Kinda like us?
Dean had been petrified when he’d come home around 3am and instantly heard Cas yelling upstairs, at first he thought it was from his room but it was in the guest room, Mary was already in there trying to soothe Cas but Cas was simply not waking up.
“GABE!” Cas sobbed, thrashing at the covers until they were completely off.
Dean felt a stab of guilt that he hadn’t come home when he promised and Cas would be safely dreaming in his bed right now, but instead the poor kid was giving Mary and Dean mild heart attacks with how he wasn’t even waking up when they shook him hard.
“Help, I'm- I'm g-DEAN!” Cas shrieked, Dean heard footsteps.
“What’s going on?” John rubbed his eyes.
Dean took over Mary trying to get Cas awake.
“Call Gabriel, John.” Dean heard Mary say.
“Cas! Dammit.” Dean shook Cas again, not wanting Cas to go home in such a state. “Wait, I can get him up, Mom, I can wake him up.”
Mary nodded and gave them both a worried glance, Dean slipping into the bed and pulling Cas into his lap, holding his arms down so he’d stop fighting him.
Dean held Cas tighter until he saw a flash of blue, Cas was finally awake, tears were streaming down his cheeks and he was shaking violently.
“Shhh shhhh, you’re okay.” Dean stroked Cas’ sweaty hair away from his face and wiped the tears away, “I'm here, Cas. You’re okay.”
Cas didn’t look like he’d registered that Dean was even there but he turned over, burying himself in Dean’s chest, clinging onto his t-shirt.
Dean stroked his back until his breathing steadied and he was asleep again.
The next night Cas had been downstairs until 2am, playing video games.
Sam had stayed up until 1am but was too tired to carry on and took himself to bed,
Dean stayed with Cas.
“C’mon, you’re not even trying!” Cas grinned as he blew up Dean’s last team member.
“I'm tired, man.” Dean yawned.
“Go to bed if you want to.” Cas shrugged and carried on with the game.
“Are you coming?”
Cas shook his head.
“I know what you’re doing. You can’t avoid going to sleep, Cas.”
“I'm not tired.”
“Liar.” Dean sighed. “Look, I’ll get you some milk and we’ll go up to my room, we don’t have to sleep straight away but I want you to try.”
“Dean?”
“Yeah, Cas?”
“Why do I have bad dreams all the time?”
“I dunno, man.” Dean sighed and pulled Cas by his arm, turning the TV off as he led Cas upstairs.
“It’s not normal; none of my friends at school have bad dreams whenever they don’t share. Sam’s never needed to share.”
“Everyone has their little things, buddy. Sam believed in the Easter bunny two years ago.”
“The Easter bunny isn’t real?” Cas mocked horror.
Dean stopped and stared at Cas until he realised it was a joke. “Asshole.”
“What’s your thing then? You seem perfect to me.” Cas asked, and then blushed furiously; luckily it wasn’t too noticeable on the dark landing.
“Mine’s tricky, I don’t need it but without it I can’t sleep properly, I’ll wake up all tired and grumpy.”
“Your Batman toy?”
“You, Dummy.”
“Oh.” Cas changed into his PJs and crawled into the safety of Dean’s bed.
“Yeah, but if you ask me it’s not babyish at all.”
“It is.”
“No, it’s very grown up. Think about it, your Mom and Dad, my Mom and Dad. What do they have in common?”
“Lots of things, I don’t understand what you’re getting at.”
“They share the bed. Grownups always share the bed.”
Dean covered them both and turned on his side so he could make out Cas’ features.
“But they’re together. They love each other.”
“You’re going too far into it. They share the bed because it’s the most comfortable thing to do, they know that if they have bad dreams they’ll have someone there who’ll let them know everything’s okay.”
“Kinda like us?”
“Exactly like us, now get some sleep.” Dean smiled and turned back over.
Cas turned over as if he was going to sleep to but Dean’s words played over in his head.
He’d compared their relationship to people who were in love, then didn’t take it back.
Cas felt more confused than happy.
What did that mean? That Dean felt something for Cas, that Cas felt something back.
Was he in love with the eighteen year old lay sleeping beside him, who also happened to be his best friend’s brother?
Cas’ head was spinning, until something nudged his hip.
Dean’s hand, Cas slid his hand along his torso until it found Dean’s waiting hand.
Dean answered with a happy sigh and Cas couldn’t stay awake much longer, drifting off to sleep, surrounded by the blanket which smelt safe and warm, which smelt like Dean.