Dean Hates Witches

'One, two, three' Dean gestured with his fingers before slamming open the door, a feeling of satisfaction hitting him when he saw the surprised looks of terror on the witches faces. Yeah, this was going to be fun.

They each picked out a witch, charging forward, Sam and Dean with knives, Cas without any weapons because he didn't exactly need them when he was Mr Smitey with his hands.

Dean started towards his witch of choice, ignoring Sam trying to fight the witch in his peripheral vision, focussing on the witch at hand because he knew witches, knew they were sneaky bastards that would get you as soon as your back was turned. It turned out that he'd chosen the leader of the three which meant she was a little more prepared and less all over the place than the other two. As he ran towards her, the witch snarled, flicking her wrist, Dean's knife escaping Dean's grip, flying over to the other room, Dean flying to the other side, hitting the wall with a crash. Dean growled, getting up, ready to fight again but to his right Castiel placed his hand on the other witch, a flash of light burning Dean's retinas, causing him to pause and he cursed. Trust Cas to make him go temporarily blind during a hunt.

"No!" the lead witch screeched, before turning towards Castiel, fire in her eyes, "What are you?"

Castiel didn't reply, instead just walked towards the lead witch calmly, his palm up, ready to smite the crap out of her. The witch started to chant some foreign shit that Dean had never heard of and Cas cried out as he was flung backwards. The witch smirked, so busy with her chanting that she didn't notice Dean was next to her until the knife was sticking into her throat. Yeah, that taught her to try and put some curse on his angel. Wait, did he say his angel?

"Dammit," Sam yelled as the remaining witch disappeared, breaking Dean's train of thought.

"You let her get away?" Dean barked.

Sam gave him his best bitch face "Every time I tried to get at her it was like I was hitting an invisible shield, she was a witch you know Dean. Besides I didn't exactly see you kicking ass either."

Dean rolled his eyes, trying to think of a good comeback and running up short so, instead, turned to Cas for support because he knew Cas would side with him, as he always did, due to that whole 'profound bond' crap.

"Hey Cas, tell him-" he stopped short when he saw that Cas was still on the ground, his eyes flittering as he came to.

"Cas," Dean shouted, running to his side, placing his arms on Cas' shoulders, bringing him up to a sitting position.

"Dean," Castiel looked up at him, complete horror in his face, and Dean could feel the pit of his stomach already churning with uneasiness.

"What is it Cas?" Dean gripped his shoulders tighter, as if that would make the pure fear in Castiel's eyes go away.

"I cannot-" Cas started, struggling to say the words aloud, "I cannot reach my grace."

"What?" Dean asked, his head shaking slightly, memories of 2014 human Cas coming to his brain, making him feel like he was going to vomit.

Castiel's eyes widened "I cannot reach my grace."

Dean just kneeled there, not knowing what to do or say and Cas was looking at him like he should know all the answers and it just made him want to vomit even more because Cas shouldn't be looking up to him like that, looking at him like he could make this all better.

"You can't reach it? So does- does that mean it's still in there, like, it's not gone, but you just can't get to it?" Sam asked, trying to calm the situation and Dean just wanted to hug him right there because Sam was most definitely the best in these situations.

Cas was silent for a while, a look of concentration on his face "Yes, it is still there. I can feel it but cannot reach it."

"That witch must have cast some kind of a spell on you," Sam frowned.

"So how do we fix this?" Dean thought aloud, the nausea still there, and it was difficult to stop his voice croaking with worry. God, what had happened to him, he was turning into a teenage girl.

"Well, that one witch got away, right? She must have heard what the spell was and I'm sure she'll be able to tell us how to reverse it."

"Yeah, that's great and all, but one, she got away and we don't know where the hell she is. And two, even if we did find her repulsive ass, we've just killed her two friends, she's not exactly going to help us is she?"

"I know of some locating spells to track her down," Castiel offered, still staring at Dean, and Dean swore that the guy hadn't taken his eyes off him during this whole freaking conversation.

"Great Cas," Sam smiled, then his face darkened, "And if we have to, we'll force the spell out of her."

"Yeah, and I'll be first in line," Dean muttered to himself.

"I'll need certain ingredients for the locating spell," Castiel said.

"Look, maybe we should leave that till the morning, y'know go to a motel, rest up for the night, then we'll be ready for her tomorrow," Sam shrugged.

As much as Dean wanted to sort out this weird curse issue out right now and stab the witch that got away, he had to agree with Sam. Dean had slept a good two hours last night and all the worry that he was feeling for Cas was transcending to tiredness. He just needed sleep, some time to sort the mess out in his head.

"Sounds like a good idea, nothing's going to change in the night anyway, might as well rest before we take on a pissed off witch," Dean agreed.

"Let's go then," Sam said, already walking out.

"Dean," Castiel murmured.

"Hmm?" Dean asked before looking down at Cas and realising that he still had his fingers gripping into his shoulders, his fingers bone white because he'd been holding that tightly. Oh. Dean fought the urge to blush, and got up suddenly, rubbing his hands to give them something to do. He walked to the exit and he heard Cas follow like he was his shadow.

It didn't take long for Dean to find the nearest motel and it looked just as shitty as all the rest had done in the past. The drive there had been strained, Cas sitting silently, contemplating whatever the hell angels who couldn't reach their grace contemplated about, Sam trying to make conversation about how things 'could be worse' and Dean just didn't answer, too busy looking back at Cas to make sure he wasn't going to have some freak out.

"I'll go get us some rooms," Sam said, leaving the car.

Dean got out of the car, grabbing their bags from beside Cas, then rummaging around in the boot for no damn reason, taking as much time as possible because he didn't want to have to get back in that car, didn't want to have to sit there with a silent Cas, a silent Cas who had just had his powers taken from him. He just didn't know how to deal with that kind of shit, Sam was the touchy feely 'I feel your pain, here let me help' guy out of the two of them, not Dean.

Sam returned shortly, giving Dean a funny look at the fact that he was still rummaging around the boot but didn't say anything about it, instead throwing a set of keys at him.

"Here's your keys for yours and Cas' room."

"Wait, why do I have to share with him?" Dean asked.

"They only had rooms with two beds in and I don't think it's a good idea for Cas to be alone right now," Sam cast a wary glance at the car, at the unmoving Castiel.

"That still doesn't explain why I'm the one who's sharing with him and not you," Dean mumbled, but he knew what Sam was going to say back before it even left his mouth.

"Hey, you have your little 'profound bond' thing. Cas'll listen to you, hell, he follows you like you have all the answers at the best of times so I think he's going to want you to bunk with him more than he wants me," Sam shrugged, smirking slightly.

Dean just sighed melodramatically, shoving Sam's bag at him, then grabbing his own. He tapped the window of the impala and Cas jolted, peering at him through the glass.

"Are you planning on getting out of the car at any point or what?"

Castiel stared for a couple of more seconds before realising what Dean had said, opening the car door clumsily, as if it was something he'd never done before and Dean supposed he hadn't.

"Come on, you're sharing with me," Dean gestured for Cas to follow.

The room was small, dark wallpaper making it seem even smaller and it reminded Dean of a funeral home. The usual five star motel shit. He threw his bag on the bed, finding a t-shirt and sweats to wear to sleep. He normally just slept in his boxers but for some reason it made him feel awkward to think about doing that with Cas in the room. He didn't know why, Cas was a freaking angel, he wouldn't bat an eyelid if Dean ran around naked, but still, it felt weird. He cast a glance at Cas who was perched on the other bed, his face unreadable as always.

"Uh, Cas you've got to sleep," Dean said, trying not to bark the order but it was difficult not to. It was always easier for Dean to set his emotions aside and instead order his loved ones about. A stupid habit but one that was hard to let go.

"Dean, I'm an angel, I do not need sleep," Castiel shouted back, his eyes widening after it, realising that he was shouting at Dean. He shook his head slightly in regret but it was too late. Dean was about to shout back but then he looked at Cas, really looked at him, and grasped how fucking frightening it must be for Cas right now to not be able to reach his grace, to be, under most terms, a human. Sure, Cas had dealt with the process of falling before, his powers faltering, but that had been a long process and even then he still had some powers at the end of it. But now? Now he'd had them completely taken from him and Dean couldn't imagine what that feeling was like, going from an all-powerful machine to a simple shitty human.

"Yeah, I know that Cas," Dean softened his voice, "But right now you can't reach your grace and yeah, I know that sucks more than I can imagine but that's just the way it is right now. And by you not being able to reach your grace, well, it means you're pretty much human which means you need sleep. Please Cas?"

Castiel sat silent for a while, casting his eyes downwards but slowly he got up, ignoring the stare from Dean, and pulled the blanket back.

He was in the process of getting into bed when Dean said, amusement in his voice, "Wait, Cas, you can't go to bed in that."

"In what?" Castiel frowned, looking down trying to find fault in his attire.

"You can't go to bed in a trench coat," Dean pointed out, trying ridiculously hard not to laugh.

"Ah," Castiel said, enlightened, shrugging off the coat.

"Here, you can wear these," Dean threw the clothes he intended on wearing to bed at a bewildered Cas. Castiel caught them instinctively, looking at them like they were some kind of bomb. Dean rolled his eyes, and then started to delve further into his bag to find something else he could wear. It took him three goes to find a t-shirt that passed the sniff test and he managed to find another pair of sweats that he could wear right at the bottom of the bag. Yeah, those'll do. He raised his head, ready to go to the bathroom to get changed and have a wash but froze when he saw Cas. Cas who was now unbuttoning the last button of his shirt which caused Dean to yelp.

"Cas, you can't just get changed in front of me!" Dean protested, feeling his cheeks redden. Castiel tilted his head in confusion, probably wondering why Dean was having a panic attack over something as minor as this. And truth be told, he didn't know why he was protesting so much. He'd seen Sam get changed before, at times when they'd been drenched in someone's blood or some other kind of shit and hadn't cared. So why did it matter if he saw Cas topless? But this was different, Dean told himself. It was Cas, and Dean had never saw him without all those layers before, let alone his bare chest. And he should not want to see more. Wait, no, he didn't just think that.

"I'm going to the bathroom, just finish getting changed and go to bed will you? Jesus, Cas," Dean stuttered, making his way to the bathroom, shutting the door angrily behind him.

Dean tried to get the image of Cas topless out of his brain, gripping the sink. No, he corrected himself, it wasn't Cas topless at all, it was Jimmy's body, not Castiel's, which for some reason seemed to make the whole situation even worse. He rubbed at his eyes, calming himself, before getting changed.

When he'd finished in the bathroom, he was relieved to see that Cas was already in bed, lying down stiffly as if he were in a coffin, the duvet pulled right up to his neck. His eyes were closed but Dean couldn't tell whether he was actually sleeping or not, he hoped he was, having a tired Castiel that had just lost the ability to use his grace would not be fun. Nevertheless, Dean tried to make as little noise as possible as he walked to his bed before throwing himself on it, not even bothering to get under the quilt, he just needed to sleep. He closed his eyes wishing that today had been one of those weird dreams. Yeah, he'd wake up tomorrow, Cas would still be all angelic and shit and they'd go gank the witches and everything would be fine and dandy. Sure, because great things like that always happen to the Winchesters didn't they? As if.

"Goodnight Dean," Cas spoke and Dean nearly screamed like a girl.

"I thought you were asleep!" Dean barked back.

"Not yet," Castiel murmured from the other bed.

"Well, you just nearly gave me a heart attack," Dean shot up, ready to shout some more but Castiel looked at him with those puppy eyes and whispered an apology and Dean couldn't shout anymore. An image of Cas undressing came into Dean's mind, the fact that his vessel was much smaller than he thought, hiding under all those layers, making himself look larger and more dominant than he actually was. A fear hit Dean because that meant that Cas was all the more easy to hurt for however long this damn curse was going to last. Of course Cas' vessel couldn't have been some boxer or something, who was all muscle and could easily take care of himself. Nope, it had to be Jimmy Novak. But then again, Dean didn't like the idea of Cas looking any different to how he did now, couldn't imagine seeing Cas in another body, without those confused blue eyes and that ruffled hair.

"What Dean?" Castiel asked and Dean knew that if they were standing, he'd be giving him the full head tilt.

"You know how you're basically human right now? Well, uh, if you're basically human in that vessel then where's Jimmy?" Dean asked, genuine curiosity in his voice.

"Jimmy is no longer with me," Castiel whispered, his eyes casting downwards.

"Oh," Dean uttered, not really knowing what to say. He wasn't exactly used to how to comfort a freaking angel of the lord on losing the person whose body he was using.

"He's now in Heaven, hopefully being rewarded as he should be," Castiel said, and Dean could see that he was uncomfortable, that Castiel didn't like the idea of not knowing whether Jimmy was okay up there or not. Dean hoped he was, Jimmy had been a good guy, had kinda felt sorry for him and his whole crappy situation.

"I'm sure he's enjoying it up there," Dean said, trying to be comforting.

"Yes," Castiel said, unsure.

"Night Cas," Dean smiled at Cas because if he was being honest, Cas did look kinda adorable all wrapped up in a duvet, only his head peeking out.

"Goodnight."