Chapter Text
“Hell yeah, looks like my angel’s back!” Dean blurted out when the bunker came into sight, a worn out Lincoln Continental parked in front of it.
Sam shot him a baffled look from the passenger seat.
At his brother’s reaction, Dean sobered up as his brain caught up with his actions. Once he realized his error, he immediately snapped his mouth shut, his grin rapidly fading. He parked the Impala next to Cas’ car without another word, now fully aware that he’d said that out loud. Shit. He sure as hell hadn’t meant to…
Alright so, maybe he’d been thinking it; this was pretty much Dean’s default train of thought whenever Castiel was so much as mentioned. Still, it was definitely not something that he cared to acknowledge out loud. In front of his brother. Who was still looking at him funny, mind you.
“What are you staring at? Nothing to see here, Sammy.” He gruffly dismissed his brother before hastily getting out of the car.
He saw Sam’s shrug from the corner of his eye, but didn’t look back, eager to go inside and see his best friend despite whatever awkward shit had happened less than a minute ago.
Dean spotted the angel as soon as he stepped in the room, sitting at one of the tables, a laptop and several books keeping him occupied. When Dean walked down the stairs, the sound made Cas look up, blue eyes finding Dean’s, a smile spreading across Castiel’s face. It was the smile. That smile that Dean loved. The smile that Castiel seemed to reserve for Dean, and Dean alone.
“Hello, Dean.” Castiel greeted him, pushing aside the book that he’d been studying.
“Hey, buddy.” Dean replied as he came to a stop at the table, casually sitting down on the edge of it.
Buddy. Perfectly acceptable. Casual, cool, collected. Dean Winchester was nothing if not suave.
It earned him another one of those magical smiles from Cas. “Is everything alright? Did you and Sam manage to defeat that witch that you texted me about?”
“We did… She turned out to be no big deal, mostly smoke and mirrors I guess. Tried to work some weird voodoo on me, but as you can see it didn’t do much. Sammy stabbed her with a knife and she went poof, I’m fit as a fiddle.” Dean supplied, smiling down at Cas, giving a quick summary of their latest hunt. “Kinda missed you though… And your smile, I missed that smile. It’s my favorite smile in the world, hands down.”
Cas’ eyes turned comically wide at the admission that spilled out of Dean’s mouth without permission, and at the same time there was a choking noise from Sam, now right behind them. As hard as Sam tried to cover it up with a cough, it was a wasted effort.
Dean was mortified, his skin burning from the back of his neck to the tips of his ears. Holy shit. What was going on? He certainly hadn’t planned to say that. He covered his mouth with both his hands, staring at Cas, then Sam, and back to Cas.
“If you guys need a minute alone…” Sam began cautiously.
“No!” Dean exclaimed, horrified at that suggestion.
Cas flinched at the volume, as did Sam.
Well wasn’t that just awesome. Clearly that witch did have some tricks up her sleeve after all.
~
“What we’re facing here looks to be a truth spell.” Castiel announced.
Dean and Sam were reading along over the angel’s shoulder, Dean being the one who stiffly kept his mouth shut at all costs.
Cas was squinting at the screen of his laptop, tilting his head in that signature way of his that wasn’t adorable by any means. Not adorable at all, no sir.
“Adorable.” Dean muttered under his breath, even though he’d been biting his tongue for a while now.
Thankfully, both Cas and Sam chivalrously pretended not to hear him.
“The common witch uses the truth spell on her attackers to allow her to predict her enemy, as well as aforementioned enemy’s moves seeing as they will not only speak their minds at random, but will also not be able to lie when asked a direct question.” Sam read out loud.
“That makes sense…” Cas mused, absently tapping his fingers against the table. “Fortunately, she didn’t live long enough to use it to her advantage.”
Dean sighed, rolling his eyes. “Sure, but unfortunately, I’m stuck with this thing nonetheless, and if I’m gonna spill all my secrets to you two, maybe I rather would’ve died.”
He wasn’t sure if he’d even meant to say that out loud or not. There was a heavy silence, and Dean imagined the sound of crickets in the background, some tumbleweeds rolling by.
“I ehm… I think there are some files on spells and curses in the bunker’s archive, I’ll go check that out while you guys look if there’s anything useful online.” Sam mumbled before quickly making his escape.
“Coward!” Dean called after his brother, again not sure if it was him talking, or that nasty spell.
Cas was looking up at him, wide-eyed, unspeaking. It was just the two of them now. Dean knew that he had to leave the room for his own good, unless he wanted to die from sheer embarrassment.
He had no clue why he did the exact opposite, falling down into the chair beside Castiel. The only upside was that Cas didn’t freak out on him, instead putting a comforting hand on Dean’s shoulder. God, he loved when Cas did that. Loved when Cas touched him there, connecting them. Even if it was a simple, innocent touch, to the two of them it meant just a little bit more. Dean leaned into it without thinking.
“I love when you touch me. I wish you’d touch me all the time… Wish I could touch you as well, whenever I feel like it.” Dean slapped his hand over his mouth as soon as the string of words fell from his traitorous lips.
To Dean’s shock, Castiel didn’t pull back. Graceful fingers gently massaged Dean’s shoulder, soothing him. Cas didn’t say anything. Didn’t force Dean to elaborate, didn’t try to hold him to his words. Their gazes remained locked, and Dean felt another wave of word vomit threatening to spill out.
“If you want me to leave, I can go and wait it out.” Castiel offered, squeezing Dean’s shoulder one last time before dropping his hand.
Dean frantically shook his head, already feeling absurdly cold and lost without Cas’ touch. He was sure that it was him this time, not the spell.
“Don’t go, Cas. I don’t like when you go, ever. If it were up to me man, you’d stay here forever. With me and Sam… I need you with me, always.”
That was definitely the spell. Not the feelings; those were all Dean’s. But the fact that he’d said it out loud.
Blue eyes, calm and understanding, were observing him. A heartbeat later, two strong hands were cupping Dean’s face, calloused thumbs tenderly stroking Dean’s cheeks
“No matter what happens after this is fixed, there’s one thing you have to remember…” Cas whispered, his face closer to Dean’s than it had ever been before, even during their previous staring contests. “I love you, Dean Winchester. You shouldn’t be afraid of that, and I will never leave you by choice.”
Dean tried to hold back his tears. Cas was doing the same; it didn’t take an expert to tell, considering that the angel’s bottom lip was trembling.
Sam was the one ending the moment, barging into the room, holding up a stack of papers.
“Hey guys? I think I found a way to reverse this…”
~
“I love you, Cas… Love you so much it hurts sometimes.” Dean panted the words against Cas’ throat, covering the angel’s skin in wet, open-mouthed kisses. “I need you, so much it terrifies me.”
Castiel’s hands cradled the back of Dean’s neck, guiding him up into a real kiss, lips colliding and hands roaming as they made out on Dean’s bed. Cas whispered the words back into Dean’s mouth, a promise of love that would last beyond mortality.
They’d gotten rid of the curse hours ago. This time, all of Dean’s confessions were his own. Sometimes, a curse could be a gift.