[h3] Dean [/h3]

Dean almost jumped out of his skin when Esme opened her eyes, ruining his plans to just let her sleep the entire night. He had planned to talk to her in the morning, and hopefully, she would be a little more cheery to see him. But as she teased him, Dean couldn’t help the smile that crept onto his face. He scanned over her face as she seemed to feel pain. He figured it was soreness from whatever hunt she had just come back from, but his worry wasn’t any less either way. He reached his hands out, hovering them over her body as if he could diagnose her just by having his hands near, but was afraid to touch her in case he hurt her worse.

He instantly shook his head as she began to apologize, “No…no, stop it.”, he started. But she continued her apology and he looked down at the mattress. Truth was, she did hurt his feelings, but he was also quick to get over things, when it came to arguments. As long as they were honest with each other, he would still be right there.

Dean furrowed his brow, concerned and wanting to hear more about her cases. But, she still seemed to be in apology mode, not complaining mode. Taking a deep breath, he reached out and brushed his fingers lightly against the back of her arm as she brought her hand down to her face, letting her finish her apology.

“You know what…” Dean started, a soft smile creeping up on his face, causing his freckled dimples to brighten up. He looked away from her for a moment and then turned his eyes back down to hers, “I was more concerned about that cut on your face than I was any of the mean crap you said to me. I’m just glad you’re here and you’re okay. Alright? Me and you…we’re good. I was just worried you were going to run off. You seemed so pissed at me. Duke is Duke.”

He leaned his body toward her, reaching his arm over to brace himself to where their noses brushed, sighing softly with a smile as he scanned her eyes, his lips brushing her upper lip as he spoke,“This doesn’t leave this room, or Duke will never let me live it down…being soft. But I missed you. A lot.”