Supernatural: leapfrogging

Castiel

I don't usually take much pleasure out of killing, but wearing Dean's skin, it almost seemed natural. I could feel his own pleasure seeping through, tainting my own thoughts as he watched my every action from his vantage point. On my side I have all his skills and knowledge at my disposal, coupled with his strength and fitness, I almost had to take a step back to remind myself that this  bred killer was the good man I knew, and that the werewolf pack he had just helped us slaughter were murdering innocent families for sport.

"I never took the time to appreciate how good you two are at your job." I say, as I begin to make every effort to regain a normal heart rate.

"It's in our blood, for better or for worse..." Replied Sam, standing to one side, equally engaged. "And hey, you weren't to bad out there yourself!"

"I think I have Dean to thank for that." I say, patting his stomach with a careful affection. "Like I say, I never appreciate the skill and the knowledge tha both of you have. You don't get the sense, Until you're right in the thick of it."

"That's called learning on the job, Cas!" He said, flashing me a genuine smile.

Later on, in the car, Sam turns to me with a far more serious look in his eyes from the driver's seat. I am in the passenger seat, unfortunately Sam felt he couldn't trust me driving baby, although he also couldn't bear to see his brother riding in the backseat without any good reason. "A there any way at all that I could talk with you privately, without Dean knowing?" He asked.

I smile at him as I let Dean's inner voice fill my ears. "Of course, Dean might have his objections to that, but yes, I could make it happen." So then I reached forward into Dean's mind and carefully pulled the plug on the little TV screen through which he was seeing the world. I couldn't help but laugh a little as his mental representation of himself attempted to chase me off with a few choice words, and even a knife. "I'm sure he just wants to discuss his feelings with me, and you don't want to hear about that, do you?" I assured him as I left, closing the door behind me for a moment, although I could still hear him curse me through its thin wood.

As my thoughts return to the world around me, I look at Sam. The quiet voice in my mind can't help but wonder what he could possibly have to say to me that he wouldn't want his own brother hearing. "Is there something troubling you, Sam?"

He looks at me with a bright, laughing smile, the likes of which I do not see very often, but that light up his face wonderfully. "Oh, no..." He says, "Quite the opposite...I just never thought I was hoping to get an opportunity to ask you this properly with Dean fully out of earshot, it seems that now would be as good a time as any. How exactly would you describe your relationship with Dean? "

"I told you when we met that Dean and I share a profound bond, for me that seems the highest truth. I do feel very strongly connected to Dean, so much so that even my nature cannot seem to override his hold on me. But you have no idea, Dean will never reciprocate, to him I am just another friend, he'll never see that for me it is so much more than that."