If you'd like all the "special" things like the link to the official update schedule and a link to a place where you can see how far I'm along in finishing this story, (I'm currently 72% done with the final thing and have decided to go ahead and start releasing chapters) you can find links to those things on Archive of our Own at the first chapter of this story, under the same name and under the author (me still, but with a different pen name) "MysticMoonhigh". There's also chapter art.


The garden wasn't anything too large; it was quaint and darling, flowers overflowing along the edges. Mainly to distract the bugs from the actual herbs, and occasionally to enter in competitions. It was Jo's most prized possession. She'd worked hours upon hours tending to and loving the plants.

Which was why, when she decided to go on a vacation and wanted Dean to care for them while she was gone, he couldn't help but say yes.

Sure, his allergies were irritated a little bit. Sure, he had killed everything that he'd touched thus far in his planting experience. Sure, he was absolutely awful at actually remembering to do things outside of his average routine and he barely knew how to apply the weed killer. Actually, where was he going with this again?

Jo had said she'd already asked everyone else she could have possibly asked, and he was a sucker for her large, pleading eyes. Maybe if the she-devil had asked him over the phone he would have been able to say no, but of course, she invited him over. She made him comfortable. She got him a beer and they played poker with Ash while the rest of the Roadhouse ran on. At the end of the night, she flashed those big, hopeful puppydog eyes and there was nothing that Dean could do to resist them.

There was a small house by the garden, which was snuggled firmly up to the back of the roadhouse. It had a bed and a miniature fridge, accompanied by a radio and microwave. Since the flowers needed watched over almost 24/7, (Jo had her petunias in a competition that started two days after she got back and she would kill Dean if he let anything more than the usual "bug-eats-half-a-flower" happen.

It was all a little too close to nature for Dean. He preferred to have things city-oriented, where there was music and booze and women. Then again, there was booze just inside the road house...

But Ellen would kill him if he drank too much. She was already having to shut down the roadhouse while her and Jo went, (Ellen's mother was getting married again at the ripe age of 72, something that she advocated they couldn't miss) so the profits for this month were already looking shot to hell without Dean getting hands on the liquor.

Of course, Dean also knew that he was welcome to a beer a night for helping Jo's garden.

"Dean!" Jo yelled, running towards him as the impala pulled up to the front of the house. He cut off the engine with a turn of his wrist, not opening the door until Jo was jumping beside it.

As soon as he had stood up, he was greeted with an armful of Jo, her body nuzzling against his warmly as she wrapped her arms around his neck. She said, into his shirt, "Thank you again!"

"No problem, Jo. Anything for you." He mumbled back, lips against her hairline. And, as much as he hated to admit it, it was really true. Jo was like a sister to him, and he couldn't imagine telling her no if she really needed his help. He'd give, do, anything for his family. Jo, while not blood, was certainly a person who qualified for special treatment.

Jo, Sammy, Benny, Ellen, and Bobby. It wasn't a lot of names, but that was fine with him. His family was small and cozy, and there were more that he considered just friends. Dean was by no means lonely.

Even if Ellen did keep pestering him about getting a girlfriend, ("Or a boyfriend," she added, looking at him sternly, "I honestly don't care. But I worry about you up in that apartment all alone.") he was fine, really. Sammy had moved out six months ago, and he'd been slowly adjusting ever since.

It was slow going sometimes, he had to admit that. He'd been so used to having another warm body there beside him, someone to talk to or make dinner for or just sit and watch TV with. Of course, if he wanted one of those things, he could easily get a room mate. It didn't have to be something romantic to fill up the silence with pleasant chatter.

Now that he thought about it, that would help to pay the bills, too. He would have to look into that when he got back home.

Jo pulled away, her eyes sparkling as she smiled up at him. "Remember to water everything once a day. And I scattered some of the dying stuff around the edge of the garden. Don't pick it up, because it'll help out the plants next year." She informed him.

"Yeah, yeah, got it. Don't pick up decaying plant matter and don't step on anything pretty."

"You'd better not step on anything at all, or I'll kick your ass." She informed him, finally stepping away from the hug. Dean lunged with the intention to pull her in for a noogie, but she dodged and he missed.

"Alright you two, knock it off." Ellen said, delivering a firm smack to the back of Dean's head. Dean pretended to be hurt, reaching back and rubbing the area.

"He started it!" Jo defended.

"We'll get along." Dean countered, pulling her in for a big, squeezing hug. She squealed and struggled in his hold, laughing as she tried to break free.

"You have to let her go now, Winchester, or we're gonna be late. I'll see you in a week." Ellen warned, her warm smile returning. "I don't care if you get into the alcohol, but you'd better not clear us out. I have a business to run and need beer to do it." She reminded him. Dean nodded.

"Don't worry Ellen, I won't drink all that much. After all, I've been sober for two days this time. Can't afford to ruin that streak." Dean said. Ellen delivered a punch to his arm, and he immediately slackened his grip to grab the spot with his other hand. Jo chose then to give a mighty burst of power and escape, turning around and glaring at Dean.

"I'll get you for that." She warned. Dean stuck out his tongue.

"Goodbye, Dean." Ellen said warmly, giving him a hug. He hugged her back, smiling.

"Goodbye." Jo said, coming for her hug once Ellen's was done. He didn't play around this time, wrapping her in his arms and squeezing just a little.

"I'll take care of everything. You go have fun." He said, pushing her away.

She smiled, nodding. "You're the only one I trust for the job."

Just like that, they were loading themselves into Ellen's van, and waving goodbye as they sped down the road. Dean stayed standing in the driveway until he could no longer see them before sighing, putting an arm on top of the car and hanging his head.

An entire week out in the fucking forest. The Roadhouse may be popular and busy, but that didn't mean it was local. It was a good fifteen minutes out of town, and every single one of those minutes were taken up by tree after tree after tree. Then again, at least Dean would be able to pretend like he was camping.

He unfroze, reaching into the car to grab his duffel bag before shutting the door and locking it.

He stayed firmly to the small, worn path that had been made as he walked back to the house. The garden was bigger than the last time he saw it, and he couldn't help but notice that it was especially green and healthy. He sent a silent prayer that he wouldn't fuck up and ruin it.

When he reached the small addition, he saw that the key was in the door, as they'd discussed when Jo initially asked him to do this. He turned it in it's lock and tucked it into his pocket as he pushed open the door, throwing his things onto the bed.

He plopped himself down onto it, staying still for a moment before he reached into his bag and got out his laptop. He plugged in the charger, (useless piece of shit only lasted ten minutes without it) and opened the screen, connecting to the Roadhouse's free wifi and looking for something to watch on Netflix. He didn't have much to choose from that he hadn't already seen before, but he eventually settled on Merlin. Charlie swore by it and it had good enough ratings.

He settled in and hit play, letting the plot line draw his mind away from his worry. It wasn't long before he was dozing off, and he decided to hit the hay.

~~~
Three days later, Dean had all but adjusted to life out in the wild. He'd only been to the store once in that time, (and even then, he only went because the mini fridge was too small to hold anything substantial and he had to get food and toilet paper and all that fun adult stuff) and he was surprised to say that his cabin fever was behaving itself. He actually sort of liked being out here. He was lonely and knew that he'd never be able to do it for any length of time, but it was peaceful.

Currently, his hands were cloaked in gloves and his knees were dug into the dirt, arms burning as he pulled out weed after weed. He had no clue how these little suckers grew as fast as they did, but he had been out here picking them every damn day. For his so-called "week off", this wasn't very relaxing.

But, he knew that he owed the week off to Ellen's work, anyways. Bobby had a soft spot for her.

Soon, he sat back and admired his work. Sure it had taken a good forty-five minutes, but the garden looked healthy. Despite his previous worries, he was pretty sure that he was doing an okay job. Not as good as Jo herself could have done, but he certainly wasn't the worst person for the job.

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw something flicker with movement. He felt his stomach absolutely drop to his feet.

If those damn bugs decided to ruin all of his hard work, he was going to-

He grabbed the can of bug spray off of his belt, standing and walking over to where he could see the motion. He paused, head tilting in confusion. If he wasn't mistaken, he'd seen something flying over here just moments ago. What could have disappeared that fast? It looked pretty damn big, for a bug.

He slowly circled the flowers, eying the leaves with curiosity.

He was just about to turn to go back. His foot was already poised, his muscles taut, if he had turned a second sooner, he would have missed it entirely.

Out from under a flower, a very, very tiny man fell.

This was no ordinary man. No, other than being very tiny, he also had a pair of magnificent wings attached firmly to his back, approximately his body length in width and golden in color. He stared up at Dean with wide, fearful eyes for a moment before he was suddenly yanked back underneath the flower.

Dean knelt down beside it, working on auto pilot. He had to see what he'd saw again. He had to prove to himself that he wasn't crazy, that that wasn't some kind of a bizarre hallucination he'd had due to the heat.

As his fingers worked to pull the plant over, three of them absolutely exploded from the bushes.

One had rainbow wings, one had stark black wings, and last to leave was the one he'd seen, who's wings were a pure gold. Now that he was up and moving, Dean could see that they flashed in the sunlight. Dean stumbled back a few steps, falling over and landing on his ass.

As they flew away, he could see something wrapped in their arms. The herbs Jo had laid out. He let out a curse and stood up, still not yet allowing what had happened to fully sink in yet. As soon as the anger from having those stolen had worn off, though, he was left with a numb sort of bafflement. Whatever the hell had just happened, he refused to acknowledge that it was anything other than just regular bugs. He absolutely, positively, refused to say the 'f' word that kept popping up in his mind.

He stumbled back to his small living quarters, closing the door firmly behind him and sitting slowly down onto the bed. Maybe it would feel better if he texted Jo about what had happened? He could make it sound like a joke, if he wanted to. She would keep him from going off the deep end.

The more he thought about it, the more it seemed like talking to Jo would be a good idea. He felt like he was going crazy. It wouldn't be too hard to reword his question so he sounded less insane. All he had to do was ask about crazy bugs. Yeah, that sounded like something he would do.

I just saw the weirdest shit in your garden. Do you know of any freaky bugs that have feathers? He asked, and then on a second thought, added,The little bastards carried off your herbs.

Those are birds, you dumbass. Jo texted back, quick as lightning. Dean didn't feel any better.

No, they weren't. I know what a bird is, Jo, Bobby made us take that nature course together when we were like nine. These didn't have beaks. They were like, tiny bugs. With feathers and shit.

I have to go. We'll talk about this later, Jo said. Believe it or not, that didn't make Dean feel any better about the whole situation.

Cas was absolutely pissed that he somehow got dragged into this.

"They said we didn't need them until next week. You know what happened the last time a random human saw us. We can trust the girl, but not any of her friends." He warned, crossing his arms over his chest. Balthazar turned to him with his brow raised.

"That was half a century ago, Cassie. Can't you let it go? Your wing was only broken for what, six months? Fifty years should be enough time for forgiveness." Balthazar teased. Castiel only felt the uneasy feeling grow in his stomach.

"You know that Anna was working on something special." Gabriel put in, his wings briefly clinging to his body as he turned mid-air, and then coming out again forcefully. He looked up at Castiel now, a confident smirk on his face. "This might be able to give us access to more human items without the danger of trying to talk to a full-sized human. Aren't you the one that just finds them absolutely fascinating?"

"I find their cultures and customs fascinating, much like I find it fascinating when you run headfirst into a tree." Castiel said smugly. Gabriel's eyes filled with panic as he looked ahead of him, twisting his body all sorts of ways to try and get out of the tree's path. He barely missed it, the very edge of his left wing skimming the bark.

"You're no fun, Cas." Gabriel said. Castiel just shrugged, while Balthazar laughed.

"Awww, how is Cassie not fun? I thought it was hilarious." He put in.

All three of them landed when the garden came into sight, wings tucking in as they plummeted briefly towards the ground. As soon as they were in landing distance their wings shot out again, catching the wind and slowing down their fall.

They landed one after another, Gabriel almost tripping over a small twig.

"I still think we should wait. She laid them out for us, but that was for an emergency shortage." Castiel reminded them, an odd feeling churning in his stomach. Balthazar's multicolored wings fluffed up.

"Anna's work is an emergency." Gabriel said, shrugging. Then, without pause, "Now, come on! The faster we get this done, the faster we get back to her."

"We haven't even checked to see if he's-" Castiel started, and then stopped mid-sentence. Gabriel wasn't listening; he was already running towards the herbs, wings flapping and using the air to speed him up.

Castiel gave a heavy sigh as he joined Gabriel, Balthazar moving into action right behind him. The entire way there he muttered curses under his breath in Enochian, wondering why he had to choose to be friends with these ones. He soon caught up with Gabriel, landing beside him and grabbing the other end of the bushel. Balthazar wrapped arms around the middle and they all heaved, carrying them over to just beside the forest.

Once they were there, Castiel wasted no time. He shucked off a couple of the healthiest branches, shoving them into his backpack and leaving the rest there so they could get more if they needed it. Usually, ten or fifteen people would be sent out to collect, so they could bring back everything at once.

Balthazar and Gabriel followed quickly in his footsteps, shoving herbs into their bags. All three took off again, flying to the next bunch of leaves to repeat the process.

After the first six piles had been collected, Castiel heard something. It was loud and obtrusive, and he was a little confused. Usually the only thing that made that kind of sound was-

His eyes widened as a shadow appeared several feet away. He grabbed Balthazar's arm and dragged him back, being the only one close enough to touch.

"Gabriel!" He hissed, feathers bristling. Gabriel's eyes flickered back and forth between the shadow and Castiel in confusion, before it finally clicked with him, too. He flapped his wings a couple of times, using the extra speed to catch up to the others. Cas's eyes scanned the nearby underbrush, looking for a place to hide.

He finally settled on a small flowering plant, the leaves looking thick enough to cover them. He grabbed Balthazar and pulled him straight back to the stem, pressing his fingers to his lips to indicate that they should be quiet. The shadow grew closer and closer, until eventually it hovered over them, looming like impending doom.

Castiel's eyes wandered back to his friend, who was leaning out as much as he possibly could in attempt to see the human. They widened to the size of dinner plates, and he hissed, "Gabriel!"

"I'm just trying to get a closer look, calm-" He started. Then, as if pulled straight out of a children's book warning of the dangers of humans, he lost his footing. He stumbled forward and out of the cover of leaves, golden wings flashing in the sun.

Castiel shot forward and grabbed his ankle, pulling him back under the leaves. Gabriel made a small sound of annoyed pain, turning back to look at Cas like he was crazy.

Cas saw the human's knee hit the ground, and he felt a spike of fear pierce through him.

He stayed perfectly still as a hand came down to slowly pull aside the leaves, rustling above. He glanced back at Balthazar and Balthazar nodded, a clear indication that he knew what Cas was thinking and would be with him until the end of the line.

As soon as the sun shone down on them, Cas flew into the air, dragging Gabriel behind him. He glanced back as he flew to get a look at the human; sandy blonde hair. He looked more curious than hostile, which was good in a lot of ways and bad in others. This is the kind of human they would have to worry about coming after them as if they were some kind of new discovery. Looked like he would be telling the Council about this.

As soon as they were far enough away that they could safely say they were okay to stop, Cas pulled to a halt and landed on the ground. He turned around and waited to be greeted by the two sheepish smiles of his friends.

"I hope you know we have to tell the Council about this." He said, disapproval seeping through his voice. Gabriel's head dropped down in shame.

"On the bright side, I got a handfull of the last herb Anna needed." He said, holding out a squished bundle of leaves. Castiel rolled his eyes.

"Okay. You can go and give those to her while Balthazar and I go and talk to Uriel." Castiel said, not too keen on speaking with the head of the fae folk. He didn't have much in the way of mercy, and tended to lash out at fae who did things he considered "dangerous". Cas knew that if anything would be called dangerous, this was it.

"I love you, Cas." Gabriel said, fondly.

"Go, before I change my mind." Castiel said, firmly. Gabriel gave him a mock-salute before flapping off into the distance. Castiel didn't even have to look to know Balthazar was slowly trying to sneak off, and he reached out to grab his arm.

"Awwww, come on, Cassie." Balthazar tried. Cas cut him off with a glare.

"We have a long flight to go to get to the Council and an even longer waiting time before everyone in front of us is done presenting issues. You're not leaving me alone for that."

"You exposed us to a human, for herbs we didn't need?" Uriel demanded, scathing hot with rage. Castiel was careful to keep his expression free of annoyance. Balthazar stood just behind him, using his shadow as a hiding place.

"He showed little to no signs of aggression. Blond hair, green eyes, unusually tall for a human. The council will probably decide to do nothing." Castiel put in, hoping to tide his rising anger. Uriel's eyes lit with a fiery anger, and Cas realized that that was the exact wrong thing to say.

"What would you know of the Council? Castiel, I see it fit to remind you that you are first a soldier, and then a fae. Your duty is to your people and your people first. You recklessly acted on personal whim to help your friends and ended up endangering us all. You are a Soldier, Castiel." He reminded, towering above him. Castiel's face remained stoney. He knew what he was.

"I'm sorry, Uriel. I'll see fit to remember next time." He said, averting his gaze. Uriel seemed to drain of anger, letting out a dramatic sigh and putting his head in his hands.

"You two will stay here while we decide what we're going to do. I'm very disappointed in you." Uriel said, gesturing towards the empty row of chairs in the back. Castiel nodded, grabbing Balthazar's arm and pulling him along before he could object and get them both in even more trouble than before.

They sat in the back and Castiel began to zone out. Uriel was right; he had pledged himself to the Council and to his people, and he'd failed to see that through. As soon as an opportunity to run off and help his friends came along, he had abandoned common sense. He couldn't help but feel a little guilty over it.

"Come on Cassie, you're looking too serious." Balthazar whispered from beside him. Castiel shrugged.

"I'm a warrior. I'm supposed to be serious." He replied, dropping his eyes to the floor. He couldn't see it, but he knew Balthazar had frowned.

He almost missed it when Gabriel slipped into the seat on his other side, but the smell of sugar overdose with faint hints of coffee was too strong to be able to miss.

"Did you at least give the herbs to Anna?"

"Yep, and she's ecstatic. You should've seen her face. Actually, I believe we'll all be seeing her face shortly." Gabriel said, smirking. Castiel chose then to tune into the conversation that the elders were having.

"Yes, but anyone knowing of us is a danger to the people. You can't honestly expect us not to do anything. It would go against our ways to kill the boy, but what are we supposed to do if he tells the entire world? We have to do something. Do we have any kind of memory elixir?" Zachariah proposed. Several of the others nodded or mumbled in agreement.

"We do, but it would erase everything from at least the last few years. It would be cruel and unusual punishment to do that to someone. Imagine all of the stories he would lose. He'd know nothing about the last few years of his life!" Metatron put in. Uriel watched over with vague interest.

"Well it's not like we can just send a soldier to talk to him. That would put one of our own at risk. We simply can't do something like that. And shrinking him down to take him into the colony would be dangerous. There's a 50% chance that his molecuels would reject the resizing and we'd kill him." Naomi said, partially thinking out loud. The others mumbled their agreements, and Castiel rolled his eyes. Of course, they couldn't just leave it alone.

"I'm afraid we'll have to give him the memory elixir. It won't be safe for the rest of us until he no longer remembers his small encounter." Uriel said, his voice ringing with authority. There was a moment of absolute silence, and he cleared his throat. "Alright then,-"

"WAIT!" Came a voice, feminine and urgent. Cas turned to see Anna, the doors swinging shut behind her as she walked briskly into the room. Her lab coat was stained and she had a bottle in her hand, grasped tightly. Her red hair was a mess and her brown wings were fluffed up with feathers askew from days without grooming. She had clearly been devoting herself to whatever she had been working on.

"What?" Uriel asked, looking annoyed. Anna held up the bottle, as if it held the answers to every question.

"This. This can solve our problem. I've been working for days to get it ready; I finally corrected our problem with shrinking non-plant based organic matter. We can do it, no risk to the human." She said, smiling.

"What is your proof?" Metatron asked, leaning forward. He looked intrigued.

"SNOWBELL!" Anna yelled. The doors opened again, less wide this time. Castiel looked with intrigue as a small, white Cat came prancing in, running straight towards Anna's feet. She quickly began to figure-eight between Anna's legs, purring loudly. Anna smiled.

"Intriguing. And since we've had no problems with growing matter, it would be easy to return him back to full-size when we've finished with him. This could be a great opportunity to figure more out about the human world. Maybe they are, indeed, ready to know of our existence?" Naomi proposed, smiling. "Anna, I do believe you've made the most important scientific development in the last fifty years."

Anna beamed with pride, her smile lighting up the room. The other council members turned to Uriel, most hoping that he would agree.

"Fine. But I'm going to put Castiel in charge of the human's keep and studying culture. As a punishment for his blatant disobedience. Anyone who assisted him," He added, eyes flickering back and forth between Gabriel and Balthazar, "Will also be expected to watch the human. If anything were to happen to him, or he were to hurt anything while in our care, you three will be held responsible. You did minor in Human Culture while going through specialty training, correct?" Uriel asked, his question going directly to Castiel. Cas shifted uncomfortably.

"Yes. But I don't see how I'll be able to fulfill my Warrior duties while watching the human." He said, hoping to get out of it. Uriel raised an eyebrow.

"You will be relieved of your duties while you learn about their culture. You are a hammer, Castiel. You should be indifferent to which nail you're driving in." Uriel said. Castiel nodded.

"Yes, sir." He said, gritting his teeth. Great, now he was going to be held responsible for some big, lumbering, dangerous human. Whether or not Gabriel and Balthazar were responsible too, if something were to happen, all of the blame would fall to him.

Uriel had had it out for him for years. Cas was never quite sure what exactly he did, but whatever it was, it must've been bad.

"Now, I want the four of you to work together and bring this human back. I want him in our custody by nightfall tomorrow." Uriel said, narrowing his eyes as if to say, 'have it done, or else.'

"Yes, sir." All of them chimed at the same time. Uriel looked towards the now empty line and sighed in relief.

"Council dismissed. We will meet again to talk to the human tomorrow." He announced.

As soon as the room was empty, Castiel turned towards Anna and Balthazar with a glare. He turned around, just to make sure that Gabriel saw it, too.

"I hope you three are happy. Now look at this disaster. Instead of a human culture expert, they have me working with a human. Do you have any idea how much I remember from training school? Almost nothing. I find human culture fascinating, but this was not a wise decision and it's your fault." He said, wings puffing out more and more the longer he talked. By the end of it they were almost twice their usual size.

"Calm down, Cassie. Come on, this'll be a good experience for you!" Balthazar said, smiling. Castiel slowly let his anger deflate, leaving him with cold, resigned dread.

"I hope you're right. Are we going to start making a plan?" He asked. The three of them nodded.