A/N: Last chapter of Just A Kiss! Please please please leave a review before you of! Hopefully I will finish episode five with in the next few days and start posting it soon!
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A Rush Of The Blood To The Head: Series One
Episode Four: Just A Kiss
Part Six: Lips of an Angel*
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The next day, Dean was idly flipping through channels when Sam came out of the bedroom, "Ok," he said, "talked to Rosie again. She's given me the information to meet the guy who might know something. I'm going to go check that out. You have beer, you have chips, and you have pizza. You should be fine until I get back."
"Whatever," Dean replied sulkily. He was still mad about the fight they'd had over him going with Sam.
"I was told to take a cab, so I'm leaving the car here. Don't turn your phone off, I'll call you if I need you." He turned and headed out the door.
The cab was waiting when he left the building and Sam smiled, "Hi, I need to go to 32 Maple Avenue, please."
"No problem, Chuck," the man replied.
Sam raised his eyebrows in surprise, but leaned back and buckled his seatbelt. It was always different in a cab versus riding with someone he knew, there was a touch of privilege in the ride, but also a kind of loneliness. Sam shook his head a little as the cab stopped, "We're here," the cabby said, "that'll be twenty-two fifty." Sam pulled the cash out and handed over enough for a nice tip as well. That done, he slid out and crossed the sidewalk to a store called 'J-Row Books'.
Sam let himself in and looked around. The store was filled with books, but there were some occult items mixed in, adding a touch of the unusual to displays and decorations.
"Can I help you?" The woman at the counter asked, bringing Sam out of his thoughts.
"My name is Sam Winchester," Sam said as he walked forward, "I was sent by Rosie. She said that I could get some help here."
"I am Susan," the woman replied with a smile, "Solana and I will be happy to do anything we can to help you."
Sam took a deep breath, "I'm looking for information about Cupids, and a cursed claddagh ring."
"I'll show you what we have," Susan replied, stepping away from the counter.
The brunette woman moved in a casually graceful manner that Sam noticed more for the economy of the movement than for its subtle beauty. "What kind of Cupids?"
There are different kinds of Cupids? Sam wondered. "Uh, the Judeo-Christian-Cherub-third-class-naked-adult-mal e kind," Sam said, absently brushing his hair out of his eyes.
"Right," Susan smiled, "I think I have what you need." She headed into the stacks and returned with a book. "Here," she said as she held the book towards him.
Their fingers brushed and an odd, almost pained look, drifted over face for a moment.
Sam took the book, "Are you ok?"
"Fine," Susan told him, "you said you were also looking into cursed claddagh rings?"
"Uh, yes ma'am," Sam replied.
"I have something for that as well," Susan said. "If you go through that curtain, you'll find a reading room."
Sam looked at the curtain then back to her. He nodded and told her, "Thank you."
The reading room was a rather cozy area, with comfortable chairs around a table and a couch. Sitting on the couch was a brunette woman reading a book, "Hi," she said when Sam paused in the door, "don't mind me. I'm just waiting for my next appointment."
"Right," Sam said, and sat down at the table and dived into the book.
He was more than halfway through the long Cupid entry when Susan came into the back, "I found it," she said. Sam jumped to his feet, startled by her arrival. "I'm sorry. It took some time to find it. Solana, your client is here. Shall I send him up?"
The other woman sighed, "Sure." She sat her book down on the end table and vanished through a door.
"Solana reads tarot," Susan told him. "Mostly for tourists."
"Oh," Sam replied, rubbing the back of his neck.
"She protects me," Susan continued, "people look at her to be the psychic."
"But she's not?" Sam guessed.
"No," Susan shook her head. "I only give advice to those who need it most. You are one of them, Sam Winchester."
Sam jaw hung open.
She walked over towards Sam, "Hear these words, and know their message," Susan continued, her words taking on a sepulchral tone that sent shivers down Sam's spine. "The Love will be pulled to where the Soulless end. The Lonely One will find love again. Whole once more you will cross paths with the Wise Bones and those that love them."
"Ok," Sam said slowly, "I'll try my best to remember that."
"Whatever," Susan sighed. "Now, I think what you're looking for is The Claddagh Curse," Susan said, as if she had never spoken so oddly. "It's in this book, which isn't for sale, no matter the price," she gave him a pointed look.
Sam accepted the book, "Uh, thanks. I promise I'll return it before I leave."
"I know you will," Susan grinned.
Sam grabbed a seat at the nearest table and opened the book. He began to read, skimming pages. After a few minutes, the Winchester finally found the section he was looking for. As what he read sank in, Sam wasn't sure if he wanted to laugh or to cry. Instead, he closed the book and shook his head.
No way is Dean going to believe this one.
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Dean could not believe how bored he was. Rosie had one television an it was in her bedroom. Her living room looked like a cross between a lounge and a dining room, with the reading nook in the corner. He'd already checked over the bookshelf, finding it to contain the complete Supernatural series, along with some other random scifi and fantasy books.
With nothing else to do, he got out his leather journal, almost identical to his dad's, and began to update it with a few of the things they'd run across since the last time he'd been forced to stay in one place. That would have been when Sam broke his ankle a few months prior, the clumsy Sasquatch.
"Dean."
Dean jumped at the sound of the broken, strained, hoarse voice that no matter what, the hunter would always recognize. As fear warred in his heart, Dean stood up, "Cas?"
The angel stood behind him, about four paces back. It was, Dean thought, one of the few times Cas had respected the concept of personal space. Though that concept was violated pretty quickly as the angel zapped in front of Dean.
"Dean," Cas swallowed, "I came to see if you had successfully removed the ring. But, I can tell you haven't because I, now that I'm near you again, I just," Cas tried to find the right words. He shook his head, his eyes were pleading and pained, "I need to know what your lips feel like; how your skin tastes; what it's like to hold you in my arms." The angel inched his way closer to Dean, leaning in to kiss him, "I need to know what it's like to be inside of you; to have you inside of me."
This time Dean heard his little voice loud and clear. It said one word: Hot.
Dean tried to shove Cas away, but was unable to. Instead the angel slammed Dean into the wall, pinning the hunter there by his biceps, forcing Dean's arms to just hang at his sides. Then Cas snatched the hunter's top lip in his.
After a moment, Dean shut his eyes and touched his bottom lip to Cas's, kissing him back.
But then there was a clink as the ring hit the floor. Cas suddenly pulled away, their lips making a little pop as they separated. The angel looked more terrified than Dean had ever seen him. And with a flutter, Castiel was gone.
Dean stood there for a few moments, confused and in shock at his own actions more than the Angel's. Eyes wide, Dean wiped his lips before his eyese landed on the ring. He bent down to pick it up. Staring down at it in his hand, dumbfounded, went back to the reading chair and sat down heavily. Just then, Sam came barging through the door.
"Dean, I found out how to get the ring off, but," Sam's eyes fell on Dean, then the ring in his hand.
"Hunh?" Dean looked up at Sam. "What were you saying?"
Sam shook his head, "Uh, I found out how to get the ring off."
Dean nervously asked him, "And?"
Sam cocked his head, "Well, it's off. Doesn't really matter now, does it?"
"Humor me Sammy," Dean barked.
"Well, apparently, the ring will come off when you kiss your true love."
Dean swallowed. What? he asked himself, his voice tiny in his own head. "Well, uh, this thing just fell off." Dean smiled nervously, "Guess it realized I don't have a true love and decided to not waste its time on me." He laughed weakly and glanced from the ring back to his brother.
"Think we should call Cas to," Sam got cut off.
"Gabriel, Gabriel, wherefore art thy angelic ass?"
There was a flutter, "You rang, meathead?" Gabriel said snarkily.
Dean tossed him the ring. "Destroy this." Gabriel raised an eyebrow. "Please," Dean added.
Gabriel rolled his eyes, "Fine," he pointed at Dean, "but only because of the show you and my brother have been putting on." Gabriel winked and was gone.
Dean slowly met Sam's eyes, hoping that his younger brother was not going to ask. Of course, Sam smirked at him a little and did so: "Show?"
"Uh, as in all of the chasing of me Cas has been doing, probably." Dean looked away from and then back to his still smirking brother, "Just, shut up bitch."
"Make me, jerk," Sam retorted. "Don't worry, I won't tell Rosie what almost happened on her guest bed. Though, she'd probably would have wanted all the gory details." Sam shivered.
"What?" Dean asked.
Sam looked away and tried to contain his smile.
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As they headed out, Dean said, "So, what was with the ring anyway?"
"It was made by a cupid," Sam replied, "for an old Irish family. Their daughter was refusing to marry because she wanted her 'one true love'. The ring was meant to force her to choose or die."
"Die?" Dean repeated.
"When the ring was made, it was pretty much a mother by sixteen or never a mother at all in a lot of places." Sam replied, "That's how the world worked back then. The Cupid, however, made the ring do more. It was meant to find a person's 'one true love' or soulmate. It made the wearer irresistible, but conversely, if the wearer kissed someone who wasn't their soulmate, the ring would drive that person insane, and/or to suicide."
"Nice," Dean commented sarcastically.
"Exactly," Sam replied, equally sarcastic. "I don't know how Ethan Chase got the ring, but I bet if we were to go looking, he'll have a string of lunatics and suicides behind him since he put it on. Each wearer had a different time frame for when they themselves were killed, usually based on the nearness of their soul mate. You're lucky it just 'fell off' when it did."
"It fell off," Dean assured, "I didn't do anything."
"Right," Sam scoffed, "I believe you."
"I'm telling the truth." Dean insisted.
"I believe you. You didn't do anything." Sam muttered under his breath, "You just let Cas do all the work."
Dean growled and snapped on the radio. The window rattling lyrics of You Give Love A Bad Name made it impossible for either of them to say anything.
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*Lips Of An Angel is a song by Hinder.