"You know I love you, right?"
The expression on Cas' face is…. not encouraging. His mouth flops open and closed once or twice, otherwise expressionless. The pause would be awkward if they hadn't reached a point in the last 8 years where no awkwardness could take hold.
"Seriously?!" Compared to Castiel's mild reaction, Sam is almost comically expressive. "Now?!" he expands on his concern.
Dean finds himself wrong footed. "What do you mean now? Of course now. What-what's wrong with now?"
"I sure hate to interrupt this productive line of questioning," Lucifer interjects with a smarmy grin, "but time isn't exactly on our side today." Behind him, Gabriel snickers.
"Exactly!" Sam shouts, "That's what I mean now. You don't think now," here he gestures expansively around the room, at the elaborate sigils of blood and demonic traps, at the 2 archangels trying gamely not to snicker, at the thoughtful staring of Jack where he kneels in the center of the room as a focal point of the spell, "might be the wrong time for heart felt confessions?"
From every wall of the room, the lines of blood and herbs begin to glow; Jack's eyes light up. "The spell is awakening," Jack calls anxiously, "they're here." He launches quickly into the low Enochian chants Castiel had taught him. In rapid succession demonic vessels, eyes black as pitch, pop into existence on all sides of the warehouse space.
Castiel leaps forward to Jack's side, angel blade a quicksilver flash as he protects the boy while he focuses on powering the summoning spells; the Winchesters follow him into the fray.
"We're probably gonna die!" Dean defends himself petulantly. "And it's not really supposed to be a surprise, right? I mean-"
"Last-night-on-earth angle? That was your plan?" Sam's arm comes down hard across the shoulders of the possessed woman, sending her stumbling toward Gabriel. The archangel grips her forehead tight and with a firey glow, the demon is expelled.
"There's no 'angle'!" Between one swipe of the demon blade and the next, Dean clicks the button for the speaker system; an exorcism blares in surround sound. The weaker demons search frantically for the source. "Everybody knows you don't face death with regrets! Did you even WATCH Big Fish?"
Sam makes a sound of wordless frustration. In his periphery, Dean can see Lucifer and Gabriel engaged against Asmodeus. Natural as anything, he and Sam work a clean circle around them, not allowing the other demons to interfere.
"Why in the Hell-" Lucifer opens his mouth to comment on the word choice, "focus, pitchfork!" Sam snaps at him. "Why would I need to watch a movie? Dean, we've gone into life-or-death battles LITERALLY hundreds of times?"
The demon blade rips into the demon's chest; it takes 2 tugs to dislodge it again. "I'm just sayi-"
"For Christ's sake, you've actually DIED one hundred and something times!"
"Eyes and ears, boys!" In Gabriel's hand, a golden trumpet shimmers into existent. Asmodeus struggles more violently against Lucifer's hold. Sam and Dean duck to the ground, shielding their eyes and ears.
Even through his hands, Dean can hear the song of Gabriel's horn; the sound is indescribable, low and high pitches, a thousand wordless melodies all overlapping but distinct, terrifying and otherworldly and war-like all at once. The demons shriek and moan and flare out of existence.
Silence blankets everything for a long moment. Cautiously, Dean opens his eyes a sliver. Nothing internal starts boiling, and his eyes don't melt out of his head, so he carefully climbs to his feet. A small army of groaning or unconscious people, some bleeding from the ears, lay strewn around the space.
"I'm just saying," Dean should be annoyed that this conversation didn't die already, but he's just so damn glad that for once they've pulled off a clean win, "we actually knew this was coming for once. You couldn't have planned a little further ahead?"
"I should collaborate with you Winchesters more often!" Gabriel steps up. "You banter like a Seinfeld rerun. Which of you owns the pirate shirt?"
"It is important to make friends and build a community of support." Jack offers pleasantly, smiling warmly at Gabriel. "Children need a stable home and family for their development."
"I don't care how little sleep you both need," Lucifer insists, pointing a menacing finger at Cas, "stop letting him watch late-night Dr. Phil."
"It is the best of our limited options." Castiel argues wearily, "We both find Conan unnerving. Now we should all go somewhere to drink a beer as per tradition, before rest. I fear things will not go as smoothly when we engage Michael."
Sam nods his agreement and turns toward the door. His momentum is enough to drag the rest of their rag-tag crew in his wake.
Castiel lingers behind, and Dean stares at his feet.
"Of course." Dean glances up at him.
"Of course…..what?"
"Of course, I know that you love me." Damn this fair skin! Dean's cheeks feel hot.
"Cas-"
"And surely you know that I love you too." Everything above the shoulders feels warm now, flushed.
"Yeah. Yeah Cas, I know."