for Derek / Dean / Cas

[iwasmore]

Recently, things had felt off for Noah. Not just everything with Ronan, but with...him. It was becoming difficult to stay corporeal, controlling his body, acting human. It scared him, as much as he tried not to let on. He wasn't sure if it was because he was ending, or if it was something about Darrow. So far, the only one who'd mentioned having any sort of knowledge on the subject was Dean. Granted, he also wanted to separate Noah from the mortal realm, but he wasn't aggressive about it and Noah thought maybe after that monster attack Dean kind of owed it to him not to, well. Kill him.

Noah thought it might be a good idea to ask Dean what he knew about his existence, and to check up on him to make sure he was okay. To further make a show of good will, he decided to bring some elfroot with him. Krem wasn't around, and Noah felt a bit guilty taking some without asking, but he'd just take a little. He packed it in a little bag, along with an apple and the lighter. This also meant he had to walk to Dean's. He couldn't just pop in and out, he wouldn't be able to carry anything with him.

On the way, he blinked out of existence. The baggie and apple fell to the ground. Noah showed up about twenty minutes later, and thankfully they were right where he'd dropped them. He picked them up and continued on his way, resting a hand on his chest where his heart would have been if he still had one.

When he got to Dean's house he stared up at it, re-thinking his decision. Did Dean live with Castiel? What if Castiel yelled at him?

Noah frowned and lurked across the walkway. He nibbled nervously at the hem of his shirt sleeve, and turned around to leave. Maybe another day...

Comments

[triskehale]

"Little weird," Derek says, coming over and nudging at Dean's feet so he can perch on the end of the deck chair, looking him over and then jerking his chin at Noah. "I found him lurking out front when I get here."

Derek lifts his hand and wiggles his fingers. "I was going to ask if you need me to help you out, but you don't really look like you're feeling much pain."

[iwasmore]

Noah wonders if 'weird' is better than 'creepy', even if they are mostly referring to the situation itself. It doesn't make him feel any less like an intruder, though, not knowing either of them nearly as well as they clearly know each other. He hangs back a little.

"I wanted to make sure you were still alive," Noah says. His questions can wait until Dean is, like, mobile. And for when he's alone. It feels like a private matter.

[always_enduphere]

"I'm fine," Dean huffs, but he knows he doesn't look it. "Just feel like a drained up battery." He can barely stay awake for a few hours strung together, and his stomach is empty all the time, but today feels better than yesterday.

There's something about being truly pathetic that makes him want to be nicer - survival instincts, probably, he's basically an infant like this - and his smile for them both is genuine.

"Just bored. You two must be too to drag your asses all the way out here. Or," he says, looking to Derek, "You ran, and you," he says to Noah, "Clicked your heels three times?"

[triskehale]

"At least you're still pretty," Derek assures him in a dry tone, patting Dean's knee through the blankets. "And yeah, I might have ran. Not sure how he got here."

He looks over at Noah and rolls his eyes, gesturing him closer while still speaking to Dean. There's no reason for him to be all twitchy and off to the side. "Must say, I'm surprised that Cas doesn't have you in a protective bubble."

[iwasmore]

Noah moves closer. A little.

"No, I walked," he pipes up with a proud smile. He lifts the bag he has with him to show why. "I had to carry this."

He glances at Derek, wondering if he'll be able to smell it. He wonders, also, if he'll only get a lecture. Dean and Derek are like...old. They might not be into it.

[always_enduphere]

"He's distracted," Dean tells Derek, smirking a little. "I told him Kashi uses inorganic rice crisps and he's in there writing an impassioned letter."

He lifts his head when Noah moves closer, eying the bag in his hands. "My daddy raised me not to do drugs," he says, which is an absurd thing to come out of a thirty-nine year old man's mouth, unless that man's father was John Winchester. Half of what Dean is, John drilled into his bones.

Still. "I'm supposed to keep eating. I don't think I can manage another bite of peanut butter."

[triskehale]

"Funny thing is I honestly don't know if you're joking," Derek tells him, and then looks over at Noah when he holds up the bag. He lifts his nose and sniffs at the air, and then raises an eyebrow. "Is that weed?"

Derek has never smoked, and he's not even sure if he can get high. He knows of wolves in New York that smoked, but he never knew if it was laced with wolfsbane, and he never asked. "Ignoring Dean's comment, I'm curious. Ghosts can get high?"

[iwasmore]

"I can do a lot of things," Noah says, part defensive, part trying to sound mysterious. You might as well sound mysterious when the opportunity presents itself.

And honestly, it's mysterious to Noah as well. He doesn't know how it works. He has a theory, that it's sort of an imprint or an echo of when he was human. Like how he can cry, or why he 'breathes'. So maybe he's not really high, but it feels like it.

"It's weed from a different world," he starts to say, then realizes he's not even sure if these two are from Earth. Probably. "Um. From Tevinter. It's called elfroot. It's totally safe. I thought...well, I kind of have a favor to ask Dean, so I brought it as an advanced thank you. And it's a nice distraction from pain?"

[always_enduphere]

Dean cocks his head, then turns it, listening hard for any sounds from Cas. There's nothing, not even after that short little leap his heart just did when Dean realized he's considering it, and he relaxes. Cas must be neck deep in drafts by now.

"Doesn't it make you hungry?" he asks. And even if it doesn't, Dean is as bored as he can ever remember being - convalescing at a farmhouse is really relaxing, but probably too much, especially when Space Hospital only comes on once a day.

"I will if Derek does."

[triskehale]

"You will if I will?" Derek asks with an astonished laugh. "God, I've been transported back to high school."

He looks at Dean long to realize that yes, he's completely serious, and then he rolls his eyes and gestures Noah over. "Fine, I'll try it, but you have to promise not to let Cas smite me."

The weed, or elfroot or whatever it is, smells earthy and a little sweet, and Derek eyes it curiously. "I don't even know if it'll work on me."

[iwasmore]

Noah doesn't mention that he'd still technically be in high school if he hadn't, well, died.

"Even if it doesn't work, it tastes good. Better than Earth weed," he comments, pleased that they both seem to be up for it. He finally comes over to where they're at, sitting cross-legged on the porch and taking the apple from the bag to begin constructing a bong the way Krem had done. Back home, he'd never had to make one, but the apple thing was clever and quite handy.

"No, I don't get hungry," he adds, smiling.

Once he's done carving out all the appropriate functions, he holds the apple up. "Do you guys know how to use this?"

[always_enduphere]

Dean's smelled weed - it hadn't smelled either good or bad to him, mostly just forbidden, but sweeter is nice. He manages to bump Derek's leg with his feet. "C'mon, I suck at being a bad boy." For Noah's presentation of an apple, though, Dean frowns.

Dean's actually pretty good with quick works of engineering, but he eyes the apple and the bag dubiously.

"I have no idea what's happening," he admits. "Am I already high? Are we smoking it through an apple?"

[triskehale]

"Apparently," Derek replies, giving the apple an unimpressed look. He's heard of the technique, remembers it from high school. "Can you not just get rolling papers? I feel like the principal is going to catch us any minute now."

After he says it, Derek sits up straight and turns towards the house, listening carefully for any movement from Castiel before turning back to Noah again. "Do you want me to go get papers?"

[iwasmore]

Noah looks a little hurt. He likes the apple bong, it's cute and it smells good and it seems clever to him. He's never smoked the elfroot like a joint, but he doesn't see why it wouldn't work just fine.

"If you want," he says. He doesn't have anything on him to use, not even a receipt.

[always_enduphere]

"Wait," says Dean, confused, but still intrigued by the apple. "Will that make the smoke not hot?" he asks Noah. "I don't actually smoke, and coughing up a lung will bring Castiel down on us faster than anything."

He actually smirks. "Unless you want to try shotgunning, but I guarantee you that'll bring him out here, too."

[triskehale]

Derek actually feels bad about giving Noah shit about his little apple bong. Either Derek is getting too soft, or Noah's sad little ghost face is just that sad. So, here sits Derek Hale, almost twenty-six and about to smoke weed for the first time out of a piece of fruit.

"No one likes a tease, Winchester," Derek says, patting Dean's knee through the mound of blankets. He looks at Noah and gestures towards the apple with his chin. "Light it up, then."

[iwasmore]

Noah looks a little embarrassed at the mention of shotgunning, blushing, his cheeks looking more flesh-colored than normal.

"I don't think it will help that much," he says apologetically. "But just don't take too much smoke, and let it sit in your mouth for a second to help cool it off."

He lights it up as requested, and takes the first drag to demonstrate how to smoke from the apple. He exhales slowly, the smoke wafting around his face. He doesn't cough, but then, he's a ghost.

"Next?"

[always_enduphere]

Dean watches Noah curiously. It seems simple enough, and Noah doesn't cough, so it must not be terrible. Still, he's quick to volunteer someone else, first.

"Derek," he says, "You're up," and already his nose is filled with the smoke. Like Noah said, it's almost sweet, and Dean pulls at it carefully to prepare himself.

[triskehale]

Derek watches Noah inhale closely, making note of how he holds his fingers. The smoke smells sweet on its own, and when combined withe the apple it has a sort of earthy pleasantness. When Dean speaks, Derek scoffs and cuts him a look. "Pansy."

He leans forward and takes the apple and the lighter, looking down at it with a slight frown for a moment. This is pretty much the last thing he expected to be doing when he started heading over here, but somehow this is where he's ended up.

Derek lifts the apple to his mouth and lights the weed, or whatever the hell it is, and pulls the smoke into his mouth. It lingers on his tongue, sticky hot, and then he draws it into his lungs. It burns a little, and makes his eyes glass over with a slight sting, but he tips his head back and exhales without coughing.

"Here you go," Derek says, voice a little rough as he holds the apple out to dean. "Unless shotgunning is still on the table."

[iwasmore]

Noah is surprised Derek is bringing up shotgunning with Dean. Dean's husband is scary. Like, not even scary, just plain terrifying. He would definitely not proposition Dean to shotgun, especially with Castiel just inside.

"You'll be okay," Noah says to Dean, encouragingly.

[always_enduphere]

Dean tries not to look reassured, mostly because that would mean he needs reassuring, and takes the apple. "Maybe not this time," he tells Derek and lights the little puff of dried plant, cooling the smoke in his mouth as Derek had done before he draws it into his lungs. It helps, but not enough, because in the next moment Dean is doubled over and coughing hard into his fist, and every twitch of his lungs only draws the smoke deeper.

He's dizzy, but it's not the worst kind of dizzy, and eventually Dean lifts his head. "Sweet." Maybe beneath the taste of his coughed up lungs.

[triskehale]

Derek chuckles a little and reaches over to rub Dean's back as he coughs, sharing a look with Noah. "Get it together, man. You're gonna get us caught."

He grins and then blinks a few times as he suddenly feels a bit dizzy. A sort of heaviness rolls through him and he lets out a wondering sort of noise. "Huh. I was really not expecting that to work."

[iwasmore]

"Oh my god," Noah says to Derek's look, trying to hold in laughter at Dean's coughing fit. Not that it's unusual to cough while smoking, but it's just so much. He's like the embarrassing dad of the group.

"It's probably stronger than Earth weed. My boyfriend is from a world with dragons, like, some Lord of the Rings place. Plus it's elfroot. I bet it was made for elves who are like superhuman people so they need stronger stuff."

So maybe Noah is already a tiny bit giddy from the elfroot. But, one drag isn't going to do that much, so he reaches for the apple for another turn, and continues passing it around.

[always_enduphere]

"Sorry," Dean croaks, though he doesn't look it when he finally lifts his head. His eyes are huge and glassy, and he smiles at them both, a soft, wide thing that takes up half his face. Already the itch in his lungs has receded, and most of his exhaustion as well, replaced with a pleasant buzzing that seems to come from his very nerves.

"I'm vibrating."

[triskehale]

"You're not vibrating," Derek replies lazily, words rolling off of his tongue. He sort of feels like he's moving through molasses and he's not entirely sure that he likes it. Usually he's moving so fast, even when he's sitting still. His heart beats fast, his blood pumps fast, and now he feels sort of muted and slow. Hazy.

"I feel heavy," he says after awhile, plucking at his shirt. "My clothes feel heavy."

Without thinking much of it, he pulls off his shirt and tosses it aside. The air feels good against his skin, and suddenly he thinks about how good it would feel to just lay in this patch of sunlight. "Hey guys, I'm gonna shift. Don't freak out."

Soon enough, his clothes are gone and Derek shifts into a hulking black wolf, shaking out his thick black fur. It's already getting thicker in preparation for winter, and Derek leans down to stretch out his legs before jumping back on the deck chair between Dean's legs, huffing as he drops his head into Dean's lap and sprawls out.

Yeah, this is good. He feels lazy and safe, and he revels in it.