Sam gave his brother a confused stare. It wasn't like Dean to ask to talk. He was a more action-oriented kind of guy. "It's important, it's about Cas." Sam nodded hesitantly, and followed his brother out onto the porch. Dean shifted to a spot where he could just see Cas through the window. He didn't waste time beating around the bush. "Cas is vulnerable right now. He's sick, and he might be that way for a while. He doesn't need protecting or anything, but we can't take him on hunts for a few months." Sam instantly looked worried about their friend. "What's wrong with him? Isn't there something we can do to help him?"

Dean just shook his head, still not looking at his brother. "This is one of those things that just have to be allowed to run their course. He'll be fine. That isn't really what I wanted to talk with you about." Sam nodded, more confused than ever. "What's going on, Dean?" His big brother gave him a sidelong glance, gathering his courage. "What would you say if I told you that I'd started dating Cas?" Sam snorted, smirking at Dean. "That's easy. I'd say it was about damn time. The amount of eye-sex you guys send at each other is downright disturbing." Dean grimaced. He could hear it in Sammy's playful, mocking tone. His baby brother wasn't taking this seriously. He'd have to take the direct approach. "Sam, I kissed him."

For a second, it looked like Sam thought Dean was just kidding. But, the longer Dean's expression stayed serious, the more doubt crept in, until Sam was looking at his brother like he'd just stabbed a fork into his leg. "You mean… you kissed him on the temple or something, right? Like, to comfort him?" Dean closed his eyes, letting out a deep sigh. "No, Sam. I kissed him on the mouth. He kissed me back. There was tongue involved. We're sort of boyfriends now." Sam gaped at Dean, completely flabbergasted. "You can't be serious. Dean, Cas is a freaking angel! Not to mention he's a guy!"

Dean glared at his giant of a brother. "Yeah, he's an angel, but God hasn't smote my ass so far, and Cas would have told me if that was a possibility. And sure, his vessel is a dude, even if angels don't really have genders. I don't know what to tell you, Sam. If it were any other guy… But it's not, this is Cas we're talking about. He's an exception." Sam looked away, thinking about this. He winced as he got a mental visual of Dean and Cas having sex, and had to shake the image from his brain. That made him focus on Cas, and suddenly everything got very serious.

He turned back to his big brother. "Dean, I can see you kissing him. You guys really have been through a lot together, and it's not like he's ugly. Being in a real relationship though… I mean, have you really thought about it? Have you thought about what it could do to Cas if you end up changing your mind? What are you going to do if Castiel wants to have sex some day? Do you really think you could handle that?" Dean clenched his jaw, and crossed his arms over his chest, angling his body away from Sam. His face had gone bright red. Sam narrowed his eyes in suspicion. "No… No way… You didn't! When?" Dean growled at him in warning. "It doesn't matter! It happened, that's all you need to know!"

Sam was just staring now, as though Dean were a total stranger to him. "You know what, Sammy? I don't regret it, either! Castiel has worked his ass off for us, sacrificed everything he ever knew, been hunted by his own family, died for us, for me, numerous times! The one thing, the only thing he's asking for in return, is for me to love him as much as he loves me. That isn't asking too much!" Sam looked his brother straight in the eyes. "So you're saying that you're doing this for his sake? Isn't that the same as saying that you don't really love him?" Dean looked like Sam had punched him. "I don't think there's anyone who knows Cas better than you do, Dean. But do you love him?"

Dean swallowed, trying to clear his abruptly tight throat. He thought back on all of his memories of Cas, everything they'd been through. He'd always had a bond with the angel, from the moment Cas had 'raised him from perdition'. Cas had always answered his calls, every single time, and he'd learnt to have faith in humanity from the Hunter, to the point where he'd abandoned Heaven for him. Cas had never stopped believing in him, even when Dean had stopped believing in himself. He'd been forcibly reprogrammed by Michael's cronies, but he'd still used his own blood to help Dean escape, and get him to Sam.

Even when Dean had botched up stopping Sam from killing Lilith, and he'd spiraled firmly into 'loser' status, Cas had still expected more from him. He hadn't given up. Sometimes, the angel could seem so naïve and childlike, practically swimming in his trenchcoat, not understanding pop culture references, and wearing his tie backwards. The look on his face when Dean had taken him to that 'den of iniquity' had been absolutely priceless. He couldn't help but give a warm smirk at the mental image. Even at his most misguided of times, Cas had only been doing his best for Dean.

Then, other times, when Dean was in trouble, and there was nobody else to save him, Cas had never let him down. The angel was reliable and strong, completely dependable. For the first time since his dad had died, he'd had somebody looking out for him, keeping him safe and patching him up when he got hurt. Cas had even saved his ass from Crowley's minions. He probably didn't even know about all of the things which Cas had done to protect him. Even when every instinct he'd had was screaming at him not to trust the angel, he'd wanted to trust him.

They'd all made their mistakes, but Cas had been so unable to bare the guilt of his own misdeeds that he'd been willing to take Sam's madness into himself, and later insisted on staying behind in Purgatory to repent. Cas was the very definition of 'good' in his books. The angel was the best thing that had ever happened to him. They brought out the best in each other. When he really thought about it, he was a little surprised that it had taken the two of them as long as it did for them to become a couple. They made a really great team. Even when all of the other angels had abandoned Earth, future-Cas had chosen to stay behind and fight for him, even at the cost of his mojo. Dean had never known anyone more loyal.

He'd been thinking a lot lately, about the time he'd spent with Cas in Purgatory. Castiel had pretty much tricked him into leaving him behind. If he hadn't done that, if he'd tried to refuse to leave from the beginning… Dean would have stayed with him. He never would have let the angel face that place without him. What was that, if not love? There were only two people he ever would've willingly spent time in a less-than-utopian afterlife for. Those two were Sam and Cas. He'd said before that Cas was like a brother to him, but could he really have had sex with him, and enjoyed it as much as he did, if he really only thought of him as a sibling?

Hell no! If it had been Sam begging him for sex, Dean would have just let him suffer. It wasn't a life-threatening situation, so he wouldn't even have felt guilty for it. He'd done it for Cas, though. It had felt a little awkward, sure, but also a little normal. He'd never felt safer with anyone than he did with Cas, not even with Sammy. Castiel could own Sam if he ever chose to. Since the angel's most recent resurrection, Dean had found it almost ridiculously easy to trust him again, because he knew better than anybody who Castiel truly was. He was a guardian, a protector and healer, someone who would never not care about him, someone who would never intentionally do him harm.

The angel's greatest betrayal hadn't even been directly to him. It was Sam's mind he'd broken, and he'd fixed that as soon as he'd been himself again, despite the terrible toll it had taken on him. The worst possible situations were behind them. Castiel would throw himself back into Purgatory before he'd let himself become the kind of creature who would hurt Dean like that for a second time. He wasn't going to turn into future-Cas, either, not with Lucifer and Michael locked away, and Dick killed. There would be no final Apocalypse with the angels abandoning them, no Croatoan virus, no powerless, mortal Cas.

It had almost killed him, seeing Castiel like that, with no faith or hope left. He'd been almost unrecognizable, radiating a bitterness which Dean had never seen in him before. The only thing that hadn't changed was the way he was willing to follow Dean anywhere, and that in itself had been painful to see. It just didn't matter what gender Castiel's vessel was. How could it? He hadn't fallen in love with Jimmy Novak's body. He'd fallen in love with Cas. It was just that simple. Nobody could tell him that the way he felt for Cas was wrong, not even Sammy, because that just wasn't true.

Sam had been watching Dean's thoughts play out on his face the whole time, silently waiting while his brother figured everything out. Dean turned to him, with such conviction in his eyes that, no matter what Dean said next, it would be impossible for him to dispute it. "Yeah, Sam. I love him. I'm not going to change my mind, or have any doubts in him. I'm afraid you're going to have to either learn to deal with it, or go your own way until you've gotten over it." It wasn't a long speech, but it said everything that he needed it to. Sam watched him for a few seconds, but Dean didn't crack. He nodded, admitting defeat. "Okay. You love him. From now on, when I'm booking hotel rooms, I'll stay with Bobby and Gabe, or on my own."

Dean only hesitated for a second. "You're gonna stick around? It doesn't creep you out or anything?" Sam shot him a dry look, with one raised eyebrow. Or, as Dean liked to call it, 'Bitch Face #thirteen'. "It's weird, but I'll live. I'm a Hunter, Dean. I've seen a lot worse. Just don't go jumping his bones in public. You might blind people. Literally." Dean snorted at the lame joke, relief at Sam's acceptance making his limbs feel a bit wobbly. "Well, now that we've finished this episode of Oprah, I'm gonna head for bed. It's been a rough day. I can promise you that you won't have anything to worry about with me and Cas tonight, so you should go to bed too."

The next day they were getting ready to leave when Gabriel showed up. As he entered and scanned the room, he took a double-take at Castiel. He stared at him, his eyes narrowing, before asking in an ominous tone, "What have you done?" Castiel's eyes widened, he instinctively backed into the wall, and let his angel-blade fall from his sleeve into his hand. Dean, in what was probably a supremely idiotic move, stepped between them with a hand on his ganking-knife. Gabriel huffed at them, raising his hands in submission. "Don't get your panties in a twist, I'm the last one you've got to worry about. You're damn lucky Anna is running Heaven now. Michael would've pulled a Luci on your ass."

Dean shot a questioning look at Cas, but the angel turned his head away, clenching his jaw. Gabriel watched the interaction, and smirked. "He didn't tell you, did he? He's breaking the rules, big time. Having kids with the humans is a major no-no." Dean whipped his head around to glare at Gabriel, confused and scared. Gabe just raised an eyebrow at him. "It's written all over his Grace. He might as well be walking around with a neon sign around his neck saying 'If you're not human, back the fuck up or get ganked!'. I would literally have to be blind to not see it, and even then I'd probably still be able to sense it."

Dean thought about this. "Why didn't you notice it yesterday?" Gabriel shook his head, sighing at how stupid humans could be. "It hadn't been activated yet, or those vamps would have sensed him coming, and done anything they could to get the hell out of there. It probably only started when that one chick threatened the baby. Before then, the neon sign wasn't necessary." Dean nodded to himself, what Gabe was saying made sense. "So, anything that isn't human is gonna know he's coming from a mile away? We're gonna have to take you to Bobby's place, Cas. We can't have you tipping off the nasties." Castiel nodded, although he didn't look too happy about the decision.

Just then they heard the Impala pull in. Sam was back from his morning grocery shopping. They were going to have breakfast before they left. Dean quickly turned to Gabriel. "You breathe a word about the baby to Sam before I've had a chance to tell him, and I'll Molotov you with Holy Oil!" The archangel glared dryly at him, but he kept his mouth shut for once. Sam walked in with a brown paper bag filled with hamburgers, salad and fries, a cardboard four-cup coffee holder in his other hand. Gabriel moved to take the groceries from him, and helped him set everything up on the table.

Sam was looking at everyone suspiciously, wondering why everybody had stopped talking. Castiel was hovering behind Dean, looking worried and holding his angel blade for some reason, while Dean kept shooting warning glares at Gabriel, and the Trickster was pointedly ignoring the looks Dean was giving him. "Okay guys, seriously, what did I miss? I was only gone for like, twenty minutes." Gabriel walked over to him from the little table, and wrapped an arm around his waist. Dean looked at it, confused, slowly growing suspicious. "Good news, honey-moose. Dean says he doesn't mind if we do this…" With that his other hand grabbed the front of Sam's shirt, and pulled him down for a kiss.

Dean's jaw dropped in shock, and took a step forward, but then Sam wrapped his arms around the archangel and returned the kiss. Dean froze, his mind going completely blank. He had no idea what was happening anymore. Sure, he'd seen some jacked-up shit in his lives, but this? It just made no sense to him at all. After a minute, Sam broke off the kiss, and looked at the Trickster in his arms with affectionate consternation. "Gabe, just because my brother can no longer say anything about us without sounding hypocritical, doesn't mean you're allowed to out me to Dean." Gabriel just smirked at him, completely shameless. Dean couldn't take it. He lowered his face to stare at the floor, shaking his head in disbelief.

Sam watched him, worried about his brother's reaction, but before anybody could say anything, he walked out of the hotel room, slamming the door shut behind him. Sam flinched at the loud noise, gulped, and gripped Gabriel tighter. The archangel snorted, sending the door a disgusted look. Castiel looked from the door to Sam, back at the door, then back at Sam, worried about Dean but with no idea what to do about it. Eventually Sam noticed Castiel's puppy-eyes, and tilted his head, nodding it at the door. Castiel nodded his acknowledgement, and quickly followed Dean outside.

He found the Hunter leaning against the Impala, his face in his hands. Cas hesitated, not entirely sure what he should do now that he was actually standing next to Dean. He'd seen Sam put his hand on his brother's shoulder when he'd been upset on previous occasions, but those two were siblings. Would it still work if Cas tried it? There was only one way to find out. He tentatively laid his hand on Dean's right shoulder. The Hunter tensed, but then he looked up, saw who was touching him, and sighed in relief. Dean turned to the angel, wrapping his arms around Castiel's lean waist, and burying his face in the angel's neck. Cas awkwardly petted Dean's back, gaining confidence as Dean relaxed into his touch.

When he'd taken a few deep, calming breaths, Dean pulled back. This wasn't working, he was still far too riled up and upset to properly relax. "Where do I even start, Cas? I can't do this all at once! Less than two weeks ago I find out that I'm in love with you, despite this going against something I've believed about myself for the last two decades. Fine, it doesn't matter at all. It's you, and I would have fallen in love with you no matter what body you'd shown up in, even if it meant stretching my orientation. I'm fine with it as long as it's you. Then yesterday, I find out that you're pregnant of all things. What the fuck am I supposed to even do with that?"

Dean ignored the way Castiel tensed up at this. He was upset and ranting, and he'd already told Cas that he was okay with the pregnancy. He'd say it again anyway, because he loved Cas, and he hated seeing the angel looking so worried. "I'm confused and I'm terrified, and the only reason why I'm not completely freaking out and panicking is because, again, it's you. As long as we're in this together, I feel like I could do anything. It's not like I've always hated children or something, I do want them, it's just a really huge shock." Castiel relaxed again, but he didn't say anything to interrupt Dean. Even while his lover ranted and freaked the fuck out, he never lost his patience. The man really was an angel.

"Now that makes two shocks which I've taken in under two weeks, neither of which have had the time to really sink in. And then I find out, from fucking Gabriel of all people, that my sweet, precious little Sammy is messing around with the fucking Trickster God! This is the same assbutt who made him watch me die every day for months, and then made him experience living without me for another several months! We're talking about the son-of-a-bitch who trapped us in TV land to try to force us into playing our roles as vessels for Michael and Lucifer!" Cas squirmed, he didn't like being reminded of his brother's transgressions. Gabriel was the only brother he was still close to, and he loved him dearly.

Dean was still nowhere near running out of steam. "Look, I know he's your brother, and I think it's great that he decided to help us out in the end. But even then, it was only for the sake of his Pagan Goddess girlfriend, and just what the hell happened to her? Where is she in all of this? And great, he hunts with us now, and we have one more badass ally that I'm not related to. Fantastic, it's great having a little extra firepower around here, and some days the tricks up his sleeve are the only things which let us finish a hunt with our asses intact! I'm man enough to admit that!" Cas could feel eyes boring into his back, and realised that Sam was watching them anxiously from the hotel window.

He'd have to wait a bit longer though. "But after everything that bastard has put Sam through, how can I trust that jerkwad with my baby brother? I can't! And until I can do that, how am I supposed to face Sammy, who obviously cares about the douchebag for some reason? It's just too much Cas, I can't deal with all of this at the same time! People can't go around piling surprises on me one after the other, and think that I'll just magically be okay with it! Why can't anything ever just happen one at a time?" By this point Dean's face was bright red with exertion, and he was almost hyperventilating. Cas just walked over to him, pulling him back into a hug. "Dean, just tell me what you need."

Dean couldn't help but smile at Castiel's simple words. "I need a vacation Cas, just you and me, in the middle of nowhere, with not a single monster to gank within a fifty mile radius. I want to go someplace that isn't a shitty motel, and has a bar within walking distance. I just want to take off, for at least a week. After that, I'll sit Sammy down, and give him a chance to convince me not to trap Gabriel in a circle of holy fire and use him for target practice." Cas winced at the mental image. Just because angels could regenerate did not mean they couldn't feel any pain. He was pretty sure that Dean was aware of that fact, too. "Alright Dean, I'll fetch your bag and let Sam know where we're going."

Dean didn't know what to say, but he didn't need to say anything. Castiel could see the gratitude in his eyes. The angel just smiled at him in a 'you're welcome' sort of way. By noon they were booked in at a lovely inn, somewhere in the Midwest. It had a pleasant, old-country feeling about it. Their large room had its own fireplace, and the bed was huge and soft-looking. The middle-aged lady who ran the place had gone rather wide-eyed when they'd booked the room. There was no chance of her mistaking them for brothers, not with how different they looked, but Dean had outright refused to blush. He wasn't ashamed of Cas, or embarrassed. How could he be? He was damn lucky to have the angel.

Besides, he was used to people making assumptions about him and Sammy every time they booked into a cheap motel. It was just different this time because for once they were right, and booking a room with only one bed would mean that he was confirming their suspicions for the first time, so it felt a bit weird. It was nothing he couldn't learn to get used to, but it would take some time. It only took them a minute to settle in, then Dean wanted to get an early lunch. He hadn't eaten yet what with all of the fuss that morning, so he was absolutely starving. They went downstairs to the little café which the owner ran. Dean relaxed when he saw that it was empty. He didn't think he could deal with any homophobic crap today.

He'd be ecstatic if he never had to deal with it ever, but he knew that such ideas were just plain unrealistic, as much as that fact sucked. Since they were on vacation, the Hunter spoilt himself, ordering a slice of apple pie along with his chicken sandwiches. Surprisingly, Castiel ordered a meal as well. Dean sent him an inquiring eyebrow-quirk, and the angel shifted uncomfortably in his seat. "Angels don't need food, but half-angels do, and until this one is born, I'll have to keep it nourished." Something changed in Dean's expression. A fierce pride, protectiveness, and hunger burnt in his gaze.

The heated look made a knot form in Castiel's stomach, it was a sensation he was mostly unfamiliar with. This wasn't the painful, burdensome knot of anxiety or fear. It was a tension, born of molten heat, and coiled like a tightly-wound spring. It stayed there, unchanging, as they finished their meal, and returned upstairs. Dean wasn't used to having a lot of free time with nothing to do, and nobody around except Cas. It was a little unnerving. Usually he could just slip into easy conversation with Sam or Bobby, talking about something inane for an hour or two until his boredom eased, but they weren't here. What was he supposed to talk with Cas about?

He couldn't really think of anything, so he just turned on the small TV, and settled on the couch. Cas came and sat next to him, watching the sitcom with curiosity and confusion. It was even funnier than watching Cas watch porn for the first time. Dean tried to explain things to him, but most of the time that just seemed to make him even more confused, until by the end of the show, Dean could barely breathe he was laughing so hard. Cas huffed, looking deeply affronted, and blushing with embarrassment. He looked so adorable, Dean just couldn't help it. He leaned into the angel's personal space, gently sliding his right hand against Castiel's cheek, and leant in for a slow, lazy kiss.

AN: This is up a little earlier than promised, I learnt a new trick from Tumb1r for how to get your inspiration back when writer's block sets in. If you want my secret, you'll have to review this chapter, and send me free hugs! *evil laughter*