Smoke

Dean claimed the bedroom at the back of the house, throwing his bag down and rifling through it for a change of clothes. Bela had refused to stay in a motel, insisting it would be bad for her skin. Hannah had nodded as though that made sense, and Sam had laughed. Cas had been busy throwing worried looks at the bags Bela had brought from the lock-up.

The angel was more troubled by this whole thing than Dean was, but the demons were wanting to use Cas as a pantry for ingredients, so that made sense.

“You doing okay?” he asked.

Cas looked round from where he’d been staring out of the window, his arms crossed.

“Fine,” he said. “I just hope this plan of Bela’s isn’t completely disastrous.”

“Look, I have plenty of reason not to trust Bela, but what’s she ever done to you? She helped Hannah save us from that cult, she’s in love with your sister, and you were just fine working with a demon before. Thought you had a soft spot for Meg.”

Cas shrugged.

“That’s…complicated,” he said. “I never forgot what Meg was.”

“You said she was a thorny beauty, Man,” Dean said, and he hadn’t realised that memory was seared into his brain.

“She was,” Cas said, as though he couldn’t quite see how that related to the conversation.

Dean stared for a moment longer.

“Right. Okay, then. Thorny beauty it is.”

Cas left the window and rounded the bed, stopping only a few inches from Dean.

“It bothers you, my relationship with Meg.”

Without meaning to, Dean smiled, a quirk of his lips he knew could come across as cocky or leering. He wasn’t wanting either one, but he couldn’t straighten his mouth out.

“Hey, whatever gets your motor running,” he said.

“Dean,” Cas said. “Are you concerned I’m going to build a friendship with Bela? Or is this about something else?”

Not biting on the Meg issue. Okay, then.

Dean wasn’t expecting Cas to reach up and stroke his cheek with backs of his fingers, the knuckles just pressing against Dean’s skin. Cas’ curled hand settled against Dean’s neck, his other hand moving to Dean’s hip. This was all still so new that it stopped any words Dean might have been aiming for.

“You’re worried,” Cas said. “Knowing who to trust is part of it, but you’re more worried about me.”

He sounded wondering.

“Of course I’m fucking worried about you,” Dean said, Cas’ understanding shaking his words loose. “I thought you were dead. Again. Because of this. If Bela’s wrong, we have to come up with something else. And she’s burned us in the past.”

“Meg took away Bobby’s ability to walk,” Cas said, “and she helped you more than once later on. You left her watching over me.”

Dean couldn’t say that, at the time, he’d still been so angry, so lost at what Cas had done, that he’d not given that as much thought as he should have done. Cas had been so distant, the gap between human and angel only widened by secrets and lying and a break in Cas’ mind, that Dean hadn’t fully considered Meg might be able to hurt Cas. Not until later, when he’d sat awake while Sam slept, fretting that she might do something awful.

Even then, he hadn’t gone back until she’d called to say Cas was awake.

“I’m sorry about that,” he said, even though Cas couldn’t know everything he was apologising for.

“My point is that you’ve had a demon on your side before, and that’s before we consider Crowley,” Cas said, apparently not interested in how the situation with Meg related to him.

“We never trusted Crowley.”

“Maybe not. But you did involve him in your plans. You did rely on him for certain things, at certain times. And Bela has a reason to help. She has Hannah.”

“Who turned on you more than once.”

Cas closed his eyes, just for a second, and when he opened them he pushed up and pressed his lips to Dean’s.

It was one way to end a discussion.

Dean had Cas pulled close, had his arms wrapped around the guy, by the time Cas ended the kiss, pulling back just far enough to speak.

“We don’t have to fully trust either one of them, but they have saved us since returning, and I see no deception in them. We’ll check everything, as far as we can, but unless we have a better idea, being eaten up by worry isn’t going to help. I suggest you find a way to relax.”

That had to be a come-on. Yeah, the first clue was really more the kiss, and one of Cas’ hands had trailed its way down to Dean’s ass, but somehow the comment at the end there was still a surprise.

“Oh, really?” Dean asked. “Why don’t you show me how.”

Cas did.