They both fix most of their clothing and sit back on the grass across from each other. Dean can't help getting distracted by the little purplish souvenir he left behind on Cas' neck. It looks so out of place. Blatant. Cas' clothes and appearance are almost always the exact same so the eye is immediately drawn to it. At least his is.

Cas lets out a small laugh, realizing what he's staring at. "After that, what you are preoccupied with is burst blood vessels?"

Dean smiles shyly and moves to stare at the grass. Cas tilts his head until he catches Dean's eyes again.

"Thank you, Dean. It was very hard not to become overwhelmed too quickly. You are.." he reaches up to cup Dean's flushed cheek. "..a miracle."

"Yeah alright alright, enough of that." Dean can't take the reverence on Cas' face so he tries to distract him with something he'd been meaning to ask anyway.

"Hey, how do you always seem to swoop in when I'm about to go all 'one-flew-over-the-cuckoo's-nest'? You could you tell I wasn't really into it today,right?"

Cas dropped his hand. "My mark."

"You used a hickey as my mood ring?" Dean rubs his neck self-consciously, the previous dark smudge almost completely gone.

Cas frowns. "No. The mark I left on you when I raised you out of Hell."

Dean suppresses a shiver at the instant stream of pain, torture, and screams he gets behind his eyelids.

"But it's gone.." He says with eyes closed for a second.

"I only healed the surface scar from where I touched you in my true form. Your soul still carries it, imprinted."

Dean doesn't know what to think about that exactly so he doesn't say anything. Cas continues. "When you are one with the darkness, it is as if I can no longer feel you. As you lose yourself, I in turn lose your frequency."

They're silent as Dean takes that in. He's instantly sick with fear because he knows exactly what he means. He's felt himself fading away, being replaced. Now that Cas put words to it.. that's exactly what almost happened, more than once.

Dean furrows his brow and feels his chest tighten. Cas looks at him a long moment, then says, "I will always come for you, Dean."

He slides his hand up under Dean's sleeve to cover his shoulder where his hand print used to be. Dean winces and Cas frowns before yanking up his sleeve.

Angry red cuts mar his skin from when he'd carved into his own flesh. It had quieted the churning blackness inside him.. for a while. They stand out and shock the eye in the bright afternoon light.

Cas traces them lightly with a fingertip. "I did not leave these."

Dean shrugs and says carefully, "No, I had to.. stop it."

"Have you had to do this before?" Worry and anger are etched all over his expression.

"A few times. It's no big deal. It helps sometimes."

All the awe and lazy happiness has been pulled right out of Cas' face. He had a hard look now as he eyes the self-inflicted wounds.

"Do you trust me, Dean?"

He makes one more pass with his fingers and the marks are healed instantly.

"I guess. Why?"

"I need you to be certain." He is sitting up.

"Yeah Cas. After all you and me been through.. you know I trust you."

After studying Dean's face, he pulls his belt out of the loops in his pants.

"Whoa. I'm so not up for another round, yet."

"Bite down on this."

Dean eyes the belt he's holding out skeptically. When Cas just waits, he rolls his eyes and grabs it.

"Now, give me your knife."

He hands over the bowie he always has with him, hilt first. Cas takes it and raises his eyebrows at the belt until Dean brings it to his mouth. As he sinks his teeth into the leather, he watches Cas slice open his palm. The angel meets his eyes once more before quickly laying his heavily bleeding wound over Dean's left wrist.

For a second nothing happens. Dean's unimpressed and about to spit out the belt because he feels ridiculous.

Suddenly, there's a bright light leaking out from between their sealed skin. Dean clenches his jaw down and tries to focus on not passing out. He immediately tries to jerk back but Cas holds his hand down with his free hand. Palm to palm, like they're holding hands but his is spasming with pain. Short bursts of noise are escaping his mouth from around the obstruction. The intense searing sensation begins to ease then dull after a few seconds.

Dean expects to see a burnt, bloody patch where his wrist used to be when the hand pulls back but instead there's a curved symbol in what looks like dark red ink. About two inches by two inches. He reaches out to touch it with a shaky hand. A faint warmth is still emanating from it.

"It means Obey in Enochian."

Dean almost chokes on his rage. The malevolent things inside him perk up.

"You did some kind of angel mojo and put a bitch brand on me?"

Cas who had been breathing hard turned to him with his own angry, hurt eyes.

"No, Dean. You're not an angel so it won't have any effect."

"Then, why the hell-"

"It's to give you something to focus on. When you are overcome by your anger, look at my sigil and know.." He hesitates and looks like he thought better on it before continuing. "..my will. Fight it because I want you to. You will not cut your own skin again." Dean shivered when Cas pushed some command into his voice for the last part.

He looked down at it now and it felt as if Cas was still holding his wrist. It comforted him which was crazy. But then he could be crazy at times so..maybe this made sense.

Dean traces the lines and blows out a breath. It looks like two fancy E's, back to back with a pointed line through their middles connecting them. Weird to feel humbled by it. Like he'd been given a strange gift. Something of Cas' to take with him.

"Thanks, Cas." He doesn't meet his eyes.

Cas shifts until he's right in front of Dean and puts his thumb over the mark. Dean follows his hand up until he's staring at him. The angel looks almost timid now. Dean smiles when he feels his thumb begin to rub a circle over and over the mark.

He grabs his tie and pulls him forward by it, kissing him hard until they're both breathless.

"Really, thanks."

Dean doesn't make it five feet in the door when Sam starts in on him.

"Okay, what's up."

"Huh?"

Shit. He'd made sure to keep his wrist at his side when he walked in. As soon as Sam was busy he was gonna make a bee-line for his black thick-banned watch.

"What's going on with you and Cas?"

"What do you mean?" Sam gave him one of his best annoyed bitch-faces.

"He takes you off for hours and you come back looking half dead."

"Sammy, I told you-"

"Yeah I know. He's helping. Well it doesn't seem to be working. You're day drinking and mentally checking out half the time. Now he's back and everything's fine again. Business as usual?" He gestures to him, pursing his lips. "Bruises and all?"

"Give me a break, okay. I'm fine. I'm doing good now. Really.. really good."

Dean didn't know what else to say. How does he explain to his little brother that he liked Cas getting rough with him. He couldn't even say he liked kissing him.. let alone all the rest of fighting had turned into some kind of fucked up foreplay.

Sam sighed angrily. "Dean, are you sure you can trust him?"

That makes Dean's ears red after Cas said those very words to him not an hour ago. He wills himself not to look at the inside of his arm on reflex.

"What are you trying to get at?"

"You said so yourself, we don't know how he got out of Purgatory."

He had said that but it was kinda the last thing on his mind lately.

"You trust me?" Dean countered.

Sam rolled his eyes. 'Yeah, but-"

"You trust me and I trust him." Dean says like that's the end of it.

"We've been through this before with Cas. You didn't see it then either."

"Yeah, I've been through it with you before too. Would you have wanted me to throw in the towel then? We've all done our share of stupid shit."

Sam just stares at him. Okay siding with Crowley and becoming God was a special brand of "stupid shit" but when you're family.. it didn't seem to matter. Sam had let Lucifer out of his cage and started the Apocalypse. Dean broke the first seal in Hell. They were always fucking up on a cosmic scale but all they had was each other.

"Let me see your arm," he says coldly.

Shit shit shit.

"What? No! Why?"

Sam takes a step forward and Dean one backwards.

"Dammit, Dean! What the fuck is on your wrist?"

"It's just.. It's something to help me deal during our hunts."

"What like a smoker's patch? Jesus, what's the matter with you?"

"Please will you just trust me. I'm a big boy."

They're quiet for a minute.

"Look.. no judgement, okay. You never used to- you're different. He's gone for a few weeks and you go like comatose."

Damn, Sam was getting pretty close to the mark and he needed this fight to be over so he could think.

"I just.. um. need him." Dean looks away. "To help me come out the other side of this." He walks off to get his shower and Sam doesn't stop him.

While he's trying to calm down and feeling like shit from arguing with Sam.. he traces the mark he hadn't been able to look at for almost an hour. It helped. He felt his lips twitch up in a small smile. Closing his eyes, he imagined Cas' thumb rubbing it instead of his. Cas' hand on his neck, comforting. He shook his head and rolled his eyes to the ceiling. Maybe he had changed but he couldn't make himself give this up even if he wanted to.

Author's Note: The Enochian Sigil is the idea that this fic started with. Everything else kinda branched out from there. Love to all my followers and especially anyone that takes the time to comment. I might have a co-dependent relationship with you.. hope you're cool with that.. (o:`,