Title: Eight-legged Monsters
Pairing: Dean/Castiel friendship
Spoilers: None so long as you know who Castiel is.
Summery: Castiel had once claimed he would never understand humans, after this he was now absolutely certain that this was truth.
Warnings: Uh, none really. Just some bashing of small creepy animals, which really isn't a warning…oh, maybe for Dean's mouth. This is my attempt at humor so don't be surprised if it sucks XD. Also, this is my first fic in the Supernatural fandom, although I am working on a crossover of Supernatural and Psych.
*Insert Supernatural Theme*
Castiel was an Angel of the Lord, and as such he loved all of his father's creations equally, his feelings for Dean aside. But for as much as he loved them, he can't claim to understand most of them, humans being the worst of all.
Most animals lived off basic instinct and not much else, this was not true for the Lord's most prized creations.
Humans were living paradoxes, everything they did conflicted deeply with everything Angels had ever known. Even after spending so much time with the mortal beings (ie: mainly the Winchesters) Castiel is still rather clueless to many of their ways and habits.
Which is why Castiel is yet again puzzled by what he finds when he pops in to visit the brothers at their current hotel/motel of choice.
Sam is absent, but then he'd already known that since he hadn't been able to sense the youngest Winchester right before flying over. And Dean… is standing on the bed farthest from the door, his gaze fixed on some spot on the floor with a mix of murderous intent and utter terror.
Castiel was standing in one corner of the room, knowing from experience that the brothers would not take kindly to his appearing in the center of the room, and frowned delicately. "Dean." he stated calmly, also managing to insert a question into that simple word.
Dean's eyes widened minutely but he never altered his focus from whatever he was staring so intently at. "Castiel! Thank God!"
Other then the slight wrinkle of his nose in distaste for using the Lord's name in vain, Castiel gave no reaction and studied Dean's current physical posture. His stance was once much like that of defense, as if he were prepared to be attacked, but as Castiel looked around he couldn't see nor sense anything that could pose a threat to either of them.
"What is the matter, Dean?" He finally asked, lost as to whatever was agitating the young hunter.
"Why would you even ask me that! Can't you see it!" Dean pointed a shaky finger at the floor and Castiel absently wondered if the shake was from anger or fear, though fear made little sense in this situation. So he cast his gaze to the carpet and cast about for anything that was capable of angering Dean.
Still, he could see nothing of importance.
"I don't understand." he said finally and Dean laughed, a sound of near hysteria that gave Castile an ill feeling.
"You don't see it." He muttered in disbelief. "How can you not see it? It's as big as my fucking hand, Cas!"
Castiel switched his intense blue gaze back to the human in confusion. "There is nothing on the floor of that size, Dean."
Dean blinked and shrugged one shoulder, "Okay, so it's not quite that big but it's still huge and disgusting and you have to kill it!"
Kill it? Kill what? Castiel felt a surge of what he was coming to understand from his time near Dean was frustration. It was a feeling he did not like. Maybe what he need was to see things from Dean's prospective. That in mind, Castiel walked over to the bed and climbed on it, standing beside Dean, who shuffled closer.
"What is this thing that you fear?"
He saw Dean stiffen from the corner of his eye. "I'm not scared of it, I just want it dead but I don't want to be the one to kill it."
"Kill what?" Castiel was certain some of that frustration managed to ooze out in his voice but Dean didn't appear to notice.
"That!" Dean gestured wildly toward the floor again, "That creepy fucking eight-legged monster!"
And it clicked. There, sitting innocently in the middle of the hotel floor was a small spider, a creature easily overlooked by apparently everyone but Dean.
Castiel tilted his head and turned toward Dean, confusion evident on his face. "It is a spider."
"Yes! Thank you for stating the obvious!" Dean snapped, eyes still intent on the arachnid.
"It is no threat to you." He said, trying to relieve the other's misplaced fears.
"You don't know that for sure! What if it's poisonous?"
Castiel looked at the spider again and with his infinite Angel knowledge, knew it was not poisonous. "It is not."
"You can't know that!" Dean protested instantly, and Castiel frowned, an odd ache in his chest.
"You do not trust me to know what could be a threat to you?"
Dean must have finally caught something in his voice because he broke his staring contest with the spider long enough to look at the Angel, something akin to shame on his face. "No! Of course not. You're right…if anyone would know it's you. It's just…" He broke eye contact to stare fearfully down at the spider.
Castiel tilted his head again, this time the opposite way, and quickly came to the realization that Dean would not relax until something was done with the spider.
"Could you just…you know, kill it for me?" The hunter asked almost pleadingly.
"Despite your aversion to its presence, that is one of my father's creations and I will not do it unnecessary harm." Castiel stated plainly.
"Why not? Just stomp on it, stomp on it until it's dead!"
Castiel, who had stepped off the bed and was approaching the spider, paused to give Dean a head-tilt and an inquisitive look. "There is a way to 'stomp' on it and not kill it?"
"Uh." Dean had to pause, face blank. "I guess not."
"Then I will not 'stomp' on this spider."
"Well, what are you going to do! It needs to go!"
Castiel nodded and bent at the knees to reach out for the little arachnid, using his 'angel-mojo' as Dean so eloquently called it, to coax the creature onto his hand.
Dean squealed and scrambled away as Castiel stood up and turned toward him. "No! Don't you come near me with that disgusting thing!"
"I did not intend to." Castiel said with a disapproving shake of his head, "I will simply take it outside and release it from there."
Dean pouted, clearly not happy with the idea one bit but slowly nodded and Castiel disappeared with his tiny charge.
After releasing the spider to greener pastures, literally, Castiel reappeared in the hotel room to find everything as he had expected it to be the first time around. Dean was sitting casually on his bed, legs crossed and busy at work cleaning one of their many guns.
"The problem has been dealt with." Castiel said simply as he approached.
Dean looked up and grinned somewhat sheepishly, "Ah, yeah, thanks. Sorry about that little freak out but I can't stand those things."
"Why do you fear spiders?" Castiel questioned, not noticing Dean's twitch.
"I'm not afraid of them, I just don't like them."
"Your body language indicated fear."
Dean scowled and huffed irritably. "Whatever. A lot a people fear spiders, it's nothing new."
"I find it puzzling is all." Castiel commented, watching Dean reassemble the gun with quick, jerking movements.
"What do you mean?" Dean grumbled.
"You are a hunter. You have seen what truly lurks in the night and faced most of those real nightmares without blinking but one little spider, one of my Lord's creations, has you acting in terror."
"I am aware of the irony." Dean bit out. "I can't explain it, Cas. This is just one of those things people sometimes have."
Castiel almost sighed, disappointed that his understanding of the humans has been hampered yet again. "I am quite convinced that I shall never understand humans." he murmured.
Dean looked up at him and grinned, "And we are one of your Father's creations. How do you like that irony?"
Castiel looked at him blankly, not following and Dean shook his head. "Never mind, Cas."
Before the Angel could farther press the matter the hotel door opened and Sam entered with a take out bag in each hand.
"Hey, Cas." He said in greeting, "When did you get here?"
Again, before Castiel could properly respond he was interrupted as Dean leapt for his brother, grabbing the paper bags from him and digging into them with glee. Sam was suitably distracted with protecting his own share and Castiel was left to stew on Dean's words as he watched them eat. After several minutes he grew bored with this and stretched his wings to fly away when Dean's head snapped toward him, face serious.
Castiel paused and when Sam looked away to grab another burger, Dean mouthed something to him.
The Angel in him read, "Thank you."
Castiel stared for a long moment before nodding shortly and Dean smiled before elbowing his younger brother out his way.
Feeling an answering grin pull at his lips, Castiel spread his wings and took flight.
End.
A/N: Wow, my original intention was to make this a strong Dean/Castiel but really this is kinda more a strong friendship then anything. Ah, well. I still like it.
Honestly, this was born today. *Looks at the time, 12:16 am* Okay, yesterday, when I was at work. See, I had a very Dean-like reaction. I was trying to mop the floor when I came across this big spider (read: about the size of a dime) just sitting in the middle of the floor I needed to clean. Now, I hate these things with a passion I can't explain.
So, I was standing there, frozen, when my manager/friend walked by and stopped to see what was wrong. I promptly told her to: "Squish it, squish it 'till it's dead! Please!"
She already had one foot raised to stomp when she paused and look at me with what I can only describe as the perfect confused Castiel face, head-tilt and all. She said: "You can squish without killing?"
I just could not stop thinking about this all night after that, so here I am XD.
Hope someone found this at least slightly amusing and if not, Eh, I tried.