"Hey, Bro." The archangel smiled his best trickster smirk.
"Douche bag." Balthazar answered with a tip of his imaginary hat.
"Metrosexual." Gabriel countered.
The lesser angel crossed his velvet sheathed arms with all the sass he could muster.
"I assume you have some idea about what is going on with Castiel and the Winchester?" Gabe asked when he saw the exchange had come to a pass
"Naturally." Balthazar answered in a bored tone.
"Well, I propose a little game." The trickster went on while he fiddled with the wrapper on a candy bar.
"I'm listening…"
***
Dean lay back on the bed, fresh from the shower with a new bandage covering his latest homemade stitches. His ribs hurt, but it wasn't anything a little whiskey and some sleep couldn't cure. The towel was draped loosely over him as he sighed, trying to push away all his thoughts and knotting his fingers behind his head he closed his eyes. The hunter intended only to rest for a moment or two, but he was not afforded that much peace.
He didn't hear the rustle of wings or the snap of fingers but there was no question about who or what had transported him. Sitting up and looking around with frustration he took in the big heart shaped bed he was on, the candles lit on the table, the dimmed lights, and- oh my God, was that a bottle of lube on the pillow?
"You couldn't have magicked me some clothes at least?" He shouted, securing the towel around his waist with a tuck.
Dean tried the door handle with no success, realizing he probably wasn't even in a hotel at all, but more likely a warehouse in Jersey.
"Gabriel, what do you want this time? You might as well just tell me so we can get it over with. And if this," he snatched up the lube off the bed, "is what I think it is you can forget it. I am flattered but not interested."
"Oh, come now, Dean, what's the fun in telling you? I am just hoping you live up to your reputation. Don't pretend you aren't angel sexual- everyone knows." Another finger snap and he was gone.
"About Anna?" Dean asked the air, "What does she have to do with it?"
Opening all the drawers, searching for a clue and trying all the locks again with no success the hunter sat down and flicked on the TV with hopes of seeing anything, or at the least just killing time till Sammy could find him.
"Dean." The door swung open and then shut immediately behind the trench coated angel.
"Cas! Can you get us out?" Dean stood bolt upright at the sight of his friend he nearly lost the towel in the process, blushing a light pink. But the angel waved his hand to dismiss the gesture.
"Nothing I haven't seen before. I can't get us out, this is beyond my capabilities."
"How did you get here? Wait, what do you mean it is nothing you haven't seen before?"
"I was suddenly standing in front of a door, walking through it is a logical conclusion when you find yourself in a strange place."
"I suggest we just play along and then we can get the hell out of here. And you didn't answer my question."
"I didn't think it needed an answer. I have been watching over you for a long time now, I have seen you in various states of undress as a result."
Dean opened his mouth to answer, but shut it again without a word, not really knowing how to respond to the knowledge that Cas had seen him naked.
"Hey, dick! You want to give us a clue?" Dean looked to the heavens again in answer, hands spread in front of him in surrender.
A light jingling of bells answered him as a vine began to grow out of the ceiling and a small patch of green leaves with white beadlike berries appeared over his head.
"Mistletoe. Gabe, I am not kissing you!"
"Man, he is thick, isn't he, Cas?" The archangel chuckled as he reclined on the bed.
Motioning between the two of them with eyebrows raised he snapped again and was gone.
Dean turned his head to find himself staring into the deep blue eyes of his angel's vessel.
"Uh, personal space…" He said uncomfortably, his breath still minty from his post shower brushing.
"Yes, of course." Castiel lowered his gaze and took two steps back.
A rustle of wings broke the deafening silence of the situation.
"Am I interrupting? If you are having a moment I can always come back another time." Balthazar's voice was a razor, cutting through the tension.
"Don't be cute, just get us out." The hunter snapped.
"Sorry Cas, this is going to hurt me too- if it is any consolation."
The angel slammed his bloody palms together and chanted in a strange language, Cas seemed to recognize the spell and worked in intervene, taking a step forward, arm stretched out, ready for a fight. The light was blinding.
A moment later Dean woke up on the bed of his motel room, the memory of the encounter with the trickster still fresh. Deciding to put on some clothes before anything else should go wrong he looked around the room to make sure it wasn't an illusion too. And just where the hell was Sam? He could use some back up. The kid went out to pick up breakfast, not enjoy the sites on the way back, he thought as he buttoned his jeans.
The rustle would mean Cas was back from wherever Balthazar had chosen to send him, turning to greet the angel, Dean stopped dead. It was Cas alright, but there was something wrong. Cas was alright, everything about him just as Dean remembered, but the room was changing around him as he stepped into view.
The wallpaper melted away and the blue sky, amber leaves of autumn, and the familiar sound of lapping water washed away the reality Dean had imagined himself in.
"Ok, so I'm dreaming. No big." He shrugged, looking to the angel for a suggestion as he stepped onto the dock.
"Yes, but I didn't bring us here."
Dean sat in one of the two chairs over looking the water, glancing over his shoulder as Cas joined him to perch on the second one.
"Ok, so I just have to wake up."
Closing his eyes tightly and clenching his jaw the hunter tried to bring himself back from the dream into the waking world. After a moment the angel cleared his throat.
"We are locked in here, together. We have a better chance of using your own subconscious to alter the setting in an attempt to wake yourself. It is possible that even upon waking, I may be trapped here indefinitely."
"Well, that's just great. Cause I know what I need right now is an angel taking up permanent residence in my head."
"Concentrate. Imagine a way out of here." Castiel snapped.
The hunter closed his eyes again and thought about this place. He imagined a path that lead through the trees back to his baby. He would fire up the engine and they would be free again. He imagined a door at the end of the dock that would lead him back to his body in the motel room. But, the pure memory of this place over took him and even though he had only been at this lake for a few hours years ago, he couldn't help but imagine the boat he had used to glide from the shore and enjoy the silence.
When he opened his eyes Cas was standing over him expectantly. He looked around for a path, or a door, but it was the boat that appeared to take him away.
Tossing the angel an oar and climbing in to paddle with the other, Dean saw the sky darken. The fireflies came out as Cas climbed into the small vessel and they paddled silently in the darkness to the other shore.
Dean had never been bothered by the silence between them before, there had never been a reason. But between the trickster's mistletoe remarks, and Cas's comment about knowing what Dean looked like under his towel he was feeling a little flushed. He cleared his throat to try and diffuse the tension he had imagined surrounded them, but no sound came out.
He tried again. Still no noise. He shouted at the top of his lungs as Cas looked on, his head cocked to the side in contemplation. Finally, he reached out for the angel's hand, tapping it and pointing to his open but silent mouth. Then he heard it- the singing.
Animals incapable of human voices; fish and birds and other wildlife burst into song around him. The chorus continued to berate Dean with their song, but he was more concerned about his lack of vocal chords than he was about the oddities of his imagination. After all, this was a dream.
The sassy angel joined in on the singing, loudly and seemingly acting as the ring leader to this little circus. Castiel looked enraged as his brother, Balthazar serenaded them from across the water. Finally something clicked for Dean, as he listened, he could just make out the words-something about kissing and how he had better do it soon.
Denial had eaten away at him and he was about to just give in an pull that angel into his arms. Not just to be free from the traps they had set on him, but to be free from the walls he had put up himself. He wanted Cas, somewhere in there he knew there had always been more between them, but he had never let that in. He had never allowed himself to imagine kissing another man, that is, until Cas showed up. Dean had refused to let himself feel more for Cas than friendship because there was no way that he was worthy of anything more; worthy of the love of such a being.
But here he was, sitting in a boat, on a moonlit lake, with a company of animals and an angel telling him to just close that distance, to take a chance. Dean leaned into his angel, their knees grazing one another as Cas's eyes met his. There was always something in the angel's gaze, the way he looked right through you, that had made Dean fall in love with him.
"Kiss him."
The chorus whispered again and again as Dean licked his lips nervously and shifted forward a tad more.
The yellowing ceiling of the motel room shifted in to replace the burning blue of Cas's eyes. Dean blinked but it was still there. Bright sunlight streaming in through the curtains and a sound of squeaky springs brought him back to clarity as he turned his head to see Sam staring at him.
"Sam," Dean reached out an arm, patting his brother to make sure he wasn't a mirage. "Am I back?"
"I couldn't wake you, but when I found the sigils on the mirror I wiped them clean and wrote them in reverse. And, you came around. What the hell is going on?"
"Trickster, seems he has taken a personal interest. Balthazar is in on it too somehow."
"Cas?"
"Shit, Cas, are you still stuck in my head?" Dean attempted to look at his own eyebrows while his brother sat in shocked silence.
"No." The gravel voice answered from the throat of the angel who appeared before him.
"So, is someone gonna fill me in on what exactly Gabriel wants?"
Dean rubbed the back of his neck, avoiding Sam's face while he tried to find the words to explain.
"My brothers find it amusing to place Dean and I in compromising positions."
"I see… well, I guess we need to figure out some kind of wards. I can start putting up the sigils to keep the angels out." Sam, like a good brother let the awkward situation pass and moved right on to protection.
"Let's work fast." Dean said.
The older hunter was halfway through his first ward when he heard the sound of Sam's knife drop to the floor. The clang of it drew his attention. Instead of the usual plaid image he was used to, Gabriel stood.
"You didn't really think it was going to be that easy?" The angel tilted his head, daring the hunter to challenge him.
Castiel charged. Thrown back against the wall of the motel, pinned there.
"Brother, please. I tried to play nice, but you two just aren't getting it. You may have messed with destiny once, but twice is out of the question. Now, I am going to teach you a lesson. Dean, how does it feel to function without your lungs? Or maybe I should pick something faster. The angel produced a gun, aimed and fired.
Dean looked down to see the seeping wound, already dripping the blackened blood that indicated a liver wound. His knees folded and his head grew fuzzy. Falling to all fours he struggled to catch his breath. He has suffered so many wounds, but the slow poison flowing in his veins, reaching all the parts of his body made it feel as though fire and ice flowed in him. He grew light headed and every move became agony.
"Dean!" Cas was still shouting from his place on the wall- Gabriel holding him there.
The archangel lowered his hand as Castiel slid down the wall, regaining his feet.
Barrelling towards Dean, Cas could feel his remaining spark of Grace beating in him.
"What are you going to do, brother? You don't have much time left."
"Gabriel, fix him. You know I don't have the strength, while severed from the host of heaven."
"Guess you better make it a heartfelt goodbye."
"I don't think so," Sam's voice came to life, along with the fire surrounding the trickster. "Fix him." He demanded.
"No."
"Maybe you would like me to turn up the heat a little." Sam uncorked the urn.
Another rustle of wings announced Balthazar's entrance.
"Sorry to break this up, but things have gotten a little too intense for me."
Dean sat up, healed and whole bodied again, coughing with the shock of it. The holy fire was extinguished and the trickster gone again.
"No hard feelings." The angel spouted quickly before disappearing again.
"I ,uh, I'll give you guys a minute." The younger Winchester headed for the door.
Cas turned to his friend, "I'm sorry I couldn't heal you, Dean. You know if I could have given my last sliver of Grace to save you, I would have."
"I know, Cas. I'm sorry I let things go so far."
"If there is one thing I know about Dean Winchester, he doesn't take well to being forced into anything." The angel's expression hinted at nothing, but Dean knew him well enough to see the shine had gone out of his complexion as he spoke.
"Kissing you isn't something anyone would have to force me to do."
Dean pulled the crooked tie towards him until their lips met. Cas responded with a slow moan, opening his mouth a little to deepen the kiss. Dean smiled against his lips.
*******
"So, what do I win?" Sam asked the angel.
"At this point, bragging rights," Balthazar answered. "And your brother's happiness. That must be worth something." He waved his arm in a blasé way to indicate his enthusiasm over the emotions of humans.
"That'll do." Sam answered to the empty parking lot with a smile.