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Beep
Beep
Beep
"Mm Cas, turn that fuckin thing off." Dean muttered from somewhere behind him, as Castiel flicked the switch on the alarm clock to silence it. In the dim greenish light it emitted, he could see the reading. 5.45, fifteen minutes before Sam's alarm went off for his morning jog. He needed to go.
"S'it time already?" asked Dean, rolling over and burying his face in the crook of Cas' neck from behind, inhaling deeply.
"Yeah."
"Five more minutes." was the sleepy response, and Cas acquiesced, as he always did, turning over to allow his boyfriend to wrap his arms around him like a human sized koala bear. That had been one of the things Cas wasn't expecting when they finally got together, but Dean was a surprisingly physical person, and sex was only part of that. Whenever they were alone, he liked to have Cas nearby, a hand on his knee or an arm around him, and when they were in bed like this he would cling to him, even in sleep. Castiel didn't mind at all.
When the alarm went off for a second time, Dean groaned, lifting his head from Cas' chest to glare at him half heartedly.
"Thought you said you turned it off."
"I set it to snooze, or you'd keep me here until noon." Castiel responded, sitting up and displacing Dean, who flopped back onto his own side of the bed grumpily, looking up at Cas through nearly closed eyes as he finally got up and located his discarded clothes from the night before. This was always a bit of a mission, especially in the near dark, and Castiel wondered to himself exactly how his boxers had ended up hanging over the wardrobe door. Ah, that had been when Dean had... well.
He had thought Dean had gone back to sleep when he spoke again, voice rough and low as it always was in the mornings.
"Well, maybe I should. We could have a lazy morning, breakfast in bed, the whole shebang, y'know." he waved a hand as if to illustrate his point.
"Oblivious as your brother is, don't you think he'd notice that?"
"Don't blind me with your logic." Dean responded, then, almost guiltily "I'll tell him eventually."
"I know you will." Cas passed by him on the way to the door, and left a lingering kiss on his boyfriends forehead. Dean closed his eyes once more, smiling softly.
"Love you, angel."
"Love you too."
He shut the door behind him.
Gabriel awoke to the sound of snoring. Loud, nay, obnoxious snoring.
"Cut it out." he poked his boyfriends back to no avail, (Sam slept like the dead), he just turned over to continue his very realistic impression of an oncoming freight train, so Gabriel gave up on sleep, and watched Sam instead. His hair was all over the place, eyelashes fluttering against his tanned cheeks as he mumbled something incomprehensible between bed-rattling snores. It was funny how Sam could look so cute when he was sleeping, given his weight and build, but he managed it nonetheless, like some kind of overgrown bear cub.
As always, Gabriel had to be up and out of the bunker before the two other residents even thought of consciousness, to ensure he wasn't seen. He remembered the night before vaguely, Sam pulling him down and wrapping him in his arms after they'd finished, murmuring "stay" in his ear before promptly dropping off. Keeping up the charade usually meant leaving soon after Sam had fallen asleep, but tonight he'd obviously dozed off too. What time was it?
He checked his watch, froze, and shot upright.
5.51. He was very, very late. Swearing vehemently under his breath, Gabriel slid out from under Sam's heavy arm, eliciting a mumbled protest which he had to ignore. Where the hell were his clothes?
Oh, right. Turning up naked yesterday evening had certainly been a fun way to get the party started, and the look on Sam's face had definitely been worth sneaking through the freezing halls, but it did present certain problems now the morning was here. He couldn't go out that door like this.
His eyes caught on an oversized flannel hanging over the back of a chair in the corner of Sam's room. That would do just fine.
Sam being about twelve foot tall, and this vessel only being around five foot eight, the blue flannel went nearly to Gabriel's knees, covering all important areas. It was comfortable too, warm and cosy, and smelled like Sam. It wasn't going to be returned any time soon, Gabriel would make sure of that. The man himself was half awake now, blinking up at Gabriel with mild confusion. The puppy eyes alone were enough to tempt Gabriel to remain, but he was already late, and really needed to get going if he didn't want to be explaining to Dean exactly what he was doing in his house.
"Gabe, what'r you still doing here?"
"Overslept, due to someone's extreme cuddling skills." he winked, and flicked Sam on the forehead on the way past "See you tonight."
"Uhh, yeah, okay." Coherent as ever after just waking up. Gabriel rolled his eyes, and slipped out into the corridor, letting a crack of light spill in from the permanently powered main bunker lights. Sam threw up an arm against it, mumbling an indistinct complaint, but by the time the door clicked shut behind Gabriel, he could hear Sam snoring once more.
Cas was only a few steps from Dean's room when the sound of a door creaking open down the hall made him freeze. That had to be Sam's room, but the younger Winchester wouldn't usually be up for at least ten minutes yet. Cas looked up and down the hall, indecisive. Any movement would make a noise, and then Sam would know he was here. Excuses about needing the bathroom or a glass of water fell spectacularly flat when you were a celestial being who needed neither, but he had to do something, for footsteps were now padding down the corridor towards him, about to round the corner.
But a thought pierced Cas' cloud of mild panic. Those footsteps were far too light to be Sam's, and were moving slowly, as if creeping. What would Sam be doing sneaking around his own house?
The answer was obvious, it wasn't Sam at all, but then who...
Nothing could have prepared Cas for the figure that came around the corner, then stopped dead at the sight of him. Dishevelled, bare footed and dressed in nothing but what looked like one of Sam's flannels, and looking at Castiel like a deer in the headlights. None other than the archangel Gabriel, aka the trickster, aka Loki, aka a complete asshole who Cas had been pretty sure was dead, or in Monte Carlo with pornstars.
"Gabriel?!" he hissed, and that seemed to break the spell on him. Gabriel ran a hand through his hair, leaving it even more chaotic than before and began to walk closer, finally stopping a few feet from Castiel and eyeing him sheepishly.
"Uhh, hi brother."
"Don't hi brother me. What are you doing here?" Now he was closer, Cas could see several deep red and purple marks blooming on his neck and collarbone, which looked suspiciously like hickeys. Noticing his interest, Gabriel pulled up his collar to try and hide them, but the too-big flannel just fell right back down again. Definitely hickeys then.
"I was, ahem, I needed to use your library?"
"Bullshit."
"Wow, Castiel, these humans really are rubbing off on you. That's the first time in about a billion years I've ever heard you swear." Gabriel seemed amused, but he wasn't having it. Things were falling inexorably into place in Castiel's mind as he looked from Gabriel's slightly guilty face, to Sam's flannel, to the corridor he'd just come down. He couldn't...
"Sam?" Gabriel's expression suddenly became carefully neural, and Cas knew he'd got it in one. Dean wasn't going to like this.
"I'm not sure what you're talking about, Castiel, but I should really get going, tell Dean-o I say hi!" he tried to veer around Cas and continue on up the corridor, but Cas grabbed his wrist none too gently and yanked him back.
"No."
"No...?"
"No, you're going to stay here and explain, or I'm going to fetch my angel blade."
"You're impossible." Gabriel sighed, but relented and stopped tugging against Cas' tight grip, letting his hand hang loose. "Fine, you're right."
"You're with Sam?" Cas demanded, trying to wrap his head around the ridiculous idea that is brother could actually be in a committed relationship with anyone, let alone Sam Winchester.
"Me and Sasquatch, yes."
"How long?"
"A couple of months."
Cas blinked, blindsided. Gabriel had been sneaking in and out of the bunker for months, and no one had noticed? They were going to have to increase their security. Just as he was about to tear his brother a new one for endangering them all with his idiocy, the door a few feet down the hall opened a crack, and they both froze. In his surprise and anger, Cas had been speaking louder than he'd thought, and Dean had obviously heard. He realised, with horrible clarity, what was about to happen, but before they could so much as take a step back, a very sleepy Dean poked his head out, hair sticking up in all directions, frowning slightly as he searched for the reason for the disruption.
"Baby, what're you-"
He cut himself off, staring at the pair of them. There were several seconds where Dean didn't say anything at all, just looked between Castiel and Gabriel with his mouth hanging slightly open, apparently unsure of how he should react to this development. It wasn't every day a half naked archangel turned up in your house (well, apparent it was, they just hadn't noticed it before now), and Dean seemed to be trying to decide whether this was some kind of bad dream. That was, until Gabriel broke the stunned silence, a shit eating grin spreading slowly across his face as he turned to Cas and echoed "baby?"
Of course. Trust his brother to focus on that part of the situation.
"Gabriel, what the fuck are you doing here." no time for pleasantries, Dean had properly woken up now, and strode the few paces down the hall to stand beside Cas, looking surprisingly intimidating despite the fact he hadn't stopped to put on pants or shirt. Gabriel, however, ignored him, waving a hand carelessly and focusing on Castiel with laser like precision.
"I'll go through it all in a minute, Dean, calm your tits. Castiel, why is Winchester the Elder calling you that, or did he mistake you for his beloved car again?"
"Gabriel, I would advise you to answer him." the warning wasn't just for show, Dean had explained, in rather gruesome detail, exactly what he'd like to do to the archangel if he ever got his hands on him in repayment for the Tuesdays Fiasco, and right now Cas wouldn't put it past his boyfriend to try. Dean was practically vibrating with anger beside him. But when had Gabriel listened to a thing anyone else said?
"Oh, hang on, I'm getting it. Its you two, isn't it?" Gabriel pointed between them excitedly "I knew it!"
"Okay, okay." Dean said firmly, effectively cutting through the stream of Gabriel's elated dialogue "Whatever me and Cas are doing is none of your goddamn business. Answer the question. Why are you in my house."
Gabriel cast a sidelong look at Cas "What do you think, the truth? Or is that going to get me quickly introduced to the pointy end of an angel blade."
"We're not going to hurt you, Gabriel."
"Speak for yourself." Dean grumbled beside him, and Cas lay a hand on his arm, half comforting, half warning, and Gabriel sighed dramatically, seemingly unimpressed with Dean's words.
"Just because you're sleeping with my brother, Winchester, does not mean you can threaten me."
"You're sleeping with his, so I'd say that's a tad hypocritical."
"He's what?!"
Cas realised his mistake the second the words were out of his mouth, but he couldn't take them back, no more than he could wipe the alarmed look of Dean's face. Castiel wished he still had his wings. Once, he could have flown right out of there, taken Dean with him, gone to Barbados or Hawaii, anywhere but this cold, tiled corridor in Kansas. Then the sound of yet another door opening reached all of their ears, just as Dean had opened his mouth, presumably to start laying it on Gabriel. Just when Cas had thoughts things couldn't get any worse.
Sam rounded the corner, dressed in running clothes, a black hoodie and grey joggers, headphones in, and fighting back a yawn. He didn't seem to immediately register the figures in the hall, but when he did, his face took on an expression remarkably similar to his brother's moments before, only even more horrified. Gabriel waved, unhelpfully.
"Hey, sweetheart. Guess who I ran into on the way out?"
Cas thought to himself that they would probably be able to look back on this and laugh.
Not yet though.
It would, of course, be fine. All Sam had to do was flash his puppy eyes, and say "Dean, I love him" and there was nothing that his brother could do but give Gabriel a look that clearly said if he hurt Sam, he'd be strung up by his ankles. (Gabriel wouldn't dare, of course.)
Similarly, Sam was both unsurprised and amused by Dean and Cas, just shook his head and said it had been a long time coming. Apparently, Sam knew damn well his brother wasn't straight, and 'didn't give one singular fuck about it' (his words), which meant Dean had been worrying needlessly, much to his relief and Cas' too. Sam had later pulled Dean aside to mutter something Castiel didn't catch, all he heard was the single word "Deastiel" before Dean had shoved his brother away, scarlet in the face, and went to fetch more beer.
That night, Gabriel and Sam went off into their room, Sam flashing a slightly guilty look at his brother as he went. Dean had just nodded, smiling slightly. Whatever trepidation there had been at the beginning had dissipated over the day, as he had seen Gabriel and Sam interacting, laughing and joking. It would take some time for Gabriel to make up for the myriad of ways he'd screwed them over through the years, but treating Sam right seemed to be a good starting point, and truly, whoever Sam chose, Cas knew Dean didn't really mind, just so long as his brother was happy.
Now, Cas was in bed, staring at the ceiling and absentmindedly carding his fingers through Dean's hair, where his head lay on Cas' chest. His other hand was entwined with Dean's, brushing over the hard callouses formed over years of hunting. Neither was asleep just yet, they were both enjoying this rare moment of peace a little too much to end it.
"Angel."
"Yes, Dean?"
"We could do that lazy morning now. Just you and me."
"Yes, I suppose we could. If you wanted too."
"Too damn right I want to." Dean looked up, smiling at him like Castiel had hung the moon, like he was Dean's whole sky. That look would never get old. All Castiel could do was smile back, and hope Dean understood. He had been alive for nearly a billion years before he knew Dean, but he hadn't really lived before he'd met him, and for that he would be forever grateful.
"Then yes. Definitely."
"Good." Dean squeezed his hand, and gradually his breathing evened out until he fell asleep, there in Castiel's arms.
Cas didn't set the alarm that night, and he wouldn't do so again.