Get It Started

Two Positives Make A Negative

A few days passed, and it was becoming all too clear... all too quick... that this was not going to be an easy job for Des.

Not that it was impossible, since it was already obvious that Dean and Castiel had something going on between them... whether or not one or both of them was actually aware of it was another story. It was possible - the task Des had- completely possible, it was just a matter of knowing what dominoes to knock over, which was the difficult part. Would being confronted freak Dean out enough to scare him away from the situation entirely? Probably. If Sam's prodding and joking about 'Shouldn't it be Deastiel?' hadn't already shown that making fun of Dean's crush was something that made him immediately put up a defense 'You're gonna do that thing where you just shut the hell up. Forever.'

'Casdean?'

'Shut your face. Get in the car.'

Well, Des would've done something drastic from the start, would've made Cas "accidentally" trip. Trip right into Dean. Would've done something so stupidly cliche that it practically brought their faces together while shouting "Just kiss already, you morons!"

But that most certainly wouldn't ever work. If Des outright called Dean out on his obvious thoughts, if he told them he himself was an angel and he had every outlook on the situation: that there was nothing Dean could hide and that he should just kiss Cas already since he thinks about it so goddamn much... God probably wouldn't be happy about it.

Besides, Chuck had already told him that if he didn't do this with some sort of finesse He'd... well... there were some not-very-nice words in there when Chuck caught him toying with the idea in his mind. "This story is perfect and beautiful and heartbreaking so far and you will not just go and recklessly fuck it up now." was somewhere in there.

Even if Des did approach it that way Dean would most likely retreat somewhere and never come back because he's a dick about emotions and feelings. OoOoh so scary... No, this had to be the perfect balance, the perfect pacing of everything Des did if it was gonna work. And if he was ever gonna get to chew Chuck out for putting him on this godforsaken mission in the first place. Which was his real goal here.

The only thing that made it seem like there had to be some way to make this work was that Dean had never denied any of the situations where their relationship was brought up, even if in a joking way, he's never said "We aren't blah blah blah", he's only ever made a face or told Sam to shut his trap, but never outright said "It's not like that", and that gave Des some hope that there had to be a gentle approach that would work.

Cas... Well Des already knows about Cas, the perks of angel mind reading apparently. Cas, who would be all for whatever Dean would give him. Convinces himself he's content with what Dean isn'tgiving him, and that knowing something is there is enough. But Des knows it's not, not really. It hurts. And for being an angel, it shouldn't hurt. Cas shouldn't like a human in the first place, should never have had feelings.

"He has this one weakness, he likes you." Uriel had said. But Castiel should not have. Never should he have been able to " like Dean" in the first place, and that's the point. Guess there's just something about Dean huh?

Speaking of angel mind reading crap, Des had confronted Chuck on how Cas wouldn't figure out what Des was here for by seeing his thoughts. How did he not know Des was an angel? Simple, God can do anything He wants, and He keeps those things hidden from Castiel.

Des fit right in with the group. He and Cas would sit for hours on end discussing quantum physics as if it was the most natural icebreaker of all time. At one point Sam had been standing in the doorway of the library while the two did so, listening with a small smile. Happily observing the way they interacted so easily as he wondered if it had to do with the fact that they were both angels, he'd even been wondering if they were good friends at some point in the past and because of Chuck they didn't remember it yet- when Dean walked by, hand in a bag of chips, and stopped to listen for a second too. He'd snorted and muttered "What a little nerd," while standing there.
Sam figured he meant Cas.
Then his brother looked down and noticed Sam's hand was occupied by a half-finished La Croix. He looked up with a small smirk and pulled the hand out of the bag to pat it on the other's shoulder condescendingly as he stated in a patronising tone:
"Wooow," he dragged that word out mockingly, nodding with raised eyebrows as he continued "What a manly drink ya got there Samantha." Then chortled to himself as he continued walking and munching on the little calorie disks. Sam had only rolled his eyes, brushing off the crumbs his idiot for a sibling had left on his shoulder, and walked off in the opposite direction to find the book he'd been reading earlier.

In other news: it was also becoming clear that Dean didn't like Des very much for whatever reason.

It wasn't an outright-and-obvious war between them, and Dean was nice enough to make sure Des was alright after falling in front of the Impala for the first day and a half. Sam also couldn't see any reason for Dean to be so weird about the guy on Des' behalf; it wasn't like Des had done anything in particular to mess with Dean and give him a reason to be so passive aggressive (that Sam had seen, anyway). The only thing the younger Winchester could come up with was that they were... too similar?

Sam would've assumed that would make them best buddies from the get-go, that they'd be laughing at shared crude humour over some beers. But instead, as Des' original demeanour came back to him more and more and continued taking over the way his personality showed, Dean almost seemed... 'threatened' was the best word for it. It was very subtle so far, but definitely there.

"Dude, what is your deal?" Sam had asked once after taking his brother off to the side after a conversation they'd been having with the ginger- asking if he was able to remember anything, with Sam only playing along of course, since Dean and Cas had no idea of Des' roots in heaven. Cas obviously still had an itch that something angelic was up with Des, although he'd started to give up on trying to figure it out, and was the one mainly asking the questions about Des' memory.

"Do you remember anything at all?" Cas asked, and paused for a second while thinking of specific things to ask that might shake a memory loose, "Uh..." then, he placed a hand on Des' shoulder and gestured with his other hand as he listed "A car, or an old friend... even a pet?"

Des looked off, with a face that seemed as if he truly was thinking hard. Sam had noted to himself what a good actor Des would make, and in addition to never fully trust if he was telling the truth because of that. Des gave Sam a quick glance, his face showing humour while stating for itself "I heard that" before tilting his head to look Cas in the eyes as he fell back into what Sam called his "lost puppy persona" and quietly replied,

"I... I don't know. I can't think of anything like that. I'm sorry."

Cas sighed in defeat, shoulders slumping, as he looked to the other two, almost seeming sorrowful that there were still no answers to give. Then he focused on Des again as he nodded shallowly, "Alright," he'd said, removing his hand from Des' shoulder, "I'm sure we'll come up with something. You're bound to have a wife or some sort of family out there."

At that, Dean snorted. He wasn't even looking at the group and instead focusing on flipping a knife between his fingers. All eyes, or more rather, all confused eyes were on him as he muttered in a way that was clear he wasn't trying to be unheard at all "Yeah, as if there's someone out there who'd actually want to marry him."

Sam and Cas shared an equally confused-yet-shocked glance, both with furrowed eyebrows and a face that read "what..?" loud and clear. Des didn't seem particularly upset by the remark though, and instead seemed to be working through some sort of problem in his mind.

Which is what brings us to Dean's response by the time Sam has him pulled off into another room: a shrug.

"Wh-? No. You know what? No, " Sam shook his head, frustrated, "not good enough. Give me a straight answer, Dean. What the hell is your problem with the guy?"

Knife having been put in his pocket while being taken away, Dean threw his hands up in an almost violent "what do you want from me!?" fashion as he snapped out "I don't know, Sam! Dude just rubs me the wrong way for some reason, alright? Don't ask me, because I don't know why." he finished the sentence in such a way that Sam could practically see the period at the end of the sentence, the "discussion is over " evident as Dean pushed past and stalked off to some part of the bunker where a door could be heard slamming shut.

On day five, Des disappeared.