A/N: Just a reminder that this fic has been edited to remove prohibited content. This chapter should be much, much longer; almost twice the length. AO3 is your friend, porn fans.
As he woke up, Dean wondered idly whether Cas would be amused, horrified or turned on by the fact that Dean had sex dreams. And, boy, what…
Dean looked down as he realised that the line between reality and fantasy had gotten even more blurred than usual.
"Holy shit!"
"Good morning, Dean," Cas said, sounding completely fucking normal and not at all as if he was waking Dean up with a blow job. "I trust you slept well?"
"M… morning," Dean stammered as things started to sink in. "I, er… Cas…"
No, Dean suddenly remembered exactly what he had wanted to do in this room: how much he had wanted to take advantage of this gift that Ellie had given them so that he could take Cas apart in complete safety.
"Not to knock the wake-up, Cas," Dean said, feeling himself start to smirk, "but I can think of lots of things I'd much rather be doing to you. Did Ellie – or Gabi, I guess – tell you about this room?"
Cas seemed to catch on. "No," he said, "but I can feel the unique protection wards."
Dean slid down the bed and gently rolled Cas onto his back. The angel was already nude and half-hard. His eyes widened as Dean straddled his stomach.
"Now," Dean purred, "relax."
.oOo.
Sam and Gabriel were waiting for them when they got finally downstairs. It wasn't late; barely even seven, which Dean thought was perfectly acceptable given how out of whack his body clock was. But Sam looked pissed and Gabriel was grinning suspiciously brightly.
"Did you even sleep?" Dean demanded of Sam, before turning to Gabriel: "Well, did he?"
Sam just glared. Gabriel rolled her eyes.
"Yes. I zapped our precious princess just after you vamoosed, and he's been like that ever since he woke up."
Sam scowled. "And what has my sleeping accomplished?"
Gabriel shrugged. "Your brain is working thirty percent faster than it was, though I can't say it's improved your disposition any. Maybe you need Dean and Cas' cure for the blues?"
"What?" Sam spluttered. "Oh, God, is that was that was?"
Ellie sighed and gave Dean and Cas an apologetic glance. She had clearly just shoved Gabriel back onto what she tended to call 'the naughty step' inside her head. She only ever did it forcibly when Gabriel overstepped somewhere, like just now.
"As it turns out," Ellie said carefully, her cheeks a delicate shade of pink, "while the walls are virtually soundproof and warded, the warding wasn't designed to take an archangel at full power. They were made for Opa Juri. Also, shut up, Gabriel! it turns out that certain frequencies of sound aren't absorbed so easily by stone walls. Sam won't have heard, but, um, we did."
"My apologies," Cas said easily. "I did not mean to disturb you."
Ellie blushed harder. "You… My problem if I'm embarrassed, not yours," she said, flustered. "I was raised human. Gabriel just thinks it's hilarious, and because of that she can stay where she is until she's ready to function in a human environment again."
Dean was kind of grateful for that, because he wasn't entirely sure he could put up with that infuriating grin all day. But it would be nice, not to mention helpful, if he could pick Gabriel's mind about the wards at some point, because it would be nice to not have any bits of stray power leaking out for all to see. But for now, for today, they had a case to focus on and, by the sounds of it, the angels hadn't gotten anywhere overnight. That wasn't a massive surprise, honestly, because Cas was always great when it came to random information on things they could identify, but useless at actual research, and Gabriel had the attention span of a gnat.
Cas snapped him up some pancakes and bacon and they settled down to business.
.oOo.
"Guys?"
Everyone looked up at Sam. He was still staring at some dusty book or other.
"What's up, Sam?" Dean prompted after a moment where Sam didn't even realise he had everyone's attention.
"What's the lore on mermaids?"
"They do not exist," Cas said quickly.
"Ah ah, don't go assuming," Gabriel jumped in, finally breaking out of her exile. "They're not one of Dad's, or even one of Eve's creature features, but I've heard things. Never seen one myself mind you, so I can't be sure, but probably less 'Splash' and more 'Goblet of Fire'."
Dean resisted the urge to roll his eyes. Mermaids. Of all the mythological creatures that he believed were truly mythical, mermaids were right up there; fanciful stories for little girls and sailors so horny they had to justify fucking something in their own minds.
Cas had that pissy little scowl of his. "If they were not a creation of Fathers, or Eve's, where did they originate from?"
Gabriel shrugged. "Hybrids, probably," she said. "If angels and demons can make new 'creatures', then why can't monsters make new monsters?"
"Who's Eve?" Sam broke in, looking completely baffled.
"Mother of all monsters," Dean summarised, much to the angels' surprise. "She made the first vamp, first werewolf, skinwalker… You get the idea. She's stuck in Purgatory; we don't have to worry about her."
"You led an interesting life the last couple of years, didn't you?" Gabriel commented, clearly trying to hide her discomfort. "But anyway, Sammy might be on to something. What were you thinking, kiddo?"
Sam shrugged, still eyeing Dean warily. The angels had pretty much accepted it straight off the bat, but Sam was still struggling to wrap his head around the idea that Dean had skipped back a few years and was being allowed to change the established course of events. It wasn't noticeable really, but sometimes Dean would have a little titbit of knowledge he shouldn't, like Eve. And, of course, the fact that Dean had ditched fast women for a socially-awkward, guy-shaped creature.
"I don't really know," he said eventually, answering Gabriel's question. "Just, it's pretty much the first thing that comes to mind when you think of supernatural sea creatures, and there's fuck-all lore on them."
Gabriel's gaze shifted slightly and Ellie tapped her book excitedly. "Actually, I think between you, we might be on to something. I mean, there's all sorts of legends about mermaids luring horny men to their deaths and what have you. Maybe that's exactly what did happen, only the guys got caught in flagrante delicto?"
There was a cackle that was distinctly Gabriel. "I love the way she thinks sometimes."
Cas frowned, his eyes checking with the board before speaking. "That does not fit with the current pattern. Based upon the disappearance of Ffion Jones and Siân Williams, males are not being targeted."
"Maybe they're bi mermaids," Dean suggested with a grin. Now, that was a fun thought. Except…
"Don't ask it," Sam said with a long-suffering sigh, as if he knew exactly what Dean was thinking. And, if Dean was honest, Sam probably did know.
"Well, whatever it is, we're going to have to check it out, aren't we?" Ellie said. "We're not getting anywhere just sitting here."
Gabriel rubbed her hands together gleefully. "Boat trip, anyone?"
.oOo.
Cas had made a boat. They were on a boat that Cas had made from nothing. Damn, but his boyfriend was awesome. And Dean trusted him absolutely, and was in no way resisting the urge to check the thing from prow to stern for holes.
They puttered up and down the twenty miles that most of the couple had disappeared from, not really sure what they were looking for, given none of them really thought Ariel was going to flop up on the deck, or sit on a rock and flash her fins at them. None of them were really surprised that they didn't see anything, and they ended up tucked into a booth in a little restaurant in Aberystwyth, eating burgers and wondering what to do next.
"Not much we can do right now," Gabriel said before sucking enthusiastically on the sickliest looking chocolate milkshake ever.
"We keep watching," Sam said. "I… there's a big library in town; I could see if they've got any lore books that aren't at Ellie's."
Dean rolled his eyes. Of course Sam would suggest that, giant nerd that he was. But hitting the books was more practical than 'watching', since they had no idea where to watch. At least vamps were fairly easy to track down and werewolves tended to be consistent: it was easy to know where to start. Here, they were stuck in a no-Starbucks town in the middle of the creature's hunting ground, but it could be thirty miles or more either north or south of them. Or, of course, west, out into the sea.
"What if it lives out there?" he suggested, waving a hand in the vague direction of the water. "Way out? Only comes in close when it wants to pick up some takeout?"
Sam, predictably, rolled his eyes at Dean's crude phrasing, but the angels both eyed him carefully. Dean was used to how Cas looked at him by now, and this one was the 'that was an intelligent observation' look. The weird part was how closely Gabriel was copying it. There were moments where she was ridiculous, and moments where she was human enough to pass, and then there were the odd flashes of her actually being an angel.
The strangeness was over almost as soon as it began; Gabriel took a slurp of her milkshake, looking thoughtful. "Not a bad thought, kid," she said, "but Cas and I will struggle to cover an area of open water even that small."
"Not that difficulty will prevent us from scouting," Cas pointed out, fixing Gabriel with a sharp glare. "And, given that the majority of the disappearances occur in the evening, this would be a better time to search the coastal waters too."
Which was how Dean ended up freezing his ass off on the boat that Cas built, his eyes fixed on a sonar screen that Gabriel had picked up somewhere and somehow, pinging the waters along the Cambrian coast for the faintest signs of a mermaid instead of in bed, trying to make Cas glow again. God knew, he loved Sammy dearly and he never wanted to contemplate them being torn apart ever again, but his company wasn't quite the same.
"This is the worst idea ever," Dean grumbled, pulling his jacket closer around him. "And it's fucking July: would it kill them to turn the heat up around here?"
"You realise we're at the same latitude as Canada and Russia, right?" Sam pointed out snippily as he steered the boat as close to the shore as he dared in the failing light. "And water absorbs heat."
Of course Sam knew shit like that, and Dean was too cold to admit that he might have had a point (and, really? England was that far north?).
"Whatever, bitch."
"Jerk," Sam muttered, more as a reflex than with any real teasing sentiment behind it.
"C'mon, Sammy, this blows. Bitch could be anywhere. Let's find somewhere to moor up before it gets too dark to see. What time is it, anyway?"
"Ten thirty."
Dean frowned towards the setting sun. This really was a weird place, all cold and mermaids and lilting foreign language and the sun setting so goddamn late.
"Anyway, I bet no-one's out taking a romantic stroll on the beach right now," Dean pointed out. "Evil Ariel ain't getting her claws in anyone tonight."
"Perhaps you are right, Dean," Cas said as he appeared on the deck. "We should find some accommodation for you for the night."
.oOo.
Finding a couple of rooms had proved easy, actually: the usual crowd of holiday-makers were avoiding the area, and there were a lot of cancellations. The hotel manager had practically fallen over himself to accommodate actual paying guests.
Dean grabbed Cas before he could disappear off anywhere and held him tightly.
"Dean, I should resume my search with Gabriel," Cas said, only slightly reproachfully.
"You can," Dean said, feeling the sleep creeping over him already. It hadn't been the longest day ever, but all the flying and sea air had taken their toll. He just wanted to snuggle with his angel for a while.
"Just not right now."
Cas held him close and kissed the top of his head gently. "You are safe, Dean. Sam is safe. You can rest easy."
