The Power of Two:

"Nathan," Dean came up behind him. "We need to talk."

Nathan sighed and hung his head, pausing for a second in his ministrations before he continued to clean the disassembled 9mm with a slid. "What?" he asked tiredly.

Dean slid in across from him. "Are you sure you want to do this?"

Nathan looked up with furrowed brows. "You taught me, Dean, so I think that I can put it back together right so that it still works."

"What? No, I'm not talking about that; if I didn't think that you could put it back together right, I never would have let you take it apart." Dean waved his hand. "I mean about going with Castiel."

"Of course I do," Nathan went back to cleaning. "I wouldn't have said anything if I didn't."

"Are you sure about that?" Dean asked. "You are under a lot of pressure."

"Look," Nathan put everything down and stared at Dean. "Castiel may be a little frightening, with all that power that you can feel coming off of him, but despite that there is no way that he'd be able to force me to do anything."

"He kidnapped you." Dean pointed out.

"Yes, he did." Nathan agreed reluctantly. "But he didn't hurt me or force me to do anything; he just talked, wanted to tell me his side of it."

"He just wanted us out of the way so that we couldn't point out whether or not he was lying."

Nathan glared at him. "No, he wanted to get me away from you guys because he couldn't get a word in edge wise."

"Do you really believe that?"

"I believe, Dean, that you think what you're going through is more important that what he is!" Nathan growled.

Dean's eyes brows raised in surprise; not expecting that. And maybe he was just saying these things to get Nathan angry so that his brother would be true to himself and others—because getting him angry seemed the only way.

"And why the hell do you keep doing this?" he demanded now. "You say can't stand to look at me and now you can't keep talking to me and everything you say makes me feel useless, like I have no business to be here, but I have every right to do so!"

"You're right." Dean agreed.

Nathan sat back. "What?"

"You're right." Dean repeated. "I couldn't, not at first because dad and Bobby lied—you were just like Adam."

"Who's Adam?"

"He was out other brother." Dean said off-handedly. "I was afraid to think of you as my brother because—this is going to stand so cliché—but everyone that I love, dies."

Nathan knew that it was awful, but he could help the snort that left him. "You can't honestly believe that."

Dean glared at him. "I wouldn't joke about something like that."

"Oh, I believe you on that part." Nathan nodded. "But what you said isn't true—technically. People that you have loved had died, but not because you love them; you just happened to have loved them. They didn't die because of you, but they died because of the Supernatural—because of Demons."

Dean looked at him, he supposed what Nathan had said was true; it wasn't his love that was a curse. But it had always felt that way; first mom, then dad and Sam—Adam, before he even got to know the kid. And it was all because of the Supernatural, because of the Yellow-Eyed Demon. If the Demon hadn't killed John than Mary wouldn't have made that Deal, if Mary hadn't made that Deal than Sam wouldn't have had Demon blood in his system and Mary wouldn't have died, if Mary hadn't died than dad wouldn't have gotten into the Hunting business, if that didn't happen than he wouldn't have had Adam and then Adam wouldn't have died, then dad wouldn't have died, than Sam wouldn't have died, and if that didn't happen than Dean wouldn't have had to sell his Soul and go to Hell; resulting in the Apocalypse. It was an exhausting thought, but for some reason he felt relief in hearing it—but for some reason he knew that if anyone else had told him, he wouldn't feel this way.

Dean jutted out his chin. "I thought that if I could get you to hate me or something, that it be easier to want to hate you back. And, getting you pissed seems to bring something out in you that does make me think that having you here wouldn't cause more damage than not."

"I suppose you're right." Nathan avoided his eyes by staring at his nose. "When I get pissed because of what you say, I feel like I have to prove myself to you so I try and do better." but his expression said that he wasn't happy about it one bit.

Dean couldn't help the twitch of his lips. "So, you are sure about going with Cas?" he asked once more.

Nathan rolled his eyes. "For the last time, yes!"

"Okay," Dean held up his hands. "Just wanted to make sure."

"You do know that Castiel won't let anything happen to me, don't you?" Nathan asked. "You've known him longer than I have, and I trust him with my life. I can tell that you guys are friends, you do trust him, don't you? That's not the reason why you keep asking if I've made the right choice."

"Of course he's my friend, and I trust him with my life—he's saved my ass more times than I can count." Dean hastened to say. "I'm worried about him, is all. He's under a lot of pressure and he has a million things on his mind—I'm just afraid that by taking you along with him, he's adding one more thing to that pile and he might not be able to keep an eye on you the whole time."

"Thanks for your concern." Nathan said, somewhat dryly. He could understand what Dean was getting at, but the way he said it made it sound like he was a little kid, and someone always had to keep an eye on him or he was gonna draw on the wall or something. "I don't know how many times I have to say this, but I'm not a kid, Dean. More than anything, going with Castiel is for my own protection."

Dean raised his brows at that, surprised at the omission. "Are you sure that Cas didn't push you into this?"

Nathan scoffed at him. "I told you before..."

"Yeah, but if it's just for your protection, I didn't think that you'd go along with it so easily." Dean baited.

Nathan sighed; he was not going to get pissed. "I do have to admit that I was very much reluctant to go along with it, but I also have to say that after awhile, Castiel can be very persuasive. And, I thought that you'd be happy about this, dad too."

"Who says I wasn't?" Dean raised a wicked brow.

Nathan shook his head, incredulous. "What is wrong with you?"

"The usual." he replied flippantly.

"Whatever you say." Nathan didn't comment further and went back to cleaning the gun before reassembling it; Dean was silent as he just watched his brother.

In a few hours, Castiel was going to came and Nathan was going to go. Dean had no idea when the hell he was going to see either of them again and hopefully until that happened—the world wouldn't go to total and complete shit.