Angelic Big Bang, SPN, "Taking Ten Steps Home" Part 6/10

Jan 07, 2012 22:04


Title: Taking Ten Steps Home
Fandom: SPN
Genre: Romance/Angst/Character-centric
Characters/Pairings: Castiel, Dean Winchester, Sam Winchester, Crowley, Bobby Singer, Leviathans; Dean/Castiel
Word Count: 10,279
Rating: R for frottage in the back of the Impala
Spoilers: 7x01, 7x02
Notes: Breaks from canon after the first few minutes of 7x02.
Beta: skylar_matthews
Summary: Castiel swore he'd find a way to redeem himself to Dean. This is how the story goes.

Six:

It is several hours until Sam and Bobby kick them out of the Impala, a few miles away from the next town on the long and winding road, citing the fact that this particular mountainous field and forest are as good as any, and far enough away from the last motel that the Leviathans are not an immediate threat to them.

Dean pulls several different firearms out of the trunk of the Impala, each of a different size, and the assorted ammunitions, before shutting the trunk and waving Sam and Bobby off.

As the engine growls and the car pulls away, Dean turns to Castiel and hands him a pistol.  It’s much more modern than the Colt ever was, of course, and Castiel tests its weight in his palm - it’s of a substantial but not obstructive weight.

“First thing,” Dean says.  “Check if it’s loaded.”

Dean gently pulls the gun from Castiel’s hand and shows him how.  He has Castiel repeat the action several times until he can do it fairly quickly.

“Good.”  Dean pulls out his own pistol, checks it, and turns toward a tree tens of yards off.  “Now, I’m gonna hit that tree.  Watch how I’m standing, and how I’m holding the gun, all right?”

He hits the very center of the trunk, of course.

“You get it?”

“I believe so,” Castiel murmurs.  He steps aside so that Dean is no longer in the way of his shot, raises the gun, and attempts to mimic Dean’s position as he saw it.  He doesn’t hit the tree at all, and the recoil of the weapon surprises him.

Dean shakes his head gently.  “You’re not aiming right, first of all.”

Castiel sighs, but watches as Dean shows him how to aim.  It is deceptively simple - Dean’s arm is held much more firmly than it had looked to be, for one - but Dean makes the act graceful, even.

It is not so simple when Castiel tries again.  This time, though, the bullet glances off the side of the tree, if much higher than Castiel intends.  This is closer than before, but still not nearly close enough.  He feels himself tensing with frustration, particularly in the hand holding the gun.

“Hey,” Dean says, seeming almost soothing.  “You’re not gonna get it the first time.  Took me a couple of times to get it right, back when Dad showed me how.”

“You were in the third grade, Dean.”

“You know that?”  Dean had stopped dead, and was looking at Castiel with confused but unguarded interest.  “You never told me you knew stuff like that.”

“I cobbled your body back together after dragging you out of Hell, Dean, and that included every synapse of your brain,” Castiel explains, feeling the beginning of a smile pulling at his face.  “I know things about you that you’ve never told Sam, or anyone else for that matter.”

Dean raises an eyebrow.  “That’d be creepy, but hey, angel.”

This gentle, offhand ribbing is what Castiel remembers of the days before the Apocalypse, and it makes him smile - this is so much more like the Dean he knows.

The Dean he loves.

He feels a wash of comfort from that.  If Dean is well and truly acting this way towards him, well, it’s getting better.  That’s more than Castiel could have ever hoped for.  His smile widens.  “Indeed, angel.”

Next, after they decide that the pistol is a lost cause for now, they move on to the sawed-off shotgun.  It is marginally easier - the weight of the weapon prevents some of the recoil that had been much of Castiel’s problem with the pistol.  But he only manages to graze the tree, despite his shots being much more consistent.

“You might be meant for a rifle,” Dean muses, taking the shotgun from Castiel and storing it.  “Though the shotgun oughtta be alright for now - when do you think you’ll get your mojo back?”

Castiel is not sure.  He is healing, and quickly, but he doesn’t know how long it will be before he can be more than the emergency angel-taxi.  He says as much to Dean: “I don’t know.  My Grace is still recovering from what the Leviathans did to subdue me.”

Dean tenses, just a little bit.  “What did they…?”

“I…it’s difficult to explain.  They…” he shudders as he allows himself to remember them tearing holes in his Grace, ripping him to pieces at his very core.  “They carved my Grace like a turkey, I suppose.”

Dean swallows.  “Dude, you are shit with metaphors.”

“I believe that was a simile,” Castiel says, attempting to lighten the mood.

“You’re hanging out with Sam too much,” Dean replies, but there’s something appreciative in his eyes - glad to have the distraction - that warms Castiel.

“Do you think Bobby and Sam have picked a motel yet?” he asks.  “We’ve been driving for a very long time.”  Not that he minds - patience is a virtue that he knows all too well when it comes to Winchesters.  They wait for their moment, and even longer sometimes, as though it’s the easiest thing in the world.

“Nah, they’re probably bitching over room sizes and shit.”  Dean shakes his head and laughs.  “If we didn’t have four people, we’d probably just be sleeping in my baby.”

Castiel feels the laugh deep in his vessel’s bones - a curiously human thing, like the way his heart is thumping at the sound - and can’t help but smile.  He’s not sure what to say next, because hearing Dean laugh always does that to him - and this is the second time he’s heard it over the course of only a day.

Dean doesn’t seem to mind that they’ve run out of things to talk about, because he’s still smiling a lopsided little smile.

They might just be all right, Castiel thinks as Dean waves him over and they start walking down the road toward town, his eyes brighter green than they’ve been in a while.

And if they aren’t, they will be.

character: leviathans, type: slash, title: taking ten steps home, bang: angelic, rating: r, character: sam winchester, genre: character-centric, fandom: supernatural, character: castiel, character: dean winchester, pairing: dean/castiel, length: 10k, character: bobby singer, genre: romance, character: crowley, genre: angst

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