By the time they arrived at the bunker, Cas still hadn't woken up and he just kept on sleeping through their attempts at waking him, which was why Dean and Sam had to carry him inside and into his room where they laid him down on his bed.

He was still wrapped in Dean's jacket and when Dean tried to get it back, Cas clutched it tighter with surprising strength, and mumbled something incomprehensible.

"You keep that, then," Dean muttered under his breath, giving up, and then turned to Sam. "So. We've got ourselves an exhausted angel again, huh?" Which was code for: Who was going to take first watch?

"Seems like it," Sam said, looking over at Cas, deep in thought. "I didn't know he was this… low on power. I mean, he hasn't done anything like this in a while, but I just figured… there wasn't really a reason to."

"Yeah, I guess he really doesn't have 'the power of Heaven' behind him anymore."

They watched Cas sleep for a moment in silence.

"He's gonna be okay, though, right?" Dean asked, suddenly needing to hear Sam say it.

"Of course," Sam said. "He's been worse off before and was still able to replenish his grace."

Dean huffed out a humorless laugh. "You'd think we'd be used to it by now, huh? Or at least know that, angel or not, he isn't invincible."

Suddenly feeling very exhausted himself, Dean sat down on the chair next to the bed and leaned forward to bury his head in his hands.

"Hey, how about you watch over him while I make us something to eat?" Sam suggested.

"Not really hungry," Dean mumbled through his fingers.

"Well, Cas might need some food when he wakes up."

Dean didn't look up when he heard footsteps leave the room and the door fall closed. He sat there quietly for a few minutes, his eyes closed, listening to Cas' steady breathing.

"Are we home already?"

Dean had been about to fall asleep in the chair himself, but hearing Cas' voice made him look up. When he saw Cas staring at him curiously, he felt a weight lifting off his chest.

"Hey there sleepyhead. Yeah… yeah, we're home." Dean had to smile at that. He couldn't remember Cas ever having referred to the bunker as his 'home,' but it sounded right coming out of his mouth.

"I don't think I would like to relive that experience," Cas stated. He still sounded weak, but he would be all right, and nothing else mattered.

"No kidding." Thinking back to his talk with Sam in the Impala, Dean laid a hand on Cas' shoulder.

Cas frowned at him. "Dean. You are aware of the fact that you can't heal me, right?" he asked, obviously having forgotten that they had already had that discussion.

"Yes, I know," Dean answered patiently, for the second time that night. "And you are aware of the fact that you don't need an excuse to touch me, right?" He tried to mirror Cas' usual casual tone.

Cas blinked at him slowly. Apparently, Sam had been right and he hadn't known that.

"Of course," Cas said nevertheless, reaching out to Dean with his arm, two fingers aiming for his forehead.

Dean realized that he had to look battered after the fight, too, and quickly ducked out of the way of Cas' healing touch, letting go of his shoulder in the process. "Oh, no, you don't!" he said. A crease appeared on Cas' forehead and he tilted his head, aborting his gesture, but leaving his arm halfway outstretched in the air. "No more using your grace on me unnecessarily. You hardly have any to spare. – Besides, what did I just say?"

"I was not going to use my grace on you," Cas replied, the frown still on his face.

"Oh. Well. Okay then." Dean was looking at him warily, but leaned forward again slightly, so that Cas could finish the 'healing' touch he had been going for – minus the healing part.

They stayed like that for a moment and Dean couldn't quite bring himself to explain that that wasn't really a human-appropriate touch. Besides, it might just be conditioning, but the touch felt relaxing and sent a warmth through his body, almost as if Cas was healing him after all.

"Oh no, not this again!" Dean was startled out of his musings. He hadn't even heard Sammy enter.

"I am not using my grace on him," Cas stated, making no move to withdraw his arm.

"He isn't using his grace on me," Dean confirmed, trying to look like this was completely normal, nothing weird going on here, no sir.

"Oh. Well, good." Sam walked over to the bed and put the plates he had brought on the nightstand. "Nice to see you're feeling better." He smiled at Cas and gave him a light pat on the shoulder.

"Are those PB&Js?" Cas asked, finally lowering his arm from the strange angel touch to get a better look at the sandwiches on the nightstand.

"Yeah." Sam shrugged. "With grape jelly. I thought maybe you'd be able to taste more than molecules with your grace running low and all." He offered a sandwich to Cas, who accepted it gratefully, and then took one plate over to Dean and sat down next to him.

The three of them enjoyed their PB&Js in comfortable silence. And if Dean found non-excuses to touch Cas and make sure he really was okay from time to time… well, he caught glimpses of Sammy doing the same, so it was just them looking out for their touch-deprived angel.

He was just debating with himself whether ruffling Cas' hair would be going too far (probably not, because Cas' understanding of human touch etiquette was rudimentary at best and he most likely wouldn't even think it was weird) when Cas asked, "Dean?"

"Hmm?"

"This is your jacket," Cas stated, frowning at his makeshift 'blanket.'

"Yeah and it's my favorite, too, so don't get any jelly on it," Dean grumbled. And to make sure that Cas understood what he really meant by that, he leaned over to ruffle Cas' hair, making it stick up even more than usual. Cas' confused look was totally worth it – but Dean was pretty sure that Cas got at least part of what he didn't say out loud:

I'm glad you're okay.

Don't ever go exhausting your grace for us again.

I'd give my favorite everything for you.

And maybe even: You are my favorite everything.

As always, my muse loves feedback almost as much as she loves Cas. See my ao3 page for more Dean & Cas fics. (archiveofourown dot org slash users slash noiproksa) Without the spaces obviously and substitute "dot" and "slash" for the symbols.