Dean wakes up to a soothing voice. Its not Castiel's voice. He knows that much from the start. Nor the voice of his brother. But the male voice continues on talking. He's not awake enough yet to hear what its saying. Its not very loud. He opens his eyes to see a machine on the screen of the laptop, and some guy with a shower cap on his head at the machine.
"So now there are three holding tanks at the ready. A slurry tank, an egg tank, and an oil tank. A computerized proportioning system…." Dean stops paying attention to the screen and focuses on his surroundings without moving. He's still with Cas. That's vanilla he smells. A wall of chest behind him moves silently with every breath.
The warmth, the soothing voice, and the endless slight breeze from above lull hum back to sleep.
The next time he wakes up it's a female narrating this time. The video is about how canned olives are made. The pitting process is pretty cool. The video ends and another automatically begins. Must be a playlist. The next video was about how condoms are made. It showed a brand from Germany called Billy Boy. Dean had seen one once or twice. Usually in a bar or with a girl. Never in a store. The company used an actual penis as its logo. Granted it was a simple cartoon with arms and a face but still, America would never sell condoms with a penis on it. This country was weird.
Speaking of penises, his bladder was not a happy camper.
"Um, Cas?" Dean shifts and lifts his head up. Even though the voice from the computer was soft, he wasn't sure if Cas had heard him. He shouldn't have worried.
"Hmm?" Cas looked a little silly with his head tilted in such a way that his chin nearly touched his shoulder.
"Can I get a lift to the bathroom?" Without a word Castiel pauses the video and stands up, Dean still cradled against his chest.
"You only have to ask."
Cas leaves him on the counter, taking the handkerchief with him as he steps out of the bathroom. The cap was starting to smell like a porta-potty. Good thing he was so small, only he could smell it. There was less than 24 hours to this damn curse left. He could throw it out when he was big again. Dean is so ready to walk by himself everywhere.
When Cas came for him a few minutes later, he had to explain how Sam helped him wash his hands. It made him feel like a toddler, explain to someone how to help. But Cas understood what he explained.
They went back to the table after that. Dean sauntered off the warm hand and back on to the table. It was slippery under his socked feet.
"I'm gonna finish my walk." Castiel nods and busies himself with the computer. Dean makes his way across the Atlantic ocean to Canada and then down to the good old USA. He started at New York and walked across to California.
"Fastest cross country trip ever." He chuckled to himself.
He trekked to Hawaii, one of maybe three states he never visited. He made his way over the main island when the front door opened. The cool fall wind made its way inside. Dean could feel the crisp, autumn air flowing into the bunker. In walked a sweaty mountain of a little brother.
One interesting thing about being tiny, most of his senses were, changed. Most things farther than a (real) foot away got blurry. Almost all sounds were really loud and booming. Sam's regular voice was like thunder. And not storm-off-in-the-distance thunder. More like ohmygod the storm is directly overhead thunder. Even though the guys mumbled and muttered when talking, it was still pretty damn loud. His taste buds were smaller which meant that things were tasted more intensely. But that wasn't really important.
But what it meant was that a huge, grey topped with brown towering form was making his way to the table. Dean felt every step vibrating under his feet through the table.
But Sam didn't see him. Granted he was pretty small and must have assumed he was with Castiel. It was still pretty scary seeing Sam approach the end of the table. Dean looked almost straight up as Sam leaned forward to place his arms on the table.
"Sam stop!" Castiel warned, lowering his eyes to the table and bring them back up. Sam caught on pretty fast. Picking his arms up, he instead squatted, making his head level with the table, searching for anything sticking up from the flat surface.
He found Dean soon enough.
"Hawaii? Dude, have you ever been there?" he grinned.
"Just visiting for the moment." He yelled. He should really stop doing that. It hurt.
Sam's gentle laugh was a rumbling chuckle as he stood up and once again loomed over his brother. It was still a little scary. With one finger he gently reaches down to brush over Dean's head. A giant, careful, and very annoying noogie.
"Wha'd I do to deserve this?" Dean groused as the finger finally retreated. Well aware that his brother couldn't make out what he was saying from this distance when he wasn't yelling
"Payback for years of noogies." Even though Sam couldn't hear him, that didn't mean that his little brother didn't know what he was saying.
"Wash up, Ape mountain!" the finger came back and gently nudged him over an inch or two.
"I'm gonna miss being able to pick you up with one hand." He sighed over-dramatically.
Sam was a sarcastic not-so-little snot.
He pushed off at his knees and walked away, sharing a look with Cas. Possibly also mouthing something. Dean couldn't tell. Not really.
Dean walked up to Alaska, wandering around the small islands before making his way over to Canada, past Greenland (which was really false advertising) and… what the hell was this place? Svalbard? He hadn't known that there was any land between Greenland and the top of Russia. Looked like it was a cold place if it was this far north.
But Cas was close and that didn't matter anymore. He was cold. Cas's hand was where he had left it, parked by the big chest, palm up. The bigger man glanced down once or twice to him, but continued with whatever he was doing on the computer. Once Dean got close enough to see the screen however, he closed the window of whatever he was doing. Dean wasn't surprised. Some people like their privacy on the interwebs.
He climbed back into the hand, letting out a sigh of relief from the heat emitted from the skin beneath him. Once he got settled back into his previous spot, the other hand reached out and passed something big and white to him.
"Popcorn?"
The kernel was big. Like almost his size. But when he took it, he was surprised that it was like Styrofoam. Big but light. Avoiding the orange shell like stuff (no danger about it getting stuck in his teeth) he broke off a nice sized white bit and munched. Not so bad. It was like a cross between Styrofoam and cotton candy. Softer than Styrofoam, but dissolved in the mouth kinda like cotton candy. Not really, but it shrank when the moisture from his mouth touched it.
"How is it?"
"Not bad."
"Back to the show?"
"More killer clothes!"
"And pretty, buxom, oriental women?" Slowly, Dean moved his head upwards. A corner of a mouth was twitching, and the eyes were crinkled in mirth. Dean lifted one finger in warning.
"No." he berated firmly. The twitch turned into a full on shit eating grin. Dean cracked under that rare smile.
"Ok. That was a LITTLE funny. But don't ever do it again."
Still grinning, Castiel opened the window if the show and went back a few minutes to when he thinks Dean fell asleep.
Dean doesn't say anything, just keeps eating his popcorn and watches the screen. Castiel eats popcorn. Picking one fluffy kernel at a time from the tin to his mouth.
"Gamagori likes S&M. not surprising."
"S&M?" Dean pauses.
"You have a computer. Look it up when I'm not here." Cas accepts the answer.
They continue to watch the episode as Lady Ragyu announced a king of the hill battle.
Dean nearly blew a gasket when Gamagori activated his outfit.
"He looks like a Ken doll! He has no junk! What kind of show is this?!"
"It's an anime dean. Would you rather watch something else?"
"No." Dean replied quickly.
This was the last episode Cas himself had gotten to before Tai moved him on to a comedy movie. About a guy who dressed up like a woman to be with his kids. Mrs something-or-other. Started with a D. Whatever. It was not of import.
What matters is here and now, spending time with Dean, as small as he is.
Sam was right when he said that humans weren't made to be small. Dean was sleeping far more than normal. Even if he was sick. So many naps in one day? He was not a newborn child!
The curse will end soon, he reminded himself. It'll be over soon.
And then what?
And then, it'll be back to uncomfortable silences and personal space.
How he hated that term, personal space.
That was why he left the bunker. As happy Dean (and by extension, Sam) was to see him when he returned to wherever they were, within a few days, things became awkward again. Dean starts pushing him away. So then he leaves. And the cycle continues.
He doesn't even think Dean notices when he starts to push away. Its little things. He catches Dean staring at him, and then Dean will look away and not talk until spoken to for hours. A few times he caught Dean walking out of a room when he walked in. Cheeks red and head low.
Worst of all, Dean rarely touches him. Not that Dean ever touched him a lot to begin with. When he was an angel, sometimes he'd get an arm draped over his shoulder, a pat or punch on the arm. Or later on, the rare hug when they didn't die or in purgatory. Dean hugs him when he comes back to the bunker. Dean was a good hugger. Castiel had only ever been hugged by Sam, Dean or Bobby, but he liked Dean's hugs the best.
He liked Dean the best.
He liked Dean.
That was why this world was still here. All the choices he made were because of Dean, the Righteous Man, whose soul he saved from purgatory and body he re-created, atom by atom. He stayed by his side, rebelled against heaven, worked with demons, died, all for Dean.
"Hey Cas!" a small cry pulled him out of his thoughts. He looked down.
"You're missing the show wandering around that head!" Dean admonished him. He took in a breath and relaxed, relaxing muscles that he wasn't aware he had been tensing. Including his hand. The fingers uncurled from over Dean's head.
"That's it." Dean encouraged.
"Ready to watch now?"
"Yes."
Now would be a good time to talk, but they were both so comfortable. Actually, this would be a great time to talk to dean! He was small, there was no way he could run away from talking.
No. It would be cruel to keep him here and force him to talk if he didn't want to with no way out.
They could talk once the curse wore off.
Besides, the show was quite interesting.
FYI, I read the Physics of Superheroes recently, and the author of the book describes the physics of being tiny (like the superhero known as the Atom) and stuff like blurry vision and too loud voices is what would happen to little peoples. But the being cold thing was my own idea. Artistic license.
As for the kill la kill stuff, I don't know. I like the show. I thought Dean would like it too. Lotsa busty Asian beauties.