Day Twenty Two - In Battle, Side by Side

Dean popped the trunk of the Impala, propping it open with a gun. He tucked his handgun into the waistband of his jeans, though he doubted he'd be using it. Bullets didn't work on the kind of creatures they were hunting; he kept being reminded of that fact whenever they encountered the Leviathan, it seemed. But he liked to have it on him just in case. In his duffel bag, he had a couple bottles of that cleaner shit that worked on these stupid things. He zipped it up and set it aside. In his right hand, he picked up a machete and swung in around a few times. Grinning, he turned to his partner.

"Ready to go, Cas?"

Castiel smiled back carefully, sliding the angel blade out of his sleeve. "Ready." They had discovered that not only was it good for killing angels and smiting demons, but it also cut of the heads off Leviathan pretty well.

Shutting and locking the trunk again, they walked towards the warehouse where they had figured out the three Leviathan were hiding. They weren't holding hands like they usually did, as Dean had one hand around his weapon and the other holding onto the duffel bag slung over his shoulder, but they walked close enough so that their arms were brushing with every step.

As they reached the door, Cas stopped short and grabbed the collar of Dean's jacket. Pulling him close, he kissed Dean hard on the lips, sweetly and desperately. "Don't do anything stupid," he whispered, their lips brushing together as he spoke. Dean smirked as he planted a kiss on Castiel's forehead.

"Me? Never."

They entered the building as quietly as possible, splitting up once they got inside. Cas was to take the main level, distract the creatures there, while Dean went up to the balcony with his bottles of floor cleaner to dump on their heads from above. The plan worked well, and they had utilized it a couple times already. They would then take off the heads, burn the bodies separately and bury the heads by themselves, far, far away from where the ashes were. It was a good enough solution until they found out how to kill the damn things once and for all. Dean took the metal stairs up to the second level, smiling down at Cas when he looked back one last time.

They made a good pair. Not only in their relationship, but fighting monsters, too. Dean had been worried that it would affect them negatively, but really it turned out to be quite the advantage. They knew each other so well, they had each learned the exact way the other moved, they knew how the other would react in any and every situation. It was as if they were one incredibly strong person fighting with eight limbs instead of four. It was different than fighting with Sam, because Sam was his obligation. And that sounded bad, it was true. He felt obligated to take care of Sammy, even though he knew that Sam could take care of himself well enough. With Cas, the worry was there, sure. Dean hated when Cas got hurt. But something about the level of trust and understanding and love that the two had kept Castiel from becoming Dean's weakness. The angel was not a responsibility; he was a partner and an equal.

Dean crept along the balcony, trying to keep his steps quiet. His machete was held out in front of him, in case any unsuspected Leviathan found him, but his eyes were watching what was happening below. Cas was sneaking through the main level, hiding behind boxes and file cabinets and whatever else was tall enough to keep him out of sight. Dean glanced over to where he heard voices talking. There were two of the Leviathan, a man and a woman, and they had another guy tied up in a chair. Shit. They hadn't expected them to have another person. Well, the dude was going to be mentally scarred after they were done here, but at least he'd still be alive. Cas glanced up and Dean gave him the signal to go just as one of the Leviathans opened its mouth and bore its ugly teeth.

The two monsters looked up quickly at the resounding crash as Cas pushed over one of the cabinets in front of him. The one who was about to eat the man closed its mouth, returning to human form, and both the Leviathan walked over to the sideways cabinet, stepping over the hundreds of papers that were scattered across the floor. The third Leviathan, the one that had been out of Dean's sight, approached with them. Cas was now crouching behind another couple of stacked boxes, waiting for them to get closer.

"Come out, come out, wherever you are!" the woman teased, her voice sickeningly sweet. The other two laughed, shoving aside empty boxes as they made their way through the warehouse, closer and closer to Cas. No matter how many times they had done this, Dean still got a tiny bit nervous right about here. Even though it always worked out fine, he was still worried Cas might get hurt, or worse. But the angel was crouched down directly beneath where Dean was standing, which meant that Dean had to focus. He unzipped the duffel bag and pulled out the bottles of floor cleaner, uncapping one of them and setting it next to the railing, waiting.

Finally they were close enough for Cas to stand, the angel blade ready in his hand. He stood his ground, his feet planted steadily as they surrounded him, laughing. "What do we have here?" one of the men said. Their sarcastic tones made Dean all the more excited to kill them. "Sorry, buddy, you can try all you want. We don't die. You, on the other hand…"

"He's a looker, don't you think?" The woman chimed in again, grinning. "We might want to hang on to this one. Looks tasty to me." They all laughed in unison. Dean couldn't have found them more disgusting than he did in that moment.

Cas narrowed his eyes at them. "It seems as if you are forgetting something."

The Leviathan weren't phased. "Is that so?" The third one said, creeping closer to Cas. Their little circle around him had tightened considerably, just enough to make Dean's aiming a bit easier. "What could we possibly be forgetting?" Cas shrugged.

"Did you happen to check the forecast this morning?"

Dean had to stifle a giggle at the Leviathan's confused faces. Cas had been watching too many action movies, it had seemed; Dean was a bad influence. The angel kept trying to say witty little things before they killed anything, because he thought it was cool. It wasn't, but Dean did find it incredibly amusing. The monsters, however, didn't. "Forecast? What are you talking about?"

"The weather," said Cas nonchalantly. "Because I checked it, just before I came here. You know what it said?" The angel gave a tiny smile as he pulled his coat up over his head. "100% chance of rain."

And there was his cue. Dean dumped the largest of the bottles of cleaner over the rail, and from the hissing and screaming from below, he knew he had hit his mark. Scooping up the other bottles in one arm, he sprinted down the stairs to Cas's side.

Cas had managed to sneak out of the monster's circle while they were momentarily occupied with their burning skin. Dean tossed him one of the bottles as he ran up, both of them simultaneously sloshing more of the liquid onto the Leviathan. It only took one swing of Dean's blade to take the woman's head off, a spray of black goo covering the floor where it rolled away. Another followed quickly as Cas cut off one of the men's. He looked to Dean as he wiped the black blood from his blade. The last creature was on its knees, clawing at its face in pain. Dean gave it another splash of cleaner before he glanced over at Cas.

"You or me?" he asked, gesturing to the last Leviathan.

Cas slid the blade back into his sleeve. "Go ahead." Dean grinned as he turned and lopped off the creature's head. He was rewarded with a thick spray of nasty black goo across his front and a satisfying thump as the head fell to the floor.

When he turned around, he saw that Cas had already gone to help the Leviathan's captive, who had passed out at some point. That was probably for the best. Easier for them if they didn't have to explain why he had been about to be eaten. Cas cut the unconscious guy loose and hoisted him up. "I'm going to take him to the car. Can you take care of this?" Dean nodded, and Castiel left him to clean up.

Dean dragged the headless bodies behind the warehouse, where there was an empty field, and piled them up. He poured the remainder of the cleaner over them (that was a plus, not only did it hurt the Leviathan, it also substituted for gasoline) and struck a match. While they burned away, he went back inside and put the heads in the duffel bag, for them to bury on the other end of town. He shuddered. As much as he had seen, there was still something really, really nasty about picking up severed heads. Especially ones that were bleeding black goo.

By the time Cas got back, Dean had pretty much taken care of everything. The duffel bag in one hand and his Levi-blood-stained jacket in the other, they made sure the fire out back had burned itself out and that the ashes were scattered fairly well before they made their way back to the Impala. All that was left was, of course, dropping the Leviathan's meal at the hospital, and they were good to go.

Dean was smiling as he sat down in the driver's seat. He leaned over and kissed Castiel's cheek. "Nice work today." Cas smiled and took his hand over the gearshift as they drove away.

Working with Cas was the greatest.