#jackharknessed

“Hey gents,” the man behind the counter spoke, “what can I do for you?

“I..uh..-” Cas faltered, obviously nervous.

“He has an appointment with Andy. 2:15.” Dean finished.

The man behind the counter smiled, and with a quick “I’ll be right back.” walked down a hallway at the back of the shop. Moments later, a different man appeared in front of them, this one covered in tattoos.

“I’m Andy,” he started,” which one of you is Cas-steel?”

“I am.” Cas said, “and you can just call me Cas.”

With a nod of his head, Andy bent down to pick up the folder full of design ideas others have left for their appointments, flipping through it until he found Cas’.

“Still want the pentagram?”

Cas nodded, blue eyes shining a bit brighter than usual as a sudden burst of sunlight came pouring through the window behind Andy. Dean casually reajusted his stance, as if to cover something.

“Alright! I’ll bring you boys to the chairs, and I’ll get this sized up for you. Still on the chest?” Andy questioned, as Dean and Cas sat down, Cas in the tattooing chair and Dean in the smaller, almost lawnchair-like one beside.

They both nodded, and Andy made his way down yet another hallway.

As Cas began to unbutton his shirt, Dean looked around. Taking in all this place had to offer. It had changed so much since he and his brother, Sam were there getting their anti-possession tattoos. Now it was his angel’s turn. Dean couldn’t help but smile.

Moments later, Andy returned with the stencil and sat down in his chair, beside the counter full of ink bottles, disinfectants, guns and needles. He carefully cleaned and shaved the area above Cas’ heart, before layering on some ointment, followed be the stencil. He carefully pressed it against the cool, nervous skin on Cas’ body, and peeled it off with even more caution. 

It had to be perfect.

Cas gave Dean a look of worry, as if he was trying to fight back tears. He didn’t know how to handle pain, and he knew this would be no walk in the park. He could barely hear Andy as he (Andy) said that he was about to start, wincing as the needle began to enter is skin.

After a minute, Dean offered his hand to Cas, who’s right hand quickly grasped it, griping it tightly and squeezing tighter when he needed to. Andy, who was extremely focused on his work, mustered a little smile when he looked up briefly and saw Dean’s green eyes watching Cas intently, his open hand pushing sweat-stricken hair off of the former angel’s face. No one said anything except for Dean’s occasional “it’s okay buddy, I’m here. It’ll be over soon,” his free hand still messing around in the dark hair on top of Castiel’s head.

Cas wasn’t totally surprised that Dean was doing this for him, because just weeks ago, he’d done the same thing for Dean in a much different situation, before the doctors rolled him in to the operating room.

After thirty minutes, Andy set the gun down and reached for the cleaning fluid. Spraying it onto Cas’ newly tattooed body and wiping away the exess ink and blood that had surfaced, and smiled.

“All finshed! Do you want to have a look?” Andy gestured towards the mirror suspended from the wall behind Dean. 

Helping Cas up, Dean led him over to the mirror, only letting go of his hand when Cas pulled away. 

“It’s perfect.” They said in unison, without noticing that Dean’s matching tattoo was visible at the angle his shirt was sitting.

“I love when couples get matching tattoos.” Andy started, noticing Dean’s poking through his shirt.

Dean could feel his face getting warm, looking back to the mirror quickly to see how flushed red he was turning.

“How long have you two been together?” Andy continued.

“Five years.” Cas said, flashing a quick smile at Dean, who now felt like he was red, head to toe.

Before Dean could even fully process a sentence in his head, Andy was beaming. 

“That’s amazing!” Andy said, with more than obvious enthusiasm.

Dean cleared his throat, still trying to rid his face of the blush. “Yeah, I guess you could say that. Now how much do we owe you?” As Dean began fiddling through his wallet, pulling out the correct amount of bills to give to Andy.

“Thank you very much.” Cas spoke, shaking Andy’s hand.

“Hey Cas, we gotta go pick up Sam from the library and uh, see what he’s found.” Dean said, as he made his way to the door, after thanking Andy once again for his fantastic job on the tattoo. 

Once both men were outside, Dean began to laugh a little.

“What’s so funny?” Castiel asked him, confused.

“It’s just, I think he thinks we’re like, I dunno, a couple.”

Cas blinked, processing the thought. “Well, you and I do share a rather profound bond.” He said, before joining in with the quiet laughter.