Thanks to karmascars for getting me motivated enough to actually get this chapter done. You're awesome!

...*...

"Ow! Damn it, Cas!"

The half blood sighed, and glanced to his left to share an amused look with his father. Amor shrugged as he tried to stifle a chuckle at Dean's predicament. The last time he'd laughed Dean had been frustrated enough to try to punch him. It hadn't hurt the angel in the slightest, but Amor imagined Dean's hand was still smarting quite a bit from the contact.

Castiel reached out a hand to Dean that the new hunter took with a readiness that was still surprising Cas. It seemed that once Dean had committed himself to something he did so completely, even if it still made him a little uncomfortable. He was trying to hide it from the half blood, but Castiel could sense it through their connection. The other man still found the idea of anything more than a kiss to be quiet frankly terrifying.

"What did I say about kicking?" Castiel admonished as he hauled Dean to his feet.

"Only if I can catch you off guard," Dean muttered irritably. "They always kick the bad guy in movies," he added under his breath.

"This isn't a movie." Cas released Dean's hand and stepped back, settling into fighting stance once again. "It's too easy for someone to grab your leg and drop you like I just did. Now come at me again."

Dean grumbled and muttered and shuffled his feet...and then caught Cas under the chin with a swift and surprising upper cut.

"Ha!" Dean crowed triumphantly when Castiel stumbled back several paces. "How was that?"

"Good." Castiel lifted a hand and rubbed at the reddened patch of skin where Dean's hand had connected. "That was much better. Although if this were a real fight I could have taken you down again while you stood there gloating."

Dean's eyes narrowed in a glare that was so obviously fake that it made Cas chuckle. "Shut up. Just try and take me down again."

Cas let Dean bask in his confident, testosterone-filled glow for a moment before he snapped out his leg, planting his heel in the hard muscle of the other man's stomach. Dean's breath whooshed out of his lungs and his arms came up to encircle his stomach as he bent double. He never even had time to try and recover his breath; as soon as he bent down Cas yanked him forward by his hair and slammed his elbow down on Dean's back. With a defeated groan the man fell face first into the grass.

"Damn it, Cas!" Dean huffed out, his breathless voice muffled by the grass ground into his face. "That hurt!"

The half blood winced. He knelt beside the new hunter and rolled him gently on his back. Dean's eyes were squeezed closed, and there was grass in his hair and stains of green and brown on his cheeks.

"I'm sorry, Dean," Cas apologized with a sigh. "But I can't teach you properly without hurting you."

Dean refused to open his eyes, though his hand began to grope randomly around until it found Castiel's knee. "You suck," Dean grumped. "And not in the fun way."

The half blood had a flash of the dream he'd shared with Dean under the pine tree somewhere on the road to Lawrence. He remembered Dean leaping up, laughing like a child as he reached for the light dancing in the branches. The overwhelming feeling of adoration welled up in his chest just as it had then, only this time it was allowed to spill over onto his face. He grinned broadly even though Dean couldn't see, and put a hand over the one on his knee.

"I can suck in the fun way," Castiel commented mildly.

Dean's eyes popped open and met Cas's own with incredulous interest. "Did you just say what I think you just said?"

The half blood didn't answer. He lifted a hand and brushed grass out of Dean's hair. "Tell me what you've learned in the last few hours."

Dean glared at him, but it held just as little heat as his last glare had. "You're a bad ass," Dean muttered, grinning when Castiel chuckled. "And I shouldn't try to kick you."

"And?"

Dean grumbled and closed his eyes again. "Punching Amor is a bad idea?"

"Dean."

"Okay, okay!" Dean sat up and opened his eyes, though he didn't remove his hand from Castiel's knee. "I've learned that I'm going to have to get into a fight with something I don't trust before I actually learn anything."

The new hunter scrambled to his feet and hurried over to where he'd left a bottle of water sitting on the back porch step. Cas sat still, eyes wide and stunned as he followed Dean's movements. Dean trusted him. Part of the half blood had already known that, but hearing it openly from Dean's own mouth was...incredible.

Amor plunked himself down in the grass beside his son. "You weren't holding back, were you?"

Cas shook his head. "If I held back it wouldn't do any good."

Amor nodded in agreement as he leaned back on his hands. He titled back his head and closed his eyes, letting the sun wash over his face. Castiel had inherited so much of that face, which seemed a bit funny when he really thought about it, considering his father's physical form wasn't his only form. Still, he supposed it had been the only one that mattered when Amor had been with Cas's mother. There were some distinct differences, though, and Cas realized he'd never actually noticed them before. Amor's cheekbones were sharper, more pronounced, his face more angular. His hair was shaggier, almost curly, and a lighter shade than Castiel's.

"What are you doing observing me when Dean's right over there?" Amor asked lightly, without opening his eyes.

Cas paused a long moment before answering. "I don't think we've ever spent this much time together at once," He said finally. "I just never noticed...I always noticed our similarities, but never our differences."

At that Amor opened his eyes. He sat up and met his son's gaze with that seriousness that Castiel still wasn't used to seeing in the bubbly cherub. "That's changing. I'm here to stay. I'm going to make up for all that time they wouldn't let me see you."

Dean dropped down suddenly beside Cas. At some point he had gone into the house and exchanged his water for a beer, and a hard lemonade was hanging from his other hand. He offered it silently to Cas, who accepted with a small smile and a nod.

"You want something, get it yourself." Dean tossed the comment indifferently in Amor's direction.

The cherub grinned. He could see the comment for what it was; an acceptance of his presence. "I'm fine," Amor said brightly. "I'm just glad to see you're doting on Cas."

Castiel felt the explosion a split second before beer came spewing out of Dean's mouth in vehement protest. "I am not doting on Cas!"

Amor grinned.

"Not!" Dean repeated with a growl.

Castiel couldn't help it. He began to chuckle because in his own quiet, secret only to himself way, Dean really was doting on Cas a little.

"You're not fooling anyone," Amor sing-songed happily.

"SHUT UP!"

...*...

Sam's phone battery had died an hour ago. Just before it had gone it had informed him that it was almost 1p.m and he'd been here for nearly two days. Had it been an hour? Maybe it had only been a few minutes. Maybe it had been days. Sam's sense of time had been blown to hell the moment the phone went out. There were no windows, so he couldn't guess the time by the sun. He'd counted enough seconds to reach a minute and twenty-two before he'd wanted to get up and smash the mirror some more. Considering he'd already reduced the shards to pebbles, and cut up his hands some more in the process, he'd decided to simply stop counting and start drinking.

It was a bad idea, and logically he knew this. The thing (demon?) that had taken him could return at any moment, and being drunk was not going to help his situation.

Speaking of drunk, when the hell had the beer turned into whiskey? He didn't even like whiskey. Would get him drunk pretty fast, though.

Sam sank down along the wall beside the fridge, clutching the bottle in his hands and worrying at the glass neck with his fingers. The contents of the fridge seemed to change with his mood. Last night, when he'd finally decided to brave the food in the hope that it wasn't poisoned, Sam had discovered that a bacon cheeseburger had appeared on the shelf below the salad makings. Though he wasn't really a fan of burgers, Sam had been known to eat them when he was feeling nervous or frightened because they reminded him of Dean, and thinking of his older brother helped him be calm. Despite the fact that it was sitting in a fridge the burger had been warm when he'd picked it up, and against his better judgement he'd gone and eaten the thing. He wasn't dead yet, so at least he was ninety-nine percent sure the food wasn't poisoned.

And now he had a bottle of whiskey instead of a beer. Sam peered at it, wondering why whiskey. The only association he had with it was his eighteenth birthday, when Dean had brought a bottle home and they'd done shots in his old room upstairs.

Sam's head thumped back against the wall. Dean. Of course. The fridge was giving him things (and wasn't that an odd thought?) that reminded him of Dean.

Replacing the cap, Sam set the bottle on the floor beside him. He'd only taken a couple of drinks, not even enough to get buzzed, but his better judgement was starting to argue rather loudly with the reckless side of his nature.

He was just beginning to consider ignoring said better judgement when the pain struck.

It bloomed behind his eyes, just as it had the first time, a sharp shock that spiked along his nerves and made him cry out in pain. Images began to flash in his mind; a man pulling into his garage, the door closing by itself, the car locking and turning itself on. As he watched the man choked to death from the exhaust, and there was nothing he could do about it.

MF 6037. The license plate.

Sam hung on to that image for all he was worth as the vision faded and he collapsed on the floor, hands pressed into his forehead as though it would somehow help the pain to abate.

Slowly, the pain did begin to fade, until Sam could sit up and lean his head on the wall. There was nothing he could do. A man was dying, maybe already had, and there was nothing he could do to stop it. What was the point of having visions if you couldn't do anything about them?

Could he project visions? The thought occurred from nowhere, but it made Sam's head snap up from the wall and his eyes light with hope. He probably couldn't project anything to Dean, he thought excitedly, but he was willing to bet that his cherub might see it. The hope the idea brought was so great he didn't even bother to correct himself on once again using the term 'his.'

Closing his eyes, Sam focused on the vision, on keeping it as clear as he could while imagining that it was flying along some unseen line straight to the cherub's mind. He would try the room next, if it worked. It wasn't much for them to go on, but at least it would make Sam feel like he'd tried something.

Please see this, Sam thought fiercely. Please, Anriel, please see this...

...*...

The trunk of the Impala slammed closed. Dean stood with his hands against the warm metal, staring almost blankly down at the expanse of black. The three had spent the last two hours filling the trunk with rock salt, silver in the form of both spikes and bullets, a rather mind-blowing array of weaponry, and more fake IDs (and not just the short that got under-aged kids into bars) than Dean had ever seen in his life. There were also two duffel bags with nothing but essentials. Dean's new life fit in the trunk of his car.

It took every bit of his willpower not to burst into panicked laughter.

Even his wallet had been reduced to almost nothing, he thought as he pushed himself off the car. Credit card, debit card, his real ID, social security card, anything that could be associated or traced to him had been...well, vanished by Amor. The cherub had wiped his identity from everything, even his bank account. As far as the world was concerned, Dean Winchester no longer existed.

It was unbelievably disconcerting. And just a bit of a thrill.

Dean turned to yell at Cas and Amor that he was ready, only to find Cas standing right behind him. "Jeez, Cas, what the hell?!" he barked as he stumbled back a pace.

"Sorry." Castiel smiled ever so slightly in a way that was far more amused than apologetic.

"How did you...?" Dean trailed off, one eyebrow quirked in question. "Can you do that thing Amor does? Just, you know...beam yourself anywhere?"

"Not exactly. I can't "beam", as you put it, anywhere I haven't seen." Cas held up a small bag. "I went home to get my emergency kit and some clothes. I know you packed some of yours for me, and I appreciate that, but I..." the half blood trailed away suddenly, almost avoided Dean's eyes, but in the end he didn't bother. The other man had been surprisingly open about their connection now that he'd accepted it, and he'd only feel what Cas was trying to hide. "I wanted to say goodbye," he said finally.

"To your house?"

Cas shook his head. "Not exactly. The house was never my home, but it does hold some memories. Also, I can't go to my mother or she'll be put in danger, so I just..."

Dean nodded. Lifted a hand and grasped Castiel's shoulder. "I get it," he said quietly. "Throw that in with your duffel. I'll go get Amor. Did we pack food?" He threw the last in as an afterthought as he started towards the steps.

"There's some in the back seat," Castiel called to him.

"Did you remember the pie?"

A quiet chuckle was his only answer, and Dean decided that was a yes. It was imperative that they have pie, he thought as he pushed open the door. Pie made any situation bearable.

He'd made it two steps before a firm grip took hold of his arm. Between one blink and the next he went from standing in the doorway to staring into the office window of a small motel. The electric sign on the window sill told him in glowing red letters that there were vacancies.

What the hell?!

"What the hell?!" Dean yelped aloud, whirling on Amor, who still had a tight hold of his arm.

The cherub's eyes were wide, comically so, though Dean couldn't find it in him to be amused at the moment. "Sorry," Amor muttered. He let go of Dean's arm. "Sam...Sam contacted me."

"What?!" It was Dean's turn to grab Amor. He gripped the cherub's shoulders and shook him, hard, as though he could shake an answer out of him. "How? Is he okay? Did he tell you where he is? Does he know? Is he hurt?"

"All I got was an image," Amor said slowly, distantly. He looked dazed, and his eyes refused to focus on anything. "A vision he'd had, and the words...'Please, Anriel, please see this.'"

Dean was opening his mouth to ask who the hell Anriel was, but before he could utter so much as a syllable Amor vanished. When Dean whirled around, hoping somehow to find him, he was faced with nothing but a nearly empty parking lot.

Dean was just about to begin yelling obscenities to the air when a soft whoosh and a sudden puff of wind announced the arrival of Amor, Cas, and the Impala. Dean was getting ready to yell obscenities anyway, and curse a certain cherub while he was at it, but was stopped by Amor letting out a sharp yell and collapsing onto the pavement.

"Dad!" Castiel dropped to his knees beside Amor. "You shouldn't have brought the car."

"Had to," Amor groaned. "Has all the stuff. Oh, ow ow ow. Dean! I would just like to inform you that I am not doing that again!"

Dean knelt beside Cas, glancing towards him questioningly before turning his attention to the cherub. "Are you okay?"

"Oh, I'm beautiful," Amor chuckled. He lifted a hand and pressed the palm against his forehead. "I'm an angel, I'm not all-powerful," he added, apparently reading the question hovering around in Dean's mind. "Moving a person is one thing, moving people and objects and doing all of it that quickly is...painful. Especially for a cherub, we weren't designed for that sort of thing. Ow. Okay, help me up."

Dean and Cas both extended a hand. Amor took them both, and let the two haul him to his feet. Dean let go immediately, but Cas kept a hand in his father's to help steady him.

"What happened?" Cas asked.

"Sam." Amor took in a deep breath and turned to face Dean. "He's okay, he's not hurt. He had a vision, though, of a man dying in his garage after the car doors locked themselves and the car turned itself on. He showed me the license plate. We're in Saginaw, Michigan."

Dean blinked. Okay, then. They definitely weren't in Kansas anymore. Oh god, had he just thought that? "Okay, why? For that matter, how? Why didn't he tell you were he was, and how the hell did he...I dunno, project that image to you?"

Amor shuffled his feet. Looked down at them in the perfect picture of a reluctant four-year old. "I don't think he knows where he is," the cherub mumbled. "But he wants us to go find whoever caused that man to die. It's one of Azazael's children."

"Dad?" Castiel stepped forward. He reached out and put a hand on the cherub's shoulder. "What are you not telling us?"

"He used my real name!" It was amazing how Amor could explode to life. He shouted the words as though they were some sort of great revelation. "He used...that just confirms...oh God! I...I can't..." Amor shoved something suddenly into Dean's hand. "Find the child. I have to..."

The cherub shook his head, his eyes wide and frantic.

"Don't you dare!" Dean growled, but Amor vanished before he could finish his sentence.

"Damn it!" Dean whirled on Castiel, who was attempting to pry something out of Dean's hand. A piece of paper? The man let it go and watched as Cas unfolded it. "What the hell? Seriously, Cas, what the hell? How did Sam contact Amor?"

"I don't know." Castiel held up the paper so that the light of a nearby street light illuminated the words scrawled hastily across the page. "I was beginning to suspect that they were soulmates, like us, but...now I think it's something else. I don't know if angels have soulmates the same way humans do. I..." Cas sighed, lowered the paper. "I don't know. I wish I had an answer for you." He held out the page. "Take a look at this."

A license plate number was scrawled across the page, along with the instructions to use one of the fake IDs in the trunk to obtain the information. Dean wondered if he was supposed to be a bit thrilled at the prospect of impersonating a cop. Probably not, he decided with a shake of his head. It made him think of the nights he had once spent lying awake, wondering why his life felt just a little out of place. Was this why? Had he been meant for this all along?

"Guess we better get a room," Dean said finally. "Think they take cash?"

"It doesn't matter." Castiel reached into his jeans pocket and produced his wallet. "I have a credit card."

Dean frowned. "Wait, didn't Amor wipe your identity, too?"

The half blood grinned, an expression caught somewhere between guilty and excited. "I didn't say it was my card."

"You stole it?!" The moment the shocked words burst from his mouth Dean winced and checked the near vicinity for any prying ears. Fortunately, the parking lot was still all but vacant. "You stole a credit card?" He repeated more quietly.

Cas nodded and ducked his head. "This life, a hunter's life...following the rules isn't exactly a part of it."

Dean hesitated all of two seconds before grasping Castiel's chin and kissing him, hard. The half blood let out a startled 'mmph!' but it didn't take him long to melt into it, and through their connection Dean could feel how pleased Castiel was by Dean's reaction.

"Should I think it's hot that you stole a credit card?" Dean asked roughly. Experimentally, he bent his head and pressed an open mouthed kiss to Castiel's throat. Judging from the way the half blood's whole body went rigid, and the surge of Cas's desire Dean felt mingling with his own, the experiment had definitely produced good results.

"I'm not complaining," Cas replied in a strained voice. "Dean, the manager is watching us."

"What?!" Dean jumped back from Cas as though he'd sprouted spikes across his entire body. A woman who looked to be somewhere in her forties was leaning on the window by the vacancies sign and apparently laughing at Dean's startled reaction.

"How long has she been there?" Dean hissed.

"Since right before you kissed me," Castiel replied easily, as though not embarrassed at all. Dean tried touching the other's emotions through the connection and discovered he really wasn't. It hadn't even occurred to him to be embarrassed.

Dean was opening his mouth to say something about public displays of affection and Cas's nonchalant reaction to it when the door of the office opened and the woman stuck out her head. "I think you'll find a room is a much more comfortable place to continue your activities!" She called out cheerfully.

"Awesome," Dean muttered sarcastically as he firmly ignored the heat rising to his cheeks. "That's just awesome. Go get a room, I'll get our stuff."

The inside of the room turned out to be covered with fish. Fish on the wallpaper, fish on the bedspreads, fish pictures, there were even fish-shaped pillows. Dean let out a snort of disgust as he threw their duffel bags down on the only bed. Fishing was one thing, but Dean wasn't sure how he felt about being surrounded by them.

"Talk about sleepin' with the fishes," Dean muttered.

Cas chuckled as he pulled his duffel towards himself. "She has live ones in her office. Ah...Dean, are you comfortable with this?"

"With what?" Where the hell had he put his toothbrush?

"Only one bed. I tried to get two but she wouldn't hear it, kept saying I'd offend you. I tried to tell her we were...new, but she..." Cas chuckled suddenly, although it sounded so suspiciously like a giggle that Dean told himself to tease the half blood for it later. "She told me 'not to be shy.'"

"What?" Dean couldn't help the burst of laughter that escaped him at Cas's words. "She told you not to be shy? You of the unwavering stare and the stubborn refusal to let me drive you off? Yeah, you're the shy one." Dean blinked, surprised not by his own words but by the realization they caused. "You know, Cas, you're kinda awesome." He didn't say that he'd treated the half blood poorly or that he regretted it because that was just a little too chick flick for him, and this whole situation was still weird enough as it was.

Castiel's grin would have told Dean all he needed to know about just how much the new hunter's words had pleased Cas, even if he hadn't been able to feel that pleasure like it was his own. "So...?" Cas put a hand on the bed, and there was that unwavering stare Dean had mentioned.

Comfortable? Dean's immediate reaction was to hide the fact that he wasn't, not at all, but there was no point when the half blood could feel it. "No," he admitted. "But I won't be until I actually do it."

Castiel nodded and dropped it. "Your toothbrush is in the red case in the pocket," he mentioned, pointing towards the small pocket on one side of the duffel before he took his own into the bathroom.

Carmen would have dropped it, too. The thought struck like lightning, so quickly that he never had time to put up any kind of defense. Carmen had never been one of those nagging girlfriends who insisted on knowing what was wrong or what he was feeling right then and there. She'd pry it out of him eventually, but she'd let him have his space, too, and he'd always appreciated that more than he could express.

Sinking down on the bed, Dean pressed his palms to his eyes in an attempt to block out the world. He'd been successful in not thinking about Carmen since the frantic make-out session on the front steps with Castiel, but now that she was there it seemed she wasn't going anywhere anytime soon. How would she react if she were in this situation with him? Would she be calm or panicked? Would she have remembered to pack pie? Would she have stolen a credit card, and then stood there with an expression that said she'd had just a little more fun than she should have when she stole it? Would she accept the existence of demons and angels? Would she have loved him enough to stick by him while Dean hunted down the demon that had taken his brother?

Dean groaned softly as the painful questions jabbed at his mind, and wondered ridiculously if another frantic make-out session was in order.

When Dean lowered his hands Castiel was standing in front of him, his blue eyes watching with sympathy but none of the pity that would have infuriated Dean. "Don't not think about her, Dean," Cas said gently. "She was a part of your life for a long time, and you loved her."

Dean wanted to brush it off or say he was fine. Instead he just nodded. "I need pie."

"I'll get it out of the car," Cas offered.

"Nah." Dean stood and grabbed Castiel's wrist so he could pull him towards the door. "Let's go out and get it. I'll grab a fake ID, call and find out about the license plate, and it'll go down as one of the weirdest dates I've ever been on." He flashed a playful grin towards Castiel, who smiled in response.

"We can use my stolen credit card," Castiel said as they climbed into the Impala. "Then you'll be able to say you committed two felonies in a single date," he added with a perfectly straight face.

"Cas?"

"Yes?"

"Have I mentioned you're awesome?"

...*...

"Ulien!"

The cherub wasn't answering him. Had Amor been a more violent soul he might have kicked the tree he was currently leaning against, but instead he just let his head fall back against it and cursed whatever demon or other supernatural issue was keeping his friend from answering. He needed to talk, damn it!

"Ulien can't come to the phone right now, can I take a message?"

Oh god, he knew that voice. Amor lifted his head from the trunk of the tree to find Gabriel standing in front of him, his usual smirk planted firmly on his lips. "If I leave a message with you it might get...garbled."

Gabriel laughed. "Garbled, how delicate of you!" He said with genuine mirth. "Come on, love boy, what's your problem?"

Amor grinned. He couldn't help it! He liked Gabriel, even if he didn't fully trust him. "Things just keep getting more and more complicated," he said vaguely. "What are you doing here?"

Gabriel shrugged. "I found the kids, they were after our boy Azazael, only they kind of disappeared. Thought you might wanna know."

"Disappeared?" Amor repeated with a confused frown.

"Yeah. Disappeared. As in poof, nada, vanished. Thinkin' maybe angel wards."

"That must be why Ulien isn't answering," Amor murmured, more to himself than Gabriel. "He must be trying to find them. Gabriel, do you know where they disappeared?"

"Detroit," the trickster answered immediately. "No idea where, though. Even if I did, wouldn't do you much good if it's angel wards."

Amor grinned. "Ah, that's okay," he said easily. "I have a trick or two up my sleeve! Thank you for telling me about this."

Gabriel shrugged again. "Whatever," he said breezily, and before Amor could respond he disappeared.

...*...

For a reason entirely unknown to him, Castiel had never been able to eat pie without making a mess of some kind. It had always been something of a secret between himself and Amor (even his mother didn't know, as he'd never actually eaten pie in front of her). Now Dean was in on the secret, and Castiel was both pleased and mortified by how amused the other man was by his mess-making abilities.

"Dude, how did you get it on your nose?" Dean asked with a chuckle as he reached across the table and wiped a smear of blueberry from the end of Cas's nose.

The half blood went cross-eyed trying to watch Dean's fingers, which made the new hunter laugh. "What did you find out about the license plate?" he countered in an attempt to avoid explaining his sometimes messy eating habits.

Dean started to wipe his finger off on a napkin, then changed his mind and licked it instead. Castiel reminded himself firmly that leaping across the table and ravishing Dean was not an option. Yet. "Car belongs to a guy called Jim Miller," Dean said after glancing at the notes he'd made while on the phone. "I have an address, we can go there in the morning."

They paid for their pie with Cas's stolen card, and Castiel didn't fail to notice how Dean dragged his feet as they made their way back to the Impala. He'd had a feeling that going out had actually been Dean's way of avoiding the fact that they would be crawling into the same bed, and Dean's reluctance enforced that feeling. When he opened their connection, Castiel felt doubt, fear, and an excitement that was only making the former feelings worse.

"Dean, I can sleep on the floor if you'll be more comfortable." Cas tried to make the suggestion sound casual, and cursed himself when it came out strained and forced instead.

"No," Dean replied immediately. "I'm not making you sleep on the floor just because I'm...jumpy."

The man's tone was final, so Castiel let the matter drop.

Dean continued to stall at the motel. While he spent far more time than necessary brushing his teeth, Castiel retrieved two silver knives from his duffel and slipped one under each pillow. He set a bag of salt within easy reach and decided that was plenty of precaution, so he stripped down to his tee and boxers and climbed into the bed.

Dean emerged from the bathroom and walked quietly to the bed. He poked the bag of salt with his toe. Checked his pillow for the knife. Silently, Cas wondered if Dean had been meant for this from the start. He hadn't even been on a real hunt yet and he was already checking to make sure all the precautions were in place.

"Dean?"

The new hunter looked down at the half blood. "Yeah?"

"Just get in bed."

Dean paused one more second and then finally began to pull off clothes. Castiel shut his eyes, hoping that would make the other man more comfortable, though he didn't stop himself from reaching out when he felt Dean pull back the covers. His hand came to rest on what felt like Dean's bicep.

"You can open your eyes," Dean said with a chuckle that was both nervous and amused.

Cas did, and discovered that Dean had left about six inches of space between them. Not so much as to be discouraging, but enough to let him breathe.

"I should warn you," Cas mentioned as he let his fingers trail over Dean's arm. "Since I'm half cherub I'll probably end up draped all over you."

Dean nodded. "Carmen used to do that, too. I know it bugs a lot of guys, but I never really cared so long as I didn't get too hot."

"Good." Cas settled deeper into his pillow and closed his eyes again.

The quiet rustle of Dean shifting against the sheets made Cas crack open one eye. The other man had adjusted himself so that his head was right beside Castiel's, and his eyes were already closed.

"G'night, Cas," Dean murmured sleepily.

Castiel smiled. "Goodnight, Dean."

...*...

TBC

I have been waiting since the beginning of this fic for the right time to start working in Dean's overusage of the word "awesome." :-D. Please review! Reviews make me update faster! :-D :-D