Castiel and his hunter were in what one might call the literal "touching phase" of their relationship. The angel didn't quite get it at first; he didn't understand or even really enjoy the amount of physical contact he seemed to need to initiate with Dean. Cas loved the way that Dean would smile at him, the way the hunter's tone had exponentially softened when they spoke, and the mere comfort of them being together. But the touching. It was so foreign. It started out small - Dean, when the two young men were alone, would gingerly reach over, entwine his fingers with Castiel's, and just stay like that until Sam reappeared. There were times when their arms would brush when on a job, there were times when Dean would rest his hand on Cas's knee under the table when they happened to be sitting at a table, and there were times when Sam and Bobby were walking far enough in front of them that Dean could sneak in a peck on the cheek while on a job. Eventually Castiel got used to the touching, even later he began to enjoy it, and later yet than that he grew to crave it. Dean's touch would make him shiver all over in a way he was so unused to. The pure bliss that his partner's hand on his shoulder gave him caused goosebumps to shoot up Castiel's back, arms, and neck. And when Dean was present to notice the reaction, which wasn't terribly often, he'd just smile and say nothing. In short, Castiel was madly in love with the way Dean touched him. Never overstepping boundaries, never going much lower than his midsection (though Cas occasionally wondered what it would feel like if Dean did), and never having much of an opportunity to give Cas much more than a light brush. The touching never quite escalated beyond that, and both seemed satisfied, until the one rare day that they actually had the house to themselves. Bobby and Sam were out, and Castiel and Dean were sitting on Dean's bed, kissing. Well, teasing at kissing. Castiel was getting tricky, now that he knew Dean's weaknesses a bit better. Cas would just barely let his lips brush Dean's' before he'd swipe away and kiss him on the cheek, so close to his lips and yet so obnoxiously far. Dean was annoyed, and he kept trying to get to Cas's lips, but the angel just kept avoiding them. As Cas continued to skirt the edges of Dean's' patience, the hunter would occasionally give him a glare - to which Cas would respond with a mischievous chuckle - and keep diving around blindly to find his partner's mouth. Dean was getting desperate, and Cas vaguely wanted to see how far he could push his partner until something tastily drastic happened, though he wasn't sure what. And it did, for the most part. Dean lost his already-sparse patience rather instantly, and he finally, hastily, grabbed Castiel's hip to halt him, closer to his thigh than either of them might've expected. They both jumped a little, but Dean recovered first, and smiled, knowing he'd won. Cas gave a defeated smile, and let his eyelids droop as Dean leaned towards him slowly. Their foreheads were touching, and Dean found himself captivated suddenly by Castiel's eyes. His slightly messy, spiky, dark hair. His exhausted and yet somehow tantalizing smile. And he knew that, just before he kissed Cas, he needed to do his fair share of teasing, too. The hunter moved his hand from Cas's hip, gently rustling upwards to the angel's side, sliding under Cas's shirt and moving across his stomach and up towards his chest. Castiel's eyes were shut now; he was resting all his forehead's weight on Dean's, and his breath was ragged and warm on Dean's chin. This was the closest they'd ever been, Dean realized. Castiel was pressing his forehead against Dean's now, and his eyes, filled with a lustrously-burning fire, opened again slightly in response to Dean's lingering hand and mouth. And Dean saw this, smiled slightly. They'd teased each other enough. Again, he made his way gingerly towards Castiel's face, and Cas was perfectly still, albeit still breathing heavily. They were about to be kissing again, the last instance of which had been their first. The excitement alone was invigorating, but neither of them would be satisfied with just that. So Dean leaned into the home stretch, very, very ready. FWUMP. Dean froze, his lips a hair's width from Castiel's. The light streaming through the backs of his eyelids had gone dark, and the odd muffled sound halted him in his tracks. What he saw when he opened his eyes was, well… unexpected. They were surrounded by two enormous curtains of black feathers. Castiel opened his eyes, too, obviously ferociously mad at Dean's unexpected stop. Just when they were getting to the best part, too… but Dean's mildly horror-stricken expression stopped the angel from chastising his partner. "What is -" Cas began, but went completely pale when he realized that the room had gone dark, the overhead light blocked and the lamp knocked over by the towering black things. And the most embarrassing part was, those towering black things belonged to Castiel. They were his wings. They'd sprung straight out of his back, phased straight through the back of his shirt. They curled around the corners of the room, so gigantic that the very tips of the individual wings touched, meeting at the bedroom's door. Some of the feathers even spilled out the open window. The wings wrapped the pair in a room of black. "Oh, wow…" Dean breathed, completely forgetting about their anticlimactic previous few moments. Each individual feather glittered, reflecting unseen light in countless colors. Despite their graceful beauty, there was a ragged essence to them as well, and the feathers all ended in a sharp, glistening tip. Dean was almost disappointed that he'd never seen them before, but honored and proud that he'd finally been allowed to. He was enraptured, wrapped in a roomful of shimmering darkness, with he and Cas in the very center of it. Flustered, Dean turned to Castiel to compliment him on his ridiculously impressive wings, only to be shocked by Cas's expression. Well, not necessarily expression. Castiel's face was that of blank horror. Dean had never seen a paler corpse, let alone a living person. Suddenly, Cas's face turned a shade of red so brilliant it practically matched the wings in terms of impressiveness. Dean couldn't help but laugh unknowingly as his companion hid his burning face in his hands. "Hey, what's wrong? These things are awesome!" Dean comforted the angel, reaching out to stroke one of the feathers only to have it recoil slightly. Cas didn't respond, but Dean didn't seem to pay any mind. "So why are you showing me them now? Not that I mind, but -" the hunter ceased his talking. Castiel was being a little too shy, especially considering the side of him that had just made an appearance. "They… weren't meant to come out, were they?" Cas just shook his head, hiding his crimson face in his tucked knees. Dean was starting to understand. "So why did they?" he asked gently, a slight smile growing on his face. Cas peeked out from between his knees, still blushing madly, and glanced around at the ever-present walls of feathers. Then his shoulders arched and fell with a sigh and he looked up at Dean, a terribly displeased expression crossing his still-pink face. Cas rested his chin on his shoulder and looked up at the hunter with a sort of wounded-puppy look. "It's an adrenaline reaction," he whispered. "It's meant to be a defense mechanism, to help us flee when necessary. Of course, there are…" his gaze fell from Dean's face - "... other ways to create adrenaline in a human body. I'd forgotten about that and I didn't know this would trigger it." Dean couldn't help it - he laughed. He laughed until he couldn't stop laughing, until he was gasping for breath, and even then he found this entire scene hilariously adorable. Castiel, meanwhile, had a humiliated grimace growing on his cheeks. "Sorry. I ruined everything," he muttered, sinking into an upset stupor, letting his face drop back into its previous hiding place. Dean took a deep breath, and, still grinning, laid a hand on Cas's forearm. "You didn't. I promise. It's really cute." "Cute?" "Yeah. Cute and badass at the same time." Castiel brightened slightly, in that he lifted his head again and his frown shortened. Dean squeezed the angel's arm comfortingly. He gazed around again at the shining black wings, trying to imagine what they must've looked like in action. "Man, I bet you were the coolest damn angel up in Heaven," he said admiringly, attempting again to touch one of the feathers. It didn't recoil this time, and Dean found it to be shockingly soft. Meanwhile, Castiel smiled a tiny bit. "Oh, not really. Zachariah had three pairs of wings. And they were gold. Michael's were crimson, and if you thought my wings were big, you should've seen his. They would've taken up this whole house, at least," the angel said, hints of both fondness and remorse in his voice. His smile had turned bittersweet, but at least he was still smiling. "Really?" Dean said disbelievingly. "Well, I bet yours were at least the sexiest. I mean, come on. These babies are fucking black." Cas cocked his head in that old signature Cas way, but then he shook off the last comment and found himself smiling wider at the "sexy" bit. "You think these are attractive?" Dean scooted closer to Cas, and reached outwards to gently beckon the wings inward. Cas got the message, and the wings folded around them, shrouding the pair in a glittering, dark funnel. "Cas, I'd be willing to tell Sammy about this if only to brag about your wings." And with that, Dean kissed his angel. No teasing, no touching, no tantalizing or tempting. Just the two of them, pure and happy, surrounded by the volume of Castiel's vast black sheets of feathers. The wings seemed to swirl around them, frozen in time, shining brighter and brighter with each moment Dean's lips were on Castiel's. When Dean finally pulled away, he sighed happily and fell forward to lean his head on Cas's chest. Cas, in turn, rested his chin gently on top of Dean's head, and sighed as well. Simultaneously, the reached for each others' hands, and the moment their fingers touched and intertwined, the both shivered with bliss as goosebumps shot up their arms.