There's a distinct part in the back of Dean's mind that remembers all the times he's woken up to Castiel watching him from beside his bed. It had been unsettling at first but Dean figures that since Cas has done it so many times, there's really nothing weird about what's happening right now. That's what he tells himself anyway as he's sitting on a chair next to the bed where Castiel was currently sleeping in.

They, along with Sam, were in Rufus' cabin taking a break and regrouping before going back on the road. While Castiel had insisted that he was doing perfectly fine in dealing with his newfound humanity, Dean and Sam both agreed that it would be best to lay low for a while and adjust before going off hunting again. Despite what he had said, Castiel seemed to be having a hard time with actually needing to sleep now. Much to the brothers concern, he'd only been sleeping a for few hours every couple of days and the only reason why he was asleep right now was because he hadn't slept at all from their last hunt till now. Although Castiel never said anything about it and stubbornly kept quiet when questioned, Dean suspects that it's a combination of the strangeness of losing consciousness for a few hours each day and the newfound experience of having nightmares. Dean figures he should know, since sleep deprivation is something he has quite a lot of experience in.

Which, despite what Sam may have said when he smirked at Dean earlier, is why he wanted to make sure that Castiel actually slept through the night this time. At least that's what he tells himself when he came into the spare bedroom earlier and sat by the bed. Dean will admit that ever since Castiel started traveling with them, their relationship hasn't been exactly 100% just friendship. But they never seem to get the chance to talk about what's happening between them and Dean prefers to avoid emotional confrontations in general so he's perfectly fine (or so he tells himself) to resort to silently watching over Castiel instead.

He glances at the wall clock, 1am, and rubs his eyes. He silently hopes that it's safe now to assume that Castiel won't wake up anytime soon. Dean tips his head towards the closed door and when he couldn't hear any noise from the other side, safely assumes that Sam had went to bed in the main bedroom as well. Dean sits there awhile longer debating inside his head if he should just try to nap on the chair or go out to the living area to crash on the couch. The promising comfort of the couch won out in the end and he slowly scraped his chair back wanting to get up. But as soon as his chair moved backwards on the hardwood floor, Castiel shifted from where he was sleeping and his eyes darted open. Dean cursed silently inside his head and moved to sit down on the bed where Castiel was now sitting up, eyes darting fast around the room.

"Hey, hey Cas, its alright" Dean says softly, holding Castiel's shoulder with one hand and placing his other hand gently on his chest to calm him down.

"Where...?" Castiel asked quietly still looking around nervously but seemed to have calmed down significantly from a few seconds prior.

"We're at Rufus' cabin, you clocked out as soon as we arrived so me and Sam brought you in while you slept".

Castiel nodded, slowly remembering what happened and to Deans relief, lays back down on the bed.

"It's late so go back to sleep alright?" Dean said squeezing Cas on the shoulder before letting go and moving to stand back up. Castiel's hand made an aborted motion towards Dean as if he wanted to grab onto his arm but changed his mind halfway through, Dean saw it anyways and slowly sat back down looking at Cas.

"You alright?"

"Yes" Castiel said quietly "just..." he glanced nervously down at his hands then back at Dean and bit at his bottom lip, a incredibly human gesture that almost catches Dean off guard.

"You don't wanna be alone?" Dean guesses still looking into Castiel's eyes and sees them looking back at his hands, avoiding Dean's glance which was enough of an answer as any.

Dean sighed, not out of exasperation, but out of the weird endearing-ness he feels nowadays whenever Cas displays any human habits. Like how he picks at his fingernails when he's nervous, or how he taps his knee when he's impatient.

"Okay, scoot over" Dean says before Castiel can reply and moves to lay down next to him on the bed as Castiel silently shifts over to give him space. Dean settles down on the pillow and brings his hands together placing them on his stomach, they're close enough that their shoulders are pressed up against one another. He glances over and see's Castiel staring at him looking confused.

"Go back to sleep" Dean says rolling his eyes before closing them and he listens to Cas' breathing even out slowly beside him before letting himself go to sleep.

Dean wakes up to the sunlight glaring at him through the window curtains and a confusing pressure on his arm before he remembers that he fell asleep in the same bed as Cas last night. Instead of the bone chilling panic he expected to feel when he thought about this happening, he feels strangely calm and turns his head slightly to the side and sees Castiel asleep on his side facing Dean, and clutching at the sleeve of Deans tshirt between his fingers.

Dean brings up his other arm and rubs out the sleep that was still lingering in his eyes. He slowly extracts the arm that Castiel is clutching, and stretches them out above his head. He immediately regrets it when Castiel moves onto his back and slowly blinks open his eyes, looking up at the ceiling and squinting at the sunlight still invading the small bedroom. Dean feels his heart speed up when Castiel presses the palm of his hands against his eyes and yawns in a completely not adorable way. Something in his chest clenches at the sudden thought of waking up like this every morning and subsequently chokes on air. Castiel brings his hands back down on the bed and turns his head to look at Dean who's still coughing through his embarrassment.

Dean finally turns towards Castiel, propping himself up on his elbow and gives his best smile, "morning" he says, voice still scratchy from sleep.

"Good morning Dean" Castiel replies smiling softly up at him and Dean feels his heart start hammering again against his chest at the rare smile that he hardly ever sees these days.

Looking down at Cas, Dean suddenly realizes how close they are. He doesn't know if it's the fact that Castiel is looking up at him so fondly, or the fact that they've been dancing around this undefined relationship of theirs for days now, but before Dean's brain can catch up to his body, he feels himself leaning down and pressing their lips together. It's an incredibly chaste kiss with neither of them actually moving into it and once Dean's brain catches up to the fact that Castiel is laying as stiff as a board underneath him, he pulls back slowly and awkwardly tries to say something before just settling for trying to figure out what Cas is thinking from his facial expression. When Castiel just continues staring up at him wide eyed and silent, Dean slowly starts to move back, his mind yelling at him to GO, GO NOW.

But before he can make his great escape, Castiel reaches forward with his hand grabbing onto the collar of Dean's tshirt and pulls him forward again, bringing their lips back together and kissing him with all the force that was missing before. Dean feels his brain short circuiting as he feels Cas' mouth move against his own and surges forward, pinning Castiel onto the bed with a hand on his chest, kissing him back with a newfound sense of urgency.

They both pull back from one another after a while but still close enough that Dean could feel their heavy breathing coming together in the air between them.

"Are you...do you...is this okay?" he finally gets out and tries to keep his heart beat under control as he pulls back a bit so he can fully look Castiel in the eyes.

"It's...I...I need you as well" Castiel replies so quietly that Dean almost couldn't hear him, "if you want to..." he trails off staring intently at Dean with eyes filled with something almost akin to fear as if he's scared that Dean will get up and leave him here, which he probably has reason to be given Dean's track record with these kind of things.

But this is different, Dean thinks as he closes his eyes and takes a deep breath, the hand he has on Castiel's chest lightly fisting the fabric of his tshirt which he borrowed from Dean a few nights ago while they were still traveling. Castiel is different, he's not a one night stand or a nameless face that frequented Dean's past.

Dean might have been scared about what this was between the two of them in the past (he might have been fucking terrified) and if he's honest with himself then he's still pretty scared about where this is going. But when he opens his eyes and sees the cautious glint of hope that has now entered Castiel's eyes, he forces himself to suck up his fear because this right now with the two of them here and the sunlight highlighting their faces like something out of a fucking movie, this is what he wants.

"Yeah, yeah I do" Dean says as he leans down again bringing them back together.