Two young boys fought about dinner in the small kitchen of their hotel room. Their dad was out working, like he always was.

Castiel was watching their shadows through the blinds. He'd been sitting outside, across the road for a while now. He kicked at the dirt. Stuck, that's what he was. Stuck on the ground with everyone else. That wasn't so bad really, but he was stuck in a tiny little vessel, he couldn't do very much in this thing. Castiel suspected that one of his older brothers had something to do with it; they were always trying to mess with him.

"Fine!" one of the boys shouted and Castiel looked up at the shadows again.

"Where are you going?" an even smaller voice whined and both of the shadows disappeared.

"Out," came the shouted reply and a small boy came storming out the door. He slammed it behind him and shoved his hands into his pockets.

Castiel stood and raced to hide in a shadow. That was one good thing about Jimmy's little body… It was easy to hide.

The boy stopped in the middle of the path and looked up at the night sky. He frowned and spun around to where Castiel was.

Castiel pressed himself into the wall.

The boy came closer. He snapped out his arm and caught Castiel's collar. "You can't hide from me," he growled and pulled a knife out of his jeans.

Castiel deflected the blow and ducked away. He held out his hands.

The boy quickly fought back, stabbing the knife into Castiel's vessel.

Castiel pulled it out easily. It hurt, but he didn't let the pain show. He already seemed weak in Jimmy's body; he didn't want to be further humiliated.

"Are you a demon?" the boy asked.

Castiel stood up straight and cocked his head to the side. This boy knew about demons? That was unusual. "I am no demon," Castiel said. It was strange hearing his words come out in Jimmy's little voice.

"Then what… What are you?"

"I'm an angel of the lord."

The boy's eyes got impossibly wide and he staggered back. "I-I'm Dean," he stuttered quietly.

"Castiel..." The angel nodded and looked at a burn on the back of Dean's hand. "You were fighting with someone," he said.

Dean followed the angel's gaze and shrugged. "It… It was just my brother…" Dean knew that this was crazy. He'd never thought angels existed, and he certainly never thought they would look like the scrawny boy in front of him. "My dad said there's no such thing as angels…"

"And you always trust your father?"

"Sure, don't you trust yours?"

Castiel shuffled his small feet awkwardly, looking around at the different shades of grey concrete. "Of course I do…" he said finally. He looked back up at Dean.

"I don't believe that you're an angel," Dean said, putting his hands on his hips.

Castiel smiled and reached out, pressing two fingers to Dean's head. He knew he was being a little silly, but he had nothing else to do. He was stuck in this useless vessel; he might as well have a bit of fun.

Dean gasped and looked around. "We moved!" he shouted, wobbling uncertainly. "How did we move?"

They had indeed moved. They were standing on a dirt road that was running by a few empty fields. No longer in the city they'd been in. Castiel grinned, puffing up proudly.

"So…. You can fly?" Dean waved his arms around Castiel's shoulders, looking for any sign of wings.

"My wings are not visible to you. My true form would… melt your eyes out of your skull."

Dean pulled back, raising an eyebrow. "What else can you do?" Dean asked.

Castiel shrugged. He couldn't do very much right now, cut off from heaven, he was practically useless. "Would you… like to help me find out?

Dean responded with enthusiasm and put his hands on his hips, looking around for something. His eyes lit up and he smiled. "There's a half squished bird over there! Would you be able to heal it?" He pointed to flattened, dying mess in the middle of the road. Dean grabbed Castiel's sleave and dragged him over to it. They crouched down and Dean tried to ignore the blood and guts. Bird guts was different to people guts.

Castiel looked up at Dean as he scooped up the injured bird. Castiel couldn't help but feel a bit sad.

Dean was chewing on his lip and staring expectantly at the near dead bird with wide eyes. Innocence should have been etched into every soft line on that face, but it wasn't. Dean was not innocent. Dean knew what was real, what wasn't and he knew exactly how bad things could get. "Come on, Cas," he urged, nudging the angel gently.

Castiel stroked the blood-matted feathers gently, trying to coax the bird back in to life. He shut his eyes. It was difficult and tiring, but it wasn't like he'd need this energy for anything else, so he pulled the bird back into the world and it seemed to puff up in his hands, tiny wings fluttering, struggling against even smaller fingers. It tickled. That was a sensation Cas had never really felt before. He smiled and opened his hands, letting the bird fly free. He watched it as it disappeared into the night and continued to stare up at the stars once it was gone.

Dean gasped. "Okay… so you really are and angel," he whispered, a smile spreading across his face. He looked up at the sky and for a moment the street light showed his face clearly. Freckled nose, full lips and when he smiled, a lop sided grin with a gap between his front teeth.

Castiel thought that he should probably look in a mirror. He'd seen Jimmy from the outside, but things looked different in a mirror and it would be useful to feel home in his body. He looked down at the clothes he was wearing; baggy, black pants and a navy blue shirt that stretched almost down to his knees.

"I think there's a car coming," Dean mumbled and clamber to his feet, dusting off the knees of his jeans though they weren't dirty.

Cas looked down at the road. He could hear the roaring of an engine. He didn't move. He didn't know why exactly, but he just stayed there until the car came into view and Dean had to grab his arm and yank him off the road. Cas stumbled after the boy, getting dragged over to the fence that blocked off a field.

Dean was panting. He pressed himself back, trying to shrink away as the car came speeding past, narrowly missing them. He turned to Castiel. "I should get back to my brother," he announced and looked at the road, a lost look on his face.

Castiel nodded. "Of course… I will return you to your family." Two fingers to Dean's head later and they were standing outside the hotel room again.

Dean looked at the dingy room. He wanted to stay with Castiel and go somewhere he didn't have to worry about Sam. "Hey, Cas? Tomorrow… can you take me somewhere?"

Cas raised an eyebrow. "Where?"

"Somewhere far away. Just for a while…" Dean smiled at the boy in front of him. Castiel wasn't really an angel to Dean. He was just another boy, someone closer to his age than Sammy. He'd had enough of his brother. Little, five year old Sam who asked too many questions and refused to do what he was told. Dean opened the door and slipped inside, he raced around to the window and pulled back the curtain.

Castiel was still standing there, scratching at his shaggy brown hair that was in need of a haircut. The angel shivered and hugged himself, turning around and starting to walk away. He looked so lost. He looked like he had nowhere to go.

Dean bit his lip and ran back outside. "Hey, Cas!" he called out.

The boy turned around, surprised.

"Do you have anywhere to go?" Dean asked and held the door open.

Cas shook his head and stumbled inside the room.

There was a little boy, fast asleep on the couch, mouth hanging open.

Castiel stood awkwardly in the middle of the room, stretching the shirt he was wearing even further.

Dean handed a can of coke from the fridge and grabbed one for himself.

Cas looked at the can curiously. He didn't know what to do with it.

Dean snickered and reached over to open it for him. "You drink it," he said and smiled, sipping at his own drink.

Castiel gave it a sniff and set it down on the coffee table.

Dean asked Cas a lot of questions. He got answers that made absolutely no sense to him, but he really couldn't be bothered asking again, so he just listened patiently and kept glancing at Sam.

Sammy snorted and moaned in his sleep, wriggling a bit.

Dean curled up on the couch next to his brother, even though he did have his own room.

Castiel rested his head against the wall and closed his eyes, silently trying to reach his brothers. He couldn't. He had no clue what was going on up there. Cas felt bad, just sitting here with a human boy, not doing anything… He could travel distances with only a small amount of difficulty and he could only just heal a little bird, so there wasn't really much else he could do. So why not try to do a bit of good down here? Why not help out a boy who needs exactly what Castiel can provide? An escape.

In the middle of the night, there was a knock on the door. Dean woke with a start, turning to look at his brother, who was staring back, wide eyed. He then turned to Castiel, who was sitting with his head tipped to the side, looking at the door.

Dean slipped from the couch, stretching out his sore muscles. He staggered over to the door and looked through the peep hole. His dad stood there, bleeding and looking very sleepy. Dean turned back to look at the Angel who was slowly getting to his feet. Dean slowly unlocked the door, opening it so that his father could stumble in.

John Winchester pushed past his eldest son and went straight to the fridge.

Dean looked around the room, panicked, but he needn't have been.

The angel was gone. He'd vanished and part of believed that he'd never been there at all.

Castiel watched Dean as he tried to tell his father about the little angel who he'd met. Cas watched as if behind a screen. He was there, but no one could see him and he was distanced from everything.

Sam shouted about Dean leaving him alone and their father froze with a beer in his hand.

He started yelling at Dean. Shouting about how angels aren't real and how Sammy could have been hurt.

Castiel wished he could step in. He didn't like watching this and not being able to just reveal himself ad prove Dean's dad wrong. He waited. Then he couldn't wait any longer and he stepped right up to Dean and dragged him away. Far away.

Dean gasped and staggered and fell over as he looked around at their new surroundings. He looked up at Cas in surprise, panting slightly. "Where are we?"

Castiel looked around him. "I think we're in… Paris," he nodded to himself. He hadn't really meant to end up here…

Dean spluttered something along the lines of, "why are we in Paris," and rubbed at his eyes.

Cas shrugged.

Dean stood then and grabbed the slightly older looking boy's arm. "Let's go do some sightseeing!" he said cheerfully and started dragging Castiel along the path.

By the time it got dark, Dean and his little angel friend were running down an impossibly narrow alleyway. They were being chased by something, a demon or some other monster. Dean had pissed him off stealing a biscuit and he wasn't going to let them go easily.

Dean seemed to be enjoying it. He had his knife gripped tightly in his hands and kept pushing Cas out of the way whenever he stepped in front of him.

The creature shoved Dean aside roughly and stood in front of Castiel. It grinned, licking its lips slowly.

There was the faint sound of wings and then a much taller man was in between Castiel and the Demon.

"Balthazar," Castiel obviously tried to growl, but it came out a childish squeal.

Castiel's brother turned around and grabbed Cas' arm tightly. He then went to Dean and with one tap on the shoulder, Dean was gone, back to his family.

Cas started to protest, but he was dragged away, small vessel getting yanked back home.

Note: I started this while taking part in GISHWHES so updates will not be as constant as they could otherwise. ^_^ Also, they're 5 years older in the next bit I upload.