more than anything in this world, but this was the Impala, his Baby. The whole hour back was filled with silence, but it wasn’t comfortable. Cas was being too hard on himself and Dean didn’t know how to make it right. He feared anything he tried to say would make things worse, but still, his mind was reeling for some other way to show Cas he trusted him. That he wasn’t mad at him for the slip-up, just concerned for their well-being.
He could cook Cas a steak dinner, the guy really loved his beef. Or maybe Dean would force himself to get up and go to the farmer's market. It was boring as hell, but it would make Cas happy. His eyes glanced over to the man in the seat next to him. Cas looked defeated with his head against the window. Dean should have just let him drive, even if he wasn’t all that badly injured, but Cas didn’t know how to drive the Impala. She wasn’t just any car, from the moment Dean hit eighteen, she had been the most constant presence in his life. It was hard to let go and let someone else behind the wheel. It had been nerve-wracking the first few times Sammy drove Baby, but eventually, Dean taught Sam how to drive his car. Now he wouldn’t even blink if Sam needed to borrow the Impala. So why hadn’t he taught Cas to drive Baby yet?
Dean smiled as he felt the excitement bubble up in his chest. He would teach Cas how to drive the Impala and prove he trusted him. It would also make Cas feel better knowing he could drive if there was a day Dean got hurt badly enough he wasn’t able to. It wouldn’t be tonight, they both needed to unwind and Dean needed to pop some ibuprofen. So, he swung by, picked up some burgers for dinner, and tried to keep his brilliant idea to himself until it was time.
***
A couple of days later, when his side fully eased off, Dean was ready to put Cas’s foot on the pedal. Which couldn’t happen any sooner, though Dean had thrown out, “Hey we lived,” or “We ganked them, that’s all that matters” or all the other things he tried to do to make Cas feel better, nothing was working. Cas had accepted it was a slip-up, but he was still guilt-ridden over it. When Dean found him, Cas was sulking in the library, blankly looking at a page of some random book.
“Heya Buddy, you busy?” Dean asked, startling Cas.
His husband relaxed when he saw it was only him, “Hello Dean, I’m not busy, just looking over lore.”
“Great!” Dean tossed the keys to the other man and Cas caught it with ease. Cas’s head tilted, his brows furrowing, but he didn’t look at the keys. Didn’t even ask what was happening, just kept staring at Dean for an answer. “I’m going to teach you how to drive!
Cas’s eyes narrowed, “I know how to drive, Dean, you know this.”
He bit down a smart comment about how he knew Cas could drive because he insisted on driving that ugly Lincoln. No matter what he had done to get Cas to look into getting another car, his husband liked that golden eyesore. This wasn’t about trying to convince Cas to get a better car, so Dean cleared his throat.“But you don’t know how to drive the Impala, she’s special and you’re gonna need practice.”
Dean tried not to laugh when Cas’s eyes grew wide before finally looking at the set of keys in his hands. Cas’s mouth fell open when he realized it was
the
keys. “Is this for real?”
Dean chuckled, “For real.”
Cas's smile was radiant and Dean’s soul soared. The excitement lasted until Cas was behind the wheel and he realized he couldn’t just start the car and drive. Dean had to make sure Cas knew where everything was and he cringed when his husband told him he’d figure out as he went. Dean didn’t need Cas to accidentally turn on the windshield wiper, not knowing what he had touched and then fumble around trying to turn it off. So Dean went over every lever, knob, and meter and had Cas repeat it back until he got it right.
“Can I drive now?” Cas asked and Dean smiled, but he didn’t quite feel it.
Something was swirling in his stomach and he wasn’t sure why. He had seen his husband drive before; however, when they rode together, it was always in the Impala. Dean liked driving them, so the only time Cas drove his car was when he went off to the store or the farmer’s market on his own. Cas was patiently waiting for Dean to say something, so he gulped before flashing one of his amazing smiles. “You bet!”
Because what else could he say? He didn’t have a reason for Cas not to drive the Impala and he wanted his husband to learn to drive Baby. It was more than needing Cas to know how to drive the Impala just in case Dean got too banged up, he wanted his husband to be happy. So, Dean took a few deep breaths in, because what did it matter if Cas accidentally scratched her up a bit? Baby had been through worst and Dean had always brought her back. One little scratch wasn’t going to be the end of the, but any hope for rational thinking was thrown from the window when Cas’s arm was over the seat. His eyes were on the back windshield as he started to back out, way too fast. Dean’s hand flew to the roof of the Impala and his other hand was gripping his seatbelt tight.
“Cas! Slow down! Slow down!” He yelped and Cas hit the brakes. Dean flung forward, as far as the seatbelt would take him. He cringed as he thought about his poor breaks, but he had to keep his cool. He couldn’t say something in the wrong tone because the last thing he wanted to do was discourage Cas.
“Dean?” His husband softly asked.
He took another breath in and held it until he knew he could speak calmly. “Hey Buddy? You got to take it easy on those breaks? You can’t just slam into them.”
“You were panicking, I thought there was something wrong.”
Dean ran his hand over his face. He couldn’t be every parent of every sitcom whose child was learning to drive. That would only make things worse for Cas, and the poor guy would never learn how to drive Baby properly. “You just need to ease up on the gas, that’s all.”
Cas raised a brow, “Ease up? Dean, I wasn’t even going five miles.”
“How would you know? Your eyes were at the back window.” Cas squinted at him, “Okay, okay. Just be careful, that’s all I’m asking.”
Cas sighed, but he didn’t argue with him. He began backing out like a reasonable person and not like some bat out of hell. Cas was doing surprisingly well and Dean felt like he could breathe again until the guy pulled onto the road without his blinker on. “If you’re going to make a turn, you have to use your blinker.”
“No one was on the road, you never use your blinker when there’s no one on the road.”
Don’t lead by example! Dean wanted to say, but he kept his mouth shut. He was going to have to start using his blinkers because Cas was a sponge who watched his every single move. Dean's heart skipped when Cas leaned over to turn on the radio. His eyes were on the road, but how focused could the guy be when he was fumbling around the volume? When his husband had both hands on the wheel again, Dean only had moments to relax before a car in the opposite lane was approaching. Cas was too close to the yellow lines so Dean had to tell him to move over into his own lane. Only now Cas practically driving off the road. Then some asshole drove up behind them and rode Cas’s ass for fifteen minutes. Not like the ex-angel seemed to notice. He was too busy bobbing his head to freaking Beyonc é to notice the jackass behind him, or he didn’t realize he was supposed to care. Then, instead of making the turn that would loop them back to the bunker, Cas took the turn to lead them into town. Dean’s stomach dropped, Lebanon might have a population of one hundred, eighty-two, but that didn’t mean the roads couldn’t get congested. Once they were in town Cas flipped on his blinker, and barely let the car in front of him merge before pulling up right behind the car.
Dean’s teeth gritted together as he waited for Cas to ram right into the car. By the will of Jack, Cas finally slowed his roll. “Careful Cas!” He blurted, a little bit more harshly than he intended to, but he had never been this stressed. “There’s a rule! The three-second rule, it’ll allow enough space between you and the vehicle in front of you.”
Cas hummed, “I know, Dean.”
Dean grabbed the assist grip, trying to ignore his pounding heart as Cas weaved in and out of traffic. The street light they were approaching had just turned yellow, but his husband was showing no signs of slowing down. “The breaks Cas! The breaks!” Dean yelped, his foot pressing down as if he could slow down the Impala with sheer will.
The Impala came to a complete stop just as the light had turned red. Dean could feel his heart jackhammering in his chest. Dean had somehow managed to survive the hunting life until he was twenty-nine. When he was finally ripped to shreds by a hellhound, he didn’t stay dead. During the first apocalypse, death didn’t mean anything to him. Dean just kept coming back and somehow managed to stay top-size when it was all over. Then the next apocalypse happened and then the next and by Chuck’s will, Dean lived. Then they took down the biggest threat they had faced yet, God himself. Dean had made it through all of it, but he wasn’t sure if he could make it through Cas’s driving. Their favorite diner was coming up on the right, Cas was slowing, and Dean waited for the person behind them to rear into them. Cas flipped on the blinker and quickly glanced back and forth before making the turn. Dean slammed his eyes shut as he waited for someone to ram into Baby.
“Dean?” Cas’s soothing voice had him peeking his eyes open. He was expecting to see Heaven, but what he got was a dirty grayish brick wall of the diner. They had made it, Cas had safely driven them to the diner without so much of an accident.
“Did I do good?” Cas asked softly as if he was worried about what Dean might say.
Dean smiled, a true smile that stretched from ear to ear, “Yeah you did great.”
Cas beamed at him, “I thought we could grab some coffee and pie while we were out.”
“Hell yeah, a celebration treat on me!” Dean pushed open the door, walking to the other side where he threw his arm over Cas’s shoulder and pulled him close.
“I’m looking forward to pie with you.” Cas admitted as the Dean pulled open the glass doors from them. “I’m also looking forward to driving us back.”
Dean’s heart skipped a beat.