[destiel cuddles in the impala requested by cascrashedthetardis. Hope you like it! On a related note, I think you'll enjoy knowing that I actually acted out a couple positions on my couch trying to figure out how to get two grown men to cuddle comfortably in the back seat of a car :-p The things I do for my art...]
"What? Shut up, Cas. I'm fine." They'd been driving for hours, and they definitely wouldn't be in Lebanon before the sun came up, but they were in was the middle of nowhere. No point in stopping now. He turned up the radio and tried to ignore the way Cas was frowning at him.
"Yes, you look fine. You don't look at all like you just got your ass handed to you by a teenage vampire."
"You know damn well that was no teenager. And I did not 'get my ass handed to me'. And where did you even learn to talk like that? You've been spending way to much time with Sam."
"And you're deflecting. If you're too stubborn to pull over for your own sake, then I would like to request that we stop for a few hours. I would like to try to sleep without the image of you dozing off and driving into oncoming traffic keeping me awake."
"Not better, Cas." But goddammit, the angel (or former angel, or whatever he was since his borrowed grace had started fading) had a point. Dean was tired, and not just from the vampires and the driving. It was the fighting with Sam, and the worrying about Cas, and the uneasy alliance with Crowley, and all of it, really. It all just sat in his head, poking at him, keeping him on edge even when there was nothing he could do about it. He needed rest, and maybe this wasn't the worst place for it--empty road, no towns for miles, just him, and the car, and Cas. And the Cas part of the equation...well, it didn't sound too bad, really. If he let himself think about it, it was nice having him around when they weren't fighting, or planning, or planning to fight. Not that they did much else, but...it was nice.
"Fine, but we've got one blanket, and I swear if you steal it, I will leave your ass on the side of this road."
"I wouldn't dream of stealing your blanket, Dean," Cas answered sincerely, and Dean had to smile at that.
As soon as he pulled over and turned off the car, he realized what a good decision it had been. His eyes, no longer particularly necessary, began to close of their own accord, and he had to shake himself awake to get out of the car. The air was cool, and it took the edge off the sleepiness while he rooted around in the trunk for the blanket (plaid, of course), but when he climbed into the back seat, the warm air inside had him half asleep again before he had the door shut.
"Cas, what're you doing, man? Get back here." Cas turned around, looking confused.
"I...assumed we were going to sleep in the front."
"Nah, there's more room back here. Come on, or you're not getting any blanket. I'll keep it all to myself," Dean mumbled, eyes already closing. He was mostly sitting in the seat, blanket draped over himself and legs stretch out as far as they'd go, and Cas regarded him carefully for a moment when he opened the back door.
"C'mon, Cas, you're letting the warm out," Dean complained. A second later, he was opening his eyes again, startled as Cas snatched the blanket away. "Hey, what'd I say about blanket stealing?"
"I can hardly get under it with you sitting like that. Lie down."
Cas huffed at him, and his face was very close to Dean's, and Dean was suddenly very aware of how much space two grown men take up in the backseat of a car.
"You need to lie down, so I can lie on top of you and put the blanket over both of us."
And whoa, was that ever not the plan. Dean had been imagining sitting next to the guy, sure, but not so much on top of each other. On top of each other sounded...well, cozy, for one thing. And warm. And weird, yeah, that was the word he was going for. But somehow, "warm" seemed more important at the moment. And "cozy" actually sounded really, really nice, and he could feel the heat radiating off of Cas, and it was... It was nice. Dean was sleepy, and everything was nice.
"Okay, but once I'm down, I ain't getting up, so you'll have to make do," Dean grumbled, laying on his back with his jacket for a pillow and stretching diagonally across the back of the car, feet on the floor. Not the comfiest position, but yeah, much better than sitting up. He closed his eyes again. Cas didn't move for a minute, then Dean felt him climb over his knees to lay with his own legs on the other seat, and then there was an elbow in his ribs.
"Sorry, just let me..." He readjusted himself, twisting so he could put his own chest against Dean's, and...
Whoa. Whoa again, Dean thought, as Cas burrowed into him, tucking his head under Dean's chin and letting his arm curl in a loose embrace around Dean's waist. He was suddenly very aware of his heartbeat. And it was suddenly much quicker than it should be for a guy trying to fall asleep, and there was no way Cas couldn't hear it, with his ear pressed close to Dean's chest. Dean stared up at the roof of the car for a moment, willing his body to calm down.
"Dean, put your arms around me."
"Your arms. You don't seem to know what to do with them. I was suggesting that you could put them around me. Also the blanket. It's on the floor, and I don't want to move."
Dean snorted affectionately, which was apparently a thing he could do. Who knew? He pulled the blanket over them both, then let his arms come up to wrap around Cas. This...this was better. Cas was like a warm anchor, a warm, muscly, anchor that smelled like coffee and fabric softener. Dean felt the sleepiness return to his eyes and his muscles, and then his whole body was relaxing. His arms, which he'd been holding a little stiffly, it turned out, fell more snugly over Cas's back, and he couldn't resist pulling him a little closer.
The angel sighed against Dean's neck and seemed to melt even deeper into him, and the last thought Dean had before he fell asleep was that the middle of nowhere wasn't actually all that bad a place to be. With the right company, it could actually be...kinda nice.
