Okay, so this started out as a oneshot but it's probably going to be a chapter fic, WHICH I KNOW I DON'T NEED TO BE WRITING RIGHT NOW BUT HONESTLY I think it's a cool plot. I haven't updated any of my fics at all recently but I plan on getting more done because its summer! Hope y'all like it.
Cas hadn't been home in five years. It hadn't felt like a long time to be gone but he knew it was long enough for things to change, he just hoped that a small town like Encinitas, California hadn't changed too much. Walking into an LA airport was a bit of a culture shock after spending two years in Australia studying the Great Barrier Reef and then another three on a boat off the coast of the Philippines. Cas was pretty sure he looked like he'd been living in the jungle for three weeks without bathing but he didn't really care, he just wanted to get home.
After waiting for fifteen minutes to grab his luggage he pulled out the cellphone that he hadn't used in a few months and called his brother.
"Cassie?!"
"Hi Gabe,"
"I haven't heard from you in ages! What's crack-a-lackin' lil bro?"
"I need you to pick me up at the train station in like an hour."
"The train station? What train station? Encinitas train station?!"
Cas chuckled, "Yes Gabriel, Encinitas train station. I just got off the plane in LA."
"Are you kidding me?" Gabe shouted giddily, "You're home? That's awesome."
"So you'll pick me up?"
"Of course lil bro! I'll see you in an hour."
"See you then Gabriel."
Cas dragged his luggage two blocks to the train station and hopped on the T. Being on a train was very different than being on a boat. After basically living on a boat for three years even sitting in a metal box rolling down train tracks at a 100-mph felt more grounding. He already missed being on the ocean and couldn't be more grateful that Encinitas was on the coast.
Encinitas was the last stop. Cas lugged his things off the train and when he stepped out of the train station he closed his eyes and took a deep breath. He loved being home. He hadn't been off the train for more than five minutes when Gabriel found him. Cas heard him before he saw him.
"CASSIE!" Gabriel's voice rang right into his eardrums. He was tackled not a moment later. Gabriel had literally clung to him like a howler monkey. Cas stood still while Gabriel squeezed the life out of him. His tiny legs and arms were wrapped around him.
"Hello Gabriel, it's nice to see you. Can you let me go?"
Gabriel climbed off and beamed up at him. Cas couldn't help but smile back.
"Why didn't you tell me you were coming?" Gabe asked as they headed to his car.
Cas shrugged as he put his bags in the trunk of Gabriel's light pink fiat, "I wanted it to be a surprise."
"Well I'm glad you're home. It's been lonely at the bakery without you."
Gabriel Novak owned Gabe's a successful bakery and coffee shop right near the coast in Encinitas.
"Has a lot changed?" Cas asked as they parked at the bakery and went upstairs to their apartment, "Since I left?"
Gabe shrugged, "It has and it hasn't. The shop is pretty much the same, and I haven't had any roommates so your room is the same."
"But?"
"Some of our friends have moved away, and I've got some new ones that I know you'll love. The beach trash pick-up has become a fad, the beach is super clean now, thanks to you. Charlie's engaged."
"Wow," Cas tossed his bags in his room, "Lot's of new things."
"You know what's the newest thing?" Gabe asked.
"What?"
"You are fucking dirty and need to take a shower."
Cas punched him in the arm on the way to the bathroom.
-x-
When Cas got out of the shower he found Gabriel down in the shop. There were a couple regulars that Cas remembered and some new comers. But then again it had been five years so they could be regulars too.
"Cassie, you're clean!"
"Yes I am," he chuckled, "I'm gonna take a walk, I'll be back soon."
"You're going to the beach, aren't you?"
Cas gawffed and Gabriel crossed his arms. "Cassie, you just spent five years on the ocean."
"So? I miss our beach, it's home. I promise I'll be back soon to say hi to Charlie and whomever else."
Gabriel shooed him away and it took him all of five minutes to find the sandy wooden path that lead him straight to Swami State Beach and the ocean.
Cas slipped out of his berks and trudged through the sand to the edge of the water on the left side of the beach and plopped right down in the sand. It was starting to cool a little as fall neared but there were a few stragglers about.
Cas recognized the old couple not that far from him, Mr. and Mrs. Milton, and waved to them. Looking back to the ocean he closed his eyes and took a deep breath just as he had at the train station. Most people didn't think so but to Cas, every part of the ocean smelled different and he had missed the smell of the ocean at home so much.
When he had opened his eyes again the ocean was no longer empty. Two young men in surf suits were laughing and running straight into the waves with surf boards tucked under their arms. It was strange to see people surfing on this side of the beach because the waves were better during the day on the far-right side of the beach and the only surf shop in Encinitas was located on the other side of town.
They were tan like Californians but tall and muscular and from what Cas could tell, a lot rougher around the edges than the average Californian. He wondered for a moment who they were. The shorter one looked up as he was swerving down a wave and made eye contact with him but before Cas could even smile he wiped out. He laughed, cringing to himself and before he could see if the man was okay he heard someone calling his name.
-x-
Dean pulled their surf boards out of the garage while Sam turned the open sign of their surf shop to closed before locking up and grabbing his board from his brother.
"Ready?"
Sam nodded, "Yeah, the swell is supposed to be pretty sweet for the next couple hours."
"Awesome," Dean hefted his board under his arm as he and Sam headed down the street to the beach.
"Gabe called earlier."
Dean rose an eyebrow, "About?"
Sam shrugged, "Said he wants us to stop by later. I dunno what about."
"Huh," they reached the wooden path to the beach, "Hey, last one to the water's a little BITCH!"
Dean tripped Sam a little before darting for the water.
"Jerk!" Sam shouted back and crashed into the water right behind him and was soon paddling ahead of Dean because his arms were more like boat oars than anything else.
Dean caught up to Sam and they sat on their boards facing the beach waiting for the next big wave. While they bobbed in the water Dean spotted someone on the shore that he hadn't seen before. After living in a small town like Encinitas for a couple years you get used to seeing the same faces and this wasn't one he'd seen in the four years he'd been living here.
It was a dark-haired man in cut off shorts and a worn-out t-shirt. He had his eyes closed and his feet buried in the sand. Before Dean could wonder about who he might be a big wave surged up behind him.
"Heads-up Dean!" Sam shouted and they paddled over to the swell and caught the wave at just the right moment.
As Dean was catching the wave at its highest point he looked up at the beach to see what he assumed was Charlie, (he would recognize her fiery hair anywhere) running straight for the guy sitting in the sand. That's when he realized the man had his eyes open and was looking right at him, and of course all of this held Dean's attention for much too long and he wiped out hard.
When he finally resurfaced Charlie and the dark-haired guy were walking away. Dean turned when he heard paddling up behind him, and of course, his little brother was laughing at him.
"Shut up," Dean grumbled and splashed Sam.
"Dude, that was the hardest you've wiped out in years. What happened?"
Dean shrugged, "I dunno man, I was perfect, right on the wave and then I saw Charlie running towards some guy on the beach and it caught my focus."
"Well considering that Charlie is 100,000% gay, I guess it is a little weird to see her running towards a man."
"It's whatever," Dean said shaking his head, "Come on, let's catch a few more waves before we head over to Gabe's."
-x-
"CAS!"
Cas turned away from the surfer that wiped out and looked over to see Charlie running full speed towards him. Charlie had been his best friend since high school and he hadn't seen her since she visited him while he was in Australia.
"CHARLIE!" Cas stood and caught her in his arms when she jumped at him.
"Dude!" She giggled, "You're home! What the fuck?"
"I know, I know. I wanted it to be a surprise." Cas chuckled, holding her at arm's length, "Aren't you surprised?"
"Heck yeah I'm surprised," She punched him in the arm, "Come on, we gotta get back to the bakery everyone's waiting for you."
"Okay, okay."
Charlie pulled Cas off the beach and down the street by his hand. When they got to the bakery all of Cas and Gabriel's friends were sitting inside, Chuck the owner of the bookstore two blocks down, Charlie's fiancée Gilda, and Balthazar, Castiel's good friend and college roommate.
"WELCOME HOME!" they chorused at him.
"Thanks you guys," Cas said smiling sheepishly, "I'm happy to be home."
Balthazar hugged him first and then Gilda proceeded to smooch him all over his face and then when Chuck gave him a shy wave Cas pulled him into a hug because he knew he wouldn't get one otherwise.
Cas sat down with everyone at one of the tables in the bakery and told them about his travels; what he learned, what he saw, what he did. He was in the middle of describing how his hand went numb for three and a half days when he got a minor sting from a jelly just off the coast of the Philippines when Gabriel hopped over the counter and skidded to a stop in front of the shop window.
"They're here!"
Brows furrowed Cas looked to his brother, "Who's here?"
"My new friends! Well I've known them for about as long as you were gone but they're basically family Cassie and I wanted you to meet them!"
Cas looked to his friends in question, "Sam and Dean," Charlie clarified, "They opened a surf shop down the street about four years ago."
"They're in here basically every day," Balthazar added.
Chuck nodded, "They're officially part of the group."
Cas opened his mouth to ask another question but the words stopped in his throat when the two men who he'd seen surfing entered the bakery. They were still in their wetsuits but they had them unzipped and pushed half way down so that their torsos were bare save for the pukka shell necklace on the tallest one and an odd shaped pendant on a long leather chord around the neck of the shorter one.
"Samsquatch! Deano! Glad you could make it." Gabriel grinned taking their hands and yanking them towards everyone else.
"Sure thing Gabe, what's this about?" the tall one asked.
"I want you to meet someone," Gabe let go of their hands and pulled Cas to his feet, "This is my little brother Cassie! He just got home after being away for five god damn years!"
They both smiled warmly at him. Cas couldn't get over how handsome they both were but the shorter one (not that he was short because they were both just very large men) was remarkably beautiful and Cas found that he had a tough time looking away from him.
"Hey, nice to meet yah, I'm Dean and this is my little brother Sammy."
Dean held out his hand and Cas shook it without looking away from his face.
"You can call me Sam. You're a marine biologist, right?"
That got Cas' attention, and when he took Sam's hand he shook his head no, "Oceanographer actually but close. And uh hi, nice to meet you. You can call me Cas."
"Sam and Dean moved here a couple months after you left for Australia and opened a surf shop. Deano here couldn't resist my pie and came in like every day because he's a fatass."
"Excuse you," Dean huffed, "I didn't hear you complaining, I was good business."
"You haven't paid for pie in three years," Gabe dead panned.
"Whatever."
Cas chuckled, "I'm glad someone enjoys Gabriel's company."
Gabriel scowled at him.
Behind them Charlie, Gilda, and Balthazar stood.
"We've gotta get going," Charlie said sadly, "Balthy is helping Gilda and I plan our wedding and we've got an appointment with the florist."
"I've gotta head out too," Chuck mumbled, "I left the bookstore unattended."
"Bye you guys," Cas said hugging each of them, "It was so great seeing you."
"We'll catch up soon love, don't worry," Balthy said and gave him a huge smooch on the cheek.
That left Cas alone with Gabriel, Sam and Dean.
"So," Cas turned to look at them, "You wiped out pretty hard back there huh?"
Sam let out a loud snort and Dean's cheeks turned bright red. Gabriel cackled when he realized Cas was talking about Dean surfing.
"Yeah, hurt like a bitch." Dean smiled a little, "That doesn't normally happen."
"Do you surf Cas?" Sam asked.
He shrugged, "A little. I haven't in a long time."
"Cassie's prefers being in the water rather than riding on top of it," Gabriel explained.
Standing awkwardly Cas smiled at Sam and Dean, "It was really nice meeting you and I'm sure I'll being seeing a lot more of you based off of what Gabriel has said but the jetlag is really starting to hit me so I think I'm gonna hit the hay."
"Yeah, it was nice meeting you," Sam said patting his shoulder.
"See you around Cas," Dean smiled.
"See you upstairs Gabriel."
Cas felt right to sleep when his head hit the pillow.
-x-
"Yeah, sleep tight lil bro!" Gabriel aid fondly as Cas made his way upstairs.
"So that's the youngest Novak huh?" Dean asked.
Dean had to admit he hadn't expected to meet the guy from the beach that soon and he most certainly hadn't expected him to be so handsome. Sure, he was a little socially awkward and a little nerdy but in a cute and endearing way.
"He looks nothing like you," Sam observed.
Gabriel shrugged, "I know, he looks like Michael. I look like Lucifer and Anna doesn't look like any of us."
Dean had known Gabriel for almost five years and still hadn't gotten used to the fact that his older brother was named after Satan.
"So is he living here for good or…?" Dean asked curiously.
Gabe shrugged, "I dunno. We'll probably talk about it at some point. I think he might look for a job at the university just outside of town. He left for Australia right after he graduated and was only supposed to be there for two years."
"What happened?" Sam asked.
"He was offered another paid internship and ended up living on a boat in the middle of the ocean off the coast of the Philippines for three years. Last time I heard from him was a little over a month ago and then he called me this morning asking if I could pick him up from the train station."
"Graduated? How old is he?" Dean asked.
"He's a year younger than Sam, 21. He's kind of a prodigy I guess?" Gabriel blew it off like it wasn't that amazing, "He graduated from college when he was like 17."
"Wow," Sam mused.
Sam continued to ask Gabe questions but their voices faded into the background as Dean got lost in his thoughts. He kept thinking about how at peace Cas felt sitting on the beach with his eyes closed as the tide got closer and closer to him. There was no worries or fears on his face. He wasn't afraid of the encroaching tide, he welcomed it.
Dean thought he was beautiful.
Dean liked his cut off shorts and his Birkenstocks and his worn-out t-shirt and his messy hair. He liked how carefree and at peace he seemed. He really liked how much Cas loved the ocean and how Cas' eyes resembled the water he cared about so deeply.
Dean had only known Cas for all of twenty-minutes.
Hey guys! You probably are thinking that I'm getting myself into a huge mess because I'm starting another chapter story but honestly I tried to make this a oneshot and literally couldn't. I'm better at chapter stories, I'm just terrible at finishing them. I hope you liked this! Read and Review! One love.
Liz.