/I hate this/, Dean thought and he clenched his jaw as he continuously glanced around the room.
"Don't worry, Dean," Castiel whispered close to the hunter's ear. "The party should not be too bad."
Dean glared at the angel and hissed, "Dude, stay out of my head."
Castiel's lip twitched in one of his rare smiles. "I didn't need to read your mind to know what you were thinking."
Dean rolled his eyes and took a large gulp of his whiskey.
Yeah, yeah, Sam had a steady girlfriend and she liked to throw fancy parties when they were in town. But why did he have to be there?
As if Cas had read his mind again, the angel rested a comforting hand on Dean's shoulder.
Dean could feel stress ooze from his body, a calm reluctance taking its place. /I guess if Cas is here it won't be too bad. A bunch of whiskey should help too./ The drink in mind was getting dangerously low, so he tugged at Cas's sleeve. "C'mon, I need a refill, and maybe there'll be more food out now."
Castiel nodded and followed after him.
Sam was standing next to the liquor cabinet, making his own drink while talking to Jess.
"Hey Dean," Sam said and leaned over to whisper in his brother's ear. "I know you don't like these things, but Jess really likes it when you join us, so try to be polite." Dean sighed and rolled his eyes again. "Please man, for me?"
"You better be glad she has good taste in booze," he muttered as he refilled his glass, earning a laugh from Sam. "You want anything, Cas?"
Castiel shook his head.
"Yeah, I guess after you go on a bender like you did, you'd be a little scared to try again."
"Dean," Castiel said with a shudder, "I don't enjoy remembering that."
Dean laughed and clapped a hand on his shoulder. They walked side by side through the doorway to go back to the rest of the party.
"Oh wait!" Came an excited voice, causing the two men to turn around warily. /This can't be good./
Jess had turned away from the sink to ask Sam something and had seen them walking away. "Look up!"
Dean /really/ didn't want to, anything that put a grin that size on Sam's face never boded well for him.
"I believe that's mistletoe, Dean." Cas said, and Dean looked up with a groan.
"You gotta do it, guys, that's the rules of the holiday season," Jess said, practically bouncing up and down.
Dean looked at Cas and the other man just tilted his head, obviously waiting for Dean to make a move. Dean sighed, he couldn't resist it when Cas looked at him like that. He grabbed Cas's tie and dragged him close. Cas pressed his hand to Dean's shoulder again and pulled him the rest of the way.
Vaguely, Dean could hear Jess screech in happiness and Sam laughing, but that was somewhere far away. All Dean could think of was Castiel's body heat so close to his and how soft Cas's lips were. Just before he was about to start moving his tongue against Cas's, he remembered that they had an audience, and they had stayed together for just a little bit too long to be casual, but he was glad that Cas hadn't broken away. He pulled back, clearing his throat. He felt his face redden and kept his eyes averted from Sam and Jess. He knew that Sam would have a victorious smile on his face and he just couldn't handle that.
Dean turned away and walked out to the party like he had intended.
Castiel stood close to Dean, and Dean found that he was /very/ distracted by that. Cas leaned over to whisper in Dean's ear, his breath on Dean's neck made him take a sharp intake of air as he closed his eyes. "We should walk through that door a few more times."
