hello, dean. what were you dreaming about?

[venatical]

Who: Dean Winchester and you!
When: Day 86-88
Where: Dreamland.
What: Dean goes to sleep with the intention of getting back to that city, which leads to some potential for lucid dreaming! Check the comments for scenarios. If you want something specific, let me know!

Warnings: Blood, light gore, talk of torture.

Comments

[venatical]

Roughhousing with an angel is really different from his brother, even when Sam hit his growth spurt, but Dean's enjoying himself even when he finds himself underwater. His lungs are hungry for air, but he opens his eyes when Cas starts to shake him. His eyes seem even bluer down here, which is a pretty big accomplishment, considering.

Oh. He doesn't really care about breathing anymore. He grins slowly, and then tugs on Cas's tie, half to confirm and half because he's feeling playful now, giddy, giddier than normal but who wouldn't be after being pulled out of their worst nightmare?

He slides his hand down Cas's arm to get a grip on his sleeve, and then tugs. Might as well see what's on the bottom, or if they can get there, right? And if something happened, Cas would save him. Or Dean would save Cas.

[happytobleed]

Smiling back, Castiel swims downward with Dean.

At first, they pass small fish, but as they swim lower, they start to see strange deep-water fish and then things that Castiel knows for a fact aren't real at all. Eventually they pass a large-breasted mermaid and Castiel rolls his eyes at Dean.

That's what he spots a rusty old crate and he starts to steer them towards it.

[venatical]

The fish are cool, but Dean stops when the mermaid goes back, watching her all the way until Castiel has to get his attention again. What? It's his dream; he can stare if he wants to.

He spots the crate once Cas angles them toward it, and he wonders how he can be in his own dream in his own subconscious and not even know what's in there completely. If he decides it's treasure, is it going to be treasure? Only one way to find out, he guesses.

Once they reach it, he fumbles with the rusty lock until he kicks it loose and opens the lid. There is definitely treasure in there, the typical dubloony stuff from pirate movies, and Dean's hand hovers over the amulet Sam gave him, lying right on top, before he passes over it to pick up some weird looking coin. Bobby's flask is poking out of the side, but he leaves that there, too.

Instead, he nudges Cas's side and tries to show him the coin because it's got Johnny Depp's face on it and his dream-self is really detailed.

[happytobleed]

Castiel has no idea who the face on the coin is, but it's obviously relevant to Dean, so he smiles indulgently, Hell forgotten when he sees Dean's face looking like that.

He reaches for the treasure, fingers skimming the flask and familiar amulet. He's surprised there are any coins at all, because he knows that Dean values these things far more than money.

The coins are almost buoyant, as if something under them is catching the slightest hint of current. He pushes a few of them out of the way and there's a familiar color, tattered and stained, underneath.

It's his coat.

Oh.

He turns his head to look at Dean, not quite able to hide the surprise on his face. Dean always says that they're family and he doesn't not believe Dean, but it's hard to believe that he's important enough to be included with all of these things.

But then Dean kept his coat in the trunk of the Impala when he thought Castiel was dead. He fought through Purgatory to find Castiel and Castiel is once again reminded that he should have more faith in Dean.

Licking his lips, he grips the front of Dean's coat, pulling him closer in the water with gentle insistence.

Before he can lose the nerve, he leans in to press his lips to Dean's, almost chaste save for the memory of being a succubus hanging in his mind.

[venatical]

The coins are there because gold coins go in treasure chests, but also because he can't look at a lot of the stuff in here without feeling everything, and it's easier to obscure them with other stuff. When Cas starts to pull out the coat, Dean stops, jaw clenching, but then tries to shrug it all off. It doesn't really work, so much; his eyes are on Cas even if he'd rather make himself look somewhere else.

What surprises him most is the surprise on Cas's face. How could Cas not know how much he means to Dean? He's a dick to Cas sometimes -- sometimes a monumental dick -- but it comes down to how much Dean cares about him. When he's reminded of that, he tends to lash out harshly, push back hard, because it hurts too much and he doesn't know how to deal with that or show it. He shouldn't show it.

Except he carried that coat around for a year, and he tore his way through Purgatory looking for Cas, and he doesn't regret a second of that. He needs Cas; he cares about him, and he doesn't know what to do to get that through the stupid angel's head and to make it stick.

At least, he doesn't know until Cas is pulling him closer. They've been dancing around this since that first incubus kiss, and maybe this is the answer. Maybe this has been the answer this whole time, and that's why Dean was so pissed about the incubus thing in the first place. He couldn't help Cas, but he also couldn't see that he wanted to.

He's ready for Cas when he leans in, even if his heart is racing and he's scared, but it's not the kind of fear that he wants to listen to anymore. He closes his eyes and lays a hand on Cas's arm, and he kisses him back gently.

[happytobleed]

Everything stops around them; the water and the fish and the spinning of the Earth on its axis. Everything.

In this dream, there is only Castiel and Dean and this bond that they've had for several years now. They've been through so much and Castiel doesn't feel like any of it lead to this, because they aren't where they're going yet. This is just part of their journey and he wants it that way. He wants it to be their journey. Together.

The kiss lasts an eternity, or what feels like one, even to Castiel, and then he's slowly stirring in his bed. He refuses to open his eyes for at least ten minutes, but he can't seem to drift off again.

[venatical]

The thing that gets him the most is how right it feels, how good, and then there's the way everything seems to slide into place the longer he and Cas linger in this. He wouldn't have thought it would feel this way still; the first time, he could blame it on the incubus thing, and maybe still he can blame it on the dream, but he doesn't think so. He thinks they click this way because they click in so many others, even when they're fighting or on opposite sides.

He doesn't want the kiss to end, even if it's not real, even if it's a dream, but then it does end, and Dean's more aware of laying in his bed than he is of Cas and the light dancing in the water around them. He tries to fight consciousness off, tries to get back to sleep, but it doesn't work, no matter how long he lays there.