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The door closed with a thud behind them and Dean heard Sam lock it, too, so he was well and truly fucked at this point. Ever since his brother got the idea that he had some weird crush on Castiel- who was also locked in the panic room- he had been pestering Dean about not talking about ‘it’. Whatever ‘it’ was. But now he was locked in a room with Castiel. To make matters worse, the lights were out, and there were candles everywhere instead. Sam was a dead man when he opened that door again.
“Talk, or you’re stuck in there, Dean.”
Dean didn’t need to see Sam to know there was a bitch-face in that sentence, and he would have shouted something back through the door but the sound of footsteps told him Sam was long gone. He groaned and turned to look at Castiel, who stood in the middle of the room as confused as usual.
“Well this is just great,” Dean muttered, and Castiel proceeded to tilt his head.
“Dean, your brother has trapped us in this room. How is that a good thing?”
“It’s not, Cas. Sarcasm,” Dean snapped at him, a bit too harshly. And when Castiel looked annoyed, he groaned again and slumped against the locked door. The last thing he wanted to do now was piss off the angel in the room.
“What exactly does Sam wish for us to ‘talk about’ that requires locking us together in a room?”
Dean looked up at Castiel.
“Man, you do not want to know what ideas that kid has got into his head that made him do this. We’ll just wait it out, he’s gotta let us out sometime.”
Castiel looked down at the candles questioningly before sitting down on the cot in the middle of the room.
“If there is something you need to tell me, Dean-”
“I would tell you, Cas. Sam’s just got a weird idea in his head about us, that’s all.”
It was like a tiny string pulled at something in his chest just enough to hurt after Dean said that, and he glared at the floor. No. His brother was looking into a simple- well, as simple as it could be- friendship too much, that was all. There weren’t any feelings of the romantic sort on his end, and Castiel was so bluntly open about things that if he felt anything, he would have said it outright.
Nope. They were just two guys stuck in a room full of candles that made at least one of them look just a tiny bit more attractive than usual.
Dean thought every swear word he could think of as fast as he could, and then began a long, mental, chant of ‘no no no no shit no no’. It was just the room. The candles. The idea Sam put into his head. He most certainly did not like Cas as anything but a good friend.
“You are tense.”
God damnit, did his voice really have to drop another pitch and sound so very-
“I’m locked in a room, Cas, that’ll stress people out a bit.”
“Is there anything I can do to-”
“Just shut up for two seconds, I’m trying to think!”
Dean’s voice echoed in the room and the string of ‘no no no’ thoughts evolved into ‘shit no Cas I didn’t mean it like that you know that’ when Castiel looked less miffed and more like a kicked puppy. Whatever Sam had planned, this was just the opposite. And Dean was pretty sure Castiel had no idea why they were really locked up in the first place, which made him feel all the more worse. More of those tiny strings pulled just enough to hurt, collectively turning into a big pain in the ass.
He felt sick. After all, he was Dean Winchester, tough guy that just smiled and saved the world when it needed saving, and Dean Winchester did not do heart-to-heart talks with angels. In fact, that was close to the top of his ‘do not do’ list.
There was a lot of silence, and Dean had lost track of how long they had been stuck in the panic room, deep in thought.
“Perhaps if we simply tell Sam we discussed what he thinks we should, he will let us out.”
And suddenly Dean felt very, very stupid.
Getting to his feet, he shrugged.
“Sam! Get your ass down here!”
A few moments later there were footsteps, and then Sam’s voice.
“Please tell me you guys talked.”
“Yeah, yeah, Sam, we had a wonderful chat. Now let us out.”
There was a pause and Dean held his breath.
“So… you two are good now? Cas?”
Dean turned to look at Cas, giving him a ‘say something’ gesture.
“Yes, Sam, Dean and I are… fine. You can let us out of the panic room.”
The door opened, and Sam looked at them for all of two seconds before he slammed it shut again.
“Liars.”
So maybe they wouldn’t get out right away, but Dean was patient. He could wait until Sam caved and let them out, because he knew Sam. And Sam wasn’t the type to leave people locked in a room for too long.
“Dean, it has been three hours, and we do not have unlimited supplies.”
“He’ll let us out, Cas. Trust me on this.”
“We no longer have any more water, Dean. And it has been five hours.”
“Dean. Perhaps you should listen to Sam and… talk to me. Thinking appears to be doing you little good.”
“Dean?”
There was genuine concern there, and that was what broke thought the wall.
“Alright! Alright, I give up!”
Dean jumped off the cot and walked up to Castiel. The candles had nearly all gone out, only a few flickering lights illuminating them. Perfect. It might as well have been a scene out of a cheesy romance movie, but Dean found he just didn’t give a shit any more. He wanted out.
“Sam thinks I like you, okay? This is what this is all about.”
Castiel looked… confused.
Great.
“I don’t understand. If this was all to confirm our friendship…”
Oh just great.
“No, Cas, not… friend-like. God I sound like a teenage girl.” Castiel started to ask, but Dean cut him off. “No, just-… Sam thinks I like you in the romantic sense, Cas.”
There was silence, and to Dean it felt like it lasted a lifetime before Castiel spoke again.
“And your brother wished for us to discuss a… romantic… relationship?”
“Yeah.”
“Well I think this counts as discussing it. I shall call Sam.” Castiel brushed past Dean, heading for the door, but Dean stopped him with a hand on his shoulder. He spun the angel around to face him to find he looked… angry? “Dean, there isn’t any reason-”
“Listen to me Cas, that isn’t the end of it.” There were more strings, more little painful tugs, and it hurt to see Castiel look even slightly angry with him. Dean wanted to break down the door and run like hell until he was far away enough to drown the feeling in a bottle of liquor. “Sam might have been right.”
“What?”
“Hey, don’t act like you didn’t hear me, Cas, I am not saying this again. Sam… okay, fine, Sam was right, and this was all some big setup to get me to spill. There. I said it. Now get us outta here before I turn into a girl.”
Dean expected anything but Castiel to kiss him right then and there. The strings broke the second he did and Dean felt like he was going to burst. Castiel had wrapped his hands around his back and held on like he didn’t intend to let go, and to Dean it was the greatest feeling in the world. And when they stumbled back, Dean hit the iron wall and hardly noticed. It was just too much all at once and his mind, never on his side, made him think he didn’t deserve this, deserve Cas like this.
“Oh will you shut up,” Castiel growled. The kissing stopped, but the closeness remained, Cas hovering only an inch away.
“You… you can hear me? Thinking?”
“Dean Winchester, I may be trapped here but that does not mean I am powerless. You think rather loudly, it’s hard to ignore.”
And as Castiel kissed him again Dean realized that, oh shit, he probably heard his whole internal conflict that sounded like something out of a teenager’s diary. But then the last candle in the room died out and in the dark, Dean realized he no longer cared.
Sam opened the door to the bunker in the morning and found exactly what he had expected: Dean and Castiel tangled up in each other on the small cot, asleep and blissfully unaware he was taking pictures with his cell for later.