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It was a witch, because of course it was. A witch that managed to get the drop on not only Dean but Cas as well, all while Sam is following another lead on the other side of town.
When Dean wakes up he’s cuffed to an altar, great.
Cas is bound in front of the altar, Dean doesn’t like the way this is looking.
Luckily the witch is feeling talkative, it’s easy enough to goad her into explaining her plans, even if Cas seems unable to do anything other than move his eyes. The game plan right now is stall, stall, and stall.
“So I get it, she humiliated you, so you killed everyone she loved- no really, I get that part, what I don’t understand is why me and my buddy here are all tied up? None of the magic you’ve described requires a human sacrifice. You moving up in the world?” Dean snarked.
“Exactly!” the witch beamed, “I noticed your friend here is an angel! And one low enough on power I could trap them! So now I can use them to power my spells instead of having to kill anyone, really much more human. The only problem is that his grace isn’t regenerating itself for some reason, if it weren’t for the mostly intact wings I’d think he was a Fallen angel. That’s where you come in, I just barely caught a glimpse of you soul and… let me just say, I am honored. Your soul is the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen. Anyways, you’re the perfect power source! I don’t have a way to harvest your soul energy without killing you, and then I could only use it once, but for a metaphor, if I plug your soul into the angel’s grace, he’ll convert the excess energy into more grace that I can use!”
Dean stared at her.
He glanced at the door, Sam did not come bursting in to save them just in time.
Fuck.
…
“Okay angel, you’ve got two choices here, either I kill him and trap his soul in your vessel- meaning you can’t ever return him to his body. Or I let you remove his soul so that he’s still alive for the rest of the process, wouldn’t want you to get lonely after all.”
Cas stared at her unblinking as she grabbed him by the arm and yanked him to his feet before pressing his face down to hover over Dean’s.
“Last chance angel, take his soul or I trap it. Either he dies or he lives.”
Dean’s eyes flicked to the door and then back up to the deep endless blue above him. He was still betting on Sam saving them, and he’d rather his body still be alive for his soul to be returned to.
“Dammit Cas. Yes. Take my soul.” Dean hissed in defeat.
Cas blinked at him slowly, still seemingly unable to move his body, before his head dropped and his lips met Dean’s.
It wasn’t the best kiss, Cas wasn’t moving at all, his mouth was just open against Dean’s, but it was still way to close to a kiss, Dean couldn’t help but open his mouth and-
He felt it then, he could even see some of the golden glow seeping through the gaps between their mouths, he could feel all of himself inside of Cas’s mouth, and so with a wild decision he decided he might as well kiss Cas while he still could.
He started moving his tongue, exploring the angel’s mouth, he kissed Cas like he was dying for it.
And then Cas swallowed.
Dean was tumbling down Cas’s throat, suddenly disconnected from his body entirely, all he could feel was Cas swallowing around him, swallowing him.
Dean shivered as Cas made a content sound, the angel’s low voice rumbling all around him. Dean fell deeper and deeper into Cas.
Dean poured into Cas’s stomach, filling it, stretching it slightly, Cas groaned uncomfortably. Dean huffed, like Cas had any right to complain in this situation.
Contrary to his thoughts, Dean hummed soothingly, pushing up against the stomach walls in an attempt to comfort the angel. Dean idly wondered what was going on outside and for just an instant he knew, before he felt several wards shove him back inside Cas’s stomach.
But that glimpse of the outside had been enough to make him blush, Cas’s belly was slightly swollen, he was laying on the ground, the witch had underestimated the power consuming Dean’s soul would give Cas, because Cas had been able to set up a barrier to keep her away while he recovered and tried to break the barriers she’d placed on him.
Dean did his best to settle down, he’d have to be content with the fact that Cas was handling this. Dean felt a little useless, but being a battery for Cas was better than being a battery for the witch.
Being eaten by Cas was definitely a thousand times better than being eaten by the witch.
Not that he thought being eaten by the witch had been on the table, but his situation could be worse.
As it was, Dean did his best to snuggle up in the warmth of Cas’s stomach, it wasn’t like Cas could see him anyways, and it definitely wasn’t the same thing as cuddling, and Dean would deny it if anyone asked.
Dean blinked -he ignored the question of if he’d actually blinked or if it was just the memory of blinking- when he felt Cas run a hand over his belly, Dean made a concerned noise. Was having Dean in his stomach that uncomfortable? What if the stretch was painful?
Dean wished he could help somehow, but right now all he was was a ball of energy-
Wait.
It took some concentration but Dean managed to send a pulse of soothing energy towards where Cas’s hand was rubbing. Cas’s hand paused, and then his voice was rumbling like an earthquake.
“Thank you Dean.”
Dean couldn’t help but make a low, happy buzzing noise, he idly noted that he seemed at once disconnected from his emotions in this form, and unable to stop himself from expressing them.
Dean did his best to curl up and ignore the movement of Cas’s body around him.
Until finally-
“I’ve killed the witch, I’m flying your body back to the bunker, I’ll call Sam and tell him what happened. I’ve removed most of the wards trapping you inside me, and I should be able to remove the rest at the bunker and return you to your body.”
Dean should be happy and excited at the prospect, and he was! But also, the idea of being so far from Cas made him feel anxious. Cas’s grace had felt dim when Dean had been swallowed, so dim Dean couldn’t see it, and already it glowed so brightly. If they waited a bit Dean was sure Cas could have more of his power back temporarily.
Cas had mentioned flying, so clearly he already had a lot of it back.
And Dean couldn’t help it, but the thought of Cas keeping him like a battery the way he had the purgatory souls didn’t bother him as much as it should, if Cas kept Dean not only would he never leave Dean again, but he’d get to be an angel again.
Cas deserved to be an angel.
But that wasn’t going to happen.
So Dean curled into a tighter ball inside Cas’s stomach and tried to pretend he wasn’t soul-cuddling with Cas.
…
The return of Dean’s soul to his body was anticlimactic. It did involve a kiss, which was a plus. But for Dean, one moment he was curled up comfortably inside of Cas and the next he’d been yanked back into his body.
He gasped in air from Cas’s mouth, Cas pulled away and Dean didn’t stop him, didn’t pull him back.
The colors of the bunker were usually something he considered dull, brown, and washed out with age, but right now they were an explosion, the smell of the new detergent he’d tried on the bedsheets this week was like a chemical stain on the inside of his mouth.
Dean shut his eyes, reaching blindly with his mind for the familiar tugging feeling of Cas-
-only to be shut down hard by an invisible wall. It took Dean a minute to realize the wall wasn’t real and that he’d been trying to shove his soul back down Cas’s throat, he recoiled opening his eyes with horror, Cas was going to hate him.
How could Dean have wanted to go back?!
Cas-
No.
Cas was fine. They were both fine. All Dean needed was a drink and to sleep for 6 hours.
“You back with us?” Sam asked.
Sam was in the room. Great. He’d seen Dean try to shove his soul back down Cas’s throat.
“No longer a battery.” Dean said with a grin that didn’t reach his eyes.
Sam made a face at him, “If you need to talk about it-”
“I’m good, no chick flick moments.” Dean interrupted.
“Dean-”
“Shut up Sammy.” Dean grumbled as he stood up, unsteady on his feet for a moment, before pushing past Sam to go to the kitchen.
He pulled a beer out of the fridge and took a swig, before nearly choking when he tried to swallow, his mind overflowing with the memory of Cas swallowing his soul.
Dean put the beer back in the fridge, he just needed some sleep, everything would be easier to handle after he’d gotten some shut-eye. Yeah. He was just tired.
…
Dean had recovered surprisingly well from the whole Cas-eating-his-soul thing, but over the next two weeks it became increasingly obvious that something was wrong with Cas. At first Cas wouldn’t touch Dean, which, okay, Dean definitely didn’t care, whatever, but then Cas stopped making eye contact with him.
And then he stopped looking at him at all, even when he was talking to him.
Cas had finally figured out personal space, and he seemed to want to be at least one room away from Dean at all times.
And Dean was terrified that Cas had had enough, that any day now he was going to up and leave and never come back.
And then Dean caught him eating, he knew Cas was still fairly powered up from eating Dean’s soul, he shouldn’t be hungry. It took several days for Dean to figure it out. Cas had had this problem before- with the purgatory souls. He hadn’t wanted to let them go- he’d been hungry for them once he’d had a taste.
But those had been monster souls, humans souls weren’t supposed to be addictive.
But then again, Cas was practically a fallen angel, was it really an addiction or his trueform coming off of a starvation diet and struggling with it?
So Dean researched.
And as far as he could tell, his second theory was probably what was going on, angels fed on the power of heaven, and heaven was powered with souls and grace.
Fuck. Cas had been starving.
Dean knew what it was like to starve, to go hungry while the people around you had food, to have to eat slowly when their dad came back so that he didn’t vomit. The bunker was always fully stocked, they would never run low on food ever again.
And yet this entire time Cas had been starving.
But Dean could do something to fix it. Cas didn’t have to be hungry. Dean was right here.
And so his plan came into motion.
…
Sam was spending the week at Elieen’s place, so Dean didn’t have to worry about him. The only thing Dean had to worry about was being good for Cas. And wasn’t that something? He knew that at least in this single instance, without a doubt, that he was good for Cas.
He cornered Cas in the Dean Cave, sat the angel down on the couch before nodding to himself and starting his spiel.
He was trying to sell the product of Dean Winchester, and goddammit he was going to make sure Cas bought everything in the store.
“I’ve been doing some research, on souls, and angels.”
Cas stiffened, his eyes widening like a cornered animal.
“Because you’re not powered by heaven anymore, you should be powered by souls. Except, powered isn’t the right word. Angels eat the excess energy souls give off and turn it into grace, a more universally applicable energy. Souls are a nuclear bomb, grace is an electrical current. You can only use souls for one thing, an explosion of power, but you can use grace for all sorts of things. And angels are the only beings in existence that can take the excess energy from a soul without setting off the explosion, humans can tap into their own soul occasionally, but only angels can make human souls permanently useful. But that comes with a massive drawback.”
Cas was frozen. Dean had actually expected him to try and fly away by now, pressing his luck, Dean pressed on.
“If angels don’t feed on grace or heavenly power or the excess energy that comes from souls they become something essentially human, weak to outside attacks, but still with the coveted ability to turn soul power into usable power. To be cut off from heaven is a death sentence because of the creatures that will hunt you down for your ability, not just because of your fading grace.”
Cas had looked away from Dean, his hands were clenched into fists.
“Cas, you’ve been starving.”
Cas’s head whipped around to stare at Dean, his eyes wide at the change in tone.
He seemed to come to a realization, his face softened, “Dean, it’s not your fault.”
“It is when I can fucking do something about it!”
Cas froze again.
“Dean, you don’t-”
“Yes I do, I mean it Cas. Sam’s gone all week. Maybe we can’t do it as often as we should to keep you healthy, but at least this once you should be able to eat as much as you want!” Dean said, voice almost angry.
“Dean, you can’t mean a whole week.” Cas said softly.
“I damn well can! As much as you need Cas, as much as you want. I’ll be your swallow-down-soul as long as you’ll have me.”
“ Dean.” Cas said, his voice full of longing, before he stood up, grabbed Dean by the shoulders and pressed his own mouth against Dean’s.
“Tell me to stop, tell me to stop or I will eat your soul Dean.” Cas growled against Dean’s lips.
Dean responded by kissing him.
And then Cas pulled Dean’s soul into his mouth, Dean felt Cas swallow him, and in moments Dean was right back where he belonged.
Inside of Cas.
Dean purred happily, curling up in Cas’s familiar warmth.
“Thank you Dean.” Cas’s voice rumbled around him.
I’d do anything for you. Dean prayed.
And it was true.