2 - Down at Ellen's place

Castiel's expression softened, and he turned towards Horknath fully, laying a hand on his arm. "Thank you, Horknath. It means a lot to me. I've- never felt so welcome in a group in all of my life. But this is why I cannot bear to be the one responsible for every single ounce of misfortune coming our way."

Sam burst out laughing. "Oh god. I can't believe it!" He laughed some more, then bit his lower lip, trying to calm down. "I was totally bluffing. I had no idea you had a type among men, though, to be fair," he told him with a grin.

Horknath shrugged, smiling widely at him. "Heh. Every one has their 'no' times", he observed. "At this round it's your turn, on the next maybe it will be me - that doesn't matter. If we are your friends, you should allow us to help. That's how... friends work." He scrunched up his forehead. "I think. Well, that's how it works in books. Real life shouldn't be that far!" He patted Castiel's arm - maybe with too much energy.

Dean stared blankly at him, then grabbed a nearby kitchen towel to throw it at his brother's face. "You are unbelievable - I thought you were supposed to be the mature one!" He feigned irritation, but one could tell he was holding back laughter. "I happen to have a type among men, apparently. Yes. I didn't know that either. What about that?"

Castiel had begun to smile earnestly at Horknath, but he stumbled away as soon as Horknath 'patted' his arm, soon massaging it. "Thank you, Horknath", he replied a bit awkwardly.

Sam chuckled a bit more, taking the towel off his face. "I'm sorry, it's just- you're such the macho type. I'd have never thought you'd fall for him. Well, granted, I saw- we all saw that he had a thing for you. But that's cute, I guess," he said with a softer smile. "So, how long has it been going on?"

Horknath quickly pulled away his hand, starting to fidget right away again. Looking suddenly embarrassed about using definitely too much strength for a simple, friendly pat on the back. "No problem. Uh... sorry 'bout the arm. I got to remind myself that not everybody is made out like me", he apologized.

Dean shrugged. "Well. I did find him cute - but we just made out a bit yesterday night, nothing had ever happened before that. It was kind of a first for both, we were a bit tipsy, we were laughing together and... you know. Stuff happened", he quickly concluded, embarrassed. Before quickly trying to change the focus! "What do you mean 'we all saw' that he had a thing for me?"

"Don't worry. I should have prepared myself for this." Castiel kept on massaging his arm a bit, then offered a brief, small smile to Horknath. "Shouldn't you get your belongings ready for leaving?"

Sam chuckled again. Well. He was used to Dean giving him too many details, but this was oddly... cute. To see him that flustered about one of his relationships, for once. "Well. He's got this way of looking at you like you're some piece of candy. He gets oddly cold too when you flirt with someone on the way. And the way he almost cuddles with you on horseback gave it all away, I'm afraid."

"Oh! Yeah, you're right", Horknath exclaimed, as if he had just now remembered that very important detail. He walked off quickly to get to his room. "I'll go then. I'll see you downstairs?", he asked, stopping at the doorframe.

"..." Dean couldn't keep an amused smile from blossoming on his face. "Really? And here I thought he just looked at me like that when I happened to lose my shirt", he mused, remembering quite well how Csatiel had stared at him when he had stepped out of bed half-naked. "Frankly I had... never noticed. I mean, yeah, the horseback thing I had. Impossible not to. I just got used, after trying to tell him to mind my personal space didn't work out." He seemed oddly... pleased, with all those informations.

Castiel nodded. "I'll get down as well shortly." He gathered a few more of his stuff in the meantime, after nodding one last time to Horknath.

Sam smirked, and gently elbowed him. "You'll have time to think about it while we ride. Until then, we should get ready before Ursus leaves without us," he told his brother, already climbing up the stairs.

Horknath waved at him and exited the room, climbing the stairs up to his own room to fetch his (very) few belongings.

"Yeah, yeah, alright", Dean answered, following his brother up. "I'll see you later." He opened the door to his and Csatiel's bedroom. "Hey", he greeted the other man with a nod. "You got all of your things?", he asked as he started stuffing his own bag with everything he had left around during that day.

Castiel nodded, and looked back at Dean, already waiting for him at the door. "Did Alces tell you how many vampires we are to expect?"

Dean shook his head no. "He wasn't given this detail, apparently. We'll just be careful, I guess." He closed up his bag after double checking around to make sure he had grabbed everything. "But...", he said, when he finally looked back at Castiel, really struggling to keep his grin under check. "He did tell me you look at me as if I was a piece of candy, though", he smirked cheekily.

Castiel instantly looked away. "... That is ridiculous. You've got nothing in common with sweets, or pastries." Yes. Yes he had gotten what Dean was teasing him about.

Dean's smirk just got larger. "You sure?" He got closer, walking up to Castiel until he was standing right in front of him, pushing his hands in his pockets. "People say I'm pretty sweet. And good looking." He paused. "So, is my brother wrong then? You don't look at me as if you'd want to eat me?" He was definitely teasing him, yes.

"... I don't wish to eat you. I'm not into cannibalism." Castiel swallowed hard when looking at Dean though, with a clear yearning in the eye. "But I do find you very, very attractive," he added, his mouth dry. Actually, only two seconds later, he grabbed Dean by the hem of his shirt to kiss him again, a bit hungrily.

"... why are you always so liter-" Dean didn't have the time to complete that single sentence, since he suddenly found his mouth to be pretty busy. He blinked, but groaned and quickly got into that kiss, hands grabbing handfuls of Castiel's shirt. He pulled him towards himself, to get the other man completely plastered against his own body.

Castiel moaned slightly against Dean's lips, and kept him close, kissing him deeply, daring for once to try and lead their kiss. That is. Until the sound of Sam clearing his throat interrupted them.
"I think we're the last ones," he told them with a polite - yet amused - smile.

Dean broke their kiss off very quickly when he heard that sound - it almost looked as if he had suddenly got burned. He turned to Sam, visibly embarrassed and flustered about having him see that. "... yes, um, we... we're coming down in a second", he managed to blurt out, eyes darting away from his brother's smirk. Goddamnit. Couldn't he just call them from downstairs or something? Did he have to stand there and stare? What a jerk!

Actually, no, for Sam's room was on that floor too! He made a face, raising his eyebrows in a way that said"ooh boy", and walked down the stairs, to join with the others, to who he told that his brother and their friend were 'almost ready'.

Castiel cleared his throat and stepped away from Dean, a bit sheepishly. "I- Sorry. I got carried away."

"N-no, it's... it's okay", Dean muttered, still flushed. He averted Castiel's gaze though, as he was still embarrassed. He looked kinda cute though, with his cheeks all red! "I should have closed the door - I forgot that usually there's no concept of privacy, around here." He picked up his bag and cleared his throat. "Let's go." He waited for Castiel to follow him and then walked downstairs, where he proceeded to glare daggers at his brother - that is, if he caught him snickering or something!

Castiel did find Dean extremely cute. He said nothing, though, merely smiling a bit as he walked down the stairs with him.
He didn't pay attention to Sam, who did snicker or have trouble holding back fits of laughter at the thought his big brother was flustered since he spotted them by accident. Castiel just climbed behind Dean on his horse, and leaned against his back per usual. Alright, maybe he held himself a bit tighter around his chest, in a very cuddly way.

Dean made it a point to 'accidentally' smack Sam's head with his bag, with the excuse of "Sorry, I as trying to throw it on the horse". Yes he was pouting. Yes, he was a grown ass man, pouting because his brother was making fun of him, damn it!
He didn't protest when Castiel plastered himself all over his back though. He wouldn't have dreamed of it. "Which direction do we take? Did Corvus told you something?"

Sam massaged the back of his head, and sighed while he got on his own horse. "Four, five miles South from there. It shouldn't take us too long."

"Damn bastards are already too close," Bobby grunted. "We might have to leave Harvelle's for a little while, in case the Sobek comes around to investigate." He threw a concerned glance at Ellen. She wouldn't like that.

Dean nodded. "Alright. We should try to head for a covered path - maybe a forest or something." He didn't know if there was anything similar to that, south from Harvelle's place.

Ellen did have a sour expression, as a matter of fact. But she knew better than to throw a tantrum and stomp her feet. She had the time to send a letter away to Jo, that was thankfully hunting way more on the West. "We'll do what we need to do", she observed simply, mounting on her own horse. "There is a road that's not very busy - kind of abandoned, that passes through the woods. We'll take that one." She made a gesture for all of them to follow her.

They all followed Ellen through the woods, Bobby merely talking to her from time to time. About Charlie, for example, who had gone her own way to warn some of her friends who lived nearby. But otherwise, they mostly remained quiet, and ready for the incoming fight.

Horknath too proceeded silently, ears all tense and ready to catch any potential threat coming close. Ellen, just a little further in front of him, proceeded at Bobby's side.

Dean limited himself into looking back at Castiel from time to time - and mostly trying to see if everyone was proceeding along with no problems. The atmosphere itself was quite tense.
And it didn't get better when they could see a dark, mask-wearing figure standing in the middle of the road, some meters away.
It was not Corvus.

Sam held his breath, before he cleared his throat. "Corvus said we would encounter one of their friends," he said, low enough to hope the unknown figure wouldn't hear them, and loud enough for his own friends to hear him. "He called them 'Pica'."

"You sure it's them?" Bobby grunted, frowning. He surely wasn't reassured by any of this.