Chapter Text
Sam woke up with his alarm clock beeping. He was still groggy as he got up and headed for the kitchen, but he had work to do. Even after all this time in the Bunker, he still had no idea half of what they had. They were taking some time off after Dean’s latest brush with death, so Sam was determined to make some headway on the storage room full of boxes.
“Mornin’. What are you doing up so early?” Dean stood by the coffee machine, skin still horribly discolored from the bruises and pale from blood loss. Still, he looked reasonably healthy, and it was good to see him this cheerful.
Still, Sam was a little brother. He rolled his eyes. “Remind me, which of us nearly died? You’re the one who should still be in bed.”
“Oh, shut up. Weirdass dreams, couldn’t sleep. There’s not something you’ve been meaning to tell me, is there?”
Sam froze. “Weird dreams? How do you mean?”
“I mean, I was dreaming that you and me and Cas were having a series of shared dreams. Look, if you and Cas are hooking up, you know the only thing I’m gonna give you crap for is not telling me, right? I know you want the whole long-term settle down thing, but in a way that works with hunting, and Cas seems like a pretty good answer. And hell, recent flaking out aside, he’s someone I can trust to look after you.”
“That’s… okay, for starters, I’m not involved with Cas. Although I guess thanks for the endorsement?” Dreams and wishes didn’t make it true. And Dean didn’t need to know about Sam’s hopeless dreams. “These dreams. I think… I had dreams like that too. The three of us were sharing dreams for months, and then I randomly run into Cas getting coffee?”
Dean stopped pouring his coffee and turned to stare at Sam. “Yeah, actually. How’d you guess?”
“It wasn’t a guess. I had the same dream.”
Dean shivered. “Okay. Djinn? Dream root? Pagan god?”
“Trickster.”
Both Winchesters jumped. Neither had heard Cas come in. “Where have you been?” Dean demanded.
Castiel came over and healed Dean's bruises. “Chuck’s been busy in his exile. He brought back Raphael and Gabriel, got Michael from the Cage, and tracked down Lucifer. The four of them are, essentially, grounded until they learn to get along and not derail the world for their own amusement.”
“What, he didn’t ground you, too, did he?” Sam said.
“Not exactly.” Castiel sighed. “He believed that one of them was ready to be released, and called me to…” He trailed off and shook his head. “This is going to sound ridiculous, but I’m Gabriel’s parole officer.”
Dean snorted. “Yeah, that does sound ridiculous. So where’s Gabe?”
“Norway. He rather likes it there. I’m to monitor his activity and report in if he gets out of control, but his usual tricks are not considered a problem. After all, he’s no worse than your ordinary Trickster, aside from not actually dying the way he’s supposed to.”
“Wow. Can you do that from here, or do you have to leave?” Sam hoped Castiel could stay, but with his wings...
“I have a monitoring system I can set up wherever I wish, and perhaps more importantly, God fixed my wings so I can intervene if necessary. I spent the last couple days catching Gabriel up on everything, taking him to Heaven to see what’s happening there. And then…” Cas rolled his eyes. “Gabriel was convinced that I’m in love with Dean and decided to set up one of his elaborate fantasies to force me to realize it. I wasn’t entirely sure if you two were actually there or just part of the trick, but those dreams weren’t dreams. They were Gabriel.”
Dean snorted. “That starting up in Heaven again? I thought we’d finally gotten those birdbrains to realize it wasn’t happening.”
“Yes, well, Gabriel’s been a bit out of it the last few years. I’m fairly certain the results of Gabriel’s prank will keep the rumors from restarting.”
“Or they’ll start up again, just not about me.” Dean gestured with his coffee mug toward Sam. “That part of Gabriel’s trick, or real?”
Sam held his breath while Castiel took his time answering. “I have no idea what’s true for Sam, but since the whole point of Gabriel’s exercise was to force me to confront my feelings, it seems silly to try to deny things now. For all I know it may throw all three of us back into the dream world.”
“Some parole officer you are.” Dean raised his eyebrows at Sam. “I’m out of here. You two don’t need an audience, even a friendly one.”
When Dean was gone, Sam took a couple of deep breaths. “You’re sure this isn’t some part of Gabriel messing with you?”
Castiel nodded. “Gabriel didn’t show me anything about myself I didn’t already suspect.”
“Good.” Sam pulled Castiel into a hug. When he let go, he laughed as a thought struck him. “I swear, if we wake up from this one to a world where we’re not together, I’m going to lose it. That was actually me in there, and I don’t know if Gabriel would have done it anyway or if your dreams would have been unrequited, but me falling for you over and over… that was based on how I feel out here. I love you, Cas.”
“Why?”
“I could ask you the same thing. You and me… you told me once that there’s exactly one person who screws up as consistently and thoroughly as I do. You. The crap we’ve been through, the things we’ve done… Dean might be starting to understand some of it, thanks to the Mark of Cain business, but there’s still so much that even he can’t really understand the way we do. And yet, despite everything I’ve done, you still see me as some sort of hero. I don’t think I am, but you make me want to believe in it. You help me always keep fighting for it. Despite everything you’ve done, I’ll never see you as anything but the one angel who’s lived up to what I believed in for so long. Broken wings, human, even when you were God… you’re my angel.”
“Which is a lot to live up to, but when I was dying… your faith in me is what kept me getting out of bed and trying to help. I see what you mean.” Cas stepped close to Sam, holding him close. “I love you.”