WARNING: Spoilers for 4x02 "Are You There God? It's Me, Dean Winchester".
Author's Note: This oneshot looks at Castiel's thoughts when he tells Dean to show him respect during the last sequence in "Are You There God? It's Me, Dean Winchester." (4X02). Also, this is not a slash fiction. I mean, feel free to interpret it however you like. I just thought I would clarify that it was not intended to be a slash fiction.
Disclaimer: I don't own Supernatural.
Castiel stood in Bobby's kitchen watching as Dean slowly became awake and aware of the angel's presence.
The hunter lifted his head from his make-shift bed on the floor and moved like he was getting up to head for the kitchen, but checked first to ensure his younger brother was safe and still asleep. Castiel had to admire the dedication Dean had to the younger man. The way it seemed engrained in Dean to check on Sam. It wasn't a choice so much as an instinct.
Dean, apparently satisfied with his brother's state of peaceful unconsciousness, finally rose to his feet and approached Castiel. As the man came level with the angel, Castiel decided to try and ease the tension by giving him a compliment.
"Excellent job with the witnesses." The seraph began, but was instantly interrupted.
"You were hip to all this?" the hunter questioned, his expression a mix of anger and disgust.
Castiel sighed inwardly as he tried to quickly decipher the meaning behind Dean's words. He decided that Dean must have been inquiring as to his own knowledge of the recent events during their occurrence. "I was…made aware." He replied, trying to sound casual.
Castiel quickly realized his response had only angered the man further.
Dean wasted no time in spitting back some kind of aggressive remark thanking Castiel for his "angelic assistance" during the Rise of the Witnesses. Dean's tone was dripping with sarcasm, yet it still took Castiel a further moment of analysis to conclude the hunter was indeed trying to insinuate that Castiel had intentionally been of no help during the event.
Dean continued his angry rant, complaining that he had nearly been killed by a Witness.
Castiel calmly pointed out that Dean had not actually died, but this did nothing to appease the edgy man that stood before the angel.
The conversation continued in this manner for a little while longer. Dean would throw a snide or scathing remark at Castiel, who would do his best to understand the meaning behind Dean's terminology before providing his own attempt at a commanding retort.
At one point Dean commented that angels were supposed to be guardians for humankind, clearly indicating he did not see Castiel as such. He seemed to see Castiel as useless.
And desperately Castiel wanted to convey to Dean the power that he possessed- to force the hunter to recognize that he was a warrior of God, and that he should be treated with honor and dignity. Not like some common servant of humanity that had done something to offend Dean. He had pulled this man's soul from the fiery pits of damnation! Yet Dean behaved as though Castiel were his enemy or his subordinate. But certainly not his superior.
Finally it all became too much.
As Castiel tried to explain to Dean that the loss of the Seal of the Witnesses was a loss felt heavily by himself and the rest of Heaven, because six of his fellow angels had been slaughtered in the failed attempt to preserve the seal, the hunter scoffed.
He actually smirked and let out a brief snort of laughter as if mocking the efforts of Castiel's brethren, and something close to anger flared up within the angel then.
Castiel got very close to the hunter, and once he was mere inches from the man's face, he met his gaze with an icy stare.
"You should show me some respect. I dragged you out of Hell…I can throw you back in." he said, loading his words with as much spite as he could muster.
And it worked.
Dean flinched, noticeably. Fear flooded the human's eyes as quickly as his arrogant remarks had come to him only moments before.
Still, instead of feeling satisfaction Castiel felt only a sort of hollow pain.
Right then and there should have been his moment of self-righteous victory for having stricken real fear into the cocky heart of Dean Winchester. Instead, it was the moment he came to realize where his true loyalties were already beginning to lie.
Because after all the loss he had felt this past week when he his brothers perished… None of it had affected him more than the way he felt at seeing this human so afraid. Seeing the obvious terror this man experienced at the mention of being returned to Hell… Guilt welled up inside the angel.
It was clear that Dean had been afraid not just of Hell, but of Castiel.
Castiel had succeeded in showing this man his power. He had forced Dean to hold him in higher esteem, but in doing so, he had genuinely scared the hunter. And Castiel knew as soon as the fear had entered Dean's eyes that he would gladly spend hours listening to those taunting remarks from moments before if it could take that fear away…
He had not actually meant those words. He could not actually imagine sending this infuriatingly stubborn man back into the pit.
Because as flawed and frustrating as Dean Winchester was, he was also one of the most interesting of God's creations that Castiel had seen. He felt drawn to protect the hunter, not harm him.
He also felt close to him, as though being the one to have raised him from Hell's unending torment had forged a bond between them both- an unspoken bond resulting in a loyalty and trust that Dean clearly did not reciprocate. But a bond none the less.
And so Castiel's chaotic spiral away from Heaven began.
Not after a dramatic moment of defiance against his brothers and sisters, but in a moment of unvoiced compassion for a human being.
The human unofficially in his charge.
Dean had been wrong when he said angels were meant to be guardians. God had designed angels to be soldiers of Heaven, not saviors of man. But starting that night Castiel knew deep inside that he would guard Dean Winchester, whether he was meant to or not.
Secondary Author's note: Thanks for reading! Reviews are genuinely appreciated, so fire away. :D