Astronaut5: Reckless + Expecting

Castiel couldn't help but hold back a chuckle when he saw Dean eating messily once more. "Dean. You've got a chunk of bacon on your chin."

"It happened only once," Hanakael replied, thoughtful. "Usually, it goes the other way around. Since it was a one-time occurrence, there is no way to know if she would be as much endangered as a human mother."

Dean lifted his head from his plate, blinking. "Where?", he asked, mouth full. He mercifully managed not to spit food pieces everywhere, including his soulmate.

Eileen nodded weakly. "I see." After a bit of thoughtful and silent introspectiion, she sighed. "Well, thank you for your help, Hanakael. I am sorry I had to pull you here", she added.

Castiel held back another laugh. "Just- swallow. I'll take care of it." He waited for Dean to do so, and took the little piece of bacon off his chin. Then his thumb on his lips, and brought it back to his own to lick it off. "You should learn to eat more slowly. You'd make less of a mess."

Hanakael remained silent for a while, after a slow nod. "So you know nothing else of the Nephilim yourselves?"

Dean followed Castiel's thumb all the way to his lips. And swallowed nervously when he saw his tongue peeking out to lick the digit clean. Damn. It was shameful how easy it was for his soulmate to look so appealing to him. And make him forget anything else. He cleared his throat. "Sorry", he said. "I'll try."

Eileen shook her head. "If Heaven doesn't manage to locate them, how could we", she observed, hoping to be convincing.

Castiel smiled fondly at him, but then turned to his own plate. "Not that I mind cleaning you up. But I've noticed that it's been making Sam uncomfortable, lately." Well it was WAY TOO SUGGESTIVE to the poor pup's taste!

Hanakael nodded. "Fair point." He was about to leave, when Rowena stopped him.
"Wait, how- how is Fergus?" she asked out of the blue, trying to sound nonchalant. The hint of a smile grew on the angel's lips, who merely replied "He's doing good," before he went away in a blink.

Dean snorted. Yeah, Sam had started clearing his throat so often around them. One evening, after one particularly heated gaze they had exchanged as Castiel wiped away a trail of beer foam from his lips, his brother had coughed so hard that the angel - a pup himself - had worriedly asked him if he needed healing. "Well. Too bad for him. I like when you do that."

Eileen blinked, letting a small smile stretch on her lips at Rowena's question. She sighed then, slumping on the chair. "Well. What do you think of your son's boyfriend?", she asked to the witch, referring to Hanakael. "Leaving out the fact that he brought us... pretty upsetting informations."

Castiel leaned in to kiss Dean softly, only once he was sure his mouth wasn't full anymore. "I love you," he simply whispered, as he laid his hand on his soulmate's arm.

Rowena sighed. "I'm sorry, I think I was too focused on the fact that my life is over if I don't get out of there within the next minutes-" She stood up, but stopped dead in her tracks when Sam opened the library's door, arching a brow at the scene.

Dean actually chased Castiel's lips when he got away to whisper those sweet words to him, to kiss him more. It felt good. It made him feel a bit better, actually. "Love you too", he murmured when he was finally satisfied with the amount of kisses.

Eileen opened her mouth to protest, to stop her - actually she had gotten up from her chair too when Sam entered the room. She took a deep breath. "Sam", she said, walking to him. "How are the guys doing?", she asked, reaching for his hand.

Castiel rested his forehead a bit against Dean's after all of those kisses, and sighed softly. "Would you mind if we just... spent some time together in our room? Just the two of us?"

Sam walked towards Eileen. "They're... discussing things," he replied awkwardly. "Cas feels better, but Dean is still pretty shaken by it all."

Dean nodded. "Sure", he answered, stealing a last kiss before getting up. He freed the table, putting everything in the sink before offering his hand to Castiel. Completely out of instinct. His panic by now had been pushed in a corner of his brain, but it was always ready to sprout out again.

Eileen nodded. "I thought it could be like that", she signed. "After all, between the two of them, Dean is the one who always needs more time to get over shocks. And this was a pretty... big one." She hesitated. "I wonder what they think of getting this child."

Castiel took Dean's hand in his, and went back to their bedroom with him, where he laid down on the bed, snuggling against Dean. He still needed his soulmate close, after that emotional roller-coaster he went through that morning.

Sam made a face. "I don't know. Castiel seemed quite... happy this morning, but Dean is still worried, since we don't know what happened, or why it happened.
Rowena pressed her lips together, and gave Eileen a look that said "welp here's my cue, b y e", and she tried to exit the room.

Dean was actually physically ready to snuggle for hours. Pretending that problems didn't exist was an all-time specialty favourite of his. He held Castiel against him, rubbing his back soothingly.

Eileen opened her mouth, but spotted Rowena's fleeing posture and just pointed at her. "Don't move", she stated, her voice firm. She still wasn't sure she wanted to tell everything to Dean and Cas - they didn't need to get more drama added to the cauldron in that moment. But escaping? That was a no.

"... What's going on?" Sam turned to look at Rowena, who had stopped moving, somehow feeling threatened by Eileen's tone.
"... Nothing, Samuel," she replied, faking a grin. "I was just on- my way to breakfast?"

Eileen sighed. "... yes. We do need to eat some breakfast." She gently pulled on Sam's shirt. "Let's go." She threw one last, very meaningful glance at Rowena that all but said 'Try to bail and I will spill the beans and come to look after you myself'.

Rowena made a face, but said nothing, as Sam exited the room with Eileen. He did ask her a few questions in signing, but didn't push anything.

- -

Little fast-forward!

Eventually, Castiel and Dean might have tried to talk about the "child issue" from time to time, but Castiel made sure to let his soulmate know that he remained on his positions: he wanted it, and was making no effort for getting rid of it. Instead, he had managed to set up a more powerful warding on himself, to protect their child.
It looked odd as well, but with time passing, his belly started to grow round. He laid his hand on it from time to time, especially when he had to stand up, and, Dean might have walked on him talking to the Nephilim inside from time to time. He tried not to do it too often, given how his soulmate still seemed uneasy about that whole topic. He never voiced out his worried, though. They could read a bit on his face as he laid down at night to sleep, usually exhausted.

Dean had tried. He had tried to do several things - from trying to make Castiel understand why having a child might not be the best idea ever (he still hadn't had the guts to mention just how scared he was to be a father just like his own had been), all the way to try to accept that situation and just move on. But no matter how hard he tried, he was scared shitless, terrified, and all of that was still too much for him.
At night, on that night in particular (just the umpteenth sleepless one), he had been staring at his sleeping soulmate, eyes getting on his round belly. He didn't know what brought him to lay a hand on it. He had never done that - he found it too out of place, too weird, and it made him too uneasy. That night, he just... carefully brushed his fingers against it, maybe driven by curiosity.

There was a little someone inside of Castiel who wasn't sleeping. After being told so much about how sweet and gentle the one the angel referred to as 'your father' was, she could finally feel him! The little thing was so glad that soon enough, she was trying to share her energy and her enthusiasm with that new person, welcoming them.

Dean was so... honestly taken aback he almost pulled his hand away. Almost. He felt a weird, foreign rush of energy, and happiness - one that wasn't coming from him, but that was being communicated to him by the tiny creature that was inside Castiel's belly. That... enthusiasm, he could almost taste it on his tongue. It tasted like giggles and childish glee and expectation for life.
It was... amazing. Amazingly beautiful.
He rested his hand a bit better on Castiel, quietly, not to wake him up. He wanted to feel it better.

The flow of energy continued to flow, but the little thing was so happy that she started to move around, causing Castiel to wake up, both startled and subject to that rush of happiness as well. He blinked and looked back once he had noticed Dean's hand on his belly. Well. That was so unexpected that he first gave his soulmate a bewildered look, before his expression softened. "Hi," he whispered.

Dean stared at Castiel, eyes wide open. He looked as surprised as his soulmate in that moment, that was for sure. "Hey", he whispered back, a bit awkwardly. "I'm... sorry, I didn't mean to wake you up. You can go back to sleep", he murmured, retracting his hand from his belly, looking a bit guilty.

"Wait," Castiel whispered as he caught Dean's hand in his, to guide it back to his belly. "I- I haven't had the chance to introduce you yet," he explained awkwardly, as he looked down, smiling softly. "Yes. It's your father," he said softly, earning a wave of childish glee back, that was shared with both of them in that instant.

Dean let out an incredulous chuckle at that. It... it didn't just feel good, it felt... right. "Well... uhm... hello to you too?", he said, feeling a bit silly as he was talking with a baby who wasn't born yet.

The little girl cooed happily, and send off a few smaller waves of happiness their way, before stopping. Castiel's smile grew wider. "I think they fell asleep again," he whispered, before he sighed softly. "Thank you, Dean."

Dean reluctanctly pulled his hand away when he understood that the child had fallen asleep. Then he registered Castiel's words, and blinked at him. "Why are you thanking me?", he asked.

"Because I-" Castiel sighed softly. "I thought you'd never forgive me for what happened." He did not dare to turn around and look at him yet. After all, he still did not know why they were getting a child, since Rowena was too convinced that Dean was going to kill him were she to say a word.