Pillow Talk

(A/N)
This story is written for the Suptober 2022 prompt. It's also the first part of the series 'There For You'.
Please enjoy reading! :-)

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Dean had turned on the bedside light and was staring wide-eyed at the wall opposite, trying to get his breathing under control. He was sweating and shivering, but he wasn't cold. He had watched himself try to wake up from this dream. He had managed it then, but he didn't want to turn off the light and he couldn't sleep anymore either.

How he wished that Sam would be in the other bed now, or that Castiel would be sitting at the table by the window. But Castiel had other things to do right now. Dean tried to think of nice moments with Castiel, because it lifted his mood.

He had just calmed down a bit and even managed to close his eyes for a minute or two when he felt an arm wrap around his middle, someone pressing against him and warm lips kissing his still sweaty neck.
"Cas," Dean sighed, his hand reaching for the angel's resting on his chest.
"Sshh," Castiel made, pulling Dean a little closer to him. "It'll be okay, I'm here now."

After a few more minutes, both Dean and Castiel noticed that Dean was relaxing. Castiel leaned on his arm and looked at the now very sleepy Dean.
"Stay, please," Dean murmured.
"Yes, I'll stay. Go to sleep," Castiel said before placing a kiss on Dean's temple and lying back down behind him. He could read 00:54 on the alarm clock the motel had provided.

XxXxXxXxX

When Dean next woke up, the bed light was still on and it was still night. He had rolled over and was now lying so that he could look at Castiel. The angel was asleep. Something Dean had seen many times before. Although angels didn't need sleep. Dean looked at Castiel for a long time and then lightly stroked Castiel's cheek.
Castiel, who was a light sleeper, woke up immediately. But instead of being startled, he smiled at Dean.

"Hey," he said softly.
"Hey," Dean whispered.
"Are you feeling better?" asked Castiel.
"Yeah," Dean said, and this time he smiled.
"What time is it?" asked Castiel. Dean, who now had his back to the alarm clock, withdrew his hand and turned to his side.
" 03:24," Dean replied.

"Come here," Castiel said, reaching for Dean's arm. Dean turned back and crawled up to Castiel. He snuggled up, his head resting under Castiel's chin, and Castiel had both arms wrapped around him. He stroked Dean's back with one hand.
"Do you want to tell what the dream was about? I felt a wave of high stress coming from you, but it wasn't until I got closer that I could understand it was a nightmare." He stroked Dean's hair out of his forehead with his other hand.

Dean made a sound that was very much like a cat purring. Then he closed his eyes and began to tell the story.
He had been swimming in a lake and everything had been fine until it had gotten dark and he had stopped swimming straight and started swimming into the depths.
While he was talking, Castiel stroked him over the back every now and then and let Dean know with soft 'mmh' and 'okay' that he was still listening to him.

He didn't interrupt him and when Dean was done telling him, he pulled him up to him and kissed him. It was a light, loving kiss. It wasn't meant to kindle anything, but to soothe. Dean returned it and for a while they kissed. Then they disengaged from each other and Dean turned lying on his right side and pulled Castiel close to him so that the lay snuggled against him from behind.
For the second time that night they fell asleep again in this position and at least that night there would be no more nightmares.

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(A/N)
The dream scene may seem a bit short now, but it will be told in more detail in the third part of this series.