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"In 1967, Louis Armstrong sang a song about the world. In it, he said that when he saw friends shaking hands and saying 'How do you do?' that they were really saying, 'I love you.' " Castiel sat on the edge of the bed, elbows on his legs and hands clasped loosely between his knees. He hadn't said anything in a long while and now that he had, Dean and Sam both looked up at each other from their research and then over to Cas.
"Yeah, Cas... It's, uh, it's a beautiful song," Sam said, giving Dean a glance and shrug, complete with confused frown.
"Right, yeah," Dean agreed. "What's your point?"
"Is that how human friendship works? When you are friends, do you also love one another?"
"Well, I mean, yeah, sure," Sam said, trying to be helpful. "There's a kind of love between friends."
Castiel sat there, brows furrowed and eyes narrowed in concentration. He stared at a place on the wall, not seeing it, trying to understand something. Dean and Sam shared another confused glance. It wasn't too uncommon for Castiel to have sudden human realizations, but they still never quite knew how to deal with them.
"You are both the best friends I have had."
"Cas, you know, we--" Dean started and laughed in a nervous way. "We aren't exactly-- I mean, there's not a lot of competition in that field."
"Dean!" Sam chided when Castiel looked stricken by his response. "He didn't mean it that way, Cas. Did you, Dean?"
"Well, what! It's true, isn't it?"
"Dean is right," Castiel said, looking down at his hands. "I haven't got many friends and the only family I've known are the other angels... But you two have taught me more about what it means to be family than they ever had or what millennia of watching humans ever could. You have taken me in, even when I didn't deserve your forgiveness, and you've given me friendship, even when I didn't deserve your loyalty."
"Come on, Cas, that isn't true. Yeah, you made mistakes, but so have we. I mean, Sam started the apocalypse."
"Hey!" Sam turned a bitchface on Dean.
"Point is, we've made mistakes and family forgives," Dean waved Sam off and kept his attention on Cas.
"Family..." Castiel said, as if trying the word out. A little smile touched his lips as he considered the weight of it. "Family loves one another, as well."
"Y-yeah..." Dean shifted a little uncomfortably.
"Yeah, that's right, Cas," Sam confirmed.
Castiel nodded, pressed his hands against his legs and stood. He turned to face Sam and Dean and took a deep breath. Walking up to Dean, he reached out a hand, as if to shake it.
Dean looked at Cas's hand, over at Sam with a raised brow, then back up to Cas's face. He ran his hand down his face and cleared his throat, before reaching out to take Castiel's hand, having no idea what to expect.
"How do you do?" Castiel asked, holding Dean's hand in a firm grip and giving it a shake.
From the corner of his eye, he could see Sam smirking in a half-amused, half-teasing way. But this one time, Dean ignored it and laughed quietly, shaking his head.
"How do you do, Cas?"