video;

[anewlanguage]

Well waddaya know. I've got a shower of my own.

[Actually he's been home (or in his cabin anyway) over an hour. He'd returned from his shift, and bam. Shower.

So of course he had to test it out before announcing anything. Maybe it was a trick, after all--but nope.

He's graduated.]

...Thanks, Dean.

Comments

[surfaceshine]

I.

You.

[It's been a long goddamn haul with Cain - longer than with Kon, and different, of course. So often Dean was frustrated thinking he wasn't doing a goddamn thing, and there wasn't a goddamn thing he could do about it. It's not like the Admiral actually listens to requests to be re-paired that he knows of.

But he checks his amulet, now, and then squints up at Cain.]

Holy shit. I'll be damned.

[anewlanguage]

Congratulations. Dream come true for you, right?

[surfaceshine]

I dunno about that.

[But as it sinks in, the grin is starting. Slow, small, and more on one side than the other, but it's there.]

Let's call it an item off the list. I got more work to do, but this...

[Then he grins all at once, abruptly.]

Yeah. This'll get us a step closer. Thanks.

[anewlanguage]

[Cain can count on one hand the number of times Dean has actually grinned at him (a grin without any irony in it, anyway). It's unexpectedly nice to see, and it keeps him from feeling any guilt over the gratitude.]

Let me know how it goes. If the Admiral doesn't keep his end we'll break in and bust his head.

[surfaceshine]

[That's... actually kind of sweet, in the way that Cain is ever sweet. Which is gritty, and bloody, and not at all. Exactly the way Dean knows what to do with. His grin settles some into another expression Cain hasn't seen from him that often, but that others are well familiar with.]

Trust me, you might know before I do how it goes. [He knows something he's not saying; what, though, isn't clear even to a Cain.]

[anewlanguage]

[Cain tips his head, frowning, curious.]

You're a man of mystery, aren't you?

[surfaceshine]

[But Dean gives nothing up except self-satisfaction, due in small part to the frown on his former inmate's face.]

Dunno that it's ever been phrased quite that way, but yeah. Yeah I am.

You sticking around, or what's the plan?