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Bang. Bang. Crash.
The sound of pots and pans being dropped in the kitchen. A sound no one liked to hear, but definitely not at 4am.
“It's too early,” Dean mumbled tiredly as he slowly slid his feet into the slippers beside the bed.
This was only the third time he'd stayed the night at his boyfriend Cas' house. They'd just survived Black Friday weekend at the store they worked at and as celebration, Dean stayed the night at Cas'.
They were still in the process of moving in together, ever since Cas had found out Dean was pregnant he was insisting they needed to stay together. Because he wanted to be there to help care for his family.
Dean of course appreciated this, but it was also a little overwhelming. He knew he wanted to be with Cas, but sometimes it felt like everything was going too fast. And usually they'd just be at Dean's apartment, cuz Dean liked staying home. Cas owned a house though so it made more sense to go there.
“Cas if you’re secretly a morning person, I don't think this is gonna work out,” Dean joked as he walked through the living room, on his way to the kitchen. He paused though when he noticed Cas was fast asleep on the couch.
“That’s not good,” he said to himself, now going into full defense mode. If it wasn't Cas in the kitchen that meant someone else was here and they were stealing food!
The sound of his voice caused Cas to jump. Startling him awake. “D-Dean?”Dean didn't respond. He was cautiously moving towards the kitchen.
Cas sat up, confused and about to ask for answers, but then he heard the noise coming from the kitchen. “Dean, you shouldn't go in there.”
“Shhh!” Dean whispered in response. He crept towards the kitchen, his eyes darting from left to right searching for something to defend himself with if he needed. When he finally reached the doorway, he saw the pots and pans being moved around, but no one was there. “What the hell?”
He took another step closer, suddenly everything dropped. He felt something rush past him, but as quickly as it happened it was over. Whatever it was, it was gone. “Cas!?”Cas was up in a heartbeat, and beside Dean even quicker. “What happened? Where did he go? Are you okay?!” he looked over Dean, checking for any sign of injury or distress. “I should have stopped you.”
“Cas, I think it was a ghost,” Dean replied, staring straight forward, not answering any of his boyfriends questions. He couldn't believe it, he hadn't seen a ghost in years.
“Not again..” Cas sighed, anxiously running his fingers through his hair now.
“I’m sorry, what?” This of course wasn't the response from Cas that Dean had expected. Cas already knew about the ghost?
“He doesn’t like it when I have guests,” Cas replied quietly.“What?” Dean repeated, growing concerned now. He couldn't tell if Cas was being genuine or just joking to lighten the mood. “Cas, you never mentioned a ghost to me before. Is your house haunted?”
“I believed he was gone. He hasn't been around in months. I never said anything because I feared you'd think I'm crazy.”
“You're not crazy. I saw those pans moving. What the hell?"
“He only shows up when someone's spending the night here. Uh- people I'm romantically involved with. He seems to be jealous? As if he doesn't want me and my partners to be happy. He's scared a lot of them off.”
“Should I leave?” Dean asked “did I just piss off a ghost?”
Cas shook his head. “Yes? No?” He sat down. “I don’t know, he’s mad at me. I hoped he'd leave us alone. You've stayed here a few times before and he never showed up."
Dean took a seat next to Cas. “Okay, so what do we do?”“I don’t know!” Cas had barely gotten the words out, before the fridge opened up. The eggs pulled out, followed by cheese and sausage.“Cas?” Dean stared wide eyed at the floating food.
“He’s making breakfast…” Cas replied with little emotion.
“Oh okay. And we’re just going to sit here and be okay with this!?” Dean got up to move closer to the door.“He’s a good cook,” Cas said, glancing at his boyfriend. He knew it was a poor attempt to calm his nerves, but he had to try anyway, what could it hurt?
He also knew that whatever it was it usually only stayed a few days, he did his best to avoid any conflict with it. He didn’t want to make the ghost more angry. Maybe he wasn’t mad about the guests, maybe he just wanted to be friendly and get to know them?
Dean felt like he might throw up. “I don't like this. He hates when you have guests and now he's making breakfast for us?”
“I'm sorry, Dean. If I knew he would be back I would have told you.”
“Yeah, it would have been nice to better prepare for a ghost making me breakfast at four in the morning,” Dean grumbled.
“I could ask him to leave. He doesn't usually take that well though.”
Dean laid his head on the table and sighed quietly. “My boyfriend has a haunted house,” he spoke to himself. “What if breakfast is poisoned? Is my life at risk?”
“You don't have to eat anything. I doubt he would poison you, but it's not worth the risk."
"Why 4am? Couldn't you have waited til at least 8?" Dean turned towards the stove to speak directly to the ghost.
"Dean-"
"What? I'm just curious."
"Dean, you should go back to bed. I will handle this."
"Nope. I'm not leaving you alone with a ghost."
Cas sighed. "I will be fine."
"No. We're gonna figure out how to-" he paused, glancing at the kitchen for a moment. He grabbed Cas' hand and led him out towards the living room. "We have to figure out how to get rid of him," he whispered. "But we can't keep talking about it in front of him it'll piss him off."
Cas nodded. "I read somewhere that salt could keep ghosts out of rooms and away from people. That can protect us."
"So he's afraid of a seasoning?" Dean rolled his eyes. "How are we gonna get the salt if he's in the kit-" he paused mid sentence. "That asshole probably chose the kitchen so he could prevent us from grabbing salt!"
Cas shook his head. "I will get the salt. You stay right here." He sat Dean down on the couch.
"But what if-"
"Dean, you are pregnant. If the ghost is going to fight us I'd rather it be me. You need to stay safe."
"I'm not helpless. I've seen enough horror movies to know what not to do."
"Stay here."
Dean reluctantly stayed put while he watched Cas leave the room. He would be lying if he said he wasn't tired. His eyes started to close for a moment, but he quickly reopened them. When this happened a second time, he ended up standing and starting to pace in the living room while he waited for Cas.
"It shouldn't take this long, right?" He talked to himself. "Come on, Cas.."
After what seemed like an eternity, Cas returned with the salt.
"Awesome, so we can keep him out there. But how do we get rid of him completely?"
"I will start researching. But you are going to stay with Sam."
"I'm sorry, what?"
"I will call Sam. I'm sure he will agree with me. You need sleep and you shouldn't be fighting ghosts-"
"This isn't fair. What are you gonna do if he becomes violent? You need backup."
"Crowley is next door and he is usually awake at this hour."
"Oh great idea Cas, invite over the neighbor you can't stand instead of just letting your boyfriend help." If he were more awake and less emotional maybe he'd see it wasn't like that. Cas wanted to protect Dean from potential danger.
"I might not be friendly with Crowley, but I know he will help if I ask. Or I will call Gabriel. But I am not letting my pregnant boyfriend stay here when it could become a dangerous situation. If I had known the ghost would be back, we would have been sleeping at your place still. I'm sorry, Dean. I know you don't want to leave and you think you can help. But it's not worth the risk. I hope you will understand that later."
"I'll go get my things," Dean replied quietly, not arguing anymore.
Cas wasn't sure if this meant Dean was actually getting it now or if he was just too mad and tired to fight. But when Dean came back from the bedroom with his bag he'd brought over, Cas couldn't help but feel saddened. He didn't want him to leave, but he needed him to be safe.
He wasn't really much of a hugger, but there were a few people Dean would actually hug and Cas was obviously one of them. He was one of the only people Dean would ever get cuddly with. He hesitated on his way to the door, almost leaving without saying goodbye. But he changed his mind. He did understand what Cas was saying and he agreed it was probably the best decision here. But that didn't mean he had to like it.
"Are you mad at me?" Cas asked quietly.
Dean shook his head, he dropped his bag on the floor and walked over to Cas. He wrapped his arms tightly around him in a hug. "Be safe, Cas. Please. He might seem harmless now, but if you even think for a second that you might get hurt.. just leave. I can't lose you."
Cas hugged back, not as tightly because he was afraid of crushing Dean. "I love you." He kissed Dean's forehead. "I will call for help if I think I need it..and if necessary I will leave. But I want to make this house safe for you to come home to. I will kick the ghost out somehow."
"I love you too." He held onto Cas for an extra couple seconds, before starting to pull away. "And I'm sorry for fighting with you. I just hate this whole situation. I uh- I don't want Sammy getting involved though. I'm just gonna pop over to Crowley's so he's on standby in case you need him."
Cas would argue this decision, simply because he didn't like Crowley. But Crowley was unfortunately Dean's best friend. So he already knew Crowley would let Dean stay there and would help make sure Dean was okay. "Stay out of trouble. Make smart decisions," Cas said softly, it was what he usually said whenever Dean went to Crowley's.
"Dude, I'm gonna nap on his couch," Dean replied, knowing it likely wouldn't happen. He couldn't sleep knowing Cas was fighting a ghost.
There was the sound of pots and pans falling again as the ghost dug through cabinets and made an unnecessary amount of noise to alert them he was still there. "Be careful," Dean added, he picked up his bag and left the house.
*******
Around 10am that morning there was a knock at Crowley's door. Since he was expecting Cas, Dean answered the door.
"Cas! You're okay." He pulled him in for a hug. "I was starting to worry."
"He never stopped worrying," Crowley corrected from nearby.
"Research took longer than I expected," Cas told his boyfriend.
"Why are you covered in dirt?"
"I had to visit a graveyard."
"What?"
"He had to dispose of the remains of the man possessing your house," Crowley said casually like this didn't bother him at all.
"Wh-what?" Dean replied taking a moment to process this. "You had to salt and burn the bones? I thought that was just a thing for tv?"
Cas shook his head. "It was the only way. He's gone now, the house is safe."
"But are you safe? That's pretty illegal Cas, what if someone saw you?"
"No one saw me."
"Are you sure?"
Cas nodded. "You can come home now, Dean." He tried to remain calm, Dean seemed to buy what Cas was saying about everything being okay. But Crowley could tell there was something Cas was leaving out of the story.
Had someone seen Cas? Was he in trouble?