Bigger Author's note on bottom:
Thanks for the reviews! They made me really happy! Slight spoilers for season 5 and especially 5x18 (it will make a lot more sense later, I promise!) Have fun reading!
The plane was late, but that was to be expected; his brother (in fact his whole family) didn't even know the definition of the word punctual. Instead choosing to believe that the world revolved around them and their timetables.
Castiel sighed and shifted his weight to his other foot impatient to get out of the crowded airport. Gabriel knew that he had finals to study for, not that he cared; his entire family thought he was crazy even going to college to get his business degree when everyone knew he was going into the family business like the loyal son he was. Really the only person that agreed with his decision to get his degree was Dean.
Dean… thought Cas is definitely a subject I need to stay away from.
Ever since the night of the party and the subsequent game of chicken, things had been… strained between the two former friends to say the least. Oh sure Dean tried to pretend that everything was normal with them, but it wasn't, no matter how hard Dean tried to act otherwise. Even with Cas's limited knowledge of proper social interactions (most of which had been taught to him by Dean) he knew enough to know when something was off, or avoiding him, in fact Cas considered himself an expert when it came to interacting with Dean. Until recently that is.
Merely two weeks ago Dean had been so comfortable with Cas's invasive presence that he didn't even acknowledge whenever Cas was too close (which was often). His random touches were ignored but not unwelcomed and the staring deeply in Dean's eyes was shrugged off as "normal Cas behavior". Now though? Even though Dean still talked to him like usual (everything from deep and philosophical to which girl had the best rack) he couldn't get away fast enough and avoided Cas's gaze- not to sound cliché- like the plague. It was… unsettling to say the least.
And Cas couldn't figure out a way to fix it. He had tried everything; from joking to teasing to baking all the pie Dean could eat (to be fair he had bought it but what Dean doesn't know won't hurt him). Nothing seemed to break the underlying silence and awkwardness. And Cas's pretentious invasive nagging older brother coming to visit wasn't going to help anything. If there was one thing Gabriel wasn't it was subtle; the minute that he sensed something was off, Gabriel wouldn't stop poking and prodding until he got to the bottom of it.
Dean didn't react well to someone asking personal questions on a good day, to say he wouldn't react well to Gabriel finding out about the game-and he would without a doubt-and the intimate questions that he was sure to ask, was an understatement.
The only time Gabriel met Dean it didn't turn out well. Gabriel had spent the entire visit antagonizing Dean, trying for days to get a reaction out of him to no avail. It wasn't until the day before Gabriel left that he stumbled upon the two things that evoked an explosive reaction; mentioning Sam and flirting.
After this discovery Cas had to buy all new dishes to replace the one's that Dean threw at Gabriel's head.
Cas was actually terrified of Dean's reaction to Gabriel's teasing. He was pretty sure Dean would kill his brother, not that he could blame him. He could already hear Gabriel taunts of Dean being "Cas's little bitch" no something that would turn out well.
"Well well well, if it isn't little brother Castiel, oh what, its Cas now isn't it."
Cas turned on his heel to face smiling amber cat-like eyes framed by shaggy dirty blonde hair.
"Gabriel." Cas acknowledged his brother with a curt nod.
"Oh come on little bro, where's the love? I haven't seen you in months and all I get as a hello is 'Gabriel'?" He asked, leaning against one of the airports gray pillars.
"What would you like me to say? That I am pleased that you are here? Why should I say this falsehood when we both know the true reason behind this visit. Our siblings want me to come back and be their good little soldier again." Even as he said this Cas's voice maintained its stoic tone and his gaze remained level.
Gabriel sighed, ignoring the passengers milling around them, "Really Cassie? When did you become so pessimistic about your lot in life? You used to be so docile and now…" Gabriel shrugged seemingly at a loss in defining his brother.
"Now what? Now that I can think for myself? Now that I decided to follow my own path?"
"You rebelled!"
Cas was taken aback; his brother rarely, if ever, lost his temper, but when he did it was never pretty.
"I didn't agree with how our dad was running Heaven, as an absent boss. Not really good for moral, don't you think?"
Gabriel sighed heavily, running a hand over his face.
"Cas if we are going to have it out it may as well be the truth."
Cas's level stare turned into an all out glare.
"You are right brother, I didn't want to stay and watch Lucifer's and Michael's pissing match over who would inherit."
"Because of Dean; that stupid mud monkey." While he said it, Gabriel didn't keep eye contact, choosing instead to straighten his dark orange leather jacket.
"You will leave him out of this." Growled Cas, blue eyes flashing, "Heaven and all our other businesses could not have survived the prize fight between them. Do you know how many people's lives depend on their jobs? Jobs that would have been lost after our brothers were done with court. Luc needs to stop being a whiny bitch and focus on running Hell. Now I will ask you again. What. Are. You. Doing. Here."
Gabriel looked at Cas with soulful eyes, "Brother for once I am just here to see you."
"Fine." Snapped Cas, "And why are we talking about our family? We both know what's going on. What third party are we informing about our life?"
"I don't know, but it seemed like a good idea at the time." Shrugged Gabriel, reaching down to pick up his suitcase, "Now where's your car?"
Dean had to get her out of here.
Unlike Cas, he didn't like to have his night time playmates meet his roommate-compromising position or not. Dean had finally escaped his bed and long shock red nails to stumble into the kitchen in just his boxers.
"Dean, come back to bed…" the warbled voice that came from the kitchen almost hurt his ears.
"I am sweetheart!" Dean shouted back, trying to fight the urge to roll his eyes.
What the hell was I thinking of sleeping with Kara?
Dean headed to the fridge looking for a bottle of water when he saw the note.
"No nonononono. No!"
Dean
I am on my way to pick up Gabriel. We should be back by ten.
Written in Cas's concise style.
Dean felt an immense need to curl up into a ball and roll back to his bedroom for the rest of the weekend. How could he have forgotten? For the past two months he had been dreading this day. With the whole thing that happened with Cas, Gabriel's visit must have slipped his mind. Great.
Jade eyes shot to the clock displayed on the microwave. In blaring red letters it read 10:07, Dean breathed a sigh of relief; he knew enough about Cas's family to be well informed about their problems with punctuality.
"Dean, I'm lonely…"
Dean actually flinched. Kara had to go. Now. He trudged back to his room where Kara was wrapped in his blue comforter, her dark hair falling lifelessly around her face, a provocative smile that didn't meet her un-miraculous blue eyes plastered on her face, and leftover red lipstick still tinged her lips. The pose she was in was supposed to be flirtatious but fell flat. It wasn't that Kara was ugly, it was just that Dean fell uninterested when girls tried too hard to be flirtatious and it came across as cheesy.
"Sweetheart," Dean awarded her with one of his best smiles, "As much as I would love to take you up on that offer, my roommate's coming back and well…"
Kara huffed, blowing a strand of dark hair out of her face, "I get it, I get it. Don't worry about it sugar." She trailed off when a slight manic glint appeared in her eyes, "You know if you wanted… and he wanted… Your roommate could join in."
Dean coughed, laughed, and jumped away all at the same time, "Well yeah…um yeah…no…no no, not good." The words rushed out with no rhythm or reason, but Kara seemed to understand.
She shrugged, sliding lithely out of bed-regaining her natural grace and sensuality now that she wasn't trying-without the protection of the blanket, at complete ease with her body. Kara went around gathering her clothes quickly and efficiently. Dean just stood there trying to calm down the slight flush that was on his cheeks and avoid blatant staring (hoping that if Kara saw the flush she would think it was from watching her dress and not from embarrassment caused by her suggestion).
It took her less than five minutes to get dressed and cleaned up, though there was no mistaking what they had been up to due to her swollen lips and the satisfied air surrounding her. Dean was so close to releasing a sigh of relief while escorting Kara to the door, but he should have known that it would have been too easy to simply have Kara leave before Cas and Gabriel came back, as he heard the knob shake in response to someone unlocking the door.
He froze, one hand resting on Kara's lower back, who shot him a confused look at the sudden stop.
"-serious? You have no candy? What kind of college student are you?"
For Gabriel there was no such thing as a quiet entrance. He came barreling in, situating himself immediately in the apartment, leaning against the stainless steel fridge, his tawny hair having a strange sheen to it now it was in the bright fluorescent lighting. Gabriel looked around the place with an impassive look on his face, which faded away when his gaze stopped on the frozen statues of Dean and Kara. Glee lit up his face and he rubbed his hands together, seemingly contemplating the best way to deal with the situation that would give him the most enjoyment. Dean wanted the floor to swallow him whole when Cas marched in, a black suitcase clutched in his hand, he stopped in the doorway at the sight of the pair.
Great…
Kara let in a startled gasp and said the only thing that could make things more awkward (which was weird because Dean had walked in on some way more uncomfortable things himself).
"Your roomies Cas?" she exclaimed, the manic gleam back in her eyes.
Dean started edging away from Kara, feeling the need to curl up into a ball returning.
"God damn sugar, are you sure I can't change your mind about him joining?" the silence that followed was deafening; even Gabriel's jaw was slack at her suggestion.
Cas gave Kara a piercing blue stare with his head tilted slightly to the side.
"Your voice is very grating. It would not be pleasant to hear in the midst of climax."
Dean stared opened mouth at Cas, not being able to believe that he would actually say something like that. No, scratch that he could. Last time Sammy visited, he had asked Cas to watch over Dean and Cas had reported that it would be impossible to and there was a very high probability of Dean fathering a child because of his "repeat sexual relations with his girlfriend at the time". Dean heard muffled choking coming from where Gabriel had been leaning and when he looked over he saw Gabriel was laughing so hard, no sound was coming out. Kara on the other hand was now a woman scorned, not a fun thing to deal with because they have this crazy ability to make you wish that you were never born and God knows what Kara would do…
"Oh I forgot Castiel, you don't like to share."
Cas's head tilt became more pronounced, as well as the furrow in his brow, Dean on the other hand was praying to any higher deity (or lower he wasn't picky at the moment) that would listen that Kara was not at the party.
"I mean you pretty clearly staked your claim on Dean in the middle of the living room floor during the party," she sighed heavily, a malicious smirk gracing her face, "But then the rumors of your 'abilities' must have been greatly exaggerated if Dean's already bored and looking elsewhere."
Dean did everything in his power not to look in Gabriel's direction, or in Cas's, or Kara. You know what? The dark carpet was very interesting, how had he not noticed it before?
"Dean is not mine."
Dean's head jerked up to look straight at Cas who was looking not at Kara but directly at him. For the a moment, he felt like he could leave this situation with his dignity still intact; if there was a person who could find a way out of something it was Cas. And later when he was all alone, Dean could ponder why in the hell the idea of not being Cas's caused a funny twinge in the bottom of his stomach. But that was for later, like the dead of night, right now Cas was going to come up with something witty and Kara would leave all huffy and Gabriel wouldn't ask any weird questions (like if Dean liked the whip).
"But if he was," Oh God no, nononono, "I would have fucked him so hard and so long that there would be no getting out of bed the next day. Or wanting to get out of bed. Unlike his experience with you."
He couldn't look away from the brilliant blue gaze, the way Cas had stated this, it was almost like a promise or a threat. One that Dean was sure Cas would live up to. Not that Dean had spent a lot of time thinking about what would happen if he and Cas ever slept together. Which would be never.
It was at that moment that Dean realized that he didn't understand women; because instead of getting mad Kara actually let out a cackle (Cas was right, Dean had had to ignore her voice) and wiped a stray tear from her cheek.
"Oh my God! I heard that you would be like this, but damn! You just don't hold back do you? Amazing! Well sugar, if you ever want to 'test' my abilities you are more than welcome to. Toodles!" with that Kara skirted around Cas who was still standing in the middle of the doorway without a backwards glance.
"I don't think she got the whole 'grating' thing did she?"
"Gabriel."
"Yes brother?"
"Shut up."
"Why? I want to hear more about this whole 'staking claim thing'."
"Shut up."
"Like was it full nudity or just a tease?"
"Shut up!"
"Why Dean-o, why so rude? Miss Cassie that much?"
"I am going to my room now."
"Oh! Are you guys going again? Cause I would like to watch."
"Dude, he's your brother."
"You're not though."
"Done. I am just done."
After the whole ordeal with Kara the weekend with Gabriel was relatively tame. Well at least compared to the last time; there was no broken dishes or busted TV's though the underlying tension between Dean and Gabriel was still there.
Dean still thought that Gabriel was a slight freak. Ridiculously powerful and rich one moment then the next going on a candy binging TV marathon spree. This 'spree' was the reason that Dean had to buy a new TV in the first place; that last time that Gabriel had visited his current TV obsession was with the Jersey Shore. Dean couldn't handle four episodes of it without having to cry in his room over the stupidity of some people. Gabriel insisted on watching all the seasons and when both Dean and Cas had fought over the remote, Gabriel sat on them. For such a little guy he was wily, and had Cas's hands tied and mouth duct taped and Dean out of commission in less than five minutes. Then to torture them some more made the pair watch as many episodes of Jersey Shore as had aired. No sane person could blame Dean for going slightly crazy and breaking the TV so he would not be subjected to any more.
Luckily Gabriel's new show obsession was a lot better, until the unthinkable happened; Dean got sucked into it. To the point that Gabriel and he had bonded over the characters and their struggles. But who could blame them? The show, Paranormal, centered around two brothers (which Dean could relate to) traveling around the country and hunting monsters. The oldest brother, Jace, and his younger brother, Cam, had spent the first three seasons trying to keep their family together and keep each other from Hell. After all the heartache and brotherly moments the series introduced angels, mainly Nicolai (dubbed Nic by Jace) the angel that had pulled Jace from Hell. Jace's I-believe-in-nothing attitude came to a head with Nic's complete faith in his absent father. The pair had immediately caught Dean's attention and he had no clue why until Gabriel had finally pointed it out.
"They are you, like exactly."
Dean threw him a confused look and Gabriel elaborated.
"It's you and Cas!" he said, gesturing wildly at the TV where Nic was explaining to Jace that if he didn't toe the line he would dump him back into Hell.
In response Dean simply raised an eyebrow in disbelief that Gabriel was mixing up reality and TV again. Gabriel pouted and threw his back against the couch, trying to settle again.
"Just you wait, Nic and Jace are totally you two." He mumbled, the pout still on his face.
It wasn't until Nic started to lose some of his rigidity that Dean was able to see what Gabriel meant about the similarities between his roommate and the character; the choices Nic made to abandon his warring family in support of Free Will, his constant sacrifice for Jace. It all looped around to the point that by the fifth season even Dean couldn't deny it, he had found his doppelganger in a TV show.
Once Gabriel and Dean started the fifth season, which revolved around finding a way to kill the devil and avert the apocalypse, they couldn't stop. Even the filler episodes were watched with rapt attention. Cas started to get worried when Dean and Gabriel did nothing but sit glued to the TV. The food they ordered they had Cas bring it to them, bathroom breaks were few and if they did occur it was less than a minute, there was no sleeping, only watching.
"Do you think Jace is going to say yes?"
Dean snorted, "Do you really think that Jace would be okay with a dick of an angel taking over his body?"
"Hey! To save the world and his brother? Um, hell yes I think he would say yes." Gabriel glared at Dean then reached over and took the popcorn bowl from him.
"Are we even watching the same show? You think he should say yes, that is not the same thing as him doing it."
"The boys need to play their roles, that's all I'm saying."
"Okay," Dean turned away from the TV to face Gabriel, "since we both agree that Jace and I are basically the same person, I can assure you that I would never say yes and hence neither would he."
"Hence?"
"It sounded good in my head." Dean shrugged, turning back to the show were Jace had just stabbed the whore of Babylon.
Unluckily Gabriel might have been correct in his assumption of Jace saying yes, which only made Dean more pissy. In episode 18 Cam, Nic, and Billy (the father figure to the boys) locked Jace in the panic room to stop him from consenting to Zadkiel (the angel that was set to fight the Devil in Jace's body). Of course that didn't stop Jace.
Nic heard a crash from the panic room and went running to the door,
"Jace?" he asked, slight panic in his voice.
When he didn't hear anything he called Jace's name again, looking through the peephole in the door. Still no response, so Nic pried open the salted iron door and ventured into the room where a chair had been overturned-the source of the noise-but still no Jace.
"Nic." The audience was finally able to see Jace, unfortunately they could also see the angel banished sigil that Jace had drawn with his own blood and was about to activate. There was a moment of confusion on Nic's face until anger flashed across briefly before he glowed like a lightbulb and disappeared.
"Ahhh!"
Jace wasted no time in leaving Billy's house, going into town to find a man preaching about "angels talking" and the "apocalypse" in hopes that this man's prays may bring the angels down to him so Jace could finally accept what was his destiny.
The only problem was that Nic should up, and yanked Jace into an abandoned alley after knocking out the praying man. Just as Nic started wailing in on Jace-who Gabriel thought had it coming-Dean had to go to the bathroom so bad it hurt. He sighed, heaving himself off the couch amidst Gabriel's protest, knowing that his couch-mate wouldn't bother pausing the show for him.
"Tell me what happens." Dean mumbled on his way to the restroom.
Less than five minutes later Dean hears a "HOLY FUCKING SHIT!" from the living room, and runs out without bothering drying his hands, stopping when he saw Gabriel staring open mouth and wide eyed at the TV.
"What are you…" Dean stopped when his eyes came to rest on the show and then he stood frozen, for long moments unable to see clearly enough to identify the two men who wrestled on the ground for dominance…dominance sexually. Both men were naked, bodies gleaming with sweat in the crappy motel lights.
One of the men was forced to his knees, losing the apparent struggle, gasping out his surrender.
It was when the man on his knees looked straight out of the TV was Dean able to comprehend who they were.
Jace…and Nic.
Dean's cheeks flamed in embarrassment and reluctant arousal and he wanted to do something, anything, besides keep on watching but he was stuck in a kind of shamed fascination and could do nothing but watch.
Jace put his head down as he got up on his hands and knees and the once pure Nic took no time in taking him. He mounted his charge swiftly and Jace cried out, flinging his head back as he was breached for the first time. Nic withdrew slowly-teasing his partner-his hands holding on tightly to Jace, then slammed back in and Jace keened, pushing back, reaching for more…
Nic licked and bit at his partner's neck, claiming Jace who seemed to enjoy it immensely judging by how he was rocking back into the thrusts. That seemed to enflame Nic as he began to thrust hard and deep, his hips snapping forward and flexing back.
It got to be too much for Jace who dropped to his elbows on the cheap motel bed and let out a pleasure moan.
That was the last straw for Dean; he could bear to watch no more. It was one thing to be weirdly turned on by his roommate manhandling him when he was drunk; it was another thing entirely for him to watch two hot guys go at it on the TV and realize that he was getting turned on not by the actual images, but what they implied about his life. And that for a split second he had replaced Jace with himself and Nic with Cas.
"Sooo I'm just gonna break the uncomfortable silence now, and ask you if you're sure that there isn't anything going on between you and my little bro. Cause if Jace-"
Gabriel was cut off by the plate being thrown at his face, but even that didn't deter him from laughing at Dean's retreating back.
"I take it that you don't want to talk about it?"
Gabriel chuckled to himself at the sound of Dean's door being slammed shut and kept watching the show were Jace had been trying really hard to prove he was straight, but his argument became invalidated two minutes later when Nic slammed him into the wall and kissed him like his life depended on it.
"May I ask why there is pornography on my TV? Dean told me not to watch it in front of people and I had assumed that expanded to others as well."
Great, Cas was back, this is going to be fun! Thought Gabriel
I am so so so so sorry for the late update! I just started finals week (yay!) so I was slightly busy, but I promise that the next update will be a lot faster. Also please review! Seriously a :) or a :/ would be awesome to receive! It would mean a lot. Hope you enjoyed this chapter! Bye!