Title: "I'll teach you how to human"
Story by
Chapter 1
It'd been a slow week. No cases to go after. The Winchesters were experiencing that eerie feeling that often, though not for them, comes with peace. They'd usually do something together, like travelling to some concert or landmark, but this week Sam was taking time off to read and rest, as he had the flu.
Dean grew increasingly restless in the motel room, bored. He didn't want to spend his time off just killing time at bars, as he often did. They had agreed on a week off unless something big happened and he wanted to live it up.
- "I said I'm not going" – said Sam, adamant – "I told you I want to read, and besides I'm sick. I don't even want to try to keep up".
- "C'mon Sammy…" – asked Dean, rolling his eyes at his brother. – "Don't you do this to me".
- "you're a big boy" – said Sam mockingly, his eyes but a thin sarcastic line – "You'll find what to do" – his mouth opened as if he had just come up with something – "Take Cass with you".
- "Wh- what?... Cass?" – said Dean, making a face – "for a fun week out?"
- "well yeah… I mean you could teach him how to act more like a person… so he can help in future investigations without it looking like he's harassing our witnesses"
Sam had a point. Also, Cass was good people, cool guy... maybe not week-of-fun cool, but cool. The boys were discussing this as Castiel sat on one of the motel beds looking at them, wondering if his opinion was at all necessary. He didn't like the idea of wasting time, though it wasn't technically wasting as there was nothing that needed doing. He gave it a second thought and in doing so added "I'll do it".
Both Winchesters looked at him then Sam finished the discussion by saying "ok, so it's done. Go you two".
An hour later they were in the impala, driving in no specific direction. – "we're going on a road trip" – Dean explained while Castiel just looked at him… a look that only meant he didn't know what a road trip was… which was reasonable, the angel simply zapped anywhere he wanted to go. The time in between departure and arrival meant nothing to him. "O…kay" – Dean mumbled to himself, feeling the need to fill the silence.
- "So we… I… I am going to drive us around, and we'll stop at restaurants and places along the way… hopefully find something interesting".
- "You know…" – Castiel said very slowly, like trying to reason with Dean – "If there is somewhere you want to go, we can just go there in an instant".
- "yeah yeah, I know Cass, but where's the fun in that?" – Dean smiled and looked at him expectantly, as if he could understand.
- "It's not supposed to be fun, Dean… you go to a place and that's it" – Castiel answered, frowning a little.
- "Oh boy… we gotta teach you how to human, kid" – Dean shook his head looking at the road ahead.
- "I am not a kid, Dean, I am exceptionally older than you" – Castiel pointed out, informatively.
Dean felt like it was going to be a long trip. He tried to make conversation, so they would talk, like he did with Sam when they travelled together. Castiel answered every question diligently, but rarely asked about anything, so it wasn't really a conversation. This annoyed Dean after a while and he ended up blurting out "Can't we just have a conversation, Cass? This is getting boring".
Castiel didn't really understand the point of conversations. He had seen soap operas on television at the motel after the Winchesters had kindly explained to him that watching porn in a room full of people was impolite and off limits. Soap operas and sitcoms were OK though. The characters talked about their day, life, chores, work… if often involved some sort of comedic or dramatic situation. It all seemed a little pointless, he was not good at in-betweens… he either did something with an objective or did nothing. Seeing the annoyance on Dean's face he finally made an attempt at this conversation thing.
- "Why do we need to do this?" – Castiel asked.
- "Do what?" – Dean answered, making a confused face.
- "Go on a… road trip" – He said the words *road trip* as if he were pronouncing the word banana backwards.
- "what you didn't wanna come? And you tell me now?" – Dean mumbled, still unable to understand what the angel was getting at.
- "No… I mean, why do you get bored? Yes… why do people get bored…?" – he asked, his face blank, his doubt genuine.
- "Well Cass… my job's my life, I do it all the time. It's nice to have free time every now and then, and staying at the motel doing nothing feels like a waste" – Dean was pretty satisfied with his explanation.
- "And you expect me to learn how to understand human actions" – said Castiel, looking out the window.
Dean laughed a little, looking at Castiel for a moment then back at the road. He felt Cass was too uptight, too… military like. He had grown up in the life of a hunter, and that meant military training to a point, so he new it felt really good to let off some steam. – "It'll be good for you, Cass." – he smiled without looking at the angel but at a sign by the road – "Oh look, there's a lake nearby. We're goin' fishin'!".