The atmosphere in the car was icy, to say the least. Sam had taken his usual position, riding shotgun, and Cas was sitting in the back. Dean was driving, of course, his jaw set as he for once kept his eyes on the road.

Cas was staring out of the window as if he were in some kind of dramatic scene from a TV show. The whole thing looked kind of comical, really, if it weren't for the fact that Sam was right in the fucking middle of it. He cleared his throat.

"Hey, wanna put some music on?" he suggested to Dean, who shrugged.

Sam chose his next steps carefully. He knew it would be fatal if he put his own music into the machine, so he decided to put on some AC/DC. That could never go wrong with Dean. And sure enough, after a few moments of Back in Black, the eldest Winchester started drumming on the steering wheel, mouthing along the words.

After a few more moments he was 'singing' along loudly.

Sam sighed. He didn't know what was worse, this or the car basically freezing over.

"I don't understand why I need to be here. I could just fly-"

"Cas, we've already talked about this," Sam groaned. "For one, we don't know how damaged your mojo is. And secondly, if you're hunting with us, we should stick together."

"But I'd really rather not stay in the car with those sounds coming from it."

Dean abruptly stopped singing. "Then leave."

"All right, that's it. Dean, pull over at that tank station," Sam ordered.

Dean just frowned, not obliging.

"Dean, pull the fuck over!"

He jumped, quickly driving to the petrol station and parking the car. Sam leaned sideways so that he could look at both Dean and Cas.

"I am going for a walk. When I get back you two'd better be behaving normally towards each other, or there'll be Hell to pay," the youngest Winchester snapped.

Dean bit his tongue to keep from pointing out the irony in that sentence. Sam glared at them both one last time before throwing the door open and getting out of the car. An awkward silence followed. Dean cleared his throat.

"What does Sam want us to do?" Cas asked then.

Dean looked at him through the mirror. The angel was staring at the hands on his lap. He looked so dejected that the hunter felt his anger melting. Sighing, he turned around.

"Cas, what's going on, man?" he asked gently. "You seem real freakin' upset about something."

Cas didn't look up, though his face actually seemed to redden slightly.

"Cas?" Dean tried again.

Still, no answer. Sighing, he opened the car door. Castiel looked up, startled. Slight hurt covered his expression which quickly melted into nervousness as Dean opened the door to the seat next to him.

"Castiel."

The angel glanced up from hearing his real name coming from Dean's lips. The latter put his hand on Cas' shoulder.

"What's wrong?"

Cas finally opened his mouth, blushing furiously for some reason. "Dean, I.. I can't tell you.."

"Why not, huh? C'mon dude, you know you can trust me," Dean urged.

Cas' blue eyes met Dean's green ones, and he took a deep breath. "I.. I'll tell you when we arrive at the motel. I do not wish to talk about this inside a car."

Dean stared at Cas for a while before nodding. "Fine by me. Hey, and let's do Sam and ourselves a favour and just pretend like nothing's happened, all right? I don't know about you, but I was getting kind of sick of the hostility."

The angel nodded in agreement. "I don't like it when you're so unfriendly towards me," he admitted quietly.

Dean wasn't sure what to say. "Yeah, well uhh.. same here. Let's just.. not be unfriendly towards each other any more, okay?"

"Okay."

The hunter nodded to himself, for a moment not being sure what to do with himself. He cleared his throat, and patted Cas' knee before opening the door again. He sat down in the driver's seat, feeling his face heat up from the awkwardness. Where the fuck was that long-haired moose when you needed him..

A few more minutes of torturing awkward silence before Sam finally threw open the car door, making both Cas and Dean jump.

"You two done with your tantrums?" Sam asked sternly.

Dean glared at his brother. "You just shut up and mind your own business."

"Whatever, man. As long as you keep it between yourselves," Sam said tiredly, running a hand through his hair.

No one replied. After a few seconds they were back on the road. It was quiet again, but it wasn't the same silence as before. Sam could at least relax now. He closed his eyes, feeling himself drift off.

Meanwhile, Dean threw a glance at Cas through the mirror. The angel was staring woefully out of the window again, causing Dean to sigh.

"Want to pick the music, Cas?"

Castiel jumped up, startled at being pulled from his train of thought. "Erm.. no, thank you."

Dean hadn't expected much different. "All right."

He tried a different tactic. "So.. what do you think we're dealing with?"

Cas looked at him questioningly, tilting his head.

"Y'know, the case."

"Oh. I'm not sure."

The eldest Winchester suppressed another sigh, accepting that a conversation was just not happening.

"Dean?"

"Yeah."

"What.. what if my grace isn't fully healed yet when we encounter whatever this creature is?"

"Cas, I'm sure your grace will be fine. And if not, it's not a problem. You've got the best teachers in the world with you." Dean glanced at his sleeping little brother, satisfied to see that he hadn't twitched a muscle during the conversation.

"I just hope that I'll still be able to protect you and Sam," Cas said quietly.

Dean looked back at Cas for a moment. "That's not all you're here for. You're not our bodyguard, Cas."

Cas didn't reply.

"Anyway, whatever the hell that thing is, it better not give us a hard time. That's the last thing I fucking need," the hunter muttered, more to himself than to anyone else.

He started when Sam shifted next to him, stretching loudly before asking, "Anyone hungry?"

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