A/N: Oh you guys! Thanks so much for reviewing, I read them all at college and they made me smile waaay too much. Here's the next chapter, I'll probably update later today again to be honest because THATS THE FUN THING ABOUT BEING A UK SPN FAN is that you get to stay up until 2AM to watch the new Season Gr8 Episode on a crappy livestream yay! So plenty of time of fanfic writing. Anyway, thanks again for reviewing, enjoy :)
Sam had to admit it was kind of eerily cool how the second Dean bolted from the kitchen wailing and crying was the exact moment Bobby's age old smoke detector decided to burst into life, as if joining in with Dean's tortured howls.
"Oh for Christ's- Sam! Open a damn window would ya?" Bobby cried over the cacophony, wheeling himself over to the oven. With an impatient air, he grabbed a tea towel off the counter and wrenched open the oven door, immediately filling the room with thick, grey smoke.
Of course, being who he was, Sam's first instinct upon seeing the smoke was to grab the table salt Bobby helpfully kept a hefty supply of on the counter, but he soon realised his mistake when Bobby leaned into the dark cloud and pulled out a very black, very flat looking cake.
Ah, no demons then. Just his brother's equally scary attempt at baking.
Sam darted to the windows above the sink and flung them wide, before proceeding to climb up on the table and swat his hands in front of the smoke detector, trying to clear the air around it. It worked after a while, and the silence felt like a soothing lullaby to the men's ears. Bobby flung the ruined cake noisily into the sink, grumbling something Sam didn't quite catch about living in a asylum and not even getting a cake out of it.
Sam clambered down awkwardly, his gangly limbs hitting the lampshade on the way. Bobby closed his eyes and took a deep breath in before speaking.
"Well…" He began, but a noise from above suddenly stopped him mid-sentence. "What now?!"
"If you could see that I'm the one who understands you, been here all along so why can't you seeeeeeeeee, you belong with meeeeeee!"
Sam's blood ran cold, and he listened with horror as his brother's deep, masculine voice drowned out the pop-country twang of Taylor Swift. He glanced down at Bobby, who was looking very pale, and staring at the ceiling, as if willing the noise from above to stop.
"Oh god…" Sam said, running his hands through his hair in anguish, "he found my iPod."
They moved into the living area and closed the door in a vain attempt to drown out the unwavering screech of Dean attempting notes far, far out of his range, but unfortunately Bobby's old house was not built for soundproofing.
"Romeo save me I've been feeling so alone, I keep waiting for you but you never come…"
"How many damn songs does this chick have?!" Bobby yelled as he wheeled himself one-handed in a circle, pouring a viscous, amber oil onto the floor as he went. Sam shrugged from his position seated on the desk and looked sheepish.
"I have both her albums. Not the new one though. I need to get that actually-HEY!"
Sam only just managed to swerve out of the way of the book on mountain trolls Bobby aimed impressively at his head.
"It's your damn fault for buying that hippy chick's soppy kid-pop in the first place!" Bobby cried, jabbing a finger at Sam accusingly and wheeling himself back to his position behind the desk.
"Hey! Taylor is teen country and western singer slash songwriter-"
He was interrupted by a loud crash as Castiel appeared out of nowhere, a struggling, naked man clasped tightly to his chest. They fell to the floor together, the Cupid clearly squashing Castiel quite impressively, making the furniture in the room jump a few inches into the air and the whole house tremble.
"For God's sakes, this place is not strong enough to withstand an angel battle!" Bobby cried angrily, wheeling himself over towards where the two new guests had landed.
"Um, Sam?" Castiel wheezed from underneath the flailing Cupid. "Do you think you could-ah! alight the trap now?"
Sam blinked, and then remembered the circle of Jerusalem oil Bobby had laid out mere moments before. He reached for his lighter, and set the oil ablaze with the practiced efficiency of a hunter used to burning bones in graveyards at 2am in the freezing cold.
Sam tried not to let the fact that Castiel was willing to be trapped in the flames himself distract him from the irritation he still felt over the angel's ignoring his prayers earlier. Still, it was nice that he was so trusting. Or maybe he'd just do anything to save his precious Dean.
As soon as the trap was lit, Castiel released his fierce hold on the Cupid, who stood up, looking more pissed off than Sam would have thought possible for a soldier of lurrrve.
"What is the meaning of this?!" The Cupid cried, probably thinking he looked intimidating. To be honest, if he wanted to have that effect, he needed to start wearing clothes. "Release me at once!" He said, stamping his foot on the floor. If Sam hadn't known better, he would have thought he saw Cas roll his eyes.
"Hello again." Sam said grimly, trying to look scary and not-to-be-messed with, like Dean when he interrogated people. "I'd like to ask you a quick favour."
"Well you can shove it, Rapunzel! I don't take orders anymore!" The Cupid actually stuck his tongue out to emphasise his point. Sam's brow furrowed for a second, and he tossed his hair back self-consciously.
"Look, I don't care about your weird little feud with Heaven – you messed with my brother and I want him back!" Sam said, stepping almost dangerously close to the flames.
The Cupid sniffed and turned his back on Sam. Castiel suddenly growled, spurring into action. He grabbed the Cupid by the shoulder and whirled him round so that they were face to face. Well, vessel to vessel.
"You listen to me, you little brat," Castiel snarled, and it sounded incredibly menacing in that low, gravelly voice. Sam raised his eyebrows at Bobby, who actually smirked a little and looked away, "I'm sick and tired of your kind merrily running around shooting arrows wherever you please, and leaving us to clean up your messes. You're the children, the babies of our Paradise, and you're nothing but an embarrassment. So you've decided to fall because the orders weren't quite to your liking? Diddums." Sam actually spluttered a little at that. The Cupid was just standing there open-mouthed as Castiel let what must have been thousands of years of pent up anger rain down upon him. "I will not allow you to flit about manipulating humans in this way any longer, it is unacceptable. And now that you've chosen to use your powers on Dean…" Castiel's expression darkened, and he smirked a little. Sam found it very unsettling. "I'm going to report you to our superiors."
Sam sucked in a breath. He knew what that meant - the archangels. He of all people knew that they were not to be messed with. A wail came from the Cupid's mouth, although for a second Sam thought it was still Dean, warbling along to 'I'd Lie' now. Sam would never admit it, but that was his favourite. Castiel cocked his head to the side for a moment, as if trying to decipher what the noise from upstairs was, but quickly regained his focus.
"No! No, brother I'm sorry! I didn't mean to upset you! Please don't report me, I'll do anything!" The Cupid had Castiel by the lapels of his coat, and suddenly buried his face into the angel's shoulder, sobbing noisily. Castiel looked vaguely disgusted, and then sighed.
"I suppose we could come to an agreement." Castiel said, loud enough to cover Dean – who was still going strong. Sam risked a glance at Bobby from outside the blazing ring, and the old hunter gave him a shrug.
"Yes! Yes, thankyou brother. Anything." The Cupid said excitedly, leaning back. Sam smirked a little at the wet patch left on Castiel's shoulder.
"Release Dean Winchester from whatever curse, spell or enchantment you have him under currently." Castiel said simply, and folded his arms across his chest protectively.
The Cupid suddenly looked exasperated and rolled his eyes exaggeratedly, like they were all idiots. "I can't! Obviously, he's in love. Cupid's can't stop you from being in love!"
Castiel looked confused. Sam had slightly emitted part of the story when telling Cas about what had happened. He'd just sort of… left out the bit where the Cupid had said Dean was in love. He wasn't sure why he had. He just had a feeling Cas might react… strangely.
"I don't understand." Castiel said in response to the Cupid's revelation. Sam purposefully didn't look at either angel.
The Cupid let out a long suffering sigh.
"But the story of us looks a lot like a tragedy now!"
Sam shook his head in disbelief. When this was over, he was getting Dean singing lessons. Oh no… was he crying again? Sure enough, every line or so a distinct and very childlike wail could be heard. Sam ran his hands through his hair again.
"I sensed a…" the Cupid raked his eyes over Castiel's guarded form and broke into a huge grin, "very profound love within Dean. So I decided to break down his inhibitions! Just until it's found and returned of course. He's such a defensive little thing – oodles of trust issues there. He would never have done anything about it otherwise." Castiel still looked confused.
"Wait a minute… so he'll be like this until this 'love' of his is 'found and returned'?" Sam didn't usually use inverted commas as a hand gesture because Dean said it looked idiotic, but right now he felt it was needed. This was starting to get ridiculous. Ha. Starting.
"Yep!" The Cupid said, far too cheerily in Sam's opinion, and cast a sideways glance knowingly at Castiel, whose eyebrows were so knotted together in confusion, they were probably on a first-name basis.
"But how are we supposed to know who the hell he's in love with?!" Sam asked, when nobody else seemed to want to say anything. Other than Dean of course, who was still singing like a trooper.
The Cupid looked at Sam and laughed aloud, bending over double and wiping a tear from his eye. When he saw Sam was not laughing with him however, he straightened up. "You're kidding, right?" Sam shook his head in wonder. Castiel gulped. "They both fill up the room with their love! It's so strong! Are you seriously telling me you can't feel it, even when they're both right next to you?!" The Cupid seemed to be asking Sam, who was starting to sense that something big was about to be uncovered. He shook his head again, a little more nervously this time.
"Oh for God's sakes, isn't it obvious?" Bobby cried suddenly, and Sam jumped as if only just remembering he was there. Bobby wheeled himself around to the front of the desk, carefully avoiding the still-bright flames. "He's in love with Cas."