Dean had trouble finding things to keep himself occupied in the following days. 'Crowley will save Sam, he'll get him back." He had to keep repeating the words to himself like a mantra, otherwise he would fall apart. It was a couple days later when Crowley appeared in the main room of the suite he was staying in, but Dean's eyes immediately went to the tall man by his side.

"Sam," he breathed, pulling his brother into a hug.

Sam's eyes were wide as he pulled back. "Dean, how…?" he trailed off, his gaze shifting between his brother and Crowley, becoming more accusatory. "What did you do?" he snapped. "Dean, you promised!"

"Look, it's not as bad as it seems!" Dean held his hands up defensively.

"So you didn't make a deal, then?" he demanded dubiously.

"Well-well, yes, but-"

"How does that help anything, Dean?" Sam shouted. "We're right back where we were two years ago!" He rounded on Crowley. "Let him out of his deal!"

Crowley's face was expressionless aside from a slight raising of his eyebrows. "No."

"Where's the knife, Dean?"

"I'm not giving it to you," Dean's voice was tired. He had known that this wouldn't be easy, but he still hadn't been quite prepared for this. "You're not killing him."

Sam looked at him incredulously. "Why not?"

"Well, for one," Crowley muttered. "Do you really think I'm going to stick around long enough for you to get your hands on that knife?" He peered around Sam to catch Dean's eye. "Dean, would it be better if I leave and come back later?"

"Why are you coming back?" Sam demanded before Dean could respond.

Crowley glared at him. "Maybe if you would let your brother actually explain his deal, you would know."

They both turned to look at Dean, who coughed uncomfortably. "Would you mind staying, Crowley?" He could use the support, even at the risk of his presence putting Sam even more on edge than he would be anyway.

Crowley sighed. "Yes, but for you, I will." He walked over and took a seat on the couch.

Sam followed Crowley's progress with narrowed eyes before turning back to Dean. "You had better have a good explanation."

Dean shrugged. "You might not think so, but I'm happy with it. Look, my deal with Crowley wasn't selling my soul, it was selling… me."

Sam's expression twisted in disgust. "Oh yeah, that makes it so much better. You sold yourself to him? Does that mean what I think it does?"

"It doesn't mean anything, Sam, it's just a technicality."

"A technicality?"

"Yes. Technically I belong to him, but he's not going to make me do anything I don't want to."

"You believe that? He's a demon!" Sam shook his head. "What happened to your promise, Dean? To settle down with the guy you were seeing?"

Crowley choked on the Scotch he had materialized. "You promised what?"

Dean ignored him. "Hey, the only thing that I promised was that I'd go to him. And I did."

"You did?"

"Yeah," he said matter-of-factly, gesturing towards Crowley. "And I asked him to save you." He braced himself for the fireworks.

It took Sam a few seconds to process, numbly looking between Dean and a slightly amused Crowley. Finally, his gaze settled on Dean, anger and disbelief in his eyes. "Crowley? You're dating Crowley? He's a demon! What happened to everything you said when I was with Ruby? You hypocrite! All you could do was lecture me about how stupid I was being, and now you're doing the exact same thing!"

"Hey, I was right about Ruby-"

"I know! But that doesn't make it okay for you to make the same mistakes! You're dating a demon!"

"Well, we were never technically dating," Crowley cut in. "I mean, now things are a little unclear, but in the beginning, it had just been a deal."

"But you just made the deal."

"Our second deal."

Sam rounded on Dean again, glaring furiously. "Dean?" he demanded, anger barely controlled.

"I-I made a deal to get you off demon blood…"

"When was this?"

"Right after Lucifer was released."

Sam stared at him in shock. "Were you ever going to tell me about this?"

Dean shook his head, his eyes downcast.

"Wait… so you knew Crowley before we got the Colt from him?"

"Yes, but before you ask, I didn't know his name; I didn't know he had the Colt."

"And that makes things so much better." He shook his head. "So all those times you were making excuses to leave, it was because he wanted sex, and that was your job?"

Dean hesitated. "In the beginning."

"But you can't make the same deal twice."

"No." Crowley stood, his empty glass disappearing, and walked over to them, his hands in the pockets of his coat. "I cancelled our first deal because you drank demon blood in order to accommodate Lucifer – a sort-of breach of the contract. Then Dean offered this deal."

"Okay," Sam huffed. "Dean, tell me if I'm reading this wrong, but this is what I'm getting. You made a deal with Crowley, started sleeping with him, developed Stockholm Syndrome, and because of that you've thrown yourself right back into the fire."

"I have not developed Stockholm Syndrome!"

Crowley looked at him sideways. "Are you sure?"

"Crowley!"

"It kind of makes sense."

"You're just saying that because you don't want me to have feelings for you. But if I had Stockholm Syndrome, I'm pretty sure I wouldn't still think you're a giant pain in the ass."

Crowley barely managed to hold back an amused smile. "Alright, fine, it was just a thought."

Dean sighed, turning back to his brother. "Look, Sam, I was pretty damn reluctant when I went into this deal the first time around. But then it wasn't so bad – and not just because I enjoyed the sex, I enjoyed Crowley's company. I was in denial about it for a while, but I eventually came to terms with it. It was the night before everything went down that I finally realized the full extent of my feelings for him."

"Which are?" Sam demanded coldly.

"I love him. And you know that's something I don't say lightly."

"Fine, you love him, I can believe that – I don't understand it, but I can see you're telling the truth. But there is no way that he feels the same. And if you think there's a chance, you're deluding yourself."

"Because you're an expert, are you?" Crowley demanded, the smallest traces of anger darkening his expression.

"There's no way that demons can love."

"Close. Demons shouldn't love. Demons try not to love. It doesn't always work out. If you think office romances are a scandal, they have nothing on the romances in Hell."

"Are you trying to tell me that you love my brother?"

"No. I'm just trying to tell you that it is possible for demons to love. Which is unfortunate, really. Love is such a weakness, I mean, it's embarrassing. If you ask me, only half the demons who fall in love ever say anything for fear of becoming a laughing stock."

"So you don't love him."

"Did you listen to a word I just said? If a demon is smart, they never admit when they're in love. And I'm smart."

"Hm. Seems to me like a good way of getting out of answering my question."

Crowley's eyes narrowed. "Well then, it's a good thing I don't have to answer to you."

Sam's gaze snapped back to Dean. "Dean, are you seriously accepting this?"

"I…" Dean's eyes flickered between the two of them as he tried to sort through his thoughts. "I know he cares. And maybe it's not as much as I care about him, but one day it could be."

"Oh, right, and he already has you convinced that he never has to tell you just how he feels, so he can always make you think that he cares more than he does."

"You are really, truly awful at coming to your assumptions," Crowley sighed. "I am under the impression that Dean knows exactly how much I care for him, despite my efforts to convince him that I care less."

Sam opened his mouth to say something – and judging by his bitch face, something rude – but Dean cut him off. "Crowley, I have no idea how much you care about me."

Crowley turned to him, blinking in surprise. "What?"

"All I know is that you care enough that it scares you and makes you want to distance yourself from me. That doesn't tell me anything."

"How does that not tell you anything?"

"I don't know if that's love, or if just caring a little bit is enough to freak you out."

"But you just said that you know I care some, and that's all that matters, right?" His expression was hopeful.

"Well… for now. But Sam's half right – it's going to grow old, never knowing how much."

"Oh, you have got to be-" He made a noise somewhere between a sigh and a growl as he turned back to Sam. "Can we have a minute?"

"I'm not leaving you two alone together!" Sam protested.

Crowley arched an eyebrow. "Really? Do you have any idea how much time we've spent alone together? And Dean is still in one piece."

"Sam, it's fine," Dean spoke in what he hoped was a soothing voice, bringing his hand up to rest on Crowley's back. "I know you think he's up to something, and in the beginning he most definitely was, but that's finished now. It's not like your thing with Ruby, but I don't know what to say to prove that to you. I just need you to trust me."

"I do trust you, Dean. It's him I don't trust. He's messing with you."

Crowley's eyes narrowed as he glared at Sam. "Do tell, moose, how exactly am I 'messing with him?'"

"I don't know, but you have to be somehow!"

"Sam, I swear on Hell itself that I am not using your brother in any way."

"Okay, but you clearly have no loyalty to Hell. You just helped us shove your boss back in the cage."

"Which opened up a position. You're looking at the new King of Hell."

"What?" Dean snapped, rounding on the demon.

Crowley sighed. "Look, in order to get the power and leverage needed to get Sam from the cage, I had to take the throne. Admittedly, that had been my plan anyway, so it all worked out spectacularly."

"You rule Hell?"

"Yep." He turned back to Sam. "And I swear on my kingdom that I am being honest here. Now let mummy and daddy talk."

Sam glared at Crowley for a moment longer before he turned to Dean with a sigh. "Let me know if you need me."

Dean nodded then Sam made his way to one of the bedrooms. Crowley waited until the door was shut behind him before turning his attention to Dean.

"So let me get this straight, you beg me to have a relationship with you, go to the lengths of making another deal, and now you're demanding to know the extent of my feelings?"

"Alright, first off, I did not beg. And second, it's not like you don't want a relationship, you just don't want to admit that you want one. You didn't have to agree to the deal, you know."

"Yes, but I wanted to help you, and… it was a good excuse." His eyes darted down as he trailed off.

"So you admit that you do want this, then?"

Crowley ground his teeth together in frustration before reluctantly answering. "Yes, of course I want this!"

Dean smiled slightly as he reached out to rest his hands on Crowley's waist. "How much?"

Crowley glared up at Dean from under his eyelashes. "It's not like you can hold this over my head, squirrel. You want me, you've made that perfectly clear. It doesn't matter what I say."

"Yeah, but Crowley, I want this to actually be something. It's not going to last if you're not honest with me about this."

"There's no way it's going to last, period. I'm a demon, the King of Hell, and you're a hunter. I see a bit of a conflict of interests here."

"Oh, what was it that you said to me before? That you don't do being on the losing side? Well, neither do I, apparently, so I'm not losing you. If we can a way to beat the devil again all odds, then we can find a way to make this work."

Crowley's lips were pulling up into a smile, something that he seemed to be struggling to fight against. "My, my, Dean, that was almost sappy."

"Shut up." He chuckled as he leaned down, brushing his lips lightly against Crowley's. "I'm not looking for any grand gesture on your part, I just want to know if you feel about me anything close to how I feel about you."

Crowley sighed, staring at the floor for a minute before his gaze slowly rose to meet Dean's. "I do… I-I feel exactly the same."

Dean blinked in surprise, an awed smile spreading slowly across his face.

"Now don't you dare tell anyone!" Crowley quickly added.

"Deal." Dean winked before leaning in for a kiss.