Who: Derpy Hooves and Sam Winchester When: After these texts Where: Her place What: Dinner. SPAGHETTI Rating/Warnings: Low/None Status: Complete
Work had been stressful for Sam a bit lately. Not just because he had a stressful job, but also that his boss had been unexpectedly and inexplicably missing for the last couple of weeks. It meant long hours and lots of confusion, lots of flying by the seat of his pants.
He was glad to get Deryn’s text message invitation for dinner. Spending time with her made him happy. It was a necessity, considering how dark his dreams were getting.
He showed up straight after work and knocked on her door.
She answered it a minute later, wearing a brightly colored cooking apron over her clothing and a spot of spaghetti sauce on her nose. “Sam!” She said it brightly, as if she were shocked that he was there - despite the fact that she’d invited him. “Perfect timing!” Letting him inside, she leaned up for a kiss -- which really, he’d have to bend down for in order for her to succeed. “You can open the wine!”
Oh, he absolutely bent down for the kiss. He had to meet her half-way, lest she attempt the jump!kiss she seemed so fond of, and bumped right into his face. Again. This way no one ended up biting their own lips or injuring noses.
“I can open the wine,” he agreed, grinning, as he followed her into the kitchen. “It smells great in here.”
Aw, but she liked the jump!kiss. It was like getting athletic and having kisses at the same time. Even though, yeah, there had been a time that’d resulted in a very throbby set of noses. She giggled, leading him into the kitchen -- which was now a bit of a hot mess of cut up vegetables and tomatoes and sauce splatters and entirely too many dirty dishes considering what she was making. But it did smell good. She might not have been the best in method, but she was a decent cook.
“Thanks! Wine’s in the fridge. Do you like garlic bread?” Who didn’t like garlic bread?
“Who doesn’t like garlic bread?” Sam asked, as if he was a mind reader. He moved to the fridge after taking one look around the kitchen and chuckling to himself. Knowing Deryn the way he did, he imagined that she might have as much fun cleaning all this up as she had making the mess in the first place. He pulled the wine out of the fridge and set about opening the bottle. “I hope you didn’t go to too much trouble.”
“Why not?” Deryn’s smile was as bright as ever as she stirred things on the stove and then checked the oven. Good thing he was a mind reader and also liked garlic bread, since it was already in there. “It’s more delicious if it takes more effort, right? I made banana chocolate muffins for dessert, too!” The best thing about cooking for other people was that they had to help clean up with you. Which, yes, would definitely be fun.
“Banana chocolate muffins?” Sam asked. He raised an eyebrow. “You really went all out today, didn’t you?” He was impressed. And a little flattered. And rather hungry, actually, come to mention it. “What can I help with? Besides the wine,” obviously. He was already pouring a couple of glasses.
“You’ve been stressed lately.” Deryn said it so simply - as if she were both completely aware of the fact, and also was just happy to do things to try and alleviate the stress a bit. Sometimes, though, things really were that simple -- the little blonde always tried to make things as easy as possible. “You could -- uhm! There’s a colander down there--” she pointed to a cabinet next to her sink. “Drain the noodles?” He’d come at a near perfect time -- the mess had already been made and the food was nearly done.
Sam wanted to wrap his arms around her and kiss her silly. He had been stressed lately, and she was kind and thoughtful to make a meal for him to help relieve some of the stress. Such a sweetheart. He was so smitten.
Right! Noodles! He dug into the cabinet, pulled out the colander, and drained the noodles into the sink.
She only giggled at the expression he’d made before draining the noodles -- so very cute. She tip toed up to reach the knob for the range of her stove and turned all the burners off, and then grabbed hotpads to pull out the garlic bread. She really wasn’t a bad cook - she’d learned to be very careful in the kitchen, because she knew she was clumsy.
“I set the coffee table with plates and stuff! I thought we could light candles and eat on the living room floor! Like a romantic picnic!” With spaghetti. Yep.
Clumsy was bad in the kitchen. Burns and cuts were no fun at all. Sam helped put the pasta back into the pot to mix with sauce, or whatever it was she was planning on doing, and gave a little nod. He couldn’t help but grin at that idea, too. A spaghetti picnic on the living room floor. Awesome.
“That sounds great.” He said, and he really meant it. He grabbed some things to start carrying them into the living room. Wine, utensils, whatever. Whatever it took to get them eating a bit faster. He realized how hungry he was when the garlic bread came out of the oven.
It was quick enough -- plates and wine on one side of the table, and all the pots and pans of food on the other. Deryn carefully lit candles, and left the lights off otherwise. It was totally romantic, and Sam looked really cute in the lighting. Really handsome. “Go ahead and eat,” she giggled out, even as she dropped pillows for them to sit on on either side of the coffee table, and then settled herself down to the floor.
Sam did as he was told. He dished up food for both of them, though, not wanting to just dig in with her still working. Then he moved to sit on the pillow she set out for him, and once she was sitting he ate. It was wonderful.
“Well,” he said after a sip of wine, “your hard work paid off.” He gave her a smile, having made sure not to speak with his mouth full. The romantic atmosphere was lovely, too. Something about the candle light made her eyes sparkle. “This is delicious.”
She gave him a smile, which probably was nothing new, but didn’t make it any less pleasant. “I’m glad you like it,” she said, between a bite of garlic bread and a sip of wine. “I thought you needed to relax some, Sam.”
“I did. I do.” He said, then leaned back a bit and swirled the wine around in his glass. “It’s been rough. Long days, instability of the firm. It’s hard to convince the clients that nothing’s wrong when our boss is just... gone. I mean, she’s got things to work out, that’s okay. I just wish I knew... when she’d be back, or how long I’m supposed to wait before making drastic changes to keep things afloat.”
After a moment, he added, “Sorry. Didn’t mean to get carried away talking about work.”
Deryn was nibbling her bread while Sam spoke, nodding here and there -- she got it. She knew Helen. And things were definitely weirder with her gone -- she’d babysat a few times since, but it was just -- well. Strange.
“You don’t need to be sorry,” she told him, pointedly, with raised eyebrows. “You should tell me if things are bothering you, don’t you think?” Because like she’d said, she was here to help and happy to do so.
“Well, I don’t mean to be a downer,” Sam said. He was finished with dinner, and downed the last of his wine. After setting the glass aside, he spoke again. “You put together such a lovely evening. I’d hate to spoil it with stressful talk about work.”
“It’s just spaghetti,” but she was smiling anyway, because everyone liked to be appreciated, right? “What do you want to talk about then? Do you want a muffin?” She finished off her wine, too, but then refilled the glass. There was just no sense in putting an opened bottle back in the fridge!
Sam pushed his glass over toward her to refill. “Maybe in a minute. C’mere.” Once she was done pouring the wine and setting the bottle down, he reached forward his gargantuan arms and wrapped them around her. It was easy for the sasquatch to pull the dream pony into his lap for a cuddle. He really needed a hug after the week he’d had, so he squeezed her close and buried his face in her neck.
She fit in his lap so easily, like she was just meant to be there. Always fitting, always comfortable, never a bother. She smiled and gave a tinkle of a laugh at his tight squeeze. After a moment, she petted his hair and pressed a kiss to his cheek. “We won’t do anything more stressful than having fun tonight,” she promised. It was the kind of promise she could make good on.
“Fun sounds good.” Sam said, giving a huge sigh. They fit together like puzzle pieces, really. A bit of a surprise since he was so much taller than she was. But the height difference didn’t seem to matter when she was cuddled up in his lap. “I’m good with fun.” He kissed her neck a couple of times, then lifted a hand to move her hair out of the way so he could kiss it again.
“You are,” she agreed, and was amused by that, since when she’d met him Sam had asked how to even have fun. He’d grown into it pretty well in the last few months. She snuggled closer into his chest and the kisses and gave a little sigh of her own, echoing his. “Which is why I love you.” She said it so, so simply.
The kisses he planted on the soft skin of her neck only paused for a moment. Then a smile broke across his features. “You do? Really?” He asked, his arms tightening around her just slightly.
Deryn gave snort of a laugh at that question. “No,” she said. “I only make you dinner and muffins because I don’t like you at all.” Sarcasm: even she knew of it.
Even Sam chuckled at that. He brought his teeth out to gently nip at her skin. “Well, I love you, too. Even if you didn’t make me dinner and muffins, I’d still love you anyway.”
“Just an added benefit then,” Deryn wiggled in his lap until she was facing him and could take a proper kiss.
Sam wrapped his arms around her and kissed her soundly. This was exactly the stress relief that he needed after such a long couple of weeks. Deryn was warm and soft, little in his arms. He had an overwhelming urge to protect her, even though he was confident that she could take care of herself if she had to. All in all, he just wanted to love her. Desperately. He’d thought after Jess passed that it wouldn’t be possible for him to feel like this again. But here he was, loving her.