"I still don't understand why we are here, Dean?" Cas was weaving through the crowd, trying to keep up with Dean who was pushing his way toward the stage.
"It's just a bit of fun, Cas. Relax. Live a little."
Dean was wearing a tight white tank revealing the grooves of his pectoral muscles and leaving his strong arms bare. He carried a bag in his hand filled with 'Yellow Sunrise' powder. Cas had a bag of 'Bikini Pink' powder tucked into the pocket of his trench coat. He was warm but it was the only light coloured item of clothing he owned. He had tried one of Sam's tank tops on but it had swallowed him like a dress and he had felt ridiculous.
"But neither of us are Hindu, Dean. This is ridiculous."
Cas was still confused. Looking around there seemed to be very few Indian people in the crowd and Cas knew that India was the origin of the festival. He also knew that Dean only believed in God because he'd seen him. He hated religion more than anything and had certainly never shown an interest in Hinduism before.
"Nobody here is religious, Cas. It's just fun. We're in Vancouver, dammit. It's just a bit of fun out here."
Dean seemed to have found a suitable spot to stop and was eyeing some of the girls around him dressed in tight, revealing clothing. Cas was still sceptical. He felt almost traitorous to his father.
Out of nowhere, drum and bass started booming around the arena. Cas jumped - this certainly didn't sound Indian. He was amazed at how human-kind could be so obliviously disrespectful. Dean was still checking out the girls around him, who had now started jumping around to the music. It wasn't really his type of music, but he bobbed his head a little to the beat.
Cas looked around him, noting a sea of white t-shirts and happy faces. Considering this was supposed to be a festival of colour, he wondered why everyone was wearing white. The only colour he had seen was trapped inside the small bags they were each given on entry. He looked to the bag in his pocket and found some of the powder had leaked. That stain would never come out.
He was about to complain to Dean when the crowd started counting down.
"TEN, NINE, EIGHT..."
"Get ready, Cas!" Dean looked thrilled. His green eyes were alight with joy. He was groping inside the bag for a handful of yellow powder.
"SEVEN, SIX, FIVE..."
Dean stuffed the now empty bag into his pocket and slapped Cas on the shoulder with his empty hand. "Come on, man. Get some powder ready."
Bemused, Cas reached carefully into his pocket and took a handful of the pink powder. He rubbed it between his fingers, feeling the grain trickle between them and watched it fall to the floor. His hand was already stained pink.
"TWO, OOOONEEE!"
Powder flew up all around. Pink, green, blue, yellow, orange and purple dust mixed across the sky. Dean had his arms spread out in the air, a trail of yellow powder sprouting from his fingers. Cas looked around and saw others doing a similar thing and decided it was best to copy. He flung the bits of pink left in his hand into the air and watched it soar upwards and dance with the other coloured powders above them.
He tightly shut his eyes and felt the specks of powder brush his cheek as the kaleidoscopic cloud fell back down to Earth. Gravity had always amazed Cas; one of his father's greatest feats. He heard Dean laughing and opened his eyes again. Dean stood before him, his arms and once-white tank covered in a rainbow of powder He beamed at Cas, exuberance emanating from him, as he smeared army stripes of yellow across his cheeks with the remaining powder staining his hands.
Cas laughed at the sight of him. Then, realising what had probably happened, looked down and saw his trenchcoat was now multicoloured. Some flecks of dust fluttered down from the top of his head, settling onto his breast pocket. A huge smile split across his face and he spun around, letting the coat flare out around him in a mass of colour. Now he understood why he had to wear light clothing.
