By the time Sam arrived at the conference room,breakfast was in full swing. It had taken him longer than predicted to get ready. Somehow he had gotten caught up in all the gay stereotypes that he was constantly harping to people were not true.
He had blown his hair dry, because he thought if his hair didn't look good, he wouldn't look gay enough. Every shirt he picked out he decided didn't match well enough, or didn't compliment his features or some other ridiculous reason why he couldn't wear it. It had turned into a circus in his room for a while, until he finally realized he was being absolutely the most ridiculous person on the entire planet.
He refolded all the clothes he had strewn around the room, grabbed the first shirt he'd seen and thrown it on. Of course the one he grabbed ended up being one of Castiel's, and he definitely looked the part when he put that one on.
It had stretched to accommodate him, at the cost of length, and when he looked at himself in the mirror he laughed so hard he had to sit down. The shirt was stretched so far that every line of every muscle was clearly visible. It almost surprised him that he couldn't see the outline of the tattoo on his chest. It rode up so high that his entire midriff was revealed making him feel like a teenage girl.
When his laughter finally died down he was relaxed enough to realize just how much of an idiot he'd been. He took off Castiel's shirt, refolding it and placing it back in the drawer before finding one of his own.
It wasn't the first time he wished that his mindset was more like the angel he was pretending to be engaged to. Cas didn't believe stereotypes, because he didn't know any of them. He'd never been taught what people thought of others just because some part of a person was different. He'd observed humanity for thousands of years and he had never seen a correlation. Castiel was one of the reasons that Sam believed his own more open mindset was more true than the way that some people liked to think.
He'd finally gotten himself dressed, and ran a hand through his hair a couple of times to make it look more like he usually wore it. Then he finally made his way down to breakfast.
As soon as he entered he spotted his group. Dean and Charlie were laughing loudly and Castiel was watching them with an amused look on his face. The rest of the room was filled with other couples chatting much more quietly. A few of them were glaring in the general direction of his group, but he wouldn't change them for the world.
He stopped by the food tables, picking up some wheat toast and a bowl filled with fruit pieces, and headed toward the table. As he dropped into the chair beside Cas, he realized the couple from last night had joined them again.
"So I guess heart attacks don't run in the family, then?" Harry commented, pointedly looking at Sam's choice in breakfast foods.
Sam glanced toward his brother, and although his plate was empty, the sheer amount of gravy that had landed on the table around the empty plate told him enough. The look of disgust he shot Dean was rebounded by a shit eating grin that said he was about to be made fun of.
"What took so long, Sammy?" It was like his brother knew exactly which buttons to push at any given moment, and he glared in lieu of an answer.
"He must have been fixing his hair." Dean told the table in mock seriousness, nodding in fake understanding toward the rest of the group.
Knowing how to throw his brother off his grove was one of the skills Sam prided himself on, so he nodded along with his brother. He then raised his hand to his hair and ran it through while shaking his head like he was in an herbal essence commercial.
"I have no idea what you mean." He said in all seriousness, shaking his head until his hair resettled into it regular pattern, and then pushing it back from his face with a flick of his head. The Fabio bit always made his brother chuckle and this time was no exception. The rest of the table joined in.
"If I had hair like that I would take care of it too." Harry said, smiling kindly at Sam like he couldn't tell if that was really the reason that Sam had been running late.
"Tell me about it." Charlie added, glaring across the table at Sam's glorious locks, and making everyone crack up again.
After a pause in conversation where Sam ate his breakfast and half the group left for more food or to refill their coffee, Harry brought up the activities that the couples had been offered as part of the retreat.
"Are you guys going to do that opening up to your partner thing they are doing today?"
Sam glanced at his brother, knowing that at least one of the couples should be with the group on the lookout for strange happenings. Dean shrugged as if to say he didn't really care which couple ended up with the group.
"What do you think, Cas?" It seemed only polite to ask his partner before he made any decisions.
"It sounds like something that couples do when they are having troubles, does it not?" Castiel turned a confused face toward Sam, and he realized that the angel had no idea why they might participate in something like that.
"That's what I said!" Derek interjected. It was surprising as the man had barely spoken at all in the time that they had known him.
"It's supposed to strengthen our bond." Harry looked disappointed that Derek did not want to participate.
"How does that work?" Cas asked him, with genuine curiosity. Sam had forgotten that Castiel was pretty much interested in all things human.
"It teaches you how to communicate more openly. It's supposed to show you how to express the things that you usually have a hard time talking about."
Castiel looked much less interested in the idea now, and Derek seemed to pick up on it.
"Tomorrow they are doing a group about being able to properly read the body language of your partner. That's the one I'm interested in." He told Cas.
Sam realized that the other couple seemed to be gauging which one sounded better according to what their group had to say about it. Derek was going to be sorely disappointed when he realized that this group would be included in every one of the events, one way or another.
"Oh yes, that sounds much more interesting." Castiel told Derek, almost enthusiastically. Sam raised his brow at his brother. Guess Cas made the decision for them.
"What do you say, sweet tits? Want to learn how to communicate with each other?" Dean asked, turning to Charlie, who made a face of utter disgust.
"Yes. Maybe they can teach you how to communicate without using the words sweet and or tits ever again." She said it in pure disdain, causing the table to erupt in laughter again.
Since his brother and fake sister-in-law were occupied with the group, Sam decided that he should probably get started on interviewing the employees. He hadn't decided yet how best to get information out of them, but he knew the angel was almost useless in the interview process. He'd sent Castiel back to the room to continue the fruitless research on what could possibly be haunting the place.
He'd managed to find the information on which employees had been working at the times of the attacks, and while there were five that he could find and interrogate at the hotel, there were three of them that had quit after witnessing the events. They were the ones most likely to have some really useful information. If they couldn't find anything else here he and Dean would have to make a fake FBI trip out to talk to the other witnesses.
The hotel manager turned out to be the worst of the witnesses. She refused to even admit that anything had happened, even after accepting a fairly hefty bribe. And then she refused to return the money.
The bellboy, although listed as a witness on the police report, hadn't seen anything unusual. The cook couldn't stop talking about all the unusual things he had seen since he'd started working there. The girl at the front desk only liked the attention and seemed to only be repeating the same stories the cook had told him. That left only the night shift manager and he wouldn't be in until, you guessed it, the night.
What a waste of Sam's time that ordeal had been. Waste of time, effort and money! He still couldn't believe the lady had just swiped all that money and provided no information at all. Who does that?
He made his way back to the room to grab Cas so they could get some lunch. Lunch wasn't served buffet style like the other meals. They had the option of ordering room service, but Sam felt like he'd spent enough money for one day. He shot a text to his brother that they'd run to grab burgers, and continued to his room.
He found the angel engrossed in the television again.
"What are you watching now?" He asked the angel, immediately forgiving him for giving up on the research. He'd already given up on it himself.
The angel turned soulful eyes on him and his heart broke a little bit at the look on his face.
"Oh god, you're not watching the Hallmark channel, are you?" Castiel was banned from the Hallmark channel. He took the stories so hard. When one story had a young girl that died of cancer leaving behind her baby for her mother to care for, Cas had been heartbroken for almost a week.
"No." The angel's voice was thick with emotion.
"Yes you are." Sam took the remote from his hand and quickly changed it to the History channel.
"Hey! I was watching that!"
"And now you're not." Sam placed the remote out of reach, for the other man's own good.
"But Sam, what if she survives the surgery?" The tone was borderline pathetic.
"What are her chances?" This was a perfectly logical question. He'd seen enough of that crap TV when he'd been with Jessica.
"Miracles happen all the time!" Castiel seemed to be trying to convince himself more than Sam. It made his heart clench to think of an angel trying so hard to convince himself of miracles.
"No Cas. You can watch the History channel. Actually, you can watch the History channel when we get back. How about we drive into town and grab some burgers for lunch?" Castiel loved burgers, and although he didn't need to eat, he'd yet to turn down an opportunity to stuff himself with the greasy goodness.
"Ok Sam. Let's get burgers." He hopped right off the bed and headed for the door immediately. Sam would have to remember how good of a distraction that actually was.
After dinner that night they reconvened in Sam and Castiel's room again.
"So that communication thing was pointless, and you didn't get any leads either?" Dean twisted the cap off his beer and tossed it in the general direction of the trashcan.
Sam glared at him and picked the cap up off the floor, depositing it in the trashcan it had landed next to. "We still have one more person to interview here, but we might have to branch outside of the hotel to get answers. No one has seen anything suspicious since we've been here?"
"Not that I'm aware of. And we talked to everyone at that group thing. Agggghhhh." Dean flopped down spread eagle on the bed in his frustration.
"And Dean had to talk about his feeeeelings." Charlie grinned in a way that said this had been a particularly grueling experience for Dean.
Sam grinned back at her, thankful for the ammunition. "You know it's a real problem when you have a hard time talking about fake feelings, Dean."
Dean sat up quickly on the bed, holding his beer out so there was no chance of it spilling while he flailed around. "That's the thing! It was actually harder than talking about my real feelings!" He sounded more surprised than irritated, so the dig had apparently not stuck at all. "It was so weird. Like yeah, I love Charlie, like an irritating little sister. And I have no idea how you're supposed to feel when you are talking about not being able to communicate with your wife. My relationships are lucky to last a week! How do you feel when you can't communicate something intimate you'd like to try with your wife? I feel fucking awkward that's what! No offense, but the thought of Charlie in a French maid outfit just gives me the heebies." The shudder that passed through his body at the thought wracked his whole body.
"Hey!" Charlie exclaimed, although she didn't really seem upset. "I don't think I'd mind so much seeing you dressed as a French maid."
That was one mental image that Sam did not need, but it popped into his head the second she said it. At least the Dean in his mind looked pissed off about the outfit. "And now I will have to bleach my brain." He sent a look of disgust at Charlie. "Thanks for that."
Charlie's cackle actually sounded pretty freaking evil. "I made you picture it!" She laughed again. "Dean, I think the kitchen could use dusting!"
"My brain! My poor poor brain!" Sam clutched his head dramatically.
"Alright, enough of that." Dean glared at them while Sam and Charlie grinned at each other. "I guess Charlie and I will go see if the night manager has any information before we head to bed." He rolled off of the bed, depositing his empty bottle into the room's tiny trashcan and heading toward the door. "We'll let you know if we find anything out tomorrow."
Charlie joined Dean at the door and gave them a little wave as they headed out. Sam was a little jealous Dean had Charlie as backup for questioning. His own partner was more likely to scare the daylights out of the witnesses. Speaking of his partner…
Sam turned to find Castiel sat at one of the chairs at the bar again. The guy was so silent sometimes that it was like he wasn't even there.
"Well you're being awfully quiet tonight." Sam pulled up the other stool and nursed his beer, mostly because he'd already opened it.
"What do French maid's wear?" Castiel asked him in all seriousness.
Sam spit a bit of his beer across his hand in surprise. Leave it to Cas to ask a question like that while he was taking a sip. He swiped the back of his hand across his mouth and chin to clean up the mess. "Uh… you're going to have to google that one, buddy." He hoped Cas didn't see anything too traumatizing, and reminded himself to set the parental controls on his searches while Cas did that one.
Although the guy was literally older than dirt, Sam still felt the need to protect him from the more disturbing aspects of humanity. He wasn't sure what it was about the angel that made him want to protect him, but he knew his brother felt the same way. More than once he'd seen Dean steer the angel away from something potentially unsettling.
"You ready for bed?" He asked, watching the emotions of confusion and irritation sweep across the other man's face. He knew that Castiel hated when they made him look something up instead of just answering his questions.
The angel sighed and dropped off the stool, giving Sam another disgruntled look that said he was still upset that Sam was going to make him look something up. "I suppose."
Sam rolled his eyes, depositing his empty bottle in the can while heading to his own side of the bed. He stripped down to his boxers, facing away from the other man who was likely also stripping down.
He rolled his dirty clothes into a ball and threw them into the corner he had deemed the dirty laundry spot the night before. He turned back, pulling back the blankets and sliding in between the cool sheets. He watched as Castiel settled into the other side of the bed, and flicked off the light.
They laid there in slightly awkward silence for a moment, before Sam finally turned to the smaller man. "You know if you want…" he trailed off, and his eyes locked with the angel's. Apparently that was all that needed to be said as Cas rolled over and pressed his back in toward Sam's chest. He wrapped his arm around the angel and sighed into the dark hair now under his chin. They both relaxed into the embrace, and even as the action warmed his heart, Sam was aware that it was a terrible idea.
He'd always been a cuddler. No matter who he was in bed with, or how far away from each other they started out, he always ended up wrapped around them like an octopus by morning. He had only been about eleven when Dean had started refusing to share a bed with him, too old at that point to be comfortable waking up cuddled by his baby brother. Although, at the time, Sam was still the smaller one. His reaction would probably be a lot worse now that he would end up as the little spoon.
The night before had been no exception. They hadn't exactly started as far away from each other as possible, neither of them cared enough to pay attention to exactly how much space there was between them. It hadn't mattered much anyway. By the time Sam had woken up, they were completely wrapped around each other. And for once it wasn't just him. Castiel seemed to be a cuddler as well.
When Sam had discovered their position he tried to gently extract himself from the angel, forgetting that while the angel did sleep it was unnecessary. His eyes had popped open immediately and he glared at Sam.
"Sorry." Sam apologized, but realized he would not be able to move until the angel released him. Castiel's grip had tightened as he tried to wriggle free. Realizing the angel was not going to liberate him, he settled back into the embrace.
"This feels very nice." Cas told him, laying his head back onto the taller man's chest. Sam hadn't really known what to say to that.
"Yeah… cuddling is the best part of sharing a bed with someone." A silence had spread through the room, only the sound of them breathing could be heard.
"It's very warm and comfortable."
They laid there for a while longer before Sam convinced the angel to let him get up so he could go on his run.
"How are you feeling this morning?" He'd asked the angel as he pulled on his workout pants. At the groan he received in response, he chuckled, and headed to the tiny kitchen. He brought the other man a glass of water and forced him to finish it. He refilled it and brought him some pain killers. "Take those, and drink all of this glass too." He'd told the angel sternly.
"Thank you, Sam." Castiel did as directed immediately, while Sam finished getting ready for his run. Sam refilled the glass again before heading out.
"Sam?" The voice had seemed hesitant, and Sam paused halfway out of the door. "Do you think we could try cuddling again sometime?" The angel asked.
"Of course." Sam smiled at him and closed the door gently behind himself. He knew that cuddling wasn't really optional when someone was sharing a bed with him. He'd kept that bit to himself though.