A/N: Hi all! This is a fic my friend Pancake and I decided to collab over about a year ago and just got around to typing out. The first two chapters we wrote together going back and forth. After chapter two we switch off every chapter. Enjoy! Reviews are appreciated!

March 1982, Lawrence, Kansas

Dean Winchester had been a fairly normal child. He had been a bit more melodramatic than the other children on the play ground, and his imagination had been just a wee bit overactive, but for the most part he hadn't been anything truly special. He had known what he liked and what he didn't like, and while there were many things that he didn't like (like all of that nasty green stuff his mother tried to feed him), there were only three things that he could say he really liked. Those things were pie, the custom Hot Wheels Impala that his father had gotten him for Christmas, and Cas. And, while the other two items were definitely far more important to him than anything else (other than family, of course), Cas had been his one true treasure in life. Because, without Cas, he wouldn't have become half of the man he is today.

—-

It was about two months after Dean had turned three, that Castiel first appeared to him. Back in the days when Hot Wheels were the only cars a guy needed, and shirts that said, "I Wuv Hugz," were completely acceptable wardrobe choices. It was a day that had started out as a rather upsetting one for the young Winchester. Mary and John Winchester had been having another fight. One that had began as something simple. John had forgotten to change one of the lightbulbs in the living room fan, and that had somehow morphed into a rather loud conversation about how he spent too many hours at the garage. And, as usual, Dean had been sent to the confines of his room for getting under their feet.

It hadn't been his fault that he was in their way though! He had been hungry! Yes, it may not have been the best time to be pestering his parents for a snack, but the monster in his tummy was not going to quit growling at him until one of them got him something to eat. His mother had given him a helpless smile at that explanation, but did little more to satisfy the beast that was his rumbling stomach. Apparently she had cared nothing about his well being, and would rather send him to his possible demise than spend the few minutes it would take for her to make him a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. So, there he sat with only his Hot Wheels and a small sippy cup of apple juice to tide him over until his parents were done with their latest spat.

Most of his time in this exile had been spent smashing a couple of the tiny cars into each other, and making some rather obnoxious explosion noises.

"Reeeee! Psssssshhhhhhwa! Pwaaaaaaah! Pooooosh!"

It wasn't until he heard the sound of flapping wings coming from the window behind him that he looked up from his pretend destruction. At first he thought that it might have been a large bird flying by. Like one of those geese that had chased him at the park after he had tried to generously share some of his applesauce with it. But, when he turned around, instead of some monstrous goose with razor sharp teeth aligning its beak there was a little boy, no older than four, perched atop his windowsill. Dean froze, his little black impala clutched protectively in a tiny fist, and stared.

Of course he knew that there should be something wrong about a little boy dressed in a yellow raincoat sitting in his bedroom window, but at the same time his tiny three year old mind was telling him that this was all perfectly acceptable. Looking the new child over one last time, from the messy black hair crushed under a floppy yellow rain hat, to the bright red Wellington's that were far too big for his feet, the little Winchester finally cast his eyes to the side.

"Hi…" He mumbled as if unsure of himself.

There was silence as the other boy stared with unnerving blue eyes, and Dean, self conscious, began to roll the small impala back and forth along the floor in front of him.

"You wanna play cars with me?" Dean finally asked in a quiet voice when the silence had become too much.

"How do you 'play cars?'" the mysterious child questioned after another moment of quiet.

"It's real easy!" Dean said, suddenly excited as he got up and went to the window to hand the other boy the orange car that he had been crashing into the impala earlier. "You jus' gotta roll them around and make some beepy noises, and sometimes some screechy noises! Because some cars go real fast!"

After that, the three year old dropped back down to the ground, and began to roll his car around on the floor beneath the new child's feet, making a few 'screeeee' sound effects as he did so. The dark haired boy looked slightly confused, but eventually began to roll his borrowed car over his knee.

"Beep, beep… Beep?" He looked to Dean for affirmation.

"Yeah! Like that!" Dean shouted, bringing the impala up and running it into the orange car. "Psssssssshck! Crash! Oh no! It's horrible! Pssssh!"

At this the new child just stared, seemingly lost as to what was going on, and Dean stopped with a tilt of his head.

"Say, what's you' name kid?"

The boy tilted his head in an imitation of Dean, and gave him a thoughtful look. "Castiel. My name is Castiel."

"Castle… Cas-steel…. Ca-caste," Dean sputtered in an attempt to pronounce the other's name. "No! Too hard!" He finally said, his face all red from thinking too hard. "Imma jus' call you Cas."

Castiel narrowed his eyes as he thought about the nickname, and for a moment Dean thought that he had made the boy mad. After all, he had seen his mother give that same (but much scarier) look to his father many times, and things never ended well when that look was involved. After another moment, however, the boy simply nodded and began to push his car around again.

"Ok…. Cas is fine."

Dean smiled in relief, and held out his hand in the same way that he had seen many adults do when meeting for the first time. "Cool! My name's Dean. Dean Winchester!"

Castiel nodded, completely missing the gesture, and instead responded with a simple, "Hello Dean."