Honestly, it'd been a long time coming. Sam noticed it years ago, blinking in shock when he finally put two and two together in the midst of one of their (frankly, creepy) staring contests and feeling unendingly stupid for not having seen it before. It just suddenly became crystal clear, and Sam's mind was flooded with holy frigging crap my brother's got the hots for a freaking angel of the Lord!

He completely and unequivocally shipped it. (That was what the fangirls called it, right? Because Sam was nothing if not a fangirl over this.)

After that point, it'd been a lot of poorly concealed hints, sly comments, and mostly Sam acting like an annoying, meddlesome little brother. It'd been a long time since he'd felt vaguely normal. He wouldn't admit it, but this, having normal people problems instead of fighting demons and stopping the apocalypse...it felt good.

Dean, unfortunately, had not caught on. Sam knew it would be difficult though; his brother was quite possibly the single most emotionally constipated human being Sam had ever met. And he'd met a lot of human beings.

Of course, he said this only because Castiel, Dean's very own soulmate, was not actually human.

Usually.

Surprisingly, considering this, Castiel had figured out relatively quickly that Sam was up to something, and he knew it included himself and Dean. He also knew, and had for a while, that he was irrevocably, impossibly in love with one Dean Winchester.

He was not quite so oblivious as he let Sam believe him to be.

However, Sam had no knowledge of this. He just thought they were both too stupid and emotionally-repressed for their own good, and was ready to either knock their heads together or pull out the big guns and lock them in a room. At least then, he figured, they'd either confess their undying love or kill one another.

At this point, he was pretty much cool with either option.

It was on a rare day of calm that everything finally came to a head. Cas was sitting in the back seat, blue eyes staring out the window contemplatively. Sam was sitting innocently in the passenger seat, running through various matchmaking plans in his head (possibly having way too much fun with his own creativity) and offhandedly wondering how bad a car accident would be going this speed down the highway because Dean couldn't keep his eyes on the freaking road- and then they heard it.

A splutter.

A cough.

The sound of grinding gears.

Dean's eyes grew wide, his face filling with disbelief as he gently braked and pulled over on the side of the highway. They sat in stunned silence for a minute, watching the cloudy smoke rise from the hood of the impala.

Dean was actually going to kill somebody.

Suddenly, time unfroze and Dean sprung into enraged action, climbing out of the driver's seat and stomping around the the front, cursing as he went. "What the actual-what is wrong with my car- Sam, what did you do to baby?!"

Sam sat up straight, glaring out the window. "I didn't do anything!" He huffed offendedly. He really hadn't, either. There were some things that you just did not mess with when it came to Dean, unless you had a death wish: his family, his beer, and his car.

And Cas, Sam realized.

Because Dean loved Cas.

Except Dean wouldn't admit it...but now they were stranded on an empty highway, with no where to go, for who knew how long.

Sam grinned wickedly, suddenly seeing the situation for what it was; an opportunity. Today was the day! Dean and Cas were going to confess and be together and happy, so help him God-

Sam quickly schooled his expression into a more convincingly concerned one, and got out of the car to stand next to Dean. As he predicted, Cas quickly crawled out of the backseat to follow them out to the front. Dean scowled angrily at Sam, but didn't spare a glance for the angel. Sam optimistically took that as a good sign.

Finding himself in the middle of Dean and Castiel, Sam nonchalantly ambled his way to the other side of the angel, finding his excuse in turning the car off. Cas unconsciously edged closer to Dean to accommodate Sam's (rather large) presence beside him, accidentally brushing his arm against Dean. And Sam definitely noticed when his brother automatically leaned towards Cas.

Sam stifled the embarrassingly girly squeal climbing up his throat and turned his face towards the now-open car hood. "What's wrong with it?" He asked quietly, trying not to rile Dean up anymore than necessary. That would be counterproductive.

He slowly began edging himself-and, by extension, Cas- towards Dean, trying to make it seem like he was just trying to see the engine better. The angel seemed, if anything, to be moving too easily.

You see, Castiel was not stupid, and knew the Winchesters better than anyone at this point. He'd been aware of Sam's...meddling for quite some time now, though admittedly he'd only just realized what the younger brother was trying to do. After knowing the Winchester brothers for so long, he quickly realized that the easiest course of action was just to go along with whatever Sam had in mind, knowing that he deserved to have a bit of fun anyways, after everything.

And, being perfectly honest, he was secretly cheering him on.

Dean sighed next to him, bringing the angel out of his musings. The oldest Winchester ran a hand through his hair, causing it to stand up in different directions. "Can't figure out what's wrong with her," Dean muttered. "I'll have to get further into the engine to see if the belt's loose or..." Sam didn't actually catch the rest, mostly because he didn't understand a word coming out of his mouth, but also because Cas was watching Dean's every movement like he was hanging stars with them. In truth, he was now about elbows deep in grease and engine fumes, but he knew that Cas thought he was beautiful.

Sam cleared his throat. "Hey, Dean..." he began hesitantly.

Dean glanced up at him, a distracted look in his eyes. "Yeah?"

"Well... I was thinking...why don't you show Cas a bit about the car and how to fix it? He's becoming more and more human everyday, and he might need to know something about cars in the future, you know?"

Dean leveled him with a look. "First, my car is not an "it". Be respectful, man. Second, there is no way in..." Dean mistakenly looked over at the angel in question, watching the expression of hope slowly morph into one of disappointment.

Now, usually Dean could care less about someone else's feelings, especially when it came to his baby, but lately he'd been feeling...softer towards Cas. Even he, as out of touch with his own emotions as he was, could sense the change in his feelings towards the angel. He'd been blaming it on the closeness of their friendship lately, and after seeing the look on his face, he knew he couldn't refuse to give Cas this taste of human life.

"...Alright, alright," he sighed exasperatedly. "Just-you break her, I break you, capische?"

Cas nodded slightly, trying to act indifferent towards the whole ordeal, but a smile was tugging at his lips and Dean felt an answering smile pulling at his own.

"Alright, first, go around to the back seat and grab me my toolbox."

As Cas nodded and disappeared from his line of sight, he saw Sam watching him warily. Dean lifted his eyebrows in a way that was both irritated and knowing, a look that was classically Dean. "Alright Sam," he leaned against the side of the car. "Out with it."

Sam's own eyebrows raised at this. He couldn't know...could he? Sam hadn't been that obvious, had he?

He decided to play safe. "Out with what, Dean?" He tried for an innocent expression, one he'd used many times on various policemen and suspicious civilians.

Bad move. "Oh no, Sam, I know that look, that's your 'I'm an innocent angel what ever could I have done?' look. Let me tell you somethin'-angels ain't innocent. So, out with it. I know you've been up to something for a while now, with all your sly looks and wiggly eyebrows. Tell me."

Sam struggled internally. What could he say? Dean knew him too well, he couldn't lie, but he also couldn't say that he'd been playing matchmaker-Dean would kill him!

Avoid the question! His mind screamed desperately, and he looked around frantically. Wait...shouldn't Cas be back by now?

"Where's Cas? Your tool box isn't exactly hard to spot."

"Tool box is in the trunk, but I told him it was in the backseat, figured I'd keep him busy for a few minutes while you tell me what you've been doing."

Crap, now what, genius?

Shut up!

Oh God, now he's talking to himself.

His mouth started moving without his permission. "Well, Dean, see, the truth is, uh..."

"Spit it out man!"

"Well I mean, just-just don't get mad, you know-"

"Come on, he's gonna get back soon, tell me-"

"I've been trying to get you and Cas together!"

Dean's mouth opened and then snapped shut. He blinked at Sam, and then his entire face cleared and went blank.

That, quite honestly, terrified him more than anything else Dean might have done. Dean's blank face was Dean's I-Have-Literally-Hundreds-Of-Ways-To-Kill-You-And-I-Will-Use-Them face. Sam was going to die.

"Sam. Why would you do that." He asked, in a voice matching his expression.

Sam fidgeted. "Because I was tired of the UST between you two?" He said, his voice going shamefully squeaky. It was sad, he could face down demons and the devil and rogue angels without batting an eye, but the wrath of his brother made him want to run and hide.

"UST? The heck is UST?"

"Uh...unresolved sexual tension?" Sam replied quickly trying to maintain eye contact with his brother. Don't show fear, he thought to himself.

Dean breathed slowly in through his nose. "For the love of-What possessed you-there's no sexual tension between Cas and I!"

"Dean!" Sam interjected, sudden anger filling his chest. He couldn't honestly be that stupid though-he was obviously in love with Castiel, Cas was obviously in love with him, they had this chance to be really happy and they were wasting it!

It was like a kick in the face to Sam-he'd given anything to have that chance, to have Jess back.

Sam shook his head. "Look, man, I'm not just seeing things or making this up. I know what love looks like, I've seen it, I had it-and you're wasting it. This could be a once in a lifetime chance...why are you so afraid?"

"I'm not-afraid! I don't feel like that towards him, he's-he's an angel, even if I did...have feelings for him...it wouldn't work, he's gonna get his mojo back and then he's gonna..." Dean trailed off, staring at the ground.

"Leave?" Sam asked quietly. "That's why you're afraid, you're scared he'll leave? Dude...he's been an angel before, don't you think that if he was gonna leave, he'd have done it by now?

"And anyways, man, Cas loves you back. I'm sorry for dumping all this on you all at once, but...you're wasting an opportunity. Dean, I think-"

"Dean? Your toolbox is not located in the backseat, I have made sure and checked even the front area, are you sure that we have it with us?" Cas came up next to Sam, looking over at Dean with that same hung-the-stars expression in his eyes. Dean stared at him for a moment, his eyes uncharacteristically soft, before he stood up away from the car and cleared his throat. He looked away from Cas. "Yeah, it might be in the trunk, let me just go check." He quickly walked away, keeping his eyes on the ground.

As distracted as Dean was from that point on, he managed to figure out the problem and even still let Cas help fix the car-which, to all of their surprise, Cas was especially adept at. Sam had to force back a grin when Castiel managed to figure out parts of the engine and how to fix the issue by himself, because Dean would look at him with those soft eyes, a look he hadn't seen in...way too long. They finished in record time, Dean smiling-smiling-at Cas and promising him that he'd teach Cas more about cars later, if he wanted.

Of course, Cas accepted the offer enthusiastically.

They all piled back into the impala, ready to hit the road once more, though they had no specific destination in mind. Sam couldn't help but steal glances at Dean as he drove, watching his jaw clench and unclench as he tried to work through whatever was going on in his head.

Suddenly, with no warning whatsoever, Dean swung the car back towards the side of the highway, coming to a complete stop and then just...sitting there. Sam felt a sort of deja vu.

Dean seemed to fight with himself a minute before, without looking back or changing his position, he spoke. "Cas...get outta the car."

Cas' eyes widened in confusion. Was Dean angry? He was not aware of what he had done. "Dean, I do not understand-"

"Cas, man, just get out of the car."

Hearing the unfamiliar tone in Dean's voice, the angel slowly complied, his eyes still wide in fear and confusion. Was he being kicked out? But Dean's voice had not sounded angry...

Sam looked confused as well. What was Dean doing? He wasn't going to yell at Cas, was he? "Dean, dude, it's not his fault, don't get mad at-"

"Sam, chill. I'm not mad." A small smile lit his face. "I'm...good."

Sam started to smirk, seeing now where this was headed. "Well...go get him then, huh?"

Dean punched him in the shoulder before hauling himself out of the impala. He looked over at Cas and his fearful expression and smiled just a bit, to calm him down. Then, without saying a word for fear of losing his resolve, he stepped straight into Cas' personal space (the irony), grabbed him by his trenchcoat and pressed their lips together.

Cas froze for about half a second before responding enthusiastically, wrapping his arms around him and kissing back clumsily. Despite that... Dean was pretty sure that it was the most perfect kiss he'd ever been a part of.

He slowly pulled away, looking down at Cas with that soft look that was becoming less and less uncommon, and smiled. He wanted to say it, the big L word, but he couldn't quite bring himself to. Not yet. He would, soon, but in the meantime he figured...Cas knew.

And he did.

A/N First Destiel fanfiction EVER POSTED! I'm so excited :D I've loved Supernatural for literally ever, but I only recently got into the Destiel ship and it's actually taking over my life. It's okay though, as long as Dean and Cas end up together, it'll all be worth it :3

That's all for now, review if you are so inclined!

And by that, I mean review you have no choice I will call down the wrath of the angels and-

Ahem.