“Am I your Delilah?”
Castiel felt the words as they were whispered into the back of his neck, pulling him from the pleasant daze of being half-asleep.
He shifted, craning his neck to try and see Dean as he curled around Castiel from behind.
“Oh,” Dean breathed, his voice hitching, “M’sorry. Thought you were asleep.”
“Delilah?” Castiel questioned, his brain still sleep-addled, so he wasn’t sure he’d heard him correctly. “Who’s Delilah?”
“Nothin’.” Dean’s forehead pressed against the base of Castiel’s neck and his arms wrapped tighter around Castiel’s stomach. “Sorry - it was just - dumb.”
Castiel frowned and turned over in their bed, ignoring Dean’s small protests as he moved to face him, trying to catch a glimpse of his expression in the dark to get some sort of indication of his mood.
Dean ducked his head.
“Dean, what’s wrong?” Castiel reached out and gently reached for Dean’s hand, squeezing it once.
“It’s not - it’s stupid. You should be sleeping and -”
“Dean.” Castiel said softly, but firmly. “Whatever this is, it’s clearly bothering you, so it’s not stupid. What’s on your mind?”
Castiel waited, counting Dean’s breaths.
“So… you know the bible?”
“I’m vaguely familiar, yes.”
“Right. Duh. Yeah. So, I was reading it, right? For research. And there’s this story of a guy named Samson. He’s super strong and super powerful, but if he wants to stay that way, he can never cut his hair.”
Castiel knows every biblical story backwards and forwards, and he’d even been involved in a few of them as they unfolded, but he didn’t interrupt, just hummed to show he understood.
“Then one day, Samson meets a woman named Delilah, and he… falls in love with her. He falls for her so hard that he can’t see she’s going to be his downfall.”
Dean’s voice gets even quieter.
“And Delilah tricks him, and cuts his hair while he’s asleep. Samson loses all of his power, and gets captured. Because of her, he’s no longer this powerful guy. He would have been better off if he’d never even met her, you know? He would have stayed super strong, and feared and -”
“- and you think that you’re the Delilah to my Samson.” Castiel finished, propping himself up on an elbow.
Dean said nothing - and spoke volumes.
“Dean, I may not be an angel anymore,” Castiel murmured, rubbing a thumb along the palm of Dean’s hand, “but that’s not your fault.”
“Feels like it.”
“Delilah was bribed by the Philistines to find out the secret to Samson’s strength so that they could capture him. No offense to Samson, but he lied to her several times only to find out that she had tried those techniques during the night, and still decided to tell her the truth. I never met him, but given those facts, I don’t think Samson was the brightest candle under the bushel.”
Dean huffed out a laugh and looked up at Castiel for the first time since they’d started speaking.
“I understand where you’re seeing the parallels, Dean, but there’s one big difference.”
“What’s that?”
Castiel leaned in a pressed a soft kiss against Dean’s forehead.
“I cut my own hair. I clipped my own wings. And I’d do it again -”
A kiss on his cheek.
“- and again -”
A kiss on his lips.
“- and again -”
Dean let out a soft sigh as he melted against the kiss, and pulled away, looking a little less weighed down than before.
“Okay.”
“Okay?”
“Yeah.”
Castiel let his head fall back down onto the pillow and let out a long breath as Dean tucked himself closer.
“So, do you think Sam would lose all of his power if we cut his hair while he slept?” Dean asked.
Castiel quirked a smile.
“Dean, I love you with my whole heart…. but please don’t involve me in this.”
