"Dude, my soulmate is an astronaut"

Castiel actually looked a bit pained, this time. He lowered his gaze, looking back at his hands. He tried to look for words, any words, but he was having a hard time expressing his thoughts. "If that's your question, it could not be one of those threads weaved by an angel. It appeared naturally."

Dean blinked, sitting down again. "I didn't know there were different kinds. What is the difference?", he muttered, confused. His eyes were drawn to the thread again. "Was this the reason you came here today?", he asked then, his expression still honestly unreadable. His feeling machine was kind of having problems at the moment.

Castiel swallowed hard. "Cupids can create a thread for those who were not naturally made for anyone else, when they consider that their souls are correctly adjusted together. Others appear naturally." He remained silent for a few more seconds. "I- I came down from Heaven to protect my soulmate."

Dean shook his head, pinching the bridge of his nose. "And instead you end up with me. A friend, a man. I mean, I kinda feel sorry for you, man. I bet you're feeling bummed now. ... then again, I thought my soulmate to be an astronaut for this whole day, so..." He let out a tired tentative of laugh.

"Actually, it made me... happy," Castiel told him, hesitantly. Trying to figure out whether there was hope for them or not. After all, Dean Winchester was the person he cared about the most. Granted, he had been quite surprised, but when he thought about it... it only made sense. And maybe the thought of them getting just a tad bit closer made him both happy and sad.

Dean stared at him as if he had just spoke in Enochian. Guessing he was probably looking very, very dumb, he managed to close his mouth. To let out just another wrong question. "I'm sorry, what?", he blurted out.
How could Cas be happy about this whole situation? Because he, for one, was just really unsure of how to feel about it. Castiel was his best friend. He was a man. And Dean was arguably the best human being on Earth, or the guy you'd bring home to your parents. Or to your swarm of dick brothers.

Castiel pressed his lips together. "I- I'm sorry, maybe I shouldn't have come," he sighed, as he got up, ready to leave. He could have dealt with Dean politely refusing their relationship, bit this was becoming painful to go through, even for him.

"Cas, wait, I-" Dean ran a hand over his face, trying to reason despite the cloud of confusion that was messing up his brain. "Do... could you elaborate a bit? What do you mean when you say you are happy with this?" He tried to ask that in the most careful way he could. Because it seemed clear that Castiel had hit the fight-or-flee response by then.

"..." Castiel thought about it for a moment. "There are... several reasons for this. But if there is one thing that I know for sure, it's that you're the person I care about the most, Dean. So I was glad to know it was you. That my feelings won't ever change."

Dean nodded absently. It... made sense, from Castiel's point of view. And he couldn't really think of a nice way to answer to that admittedly heartfelt reasoning. So he just threw a bit of an awkward smile at him. "I see", he just said. "Well, you... are my best friend." For some reason, he couldn' force out a reassurance about the fact that he did care for him too. It felt... too much, seen the situation.

Castiel actually smiled fondly at him. "Thank you, Dean." Given the circumstances, he was indeed quite reassured to learn that Dean still saw him as his best friend. He did not have time to elaborate on the subject any more longer, though, for they could hear Sam coming back inside the bunker.

Dean straightened up on his chair with a nervous cough, deciding to shake off the emotional distress of those last minutes as best as he could. "I sure hope you didn't forget the damn pie, Sam!", he half-shouted. Yes, he was still hungry. Food is the best medicine.

"What pie?" Asked Sam as he was coming down the stairs, with three pizza boxes and a handbag carrying, most likely, the pie.

Dean pointed a menacing finger towards his brother's face. "I hope you are kidding, you big douchebag, or your toothbrush will take a dunk in the toilet", he said, deadly serious.

Sam held back a laugh, and laid the bag in front of his brother on the table, before he gave each one their pizza. "It's a pie. Full of fat, sugar, as you love it."

"Now we are talking", Dean let out with a satisfied grin, rubbing his hands together. "Hand over the pizza, I am starving." And food would have helped him forget everything about that damned thread for a while.

Sam smiled, and sat down with them. "Oh, did you tell Castiel about the astronaut, by the way ?" He teased his brother, completely clueless as to what had happened just before.
Castiel stared at his pizza very intensely.

Dean, who had just began to chew on his own slices of pizza, almost got a piece caught in his throat. "Oh- I... I, uh...", he coughed a bit. "Yeah, yeah I did, of course", he said. "By the way. Found us a case", he added then, changing the topic as fast as lightning. He pointed at the computer, still whirring.

Sam frowned sligthly, surprised that Dean didn't expand on the subject, as he had done so for the last days. "... Oh. What's it about?" He tried to question Castiel silently, but the angel was pretending to be very focused on munching his pizza too.

"Three bodies dropped near to Modesto, California. Chests carved open, hearts missing. Ring a bell to you?", Dean raised a brow at him, trying as hard as he could to make his brother concentrate on something else.

"Werewolves," Sam replied automatically, munching on his own pizza. "When was it?"

Dean, feeling relieved, shared the details of the case out loud, whatever he remembered from the articles he had read just before. That it hadn't happened long before, and that it could have been a good idea to check it out. "Maybe we can jump to Vegas while we are on the road!", he even suggested.

Sam rolled his eyes. "You want to bring Cas to the realm of perversion? Seriously?" He shook his head, holding back a smile.

Dean scoffed. "Oh, c'mon. I am sure it has nothing that Cas hasn't seen already", he waved, starting to go over the pie now. "I mean, he is a grown up!" He looked over at Cas, even if he had kind of avoided to look at him for a bit. "What do you say, man?"

"... If there is a case, I will follow you," Castiel answered, a bit hesitantly.
"Dean, tell me this is actually a case, and not some poor excuse to get to Vegas," Sam teased him kindly. He was absolutely oblivious to the discomfort beteen the angel and his brother.