- This is (obviously) a work of fanfiction. I don't own anything but the original characters. I don't claim ownership over the characters or storyline of the TV show Supernatural, no matter how grateful I am for them, which is hella.

- Thanks to the Sister Husbands, who are my best friends in the whole world, and happen to be gracious enough to also beta most of my works for me. I don't know what I'd do without you girls, but I certainly wouldn't be doing this.

- I come by any mistakes here honestly, but feel free to point them out so I can correct them.

- Inspired by the circus episode of Bones. *shrug* The muse works in mysterious ways.

- Traditionally, circuses have been accused of animal abuse. While in some cases, I'm certain this was true, I know someone who works with showhorses and they're taken very good care of, so that's what I put in the fic. I also don't bring it up in here, but there are no elephants or camels in this circus. JSYK.

- Feedback is life.

Dean loves the circus.

He loves the smell of fresh popcorn, frying hot dogs and funnel cakes, and the unique scent of manure and hay that seems to follow the showhorses everywhere. He loves listening to the crew set up the tents and stages, the clowns arguing and practicing (sometimes it's hard to tell which is going on), and the general chatter of the family in the mornings.

This, though, might be his favorite part.

Cas mumbles sleepily and presses his face into Dean's chest. Cas is awful in the mornings, all grumpy and squinty eyes and muttered one-word answers. He's terrible, but Dean loves every moment.

"Sweetheart," he whispers, "we've gotta get up."

"No." For someone as seemingly out of it as Cas is supposed to be, he responds awfully quickly.

Dean smiles into the messy mop of hair tickling his nose. "Baby, come on. I'll make you coffee."

"You'll do that anyway."

Dean hums and kisses the top of Cas' head. "True."

Cas snuggles closer. "Five more minutes."

"You said that fifteen minutes ago."

"Shut up."

Yeah, waking up with Cas in their twin bed, which barely fits into the bedroom of the trailer they bought together last year, haggling about when to start their day? This is his favorite part.

It became clear to Dean when he turned fifteen that his father was never going to be okay. Mary's death devastated John irrevocably, and he was never going to dry out or get himself together.

Dean's nose was still bleeding a little and is eye was throbbing and blackening when they got to the circus that had come into town. He was desperate to get Sam out of the house and away from their father and the circus seemed as good as an excuse as any. Sammy was pissy, but so were all eleven-year-olds, so Dean just dragged him along.

Sam came around pretty quick. Before the main show, there were lots of sights to see and games to play. Dean had swiped a few twenties from his dad's wallet before they left, so he got them both corn dogs and a line of tickets as tall as Sammy. Once he used a wad of napkins to clean off his face, Dean found himself having a good time.

They went into a small, deep purple tent with a hand painted sign, proclaiming Miss Missouri Moseley: Psychic, Fortune Teller, and Palm Reader because Sam wanted to get his palm read, the little nerd.

As soon as she laid eyes on them, they both felt like they were coming home.

Five days, three long discussions, a screaming match, and one fleeing in the night later, Sam and Dean Winchester ran away to join the circus.

Dean leans against the doorway to their bedroom with a smirk as he watches Cas move into another yoga pose. The long, lean muscles in his back and legs are giving Dean ideas. He's trying to calculate if they have enough time to implement them when Cas speaks without opening his eyes.

"We absolutely don't have time for whatever you want to do to me," he says with a smile and a note of regret in his voice. "The show starts in two hours."

"You don't know what I want to do to you."

Cas goes through the final pose of his routine and then straightens, his blue eyes sparkling. "I think I have some ideas."

Dean snags him around the waist and pulls Cas up against him. Cas is only wearing a pair of briefs and Dean himself is just in jeans, so their bare chests press together deliciously. He grins when Cas' breath catches. "I can make it quick," he promises huskily.

Cas smiles coyly and wraps his arms around Dean's neck. "I'm sure you can," he says, his thunderous voice thick with desire, "but I told Anna that we could run through the new routine a few times before the show starts."

Dean groans and tilts his head down to press his forehead against Cas'. "Ugh."

Cas laughs. "Please. Like you didn't want to practice with Jess and Sam again."

"Just 'cause it's the first time Chevy'll be in the ring with Bones and Burn," Dean mutters.

Cas' eyes are glowing with fondness. "So we should definitely leave this trailer before we get… Distracted."

Dean met Cas five years after the Winchesters joined the Barnes' Family Circus. Pam, a bit of a psychic herself but a better ringleader and businesswoman by far, always listens when Missouri tells her that a lost soul will find them in a town or city. It's why the circus stopped in Lawrence all those years ago.

They were in Pontiac, Illinois. Dean thought the place looked a little dull, but what did he know? He was just there to ride his horse, keep Sam's fool neck unbroken, and to convince his brother to ask the other horse rider, Jess, out on a date. Finally.

Cas came to the stable and demanded to know if the horses were being well taken care of. Dean was immediately taken in by the passion in his eyes, not to mention the tight body hidden under an ill-fitting suit and wild bedhead. While he normally would have reacted to suspicions with anger and a flying first or two, he let Cas come look at the stables. He introduced the other young man to the circus' three quarter horses, Impala, Nurse, and Stargazer. He talked about their strict care regimen, and how protective of the animals all the circus folk were. Then, once Cas seemed satisfied, Dean asked him in for a cup of coffee.

It turned out that Castiel Milton and his sister Anna had already decided to join Barnes, contingent on the way both people and animals were treated. They were trapeze and high wire artists. They had performed in a couple of different acts, but had stayed in Pontiac because it "felt like they should be waiting for something."

That something was Barnes Family Circus. More specifically, for Cas it was Dean, and for Anna, it was Jo Harvelle, the knife thrower.

After his own act, Dean thoroughly wipes down Chevy (having retired Impala when she got too old to comfortably perform to a horse rescue in Missouri run by a gentle, quiet man named Cain), tosses the blanket over his broad back, and feeds and waters him. As much as he wants to hurry back to the tent, he'd rather die than neglect Chevy in any way. Sam and Jess feel the same way.

Once they're done, he steps out of the stall with one final pat to Chevy's head and flips the latch closed on the door. The stalls and stables are a pain in the ass to put up every time they stop, but Dean won't compromise on the horses' safety and Pam won't ask him to.

Sam comes from Bones' stall and claps Dean on the shoulder with a grin. "Go, idiot, Jess and I will lock up."

Dean frowns. "I can-"

"I know you can. Go."

Dean almost protests again, but the cheering from the tent tells him that Jo's done with her act now, so he just nods his thanks and hurries across the grounds.

He finds a good spot next to the bleachers just as Cas and Anna are highlighted by the spotlight where they stand together, balanced on the high wire. Dean's breath catches just like it does every time Cas' beauty is on display like this.

Cas and Anna's act has been popular as hell from the beginning. The death- and gravity-defying stunts keep the crowd on the edge of their seats. Their cocky attitudes and the casual arrogance with which Anna flies through the air and Cas catches her, draw the crowd in and ensnare their attention.

Dean thinks the skin-tight spandex and well-placed sequins of the Milton siblings' costumes also have something to do with it, but he keeps that to himself.

Dean will never get tired of watching Cas up there. Anna is lovely, to be sure, with her bright red hair and easy smile, but Dean can never take his eyes off of Cas. The intensity in every movement, the passion on his face, the radiant joy in his smile at the end of the act, it's almost too much for Dean to take in. Even now, five years after the two of them gave into the crackling tension between them, Cas always manages to overwhelm him.

It's why he comes back into the tent before he's had a chance to shower the sweat and horse smell off of himself. He's never missed one of Cas' shows and he'll be damned if he starts now.

Cas is muscular, as is evidenced by the way he throws both himself and Anna into the air, the way he holds himself up on the high wire, and the way he lowers himself so slowly during the rope dancing part of his act. It's a more subtle strength than Dean's. Dean is in excellent shape, he has to be, but he's bulky and big, with well-defined arms, chest, and legs. Cas is slender by comparison, his own body all compact muscle and ridiculously flexible limbs.

Dean is a big fan. Cas is kind of a twink, sure, but Dean is under no illusions about who exactly is in charge here.

The act ends with Cas and Anna performing a complicated series of flips, throws, and jumps until they get to the ground, where they take their bows together. Dean holds his breath, just like he did the first time and every time since, until they're both firmly on the ground.

Cas' wide smile makes Dean's heart flutter, doubly so when their eyes meet across the arena. There's a wild heat in Cas' gaze that makes Dean grin.

I am so getting laid tonight.

"Cas," Dean gasps. "Fuck."

Cas just moans as he sinks down onto Dean's throbbing cock. Dean is sitting on their bed, his legs extended out and his back leaning against the wall. He barely had time to tug his singlet down to his thighs before Cas was on him, so the spandex is now tangled just above his knees, restricting his movement even further.

Cas actually managed to get naked, at least. His knees bracket Dean's hips and his fingers are digging bruises that they'll have to hide with makeup into Dean's shoulders. They're both still covered in sweat and dust, but Dean wouldn't have it any other way.

Cas rises up again, drawing another groan from Dean. "Oh," he says as he sinks back down. "Right there, Dean, please."

As if Dean is running any part of this show at all. But his hands come up to frame Cas' slim waist, anyway, gripping Cas just as fiercely as Cas is holding him.

"Yeah, sweetheart?" he rasps. "You want it there?"

Cas nods desperately and starts moving again, making Dean's vision blur as he sets up a brutal rhythm. Dean is effectively pinned in place by the awe with which he's watching Cas fall apart above him. His dark hair is damp with sweat and sticking to his forehead. His skin is glistening in the weak light of the bedroom lamp. Dean watches in fascination the play of muscles shifting beneath Cas's kin, jumping and moving more frantically the closer he gets to the edge.

Cas' cock his hard as steel, bobbing between them as Cas impales himself on Dean over and over. Dean's basically helpless to do anything but wrap a hand around it, loving the way Cas keens at the touch.

"Dean!" Cas cries out as he becomes more frantic. He desperately thrusts into the tunnel of Dean's fingers and then fucks himself back onto Dean's cock, blindly chasing his own pleasure. It's hot as sin.

"Come on, sweetheart," Dean murmurs roughly. "Know you wanna come on my cock, wanna come all over me."

The slick sounds of Cas' movements fill the room. "Yes, yes, yes!"

Dean's stomach tightens with the beginnings of his orgasm. "Cas. Come for me, baby, come right now."

Cas obeys, falling forward to crush their mouths together messily and muffling his almost scream as he comes, filthy and hot, on their stomachs.

He doesn't stop moving, fucking himself on Dean's cock through his own orgasm. It only takes a few seconds for Dean to follow him over the edge, biting down hard on Cas' bottom lip and groaning deeply.

Cas slumps forward and Dean gathers him close. They trade sleepy, lazy kisses as they catch their breath. Dean reflects, a little dazed, that it's hard to believe the way he feels about Cas fits inside his heart.

Finally, "You didn't even let me get naked."

Cas shrugs, all faux innocence and sparkling eyes. "I just needed you so bad, Dean. I couldn't wait."

Dean narrows his own eyes. "Cas. The bed is gonna be all sweaty and gross now."

Cas shamelessly presses his face into Dean's neck and inhales deeply. "It will smell like us."

"Yeah, well, you're washing the sheets next time we stop."

"Of course, Dean."

Den rolls his eyes even as his heart swells almost unbearably with emotion. He never thought he could have this. When he brought Sam with him, he had a vague idea of putting the kid through school somehow and then maybe figuring something more permanent for himself out after Sam was okay.

Instead, they've found a huge family who loves them. Sam and Jess are perfect for one another, and the three of them put on a damn good show. And Dean has Cas, who fills up the cracks in Dean's soul with love and dumb jokes and a filthy mind that Dean adores.

Goddamn, I'm happy.

"Are we on the road tomorrow?"

"Yeah. Pam wants to be on the road by noon."

Cas groans. "That's going to be an uncomfortable ride for me, considering our activities this evening."

Dean laughs out loud. "You can sleep in, you big baby, and ride in the bed tomorrow."

As they clean up and get ready for bed, Dean pokes fun at Cas while Cas insists primly that that's not what he was angling for. It's domestic and ridiculous and everything Dean has ever wanted.

Dean loves the circus, but his heart belongs to Cas.