Author's Note: During Dean's childhood, the story was almost exclusively his POV. Hereafter as we enter their adult lives, Castiel's POV will take over portions of the story. Please enjoy and thank you reading.

"Is it arrogance or just incontinency that made you return here? You had to know it's the one place on this earth they would come for you."

"Hello to you, too." Dean gets to his feet and dusts off his hands on his jeans, which were currently splattered with dark blood. "And I was banking on you not letting me bite it. Gotta say, cut it pretty damn close though."

Castiel frowns with lips pressed together, watching as Dean bends to nonchalantly wipe blood off the knife on the big one's shirt.

"I wasn't planning to come at all."

Dean raises an eyebrow. "Why did you then, Cas?"

Castiel shifts his weight and looks away. "You left me no choice."

Dean chuckles dryly. "Yeah and you didn't leave me none either. Not like you ever showed when I prayed." He throws it out there like its off-handed but it's one of the things that hurts and hangs between them right now.

Turning back, Castiel tilts his head and says in a flat tone, "Did you ever pray to me when you needed me or just when you were lonely?"

Dean works to keep the half smile on his face and uses sarcasm to cover the sting of those words. "Ouch, Cas."

Breathing through his nose, Castiel seems to shake himself before asking levelly, "Why did you need to see me?"

"Straight to business, huh?" Dean nods. "Cool. Fine. Alastair's resurfaced." He rolls his shoulders, feeling a phantom twinge in his ruined back at even his name. "He's supposed to be in Kansas. Maybe even in Lawrence."

Castiel's hand twitches at his side with the desire to release his Angel Blade. "How can you be sure?"

With grim concern breaking his blank face for the first time, Dean stupidly can't help remembering the first time they kissed. Right in this room. Nervous and awkward and intense…

"You look older."

Cas seems startled, kinda confused by the abrupt observation. "I.. I'm no longer a fledgling."

Dean takes a step closer to squint at the small changes in his features. His eyes are drawn to Cas' mouth when he makes a quick intake of breath. Staring at his lips, Dean continues, "A black-eyed birdie told me."

"What?" Cas says, looking down between Dean's mouth and eyes.

"How I know." Dean's lips twitch up in satisfaction to see him take a breath and blink like he's a little dazed.

"Look, I need help finding him. For the first time, I'm close and-"

"Where's your father?" Castiel asks, suddenly.

Dean laughs. "I'm allowed out after dark, Cas. I'm a big boy now.. carry my own gun and everything," he finishes sarcastically.

When Cas just waits he sighs. "The same demon gave us a lead on.." he hates that he hesitates. "..on Azazel. It happened to be in just about the opposite direction."

"They wanted to separate you. " Cas turns to pace. "This is almost certainly a trap."

"Yeah, probably but it's our first solid hit on either of them in a long time. Lilith supposedly took a dirt nap not long after we took off but none of the lackeys know how."

Castiel pauses only a second before continuing to the window to check the yard below. "What does your father intend to do if he is able to capture Azazel? Exorcism?"

"Nope. He has a gun that'll make him wish we were sending his ass back to hell."

"A gun cannot kill a demon, Dean," Cas says with a pinched brow.

Dean holds up his clean knife. "No? You ever heard of a knife killing demons?"

He expects Cas to ask him about it or at least show some interest but instead he just walks towards the window. After a minute of silence between them, Dean sighs, "Look I know this is probably weird for you.. but I'm not a kid anymore. Haven't been for a long time."

Dean lets the weariness and cold anger that wraps around him during a hunt in as Cas watches his face.

"I suppose you're not."

For a moment, he holds Dean's gaze and it feels like it used to. Charged. Tense. They're in his bedroom like before without the layers of shit from too many years between them. Then Cas blinks and loses any of what Dean swore was just there.

"I need to speak with my brothers. If a demon of Alastair's ranking has returned to the area, they need to know."

"Great. Let's go."

"You.. wish to accompany me?" the angel asks with incredulity.

"I'm not the sitting-at-home-wringing-his-hands sorta guy. I want him. I'm goin'."

"Dean, I don't believe that would be wise."

"Cas.." he looks him right in the eye and steps a little closer. "Let me tell you right now. You are not fucking leaving me to go do it yourself."

He seems torn until Dean adds lower, "I.. I need this."

Finally he says, "Very well. But Dean, you realize nothing can come of us being.. it can't be as it was between us. I'm a soldier now in devotion to my purpose. There's no place for distractions."

Dean makes himself smirk again to cover the hurt. It wasn't like he was expecting a kiss in the sunset but Jesus.

"You jerked me off when I was 16, Cas. I think I can keep myself from jumping you."

It's a mean way to sum up what they'd had but he hates feeling so fucking vulnerable and Cas hasn't shown one ounce of softness towards him so he wanted to hurt back a little.

Cas squints and Dean gets a shot of perverse satisfaction at the way he loses that damn stoic expression just for a second. Then he just nods, jaw tightening and looks away. Dean almost says something to lessen it but doesn't.

"I'll take you now, if you want."

Castiel shifts uncomfortably in the confined space of the automobile. He'd seen Dean with it plenty the last few years so it was of little surprise he refused to leave it behind at his childhood home. Still, it felt too closed in. He felt his wings pressing through the seats and it was distracting, annoying. And Dean was so very close. He could smell the soap he'd cleaned with and the mix of whiskey and leather that clung to him now. In his weaker moments, Castiel had let himself imagine what it would be like if they met again. They'd come together all at once. Desperate and excited to learn each others bodies once more. Instead, they were driving to his motelroom in awkward silence. It was a special kind of torture to see Dean now that he had the knowledge of what he wanted from him and what he could do with him. He wouldn't have to ask now in what way he was supposed to touch or where or if it felt good.

He doesn't accompany Balthazar on his journeys anymore. The pleasure faded too quickly and he was left feeling empty. Instead, he followed Uriel's example and became the most accomplished warrior he could be.. solely focused on attack formations, techniques, and extinguishing the demonic presence from the earth. Even Michael had been impressed and told Castiel he was proud of his commitment and was glad to see he wasn't sharing a few of their brother's apathy.

Even though it was never the right demon, Castiel took a dark gratification out of each kill. He wondered if Michael would still be proud if he knew what drove him. Dean's quest.. obsession had become his and he imagined they were linked in this small way. He killed in his name, even if he didn't know it.

Dean opens a phone and dials numbers with one hand on the steering wheel.

"Hey. No I'm just doing recon. You- Not yet. Yeah if I know something, I'll call. Yep."

He hangs up and tightens his jaw. From one second to the next, he looks harder. Castiel traces the outline of his profile with his eyes until Dean says, still looking ahead, "You got somethin' to say?"

"Why did you keep my feather?"

He didn't mean to ask it. Staring at Dean after so long, it'd just been at the forefront before he'd realized it. It was something that always confused him. As Dean hardened into the adult before him, Castiel always expected to one day not be able to feel the pull of that small drop of grace. Or find it discarded in one of his many temporary residences. But it always lead him to his hunter. In the silence that follows his words, he feels that flush of nerves that he hasn't felt since the last time he'd been a fledgling in Dean's bedroom. Not even when he learned more intimate acts that two people could share did he feel the things Dean could invoke with no effort at all.

"I didn't. I don't even know where the thing is. Probably back in my old room." He says it evenly without looking at him.

Castiel tilts his head. Dean just lied to him. He'd even seen him with it once, holding it before he slept. But how would he ask about it further without revealing his habit of watching him? While he's still trying to decide a way to ask, Dean drives up to a U-shaped building and a sign that reads The Calvary Inn.. or would if an 'A' and 'Y' weren't burnt out.

Dean gets out of the car without a backwards glance. He walks up to a red door, unlocks it and leaves it open behind him. After a moment of indecision, Castiel gets out and follows through the door.

It's small, but cleaner than some he'd seen Dean stay in. He opens his bag and pulls out clothes.

"Hey just lemme grab a shower real quick. If I'm getting an audience with a choir of angels, I'd rather not be soaked in demon blood."

"None of my brothers I'm taking you to sing with the host."

Dean takes a second to smile at him and it's not bitter like the ones before. It makes him look younger. Softer.

"Damn, I missed you, Cas. Even if you've kinda been a dick with wings."

Castiel frowns at that but Dean just takes the clothes under his arm and walks into the bathroom. When the door closes behind him, it bounces against the jam and stays a few inches ajar.

Not knowing what else to do in Dean's absence he stands in place, waiting. In the silence, he hears boots thud on linoleum, a zipper, the clank of a belt buckle. He looks up to see a line of flesh visible through the crack. Suddenly his body is flush, he was not prepared for the onslaught of images his mind was sending.

Agitated, Castiel sits on the bed, hearing the water turn on. He believed himself able to control these urges better than this. He hadn't even thought in this direction for years but now with the idea of Dean cleaning his body of blood, rubbing his bare chest with soap and all the other parts he'd never seen.

This was foolish. Within an hour of being in his presence again, Castiel had been reduced to this, his body responding to nothing more than the thought of Dean naked. He would go. He would wait outside and remove himself from this torment.

Unbidden, he suddenly wonders if a particular area had changed very much. If Dean would feel the same in his hand. If he made the same breathy noises. Or the one that embarrassed him. He would give almost anything to make him produce that noise again. Ducking his head, Castiel resolutely stares at the floor, watching his toes flex in the shaggy carpet like soft grass. He had more discipline than this. He needed focus.. to help Dean then sever the connection again before it become too much of a pain to bare. The pain in the first few months after Dean had left had been more than he thinks he could handle again.

The shower cuts off with a squeak of the knobs and the sound of a curtain pulling back seems too loud.

Ruffling noises.

He will not- Castiel flicks his eyes up to see through the cracked door. Dean rubbing a towel over his head, torso.. twisting he sees a wedge of his taut flank and he feels a twitch from within his leather pants.
Castiel gets up to pace near the window.

"Hey." He turns back to see Dean is toweling his hair in unzipped jeans, shirt hanging over his shoulder. It's the first time he's seen so much of him on display and he's.. beautiful. Castiel knows immediately he'd been staring too long because when he pulls his eyes up to his face, Dean raises an eyebrow and smirks knowingly. "Sorry, I tried to be quick."

Did he know the effect he was having? Was Dean purposefully..

He throws the shirt over his head and runs his hands over his stomach smoothing it down.
… Of course he did. He was punishing him for his earlier rebuff. So he would allow Dean this. But only this, because it would hurt far worse if he allowed himself for a second to entertain thoughts of anything more between them.

Castel swallows and tries to let go of the tension. "I don't think you tried very hard," he says dryly. Dean shrugs and grins harder, not looking the least bit remorseful.

Packing his leather jacket with several small bottles and a weapon or four, Dean announces he's ready to meet some angels.

There's an awkward moment outside where they just stare at each other. It'd been fun trying to tease him into.. well something other than that damn blank robot face of his. Dean knew he all confused and hot after seeing his angel again and would be damned if he would make it easy on him. He was betting Cas still felt something under all that "I can't be distracted" bullshit. If nothing else than to be a little hot under the collar while he was all naked only a doorway away. The cracked door he'd left just wide enough to get a look had kinda backfired since it made him hard as fuck. And now they were standing a foot apart and Cas was going to have to hold him close to take him up. Awesome.

He tried to push for driving but Cas had flat refused, saying his brothers would be angered enough by him bringing a human to them.

"Uh.. okay so.." he steps forward as Cas moves back a step. Dean gives him a look and he takes a deep breath and says, "Of course. Turn around."

For some reason, those words said in his gravelly voice made Dean's heart speed up for a second. Jesus, how had they ever done this when they were young?

Without another word, Dean faces away to the woods that line the back of the motel. Cas doesn't move right away and the tension from waiting there is doing a number on him. He almost jerks away when an arm comes up underneath his jacket and he's pulled back flush against him. He feels the heat of him all at once. Familiar. His arm warm through Dean's tshirt and his body a hot wall at his back. Dean had almost forgotten this. They don't move or lift up or anything. Just stand there for a moment with Cas' arm around him. Almost like they're hugging.

For a brief moment, it feels like Cas rests his forehead against the back of his head.

Dean closes his eyes and sucks in a breath before making himself ask, "Cas?"

In the time it takes him to open his eyes again, the arm tightens and he kicks off the ground.

Within only seconds of being in the air, Dean gets over any worries of their closeness. He would crawl inside Cas if it would make him feel less paranoid about being dropped. For some reason when he was younger, this wasn't as mind-numbly terrifying. What a fucking stupid teenager he had been. Green blurs below him too quick to focus on and he shuts his eyes tight, trying to suck air into his lungs. It feels like they're closing. He can't breathe. Why did he agree this.. he wasn't some goddamn bird.

"Breathe, Dean. You're alright," Cas says right above his ear, tightening his hold.

Slowly, he sucks a breath in deep. Then out. Then in again.

"Better?"

He nods with his eyes closed.

Dean concentrates on the tiny jerks of Cas' wings pushing them through the night and not anything else. Within minutes they're descending, which brings its own awful stomach tilting nausea.

As soon as his feet touch ground, he stumbles ahead a few feet and his arm is grabbed to keep him from falling forward. Cas lets him go and he bends over to hold his knees, panting.

"Goddammit."

Still hunched over, he looks up to see Cas twisting slightly in place and rolling his shoulders.

"You ok?"

"Yes. You are heavier than I remember."

Dean straightens, chuckling. "I'm not 15 anymore."

"I've noticed," Cas says with a blank face, but he takes a second to look him over once again before quickly turning. "Let's go."

"Go where? Cas, there's nothin' here. It's an empty field."

Squinting at him, the angel looks over his shoulder then back to him. Dean whirls then turns back with hands up in an unimpressed shrug. Cas walks a step towards him with a hand up and he can't help flinching away. He lowers his hand looking annoyed.

"I don't know if it'll help but I would like to try something. With your permission." He adds the last part, holding up his hand again.

Dean nods wearily as he steps close again until he's right in front of him and placing a palm over his eyes. Dean immediately tenses. It's more trust than he's shown anyone in a long time and it makes him antsy waiting for whatever Cas was doing.

"Take a breath."

Dean does.

"Again."

"Did you bring me here for some weird yoga, Cas because I really don't-"

"Be quiet, Dean."

Sighing, he shuts up and breathes deep again.

"Listen to every word I say and focus on forming a picture in your mind."

He waits as Dean breathes deep again.

"Now when you turn around, you will see a large tree that does not belong in a field such as this. Its trunk is the width of three men standing side by side and the branches reach high and numerous above."

After a moment where he seems to hesitate, Cas continues, "It actually is very similar to the tree we.." he pauses and Dean swallows hard knowing instantly what he was talking about. "..We were intimate under. Do you remember?"

"Yeah," he breathes. It's impossible not to get a flash of Cas rutting hard against him as he sucked his neck. "Got it."

Cas steers him to face the other way with eyes still covered. He slowly pulls away his hand and Dean blinks several times. And then in one blink to the next, it's just there. As if it always had been.

"Huh. Cool. Like a secret lair."

When he checks back to Cas, he's staring at it too with his face scrunched in concern.

"This gonna get you in trouble?"

"Are you concerned for me?" He glances at him but it's not a friendly look. Dean did push for this and he hadn't really asked about what it would mean for him. Without another word, he starts walking forward and Dean follows to stride next to him.

After a minute Dean asks, "So how many angels could fit in a tree? Huh, that sounds like a bad joke."

"The tree is only the visual exterior. It is a bend in reality where we are able to create a place for ourselves. This is where our garrison gathers while on earth. To strategize or to rest."

"In a tree."

Cas makes a noise that could have been a laugh but might have just been an annoyed huff.

As they step over thick roots to approach an expansive trunk, Cas doesn't slow. He reaches back to take Dean's hand and continues forward through the bark. There's a moment of pressure and his ears pop, then Cas lets go and he's standing in what looks like a large one-room cabin except the ceiling is too far up to see. Light is streaming in from somewhere but there's no light fixtures or windows.

"Whoa.." he whistles, following the wall up with his eyes. Hammocks begin after the first twenty feet or so feet. A wide shelf accompanies each one. If he squints, Dean can see knick knacks, books, small bottles. One towards the bottom has what looks like a small Superman figurine and maybe.. a cassette tape?

"Castiel," a dark blond male with a stern face stands up, bringing Dean's attention back down to the room in front of him. A wide round table is the focus of the room but there are cushy chairs spread out near it and throughout the space.

Another almost bleached blond in a v-neck has his legs crossed and propped on the table, smiling with his mouth open as he darts his eyes between them and the last angel. That one's farther away and Dean doesn't get a good look because the first guy is heading towards them without even glancing his way. His eyes are hard and steady to his left on Cas. He looks young but the way he carries himself makes Dean see him for the threat he is. He touches the blade's hilt in his jacket, not knowing if it would hurt an angel or not but needing some security.

"Michael," Cas says, but then he just walks past them, clipping Dean on the shoulder as he does, and goes out the way they came.

"Nice to meetcha!" Dean yells over his shoulder.

"What are you doing?" he hears from the one farthest back. He's short for an angel with honey brown hair that seems familiar.

"Bringing back strays? Let me guess, he followed you home. Now Cassie, you know the rules about pets." V-neck chuckles to himself.

"Hey. Billy Idol. I'm no one's pet." Dean says it with no thought that this was a supposed badass warrior of heaven. In that get up, how was he supposed to take him seriously? Thankfully he doesn't smite him but just purses his lips in amusement.

"I…" Cas starts. "This is Dean."

V-neck laughs again for seemingly no reason.

"These are my brothers, Gabriel and Balthazar."

"Hello, Dean," Gabriel says stepping forward but not taking his eyes from Cas.

"Hey…" it started off as a greeting but after getting a good look at him, alarm bells start going off.

"Articulate and easy on the eyes. I can see why my dear brother was so enthralled." Balthazar snidely says but Dean isn't paying attention to him.

"Sonofabitch! You're that fucking trickster!" Dean reaches for his weapon and moves to charge but with the sound of a snap, he's in a chair in front of Balthazar who waves sardonically.

"Take a seat why don't you."

He looks to his left to see Cas having a clipped conversation with the thing he killed over a year ago.

"So Dean, how's the extermination business going? Ridding the world of all that goes bump in the night?"

Dean turns from watching Cas' expressions to the smiling blond in front of him.

"What?"

"Uhh," Balthazar rolls his eyes. "You really are living up to every one of my expectations, aren't you?"

Dean glares at him. "Shut up. And why would an angel have a British accent?

"I have asked him that myself several times," Castiel says suddenly beside him. He puts a hand on Dean's shoulder and it helps him feel a little less on edge, despite the resurrected trickster smirking at him. "Some of us have spent more time amongst humans than others."

Balthazar winks. "So welcome to our home away from home. I tried to get them to model it after this cute little bordello in Spain but alas I was overruled."

He's distracted by the one called Gabriel coming around to perch on the arm of chair in front of him next to Balthazar. Cas is leaning against the back of Dean's chair with his arms folded and it feels like they're on separate lines of battle or something.

"Yeah it's great. So what's going on with him?" Dean lifts his chin in Gabriel's direction. "Why are you calling a trickster your brother?"

"He's not a trickster," Cas says.

"I just play one on tv." Gabriel adds, focused on opening a jollyrancher before tossing the wrapper behind him.

Look Cas. I don't trust-"

"Cas?" Balthazar practically giggles.

"He is my brother. An angel. And he tells me he gave you the knife you now carry so I assume you will not harbor any ill will."

One look up at Cas' hard face and Dean sighs. "Fine. Whatever. You tell 'em?"

"Yes." Turning to Balthazar, he says, "Alastair has returned."

Balthazar nods not looking particularly interested, before saying, "So, Cas.. you brought-"

"Stop it."

"Your boyfriend gets to."

"What?" Dean asks, confused at the tension.

"Nothing," Cas says, staring hard at his brother.

Dean frowns up at him, turning back in time to see Gabriel and Balthazar exchange a look. Balthazar turns smiling back at him and mockingly asks, "Can you even buy cigarettes, sweet cheeks? What are you 19, running around with daddy's guns and-"

"Dean is 23," Castiel interrupts, making everyone stop and look at him, especially Dean. Cas only flicks his eyes down at him for a second before diverting his gaze quickly away.

"Thank you for the correction, Cassie." Balthazar seems happy to just sit there wasting time and it's making him impatient. He didn't understand what half the tension was about and why Cas seemed to be standing just in front of him or if he should be on alert with the two dicks in front of him.

"So we gonna hang out in your angel clubhouse all day or what?" Dean leans forward to put elbows on his knees. He had an uncomfortable thought that whatever was going on was about him.

"Clubhouse," Gabriel smirks. "That's funny. So what's up with you showing up without a gift? Rude. Maybe we should kick you out. No boys allowed."

"What the hell do you think you are there, buddy?"

"Oh I am no boy, Dean-o.." It's suddenly threatening the way Gabriel stares at him hard with an alienness but grins toothily at the same time. His shoulders square with the familiar sound of feathers ruffling.

"Gabriel.." Cas sits up straight with hands at his sides.

"Chillax, Bro. We're just getting to know your friend." He puts heavy emphasis on the last word. "It's not every day you bring home a young man now is it?" he says sweetly.

Dean holds his gaze steadily, not understanding the wave of barely contained violence this thing had towards him suddenly. Even when he was about to kill him as the trickster, he seemed mocking at most.

Castiel takes a step closer to him and Dean sighs, so done with this shit. "Look can we do.. whatever this is later? You guys are fucking angels! Don't you wanna go after demons?"

"You hear that, Gabe? We're fucking angels," Balthazar informs him.

"Sound the trumpets." Gabriel shakes himself and resumes sucking loudly on the candy in his mouth.

"Oh god no. Inias has absolutely no ear. I wish they'd take that thing away from him. Anyway, what trouble are we getting into now that your human is house-calling?"

"Gabriel suggested Crowley," Cas relaxes his stance just the slightest and it brings his leg to rest against Dean's.

"Well no accounting for taste."

"Who's Crowley?" Dean asks.

Balthazar raises an eyebrow. "Have you ever heard the term 'making a deal with the devil'?"

"Yeah.."

"Well he's the one in a pretentious suit and crocodile-skin shoes brokering the deal. Him or one of his little butt buddy minions."

"He's a demon?" Dean almost growls and jumps to his feet. "What the hell-"

"Cool your jets there, Barbie," Gabriel cuts him off.

"Call me that again and I'll gank your angel ass-"

"Ooh I like it when he goes all Neanderthal. I can't imagine what this does for you, Cassie."

Castiel takes two steps and turns to stand between them. "Balthazar. Gabriel. Stop instigating a fight." He turns and gives him a steady look. "They are trying to help you."

Dean shifts in place, biting his tongue so he doesn't go off on how very unhelpful they've been.

"And Dean isn't going with us to speak with Crowley," Cas adds not looking at him.

"Oh, he isn't, huh?" Gabriel asks with a lilt.

"No, he isn't. We can't bring him there. You know the danger would be too great for a human."

"Cas! I'm a goddamn hunter. I'm going."

"Yeah. You really are." Gabriel grins with mischief.

"Gabriel!"

The last thing he sees is Cas' outraged face and Balthazar getting to his feet and cracking his neck before the air is suddenly knocked out of him from an angel barreling into him and with a whoosh and rush of wind.. they're suddenly in the sky.

Author's Note: So I imagined the tree a little bit like the green room from season 4. In that, Zachariah made a hotel suite for Dean.. here the angels made themselves a treehouse. :)

And Dean and Cas are reunited! Are you excited? I'm excited. Thank you for my feedback, lovelys. It really helps.