The night manager had been much more helpful than whoever Sam had talked to during the day. Not only had he witnessed two of the disturbances, but he also wanted to talk about it. It was "like, the coolest thing to ever happen to me, man!"

Charlie, being the wicked awesome chick she was, had coaxed the guy into telling the story in excruciating detail. No stone unturned. The bad part was the more the guy talked, the less it sounded like a haunting. Which could only mean more research.

"Want to head back to Cas and Sam's? Let 'em know what we found out?" Charlie asked as they headed for the elevator.

"Nah, it can wait. Sam will just want to start researching if we tell him, and he's going to need his beauty sleep. He has to do that body language thing with Cas tomorrow." Dean laughed and Charlie joined him.

They'd gone to the event today about opening up, and it was a lot more coupley than they had anticipated. The questions were fairly intimate and the exercises were pretty physical. The idea of Castiel , and body language , as added factors to that equation definitely garnered a few chuckles.

The next day, they showed up a little later to breakfast. Since breakfast had not been served promptly at seven the day before, Dean saw no reason to rush down. Of course, when they arrived, his brother and Castiel were already seated at "their" table.

Dean headed for the buffet immediately, making more of a mess than anything else as he tried to force more food on his plate than was physically possible for it's size. He sighed as his biscuit rolled off the plate, across one of the tables and promptly dropped onto the floor on the other side. As much as he would have liked to just pretend it hadn't happened, he was sure if he decided to do so he'd get caught by his brother. He just didn't want to see the bitchface that would accompany that.

He dropped his plate onto the buffet, almost losing his other biscuit in the process, and wandered around to the other side of the table to clean up his mess. He leaned over to pick it up, popping back up triumphantly, and glancing in the direction of the table to make sure someone had seen his accomplishment. Instead, what he saw made his blood boil.

His brother was chatting with that other couple again, his arm thrown over the shoulders of the man playing his fiancee. He'd pulled the angel close, and the shorter man fit perfectly into the folds of where Sam's arm and body met. Of course he fit perfectly. Castiel didn't even look put out by the action. He was leaning into the younger Winchester with no resistance, and watching the group silently. The whole thing made Dean feel sick to his stomach.

Dean had known it was a terrible idea the moment his brother agreed to play the gay couple at the retreat. He should have said something the second he realized denying himself the opportunity to play happy couple with Castiel would mean that his brother would be the only other option. He should have just agreed to partner with Cas on this case from the beginning. But his stupid fucking pride had told him he couldn't spend an entire week pretending to be gay, and he had listened. Because he was an idiot.

So he's gay for the angel. So what? He had been in love with the guy for so long he should have been able to accept the truth of it by now. Yeah, he's a dude. Yeah, he isn't exactly human. Yeah, it was all way out of Dean's league. Get over it, you idiot! But the longest relationships that Dean had ever kept in his life were his co dependance on his brother, and his friendship with Castiel.

Some days he was scared that trying anything with the angel would cause problems within their was the only friend that had ever stuck around. Dean couldn't bear the thought of losing that, even if it meant maybe getting something better. He knew making a move could only go one of two ways, and he refused to risk losing his friend.

Other times he freaked out about the whole guy thing. Dean knew at this point it shouldn't bother him anymore. He should just accept that he had no control over who he'd fallen for. He only had experience with women, but Cas wasn't the first guy he'd ever been attracted to and probably wouldn't be the last. He'd never given into the impulse before, though, and he certainly hadn't ever pictured himself with a man in a "for the rest of his life" kind of situation. Which was really the only option if he decided to try anything with the angel.

Not to mention "for the rest of his life" situations were never really on the table before. He'd always had to live his relationships in a more "for the rest of the week" fashion. What if he was terrible at it? He'd done it once before with Lisa, and had managed to make it work for a year. That was while giving up on hunting, though. As soon as Sammy came calling again, he was gone. In the case of things working out with Cas, he wouldn't have to give up hunting. Cas had just found his way into their lives without anything really having to change. And that in itself was a little scary. The fact was, Cas would not only be for the rest of his life, it would also be a situation that he might actually be able to stick with.

He also spent some of his time freaking out that Castiel was an angel. Did angels even feel love? He remembered what Anna said about the emotionless robots that were angels, but somehow he thought that Cas wasn't really like the rest them at all. He'd proven time and again that he felt differently than the other angels. And he'd spent so much time human, or almost human, at this point he definitely knew what human emotions were like. That didn't mean that he felt any of those emotions toward Dean, though.

Dean was also a bit intimidated at the thought of having an angel lover. Was that allowed? Would Castiel be cut off from heaven again if they found out he'd spent time between the sheets with the mud-monkeys the rest of heaven looked down on? And would Cas even be interested in having a sexual relationship? What if the junklessness of angels translated into not having a sex drive, even when inhabiting a human body?

Dean had spent a lot of his time worrying over every possible question and scenario his brain could conjure. So much time, in fact, it had been almost two years at this point. He'd known he was in love with Castiel for at least two years, and hadn't done anything about it. Except to spend all of his free time thinking about it.

Charlie called his name from her place at the table, effectively distracting him from his thoughts. "You planning to join us at some point today?"

"Yeah… yeah, sorry. I was just…" And then his mind luckily kicked back into gear and he held up the biscuit he had rescued from the floor. "I had to try to rescue this little guy." He said it in a mourning tone. "He didn't make it." He tossed it into the trashcan, and grabbed his plate. He'd been pretending not to be in love with the angel for two years. He could make it another week. Even if his little brother was a bit too close to his angel for his liking.

The couples event about body language started right after breakfast, so while Castiel and Sam were distracted, Dean and Charlie headed back to their room to begin researching. Charlie pulled out her tablet, with the awesome app she'd developed, and they started rattling off facts that would hopefully give them a lead on what they were hunting.

"It's been seen as a form of smoke."

"Seems to strangle the air from its victims, without taking corporeal form."

"Leaves its victims in a coma."

"It's unlikely to be a ghost."

"Alright, so what have we got left?" Dean sat himself at the bar, leaning over Charlie's shoulder at the screen.

"Well, according to our known monsters… It's a ghost or a demon." Charlie told him, with a sceptical look on her face.

"Yeah, I'm not buying either of those." He replied, sighing and rubbing a hand over his face. "Not one report of cold spots, or flickering lights. No one has smelled sulfur, and the smoke is reportedly grey. The only demon I've seen with whitish smoke was super powerful. They wouldn't be hanging out at a hotel, putting people in a coma for fun."

"And the whole thing is a little weird for a ghost. Like why would he be putting people in a coma? And why has no one ever seen him?" Charlie added.

Dean sighed again, finding it the only way to let out some of his frustration. "This case is getting really annoying, really fast."

Charlie glanced at him out of the corner of her eye before her face took on a sly look of mischief. "Yes I noticed that you didn't seem too happy to see your brother cuddling up to Cas earlier."

Dean felt his face pull into a look of irritation and disgust before he could stop himself. "Yeah, well it's a little weird watching your brother act that way with your best friend." He covered his reaction with words.

"And they weren't cuddling." He added, putting his foot right back in it. "Not that I would care if they were!" He recovered nicely.

The look on Charlie's face said differently. "Really? You wouldn't care if your brother was cozying up to Castiel? It wouldn't bother you if something came out of this little game of make believe?" She said it as if she already knew the answer. Not just the real answer, but the one he would say out loud too.

"Nope." He didn't want to disappoint. "Besides, that would never happen." He informed her, although it came out oddly like he was trying to convince her. Or himself.

"You're an idiot." She informed him, as if he didn't already know.

Since the body language group activity was longer than the one Dean and Charlie participated in the day before, the other group ended up having a lunch break. When Sam text him to ask what they were doing for lunch, they decided to order room service. Sam and Cas could just meet them in their room. They needed to discuss the case anyway.

"So we have literally no idea what we're dealing with. That's fantastic."

They were spread all over the room. Castiel was sitting on the bed, with his back to the headboard and his legs crossed in front of him with the tv on, not even paying attention to the brother's frustration. Charlie was seated at the bar with her collection of side dishes spread across the surface.

Dean was at the small table near the window with his ridiculously huge steak and giant pile of mashed potatoes in front of him. He had already rid his plate of the steamed vegetables that were included with his meal, and pushed them as far to the other side of the table as he could without pushing them off the other side.

Sam was pacing the room, his mostly abandoned salad sat neglected on the bar, as far away from Charlie's layout as she could push it. Dean grinned as he watched her push it even farther away with her fork. As if it was still too close to her real food.

Sam sighed and plopped down into the chair across from Dean's. He rubbed at his temples.

"You look stressed." Dean said, grinning at his brother, then glancing sideways at his angel to make sure he wasn't paying attention. He was still fascinated by the television and the man's voice quietly explaining how salt water taffy was made.

Sam glanced sideways at his brother before following his gaze to the angel. His brow furrowing as if he couldn't figure out where his brother was going with that comment.

Dean raised his eyebrow at him. "How is that body language thing going?" he asked, amused.

Sam's face turned sour automatically. "It's fine. Pretty interesting actually." And then a mischievous grin spread across his face. "We're learning to read people's actions, to better understand what they are trying to say when they are having a hard time using their words. You know how some people have a hard time communicating their feelings…" He raised his eyebrows at his brother and then it was his turn to look pointedly at the distracted angel. "Hey Cas, how are you liking learning about body language?"

Castiel turned fully away from the television, something that didn't happen often when he was engrossed in the programming. "It's very interesting. I feel as though I have learned a lot more about humans. When we get back, Marta promised to show me some examples of when someone has amorous intentions toward me. Sam told her he gets angry when people flirt with me, until he realizes that I am not asking them to stop because I am not aware of their intentions." He frowned a little at Sam after he said that part, as if just realizing how strange a thing it was for Sam to have said. "Although I am not entirely sure why Sam told her that."

Dean knew. He knew that one was one of his own issues. He knew that when people flirted with Cas, and it happened more often than you'd think, it pissed him off. He'd get angry at the person doing the flirting, and then he'd get angry at Castiel for allowing it to happen. Even though the angel had no idea he was Dean's. That bit was only true in Dean's own mind. Then he'd remember that Cas wouldn't recognize a come on if it bit him in the ass. He knew the exact scenario Sam had painted was one that had happened for him many times before and he was beginning to believe his brother knew it too. The smirk on his face as he turned back to face Dean said the chances were fairly high.

"You know, couples sometimes have jealousy issues. And I could see that you were really enjoying learning about human body language. I just thought you'd enjoy learning some more." Sam was so nonchalant about his explanation, Dean himself would have almost bought it.

"Oh yes, that is true. Good thinking, Sam." The angel bought right into Sam's excuse. "Thank you. It would probably be best if I understood how to recognize interest anyway. I seem to disappoint people when I don't understand their intentions." And then the angel turned back to his show.

"Yeah, that can be pretty frustrating." Sam nodded in understanding. Then he turned back to Dean. "I hate it when you're hitting on someone and they have no idea."

Dean glared at his brother with a frown, before forcing his face into a more neutral expression. He was a master of pretending he didn't know what the rest of his group was talking about. So, he covered himself in his blanket of denial once again.