Dean had really just gone out to check on Cas after the drunk, surly fallen angel had stumbled outside. He hadn't expected him to get far, and he was right- Cas was sitting on the porch when he got there, glaring at the empty glass in his hands as though it had just done him the greatest offense known to man.

He had sat down next to the mopy angel, just intending to have a chat. He had conceded that getting Cas drunk was probably a bad idea after his brother bitched him out for letting him wander outside, but he still insisted that Cas was hilariously surly when he'd had a few drinks. This was mostly, of course, due to the fact that all of Castiel's intoxicated ire seemed to be directed at Sam.

"Given the fact that I have fallen," Cas had said in response when Dean had pointed out that the angel had been 'moping'. "And the fact that my brothers are trying to kill us, I believe I have the right to 'mope'" Dean chuckled as Castiel punctuated the word with his infamous finger quotes.

"Remind me never to give you alcohol again," he told the fallen angel, who responded with a squint-eyed glare. "Look, Cas," he sighed. "I know you're dealing with a lot of crap, but you know, you still have us. It's not all that bad, is it?"

Castiel turned away from him, settling into a brooding look.

"It sucks," Dean had to bite his tongue to keep himself from laughing at the expression. Every time Cas said something out of character like that... "But... it is better with you here with me. I don't know if I would be able to handle this without you, Dean. Or without Sam..."

Dean's thoughts were derailed, and all the humor of the situation suddenly evaporated.

Castiel turned back toward him and Dean found himself locked by that gaze, trying in vain to catch a glimpse of the angel's soul in those depthless blue eyes. He could see all the pain and confusion that Cas had felt since waking up in their motel room in Washington, a broken and wounded mess. They weren't the eyes of the angel he had known. They were the eyes of the man he'd met in 2014- the man who had once been an angel, who had fallen for a lost cause and an even more lost idiot who couldn't even see what was right in front of him. A man whose only comfort in a world going to hell had been to drown himself in drugs and women.

His heart broke looking at his angel, now caught somewhere between Castiel, Angel of the Lord and Cas, zombie-fighting stoner-hippie from the future.

Castiel turned away, seeming deep in in thought, and Dean thought he could see him breaking just a little more. He didn't think at that point, his hand moving without his consent as he moved a couple inches closer, turning Castiel back to look into his eyes. What the hell, why not. He leaned forward, pressing his lips against his angel's. It was brief, chaste, no porno tongue or anything- the last thing he wanted to do was scare Cas away.

Crap, what am I doing? Oh well, it's too late now.

He pulled away, watching Castiel for any sign of reaction.

Cas was staring back at him, baffled, saying nothing.

Dean's heart sank. Great, he thought. Way to fuck that up, Winchester. You just created the mother of all awkward situations with your best friend.

"Sorry," he said. He needed to get away from this mess he'd created, needed to run away. Cas would probably never even look at him again and oh God you sound like a girl right now.

He stood, not looking at Cas as he turned to go back inside. He was half tempted to just get into the Impala and drive off the nearest cliff, but he'd left his keys in his jacket, and that was inside, and-

Dean sensed Castiel's movement before he even registered that the fallen angel was no longer sitting on the step. He turned as Cas grabbed him by his shirt and jerked him around, away from the door, and Dean was nearly awed to see that it was Castiel, angel of the Lord in front of him again, his hands fisted in his shirt, shoving him back against the door, his eyes filled with Heaven's wrath.

Shit, he thought. Don't piss off the nerd angels...

He braced himself, but the only thing that struck him was Castiel's lips, rough and insistant.

When he realised he wasn't in danger of being smote by the former celestial and the shock of what was happening wore off, he relaxed, letting his eyes slip closed as he returned the kiss.

Oh my god I'm kissing a dude and it's my best friend and it's Cas and holy hell I like it.

Cas surprized him by slipping him the porno tongue and holy crap where did he learn to do that? Dean was beginning to realise he had seriously misunderstood his angel.

He found himself breathless when it was over, his mind a complete blank as he stared back at Castiel. He couldn't find any words in the hurricane of syllables wreaking havok in his mind.

But words weren't what he needed right now, were they? They hadn't needed words for this, and they didn't need words now.

Dean stepped away from the door, not really sure what he was going to do until he was doing it. He just stood there, arms around his angel, and said the most profound thing he could come up with, given the situation.

"Wow."

[XXXXXX]

Sam was instantly concerned when he heard the dull thud from the general direction of the door.

Picking up his pistol, he went to the window nearest the door and pulled the curtain aside, just enough to peek out. Needless to say, he was pretty astonished at what he saw. He had figured that if and when it ever happened, it'd be the other way around, rather than Cas slamming Dean up against the wall like that.

He immediately felt like a peeping tom, letting the curtain fall and turning his back on the window almost the instant he had registered what was happening.

Right, research. He saw nothing.

He smiled anyway as he shook his head and sat back down at the table to respond to Garth's question about the Enochian scroll.

Garth wanted to know how they'd got their hands on something so obscure, but Sam wasn't sure he wanted to get into that without consulting Cas, first. They didn't really have any good excuse for having it in their possession. He couldn't exactly tell Garth that an angel of the Lord had given it to them.

'Not the point at the moment,' he typed. 'Any of your contacts dig anything up about what it means?'

He hit send, staring at the screen. Given everything they'd been through with angels beyond Castiel, he still wasn't sure that he could trust it completely. Even Cas, in the beginning, had been kind of a dick.

Inias seemed decent enough, but Dean was better at reading the angels than he was. He trusted his brother's judgement, and Castiel trusted him, but even the angel had said that Heaven wasn't what it used to be.

He was pretty sure there had been some shady business in regards to what happened to Castiel before he fell, the whole thing with Samandriel was proof enough of that. He knew Cas well enough to know something was seriously wrong with him that night.

He and Dean had discussed it, both before and after, but they just didn't have any answers.

He had never really given it much though before, but he realised that he had never exactly been comfortable with Castiel until after he turned up in their motel room in Washington a week ago. It wasn't exactly that he didn't trust the angel- quite the opposite, really. He'd done them more favours in the time they'd known him than he could count. But Castiel wasn't human, something he was constantly reminded of. The power that the angel possessed was terrifying. Power enough, at one point, to even declare himself a God.

He had wanted to hate Castiel when the angel had broken the wall in his mind. He still felt a little resentment, he supposed, but Cas had just looked so pitiful when he finally came to them for help, when he'd tried to fix his mistake, and Dean had just seemed so ... hurt, when they had thought he was gone.

Cas was good for his brother, he concluded. It shifted some of the responsibility that Dean felt to protect his little brother. Sam always appreciated Dean being there, but he wanted something good for his brother, as well. He may never live the 'apple pie' life, but that didn't mean he couldn't have something tangible.

Sam smiled sadly to himself. He was such a hypocrite. He himself had given up a chance at something good to stand by his brother. As messed up as the situation with Amelia was, she would have stayed with him if he had chosen to go back that night. But he hadn't, and he had moved on as though nothing had happened.

He sat up quickly when he heard the door open, leaning closer to the screen in an attempt to make it look like he was working as Dean and Cas came back inside. He couldn't help glancing out of the corner of his eye as he pretended to be indifferent.

Neither one of them said a word. Sam didn't figure Dean would say anything, least of all admit anything. That just wasn't how Dean worked. He would probably just let Sam 'find out' at some point, pretending there was nothing at all going on between him and Cas. That was just typical Dean. He was pretty sure Dean knew that he wouldn't care. Sam had seen his brother discretely check guys out before, so he was pretty sure that Dean was at the very least bi-curious. He liked to stick to his assigned roles, though- part of him would always be that good little soldier that dad had hammered him into.

"Sammy," he snapped his head up to where his brother stood, facing him. Cas was nowhere in sight, but Sam figured he'd just gone into the room. "You and Garth find anything yet?"

Sam turned a tired smile toward his brother. "Not yet. Garth's still checking with his contacts. I think I'm gonna call it a night, though... it's probably going to take a while."

"Yeah, me too," Dean said, casual as ever as he headed toward the bedroom door. "G'night, Sammy."

"Night..."

Sam smiled again. Dean was being too casual. He could see right through his brother. He knew that Dean was nervous as hell and probably having some sort of identity crisis.

He shut down his laptop and crossed the room to the couch when a terrifying thought struck him, and suddenly he was wondering if he would live to regret his decision to advocate whatever it was that Dean had going on with Castiel.

Oh well, he thought as he drifted off to sleep, suddenly dreading what may or may not be going on behind the closed door of the bedroom. Too late now.

(A/N:Ugh, idk what's going on with the site- hopefully this goes up and clears up whatever was happening with the last chapter! I know now I'm not the only one that happened to, though- when I uploaded chapter 9 it registered on the management page and showed up on the preview, but it wasn't connecting on the live version :( Hopefully it's fixed, who knows- maybe it's just an issue with the site. I'm hoping that's all it is, anyway. Anyway, until next chapter!)