…..
Title: Prayers to Broken Stone
Disclaimer: I do not own Supernatural and/or anything associated with it. Weep.
Rating: PG-13
Genre/ Pairing: Castiel & Ruby. Apocafic.
Spoilers: Series. Season 4. Nothing specific yet.
Summary: Ashes ashes we all fall down.
….
i.
Thirty-seven days after the last Seal broke and Hell rose on Earth, Ruby hurtled through the darkness with an angel in front of her and a hellhound on her ass.
The building used to be a convenience store. She had gone in to find something they would use along the lines Demon Off (salt, for starters) and had issued strict, easily understandable instructions, like stay, that Castiel had either not fucking comprehended or ignored. Ruby planned on issuing him the most severe ass chewing of his life except that she was going to get the most severe ass chewing of her life, literally, unless he picked up the pace.
That was how her day started. It never really got better.
….
"I said stay. Stay. It's easy. There's no participation on your part. Stand there and look pretty." There was no way to save her shoe, she had kicked the hound in the general area of what she thought was its face and got teeth instead. "Dogs understand stay."
And Castiel was standing there looking pretty; staring off into the middle distance like Ruby was just making annoying white noise. He frowned at dogs though, and shifted his attention from the reddened sky to her.
"We shouldn't split up."
She twirled a finger in the air. Slouched down on the broken concrete and huffed out a sigh. "I'm feeling the trust, wings."
"It's not about trust." A three step stalk to the dirty scrabble of claw marks that marked where the hellhound had met a sticky end. It was never about trust, because she was a demon and he was an angel and they mixed about as well as heaven and hell should. Which is to say not, but she hadn't turned him over to Lilith and that ought to have counted for something.
She watched him shove his hands in his pockets and tilt his head skyward.
"We should leave. It's not safe here."
She snorted but stood, folding her arms across her stomach, lopsided and curling her toes in the ashy dirt. "It's not safe anywhere. But you just had to smite Fido and put a holy blip on everyone's radar. I hope you're happy."
He shot her an honest to God glare, set his jaw and started walking.
Heh. Ruby's How To: Make Enemies and Alienate Your Allies. She'd write a book.
"Hey- wait up!"
….
When it rained, it was in great icy gouts that drove the horizon into a flat line. Water poured through the cracks, swirled in pools across the floor in crazed oil slick patterns.
Not even Castiel would walk in this.
Maybe there was some sense waffling around in that crazed up angel brain that wasn't taken up by Bible verses and big blue eyed I told you so's.
"We need a plan."
"We have a plan. A good plan. We choose life, remember?"
He looks a little sulky, mouth turned down. "That's not a plan." But rain soaked and pulled in on himself, he didn't add much except to slink down closer to the block of concrete. Ruby had the impression of ruffled feathers and didn't bother to hide a brittle smile.
"We can hold hands and sing kumbayah?"
"Perhaps something more long term."
"White picket fence and two point five adorable little kids with their daddy's eyes and their mommy's hair?"
Castiel doesn't move, but he's looking at her out of the corner of his eye warily.
"Relax. Unclench. You're not my type. I like my feathers in pillows, thanks."
Rainwater rose in a lapping, filthy wake up to Ruby's feet. She pulls her legs up and folds them under her, awkwardly leaning on Castiel to do so, feeling the sodden material of that damn trench coat against her side.
He's like a rock. But it feels nice to know she's not alone in this, of having something solid beside her, and apparently he's willing to risk demon cooties to have the same.
She could stay here and it wouldn't make any difference because there wasn't anywhere else to go. Wandering around putting the restless dead down had lost its appeal when east coast had dropped into the ocean. But apparently, Castiel had a Mission. And whether or not it was God or just a lost voice shouting echoes, he followed it.
The world hasn't ended for him. He won't believe it.
Not till God wills it.
…