Chapter Text
There were few things in life that Dean Winchester was afraid of, but that knowing smirk on his little brother's face was one of them. Sammy clearly knew something that he either found highly amusing, and/or something that his elder brother Would Not Like. At the head of the table Cas looked quizzically at them both and, as ever, tilted his head in apparent incomprehension. Something Dean most definitely did not find cute, in any way, shape or form.
Big river in Egypt, his conscience sniggered. He ignored it.
“Spit it out, sasquatch!” he snapped. “There's burgers to be makin'!”
Sam closed the book he was reading and gestured to the item in the middle of the table between the three of them. It was a large and frankly ugly ring, silver with a rectangular block of about fifty tiny stones, all different colors. Or possibly not; the ring was filthy, and needed a damn good clean. The younger Winchester leaned forward.
“How exactly did you two find this?” he asked.
Dean frowned.
“Just in a box of odds and ends, on the top shelf”, he said. “Why?”
“What were you doing immediately before?” Sam asked.
“Just poking around. Our resident angel had turned up for one of his showers, and you know what that's like!”
“The gymnasium shower has exceptional pressure”, Cas said defensively.
“Still doesn't give you the right to poof in and be naked in less than half a second!” Dean grumbled. Seeing what he couldn't have (in the biblical sense) around the bunker was bad enough, but a naked Cas was.... well, that was just rubbing it in.
Cas and rubbing. Not good thoughts to have near a mind-reading angel. Dean shifted uncomfortably in his seat.
“Ah”, Sam said.
“What?” Dean snapped, almost grateful for the distraction.
“You know how the Men of Letters were all but wiped out by Abaddon in the fifties”, Sam began.
The other two nodded.
“Well”, Sam said, “it seems they planned for just such an eventuality. Abaddon may even have been after this when she destroyed them. Fortunately the way they created it kept it hidden, until you two came along.”
Dean looked at his brother warily.
“You mean Cas and I were destined to find it?” he asked.
Sam blushed.
“Properly charged, the ring closes the Gates of Heaven and Hell to all current incumbents”, he explained. “Humans can still get in, but angels and demons can't get out.”
“No wonder the Queen of Sheba wanted it!” Dean chuckled. “Too bad she's been iced now.”
“The ring could still work, Dean”, Sam said patiently. “If you can get it fully charged, we could give up hunting for good. No more supernatural beasties roaming around, just the two of us living normal lives.”
“Three of us, bitch”, Dean snapped. “Cas isn't welcome in Heaven remember?”
The angel smiled warmly at him, and Dean tried not to think how good that felt. Sam coughed pointedly.
“Uh...” he said again.
Dean was on his guard at once.
“What is it with all the 'ah's and 'uh's?” he demanded.
Sam took a deep breath.
“When they created the ring, the Men of Letters used the one power they knew that no demon could ever access”, he said. “The power of love.”
“So?” Dean said.
“The book says that only someone who has found their true love can find it. Or possibly, with their true love standing naked right behind them.”
As he spoke, Sam subtly edged backwards out of kicking range. Dean looked puzzled for the briefest of moments before the penny dropped.
“No freakin' way, Sammy boy!”
“Uh, before you get really angry, there's more.”
“Please go on”, Cas said, far too calmly for Dean's liking. The elder Winchester glared at the Goliath across the table.
“Once the true loves have found the ring, they have to charge it”, he began.
“Sammy!”
“Look, Dean you must have had..... well, thoughts at least. Otherwise you'd never have found it.”
“Thoughts?” Dean snorted “What, you think I want to do the nasty with Cas?”
“You don't have to actually... you know”, and Sam made a complicated hand-gesture that made Dean's stomach turn. “Just sleep in the same bed. When they created the ring, the Men of Letters marked off one town in each state, and.....”
“Sleep together?” Dean was almost shrieking now. Of course he'd had fantasies about him and Cas in the same bed. They'd involved many things, quite a few of which stretched the laws of physics. Sleeping hadn't made the list.
“Calm down, Dean”, Cas said, reaching across to pat his arm. Dean didn't know whether to laugh, cry or scream, so he just put his head in his hands. Seriously, this was his life?
“I am not sleeping with an angel!” he stated flatly.
“Anna”, muttered the bastard feather-ass across the table.
“Dean, you've killed countless nasties in your time”, Sam said bluntly. “And if this works, you'll save the world from the likes of Crowley, Lucifer and Metatron forever. Isn't it worth a little sacrifice?”
“You're not being asked to sleep with Trench-coat over there!” Dean snapped.
He regretted the words the minute they were out. Cas looked as if he'd been struck, and vanished. Dean groaned.
“All right, that was low”, he admitted. “Sorry, Cas.”
The chair at the end of the table remained stubbornly empty.
“Pretty please?” Dean ventured.
“You are not the only one making sacrifices, Dean Winchester!”
The angel was standing right behind him. Dean almost fell off his chair, and once he had recovered his wits, gave his laughing brother the finger.
“Look”, Sam said, “just spend a night together in each of the towns marked on the map, one in each state. It's easy.”
Dean went pale.
“Does that mean I have to fly to Alaska? Or freakin' Hawaii?”
“Obviously not”, Cas said. Dean turned to him.
“Why not?” he demanded.
The angel looked at the ring.
There are only forty-eight stones, Dean”, he said patiently. “Abaddon's attack came in 1958, which was the year before Alaska and Hawaii became states.”
At least that was a relief, Dean thought. About the only one, though.
“Provided you're in the right town, the spell should charge”, Sam said. “Each spell is programmed to remain inactive until the True Loves – don't look at me like that, Dean – are inside the city limits. I'll go draw you up a road trip map, and you can shoot off into the sunset together.”
Dean looked around for something to throw at him.
“Where do we go first, Sam?” Cas asked.
“The Kansas marker is in Junction City”, Sam said. “If it works, you should wake up the following morning to find one of the forty-eight stones brighter. If not, of course, you can come back here after your night of passion.”
He was out of the door before his brother could run over and commit justifiable fratricide.
+~+~+
It wasn't that Dean was unhappy about spending forty-eight nights in the same bed as an angel – heck, he should have been ecstatic. But how in blazes was he to keep it under control when faced with being right next to the man of his (usually X-rated) dreams? Thank whoever was up there now that Cas had promised not to read his mind, otherwise the angel would know all those lustful thoughts Dean kept having every night. And every morning. And in the shower. And when Cas was sat in the back of the Impala. Well, at least he was safe from that danger.
(It might be pointed out at this point that Cas had told Dean that, due to their profound bond, he could sense the hunter's thoughts provided they were close enough even without reading his mind. But considering Dean's current emotional state, that could only have been pointed out from a safe distance. By someone in a car with the engine running. And with good life insurance.)