The angels, they're falling.
The dark sky is filled with falling lights. A soft breeze is the first thing Castiel notices. Next is the chaos in his head, filled with memories and thoughts. There's only one thing he's sure of, he needs to find Dean.
It's cold. He's cold. His feet hurt, and the most disturbing thing is that he has no idea if he's going into the right direction.
The angels have stopped falling, the sky is pitch-black.
He's walking on an abandoned highway, going into what is hopefully the right direction. He wants to go to Dean and Sam.
His wings are the first thing that he misses. Moving without flying is plain boring, tiring and after a while it hurts your feet.
The ability to heal is gone, and he has to deal with his whole body hurting. His feet from walking, his muscles from never having used many of them for this much walking before. His head hurts, an unknown source keeps pulling at his eyelids. The source slowly spreads through his whole body. He can't go forward anymore and collapses.
The sound of a horn strikes through his unconsciousness. His eyelids open to reveal screeching tires just barely dodging his body. The tires, which came from a car, vanish and so does the sound of the screeching tires.
He gets up and continues walking again. His feet still hurt.
He finally arrives in a town called Mayville. There are fallen angels all over the place. Most of them are hurt and are being taken care of by the Medicals.
The streets are crowded, and he doesn't feel save. Some of the fallen angels may still recognize him by his used to be vessel which is now his body. Avoiding any unnecessary encounters he decides to move on. Leaving the town behind him, he walks into the unknown again.
The concept of day and night finally make sense to him now. So does the concept of sleep. He doesn't find it out the easy way, but sooner rather than later he realises that when it's dark, night, he needs to sleep. The most important this about sleeping is to not do it where any cars may accidentally ride you over. This leads to him going onto the side of the road when it's dawn, lying down on the autumn leaves and closing his eyes. Most of the time, his body is tired enough of a day of walking, that he falls asleep rather quickly. Other times thoughts race through his head and it's impossible to fall asleep. Thoughts of Metatron's betrayal, thoughts of all the angels falling but most of all thoughts of Dean Winchester. His voice in the back of his head is the only thing that makes him get up again when it's light, and continue his journey.
Another town follows soon after the first one, this time it's a quiet town. There are no people out on the streets and the shops are open, but there's no one inside.
After his first try of something eatable the realisation of hunger and thirst strikes hard. Eventually all the eating and drinking ends in a stomach ache, he ate too much. He lies on the floor of the shop until the pain subsides. When he gets up again he notices Busty Asian Beauties lying on a rack next to the exit of the door. It makes him miss Dean even more.
The smell is excruciating. The smell is the reason for him to stop in the next small town. There are only two people out on the streets, as far as he can see.
A shop with clothes gets his attention; memories of Dean in different kinds of clothing start to make sense now.
It's not easy to find anything of his liking, nor size for all that matters. He doesn't have the strength in himself to leave his trench coat behind, so he keeps it on. After finally having found a fitting outfit, he continues his journey.
Jeans are uncomfortable, especially with walking. Confusion of how Dean could ever hunt in jeans are his main thoughts as another day and another night pass by.
Hunger and thirst strike again, this time it's even worse. He walks into towns more often now, but still doesn't know if he's going into the right direction.
There's pie in the shop.
He decides to use a bag from the shop to bring some food and beverages along with him.
The bag turns out to be very useful. He's walking through an abandoned land again when his stomach twists in hunger. He packed some food in the bag, mostly sandwiches and water bottles. He leaves the pie untouched.
Nights are getting colder, and it's getting harder to fall asleep. Sounds all around him keep him awake and he has never felt so unsafe ever before.
When he does fall asleep, nightmares are haunting him.
He's beginning to lose hope. He hasn't been counting the days, and right now that's one thing that he regrets the most. That and ever having left Dean.
Regrets become his main thoughts again, and he feels very unhappy. The thoughts of what he could have done to avoid what's happening now, don't make him feel any better either.
He starts to smell again, but can't find it in himself to care anymore.
The food and water in the bag have long since been eaten and emptied, all except for the pie.
Maybe there's still some sort of hope inside of him…
He doesn't find it in himself to care about eating anymore. With every step he takes he grows weaker, until eventually it becomes dark in front of his eyes.
This time the screeching sound of tires don't even make him recoil. There never is an impact though. He thinks the car driver must have moved on already when he hears a door slam and footsteps coming his way.
The instinct to flee away from the unknown is strong, but he reminds himself that he doesn't care anymore.
"Cas, you son of a bitch."
His mind must be playing tricks on him. He's facing the source of the sound but doesn't dare to open his eyes. The disappointment of all his days and nights of searching have become unbearable after a while. He isn't ready to face any more disappointments.
"Cas, dammit. Wake up Cas!"
He still doesn't believe that the one he has been searching for all this time could ever be here. Apparently there's still some faith left in him, because he opens his eyes eventually.
It's unbelievable, so he doesn't believe it. But even if it actually is a dream, he doesn't want to lose any more seconds of his precious time that he could have with him.
"I brought you pie." He says in a faint whisper. The man chuckles and overwhelms him in a hug. He's uncomfortable and hurting everywhere but doesn't have the heart to pull away.
"You're home now Cas, I'll take care of you." It doesn't make sense to him at first He has lost the concept of home a long time ago. The hug strengthens and realisation hits him. Home doesn't have to be a place, it can be a person. He has never felt as save as where he is right now. In Dean's arms.
Yes, this is his home. Dean is his home. And he never wants to leave again.
"Cas, are you awake?" A soft voice awakens him from his slumber. He has never slept so well in such a long time. It's light behind his eyelids, so he opens up his eyes. Green eyes are looking down at him, it's an image which he never wants to forget.
The green eyes are surrounded by freckles. Surrounded by freckles is a perfect mouth, a perfect nose and beautiful eyebrows.
He can't believe it's been such a long time since he first saw Dean. And so much has changed in the meantime.
"Cas, c'mon, wake up man. It's time for breakfast." Dean softly says while he gets off the bed. Castiel makes a sound of protest which earns him a chuckle in return.
"Just get up." Dean says.
The sound of Dean walking away is a simple trigger for Castiel to face the day and get out of bed. He's hungry anyways.
When they arrive at the diner, Sam's already sitting in a booth. He's typing away on his laptop, his face is filled with concentration. After the first week that Cas was back with the Winchesters again, he noticed that Sam was often away or on his laptop. Dean explained to him that he's trying to find a way to close the gates of hell eventually. 'We'll find a way'. Is what they both keep saying.
On the table that Sam's sitting at there's already a coffee cup which Sam uses, but there's also a plate with pie and a plate with pancakes. Castiel walks over to the booth.
"Goodmorning Sam." He gets a grunt in response. He looks around him in search for Dean when Dean walks over toward the booth with another plate in his hands.
Dean sits down next to Castiel and smiles softly.
"I got you pie." He says. Castiel smiles and takes the plate from Dean. Dean continues to eat the already half eaten pie.
It's the most boring and normal situation in Castiel's life. But he has never felt as happy as he does now. Just sitting next to Dean, whilst eating pie. Looking at Sam doing his research. Looking back over at Dean and realising that they're complete again. Team Free Will back into action.
They may not have much left. But they've all got each other.
After breakfast, they walk towards the Impala.
"So, can I ride shotgun?" Castiel asks. Dean laughs and Sam smiles at him.
"I don't know Cas." Dean says in return as he gets into the car while he's still laughing. Castiel smiles.