(no subject)

[weary_head]

Midnight found Dean wandering, this time with a bottle of booze. Its quality was as dubious as its color (somewhere between pink and a watery melon), but it did the trick, and Dean thanked the life that had enabled him to sneak so easily into the Hub and steal it away with every burning swallow.

He didn't go to the waterfall this time. Sam had found him there too easily. Strange, that it should be harder than ever to talk to Sam about the deal now that he knew. No burden had been lifted, only another settled on top of the first, and the weight of Sam's disappointment and grief was more than Dean could bear most evenings. Gulping down another awful swallow, he wondered if he'd ever sleep a night through again.

And so it was that he found himself at Angua's hut. He told himself that he wanted to see her new digs, which was true. Why he needed to see them at this time of night, he didn't bother making excuses for. He was too busy making a hell of a lot of noise tripping over her front step.

Comments

[weary-head.livejournal.com]

"Aw, you can be alpha, pal," said Dean, lowering his fingers to be licked or chewed as the pup saw fit. After decades in the Winchester family, he'd long since given up being alpha, having concentrated more on keeping them alive, if not together.

"Did you hang out on your porch watching 'em work?" he asked. "Drinking lemonade and wearin' camisoles?"

[loaded-wolf.livejournal.com]

Gavin gave the hand a wary sniff, then licked it and nosed it, looking for some love.

Angua gave a soft snort. "Oh yes, and then I baked them a pie." She took another drink, a small one, and passed it back to Dean. "You're painting a funny picture of me, Dean Winchester."

[weary-head.livejournal.com]

"You could bake pies," he told her, rolling onto his back. He patted at his stomach in invitation to Gavin. "Least as well as I could. I'd eat my pies."

[loaded-wolf.livejournal.com]

Gavin laid back down and made a funny sound that must have meant something, because Angua laughed.

Angua didn't even bother to reply to Dean's pie ramble, he was clearly well into the bottle. She motioned to it, and the fact that he was here, in her bed in the middle of the night talking about pie. "Something wrong, or are you just restless?"

[weary-head.livejournal.com]

"What, something's gotta be wrong?" Dean asked, nudging her with the bottle. He watched the liquid slosh and settle. "For me to visit you, my buddy Angua?"

[loaded-wolf.livejournal.com]

"At this hour? I wouldn't say it was an unreasonable assumption," Angua replied.

[weary-head.livejournal.com]

"Assuming," said Dean. "You know what that makes out of you and me." He rolled over though - there was something to be said for bellies and their tender undersides. "You're up," he pointed out.

[loaded-wolf.livejournal.com]

"No I don't." Angua put a hand on Dean's side to still him from rolling around on her bed. She didn't want the drink spilled all over the sheets.

"Couldn't sleep. It's too hot," she complained, though that wasn't entirely it.

[weary-head.livejournal.com]

Dean wriggled against her hand, sighing slightly when her fingertips grazed his side. "We could go swimmin'," he offered. "Could push you in this time."

[loaded-wolf.livejournal.com]

"Maybe tomorrow," Angua dismissed, moving her hand from Dean's side to his hair. She had a sinking feeling he was going to fall asleep on her bed and that she'd be stuck on the floor tonight.

[weary-head.livejournal.com]

Dean pushed his head against her fingers, too, absently pursuing them as they drifted over his scalp. "Messing up my do." He'd have to fix it before wandering back out into the night. Just because it was dark didn't mean he didn't have a reputation to keep up.

[loaded-wolf.livejournal.com]

Angua gave a small laugh. "I'm not sure you've maintained much of a do. What have you been doing?" she asked, curling her fingers loosely around his.

[weary-head.livejournal.com]

"Nothing. Walking." He shook his bottle at her, then sat up to do a better job of it. "You know what I think?"

[loaded-wolf.livejournal.com]

"That your bottle isn't full enough?" Angua said dryly, making her best educated guess. She had half a mind to take it from him, but, considering how drunk she'd been at the party she really didn't think she was one to talk.

[weary-head.livejournal.com]

"I think," said Dean, stretching his arm until the mouth of the bottle could almost reach her own, "that you weren't up 'cause it's hot."

[loaded-wolf.livejournal.com]

"Hm. And I think that you weren't 'just walking,'" Angua said in retort, leaning forward and lowering her mouth to the bottle. She pressed her lips to the cool glass and watched Dean, waiting for him to tilt it up so she could have a drink.

[weary-head.livejournal.com]

Tilt it he did, watching her mouth open for the bottle. "I'll tell you mine if you tell me yours," he murmured.

[loaded-wolf.livejournal.com]

Angua drank, making a small appreciative sound when she had her fill. She pulled back and wiped her mouth with the back of her hand.

"Fine, it's hot, I can't stop staring up at the moon, and I'm lonely," she admitted, lifting her chin in defiance of ever looking vulnerable. "And you?"

[weary-head.livejournal.com]

"Nightmares." He licked a stray drop from the neck of the bottle, following it back up to tip the rest down his throat. "Keep dreaming about fire."

[loaded-wolf.livejournal.com]

"Why's that?" Angua asked, watching his neck muscles work as he drank. Absently she wondered if he'd had some traumatic experience involving fire.

[weary-head.livejournal.com]

Dean shrugged, managing to make the gesture elegant in spite of - or perhaps because of - his inebriation. "Mom died in one," he said. He never said he'd tell the whole truth.

[loaded-wolf.livejournal.com]

"Oh," was all Angua said at first, slightly taken aback. That was just a little more personal than she'd expected. Not sure what exactly to say, there was a prolonged pause. "I'm sorry, Dean..."

[weary-head.livejournal.com]

He shrugged again. "I was five. You want some more of this?"

[loaded-wolf.livejournal.com]

Angua did, but she shook her head. "No thanks. And still..." But she didn't know what to say, how could she? Dean was so closed off, and she could hardly commiserate. If her own mother died in a fire, Angua wasn't sure she would feel much of anything at all.

[weary-head.livejournal.com]

"Still what?" asked Dean, in a tone that suggested she might not want to continue that sentence. He seemed to realize it, and smiled up at her through his lashes.

"Didn't know you were lonely."