Brothers With Bad Timing - Part 1b of 2 (Dean/Castiel)
After stepping out of the shower, Dean wiped off most of the excess water dripping off of him, but he was still wet and wrapping a towel around his waist when Castiel opened the bathroom door.
“Jeez-.” Dean started to exclaim, but cut himself off and just shook his head. “I think it freaks me out even more when you use the door.”
“I arrived in the living area. The mirrors are fogging over…” Castiel shifted his gaze downward for a moment when Dean readjusted his slipping towel. “You take very hot showers, Dean.”
Dean looked at the angel in disbelief, allowing a few moments of silence to emphasize his expression of are you serious? before asking, “Did you just look down?”
“I heard you singing about the ‘heat of the moment.’” Castiel looked around the bathroom, noting that Dean and Sam had already removed all but two bars of courtesy soap.
“You did! You totally tried to check me out when I moved my towel.” Dean lifted both of his hands to point at Castiel, but his palms were turned up so the gesture came off more as if Dean were giving an explanation than making an accusation.
“Dean, if I wanted to see you naked, I could have simply arrived a few moments earlier.” Castiel pointed out.
“But how would you know when to show up without peeking in for just the right moment?” Dean only pointed one finger this time, but he still looked more like he was guessing the answer to a riddle than accusing Castiel of anything.
“I sense. I do not look.” Castiel clarified.
“You tried to look just now.” Dean responded, but Castiel remained silent. “Silence really isn’t helping you out here.”
Castiel made a point of looking down and keeping his eyes directed at Dean’s left hand, where he was ensuring the towel stayed closed. The angel then raised his eyes slowly until he was looking into Dean’s once again. “I believe that we are beyond denials at this point, don’t you?”
“Heh.” Dean huffed awkwardly in what was meant to be a laugh. He wasn’t sure what to make of Castiel’s forwardness.
The angel stood in the open doorway, watching Dean’s face, and not for the first time Dean wondered if he could read his mind. It looked as if he was trying-Castiel’s eyes intently watching his own-and Dean wondered how long he would stand there waiting for Dean to do something.
“I feel like you’re waiting for me to do something.” Dean unconsciously gripped his towel tighter, and he felt his own heart pounding in his chest. Why could he hear his own heart? Something was happening here. Something was definitely happening here. He licked his lips and saw Castiel’s eyes follow the path of his tongue.
Why is he watching my tongue?
“Did something happen?” Dean asked, looking over Castiel to see if he looked any more mussed than usual, but everything was in place. His hair was all over the place, but it was out of his face, and Dean had a clear view of the angel’s eyes, which were obviously roving up and down, taking in the sight of Dean standing damply in the middle of the bathroom.
“No more than usual.” The angel responded, eyes not meeting Dean’s as he spoke, and Dean started to get an idea of what the angel had been waiting for. Remembering their last conversation, Dean realized that Castiel had put himself in a position to prove just how attracted to him the hunter was, showing up somewhere he couldn’t really hide it. If that was the case, then Cas was doing a damn good job, because Dean could feel the blood rushing south and the towel wasn’t keeping any secrets.
“You’re just gonna stand there, aren’t you?” Dean lifted his chin, making his words seem like a challenge.
“I am.” Castiel finally met Dean’s eyes again, and the hunter saw that his pupils were definitely larger than they needed to be in this light. Even if the angel had just set out to prove how attracted Dean was to him, he was damn sure giving himself away in the process.
“And what if I just leave?” Dean shrugged, “What if I don’t feel like standing around being stared at.”
“Then you would need to pass through this exit.” Castiel pointed out with the tiniest of smiles. “Where I am standing.”
Dean tilted his head, squinting at the angel blocking his exit, and took two steps forward to place his bare feet two inches in front of Castiel’s dress shoes. He lifted a hand, placing it on Castiel’s hip and pushed softly, as if to move him out of the way, but the angel did not budge. Instead, Castiel mirrored Dean’s action, placing a hand on Dean’s hip, squeezing gently instead of pushing.
It felt to Dean as if the steam that had been slowly dissipating was now building up all over again. The air was thick, breathing was a labor, his skin was hot, and he felt light-headed. When he breathed in hard enough, his chest brushed up against the angel’s coat, and he felt oddly excited by the contact. His mind flashed a quick image of himself rolling around naked, wrapped in Castiel’s trenchcoat, rubbing it on his body....
And full attention!
Already knowing what he was going to see, Dean glanced down at the tented front of the towel wrapped around his waist. Castiel must have been waiting for Dean to look down, because as soon as he did, Cas tapped the towel, and it fell from around Dean’s waist, landing in a circle around Dean’s ankles.
“Point taken.” Dean didn’t even know if Castiel had been trying to prove a point, but he was standing there with his dick staring back up at him as a clear message that he wanted to bang this angel.
Castiel appeared more enthralled with examining Dean than anything else, and he ran a finger through the water droplets resting on Dean’s stomach, swirling in patterns that may have been a mimicry of artwork or angelic language for all Dean knew. The hunter was actually distracted from the building pressure in his groin, as his stomach warmed where the angel’s fingers passed. Dean could have sworn that even more steam rose where the angel’s finger made contact with the water on Dean’s body.
“Dammit, Dean, how is the mirror steamed up in here? Are you taking a shower with the door open? Because I can do without ever walking in on that again.” Sam’s voice seemed to echo in from the motel room’s main living area, and Dean jumped backwards at the interruption.
The angellically discarded towel was still wrapped around Dean’s feet, but Castiel caught Dean when he started to fall. One hand cradling his head, the other on his lower back, Castiel returned Dean to his feet. Cas allowed the hand Dean’s on back to wander lower as the hunter regained his balance, but only permitted himself a moment before disappearing before the younger Winchester brother reached the bathroom.
Sam stepped into the bathroom and found his naked brother bending over the pick up the towel at his feet. “Whoa, okay, not done.” Sam spun on his heel and left the bathroom in the same motion that he’d entered it.
“No, Sammy. Not done.” Dean grumbled as he finished drying off.
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Sam and Dean had gone through two hunts before Castiel showed up again. Unfortunately, when he arrived he was cowering several paced behind Zachariah, head bowed and eyes averted from the brothers’ direction.
The two hunters and the two angels stood on either side of the Impala’s hood in the dirt driveway of a now un-haunted house in southern Nevada, and after the requisite arguing and banter, Zachariah launched into a speech that went largely ignored by Dean, who kept glancing over at Cas.
Finally, Zachariah sighed heavily. “I’m sorry, do you two need to take care of your unfinished business before we can finish talking about how to stop Lucifer?”
“I don’t hear us talking.” Dean’s eyes darted back to the elder angel’s face, using sarcasm and anger in an attempt to cover up the fact that he hadn’t even been paying attention to anything other than Castiel. “It’s just more of you being a dick about something you started.”
“If I didn’t know better, I’d think you didn’t want to hear my advice on how not to get yourself killed.” Zachariah smiled and looked to the ground, shaking his head. He drew a circle in the dirt with his foot, keeping his voice casual as he spoke. “No one said you couldn’t enjoy yourself, Dean. We want you happy, and we want you safe.”
Sam felt as if he was eavesdropping on a private conversation, the way the angel was talking only to Dean, especially when he realized that Castiel hadn’t looked their way since arriving. He shuffled awkwardly, and his movement must have grabbed Zachariah’s attention, because the angel looked his way and his smile grew larger. Man, that was creepy.
“You know what would make me happy?” Dean spoke up, drawing Zachariah’s attention away from his brother. “Next time you have news for me, you go ahead and send Cas, ‘cause I’m done with you.”
“That is not Castiel’s place. If I have a message, I will deliver it myself. You should appreciate the perks that we have already allowed you.” Zachariah leaned in, stage whispering so that everyone standing in the driveway could just barely hear what he was saying. “Especially when it comes to Castiel.”
Dean gritted his teeth, and he fought the urge to look over at Castiel again. “So your place is telling me something about Lucifer? Start talking, delivery boy.”
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On the drive back to their room, in the midst of a heated argument about the end of the world, Sam remembered that he’d meant to ask Dean about some of Zachariah’s more personal comments. “And what was that whole bit about perks? The angels allowing you perks?”
“Pretty sure he’s talking about me being alive.” Dean kept his eyes on the road, happy for the excuse not to look at his brother during this conversation. “After that corporate mindfuck he put us in, he did point out that I get to travel the country in a badass classic car.”
(He’d also noted Dean’s tendency to ‘fornicate with women’, but Dean didn’t want to bring that up and give his brother the chance to notice that he hadn’t been doing that so frequently anymore.)
“But he said it had something to do with Castiel.” Sam pointed out, watching his brother’s face for a reaction.
“Basic angel dickery-I don’t know.” Dean looked irritated and uncomfortable, like he wanted to change the subject but couldn’t think of a way to do it without it being obvious.
“Yeah, but this sounded like something specific-like something you’d know about.” Sam leaned in towards Dean, not hiding the fact that he was studying his brother’s face. “You two have been acting weird for weeks now…you didn’t make some kind of deal to keep them from punishing him for helping us out, did you?”
“Those fucks should know better than to give me that kind of ultimatum,” Dean’s voice was no louder than it had been, but his words were almost cut off when he spoke-a sharpness giving away his underlying anger.
“I’m sure they’ve done it with me. I know they’re not beyond it.” Sam wasn’t sure if pointing this out would incense his brother more, or make him realize that the angels’ behavior was something they were already used to; he spoke in a soothing voice and hoped for the latter.
Realizing that Sam was trying to calm him down, Dean became aware of his own over-reaction to the idea that the other angels would threaten Cas as a way to manipulate him; the anger in his own words about something that hadn’t even happened had taken him off guard, but he recovered as quickly as possible.
“Cas is a perk for them.” Dean spoke in a calmer tone. “He’s the best chance those assholes have of keeping me in line.”
“Is that why that other angel brought him along? To make sure you didn’t just tell him to fuck off when he showed up?” Sam asked, and Dean frowned about the fact that his brother had caught on to the other angels’ use of Castiel as some kind of carrot on a string before he did.
“Probably.” Dean answered.
“Hmmm.” Sam turned to face forward again, and Dean was relieved not to have his brother’s attention so hyper-focused on him. Sam watched the scenery become rural then residential then industrial as they neared their latest motel. When they pulled in to the parking lot, he finally verbalized what he’d been thinking. “So they basically use Cas as your pacifier.”
“My pacifier?” Dean always paid close attention when parking, and it was probably the only thing stopping him from giving Sam an outright what the fuck are you talking about face.
“Yep.” Sam nodded, pretty sure this was an accurate description. “You start to bitch and complain, they bring out Cas to shut you up. He’s your pacifier. Or your blankie.”
Dean finished parking, turned off the car, then turned to look at his brother seriously. “Sammy, you get exactly one time to make that comparison.”
“But it fits.” Sam did a horrible job of pretending not to understand Dean’s problem with the analogy.
“You know what else fits? Your laptop in the sink the next time you call Cas my damn pacifier.” As they exited the car, Dean pointed at his brother to let him know he meant business.
“But blankie’s okay, right? Is it just the sucking thing you had a problem with?” Sam laughed, and Dean muttered a few curses, but Sam was already jogging ahead towards the room, knowing from experience that his long legs and the fact that he was carrying the room key were probably the only things standing between his laptop and a cold wet night.
Part 1a Here
“Jeez-.” Dean started to exclaim, but cut himself off and just shook his head. “I think it freaks me out even more when you use the door.”
“I arrived in the living area. The mirrors are fogging over…” Castiel shifted his gaze downward for a moment when Dean readjusted his slipping towel. “You take very hot showers, Dean.”
Dean looked at the angel in disbelief, allowing a few moments of silence to emphasize his expression of are you serious? before asking, “Did you just look down?”
“I heard you singing about the ‘heat of the moment.’” Castiel looked around the bathroom, noting that Dean and Sam had already removed all but two bars of courtesy soap.
“You did! You totally tried to check me out when I moved my towel.” Dean lifted both of his hands to point at Castiel, but his palms were turned up so the gesture came off more as if Dean were giving an explanation than making an accusation.
“Dean, if I wanted to see you naked, I could have simply arrived a few moments earlier.” Castiel pointed out.
“But how would you know when to show up without peeking in for just the right moment?” Dean only pointed one finger this time, but he still looked more like he was guessing the answer to a riddle than accusing Castiel of anything.
“I sense. I do not look.” Castiel clarified.
“You tried to look just now.” Dean responded, but Castiel remained silent. “Silence really isn’t helping you out here.”
Castiel made a point of looking down and keeping his eyes directed at Dean’s left hand, where he was ensuring the towel stayed closed. The angel then raised his eyes slowly until he was looking into Dean’s once again. “I believe that we are beyond denials at this point, don’t you?”
“Heh.” Dean huffed awkwardly in what was meant to be a laugh. He wasn’t sure what to make of Castiel’s forwardness.
The angel stood in the open doorway, watching Dean’s face, and not for the first time Dean wondered if he could read his mind. It looked as if he was trying-Castiel’s eyes intently watching his own-and Dean wondered how long he would stand there waiting for Dean to do something.
“I feel like you’re waiting for me to do something.” Dean unconsciously gripped his towel tighter, and he felt his own heart pounding in his chest. Why could he hear his own heart? Something was happening here. Something was definitely happening here. He licked his lips and saw Castiel’s eyes follow the path of his tongue.
Why is he watching my tongue?
“Did something happen?” Dean asked, looking over Castiel to see if he looked any more mussed than usual, but everything was in place. His hair was all over the place, but it was out of his face, and Dean had a clear view of the angel’s eyes, which were obviously roving up and down, taking in the sight of Dean standing damply in the middle of the bathroom.
“No more than usual.” The angel responded, eyes not meeting Dean’s as he spoke, and Dean started to get an idea of what the angel had been waiting for. Remembering their last conversation, Dean realized that Castiel had put himself in a position to prove just how attracted to him the hunter was, showing up somewhere he couldn’t really hide it. If that was the case, then Cas was doing a damn good job, because Dean could feel the blood rushing south and the towel wasn’t keeping any secrets.
“You’re just gonna stand there, aren’t you?” Dean lifted his chin, making his words seem like a challenge.
“I am.” Castiel finally met Dean’s eyes again, and the hunter saw that his pupils were definitely larger than they needed to be in this light. Even if the angel had just set out to prove how attracted Dean was to him, he was damn sure giving himself away in the process.
“And what if I just leave?” Dean shrugged, “What if I don’t feel like standing around being stared at.”
“Then you would need to pass through this exit.” Castiel pointed out with the tiniest of smiles. “Where I am standing.”
Dean tilted his head, squinting at the angel blocking his exit, and took two steps forward to place his bare feet two inches in front of Castiel’s dress shoes. He lifted a hand, placing it on Castiel’s hip and pushed softly, as if to move him out of the way, but the angel did not budge. Instead, Castiel mirrored Dean’s action, placing a hand on Dean’s hip, squeezing gently instead of pushing.
It felt to Dean as if the steam that had been slowly dissipating was now building up all over again. The air was thick, breathing was a labor, his skin was hot, and he felt light-headed. When he breathed in hard enough, his chest brushed up against the angel’s coat, and he felt oddly excited by the contact. His mind flashed a quick image of himself rolling around naked, wrapped in Castiel’s trenchcoat, rubbing it on his body....
And full attention!
Already knowing what he was going to see, Dean glanced down at the tented front of the towel wrapped around his waist. Castiel must have been waiting for Dean to look down, because as soon as he did, Cas tapped the towel, and it fell from around Dean’s waist, landing in a circle around Dean’s ankles.
“Point taken.” Dean didn’t even know if Castiel had been trying to prove a point, but he was standing there with his dick staring back up at him as a clear message that he wanted to bang this angel.
Castiel appeared more enthralled with examining Dean than anything else, and he ran a finger through the water droplets resting on Dean’s stomach, swirling in patterns that may have been a mimicry of artwork or angelic language for all Dean knew. The hunter was actually distracted from the building pressure in his groin, as his stomach warmed where the angel’s fingers passed. Dean could have sworn that even more steam rose where the angel’s finger made contact with the water on Dean’s body.
“Dammit, Dean, how is the mirror steamed up in here? Are you taking a shower with the door open? Because I can do without ever walking in on that again.” Sam’s voice seemed to echo in from the motel room’s main living area, and Dean jumped backwards at the interruption.
The angellically discarded towel was still wrapped around Dean’s feet, but Castiel caught Dean when he started to fall. One hand cradling his head, the other on his lower back, Castiel returned Dean to his feet. Cas allowed the hand Dean’s on back to wander lower as the hunter regained his balance, but only permitted himself a moment before disappearing before the younger Winchester brother reached the bathroom.
Sam stepped into the bathroom and found his naked brother bending over the pick up the towel at his feet. “Whoa, okay, not done.” Sam spun on his heel and left the bathroom in the same motion that he’d entered it.
“No, Sammy. Not done.” Dean grumbled as he finished drying off.
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Sam and Dean had gone through two hunts before Castiel showed up again. Unfortunately, when he arrived he was cowering several paced behind Zachariah, head bowed and eyes averted from the brothers’ direction.
The two hunters and the two angels stood on either side of the Impala’s hood in the dirt driveway of a now un-haunted house in southern Nevada, and after the requisite arguing and banter, Zachariah launched into a speech that went largely ignored by Dean, who kept glancing over at Cas.
Finally, Zachariah sighed heavily. “I’m sorry, do you two need to take care of your unfinished business before we can finish talking about how to stop Lucifer?”
“I don’t hear us talking.” Dean’s eyes darted back to the elder angel’s face, using sarcasm and anger in an attempt to cover up the fact that he hadn’t even been paying attention to anything other than Castiel. “It’s just more of you being a dick about something you started.”
“If I didn’t know better, I’d think you didn’t want to hear my advice on how not to get yourself killed.” Zachariah smiled and looked to the ground, shaking his head. He drew a circle in the dirt with his foot, keeping his voice casual as he spoke. “No one said you couldn’t enjoy yourself, Dean. We want you happy, and we want you safe.”
Sam felt as if he was eavesdropping on a private conversation, the way the angel was talking only to Dean, especially when he realized that Castiel hadn’t looked their way since arriving. He shuffled awkwardly, and his movement must have grabbed Zachariah’s attention, because the angel looked his way and his smile grew larger. Man, that was creepy.
“You know what would make me happy?” Dean spoke up, drawing Zachariah’s attention away from his brother. “Next time you have news for me, you go ahead and send Cas, ‘cause I’m done with you.”
“That is not Castiel’s place. If I have a message, I will deliver it myself. You should appreciate the perks that we have already allowed you.” Zachariah leaned in, stage whispering so that everyone standing in the driveway could just barely hear what he was saying. “Especially when it comes to Castiel.”
Dean gritted his teeth, and he fought the urge to look over at Castiel again. “So your place is telling me something about Lucifer? Start talking, delivery boy.”
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On the drive back to their room, in the midst of a heated argument about the end of the world, Sam remembered that he’d meant to ask Dean about some of Zachariah’s more personal comments. “And what was that whole bit about perks? The angels allowing you perks?”
“Pretty sure he’s talking about me being alive.” Dean kept his eyes on the road, happy for the excuse not to look at his brother during this conversation. “After that corporate mindfuck he put us in, he did point out that I get to travel the country in a badass classic car.”
(He’d also noted Dean’s tendency to ‘fornicate with women’, but Dean didn’t want to bring that up and give his brother the chance to notice that he hadn’t been doing that so frequently anymore.)
“But he said it had something to do with Castiel.” Sam pointed out, watching his brother’s face for a reaction.
“Basic angel dickery-I don’t know.” Dean looked irritated and uncomfortable, like he wanted to change the subject but couldn’t think of a way to do it without it being obvious.
“Yeah, but this sounded like something specific-like something you’d know about.” Sam leaned in towards Dean, not hiding the fact that he was studying his brother’s face. “You two have been acting weird for weeks now…you didn’t make some kind of deal to keep them from punishing him for helping us out, did you?”
“Those fucks should know better than to give me that kind of ultimatum,” Dean’s voice was no louder than it had been, but his words were almost cut off when he spoke-a sharpness giving away his underlying anger.
“I’m sure they’ve done it with me. I know they’re not beyond it.” Sam wasn’t sure if pointing this out would incense his brother more, or make him realize that the angels’ behavior was something they were already used to; he spoke in a soothing voice and hoped for the latter.
Realizing that Sam was trying to calm him down, Dean became aware of his own over-reaction to the idea that the other angels would threaten Cas as a way to manipulate him; the anger in his own words about something that hadn’t even happened had taken him off guard, but he recovered as quickly as possible.
“Cas is a perk for them.” Dean spoke in a calmer tone. “He’s the best chance those assholes have of keeping me in line.”
“Is that why that other angel brought him along? To make sure you didn’t just tell him to fuck off when he showed up?” Sam asked, and Dean frowned about the fact that his brother had caught on to the other angels’ use of Castiel as some kind of carrot on a string before he did.
“Probably.” Dean answered.
“Hmmm.” Sam turned to face forward again, and Dean was relieved not to have his brother’s attention so hyper-focused on him. Sam watched the scenery become rural then residential then industrial as they neared their latest motel. When they pulled in to the parking lot, he finally verbalized what he’d been thinking. “So they basically use Cas as your pacifier.”
“My pacifier?” Dean always paid close attention when parking, and it was probably the only thing stopping him from giving Sam an outright what the fuck are you talking about face.
“Yep.” Sam nodded, pretty sure this was an accurate description. “You start to bitch and complain, they bring out Cas to shut you up. He’s your pacifier. Or your blankie.”
Dean finished parking, turned off the car, then turned to look at his brother seriously. “Sammy, you get exactly one time to make that comparison.”
“But it fits.” Sam did a horrible job of pretending not to understand Dean’s problem with the analogy.
“You know what else fits? Your laptop in the sink the next time you call Cas my damn pacifier.” As they exited the car, Dean pointed at his brother to let him know he meant business.
“But blankie’s okay, right? Is it just the sucking thing you had a problem with?” Sam laughed, and Dean muttered a few curses, but Sam was already jogging ahead towards the room, knowing from experience that his long legs and the fact that he was carrying the room key were probably the only things standing between his laptop and a cold wet night.
Part 1a Here