Flaws Upon Your Wrists

by FollowingButterflies

"You can't hurt people if you don't let yourself get close to them. It's also easier to run." Those are the words high school senior Castiel Novak has believed in for the past few years until Dean Winchester moves to his sleepy Minnesota town with his damn leather jacket and his appreciation for art. Despite trying to push Dean away a complex friendship forms between the two.

1. Chapter 1

Part One

You told me that you don't let people in, now why is that?

If you don't let people in then they can't hurt you

But they can't love you either

Isn't that the same thing?

The city bus came to a sharp and shuddering stop causing the eighteen year old sitting near the back of the bus to crack his head against the window as he jolted awake. He swore under his breath as he rubbed the spot that had hit the cold glass window. With a tired and grumbling sigh Castiel Novak pulled himself up from the seat he had been dozing in. The music in his ears had been loud enough to drown out everything around him and for that he was grateful even if he had dozed off for several minutes. As the bus doors creaked open Castiel dragged his feet along the length of the bus towards the front. The driver gave him a sympathetic smile but Castiel just gave him a nod in reply. As he exited the bus the frigid air hit Castiel square in the face. Maybe his father had been right that morning when he told Castiel that he would need more than just a hooded pullover to protect him from the cold January weather. With another tired sigh Castiel exited the bus and walked for the three minutes along the street until he came to the large and looming grey building that was the local high school.

The easiest way to get into the school building without being spotted by the numerous members of staff searching for late comers was to cut through the student parking lot that was reserved for seniors only. As he jogged along the tarmac towards the school Castiel spotted his best friend Anna's banged up VW Bug parked in its normal spot. The car had previously belonged to Anna's elder sister Rachel and had a tendency to break down at the most inconvenient times due to the fact that Rachel was terrible with cars and hadn't taken much care of the VW Bug. Anna had been meaning to take it to a garage to try and get the numerous dents and paint scratches sorted out, as the car looked especially shabby when it was parked next to a sleek black car like it was that morning.

Castiel slunk into the main hallway which was nearly empty apart from a few stragglers. No one really noticed Castiel, luckily, so he picked up his pace towards Algebra. He wasn't remotely interested in the actual class, in fact he'd stopped even attempting to get a passing grade in Algebra several months before, but he really didn't want to be hanging around in the corridors when the hallway patrol started waltzing around like they owned the whole goddamn school when really they were just dickheads with over inflated egos and shiny sashes. How anyone could have an inflated ego when wearing a shiny sash was completely beyond Castiel.

Algebra had only just started as Castiel slid silently into the desk next to Anna that he had sat in for the past year and a half. At one point he would have been there the first row staring at the board with rapt attention but that was a whole different time and a whole different world; a whole different Castiel actually, Castiel who used to wear sweater vests and be able to recite the periodic table off by heart. That really was a whole different time and world though.

As Anna looked over towards him with a questioning look Castiel let out a small yawn and instead of answering Anna he simply shrugged his shoulders as a way to say that he had no real reason as to why he was late for the lesson. Anna just rolled her eyes, pulled her algebra textbook from out of her bag and threw it onto her own desk in a way that was clearly to show her irritation while Castiel pulled his sketch book out of his own bag. There was no real reason getting his Algebra book out when he wasn't going to pay much attention to whatever was going on in the class anyway.

Castiel's algebra teacher, a middle aged woman who went by the name of Ms Mills and who was about as unenthusiastic about Algebra as Castiel was, was only just setting books out on her desk when a knock on the door distracted the entire class. Castiel could tell that several people were hoping that a water pipe had burst so they could be sent home or something like that. Ms Mills called out for whoever it was to 'come on in and not spend all day out in the hallway like a spare part for God's sake'. Clearly Mills had either gotten up on the wrong side of the bed or her coffee hadn't kicked in. Castiel knew that feeling only too well.

Whoever it was out in the hallway opened the door and walked inside the classroom though who it was Castiel did not know as he was becoming engrossed in the quick doodle he had started at the side of his page. Anna leant across her desk slightly to tap Castiel gently on the arm to get his attention. He shot her an annoyed look for a moment, Anna had known him for too many years to know that once he became engrossed in something it was very difficult to pull him out of that trance and doing so easily made him irritated, but Anna just rolled her eyes at him as if to tell him to just look at what she was now nodding at. Castiel properly looked up from his sketch pad for a minute to see a tall and nonchalant looking guy wearing a worn looking leather jacket walking into the room with a purposeful stride. Castiel couldn't help but smirk when he noticed several of the girls in the room sit up in the chairs straighter than they had been a moment before. One or two even repositioned themselves in a way that reminded Castiel of peacocks displaying themselves to the best advantage. He would have laughed at them if it weren't all so pathetic.

"He was in the main office this morning with what looked like his younger brother and some nerdy looking girl with red hair, new students by the sounds of it. I didn't get to hear the whole conversation because I had to get to form." Anna said quietly to Castiel. Anna volunteered in the main office in the mornings and sometimes during lunch period and after school. This came in useful sometimes like in sophomore year when she had 'borrowed' a pad of hall passes so Castiel could roam through the halls whenever he wanted. So far this year Anna had managed to get another pad of study hall passes so whenever Castiel felt like he couldn't manage a full period of chemistry or wood shop he could slope off to the library or the art rooms. Anna had done the same thing for herself so if AP American History ever became too taxing or monotonous she could join Castiel.

"You know you're not supposed to listen in on conversations in the main office." Castiel pointed out though he always enjoyed hearing Anna's tales from the office like just how much all the receptionists secretly hated one another and most of the students or which of the Freshmen were pregnant.

"Yes but you know you like knowing all the sordid little details of this school and don't lie by saying that you don't." Anna shot back and Castiel had to agree with her on that point. He did enjoy hearing about which member of faculty was nearing a full scale breakdown or about how one member of the JV football team hadn't left school last year because he was moving to North Dakota with his grandmother; he'd actually been sent to some hard-core religious school in Utah because his father had found him in a compromising position with a fellow member of the football team. "I think his name is Dan…or was it Dean…I can't remember. Apparently his family has just moved here and that's all I heard before I had to leave." Anna added nodding over at 'Dan or was it Dean?'.

"Is this…Algebra with Mills?" the new student asked striding up to Ms Mills' desk with a lazy smile on his lips. Ms Mills glanced down at a note on her desk then gave the new student a curt nod.

"It is; you must be Dean Winchester, well you're late so sit down and try to keep up with the fascinating world that is Algebra." Ms Mills said handing Dean an algebra book with a voice so full of sarcasm it was comical. Castiel continued to watch with mild fascination how several of the other students around the room sat up straighter still as they realised that Dean Winchester wasn't the worst looking guy in the world and was going to be walking past them. It was the same kind of fascinating as a car wreck, it wasn't something that you should find fascinating to watch but at the same time it was damn hard to look away from the carnage that was mangled corpses or a bunch of girls trying to apply lip gloss without being seen and using the reflection form their phones as a mirror. Castiel rolled his eyes at Anna who quickly gave him a knowing smile that meant she was clearly thinking the same as him.

"Sure thing sugar." Dean said with a mocking salute as he walked towards the only free desk which was in front of Anna. Castiel watched as Ms Mills frowned slightly at being called 'Sugar' and the look on her face, reminiscent to that of a disgruntled animal chewing on barbed wire, was quite priceless and was normally the look she saved for when Castiel was derisive towards her…which happened to be on a nearly daily basis actually when Castiel really thought about it.

Dean Winchester lowered himself into the chair in front of Anna all while keeping his indifferent air the entire time. Several girls were still looking over at him in the most obvious way ever and Castiel had to think that some people really were stupid or just shallow. With a roll of his eyes Castiel went back to his sketch because the shading didn't look quite right and it was slowly starting to infuriate him. Ms Mills was explaining something to the rest of the class and even if he was listening Castiel wouldn't have a clue what she was saying because he really had long since stopped listening to what went on in this class. Castiel carried on doodling while Anna was busy writing something next to him. She was either paying an awful lot of attention to the class or a small note would soon be pushed onto Castiel's desk and sure enough after a second or two Anna's slim hand was sliding a ripped of piece of paper from her desk over to Castiel's. Anna's neat handwriting was written at the top of the paper she had just carefully placed on the end of Castiel's desk and from the corner of his eye Castiel could see her looking at him expectantly.

Why were you late this morning? If it was the bus then you could have called me and I would have come and gotten you.

Castiel read through Anna's note a few times before he scrawled down his reply and slid it back to Anna with as much discretion as he could manage so Ms Mills wouldn't see what they were up to. They had gotten pretty used to discreet note passing over the years but Castiel didn't really want Mills swooping down on them and reading out their note like she did whenever anyone got a text in class.

My meeting ran over that's all was the reply Castiel gave Anna and from the corner of his eye Castiel saw Anna nod as if that was a decent enough answer.

Was it ok? What did they want to talk about?

The weather…

Very funny Castiel…

Well then don't ask stupid questions…

"Excuse me Miss Milton, Mr Novak, is my lesson interrupting your precious little note passing?" Ms Mills said causing everyone else in the class to look up and turn their heads to the back of the room where Castiel and Anna were sat. Maybe this is was one of the bad things about sitting at the back of a class. Castiel noticed that Dean was looking over at him with an intrigued but playful looking smirk.

"No not really, carry on with your lesson." Castiel said smiling slightly. He heard a few people snicker from behind their hands while Anna shook her head slightly. His best friend didn't mind Castiel toeing the line occasionally but when his smart mouth tended to annoy her slightly when it landed Castiel in detention.

Ms Mills gave Castiel her disgruntled look while some people continued to snicker. "Well thank you for that Castiel, I always long to seek out your approval." Ms Mills said sarcastically as she turned back to the board. "Now why don't you pick up reading from where I left off?" Ms Mills then asked turning round and raising an eyebrow at Castiel.

"I would love to but I haven't been paying attention." Castiel said grinning once again. This time he heard Anna groan into her hand while several others snickered more loudly than before.

"Thank you for your honesty Castiel, I really do appreciate it" Ms Mills said, once again incredibly sarcastically. "Now maybe you can catch up on the reading while in detention later on today." Ms Mills added giving Castiel an acerbic smile before she went back to her lecture. Castiel swore under his breath as he went back to the sketch he'd been doing of a small bird before Anna had started sending him notes. After a moment a small piece of paper found its way onto Castiel's desk.

You had that coming to you, I hope you know that. Anna's decorative handwriting said. Castiel gave her a look that said he wasn't interested in Anna's opinion on the matter and he received an eye roll off her before Anna returned to her work and Castiel went back to concentrating on his sketch. He really didn't want to admit that Anna was right, he did have that coming to him and he shouldn't have been so mocking towards Ms Mills because now it was clear that Michael would give him shit when he came home after his detention.

Dragging his feet as well as his tattered messenger bag along the hallway Castiel reached the door marked Detention and sighed heavily before opening the door. True he only had himself to blame for landing in detention but it was still a pain in the ass having to spend an hour and a half sat in a painfully hard chair while staring out of a smudged window.

From her regular seat, second from the back and closest to the window, Jo Harvelle gave Castiel a friendly and welcoming smile as he slid into his own regular seat, back row and second closest to the window. Both Castiel and Jo were regulars in detention. Jo was a small and pretty looking blonde whose looks never really went with her incredibly tough persona. Because of the way she looked Jo was often found being hit on by unsuspecting boys and while said boys would usually find themselves in the nurse's office, with either a bloody nose or bruised testicles, Jo always found herself thrown into detention. While Castiel and Jo weren't what you would count as close friends Jo and Anna, surprisingly, got on quite well and had done since freshman year. Castiel was sure it was because both of them had quite fiery tempers but either way it was nice having Jo around sometimes.

"So who was the poor, senseless victim today?" Castiel asked pulling his sketch pad out of his bag. During his art class that afternoon he'd started working on something for his portfolio and yet he wasn't sure if the medium he'd chosen was good enough to go into his portfolio and he was half tempted to throw that thing away though that may have been because he'd been staring at it for far too long.

"It was that asshole of a creep Eddie Zeddmore from my auto shop class. He tried to grab my ass when I was changing a tire so I threw the nearest thing to hand, which just so happened to be a wrench, at him." Jo explained with an incredibly casual air. To be fair she had the right to sound causal about it because that really wasn't the worst thing she had done to a guy that had hit on her. She had actually broken a guy's arm when he had tried to hit on her before. "The damn wrench missed him because he leap out the way screaming like a girl but apparently my 'conduct' was 'less than acceptable' so here I am." Jo added shrugging her shoulders.

"Zeddmore had it coming to him." Castiel said shrugging his shoulders because he shared an English class with Zeddmore. A speck of dust had better views on their English assignments than Eddie Zeddmore.

"I'd agree with you there." Jo said smirking before she rummaged in her bag for a second. "Gum?" she asked Castiel holding out a pack of spearmint gum.

"Thanks" Castiel said giving Jo a rare smile. He threw a few pieces of gum into his mouth before placing his earphones into his ears and returning to his sketch. He drowned out everyone around him as music filled his ears and he hoped that the next few hours would go fairly quickly. Afterwards he could drag himself home to a, with any luck empty, house. If God, or whoever was up there, was on Castiel's side then Michael would still be at work, Luke would be out and Gabriel would be with friends or asleep in his room.

The sketch his hands were flying over was still not working no matter how Castiel looked at it so after several minutes he pushed the sketch pad away from him with a slightly annoyed groan and decided to focus his attention on the poster in front of him. Jo looked up from the book she was reading and gave him a sympathetic look as she witnessed many an art related fit when it came to Castiel. Just as he was about to say something to Jo the chair next to Castiel scraped against the floor, this had the same effect on Castiel as fingernails on a blackboard and caused him to shudder. Ripping out his earphones he turned to who it was that had pulled the chair out to glare at then until he realised that it was none other than Dean Winchester. Dean gave him a mocking grin before he threw himself into his seat strangely full of refinement for someone so tall and broad looking. Castiel raised an eyebrow before placing his earphones back in and returning to his task of staring at the poster in front of him that depicted the reproductive cycle of bees.

"Hey Jo." Dean said while Castiel continued on with his task of focusing on the damn poster because there was something strangely distracting about Dean Winchester's smirks that made Castiel feel nervous.

"Hey there Dean." Castiel heard Jo reply in a friendly manner. That managed to draw his attention from the wall and the poster. Turning to Jo he raised an eyebrow at her. "Dean's in my auto shop class" Jo added with a shrug when she saw Castiel's face.

"Yeah you were the one who threw the wrench at that guy, right?" Dean asked sound vaguely in awe of Jo's action.

"Yeah that's me." Jo said proudly. Dean smirked slightly before he glanced over at Castiel. Castiel couldn't help but smirk right back and he was oddly proud when he saw Dean's face redden. Dean broke the eye contact first and started staring out the window to the playing field where the football team were beginning to practice. Castiel remembered sitting in the cold every Friday night during game season with his brothers watching his eldest brother Michael run up and down that field doing whatever the hell it was that football players actually did. Castiel had been highly relieved that neither Lucifer or Gabriel had been remotely interested in competitive sports so once Michael graduated Castiel wasn't obligated to sit on a hard bench watching a sport he couldn't care less about.

"So…it's only you're first day here and you are already in detention." Castiel said. Dean glanced over and he was clearly trying to pick out if Castiel was being friendly or not.

"What can I say, it's a real talent. Apparently this place had a rule against smoking on campus. Who'd of thought it?" Dean said with a broad smile. Clearly he had decided that Castiel was being generally friendly.

"I hate to break it to you but most places have that rule." Castiel said smirking back at Dean. Dean raised an eyebrow in surprise before he was distracted by a cell phone in his pocket beeping. Rolling his eyes he pulled in the phone out and tapping at the screen. He glanced up towards the front of the room where their detention supervisor was sat. She was more interested in reading this month's copy of Beautiful Country Homes than actually paying attention to the room full of delinquents. Look relieved Dean went back to tapping the screen.

"Jesus Christ that kid is going to worry himself into an early grave." Castiel heard Dean muttered under his breath as he slid the phone back into his pocket. Castiel watched with slight amusement while Dean muttered until, after a few moments, he turned his head back to look at the bee poster. "Hey." Dean said tapping Castiel on the shoulder lightly. "When does this shit-fest normally end?"

"Are you asking because I look like the kind of person who spends my life in detention?" Castiel asked raising an eyebrow.

"Well you do seem at home." Dean pointed out nodding to the way Castiel was now sat with his feet up on the desk. Castiel gave him a sneering smile as he heard Jo snort loudly before leaning over closer to Dean.

"The 'shit-fest' ends at five so you only have another hour and a half to sit through before you can waltz on home." Castiel explained as he leant back further in his seat and scrolled through his iPod until he found a decent enough track to distract him from Dean Winchester who was now settling himself into his chair and pulling a book out of his beg. Castiel didn't look at the title of the book, he was too busy wondering why there were several terribly cheesy 90's pop bands on his iPod and when on earth had Gabriel, because it could have only had Gabriel, done such, but he couldn't help but notice how worn and well read the book looked. Interesting as the only time books were ever read in detention was when they were read by Castiel and, on some occasions like today, Jo who had recently become obsessed with reading a series of books based around the zombie apocalypse.

Anna was waiting for him as he walked out of the detention. She had been sat against a cluster of lockers scribbling away in a small sketchpad. Like Castiel, Anna enjoyed drawing and was very good at it though due to her AP classes and her interest in graphic design she had been placed in a different art class to Castiel. When she saw that Castiel had been let out of detention she stood up and hastily put her things back into her bag.

"Hey, are you ready to go or do you need to do anything else?" Anna asked him as Castiel walked over to her.

"I've got nothing else to do we can get going." Castiel said giving Jo a nod as she walked past. Anna gave her a small smile as the pair were friendly towards one another but Anna wouldn't have classed them as friends. "Were you waiting out here all this time?" Castiel asked.

"Oh no, I was with Ruby going over her homework for Chemistry." Anna said. "I've only been here for about fifteen minutes though." Anna added with a shrug before her eyebrows shot up so quickly it was almost comical. "Isn't that the new guy? Dean Winchester?" She asked in a near whisper as Dean came walking down the hallway and gave Castiel a nod of acknowledgment with a brief smile.

"Yes" Castiel said while Anna continued to stare at Dean. If she wasn't completely in, unrequited, love with the barista at their favourite café Castiel would have assumed that she was having a 'moment' over Dean Winchester of all people. "That would be Dean Winchester."

"Have you spoken to him?" Anna asked while they both watched Dean walk down the hallway, pulling out his cell phone as he walked.

"Barely, he's just some guy that ended up in detention on his first day." Castiel said with a shrug of his shoulders. Anna opened her mouth to say something else but Castiel quickly cut her off. "Come on, let's get going."

"Ok, coffee?" Anna asked smiling at the thought.

"Yeah sure though are we going for the caffeine or for the achingly hip looking art student that gives you free shots of syrup in your coffee?" Castiel asked raising an eyebrow.

Anna gave him a roll of her eyes before saying, with a slight smile "How do you know it's the art student? I could just really like the syrup."

"Yeah of course that's what it is." Castel said with a voice dripping in sarcasm as Anna whacked him across the back of the head.

Two years prior The Roadhouse had been one of those dingy dive bars that only catered to their regulars and lost tourists that clearly didn't know any better but after nearly a year of hardly any trade it became apparent that in their small Minnesota town the main beverage was coffee and not beer. The bar's owner, who happened to be Jo mom, Ellen had the place renovated into a coffee house which was, according to Jo, a kick in the teeth but they needed the money that the bar just wasn't bringing in. They hadn't gotten rid of the grease filled burgers though which were the greatest hangover cures Castiel had ever had and he could happily spend the rest of his life eating them.

Anna's main reason for going, apart from the coffee, though was because of Inias their barista who was in his first year at The Art Institute. Anna had been nursing a crush on him for months since he started working in their favourite coffee shop. Castiel had been forced to witness the pair of them dancing around one another in a weird form of flirting wherein neither Anna or Inias would actually admit that they liked one another and all their conversations revolved around coffee.

"There you go Castiel." Inias said handing Castiel the two mugs with a friendly smile. "One black coffee with cinnamon and one hazelnut latte with a shot of vanilla." He said and Castiel smirked at hearing the extra shot Inias had put in Anna's drink.

"Thanks." Castiel said taking the drinks back to the table where Anna was sat with several of her textbooks littering the table. "Extra shot of vanilla from your cappuccino Casanova" Castiel said placing Anna's drink in front of her. Anna looked up and when Castiel nodded over to the counter where Inias was stood Anna blushed furiously as she glanced over. Inias gave her a small smile before going back to stacking mugs or whatever is was he did when he wasn't making coffee or cow eyes at Anna. Anna's head dipped down and she became incredibly focused on pulling a stray thread from her thick green cardigan. "Are you thinking about maybe starting a conversation between the poor guy before he goes insane?"

"What? Inias? Don't be stupid…he's just being friendly."

"Yeah, because he just hands out the free shots of syrup to everyone." Castiel said. Anna shook her head at Castiel sarcasm but he could see her smiling to herself as she sipped on her coffee. "You could just talk to him." Castiel prodded because watching the dance between Anna and Inias had been slowly driving him insane for the past few months.

"About what exactly?" Anna asked.

"He's studying at The Art Institute Anna, I think you could easily find one subject to talk about." He said. "Jo agrees with me you know, she thinks you should say something to him."

"Don't say that Jo agrees with you when she's not here to back herself up." Anna shot back frowning slightly.

"Who said she wasn't?" Castiel asked with a smirk as he spotted the small blonde head of one Joanna Beth Harvelle.

"Hey Jo." Inias called as Jo came waltzing into the coffee house. She gave Castiel a quick wave before hurrying behind the counter and grabbing an apron. "Was detention the same ol' barrel of laughs?" Inias asked.

"Oh yeah it's always a real joy to be there." Jo said derisively. "If my mama asks then I've been here since school finished working." Jo said glancing around the coffee shop as if looking for her formidable mother.

"I already signed you in; as far as she knows you've been working for two hours already." Inias said.

"Does that mean I get my break now?" Jo asked smirking. Inias rolled his eyes and walked off towards the kitchen.

"Don't push it Joanna Beth." Inias called as he went. As soon as Inias was out of view Jo skipped round the counter and sat down by Castiel and Anna. Anna gave Jo a quick smile as Jo reached over to take a sip of Anna's coffee.

"Don't you two get sick of this place?" Jo asked making a face at the sweetness of Anna's before. Instead she grabbed Castiel's and took a large gulp.

"Oh I was sick of it after about week, it's old extra vanilla shot over here that can't get enough." Castiel smirked nodding at Anna.

"That guy has got it so bad." Jo said shaking her head.

"Told you so." Castiel shot at Anna.

"I have no idea what either of you are talking about." Anna said primly refusing to look at either Castiel or Jo. Instead she rummaged through her bag and picked out the book she was reading for AP English.

"Yeah, sure you don't." Castiel said rolling his eyes.

"So Jo, what did you do to land in detention?" Anna said clearly trying to change the subject.

"Very smooth there Milton." Jo commented. "A wrench happened to find itself being thrown at Eddie Zeddmore. I might have caused said wrench to go flying towards the dickhead's face." Jo added with a shrug. Anna shook her head but smiled at her friend.

"I wonder how I ended up being friends with either of you two delinquents." Anna said more to herself.

"Joanna Beth!" a firm voice called making Jo jolt in her seat. "I don't pay you to sit around on your backside talking to customers and not doing any work." Ellen, Jo's mother called when she came waking into the coffee house.

"Woman doesn't pay me anyways." Jo muttered pulling herself up from her seat and nearly dragging herself to the counter. Anna chuckled to herself and went back to reading her book while Castiel smirked into his coffee mug.

The Novak house was in complete silence by the time Castiel returned home which some would have taken as a good sign but with his family the silence was sometimes worse than the screaming and shouting. A note on the kitchen table told him that his father had been made to work late as well as Michael though that didn't explain for either Luke or Gabriel. Shrugging his shoulders Castiel classed this as a small victory despite the house being empty as at least this way neither Michael nor his father would find out about the detention or the fact that Castiel was most likely failing Algebra. Though not knowing of Luke's whereabouts never failed to make Castiel feel uncomfortable because Luke could be anywhere and doing anything. The possibilities were endless and terrifying.

Once alone in his room Castiel sank onto his bed as a weary sigh escaped his lips. Even though it meant the house was quiet for once Castiel always disliked being home by himself, the size of the house and the lack of noise made him feel small and very insignificant. He preferred having the house filled with noise because even if it made him want to stay in his room at least he knew he wasn't alone in the house at all.

With a sigh he pulled out his sketch pad from his bag and looked over what he had done during the day. There was still something missing from his drawing of the woods backing onto the Novak property. The sense of familiarity and warmth despite the lack of sun and near constant mist was missing ad Castiel couldn't figure out on the hell to make his drawing come to life. He knew deep down that he had nothing to worry about; his art teacher had told him over and over again he really had nothing to worry about with his art because he was one of the most talented people in the class. It still worried Castiel, he had long since stopped caring about impressing his other teachers because of losing his passion to succeed but when it came to art he wanted to strive. If that was the only class of his that gave him any joy then he wanted to strive to be brilliant at it. It was just like running, as long as he knew he was succeeding with it then Castiel could be happy. He would know that he had an escape route if needed.

He stayed sketching until he heard the front door downstairs open. His father called out into the house and Castiel responded by turning up the music he was playing. He heard Michael say something though he couldn't pick out the words. No doubt it was something relating to the music Castiel was blasting out which was the same music that Luke used to try and drown the house in when he was a teenager. It was thanks to Luke's determined noise pollution that Castiel had grown to love the same classic rock which no doubt pissed off his father and Michael but Castiel was long since passed caring.

"Castiel? Castiel?" someone called from the other side of his room after nearly half an hour. Castiel lowered the volume in reply. "Have you eaten? It's kind of late I know but Dad wanted to know." It was Gabriel. Castiel pulled himself from his desk and walked over to the door, opening it slightly.

"I ate with Anna at The Roadhouse." He said. He had actually; both he and Anna had ended up ordering two 'Original' Roadhouse burgers so he was still pretty full.

"Oh ok." Gabriel said with a nod. "I also came to say that it's just gone nine; you're supposed to take your meds now." He added holding up a glass of water and a small off-white pill. Thanks to Michael's fretting, and paranoia that Castiel might OD, Castiel's medication was stored in the kitchen in plain view of the family so they could make sure he was actually taking them. Castiel's protests, mainly pointing out that he wasn't a fucking child and could handle his own medication, were met with near silence or scathing comments like always.

"Thanks Gabe." Castiel said taking the water and pill from Gabriel's hands. "I'm kind of tired so I'm going to go to bed, ok?" Castiel said. He wasn't tired but he knew that his pills would soon make him drowsy so he wasn't completely lying. Gabriel nodded and gave his brother a small and warm smile.

"See you in the morning baby bro." he said. "Try and get some sleep." He added knowing how restless Castiel sometimes got. He would end up lying awake until the early hours of the morning no matter how drowsy he felt. Thank God Anna was always on hand in the mornings with coffee.

Anna was waiting for Castiel outside on the driveway the next morning just like nearly every other morning. Her slightly battered but still somehow well-loved car sat happily in the driveway behind Luke's ridiculously ostentatious mustang. Castiel would have been perfectly happy learning how to drive and getting a car but apparently Michael was convinced that this would just be like throwing a red rag at a bull and Castiel would end up driving it off the nearest cliff or into like local lake. It was nice to know that Michael really thought he was the dramatic one in the family when that title could, and should, have been given to Gabriel.

"Morning" Anna called through her open window as Castiel walked down the driveway. She held up a paper bag that Castiel knew contained one sesame bagel with cream cheese, Anna's favourite, and one honey wheat and oat bagel with peanut butter which was Castiel's favourite that he would eat in Algebra because he could never really handle food early in the morning thanks to his meds.

"Thanks" Castiel said sliding into the passenger seat and taking the bag from Anna. Anna gave him a warm smile and nodded to the coffee cups in her car's cup holders. One would be a nutmeg latte, Anna's, and the other would be a black coffee with a sprinkle of cinnamon, Castiel's. The bagels and the coffees were part of their routine every morning and had been since Anna had learnt to drive.

"You're welcome" Anna said with a smile before she launched into a story about how her dad was being a pain in the ass when it came to favouring Naomi, Anna's eldest sister, because she had gone to work for their dad while Rachel and Anna were both more interested in finding their own careers. "Dad mentioned trying to get Rachel a job in marketing and I thought she was going to throw something at him. She swiftly mentioned that she didn't study to get a master's degree in English Literature to just end up working in marketing. Next thing Dad will be telling me that I don't even need to go to college because I have a ready-made job waiting for me at the business. It's total bullshit." Anna said with an irate look in her eyes. "You have no idea how envious I am that you will never have this problem."

Castiel sipped his coffee then snorted loudly. "Yes that's because my father knows that he even suggests me working for either him or Michael I'd tell him exactly where to go. It didn't work with either Luke or Gabriel and it certainly won't work with me." He pointed out like it was the most obvious thing in the world.

"Yeah well you know what my dad is like." Anna said stopping at a red light and sipping her coffee.

"Yeah he's…he's…" Castiel said trying to find a word to describe Anna's father that wasn't along the lines of dickhead or asshole.

"He's a bit of a douchebag." Anna said. "You can say it."

"I'd rather not, the last time I called your dad a douchebag he heard me and looked at me like I was evil for nearly a month. It's like he has a beacon for when I'm rude about him." Castiel said.

Anna chuckled and shook her head as the light changed. "I really wouldn't put that past him to be honest." She said as she continued to drive. "So did you do the Algebra work due in?" Anna asked as they neared school.

"Are you trying to be funny?" Castiel asked with a smirk.

Anna sighed loudly "You are a delinquent and if you even graduate I'll be shocked." Castiel shot her a smirking grin to which Anna rolled her eyes at. "Are you even going to try and pass Algebra this year?"

"I could always copy of you." Castiel pointed out.

"You really wouldn't last five minutes without me." Anna mused. Castiel had to nod in agreement because Anna really was the one person he could always rely on.

Algebra went without any detention slips being given out mainly because Castiel was waiting for his coffee to kick in and was more focused on finishing his drawing from the night before to even look up from his sketch pad. Clearly Ms Mills was waiting for her caffeine boost and merely assigned them a chapter of their Algebra textbook to read instead of actually doing any teaching.

The rest of his morning lessons were pretty much the same; Castiel pretty just went through the motions with his work which suited him just fine. After lunch Castiel waved Anna goodbye and walked quickly into the art studio. While both Anna and Castiel were interested in art Anna's interests lay more in the graphic design aspect of art and so there were in different classes; Anna being in Graphic Design and Castiel being in The Painted and Drawn Media which, in Castiel's opinion, was a pretty pretentious way of saying 'Art'. Castiel always assumed that what he got for going to one of the more liberal school in Minnesota.

Nevertheless it was one class that he was determined to never miss or be late for. Walking over to his normal, and thankfully always empty, table Castiel sat down and began pulling out his sketch pad and drawing supplies from his bag. Art was one of the only classes Castiel would never cut; after all it was one of the only classes, if not the only class, that he didn't actively dislike and easily exceled in. Once all his art supplies were out of his bag Castiel pulled his iPod out of his back pocket and placed the earphones into his ears to drown out the rest of the students in the art room. It usually worked very well. Usually.

After several minutes Castiel became aware of someone standing almost directly behind him. He pulled out an earphone to tell whoever it was to go away when they said "Hey man; is this seat taken?" Castiel looked up and wasn't that surprised to see that it was Dean Winchester. After all who would wear boots like that apart from Dean? Like the day before Dean was wearing the same worn leather jacket. Castiel couldn't help but think about how interesting it would be to sketch that jacket purely because of the different textures and the subtle change of colours dappled across the worn brown material. He swiftly curse himself inwardly, of all the things to think about he was thinking of Dean Winchester's jacket?

"No it's not." Castiel said with a shrug. Dean gave him a slight smirk before pulling off the damn leather jacket, a backpack and placing them in front of him on the desk as he sat down next to Castiel. While Castiel was busy making sure he had all of his supplies he assumed that Dean would just sit there and bum about throughout the whole class so he was surprised when he realised that Dean was pulling out a thick of sketch pad of his own along with a good supply of drawing pencils. Castiel had to raise an eyebrow in surprise because Dean Winchester did not look like the type of person who would be into art. Then again Castiel knew nothing about Dean Winchester apart from the fact that he smoked and had a slight attitude. Oh and that he apparently was a fan of Led Zeppelin according to the faded t-shirt he was wearing because Dean didn't seem like the type of person to be one those hacks who wore a band t-shirt but couldn't even name one of their songs.

"What are we supposed to be working on?" Dean asked Castiel after a few minutes of silence. Castiel paused the song he had been listening to and nodded down at his sketch pad that he had been working on.

"You might have known if you came to the class yesterday" Castiel shot back not actually caring if he sounded rude because the brief act of being nice to Dean by saying that he could sit next to Castiel was surely going to bite him in the ass, after all now his table was no longer empty apart from him so he couldn't cover the table in his random crap.

"Actually I was in the principal's office yesterday after lunch so I couldn't make it." Dean said casually as if Castiel hadn't just snapped at him. "So what are we supposed to be working on?" Dean asked again just as casually.

"We're working on our portfolios." Castiel said "We have to hand them in for an evaluation at the end of the semester." He then explained as nodding down at his own sketch pad which was full of sketches he had been working on over the past several weeks plus the one he'd been working on during detention the day before.

"Huh that actually sounds cool" Dean said with a small smile in Castiel direction. As Dean moved to open up his sketch pad and retrieve his drawing materials the slight smell of cigarette smoke told Castiel why Dean was almost late of the class and he silently cursed himself as the smell of the cigarettes made him want one of his own from the crumpled up packet at the bottom of his tattered messenger bag. Anna had been on at him for months for quit as she hated the habit with a passion and, as Anna had pointed out several times, Michael would kill Castiel if he found out.

Reaching into his bag Castiel pulled out not the crumpled packet of cigarettes but a bottle of fully caffeinated coke. He would have preferred coffee, preferably without sugar and milk as that was how he had started drinking it over the past few years, but the school only sold it at lunch and it was also fairly disgusting and nothing like the coffee Anna got him each morning. After the lack of sleep Castiel had gotten the night before thanks to his new medication he was on he needed all the caffeine he could get even it was just from a bottle of coke.

While he had been busying himself with drinking and rummaging through his bag Castiel had failed to noticed Dean working intensely on a sketch in the sketchpad in front of him. Feeling like he needed to get back to his own work Castiel placed the bottle back into his bag and tried to figure out why the sketch he'd done the day before just was not working. Just like the day before he couldn't figure out what it was that was wrong with the sketch and ended up opening his other sketch pad, which was more of a doodle pad than anything, to the small doodles he had been doing the night before when he had still been awake at two in the morning.

The concentration on Dean's face was fascinating and it was that look that caused Castiel to look away from his own sketch and down towards Dean's sketch pad. When he saw what Dean was working on he had to stop and look in slight awe. The sketch was a beautifully realistic pair of hands holding a steaming mug. By the look of the slender wrist and neat looking fingernails the hands belonged to a woman. A wedding band was on her ring finger and the amount of detail put into the ring itself made Castiel thoroughly envious because the sketch truly was very good and highly detailed.

Castiel watched with captivation as Dean added a slight amount of shading to the mug and the concentration in his face reminded Castiel of the zone in his own head that he went to when sketching. Dean's brow was furrowed and he even began to chew on his lip as he squinted his eyes clearly looking for an imperfection even though there wasn't one, the sketch was perfect.

Pulling his eyes away from both Dean and the sketch Castiel returned to his own sketch of a bird in flight after he changed the song playing into his ears. Thank God his art teacher, a twenty-something year old Brit who told everyone to call him Balthazar because he hated his surname with a passion, was relaxed enough to never care that his students spent most their time during class eating food, drinking coffee or listening to music. As long as they handed in a pad full of gradable sketches at the end of every term Balthazar wasn't remotely interested in what they did during class as long as it wasn't illegal or 'bloody lame'. This suited Castel just fine because it meant he could sit at the back of the studio, listen to music and just draw whatever the hell he felt like for an hour and a half without being interrupted by the idiots around him.

"So no detentions tonight?" Dean asked after nearly half an hour of silence. Castiel paused the track that had been playing and glanced over at Dean. "You were almost silent in Algebra this morning...after yesterday I assumed that show was normal" Dean added in a way of explanation.

"Well it's still only midday." Castiel said shrugging. Dean raised an eyebrow in Castiel's direction and his eyes were so full of questions that instead of looking away Castiel stared this Dean Winchester down. Dean did not look away which was a surprise as most people normally went scuttling if Castiel glared at them. "Apparently my presence is required tonight at a family dinner so no detention for me." Castiel explained. He looked away once he realised what he had said. As he carefully added definition to one of the bird's wings in his sketch he could tell that Dean was watching him though Castiel had already made the mistake of looking at Dean for too long. Eye contact normally meant that the other person could see too much of you because weren't eyes the window to the soul or some spiritual crap like that?

"You know." Dean started to say and Castiel snuck a quick glance across to him. "You make it sound like detention would be more fun than a dinner with your family." Dean said, a playful smirk creeping across his lips.

"When my brothers are involved detention is always the better option." Castiel admitted surprising himself because no one ever heard about his family issues apart from Anna. Castiel had to admit that the thought of being sat at a dinner table with not just Michael but Michael, Lucifer andGabriel made him wish that there was some way to get out existing for just an evening. Michael and Lucifer being in the same place for longer than a few minutes was never a good thing and always seem to end in one of them saying something, normally very loudly, that they really should not say. Part of Castiel found it pathetic that a twenty-seven year old and a twenty-four year old could act so childish at the same time as acting so resentful to one another. The pair of them made Castiel, at eighteen, and Gabriel, at twenty, seem like they were the mature siblings and Gabriel shouldn't ever be referred to as the mature sibling in any possible situation.

"I'm guessing they're eventful dinners." Dean said.

"Yes, the fire and the police department would agree with you on that one." Castiel muttered under his breath. Dean looked at him like he was trying to gage if Castiel was joking or not and when he saw that he wasn't Dean gave him a sympathetic smile.

"That sounds like the kind of dinners my family would have if we didn't have our mom there to rule over us with her iron fists." Dean said.

"Iron fists, really?" Castiel asked smirking slightly because Dean Winchester did not look like the type of person who was ruled over by anyone, especially a parent.

"Nah, she's a pussycat really but she was pretty badass in her youth if the stories are I've been told were true." Dean said leaning back in his chair and chuckling slightly before he went back to his sketch. "If it weren't for Grandma Campbell ruling over with her iron fist then my mom would have been a real tearaway apparently." Dean added.

"It's good." Castiel nodding towards Dean's drawing.

"Huh?" Dean asked looking back to Castiel.

"The drawing, I mean you're drawing…the drawing is really good."

"Oh…thanks…" Dean said as his face went from lightly tanned to a violent red blush. Clearly Dean was someone who didn't really notice their talent. "You like art too I guess…I mean you were sketching yesterday…" Dean added still blushing.

"In Algebra?" Castiel asked raising an eyebrow because he didn't actually think anyone ever noticed him in Algebra apart from Anna or Ms Mills and the latter was only because Castiel was sarcastic to her most of the time. "Yeah…I guess I was." Castiel said after a moment. He was about to say something about Dean's style, drawing style that was, when he phoned blared loudly. Led Zeppelin's Ramble On filled up the room for several seconds until Castiel looked at the screen and, after seeing it was his brother, cancelled the call. He sent Gabriel a quick text explaining that he was in class and would ring him back later before shooting an apologetic look over towards Balthazar who just gave Castiel a nonchalant shrug. A phone ringing in his class was one of the less exciting or rebellious things of have happened.

"So…Zeppelin?" Dean asked nodding down at Castiel phone.

"Huh?" Castiel said as he tried to think why on earth Gabriel would be calling him in the middle of the day unless he'd decided to go on a random 'adventure' and had ended up halfway to Vegas…again. Then again Castiel had seen him that morning and Gabriel was under house arrest until next week because of his last spur of the moment adventure. Maybe he'd attempted to do his own laundry and flooded the washroom…again. Though Castiel could hardly say anything because he couldn't remember the last time he'd even washed a single sock, he just threw his clothes into the laundry hamper and hoped that Michael wouldn't rummage through his pockets on his quest to prove Castiel was a delinquent. The time Michael had found several condoms in Castiel's back pocket had been amusing for everyone but Michael. Luke had even given Castiel a clap on the back and made several manhood jokes.

"Your ringtone, it's Led Zeppelin."

"Oh yeah…yeah my brother Luke always used to play their stuff." Castiel said shrugging but Dean looked seemingly impressed by it. Castiel gave him a small nod and swiftly returned to his sketching because the look as on Dean's face would have easily distracted him if Castiel carried on looking at him. They stayed sitting in near silence for the rest of the class which didn't actually seem as awkward as Castiel would have assumed it would be. Dean's sketch of the pair of hands flourished until Castiel couldn't see a single fault with it; Dean was talented and that was plain to see and it was surprising to Castiel seeing as Dean looked like the last person to be such a talented artist. Then again Castiel knew from his own experience that appearances were always deceptive, he knew nothing about Dean so therefore he had no real reason to assume that Dean wouldn't be talented. Part of him was annoyed that he actually wanted to know more about Dean Winchester.

That was never really a good sign.

Dean followed him out of the art block once the class was over; Castiel needed to head for his final class of the day, English but he wasn't sure where Dean needed to go and he wasn't going to give Dean Winchester the satisfaction of knowing Castiel wanted to know where he was headed. Instead he just let Dean walk next to him until Castiel head yelling on the other end of the corridor and it took a moment to place that it was someone yelling his name.

"Castiel!" Anna cried hurrying up to Castiel and looking highly apologetic. "Becky Rosen had to go home early because she was feeling ill, apparently she threw up everywhere in the middle of Bio II, and so there's no one to work in the office after school. Miss Barnes on the front desk asked me if I could fill in for Becky and I said yes without even thinking about it so that means I can't drive you home. Are you ok to ask Gabriel for a ride home?" Anna asked looking very guilty because she knew how much Castiel hated relying on any of his brothers for anything even if Gabriel was the easiest and most relaxed out of his three siblings.

"Gabe is under house arrest until next week and he isn't getting his car keys back from Dad for another two months. Not after last time." Castiel reminded Anna lowering his voice slightly so Dean didn't hear but from Dean's sympathetic look it was clear that he'd heard anyway.

"Oh God, I'm so sorry Castiel…could Michael-" Anna started to say until she saw Castiel wince. Spending time in an enclosed space, such as a car, with Michael was a recipe for disaster as he would no doubt ask Castiel about school which was far too painful for Castiel to handle remotely sober or without the help of caffeine. "I guess not, and Luke's probably out of the question too?"

"You guessed right" Castiel said. Luke's driving was questionable to say the least if Castiel was being remotely polite and it didn't make it any better that his car had no seatbelt on the passenger's side. If someone asked for his honest opinion though then Castiel would have to say that he'd rather sit in the car with Michael than Luke because at least Michael stuck to the speed limit even if he make Castiel want to bash his head against the dashboard. "I'd prefer not to die in a road accident caused by Luke braking too sharply over seeing a woman in a short skirt."

"Um…Cas?" Dean coughed. Both Castiel and Anna turned to him each with their own various faces of surprise. Anna's was probably from hearing Dean Winchester actually say something that wasn't a sarcastic insult and Castiel's was purely because no one had ever called him 'Cas' before. When he was younger his brothers had called him Cassie for one highly annoying summer but luckily that had never stuck. "Listen…I could give you a ride home if you want." Dean then offered. Anna continued to look at Dean, even blinking in surprise while Castiel just stood completely still and not fully sure if Dean Winchester had just offered him a ride home or not. "Um…where in town do you live? I could drop you off home on my way home." Dean then asked scratching the back of his neck. Castiel gave him the street and Dean swiftly replied with an easy smile in return. "Dude that's like three blocks away from my house so I can drive you there on my way back home, it's not out of my way at all."

"Are you sure…about the ride?" Castiel asked and Dean nodded. The thought of being sat in a car with Dean Winchester for any amount of time was making Castiel's stomach do backflips and he really wasn't sure why, it had to be from nerves because it couldn't have been anything else.

"Yeah its fine as long as you don't mind having to put up with my brother's gangly frame in the back seat; don't worry though, he doesn't sound as…'interesting' as your brothers…no offence."

"None taken, I say much worse things when being nice about them." Castiel admitted shrugging his shoulders.

"Well thank you, that makes me a lot better about having to stay late." Anna said giving Dean an appreciative smile before she turned back to Castiel. "I'll be home at about six so just ring me or come over if you need me." Anna added touching Castiel lightly on the arm before she quickly hurried back off in the direction of her final class of the day, AP History.

"Wow, you really have issues with your family don't you?" Dean asked raising his eyebrows. Castiel just shrugged his shoulders and turned to head off towards English. Castiel's issues with his family could have been logged down in a book that would rival the Bible on conflicting issues, preachy summons and a guy called Michael being a douche. To be honest it would be the kind of book that Oprah would love for truly terrible reasons.

Dean came to meet him outside of English which surprised Castiel to no end but he didn't say anything. His English lesson had been pretty uneventful like always really, Castiel had read the book they were studying before so he could easily spend the entire lesson sleeping for all he cared. It seemed that the new student, a red head girl who had been made to sit at the front, had either read the book before or just wasn't interested as she had a small graphic novel hidden behind her book and she seemed much more interested in that than anything else that was going on in the class.

Dean made small conversation, asking Castiel about his English class, as the pair of them walked to the student parking lot, stopping by a sleek black car that Castiel had noticed that morning. He could help but gape at it.

"Holy shit is this yours?" he asked Dean failing to hide his amazement as he took in the pristine looking car.

"Yeah, she's my baby." Dean said sounding like an incredibly proud parent instead of a teenager boy talking about his car.

"You know not many high school students have a 1967 Chevy Impala for a baby." Castiel pointed out and a slow smirk crept across Dean's face.

"You know about cars?" Dean asked raising an eyebrow.

"Sort of but not really I guess. My elder brother Luke has a 1969 Mustang that he spent about nine years saving up for, it was either the Mustang or a Chevy." Castiel said with a shrug while Dean still looked impressed. It was the second time that day that Dean had looked at him like that and it was still strangely unnerving as no one ever looked at Castiel in that way, well if they had it hadn't been for at least two years.

"Dean!" a voice called from across the parking lot causing Dean to look away from Castiel towards the source of the voice. A gangly looking fourteen year old came running towards them until he stopped just in front of Dean's car panting slightly. "Hey, sorry I would have been waiting for you but I got caught up in the library." The boy said. Castiel saw some resemblance between the boy and Dean and quickly guessed that this must have been Dean's brother, the one that Anna had mentioned the day before.

"Sammy its fine we only just got here." Dean said shrugging his shoulders.

"Oh ok then! Hi there!" Dean's brother said looking over at Castiel with an enthusiastic grin.

"Oh yeah; Castiel meet my baby brother Ass Hat, Ass Hat meet Castiel." Dean said nodding towards his brother.

"Jerk." The teen muttered under his breath giving Dean a swift kick in the shin. "My name is Sam actually. It's good to meet you." He then said as he looked over at Castiel. Castiel gave him a polite smile while Dean opened the car door.

"Get in the back bitch, guests ride shotgun." Dean said his brother with a smirk while Sam muttered a swear word under his breath as he got into the backseat of the car. "I'm gonna tell mom you said that."

"Butthead." Castiel heard Sam mutter. Smirking Castiel walked round the sleek looking car until he got to the passenger's side and was surprised when he saw that the door was already open. Dean was leaning back over towards his side of car and as Castiel slid into the seat he gave Dean and questioning look. Dean just replied with a slight smile and an unhelpful shrug of his shoulders. It was the first time in a very long time that someone had opened a car door for him and it was surprising that the person to do that would be Dean Winchester. True Castiel did not know much about him yet but Castiel would have thought that old fashioned manners weren't Dean's forte, clearly he was wrong.

"Where's Charlie?" Sam asked glancing around the car like he had just noticed that whoever 'Charlie' was wasn't here.

"She's gone to some comic book store in the middle of town to see if they have anything in there that she doesn't already own…which isn't likely to be honest." Dean said to Sam before glancing at Castiel. "Charlie's our sister." He explained. "I think she's in one or two of Jo's classes." He added as he started the car while Sam launched into a story about his day.

"So today in biology we got to dissect a frog and apparently that's the first time they've done in a few years because the last time they did some guy named Gabriel Novak protested and staged a sit in then gave every single frog their own personal funeral, with names for the frogs, on the football field." Sam explained from the back seat and Castiel snorted to himself. He remembered that day actually; well he remembered how angry their father had been when he had found out. Castiel hadn't seen him that angry in a long time. Dean looked over at him clearly recognising the last name as it was Castiel's own and 'Novak' wasn't a very common last name at all.

"Your older brother?" Dean guessed and Castiel nodded.

"Yeah he's the youngest after me; his frog was called Agamemnon and is buried under the starting line on the football field. There's a memorial poem, well it's more of a limerick, written in the boy's bathroom next to the cafeteria." Castiel said while Dean snorted with laughter. "Gabriel has always had a flare for the dramatics."

"So you never staged any amphibian memorials?" Dean asked.

"No, we were made to dissect a cow's heart instead but my best friend Anna passed out because of the whole 'dead animal organ on a table' thing so I had to sit with her in the nurse's office. I think my biology teacher was happy about that, he was probably expecting me to be Gabriel 2.0 and demand the hearts be blessed or something with holy water." Castiel said.

"I got that all the time back when we lived in Kansas and my fourth grade teacher made me sit at the front of the class because she thought I was going to be just like Dean." Sam said from the back seat.

"Hey the woman had it in for me when I was in fourth grade!" Dean quickly retorted.

"Didn't you call her a witch and put thumbtacks on her chair?" Sam asked between his loud snickers while Dean looked smugly proud of that fact for a moment. Castiel found himself actually smiling alongside Dean until a buzz coming from his pocket alerted him of a text message. Glancing at the screen he noticed it was from Gabriel and swiftly remembered that he never rang Gabriel back after his art lesson. Looking down at the text message he actually wished he had.

Gabriel: 3:21- Michael and Luke have been arguing over chicken marinades for the past three hours. I'd run now if I were you.

Castiel heaved a sigh as he read Gabriel's text which caused Dean to look over at him curiously. Castiel tried to ignore this as his phone beeped again with another text from Gabriel.

3:23 - Ok I'm done with these bags of dicks and their constant arguing. I'm going down the side of the house and going to see some friends. Catch you later if you don't flee to Anna's.

"Is everything ok?" Dean asked as his brow furrowed with concern.

"Huh? Yeah, yeah it's just my brothers...like always. This dinner with them tonight might just kill me." Castiel explained rubbing the bridge of his nose as he felt a tension headache appearing. If there were some possible way of getting out of the dinner then he would have jumped at the chance. Thank God Anna would be home by six.

"You…look…if you're not too keen on going home you can always come round to our house for a while." Dean said scratching the back of his neck. Before Castiel could say anything Sam stuck his head into the front of the car.

"Our mom worries that Dean is highly anti-social so you coming round your house will probably make her year because it will prove that Dean can actually talk to people as appose to just punching them in the face." Sam said with a huge grin plastered onto his face. The look upon Dean's face was genuinely priceless as he elbowed his younger brother in the stomach causing Sam to loudly groan in pain. Castiel couldn't help but watch with mild fascination at how Dean and Sam interacted. It was so different to how Castiel acted with his own brothers. True he was close to Gabriel but Gabriel tried not to spend much time at home anymore because of being at the local community college and also because of Michael's general presence at home.

"Your parents won't mind me coming over?" Castiel asked while Sam continued to grumble in the back seat from being elbowed by Dean. Dean looked from Sam back to Castiel and shook his head.

"No, of course not. My mom wouldn't mind at all." Dean said. Castiel noticed Dean did not mention his father and he knew from his own experience when it came to talking about his mother that asking questions about the parent not mentioned was never a good thing so instead of saying anything Castiel just nodded his head and he was grateful that Dean seemed to take this as a whole sentence.

The Winchesters lived in a relatively large turn of the century house only three blocks away from Castiel. The house was a lot like Castiel's own house apart from the fact that the Winchester house didn't fill him with a sense of foreboding like his own home. Dean parked up on the driveway behind a nondescript silver hatchback which Castiel presumed belong to Dean and Sam's mother.

Both Dean and Sam piled out the car without a care in the world and after breathing in carefully for a few moments Castiel followed because it would have looked strange to just continue sitting in the car. Dean strolled up to the front door and opened it before calling out "Hey mom, we're home!"

"Hi Dean, I'm in the kitchen!" came a voice from inside the house and Dean motioned for Castiel to follow him.

"Are you sure your mother will be ok with me being here?" Castiel asked again because he knew from experience that unexpected guests could send people into a world of panic, or maybe that was just Michael and really he should have been ok with Anna dropping in whenever she wanted by now as she had lived next door since Castiel was five years old. Dean scoffed loudly before he actually chuckled slightly.

"Dude, its fine. My mom really won't mind you being here. Don't worry so much." Dean said laughing.

Castiel watched in mild fascination as he observed Dean walk into the large kitchen and hug a smiling blonde woman who had to be his mother as they had the exact same green eyes. Even though the Winchesters hadn't been in the house for long the kitchen was already full of appliances, cooking equipment and cookery books so clearly this was one of the most loved rooms in the house.

"Mom this is Castiel, we have a few classes at school together." Dean said nodding over towards Castiel. He braced himself as Dean's mother looked over at him and was amazed to see her smile was just as bright as when she looked at her son.

"Well hello Castiel. It's a pleasure to meet you" Mrs Winchester said walking over and actually hugging Castiel tightly which caught him completely off guard because the only parents he ever interacted with were Anna's or his own father and none of them were huggers. Mrs Winchester was also a lot stronger than she looked as her hug could have easily crushed bones or at least cause some serious bruising

"Hello, it's nice to meet you Mrs Winchester." Castiel heard himself say in the politeness voice he possessed as Mrs Winchester finally let him go. Politeness didn't really come naturally to him anymore but Dean's mother seemed so damn cheerful and pleasant that it was impossible to not be polite towards her.

"Please Castiel, call me Mary. The only people to ever call me Mrs Winchester are people from the bank and things like that." Mrs Winchester said chuckling slightly and Castiel noticed just how much her laugh was like Dean's "I've just finished a batch of cookies if you boys are hungry." Mary, as she'd asked Castiel to call her, though that would take some getting used to, added nodding towards the top of her large range cooker. A huge plate of what smelt like peanut butter cookies rested on the top and Dean was already hovering by them ready to pounce by the look of it.

"I heard cookies!" Sam called from the hall.

"They're in the kitchen Sam!" Mary called out with a warm chuckle. "Can I get you a drink or anything Castiel?" Mary then asked Castiel as Sam raced into the kitchen and grabbed a handful of cookies off the plate before Dean could. "Sam you're worse than Dean if that was possible." Mary chastised her son.

"No thank you, I'm ok." Castiel said politely and he couldn't help but smile when Mary gave him a warm grin.

"Well if you need anything then don't be afraid to ask at all." Mary said before turning to Dean. "Charlie rang me earlier on saying she was going to some comic store in town, will you be ok to fetch her when she's finished? I'm not too keen on her getting the bus back when we've only just moved here." Mary said and Dean gave her an absentminded shrug of his shoulders. "Thank you, I suppose" Mary said shaking her head slightly before turning back to Castiel. "So Dean says you have a few classes together."

"Um yes…we have Algebra and Art together." Castiel explained.

"They also had detention together." Sam said between mouthfuls of cookies. Dean swiftly gave his brother a whack across the back of the head causing Sam to momentarily choke on his mouthful of cookie. Sam coughed for several moments with streaming eyes until he recovered and glared at his brother.

"Dean! Honestly, will you leave your brother alone?" Mary said in a reprimanding voice.

"Castiel was more of the political prisoner when it came to detention." Dean said making it sound like Castiel had done something more profound than give his Algebra teacher sarcastic abuse.

"What, as opposed to you who was only there because you're a complete jerk?" Sam asked. Dean turned to whack his brother again before Mary coughed loudly stopping Dean in his tracks.

"Honestly, Castiel you don't have siblings you treat as terribly as these two treat each other do you?" Mary asked keeping a wary eye on her sons.

"Um…not really…I mean I have brothers but they're all older than me." Castiel said. He didn't really want to get into the long story that was his family but Mary seemed to take his comment as enough and she gave him a small nod. Sam muttered something about how being the youngest sucked and how he was going to his room to do homework.

"We've been there two days, how can he have homework already?"

"I wondered that about you and your detention." Mary said giving Dean a disapproving look.

"Hey I was a political prisoner just like Castiel." Dean said giving his mother a bright smile different from the smirk Castiel had seen him give others.

"Yes well I'll believe that when I see it." Mary said rolling her eyes as Dean motioned for Castiel to follow him out the kitchen. "Now don't forget about Charlie" Mary called after Dean as they walked out the kitchen towards a spacious living room with several cardboard boxes still pushed up the far wall.

"Like it's possible to forget Charlie, she's loud enough." Dean muttered as Castiel glanced around the room. Like the kitchen before the living room was clearly going to be one of the most lived in rooms, a large bookcase was already full of both DVDs as well as books and one corner of the room seemed to be solely dedicated to the large stereo and turntable. The large mantle above the fireplace was groaning under countless family photos and for a moment Castiel was saddened that the Winchesters hadn't been living in this house for long but it already looked like more of a home than Castiel own house which had being lacking in anything other than minimalistic décor for the past several years ever since…well for the past several years. "Ignore the mess, we're trying to unpack everything but it seems like we've amassed a shitload of junk since we last moved and it's taking forever. I don't even want to think about how long it's only to take Sam and Charlie to unpack all their trash." Dean said throwing himself onto the worn but very comfortable looking couch. "So how on earth do you do that?"

"Do what?" Castiel asked as he looked over the bookshelf at the endless titles of books and DVDs.

"Get my mother to like you so quickly?" Dean asked as he turned on the TV and began channel surfing.

"I don't know." Castiel said with a shrug.

"Of course you do."

"I really don't, most parents actively dislike me. Anna's parents cannot stand me" Castiel heard himself say as his eyes raked over a huge section of horror novels including works from Stephan King, Cormac McCarthy and Henry James. Castiel recognised many titles that were in his own house as Luke was a huge horror literature fan when he was younger. After a moment Dean whooped with happiness as Star Wars: A New Hope had just started on a random movie channel. "One day I might watch all those films" Castiel said absentmindedly as he continued looking over the bookshelf.

"Huh…wait…what? You've never seen all the Star Wars films?" Dean asked in a shocked voice like Castiel had never lived a day in his life.

"No, I think I saw five minutes of one of them about ten years ago but that was it." Castiel said nonchalantly.

"Right sit down, man are you in for an education!" Dean said motioning for Castiel to sit down on the couch. "Never seen Star Wars…" Dean muttered under his breath like it really was the most shocking thing he'd ever heard in his life.

Dean was busy explaining the finer points of the first three original Star Wars films, during which he'd decided they needed to watch his Blu-Ray version of A New Hope instead of the version on TV 'to get the full experience', to Castiel when the front door banged loudly and a small red-headed girl waltzed into the sitting room before throwing her full looking messenger bag to the floor.

"Hey bitches" she said grinning over at Dean.

"How did you get home?" Dean asked pausing the DVD and glancing over at the red-head who clearly had to be their sister Charlie though Castiel could see no resemblance between her and any of the other Winchesters he had met.

"I took the bus, the comic store wasn't too bad but there was nothing in there that I didn't already have so I might have to make a trek to the city soon." Charlie said shrugging her hoodie clad shoulders.

"Didn't mom tell you that I was going to pick you up? She didn't want you to get the bus home." Dean said sounding concerned and the protective brother side of him became apparent.

"Mom worries way too much." Charlie said rolling her eyes heavily.

"Fine but if she asks you then I drove you home, I'm not having her yell at me." Dean said before turning back to the TV screen and pressing play so the DVD started back up again. Charlie shrugged her shoulders and sat down on the other couch before she noticed Castiel and gave him a double glance.

"Hey…aren't you in my English class?" she asked. Castiel had to rack his brain because he really didn't pay attention in English class at the moment as they were studying a book Castiel had read more times than he could count so he spent most of his time trying to drown out people blatantly missing the whole point to the novel and most of the characters. "You sit at the back of the room I think. I'm near the front, they were only seats open." Charlie added if that was remotely helpful. After looking at her more closely Castiel realised that Charlie was in his English class and seemed to share the same views that Castiel had on the rest of the class because he had noticed Charlie rolling her eyes at the other students almost as much as Castiel did.

"Oh yeah, Castiel this is my sister Charlie. Charlie this is Castiel" Dean said waving vaguely at Charlie. After only a few moments Charlie had pulled Castiel into a discussion about the book they were studying at the time in England. Apparently Charlie had read it two years prior and had hated it just as much as Castiel had when he'd read it. Charlie quickly recommended Castiel a book that was a lot better than the one they were studying and after a moment Castiel noticed Dean watching the pair of them with a bemused expression.

"Dean! Dean, did I hear Charlie in the hallway earlier on?" Mary called from the kitchen.

"Yes mom, I've just come back with her!" Dean called back. Charlie rolled her eyes but didn't correct Dean which he seemed appreciative about and he shot her a grin.

"Yeah he picked me up from the comic book store and everything!" Charlie called throwing Dean a smirk of her own.

"That's lovely honey. Dean, does Castiel want to stay for dinner?" Mary then called. Castiel glanced over at the clock on the fireplace and swore under his breath. It was nearing seven in the evening and Michael was expecting him at the dinner table any moment. His brother was going to kill him.

"Shit, I have to get back; my brother's accepting me at home for dinner." Castiel said leaping up from the couch.

"I can give you a ride back home." Dean offered but Castiel shook his head.

"No…no it's ok. I can walk back" he said quickly because no doubt Michael would be in a terrible mood and Castiel really didn't want Dean to witness that. "It's only three blocks, I'll be fine." Castiel said as he grabbed his bag from where he'd thrown it before.

"Cas-"

"Dean I said I can walk" Castiel shot back. As he was beginning to leave the room Mary walked in with a smile on her lips. "It was a pleasure meeting you Mrs Winchester" Castiel said hoping that he sounded polite because the general tone he seemed to give off most of the time was the of sarcasm.

"Well it was lovely meeting you Castiel; you'll have to come over again soon." Mary said. Giving her what he hoped was a warm smile before he hurried out the house and took off down the road in the run. A slight cold wind picked up as he ran, his feet pounding against the pavement which quietly echoed along the deserted road. The Novak house loomed towards him and the lack of his father's car in the driveway didn't surprise Castiel in the slightest. The presence of both Luke and Michael's cars though was not a pleasant sight and just added to the dread settling in the pit of Castiel's stomach. Castiel took several deep breathes before he pulled his keys out of his jacket pocket and let himself into the house preparing himself for whatever Michael was going to say.

"Gabriel?" someone shouted from the dining room.

"No…it's me." Castiel called back sighing as he practically dragged himself towards the dining room.

The very moment he walked into the dining room Castiel knew what kind of night the evening would turn out to be. Michael already looked pissed off and it was clear that Luke was trying his hardest not to saying anything to antagonise Michael which was actually an achievement for him because normally he revelled in winding Michael up.

"You're late for dinner Castiel. I said that everyone should be down here for seven and it's nearly half past now. Are you incapable to being on time for anything?" Michael asked. Castiel rolled his eyes because he hadn't meant to be late it was just something that had happened. Time wasn't a real concern of Castiel's if he was honest and this generally meant that he was late for most things. Anna had gotten used to it so why couldn't his damn brother get used to it?

"Sorry." Castiel said knowing full well that he didn't sound apologetic at all. That served Michael right for sounding like such a dick. He glanced around the room and saw that Gabriel wasn't here either which was not much a surprise as Gabriel had the same thoughts as Castiel when it came to family dinners. Castiel briefly wondered if Gabriel had even come home yet after he escaped down the drain pipe. If it weren't for that drainpipe both Gabriel and Castiel would have been around for more family arguments than they witnessed already.

"Yes well you can sit down now." Michael said glaring slightly.

With a tired lament Castiel said "You know what, I'm really not hungry." The last thing he wanted was to sit down to a meal with his brothers, especially when Michael already seemed to be in a terrible mood. Before Michael could say anything else Castel turned on his heels and headed upstairs towards his bedroom.

"Castiel!" Michael called back angrily but Castiel carried on walking until he got to his room and slammed the door shut behind him.

His room was his sanctuary, it was where he came to get away from his family and it was safe. It was the only room in the house that felt like home with its deep red walls, art prints hung up and his huge desk where Castiel did most of his art.

A light knock on his door made Castiel look away from his ceiling and sigh loudly as if it were Michael then he wasn't up for whatever argument would start up between them. Whoever it was on the other side of the door did not wait to be allowed in and just opened the door. Surprisingly it was Luke and not Michael.

"Are you ok?" Luke asked as he leant against the doorframe. "Michael's just pissed that Gabriel isn't here."

"Yeah he made his escape down the drainpipe when you and Michael were arguing over marinades." Castiel said haughtily.

"Huh." Luke said with a chuckle "I didn't know he was still small enough to do that…remember when we climbed down the drainpipe to go and seeJurassic Park: The Lost World in the cinema?" Luke asked.

"You remember that?" Castiel asked because that was one of the best memories he had that contained both Luke and Gabriel in the same place without anyone fighting, making a scene or something blowing up.

"Yeah, I got the girl behind the box office's number." Luke said smirking. "Look just ignore Michael, he's in a shit mood and he's just looking for someone to take it out on. Gabriel's not here and you're normally his next target when it comes to shit like this because he knows that I'll just fight back."

"Luke did you really come up here to talk to me about this?" Castiel asked. Luke's face darkened for a moment; there was a high chance he was about to tell Castiel to fuck off but instead he just let out an incensed grumble.

"No…I just wanted to see if you were ok but just forget. If you're hungry later on then they'll be food downstairs." Luke said before walking out the room and slamming the door shut behind him.

The argument between Luke and Michael resumed almost instantly and carried on well into the night. Neither of them seemed to care that Gabriel wasn't there. Well that was until Gabriel came home and all hell broke loose between him and Michael. The pair yelled at one another until the early hours of morning, clearly not caring who they kept awake with their constant rowing and it wasn't until their father came home that either of them seemed to be anywhere near done with their row.

There was only so long you could stand listening to music at ear splitting decibels before you developed the world's largest migraine. Castiel discovered this at two in the morning when Michael and Luke were still doing their best to start World War III right in the Novak's kitchen.

Morning came far too quickly. Castiel's alarm was blaring at him to get up after what only felt like a minutes of sleep and if he was being honest that only thing Castiel felt like doing was saying 'Fuck it' and going back to bed where he would stay for the rest of the day. Sadly there was the tenacious force to be reckoned with that went by the name of Anna Milton. Therefore, instead of burrowing himself under his covers and sleeping until noon Castiel pulled himself out of bed and got ready for school, grumbling all the while to himself as he did so. He was coming downstairs when a car horn beeped from Castiel's driveway telling him that Anna was waiting for him. Castiel hurried through the hallway but not before his father stopped him before he could make it out the door.

"Is everything alright Castiel?" his father asked giving him a concerned look. It actually took Castiel a moment to place the look as that of concern because his father hadn't looked at him like that in a long time.

Castiel actually couldn't help but scoff at his father's look or his question. "You're asking me this now? I'm going to be late for school if I'm not careful." He said.

"I heard Michael and Gabriel got into a disagreement last night." His father said gravely.

"Yeah, it started out between Michael and Luke then progressed to Michael and Gabriel then back to Michael Luke. You could have stopped it if you had been there but, shock of all shocks, you weren't there. You're never there." Castiel snapped. There was a time he would have held his tongue around his father but he hadn't had nearly enough sleep the night before and he'd actually done his Algebra homework for once and being late would just take away that small victory, it was all about the small victories.

"Castiel-" his father started to say in a pained expression but Castiel just shook his head and opened the front door.

"Dad I'm going to be late if I'm not careful, can we do this another time…if you actually have the time" he said hoping that by saying that it would be the end of their conversation. His father gave him another pained expression but nodded his head.

"I'll see you later for dinner." He said though Castiel highly doubted his father would be back from work in time to witness the bloodbath that was the Novak family dinner.

"Yeah sure" Castiel muttered under his breath before hurrying out the house and towards Anna's car. Thankfully she was holding out a large paper cup of coffee which Castiel took without a second thought and took a very liberal gulp of its contents despite the scalding heat. He could feel his tongue begin to blister but he did not care; if anything the pain helped him feel human and alive for just a few fleeting seconds until the inevitable numbness would consume him again.

"Wow…you look like you needed that." Anna remarked once they were in the car and she had backed out of the drive. Castiel took yet another gulp in a way of agreeing with her. "How many hours sleep did you get?" Anna asked sounding concerned.

"I don't know; three, maybe three and a half tops." Castiel said with a shrug of his shoulders. Anna sighed loudly but didn't say anything else. Castiel tore off a piece of Anna's bagel and handed it to her when she came to a red light. Castiel could never eat this early so Anna had stopped trying to make him bagels weeks and weeks before.

"Thanks. Why couldn't you sleep? Things aren't getting bad again are they?" Anna asked glancing over at Castiel for a moment. Her large eyes were full of concern and Castiel thought to himself that Anna really was the only person in the world that he truly cared about as her concern was like the knife to the gut.

"No...no things are f-"

"Don't say 'fine' because you know how much I hate it when you try to say you're fine." Anna said quickly. "I've known you for too many years to know that they are not fine. Is it your meds or something like that?"

"No it's not my meds at all. Things…they're not fine but they're not bad, are you satisfied? Michael, Luke and Gabe were fighting again once Gabe came back home and it just pissed me the hell off. I couldn't get to sleep after that." Castiel explained. After Castiel had walked out of the dinner Michael had been in a foul mood but that mood had worsened when Gabriel didn't even come home until past eleven o'clock at night. Their argument had raged until the early hours of the morning and Castiel couldn't drown them out despite trying to do so with the music spilling out his headphones being turned up to an incredibly high volume.

"What were they fighting about this time? When Naomi was on the phone the other day she happened to mention that Michael had seemed really stressed out at work recently." Anna remarked and Castiel refrained from snorting. Anna's eldest sister Naomi worked with Michael and she always seemed far too happy to offer ways to Michael how he could 'fix' the most wayward member of the Novak family also known as Castiel or to just generally gossip about the whole Novak family.

"They were fighting because Gabriel is Gabriel like always, Luke is Luke like always and Michael is a douche...like always." Castiel pointed out and Anna seemed to agree because she nodded.

"How did the dinner go in the end? The fire department weren't called so can we class it as a small victory?"

"It didn't happen in the end. Gabriel was a no-show and I wasn't going to sit there at a table with Luke and Michael without him so I bailed." Castiel said shrugging before sipping on his coffee. They had added just the right amount of cinnamon, the way Castiel loved it.

"I bet Michael loved that..." Anna said.

"Oh he was thrilled." Castiel said sarcastically. Anna shot him a comforting look but it seemed like something dawned on her. "Hey, how was the ride back home with Dean?" she asked suddenly looking very interested.

"What is the fascination with this guy? Do you like him or something? Should Inias be concerned?" Castiel asked. Anna scoffed loudly like the thought was completely ridiculous.

"Of course not! What's interesting is that you're being friendly towards him; well you're version of friendly that is. You're never friendly towards anyone apart from maybe me and occasionally Jo and that's mainly because she's my friend and gives us cheap coffee."

"That's not true." Castiel said even though it exactly was. "I'm friends with Meg." He pointed out.

"Oh and she's a shining beacon of positivity!" Anna said rolling her eyes.

"She's not that bad."

"Yeah whatever. So the ride was ok? You're still here so clearly Dean kidnap you and bury your body in the woods."

"You watch too much CSI for your own good." Castiel muttered.

"Oh shut up and tell me." Anna said holding her hand out for another piece of bagel.

"It was fine, he drove me home." Castiel said shrugging not mentioning that he'd actually gone back to Dean's house. He thought that little titbit would send Anna of into a lengthy and very one-sided discussion.

"Really? He drove you home?" Anna asked.

"Yes, he drove me home and that's that." Castiel said shrugging his shoulders.

"Really?"

"Yes Anna so please just change the subject."

"Ok then, did you hear about the party in a few weeks? The one at Meg Masters' house?" Anna asked and Castiel nodded his head.

"Meg told me told me about it in detention the other day." Castiel explained. The party was being hosted by Meg Masters, a senior like Anna and Castiel, who lived out the outskirts of town by the large lake with her mother and younger step-sister Ruby. Castiel and Meg had been friends since middle school and so Anna kept her opinions on Meg to a minimum since Meg always threw legendary parties and Anna happened to tutor Ruby in chemistry.

"So I guess we're going then..." Anna said clearly trying to hide the disapproval in her voice though she did not fully succeed.

"You don't have to go there if you don't want to." Castiel pointed out.

"If I don't go then who will keep an eye on you?" Anna asked like it was the most obvious question she could have asked.

"I need someone to keep an eye on me?" Castiel snickered. Anna gave him a playful push on the shoulder with her hand.

"Oh please! You're either even more of a sulking sarcastic know-it-all or you're a complete lush when you are drunk. Do you remember when you kissed a very surprised looking Jo at the last party we went to?" Anna asked snorting loudly.

"No..." Castiel said failing to recall that memory. Jo had failed to mention that to Castiel so he wondered if she didn't remember it either.

"Exactly, that proves an awful lot. Now I'm going to the party as long as you promise me you won't end up talking to Meg for most of the night. I don't mind Ruby, she can be really sweet when she puts her mind to it, but Meg drives me up the wall." Anna said slowing her car down slightly as she came closer to the school.

"Ok Meg can be a bit...prickly but she can be a decent enough person."

"Are you saying that because you want me to stop disliking Meg and you think she is a nice person or because you drunkenly slept with her over the summer?" Anna asked. Castiel winced slightly at that memory, which he hadn't been too drunk to forget, before rolling his eyes at Anna. "Yeah well that's what you get for being slutty. Hester Lowes is still pissed at you for sleeping with her brother last year." Anna pointed out.

"I barely remember that." Castiel said frowning slightly.

"Which proves that you should stop getting drunk and having sex with people if you don't want to piss them off when you either ignore them afterwards or tell them that you barely remember said sexual encounter if you remember it at all." Anna said sounding vaguely like Naomi which was truly frightening. Anna could be scary at times but Naomi was another force entirely.

"Stop being pious, it doesn't suit you" Castiel said as they pulled into the student parking lot. Anna parked her car next to the sleek looking black car owned by no other than Dean Winchester and just as Castiel was climbing out the passenger seat, coffee cup and the remains of his bagel in hand, he heard someone call his name. Glancing over his shoulder he saw Charlie Winchester climbing out the backseat of the black car with a smile on her face.

"Hey Castiel!" Charlie said giving him a small wave. Castiel nodded back as he momentarily watched Dean Winchester slide from out then driver's seat. His younger brother Sam hurried after him with a large backpack that Castiel assumed was full of books. "See you in English?" Charlie asked giving Castiel a bright smile. Castiel nodded while he watched Anna take in Charlie's attire from her mass of red hair clipped back haphazardly with hair grips that had various cartoon characters on them to her t-shirt that referenced Harry Potter and her shoes with their rainbow laces.

"Anna this is Charlie Winchester, Charlie this is my friend Anna Milton." Castiel said while Charlie beamed at Anna. He watched Anna continued to take Charlie in, probably trying to figure out if she was a bad influence like Meg, until she gave her a pleasant smile. Castiel assumed that Anna was thinking that a girl in rainbow shoelaces couldn't be much of a bad influence.

"It's really nice to meet you Anna." Charlie said before glancing over to Castiel and rummaging in her bag. A few moments later she pulled out the book she had recommended the evening before. "Here's that book I was telling you about last night; ignore the pen and pencil marks, when I find a line or paragraph I really like or I think would make a good blog post, something like that, I tend to underline it or try and ring around it. It drives Dean insane which is why he doesn't lend me any of his books anymore" Charlie said with a chuckle. "Anyway I'll let you get to your first class, see you in English!" Charlie added before she hurried off into the building. Dean walked past Castiel with a raised eyebrow and a small smile on his lips but he didn't say anything. Anna on the other hand turned to Castiel with a face full of questions.

"Go on Anna, I know you're dying to say whatever is going on in your head." Castiel said with a sigh as they made their way to form.

"You're being social and talking to Charlie Winchester...about books. Did Michael finally drug you and give you that lobotomy he's wanted to give you since you were thirteen?" Anna asked.

"Very funny, very funny." Castiel muttered. Anna sighed loudly at the sarcastic tone of Castiel's voice.

"Oh stop scowling. I'm just saying that you normally find people like her annoying. People like Jo or Meg are more your kind of person."

"That's meant to mean what exactly?"

"You know what I mean. Charlie is…well she wears Doctor Who sweaters and looks like she'd happily live at Comic Con whereas the detention crowd...well they seem more like your kind of people even if I don't like it" Anna said with a slight smirk. "Hey I'm not saying it's a bad thing that you're friends with Charlie, she seems nice enough-"

"We're not friends, we're…we just know one another." Castiel quickly said.

"Ok Castiel, ok." Anna said rolling her eyes slightly as they headed off to Algebra. Castiel slumped down into his seat and couldn't help but notice Dean glance over at him. Castiel looked back for a moment before turning his attention back to the desk in front of him.

Two days later Castiel found Charlie sat by herself in the library. She was buried in a book with her headphones leaking out loud music and it took several attempts to catch her attention. In the end he tapped Charlie on the top of the head. "Here's your book back." Castiel said with a slight smile as Charlie pulled her headphones off her head.

"Oh hi! You've finished it already?" Charlie asked sounding surprised. Castiel nodded at her as she beamed at him excitedly. "Wow and I thought I was a fast reader, what did you think of it? Didn't you think that the main character's core ideals were completely farfetched and…wait you probably want to get to lunch don't you?" Charlie said.

"Um not really." Castiel said shrugging his shoulders. Anna was in the graphics department working on her latest piece of work and Castiel has been planning on spending his lunch break in the art block working on his portfolio and maybe eating a protein bar if he got hungry. It wasn't until Charlie mentioned lunch that he noticed the small brown paper bad slightly spilling out of her overstuffed backpack on the study table. "Planning on eating up here?" he asked.

"What? Oh…yeah. I mean the cafeteria kind of intimidates me plus I sort of don't have anywhere to sit…Dean's gotten to know some of the guys from the football team and, sort of, become friends with them and I'm not insane enough to even attempt to sit at the same table as a bunch of cheerleaders. I like my self-esteem thank you very much plus I'd have nothing to talk to them about." Charlie said nodding at her brown paper bag. "I'd rather eat in here; study books don't judge you for eating a cheese burger." Charlie added. There was such a sad look in Charlie's eyes that without even thinking about it Castiel sat down opposite her and pulled out his sketch pad. "What are you doing?"

"Joining you for lunch, the art block will be full of the poser freshman hipsters trying to suck up to the art teachers anyway and the last thing I need is a bunch of try hard galaxy print wearing freshman trying to bribe the TAs with chai teas and gluten free soy cakes. It's bad enough when the sophomores try it on with the TAs." Castiel said hoping that Charlie would take this to be the truth. The fact that he genuinely felt sorry for Charlie sat by herself in the study room was a driving force behind sitting with her. He wasn't going to tell Charlie this though as he doubted she would appreciate his pity.

"Well thank you, it's nice to know that you like my company more than a bunch of hipsters." Charlie said smirking. "While I can't tell you who is 'in' and 'hip' I could easily tell everything you've never wanted to know about Harry Potter."

"I can honestly say that isn't a lot I wouldn't want to know about Harry Potter if you wanted to tell me anything."

"That's good to know." Charlie said with a genuine looking smile.

"See? You've learnt something about and I made you smile."

"So listen…you're probably the only person that has been remotely nice to me at this school since I came here and I'm normally pretty bad at making friends and such so…well I was wondering , do you wanted to come over to my house tonight if you're not busy? We can watch cheesy sci-fi and fantasy films and eat too much popcorn." Charlie said stuttering every now and then. "

Friday nights for Castiel were usually spent doing whatever he could do to feel…something, anything. Meg Masters' parties were always a good distraction from whatever was going on in Castiel's life at the time. Castiel was about to tell Charlie that he would probably be busy when he saw the hopeful look in her eyes.

Charlie was a nice person; she was funny, bright and clearly loved her family. Castiel couldn't actually understand why people had judged Charlie because, yes she did seem in her own world half the time thanks to her attachment to her books and her music but she was a nice person. Castiel was right when he thought that the people in his school were too judgemental and a giant bag of dicks. "You don't have to if you don't want to." Charlie said suddenly looking nervous like she could almost hear Castiel declining her offer. True Castiel didn't like getting close to anyone but he couldn't stand thinking that he could easily upset Charlie if he said 'no' to her. She was a nice person who didn't deserve to be treated badly by anyone.

"That sounds really good to me Charlie." Castiel said and the smile that Charlie gave him could have brought freaking dead puppies back to life as it was that bright. "What time would you want me round?"

"About seven? Is that ok for you? We'll probably have the house to ourselves…not in that way…damn…well I mean my brothers will probably be out the house, I'm not sure, so we'll probably be left alone by them."

"Seven sounds ok to me." Castiel said quickly before Charlie could launch into a long rambling monologue.

"Great…great…I'll see you later on then!"

Castiel didn't have to get back home anytime soon and he had at least an hour to kill before Anna was finished up in the office so he decided to quickly go to his locker and fetch the running clothes stored in there.

The weak Minnesota sun peaked lazily through the clouds as Castiel sat in the bleachers and tied his running shoes. Of all the things Castiel had given up over the past few years the only thing he found it impossible to give up on was running. He never felt happier than when he was running. It was something he didn't have to think about, like when he was sketching, it was just something that happened. Sometimes it was almost like flying.

Grabbing his iPod and earphones he selected one of the many playlists he had made for when he was running; it was a mix of classic rock that he'd grown up with hearing during one of many 'who can play their music the loudest' competitions that Gabriel and Luke had been involved in over the years. Castiel had grown up with battles of Metallica verses Led Zeppelin, The Who verses Ramones and even Fleetwood Mac verses Grateful Dead. By the age of eleven Castiel had invested in many pairs of quality earplugs while Luke and Gabriel battled it out.

His feet pounded against the track making the familiar sound that he'd loved since he was young. His muscles complained for the first few minutes as he hadn't been running since the last track meet the week before until they grew quiet and he fell into a steady pace. Part of him wished he had a stopwatch with him to record his time but they were all locked up back in the gym and he wasn't in the mood to be caught trying to break into the gym cupboards on a Friday afternoon. He didn't really have to worry about his time though; he had been the fastest at the track meet the week before just like he had for the last several months.

Running was something that came easy to him; there should have been some bitter irony in that but it was a truth really. Throughout middle school Castiel had always been one of the fastest; he always won first place trophies on sports days and so by the time he got to high school Castiel he been invested in several running clubs and he'd practically waltzed onto the track team in freshman year. It didn't matter on the terrain or the weather conditions, Castiel was a fast and highly determined runner and he always would be.

His legs slowly began to burn with each step as Castiel realised he'd been running for nearly thirty minutes. It didn't matter that his calves burnt because the feeling of running and the sound of his running shoes hitting the track made him feel free. When he was running the only thing that mattered was the track. There was nothing outside of the running track, none of the troubles and problems. When he was running Castiel was free.

The phone is Castiel's pocket beeped loudly making him slow downed to a steady jog then a gentle walk. An unread message from Anna came up onto the screen. She was nearly finished in the office and would be ready in about fifteen minutes. Castiel began doing a mix of jogging and walking back towards the bleachers where he had placed his bag then stopped when he saw a familiar figure in that damn worn leather jacket sitting on the first row with a soda can in his hand. Castiel couldn't help noticing how damn relaxed Dean looked sitting, how carefree and uncomplicated he seemed as he sat in that stupid jacket with that fucking smirk. Castiel wasn't sure if he was starting to dislike Dean because of his tendency of always being there or if he was just starting to hate him because Dean was fucking attractive and it didn't help matters really. Hopefully Castiel could blame the jumbled up thoughts racing through his head on the fact that he'd been running…and perhaps he would believe that was the only reason why he was having said jumbled up thoughts.

"Wow…you're fast." Dean said rising from his seat on the bleachers.

"You were watching me?" Castiel asked slightly breathlessly as he raised an eyebrow. He reached for his bag and pulled out a bottle of water, taking generous gulps he continued to stare Dean down.

"No I just happened to be walking by from detention and I saw you"

"Are you going for a record on how many detentions you can get in your first few weeks here?"

"Yeah, something like that…I didn't know you ran…like I said, you're pretty fast." Dean said breaking the eye contact first and running a hand through his hair. The action made Castiel instantly conscious of his own hair which was no doubt looking just as unruly and windswept as it always did after he ran. He wasn't going to let Dean know that he felt remotely self-conscious stood here though.

"Yeah I should be fast; I'm the state champion." Castiel said with a shrug knowing full well that it sounded like he was bragging.

"You run competitively?" Dean asked sounding surprised. Castiel frowned slightly at the tone of disbelief in Dean's voice. "I…I just meant that you don't seem like the kind of person who would run. I mean you're an artist and you read a lot…it's just surprising, that's all…um…do you run short or long distance?"

"Long distance mainly. I'm on the cross country team as well as the track team plus I run marathons." Castiel said; once again Dean looked surprised and Castiel actually found it infuriating because why would Dean possibly look surprised? He didn't know him from anyone else in this damn school, for all Dean knew Castiel could be a freaking bee keeper so why was Dean looking at him like that? "Well not that this hasn't been fascinating talking to you but I have to get going." Castiel said placing his water bottle back into his bag and beginning to walk away. Part of him wasn't surprised when he heard Dean hurrying up behind him. Maybe there had been something, a blossoming friendship between the two of them thanks to their time spent in detention but really what use was that? Castiel had learnt over the years that if you kept yourself away from people then you had less people to hurt and disappoint in the long run.

"I could give you a ride home; you've been running for a while so you must be tired." Dean offered.

"Anna is working in the office so I've got a ride waiting for me and if she's late on meatloaf night I'll never hear the end of it" Castiel said shortly.

"Oh…ok. Well I'll see you in Algebra on Monday" Dean said, clearly Charlie hadn't told him that she had invited Castiel to the Winchester's house that night. The thought actually made Castiel happy because it was easier that way.

"Maybe" Castiel said with a shrug. If he could get away with it Castiel would normally skip Monday's Algebra class to sleep in. It had a tendency to drive Anna insane because that would mean that she would have to give Castiel her notes but she didn't say too much because she probably knew there was no point in saying anything.

"Bye Cas…" Dean said as Castiel picked up his speed closer towards the student parking lot. For a moment Castiel looked back to see a despondent look on Dean's face; he tried to convince his brain it meant nothing to him at all.

Anna was waiting for him by her in the parking lot and when she saw Castiel she gave him a small wave.

"So what's the plan for tonight? Please don't tell me that you're going to spend all night in your room hiding from Luke or Michael."

"I would say that is a strong possibility but no, I'm actually going to be going to Charlie's house." Castiel said waiting for Anna's reaction. She did not disappoint as she actually laughed rather loudly. "Thanks Anna." Castiel muttered sarcastically opening the car down and sliding into the passenger seat.

"I'm sorry, I thought you were joking. You're going to Charlie Winchester's house? Really?" Anna asked sliding into her own seat.

"Yes, she asked me if I wanted to come over and marathon a few sci-fi films with her."

"And you said yes? Wow…I'm amazed." Anna laughed starting up the car and beginning to back out of the parking lot. "You're developing people skills; it's about time to be honest. Does this mean you're going to stop hanging around with the likes of Meg Masters and her band of moronic minions?"

"You have a terrible view of Meg considering you spend every Tuesday afternoon at her house." Castiel said.

"Yes tutoring Ruby, I never see Meg there and luckily Ruby isn't anything like her." Anna said. "She was actually telling me about this boy in a few of her classes that she really likes. She didn't tell me his name thought but I think she really likes him. It's cute." Anna said with a wistful smile.

The house seemed empty when Castiel returned home. Both his father and Michael would be at work and Luke would be wherever Luke felt like being on a Friday afternoon but that certainly wasn't at home seeing as his motorbike wasn't on the driveway. Castiel let himself into the house as Anna drove off towards her house and he was only placing his keys into his back pocket when Castiel heard Gabriel's voice coming from somewhere in the house.

"Hey bro!" Gabriel called and a moment later Castiel watched as his brother came strolling out of the kitchen with a large bottle of soda in his hand. "Hey, you're back before six…I'm guessing it was a good day at school. You didn't make anyone cry?"

"No I didn't." Castiel said with a roll of his eyes. "Anna was working in the office and I went for a run." He added with a shrug.

"So no detention? Dad and Michael will be so proud…I so hope there's cake." Gabriel said.

"Yeah well I'm going out and I really didn't feel like getting detention today." Castiel said with a slight sigh. "Besides, I didn't put my meds into my bag this morning so I need to take them." Castiel added with another shrug of his shoulders as he began walking towards the kitchen. Gabriel quickly followed him.

"So…you doing ok…right?" Gabriel asked cautiously. Castiel wasn't going to act like the way people constantly tiptoed around him wasn't highly annoying but he assumed that Gabriel no doubt had his reasons for sounding cautious after all he was the one that had found Castiel six months previously. It had always made Gabriel cautious about what he said; it was almost as if he actually had a filter between his mouth and his brain for once.

-panicked voice and hands gripping onto Castiel as if his life depended on the pressure of the fingers against his cool skin.

"Castiel? Fuck! Castiel? Castiel! Dad? Michael? Someone call an ambulance! Castiel come on, don't do this! Luke! Michael! Someone call a fuckingambulance!" Gabriel yelled-

"Castiel?" Gabriel pressed.

"Huh?" Castiel asked looking back over at Gabriel who was staring at him expectantly. "What, did you say something?"

"I asked if you were ok." Gabriel said.

"Ok?"

"Yeah…you know what I mean Castiel. Are you ok?"

"Yeah...Gabe I'm ok, I mean it." Castiel said. Gabriel's disbelieving look did not go unnoticed. "Gabriel I am fine. I'd tell you if I wasn't so just leave it alone."

"Fine, I'm not going to bring it up again." Gabriel said holding up his hands in mock defeat. "So you're going out? Where to, Anna's?"

"Nah." Castiel said shaking his head and he began to explain about Charlie. "Charlie and I are…"

"Friends?" Gabriel asked raising an eyebrow expectantly. Gabriel knew that Castiel could count his friends on one hand and still have fingers to spare due so hearing that Castiel would actually be spending an evening with someone that wasn't Anna was clearly giving him fodder to take the piss out of Castiel.

"Something like that I guess…" Castiel said shrugging refusing to rise to Gabriel's taunting.

"What is she like?" Gabriel asked sounding surprisingly interested.

"She's pretty blunt, nerdy and gay." Castiel said honestly.

"Huh, sounds like my kind of person." Gabriel said. "How do you know her?"

"She's in my English class. She's just moved her with her brothers and her mom." Castiel said with a nonchalant shrug. "Her brother Dean is in my art class." Castiel added and instantly regretted it when Gabriel smirked.

"Oh yeah?" Gabriel asked raising an eyebrow suggestively at Castiel. "Let me guess, he's one of those achingly arty types that you just can't keep your eyes off; all coffee habit, jeans so skinny they restrict movement and those God awful thick glasses all the 'hip' kids are wearing."

"Actually he's smokes, wears a leather jacket, spent his first day of school in detention and drives a Chevy Impala from the 1960's." Castiel shot back and smirked at Gabriel's shocked face.

"Dude." Gabriel said nodding his head. "What the hell is someone like that doing in art?"

"How did this conversation go from Charlie to Dean?" Castiel asked.

"Because you mentioned 'Dean'. Was it the leather jacket? Did it get you all hot the under collar?"

"You're a jerk. This is why I don't talk to you about anything."

"Oh please, you love me. If I weren't here then you'd be a hopeless case." Gabriel said. Castiel narrowed his eyes for a moment and a dark look swept across Gabriel's face. Castiel could see what he was thinking; if Gabriel wasn't here then Castiel wouldn't either because no one would have found him until it was too late. Gabriel coughed awkwardly and gave Castiel an overly enthusiastic grin. "So you're going over to Charlie's house then?" he asked.

The front door slammed shut and heavy footsteps could be heard stomping through the hallway just as Castiel was going to reply. There was only one person who would stomp through the house. Gabriel raised an eyebrow for a moment before the kitchen door flew open and Luke stormed into the room, his face practically contorted with rage.

"Have you seen Dad?" he asked Gabriel obviously trying to sound calm but anger was bubbling up underneath his words.

"No dude, he's still at work." Gabriel said. "Why, what's happened now?" Gabriel then asked sounding as tired of the whole constant battle between Luke and their father as Castiel was.

"Look when you see him just tell him that I need to talk to him." Luke said sounding infuriated.

"Luke-" Gabriel started to say warily.

"Just do it Gabe. I'm really not in the mood to piss about right now." Luke snapped before walking out the kitchen without so much as a look back towards Castiel.

"Good thing you're going out huh?" Gabriel said. Castiel didn't say anything instead he just sighed and headed upstairs towards his room to get changed out of the clothes he'd been in all day.

Luke's door was open as Castiel walked past and loud music, Led Zeppelin, poured out into the hallway. Castiel stopped and knocked on the door loudly so Luke could hear him. The grunt from inside didn't sound like 'Fuck off' so Castiel walked into the room to find Luke sat on his bed staring up at the ceiling. Luke didn't look over to where Castiel was standing until he let out a small cough.

"What is it Castiel?" Luke snapped sitting up. Castiel gave him an affronted look and made to turn around and walk away because he wasn't going to stand there and be snap at when Luke groaned. "Castiel don't walk off, I'm sorry ok?" Luke sighed. "It's just…Dad's fucked me over again and no doubt Michael-"

"Luke I really don't want to hear about this." Castiel said holding up his hands.

"I've been saving up you see…you know, my money." Luke said quickly and that stopped Castiel because he always assumed that Luke just frittered his money away except for when it came to his car. "I've been picking up more shifts at the bar and I've been saving up to move out, get a place in Minneapolis or somewhere like that, but Dad's frozen my account because he thinks I'm going to do something stupid with my money and it's was probably Michael's idea to begin with and-"

"I really don't care anymore Luke, the problems you have with Michael and our father are your own problems. I just want to make sure that you're not planning on starting World War III while I'm out."

"I can't guarantee that little brother." Luke said with a weary smile. Castiel couldn't even find it in himself to smile back because he truly was done with the drama that radiated from his family; he was just so done with it all. "Castiel-" Luke started to say when he saw Castiel's tired expression.

"Forget it Luke, just forget it ok?" Castiel said turning on his heels and marching out the room towards his own to get changed out of his clothes.

As he took off down the street towards the Winchester's he spotted his father's car heading up the street. Ducking behind the nearest tree for a moment Castiel waited until the car had driven past before pulling out his phone and typing out a quick message to Gabriel to warn him that their father was home. Before he got a reply Castiel jammed his earphones into his ears, turned up the volume of his iPod and took off running again. Gabriel would have the sense to stay out of everyone's way this evening if he knew what was good for him.

Charlie's smile when she opened the door to Castiel was something he could have happily of carried around with him for weeks after. It was the look on her face, that look of pure openness and happiness, which was so different from Castiel's own constantly guarded look that threw him. She seemed so genuinely happy that Castiel was there. It was such a strange experience if Castiel was going to be perfectly honest. She practically dragged him into the Winchester's den which was already set up with a huge bowl of popcorn and a stack of DVDs. While Charlie was setting up the first film Castiel looked around the room noting several framed photos that adorned the walls.

"Nice photo." Castiel remarked at the framed picture of Charlie and Dean, both of them looking about thirteen years old, having a mock light sabre battle in a garden. Castiel couldn't help but smirk when he noticed that Dean was wearing a dressing gown in order to make himself look like a Jedi. The Dean he had seen at school certainly didn't come across as a Star Wars fan at all.

"Yeah, that was taken when we lived with our grandparents a couple of years ago. The framing of it is all wrong but Sam had just gotten a new camera and had to take a picture of us. My nana Campbell found the whole thing really amusing though, I think she has a copy of that photo hung up in somewhere in their house." Charlie said. "Back when we were little Sam wanted to be a photographer since then though he's decided that he wants to become a lawyer, I think that's mainly for peace of mind if Dean's ever actually breaks the law and not just toe the line."

"He does seem like the toeing of the line type." Castiel remarked absentmindedly.

"Funny, he said the same about you." Charlie said. Castiel could feel heat creeping up his neck and he turned to look at a framed photo so Charlie couldn't see the blush spreading across his cheeks.

"So did the red hair just skip your mom, Dean and Sam?" Castiel asked looking at a photo of Charlie, Dean and Sam taken on Charlie's ninth birthday by the look of the half eaten cake, most of which was smeared on Sam's face.

"Huh?" Charlie asked absentmindedly. Castiel looked pointedly at Charlie's red hair which had been pulled up off her face and into a messy bun. "Oh…oh."

"Oh?" Castiel asked.

"I'm amazed Dean didn't tell you, he normally likes to take the piss about it…not maliciously or anything like that obviously, he just likes to make jokes here and there about it." Charlie said. Seeing Castiel's confused face she shrugged slightly. "Me, Dean and Sam aren't actually related. The Winchesters adopted me when I was five years old. Our mom found out she couldn't have any more children after Sam was born so they adopted me." Charlie said. Castiel tried, and failed, to hide his surprise at that revelation. He never would have guessed that Charlie was adopted. She seemed so much like the other Winchesters and it was clear that both Sam and Dean adored her. "Clearly they hit the jackpot with me" Charlie added nodding down at her Doctor Who t-shirt.

"Yes because every family needs the hard-core nerd." Castiel said finding himself smirking. Charlie laughed loudly and threw a handful of popcorn at Castiel as she shook her head.

"Hey I've got some pretty big competition when it comes to Dean; he's a bigger nerd than he would care to admit." Charlie said as she finished laughing.

"Hence the light sabre fight?"

"Hence the light sabre fight; you know he always did fancy himself as Han Solo when we were younger. It used to drive Sam up the wall." Charlie said with a small chuckle.

Despite his rule about not getting close to people Castiel couldn't have helped accepting Charlie's invitation to come over to her house for a night of terrible sci-fi films and popcorn. It really was better than being stuck in the house with a pissed off Luke, their father had placed a cap on Luke's finances again much to Luke annoyance, plus Mary had seemed thrilled to see Castiel again, smiling broadly when he had walked into the kitchen with Charlie. She had said that it was lovely to see him again and that made Castiel wonder what his own house would be like if his mother was still around.

"You know, my mom adores you." Charlie muttered as Mary walked out the den after she had placed two bottles of soda in front of them.

"I really can't think of why." Castiel said shaking his head before reaching for his soda. Castiel never did well with parents. After everything he had gone through with his own parents he had found it hard to talk to them without sounding jaded. He just about managed to get Anna's mother to like him but he knew Anna's father Zachariah thought Castiel was a bad influence on Anna even though Anna was bloody minded enough to make up her own mind about things.

"Oh please! You're charming towards her and you have that dreamy quality about you that middle aged housewives no doubt love." Charlie said nudging Castiel slightly. "After Dean brought you home she couldn't stop asking about you and when you would next be round."

"Really?" Castiel asked because he found that very difficult to believe.

"Yeah. What's going on with you and my brother anyway? I thought you two were friends but he doesn't hang out with you at school."

"We're...we're more people who see each other in detention." Castiel said shrugging. Charlie snorted with what sounded like disbelief.

"Dean is not a people person at all. Sure he has a few friends at this school, he's charming to girls and stuff like that but he's terrible with most people, I think it's to do with the general air of cockiness, but he asked you over to our house after two days of knowing you. That's pretty big for Dean."

"He was doing me a favour more than anything Charlie."

"You sure?" Charlie asked sceptically.

"Very much so." Castiel said trying to sound convincing though by the look on Charlie's face she really didn't believe him. Castiel really wished that people would stop looking at him like that. Instead of saying anything Charlie just threw several pieces of popcorn into her mouth and settled herself down back into the couch

They were just starting on their third film when headlights from a car filled up the room for a moment before being switched off. Castiel was sure he could hear the final verse from The Rain Song by Led Zeppelin being played loudly before that too was cut off.

"Hey! Is there anyone home?" a voice called out from the hallway as Castiel heard the front door closed with a loud slam. It took a moment for Castiel to realise it was Dean's voice and he became incredibly confused when his pulse began to quicken. Castiel should have realised it was Dean from the music but what he couldn't understand was why his pulse had quicken, it was just like when Charlie had caused him to blush…it was not a good thing because he couldn't develop a crush on Dean Winchester of all people.

"We're in the den loser!" Charlie called back before taking a generous gulp of her soda. The casual way Charlie ribbed Dean was actually rather amusing and a lot friendlier than the way Gabriel, Michael and Luke fought with one another.

"Hey there ginger" Dean said walking into the den and stopping with a surprised look on his face when he spotted Castiel sat there next to Charlie. "Oh, hey there Castiel" He said coughing slightly "I didn't know you were gonna be here man…um what are you guys watching?"

"Wrath of Khan. Castiel's been living under a rock and has never seen any of the Star Trek films so we're amending that right now." Charlie said.

"Wow, are you trying to ruin his life?" Dean asked as he pulled off his leather jacket and placed it onto the nearest chair carefully. Considering the worn quality of the fabric Castiel assumed it was one of those jackets you would just throw over a chair carelessly and yet that clearly wasn't the case as the way Dean handled it you would think it was made of spun gold.

"Just because you cried like a child for an hour and forty minutes after watching this doesn't mean that Castiel will. He's probably a lot more emotionally stable than you when it comes to this stuff." Charlie said smiling widely when she saw Dean's face redden. "So…were you out with Benny and Victor?" Charlie asked mentioning two of the football players who Castiel had spoken to maybe three times in his life and those times were only ever after track events.

"Yeah, we were hanging round at Benny's house. Sammy's round at some girl's house right?"

"Yeah I think, he mentioned something about it this morning…her name's Ruby…something. She's in a few of his classes' right? I swear I listen to him but when he starts to talk about advanced geometry I tend to stop listening." Charlie said nonchalantly pausing the DVD to carry on her conversation with Dean.

"Ruby Dawson-Masters?" Castiel asked Charlie. Charlie shrugged her shoulders and glanced back at Dean.

"Yeah that's her, do you know her?" Dean asked.

"Sort of I guess, Anna tutors her and she's Meg Masters' younger step-sister." Castiel explained. Dean frowned slightly as if trying to remember who Meg was. "Long dark hair with a permanent sneer and is always in detention. She's the one who is hosting that huge party near the lake in a few weeks." Castiel added hoping this would be a decent enough description of Meg.

"Oh...is Ruby anything like Meg?" Dean asked warily. Meg's not so stellar reputation certainly preceded her.

"I don't really know Ruby that well so I can't tell you much about her, I've seen her at Meg's parties a few times but I've never really spoken to her that much. Anna would be able to tell you more to be honest." Castiel said.

"I think Sammy has the hots for her." Dean said smirking at Charlie.

"Yeah well even if he does then leave him alone about it! Remember back in Wichita when you teased him mercilessly about that girl Sarah?"

"Hey, that was funny!" Dean said defensively.

"Um no, it was mean! Besides I thought he was still hung up on Jessica back from when we lived in Wyoming" Charlie said. Dean shrugged his shoulders while still smiling wickedly. Charlie rolled her eyes and turned back to Castiel with an exasperated sigh. "Are you this mean to your brothers about girls?" She asked.

"Not really. Gabriel has been dating his girlfriend Kali since they were in the ninth grade together; she's at NYU taking a major Mathematics and Chaos Theory with a minor in in Ancient History. She wants to become a chaotician" Castiel said. He actually really liked Kali, sure she was scary as hell sometimes because she was wicked smart and easy to talk to, plus she had Gabriel wrapped around her little finger which was always highly amusing.

"Whoa, that sounds badass. Do you have any other siblings?" Charlie asked. Dean looked from Castiel to Charlie for a second with a confused expression seeing as Dean knew how many brothers Castiel had. Then again Dean wasn't to know that Castiel hated talking about his brothers apart from Gabriel most of the time. Not talking about Michael or Luke was just easier in the long run.

"Um yeah...I have two other brothers. Luke is permanently single and I think Michael is secretly in love with my friend Anna's eldest sister Naomi." Castiel explained to Charlie. Charlie let out a small smile and Castiel caught Dean's expression change from that of confusion to a bemused look.

"Never thought of playing Match Maker?" Charlie asked.

"No offence to Naomi but I can barely stand her when I'm round Anna's house, I couldn't handle her dating my brother" Castiel explained while Charlie chuckled for a moment before she turned to Dean.

"So are you joining us or are you just going to sit there like a spare part?" Charlie asked Dean.

"I wouldn't want to interrupt." Dean said though it sounded sarcastic.

"No, you just don't want to cry again." Charlie said.

"He was and always would be Jim's friend ok!" Dean retorted causing Charlie to chuckle loudly.

"Oh nut up Winchester and sit down. Khan is about to launch into his maniacal and evil plan." Charlie said. Dean sighed but sat down on the couch but not before grabbing the bowl of popcorn from out of Charlie's hands. Charlie gave a sound of disbelief before pouting until Dean threw a handful of popcorn at her head. Several piece of popcorn ended up falling onto Castiel. Dean shot Castiel an apologetic look but instead of saying anything Castiel threw one of the pieces of popcorn into his mouth. "If you cry try to keep it quiet." Charlie shot at Dean with a smirk and once again Dean threw several handfuls of popcorn at Charlie. "Mom! Dean's throwing popcorn!" Charlie yelled in the direction of the kitchen.

"You're a child." Dean sighed.

"It takes one to know one Winchester." Charlie swiftly shot back before they settled into comfortable silence apart from when Charlie and Dean felt like it was necessary to quote lines along with Captain Kirk and half of the other characters. Castiel was actually surprised to find out that Dean did a very good Chekov impression which managed to make Charlie snort soda out her nose. Then again there was something about watching a guy wearing an ACDC shirt saying 'Keptin Kirk' which made it almost impossible to not snort soda out your nose.

They were near the end of Wrath of Khan when they heard a car pull up onto the driveway. Dean's face filled with glee when he realised it was Sam back from Ruby's house. Charlie glared at him and looked ready to throw several cushions at him.

"Yo Sammy!" Dean called as the front door shut. After a few moments Sam walked into the den with a small smile on his face. "How'd the night go?" Dean said raising an eyebrow.

"Fine." Sam said narrowing his eyes slightly at Dean.

"Just fine?" Dean asked.

"Yes Dean, it was fine. Ruby and I got loads of work done on this project we're doing together. I met her mom who is really cool and Ruby's sister Meg is ok. Apparently Meg is having a party soon…Ruby asked me if I wanted to go so she has someone there that she knows." Sam said as a small smile crept across his face. Castiel remembered what Anna had said about Ruby telling her about Sam, about her liking him and by the look of Sam's smile he clearly liked Ruby as well. "Wait…you guys are watching Wrath of Khan? Does Dean have a box of tissues handy?" Sam then asked when he looked up at the TV screen. Dean quickly threw a couch cushion which hit Sam square in the face.

"I was going to be nice about your little date with this Ruby chick but now I'm just going to take the piss out of you and be a total dick." Dean said.

"So no change there then." Sam commented and Castiel watched with fascination as Dean and Sam ended up in a cushion war that only ended when Mary came into the den with more sodas. The cushion fight, if you could call a fight that involved cushions an actual fight, didn't end until Sam fell over his own feet and knock himself out on the corner of the coffee table.

"You know I would like to go one week without one of you injuring yourselves." Mary said rolling her eyes as she placed a tray of sodas on the table next to Charlie.

"Dream big mom, dream big." Dean said as he tried to supress his laughter at Sam falling over. "Hey mom, did Sammy tell you about his date?"

"It wasn't a date! Ruby and I were studying!" Sam cried sounding very much like a bratty small child. Castiel wouldn't have been surprised if he didn't stamp his feet to make his statement more clear.

"Yeah, I've done plenty of 'studying' in my past." Dean muttered under his breath with a playful smirk.

"You know it is possible to hang out with a girl and not be a creepy jerk right?" Sam asked Dean who just rolled his eyes by way of a response.

"Stop corrupting Sam you horn dog." Charlie said giving Dean a painful looking whack on the arm

"I agree with your sister on this Dean." Mary said. "Are you hungry Sammy? I can make you something if you are."

"Nah I'm fine Mom, I'm going to go to bed actually." Sam said dodging out of the way of Dean throwing another cushion at him. Sam had only been upstairs a few minutes when Castiel noticed Charlie's head begin to droop.

"Tired?" Dean asked when Charlie yawned loudly. Charlie shook her head but it was painfully obvious that she was finding it difficult to stay awake seeing as it was nearly one in the morning. "Go to bed Charlie. You up half the night reading, I saw your light on at three this morning. I can drive Castiel back home if he wants." Dean said nudging Charlie playfully on the arm.

"Are you sure?" Charlie asked. Dean nodded his head. "Is that ok with you Castiel?" She then asked looking over at Castiel who just shrugged his shoulders. "Ok then, good night then. Thanks for coming over tonight Castiel, it was really good fun." Charlie said giving Castiel a wide smile before pulling herself up off the couch.

"Glad to be here." Castiel said as Charlie gave him a quick one armed hug he didn't mind returning. Charlie gave him another bright smile before shooting a smirk at Dean and leaving the den.

"So…you and my sister-" Dean started to say once Charlie was out the room. Castiel held up a hand to stop Dean before he could say anymore that would embarrass both of them.

"We're just friends Dean. Besides, I know that Charlie is gay. It was excruciatingly evident after this afternoon in English when she asked me if Jo was single." Castiel said. Dean looked visibly relieved that Castiel wasn't after his sister; clearly he was very protective of her.

"Oh…good…good as in it's good that you're not interested in Charlie…you know because I was going to say that you'd be barking up the wrong and not remotely straight tree there if you did like my sister." Dean said with a smirk on his lips. Definitely protective of Charlie then. Castiel briefly wondered if any of his brothers were protective of him, perhaps Gabriel but the other two tended to forget that he was in the house most of the time. If anything the closest Castiel got to understanding Dean's protective nature was with Anna who Castiel would protect until the end of time and he knew Anna would do the same for him.

"As would Charlie, barking up the wrong tree that is…well kind of I guess." Castiel said shrugging his shoulders. Dean's brow furrowed for a moment as Castiel's word clearly sunk in. Clearly Castiel was more tired than he thought if he was actually saying this to Dean Winchester of all people. He waited for the inevitable freak out to come but instead Dean just sat there looking vaguely stunned for a moment before speaking.

"What...oh you're..."

"I'm bisexual if we're going to label it which I really wish people would stop doing because it's a bit pathetic. It's just one of the many, many things that Michael and I disagree on." Castiel said before he realised what he had said. He chuckled slightly and shook his head. "I can't believe I just told you that, you of all people as well." He muttered. He really must have been more tired than he thought, he would have blamed alcohol or painkillers but he was completely sober for the first Friday in a long time.

"Why me of all people?" Dean asked. "If you're going to start saying shit about me being some homophobic dick-"

"I wasn't planning on saying anything of the sort." Castiel said stopping Dean mid-sentence.

"Oh...oh ok then...but why me 'of all people' then if you weren't going to say anything like that?" Dean asked.

"Well you could easily use it as ammunition against me." Castiel explained. Dean raised an eyebrow as if to question Castiel's remark. "Look, I've won enough medals and titles for the school with my running for the football team to leave me alone but if it came out that I was into guys as well as girls they would probably have a few things to say about it."

"Benny and Victor aren't like that." Dean said.

"Maybe, maybe not. Just don't tell anyone ok? Anna and people like Jo know but that's because they're not likely to paint the word 'fag' or something equally crude and insulting on my locker." Castiel said.

"Well neither would I...just saying..." Dean muttered before he shoved his mouth full of popcorn. A wave of silence fell between them as the film continued and normally Castiel welcomed silence but this was heavy and incredibly awkward. He should have just kept his mouth shut and not said anything at all to Dean. A runaway mouth was just one of Castiel's lesser qualities, add that to the shitty personality he was convinced he possessed along with his overtly sarcastic manner of speaking and Castiel was amazed that Anna or Jo were friends with him and that Charlie seemingly wanted to be friends with him. Before Castiel could think of something witty to say his phone buzzed in his pocket. He was tempted to leave it but when he saw Gabriel's name he opened the message and his heart dropped.

Gabriel: 00:32 - Code Red, I repeat CODE RED: Dad and Luke came to blows over the money thing. Luke called Dad a dick and the shit hit the fan. Dad being called to New York for a few weeks for work, he mentioned it to me but I just heard New York and jumped. I've gone with him and I'm going to be staying with Kali until Luke calms down or stops being a dick. Michael gave his input, like always, and that just pissed Luke off even more. I suggest you stay with Anna until this blows over or one of them grows some balls and apologises…you might be waiting for the second coming of Jesus if you're hoping for the latter….

"Fuck..." Castiel groaned under his breath and cursed his whole damn family. Michael could never stop himself from getting involved when it came to arguments between Luke and their father which never failed to infuriate Luke. It was impossible to believe that either of them were in their mid to late twenties with how they acted and it was just one of the many things that drove Castiel insane when it came to his family.

"What's up?" Dean asked.

"You really want to know?" Castiel scoffed and he was surprised by the honest look on Dean's face.

"That's why I'm asking you isn't it? What's wrong?" Dean pointed out. Castiel sighed and contemplated lying to Dean but he was tired and he needed to let out his anger before it twisted itself into something nasty. Besides he couldn't talk to Anna, it was too late, and Dean was right there.

"My brother, Luke, well…well he got into a fight with my dad and basically everything as exploded back at home…once again." Castiel said feeling himself grow hot because he was telling someone that wasn't Anna about his family problems and he'd never done that, not even in therapy. "My dad has gone to New York for some work conference and my brother Gabriel has gone as well to see his girlfriend...that means it is just Luke and Michael in the house..." Castiel added. He would have to go home and try to stay out of Luke and Michael's way until he could get to Anna's house. Hopefully he could stay in his room long enough to stay out of their way.

"Shit, that's rough man...look do you want to stay here for the night? It's pretty fucking late anyway and I doubt you'd want to go home right now when your brothers are fighting. You can sleep on the couch if you want. It's a damn comfy couch, I mean it has to be for the amount of times that Charlie has fallen asleep on it in the past during some TV show marathon."

"I couldn't." Castiel said gruffly as he felt a blush crept up his neck.

"Why not?" Dean asked.

"I wouldn't want to impose." Castiel said honestly. He hated the feeling he got when he stayed at Anna's that no one, apart from Anna, wanted him there and he certainly didn't want the Winchesters to think the same as the Miltons'.

"Fuck sake dude, my mom thinks you're the second coming of Jesus and Charlie likes you enough to crack out the collector's edition of Wrath of Khan, you're really not imposing." Dean said sounding slightly exasperated.

"Dean-" Castiel tried to say but the other boy held up this hand to silence Castiel instantly.

"You're staying here for the night and I'm not taking no for an answer so shut up." Dean said.

"Are you sure?" Castiel asked. It would feel awkward staying at the Winchester's but it was better than going home and there would be no way of staying at Anna's now seeing as it was nearly one in the morning and she would probably be sleep right now.

"Yeah, of course I'm sure you idiot." Dean said. "By the way you said it going back home to your brothers wouldn't be the most fun thing for you to do right now, the least I can do is offer you our couch so just get over it already." Dean added with a shrug. "Let me go and get you a cover or something so you don't freeze in the middle of the night." Dean rose up on the couch and after a few moments Castiel heard him walking up the staircase. He wasn't exactly sure how, in the space of a minute, he'd agreed to sleep on the Winchester's couch but he was grateful that it meant he wouldn't have to return home to Luke and Michael fighting with one another or ignoring each other so much that it made the house feel physically freezing.

Dean came back into the living room carrying a large comforter, some pillows and what looked like a pair of worn pyjamas. Dean handed Castiel the comforter, an old looking thick quilt that look handmade, and the pillows before coughing slightly.

"These are mine…obviously you can't sleep in your jeans and, well these are kind of tatty but they're clean and…well I mean they'll fit you and they're clean so here." Dean said handing over the cotton pyjamas which turned out to be a pair of soft sweatpants and a very old looking Smiths t-shirts.

"Thank you Dean." Castiel said and he made sure that his voice didn't sound remotely sarcastic for once.

"Its fine really…um, if you need anything then my room is the second one on the left." Dean said nodding upstairs "It's getting late…so…so I'll leave you to get some sleep." He then added giving Castiel a weak and cautious smile. "Night Cas" Castiel found he wasn't fully able to return the smile but it didn't seem to matter to Dean that much as he nodded his head at Castiel before he walked out of the room. Castiel looked at the pyjamas in his hands and was filled with something that was almost like gratitude. The material was soft from being washed so many times though when he brought the t-shirt to his face he noticed that it still smelt like Dean's musky scent along with whatever brand of fabric softener the Winchesters used. As he changed into the clothes his mind drifted back to the situation at home.

The animosity between Luke and their father had started when Luke was around fourteen and had gone on ever since, though Castiel wasn't too sure as he'd always known that Luke and their father did not get along. Luke was brash, determined but incredibly in tune with his emotions. He had his moments of vanity and selfishness, his ways of getting what he wanted weren't always the most conventional ways and sometimes he acted without as much compassion as others, especially when it came to his family but Castiel couldn't Luke like Michael no doubt wanted him to. Castiel amused Luke, he had told Castiel that much several years prior. He amused Luke because of his general way of looking at the world but Castiel secretly thought that Luke's amusement came from the fact that Castiel wasn't, despite Michael's attempts, a clone of his eldest brother. Castiel lacked Michael's determination to stick to which ever rules set down by their father. Luke, and Gabriel on numerous occasions, commented that Michael was like a blind solider going off into battle when it came to their father, their father would give the orders and Michael would follow them until the end no matter what really. It hasn't always been like this but when Castiel's mother had walked out on them things had changed.

Castiel tried not to dwell on his mother too much because there was point in doing so. His mother had made the decision to walk out on them and move to Boston when Castiel was ten; there was nothing Castiel could do about that and he had since learnt to accept her abandonment even if it still stung. Being around the Winchesters, seeing how much Dean and Charlie and Sam loved Mary, made Castiel strangely nostalgic of the time his mother was at home and when things were a lot more simple. Michael and Luke's animosity was barely palpable when their mother was around and their father seemed happier than he was now. It took several years for Castiel to understand why his mother left and her reasoning behind doing so but the resentment he felt being left at the tender age of ten still stung in his veins. Sometimes he would wonder if his life would have been different if his mother had chosen to stay but he knew deep down that it was stupid the wonder that, it was stupid and dangerous to long for something that could, and never would, have happened.