"It looks like I picked a fight with a potato peeler and the peeler won," Dean complained as he examined himself in the mirror, wincing every so often as he dabbed Neosporin onto the angry red, irritated sores that riddled his cheeks and forehead.

"I'm sorry, Dean. They should heal soon." Castiel put a hand on his shoulder, his expression immeasurably guilty. "I don't want to risk harming you further by trying to heal them."

"I know, I know." Dean's head bobbed from side to side as he agreed, he turned away from the mirror and met the angel's eyes once again. "Everyone looks at me like I'm a frickin' national hero." He said glumly, and reached for his small first aid kit where he kept the band-aids. "I hate it."

"Because you saved an angel's life and you're housing him, even when it hurts you. People find it commendable." Cas leaned his shoulder onto a space on the wall next to the mirror.

"Yeah, well, you're not just some angel. You're Cas. Of course I'd-" Dean began, but stopped mid-sentence, shaking his head for a second. "Never mind. And it's not like- what I mean is I was dying, too. It was a mutual benefit type of thing, and they should know that."

The angel smiled a small smile at Dean. "Why don't you want a little recognition every once in a while?"

"It's just...it's overwhelming, I don't know. I don't like it when the focus is on me." Dean stuck the fresh bandages on one by one. He sighed when he was finished and turned to Cas. His hands were shaking, and he clasped them together to get them to stop.

"Cas, we gotta talk." He breathed.

The angel sat down on the edge of Dean's bed, and tipped his head to the side. "About what?"

"About..us. What we are." Dean explained quietly. "I.."

"I don't know either." Cas spoke up after Dean had trailed off. "Me not having a tangible vessel...that makes things a little more...complicated."

"It does, doesn't it." Dean ran his hands through his hair. "And I sure as hell am not going to be making out with Chuck anytime soon."

Cas blushed a little. "Now that's just not fair," He complained. "It was an emergency situation. Anyone else would have exploded."

Dean raised an eyebrow at that. "Exploded?!"

Cas looked thoroughly embarrassed. "Yes, that was what I just said, didn't I? Chuck is the only other person here made to be a vessel to an angel."

"So, by exploded, do you mean like, internal bleeding and something bursting, or full-on I have to powerwash the walls kind of-"

"Dean, I thought this was supposed to be a conversation about our relationship." Cas interrupted him once again, looking down in his lap and holding his hands together.

"Sorry. I got carried away." Dean chuckled. "Look, I don't know how much you can tell from me, but Cas, I...let's just say you're the one thing that keeps me happy in this more-than-shitty situation we got going on. I always sleep better when you're here with me, and..I don't know. Whatever we've got going, we'll just...build on it. Keep going. Sound good?"

Cas smiled shyly at him. "So, is it okay that I kissed you sometimes when you're falling asleep?"

Dean cleared his throat. "It was..yeah, uh, they were nice." He stared down at his hands and cleared his throat before looking up once again.

The two of them stared at each other for a second, Dean blinking and Cas not.

"I don't want to make this..awkward for either of us, I mean, we're stuck with each other no matter what, so.." Dean began again.

"We'll just keep going." Cas reiterated.

"Yeah." Dean coughed.

Cas smiled. "I explained to you that your thoughts are very loud sometimes, haven't I?"

Dean said nothing. This might be harder than he originally thought.

"Dean- what do you think abour going to retrieve my vessel?" Cas asked. "I-I want to kiss you too. Not just reach into your mind and manipulate your nerves and pull from your memories and use that to shape the touch. I want to kiss you, actually kiss you. And maybe-"

Dean covered his face with his palms. "Let's not do the whole mind reading thing, okay?"

"Okay." Cas replied softly. He came up and touched Dean's shoulder. Dean turned to look up at him, still a little flustered.

"Before we go-" Cas took his head between his hands, cupping over his ears, and softly kissed each and every little sore with soft lips. Dean could remember his mother kissing his 'booboos' when he was little, and he swore for a second it felt like her. Maybe that was Cas using his memories of her touch to make his kisses. The best part was he felt no pain- a real touch would have made it painful.

"Now you'll heal faster." Cas said softly. He had a tenderness in his expression that overwhelmed Dean a little bit.

"You're such a dork," Dean said softly, looking away. "C'mere." Dean grasped at thin air as Cas pressed his lips to his, a fleeting brush of his lips. "You forgot to create the lapels this time." Dean pointed out, frowning. It just reminded him more and more that all of this wasn't, well, for lack of a better word, real.

"It can be hard work sometimes, Dean, I'm sorry." Cas explained, and kept his hands cradling Dean's cheeks and before moved them to his shoulders. "The body's hungry," He commented quietly.

"Jesus, Cas, that's a really creepy way to put it." Dean snickered.

"Fine. We're hungry."

Dean gave him a look.

"...You're hungry?" Cas corrected.

"Yeah, let's go out to the food court. And I swear to God if someone tries to talk to me about it again..."


Wow, this was incredibly short but I want to keep posting so I can finish this damn thing I started. Any suggestions will be taken to heart, I promise! I really like this idea and I could use a good kick in the pants to finish this :)

thanks for reading! Hopefully I'll update soon again!