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“Dean, I’m fine!” Castiel insisted for the third time, holding onto the table so hard that the wood splintered. Sam raised his eyebrows incredulously.
“Uh, Cas? Wanna give the table a break?” Castiel blinked, then stared down at his hand. He quickly withdrew his hand from the table in annoyance, but then swayed dangerously without its support. Dean grabbed his shoulders.
“You are obviously not fine. For God’s sake, Cas, let us help!”
“I am an angel-“
“Of the Lord,” Dean completed, rolling his eyes and putting on a ridiculous, high-pitched, mocking voice, “I am several thousand years old, I kick serious demon butt, my true form is approximately the size of Dean’s dick, yadda yadda. We get it.” Dean walked around Castiel so that they were face-to-face, then grabbed his shoulders again. “But the last time you transported us through time, you were out cold for days. You should at least get some rest.”
Castiel had been doing his best impression of Sam’s trademark bitchface while Dean had been talking, but having realised the truth in Dean’s words, he sighed resignedly.
“You’re probably right. But where would I sleep?” He indicated the two double beds in the room. “There is insufficient room.”
“One of us will take the floor, or the Impala,” said Sam, quickly adding “we’ve had worse, Cas, we always have. We can sleep pretty much anywhere.”
“But then you would not be at your best for further hunting,” Castiel pointed out, frowning, “would it not be easier for me to-“
“That’s not happening!” Dean said, irritated. He’d forgotten what a terrible patient Castiel could be. “Look…” he began, thinking it highly likely that he would come to regret what he was about to suggest, “maybe we could…make room.” Both Castiel and Sam started at him, nonplussed.
“Make…room?” Sam asked, his eyebrows practically disappearing into his hairline. “Where?”
“Well…” Dean could feel his face getting hot- he knew he shouldn’t have suggested this.
“Your face is red,” Castiel said, cocking his head to one side, “why is it red? The temperature in this room-“
“Forget it!” Dean exclaimed, finally releasing Castiel’s shoulders. He stormed out of the motel room, mortified at what he’d been planning to suggest.
Seating himself in the Impala, he settled in for a Dean Winchester brooding session. He wasn’t even sure why it bothered him all that much; it just didn’t seem very…normal. He didn’t exactly know much about normality, but he was pretty sure that male friends didn’t regularly share beds. He tried to convince himself that he’d only suggested it to solve the problem, but he knew full well that that had little to do with it.
Pointedly ignoring the possibility of finally attempting to face his feelings towards his entirely-off-limits best friend, he opted to continue to sulk in silence.
“Dean.” About to berate Castiel for making him jump like that, he turned to his right, only to see blood seeping out of the angel’s nose. His breathing was laboured, and he was struggling to keep his eyes open. Dean managed to grab the angel as he slumped forwards, carefully supporting his weight so that his head didn’t hit the dashboard.
“Frickin’ angel,” he muttered to himself, “couldn’t let me brood in peace. Always has to fix it.” He pushed the passenger’s side door open, then attempted to manoeuvre the angel out of it, without much success. Castiel kept sliding away from him, towards the floor. Eventually, Dean glared upwards, cursing whatever deity was actually paying attention for what he was about to do.
He pulled Castiel back into the car, then turned the angel to face him. He shuffled himself as close as he could without getting his crotch too close, then pulled Castiel on top of himself. Holding Castiel close, he managed to shuffle out of the car without dropping him. Although he had to admit that it was much easier to do this way round, he could feel his face burning as he tried very hard not to think about exactly how much of their bodies were pressed together.
Still holding Castiel against him, he shoved the door closed and then half-walked and half-carried the angel back towards their motel room. He knocked against the door with his shoulder, unwilling to shout to Sam- if Castiel was finally asleep, he didn’t want to disturb him.
When Sam finally opened the door, Dean’s arms were starting to shake from the effort of holding Castiel up. Sam wordlessly took the angel from Dean and carried him easily over to the nearest bed.
“Dean, if I’d known he was going to-“
“Sam, it’s fine. You couldn’t have stopped him if you wanted to. Let’s just…make him more comfortable.”
Sam helped Dean remove Castiel’s shoes, coat, jacket and tie; then they looked at each other, wordlessly deciding that they’d removed more than enough items of clothing. Sam flopped down on the other bed, then turned to Dean, curious.
“What were you going to say?”
“What?”
“Earlier. You were going to say something, then you started blushing like a schoolgirl and flounced off to sulk in the car.” Dean opened his mouth to argue, then closed it again. That was a pretty accurate assessment of how it had gone down.
“I was…you remember when we were hunting with Dad when we were little? How we used to share a bed in the motel rooms that didn’t have a room for kids?”
“Uh…yeah?”
“I thought…Cas might like that idea better, is all.” Sam thought about it for a few moments.
“He probably would have, only I don’t know if you’ve noticed, Dean, but we both got a lot taller and I take up practically the whole bed on my own as it is-“
“Yeah, Sammy, that’s why I was going to bunk with Cas.” Sam blinked, stunned.
“Oh…”
“Yeah.”
“That’s…”
“Yeah.”
“Huh.” Sam stood up, then, and went over to the bathroom. “If you’re…still okay with it, I don’t think Cas would mind.” He walked into the bathroom, closing the door quietly.
Dean stared at Castiel, wondering. Would he really be fine with it? Would he only be fine with it because he didn’t understand what it could mean? Or would he realise how inappropriate it was and flit off before Dean had the chance to explain?
He didn’t know, but what he did know was that he was exhausted; and it was either half of a crappy motel bed, the floor, or the car; and given that he was already sat down on the bed…
He kicked off his shoes, then decided that the more layers between the two of them, the better; so he carefully pulled the covers out from underneath Castiel, and threw them over him, getting under himself. He was asleep before his head hit the pillow.
He awoke to something warm covering his right side. Still half asleep, his cheek nuzzled something soft and he pulled whatever it was in closer. The thing beside him made a contented sound in the back of its throat, but didn’t stir. Part of him wondered what it was, but he was too tired to open his eyes. Besides, the thing had one leg and one arm over him, and its head was on his shoulder. If it had wanted to kill him, it would have done so by now. He covered its leg with his left, then fell back asleep.
Dean woke up properly around three hours later. He was still tired, so he kept his eyes closed. The warm thing hadn’t moved. Its presence was strangely comforting, but he knew he’d have to face it eventually. Sighing slightly, he opened his eyes.
“C…Cas?” Dean asked in shock, sitting up as much as he could to see if Sam had seen. Sam’s bed was empty.
“Mmm.” Castiel pushed Dean back down easily, then pulled himself up slightly so that his face was buried in Dean’s neck.
“What…what’re you…”
“Dean. Quiet.”
“I…what?”
“I am extremely comfortable, and was enjoying being held by you. However, I was aware that when you awoke, your tendency to reject any form of intimacy would involve this being terminated. I have decided that it won’t,” Castiel stated.
“Cas, you can’t just force people to cuddle you! What if it’s not what I want?”
“You certainly didn’t complain last night.”
“I was asleep!” Dean was indignant.
“No, you woke up on three separate occasions: the second two, you pulled me closer; however on the first, you were the one who initiated the hug.” Dean blinked.
“…what?”
“I was mostly asleep, we were laying in tandem, then you leant over and pulled my arm across you. This resulted in my head landing on your chest. You then placed your arms around me and fell back asleep.” Castiel shifted a little closer. “I like it.”
Dean lay in shock for five full minutes, unable to move or speak. The room was completely silent other than Castiel’s contented breathing.
“Cas?” Dean asked, after careful consideration.
“Mmm?” he said, looking up at Dean, still sleepy.
“I like it, too.”