Prompt: Dog!Dean and Dog!Cas adopt a kitten
Warning: minor character death (non-graphic, offscreen)
Dean pawed through the Dumpster, looking for any scraps that the restaurant might have tossed out. This particular restaurant rarely did, making it unpopular with the other dogs on the street, but that’s exactly why Dean preferred it. Unlike the others, neither Dean nor his partner were starving and didn’t need to worry about food. Dean could leave the better, fuller Dumpsters to the bitches with pups and the dogs that needed it.
He wasn’t going to take the food out of some pup’s mouth when he could get it on demand a few blocks over. Even if the stuff was dry, kibble didn’t taste bad at all.
There was a long-furred two-legger that had taken to feeding Dean and Cas and showed no signs of stopping; hell, on the colder winter nights, the human let them sleep on his bed. It wasn’t a bad setup at all and Dean had no qualms taking advantage of it, even if he’d never let the two-legger collar him. He was a street dog, damnit!
Cas would be happy being collared again. Dean growled a little as he nosed aside a grease-stained napkin. Cas had been mentioning how Dean had been getting older and the nights had been getting colder once more, like that was reason enough to let himself be collared. They had no pups and would have no pups that might benefit from a human’s protection; Dean had made his peace with that when he had taken Cas as his.
“Dean.”
Dean’s ears perked up at the sound of his mate’s call, tail wagging in an automatic response to the sound. He stuck his head out of the Dumpster and stared down, tail slowing and the stopping. He cocked his head to the side, as though that would help him make sense of the tiny feline pressed close to Castiel’s side. The kitten’s fur was wet and matted, covered in so much mud Dean could barely make out the tabby fur beneath. Dean leapt from the Dumpster but stayed away, wary of scaring the little creature. It wasn’t a pup, but it was still a youngling and looked terrified enough already.
“Where’d you get the kitten?” he asked Cas. “Shouldn’t it be with it’s mother?” He lowered himself to his belly and flattened his ears, trying to look as small as possible as he crept towards the feline. The kitten shrank away, looking down with its ears flattened and tail between its legs.
“His mother… is not here,” Cas said carefully, shooting a significant glance at the child. “Ben and his mother lived in the abandoned theater across town.”
Dean winced, hearing the whole story in those two sentences. The abandoned theater was on the other side of Main Street, which was almost always busy with those giant metal beasts humans were so fond of. Castiel had said that they were called ‘cars’, having ridden in one when he still had owners. Dean couldn’t care less what the two-leggers called them.
“So, your name’s Ben, huh?” Dean said gently to the kitten, creeping closer and trying to look as non-threatening as possible when he was easily five times the kitten’s size. Ben puffed himself up, looked directly at Dean, and nodded. Dean gave a small whuff of approval. Feline this youngling may be, but he had spunk.
Ben visibly jumped at the sound.
“Ben, this is Dean. I told you about him,” Castiel said, equal parts soothing and chiding. Ben nodded. He stepped out from behind Castiel’s foreleg cautiously, sniffing the air as he approached Dean. Dean used the opportunity to sniff out the kitten in return, getting mostly the familiar smells of city living in return. As the kitten got closer, Dean could see signs of recent hunger. Ben had probably been born on the streets, but with his mom gone and if his tom was no longer around, he’d have to find his own food and fend for himself. And the city was not a kind place to wayward younglings.
Ben sniffed Dean for a few moments and his tail slowly uncurled from between his legs, ears and tail standing straight up as he moved from cautious to curious.
“Hello,” the kitten finally said. “Cas said you could take me home?”
Dean looked at Cas, surprised. Castiel’s ears and tail were lowered apologetically, but there was a resolute look in his eyes. Cas had already adopted the kitten, at least in his mind.
“Ben, we can’t take you back to where you lived with your mom, but we can take you to another home,” Cas said carefully. “The two-legger that feeds us could find you a human family to stay with or you could stay with us. It’s not safe for a youngling like you to be on your own.”
“I’m not completely helpless,” Ben hissed.
Dean gave Ben another once-over. If left alone, he wouldn’t last the winter. Dean got up and nudged Ben with his muzzle. Ben jumped and hissed again, backing away from Dean with his fur on end. Cas shot Dean an exasperated look.
“Yeah, we get it,” Dean said gently. “You’re big and strong and I’ll bet you were on your own for a while before Cas found you, is that right?”
Ben nodded slowly, fur easing back into place.
“How about you just try being our pup for a little bit?” Dean asked. “You can always leave later, but for now, we’ve got food and a warm place to sleep at night.”
Ben glanced at Cas as though for confirmation. Cas nodded seriously.
“Okay,” Ben said. Dean’s tail wagged and he gave an approving whuff of air before nudging Ben with his muzzle again.
“All right then, kiddo,” he said. “Let’s see about getting you something to eat.”
The three headed out of the alleyway.
END
