Castiel was flipping through the pages of The Nymphs of the Vardar River, not particularly interested in the contents. He had another rather pressing thought in his mind.

Unlike Dean, Cas accepted the fact that he was in love. He was an angel, and the only reason he is even called 'he' is that his vessel was a man. His sexuality was not defined by human standards, and that never was the problem. He had an inkling within himself about the nature of his love towards Dean, but he never felt so strongly about it as he did then.

That was not the problem, though. What was the problem was not that Dean was going to die, he had a thousand times before…literally. The problem was when Cas died, he would stay dead. He did not think that the Empty would be so nice again and let him go free. Dean would go crazy as it is, doing stupid things that would start another apocalypse on Earth just for him, but if they were together…as the humans would say… the parting would be just a little bit worse.

He rubbed his hands on his face. The pain they felt, this sudden love, was this connected to the case? Cas had no idea what a Cupid's Arrow felt like, and why they were specifically targeted. And who in his Father's name was shooting them? It was certainly not a rogue angel, but some other creature with incredible power. Could it be Lucifer out for revenge, but that wouldn't explain the Ancient Greek. It had to be an ancient witch, like Rowena, who had learnt some powerful magic over the centuries, but why?

He had read all the ancient texts that they had in the bunker. Nothing was the result. Except for maybe some of the titles relating to the gods.

Cas got up and walked over to the shelf, running his fingers over the leather-bound books. There were subjects about every single thing one could possibly imagine could relate to the gods of ancient times, yet there was only one that caught his eye.

Tucked away in the corner of the bookshelf was a thin book with a barely visible heading. The cover was dusty and the pages so old and thin that it would crumble under a pinch of a finger, like a butterfly's wing.

"Romance of the Gods," Cas read aloud. He waved his forefinger across the cover. Pages flipped open immediately, passing stories like Hera and Zeus, or Juno and Jupiter depending on what you prefer, and the Goddess of the Hunt, Diane/Artemis, changing men into stags when they attempted to rape her. But what caught his eye was the story of Eros and Psyche…

"Oh, my God," Cas whispered out loud.

It wasn't just any old Cupid's Arrow, it was the Cupid's Arrow.

XXX

Dean came home first, as much as he hated it. In that giant building was Cas alone, wearing that stupid coat that never seems to need a wash, and his beautiful smile that lights up the whole room, warming it up by his piercing blue eyes…

Stop it, Dean! He chastised himself. Be an adult for God's sake, and pretend that you never squeezed his thigh. It is the only rational way of getting through this.

He took a deep breath and entered the bunker.

XXX

"Cas!" He called out, "Cas! I, um, found some stuff out about Aryan Harrison."

His mind had conflicting thoughts as he made his way down the stairs. In one way, he wished that Cas had decided to go for a walk or the such, but his other side of his mind was that he really, really, really wanted to see him.

He cleared his throat. "Um, Cas. Where are you?"

The sound of footsteps coming from the kitchen did not relieve his anxiety. He had regret about opening up his mouth. All Dean wanted to do now is run far away, yet he couldn't. In fact, his feet automatically moved forward to the direction of the noise.

Castiel popped his head around the corner. Like usually, Dean could not tell exactly what was going through the angel's head. Not even a twitch of a smile, or a look of disgust. Nothing.

"Hello, Dean," he said coolly. Those words, those two goddamn words hit Dean every time. It was soooooo stupid, since about a thousand other people say the same thing to him, but it was the way that the angel said it that send shivers down his spine.

"Um…hey Cas," Dean's cheeks blanched. "So, um, I found some stuff about Harrison that might be good…uh…clues to what we are tracking." Dean fiddled with his fingers. "He had it bad for, um Georgina, and I think he was under a spell by whatever we are tracking, or um something." Dean didn't want to say Cupid's Arrow, he didn't want to say that he found the correlation between the pain felt in his heart and the slightly glowing pulse under it. He was convincing himself that it was a witch's spell because we all know exactly how witches are.

"It wasn't a spell, Dean. Well, not in the conventional sense with witches." He turned towards the stacks of books and pulled up his laptop. With a quick tip-tap of the keyboard, he pulled up a web page. "We are dealing with a god."

Dean looked into the entry:

Cupid, also known as, Eros, it the god of love in both Greek and Roman mythology. He is usually depicted as a naked child with wings, holding a bow and arrow. It is unknown exactly who is his parents, but many believe that his mother is Aphrodite, or Venus, the goddess of beauty and his father, Ares, or Mars, the god of war.

He is famous for his arrows. In the stories, he is known to have two types of arrows: one that is lead and one that is gold. The former creates hatred towards a target, while the other creates an overwhelming desire for a target.

Dean felt his heart race. It wasn't just any cupid. It was the original Cupid. That explained the engravings on the hearts, the stronger magic emitted from the chest, the madness…

Oh, God! The pain they both felt really was a Cupid's Arrow. A Gelded-Tipped Arrow. They were both hit with a golden arrow. Which meant…they were…they really were…

"Oh, hell no!" Dean exclaimed, backing away from Cas and the laptop. "No, no, no, nonononononononononono…"

"Dean, calm down…" Cas reached out to him, but Dean swatted his hand away. No touching meant no confirmation… "This can't be happening! It is not happening! I refuse to believe this!"

The hunter turned away from the angel and sprinted up the stairs and out of the bunker. Cas called after him, but it was all a waste of energy: Dean was a man stuck in his ways, and an idea that he could possibly love another with the same…appendages, was absurd. No matter how much he felt it, it was not going to happen.

At the same time, Sam entered the bunker the moment that Dean exited. Sam was pushed away from his brother, hitting his back against the concrete.

"What the hell, Dean!?" Sam called out, just as Castiel reached him. Dean continued forward, muttering the same phrase over and over again. Before they knew it, the hunter hopped into the car, played Led Zeppelin at full volume and sped away.

Sam turned to Castiel with an inquisitive look upon his face. "What in the name of everything God created is going on?"