“ 'bout friggin' time!” Dean shoots back, pausing in his impromptu performance to toss Sam a casual grin over his shoulder. “I was two seconds from sending out a search party.” He probably shouldn't be joking about that, not after what happened and definitely not with Gordon still out there somewhere, but flippancy is part-and-parcel of how he deals with things because if he's comfortable making that sort of joke then obviously it's totally not bothering him, right? Here, in their flat, things are a sort of comfortable they haven't been since back before Sammy found out about hunting, and the Roadhouse feels a million miles away (Dean wonders idly how Jo's fingers are healing up, whether she's saved enough for a car, if Ellen's gone good on her threat to lock her in the cellar) and even though the world's still carrying on just like before and dad's still on a job and Dean still scans the obituaries for anything that looks interesting it's different, and it's... nice. Yeah.
The timer on the counter (stupid bright red thing, shaped like a grinning bell pepper – another present from Lea, one of several housewarming gifts because she couldn't believe they didn't have more stuff and wanted the apartment to feel like a home rather than a hotel room – Dean's not complaining about the sentiment, at least) chimes shrilly, and Dean wishes he had a second pair of hands but getting Sam to help will have to do. It's asking for trouble (because seriously, how much of a walking disaster zone do you have to be to think cooking noodles in a kettle is a good idea?) but it's also part-and-parcel of the 'normal', of this weird domestic vibe they're settling awkwardly into. It should, Dean thinks, feel a lot more like squeezing a square peg into a round hole than it does, because it's more like one of those toys they give babies with the brightly coloured shapes – it looks hard, but once you realise the colour of the shape and the rim is the same it's really obvious what goes where.
“Gimme a hand with this?” He fiddles with the dials on the stove with one hand and stirs the sauce with the other.