Dean fell on the crappy bed, his feet still on the ground, and spread his arms over the covers. Another crappy motel room with horrible wallpaper and a slightly weird smell in another crappy town, which Dean had already forgotten the name of again. Sammy had read an article about some 'mysterious animal attacks' on the internet and they wanted to check on that. Dean guessed the creatures they were hunting were werewolves , they were always somehow involved in so-called animal attacks with missing hearts.
He sighed and got up - the bed wasn't really comfortable - and walked over to Sam. Sam was already sitting on the wobbly chair staring at the screen of his laptop and writing down some notes. The weather was awful, it was raining and the wind was sharp and cold, but the noises coming from his stomach forced Dean to get his ass up and drive to the next diner to get something to eat.
"Sammy, I'm going to get us dinner, what do you want? Something special?"
"Ah, I'll take a salad, if they have a good one, thanks. .."
Salad – Sammy was on some kind of a health trip, again. Well, whatever makes him happy. Dean put on his leather jacket, grabbed the car keys from the table and ran through the rain to his baby. Sitting in the car, he turned up the music and the purring sound of his car lightened Dean's mood and he drove faster than he should to the next best diner, singing loudly and off-key to AC/DC while drumming onto the stirring wheel.
He pulled into the parking lot of a small diner near the motel and walked straight to the counter after he had entered the small building. The diner was not a five star restaurant, but it was clean. Dean could smell the frying fat, but saw something that made him smile: fresh apple pie. He leaned against the counter and scanned the room, whistling soundlessly. When the waitress approached him a smile broke wide on his face and he switched on his charming side, straightening his back: the day had just got better, a pretty girl can really spice your day up. She was tall, had dark, curly hair and dark eyes with long lashes, the diner uniform was a size too small and the low cut top complimented her pushed up boobs. She had slightly flushed cheeks from being busy running from one table to another, and now she was hurrying towards him, a scratchpad and a pen in her hands.
"Hi, what can I get you? Sorry for the waiting, I'm on my own today and it's busier than we expected…" she told Dean a little bit out of breath.
"No problem, it's worth waiting for you…" he smiled broadly at her and her cheeks reddened even more when she smiled, flattered.
"I'll take the Double Menu Deluxe and the big… Caesar Salad for to go, two large cokes and… do you have pie?" he asked with a breathtaking smile, flashing his white teeth at her. Dean was proud of his white teeth, even if he didn't take too much care for them. They were always a bright white and looked model-like . He licked his lips and the waitress was clearly distracted from their conversation as her eyes followed his tongue over his lips.
"Ahm…" after a few moments she cleared her throat and looked up into his incredibly green eyes. Oh yes, Dean Winchester knew very well how to impress the ladies and which small moves made them faint.
"Well, the apple pie is fresh out of the oven and I can really recommend that one…" she said after looking down at her hands, a little bit confused by her own shyness.
"Sounds awesome, I'll take a good piece of that apple pie as well, if you can recommend it that warmly…" Dean replied with a wink and an irresistible smile. Maybe he could get her number with a little bit more effort.
"Wow, that necklace is really, really beautiful…" he said and nodded to her décolleté. Yes, it was cheesy, but today he simply wasn't in top form.
"Colleen… What a pretty name, Colleen" Dean said and offered his hand for a handshake with a big warm smile, and she snapped out of her trance after staring at his lips for quite a while.
"Oh, thank you, …? What's your name again?" she asked innocently and she smiled a bit with her full, rosy lips.
"Dean. Really nice to meet you, Colleen" he replied and instead of shaking her hand, he brought hers up to his mouth and placed a gentle kiss on the back of her hand. Colleen laughed, pleased and Dean could see the spark of real interest in her eyes he had waited for.
15 minutes later he walked back to his car merrily humming with the receipt in his hand (Colleen had written her number on the backside in her girly handwriting), and after he placed the brown bags on the backseat he drove back to the motel but stopped at a liquor store for a bottle of whisky. As the rain slowly got lighter and stopped eventually, Dean found the day to be not as bad as he thought it would be.
When Dean arrived back at the motel room Sam was still searching the internet for crazy accidents and the paper in front of him was filled with notes.
"Dinnertime, Sammy!"
It was past one am when they fell into their not really comfortable beds, contently filled with diner food and a little bit tipsy by the few glasses of whisky they had. Sammy was fast asleep soon after he had hit the pillows, but Dean couldn't really stop his thoughts spinning around in his head. He laid on his back, the blanket covering half of his body, one arm under his head, and the other hand on his stomach. He couldn't sleep, now that he had time to think.
Actually he was just thinking about one thing: Cas.
Since Cas had returned from Purgatory, he had seemed to be sane again, cleared. But also very weary and tired, and Dean worried about him. He had fought so hard to get Cas out of Purgatory, to save them both, but Cas had refused to go with him, to let him save him. He worried about Cas, he worried about his best friend, the best he ever had . Sure, he had his rough edges, his social skills were 'rusty' and he had made some mistakes, but, honestly, who hadn't? It just made him more adorable. Yes, adorable. Dean got used to his angel's awkwardness and the shifting of his feet when he was embarrassed or this incredible head tilt, he could read it, he could read him, better than anyone else. Of course, he had Sammy, his little brother, and he will always protect him, and he had Bobby, but he had always been more of a father than a friend to him. Had been. It seemed like every single person that really mattered to Dean got bloodily murdered rather sooner than later. But Cas. He had managed to return, return to him, every single time he thought he had left him, like everyone else. He thought back to the moment he had first seen Cas. His incredible entrance. He had to smile when he thought about what a big show Cas had put on, just to impress him, all the bursting light bulbs, the wind, the barn gate breaking open, the lightning that drew the shadows of his wings on the wall behind him. The first thing Dean had thought was, that this creature was beautiful. Yes, simply beautiful. With those wild blue eyes, the fine structure of his face, his dark, messy hair. And his wings. So big, so powerful in the lightning, it made him forget to breathe . It was the most dangerous, powerful, wild and equally beautiful thing he had ever seen in his whole life. What Dean could remember best were his blue, piercing eyes. Now, four years later, he still couldn't believe how blue they were. Every time Cas stared at him and he couldn't resist to get lost in these deep blue eyes, he studied every single move, every reflection, every single part of them and it seemed like they would change from time to time, like there had been caught a piece of the constantly changing sky. Dean was fascinated and always got lost in time when he stared at these eyes.
Cas.
He smiled at the thought about Cas, his best friend, his angel. His angel … wait, what? Since when was Cas his angel? He was an angel. And, yes, of course, he was Dean's friend, and they shared this… profound bond, but, what the hell, brain? HIS angel? Dean reached unconsciously to his shoulder, where Cas had burnt his handprint into his flesh. It was still somehow a little bit itchy, but it was not really displeasing, it was rather like a humming under his skin, just lightly. But yes, Cas was somehow… his angel. And everybody knew that.
Those blue eyes. They always looked slightly confused, and they were always filled with amazement, as he would wonder every time he laid eyes onto the world, how wonderful his father's creation truly was, it's beauty, it's imperfection. And then there was a shimmer of the existence of many, many years, memories, knowledge… And there was something else, something Dean couldn't really put a finger on … something he really liked to see in Cas eyes … it looked like … looked like …
Dean fell softly asleep, with a smile on his lips. How long had it been since he had smiled for himself, a true and honest smile? One hand on his chest and the head turned to the side, Dean fell asleep with a small smile gracing his face.
With a flush there was suddenly another presence in the small motel room. Castiel took the three steps to Dean's bed, simply stood there and looked down at Dean's face. He always looked so much more peaceful when he slept, no furrowed brows, no creases on his forehead - caused by the constant worry for Sam - no tensed shoulders - to be ready - to fight at any moment.
But today there was something else, Castiel noticed. There was a light, fading smile on his lips. Castiel tilted his head a little bit and furrowed his brows. He liked it, that expression on Dean Winchester's face. He liked it, but he would like to know why it was there. Who or what was the reason for this small smile? He sighed mutely, reached for Dean's cheek and hovered just a few centimetres above the skin. He felt the warmth radiating from Dean's body. Such a beautiful, perfect human being. Not just his deep, green eyes, which always searched for his, not only his steeled body, his soft, short hair, not just his rough hands, scattered with small scars, so good with deadly weapons, and at the same time able to be so gentle with the things that were important to him, no, his soul, his mind, too. He had such a wonderful soul, always trying to protect and save everybody, to do the right thing, to do the good thing, always trying to protect Sammy, to save him, and even himself, Cas. And there was so much pain, but despite of that, he never gave up, this small human being believed so hard there as good, and even if he had to create it on his own. This tiny human being burdened with so much suffer and grief, so often hurt, so many losses was still able to love so deep, so truly, his brother, his family, his friends. He couldn't help himself, he admired Dean Winchester. For him, Castiel, Dean was the most perfect man on this earth. He had never regretted lifting Dean from Perdition , and after doing so, never regretted trusting and following him . He felt that he was responsible for Dean, he felt he was his charge, he was his personal guardian angel, and he liked that. He, Castiel, a warrior of the Lord, was Dean Winchester's angel. He looked down again at this peaceful face, at his hands, resting on his muscular chest, directly above his heart. The sleeves of Dean's t-shirt had been slid up over his shoulders, and Cas could see his own handprint he had left on Dean's shoulder. Even Castiel wasn't quite sure how and why this had happened, but probably something like this happens when you grip a man's soul tight and drag it out of hell. A small irregularity of his vessel's heart made him wonder and while he tried to figure out what that meant he let his hand hover just a few millimetres above Dean's Hand on his chest to feel the strong and calm heartbeat and his warmth. He understood the meaning of this feeling, he realised, he liked the thought of having left a mark on Dean, and he liked the feeling. He looked at Dean's face for a last time before he bent over the sleeping man and inhaled Dean's scent, a very masculine scent of sweat, Whisky, a fading part of apple pie and Dean's very personal scent, the scent of his skin. He stroke d slightly over Dean's knuckles and disappeared with a wooshing sound of his wings.