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It was a pretty slow day for the trio and they were taking advantage of it. Sam had gone out to get some burgers for lunch, leaving Dean and Castiel in the motel room alone. He made some joke Cas didn't understand that had caused Dean to throw a pillow at his brother when he left the room. Cas sat on Dean's bed while Dean sat at the table, looking through the local paper for a case of some sort. Dean would sigh - more like growl - in disappointment when he turned each page.
Dean didn't know it, but these were some of Castiel's favorite times. When it was just him and Dean together, mostly calm. Dean was getting restless without a case to work on. The elder Winchester always needed to be working on something or protecting someone. There were so many times that Cas just wanted to wrap Dean in his arms and tell him that it was okay and that he could calm down now. He had already done so much. He knew Dean just wanted a case to distract him from all the demands being made on him and Sam. It was unfair. Dean had clearly already put so much into this world, of course he didn't want to see it end, especially if it meant letting Sam go with it.
The way Dean had to take care of everything and everyone was part of the reason he couldn't resist the pull he felt toward Dean. He got up to go see if he could help him at all with finding what he was looking for, but as he went to walk over to the other man he felt his foot trapped and started to fall forward.
"Woah. Woah. Careful there, Cas," Dean said, steading Cas and sitting him back down. Their faces were extremely close and he could feel a strange tension before he sat down. Dean remained standing in front of him for a second then looked down and smiled. Dean knelt down in front of him on only one knee. Cas was confused and pleased at the gesture. He had seen it a few times before on the television shows. A man would make this gesture toward the person he loved to ask for the other's hand in marriage.
Cas tilted his head to one side and bore an expression of utter cluelessness. Why would Dean be making this gesture toward him? "Dean... What are you doing?" He asked calmly. Inside he felt a tightness in his chest and a strange tingling in his stomach, that he still found strange and that he only got when he was around Dean or thinking about him. Could this gesture mean that Dean had these feelings toward him as well? He remained calm, but his heart was pounding and he felt his temperature rise.
"I still can't believe you don't know how to tie your own freaking shoes," Dean replied after a moment that lasted a lot longer than that for the both of them. Dean tied the other man's shoes and laughed a little unaware of the effect the sound had on Cas. Dean got up, patted Cas on the shoulder went over to the cooler to get a beer.
Cas felt a huge since of lost as Dean walked to the other side of the room. "Sorry, Dean, I guess I should know better by now."
"It's alright, man," Dean laughed, giving Cas that strange feeling again and unaware that his friend wasn't talking about the shoes. He was speaking of knowing by know that Dean wouldn't return his affections no matter how many times it seemed like he would. What Cas didn't know was how badly Dean wanted to show affections of his own.