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“I’m sorry. I know this is weird for you, but unless I can recover my vessel, I need to borrow one, and if you would be willing, it would mean I wouldn’t need to try to take someone else away from their life. Given the state of things, I can’t drop out of the fight.” The state of things: there was a demon army on the loose, led by the princes of Hell. There was an angel army out to take them down, led by the princes of Heaven. Humanity was caught in the middle, holding on and praying that the King of Hell didn't put in an appearance.
Dean polished off his beer. “I know. I hate the idea, but it’s the best we got. You don’t need a grunt out there fighting Satan’s minions, you need an angel, so no big loss for you to take me. We need Sammy’s brain to try to spot little problems before they become big problems. I’m just a little weirded out by the thought of you and Sammy getting up to stuff in my body.”
“We wouldn’t,” Sam said. “Not without your permission. You don’t think it’s gonna be weird enough for me, looking at my brother and seeing my boyfriend?”
“My body or not, I’m not keeping you and Cas apart,” Dean said. “I’m a little weirded out by it, yeah, but I’m not gonna cause trouble for you over it. God knows you two deserve whatever happiness you can get, and for you, that’s Cas, and for Cas, that’s you. Don’t worry about it. You guys do whatever you wanna do.” He looked Cas in the eyes. “Yes.”
“Okay. Come with me.” Cas led the way to a safe room, where he laid down on the bed. His mouth opened, and light streamed out, flowing into Dean.
Even expecting it, it was so strange to hear Castiel’s distinctive speech patterns in Dean’s voice. “It’s done. I’m here.” He reached down and touched forehead of the little girl he’d borrowed to get here. “Wake up, Claire.”
She woke up. “Castiel?”
“Yes. As promised, you’ll be safe here. My friends and I will look after you.”
“Okay. What about Mom? Is she with Dad in Heaven now?”
“I believe so, yes. When I have a chance, I’ll go check, but they should be together.” Castiel straightened up and walked out. Sam followed right behind him.
With Bobby, Ellen, Charlie, and Kevin’s help, finding where Michael’s minions had stashed Castiel’s vessel only took two days. In those two days, Sam and Castiel followed a strict policy of keeping their hands and other body parts to themselves, but when Charlie gave them a location, Sam forgot and planted a huge kiss on Castiel. He immediately backed off, eyes wide. “Dean, I’m sorry, I…”
“Dude, I told you, I can deal with the weird,” Dean said.
“Dean?”
“Cas gave me back control to smack some sense into you. You’re making yourself miserable, you’re making Cas miserable, and between the two of those you’re making me miserable. Been trying to convince Cas to just break down and kiss you first, he knows exactly how much I mean it when I say that I would rather deal with that weirdness than this misery, but he won’t do it unless you say he can. So come on.”
“You’re sure? It’s still your body…”
“Yeah, I’m sure,” Dean said. “Not like this is gonna be forever, just however long it takes to plan and execute the rescue for Cas’s vessel.”
Sam was still hesitant, but Dean was right – he was miserable without letting Castiel hold him or kiss him or play with his hair, and either he trusted Dean’s word or he didn’t. He chose to trust Dean. By the time they were getting their hotel room to use as the base for their rescue attempt, he’d gotten over the weirdness of it being Dean’s body. He wasn’t thinking about it at all – to the point where he answered the king or two queens question with the idea he was sharing the room with Cas, not Dean. By the time he realized that meant he’d be sharing his bed with his brother’s body, it was too late and he was in bed with Castiel. Naked.
“Is Dean… how much is he aware of what’s going on out here?” Sam said.
“Fully. His choice. I offered to put him in a good dream, but he said that with the world being the craphole it is these days he’d never believe a good dream anyway.”
“So he knows what you’re doing with his body?”
“He knows. He…”
Sam waited, but Castiel didn’t seem inclined to finish that thought. “He what, Cas?”
“He’s asked me not to answer that question. I’m sorry, Sam.”
Sam’s stomach fluttered and he looked deep into Castiel’s – Dean’s – eyes, trying to see through to his brother. “Dean, you might as well let him answer, or come out and explain yourself. I took a leap of faith, trusting you that you were okay with all this. Trust me with whatever this is. Please.”
There was silence, and then finally, Castiel spoke. “Dean has loved you for a very long time, Sam. You’re his brother, and he knows that it’s wrong, especially since you have a boyfriend he trusts to be good to you. He’s taking this opportunity to find out what it would be like, if you were as fucked up as he is. He didn’t want to admit to it because he’s afraid that now you’ll turn away from me, too, for keeping his secret.”
“Dean, you are an idiot. I love you, but you are the dumbest, stubbornest, densest person I have ever met. When it’s just you in there again, I am going to take a swing at you for this. If you’d just said, you could have had so much less wasted opportunity. Since Cas is enabling, I’m going to assume that means he’s not going to say I’m cheating on him?”
“I am not. When I get back in my own host, if you and Dean choose to pursue your own relationship, I have no objection. I’m an angel. I raised Dean from Hell, I’d seen his heart and his desires. I try not to, but sometimes, when you and I get close, I can feel your heart and your desires. If I’d had any idea how to bring it up without making either of you defensive or uncomfortable, I would have said something much earlier.”
“Well then. Come here. Both of you.” Sam pinned Castiel to the bed, kissing him hard.
Recovering Castiel’s host body was quite the heist, but it was accomplished, and Castiel was back in it. He flew off to inform Bobby and the others of the success of the mission, leaving Dean and Sam in a hotel room and an awkward situation. “I’m… sorry about trying to trick you instead of talking to you. Just didn’t have a damn clue how to talk to you about it, since driving you away was the last thing I wanted to do. Even if I couldn’t have what I wanted, I could still have my brother. It’s all I’ve got keeping me going in this shithole world, and…”
“I get it, Dean. I didn’t speak up either. Cas gave me something else to keep me going, but also another good reason to keep my mouth shut. Now that it’s happened, we’ve talked… you good?”
“Yeah, uh, there is one other thing. Last night, with Cas… wasn’t really attracted to him before, but now? Sharing a body with him while having sex with you kinda…”
Sam huffed a soft laugh. “Well, you’ll have to talk to Cas about that one, but I’d be surprised if he didn’t feel the same.”