She was warm, much warmer than she usually was upon waking. Someone pleasantly firm was pressed against her back, his breath stirring the hair at the nape of her neck. She didn't open her eyes, she didn't want to disturb the lovely dream. Instead, she cuddled back into him further, savoring his strong arm pulling her tightly against him.

Piper's eyes popped open in shock. Oh. My. God. She was waking up next to Dean Winchester. Dean. Freaking. Winchester. Unrequited love of her younger years, and if she was being honest, more recent years. And they had done much more than sleep this time.

Piper turned around as slowly as she could, trying not to wake him up. He shifted a little, but didn't wake. She studied his sleeping face. His perfection was surreal. She felt yearning stirring in her belly the longer she studied him. Get it together, Finley, she told herself grimly as she slowly worked her way out of his embrace. He frowned a little, but still didn't wake up.

She got dressed and finger combed her hair a little. Peeking her head out her bedroom door and listening, she realized she still had the morning to herself. She crept down stairs and made a pot of coffee, sitting at the table while she waited, thinking.

What the hell are you doing, was the foremost thought in her mind. Even if Dean wasn't a hound, which he was, even if he wasn't already a recipe for a broken heart, which he was, even if he wasn't wildly in love with her, which he was not, he was still going to hell in a year. She was going to lose him, and it was going to break her heart. It was a little crazy, but she wasn't sure she would recover.

But it was Dean. She'd fantasized about him so many times she'd thought she was losing her mind. She loved him. So… Why not? Why shouldn't she have him like this, even just for a while? She didn't want to overthink it, she didn't want to talk herself out of it.

So when the coffee was done, instead of sitting down to research, as had become her custom, she made two cups and carried them silently back to her room. She normally made breakfast, too, but the boys could feed themselves for a day.

She kicked the door shut behind her and moved to the bed. Dean had turned in his sleep, lying on his stomach with his arms tucked under the pillow. The wide expanse of his extraordinary back had Piper forgetting what she was doing for a second. "Christ," she muttered as she put the mugs down on nightstand and sat down next to him in the bed. She hesitated to touch him until she realized that she could now. Emboldened, she lay next to him, running her fingers through the soft hair at the nape of his neck. "Dean?" she said softly.

He muttered and turned to her, cracking one eye open to examine her. "I had a pretty athletic night, kitten," The reminder of the previous night, coupled with his husky voice, had her biting back a gasp. "So there had better be a good reason for you waking me up."

She grinned. "Coffee?"

He snaked an arm around her waist and pulled her close as he turned to lay on his right side. He nuzzled her neck. "Not good enough," he murmured softly, slipping his right arm under her head, using it to pull her into a kiss.

His left hand settled at her waist, his thumb running slowly back and forth against the skin at the hem of her shirt. "Dean," she sighed. She put a hand on his chest to push him away, but somehow found herself running it down to wrap around the rapidly hardening erection pressed into her hip.

He moaned into her mouth, and she smiled against his lips. She pulled away a little to look him in the eye. "Dean, we shouldn't… They'll hear us…"

He smiled wickedly, slipping his fingers into the waistband of her pajamas. "One, kitten, they'll hear you, not us." He maneuvered her pants down enough so she could kick them off, already submitting to him. He smiled and pushed her thighs apart to make room for his hand. His finger started making lazy circles around her clit, not touching where she needed him to be. "And two," he said softly, using his tongue to swirl along the shell of her ear. "Let them hear."

xxxxx

Later, they dozed, her back pressed against Dean's chest. He heard noises start down the hall. Sammy's awake.

"Sam's getting up. Bobby, too, probably," she said softly. She turned to look at him, a sleepy smile on her face. "Also, the coffee is cold."

He was struck by how soft she looked, how pretty. His Piper was tough, he had only seen glimpses of her softness. And then, last night, she had been splayed out before him. Her soft voice begging him not to be gentle had nearly undone him...

Much like the laughter in her eyes now. "Three times in one morning, Winchester? I'm going to need to start doing cardio…" His eyes narrowed as hers widened. "Dean, Dean, I meant Dean!" she was laughing as he pulled her around and shifted until he was pinning her to the blankets, nuzzling her neck underneath her jaw.

He moved up to her ear, damn near purring with satisfaction. "You're going to pay for that, kitten."

xxxxx

Sam lifted his head, his toothbrush pausing in his mouth. Piper's laughter floated down the hall, followed by a suspicious silence. Dean hadn't been in their room, Piper was laughing and still in bed, and Sam was not an idiot.

He rolled his eyes. "Finally."

xxxxx

Bobby was in the kitchen, pouring himself a cup of coffee when Piper's laughter reached his ears. He was conflicted, but her laughter was pulling his face into a smile.

"About damn time," he muttered as he sipped his coffee.

xxxxx

Dean went downstairs first, Piper was in the shower. He said nothing in response to Sam's smirk or Bobby's intense stare, just walked into the kitchen and put one of the cups he'd carried downstairs into the microwave.

Dammit, should have talked to Piper about this. Dean had never been ashamed of sex with beautiful women, but Piper was more important than that. He needed to know what she wanted so he could respect her wishes. He wasn't sure what to do, and he wasn't used to that. So he went to his default setting, which was anger.

"Something I should know?" He snapped, not turning around.

Bobby hmphed, and he heard Sam chuckled. "No, man, just, you know. You, uh, slept late."

The microwave dinged, and he pulled Piper's coffee out, placed it on the counter, and put his in. "What of it?"

"What of what?" Piper asked as she walked into the kitchen. "Is that mine?" She asked, pointing to the mug on the counter.

Dean was struck dumb. She wasn't wearing anything different, just a tank top and tight jeans, but he couldn't take his eyes off her. Maybe it was knowing what was under her clothes. Maybe it was the obvious hickey on her neck, the teeth marks on her shoulder, or the bruises in the shape of his hands he suspected were on her hips. Whatever it was, Dean suddenly wondered how he'd managed to keep his hands off her for so long. He nodded in response to her question.

"Thank you," she said with a smile, taking a sip before turning around. She paused when she realized that Bobby and Sam were staring at her.

Ha, so it's not just me, Dean thought smugly.

Piper frowned. "What's going on?" She touched her damp hair self-consciously. "Do I look that bad?"

"Definitely not," Dean said fervently.

She shot him a shy smile before turning back to the other two men in the kitchen. "What's wrong?"

Sam seemed to realize that he'd been staring. "Uh, no, Pipe, everything's fine. We were just, uh, talking about you guys, uh, that is, Dean. We were talking about Dean sleeping in," he finished lamely.

Her frown deepened. "It's not that late. It's still before nine."

Bobby hadn't taken his eyes off of Piper. "He meant to say that we were about to talk about sleeping arrangements."

Dean was getting irritated again. "Why the hell would we talk about that?" He snapped, stepping forward to sling an arm around Piper's shoulders.

Bobby chuckled and raised his cup to his lips. "Just making sure you two have pulled your heads out of your asses before we get to work."

Piper relaxed and laughed, turning to include Dean. He was overwhelmed again, and used his arm to pull her close to press his lips against hers. She tasted like coffee.

"Ew."

"Hey, not in my kitchen, I gotta eat in here."

She was smiling against his lips, and Dean felt something wake up in his chest. Uh-oh. She pulled away, eyes sparkling. I am in trouble. "Speaking of eating, who wants breakfast?"

xxxxx

That night, Dean stood outside of Piper's room, debating whether or not to knock. She had gone to bed a few hours before, and he didn't want to seem clingy, but sleeping in her bed with her sounded a hell of a lot better than sleeping in his own.

He turned the knob slowly, trying to push the door open quietly, when she made a startled noise, and he heard papers rustling.

"Um, Dean? Knocking?"

He pushed the door open, narrowing his eyes at the sight of her sitting cross-legged on her bed, pen wound up into the knot at the top of her head, trying to scoop the papers around her into her arms.

She gave him a tight smile as some of the papers floated down onto the floor. "Um, hi, if you could give me just a second-"

He walked in and knelt to pick up one of the sheets of paper. It was a photocopy of a page out of an old book, what looked like a spell on it in Latin. Scribbled next to the words, in her loopy handwriting, was: demon dispelling ritual? talk to Sam.

"Can I have that back, please?"

He glared at her, anger stirring in him. "What are you doing?"

She sighed, defeated. "We're trying to find a way to get you out of your deal."

He frowned. "Piper-"

"Stop, Dean. I'm not talking to you about this tonight." She started putting her work away, not looking at him.

Which made him more angry. "Piper, look at me."

She did. "Why? So you can yell at me for trying to save you? Can it, Winchester," she snapped.

"Why are you going behind my back with him?"

She sighed and leaned back, having put her research away. "Because I wanted one day of us before we started arguing again. I wanted a twenty four hour period to adjust to whatever this is before we got into hard stuff." Another sigh, and she met his eyes. "I'm sorry, I shouldn't have made that decision for you. If you want to hash it out, we can."

Dean looked at her for a long moment, then shook his head. "Piper, I don't want you to look into this."

She gave him a wry smile. "Well, then we have a problem. Because I'm going to look into it."

"Piper, no."

"Piper, yes. I'm not going to sit by and let you go to hell, Dean." She sighed. "I couldn't stop you from making the deal, and I will find a way to live with that. But I will be damned if I'm going to sit back and watch you get dragged into hell."

"God dammit, Piper, leave it alone. If I try to get out of the deal, Sam's going to die!" he shouted.

"I'm not going to let Sam die, either, Dean." She looked down.

He knelt in front of her, hands on her knees. "Come on, Pipes, let this go."

She met his eyes, steel glinting in the hazel. "No."

He stood and backed away. "Well then we do have a problem!" he yelled again.

She didn't flinch. "Then go sleep in your own bed, Winchester, because I am not going to apologize to you for trying to save your sorry ass."

He slammed the door behind him.

xxxxx

Two hours later, Dean was staring at the ceiling, trying to hold onto his anger. Thoughts about the day kept creeping through, bleeding into thoughts about the night before.

The day had been… Kind of nice. It had been a blur of stolen glances, kissing her, touching her. Pulling her into the hallway to make out like horny teenagers, her squeezing his thigh under the table, moving her hot little hand higher and higher until he had to excuse himself.

He had watched her all day. She bit her lip when she was concentrating, or nervous. How had he not noticed that? She barked orders like a drill sergeant when hunters called, and was able to sweet talk law enforcement like no one he had ever seen. All with that hickey on her neck, marking her.

Mine.

With a groan, he got out of bed, pulled his sweats on, and walked out to the hallway. He was not going to apologize, he told himself firmly as he walked to her door.

He was not going to give in, he vowed as he quietly opened her unlocked door, slipped on, and closed and locked it behind him.

He had come here to make her cut it out, he thought as he pulled the covers off of her and slid into bed behind her, wrapping his arm around her waist and pulling her close.

"Dean…" she sighed softly,interlacing her fingers with his.

"I'm sorry I yelled, kitten. Can I stay?" He asked, thoughts of his pride flying away as he buried his face into her hair.

"You can always stay, Dean."

xxxxx

A/N: Hi, everyone! Here's my notes:

I own only Piper Finley, the original character. I don't own Supernatural, or the characters (heartbroken).

Reviews and comments give me the warm fuzzies and keep me going.

If there are any mistakes in continuity, canon, or geography, blame me.