Author: lollie-girl
Title: Between sea and land
Pairing: Castiel/Dean
Rating: R
Summary: In which Castiel is a mermaid and Dean hates the beach.
Spoilers/Warnings: Language and adult themes.
Disclaimer: not mine
-x-
Dean doesn't like the beach. The heat makes him feel uncomfortable. The sand gets everywhere sticking to his flip flops and in between his toes, the only good reason for liking the beach is the sound of the waves coming in and out. He only stays because the noise of the ocean seems to calm him down and helps him forget where he is.
Sam who's in the water has both his legs on each side of a surf board as Gabriel his boyfriend seems to be doing a similar thing.
Sam hates surfing but Gabriel seems to make his little brother happy so he goes along with it.
He looks away when Sam and Gabriel start to kiss, now concentrating on watching the waves crash into each other.
-x-
It's been god knows how long when Dean decides to go for a swim. He swims for as long as he feels tired and then starts to float on his back, hands stretched out open as legs lay flat on the surface of the blue sea and there's something calm about doing this.
Dean hears a noise that sounds like a splash but he can't be certain given that there's now water entering his ears. Getting up and floating up right on the water he looks behind himself where he's sure the noise came from. He sees a man, eyes closed and hands loose and lifeless as he floats about, the waves moving him slightly back and forth when Dean sees a gash on his head.
He quickly swims to the stranger in what seems to be in time before the larger wave coming at them tries to wash them away.
Dean grabs a hold of the dark haired man pulling him along until they reach land.
Sand now smeared all over his skin as Dean now notices the mans naked length in front of him. He fells weird doing what he does next, even more so because the guy isn't wearing any clothes at all but if Dean wants to save his life he has to do it.
Dismissing all the ridicule and jokes Sam and Gabriel might give him for this he goes down and opens the mans mouth breathing air into his lungs as he starts to press down on his chest and really Dean's grateful for his brother insisting they go for first aid class to learn how to do CPR.
The man sits up taking a deep breath before sea water begins to spill out of his mouth.
"That's it, pal...", Dean says as he taps the man on the back holding on his bare naked shoulder to keep him up right.
"let it all out", he continues to say and really it's more so for the fact that he wants this awkward situation not to be so weird and silence only makes things worse.
The first thing he does is let go of the man once he's checked hes OK. Dean quickly gets his towel that's laying flat out on the ground as he throws it at him, needing the man to cover up. He seems to get it too, blushing slightly as he looks down at himself fully naked before looking up at Dean again.
"Thank you", And it's only then that Dean notices the dark sea of blue eyes staring up at him.
-x-
Sam and Gabriel end up joining them and as expected there's some jokes about Dean being the only person in the world capable of finding a man naked on the beach.
Gabriel tells him something about hooking him up with his brother Michael if he knew Dean wanted man meat that much.
Dean only glares at the both of them until they stop laughing and focus on the bigger picture.
When they ask for details they find out the mans name is Cas, Dean thinks it a weird name but doesn't mention what he thinks as the man tells them he cant remember who he is or where he came from.
Dean bends over, knees touching the sand as he holds onto the mans head examining the blood from the wound and thinks maybe this has a part to play in the memory loss.
-x-
They take him down to the police station where Bobby Singer tells him to take Cas with them for a few days to see if memories come back.
Dean complains about how the guy isn't his problem and wouldn't it be better for Cas if he was in a police station where he can be safe, but Bobby just tells him it's better for him to be out in the open where memories at least have a chance of coming back instead of being locked up like a criminal.
"What's he gonna do stuck inside a jail cell, you idget", and yeah he had a point but still.
Sam agrees for the both of them that they'll take Cas with them and in turn leaves Dean looking at him in disbelief.
"you're taking care of him not me, you hear me, Sammy?"
Dean tells Sam when there alone.
-x-
it's been a few day and still there's no memories magically appearing into Castiels head and Dean starts to wounder if hes even from around these parts or if the waves somehow managed to drag him all the way here.
He doesn't know much about Cas as time goes on, except maybe he stares at the TV like he's never seen one before, has trouble putting on clothes and Dean's pretty sure this guy was...is one of those nudist by the way hes always walking around naked. He spends way to long in the bath tub, always taking salt inside with him and if that isn't weird then nothing will be, Dean tells himself.
"He's an alien...", Dean says "It's the only explanation...", and he gets a laugh from Sam which follows with a glare when he realizes Dean is actually being serious.
There sat at the table having dinner and maybe they should at least think about showing Cas how to eat properly because he just grabs whatever is in front of his plate with both hands and shoves it into his mouth. It's not so weird when it's meat of fish but with spaghetti bolognese it just looks weird, Dean concludes as pasta falls from Castiels hands and mouth leaving him with sauce all over him mouth and there is no way Dean will ever admit to it being sort of adorably cute or that most things the awkward person in front of him does seems to just be as equally adorable.
-x-
The steam of the bath comes through the bathroom door and although Dean knows Cas is in there, and just how much Castiel loves his privacy (ironic with him being a nudist) he has to brush his teeth before work and he's already late.
He turns the door handle finding it open and takes a moment before going in, deciding that even if Cas has an issue with it it's not like Dean hasn't seen him naked before.
He walks inside and goes about washing his teeth spilling out the tooth paste when he turns around to leave and finds what he thinks is a sort of greenish blue flap of sorts just hanging out of the bath tab over the shower curtain and he can't help but pull it open to see what it is.
He feels shock curses through his entire body as he just stands there looking at Castiel or at least the top half of what he knows to be Castiel.
Immediately there's panic as he watches Cas trying to bring himself up by holding on to each end of the bath tub but not succeeding as Dean runs out of there.
Dean makes it outside where the room isn't filled with steam and his mind starts to think a little clearer, wondering if he had just seen what he saw or if he was just seeing things.
"Castiel isn't really an alien, is he...?", Dean asked himself
"No, he's a friggin merman", he concludes as if that makes it better.
He hears a loud noise from inside the bathroom and quickly turns back.
"Cas!", he questions finding him on the floor, tail flapping from side to side.
He quickly lifts Castiel onto his arms not sure what to do but with one hand underneath the tail and one hand holding onto Castiel he places him back into the bath water that's a silky colour from all the salt.
"It's OK Cas, its OK.", he says out loud but inside thinks this is not in anyway near OK.
Dean watches as the tail dispels away and two legs now take its place.
Dean steps back a little and Castiel thinks maybe he's gonna run again but then Dean's moving back towards him passing Cas a yellow towel that Castiel takes in his hands and wraps around himself.
"Cas, anything you wanna tell me?", and really he does.
-x-
Castiel sits on a chair and Dean would be lying if it isn't weird given that he just saw a fish tail where two legs now reside.
"Dean, I'm a..." He doesn't need Cas to continue he already knows the answer.
"A merman", and all Cas does is nod as he looks to the ground and Dean feels bad.
"Why didn't you tell us?", it's a stupid question and Dean gets that as soon as he's said it.
"Never mind..." Dean says as he shake his head.
When Sam gets home from work Dean and Cas explain it all as they show Sam Castiels tail.
Sam reacts in a similar way but starts to ask all the right questions that Dean never thought to do and this is why Dean needs Sam around when he finds out Mermaids or better yet mermen are real.
He asks about under world seas and how they live? why no human has ever found any of them when there's been so many stories and legends about merpeople and then Sam wants to know the answer to something Dean hadn't even begun to question.
"Why didn't you ever go back...why stay with us?", Castiel knows the answer he doesn't wanna say it, though.
"Oh", Sam says as he looks to Dean and everything makes scenes now, but maybe not to Dean who has a confused expression on his face.
"Oh, what?", Dean wants to know but Sam just says something about leaving the two of them alone to talk and Dean is just completely puzzled now.
-x-
Dean sits back on the chair.
Castiel loves him. He's not sure what to do, sure he likes the guy maybe even more than just friendship but he's a merman and in love with him! He starts to freak out.
Castiel starts to get uneasy and really he hates it when Cas gives him those adorable looks like he doesn't know what's happening.
"Cas...", Dean begins to say.
"you don't love me...it's OK.", and Dean hates the look on Castiels face not to mention the way his voice gets low towards the end and Dean knows its not OK.
"Cas, I don't love you but I like you...maybe give me some time to see how it goes, yeah?.", he's not even sure what exactly happens next but Castiel jumps up of the chair and has both his legs around Dean siting on his lap with excitement at the prospects and Dean can't help the laughter that comes as he moves closer to kiss Cas and yeah Castiel is definitely cute...even if he's not exactly human he still belongs her with Dean.
-x-
They go on double dates with Sam and Gabriel and Dean officially hates candy, hes seen Gabriel suck on lollipops enough to get sick just from the colour of candy which happens to be Gabe's favorite thing in the world and Dean doesn't get it but Sam apparently loves the guy so he doesn't get a say in it.
They go down to the beach every weekend, taking a boat far into the sea, somewhere no one will see them and Castiel swims all the way deep down to the sea and Dean worries but he keeps the fact that cas is actually a mermaid at the back of his head in order to keep his mind at rest.
when cas gets back up he brings a red head with pale skin and a dark green tail that Dean only sees when she dives back into the ocean and swims away. He helps castiel get back on the boat wrapping his tail in towels until he sees legs and castiel jumps into his arms kissing him.
Castiel moves back still holding onto Deans shoulders.
"So, what do you think?", Castiel questions with a smile
"I think you're sister needs to come to land so we can have dinner and get to know her, also if you wanna we can come back next week."
"I'll introduce you to uriel! castiel says with excitement and all Dean can think of is how fitting the name is.
They do just that and half there time is spent in the ocean and on land, Dean doesn't mind because he gets to keep cas next to him where they sleep every night raped in each others arms with whispers of "I love you" and yeah Dean thinks he'll do weekends at the sea if it means having Cas.
-fin-