Unexpected Destinies Chapter 34
Title: Unexpected Destinies
Rating: R
Spoilers: up to and including Exile on Main St., AU from the end of season 5
Warnings: AU, slash
Word Count: 2,396
Summary: Dean calls Michael out on his behavior and attitude when Castiel is away.
PAST
Dean could feel the eyes on him, following his every movement. It was a feeling he'd grown used to after hitting his growth spurt as a teenager, his body already sculptured from all of the hard training his father had made him do. It had taken some getting used to, but once he'd learned the power of his looks, he'd used them to their fullest potential. Dad had always taught them to use anything and everything at their disposal after all. That this hadn't originally included his physical charms beyond a child's ability to capture the attention and sympathy of older women had become clear to him when he'd turned to his father after having charmed some old bastard with a few coy glances and a little shy behavior.
He could now understand his father's fear that one thing would lead to another and all, but Dean was pretty sure his horrified and disgusted reaction had allayed it.
But, yeah, all of this meant that Dean was perfectly aware of his own looks and the attention they tended to draw, from both genders. So that he was used to, the thing was that the prickling along the back of his neck would have told him that this wasn't another human watching him, but rather that it was an angel, even if the archangel wasn't the only other one in the room with him. The problem was, it was the wrong archangel for Dean to be enjoying or basking in the attention so, instead of welcoming it and being turned on by it, it angered and chilled him, the hair on the back of his neck rising in response.
He turned around to give Michael a piece of his mind about the behavior, but the words froze in his throat when Dean caught sight of the look on his- or rather his aunt's- face. Clearly Michael wasn't able to mask his emotions as well, or either he wasn't trying to, but he could read them loud and clear. Possessiveness was the predominant expression and it chilled him to the core to see that on an angel other then Castiel when directed at him (and the thought stopped a part of Dean cold, the fact that he might want to see that on his angel's face). This in turn immediately enraged him as fear always did when he was confronted with this type of situation, much to his father and Sam's eternal dismay.
Even as the rage and indignation came to life within him, another part of Dean's mind absently noted the appreciation he also saw in Michael's gaze and it just served to anger him even further. Well good for the bastard that he liked his intended vessel's looks. It was just too fucking bad that he'd never get to wear said vessel as there was no way on Earth that he was letting someone like him ride him. No fucking way.
"Don't even think about it!" Dean snarled furiously, fists clenching and he could feel the Jewel of Abel start to glow.
"Dean?"
The way the bastard managed to make his name sound so full of confusion with just the faintest hint of distain made Dean's blood boil and he took far too much satisfaction at seeing Michael's wary glance down at his hand. Although he and Castiel had decided that it was unlikely that Michael was playing some kind of elaborate ruse, neither of them came close to trusting the archangel. Therefore he always made sure to wear the Jewel of Abel whenever his lover wasn't around and Michael was. It didn't happen often, but occasionally Cas would be called away to Heaven and it seemed pointless for him to be zapped somewhere else if his lover didn't think that it would take long.
Today, Castiel had arrived with Michael in tow after one of their training sessions. Dean had to, albeit reluctantly, admit that the bastard archangel was keeping to his word on that issue. And generally on every other issue as well, if he were being truly honest with himself, which he hated to be just now. Not once had Michael shown any signs of seeking to double-cross them or of breaking his word, not that he was being particularly angelic about either issue. In a lot of ways, it kinda reminded Dean of Sam's adolescence and all of the drama it had entailed. Although the thought never failed to make him smile, he doubted either his own brother or Castiel's would find it particularly amusing. Well that was just too damn bad for them as that was what it made him think of. It said quite a lot as far as he was concerned that one of the most powerful archangels in existence could make him think of a spoiled child in the midst of a temper tantrum after not having gotten his way.
"Oh, don't you 'Dean' me, Mikey, you know exactly what I'm on about," Dean snapped back, closing the gap between them.
He'd just been putting away his newly cleaned weapons when the two angels had appeared and he'd gotten back to that when Castiel had flown off to take care of something quickly in Heaven. Dean had thought it better then banging his head up against the brick wall called Michael. It was a pity that the archangel just hadn't been able to return the favor.
"I'm not blind, nor am I some puppet you can jerk around at will or an outfit you can just slip into whenever the mood strikes you!"
"Yes, I am very aware of this," Michael replied, eyes narrowing. "You have made your sentiments on the matter more then clear."
"Oh, yeah? Then why the hell do you still look at me like you have any kind of claim on me? Like you have any right to have any kind of claim on me?"
"You are my vessel."
"Son of a-" Dean managed to cut himself off at the last minute, needing to reign in his anger before he discharged the Jewel of Abel accidentally.
Although he'd love nothing more then to just hit Michael with another burst of it, he wasn't stupid. The bastard was an archangel and, going by what Castiel had been telling him about their training sessions together, he knew damn well that he didn't stand a shadow of a chance against the douchebag if Michael were to really get pissed. So, blasting him across the room just for the hell of it without a quick escape route or Castiel around? A really fucking stupid idea. Besides, inevitably, he kept coming back to the fact that, looks and comments aside, Michael had yet to do anything untoward and he was damned if he was going to be the one to break the uneasy truce they'd somehow reached.
No way was he giving Michael an excuse to further convince himself that humans were nothing but untrustworthy mud monkeys. Not a chance.
It took a concentrated effort for Dean not to so much as flinch much less back away when Michael closed the remaining distance between them, carelessly invading his personal space, but he managed it. The aura of power that crackled around the archangel set the hair on his arms on end and he forced down the urge to swallow. He would not give the bastard the satisfaction of seeing how much he was getting to him, there was just no way. Besides, it wasn't like having his personal space invaded by an angel was anything new, even if Castiel had never done it with his Grace so primed.
Out of nowhere the thought that Castiel would be jealous if he caught them like this and saw how close Michael stood to him, popped into Dean's head. He had no idea why it occurred to him now, but he definitely knew what lay behind it. The other week, after their successful skinwalker hunt, his lover had wasted no time in getting him out of the golf shirt he'd worn. He'd noticed his angel was acting off from the moment he'd gotten changed for the hunt, but hadn't realized why until afterwards when Castiel had all but ripped it off of him, growling 'mine' in his ear. The very thought that his lover could be jealous of Lisa after all that had happened between them had been so farfetched and ludicrous that it hadn't even occurred to him despite knowing that something wasn't right.
Castiel had made his feelings on the topic more then clear, though, and Dean had to fight off the way his body wanted to react to the mere memory of that evening. It had caught him completely by surprise then and still managed to do so even now, just how thoroughly he'd enjoyed his lover's attentions that evening even though Cas had been extremely dominant. It had been as if his angel had felt the need to restake his claim and it had turned him on in a way he'd never known he could be. Trust Castiel to find a way to turn bottoming into being in charge.
"That is not what I meant," Michael stated, abruptly pulling Dean from his thoughts and making him scramble to get back with the program. "What you fail to understand is just how rare an archangel vessel is, how unique and special."
The words made Dean bristle. "I'm not some pet or prized possession, I'm a human being!"
"Must you deliberately misunderstand everything that I say?"
"I'm not! If that's not what you meant then you're not being clear."
"Although the bloodline for an archangel's vessel gets passed down from generation to generation just like that of any other angel, there are only an infinitesimally small number of true vessels even in that line," Michael explained. "Whereas other angels can often have almost anyone of the right bloodline, we cannot, not if we want to be able to use the full extent of our powers."
"That why Lucy was starting to look a little worn around the edges?" Dean couldn't help but ask, shuddering at the memory of the decay Lucifer's first vessel had shown.
They never had figured out who the poor idiot had been, but Dean had always felt kinda sorry for him. To have the devil himself riding you around... True, the guy had to have said yes at some point, but that didn't mean that Lucifer had told him the truth, he could just have approached the dude as 'an angel of the Lord'. For a lot of people- far too many people as far as he was concerned- that would have been more then enough. And even if Lucifer had been honest with him as far as his identity was concerned, well, he was known as the Prince of Lies for a reason. He didn't doubt that the bastard could talk a sweet line if the situation called for it. Sammy had definitely seemed to indicate as much from what little he'd said about his dreams.
"Yes, and it is what will happen with this vessel if I remain in it too long."
"Her name is Deirdre," Dean stated coldly. "She was a person and not an inanimate object."
Michael's gaze bore into his for a few minutes before relenting slightly. "My apologies."
"Okay, so when you say true vessel you mean true vessel for this time and place, not really true vessel at all."
"For most archangels that would be the case, yes."
He didn't want to take the bait, Dean really didn't, but he wasn't sure if Michael would continue on his own and just how often would he have one of the bastards be so willing to give him information? "Most?"
"Yes."
Fucking asshole, of course he couldn't elaborate on his own. "And what about you?"
"No, this has not been the case for me. I have had two previous vessels who could hold me better then the others of my line, but even they weren't what I would call a true vessel," Michael stated, eyes leaving his own and shifting to look at him overall. "Neither of them could have born the brunt of my full powers though they could take more then any others before or since them until now."
Dean snorted. "Of course not. And what makes you so sure that I'll be any different without a test ride? Prophecy? 'Cause you gotta know that I don't believe in that bullshit."
"At first it was prophecy, yes, and the fact that Lucifer and I couldn't have a true fight here on Earth with anything less then our true vessels. However, since meeting you for the first time, I have known that I would have recognized you to be the one even without any of that."
"No, wait, let me guess," Dean sneered. "It was like love at first sight? Only with vesselship instead?"
"A hopelessly crude analogy, but probably the closest your human mind can come to understanding the matter."
The temptation to just zap Michael again was back and Dean let the Jewel of Abel glow enough to start whine, but held it there. To his credit, the archangel didn't so much as flinch, but he figured that if he could face one of God's most powerful angels without flinching that it really shouldn't surprise him that said angel could do the same with him even if he had an anti-angel weapon.
With a flutter of wings, Castiel returned and then was gone again almost just as quickly. Before Dean could even frown, his lover reappeared directly in front on him, taking up a protective stance between himself and Michael, only just fitting into the space left between them. He scowled in annoyance at the gesture even as it touched something deep within him.
"I have not touched him, Castiel," Michael stated, his own expression dark with insult.
The fact that they both seemed to be agreeing on something, pissed Dean off and made him drop his own scowl, just on principle. Damn bastard.
"Dean?" Castiel inquired.
"I'm fine. Your brother's a dick, though."
And if Dean had the desire to stick out his tongue at Michael when the archangel turned his glare back his way, well then he felt perfectly justified in feeling that way. Bastard.
A.N.: Thanks for all the well wishes, guys, I appreciate it! I'm getting there, slowly, but getting there. I'm hoping to get back to a more regular updating schedule after the holidays and all of the chaos that goes with them. I'm also closing in on some chapters that are already finished, which will help.
Chapter 35
Rating: R
Spoilers: up to and including Exile on Main St., AU from the end of season 5
Warnings: AU, slash
Word Count: 2,396
Summary: Dean calls Michael out on his behavior and attitude when Castiel is away.
PAST
Dean could feel the eyes on him, following his every movement. It was a feeling he'd grown used to after hitting his growth spurt as a teenager, his body already sculptured from all of the hard training his father had made him do. It had taken some getting used to, but once he'd learned the power of his looks, he'd used them to their fullest potential. Dad had always taught them to use anything and everything at their disposal after all. That this hadn't originally included his physical charms beyond a child's ability to capture the attention and sympathy of older women had become clear to him when he'd turned to his father after having charmed some old bastard with a few coy glances and a little shy behavior.
He could now understand his father's fear that one thing would lead to another and all, but Dean was pretty sure his horrified and disgusted reaction had allayed it.
But, yeah, all of this meant that Dean was perfectly aware of his own looks and the attention they tended to draw, from both genders. So that he was used to, the thing was that the prickling along the back of his neck would have told him that this wasn't another human watching him, but rather that it was an angel, even if the archangel wasn't the only other one in the room with him. The problem was, it was the wrong archangel for Dean to be enjoying or basking in the attention so, instead of welcoming it and being turned on by it, it angered and chilled him, the hair on the back of his neck rising in response.
He turned around to give Michael a piece of his mind about the behavior, but the words froze in his throat when Dean caught sight of the look on his- or rather his aunt's- face. Clearly Michael wasn't able to mask his emotions as well, or either he wasn't trying to, but he could read them loud and clear. Possessiveness was the predominant expression and it chilled him to the core to see that on an angel other then Castiel when directed at him (and the thought stopped a part of Dean cold, the fact that he might want to see that on his angel's face). This in turn immediately enraged him as fear always did when he was confronted with this type of situation, much to his father and Sam's eternal dismay.
Even as the rage and indignation came to life within him, another part of Dean's mind absently noted the appreciation he also saw in Michael's gaze and it just served to anger him even further. Well good for the bastard that he liked his intended vessel's looks. It was just too fucking bad that he'd never get to wear said vessel as there was no way on Earth that he was letting someone like him ride him. No fucking way.
"Don't even think about it!" Dean snarled furiously, fists clenching and he could feel the Jewel of Abel start to glow.
"Dean?"
The way the bastard managed to make his name sound so full of confusion with just the faintest hint of distain made Dean's blood boil and he took far too much satisfaction at seeing Michael's wary glance down at his hand. Although he and Castiel had decided that it was unlikely that Michael was playing some kind of elaborate ruse, neither of them came close to trusting the archangel. Therefore he always made sure to wear the Jewel of Abel whenever his lover wasn't around and Michael was. It didn't happen often, but occasionally Cas would be called away to Heaven and it seemed pointless for him to be zapped somewhere else if his lover didn't think that it would take long.
Today, Castiel had arrived with Michael in tow after one of their training sessions. Dean had to, albeit reluctantly, admit that the bastard archangel was keeping to his word on that issue. And generally on every other issue as well, if he were being truly honest with himself, which he hated to be just now. Not once had Michael shown any signs of seeking to double-cross them or of breaking his word, not that he was being particularly angelic about either issue. In a lot of ways, it kinda reminded Dean of Sam's adolescence and all of the drama it had entailed. Although the thought never failed to make him smile, he doubted either his own brother or Castiel's would find it particularly amusing. Well that was just too damn bad for them as that was what it made him think of. It said quite a lot as far as he was concerned that one of the most powerful archangels in existence could make him think of a spoiled child in the midst of a temper tantrum after not having gotten his way.
"Oh, don't you 'Dean' me, Mikey, you know exactly what I'm on about," Dean snapped back, closing the gap between them.
He'd just been putting away his newly cleaned weapons when the two angels had appeared and he'd gotten back to that when Castiel had flown off to take care of something quickly in Heaven. Dean had thought it better then banging his head up against the brick wall called Michael. It was a pity that the archangel just hadn't been able to return the favor.
"I'm not blind, nor am I some puppet you can jerk around at will or an outfit you can just slip into whenever the mood strikes you!"
"Yes, I am very aware of this," Michael replied, eyes narrowing. "You have made your sentiments on the matter more then clear."
"Oh, yeah? Then why the hell do you still look at me like you have any kind of claim on me? Like you have any right to have any kind of claim on me?"
"You are my vessel."
"Son of a-" Dean managed to cut himself off at the last minute, needing to reign in his anger before he discharged the Jewel of Abel accidentally.
Although he'd love nothing more then to just hit Michael with another burst of it, he wasn't stupid. The bastard was an archangel and, going by what Castiel had been telling him about their training sessions together, he knew damn well that he didn't stand a shadow of a chance against the douchebag if Michael were to really get pissed. So, blasting him across the room just for the hell of it without a quick escape route or Castiel around? A really fucking stupid idea. Besides, inevitably, he kept coming back to the fact that, looks and comments aside, Michael had yet to do anything untoward and he was damned if he was going to be the one to break the uneasy truce they'd somehow reached.
No way was he giving Michael an excuse to further convince himself that humans were nothing but untrustworthy mud monkeys. Not a chance.
It took a concentrated effort for Dean not to so much as flinch much less back away when Michael closed the remaining distance between them, carelessly invading his personal space, but he managed it. The aura of power that crackled around the archangel set the hair on his arms on end and he forced down the urge to swallow. He would not give the bastard the satisfaction of seeing how much he was getting to him, there was just no way. Besides, it wasn't like having his personal space invaded by an angel was anything new, even if Castiel had never done it with his Grace so primed.
Out of nowhere the thought that Castiel would be jealous if he caught them like this and saw how close Michael stood to him, popped into Dean's head. He had no idea why it occurred to him now, but he definitely knew what lay behind it. The other week, after their successful skinwalker hunt, his lover had wasted no time in getting him out of the golf shirt he'd worn. He'd noticed his angel was acting off from the moment he'd gotten changed for the hunt, but hadn't realized why until afterwards when Castiel had all but ripped it off of him, growling 'mine' in his ear. The very thought that his lover could be jealous of Lisa after all that had happened between them had been so farfetched and ludicrous that it hadn't even occurred to him despite knowing that something wasn't right.
Castiel had made his feelings on the topic more then clear, though, and Dean had to fight off the way his body wanted to react to the mere memory of that evening. It had caught him completely by surprise then and still managed to do so even now, just how thoroughly he'd enjoyed his lover's attentions that evening even though Cas had been extremely dominant. It had been as if his angel had felt the need to restake his claim and it had turned him on in a way he'd never known he could be. Trust Castiel to find a way to turn bottoming into being in charge.
"That is not what I meant," Michael stated, abruptly pulling Dean from his thoughts and making him scramble to get back with the program. "What you fail to understand is just how rare an archangel vessel is, how unique and special."
The words made Dean bristle. "I'm not some pet or prized possession, I'm a human being!"
"Must you deliberately misunderstand everything that I say?"
"I'm not! If that's not what you meant then you're not being clear."
"Although the bloodline for an archangel's vessel gets passed down from generation to generation just like that of any other angel, there are only an infinitesimally small number of true vessels even in that line," Michael explained. "Whereas other angels can often have almost anyone of the right bloodline, we cannot, not if we want to be able to use the full extent of our powers."
"That why Lucy was starting to look a little worn around the edges?" Dean couldn't help but ask, shuddering at the memory of the decay Lucifer's first vessel had shown.
They never had figured out who the poor idiot had been, but Dean had always felt kinda sorry for him. To have the devil himself riding you around... True, the guy had to have said yes at some point, but that didn't mean that Lucifer had told him the truth, he could just have approached the dude as 'an angel of the Lord'. For a lot of people- far too many people as far as he was concerned- that would have been more then enough. And even if Lucifer had been honest with him as far as his identity was concerned, well, he was known as the Prince of Lies for a reason. He didn't doubt that the bastard could talk a sweet line if the situation called for it. Sammy had definitely seemed to indicate as much from what little he'd said about his dreams.
"Yes, and it is what will happen with this vessel if I remain in it too long."
"Her name is Deirdre," Dean stated coldly. "She was a person and not an inanimate object."
Michael's gaze bore into his for a few minutes before relenting slightly. "My apologies."
"Okay, so when you say true vessel you mean true vessel for this time and place, not really true vessel at all."
"For most archangels that would be the case, yes."
He didn't want to take the bait, Dean really didn't, but he wasn't sure if Michael would continue on his own and just how often would he have one of the bastards be so willing to give him information? "Most?"
"Yes."
Fucking asshole, of course he couldn't elaborate on his own. "And what about you?"
"No, this has not been the case for me. I have had two previous vessels who could hold me better then the others of my line, but even they weren't what I would call a true vessel," Michael stated, eyes leaving his own and shifting to look at him overall. "Neither of them could have born the brunt of my full powers though they could take more then any others before or since them until now."
Dean snorted. "Of course not. And what makes you so sure that I'll be any different without a test ride? Prophecy? 'Cause you gotta know that I don't believe in that bullshit."
"At first it was prophecy, yes, and the fact that Lucifer and I couldn't have a true fight here on Earth with anything less then our true vessels. However, since meeting you for the first time, I have known that I would have recognized you to be the one even without any of that."
"No, wait, let me guess," Dean sneered. "It was like love at first sight? Only with vesselship instead?"
"A hopelessly crude analogy, but probably the closest your human mind can come to understanding the matter."
The temptation to just zap Michael again was back and Dean let the Jewel of Abel glow enough to start whine, but held it there. To his credit, the archangel didn't so much as flinch, but he figured that if he could face one of God's most powerful angels without flinching that it really shouldn't surprise him that said angel could do the same with him even if he had an anti-angel weapon.
With a flutter of wings, Castiel returned and then was gone again almost just as quickly. Before Dean could even frown, his lover reappeared directly in front on him, taking up a protective stance between himself and Michael, only just fitting into the space left between them. He scowled in annoyance at the gesture even as it touched something deep within him.
"I have not touched him, Castiel," Michael stated, his own expression dark with insult.
The fact that they both seemed to be agreeing on something, pissed Dean off and made him drop his own scowl, just on principle. Damn bastard.
"Dean?" Castiel inquired.
"I'm fine. Your brother's a dick, though."
And if Dean had the desire to stick out his tongue at Michael when the archangel turned his glare back his way, well then he felt perfectly justified in feeling that way. Bastard.
A.N.: Thanks for all the well wishes, guys, I appreciate it! I'm getting there, slowly, but getting there. I'm hoping to get back to a more regular updating schedule after the holidays and all of the chaos that goes with them. I'm also closing in on some chapters that are already finished, which will help.
Chapter 35