Where I Belong
Written for the prompt : Supernatural, Dean/Cas, staying
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It wasn't something he'd ever planned, or to be absolutely honest, even considered before. It wasn't as far as he knew even within the realms of possibility and before Dean, he'd not understood the lure of his Father's creation.
He'd heard angels far older and wiser than he talk disparagingly of humans and their foibles – Father's little mudmen was far from the worst he'd heard. He had no strong feelings about it himself. Humans and Earth were his Father's creation and as such should be respected, if his Father felt they were of value then that was all he needed to believe. Lucifer was wrong . . .
It made no difference though, his Father's punishment, banishing Lucifer had not stopped the ill-feeling. If anything Castiel believed it had made matters worse. Gabriel's departure for parts unknown, Zachariah's rise and Uriel and the others like him who blamed humans for all that was now amiss in Heaven.
Through it all though, Castiel refused to believe that his Father had got it wrong. He didn't understand humans, felt entirely removed from them until . . .
Until he was sent to Hell to retrieve Dean Winchester.
Nothing in the aeons of existence could have prepared him for that.
With Dean on Earth. Nothing had prepared him for that either.
Nothing made it easy to be surrounded by the suffering, by the intricate little details of the lives of these 'mudmen'. Understanding was hard to come by. Each one of these humans was so different, so unique that while he was appalled, he was simultaneously fascinated and enthralled by their lives.
And then there was Dean.
Dean was like no one else Castiel could find on Earth. He had attributes in common with others, but they were molded in a way that was entirely 'Dean'. Painful and joyous and . . . entrancing.
It was enough that 'being Dean' to make Castiel sacrifice all that he had known, to turn his back on all that was beyond these moments here and now, this Earthly existence. It was enough to make him commit to stay.