It's been quiet. No real hunting needed. Sam is in and out of the bunker. Dean is Dean. Eating, drinking, listening to music and watching porn. Castiel is becoming restless and start question the brothers about different things, human things.
"Cas! We've talked about this." Dean bellowed in his usual annoyed baritone.
Cas cocked his head to the side and looked down at Dean in confusion, he was standing behind Dean's chair, barely a hair away.
"I can feel your breath on my neck Cas!"
Castiel took one step back and straightened up. "Sorry."
Sam chuckled lightly and gave a lopsided smirk, he was sitting across from Dean in the Men of Letters bunker. They were trying to find any lore on how to defeat The Darkness. Dean went to back his seat up and nearly ran over Castiel in the process. Cas looked at Dean apologetically and took several steps back.
"Dean, I just feel so - I want to help."
Sam spoke up, "Cas your job is to heal. The spell Rowena put on you has really taken a lot out of you. We don't even know all the ways it has affected you. Just relax and let us do the heavy lifting. Okay?"
Cas looked at Dean and started to speak when Dean cut him off, "Na uh Cas. Heal. Nothing else."
"At least let me look for lore on The Darkness." Sam and Dean both said no.
Castiel sat down heavily, "Well, what am I to do?" Asked Cas. When no answer came he continued to talk. "I have been thinking, ever since I got my grace back, all the things I no longer need to do. Like eating and urinating... and..."
"Is there a point to this Cas?" Dean interrupted.
"Yes Dean. Humans, are very peculiar beings and why do people...what? Why are you looking at me like that?"
"Just waiting for you to get to the point Cas, that's all."
Cas sighed and began again. "When I was with Hannah, and we were looking for rouge angels, she kissed me. And... Dean are you okay? Your face is all red. Are you choking?" Sam laughed.
"Whoa wait a minute. Hannah kissed you? Angel dude Hannah kissed you!?" Dean asked incredulously.
Sam leaned back in his seat watching the interaction between his brother and Castiel. It was entertaining as usual. Castiel had come to mean a lot to them, he was like family now. And well, family could sometimes mean different things to different people. Like he and Dean would die for one another, in fact they had died for each other. And Cas, well Cas has shown that he too was willing to die for the brothers on more than one occasion.
"No Dean, Hannah was in a different vessel at the time. And I don't see why that's important."
"Cause dude! That would've meant you kissed another dude!" Dean explained.
"I do not see why that is of any importance Dean. Can I finish my question without further interruptions?" Dean inclined his head to Cas and raised his hands as in silent surrender, but he was grinning like he had the world's best pie in front of him. "What I want to know is why do people feel the need to kiss? What drives them to do that? And touch one another? It isn't an actual need or bodily function like eating and urinating. Can you explain this to me Dean?"
Dean sat up in his seat, the grin dropping from his face, "Me? No, no, no, no, no. Sam why don't you have the talk with him, you know, explain the birds and the bees to Cas."
Sam started to speak up when Castiel stated, "Maybe you misunderstood me Dean, I already know all about birds and bees, I want to know more about humans, and their urges. And touching. I have felt the need to touch you. And I want to understand why."
Dean jumped up out of his seat waving his hands in front of himself as to ward off Castiel. "Whoa, whoa, whoa Cas. TMI!" Sam was laughing uncontrollably, doubled over, holding his stomach with tears streaming down his face.
"Dean, I have felt the need to touch you and Sam both,"
Sam started sputtering, "Excuse me?" Sam asked, all humor drained right out of him.
"I have occasionally felt the need to hug you as I have gotten to know you two. It has not been often, and you two usually try to avoid it. And sometimes you hug me. But why do I feel this need, why do humans feel this need?"
Dean had recovered from the shock of hearing Castiel say he has had the need to touch him. And now knowing Cas meant it in a completely non freaky way made him visually relax. "Sam knows all about anatomy and the human body, and all that nerdy stuff, he could answer those questions for you."
Sam scoffed, "Dean, that's not quite the same, anatomy wouldn't answer those questions."
Dean smirked and pointed at Sam, "See? Nerdy."
"Why don't you just explain it to him, he asked you."
"Because we don't talk about it Sam!" Dean yelled.
"You mean like the pizza guy and the babysitter?" Cas piped up. This succeed in launching Sam into another laughing fit and Dean turning a deeper shade of red.
"No Cas! It's not same, at least I hope not."
"Dean, I wish for you to explain it to me, not Sam. I feel more of a connection with you." Sam had gotten himself under control and was watching his brother. Dean had his hand on his hips, legs shoulder width apart, he was standing in a defensive stance, like he half expected to have to fight. Dean sighed. Sam thought Dean was going to relent but instead he suddenly growled out,
"No Cas!" He picked up the laptop from in front of the seat he had vacated and shoved it into Cas' hands. "You want an explanation? The internet. It will answer all your questions and more. Anything you need to know, right there dammit."
Dean turned and stalked towards his room grabbing a bottle of whiskey off the sideboard as he passed. Dean's outburst seemed to not bother Castiel in the slightest.
"Sam, could you show me how to use this - this device?" Castiel asked as he sat the laptop back on the table. "I don't understand why Dean got so upset."
Sam walked around the table and slapped Cas on the back, "Don't sweat it Cas, you know, Dean can be a little - sensitive sometimes. Here, let me show you how to surf the internet."
"Surf? That is not what I wish to do. And how does one surf the internet with no water?" Sam chuckled and said never mind and proceeded to show Castiel how to operate the machine.
A week had passed and Cas was sequestered away in his room, as had become the norm for him. Naturally it was right across from Dean's room. He was on his new laptop, Sam had gotten him his own because he was hogging their laptop and they couldn't get any work done.
Since Castiel didn't need to sleep or eat, his past week had mainly been comprised of looking up information on the internet. Every now and again he would emerge from the room looking a little worse for wear to ask Dean a question, Dean would then turn red in the face and yell at Cas to ask Sam or he would simply storm out of the room. The questions had no rhyme or reason to them.
One time he asked Dean where his errogoneus zone was. Another time he asked Dean how important was having kids to him. And another still he asked him what size shoes did he wear. But the best one was when he asked Dean if he had known, according to studies, that frequent sex was pivotal to long life, and when was the last time he'd had sex.
That one had sent Dean into a tailspin. Turning red and sputtering and finally yelling at Cas to quit with all the questions.
And of course you had to pepper in a couple of questions here and there about internet lingo. He even asked Sam a couple of anatomy questions, and even some that were over Sam's head, dealing with the brain and genetics.
Sam had to say he was very intrigued on what it was that Cas was actually looking up and trying to figure out about humans. He was even tempted to sneak into Cas' room when he wasn't around, and have a look into his browser history.
But Cas never slept and only left the computer when he was talking to Dean or himself.
"Sam."
Sam looked up to see Castiel standing a few feet away. Sam always wondered why Castiel only seemed to invade Dean's personal space. Annnnd those that he killed. "Yeah Cas?"
"Is Dean here?"
"Cas how about you just ask me and we can just bypass Dean throwing a hissy fit. Okay?"
Cas gave a single nod of agreement. "Angels are told that every prophet, past, present, and potential, that their names are seared into our memories, do you think it is possible that there are new unknown prophets, prophets like Chuck? Prophets for whatever reason God has decided not to tell us about?"
Sam stared at Castiel. "Cas what is this about? I mean I guess it could be possible, especially considering no one has heard from God lately." Sam added under his breath. "At least not for certain."
"Maybe I should make contact with these...prophets. Thanks Sam." Cas turned and strides out of the room.
"Hey Cas! Wait!" Sam called out. He jumped from his seat and follows down the hall behind Castiel. When Cas gets to his room he shuts the door right in Sam's face. Sam shoved his hands in his pockets, "Good talk." He pressed his lips into a thin line and went back to what he was doing prior to Cas' little interruption.
A couple hours later Dean was back and in the meeting room of the bunker talking to Sam. Sam was telling him what Cas had asked him today, about the prophets. Dean didn't say anything, he simply started pacing as he tried to work it all out. Cas entered the room.
"Dean. Sam." He said in way of a greeting.
Dean stopped pacing. "Cas. Hey is there anything you wanna, maybe, tell us?"
"As a matter of fact Dean I need to ask another question, but I think," he paused, "I think I will ask Sam. My questions seem to make you irrationally angry with me."
Dean shrugged and pursed his lips together, nodding his head as he said, "Good call." Castiel turned to Sam, and Dean mentally examined this feeling coiling in his gut. Maybe it was just gas.
"Sam, how do I contact someone on the internet?" Cas asked.
"Uh, that depends, are you trying to send an email? Or are you on a web page and you want to contact the administrat...Cas what are you doing?"
Cas was walking back and forth like he was mimicking a cowboy from the old west. "I am trying to walk like Dean. It doesn't feel right, does it look like Dean's walk?"
Sam chuckled, "No, not even a little."
"Caaaas." Dean said in a tone full of warning.
"Why are you trying to walk like Dean?"
"Because. On the computer it said Dean's walk was like seeing sex walk into the room, making everyone, what was it the said? Oh, wet."
Sam sputtered and almost choked on the water he had just taken a sip of.
"Now I am unsure why everyone would want to become wet. It is unpleasant. And I've had sex once and it wasnt unpleasant. Well up until April tried to kill me."
After Dean recovered from the shock of Cas' words he crossed over to Cas and got almost in his face. "Excuse me?"
"What am I excusing you for Dean? I don't understand."
Dean realizing how close he was to Cas, his eyes dipped down to stare at Cas' lips, against his will of course. He took a step back.
"Um Cas." Sam spoke up, breaking up the heavy awkward silence that had settled on the room. "Why do you want to walk like Dean, ahem, like sex?" Sam could barely keep a straight face as he asked.
"No! What I want to know is who said that about me and why were you reading it!" Dean yelled.
Cas turned his baby blues on Dean.
"Dean calm down I'm sure there is an interesting reason behind all of this. Maybe Chuck has been writing again." Sam offered.
"We don't even know what happened to Chuck. We all assumed he died." Dean argued.
Castiel had gone quiet and he was watching the elder Winchester with his usual laser focus. He reached his hand up and before Dean knew what his intention was he had grazed his fingers slowly across the back of Dean's neck. Dean couldn hold back a small shiver and a sharp inhale of breath.
He seemed to remember himself and he slapped Cas' hand away and said, "Knock it off Cas." Dean turned and crossed the room, his back to the other two men.
Sam gave a humorless laugh. "Hey Cas, can we talk in your room, in private?" Sam asked.
"Sure." Cas said, giving Dean a long appraising look. He turned and walked out of the room, his eyes not leaving Dean until he exited into the hall.
When they reached Cas' room Sam turned to him and asked, "Cas, what is going on? You have been acting weird ever since we got Rowena to remove the spell. You even got Dean on edge, more so than usual."
Cas sighed and looked Sam in the eye. "I feel like the spell broke something in me Sam. Or changed me in some way. Making me more human maybe? And I am just trying to understand what is wrong with me."
"Whoa, hold on; how exactly Cas? Why haven't you mentioned this before?"
"Well you and Dean have The Darkness to deal with, and since you won't let me help..." Cas trailed off punctuating his sentence with a small shrug. "And I wanted to know what was wrong before I told you two. I don't know what is happening exactly. It's like a door was opened inside me. I am starting to feel things and have the urge to do things that I did not before. Human things. Even when I was human I didn't feel these things."
"Okay, what sort of things are you feeling and having urges for? Is it like the burger craving?"
"No, not like the burgers, but not unlike it either. Sometimes, when I look at Dean - and you, I feel, I don't know, sometimes I feel this fierceness, almost like when I become a warrior angel, an almost violent - emotion, maybe? Like I will do something irrational if someone harms either of you. Sometimes when I watch Dean, I get a tightness in much chest, and it feels like I can't breath. And I don't need to breath, but I feel like I'm suffocating. I was trying to locate the cause of, or figure out if this was normal."
Sam gave his head a little shake and cleared his throat. "And what about the urges you spoke about."
Cas seemed like he was at a lost for words. "That one is even harder to explain. I have this need in me to do whatever it takes to make Dean happy. You too of course, but the feeling isn't as strong with you. Like if you're happy great. If not, okay. I also want to touch him." Castiel turned and headed towards the bed where the laptop was. "And I came across this literature that tells me all these things that Dean I have done together; but I don't recall doing them. That is why I figured maybe a prophet had written them. Also some of it tells me how he likes to be touched and how to make him happy. I don't know how to go about doing any of these things." Cas looked at Sam desperately.
"Okay Cas, to be honest, I'm a little confused. Why would you think what you are reading online was actually written by prophets?"
"Because Sam, they go into great detail. And they are like the books Chuck wrote about your lives as it was happening."
"Can I see what you have been reading."
Cas handed Sam the laptop. Sam read the URL of the web page and almost choked. "Uh, Cas, this is definitely not written by a prophet."
"How can you be sure Sam. When I read these, I feel what the me in the story feels."
"Cas, this is fan fiction. Maybe what you're feeling is just a connection to the story not any sort of parallels to real life."
"What is fan fiction?" "Fan fiction is a story written by a fan of a particular movie, show or book. The fan takes characters from the story and creates their own stories. All completely made up. This fan fiction is based on the Supernatural books that Chuck wrote. The fans don't realize it's real. That we're real."
Cas seemed to be in deep thought for several long mins. "No."
"No? No what Cas?"
"This may be fan fiction as you said but, I recognize the truth of those words. According to that, I love you. And I love Dean."
"Of course you do Cas, and we love you too, we're family."
"You don't understand Sam, according to those, I am in love with Dean. Theoretically, I understand what love is. What I don't understand is how it works and what it involves. I feel," Cas let out a heavy sigh, "I feel that I would like to know Dean in the biblical sense."
Sam's mouth dropped open, "You want to have sex with Dean?"
"I think I would like to experience that with Dean, yes."
Sam just looked at Cas slack-jawed. Cas reached over and took the laptop from Sam.
"Besides, Chuck didn't know he was a prophet until we told him he was, maybe these people are unaware as well." When Sam didn't comment Cas continued. "See here it says," Castiel started reading, 'Dean was in denial at first, refusing to acknowledge that the butterfly feeling in his gut was caused by Cas, not indigestion. He refused to acknowledge that when he looked at Cas' mouth, he wanted to know what it would feel like to have Cas' mouth on his...'
Sam interrupted Cas in a hurry. "Okay, okay, okay! Enough. I don't need to hear any more, I get the picture. I don't think Dean will like any of this, he will probably flip his shit, to be honest, but I do feel you need to talk it over with him. Especially since it has you all bent out of shape." Sam gave Castiel a sympathetic smile, patted him on the shoulder. "Good luck. Cas was going to need it. Sam left out of Cas' room. Dean was going to have a conniption.