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Dean is horrified to find Sam has alphabetised his DVD's.
Really, they are Sam's DVD's, and he's allowed to do what he wants with them, but Dean had spent so long de-organising them that he'd thought Sam would just let it lie.
The really bad thing about the arrangement is that, when Dean tells Castiel to just find a random movie while he makes popcorn, Cas predictably goes for the first movie on the shelf.
The alphabetical first.
This is how they end up watching Atonement.
Which is the dullest movie Dean has ever had to watch.
At least for the first twenty minutes.
There's something about the combination of James Mcavoy and Cas's frequent attempts to remove popcorn butter form his own fingers through the medium of tongue, that keeps Dean's interest. Whether he wants it to or not. Even the sudden introduction of gunfire and the World War Two narrative fail to ramp up his excitement any further.
In the midst of a particularly involved attempt at cleaning his fingertips, Castiel looks up and catches Dean's eye. The dark haired man pauses, realises what it is he's doing, and slowly lowers his hand.
"Sorry." He refocuses on the flat screen across from them. "This is very dull, isn't it?"
"Mmmhhmmm." Dean's ears burn with embarrassment. "New movie?"
"Yes please."
This time Dean gets to pick, and he chooses four of the loudest, brashest action movies that he's ever gifted to Sam. All of them still have their cellophane on. Castiel tugs down the blackout blinds on the windows, and together they sit on the couch, bathed in the glow of exploding cars, helicopters and Russian oil pipelines.
After a while Castiel leans against Dean's side, then leans a bit more, and after a while Dean realises that his friend has fallen asleep. Which is only to be expected, they had been going out at all hours, which Dean was used to, but which Castiel probably wasn't. Dean turns his eyes back to the screen, on which a car is exploding next to a helicopter, setting off a chain reaction that will engulf a pipeline in fire.
Castiel puts an arm around Dean's waist, smushing his face against the other man's side. Dean pats his hair distractedly and relaxes into the sofa. Castiel is warm, and kind of stretchy and heavy, like a cat full of porridge.
Dean can't really be blamed for failing to register the next explosion.
Or for curling up just a little more against the other man as the broken pipeline sprays burning oil at yet another helicopter.
(-*-)
Sam wakes up on top of Gabriel.
Which, if nothing else, is at least a nice change of pace.
Gabriel wakes up seconds later and 'eep's plaintively.
"Trapped!"
Sam rolls to one side.
"Good thing you didn't panic." He sighs, burying his face in the cold pillow beside the one he and Gabriel had apparently shared.
"Meh." Gabriel swats at his leg half heartedly.
Sam swats back.
Gabriel slaps Sam's thigh.
Sam turns over and pokes Gabriel in the stomach.
Gabriel glares at him, then flicks Sam in the nipple.
A scuffle ensues, and it's hard to say who technically wins, as it devolves quickly into what would be classified more as groping than actual fighting.
A knock on the door startles both of them, and Gabriel springs away from Sam like a lamb caught in a compromising situation. The edge of a tray comes around the door, followed by the heads of the triplets, each of whom has a hand in holding the tray aloft.
"Breakfast." Cookie explains, and the tray is placed on the end of the bed ceremoniously. "
Gabriel blinks at his daughters, then glances sideways at Sam, very much aware that they've just been caught in bed together.
"Can we watch TV now?" Peaches asks.
Gabriel looks like he's just stepped into a Stepford home, worried and confused.
"Sure." He manages, and the three girls scurry from the room.
Sam inspects the tray; two coffee cups of juice, two bowls of marshmallow laden cereal, pink plastic spoons and napkins.
"That...went oddly well." Gabriel muses, eyes still on the door.
"If this is weird..." Sam starts, aware that Gabriel had made his need of compartmentalising pretty clear.
"It's weird when they think it's weird." Gabriel tells him, reassuringly. "Until then...cereal." He passes a bowl to Sam, and they curl up near the headboard.
"But they are going to watch Hanna Montana without me." Gabriel says. "So you can owe me for that."
(-*-)
As the movie credits reel off and Dean prods the remote, telling the DVD player to shuffle the next movie into place, Castiel mumbles in his sleep and huffs exasperatedly.
Dean glances down at him.
He wonders if this is what being in a relationship is like, having someone to sleep next to, to wake up with. Being able to enjoy someone's company even when they're completely out of it.
He's going to be sad to see him go, he knows that much. Without Castiel, the only real relationship he has is with Sam. And Sam's great, but he's also his brother, so that's different. Dean can't even remember the last time he's spent this much time with someone who wasn't Sam, without sleeping with them. Even with Ellen and Jo he doesn't hang around for longer than a few hours.
He drops his head back against the couch cushions. Relationships were big, messy things, and Dean had a lot of stuff to worry about before he got into one, namely, how they'd react to his work, and how they'd react to Brandy. He couldn't take the chance that they'd over react and land him in trouble.
At some point, Dean falls asleep to the dulcet tones of Russian insurgents, and he wakes up in the same darkened room with someone kissing him.
It's not a deep, demanding kiss, more like a touch of lips against his own, but it's a pretty good way to wake up, and Dean's response is to put his arms up and catch hold of the waist of the person currently kneeling over his lap. They jolt in surprise, and he finds himself looking up at the wide, scared blue eyes of Castiel. The other man struggles for a second, clearly looking for some excuse, or something to say that will forestall Dean's anger.
So Dean does the only logical thing, he yanks him forwards, and kisses him.
(-*-)
They end up watching Hanna Montana anyway. Gabriel is busy making the girls breakfast, so they lead Sam away and plant him in front of the television. Which is just as well, clearly he can't spend time alone with Gabriel while there are impressionable innocents around.
It's only when the three girls have pancakes, and are happily seated on pink beanbags in front of the television, that Gabriel takes Sam to one side, out into the garden.
"Ok, here's the deal." Gabriel says quickly. "If you want to see me again before you go back home..."
"I do." San cuts in.
Gabriel smiles. "Well then it'll have to be at Cas's and I'll get a sitter in...it won't hurt them to see less of me for a week."
"You're worried they'll get used to me." Sam's surprised.
"I'm worried they'll want you around, when have other things to get back to." Gabriel shifts from foot to foot awkwardly. "You leaving is going to be hard enough without it breaking their hearts too."
He realises what he's said almost as soon as the words are out of his mouth.
"Don't even." Gabriel says, backing away and putting his hands up.
But it's too late, Sam's gone in for a hug.
They stand there, locked together as Gabriel gives up on any attempt to seem cool and aloof and just concentrates of holding onto Sam as tightly as possible.
The silence is only broken when Sam glimpses something over Gabriel's shoulder.
"You have a cow?"
(-*-)
"What about Brandy?" Castiel asks suddenly.
It takes Dean a moment to catch up, being mostly naked and on top of someone, also mostly naked, had kind of fried the 'What if...' part of his brain.
Castiel nudges him pointedly.
"I told you, I don't have a wife." Dean mutters, attempting to get back to what he was doing, which in this case meant experimenting with different points on Castiel's neck.
"But you have her things, at your house..." Castiel says, determinedly swatting Dean away.
"Yes, but...the thing is...this is the thing – Brandy isn't my anything. Ok? So, you don't have to worry."
"I do though." Castiel attempts to sit up, and Dean kind of gets in the way of that on purpose, because he doesn't want Cas to get further away, not right now anyway. He's very much in support of the opposing movement. "Worry, about...Dean, I don't want to be the person who lets you cheat...it felt crappy when it happened to me...and..."
Dean mentally slaps himself for being so blind, that was what Castiel was worried about. He thought for a second, using up the moment or two of oxygen left in his brain. So much for Sam's warning, he was going to have to tell Castiel about Brandy just to stop him from feeling like a total ass...and also because he liked Castiel, he was only just beginning to understand how much, and he didn't want to ruin that with one stupid secret.
Even if it was potentially a life ruining one.
"The thing about Brandy is, she..."
And that's when some British guy starts yelling, "Cassy, open this bloody door!"
Castiel looks like a deer in headlights, and Dean relinquishes the thinnest hope of getting laid.