Interestingly enough, Dean was thinking the exact same thing.

As he leaned against a wall and allowed Cas to lean on his shoulder as they waited for Sam, the voices in Dean's head were becoming hysterical in their concern for Cas' well-being. Logically, he knew that Cas was a centuries old vampire who was more than capable of fending for himself. But Dean rarely listened to logic when people he cared about were on the line.

And when did that happen, anyway?

When did Cas go from being a nuisance, to being an invaluable friend to Dean? He couldn't pinpoint the exact moment, but it didn't really matter. What mattered was that he needed to do everything he could to not only protect his baby brother, but also his nerdy vampire from harm's way, and it was eating him alive not knowing if he'd be successful.

"So Cas," he said, breaking the thick silence. "Your, brethren, or whatever, wouldn't actually kill you, right?"

Cas blinked a few times, pulling himself out of his own thoughts. "No, I suppose it would not come to that."

Dean released a breath he didn't know he had been holding. "Okay good."

Without ceasing to lean on his shoulder, Cas took off his sunglasses and tilted his head to meet Dean eye-to-eye. "You are fully aware that you might not survive this upcoming battle, correct?" Dean merely smirked and nodded his head. "And yet you seem so, content, with this fate. Why?"

Dean sighed and shrugged his shoulders, He re-positioned them so that both his hands rested on Cas' shoulders and Cas' back was up against the wall. "As long as you and Sammy get out alive," he leaned in, just a fraction, "I'm happy," he said, giving Cas' shoulders a light squeeze. Cas did not miss the not-so-subtle glance at his lips that Dean took, all while he licked his own with a quick flick of the tongue. This wasn't the first time this had happened, and he had yet been able to decipher its meaning, but this time, in such close proximity, it felt... different. Cas doubted that Dean's lips were so dry all the time that he should be constantly licking them, and he only seemed to be aware of their dryness after he gazed upon Cas' own lips.

Just as a quick experiment, Cas licked his own lips, nice and slow, as he looked at Dean's. Dean caught this, and his eyes went wide. Cas noted that there was also a hint of pupil dilation and all of this information was... fascinating, to say the least. It was definitely something that would need to be explored upon later, at a more appropriate time. Maybe if he asked Dean about this human mannerism and what it meant he'd be able to enlighten him.

Before he got the chance to, however, both of them heard the sound of a heavy footfall coming their way. Immediately, Dean released Cas' shoulders and made a grab for his toy pistol, ready and already aiming in the direction of the footsteps. Cas found it interesting how quickly Dean could go from vulnerable to guarded in just a few milliseconds. He tucked this information with the rest of the data he didn't know why he was collecting.

"Before you shoot, which I know you're about to," came Sam's voice from around the corner, "you should know," he said as he came into view, "I come in peace." Sam's hands were also in the air, as if surrendering. Around his waist was a utility belt equipped with water guns of all size, presumably filled with dead man's blood. Dean could only assume this was the case, but he could never know for sure. Maybe his dorky brother had a few of them actually filled with water, in hopes of them having a water fight after everything was said and done.

"Soooo," Sam said. "When is the cast of Twilight due to arrive?"

Cas tilted his head in confusion, which made Dean cover his mouth to hide a smile and smother a laugh. He put it on his mental to-do list to A) explain that reference to Cas and B) stop finding him adorable.

As if on cue, a black Hummer screeched to a stop at the other end of the alley, and out popped the two pursuers from the drive-thru. They casually made their way over to the two hunters-who were grasping water guns so intensely it looked ludicrous out of context-and their back stabbing brother who bravely took a few steps forward.

"Meg," Cas said towards the female vampire with an underlying reverence to his tone, "Samandriel," he all but spat towards the blond male vampire. Dean remembered him from the store, him being the jerk that sold them out in the first place, so he could understand the distaste in Cas' words.

"Castiel," Samandriel retorted with just as much dread, "I hope you understand why I did what I did. It was only for your own good and-"

"Cut the crap, Samandriel," Cas said with an unbelievably calm voice as he took a few more steps forward, hesitantly followed by Sam and Dean. "I know that you think whatever twisted reason you ratted us out for was justified, when in reality, you just needed more of an excuse to shove your head even farther up Raphael's butt."

Despite the hilarity of mild-mannered Cas throwing shade at his siblings and throwing them off guard, Dean was still put on edge by the calmness of Cas' voice. He knew Cas well enough by now to know that that only meant that all of his anger was being bottled up and stored deep within him, to be used at a later time. He was putting on a show of not being angry, because when he did get angry, boy, did he get angry. Seeing Cas like this was like knowing for sure where a bomb was, but not knowing how many seconds you had left.

"Oh Clarence," purred Meg, and Cas visibly flinched at the nickname. (Dean added a new point on his to-do list: C) Question Cas about that later, and no, he was not feeling jealous that he wasn't the only one who had given him a nickname) "You're so hopelessly fooled by your pet humans, you can't even see clearly. Do you really want to go to war against your own family?"

Before Cas could answer, Samandriel added, "And think about your answer thoroughly, brother, don't just pick a choice to please your lover."

Sam glanced at the vampire and his brother just in time to see them both turn to their respective shades of red. Cas, crimson, out of anger, and Dean, scarlet, out of embarrassment no doubt.

"M-my what?" Cas stammered. Oddly enough, he wasn't upset about Samandriel's presumption, he was more distressed about Dean's potential reaction to his brother's words. What if Dean was disgusted by the very idea? Would he end their friendship? Cas wouldn't stand for it.

"Don't play coy with me brother," Samandriel continued, "I see right through you. I also see the way you so desperately want to protect your pets and the way he in particular looks at you, when you're not looking."

"Shut up." The last thing Cas wanted was for Dean to be aware of his actions and then stop out of shame.

"Hey, I wasn't gonna mention it." Mag unhelpfully added.

"Touchy, are we brother?" Samandiel said with a click of his tongue. "It's not like it's my fault you two are so obviously in love-"

"Shut up Samandriel, I'm warning you."

"But it's all fine. You sure do know how to pick 'em," Samandriel cocked his head to get a better view of Dean, and then whistled his approval. "I'm impressed. You have a very pretty boyfriend, for the record."

"Shut," Cas took a step forward, "Up."

All of Dean's anxiety about the opposing team flew out the window as nothing but worry about Cas took its place. Dean knew he was about to implode soon, he could feel it, (especially if Samandriel kept up with the slick remarks) and Dean could do nothing but just hope beyond hope that when Cas went berserk he also didn't do anything that he would regret.

Something along the lines of actually killing one of his kin.

Or even accidentally slaying a Winchester.

If he had to choose, Dean hoped for the former, not the latter, but really, neither would be best.

"Cas," Dean warned, "Don't let him get to your head, he's just trying to rile you up."

"Awww," Meg cooed, "Is that what you call my baby brother? Cas? Ya know without the "iel" at the end, meaning "of God," you're basically making him yours right?"

That did it.

Repeating "shut up" as if it were a mantra, Cas threw his baseball cap off and took large, menacing steps towards the two vampires, refusing to use his vampiric speed out of rebellion and spite. On the third step he took, a vat of liquid was spilled on top of his head from above, seemingly at random. To Sam and Dean's horror, Cas released blood curdling screams as the liquid started to sizzle his skin. As the they ran to go help their friend, Dean looked up to see dozens of grinning faces bearing tooth and fang smiles, watching them from the rooftops of the two buildings forming the alley.

They were surrounded.

When they reached Cas, he bit his lip to keep from screaming and started to cry instead, which made Dean want to just crawl into a ball and die at the sight of it. They were also able to confirm what they had already knew. He had been ambushed with dead man's blood. And if a bunch of vampires just having copious amounts of a liquid-that was liable to kill them if not handled properly-just lying around was not the stupidest and most suicidal thing Dean had ever heard of, he didn't know what was.

Sam reached into one the pockets on his belt that was on his back, pulled out a gun, and promptly started to spray Cas. It took everything in Dean's power not to punch his dear brother in the face.

"WHAT ARE YOU DOING?" He yelled. Somehow Dean had missed the memo where it said that a reasonable solution to stopping a burning sensation was obviously to drench the victim in more of the irritant.

"Relax," Sam soothed, "I brought water too, just in case something like this happened."

Upon seeing how the water stopped Cas' tears and even brought a faint smile to his face, this time it took everything in Dean's power not to kiss his brother on the face.

Content to let Sam cater to Cas' injuries, Dean got up just in time to see that all of the fiddlers on the roof, vampire edition, had made their way down into the alley, surrounding the three of them even more severely.

"Yo jerk offs!" Dean yelled defiantly to one of the crowds of vampires. "Let's get this over with."

"Dean!"

Dean turned around to see Cas, still on the ground yet trying to stand up, and Sam, gone.

Well, not gone, gone.

On closer inspection, Dean could see that one of the crowds of vampires had taken Sam, tied him in rope, and gagged him in the five seconds he had his back turned. Those blood suckers must have used their speed to snatch Sam, and Cas had been too weak to fight them off.

He helped Cas to his feet and let him use him as support with his arm over his shoulder and Dean's arm around his waist. He knew Cas would get all of his energy back in a matter of seconds, but he knew that he just needed some time.

He needed to stall.

"Hey!" Dean barked at the vamps holding his brother hostage, "That's cheating! Why do you even need another player? The ratio is like, a hundred to two. Do you guys really have that low of confidence in yourselves?"

One of the vampires, an older looking one with a balding grey head, scoffed at Dean's remark. "Of course we don't expect gigantor here to help us fight you, it's more of the principle of the thing."

He was interrupted by a female vampire with blood red hair. "This fight will be between us, Castiel, and the human who corrupted him."

"Oh, well, ok then." Dean faked offense, "I think I understand now. Whoever put each individual stick up the butts of you guys also failed to teach you the importance of fair play. Isn't that right, Cas?" Dean included him in on the conversation to test how he was doing based on the tone of his voice.

"Indeed that is correct Dean," Cas said as he removed his arm from Dean's shoulder and stood up straight, "There was even an entire Spongebob episode dedicated to this very subject."

Dean smiled at the comment. His singed skin was back to normal and Cas was back in business. They rearranged themselves so that they were back-to-back and waited for the first vampire stupid enough to come sprinting towards them.