The heat of the air held thickly around Castiel. It was a dry sort of heat that made the hairs on the back of his neck raise freely, without the weight of sweat. The winds only added to the heat, beating against his face and whipping his dark hair messily into knots and tangles.

He'd never thought of the place he lived as beautiful, but if he looked hard enough at his surroundings, it wasn't impossible to see. He lived in a large bowl of mountains that silhouetted his gray city lazily. In the winter those mountains would be tipped with the beginnings of snow, but it never snowed inside the city itself. There was rarely any change in the seasons at all; even during the summer when the winds blew hard and strong, the hard dirt never strayed.

There was never any grass unless it was forcefully planted there, and the trees that grew were hard and crooked, but he couldn't truly hate the place. It was true that it was only a short drive from sin city, and sometimes he felt cut off from the world in his little bowl of purple mountains, but it wasn't all terrible.

At present he was sitting on the rugged bark of one of the few trees. The trees in his backyard were easy to hold onto and when the heat became unbearable he would climb as high as he could until the wind shook him hard and made him cool.

They had never fallen, these trees. Cas was never worried that they would because he wasn't afraid falling. He found heights exhilarating and often found himself wishing that he was an angel from one of Michael's stories.

Cas inched forward on the branch that hung over the breach of his father's property. If he was feeling brave he could crawl onto those thinner branches and find himself at Kali's house. That was dangerous depending on how brittle the branches were, but he sometimes did it anyway.

Kali and Castiel hadn't always been very good friends, but the two of them had always been grouped together. They were both quiet-though Kali had sort of an intimidating version of silence while his was more awkward-so of course the two were coupled together. There had even been rumors that they were dating, which Castiel had always been confused by. Kali was too intimidating for him to imagine dating.

She was beautiful, though. From over the wall he could see Kali sitting on a wooden bench, feet hanging over the mucky gray of her underground pool. It wasn't the pool's fault, really; it was only reflecting the state of the murky sky.

Cas leaned forward a bit and waved at her absently, hoping that she would see him. Instead, he lost his balance momentarily and only held his place by grabbing onto a higher branch.

Kali didn't say anything, either because she didn't' see him or because she didn't deem him worth a response.

Castiel took a tighter grip on the branch that he was sitting on and pushed through the abundant leaves, hoping with all of his heart that the branch didn't snap. If the wall was eight feet tall, the branch was even taller, and while he wasn't afraid of falling, he thought Kali might laugh.

He crawled forward, light on his feet, until the branch was so flimsy that it would be unsafe to proceed. Then, holding a heavy breath, pulled himself onto the brick wall. The branch snapped as soon as pushed off of it, and Cas had to smile. That could have been his body falling through the cedar branches.

Cas let himself fall from the wall down into her property. "Hello, Kali," he greeted her quietly. Kali could be temperamental at times, so he always tried to be silent.

Kali looked up from her red drink. Castiel never asked what was in those glasses because he wasn't sure he wanted to know. "Go away," she stated stiffly. The Indian girl was often like that. She didn't really mean to be rude, Castiel knew. It just gave him a pang in his chest; a kind of insecurity.

Kali's eyebrows were furrowed together lightly, her eyes narrowed across from the page of the book that she held just a bit too tightly. Cas knew that expression, he was wary. "What's wrong?"

Instead of going away like she'd suggested, Cas took a few steps forwards and sat next to her on the swinging bench-chair. The air of Summer was stronger here, with Kali's cropped red shirt and the noticeable lack of his trench coat. He missed it, the baggy coat made him feel comfortable.

Kali looked over at him judgmentally and said "your friends are idiots."

"Is that what is wrong?" He asked. Maybe his friends were a little bit strange, but he didn't think that they were idiots. Jo and Balthazar could certainly be a little bit crazier than he was, but they weren't stupid. Or at least Jo wasn't.

Kali's thumb absently brushed against the page of her book and she shut it lightly, putting it to her left before looking at Castiel for the first time. "I didn't think that you were one of them, Castiel?"

"An idiot?" he asked. That he couldn't say anything about. His father was certainly vocal about the subject.

"Yes," she snapped, some of the inner ferocity showing in the browns of her eyes. "You're doing something very, very stupid Castiel. Even more idiotic to think you'd be doing it without me."

Cas' blue eyes narrowed only for a moment before he said "I suppose it would not be consequential if you came as well. I would have to ask Crowley to make you a fake ID, however, and he charges ridiculous amounts."

Kali brushed the sweat from her brow and sweapt a thick curl over her shoulder. "Castiel, if we get into trouble, I will be the one to kill you."

Castiel gave her a very small smile, which was a huge thing for someone who so rarely smiled.

"I mean it, Castiel," Kali hissed. "If anyone is going to kill you, it will be me."

"I never doubted that for a second."

Castiel couldn't remember how Jo and Balthazar had gotten him to do this. It wasn't as if Cas actually wanted to get into a casino with a fake ID. It was unlike him to do something so illegal. Sure, Jo had gotten him to smoke pot once, but he'd been unaware of the side-effects and hadn't liked it much at all.

Now he was sitting in his red kitchen, holding onto the arm of his chair tightly as he lied to his father. His alibi was that he was spending a weekend over at Balthazar's house for a bit of harmless fun. He was sure that Balt, however, had nothing harmless in mind. Alcohol, gambling, everything that Cas found excessive.

"I don't like that kid," growled his father. "He's a bad influence on you.

"Dad," replied Cas lightly. "We won't get into any trouble. I promise that I will call you every hour if you want me to."

The young man pursed his lips together and shook his head. "Fine. But if you get into any trouble at all, I won't bail you out of jail."

Cas smiled. It seemed that Michael was in a good mood. That was a rarity in itself. "Thank you, dad."

Michael wasn't actually his father, but he'd been told to call him that so many times that he didn't want to call him anything else anymore. Cas wasn't stupid and he didn't want to get hit with another belt.

The two of them shared a couple more words as his heart beat faster and faster. He could barely wait until Michael finally left. When he did, it was only to take a phone call, but Cas was glad.

He flattened his palm against the tabletop when he finally walked away, relieved. Then he fished the phone out of his pocket and quietly texted Balthazar.

11:16 AM 3/16/14 Castiel Novak: I don't know how you got me into this.

A few minutes later he got a response.

11:21 AM 3/16/14 Sebastian Balthazar: Love you too, Cassie.

At that moment, it seemed that he would never miss the peeling red paint of the kitchen or the creaky chairs, the feeling of his heart beating out of his chest as he'd lied to his father.

It soon became the only thing that he thought about.

The next notable moment was when Balthazar was driving them to the depths of Las Vegas. Jo looked nonchalant, Balthazar insane, Kali stoic with her arms crossed. Cas had to wonder what he looked like.

His hands were clutching the sides of his seat as Balt zipped around traffic, biting his lip as they nearly crashed into the car to their right.

It wasn't long before he could see large buildings zipping by. Bridges of people rose over his head and while they were beautiful, it made him nervous. This was not where he belonged.

He was still in his bowl of mountains, though. The air burned him just by the touch, and that brought him back to reality. He was still in the same place, in the same world, and he had to remind himself that he would be perfectly fine.

It wasn't that he was a naturally insecure person; he just wasn't sure that he fully trusted Balthazar.

Eventually they stopped at a huge black building, but Castiel wanted to get back onto the road. Though he found beauty in the more rural parts of Vegas, where he lived, he saw none in these large, glamorous buildings. Instead of beauty, he saw gluttony and lust; the sins of the people who spent too much time there.

He must have looked disdainful, because Balt who had already exited the car said "c'mon, Cassie, it'll be fun!"

Cas could see the mayonnaise sky, the metal, shiny buildings, the black tower of the luxor, but he couldn't see fun anywhere. He wasn't sure how Balthazar could say that so surely, as if he could see fun like it was some kind of building in the distance.

He didn't answer and instead headed to the back of the group with Kali who was glaring at him. "Yes, Castiel. It'll be fun. Keep going."

Cas shot her back a glare of his own and followed the others into the "Flamingo" casino. He'd never understood why they called it that. It did not resemble a flamingo in any way.

The smell inside was of heavy smoke and Castiel had to wonder why he loved the taste of it on his tongue. The carpet underfoot was tacky, the walls painted with golden monuments and carvings of women. It wasn't attractive in any way, like most casinos, but he knew that he wasn't there to criticize the wallpaper.

They walked up to several tables full of poker chips and Cas waited there while several of his friends went to go buy drinks with their fake ID's. It was silent for a while; no one talked to him. He wasn't really the kind of person that people were entranced by.

Then Balthazar came prancing back with two drinks. He immediately handed Cas one, which he took reluctantly.

Cas probably should have suspected something when he first took the drink, or at least he should have refused. But he'd been feeling detached from Baltahzar lately, and stupid or not, he decided that something like this might help him sow the gap together.

That was when things started to get really, really weird.

Things kept flashing in and out, but Cas remembered something about a girl. She was beautiful with brown hair and big, wide-set eyes.

He remembered drinking more than was acceptable, even gambling until he had no money left. He remembered doing things that could have gotten him arrested while Balthazar cheered him on and Kali watched him with judging brown eyes. That was when his memory lapsed.

He couldn't remember if he'd slept with the girl, he didn't even remember where he was when he woke up in the morning. He just blacked out like a firecracker, knowing very well that he'd regret it in the morning.

He was also very sure that Balthazar had drugged him that first drink.

Maybe Cas expected to wake up in jail, or next to the beautiful woman that he vaguely remembered from the night before. Either way, he didn't want to open his eyes to face the headache that was bound to experience as soon as the light hit his pupils.

Instead, he put his hand down on the ground just under his fingertips. There was a type of cloth, but it didnt' feel like his bed. If he moved his hand from over the cloth, there was a wet feeling like some kind of flower or plant.

He immediately pulled his hand back up, sure that he'd been dipping his fingers in a pot of flowers. Then again, he had no idea where he'd managed to get to sleep. They'd booked a hotel, but Cas couldn't remember getting back there.

Finally curious enough, Cas opened his eyes, sitting up slowly as he did so. He didn't see the bars of a jail cell, or the long brown hair of April Smith-or he was pretty sure that was her name. He was sure of the April part.

No, he was on a blanket like some sort of twisted picnic, placed upon long strings of grass. He wasn't sure if this was some kind of joke or what, but he could feel something behind his head, watching him.

When he turned around, there was a man with big amber eyes staring at him without blinking. "Heya, Cassie. Nice to see you again." His voice was sarcastic, but Cas couldn't for the life of him, imagine why.

In the dark, whoever was talking to him was far more menacing than he should have been. He shivered and pushed himself backwards. Cas was very, very sure that he'd never met this man in his life. He felt like he was in "The Hangover," or maybe Alice in Wonderland. "I'm sorry, I don't think we've met. Where am I?"

Wherever it was, it was dark. The only part he could see of the speaker was his almost glowing amber eyes. He could have been the cheshire cat for all that Cas knew. He was scared for the first time in a long time.

he took in a breath and looked up at the sky. There were stars. Millions dotting the horizon, but not ones that he knew.

Las Vegas had so much pollution that you could only see stars on a very clear night and even then, not as many as he could see then. Wherever he was, it wasn't home. "I'm not in Kansas anymore, am I?"