Disclaimer: Do not own Supernatural.

Written for my Slash Jealousy Prompt Table. Prompt of the day# 8: Bliss

Dean/Castiel, pre-slash.

Yeah, I went there.

Spoilers? Uh. All of the show is game.

Sometimes, whenever he lay in the bed of whatever terrible little motel room they found themselves in for because of whatever hunt they were after, unable to sleep, Dean's mind would take him places he preferred to leave buried in the back of his brain. He'd remember that night, that night where his life had been been fucked up by Azazel, remembered kissing his mom for the last time before dad and he had fallen asleep in the living room in front of the television, remembered waking up groggily to the sound of his mother's screams, to his father rushing upstairs. Dean would remembered the terror of the silence, half asleep and yet knowing somehow that something was terribly, terribly wrong. And then he remembered his father's scream, remembered rushing up in his pajamas to see his father race out of Sammy's room, which was in flames, passing him his baby brother and telling him to take Sammy out before his father tried to go back in.

Dean had only known one thing.

He had to protect his little brother.

The sandy-haired blonde sighed and ran a hand over his face.

His mentality hadn't changed much after all these years, had it?

"You are your brother's keeper." A voice from the corner spoke softly. "It is commendable, Dean."

Sitting up, Dean turned towards the voice, hazel eyes growing accustomed to the dark to find the angel sitting at the table. "Cas."

"You should be sleeping." The angel sighed, looking down at the map the brothers had been using earlier to pinpoint the most probable area to concentrate their hunt based on the multiple attacks on civilians. "You need your strength. You try to pretend that you're strong and invulnerable while around Sam, but we both know that you are only human, and your body was created to rest, which you aren't."

"I swear, sometimes I'm sure you think you're my mother." Dean snorted, shaking his head, refusing to admit to anyone how it felt nice to have someone look out for him for once, instead of him having to look out for everyone else. "Where have you been these last couple of days?"

Not that he'd missed him.

Or anything.

Dean cleared his throat.

"There were certain things that needed my attention. When you and Sam have finished this hunt, I have a favor to ask."

Dean looked up at the angel, smirking teasingly. "Why so formal, Cas? You shouldn't be so formal with the dude who took you to your first whore house...no matter how disastrous that turned out to be!"

Even in the darkness Dean could make out how the angel's lips twitched in amusement. "I found her decision to leave that line of work and go back to her family quite inspiring."

Dean was outright grinning. "Yeah. But you made every single girl in the place decide she was going to quit! The owner was so pissed we were thrown out on our asses and forced to pay for every single girl!"

By now Castiel was joining Dean in a large grin. "It is not as if it were your money you used to pay it with."

Dean pouted. "I worked hard to get those credit cards and they were maxed out in one night!"

Shaking his head, Castiel returned his gaze to the map, bringing his finger to trace the circle they'd marked on it in bold red as the smile slipped from his face. "I was there, that night."

The older Winchester froze, eyes wide in horror, unable to believe those words. He didn't need to ask Cas to clarify what he was talking about, he and the angel understood each other on a level Dean had never shared with anyone else. "You were there...the night my mother was killed."

Castiel nodded, face blank, gaze still on the map.

"Then why didn't you do anything to stop it from happening?!?" Dean snapped.

Sam grunted in his sleep, but thankfully didn't wake up.

"She had made a deal with him, I was not allowed to interfere." Castiel responded softly, fingers still tracing the circle. "That was why I sent you back that time, so you'd see for yourself, and you'd better understand."

"Then why were you there that night if you couldn't do anything to stop it from happening?" Dean's gaze lowered to his hands as they clutched at his sheets in a death grip.

"To protect you."

His gaze widened and shot up immediately, searching the angel out immediately, like he always found himself doing. "What?"

Castiel refused to look at him. "I was there to make sure that you were safe, Dean. And if I hadn't been there to stand between you and Azazel, he would have tried to use the distraction to come to you. I was there to make sure he would not touch you."

Dean was shocked. "Are you saying that the night Azazel killed my mother, he was planning on killing me as well?"

"No." Castiel shook his head. "When you were six months old, Azazel tried to enter your room to do to you as he later did your brother, but the time he'd requested for the deal hadn't come to term, you were not the child of the promise, and I forced him back, and kept him away from you. That night he tried once more to make you as Sam, but I was there to drive him back and away again. You were not the child of the promise, I would die protecting you from him before I'd let that demon contaminate you."

Dean was shocked by those words. They were said with such as-a-matter-of-factly way, as if they were nothing quite important, but a fact that could be looked up in a book.

Probably, in some record book in heaven, Dean could look it up.

And yet those words...they touched something inside of him, as did everything this angel said or did.

Dean looked at him silently, bringing his hand to his forehead. "Why?"

"Why do you think I was the one to grab you tight and pull you from perdition, Dean? Out of all of the angels in heaven, why do you think I was the one granted the honor?" Castiel stood. "Why do you think that afterwards I was the one sent to work with you?"

For a moment Dean couldn't come up with an answer...and then his eyes widened. "You're my angel."

Castiel smiled softly and nodded in acknowledgement.

"You're my angel." Dean whispered, lowering his gaze to the faded print of the sheet covering him, unable to believe it.

"You've never been alone, Dean." Cas' voice reached him in the darkness. "Even in the times when you felt completely alone in this world, I was there by your side, covering you with my wings."

Dean's eyes pricked as his vision got hazy.

His heart raced like crazy, and there was this odd sensation in his stomach.

"Rest."

He looked up only to find emptiness.

Cas was gone.

Wiping roughly at his eyes, Dean cleared his throat and laid back down, calling himself an idiot for getting so emotion over such a thing. What was he? Becoming an overly sensitive pansy like Sammy?

Taking in a deep breath, he turned in bed and closed his eyes.

Surprisingly enough, sleep came to him easily after that.

He dreamt of that night.

But for the first time he didn't dream of the terror and confusion.

He dreamt of his father rushing upstairs, dreamt of fire and the smell of sulfur, and he dreamt of glowing yellow eyes in the darkness. But in the dream he wasn't scared, because the being with those glowing eyes couldn't come close to him, that fire couldn't burn him. In the dream nothing could hurt him, and he could feel the comforting, protective presence by him. His sleepy gaze went to the wall behind him, and he could see the outline of a man besides him, with large wings covering and encircling him protectively.

Dean smiled blissfully in his sleep.

"I can't believe unicorns are real."

That was the sentiment the Winchester Brothers muttered over and over and over as they finished the 'favor' that Castiel had had to ask of them.

And they were just like in the myths too...not like the many fucked up versions of common fairy tales that the brothers had come up against during their career as hunters.

"This was...amazing." Sam smiled at Cas as they walked ahead of Dean. "It's like you felt you were at complete peace by just being in their presence."

"They are creatures of purity and love." Cas was explaining. "Which is why they've been targeted. Those are the last in the world, and it is fortunate that you were able to get them here to this sanctuary before Lucifer could have them massacred. For that I thank you."

"Don't thank me." Sam ducked his head and sighed. "I'm the one who's to blame for all that's happened, Cas. I don't think there's anything I could ever do to be forgiven for what I've done or the choices I've made in life."

Castiel surprised both brothers by placing his hand on Sam's shoulder, looking deep in his eyes. "I have come to believe that it was meant to happen, Sam. And heaven was not innocent in his rising either. We should have done more to help you, to----we all need to be forgiven."

Sam looked at Castiel in shock, before ducking his gaze and smiling softly, looking back up at the angel.

Dean stopped behind them, eyes narrowing, not understanding the dark anger in the pit of his stomach at the scene in front of him.

He should be happy that Castiel and Sam were beginning to bond, and yet, and yet he felt threatened.

And it made no sense.

Why would he be threatened?

Sammy was his little brother.

And Cas was his angel.

Dean frowned darker.

Something had just sounded odd in that, although he really couldn't put his finger on what it was.

He shook his head, not really wanting to think about it, but not wanting those two to continue touching.

It was kinda gnawing at his nerves a little.

Wasn't Cas supposed to be more reserved than this?

The only person he ever used to touch was Dean.

Since when had that changed?

"Well!" Dean surged forwards and between them, a large, fake smile on his face as he flung his arms over their shoulders, though it was a little uncomfortable since Sam was so freakishly tall. "Now that that is over...how about some beer? Sammy's buying!"

"Oh I am, am I?" Sam snorted, shaking his head in amusement.

Castiel sent Dean a considering look. "What will we be trying tonight?"

Dean looked at him and found himself smiling like an idiot.

Castiel was still slowly trying to become more like a human, humoring Dean more and more, and when Dean had announced that since Castiel refused to have his own drinks he'd be sharing his...well...Dean had been ordering more and more diverse drinks just to help educate the angel in human-ish form. If they got odd looks from some people as they passed back and forth beer cans or glasses of whatever they were sharing, Dean didn't notice or he didn't care. He found he enjoyed watching Castiel's facial expressions as he took the first tentative sips of a new beverage.

And he found it hilarious that the angel seemed to so far enjoy the more fruity drinks (pina colada was his favorite to date) to the more manly drinks like good, cold beer.

"How about you try a Margarita?" Sam spoke before Dean could. "I think you'd like it."

Usually, Castiel only listened to Dean's suggestions, yet today he just nodded. "I shall try it then."

If Dean got on Sam's case more than usual that night, it was for a totally unrelated reason.

"What are you doing in Alaska?" Dean blinked away his sleepiness as he spoke softly into the cellular as not to wake up Sam. The elder Winchester sat up groggily and looked at the clock on the bedside table which stated that Castiel had awoken him at three in the morning for this conversation. "Isn't it a little cold out there for just a trench coat?"

"I am wearing what David calls a parka." Castiel informed him dutifully. "It is very warm."

Dean tried to imagine Castiel wearing something that wasn't his signature trench coat.

He couldn't.

It was much easier imagining him without anything on than...

Dean backtracked a couple of seconds and went deep red.

He was sleep deprived!

That was all this was!

Clearing his throat, he scratched the back of his head. "So, should I call you Snuggly Bear now?"

There was a pause. "I do not understand."

Dean despaired in times like these, when his jokes, teases or taunts just flew wide over Castiel's head. " about it." He cleared his throat once more. "So. Why are you in Alaska?"

"David had need of me."

For some reason that didn't sit too well with Dean. "Oh. Really. So this David, whom you have never mentioned before, needed you."

"Yes."

"And since he needed you, you just up and went right to his side, like an angelic lapdog." Dean glared at the hole in his sock. "What's with the preferential treatment?"

"I go to your side when you need me." Castiel was patient as ever, though he sounded somewhat curious.

"Yeah, but you're my angel!" Dean snapped.

Then he froze again, eyes widening and blush darkening the skin half hidden under the stubble on his cheek.

There was another pause. "Of course. I am your angel."

For some reason that just made Dean blush darker, and he covered his eyes with his hand, leaning forwards. "You coming back soon?"

"Yes. In two days or so. Hopefully sooner."

Castiel wanted to come back home.

Dean smiled, feeling better, but for some reason kept that hand over his eyes.

Castiel just looked at him with that wide eyed, childish, innocent, and trusting expression that made Dean fidget. Sam must have noticed Dean's complete uncomfortableness, because he sighed and shook his head. "I'll do it."

"What?" Dean turned to his brother.

"Well, you're obviously uncomfortable with the thought, so I'll go with Cas." Sam decided, sitting down.

Bobby went up to them, having brought the incredibly awkward hunt and thus the situation. "Dean wouldn't be able to pull it off convincingly anyway."

"I would too!" He cried out, if only to be contrary.

Bobby snorted. "Despite the fact that everyone used to just assume you and Sammy were a couple because of how you squabble, I doubt that you could pull it off convincingly if you tried." The seasoned hunter sat down next to Sam and Castiel. "But something is happening to the young, newly wed gay couples in the community of Shady Brooks, and we need to investigate what has them...well...pregnant."

Dean ran his hand over his face. "I still can't believe that. I mean, we haven't had even a month to try and get over the 'unicorns are real' deal, and now we've got certified gay men? What sort of apocalypse is this?"

"Well, at least, other than being freaked out, the couples are ecstatic about being parents." Sam shrugged. "A lot of gay couples have actually decided to move there to try and see if whatever happened to the others happens to them."

"Those dudes could be knocked up by some demon spawn!" Dean exclaimed. "We all know that men do not have the equipment necessary to get pregnant! Obviously there's something demonic behind all of this!"

"Which is why Castiel and I will be going undercover to figure out what." Sam decided. "If it's something demonic we need to save those poor bastards."

"And you think you could pull off, convincingly? A gay relationship with Cas?" Dean sneered.

Sam narrowed his eyes. "Yes, I can."

Dean started feeling a little unsure for some reason. "How can you be so sure?"

"I went to college, Dean." Sam sighed and looked away. "I wasn't with Jessica from the very first second. I---," he cleared his throat, obviously a bit uncomfortable. "Experimented a bit at first."

Dean blinked as he read between the lines.

His brother was bisexual.

"Oh hell no!" Dean announced, banging his hands down on the table.

"I can't believe you're being so narrow minded about this!" Sam stood up. "Then again, I shouldn't be so surprised. You basically freaked out too when you found out that I was a freak!"

"Look, I don't know what one thing has to do with the other," Dean glared at his little brother. "But there's no way in hell that I'm letting you do this with Cas! Especially now that I know that you pitch and catch! You and your super powers of gayness will get him knocked up for sure!"

Sam blinked, confused, and a little less defensive. "Your problem with this whole situation is that you don't want me getting Cas pregnant?"

"Exactly!" Dean snapped.

A look of sudden realization came upon Sam's features as he nearly collapsed on his seat.

Bobby paused in mid-swig, looking between the brothers suspiciously.

Amusement began to color Sam's face. "What if you got Cas 'knocked up'?"

Dean opened his mouth.

And then he closed it.

Very good question.

"Well, for one." He started, trying to figure out what in the world to say. "Men can't get pregnant."

Sam opened up to debate why he couldn't work the case with Cas if that were so, grinning like a loon.

"And two." Dean cut him off, not liking the expression on his face. "If something--which can only be demonic--happened...it would only make sense that it be mine. I mean, Cas is my angel. It's only logical the kid would be mine too."

Bobby raised an eyebrow at that reasoning.

Sam was leaning back against the seat, grinning so wide it must hurt.

Dean, feeling uncomfortable and a little nervous, turned to Cas. "Right, Cas?"

The angel just watched him in interest, head tilted slightly to the right, as if Dean was this intricate puzzle he couldn't solve and yet refused to give up on or put away.

Feeling a little odd under that gaze, Dean ducked his gaze and took in a deep breath before forcing a playful smile on his face. "If you could have anyone's tyke it'd be mine, right?"

Sam bit down on his bottom lip, face going red and kinda comical.

Cas looked at Sam in slight concern before obvious deciding that he was okay and returned his attention to Dean, hesitating a little, before nodding. "Of course Dean."

Dean's grin was more genuine as it went wide. "See Sammy?" He turned to his brother.

"Oh, I see clearly." Sam's voice was odd. "Cas is your angel, what could I have possibly been thinking?" He stood. "I---excuse me."

The human mountain rushed from the motel room.

The moment the door closed, Sam's loud, roaring laughter could be heard through the wood.

Cas looked at the door in confusion as to what could be so funny, head tilting in that cute way of his.

Bobby studiously avoided looking at Dean, seeming embarrassed as he took a long gulp of his bottle of beer.

Shrugging, wondering why everyone was acting so bizarrely, Dean turned to Cas and grinned. He really didn't care about what was going on with the others, and anyway, he was now oddly excited about this hunt for some reason. "Ready to make some babies?"

He never understood why Bobby chose that exact moment to suddenly begin choking on his gulp of beer.

Or why that ridiculous laughter outside the door became even louder.

Weirdoes. He shook his head, rolling his eyes before smiling at Cas.

Cas smiled back, seeming still confused as to what was going on, but finding it amusing nonetheless.

He was kinda...cute.

Dean blinked, and blinked again, before shaking his head. "Come on Cas, let's get out of here. These people's weirdness is starting to rub off."

Bobby guffawed at that, still half choking.

Sam sounded like he was dying outside, laughing the way he was.

Dean made a face and grabbed his angel by the lapels of the trench coat, pulling him to his feet. Then grabbing the hem of his sleeve, Dean dragged him out of the room, passed his ridiculous little brother, and towards the stairs so Cas and he could escape the madness with the help of the Impala.

And if Dean's hand slipped from the hem of the sleeve and instead grabbed onto Cas' hand, neither commented on it.

c'est fini.

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