"Don't you think he's cute, though?" Gabriel taunted, grinning at the older Winchester boy.
"He's a freaking cat, man!" Dean shouted, gesturing wildly at the being that had, at one point, been the vessel Jimmy Novak, and was currently the angel Castiel, just… different.
"A kitten, actually, Dean-o. And as much as I would love to stand around and talk to you guys about this, I'm sure there's something more interesting I could be doing. But don't worry," Gabriel winked. "I'll be watching." Sam ran a hand through his hair, glancing at the small black kitten near his feet. Cas looked back up at him, his bright blue eyes unreadable.
"Do you… do you still have your grace and everything?" Cas tilted his tiny kitten head and attempted to shrug.
"Well, this sucks." Dean scooped Cas up and tossed him lightly onto Sam's bed. "We'll figure something out in the morning, 'kay, Cas?" he then made his way into the bathroom for a shower. Sam absently patted Cas's head, causing the angel-turned-feline to purr. Cas didn't even really mean to. But like his human vessel wanted to flinch when in danger, the cat wanted to purr when it was pleased, and somehow, the cat was harder to resist. It didn't bode well for the future.
"Dean'll figure something out, Cas. Don't worry." Sam stretched out on his bed, quickly falling asleep. After a while of battling with himself, Cas padded over to the large man and curled up in a small ball on his chest. It was warm and his inner cat certainly didn't mind, so Cas let it go for the night. Tomorrow he would control himself again. Castiel eventually purred himself to sleep, long after Dean fell, exhausted, onto his own bed.
But the next morning, Dean had no ideas. They couldn't, as much as he would like to, actually force Gabriel to do anything he didn't want to do. The archangel could snap and kill anyone of them, on a whim.
"Sorry, man. You'll just have to wait it out," was Dean's advice as they packed their bags the next morning. Cas mewled pitifully, and Dean just shrugged. "Do I look to you like I speak cat?" he picked Castiel up with a single hand, passing him off to Sam once they made it into the car. "You mess up my interior and we're gonna have a serious talk, got it Fluffy?" Cas gave the best bitch-face he could in the situation and arranged himself comfortably on Sam's lap, purring at the warmth of the sun and the soothing petting motion of Sam's overlarge hand. It was so easy to simply listen to the cat instincts inside, after all. Besides, he needed to relax while he could. There was no way he's be able to get himself out of this body. And just for a while, Cas decided he would enjoy a life of no responsibilities. Just until the Winchesters needed him, or needed whatever he could offer them in his current state. Then he'd be Castiel, Angel of the Lord and perfect soldier once more.