Fic: This Weak and Idle Theme (Gentles, Do Not Reprehend) - Act III (SPN, Dean/Castiel, PG-13)
Title: This Weak and Idle Theme (Gentles, Do Not Reprehend)
Author: anoradh
Rating: PG-13
Pairing: Dean/Castiel, unrequited OFC/Dean
Warnings: see master post
Spoilers: see master post
Word Count: ~3000
Author's Notes: see master post
Disclaimer: see master post
Master Post
Act III. Scene I.
The forest.
[Enter OBERON and PUCK]
OBERON
Thy plan hath failed, Puck. The celestial still remains in the forest and now is he joined by mortal companions. Even now they draw near to the glade where Titania sleeps.
PUCK
My lord, I am aware. Fear not. Their minds I’ll alter so their steps will falter and their purpose here they will forget. Therefore, my mistress may sleep safely until the sun sets.
OBERON
I’ll not have my queen threatened by these beings. Divert their purposes, Robin, and fail me not again or my wrath shall be severe.
PUCK
It shall be as my lord commands.
[Exeunt.]
*****
Act III. Scene II.
The forest path.
He was dreaming. He had to be. Either that or he had finally gone completely round the bend. He should have known the moment Sammy suggested that it might be fairies that had taken the boy. Fairies! Seriously? But Sam had been insistent and had somehow managed to convince that goddamn traitor Cas and once the two of them ganged up on him, he stood no chance. And now look at them! Or rather, look at Cas! Which he was trying not to do, since it seemed to encourage him and this was neither the time, nor the place for that. Not with Sammy and that blond chick around.
Contrary to what most people seemed to think, Dean wasn’t completely dense. He had noticed the looks Cas used to give him. He may even have returned them now and again, when he didn’t think Sam would notice. Something had been building between them, slowly but surely, and it sure as hell wasn’t just friendship. So the fact that Cas... had feelings... for him came as no great surprise. His manner of declaring them did, however.
So far, the angel had compared Dean’s eyes to glittering orbs, brighter than the sun, whose shining verdure made the forest around them seem brown and withered; his lips where ripe cherries, tempting and sweet, which he longed to taste; his voice carried the music of the whispering wind, the roaring thunder and the gravelly earth, and it was sweeter by far to his ears than any heavenly choir that he had ever heard (for some reason, Sam had choked slightly at this point). He had made many more similes and each one had made Dean’s face burn even hotter. Some of the more intimate ones had made him wonder how Cas was so familiar with every part of his body, until he remembered who it was that had put him back together after his time in hell. Still, he had a sneaking suspicion that Cas may have been spying on him and this did not help keep his face cool.
Now he was standing a few feet away from Cas, watching him warily and waiting for his next move. He had been quiet for a few minutes, no doubt contemplating his next speech, and his silence put Dean on edge. What was he planning behind those deceptively innocent blue eyes? It did not help that Sam and Mel had left them alone, while they strode off in different directions to attend to nature’s call. The LEO had seemed reluctant to leave them and Dean felt sure that she had begun to suspect that all was not right with their story. It would have been strange otherwise. Sam had tried to pass Cas off as a colleague of theirs, who had caught up with them after having kept in contact via text messaging, but since that story was so full of gaping holes it resembled the werewolf Dean had killed last month in Idaho, Dean seriously doubted that Mel had bought it. For one thing, it did not explain why Cas was wooing Dean with phrases so horrible, Dean was surprised the Bard’s wrathful spirit had not been awakened and come to take vengeance on this butcher of English.
He sighed, deciding that the problem of Officer Davies would have to wait. First, they needed to figure out what had happened to Cas and how to stop it. Dean did not think that he would be able to stand it for much longer. He had been trying to ask Cas how this alteration had happened, but the angel did not seem to understand him. Apparently, Cas was not aware that he used to be different. Frowning, Dean tried to think of another way to pry into the angel’s memory, but he was distracted by a sound coming from the trees behind him. Mel had returned.
Caught up as he was with his concern for his friend, it took Dean a few moments to realise that something had changed while the LEO had been out of their sight. By the time he recognised the look on her face, it was too late. She had practically charged at him, flinging herself around his neck and whispering in his ear,
"My darling Dean, so beautiful, so strong! I have longed for you for so long. At last I am home again. At last I am back in your arms."
Dean was so surprised, both by her actions and by her words, that he did not react as she grabbed his head and forced it down so that she could kiss him. Before her mouth could find his, however, there was a loud growl behind her and she was torn away from him and thrown onto the ground. Cas was standing over her, his face dark and his eyes blazing.
"Brazen wench", he spat at her, "keep thy distance; he loves thee not. His love and his embraces all belong to me."
The woman stared up at him, clearly gobsmacked at what he had done. Suddenly, she seemed to regain her senses, for with a scream of fury she rose from the ground and flew at the angel. Dean stared in horror as they began to wrestle, then he let out a shriek so shrill only bats were likely to understand it,
"Sam!"
There was another sound from the forest on the other side of the path and Dean turned around in relief, thinking that help had arrived.
"Holy crap!"
His heart nearly stopped when he saw a huge, shaggy head burst through the bushes and he thought that a bear had come to join the party. He quickly realised, however, that it was not a bear, but a giant dog with thick brown fur and big kind eyes. The dog rushed at Dean and put his paws on his shoulders, nearly knocking him over, before licking his face all over. Its tail was wagging wildly and despite its size, it had the appearance of an overexcited puppy.
"What the...?" Dean began, but stopped himself when he suddenly learned the reason why it is unwise to open your mouth while a dog is licking your face. The concept of "no Frenching on the first date" is not a part of dog etiquette and Dean found himself spluttering and spitting, while trying to push the dog aside. His face was wet and a bit slimy and he was beginning to wonder if he would not have preferred a bear encounter after all.
The sudden appearance of the dog had at least managed to distract Mel and Cas from their fighting. They were looking at it; two pairs of blue eyes, the lighter pair wide and surprised, the brighter pair narrow and distrusting. It seemed the angel saw something in the dog that the humans did not and Dean looked down at the dog he had finally managed to free himself from. The dog looked back, his tail still wagging. There was something about those greenish eyes that seemed strangely familiar and the expression on the dog’s face (he hadn’t even known dogs had facial expressions) reminded him of someone. The dog whined softly and there was a loud, reverberating click in Dean’s mind.
"Sam?" he asked aghast, willing it not to be true. His reply was a series of muffled thumps as the dog’s - no, not the dog’s - his brother’s tail beat against the ground. This was the final straw that broke if not the camel’s back, then Dean’s composure and he sank to the ground in stunned surrender. Whoever was behind this had won. This was more than he could deal with.
He soon came to regret this moment of weakness, as it seemed to act as an invitation to all his three companions to console him and naturally, they all found words insufficient. Alright, so he could understand why Sam might find it difficult to use purely verbal means to express his support, but why did Mel have run her hands all over his shoulders and chest and Cas feel the need to tangle his fingers in his hair and rub his face against any part of him that was not currently covered by Sam’s tongue? That’s when it struck him: his brother’s tongue was all over his face! His brother’s tongue had been in his mouth! Ew, ew and triple ew!
Shoving them all away forcefully, Dean flew to his feet and backed away so quickly that he stumbled over a root and fell onto his back. Immediately, he was covered by a woman, an angel and a huge Newfoundland, all struggling to push the others off so they could get closer to him. Dean fought with all his might, trying desperately not to panic and draw his gun, for fear that he might actually kill one of them or that one of them would get the idea to use their own weapon to kill their rivals. With three against one, he did not stand much chance and with a post-apocalyptically juiced up angel in the fray, the outcome of this skirmish was fairly given.
The result of it all was that Mel fell to one side, looking disappointed and disgruntled, and Sam lay down on the other side, somehow managing to force his doggy features into his trademark bitchface, while Cas pulled Dean up to a sitting position and into a strong, yet strangely tender embrace, caressing his face and pressing soft kisses to his cheek.
"Love", he whispered, "most beautiful of my Father’s creations. Pour thy grief into mine ears and let me ease thy suffering, for thy troubles are mine and when thou art sad, my world is void of joy. Therefore, to secure thine happiness is in my best interest, as being the sole means to secure mine own, and I would know of thy worries so that I may look for a cure."
Dean let his words wash over him, paying no attention to their content, but finding a moment’s comfort in the sound of his friend’s distinctive voice speaking to him so caringly and so intimately. He hoped that this would not be the last time he would hear this tone in Cas’s voice, although he hoped that next time, the words would not make him cringe as they did now. He gave Cas a quick, but tight hug, before extracting himself from his embrace.
"I’m fine, Cas", he said gruffly. "Don’t worry! I have no grief and the only cure to my worries is to find a cure to this madness. And, since none of you seem able to think straight right now", he added, more to himself than to his companions, "I guess it falls to me to sort this out. Seriously, days like these make me think my life is evil and should be hunted!" His words were met by three vacantly dreamy expressions and he sighed. "Right! Fairies first, my life later. Follow me, but keep your distance!"
*****
Act III. Scene III.
The forest.
People often think that dogs can’t think. This is not true. They may not think as we do, but they are just as aware of their surroundings, if not more, as we are. The difference is that while humans tend to worry about silly things like the future or even the past, dogs are focused on the here and now. You can’t change what happened yesterday and you can’t know what will happen tomorrow, so why waste your time with regret or anxiety, when there are so many fun and exciting things happening right now?
Take a forest, for example. There are hundreds of things you can do in a forest that will keep your mind well-distracted, unless you focus very hard on not being so. There are so many scents to investigate. For instance, Sam could smell the faint traces of a deer that had passed this way a week ago. He could smell a bear that had moved across the path. He could smell the faint traces of snow in the air and somehow knew that winter was coming. He could smell the people who had walked there before them and he could smell his companions.
Mel smelled fresh and faintly flowery, a pleasant scent that tingled his nose and made him sniff harder. He guessed that the flowery scent either came from her shower gel or her deodorant, since it wasn’t strong enough to be perfume. She smelled feminine, but not girly. Her scent suited her; sweet but natural. At the moment, he could also smell strong emotions radiating off her. It was a strange sensation, being able to smell feelings, but there was no other way to describe it. On the surface were her enchanted feelings of adoration and lust towards Dean, but underneath he thought he detected something that must be purely her own heart. There seemed to be some conflict there and some hurt, but he could sense that the feelings she now expressed were not purely fictional. Apparently, not even Officer Davies was immune to Dean’s charm.
Cas didn’t really smell anything at all, at least nothing that Sam could put his finger... er, claw on. He thought he might smell like the air or the wind. He supposed even Jimmy’s smell had gone and he whined a little, earning himself a questioning glance from his brother. Cas’s angelic essence was far clearer to him like this, when his senses were not dominated by sight and he was more in touch with his instincts. It wasn’t just Cas’s smell. It was the way he moved, as if unused to this limited form and longing to be free. It was the way he sounded when he spoke, his true voice underlining Jimmy’s voice, almost perceptible to Sam and almost painful. It was also the way he didn’t really breathe or his heart didn’t really beat, although at the same time they did or they feigned to, at least. All of this marked him out as different and it made Sam feel more aware than he ever had been that this was a being of immense power. Cas’s feelings were also more difficult to make out. Sam could only sense the ones on the surface, but he thought he sensed that the angel was struggling against the enchantment.
Dean’s smell was, of course, the easiest to pick out. Years of living together in close quarters had made him very well acquainted with everything about the other man, including the way he smelled. As much as he hated to admit it, Dean smelled good, at least when he hadn’t drenched himself in aftershave to impress some girl. One of the occupational hazards of being a hunter was finding yourself covered in various substances, ranging from dirt and dust to blood and brains. This, in combination with the living in cheap motels with only rudimentary showering facilities, might make one expect hunters to be perpetually dirty and smelly, but the truth was in fact the exact opposite, at least when it came to the Winchester brothers. It was a rare day on the job when they did not shower at least twice to wash away the grime of their work. So Dean smelled of cheap soap, a faint layer of sweat and a musky, earthy scent that was all Dean. He smelled frustrated and tired, but still generally content. Sam was surprised at that. He was so used to seeing Dean miserable that he had not even considered the idea that now that the Apocalypse was over, he might have found peace. He also smelled faintly amused, which was also unexpected, and, most surprising of all, whenever he looked at the angel, he smelled... tempted. There was no other word for it. He supposed this proved what he had suspected about Dean and Cas.
Sniffing the air, Sam also thought he could smell someone else or something else. It seemed to be a living creature, but it was not one for which he had any definition. It smelled like the forest and the air, of secrets and of mischief. He could tell that this being was watching them and that it was amused by what it was. Sam guessed that this being had something to do with what had happened to them and letting out a loud bark, he set off in the direction where the being was hiding.
*****
Act III. Scene IV.
The forest.
[Enter PUCK]
PUCK
Up and down, up and down,
I will lead them up and down:
I am fear'd in field and town:
Goblin, lead them up and down.
Here comes one.
[Enter SAM]
SAM
Woof!
PUCK
Onwards, merry beast, and catch my trail,
Your hunt will prove to no avail.
A merry chase through forest deep,
Will let my mistress safely sleep.
[Enter DEAN, CASTIEL and MELAINE]
DEAN
Sammy! Come back here! Sam! Sit! Stay! Heel! Sammy! Goddamn!
MELAINE
Stay, though you kill me, sweet Dean!
CASTIEL
Stay, gentle Dean,
My love, my life my soul, fair Dean!
PUCK
How now? Am I to believe mine eyes?
Have I led them to where my mistress lies?
[They enter a clearing where TITANIA sleeps on the ground with OBERON sitting awake at her side, attended by their fairy court.]
OBERON [furious]
Puck!
PUCK [aggravated]
Oh fuck!
DEAN [astonished]
Fuck me!
CASTIEL and MELAINE [eager]
As it please you, my love!
SAM [threatening]
Grrrrrrrr!
Act VI.
Posted via LiveJournal app for iPhone.