Work Text:
Those first steps
“And here you have the big superhero with all his muscles and purple spandex, coming to save the day! Woosh!”
“Buh!”
“Oh no! What is that? The giant squid-monster is here to attack us? Whatever can we do?”
“Wraaaah!”
“But luckily for our hero, Mrs. Purple is here to save our beloved superhero! And look at how strong the two together are! Whooooosh! She’s flying, and he’s pulling up cars from the ground. Together they corner the squid-monster and-“
“Dean?”
Dean Winchester looks up from the purple superhero-dolls in his hands when he hears his name being called out. On his lap he can feel his little boy looking up as well, staring at the now-nearing Angel walking towards them with a confused face.
“Oh, hi Cas,” Dean greets him with a smile, and their son, Charles Kevin Winchester – or Charlie to keep it short – reaches out his hands towards his father, making an enthusiastic but needy noise. Castiel helps the boy out by grabbing him, resting him on his hip while keeping a confused stare on his clothes.
“What is Charlie wearing?” Castiel asks after a few more seconds of not understanding. Dean just grins a little more while he once again takes in the Iron Man-themed onesie, unable to help a small chuckle come out of his mouth. Both his boys are adorable, and nobody even has to know that thought has ever passed through his mind.
“I saw it in the store today and I couldn’t resist it. You remember how we watched the Avengers together, last week, right?” Dean asks. He then stands up from the ground, leaning forward to press a greeting kiss on the Angel’s cheek.
“But Charlie is too young to understand-“ Cas starts, only to be silenced again with another kiss.
“Ah, come on, babe,” Dean complains. “He looks adorable, see.” With that, Dean reaches behind his son’s neck to pull up the cap attached to the outfit, putting it over Charlie’s head. The boy starts giggling when his blonde hair gets covered, and they can still see the boy’s blue eyes through two little holes in the hoodie.
Cas stares at the image in front of him with a fascinated face, but the fact that he’s trying to hide it unnerves Dean a little. Cas knows everything about present media-culture, so it’s not like he’s completely unaware of Iron Man or any other Avenger from the movie they saw last week.
Charlie starts to get restless, though, making a noise that tells Castiel to put the little guy on the ground. The little guy apparently has enough of snuggling and all, instead wanting to continue playing with his little toys scattered on the floor.
With his hands now free again, Castiel crosses his arms in front of him as he starts another stare-off against Dean. It’s a thing that happens quite often between the two of them. It can be seen as some sort of competition; how long could they go while staring at each other before one of them gives up in need of affection. It’s all just playful and jokingly, and usually ends up with Dean laughing his ass off while clinging to Castiel in an attempt to remain standing.
Cas is a very affectionate person towards family, but everybody knows how protective he is towards their little boy. It has been this way ever since Charlie was born. Even now, Dean doesn’t really fully understand how exactly the whole process of the birth went, but what he does know is that Charlie is created out of a piece from Cas’s Grace and Dean’s soul, and that the combination of the two apparently formed a human body they currently know as their son.
“Sam called earlier, he’s coming to visit tomorrow,” Dean says after a few more minutes of just staring. His hand automatically reaches for Castiel’s, pulling his arms free from their position. Castiel allows it, gently moving forward to get another kiss from the hunter in surrender.
“Will he bring Lea along? I think it would be good for Charlie to have another kid to play with,” Castiel asks.
“Yeah, the kid’s coming, too.” Castiel then leans his head forward to rest it against Dean’s shoulder, and for a moment, the two just remain standing there in an embrace, with their kid at their feet playing with dolls he received at his birth.
There’s a sudden tugging against his leg, probably coming from Charlie. Dean nudges Castiel to let him go, looking down at his son still grabbing his pants.
“What is it, boy?” Dean asks, finding Charlie looking up at him in wonder, trying to hold on to Dean to keep himself from falling down on the floor. Dean’s eyes widen in surprise when it fully sinks through, though, and the first thing he does is pinching Castiel’s arm to get his attention.
“Babe, look,” Dean says in shock, trying his hardest to believe that his little boy is standing on his own, trying to stay up. With new confusion, Castiel looks down as well, at first not seeming to understand what exactly has gotten Dean so riled up.
Dean can pinpoint the exact moment when Cas seems to notice it. Yeah, okay, it’s not so difficult to see when the Angel’s eyes have the exact same reaction as Dean’s had. The hand still holding on to his arm starts gripping tighter, hard enough for Dean to know that this isn’t a dream to be woken up from.
“A camera,” Dean mutters after a few more seconds, earning him another look from Castiel that makes clear that he doesn’t understand what Dean is saying. “Cas, we gotta get this moment on film! We need to record his first steps!”
“Dean, a camera is unnecessary, I have a perfect memory,” Castiel counters. Dean glares at him for a moment.
“Well, I don’t,” he retorts. He wants to dart forward, to catch his cellphone from the table, but Charlie is still holding on to his leg. Making a move might mean for him to fall again, which is kind of taking a step backwards in this great development. “Quick, take my phone!”
Castiel grabs the phone quickly, handing it to Dean. Then he moves away from the two. Not far, but still putting a small distance between them. He crouches down, almost kneeling on the floor with his hands held forward.
“Come on, Charlie, you can do it,” the Angel assures his son. Dean quickly activates the camera, hitting the record button the moment Charlie takes his first step.
“Holy crap, he’s actually doing it!” Dean whispers, only then remembering that he should watch his language in front of his kid, who is slowly but surely taking his first steps towards his father. “He’s walking, Cas!”
And Cas is smirking while he nods, because, though Dean doesn’t know about that yet, the Angel is actually looking forward to when the boy will do his first attempt at flying.