Dean breathed a sigh of relief, hearing her confirm that none of this was on him.  He still felt the guilt.  He was with her.  Her father hated him.  He should have known better than to keep her out so late, even if she was being punished like a normal teenager.  If nothing else, he was risking her freedom.  He smirked, looking back up at Sarah when she said he basically had her permission to punch her husband in the face, permission he hadn’t asked for.

“Thank you, ma’am…”, he whispered, his throat a bit tight at the second half of permission, the permission to date Mika.  It wasn’t something he had really thought about in his mind.  Dating was an odd topic for Dean, as he wasn’t really sure he believed in the whole ‘one person for the rest of your life’ concept that his parents had tricked themselves into.  But Mika seemed like she could break that mold a bit for him.  He didn’t know if he believed they could last forever, but he knew that he wanted to know her for the rest of his life, and that nothing would ever happen to her, while he was around.

He sighed, wiggling out from under Mika’s head, gently laying it on the pillow beside him as he turned to face her when her mother left the room.  Staring at her face as she slept, his stomach fluttered.  He leaned forward and gently placed a kiss against her lips, placing a hand under his cheek as he stared at her, and eventually drifted off to sleep…