Dean twirls the stem of the feather between his fingers. “I thought your wings were just… giant mystery shadow things.”
“They are when I want them to be,” the angel says, with that verbal kind of shrug that he has seemed to master. Despite the stiffness of his shoulders, Dean imagines his wings rustling behind his back.
“So you have really have real wings?”
Cas scowls. “Of course,” he says primly.
“Easy, that wasn’t an insult, dude,” Dean throws his hands up, “I just thought you existed on another plane of divine existence, or whatever.”
“We do,” Cas corrects as his frown eases out, “although tethered to this plane, within our vessels, our forms seem to favour certain attributes.”
“Like feathers,” Dean grins, moving to hand it back to its owner. “Well, for the Dick Angel Club of the Criminally Uncool, they are pretty cool.”
Cas however, makes no attempt to retrieve his feather. “You might as well keep it,” is all he says by way of explanation.
Dean hesitates. “I don’t know isn’t that… weird? It’s a part of you. It’s like I’m keeping lock of your hair or something.”
The angel cocks his head. “Would you like that as well?”
Dean starts, moderately horrified. “No!” he objects quickly, looking around hastily to make sure no one else was around to overhear—Sam would not have let him live that down.
“Or perhaps you could give me a lock of your own as a trade.”
“What the—” Dean gapes, before he appreciates the very suspiciously still expression upon Cas’ face. He narrows his eyes. “Are you fucking with me?”
Cas’ mouth twitches, suggesting a smile in an all too inviting way for Dean’s concentration. “You do make it rather easy,” he teases, face impassive, but rough tone light, which is such a glorious novelty to behold that it sends Dean into a fit of laughter.
Still, Dean feels bad about having nothing to give him, so in a fit of sentimentality he will forever deny to anyone else, he expresses his thanks with a kiss instead.
Later, Cas gives him a handful of feathers, with a hopeful and absurdly endearing expression. Dean sighs dramatically, but gives him a kiss for each, lingering longer for each one.