A/N: Clearly I needed another WIP, as if I didn't have enough. :P But this story just demanded to be written at 3:25 in the morning and so I started writing it. On my cell phone. In the dark. Ya... Anyways, the main inspiration for this comes from Lettie's recent Destiel steampunk art for her advent and Wrapped in Piano Strings by Radical Face (I have links to both of these on the LJ version of this story if you're so inclined). Both of them were integral in the creation of this fic so... ya. ^^ I'm really excited to see where this takes me and I hope you all are too. Lemme know what you think. (This is just a lil' taste of what's to come! I promise!)
Cas was the youngest son of four to a notable watch maker and as such had always been afforded the luxury of attending school long past the age that most merchant's children continued their studies. Always having one of the older boys in the shop to help his father had rendered him a bit superfluous to the family business and so he had been left to his own devices as long as he stayed out of trouble. That is, until the riots began. You see, Castiel had been born into an era of great unrest in the country, politics turning violent in the streets, and though he had remained mostly ignorant of it for the majority of his life, it quickly took over.
His oldest brother, Lucifer, took off to join the underground revolutionary movement, convinced he could make a difference in this world and bring about change. After that, Michael, the next in line, joined the King's Royal Army, as noble in purpose and pure in intentions as his brother before him. Gabriel, the last before the gauntlet was passed to Cas, didn't stay long after their departure and soon left, hoping to find a life outside of the struggle that had torn his family apart.
Then, and only then, did Cas come to understand the true extent of what had been raging on around him all these years. He had been forced to leave his academic pursuits and learn his father's craft, for he had an unwed twin sister to care for, and his father was all but broken after his great loss.
But Castiel was not the only one to have been so touched by tragedy at the hands of this attempted revolution. There was another family, growing up right beside them, that also knew the price to be paid for great change. A mother lost, a father gone in all but body, and two brothers left to grow up too soon, looking after each other their primary goal. Luckily, over the years, they came to find good friends to help them along the way. A local engineer to take them under his wing and teach them the tools of his trade. The owner of the nearby inn and her daughter, to offer them food and a place to stay when they had none. And soon to be, a watch maker's son, a friend to one, a lover to the other.
This is a story of how, despite much pain and sorrow, against all odds, a group of misfits came together to find something they were all desperately searching for. Something everyone needs. A family.