Dean Winchester smiled faintly as he woke up, nuzzling closer to the warmth that was beneath him. He could feel the now familiar comfort of arms around him, although this morning something felt different. The usually strong embrace was loose, as if uncertain that it should be there at all. Slowly blinking his eyes open, Dean put the observation down to sleepy hysteria and pushed it to the back of his mind. He started pressing soft kisses along his husband's neck, just as he did mornings. "G'morning, Cas," he mumbled, his voice still thick with sleep before he pressed a gentle, lazy kiss to the other's lips.

It took Dean three seconds to realise something was wrong. The kiss felt like it was their first kiss all over again. Not in the good way that it usually did, as in Dean wondered how he got so lucky. Cas was kissing him back like he was surprised he was getting kissed in the first place.

The ex-hunter pulled away quickly, all traces of sleep gone as he looked like Cas. He looked like his Cas, the Cas he woke up to every morning, but different...it took Dean longer than it should have to realise Cas was in his suit and trench coat and not the t-shirt and pyjama pants that he'd fallen asleep in before, which was the same outfit Dean was wearing. He could see confusion all over the other's face, as clearly as if the word was written in marker pen on his forehead.

"You're not my husband," Dean muttered, too shocked to move.

Castiel blinked up at him before replying. "No, I am not your husband," he agreed in the deep voice that was as familiar to Dean as his own.

"Where are you from?" He asked, his voice strangely calm considering the panic that was steadily rising within him at the sight of the not quite right Castiel in front of him.

"Heaven. Dean, I thought you were aware of that," Castiel answered seriously.

Dean rolled his eyes - some things never change. "Yeah, Cas. I meant where were you before you were here?" He elaborated, trying to calm the still rising panic.

Castiel's eyebrows furrowed and Dean had to resist the urge to kiss the small crease that formed between them, reminding himself that this wasn't the Cas he was married to. He currently couldn't remember how the ritual started, but it usually made Cas stop frowning. Well, Dean's Cas anyway. "I was in a motel room with you and your brother. We had just finished a case and we were going to leave in the morning. Then...I was here," he explained simply.

Dean groaned, rolling off of his husband's doppelylgänger. "This is some Doctor Who worthy crap right here," he muttered, mostly to himself as he glared up at the ceiling.

"I'm afraid I don't quite understand that reference," Castiel stated quietly after a minute of silence.

"It means that you and my husband have switched places and are in the wrong universe," he explained, quiet and concise.

"Oh."

"Yeah. Oh." Dean sighed, looking up at the ceiling as if it was its fault they were in the mess they were in. He liked doing that - whenever there was trouble he'd scowl at the nearest inanimate object and mentally pass the blame onto it. Although it sounded stupid, it helped him clear his head a lot better than Sammy's chick-flick worthy talks ever did.

"So...we're married?" Cas asked finally.

Dean nodded, "Yeah. We'd been out of hunting for a few years and I proposed and you said yes. Happily ever after ending. I should've known something like this was going to happen." Dean sighed, turning his head to look at Castiel. The other man was already looking at him and it took Dean a moment to figure out the emotion being conveyed in the bright blueness of his eyes.

Wistful longing.

"I gather our relationship in your universe isn't quite at that stage yet," he commented dryly.

"It hasn't," Castiel confirmed.

Dean nodded - Castiel's clumsy kissing alone had clued him into that fact. "You won't be rejected you know. If you make the first move."

"I do not think proposing would be the best idea."

He laughed, "That's not what I'm talking about. Not yet anyway. I just mean relationship wise. When you get back, you should just grab me by the shoulders and kiss me." It occurred to Dean that this was one of the strangest situations he'd been in; advising other Cas on the best way to get with other Dean. He pushed the thought away, "It worked alright when I did it to you," he added, winking at Cas and being rewarded with a shy smile.

"I suppose that might work. Although, how can you know that I will not be rejected? We are from two different universes. They may be similar in many ways, but they are not the same," Cas reminded him gravely. "You have no way of knowing that the Dean I am acquainted with shares the feelings that you have for the Castiel of this universe."

Dean smirked, "I knew you were going to say that. Lucky for you, that you already told me the answer." He paused to admire the sheer ridiculousness of that sentence before continuing. "You told me long ago that we share a 'profound bond'-" he did a bad imitation of Castiel's voice, gaining an amused smirk from the servant of Heaven, "-but you didn't explain it completely until after we were married. According to you, no matter what the scenario, you would've performed some act of rebellion for me. Even if you weren't an angel and I weren't a hunter. It's the act of rebellion that is the beginning for us and from then on we fall for each other. Apparently it's Cupid's design. Rather than hit us in every universe with a love arrow and mark us that way-" Dean's nose crinkled slightly. It always creeped him out that there was Enochian carved onto his heart, "-he's set things up so that your rebellion does it for him. Basically, we're soulmates. No matter what, we're going to end up loving each other," he explained, finishing with a proud grin. When Cas had first explained it, he thought he'd never make sense of it, never mind explain it to another person. Plus the words themselves have him a small rush. Cas was his soulmate, it was hard not to get excited by that.

"Soulmates?" Cas repeated, looking at Dean like he'd just told him he was a genie who could grant him unlimited wishes. Dean simply nodded in reply, smiling at the hope and excitement that were easy to see on the other man's face.

Castiel sat up, "I just return as soon as possible," he stated, clearly eager to get going at that very moment.

"And how're you going to do that?" Dean asked. He hated to be the one who burst Cas's bubble, to see his shoulders slump as he remembered the Dean he wanted was not simply a bus ride away.

"I don't know," he admitted finally.

"You're in luck again, Cas," Dean stated with a small sigh as he sat up. "Because I'm pretty sure I know exactly which English bastard brought you here. And if he wants to keep living, he'll take your ass right back."