lt_indigo

lt_indigo

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They had settled into a kind of routine, sort of like Dean and Sam used to at Bobby’s. Dean was sorting out the car, having persuaded Missouri that it was about to die on her, and Missouri would find things for Ellie to do, to keep her occupied too. Sorting out the garden was the main one, since Missouri was struggling with the onset of arthritis and hadn’t managed to keep up with her herb garden. And a couple of days after the vampire nest, Missouri had pointed them in the direction of a haunting on the other side of town. Given she had already done the legwork for them, that took them all of half a day to verify that Missouri was right this time – they weren’t getting caught out again, and she forgave them for not trusting her given what had happened last time – and dig up the poor sucker. Ellie burned him in a matter of seconds, thankfully with a lot less drama than the vamps.

It was a quiet day and Dean was scrubbing motor oil out from under his fingernails when he heard it; the most glorious sound in the universe. He hadn’t been absolutely sure he would ever hear it again, and here he was, caught with his pants not only down but actually off, buck naked and soaking wet. He scrambled to turn the shower off, fumbled grabbing his towel, cursing as he dropped it.

Dammit all to hell, what was wrong with him? Why was he turning into a teenage girl all of a sudden? He was a grown-ass man, goddammit, and he was going to act like one.

He dried himself off at a more leisurely rate, thankful that Cas had chosen now to arrive rather than ten minutes earlier, when he had still been streaked in oil from Missouri’s car. Said car was now significantly less of a death trap than it had been a week ago, when Dean and Ellie had taken up residence at her house, and Dean was proud of that fact, but he still didn’t want Cas confronted with him that dirty. Never mind that Cas had seen him hunt, had in fact been hunting with him and had seen him streaked in blood and guts and who knew what else; never mind that Cas had seen him in Hell, Cas was a clean and pure thing, and he shouldn’t have to put up with a dirty Dean.

He slipped on the clean clothes he had laid out earlier and dropped the towel in the laundry basket. He was still a bit damp in places, but it was good enough. He strolled (not any faster than a stroll, no, definitely not) through to the kitchen, to where Ellie and Missouri were trying to feed Cas coffee. Or rather, Missouri was being polite by offering, and Ellie was cajoling. Or maybe it was Gabriel, given that Cas was here?

“Not sure it’s a good idea, feeding stimulants to archangels,” he commented from the doorway, congratulating himself on sounding calm and collected.

The looks he got were well worth it: Ellie’s pure mischief (definitely Ellie), Missouri’s wide-eyed horror as she realised just exactly how high up the food chain her houseguest was, Cas’ tolerant, amused smile. Jeez, how he had missed that smile.

“Ellie, honey? Come give me a hand getting groceries,” Missouri said in that rich, gentle voice of hers, the voice that still made it sound like suggestion, especially when it wasn’t. She was never really stern, but sometimes she got this look along with that voice. This time, though, her eyes were gentle and Dean knew he was busted: Missouri might not have known how important Cas was in the grand scheme of things, but she knew exactly how important he was to Dean.

“Of course,” Ellie replied easily, the amusement in her tone suggesting that she wasn’t fooled in any way by this sudden need to shop. Which she probably wasn’t, given she had seen them kiss, back at Stull. “Nice to see you again, Cas.”

Cas nodded politely to her. “It was interesting to meet you, Ellie,” he said. “You are certainly nothing like I was taught to believe you would be.”

“You have no idea how relieved I am to hear that,” she replied, sounding genuinely relieved. Maybe because Dean had done some poking online about ‘nephilim’ and discovered what exactly they were supposed to be, and what had happened to them.

“Missouri, it was a pleasure to meet you too,” Cas said, turning to their host. “Thank you for taking such good care of Dean.”

“It’s my pleasure, Castiel,” Missouri replied. “You boys behave now.”

And swiftly and suddenly Dean and Cas were alone, just the two of them, just like they had been countless times before and yet it was completely different. Everything had changed with one little kiss, and Dean had been anticipating this moment for a week; had been looking forward to seeing Cas again, and he still had absolutely no idea what to do or even what to say.

Fortunately for him, Cas wasn’t such an idiot: he did exactly the right thing and pulled Dean into a kiss. It was sweet and a bit clumsy, but it was doing all the right things; making Dean’s heart race and his skin tingle from being pressed against Cas, feeling the warmth of his skin. Everything seemed right with the world.

“So, you doing okay, Cas?” he asked eventually, slightly breathlessly, still held by those strong arms.

Cas’ smile, the one that seemed to be saved just for him, was a glorious thing that touched his eyes and did warm, funny things to Dean’s insides.

“I am well, Dean. I trust that you are still okay? I have not heard from you today yet.”

No, because Dean tended to pray at night, telling Cas all about his day.

“I can start saying ‘good morning’ too, if you want,” Dean suggested. “If it’s not too distracting or anything?”

Cas’ smile got brighter. “It is extremely distracting, but I enjoy hearing your prayers. I have found myself anticipating your evening-time over the last few days.”

“Then I’ll definitely make sure I carry on praying,” Dean said with a smile of his own. He had felt a bit stupid at first – it felt a bit like he was keeping a diary – but if Cas liked it, then he would sure as shit keep on doing it.

“But not too much, yeah? Because I want you on your game up there, being all important. Gabrielle better not be showing you how to trap us in time loops, or alternate realities or some such shit.”

“She is not,” Cas assured him, his smile fading and Cas’ characteristic frown returned. “We have little time for such frivolous things.” He sighed and stroked his thumb almost absently over Dean’s cheek as he continued:

“I cannot stay for too long. The current situation in Heaven is… not good.”

Dean really, really hoped Cas wasn’t about to say what he thought Cas was about to say. “Raph’s not taking the news too well?”

Cas sighed. “No. He is… reluctant to believe that Father has made his wishes clear with regards to the apocalypse, and he refuses to bow to either Gabriel or me.”

Yeah, that was what Dean was worried about. Because Cas had gone back beefed up before, with God obviously having been involved, and things hadn’t gone well. This entire thing had been built on a foundation of Cas now being strong enough to stand up to Raphael (and therefore Raphael potentially not beating the crap out of him in the first place) and Gabriel being backup. Cas had gone up to Heaven believing that things would be simple, with God’s touch so evident in Cas’ newfound power and Gabriel’s good health. Dean was pretty sure that Gabriel hadn’t been so positive about the outcome, because she was more of a realist.

“So, Gabi’s still up there?” he prompted, trying to get a feel for things.

“She told me I should spend some time with you while I could,” Cas told him. “Raphael appears to be considering his options, but I do not think he will change his mind any time soon, and a vast number of the host are still loyal to him as the eldest archangel; he may be outnumbered, but his opinion is more respected by the majority our brothers.”

That had been the other concern, something that Dean and Ellie had discussed late one evening: that Heaven worked on the same principle as a monarchy – leadership passed from eldest son to eldest son, at least in theory. Cas had probably been shoved up the hierarchy quite a bit because of his promotion, but after God had jumped ship, Michael became the rightful leader, with Raphael after him, then Gabriel. Then, Ellie had said, blushing furiously, technically came her, except that none of the angels knew about her and no angel in their right mind would agree to that anyway, and then and only then came Cas.

“Dean?”

Cas seemed to deflate in his arms, all the cheer at seeing Dean leave him. Dean knew what was coming: he had fed them what he knew about the civil war, which admittedly wasn’t much.

“Yeah, Cas?”

“Is this how it started last time?”

Dean tugged Cas over to the table and sat down, keeping a hold of Cas’ hand throughout.

“Near as I can figure,” Dean said slowly, “yeah. You didn’t tell me much, probably because you thought you were protecting me. But kinda, except that Raph didn’t do much considering and more handing you your ass. You only made that stupid deal with Crowley to survive, so you could stop the apocalypse all over again.”

Dean sighed, glancing away from those guileless blue eyes for a moment, gathering his thoughts.

“I honestly thought it would be different this time. I got your Dad to hook you up with more mojo; He got Gabi back in the game so this wouldn’t happen. I’m sorry, Cas.”

The expression on Cas’ face was so heart-breaking that Dean wanted to look away.

“Dean, please do not be sorry: this opportunity is a miracle, and although I would wish to avoid it entirely, if this civil war is to happen, at least we are forearmed against the consequences of this deal I made with Crowley. And I doubt that Raphael will be able to ‘hand me my ass’ quite as easily as he once could have.” He gave a small huff of laughter. “As you may recall, archangels are able to vaporise angels of lower ranks should they feel it necessary. That is no longer a possibility.”

“Well, thank God for that. Literally. But this ain’t going to turn into an apocalypse all of its own, is it? Because we know how pissing contests between archangels turn out.”

Cas raised his eyebrows. “Dean, you have never seen the aftermath of a fight between archangels, and I pray that you, nor anyone else, ever does.” He sighed. “Particularly since it has been difficult to find time for Gabriel to train me in the use of my new powers.”

“What? Dude, you’ve been gone for a week! Why the hell are you wasting time with me if you need to get ready for the fight?”

“Dean, I… I wished to see you.”

Dean scrubbed at his face with the palm of his hand. He understood that desire, he really did. It had been really hard, praying to Cas for a week without hearing anything back. But there were reasons he never pressured Cas into coming home too early:

“I want to see you too, Cas, but not like this. You need to be ready, ‘cause right now, what would happen if Raph decided now was the moment to attack?”

Cas considered that for a moment. “I would have to hold back, and he would defeat me easily. Otherwise I would likely destroy the planet in unleashing a power I have no control over.”

“And that’s why you are going to march your ass right back upstairs and get to work, mister,” Dean said. He might have pulled off stern, maybe, but something inside him was yelling to be heard, begging not to let Cas go again so soon. “Come when you can, even if it’s only dream-walking. Just, I want you safe more than I want you here.”

“Dean, I… Heaven will not be safe for some time.”

Dean shrugged. “Safer than getting ambushed here, without Gabi to look out for you. I’d rather sacrifice some time now rather than you get killed.”

Dean cringed inwardly as he processed what he had said. The teenage girl in him seemed to be rearing her head again.

Fortunately, to save him some shame, his phone chose that moment to ring. Cas slid it smoothly from his pocket.

“It is a local number,” he said as he handed it to Dean.

“How do you… never mind. Hello?”

“Dean?”

“Sam? Sammy! Where are you?”

“Payphone near the cemetery,” said the glorious voice. “Think I might have walked west.”

Away from Lawrence, but that so wasn’t the point right now.

“Okay, we’ll find you. Hang ti…ght.”

They were there before Dean had even finished speaking; Sam slouched in the booth, grasping the receiver like it was a lifeline, his long body a line of weariness. But his head turned at the sound of them arriving, his face lighting up under the layer of red dust.

Yes, everything was good with the world: Team Free Will was back together.

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