There's a two-week break in between this chapter and the next.
We made 20 more kudos in between this chapter and the last one! Thank you so much 3 I appreciate it more than I can articulate.
Dean woke up slowly, not wanting to move.
He was laying on something hard, back pressed up against something warm, and he felt like he was absolutely in heaven. He twitched, face moving a bit, feeling the ruffle of feathers on his skin.
That was, of course, his first little flag that something was off.
His eyes slowly opened, meeting with wood. He looked down to find beautiful, raven-black wings, looking almost blue in the sunlight. They wrapped around his torso, locking in warm air and making him snug and comfy.
"C...Cas?" Dean asked, a little confused. Cas stirred behind him, feathers shifting closer. The arm that Dean hadn't noticed before tightened around his stomach, pulling him closer. Cas's face nuzzled affectionately into his back, Cas making small sounds of contentment and sleepiness. Dean froze up, taking in a shaky breath.
"Cas, buddy, wake up." He said, a little louder than before. Cas stirred again, and Dean felt some of the warmth leave his back as Cas sat up, removing his hand from around Dean's waist and using it to rub at his swollen eyes.
"What-" He came to all at once, face turning red as he noticed his and Dean's compromising position. "Uh, why are we here? What,... what happened?"
"Well, uh, you fell asleep. And then I fell asleep like four feet from here. I wake up, and bam. Here we are." Dean explained, watching the expression on Cas's face carefully. Cas's cheeks got the slightest red tint, but he didn't say anything. He grumbled a little bit before standing up, leaving Dean cold.
Cas's feathers may have gotten in the way sometimes, but now he missed them dearly. They were warm and inviting, and so soft against his skin.
Actually, now that he thought about it, he sort of wished he hadn't woken Cas up so soon. Cas wouldn't have minded if he just let him sleep a little longer, feeling his feathers against his skin, would he? Yeah, he didn't think so. It would have been fine.
"We should probably get going soon." Castiel said, the noise interrupting Dean's daydreams. Dean nodded his head, standing up. He felt sweaty and a little bit gross in these clothes, and Cas's weird bathtub thing was actually pretty fun to use. He'd like to go and get a quick, weird, pour-water-over-his-head-with-a-big-ass-cup shower, if possible.
"Yeah, yeah we should." Dean said. His words were accented by his stomach letting out a long, loud growl, tumbling and twisting painfully. He looked down in surprise. Damn, how had he not noticed he was so hungry? "Actually, let's go now."
Cas gave a chuckle, nodding his head. "Come on." He said, extending a hand. Dean hesitated for a second before he took it, heart skipping a beat as Cas lead that hand to rest on the back of his neck, then scooped him up into his arms.
"I hope you do realize that either Balthazar or Gabriel will be waiting for us to try and drag us somewhere once we get home." Castiel said. Dean felt a little tingly at the use of the word "home" so casually. Because, more than anything, he would love to be able to call Cas's home his own. Or the other way around.
This last week had been the most exciting adventure of his life, and he'd love to keep that feeling going.
The phone would have to do, though. He'd get one and set it up here, always on charge, so he could talk to Cas whenever. Maybe they could even skype?
"Well, they're gonna have to wait until I've bathed and eaten. And you've done whatever the hell you're going to do." Dean said, trying not to come across as too grumpy. Honestly though, he couldn't really help it. He wanted to spend a day alone with Cas again, like they had when they had baked.
"Well, I'll make sure we're home early, anyhow. This week has been more activity than I've had in the last two years combined, and I need a break from being in public." Castiel grumbled. Dean felt a warm smile come across his face, affection leaking through his very pores.
Very manly affection, of course. Very manly indeed.
A couple of hours later, (Balthazar and Gabriel locked outside to prevent any unwanted dragging off to do god only knows what) Dean was both sated and clean. Cas emerged from the bathroom, hair still dripping, and plopped down on the couch, reaching for a book. Dean had been sketching on a stray leaf, a car coming to life. His baby, of course.
A couple of minutes of silence went by, peaceful. The air felt undisturbed, and despite the lack of communication, it didn't feel awkward. On the contrary, sitting in silence was rather comfortable for the two of them.
Suddenly, there was a loud rap on the door. Castiel glanced up over his book, eyebrows raising as he looked at it. "Gabriel, if this is you pretending to deliver food again, I'm going to kick your ass."
A couple seconds of silence later, a female voice came through the door. "Castiel! Come on. You've not shown the human my lab in action yet, and everyone wants to meet him!"
It was... Anna? Dean's head raised up in excitement. He'd seen the lab briefly when Anna had stopped to get her swimsuit, but actually getting to stop and see how everything worked sounded both cool and fun. He sort of wanted to spend the day with Cas, but... Who said he couldn't do both?
"How long will we be gone?" Cas asked, almost as if reading Dean's mind.
"As long as you want to! But the basics will only take an hour and a half or so. Now hurry up, everyone took bets on whether or not Dean is actually as hot as the rumors say." Anna said, the second half of her spiel turning teasing. Dean felt a blush rise to his cheeks and he let out a loud groan.
"If anyone hits on me, I'm going to leave." He teased. He could practically hear Anna's smile from outside of the door.
"Alright, whatever. Are you two clowns ready?"
Castiel walked beside Anna and Dean quietly. The two seemed to enjoy a little bit of witty banter, and he wasn't about to stop them from it. They were having a good time teasing around, hitting each other. Occasionally hitting Castiel.
"Alright, we're here!" Anna announced, once they had made it to the facility. Dean's eyes sparked with curiosity and Castiel smiled, actually looking forward to getting to see Dean's reactions to everything.
He wondered if Dean would like the serum that made flowers change colors. The first time he had seen it, he'd absolutely loved the thing.
"Dude, awesome. Let's get started." Dean announced, rubbing his hands together.
Anna motioned for them to follow her as she flounced forward, throwing open the door and looking back over her shoulder, waiting for them to come on in.
Castiel followed closely behind Dean, looking around at everything. Sure, he'd already seen most of it, but it never got old to be in that laboratory.
He could still remember when Balthazar and Gabriel snuck in, about twenty five years back, and ended up spilling vials all over the place. One of them was, of course, the serum that changed Balthazar's wing color. They had been pure white before that. The other one was a love potion. Since Gabriel actually drank it, he suffered the consequences of being in love with Balthazar for a week.
"It was pink! I thought it would be bubblegum flavored!" He'd defended. Castiel had watched all of it go down in amusement, watching as Gabriel attempted to woo Balthazar again and again. But, they really were just friends, and Balthazar had done everything in his power in that week to keep it that way.
Honestly though, seeing them interact was sort of adorable.
"So, this is the ice room," Anna said, gesturing toward it. Castiel let a small, involuntary shudder go through him. He'd gotten locked in the ice room for two hours with the temperature set on 32. He never did forgive Balthazar and Gabriel. He was sick for a week afterwards.
"I'm not going in there." He said, firmly. Anna let out a small laugh, shrugging.
She leaned over and informed Dean, "We almost had a Cas-sickle in an incident a few years back."
"How are all of you still alive?" Dean questioned out loud. Anna let out another laugh, leading him through and into the room.
"So, this is the place we take things to flash freeze anything that needs frozen so that we can move on to the next process." He heard her explain, voice getting quieter as the door shut.
Castiel looked around. There were four or five people milling around, mumbling things like "He's got the jawline of a God" and "I honestly cannot believe Anna wasn't exaggerating", few of them actually capable of moving on with their lives and doing their work.
He looked around for somewhere to sit, legs tired from the walk here. He quickly located a stool, next to some potions and brews that he didn't know the names of. He sat down and looked around, letting his thoughts wander as he looked around the room.
A small, scuttling noise diverted his attention. It was seemingly insignificant, accompanied by the vague ringing of a bell. Suddenly, a loud noise, right in his ear.
"MEOW!" Demanded Snowball. Castiel turned sharply in surprise, eyes widening to an almost comical level. The cat let out the yowl again, rubbing itself up against Castiel and purring loudly, a clear indication of what it wanted.
Castiel raised his hand, running it softly along the cat's back. The cat arched into the touch, immediately leaning forward to rub it's face along Castiel's jawline. It's purring increased, and it scent marked all over every surface it could reach at the moment. Castiel allowed it to happen, increasing the speed and strength of his pets.
"You're a very... pretty... feline?" Castiel said, half-heartedly trying to intimidate the cooing he'd heard Anna do to Snowball earlier. The cat seemed to like it, meowing loudly again and enthusiastically butting her head against his hand.
"She's pretty, but a nuisance." One of the other workers said. He had purple wings, much like Meg's, but a shade lighter. "Don't let Anna know I said that, though. She's constantly knocking things off shelves. She knocked some acid off about a week ago, and we're pretty sure it's still steadily eating it's way to the center of the earth." He teased.
"Aaah, I see. So she's a trouble maker." Castiel said, still scruffing under the cat's chin anyways. He squinted at it when it meowed again; what could it possibly want that he wasn't giving to it?
"She definitely is." He confirmed, smiling. He was rapidly working on whatever he was doing, beaker heating up over a fire. He was concentrating on it for the most part, but would occasionally glance up to see Castiel and the cat, as if checking to make sure she hadn't broken anything yet.
"I hope you two aren't talking about me!" Anna's voice drifted through the room as she came in, Dean in tote behind her. Dean had a big, dopey grin on his face, and Castiel couldn't help the feeling that all the air had been sucked out of his lungs.
He froze as Dean's eyes met his, a warm smile stretching across his face. Dean's eyes were like a forest; he could get lost in them, look around them for days and always feel like he was seeing new things. He looked into them and it suddenly felt like there were flowers blooming in his soul. His chest felt warm, and his legs suddenly felt-
Wait, his legs suddenly felt wet?
He looked down to see a vial in his lap, purple liquid pouring out of it and onto the bare skin below his skirt. He immediately uprighted it, feeling a little bit panicked. He liked the way he looked now very much, thank you, and really fucking hoped nothing changed because of this. Stupid, damned cat.
"Oh my god!" Anna said, rushing around him busily. "What were you looking at when this happened?"
"Dean, why?" He questioned. Anna paused briefly before tossing him a towel.
"Don't worry, it's nothing harmful. Just please dry off a little bit and come meet us outside, okay? There isn't a lot I can tell you. Classified, you know." She said. Castiel felt relieved.
Anna would tell him if anything scary or weird was going to happen. The potion was most likely just one of the company's harmless ones, made to bring in revenue rather than to actually change a person. A talent that, of course, could be useful for spies in time of war.
Not that they were expecting a time of war. The fae were still a generally peaceful people. But they still took every precaution to make sure they weren't ever in danger of being unprepared.
"Okay, I trust you." Castiel said, nodding at Anna. Anna smiled.
"Awesome. See you in a bit." She said, grabbing Dean's arm and leading him out the door.
"We need to talk." Anna hissed at Dean. Dean yanked his arm out of her grasp, rubbing it. Damn, that girl had a grip.
"What is it?" He demanded, still rubbing his arm. Anna rolled her eyes, and Dean gave her his best impression of Sam's bitchface.
"You saw that potion Cas had spilled all over him, right?" She questioned. Dean nodded his head. Despite apparently popular belief, he was not, in fact, an idiot. He payed attention when there was yelling and towels being thrown at people's legs. He could distinguish when something was an emergency and paid attention accordingly.
"Yeah." He said, after a little while, because Anna obviously wasn't going to let him get by with just implying it.
"Well, it's a love potion." She said, raising her eyebrows. Dean suddenly felt like he'd been smacked in the face. "And Cas doesn't know it. I have to tell you because for the next twenty minutes if he tries to do anything stupid, you need to know that it's not really him and you need to fight it off."
"Of course. Um, only twenty minutes?" Dean questioned.
Suddenly, he was fantasizing. Cas holding his hand, Cas leaning in for a quick peck, Cas's lips kis-swollen and hair tousled from Dean running his fingers through it again and again and again when that quick peck turned into a hot makeout session, Cas's wings wrapping around him-
He forced himself out of his fantasy, knowing that that couldn't happen. Cas wasn't really Cas right now, and Dean wasn't an asshole, so he was going to do his damn best to respect that.
"Yes, only twenty minutes. Thankfully, what fell on him was a different type of potion. It isn't very strong. Actually, it won't even take effect at all if-" She cut herself off, blushing a little. She looked down at the ground as if a little ashamed of herself.
"If what?" Dean asked, curiosity now burning inside of him. Oh, he had to know this one.
"It may be overstepping my boundaries, but I think Cas likes you. I mean likes likes you, too." Anna said, finally looking up at Dean. The sincerity in her eyes shocked him, and he felt a small hope begin to build up in his chest. "We'll find out now. If he does have a crush on you, the serum won't take effect. So, basically, if he doesn't come out and immediately try to jump you, we'll know."
"Wait," Dean said, almost refusing to believe anything could come to him this easily, "What if things work differently for him because he's demisexual? What if he won't want to. Y'know. Because we don't know each other well enough, and the potion doesn't take effect because of that?"
"Well, I highly doubt-" Anna was interrupted by the door opening, Cas peeking out before awkwardly shuffling outside. "I highly doubt you wouldn't be interested in seeing it! Come on, Dean, let's go look at it!"
Dean found his arm grasped again. Castiel gave him a small, sympathetic smile as he was dragged away by Anna in a whirl of red hair and determination.
Dean had to admit, it was pretty cool.
A couple of minutes later and here he was, standing in between Cas and Anna, looking up in a mixture of wonder and excitement at the large flower. It slowly and deliberately changed colors, from red to orange to yellow and so on, before looping back to red again.
"This is so cool." Dean said, walking forward and touching it. Turning back, he said, "How come the humans don't ever see anything like this?"
"Well, there are a variety of factors." Anna announced. Dean stopped listening after that, focusing on the smooth of the petal as it caressed his skin. If he thought flower petals were soft when he was a human, he had no clue what soft really was. He was tempted to just bury his entire face in the damned thing and drink up the soft feeling of the petals against his skin.
"You know, Dean, you should really consider being a model." Said a foreign voice, from beside him. He turned, letting the flower slip out of his hands. It was a girl, tall, redheaded, looked like she had a stick up her ass.
"Naomi?" Anna demanded, her voice getting a little bit higher. "I didn't know inspection was today."
"One must always be ready for an inspection, Anna." She said, primly, a small and most likely forced smile flashing across her face. Dean decided then and there that he really hated her. "Now, are you going to show me around this place, or are you busy squandering your time with these two?"
"Of course, just, um..." Dean could tell that Anna was a little hesitant to leave, but she failed to make up an excuse to drag Cas and Dean along. Dean knew how she felt; he wouldn't want to leave his friend alone with a person he'd just met a week ago if they were under the influence of a love potion,either.
"I've got this." He said, looking into Anna's eyes. He tried to convey all of his honesty in the hopes that it would relax her some, knowing that he wouldn't do anything to hurt Cas. She seemed to get the message, because she visibly relaxed.
"Thank you." She said, her tone conveying just how much of a caring friend she really was.
"You got it." Dean said, flashing her a genuine smile. She straightened up and addressed Naomi, leading her away, throwing one last glance at the two of them over her shoulder before she walked out, showing Naomi around.
"So, what now?" Dean asked Cas, once she was gone. He wasn't sure what else there was to do other than wait. Apparently, Cas had the same idea.
"Let's lay down in the grass and wait." He said, plopping himself down. He slowly reclined so that he was lying down, the long blades smooshed underneath his weight. His wings spread out and fluffed up a bit, so he looked like a plant absorbing some much-needed sunlight, and his eyes sparkled happily as he looked up at Dean.
"Okay then." Dean confirmed, laying down beside him. He leaned back onto Castiel's wing slowly, mindful of what he was doing, trying not to hurt him. Castiel briefly tensed up, his face turning the slightest shade of red, and cleared his throat.
"That's... The..." He started. Dean looked over in surprise.
"What?" He asked, sort of happy to see Cas a little flustered. He was cuter when he looked like that; a little bit confused, so serious...
"Nothing. The sky is beautiful." Castiel commented, gesturing towards the expansive and ever widening blue. Dean smiled and redirected his attention to there, too. Cas was right. The sky was especially pretty that day. Of course, it paled in comparison to the practical angel beside him.
"Hey, that one looks like a cat." Dean said, pointing towards a cloud on his right. It was a little bit deformed, but he could still see it. He wondered briefly if Cas would get that this was almost a movie moment; a cliché romance scene waiting to take hold of the two of them.
Not that Dean would let it. Cas was still under the influence, after all.
"That one looks like millions of water molecules preforming as a vaper in the sky." Castiel retorted, pointing toward a cloud right above them. Dean laughed a little bit, lifting one of his hands to shield his eyes, pretending to carefully scrutinize the cloud.
"You know, Cas, you just might be right." He said sarcastically, in retaliation. Castiel laughed a little bit, his chuckle causing his feathers to shift under Dean. He made a small noise, but cut it off with a clearing of his throat.
"I know I'm right. I also know that you're an asshole." He teased. Dean let out a sigh, nodding his head, pretending again to reflect upon Cas's words. Really he was just taking the time to come up with a good comeback. He couldn't be dishing out weak ass retorts if he wanted to impress Cas.
"Of course, but you love it." He said, closing his eyes. Castiel didn't respond to that, simply humming in response.
Dean let his mind wander a bit, and he was back to the 'what if Cas liked me' fantasies quicker than he would have anticipated. This time, he let his mind linger a little bit, the seed of hope that had been planted earlier watered by the fact that, as Anna said, Cas wasn't jumping him yet. In fact, he wasn't acting any different from normal.
The thought was comforting, and left things to be imagined.
It wasn't long until Dean found himself drifting off to sleep, eyes shutting and mouth lazily falling slack as he let the sun warm him. Cas was close by and comfortable, it was still comfortable and cool where he lay in the grass, and everything seemed pretty damn close to perfect.
A long time passed that way, just him and Cas and the sun.
He'd be pushed to say that he wouldn't have it any other way, in fact.
Until, of course, Anna marched back out.
"What the hell do you think you're- Oh. You two are just. Sleeping." She said, face slowly beginning to heat up. Dean felt his eye crack open and his vision quickly adjusted to see Anna towering over him and Castiel, hands on her hips.
"What did you think we were doing?" Castiel asked, confusion clear in his voice. That was Dean's cue to get up, dust off his pants, and try to start a new subject.
Of course, he didn't actually have to.
"I- Nothing! I just. I need to go and talk to Dean now, I'll see you soon!" Anna said, grabbing Dean for the third time that day. He swore he was going to have bruises on his arms in the shape of Anna's fingers by tomorrow morning.
"What the hell?" He demanded, waving his arms around in the air. Anna didn't look amused, putting her hands on her hips and cocking an eyebrow.
"I know you don't know this, but touching a fae's wings like that is incredibly intimate. Cas was probably hard that entire time." She said, flipping her hair over her shoulder. "And, the potion would have worn off forty minutes ago. He was letting you do that because he likes you, and there is no other explanation." She announced.
Dean couldn't let himself keep hoping like this. Things were never this good in his life, and this situation would be no exception to that general rule.
"You need to calm down and reevaluate yourself, alright? Cas doesn't like me. He probably just did that because of the potion and then felt too awkward to move me afterwards. That, or he just didn't get hard because we're just friends and he isn't in to that."
"You're literally blind. Have you not seen the way you look at each other? And don't even try to deny your obvious crush on him, it's clear as day." Anna shot back. Dean stood up a little taller.
"Listen, things don't work like that for me, okay." He said. Anna's eyes started to turn sympathetic, and he couldn't handle it. He turned and shouted, "Cas, we have to leave!"
"You know what? Just, you wait. You'll see soon and you'll thank me for opening your eyes. The love potion has worn off by now, you have my guarantee." She said, then proceeded to stalk into the laboratory. Dean watched her go, still feeling a little bit moody about the whole thing.
Cas showed up a few seconds later, little bits of grass in his hair making it stick up adorably in places. "Why are we going back?"
Castiel looked at Dean, the room a little bit dim. Dean sat on the couch with his head in his hands, looking both frustrated and a little tired. He immediately wished that there was something he could do to help, but knew that whatever this was, he couldn't offer advice.
"Dean?" He questioned, just to make sure he was okay. Castiel walked over when he didn't respond, hesitating for a moment before he dropped into the couch beside his friend and put a hand on his shoulder. Dean looked up, looking a little torn.
"Yeah? What?" He questioned. He looked tired, but not necessarily upset. Castiel assumed that was a good sign.
"Are you... Okay?" He questioned, hoping that the question wouldn't upset Dean.
"I... Yeah, Cas, I'm okay. Just a little confused." Dean said, his eyes meeting Cas's. Cas nodded his head a little, trying to tell himself that this was normal, humans just got like that sometimes. He had no reason to be worried; Dean wasn't wailing, he was just a little under the weather. That's normal.
"Okay. If you need to talk, I'll be here." Cas said, a little confused.
Dean seemed to cheer up a little as time went on, or at least he stopped acting so upset. He cheered up a little, joked a little, and Cas felt better about the whole situation.
He went to bed that night, while still confused about what had happened, satisfied with the results.
Castiel felt as though sand had been poured down his throat. He gave a small groan before he forced his feet over the side of the bed, rubbing his eyes in hopes of seeing better in the dim house. He stalked out to the living room, relying on feeling alone to guide him to the kitchen.
He should paint those damn glow rocks soon.
He tried to keep his footsteps light so that the wooden floors wouldn't creak and wake up Dean. He knew that the other was tired as heck, and didn't want to disturb. In fact, Dean had actually fallen asleep on the couch before he himself had headed off to bed.
He retrieved a glass and filled it with cool, fresh water from the tree. The feeling of the liquid hitting the back of his throat felt like heaven after forty years of hell; he hadn't realized how thirsty he'd been.
He slowly began to shuffle out to the living room again, thirst quenched. He wasn't honestly feeling all that tired anymore, but figured laying down and trying to go back to sleep couldn't be a bad option. His eyes were glued to the floor as he walked, knowing by heart his route to get to his-
Suddenly, something heavy and large bumped into him. He went sprawling backwards, quickly grabbing onto whatever the hell it was in a vain attempt to keep himself from falling. All he succeeded in doing was pulling whatever it was down with him.
Whatever it was made a small noise of surprise, catching himself on the floor before his entire body weight could fall onto Castiel. Cas found himself staring up into green eyes, their entire bodies pressed against each other, the adrenaline that was pumping through his system slowly beginning to calm itself.
"Dean?" He questioned. Dean let out a breathy chuckle, dropping his head down. It rested softly on Cas's neck, and immediately ignited a slow burn in Cas.
Oh no.
"Cas. Dude, I didn't see you there." Dean mumbled, practically speaking against his neck. Castiel felt himself begin to harden, his cock elongating and pressing up through his thin kilt.
Dean froze, and Cas knew he could feel it.
It was sort of nice, being pressed up against Cas like this. It put thoughts of kisses and hickeys and sleeping close even on warm summer days into Dean's head. Cas's skin was soft, and Dean could see how nice he looked in the low light that the glowing rocks around his home still provided. It was kind of nice.
He gave a small chuckle. "Cas. Dude, I didn't see you there."
Cas made a small sound, almost like a surprised noise. Dean felt something begin to push up against his leg, warm and hard. It didn't take long for him to figure out what it was.
"Cas, are you..." Dean started, unable to believe this. If Cas was aroused by this, did that mean...
Did that mean he liked Dean after all?
He finished, "Are you hard?"
I am sorry for the EXTREME cliffhanger here. It's gonna be worth it, I promise. Please comment!