Re-reading this chapter I may have made it a bit more Destiel-ish than I thought I did. But no harm, no foul. It just makes the story sweeter. Those idiots will be the death of me.

The three men sat in comfortable silence, enjoying their sandwiches. Sam watched as his brother reached over to the lump that was nearly as big as he was, tear off a shred of the white bread, dragged it through the dark peanut butter and even darker jelly, and devour it ravenously. It was good to see him getting his appetite back. But something was missing…..

Coffee.

All three of them were caffeine addicts and a warm cup would make the lunch taste even better. With well-practiced moves Sam filled up the very expensive coffee maker that he convinced Dean to buy a few weeks ago. As much as Dan had bitched and complained about the price, once he had a taste of the fresh brewed black manna, he shut up.

He returned to his seat once the coffee started to brew but within moments three noses pointed skyward and inhaled with the thick scent of java goodness. The percolator became the focus point of the room as the container began to fill.

Once three small dings were heard Sam quickly got up to make the cups. Sam and Dean both used the mugs that the base provided, but Cas had his own mug that he brought back a while ago. It was oversized, and bright green with white poka dots. But he liked it. So it stayed. What was more surprising was the fact that Dean never teased him about it!

Cas liked his coffee with milk and sugar, Sam liked his with milk and creamer. Dean liked dark and sweet. But the problem of the hour was how to get his brother his coffee.

Sam prepared Cas's mug and gave it to him, and went back to the counter to make dean some. He mixed a little of both coffee and sugar in a mug and decided to make it like all of the other liquids: in a water bottle cap. But when he turned around with his own mug and Dean's he was pleasantly surprised to find Castiel sharing from his own cup.

The former angel had poured a few drops onto a plate and had moved Dean, hankie and all on to it, angling Dean by the coffee so he could cup the liquid in his (teeny little) hands and drink from the tiny bead of coffee that he held.

Sam blinked. This was unexpected. But heartwarming. He brought both mugs to the table and drank from his own, continuing with what was left of his sandwich. Which wasn't much. Even with savoring the sandwich, it didn't last long. Both he and Castiel made another sandwich as Dean continued to work on his own.

Halfway through the lump of sandwich, Dean gave up. He wiped his hands in the bread and laid down on his blanket. Letting out a sigh of content both men could hear with the help of the megaphone.

"Tired?" Castiel asked.

"Nah, just content." Sam knew that the real meaning underneath content was happy. From the softening of Castiel's face it looked like he heard the implication too.

The ex-angel slowly reached his hand over to where Dean lay. He looked like he was trying not to spook a frightened animal. Carefully, he laid his hand flat over the handkerchief, Dean between his pointer and thumb. Well, really close to his pointer finger.

Dean opened his emerald eyes when he felt heat coming from somewhere close. He wasn't surprised to find a hand nearby. What was surprising was the fact that the hand didn't belong to his brother!

"Sam told me you needed to stay warm." Castiel offered. Dean turned his head to look at the nearby hand, and then looked back up at his friend.

"Thanks." He scooted closer to the offered digit, once again surprising his brother. After three beats of silence Castiel once again spoke.

"Can I pick you up? That plate doesn't look very comfortable."

"It's not." Dean sits up and shifts in his seat. His head tilts back to try and look Castiel in the eye. The big bright blue orbs are waiting for an answer to react to.

"Yes. You can pick me up. Please." Two hands came together to scoop up the man and his blanket. It wasn't uncomfortable, this gentle moving process. But Dean did get shifted around and held on tightly to the cloth covering his legs. He wasn't wearing any pants and now felt like a good time to become self-conscious.

Oh sure, walking around in nothing but boxers was fine with his brother. They grew up together. But this felt different. More….intimate? That scared Dean. Dean Winchester was not a man who was easily scared. The two hand shifted him into the palm of one and relaxed on the tabletop, fingers curling gently.

"Is this alright?" Castiel asked gently.

"This is great, thanks." Dean shifted and scooted backward until he was mostly under the shadow of the fingers that curved overhead. Only then did he lie down.

"Are you going to sleep?" Sam asked.

"No, just resting." Because of the distance between them, only Castiel heard the hunter in his hand. All Sam heard was a slight buzz. Sam looked at Castiel who mouthed Dean's reply to him. Sam nodded. Dean had closed his eyes and missed it.

"I'm going to finish cleaning the guns." He said stepping away from the table.

A silent agreement happened that Dean would stay with Cas. It was sealed with a small but sure nod.

"Tell gigantor to get the ones in the trunk. I know he forgot about those." He didn't even open his eyes when he talked.

"Dean reminds you to get the ones from the trunk." Sam scowled at the hand his brother was in. "I was going to do those next."

"Yeah right." Castiel raised his eyebrows and dictated what Dean said. A fond smile found its way on his face as he walked out of the kitchen. Castiel finished his sandwich and coffee, downing the last of the dregs from his mug. The silence was a comfortable one, but questioning.

Castiel knew Dean was awake by the way he was breathing. It would have been slower and deeper had he been asleep.

"What do you want to do?" Dean peeked one eye open and opened the other one when he realized that he was expected to answer.

"Dunno. Can't do much at this size. Sam and I were watching shows mostly."

"Would you mind watching another?" Dean shrugged.

"Not much else I can do." Castiel picked up his plate and mug and placed them in the sink. He'd wash them later when he wasn't holding someone. He picked up the paper megaphone from the table, though he didn't know when Dean would be far enough from him to use it. With his hand at a 90 degree angle from his chest he walked out of the kitchen.

Dean didn't like being held like this. He preferred the hand next to the chest, like when Sammy held him. This felt too much like flying. Made him nervous.

"Hey! Cas!" he waved his arms like he was trying to flag down a plane. (In hindsight, that was almost what he was doing.) The feet stopped moving as the hand was brought closer to the giant face.

"Yes Dean?"

Holy. Shit.

Those huge blue eyes were boring holes through him. He resisted the urge to squirm under that gaze.

"Don't hold your hand out! It's unstable and shaky! Bring it next to your chest like Sam did."

"My apologies" he murmured and lowered the hand to his broad, warm chest.

Now this was better. The tiny man moved around to get comfortable as his current mode of transportation continued to walk. He busied himself with his hands, buttoning up his shirt, smoothing out his blanket, moving it around. He was avoiding looking up.

Now that Cas was no longer playing with the halo crowd he no longer had his permanent 5 o'clock shadow. Now he shaved, occasionally. He didn't like beards but he like a bit of scruff. He knew that if he looked up he'd see all of that up close. And it didn't look good up close. Well, from this perspective at least. Rubbing a normal sized hand down a cheek covered in dark stubble would look good….

NO.

No thinking of that.

Save those thoughts for later.

Like 30 hours later.

When he could be ALONE alone.

Change the subject.

"You wanna watch something specific?" he called up without looking upwards.

"mmmm" the answering hum vibrated through him. The rest of the walk was silent as Castiel entered his room. Sam had bought him a laptop a little while after he fell. Saying that "everyone needs a computer in this day and age." And gave him a few lessons on how to use it.

It was a small thing called a smart book. But it was portable. He brought it with him the first time he went out on one of his outings and when it was almost stolen left it with the brothers. He used it on occasion. Once he took it out of a drawer and out onto the desk in his room did he pause. He shifted his gave downward to his passenger.

"Would you like to watch here? Or somewhere else?" Dean shrugs as his living platform moves skywards to the Rushmore face.

"Sam got me a heating pads. There's one in the main room on the map table. I don't mind watching here I just don't…wanna get cold." He looks down as he admits the end of the sentence. The big eyes blink.

"So stay where you are. Do you not like being held?" Dean picks his head up in surprise.

"What? No! Its ah nice actually…" he trails off not believing that he admitted it. Castiel watched as a blush colored the little face bright red. Castiel's shoulders jumped in a small laugh and booted up the computer, plugging the charger into the wall single handedly. He sat down in the plush desk chair and moved the chair so much that his torso was touching the desk. Then he brought his hand down to rest on the desk, but still tucked into his torso.

This wasn't what Dean meant, but it was no use complaining. The heat coming off the wall of Cas was inviting. With no air moving in the room Dean could tell that Cas smelled faintly of vanilla. Not like vanilla perfume, the real deal extract stuff.

As Cas began typing into the search engine he brought the older Winchester up to his face. This up and down business was beginning to feel less like an elevator and more like an amusement park ride gone wrong.

"Do you like anime?" That was not a question he ever expected to hear from another man.

"Uh, nothing wrong with it." He knew that Cas knew he liked Busty Asian Beauties. But that didn't seem to be where the conversation was headed.

"Would you like to watch one? I know of a good one and I think you'll like it."

"okaaayyy." He replied slowly, eyeing the bigger man like he was expecting him to yell PSYCHE!

His platform moved back down to the desk. The megaphone was placed on the table by the end of the palm.

"Three weeks ago I found a job at a thrift shop in a small town. A few days after I got the job a young woman kept following me around the store, asked me questions, told me about herself. A general nice person. When she found out I had little to no movie knowledge she invited me over to her place. I refused. She didn't let up. She was relentless. After two constant days of begging and pleading I gave in. Turns out she was kind of an outsider in her small town, "a hippie and free spirit in a town of rednecks" She called herself, as soon as she turns 18 she plans on getting out of there. We watched some movies, and once she found out I was sleeping in the store she insisted I stay on her couch. It was nice to make a friend who wasn't out for something. Or trying to kill me. After the first week she introduced me to anime. It's a very interesting way of making movies and shows. She introduced me to a show called kill la kill. I think you'll like it."

Dean was quiet for a moment, letting the words sink in. Angel Castiel almost never said this much at once. Certainly never told stories about himself like this.

One would think that they watched the first episode in silence. In truth it was anything but.

"She just bit into a fucking lemon like an apple!"

"Tay said that's how you know she's badass."

"Who's Tay?"

"The girl I was telling you about. She said that this was an anime that made fun of anime while still having a good plot."

Dean had a lot more commentary.

"What's up with the eyebrows?"

"Is the gamagori guy 8 feet tall or 15? Or both?"

"She had a nut-job scientist for a dad, and went to boarding schools for most of her life. No wonder she turned out all angst ridden like that"

"The green haired dude pisses me off."

As the episode continued with breasts, short skirts, fighting, yelling, accusing and more fighting so did the excitement radiating from Dean. When the ending theme played he glanced upward to ask for the next episode but what he didn't expect to see the big blue eyes practically twinkling down at him, waiting for his response.

"Can we watch the next episode?" he pleads upwards. The larger man nods and with a few clicks the next episode is on screen and starting.

They get through five episodes in good spirits, with commentary from both men. But then Castiel had noticed that the small hunter has fallen silent for the past few minutes. His gaze moves down, trying to look down without tucking his chin into his collarbone or letting the little man know he was looking at him.

When he realized that Dean was breathing deeply he turned his head down. Dean was sleeping! Sprawled out on his stomach, arms akimbo and mouth open. Possibly drooling on his blanket.

Castiel didn't mind. He paused the show and used his other hand to look up information about small mammals. He was a bit worried about how much Dean was sleeping. He was napping not three hours ago. And now he was in la-la land once more. Even if he was sick, this wasn't normal for Dean.

As it turns out smaller creatures eat and sleep more BECAUSE of their small bodies. Little hearts beat faster to keep their bodies warm and expend more energy, needing more food and sleep, and when they aren't sleeping most small mammals spend time foraging for food or raising young or….copulating.

A quick glance down confirmed that Dean was doing none of the last three things listed. Actually, Dean had shifted in his sleep, snuggling under a folded layer of cotton cloth to shift to his side. His breathing evened out mere moments after she stopped moving, the tiny chest rising and falling, almost too small to tell. Now that he was a smaller, the sickness was draining him of his energy almost as fast as he could produce it. The angel had seen sick people and had healed the brothers of various colds and a few other diseases when he healed them of flesh wounds. He didn't think that Sam knew about the fact that he once had an std that had the angel had cured a few days after he received it.

He wasn't going to bring it up. However, it was ideal for future blackmail.

But if Dean being cold meant that his heart rate would speed up…that could be disastrous! His hand curled a little tighter around his miniscule friend, covering him in a cave of warm, protective flesh.

Castiel realizes that Dean should have some food when he wakes up. Something choleric that'll give him energy. Like one of those snacks Sam calls junk food. Or chocolate. Dean likes chocolate. They probably have some chocolate in the base right?

One annoying thing about being human is the way everyone is headed to the bathroom. Always headed to the porcelain throne! It wasn't too bad. He could "hold it in" as long as Dean woke up within the next half hour or so. It took a while to learn the limitations of this now-permanent body of his. At one point he was convinced he could "hold it in" for a few hours. Then he sneezed. Luckily there was already a load in the washing machine in the base.

It had been about half an hour from when the show was paused that Dean began to stir. He shifted on to his back and gazed up at the stubbed face watching him wake up. With wide, sweeping motions he gestured for Castiel to come closer. Instead of going down, Castiel brought his hand up.

"Bathroom please?" Little body, little heart, little bladder.

"I was thinking of heading there myself." He once again tucked his hand into his chest and walked out of the room. But where would Dean urinate? Or for that matter, defecate? He was much too small to even think of using the toilet.

"Sam set up something for me. Head to the bathroom near his room." Of course.

"on my way."