Disclaimer: I own nothing. Supernatural and characters all belong to Eric Kripke and the CW network. I make no money from this fanfiction.
Dean slowly blinks his eyes open, stretching slightly in the warm indent that had formed in the memory foam mattress while he slept. The sheets were twisted slightly around him, and a strong arm was draped over his chest. He glances down to see Cas' head resting against his chest, and he chuckles slightly at his unusual sleeping posture- one leg half dangling off the edge of the bed, the other sprawled over Dean's legs, one arm tucked neatly underneath him, the other flung across Dean's chest.
Dean usually always woke up first, and when he did, he liked to just stay put and watch Cas sleep. His face relaxed, his features serene, his mouth slightly open, snoring softly in a way that was nothing short of adorable. His face would accumulate a thin layer of stubble overnight, and his hair would arrange itself into the best damn sex hair Dean had ever seen, that is, besides Castiel's actual sex hair (which was nothing short of glorious.)
Dean would just lie there, in the warm indent of his mattress, basking in the beam of sunlight that came through the window and hit straight across the bed at this time of day, with his angel curled against him, staying still for as long as possible before he finally had to get up. And when he did, he'd always wake Castiel up gently, with soft touches or maybe a gentle kiss, because call him a total sap for admitting it, but he loved being the one to see Castiel's blue eyes flutter open every morning, and he'd never miss it for the world.
Today, Dean scratches Castiel's upper back softly, a gesture of soothing comfort between them that had began soon after the Fall and had never really stopped. He runs a hand through his angel's hair gently and just like that, his eyes flutter open softly, and Dean's caught up in the sheer blue of them, and somehow that never gets old.
"Morning, Cas," Dean breathes, and Castiel stretches like a cat for a moment before murmuring back a soft "Good morning, Dean," and curling into Dean a little more. Dean smiles for a moment and plants a soft kiss on Castiel's temple before sliding out from under the covers and padding into the bathroom.
He returns a few moments later to see that Cas is rubbing his eyes and sitting up straight in bed, having decided to actually get up instead of trying to go back to sleep. Dean settles in beside him, and he kisses Cas softly on the cheek, the stubble brushing his lips briefly, and Cas just grins and takes Dean's hand into his own, interweaving the fingers with his own. Somehow, they never left the honeymoon phase, and here they are, years later, and still holding hands like a couple of teenagers. And he'd hate to admit it, but Dean loves every minute of it.
Just then, the door creaks open, and a tiny human, no older than 4, comes padding in through the doorway, a small blanket wrapped around her shoulders.
"Good morning, Angel. Climb on up!" Dean says, and the little figure squeals in excitement at the invitation and rushes over to the bed, and with a little help from Dean, she scrambles onto the mattress.
"Daddy!" she giggles excitedly, and Cas just laughs and swoops her up into his arms.
"How's our little princess doing, hmm?" he asks, tickling her gently.
"Good," she says. "I didn't have any bad dreams last night, Papa."
Cas smiles and kisses her on the cheek. "That is excellent news."
Dean just smiles at the sight of the two of them. Hell, if you would have asked him before the Fall if he ever thought he'd find himself here- six years later, with Cas, and a daughter to call their own- he'd never have guessed.
"I'm glad to hear it, Angel," he says, and then he lifts her off of Cas' lap and into his arms. "Now what do you say we all get cleaned up and dressed and then we can go get some breakfast before we drop you off at playschool?"
She nods excitedly. "Okay, Daddy."
Dean slides out of bed and takes his daughter by the hand and leads her down the hallway into her own bedroom. He opens the closet doors and helps her pick out some clothes: a twirly white skirt with pink polka dots, a pair of black tights, and a soft gray Guns and Roses t-shirt and though she may not yet fully grasp what it means, she saw her Daddy wearing a similar one and demanded one of her own, so Dean spent the next few days scouring the internet trying to find one, and when he finally did, he put it on rush shipping.
He hears the shower water running in the bedroom as he helps his daughter get dressed, and then he leads her into the little hall bathroom she's claimed as her own, and he helps her brush her teeth and then he brushes her soft blond hair and pulls it back and braids it, something he picked up fairly quickly once he became responsible for the appearance and behavior of a tiny girl human, because tiny girl humans need help with this sort of thing. Once he ties off the braid with a little elastic, he hears the shower water click off, so he leads Angel back into her bedroom and sits down in the small easy chair in the corner of the room as she packs her little Batman backpack, which she had specifically asked for after rejecting all of the vaguely feminine backpacks as "wimpy," claiming that she wanted a superhero backpack, and even starting a small rant about how much the lack of female superheroes vexed her. Though the three of them had gotten some strange looks in the aisle of Walmart, Dean had never been more proud.
Angel Mary-Ellen Winchester certainly lived up to her Daddy's Winchester legacy. A few weeks back, she'd gotten sent home early from playschool, because she had seen a five year old boy picking on a three year old boy, demanding a toy firetruck from him and threatening to hit him. Naturally, her response had been to shove him back against the wall and tell him to "knock it off or I'll have my Papa smite you!" which hadn't gone over well with the daycare supervisors.
No, they didn't tell her everything, though they certainly intended to once she got older, maybe ten or eleven, around the age that Sam found out. But she knew enough. She knew her Papa used to be an angel, and she knew that her Daddy was a superhero who protected the world from evil scary monsters, which went a long way towards curing her fear of the dark, after Dean had assured her that if any monsters tried to get her, he'd beat the living crap out of them.
Of course, no monsters could get her at night, since Angel's room was as protected as Bobby's panic room, if not more so- salt mixed into the paint, iron reinforced walls, thin iron bars worked into the baseboards that ran all around the room, angel warding symbols under the paint on the walls and door, and an enormous devil's trap under the paint on the ceiling, not to mention the protective symbols carved into her crib, and then later her toddler bed. A giant triple-locked box in her closet held food, water, and some basic hunting materials. Before the adoption was finalized, Sam had spent almost a month helping Dean and Cas turn her room into the house's panic room, protecting her from anything and everything that could possibly hurt their little girl. And of course, it went without saying that whenever they got the call from Sam, they'd drop everything and head to Kermit to return the favor. Sam and Amelia had been trying for two or three years, ever since they got married, but Amelia's uterus just refused to get with the program. Dean and Cas had suggested adoption, but Sam and Amelia were determined, and they wanted a child that was purely, 100% theirs. Amelia was on IVF now, though, so hopefully that will help them welcome their own little Winchester into the family. But until then, they have dogs, 3 of them to be exact.
When Sam finally came clean to Amelia, about everything, with the proof to back it up, she accepted it better than anyone expected, meaning that she only locked Sam out of the house and car for a week before finally agreeing to "talk about it." She'd come around, though, and when Dean saw just how happy she made Sam, he had no choice but to back them 100% of the way.
So yeah, they were still cautious. They still kept some stuff, things they would need if anything creepy came knocking. But they had given up hunting entirely. It had been a hard transition for Dean, but over the years, he'd transitioned from knives and whiskey to number two pencils and coffee, and now he teaches the mythology classes at the local high school, and he likes it more than he'll admit. He's still in his comfort zone- he gets to talk about the things he's known all his life, and it gives him that satisfying thrill of passing on his own knowledge that he experienced with Sammy growing up. Cas co-runs a small bakery in town with two other people. After the Fall, Dean had showed him how to make apple pie, and he'd never really looked back after that. For the most part, he makes all the bakery's pies, but Dean had to admit, he can frost a cake like nobody's business.
Dean blinks, realizing that he had sort of lost himself in his train of thought, and Angel comes up to him, her backpack all packed up with the things she needs for the day, and he helps her zip it up and slip it onto her shoulders. Then he leads her into the master bedroom, where Cas is finishing getting dressed, having showered and shaved and brushed his teeth. Right now he's already got his jeans on and he pulls on a gray T-shirt before shrugging his arms into his black leather jacket, and damn, somehow Dean never got tired of seeing his husband in it.
Angel runs up to Cas, who picks her up and twirls her around for a minute.
"Well, don't you look pretty," he says. "Daddy even braided your hair today. You should tell him thank you."
"Thank you Daddy!" she cries, running over and hugging his leg tightly, because being a tiny girl human, that was the best she could do.
Dean laughs and scoops her up. "How about a real hug, huh? And then you can go downstairs with Papa and get some breakfast while I get dressed, okay Angel?"
She smiles brightly, her green eyes sparkling as she hugs her Daddy tight. She almost had Dean's eyes and sometimes Dean thought she had Mary's hair. At first Dean had thought that it wasn't fair that she looked nothing like Cas, but he was wrong. Despite being completely unrelated biologically, they had the exact same smile. He gives her a quick kiss on the cheek before handing her back to Cas, and then he quickly showers, shaves, and brushes his teeth before getting dressed in jeans, a black T-shirt, and his old brown leather hunting jacket. He always kept the damn thing, just like how Castiel's trench coat still hangs at the back of the closet, untouched, slightly torn and frayed from the wear and tear it had received following the Fall.
Dean slides Sam's amulet around his neck. Even when he had dropped it in the trash, Sam had pulled it back out and kept it, knowing that someday, Dean would want it back. And when all their friends had gathered together at the little Suburban house that Dean and Cas shared in Lawrence four years ago, the day they had signed the papers at the courthouse and officially gotten married, their first night home with Angel, a sort of baby shower/wedding reception if you will, Sam had just taken his turn holding their little girl before hugging Dean and folding the amulet into his hand, and somehow the simple action had repaired what was broken between them better than anything else could have.
Dean finishes getting dressed by slipping his wallet and keys and cell phone into his various jacket pockets and putting on his watch and wedding ring, and then he jogs down the stairs and as soon as he walks into the kitchen, Cas is shoving a cup of coffee into his hands and Dean is accepting it gratefully. He slugs it down and then he turns back to Cas and pulls him in for a quick kiss that rather quickly deepens into one that Angel probably shouldn't be watching, and when she finally notices and squeals "Eww! Stop kissing, that's icky!" Dean just laughs and pulls away and leans his forehead against Castiel's, taking great pleasure in the fact that his husband's breathing is just a little ragged.
"I love you," he whispers, before giving Cas one more quick kiss and heading out to the Impala, at exactly 7:30. School starts in a half hour, and even though he can afford to be late since first period is his prep, he'd prefer not to, because he likes being able to sit in his empty classroom and get ahead on grading while slowly draining a cup of the crappy staff lounge coffee and gearing up to start the day. Charlie would drop by the house at around 7:45 to pick Angel up and take her to daycare, which worked out rather nicely considering that Charlie lived in Lawrence after her last hacking-based brush with the law and subsequent relocation to a middle of nowhere town. Except this time, she didn't seem to be moving. She found a girl and settled down, and now they own a studio apartment on the other side of town and Charlie works at an insurance company a few blocks away from Angel's daycare.
Being the little Winchester's godmother an all, she had gladly volunteered to drive her to and from daycare most days if it meant being able to see her for a few minutes. Cas, on the other hand, preferred to walk to work. It was a short walk, only around ten minutes or so, but no matter how many times Dean offered to drive him, Cas insisted that he liked walking to work, because it gave him a while to clear his head and have time to think before he started the day on the way there, and time to relax and unwind a little at the end of the day, so eventually Dean just let him be.
As Dean turns into the high school parking lot, the last few notes of "Ramble On" play, and he shuts off the radio and turns off the car before grabbing his grading folders and heading into the building, making his way to his classroom as the bell for first period rings.
When he arrives, he sits the folders down on his desk and then proceeds to start preparing for the day- finishing the last two slides on the Christian Mythology presentation the kids were working on at the moment, arranging the desks into a circle for group discussion, and getting everything up to date in the grade book before going through his email and reading a couple of important messages the school had to send him and making a reminder to himself that the teacher meeting is tomorrow during lunch. Then he just settles down in his desk chair, props his feet on the desk, and turns on his classic rock playlist. He makes it a personal goal every year to make his kids not only smarter and more educated about Mythology, but also just a little cooler, and having Led Zeppelin and Asia playing quietly while he's teaching serves to facilitate that, plus it just keeps him in good spirits.
He's about halfway through his free period when there's a knock on his door.
"Come on in," he says, and the door swings open and one of his students steps in, a redheaded sophomore girl named Chloe, she's in his second period.
"Hey Dean, I need some help with numbers 5 and 6 from the sheet yesterday."
"Sure, no problem. Pull up a desk and let's see what's causing the trouble here."
"Okay, thanks. Question 5: Explain the Christian Mythology concept of each weekday having its own angel, and name the Angels we've discussed. Sorry, I know this is an easy question, I was just kind of spacing right then."
"No problem. So, do you remember how each day had its own angel, and how that angel was responsible for everyone born on that day?"
She nods. "Oh, yeah, I'm remembering now. Like, everyone born on a Tuesday has the Angel of Tuesday watching over them, right? And they're like a guardian angel and they answer the prayers of the Children of Tuesday?"
Dean nods. "Exactly! Very good, Chloe. Now do you remember the Angels?"
She frowns, obviously concentrating rather hard. "Umm...I know there's a Gabriel, and then isn't it Raphael, Uriel, Samandriel, Lucifer, Michael, and Castiel?"
Dean nods again. "Good, yeah! You're forgetting one, though. Think transformers."
She frowns in thought again before her face lights up. "Metatron! The scribe, right?"
Dean grins. "You got it. Okay, so that's it for that question...how about number 6?"
She turns the page to the next question after jotting down the answer, and then she reads the question out loud.
"Number 6: write a short narrative explaining why Lucifer fell from Heaven."
Dean bites his lip, trying to come up with a good hint. "So, Lucifer was an angel, right? And he fell for a reason, and then became what we know as Satan, or the Devil. So what made him Fall?"
Chloe thinks for a second. "Wasn't it something about loving humans?"
Dean nods. "You're on the right track. We covered this on Wednesday. Think back to what God told the angels when he created humans."
Chloe concentrates for a moment before looking back up at him. "Wasn't it that God told the angels to love humans more than him, and Lucifer realized that humans suck so he was like "I can't, they're stupid" and then God got mad and kicked him out of heaven?"
Dean laughs. "In a nutshell, yes. So go ahead and jot that down, and unless you had any other questions, that should be it, right?"
She finishes writing her answer before nodding.
"Yeah, that should be it. Thanks, Dean, that was a huge help. This is due at the start of class, right?"
"Yep. Thanks for dropping by, I'll see you next period."
"Okay. Thanks again for the help, Dean. See you next period."
And with that she packs her papers into her folder and heads out of the room, giving him a happy little wave as she leaves, which Dean gladly returns before slugging down the rest of his coffee.
He really loves his job.
6 hours and four classes later, the last bell has finally rung, so Dean dismisses his last period class and packs up all of the papers he needs to grade and briefly restores the classroom to some semblance of order before shutting down the computer, projector, and lights, and heading back out of the building towards his car. Overall, today was a success. The class discussions had gone off without a hitch, and remarkably, everyone had their homework done and ready to turn in on time. As he slides onto the bench seat of the Impala and fires up the engine and turns on the radio, he starts his drive home, eager to get home and maybe grab a beer with Cas and just have twenty minutes to themselves before they're scheduled to go pick up Angel.
When he pulls into the driveway, he parks and turns off the engine before getting out and grabbing his rather large stack of papers to grade and precariously carrying them into the kitchen and setting them down on the table. He sees Castiel's floury, slightly frosting-smeared apron hanging on the door to the laundry room, so that means he's home, he's just probably upstairs or something.
"Cas," he calls up the stairs. "I'm home."
A few moments later he hears an answer from upstairs. "I'll be down in a minute, I'm just grabbing some laundry to throw in the washer."
Dean chucks a short "Okay, babe" up the stairs at him, and then he heads over to the fridge and grabs two cold bottles of beer, and sure enough, a few moments later he hears footsteps on the stairs, and he hears the sounds of Cas starting a load of laundry from the other room, and then he finally walks into the kitchen and Dean can't help but laugh.
You know, he should be used to this by now, but the sight of Cas with his hair all messy and flour-streaked, with another smudge of the white powdery substance across one cheek, is just adorable beyond words. Dean pulls him in for a kiss and after a few seconds Castiel remembers what he's doing and responds eagerly, and Dean had to admit, Cas is quite the kisser. He runs a hand through Dean's hair and Dean reciprocates, moving his other hand to the back of Castiel's neck to pull him closer. Cas is the one who starts with the tongue, and in response Dean just licks the roof of the angel's mouth, something he knows always drives Cas crazy. He gently lifts Cas up to sit on the kitchen counter, and as the angel's hands work their way under his shirt, he tangles his fingers in Cas' dark, messy hair, and right then, the phone rings.
Cas starts trying to reach back and grab it, but Dean swats his hand out of the way and just kisses him softly. Cas lets out a small huff of breath and tangles his fingers in Dean's hair, and Dean just chuckles and does it again, kissing him through the first, second, and third ring of the phone. Finally, though, Cas pulls back.
"Dean, we really should get that. It could be about Angel."
Dean sighs and pulls back and Cas manages to grab the phone and hit answer right before it goes to voicemail.
"Castiel Winchester speaking. Oh, hey Charlie! Sure, that's perfectly fine with us. I think she'd love that. Take good care of her, okay? Just have her back before seven. Thank you so much, Charlie. Love you too. Bye."
Cas hangs up the phone and sets it back in the holder. "Charlie and Becca want to pick Angel up from daycare and take her home to eat dinner and watch a movie with them. I told them Angel would love to spend a few hours with them."
Dean smiles, placing one more soft kiss on Cas' lips. "When is she due back?"
Cas grins. "Seven."
Dean just smiles mischievously before picking a struggling, laughing Cas up off the counter and carrying the smaller man up the stairs.
At seven sharp, Charlie and Becca bring Angel back, and Cas is the one to answer the door.
"Hey, Angel!" he says, scooping her up and setting her on one hip.
"Hi Papa," she responds, wrapping her arms around his neck and burying her face in his shoulder.
"Thanks again so much for taking her for a while...we really appreciate it."
Charlie smiles. "No problem, we love having her. She was an absolute princess. And I've just introduced her to Tinkerbell. You can thank me later. We had pizza for dinner but she said she wasn't hungry, so she didn't each much, so you might still want to give her something to eat before bed."
Cas smiles. "Dean's almost done with dinner, if you want to stay. There's plenty of food."
Becca shakes her head. "Charlie's got a lot of claim forms to fill out and I think we're probably just gonna turn in early and call it a night tonight, but thanks for offering, Cas. Have a good night!"
"You too," Cas says, and they say their goodbyes and when Becca and Charlie are halfway back to their car, Cas shuts the front door and releases Angel from his hip, and she runs into the kitchen and imemdiately latches onto Dean's leg.
"Hi Daddy," she says, giggling as he pretends to stumble around the kitchen like he can't walk with her on his leg.
"Hey princess," he says. "How was Aunt Charlie's?"
"Good," she says. "We watched Tinkerbell and it was okay, all those fairies are really smart and they can build stuff, but it was kinda boring because nobody got into any fights. Can we watch Spiderman tonight?"
Dean laughs. "Sure thing, kiddo. I'm trying to cook burgers though, so if you want some of my special famous burgers, you've gotta get off my leg so I can finish cooking them."
The word "burgers" caught her attention, because she's sitting in her normal spot at the table coloring patiently before Dean can even finish his sentence.
Like father like daughter, Dean thinks, recalling Castiel's love for burgers.
Soon, dinner is ready, and the three of them eat together at the table while Angel chatters on about her day, with Cas and Dean interjecting the occasional comment or question. When everyone's done with dinner, Dean cuts three slices from the apple pie that Cas brought home and it's a great ending to a great meal.
Soon, though, it's 8 pm, which means bedtime for the little ones, so Dean carries their little girl up the stairs and into her bathroom, where it's his turn to supervise bathtime. He fills up the tub with warm water and dumps her toys in, holding a rather interesting conversation about unicorns with Angel while she washes off. She still needs help washing her hair, but she has everything else pretty much mastered. Once she's clean and dry, Dean combs her hair and braids it before helping her brush her teeth and change into her little nightgown. He carries her into her bedroom, where Cas is already waiting with a story in the rocking chair. Dean settles Angel down in her bed and tucks her in before leaving the room as quietly as he can. He settles down on the floor in the hallway. He's never mentioned it before, but Cas is a great storyteller, and having been around since the dawn of man kind of expands the story potentional, doesn't it? Most nights, Dean will sit down in the hallway and listen carefully as Cas tells their daughter whatever story he's prepared for them that night, and then he'll leave when he hears the story conclude and go downstairs, probably for some TV and, of course, an hour or two of grading.
He closes his eyes and leans back against the wall, listening.
"Papa?" Angel asks, softly.
"What is it, sweetheart?"
"Back when you were an angel, did you have wings and a halo, like the angels in the Bible?"
Cas laughs. "I had wings, but no, I didn't have a halo. Those are just made-up, sweetie."
"Oh. Can you tell me about your wings, Papa?"
"Sure, Angel. The thing about wings is that every angel's wings look a little different. They can be different shapes, different colors, different sizes. When I was an angel, I was a soldier- I would fight in wars and help God to protect the world from monsters and bad people. I was the captain of my group of soldiers, my garrison. That meant I was a pretty powerful angel."
"You're not talking about your wings, Papa."
"Hold on, Angel, I'm getting to that part. My wings were very big. Each one was about as long as Uncle Sam is tall, maybe even a little bigger."
"Woah," Angel breathes. "Your wings were bigger than Uncle Sam? But he's so tall!"
Cas chuckles. "I know, baby. The problem with wings is that they have to be pretty big to carry a person around in the air. That's why we keep them folded into our backs most of the time, because if we didn't, they'd knock everything over."
"What color were your wings, Papa?"
"My wings were a warm white, kind of like the color of bread. Not bright white like paper. They were streaked with steely blue feathers, too, and some dark gray feathers, even a few black ones."
"They sound beautiful, Papa."
"They were, Angel. They didn't always look like that, though. That's how they were before I met your Daddy. Do you want me to tell you about the first time I saw your Daddy?"
"Yes, please," Angel says, sounding a little sleepy already.
"I got sent on a mission, to rescue your Daddy. See, he had been fighting monsters, and he got himself into trouble, a real bad spot, he had made a deal with a bad man trying to save his brother, your uncle Sam, and he died. The only problem was, God wasn't ready for him to die yet, because he hadn't done everything he needed to do in his life."
"Daddy died?"
"Yes, Angel. Your Daddy's died a couple of times, actually. You should ask him about it sometime."
Dean groans, already dreading that conversation.
"Wow. Did he go to Heaven when he died, or did he go to the bad place where bad people go? He went to Heaven, right?"
Cas is silent for a moment, trying to find a way to expain this to his daughter in a way she'd understand. "Well, when you die, everybody goes to the bad place at first. But then, if you were a good person, they'll send an angel down to rescue you and take you up to Heaven, and that's how it works. I was the one they sent to rescue your Daddy."
"Oh," Angel breathes. "Did you make him alive again?"
"Yes I did, sweetie," Cas says, and Dean can almost hear the smile in his voice. "I went down into the bad place and I found your Daddy, and grabbed him and flew us right out of there and back to Earth. I brought him back to life. And when an angel brings somebody back to life, it makes a mark on their body. That's how Daddy got that handprint on his arm. That's my handprint, and it means that I saved him. It means that I'm his guardian angel."
"Oh," Angel says, "Kind of like the note on a dog collar that says "This is my dog, if it's lost please call this number?"
Cas laughs. "Exactly like that, Angel. But I haven't finished telling you about my wings. See, when I first met your Daddy, when I was pulling him out of the bad place, something happened to them. The bad place is full of fire, and smoke, and evil scary things. And when I had to go down there to find him and fly us back out of that horrible place, my wings got burned."
"Were they okay?" Angel asks, alarmed.
"Yes, Angel, they were okay," he says. "They still worked, I could still fly with them. It didn't burn down to the skin on them, see, it only burned the feathers, so it didn't hurt. But my wings were white before I met your Daddy, but after I met your Daddy, all the feathers were black. They were still pretty- like how when you see a crow in the sun, the feathers aren't just black, they're green and blue and purple in places? That's how my wings were. And all the other angels in heaven saw my wings and they made me a hero for rescuing your Daddy. See, he had an important job to do, a lot of people to save. They called him The Righteous Man. And me, I was the angel who saved him. And that made me important. So my wings were a sort of badge of honor. An angel could look at them and see that I had done a very brave thing."
"Ohh," Angel breathes, clearly entranced by the story.
Cas continues. "But then, I started making friends with your Daddy. I was more than just the angel who saved him, I was his best friend. And, well, the other angels didn't like that too much. They stopped seeing my burned wings as a thing of beauty and they started calling them ugly. They thought that being friends with your Daddy made me weak, it made me less of an angel. But I just didn't listen to the mean things they said, because I didn't care. See, by then, I had already started falling in love with your Daddy."
"Did you tell him you loved him?" Angel asks.
"Not right then, no. But some little part of me could tell that your Daddy loved me too. It just took us a while to work up the courage to tell each other."
"Do you still have your wings, Papa? Angel asks, sleepily.
"Not anymore, Angel. I lost them when I fell, when I lost the part of me that was an angel, when I became a human like your Daddy."
"Did you ever get your angel parts back?"
"No, sweetie, I never could find my Grace. That's what it's called. See, I made a mistake, and I trusted a bad man, and he stole my Grace from me and he used it to do a spell that made all the angels lose their wings. But for them, their Grace would just fall somewhere on Earth, and they would feel a pull towards it. Once your Daddy and Uncle Sam and I figured that out, we would just tell all my brothers and sisters, all the fallen angels, to just follow the pull until they found their Grace. And once they found it, they could be angels again. But for me, it wasn't so easy. Because my Grace didn't fall on Earth, the bad man kept it locked away somewhere, and I can't feel where it is, he put some warding symbols on it so I can't tell where it is. He has it locked away somewhere in an angel-proof box."
"Are you and Daddy still trying to find it?"
"No, sweetie," Cas says, softly, almost sadly. "We looked for a long time. We looked until you were almost a year old. But then we realized that wherever it was, we weren't gonna find it, the bad man hid it too well. And we needed to stop searching for it, because that was helping the monsters and bad people figure out where we were, and we didn't want them to know we had you. So we decided to give up, and settle down, because we wanted to keep you safe."
"I made you give up trying to be an angel again?" Angel asks, obviously upset by this news.
"No, sweetie," Cas says. "I decided to give up because I love you more than my Grace. I can live without it, but I can't live without you. So if that means that for right now, I can't be an angel, that's okay. Because keeping you safe is more important."
"I love you, Papa," Angel whispers, and Cas just laughs.
"I love you too, Angel."
Ahh, so I don't even really know where this came from I just got a sudden urge to write domestic Destiel fluff at like 3 am and it turned into this. I guess this is based roughly off of my headcanons about Cas' wings. I'm sorry that Kevin did not make an appearance in this story, I really wanted him to, because I love Kevin to death, but I just couldn't find a way to make it work. I hope you guys liked this! Read, review, and be happy...