"Good morning Monstrocity, and may I say what a fabulous morning it is."

The voice chirped from somewhere near Dean's head, not enough to wake him fully but enough to irritate.

"The forecast is sunny and clear, hitting a high of seventy five, which makes it a perfect day to kick back and relax and snooze your chance for a promotion away…"

"Gabriel…I want that key back."

"GET. UP."

Dean didn't know how, when or why Gabriel had acquired a megaphone, but he was about ready to ram it down his assistant's neck. He sat up in his bed, watching the big-eyed cotton-ball hover above him. Gabriel was not impressed.

"I swear to God, Gabriel, it's not even half six."

"Come on, champ. Record breakers have to get up early and work, work, work. If you get promoted, I get promoted, and I am not missing out on a chance for promotion. I'll go get your breakfast ready."

Dean scowled at the ball of fuzz as he landed on his scrawny legs and walked through to the kitchen, tucking his big feathery wings away. Dean yawned, stretched and lumbered through to the bathroom, scratching through his waves of hair, his tail following behind him.

Another day in Monstrocity, and another eyeful of Gabriel's massive Cyclops eye waking him up. Damn, he needed to start making friends outside of work.

He washed and groomed himself, ate what Gabriel had given the dubious title of "The Breakfast of Champions", and ran through his new scare tactics.

"I don't like this new protocol." He mumbled, while chewing. He didn't know what Gabriel had cooked him, but it did taste good, which somehow made him more suspicious.

"Management." Gabriel shrugged. "Trust them to make a bad system more complicated."

"But, come on, dude. Monsters have been scaring kids, and only kids, for scream power for generations. Why change it?"

"Kids don't scare as easy these days." Gabriel had made himself a bowl of incredibly sugary breakfast cereal. Dean hadn't known he was in possession of incredibly sugary breakfast cereal. "You know, scary movies, scary games…that Taylor Swift bitch…I guess they have to branch out to keep the energy up."

"Yeah, I guess. Still, popping out of closets to scare the crap out of adults who are drugged out of their minds? It feels kind of… I don't know, predatory."

"Oh yeah, and creeping into kids' bedrooms and making them wet the sheets is so much better."

"Why am I friends with you?"

"Because your muscle needs my brains. Now come on, we've got a twenty minute scare workout, and then it's off to the plant. Move that hairy tail of yours."

(-*-)

"You know…" Gabriel sniffed, as they looked up at the tall concrete exterior of the Crowley Reticulated Automated Power Plant, hanging back before they pushed through the doors, as they did every morning. "Every time I look up at this building, it reminds me how happy I am that I work here?"

"Yeah. 'Cause, if you're inside the building, you don't have to see it."

Gabriel and Dean exchanged a smirk as they walked into the spacious lobby. It was that attitude that had made their designation as Scarer and Assistant bearable.

They walked to the information desk, in the centre of the shiny-floored lobby, where a tall, muscular gorgon with a tangled nest of snakes as hair sat answering phones.

"No sir." He spoke, the efficient, business-like intonation of his voice not quite matching the bored, hundred-mile stare of his eye. "I'm afraid she's not in her office right now. Could I take a message? Mr B. Bole? Repurposing the plague virus. Ok, I'll have her call you about that just as soon as she can. Ok, thank you, good bye."

"Hey sugar-ass, busy morning?"

"I thought I told you not to call me that?" Sam leant forward over the counter, attempting to glare at Gabriel, but smirking all the same. Gabriel smirked right back, each staring at each other with their Cyclops eyes.

"And when have I ever let that stop me?"

"True." Sam grinned, kissing his fuzz-ball boyfriend, while Dean stood awkwardly beside his co-worker. Gabriel's wings fluttered reflexively as he and Sam kissed, and Dean was made even more uncomfortable. Damn them and their couple-ness.

After a while, Sam broke away.

"Oh, hey Dean."

"Sam. Uh… happy birthday."

"Thanks."

"Oh crap." Gabriel's wings fluttered again. Sam rolled his eye.

"Oh, you didn't forget?"

"I'm so sorry… I could only get us a table at some restaurant, I don't know… "Kripke's" or something."

"You got us a table at Kripke's?" Sam was grinning. Gabriel enjoyed playing Mr. Romance-Who-Has-Important-Connections for precisely long enough to promise to pick Sam up after work and walk out of earshot with Dean.

"So, you glad I hooked you up with those reservations?" Dean chuckled, as Gabriel flitted about around the corridor.

"I owe you, pal. I'd almost kiss you if you weren't probably covered in fleas and way less hot than my boyfriend."

(-*-)

They strolled over to the scare floor, under hissed threats from Alistair, the sadistic master of paperwork. Alistair despised just about everyone for not getting his unnecessarily complex filing system, which he claimed was colour coded and therefore idiot-proof. The "colours" at play here were seventy five variations of the same hideous red colour, all of which were indistinguishable to even the most highly trained eyes.

Sometimes, Gabriel filed his paperwork wrong on purpose.

In fact, pretty much all the time. The rest was just wrong on accident.

They passed the Boss, one Mr. Crowely, who was officious but amicable, his black serpent body giving way to an almost human upper half, dressed in a smart dress shirt and suit-jacket. Neither of them particularly liked Crowley, but he knew his business and they respected him for that. He had gotten more and more snappy, lately, as the energy crisis worsened.

In short, Crowley was fine, as long as you didn't have to talk to him.

"He's such a sleaze." Gabriel cued up the first door of the day, as the scare floor stirred into life.

"He's just doing his job." Dean shrugged. "Let's do ours."

Scare after scare, they racked up numbers, generating canister after canister of scream energy. All his scares for that day were kids, mainly in the age at which kids still believed in monsters under the bed (so generally speaking, one coming out of the closet was already unexpected and terrifying). So far he had yet to encounter more than one adult human – a red head on an acid trip who'd found him absolutely piss-terrifying. Dean was too busy filling his quota to even notice the clock ticking over.

"Great job, Dean. Quittin' time."

When Dean emerged from the last door, he realised everyone else had already gone. He looked around, seeing Gabriel sat on top of their desk, looking like some kind of fuzzy gargoyle.

"How long was I in there?"

"About ten minutes." Gabriel looked over at the clock. "But hey, five canisters."

"Yeah… have we got any more for today?"

"What?" Gabriel wrinkled his nose like he was finding "unpaid overtime" an incredibly hard concept to approach. "Dude. Quit-ttt-ting-tttt-time. You get to go home. I get to take Sammy on his birthday date. No more scaring."

"Come on." Dean grinned, his fangs glinting in the dim warehouse light. "Just one more door. I've still got too much energy, just one more scare."

Gabriel grimaced, huffed and sighed.

"Just because you don't have a social life… Fine. But I'm only doing this under threat. You can explain to Sam why I'm late."

Hunched and grumbling, Gabriel cued up the next door, which flew into their station with swift, mechanical ease. Dean grinned, wondering what the next guy would be like. The doors were generated by matching personalities and phobias of humans with scare abilities of the monsters, so there was always some reason for the humans to be scared.

Dean smiled at the peeling, greying paint on the door, and wondered who this next one was. As he opened the door, a bitter, smoky smell hit him full in the face.

Well, he knew he was dealing with a stoner, and not a kid.

The room was… well, had been well decorated, once, all whites and creams and modern design, but was a mess now, the paint yellow or grey, the floor a mess of pizza boxes, the bed an uncovered mattress with a few blankets piled up on it.

Classy.

But where, in all this mess, was the huma-

Dean felt something heavy connect with the back of his head, knocking him several paces away from the door.

"Ow, the fuck?" Dean grimaced as he rubbed the back of his head, turning on his assailant. What he had been going for was a reasonable, "look, pal, I'm just doing my job" approach. What his assailant (still hiding between the closet door and the chest of drawers and letting the baseball bat slowly fall from his grip) saw, was a hairy wolf-man creature baring his fangs and glaring at him.

"Oh shit…" The stoner mumbled, and then did possibly the worst thing he could have done in that situation. He threw the baseball bat in Dean's vague direction, and stumbled into the closet, in the hopes of putting a door between him and the creature.

Dean, seeing his career flash before his eyes, yanked open the closet door and ran after the stoner. When he stumbled back through to the scare floor, the stoner was passed out on the cold concrete floor, with Gabriel hovering above him, clutching a large lever-arch file. He looked up, guiltily.

"Hey, that… I didn't do that."

(-*-)

Dean was an experienced scarer.

He was dedicated, tough and resourceful.

He was strong, determined and committed to the job in hand.

He was panicking.

"Oh shit… oh… shitting… shit, dude, what the hell?"

Dean and Gabriel stared at the inert human on the floor.

"Did…" Gabriel cautiously pokes the human with one finger. "Did we kill it?"

"No! No, we can't have… could we? Do they die that easy?"

"Maybe?" Gabriel hazarded.

"Ok… ok, no, see, he's breathing! He's just unconscious… so… what do we do?"

"We throw it back through the door, and no one need know this ever happened." Gabriel nodded, resolute. Dean wasn't so sure.

Neither, for that matter, was the human.

"Aagh!" He yelled.

"Aagh!" Dean and Gabriel yelled back.

"AAGH!" The human tried again, having gotten a proper grasp on the situation, and causing all the lights to blow. The power surge also caused the door system to die. Meaning they couldn't throw him back through. Having thrown a massive spanner in the works, the human passed out again.

Dean was just stressed enough to believe he had done it on purpose.

"Ok… so we hide it here until the system goes live again." Gabriel smiled, although it was a desperate smile. Both of them knew the system wouldn't be back online 'til the morning.

Dean looked at Gabriel.

Gabriel glared back.

"No. No, Dean Winchester, I know what you're thinking, and… no."

Grabbing the human's shoulders, Dean continued to look at Gabriel.

"Well, fine, but you're doing it yourself. I have plans. Very important plans."

"Who knows what'll happen to him if we leave him here."

"No."

"He could get hurt, or killed. We need to look after him until the system goes live."

"No."

"If he gets found here, we could lose our jobs."

"If I cancel on Sam, I could lose my life!"

"Gabriel."

Gabriel glared, petulantly, before bristling his feathers and flapping his wings, lazily.

"Fine. Get him to the front door, I'll try and explain to Sam without him murdering me."

(-*-)

Sam didn't murder Gabriel, although he did yell at him and stalk off, snakes hissing menacingly. Gabriel had not been in the best of moods as he helped Dean sneak through the darkened city, making sure they didn't get spotted as he carried the unconscious human over his shoulder.

Gabriel was not best pleased with Dean by the time they got back to his apartment, either.

"This is bad. And you touched it! It probably has viruses, you know? Like in "Rise of The Humans"… oh, god, you'll become one of them! You're patient zero!" He paused. "I'll be patient one!"

"Shut up. Help me get him to the couch."

"`Him`. How do you even know it's a `him`?"

"Because I've seen and scared enough humans to know the difference between the males and the females, Gabriel."

"Yeah but… he looks a little girly. See how skinny he is? And that's a female face."

"No, he has that hair on his chin. That's a male thing."

"Oh…"

They stared down at the human for a moment longer, examining the foreign creature. It was a sombre, almost philosophical moment as the two worlds seemed so close to meeting.

"I wonder what he looks like naked?"

"Gabriel!"

"What? Come on, you're thinking about it too!"

"Well… yeah, now I am!"

"Come on, let's take a peek…"

Dean swatted at his fuzzball assistant's creeping hands, before practically drop-kicking him across the room.

"Go find it something to eat."

"What do they eat?"

"I don't know… make food for us, and we'll see if he tries anything."

"I remember reading somewhere that they drink blood."

Dean had never understood how Gabriel had failed Human Studies 101 so many times.

He did now.

"No they don't. That's stupid."

"Yeah, you try saying that when he's jumped at your neck trying to chow down on your veins."

Dean followed Gabriel through to the kitchen, if just to make sure he didn't break anything.

In his absence, the human stirred.

The human blinked his eyes open, and sat up, looking around the room, dazed and confused. He staggered out into the hallway, just as the monsters were leaving the kitchen. On seeing each other, both parties froze. The human smiled.

"Oh, thank god, I didn't sleep with Balthazar again. Sorry, can I use your bathroom?"

After a shocked pause, Gabriel pointed mutely down the corridor.

"Thanks." The human grinned, and turned to go to the room Gabriel had indicated. It was then that realisation hit him.

"Oh shit… That... You're… You're not just a bad trip, are you? You're actually real."

The monsters nodded. The human nodded too, and his pale skin became tinged with green.

"'Scuse…" He mumbled, before rushing the rest of the way into the bathroom, before making noises that sounded like a particularly painful and forceful reaction to finding himself in the world of monsters. Actually, what it sounded like was a series of gagging and vomiting noises, punctuated with choked sobs of "monsters", "stuck", "hell", "creepy flying snowball" and "teen wolf".

Gabriel shot Dean another glare.

"Later, buddy."

"What? You're going to leave me here with him?"

"No, I'm going to go home, have a shower, and try to patch things up with my boyfriend, before he decides to never speak to me again. The fact that you get to stay here with the human is just a happy coincidence."

Gabriel flew towards the door. Dean growled.

"How is this "happy"?"

"I meant happy for me, you love-life-ruining jerk."

Dean scowled at the door as it slammed shut. He turned his attention to the traumatised human in his bathroom.

"Um…" What was his name? What was the first thing he'd said on waking up? "Um… "Aagh"? Are you ok in there?"

"My names not 'Aagh'." The voice came back, after a minute. It seemed faint, but strong. There was a flushing sound, followed by running taps. "It's Castiel."

"Of course… that's a far more normal name than "Aagh"."

"You can call me Cas, if that serves to make this situation less nightmarishly weird. Or, wait, do I need a monster name?" The taps stopped running, and the door opened. Cas was looking at him with weary eyes that suggested he wasn't quite there.

"Monster name?"

"Like… "Colloso" or "Destruktor" or…"

"My name's Dean. The fuzzy guy with the wings was Gabriel. Cas will do fine."

Cas nodded, looking at Dean like he'd never seen a monster before. Dean remembered that he probably hadn't, and attempted a smile to make the situation less crushingly awkward. Castiel backed away slightly at the sight of Dean's teeth. Dean quickly changed to a close-lipped smile, but it still didn't stop the awkwardness.

"Uh…" Castiel gripped the door frame. "Do monsters have beer?"

"Yes we do, thank God." Dean led the way to the kitchen, never having needed a drink so badly in his life.

He handed Castiel a bottle before removing the top from his own. Castiel sipped it, before nodding appreciatively and taking a large gulp.

"Okay, monsters have good beer. The situation is looking better."

"For you." Dean huffed, leaning against the counter. "Actually, no, things are pretty shitty for both of us."

"Why? You don't… have to eat me or something, do you?"

"Ew, no." Dean wrinkled his snouty nose. What preconceptions did humans have of them? "We're supposed to scare you. Just scare you; there could be serious trouble if you're found here. That's my job, I come through closet doors, scare kids, and we collect the screams."

"Of course you do." Castiel nodded. "Why?"

"Energy. You know, electricity. What do humans use for fuel?"

"Uh… Gas? Coal? Oil? Some people use things like wind and sunlight, but those people are usually no fun at parties."

"Wow, you guys are primitive."

"Whereas running a world off the screams of children is, what, evolved?"

Dean shot Castiel a glance. For a stoner, he was surprisingly together. He supposed being thrown into some sort of parallel universe had a sobering effect on people. Either that, or the guy was so stoned that he saw things like this on a regular basis.

"So." Castiel continued to make his way through the beer, glancing occasionally at Dean, slowly becoming more relaxed. "How come you were in my room?"

"New protocol." Dean admitted, sheepishly. "There's an energy crisis, so we've had to, uh… "widen our intake"." He used the phrase that had been put in the official factory press release. Castiel raised an eyebrow.

"We're now scaring kids, and adults with a history of psychedelic drug abuse." Dean explained.

Castiel froze for a moment.

"What kind of psycho does that?" He exclaims finally.

"This kind." Dean says awkwardly, baring his teeth again by way of explanation.

"Oh… yeah, that makes sense." Castiel say weakly, he thinks for a moment, and chuckles.

"What?"

"I've been spending so much money on drugs to take me into another world, you know? I finally get to one, it's the weirdest fucking thing I've ever seen, and I am way too sober to deal with it."

"Tell me about it."

"So that's your job? Scaring people?"

"Yup. Jump out of closets, give someone a nightmare, keep the city running for another couple of hours." He shrugged. "It beats cleaning toilets."

They sat in silence, but it was one which grew more comfortable as they got used to each other. Dean sat down at the kitchen table, and Castiel sat opposite him.

"So…what is it that you do?" Dean asks politely.

"Data entry, tech support." Castiel looks about as thrilled as Dean would be to organise Alistair's filing. "I…" He yawns widely. "I sit on my ass in a basement room and ignore the panicked phone calls of the pathologically stupid accountants who work for the company." He thinks for a second. "And once a month I overhaul the system because some idiot downloaded virus –filled porn."

"You have porn?"

"Duh." Castiel supplies, rolling his eyes and then his head as he loses control of his neck. "And every month I ruin the system with it – but that is neither here nor…"

He passes out.

(-*-)

Castiel woke in a comically oversized bed, and, for a glorious, blissful moment, didn't remember that he had somehow stumbled into a world of monsters where he was technically a power source, and was currently in the home of a wolf-man called Dean. The moment didn't last, however, as his memory strolled in apologising for it's lateness, only hang-over had called and wanted to hang out, too, and it really hoped Cas didn't mind because it'd be way more fun to hang out all together, right?

Cas did mind. A lot. He stumbled through to the bathroom, trying to get his brain in gear. He splashed water on his face and glared at himself in the mirror; no matter what was happening today, he would need to be on the ball if he wanted to deal with it and stay sane. So motivated, he left the bathroom and wandered through to the living room, where Dean was attempting to hit Gabriel with a broom. Gabriel was flying around a lamp fitting, yelling abuse.

"You let it sleep in your room? You sicko!"

"What? He passed out; I had to put him somewhere!"

"What if it isn't house-trained? What if it had come to find you and eat you in your sleep?"

"I thought we'd discussed the whole "humans don't eat monsters" thing." Dean gave up trying to swat Gabriel with the broom, and began looking for projectiles instead. "You watch too many horror films."

"A human creeping up to a lonely monster, intent on ravaging them in the middle of the night? There's another kind of movie that reminds me of. You're not into the freaky stuff, are you, Dean?"

"What? Shut up, you irritating little fluffball."

"Oh my God, you are. Wait… was that you who put those videos on my computer? I knew it! Sam gave me such shit over that…"

"Fuck you, it was just… healthy curiosity."

Cas reasoned that he'd probably lost his sanity years ago, and a better tactic would probably be to be as intoxicated as he could and just go along for the ride. Fucking monsters, dude. What else could you do?

"Ahem."

Both monsters froze to stare at Cas. Dean cleared his throat, muttered something about breakfast and stomped through to the kitchen, staring at the floor. Castiel hummed "Earth Girls Are Easy" to himself and sat on the couch. He wondered whether Dean looked human under all his fur. Gabriel sat warily next to him.

"How are we supposed to get him back into the factory? What if anyone sees him?"

"I could dress up." Castiel bounced happily in his seat, fascinated by Gabriel's feathery wings.

"No one asked you." Gabriel sighed, and turned his back on the human. Castiel didn't mind this at all, having gotten a better view of the interesting appendages. "We can't… do you mind?"

Gabriel looked utterly affronted, snatching his wings away from Castiel's curious hands.

"Savage! You have no idea how inappropriate that was!"

"Whereas you suggesting we undress him yesterday was perfectly fine?" Dean returned from the kitchen, giving Castiel a bowl of cereal. Gabriel scowled, muttered something about hypocrisy, and sat at the other end of the couch.

"For your information, hairless, we were discussing the fact that the plant has been closed for the day, due to a continued power outage."

"Ah."

"Which you caused."

"Ah."

"And which means you can't go back to your own world."

Cas blinked, not particularly sure what he was expected to say.

"Ah?"

"Leave him alone." Dean threw a dishcloth at Gabriel, before sitting down opposite Cas with his own breakfast. "Ignore him; he's just pissy because his boyfriend wouldn't let him stay over last night."

"Boyfriend?" Having decided to just roll with it, Castiel found this hilarious. "So you get gay monsters now?"

"Are all humans this rude, or did we just luck out?" Gabriel sniped back. "Yes, boyfriend. For your information, Sam is… oh God." Gabriel smacked himself on the forehead, staring from one to the other.

"Sam is the receptionist in the factory, who's been thoughtfully trusted with the keys!"

"Awesome. But…" Dean looked at Castiel, scratching his chin. "How are we going to get this guy in there without anyone seeing?"

(-*-)

"You honestly expect me to open up the whole damn power plant, just so Dean can put his gym bag back in his locker?"

"Um… I love you?"

"Gabriel, I'm not giving you the keys."

"I love you the most?"

"Nu-uh."

"Sam…"

"I'm hanging up now."

"Sammy…"

"Goodbye, Gabriel."

"Wait! Ok, wait, I have a secret, it's really cool, you'll love it, but you have to open the factory for us and you can't tell anyone."

"…"

"Sam?"

"Is this a for real secret, or like that time you said "secret" but meant "pressing urge to make out in Alistair's stationary cupboard"? Because I'm not doing that again."

"Of course it's a for real secret. Meet us outside the power plant in ten minutes. Love you, sugar ass."

"Yeah, yeah, love you too, you creep."

(-*-)

Dean's gym bag was big. It was a big black holdall with the Crowley's Reticulated Automated Power Plant logo on either side, and two handles. It was, in other words, thoroughly unremarkable.

Well, aside from instances such as today, when he was using it to lug roughly one hundred and seventy five pounds of unconscious human down the street.

Thank god for monster strength, thought Dean.

Thank god for monster beer.

The human may have been a lightweight. He may have had a metric fuck-tonne of drugs in his system. Monster beer may have been three times the strength of human beer; Dean didn't know the reason and he didn't particularly care, because the fact that the human seemed unable to finish a bottle without passing out had made this an easy and agreeable plan for everyone involved.

Gabriel got rid of Castiel, Dean stopped having to listen to Gabriel, and Castiel got a beer. Everyone wins.

Even Sam got a prize for his little role in the charade; once the human had come to again, he got to ask Castiel all the questions he could think of, in the time it took them to go between the restroom and the scare floor.

"So… do humans really scar themselves for fun? Like, change their bodies and stuff?"

"Scar… you mean tattoos? And piercings and stuff? Sure, we all do that. Here, see?" He pulled up his shirt, to reveal a series of black squiggles across the pale white skin of his back. "It's a work in progress… but it only gets worked on when I'm unconscious, so I have no clue what it'll look like when it's finished."

"Why?"

"It's awesome. And humans are kind of boring-looking. I mean… dude, you have snakes for hair. Ink is tame, in comparison."

"So are there no monsters at all on that side?"

"Depends how you count politicians."

"No, come on! It's just humans and animals? No humanoids? Nothing in between?"

"Depends how you count politicians."

Dean barked a surprised laugh, earning a grin from Castiel. Sam had the sincere impression he wasn't being taken seriously.

They found the scare floor easily enough, and, thanks to the timeliness of the power outage, the door was still in its station. The power, however, was still out.

"Ok, buddy, we can get you back through your door and back into your world. All you have to do is scream." Dean grinned at him. Castiel nodded, and gave a less than half-hearted yell.

Nothing happened.

"No, come on, dude." Dean punched him on the shoulder. "It's got to be a proper scream. Like you're really scared."

Castiel tried again. It was somehow even less convincing.

"Seriously?"

Castiel shrugged.
"I'm… not really feeling it. Everyone's made me feel really quite welcome."

Dean rolled his eyes, and bit back a growl.

"Should… I don't know, would it help if I scare you? Jump out and yell a bit?"

"Maybe. Thank you, that's very considerate."

Dean rolled his eyes, and sighed. He sniffed, and wandered behind the door. Castiel heard the slight rustle of fur in the dim half light, the quiet pad of footsteps, but couldn't figure out where it was coming from. He was about to turn away from the door, when he stepped forward and directly into Dean's looming form.

Dean roared and howled, snarling and flashing his fangs.

Castiel started, jumping backwards slightly.

Then he bit back laughter.

Then he made a ridiculous snort noise and doubled over.

"Sorry…" He giggled.

"Uh… guys?" Sam pointed to the lights.

"Sorry, you're just… now I know you drink beer and watch porn, you're just not that scary."

"Dude, don't say that!" Dean looked affronted. "That's my job!"

"Oh, no, no… Dean, I'm sure you're scary to people who don't know you."

That started Castiel laughing again.

"Guys, seriously." Sam was still pointing at the lights.

"I could scare him." Gabriel offered. "Tell him what you did to him while he was passed out."

"What? I didn't do anything to him… I didn't, honest, Gabriel's just… Gabriel."

Cas was leaning heavily against the door frame now, clutching his sides as he struggled for breath between laughter.

"Dean!"

"What, Sam?"

"Look!"

The lights were running, bright and strong, and so was the door system. Dean, Gabriel and Cas were all struck dumb.

"Huh… laughter as powerful as scream… Maybe more…"

"Who knew?" Gabriel sniffed. "Reckon there's a promotion in this for us, somewhere?"

"Maybe. Man, you're obsessed with getting promoted."

"Hmm. Get a cushy training job where I sit around and tell newbies what to do, or spend all day trailing after your shaggy tail… tough one."

"Uh, guys?" Castiel waved awkwardly. "Not that this hasn't been a blast, but could we..?"

Gabriel hopped over to the control panel and got the door online. The door swung open and revealed Castiel's hovel like room. Just like that, it was all over.

"Awesome. Well… uh… Guess I better go through."

"Hey, you know… We've got your key card." Dean smiled, scuffing his feet awkwardly as he leant against the door frame. "If you wanted to swing by some time, it would… you know, it'd be cool to hang out."

"Oh." Castiel thought for a moment, before grinning. "Sure. It'd be awesome. How's Friday for you?"

"Awesome." Dean looked at Gabriel with a hint of puppy dog eyes. It wasn't like he could help it, really, being a wolf-man. "Right, Gabe?"

Gabriel wanted to say no, but he had a feeling Sam would beat him if he did. So instead, he leant unimpressed against the control panel.

"Fine."

"Cool. I'll pick you up after work." Dean grinned.

Castiel waved goodbye to his strange new friends, and the closet door closed. Gabriel could not get that door out of the station quickly enough. Dean casually pocketed the key card, and made sure to accidentally knock the Castiel's paperwork file into the shredder.

"You are sick." Gabriel sighed, rolling his eye as the three monsters walked out of the scare floor together. "It's not natural. Homo-sapiens-sexual."

"Shut up, I am not. I just… like him. He's a good guy." Dean snarled at Gabriel. "Besides, I need someone to watch TV with while you're making kissy face with Gigantor here."

"But it's… ugh." Gabriel shuddered. "Wolf-man and human. Not right."
"Gabriel." Sam raised his eyebrow, a smug grin on his face as they left the building, locking the doors behind them. "You do realise we're technically as inter-species as they are. Me being a gorgon and you being a… uh… what are you?"

"A dust bunny." Dean grinned again, and was happy to resume their standard name-calling and bickering as they walked back to his apartment.

Within a few days, all three monsters had suggested to someone on the research team that they look into the energy generating potential of other human emotional outlets, such as anger, say, or maybe even laughter.

Within a month, the research team had put forward plans to include laughter as a possibility for energy harvesting.

Within a month and a half, Castiel had been to Dean's apartment at least ten times, and they had discussed the possibility of going to Castiel's side of the door for something he called "Halloween", which took a lot of explanation but sounded cool.

Within two months, there were five power overloads in Dean's district, which were down to human screams. They were not, as Gabriel and Sam had assumed, caused by screams of laughter or fear, but Dean would be damned before he told them, the research guys or any other monster what kind of screams had caused them.