The first time Sam sees Dean and Castiel kiss, it’s just like any other day in his life.

The first time Sam sees Dean and Castiel kiss, it’s just like any other day in his life. They’ve been at the bunker between hunts, and are in town to do the week’s shopping.

All three of them are walking down the street. Dean and Cas are just ahead of Sam, walking in step, their shoulders brushing. Sam trails behind them, letting them choose which stores to walk into. 

 Soon, they pass the grocery store, and Sam definitely needs to go in there. 

“Hey, guys, I’m gonna stop in here!” He calls ahead to them. They turn their heads around, nodding in affirmation. He passes them and opens the door, wincing at the bell that jingles at his arrival. He steps into the store, turning around when he doesn’t hear Cas and Dean follow.

When he turns around, though, he finds that they are both still outside. They are standing close together, and they seem to be having a serious conversation. They both have rather dark, focused expressions, and Sam starts to wonder if he should go out there to break up what could be an oncoming fight. But then Cas laughs and Dean smiles, and they start to pull away from each other. Dean reaches out at the last moment, catching Cas by the wrist and pulling him in. They kiss briefly on the lips. It’s not a peck, but it’s chaste and quick, and definitely practiced. Sam can tell it’s not the first time they’ve done it, and honestly, he’s not surprised. Those two have had something going on for a long time, and he is glad they’ve finally got around to acting on it.

The Winchesters, Mary, and Cas are working a case together, and they split up. Cas and Dean go to finish off a nest of vamps while Mary and Sam resolve things with the locals.

They meet up at a shitty 24 hour diner at some ungodly hour of the night, and Mary is so engrossed in conversation with Sam that she almost misses the way Dean’s hand hovers at Castiel’s lower back as they enter the diner. Almost.

“Finished ‘em off real good, huh, Cas?” Dean says with a tired smirk once they’re seated, nudging the angel with his shoulder.

“Yes,” Cas agrees, opening his menu.

Sam orders a coffee and Dean glares at him so he orders a soup too. Castiel gets the same thing that Dean gets.

“You need to eat?” Mary asks.

Castiel shrugs. “It’s a habit, now.”

And Mary notices the way that there is almost a foot and a half of empty space on Dean and Cas’s side of the booth that they’re not using. She notices the way their arms touch from shoulder to elbow.

“So,” She says to Sam, later, when they are alone, “Dean and Cas?”

“Oh,” Sam scratches the back of his neck. “It’s, um, complicated, I think.”

Sure on this Shining Night (11.5k. read it on ao3)

They sit in silence for a time, the dancing mass at their backs, looking out at empty storefronts.

After a while Dean nudges Castiel’s shoulder with his, and says, “Hey.”

“Hey what?”

“You never got nights like this in the city, did you?”

Castiel thinks, wiggling his toes. “Not like this, no.”

“Told ya so,” says Dean, childlike, and Castiel huffs a laugh. He wishes it could be so simple. But just as he thinks this, a timid voice in the back of his mind pipes up: why can’t it be?