[h3] Dean [/h3]

Dean smirked briefly, when Mika joked about drinking coffee. He always knew that the best way to diffuse any potential morning tension was through coffee, even if it was crappy motel coffee. Luckily, this was Bobby’s and Bobby didn’t skimp on the few things he actually enjoyed. When her face went serious, he dropped his smile and listened intently, narrowing his eyes. It had been a while since Mika and Duke had any sort of sibling relationship, and he hadn’t expected them to just snap back to it, after Duke’s last runner. He didn’t say what instantly went through his brain, the same ‘be careful’ he always gave people when they grew closer to Duke. Maybe it was wrong of him, but he couldn’t help it. He knew the kid like the back of his hand.

He opened his mouth to speak on it, but decided against it. If Duke had managed to diffuse whatever bomb was destined to go off between Dean and Mika, he would let it go, for now. He would just pick up her pieces when Duke inevitably ran off. Her next words took him a bit off guard, and he raised his thumb, slipping it under her shirt to rub the skin of her hip with his nervousness.

Flashes of Duke’s angry face from that morning flooded Dean’s brain as Mika spoke, and Dean sighed, nodding his head, but another confused frown graced his face at the words ‘reminding you’re glad he’s still with us’. Did Duke believe that Dean wanted him dead, for some reason? Or was it just a moment of jealousy, Duke was feeling in his emotional state? Dean wasn’t sure, but his face softened when Mika told him that Duke needed his brother. He understood exactly what she meant, as she pecked his lips and he tried to catch her lips briefly as he nodded.

“You’re right. I should have been there for him when he got here. I can’t imagine how he must have been feeling after getting back and seeing Esme like that.” Dean said honestly. He sighed softly, hearing Esme and Duke talking in the other room, “And me and you? We need to talk about the time that you were gone, when we get some alone time. I told you I was going to be honest and I was serious. I want you to know everything…”

He scanned her eyes, and reached a hand up, brushing his finger tips over her cheek, and then he pushed a strand of her hair behind her ear with a soft smile, “You just tell me when.”

[h3] Cason [/h3]

Cason shook his head at first, when Nat touched his cheek. He didn’t want her to talk away the fact that he hadn’t been able to save her as fast as he should have been. He wanted to use it as fuel to do better, and to make sure that she was never touched again. He would murder anyone who so much as looked at her, if he thought they might be a threat. What had happened to her would never happen again.

But as she said the simple word ‘hey’, Cason looked up and met her eyes. The fact that she didn’t hold anything against him made the back of his head burn with that familiar wash of acid pain. He almost had to close his eyes, his vision blurring just with Nat’s faith in him. Knowing Nat, if he didn’t forgive himself, even just a little, she would force him to. She wouldn’t allow him to bring it up again. She would make sure that he forgave himself, and let it go.

So, when she teased and smiled to lighten the mood, Cason matched her smile with a smirk of his own, nodding his head, “Obviously. It would be a little weird if Dean kissed you after saving your life. At least I looked cool doing it…”

His frown returned for a moment as she explained that she was willing to put herself in danger to save him from the barn. That wasn’t what he wanted from her at all, and honestly, he would have cuffed her to the steering wheel himself, if he knew she wouldn’t be able to follow him. He would have to thank whoever had talked her out of it, later on. She likely would have been seriously hurt in the barn, as she would have wanted to hang back and wait for Cason…and the demons would have shown up. It was one of his worst fears, after admitting that he loved her. Demons would know and would be all over her.

“Better be glad I wasn’t there. I would have absolutely cuffed you to the steering wheel…” Cason teased, with a chuckle. “I love you. It feels weird to say it out loud but I love you. No one will ever hurt you again. Scorched earth. Entire families killed. The amount of Hell I would unleash if you were even in danger of a paper cut is probably not healthy…”

[h3] Anna [/h3] 

Anna smiled softly, a rare smile that he couldn’t see, as she was suddenly engulfed in Sam’s arms again. She buried her face in his chest, suddenly feeling a happy buzz in her mind, just at his scent. Just being so close to Sam, while the demon blood reached all part of her body was something akin to heaven. She was half expecting him to turn into some horrible hallucination, bringing her back into the detox like whiplash. But as she sat there, feeling his warmth and his heart beat under her fingertips, she realized that it was actually over, for now.

Anna took a deep breath, as Sam mentioned that they could go upstairs with the others. She wanted to get the hell out of this room, and she wanted to feel somewhat normal, even if it meant being around Dean. She could already feel the looks she was going to get, of everyone knowing that she had drank demon blood in order to cut the detox short. That was also something she wasn’t looking forward to. But she was so thirsty and she wanted to smell something other than whiskey and iron for a bit.

“I do want to…” Anna mumbled against Sam’s chest after a moment. She pulled back from him, and looked up at his eyes, finally seeing him clearly. There was no hallucinated blood on his face. He didn’t seem scared. He didn’t seem like had been through the ringer, and to her surprise, he looked relatively okay after the events of the previous night. Anna couldn’t help herself, rocking up on her knees to press a kiss to Sam’s lips. It wasn’t a kiss of sadness or any negative emotion. It wasn’t overly desperate. It was just a passionate…pleasant kiss, for the first time in what felt like forever.

She dropped the empty vial on the floor, and brought both her hands up to tangle in Sam’s hair, pulling herself impossibly close to his chest as she deepened the kiss, taking advantage of the privacy for a little while longer. After a long few minutes, Anna was forced to break the kiss to catch her breath, and as she gasped for air, she pressed her forehead against Sam’s, not releasing his hair at first.

“I love you.” She whispered against his lips, loosening her fingers from his hair as she opened her eyes and scanned his, once again searching for proof that he was real, before they joined the others.

[h3] Duke [/h3]

Duke furrowed his brow, but he followed Esme’s eyes when she told him he was only half right about figuring all this mess out. He didn’t quite know what she was talking about. He always figured out his problems on his own, and those problems he couldn’t handle, he usually just ran off until he could. He reached his hands out, hovering them over Esme’s body with a bit of panic as she suddenly sat up and took his face into her hands, “You should um…”

But Duke’s words broke off as she stared into his eyes, and for the first time that he could remember, someone said that he didn’t have to go through his struggles alone. He couldn’t remember if ANYONE had ever said those words to him, or if they did, he definitely didn’t believe them. His bright blue eyes practically melted as his brow softened and his eyes darted from one blue eye to the other of Esme’s. He felt a weird lump in his throat as his eyes watered, but he refused to cry in front of her again. It had made her so upset to see him cry. He didn’t want to see her face look so sad again, not because of him.

“O-okay.” Duke whispered, not really knowing where to start on the whole honesty thing. His entire being was made up of secrets, unrequited feelings, pushing down emotions and just dealing with life with a smile. It was exhausting, but it was everything to him. But Esme was requesting that he change that. She was requesting to know what was on his mind, and what he was feeling. She was requesting to be an actual partner…not just his best friend. “I um…I want to work on that.”

He closed his eyes at her last kiss to his forehead, breathing her in for a moment as she turned her head. He kept his forehead pressed to her, bringing a hand up to gently wrap around the side of her neck, just brushing his fingertips over her skin, “I don’t think you could imagine how much I love you. I love you so much.”, he whispered, nuzzling his nose against her cheek as he just held her close to him. She was his. She wasn’t going anywhere and for the first time in his life, he didn’t feel the need to run away.