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“Hide me!” The stranger shouted the moment Dean opened his door. The man had been banging on it for well over a minute, waking Dean up out of a deep sleep filled with dreams of a certain someone that he knew he could never have.
“What, why?” Dean mumbled, still not entirely awake yet. It was late at night, after all, the moon only starting to go back down before the sun came to take its place.
“Because I need hidden, obviously,” the stranger replied snarkily, looking like he was about to start pushing his way into Dean’s hut at any moment. Dean rolled his eyes, but moved aside to let the stranger in. He was obviously not going to get anything out of the man until he did as he was asked.
“Okay, now you’re hidden,” Dean said as he closed his door. “Why exactly do you need to be hidden?”
“Freyja’s on the warpath again, and right now I’m her only target,” the man admitted, though he didn’t look near as terrified as a statement like that would normally warrant.
“What in Odin’s name did you do to anger a goddess?” Dean asked, plenty terrified for the both of them. Freyja was known for having a temper, especially whenever people such as Loki did something to earn her ire. Whatever this guy had done to set her off must have been quite horrible.
“Well, she’s pretty much always angry at me anyway, so I’m not sure which thing it was this time,” the stranger said, causing Dean to get a sudden sinking feeling. It couldn’t be…
“Loki?” Dean asked anyway, not sure if he believed it himself.
“One and the same,” the trickster god said with a grin. The grin was replaced quickly with one of dread when, outside of Dean’s hut, the sounds of an obviously displeased goddess started getting closer. “I think she followed me, where’s a place I can hide?”
“Oh no, no way am I getting in between two battling gods, especially when one of them is you,” Dean said, heading back to the doorway. “Out, get out now before you bring her wrath down on me too, for protecting you.”
“Please, don’t make me leave?” Loki begged. He even went so far as to get down on his knees, much to the amazement of the very mortal Dean. “Keep me hidden until she’s gone, and I’ll… I’ll give you a boon! Whatever your heart desires, I promise. Just don’t make me face her when she’s in the middle of a tantrum.”
Dean wasn’t a greedy man, not by a long shot, but a boon from a god was not something you passed up, no matter the god. “Fine, I have a trunk you can hide in.” He led the god into his bedroom and emptied out the trunk he kept at the foot of his bed. He’d never fit in it, because he was too tall and wide, but hopefully Loki would.
“Thanks, Dean-o,” the trickster god said before hopping in and closing the lid himself. Dean bristled, not liking that nickname at all, but the lid was already closed so there was no point in complaining now.
He went and poured himself a cup of mead, sitting down in his most comfortable chair to wait out the angry storm of noise outside. He probably should have gone back to sleep so that he wouldn’t be exhausted in the morning, but he knew there was no way he’d get any rest with Loki hiding only a few feet away. It took Freyja over an hour before she finally gave up and left the village, but when Dean checked the trunk to let Loki know that he was safe to come out, it was empty. The god had left him a pile of money, though, so at least it had been somewhat worth his efforts.
As Dean fell back to sleep, he wondered what it would have been like, had the boon been of his choosing instead of the pile of coins. While he knew that he probably would have asked for health for his family, mainly his brother Sam and his wife and children, Dean knew what his heart would have wished for. The man who lived across the courtyard from him was named Castiel. It was an odd name for an odd fellow, but it seemed to fit him perfectly. He collected books and gave sweets to the children, and took care of the elders without asking, and while Dean would never admit it out loud, he was completely smitten with the man. He often caught himself staring at that mop of messy, dark hair, and whenever those blue eyes were turned on him he would blush and look away immediately. It was with thoughts of Castiel floating through his head that Dean fell back into a dreamless sleep.
When he woke the next morning, the emptied out trunk with the pile of coins still in it let him know that all of the previous night’s events had actually happened. He took them to the lady Moseley’s hut to get them blessed, just in case. It was well known that bad luck tended to follow those that were unfortunate enough to have dealings with the trickster god. On his way back, he stopped at his brother’s hut to leave most of the coins with him. His sister by marriage, Eileen, was to give birth to his third niece or nephew soon, and everybody knew that children were expensive. Especially considering the two boys that Sam already had ate more than the horses their family took care of. Dean had to lie about where the money had come from, though he kept somewhat close to the truth by saying it was a boon from a god for doing them a favor. He was just conveniently vague on which god.
After many thanks and hugs and a much heartier breakfast than he ever would have made for himself, Dean finally headed home. And as was just his luck lately, Castiel was outside his own hut, tending to his garden. The other man smiled widely and waved, as was his habit. But he was friendly like that with everybody, so Dean tried to not get his hopes up.
“Ahh, so that's what your heart desires,” said a voice from behind him. Dean jumped, he was so startled.
He whipped around to face Loki. “Don't do that, you freaked me out,” he scolded, before he remembered he was scolding a deity. How had this become his life? “Wait, how did you do that? You weren't there a moment ago.”
“Hello, trickster,” the shorter man drawled out. Dean was really starting to understand why Freyja and the rest of the gods were so often annoyed by him. “I can pop in and out whenever and wherever I want.”
“Then why did you need me to hide you last night?” Dean asked, trying to not show his annoyance. He mostly succeeded. “Why not find a mountaintop or an island far away from here instead? Somewhere less obvious than an empty storage trunk.”
“Because, Dean-o,” Loki started to say, before vanishing. “She could've tracked me if I had,” he continued, now once again behind Dean.
“Fine, whatever,” Dean huffed as he turned around once again to face the annoying little god. “Thank you for the coins, it was very helpful. I appreciate your boon,” he said, his voice dull.
“The coins weren't your boon, they were just to make up for the mess you had to clean up,” Loki said, rolling his eyes. “I said 'whatever your heart desires’ and I meant it. And from the looks of it, your heart’s desiring that handsome gardener across the lane.”
Dean started choking on air. “No,” he sputtered out, probably looking as stupid as he felt right now. “I have no idea what you’re even talking about. Why would you say something so crazy?” Hearing the truth, as much as he was currently denying it, come from another person’s mouth was just too much. Especially since that other person was technically a god.
Loki just laughed mockingly, the jerk. It took him a few minutes to finish, all the while Dean burned bright red from embarrassment as he prayed to literally any other god that wasn’t the one in front of him that Castiel wasn’t paying attention to the spectacle currently going on. “Sorry Dean-o, that was just way too hilarious,” the trickster god said, when he was finally able to speak again. “But extreme denial or not, I can feel your longing from Valhalla. He’s your heart’s desire, so he’s what you’re gonna get.”
Dean rolled his eyes and let out a tortured sigh. “Fine, you’re right, I have a… thing for him. But I would never have you force him to be with me with some love spell or whatever. It’d be fake then, and I know damn well my heart doesn’t desire that.”
“Who said I’d have to force him?” Loki asked, giving Dean a look that showed just how stupid he thought the mortal was. “You think your longing is big? I could probably hear his from the farthest reaches of Asgard, the kid’s heart is screaming so loudly for you. No clue what he sees in you, because you’re obviously a clueless idiot, but at least the pining is mutual. Makes my job a lot easier.”
Dean felt his eyes widen and his jaw drop, but his brain was too busy imploding in on itself for him to truly care. It wasn’t one-sided? “He… he likes me?”
Loki snorted. “Your mom dropped you on your head as a kid pretty often, didn’t she? Yes, dumb ass, he likes you too. Now go over there and start courting or whatever it is you kids do these days.”
Dean felt dazed by this news. “Yes, of course. Thank you Loki,” he mumbled as he headed over to Castiel’s hut to speak with him, not even paying attention when Loki disappeared from sight.
~~~
Gabriel watched on from above as his little brother opened the door for Dean, and smiled as they started talking. This happened every single time with those two. Lots of staring and mutual pining, but they were always too afraid to make the first move until he intervened somehow. At least this time he didn’t have to be as subtle, since Loki was well known for showing up randomly and doing whatever he felt like.
He sensed his Father appear beside him when the two currently-human idiots shared their first kiss. “He always does end up with the Righteous Man, doesn’t he?” God said fondly as He began watching as well.
“That one’s more on you than me, Dad,” Gabriel responded, and God just shrugged. “Aren’t you supposed to be off winning absentee father of the year or something?” He teased. The archangel smiled as his Father chuckled.
“I like keeping an eye on your little ‘experiment’,” He admitted. “Having the seraph live mortal lives, even if he doesn’t remember them afterwards, is definitely changing him for the better. It’s teaching him to love humanity, the way I wanted you all to.”
“If by ‘humanity’ you mean ‘the Righteous Man’, then yeah, it’s definitely teaching him that, Dad,” Gabriel joked back.
“You know exactly what I meant,” God scolded, though Gabriel could tell He didn’t really mean it. Whenever He popped in to see how His youngest son was doing, they always bantered like this. They were quickly becoming some of Gabriel’s favorite moments. “They have a lot of difficult times ahead of them, quite a few centuries from now. I’m glad they can have these moments before then.”
“Yeah, me too,” Gabriel agreed. The two stopped watching once Dean and Castiel started towards things no family member should ever witness, and Gabriel grinned as he started to wonder when they would show up next.