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Dean knew he should have been more suspicious when Sam proposed him to join him and his Knights in their scheduled patrol of the kingdom's eastern regions, but the idea of having something to do that would keep his mind away from certain thoughts was too appealing to pass by.
It didn't occur to him that his brother might be plotting something in his never-ending attempts at meddling with every single one of Dean's personal businesses.
The crown prince had pondered over his discussion with the younger man – he really did! There were sleepless nights in which he might have conceded that, while Castiel dealt with the whole situation poorly, he had been kind of a dick to the dragon too – but that didn't mean he approved of the situation he currently found himself in.
"Well, I'll be back at the village if you need me," Sam stated, ignoring the look of utter betrayal that Dean made sure to send his way.
"You two play nice, and – for the love of God – talk for once!"
The older prince watched him go, following his retreating back down the steep path where they came from, until too many rocks obstructed his vision and he was forced to bring his attention on the dragon standing in front of him.
He was led up the hill with the excuse of getting a better view on the nearby fields, but once reached the top, he found a familiar rumpled head and startled blue eyes staring back at him like a child caught with their hands in the metaphorical cookie jar.
Castiel was in his human form – probably a precaution to avoid raising panic in the village at the feet of the slope – and was wearing clothes Dean had never seen on him before: usually the dragon would show himself in whatever the prince gave him to put on in one of their previous encounters, but this time he was boasting a blue tunic with silver motifs running all around his neck and decorating the ems of the sleeves, while an equally silver belt was fastened around his waist. His strong legs were wrapped in a tight pair of dark pants that made the prince pause for just an instant, before his gaze moved further down to study the comfortable boots the other wore.
"What are you doing here?" the prince asked, his voice and face neutral.
"Gryblilkalmyel said he was contacted by Samuel with a request to talk to me," the dragon didn't seem to mind Dean's neutral tone, his voice coming without wariness but with a hint of frustration in its depth, "I didn't realize he might try to force a confrontation between us."
The crown prince had no idea when his brother managed to make friend with Castiel's bartering partner, but he fully intended to question him on the matter at a later time.
"The kid isn't usually that sneaky," he commented, carefully studying the other's expression in an instinctive attempt at finding out if he was being lied to. He was answered by the painfully familiar tilt of the dragon's head and the barest sign of an amused smile on his lips.
"That might be Gryblilkalmyel's fault," Castiel quietly agreed. "He is prone to meddling when something catches his attention long enough."
With a nod of acknowledgment Dean pressed his lips together, his forehead creasing into a frown, while he let his gaze take in every slight twist of Cas' features. The dragon was being uncharacteristically subdued, standing perfectly still since the prince first saw him at the top of the hill – as if fearing to raise the human's ire if he as much as twitched at finger wrong – and keeping contact between their eyes only for a handful of seconds at a time before lowering his gaze to the ground once again.
He looked wary.
"So what's with the get up?"
For an instant Castiel looked confused at his question, a frown marking his face while he took a brief look at his own body – like he had forgotten what clothes he had clad himself in – and then he gave a short, helpless shrug.
"Gryblilkalmyel said I should wear a better attire if I were to speak to 'my potential future brother-in-law' about my intentions towards his brother."
"You really believe everything he tells you," Dean couldn't help but snort at the image of how that discussion must have gone.
"I have very little experience with humans compared to him, I told you this already," the dragon replied, his frown growing deeper while his tone became just a bit peeved, "I know he is prone to teasing, but he is not malevolent: I have no frame of reference to gauge if what he tells me is true or not – and humans are weird and care for so many things that seem pointless to me in any case – so I just follow every advise he gives."
"God, Cas, you really should have mentioned it earlier!" the prince couldn't help but let out a loud sigh.
"You should have mentioned earlier that you were misinterpreting my intentions in order for them to fit with your ideal of how a mating relationship should go," the dragon retorted, blue eyes narrowing with irritation.
That was the whole reason why they were stuck in that mess, wasn't it?
Because Cas had no idea how humans worked and assumed any difference in behavior with dragons would be pointed out to him without him having to ask, while Dean had no idea how dragons worked and assumed they would act the same way humans did.
"This is so fucked up," the human couldn't help but mutter while he rubbed his face in frustration, and he almost missed the way the other's shoulders slumped in defeat. Now, instead of wary, Castiel looked downright ready to bolt.
"Don't," he sighed again, feeling his insides twist in distress at seeing how his usually confident and even-tempered friend had turned skittish and apologetic. The sheer wrongness of that sight was enough to make a kind of dull pain squeeze the center of his chest.
"I didn't mean it like that."
"Hum…" the dragon didn't look very convinced by his words, blue gaze jumping back and forth between the prince's face and somewhere in the distance beyond his right shoulder. He was nibbling his bottom lip, evaluating if he should mention what was obviously stuck in his mind, until he took a careful step closer and raised his eyes one last time on the prince's own.
"Dean, I did not mean to deceive you," he said, voice coming slow and careful, but growing in confidence when he saw that the human wasn't giving any sign of wanting to interrupt. "I thought I was clear when I claimed you as part of my hoard: I called you such, and you never protested before. I thought you understood what it would imply – how I feel about you – but evidently it was not explicit enough."
"Well, I was kind of a dick too," Dean admitted with a little, embarrassed shrug, "I mean, I kind of assumed you would merrily go along with my plans because you always kind of do, and I...hum, I might have forgotten you are not exactly human either, so thinking that you would react like a normal person? That was just dumb of me to believe."
"But I still can't be your hoard," he added after a short pause, a pained grimace now marring his face. "Being someone's property...that's just wrong!"
"I know," the dragon nodded, taking another careful step in the prince's direction, his eyes now suddenly sparking with life at the slim possibility that they would be able to preserve what was left between them, "I tried to read some human books to fully comprehend what made you so angry with me, and I believe you have some misunderstanding on what 'hoard' means to me."
"Read about it...what are you—?" the prince tried to intervene, only to be quickly cut off.
"I'm trying to understand!" the dragon continued more excitedly, while he closed the last steps of distance that separated them, "I'm trying to understand – I really am! – how this "love" works…"
Whoa, wait! Love?!
Who said anything about love?!
"...but the more I read about it, the more it sounds to me the same as 'hoard', if coins and gems were able to hoard you back!"
Dean was starting to feel a bit dizzy and like he should pinch himself to make sure he wasn't still asleep in his own bed back at the castle, because it was starting to sound like the dragon was about to initiate some kind of heartfelt confession that was generally reserved to fictional lovers, rather than whatever they were.
"Hoard is to be protected. Hoard is to be kept safe. Hoard is to be kept in a perfect and undamaged state," Cas was saying, blue eyes shining like he was talking about the sun, the moon, and the stars, and the prince felt his face flush with warmth at being the object of such intensity.
"Hoard is to be watched and adored. Hoard is to be treated as the most important of all."
How was this dragon even real?
How could he say such saccharine things without even batting an eye?
"I see no difference between 'hoard' and the 'love' humans are so obsessed with," the other concluded, eyes filled with resolution while Dean was still struggling to keep up with the confession he just received: he still had some trouble understanding exactly what the dragon meant with "hoard", but he was starting to suspect it wasn't exactly the same thing humans thought it to be.
People associated the term with possession and ownership, and, while this seemed to be the case for Cas to a certain degree, it also seemed to imply a deeper kind of protectiveness, more rooted in affection than greed.
"I'm not coins and gems, though," the prince warily replied, only for Castiel to shake his head as if to dismiss his worries.
"Dean, I know this is not the same as with my other treasures: you are human and you need your space – I understand this and I try to take it into account," the dragon explained, and Dean was reminded about how the dragon always looked kind of displeased when he left the other's cave, but never complained about it aloud. He had attributed the cause of it to Cas simply enjoying his companionship, but maybe that wasn't entirely the whole reason behind it.
"I don't demand that you be at all times in my nest, and I don't demand for you to exist only for me to look at and admire," he concluded, blue eyes peering into green ones with such eager earnestness that it made the inside of Dean's chest clench in a tight grip.
"I was angry the last time and I was wrong to harm you – I do not know if I will ever stop feeling ashamed of how I treated you – but I feared what could happen: you wouldn't listen to reason and I was scared! Those like me – Mirror Dragons that is – are not made for battle: we're small and proficient in flying, but there are a lot of dragons far stronger and more powerful than us. If any of them snatched you away from me, you would be lost to me forever!"
The prince couldn't say he didn't understand that reasoning – it wasn't like he had an optimal record when it came to venting his fears through anger – and he wanted to comment on it, to let the other know that being almost stomped flat to the ground wasn't what bothered him, but his breath itched into a harsh choke and his words died on his tongue when the dragon's next words reached him.
"Dean, what I'm trying to say is: I want you to be my hoard, but maybe I want to be your hoard too."
God dammit, how was he even supposed to reply to that?
It was so unfair!
He wanted to still be angry and reluctant about the other's proposition, but how could he do that when twin blue orbs stared at him like he was the sole holder of the secrets of how the sun moved in the sky?
He licked his lips while he tried to rein his feelings in, to give them some kind of shape that made even remotely sense: he felt warm, his face was red with a flush, and his heart beat in his chest like it was trying its best to leap out of it. There was the sensation of being pleased by other's attention – it was always there when Cas talked like that – and the relief that came with the knowledge that the dragon was aware he screwed up royally in letting his anger and fears take over his mind.
There was also an embarrassing little flutter just next to his heart that he tried very valiantly to ignore.
"All right," he sighed in the end, one hand raising to rub at his face while he tried to collect his thoughts enough to make any kind of sense. "All right, I get it. I...I know you really didn't mean to attack me back there, and I get that you are sorry for it—"
"I am. Dean, I feel so ashamed about it!" the dragon was quick to confirm, eager to reassure the human once again that he realized the extent of his wrongdoings. "You're my Dean: I should be taking care of you, not harm you."
The prince let out a muffled sound at those words, feeling a little shiver of pleasure run up his spine, but soldiered on without letting that sensation sidetrack him, "I was kind of a dick to you too: I knew you were stressed and worried, but I completely ignored it because it didn't fit my goals. So I think we're even in that regard."
Castiel nodded, eyes wide and filled with awe, as if he were having difficulties believing that Dean would forgive him so easily.
"But if we're still gonna do this thing between us, we need some ground rules," the prince concluded with a sigh, eliciting an eager nod in return, before taking a quick look around to find a nice patch of grass to drop his ass on.
"Come down here, we're not gonna do this while standing."
******
There was a time when Sam's only worry was to make sure that the kingdom was well-guarded against monsters. He regarded that time with a kind of longing, remembering almost with fondness the expeditions to hunt down stray werewolves or put wayward ghosts to rest, and wondered when he was appointed the dubious honor of having to fix his brother's love-related issues.
It was more out of desperation than anything else, that he agreed to go along with Gryblilkalmyel's little scheme, getting over his initial shock – he really tried very hard not to think about the fact that a dragon propositioned him quite graphically in more than one occasion in the past – long enough to put their plan into motion.
Getting Dean and Castiel in the same place had been embarrassingly easy, all things considered, and he supposed that he should count the lack of angry shouts and sudden bursts of flames from their little perch at the top of the hill, to be a good sign.
He let them to their own devices for a few hours, making sure to give them time to talk – hopefully that was what they did, instead of what Gryblilkalmyel quite unsubtly suggested they would end up doing to vent their mutual frustration – before slowly making his way back up the grassy slope.
"I need you in my nest at least one out of three days," he heard as he reached the top of the small hill. Castiel and Dean were sitting on the ground in front of each other, close enough that their knees bumped every time they as much as shifted, and Sam took a moment to thank God for His eternal patience in dealing with his emotionally-constipated brother and his equally emotionally-constipated dragon.
"It distresses me when I can't ascertain your well-being myself," Castiel continued, "If you need to pass more time in your castle or to be away for longer than that, I would be grateful if you would allow me to be at your side. I will make sure to be as unobtrusive as possible, but I...the idea of not knowing how you are faring for an extended period of time will frankly make me go insane."
"No, it's fine, I get it, I think I can work with that," Sam heard Dean reply and then he watched as his brother gave a little embarrassed mumble while he rubbed the back of his neck.
"I like you around me anyway, but…" he was hesitating now, licking his lips to gain a few precious moments to brace himself before adding, "can you...I mean, I know you like me but you just kind of don't...I mean can you be more...touchy? Not the sexy kind – I mean, those are great! More than great! But not what I—...I'm talking about, I dunno, hugs and kisses and stuff?"
The last part came out in a soft mumble that Sam barely managed to make out from his position, but it was enough to make his lips turn upwards in a proud smile: at least his brother seemed to be trying very hard to get over his dislike for those kind of emotional talks.
"Ah!" the request seemed to startle the dragon, his blue eyes growing wider before he sighed, "I did not think about that, I apologize. My kin...we don't usually express affection in that way: getting our snouts or paws near each other brings with itself a certain level of unexpressed threat due to our fangs and claws. Two dragons might entwine their tails or blanket each other with their wings if they are close enough, but generally being allowed in another's territory is a sufficient sign that one's presence is welcome and appreciated."
He paused, looking Dean over for a few instants before adding more softly, "You have neither tail nor wings, so I wasn't sure how…" his face scrunching up in a brief frown.
"I'm sorry if I didn't see to your needs properly," he concluded more kindly, leaning in until their foreheads were pressed together. Dean's eyes closed as soon as their noses brushed, their breathes mingling in the short space between their mouths in slow sighs.
"I will endeavor to do better from now on."
Sam should really not be watching this scene.
It was obvious that the two of them made peace anyway, so he let his gaze linger on the intimate display before him only for a few more instants, before he turned away and made his way back down the side of the hill.
******
"So, what's up with those books you mentioned anyways?" Dean hummed against the skin of Castiel's neck, nose buried under the dragon's ear. They had shifted at some point during their little talk, the prince inching closer and closer until he was all but straddling the other's lap.
"Ah, that was Gryblilkalmyel's suggestion," Cas replied, fingers of a hand threading through Dean's short hair. "Since I don't have the same practical experience he possesses, when it comes to interacting with humans, I believe he thought they would help me to at least gain some theoretical knowledge on the subject."
"...'practical experience'? Really? He's still a dragon though…" the prince frowned, pulling away just enough to sent a glance at the other's face.
"Well, he is the one who taught me how to change shape, and he does spend a lot of time among humans since he seems to find your kin interesting and amusing," the dragon gave a little one-shoulder shrug, the gesture so human that it made a tiny smile bend Dean's lips upwards at the sight of it.
"You might even have met him."
"Dude, I would remember if I met anyone with that weirdo name," the human snorted: even if Castiel's bartering partner did like to spend time among standard two-legged people, the chances of them actually knowing each other were ridiculously small.
"He wouldn't use that," Cas lightly shook his head, "most dragons' names are almost impossible for humans to pronounce correctly."
Dean blinked, green eyes staring back with surprised realization: that actually explained why the other's name seemed so short and easy in comparison.
"So 'Castiel' isn't actually your name either?" he asked, curiosity prickling at the back of his mind. An indulgent smile made its way on the dragon's face at that query and he pressed a quick kiss on the prince's forehead before replying.
"My name is Kestrlinglemiol. 'Castiel' seemed like the simplest compromise."
"Kestr—Kestrli—…" Dean tried to repeat, his tongue finding difficult to copy the unusual noises. He was pretty sure that he was supposed to add a weird hissing growl somewhere around the R, but he had no idea how the dragon managed to even make such a sound with his current body.
"I definitely prefer 'Cas'," he concluded with a frustrated sigh that made Castiel chuckle affectionately in return.
"I thought you would."
The dragon's fingers went back to caressing the prince's nape, making him hum his approval while he slumped once again against his lover's – he could use that word now, right? – firm form, enjoying the way Castiel's knees pressed against his back to pull him even closer.
Dean was definitely straddling his lap now.
A few minutes passed in silence, the two of them taking advantage of the fact that they finally cleared the situation between them and could enjoy each other's presence without further reserves, until the prince pulled his face back once again to regard the dragon with another, curious glance.
"So if your name is Kestr-whatever and you're called Cas, what's that Grybl-whatever-else friend of yours called?" he asked. He wasn't sure himself why he was interested in it, but there was this weird poking sensation at the back of his head that seemed to insist he should be privy of that particular fact.
Blue eyes lowered to peer at him, Castiel's head tilting on one side with matching curiosity at being posed that question.
"Gabriel," he replied, and Dean was suddenly reminded of a wide cocky grin, amber eyes that seemed to laugh at everything they saw, and of pot of silver flowers that made his dragon so high that a cat fallen in a catnip field would be put to shame.
"Son of a fucking bitch!"
He was sure Cas would forgive him if he committed a small dracocide.