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When Castiel showed up at the Winchesters’ apartment at one in the morning, Sam let him in quickly. Dean came in, yawning, and stared at the two of them sitting at the table with bowls of cereal and beers. “Cas? What are you doing here?”
Castiel looked at the bowl in front of him. “Eating cereal.” Off Dean’s unamused look, he sighed and picked up the beer. “Let me finish this first. I need it.”
Dean poured himself a bowl of cereal and grabbed a beer. The three of them ate in silence, until Castiel had finished his beer and couldn’t stall anymore. “Did my dad invite you two to come over tonight?”
“Yeah, he did, and we thought it was really weird the way he was so insistent that we come. Your dad hates us.” Dean pushed back from the table. “Wouldn’t tell us what was going on, just that it was very important that we be there unless one of us was dying or something. You wanna fill us in?”
“Not particularly. I don’t think you’re going to believe me.” Castiel paused. “He’s invited you to my wedding.”
Sam had just taken a mouthful of beer, which he now spit out. “Your what?”
That had been Castiel’s reaction, when Michael told him. He’d had no idea he was getting married. He didn’t even know he had a prospective partner. “My wedding. The one I was informed of at dinner. Father has arranged a marriage for me to the daughter of one of his closest friends.”
“You… I know you’ve told your dad you’re gay. We were there!” Dean got up and got another round of beers for everyone. “What’s he doing arranging a marriage to a woman?”
“What’s he doing arranging a marriage for you to anyone?” Sam asked. “It would be one thing if you knew he was doing it and consented to it, but having that sprung on you the day before your wedding? I knew your dad could be an ass, but this…”
“Who’s the bride?” Dean asked when Sam trailed off.
Castiel shrugged. “Her name is Rachel Adler. Her father is one of my father’s close friends. That is all I know about her. Doesn’t that sound like a wonderful setup for a marriage?”
“Peachy.” Dean looked over at Sam, something odd in his eyes, and then back to Castiel. “So. What are you gonna do?”
“Come over here and ask if you can come up with anything to do other than go through with this and hope Rachel forgives me for being a horrible husband to her, or run away. I don’t want to run away, because it would mean losing the two of you as well.” Between losing Sam and Dean and having to deal with a wife, Castiel really could not decide which was worse.
It wasn’t that having a wife would be too awful, if she understood that he was gay and therefore unlikely to ever wish to pursue a normal marital relationship and agreed to the marriage for appearances’ sake. That wasn’t the situation. When Castiel reminded his father about his sexuality, Michael had scoffed and told him it was time to grow up and put away the alternative lifestyle he’d experimented with. One of the reasons for this arranged marriage was that Michael was counting on Castiel’s dislike of hurting people to turn him straight, so as not to disappoint his wife. It wouldn’t work, but Michael refused to hear that.
On the other hand, Sam and Dean… they’d been his best friends since they were children together. The three of them had helped each other through various soul-searching crises. Dean had helped him realize his sexuality. He’d stood beside them the day they told their father that if he walked out the door and took off the day before Sam’s graduation – the graduation he had promised Sam for four years he would be at after missing Dean’s – then he shouldn’t bother to come back. The four years the three of them were apart, Sam at Stanford, Castiel at Notre Dame, and Dean still at home working, had been four years of hell for all three of them. Sam could have gone to law school anywhere, but he’d chosen to go to the University of Kansas just so he could be back in Lawrence. How could Castiel break them up so soon after they’d gotten back together?
“Yo. Cas. Earth to Cas.” Dean snapped his fingers in Castiel’s face. “Hey, man, you in there?”
Castiel shook his head, clearing out his gloomy thoughts. “I’m here. What is it?”
Dean grinned. “Your dad can’t make you get married if you’re already married. So I call in sick to work tomorrow, drive you and Sam up to Kansas City, you and Sammy get hitched. Sam gets to say he’s married on financial aid applications, you don’t get forced to marry some chick who doesn’t know what she’s getting into, and hey, you’re already family to us.”
Castiel stared at Dean. It certainly was a solution, but there were problems with it, too. First was that Castiel had feelings for Sam, feelings that he would never act on because Sam saw him as a brother. Second, and more important, Sam appeared uncomfortable with the plan. It wasn’t much better to make Sam feel trapped in a marriage than Rachel, and only because Sam knew what was happening. “Sam? What’s wrong?”
“I.. it’s nothing, really, don’t worry about me.” He smiled, but it was obviously fake. “This lets you stay here without getting stuck with a wife you don’t want, just a husband you don’t want, but I’m not gonna expect anything out of it. Stay married however long it takes for your dad to give up on this, and then you can get free and do what you want.”
Castiel squinted at Sam. That didn’t sound like nothing. Something about it was bugging him, and when he finally put his finger on it, he fought down the hope. “‘I’ can get free? Not ‘we’?” Sam stared at Castiel in silence. “Do you not want to end the marriage?”
“No, I… I know this isn’t a real marriage, you see me as a brother, you deserve better than that when you can have it without your dad or me interfering,” Sam said.
Castiel set his beer down and walked over to Sam. “The only reason I would want to end a marriage to you is so that you could be free to follow your heart wherever it leads. Mine has led me to you for years. I thought you saw me as a brother.”
“Oh.” Sam stood up, looking into Castiel’s eyes. “In that case, will you marry me?”
“We’ll need a second witness. Rings we can get later. Any other practical concerns?”
“Don’t worry about the second witness, Benny’s in Kansas City and I know he’d love to come see you two get married,” Dean said. “Sounds like we’ve got an early morning if we wanna be at the license office when they open, so should probably get some sleep. If you two wanna jump the gun on the wedding night, give me half an hour to fall asleep, okay?”
“You’re awful,” Sam groaned. “Do I need to remind you of how many nights I fell asleep to the sounds of you and some girl?”
“And on that note, I’m gonna go get started on my half hour. Knowing you two, it’ll take that long for the two of you to convince yourselves that yes, you both want each other and this is okay and you’re gonna be happy together.” Dean waved and headed off to his room.
Castiel watched him go and then turned to Sam. “Would you be mad if I would prefer not to jump the gun?”
“No, not at all, I’d kinda like more than half an hour to process that this is happening myself,” Sam said. “If we’re not planning on divorcing, then we have all the time we want to take.”