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"Oh, I'm not censoring, I just think things to myself that I try not to say out loud sometimes," Rylan said with a shrug. "Part of the process, I guess." Which Cas only knew because he had, on several occasions, pushed relentlessly until Rylan had given in. They'd discovered that voicing those thoughts out loud didn't really help the healing process, but Cas had been delighted to realize that his friend was capable of anger as much as the next person. Just in a difference way.

Rylan gave Lucas a "Yep, he actually did say that" look before returning his gaze to Cas, mostly amused by the look of disbelief on his friend's face.

"Are you serious?" Cas howled, and Rylan knew he was about to say something that might embarrass the s**t out of everyone who was not Cas. "You have work? I may not have ever been in a three-way that lasted longer than a couple of hours, but you can't tell me someone breaks up with you and you're not going to... I mean. RY, you're supposed to... argh."

He was a little agitated.

Rylan felt a laugh bubbling up from deep in his chest. "Don't tell me, you think we should go and ******** each other senseless because, ******** the other guy, right?"

"Yea, not literally ******** the other guy," Cas said.

Cas pulled a face. "Remind me to put on headphones," he said. Still not thrilled about the prospect of ever having to overhear people going at it again, but he was mostly okay with the idea if it meant his buddy was going to get laid.

But no pressure.

"Far be it for me to tell you how to live your lives," he said. "But look at it this way - people break up, and they want rebound sex, right? And this," he gestured to the two of them. "Is like that, except it's not rebound, it's still real. You guy did not get the short end of the stick, from where I'm sitting."

He knew Rylan, though. There was no doubt some internal rage the firefighter was dealing with, accompanied by angry thoughts that he didn't like to voice because he didn't want to make them too real or concrete. And eventually, those thoughts would give way to forgiveness, though he would never forget what occurred here tonight, and he would be fine.

But usually when Rylan was mad, things tended to happen around him that added fuel to the flame, and sometimes when those things piled up too high, there was an explosion. Cas made a mental note to keep an eye on him.

"Anyway," he said, rising from his seat and rolling his shoulders. "I'm going to wake up early to row. But there's a ton of lube in the upstairs bathroom if you need it." There was a pause when he saw the stare Rylan gave him, and he shrugged. "Amazon. It came in bulk." And Cas had figured, between the two of them, it would eventually get used.

"Hard not to, when you go from MARSOC to... nothing," Cas shrugged, vaguely aware that hidden in that innocuous comment was a need to find something new to do. Employment. "But you both know what that's like."

And he left, taking the stairs two at a time.

Rylan watched until Cas had shut his door, and then settled back into the couch. "Probably try to murder me," he said with a soft laugh. "I wouldn't tell him."

For almost as long as they'd been friends, Cas had been trying to get Rylan to be a little less stuck in the mud when it came to relationships and hooking up. It had done a lot of good, Rylan would admit, but he was also not the free spirit Cas was when it came to a lot of things. He understood rules and limitations in a different way, which made him less inclined to rebel or feel the need to make his own way.

But regardless, Rylan was pleased to see Lucas and Cas coexist without trying to tear each other's throats out.

Rylan sat for a moment, content to sit in the comfort of each other's presence. There was always tomorrow - no doubt the better tomorrow Lucas mentioned, and the quiet anger inside him would resolve itself one way or another. So many other things demanded his attention - work, Fidget, Lucas, Cas, among other things. He didn't really have time to dwell.

"Yea, I like the sound of that," he said, pressing a kiss to the top of Lucas' head before slowly rising off the couch. "Tomorrow'll be much better, you'll see."