Dean isn't a cruel man. He's just learned that taking is just so much easier than negotiating. It helps that he's selfish at heart and he learned that in Hell(when he broke the seal because he thought of his own safety before everyone else's). He tells Castiel this when Sam's out one night after the averted apocalypse and he's already started in on a third beer, tells him that taking is in his nature because he's selfish.

"Do you remember what brought you to Hell in the first place?" Castiel sits across from him on the other twin bed in the motel room.

"I did it to save Sam." Did Castiel really think he'd forget that?

"You traded your soul for your brother's." Cas tilts his head and meets Dean's eyes, his gaze a little tender. "How does that make you selfish?"

Dean stops drinking for a moment and stares at him, green meeting blue. How can Cas think that? After everything he's done? He started the goddamn apocalypse for fuck's sake; how could anyone forgive that?

"I'm not selfless, Cas." Dean looks him over and notices how pretty he is, how innocent the angel must be. Dean wants someone like that, someone to counterbalance how fucked up he is, but Cas would never give him that.

So maybe Dean could take it. He sets the bottle on the table between the beds and reaches out with a trembling hand to cup Cas's cheek. The angel looks confused, innocent, and Dean runs his thumb over Castiel's lips. Untouched, but Dean will change that. He lunges forward and slams his lips against Cas's, keeps his hands firmly planted on the angel's head to keep him there.

But Cas isn't trying to move away. He isn't trying to fight back and something in Dean's mind tells him that if Cas isn't struggling, then Dean isn't taking like he originally planned. He pulls his lips away, but keeps his hands there just in case Cas is trying to be a sneaky bastard and escape while Dean's guard is down.

Cas's lips are swollen and his cheeks are flushed; he looks a little less innocent now, but those eyes are still tender and loving. How did Dean miss that? The angel looks at him like that for a moment and then pulls Dean back with a small, forgiving smile. Dean kisses him again and this time Cas responds, parting his lips and his thighs sinfully, as Dean takes him.

Dean only realizes it when he's on the edge of orgasm, only realizes it when Castiel moans and tightens around him; Dean can't take anything from the angel because Cas would give him anything and everything. And suddenly, he feels like a monster again because no matter what Cas says, Dean really is selfish and it scares him.

But not enough to stop.

***

"I hope he's worth it." Uriel folds his arms across his chest as Castiel appears before him. "Letting a mud monkey defile you in such a way. . ."

Castiel remembers Dean's hands on him, the devouring kisses, the tormented look in Dean's eyes, the look that disappeared when he had fallen asleep in Castiel's arms. He likes seeing Dean happy, likes it more than anything.

"He's worth everything." Castiel smiles, his gaze unfocused and his mind blank as Uriel rips his wings out one feather at a time.

(Later that night, Uriel will wonder what it means to love and even though he calls Castiel stupid, he thinks Cas is the luckiest angel-former angel- in the garrison.)