Dean lay in bed. He had awoken as though from a dream. A dream of falling. He was tumbling faster, and faster. Darkness surrounded him as the air spread warm around him. He spun through the air facing down into it. There was light at the end. There was always light, but this light was different. This light was Cas. Dean knew it like he knew basics. He was always falling toward Cas. He would always fall toward Cas. Before he reached the light, though, his body jolted him awake.

He lay in the dark thinking over the night before. It was a night of firsts, firsts that needed to become seconds and thirds and more. He smiled, pleased with it all until he got to the end of the memories. He frowned a little. He sent out a prayer. Don't stay away all day. I want to see you. And then, because he remembered Cas saying that Dean did not sound like Dean, he added, This is Dean, by the way. There that should take care of things nicely. He hoped that it would give him a full day with his angel. Yes, my angel. Last night proves that fact. Cas wants this too. He felt a renewed sense of confidence that he hadn't felt before. He replayed out the memory from yesterday again, letting his mind linger on lips and hands, words and not words.

When they entered the bunker hand in hand, Dean's mind was a whirlwind of joy fog. He mapped a path to his room. He mentally scanned the myriad places throughout the place that they could explore together. As the door closed behind them, though, Dean dropped Cas' hand. Sam was coming into the room in a robe with a big white towel wrapped turban style on his head. He had a big steaming mug in his hand and his laptop tucked under his arm. "Hey, guys. You both look like you got each other worse than you got me." Cas looked back at Dean and Dean saw the wet droplets of melted snow hanging from patches of Cas' hair. He wanted to help him shake them out, just run his hand through them, but Sam was right there. Cas smiled, seeming to read his mind a little. Sam interrupted their moment and said, "Well come down here. I found a stash of cider. I'll get you both a mug." He left before they could protest.

Cas leaned toward him and whispered. "Drink it quickly." Then he walked down into the room just ahead of Dean, who was now incredibly flustered.

"When did you become so forward?" Dean whispered back.

"I just don't want you to get dehydrated. You took quite a beating out there." Cas smirked at him.

Sam was back with two more mugs. He handed one to Cas and the other to Dean. He picked his up and clinked it to each of their mugs. "Happy holidays, guys. I couldn't ask for better people to spend them with." Dean felt a glow of love for his brother and he looked over at Cas and felt another glow to add to the first.

"I couldn't agree more." Dean added to the toast. He watched as Cas tipped his mug up to his lips and swallowed down the entire thing in one long, large gulp. Then he gave Dean a little nod and an upraised eyebrow. Encouragement.

Dean tipped the mug to his lip and, God Damn! Sam was serving him Hell in a glass. It was scalding to a point that was completely unreasonable. His lip felt burned. He glanced at Cas and saw him heave out a sigh. He walked over to the nearby couch and plopped down into it with thinly veiled exasperation. Dean followed him and sat at his side, keeping a reasonable amount of space between them, for Sam's benefit.

"Did I make yours too hot?" Sam asked.

"It's like fire. How can you even drink yours?" Dean was blowing on his, shooting puffs of the fire steam out toward Cas.

"I put yours in the microwave when I went in the back there. Mine was out here cooling a bit. Sorry." Sam looked back and forth between them, seeming to sense for the first time, something a little different. "So, you both get all of your violent tendencies taken care of out there?"

Cas decided to answer. "Yes, I believe that I took down, not one, but two Winchesters this evening, single-handedly." He leaned back and smiled. Smug, bastard.

"I wouldn't get so cocky, Cas. Maybe I was just setting you up. You know, like you may have won the battle, but I'll win the war." Dean was feeling a little smug himself. He had, he thought, also won the battle. In the way that seemed to matter to him anyway. Dean could feel Sam's eyes on him, reading him in that way that always made him feel a little too exposed. "What?"

Cas laughed then, "You obviously can't see yourself, Dean. You look like a drowned rat. A drowned rat declaring victory." Cas laughed some more. To make his point then, Dean took his warm mug of cider and set it firmly on the coffee table in front of him.

"I'll just drink this later." He leaned back into the sofa and stretched out, running his hands up through his hair. Cas tipped his head to the side, reading his intentions. His eyes raked over Dean's stretched out posture. He then stretched out too and raised his arms up over his head in an elongated arch. It was a cat-like move that gave Dean the best possible view of Cas' body, lean and long right there in front of him. Sam began humming a Christmas song then. Stupid Sam. Stupid, buzzkill, Sam. Go to bed.

Dean tore his gaze from Cas and looked over at Sam. Sam was concentrating on his laptop, but not really. He was grinning away like some kind of know it all jerk. Dean grabbed a pillow off of the couch and threw it at him. Sam reached up before it made contact and caught it. "So, are we always going to solve problems with violence, Dean?"

"Just some problems." Dean huffed out.

"Maybe you should try a different approach. A more loving approach." Sam glanced over at Cas to make his point. Cas had his head tipped back on the couch and seemed to be staring off at the ceiling, missing the whole exchange.

Cas sat up suddenly, seemingly irritated. He scooped up Dean's mug and blew on the contents. He tipped it to his lips, determined it was cool, then handed it to Dean. "Drink it."

Dean drank it down. It was hot, but not like it was. In a few moments it was gone. Cas snatched the mug from him, set it on the table, then stood. "Are you going?" Dean asked, confused.

Cas looked back at him like he was the biggest idiot. And maybe I am a little slow on the upswing. He had thought at the time. "Goodnight, Sam. Dean, come on." He reached out a hand to Dean. Dean just sat there. Was this happening? Was this happening right in front of Sam? He glanced over at Sam. Stop smiling you jerk. "Goodnight, Cas. Goodnight, Dean. See you both in the morning." Dean stood up then, but he didn't take Cas' hand until they reached the hall. Then he slipped his hand into place. They got to his room and quietly slipped inside. The clock on his nightstand showed that it was almost midnight.

"Could you have possibly dragged this out any longer, Dean?" It was a great question. Because he had been inadvertently dragging this out for some time. It had been years actually, if he had to be honest. He knew that Cas just meant since they had kissed, or since the cider, but it didn't matter. They had been on the same page for sometime and neither of them had know how to deal with progressing through the rest of the book of their lives.

"Was making a point." Dean tried to sound confident.

"Oh, and what was that?" Cas was moving into his space. He was pressed right up against him.

"That I won."

"Did you now?" Cas' voice was that low feral growl that crawled under Dean's skin sending off palpitations that ran through him to all of his extremities.

He gulped. "Yes."

"I think that I remember you surrendering." Cas' hands ran up his arms and back into his hair. He shuddered with the touch. Cas' body pressed against him. He leaned into Dean's neck and let his breath trail up the side of him and into his ear. "Are you sure that you won?"

Dean leaned into Cas' ear and said, "Yes. Look where you are, what you are doing. I won." Cas leaned back, took in Dean's face, his smile of triumph.

"Let's call it a tie." He smiled back, took a step back while pulling Dean with him. In a calculated move he fell back onto the bed, taking Dean with him.

And with that fall, Dean jolted awake in the next day. After replaying it all out in his head, he muttered out into the dark room, "Son of a bitch." Apparently, his day would restart at midnight. Apparently, he did not get to finish things with Cas. Apparently, he would have to get the timeline to adjust if he wanted to fix this problem. Either that or… he started to think. I need to stop the looping. It was the first time that he had thought that maybe just repeating the same day over and over again would not be enough. He had to admit to himself that he had grown rather comfortable with the repeating. It was nice to not have any fear of what could kill them or hurt them. It was nice to be able to fix the mistakes of the day before.

Let's face it, this situation is a fixer's paradise. So instead of playing out one of the many days in his repertoire of days, he went down into the stacks, seeking out tombs on time loops, tricksters, and witches. He looked for anything that even remotely sounded like his situation, laid out all of his findings and began his studies. This would eat up his day. He only stopped to eat and drink, then returned back to the stacks for more study time.

It was not until late in the night, that he had realized that he had not spent any time with Sam or Cas. He saw Sam rummaging around in the kitchen. He had seen Cas pop in at his normal time to go "investigate a case" or as Dean already knew, go buy him a present. Cas seemed like he was normal, unfazed by Dean's presence. Dean was too focused to make any effort. If he figured all of this out, then he would have time enough for that.

So it wasn't until his day was about to reset that he realized how much time he had spent by himself. He sent out a little prayer at just two minutes to midnight. I missed you today. I'll see you tomorrow.


Review, Fav., Follow, Rec (especially if there is some place out there collecting holiday fluff that I don't know about)

AN: So I guess the Christmas spirit struck again, because this is not really short. There was fluff though. So, there is that. Thank you for the favs and follows. Thanks also for the reviews. It is lovely to feel appreciated for just writing things. Thanks particularly to Mummabro, Igniting, YoungHopeful, rainystv, cortland, and Fezzes at 221B for the enthusiasm that was apparent in your reviews. 'Till tomorrow.