Tell me where we go from here 5/?
Chapter 5
Dean was surprised by the casualty with which Sam got them a double room but on the other hand he wasn't really that surprised. Sam had been very supportive since he officially knew about Dean's relationship with Cas. Not that he'd expected his brother to become all hateful or something like that, that just wasn't Sam, but it was kinda baffling how easily Sam adapted to the new dynamics. Way better than Dean himself if he was honest.
When they came back from the diner in the evening Cas was still a bit quiet. He had looked at the stars earlier and the way he'd become sad and silent over that, Dean wondered if he missed heaven. Stupid question, it was his home, of course he missed it.
"Wanna watch some TV?" Dean asked a little too enthusiastically. It was too early to turn in but Dean wasn't sure how to get Cas out of that funk.
"Sounds good." Cas agreed and minutes later they lay stretched out on the bed, back propped up against the headboard, watching TV. At first they just lay there with a little space between them but without Dean noticing Cas had inched closer and sat now flushed against Dean's side with his hand on Dean's thigh.
Cas didn't do anything else, except for resting his head on Dean's shoulder, but Dean couldn't focus on the TV anymore. He felt Cas' warm body pressed against his, the weight of his head on his shoulder and most of all the hand on his thigh. It lay in the middle, maybe even a little bit closer to the knee than the other way, and it just lay there. Nothing indicated that Cas had more in mind but Dean had to shift nevertheless to adjust himself in his suddenly tight jeans. If Cas notice he didn't show, fully engrossed in what was happening on the screen.
They would sleep together in one bed for the first time, Dean realized and he wasn't sure if he wanted their first real time, one quick handjob didn't really count, in a buffalo themed motel with a dead animal watching them from the other wall.
When it was time to go to sleep they took turns in the bathroom and Dean spent long minutes on the question what to wear for the night. In the end he settled for a t-shirt and his underwear. He didn't want to scare Cas away but he didn't want to come across as prude either. Cas followed his example, probably even more unsure about this than Dean, and then they slipped under the covers.
"Do you really need to sleep now?" Dean asked just to say something and to not think about Cas almost naked just inches away.
"Sometimes." Cas answered. They lay on their sides, facing each other and Dean just wanted to kiss him. So he did. Cupping Cas' head with one hand, he kissed him deep and sensual.
"Do you want to have sex?" Cas asked bluntly when they parted.
"Way to kill the mood, dude." Dean muttered with a grin. "Do you?" He asked back because that was the important question here.
Cas had very little experience and Dean didn't want to push him. He was just fine with staying like this. A kiss and a touch, whatever Cas felt comfortable with.
"I don't know." Cas admitted after he'd thought about the question for a moment.
"Turn around." Dean said, knowing that tonight wasn't the night to do this. Whatever this would turn out to be. Without a question Cas turned around and Dean snuggled closer until they were spooning. He threw an arm over Cas, placing his hand over his heart.
"How about this?" He asked, nose buried in the nape of Cas' neck.
"This is nice." Cas admitted and moved a little until he was comfy. His butt brushed against Dean's front which didn't help him out with his half-hard cock but for now he was content with having Cas this close.
"I swear." Dean felt the need to say. "One word about this to Sam and I will end you."
Cas placed his own hand over Dean's still on his chest. "Of course not." He promised and like that they went to sleep.
In the morning they were facing opposite ways with only their butts touching but waking up like this was nice, too. And it had the advantage that Dean wasn't pressing his morning wood against Cas. He didn't want the other man to get the idea that he had to do something about it.
Dean used his turn in the shower to take care of it and that was the only reason he didn't pop one the second he came out of the bathroom. Cas didn't have his jacket on and finally showed some of his body. He was stretching over the table, reaching for something, which gave Dean a really nice view on his butt in his dress pants. Dean totally had a thing for firm butts in dress pants.
He would have liked to put a hand on it but Sam was in the room so he restrained himself and hurried to put his shirt on.
Of course that little bastard had to ask the most intimate questions but Cas managed to shut him up quite gloriously. Served him right.
They dropped Sam off in town and then went to have a look at the bodies and a little chat with the coroner. It felt good to be working again and Dean wouldn't mind shooting something. He had no idea what they were hunting but something that chew somebody's face off sounded like something he wanted to shoot.
They had agreed to Animal Control as a cover and that was how Dean introduced them. At least Cas managed to hold his ID up the right way this time.
Okay, that was unfair, Cas had gotten the hang of this since then and as long as Dean didn't let him chose their aliases everything should work out just fine. And who knew, maybe Cas noticed something on the bodies a human eye would miss.
The coroner was a woman in her fifties who had seen her fair share of gruesome but she was at a loss with this one.
"Not a local animal." She said and opened the steel door to show them the latest victim. "That's for sure. But people keep all kinds of exotic animals as pets these days." She shrugged and stepped back to let Dean and Cas have a look.
"Sometimes it escapes or it gets too big and people just dump it somewhere."
Dean had a look at the body in front of him. Where the face was supposed to be there was only a bloody mess left. As far as he could tell even the bones were crushed beyond recognition.
"A guess what kind of animal we're looking for?" Dean asked the coroner but had an eye on Cas as well. Both shook their heads.
"I'm not even sure if I'm looking at claw or teeth marks here." She admitted. "I didn't find hair or anything else with DNA on it. Just nothing."
"That's unusual." Dean had to admit. "An animal would leave something behind, right? Hair or saliva?"
She nodded to that, clearly not liking where this was heading. "If it's too small or just not enough I might have missed it, this is not CSI, you know, but I can tell you, I looked. I've never seen anything like this and I want to solve this puzzle."
"I'm not saying you missed something." Dean hurried to say. "Maybe there is nothing it find."
They had a look at the other body that was still here, the other two had been released by now. The coroner gave them the reports. It was the same with all of them. No clear bite or claw marks, just the complete front of the head missing, and no DNA or anything that would help to narrow it down. Officially this was handled as an animal attack but only because they couldn't think of a way a human could have done something like this. The victims weren't beaten or stabbed or in any other way injured that would let them think of a human attacker.
When they left the building they could rule out a lot of things but weren't one step closer to figuring this out.
"Do you have any idea?" Dean asked because he was drawing a blank.
"I'm sorry." Cas admitted. "I've never seen something like this before."
"Maybe Sam had more luck on his end." Dean said and got his phone out. Sam was on his way to interview the witness but his visit at the police station had brought him just as much information as Dean and Cas had gathered.
"Let's have a look at where Nancy has been found." Dean suggested. "And then we see what the families have to tell."
There was still yellow police tape marking the place but that was all there was to see.
"Nancy got dragged here." Dean turned around to get a better feeling for his surroundings. "The bushes block the view to the path, the husband must have lost eye contact with her at least for a moment."
"And that moment has been enough of to murder her." Cas finished the sentence for him. "However, I don't see anything around here. There's not even that much blood."
Cas had a point there. Head wounds usually bled like a bitch but except for a few drops in the grass there was nothing there.
"It hasn't been raining since then, has it?" Dean asked because the rain could have washed most of the blood way. But the grass looked dry and when he dug his knife in the ground the soil beneath the grass was dry as well. It hadn't rained for a while around here.
"Okay, let's talk to some people." Dean stood up and cleaned his knife at his pants before he put it away.
The families were nice and glad that somebody was still investigating but in the end they couldn't provide any helpful information. One victim had been attacked on his way home from work, the other one came from the fitness center. As far as the families could tell they had never met.
"Thank you for your time." Dean closed his notepad with next to no notes in it and with Cas on his heels he left. They picked up Sam in town and then went back to the motel to exchange notes.
"Okay." Sam sat down and took out his notes. "Andrew saw something."
"Something something?" Dean asked and got three bottles of beer out of the fridge. Sam took it with barely a glance but Cas accepted it as if this was something special. They really should go out more often.
"At first he went with the animal he hadn't really seen but when I dug a little deeper he admitted that he saw it." Sam made a dramatic pause and Dean just wanted to smack him over the head. "He said it wasn't an animal, it was more like a cloud or something."
"A demon?" Cas asked what was on Dean's mind.
"He described it more like fog, white and gray, not black." Sam dismissed the idea. "Would be pretty strange behavior for a demon anyway."
"You never know with those suckers." Dean pointed with his bottle at Sam. "If they can screw with people demons can come up with some pretty sick stuff."
"If you say so." Sam said and Dean knew he didn't mean it that way but those careless words still cut deep.
"Sorry, I didn't mean ..." Sam realized his mistake but it was too late, the damage was done. Not that Dean let him on about that.
"Yeah, I know." Smiling like he didn't care Dean took a swig from his bottle. Under the table Cas' hand found its way to his knee. Dean didn't look at him but now his smile felt less forced.
Chapter 6
Masterpost