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Dean sat up in the crappy motel bed, was that crying he could hear? He looked over at the bed with Sam, but he could see his brother’s
sleeping form sprawled across the bed, arms flung everywhere. Dean silently thanked whoever was listening that he no longer had to share a
bed with the gangly figure. Now sure that Sammy was not who was crying, Dean got out the warm bed and hissed slightly as the cold air of
the room hit his skin. He followed the sound to the bathroom to find a trench coat huddled on the floor.
“Cas? What are doing?” the angel turned his head, and Dean could see the tear tracks.
“Oh, Dean, I didn’t mean to disturb you, I’m sorry” Dean crouched beside him.
“Cas, you okay?” Castiel nodded.
“Bull, I mean, you’re crying on the floor. Cas what’s up, are you hurt?”
The angel shook his head.
Dean sighed internally, moving round to the front of Castiel. He looked up, and saw the drooping wing shadows.
“Woah, Cas what’s going on with your wings?”
Castiel could only reply with a sob.
“Aw shit, I’m sorry man, I-”
“Dean” Cas croaked, and shuffled closer, and the next thing Dean knew, he had an angel clinging to his neck, like he was scared he’d float
away if he let go. Dean remained stunned for a second, before awkwardly returning the hug. When Castiel pulled back, he didn’t seem so
much of a mess, and he stood up.
“I uh” Cas cleared his throat, “I have to go for a bit”
Dean shot up, “Wait, Cas, whaddaya mean, go for a bit? Was it because of the hug? Or the fact I found you crying?”
“Dean, I-”
“What Cas?!” Dean interrupted, “What’s going on?”
“He needs to feather the nest” a new voice offered, and the pair whirled round to see the janitor.
“Just what we need” Dean grumbled, “Your dickhead brother”
“Actually Dean, you couldn’t be more right” Gabriel smiled.
“Gabriel, what are you doing here?” Castiel asked exasperated.
“Well, Cassie, I happen to also be in need of feathering, except I didn’t wait until the last possible moment”
“Wait, hold up, feathering?” Dean asked, not sure if he wanted an explanation or not.
“Ah Deano, angel physiology dictates that a healthy angel has a nest, which is feathered by many. There is a reason angels flock” the trickster winked.
“Cas, is he saying what I” Dean trailed off, at Castiel’s expression.
“No Dean, angels need to maintain in close proximity to another’s feathers, but not the angel themselves” he glared at Gabe.
“Oh, don’t look at me like that Cassie, breaks my heart” Gabriel mimed it out, before turning serious, “look, I’ve had to do this twice since
leaving Heaven, but both those times, there were others on Earth that I could trust, and now, well I wouldn’t be here if there was anyone else
I could go to” he looked at the younger angel expectedly.
Cas sighed, “Fine, I was coming to find you” Gabe smiled.
“So what exactly does this mean?” Dean asked gruffly.
“It means that me and baby bro need to cuddle” Gabriel pulled Cas into a giant bear hug, which the latter was clearly uncomfortable with.
“Is it okay if I join?” a small voice asked cautiously, and when Dean turned round, there was a teenager, poking her head around the pillar she
was hiding behind. Gabriel’s face softened.
“Course you can, little one” the girl smiled and skipped over to them, “What’s your name Cupid?”
“Annabella, but most of my division call me Bella”
“Gabriel” Cas hissed, “We can’t allow a Host in”
“Oh no, I’m not part of the Host” Bella said perkily. “I’m a wanderer”
“Even worse” Castiel commented dryly, only to receive a clip on the wing as reprimand from the archangel next to him.
“What’s going on?” Sam asked yawning as he came to join the group, rubbing the sleep from his eyes.
“There’s my favourite booty call! How’s it hanging Sammy?” Gabriel cheered.
“Wait, booty call?” Dean squinted at his brother, as Sam answered Gabriel with a
“Oh hey Gabe, things are good except for the meeting in our bathroom”
“Woah, back up here Sam, booty call?” Dean asked again, giving Sam the bitchiest bitch face in the history of bitching. Sam just shrugged,
while Gabe waggled his eyebrows suggestively. When Sam saw it, he blushed.
“Sam, you slept with an angel?! Do you know how irresponsible that was, hell, I’d be less mad to find you on demon’s blood again” Sam raised an eyebrow at Dean's out-burst.
“Anna” he replied, Dean opened his mouth to respond, then closed it, then opened it again, only to close it once more.
“Bitch” he muttered unable to come up with a reasonable response.
“Jerk” Sam laughed back.
“I don’t get it” the group turned to see three more teenagers had joined.
“I hope you don’t mind” Bella started breezily, “But I invited the other feathers in my group to join us”
“Sure why not, let’s add some more to the angel sleepover” Dean said sarcastically.
Bella ignored him, turning to the other angels in the room.
“We’re all Cupids in my group and most of us follow the same feathering schedule. There never seems to be enough Grace to go round, and
we’re just stuck in the same cycle. We’re the only ones who don’t follow the same pattern as the rest, so we get a little more but not much.” She explained.
Gabriel went over to her and crouched down so they were at eye level.
“Bella, listen to me, when your group next has a mass feathering, just call my name, I’ll find you and make sure everyone has enough
Grace, ‘kay?”
“Okay” the Cupid nodded.
“Dean what’s going on?” Sam whispered to his brother.
“Apparently the angels need to cuddle each other tonight, so we’re hosting an angelic sleepover”
“Uh, where are they going to sleep? Have you seen the size of the beds?” Dean hadn’t thought of that.
“Uh guys, sorry to interrupt this little slumber party, but where exactly are you going to all fit, for this mega huggathon?”
“We can push the beds together, we can fit 5 of us on when we do that” Bella stated, obviously the leader of the small band of Cupids. Dean
did a quick count, he was fairly sure that a moment ago, there had been Bella plus three other, but now he could see at least five and Bella,
and Gabe, and Cas. He must have been mistaken.
“I can always extend it if needed” Gabriel added.
“And where are me and Sammy gonna sleep?”
“Sammy and I” a Cupid with glasses corrected Dean.
“Nerd” Dean retorted, “Hey wait a second, you weren’t here a second ago” Dean did another quick count, now he was seeing 10 Cupids plus
the two angels.
“I was here the whole time” Nerd responded blasé. He sounded so confident, that when Dean looked at his brother, Sam only shrugged and
Dean had to just accept the Cupid’s story.
“To answer the question Dean, you and Sam can sleep with us” Cas piped up from his corner.
“And be the angel cockblock? No thanks” Dean looked away, and Castiel sighed
“Dean, I already explained, it’s not like that”
“Yeah but what is it Cas? Because you haven’t explained that either” Dean would never admit it, but the crowd in the bathroom was starting to
freak him out slightly, and he knew he was taking out on Castiel, but the angel didn’t seem to pay it any heed.
“Grace is like water, it is meant to flow, not remain stagnant. An angel can carry around so much Grace, before it becomes stale, and un-usable,
when that happens, the angel starts to go mad, because they can’t get the Grace they need. Touching another angel creates a loop of Grace,
and it follows around allowing it to recharge if you will” Cas explained. Dean saw something appear out of the corner of his eye, and glared
because there had definitely not been a Cupid there a moment ago. He looked around and saw there seemed to be nearly twice the amount
of angels who had been in here before.
“Gabriel” he growled, and the archangel looked round from his conversation with Bella.
“Sorry” he mouthed, before clearing his throat, “Everyone, if you make your way to the beds” Dean wasn’t sure about this, but had to go with the crowd as Castiel continued to explain feathering to him.
“How long an angel can go without feathering also depends on their class. A Class 1 like Gabriel can go for millenniums, where as a Class 3
like most of these Cupids will need a feathering about once a year, less if it’s with another Cupid.”
“Cas, why are there so many Cupids here?” Dean asked through gritted teeth, trying not to panic as the crowd continued to pull them along.
“I suspect it’s because of Gabriel. The more powerful the angel you nest with in a feathering, the longer the effects will last. For a single
Cupid, nesting with one of the archangels will give them 2 human years’ worth of Grace, but a Cupid nesting with another Cupid might last 3
months at most, and the more you recharge a Grace, that less effective it becomes. From what I was hearing Bella tell Gabriel was that most
of the clan is down to weeks.”
Dean sighed, but Sam seemed quite interested.
“Why did Chuck create the angels like that?” the taller Winchester asked.
“He never said, but a popular thought in Heaven is that it’s meant to act as a way to force the different classes to interact. Cupids are
messengers, they are an integral part of our society, indeed feathering Cupids made such an impact that an archangel was always on feathering duty. Normally Gabriel volunteered.”
“Oh okay then” Dean said sarcastically, but he stopped when he saw the hotel room had changed into mansion sized proportions. “What the hell?”
“Well we couldn’t fit everyone in that tiny room, so I put another dimension inside of it” seeing Dean’s face, Gabriel was quick to reassure him “Cheer up Deano, I remove it once we’re done” and skipped off.
Sam looked impressed and the look he was giving Gabriel, would have caused Dean to hit him, but luckily for Sam, Dean had just been
ambushed by a bunch of the Cupids and was at the bottom of a bundle on the giant bed in the centre of the room. He didn’t have many
complaints actually, because as it turns out, Cupid wings are stupid soft and are really warm, but if you asked Dean as Gabriel did the next
morning, he would venomously deny enjoying any part of his first feathering. Because obviously he and Sam would go with Cas and Gabe to
many more featherings because and everyone quotes “you two always get into trouble if we leave you alone”