Castiel had barely put his head down it seemed before the door to his bedroom was slammed open and Dean strode back in, carrying a greasy sack. He sat up, confused.

"Hello?" he asked, letting the, what are you doing here, remain implied. Dean dropped the bag onto his lap, the smell of French fries hit him in the face.

"Hangover cure," Dean said, pulling a burger out of the bag and unwrapping it, plopping himself down on Castiel's bed. He took a bite, eyelids fluttering with ecstasy. Castiel just looked at him, as a dollop of mustard was smeared across his chin.

"Eat," Dean said, noticing him staring, "You'll feel better, trust me."

And he did. Castiel wasn't normally one for fast food, but this was possibly the best thing that he had ever tasted. Of course he didn't normally drink himself into a vomitus mass either, so that might have something to do with it. He didn't normally drink at all really. Seems his father was right, he was on a downwards spiral of destructive behavior.

"Thank you," he said, once he'd crammed the last of the fries down his throat. Dean frowned at him again. This man's entire repertoire of facial expressions seemed to consist of frowns.

"Look kid," he began

"Castiel," Castiel reminded him. Dean sighed.

"Castiel," he started over, "Okay. I'm not very good with all this…feelings crap, but if you want to talk about it I'd rather do that than have your stomach soup all over my living room again."

Castiel winced, so that was what he was doing back here. He probably wanted a check or something, to give to the dry cleaners.

"I'm sorry if I wrecked your couch," he said, "I'll go get my wallet -" He made as if to get out of bed but Dean stopped him with a hand on his shoulder.

"What are you talking about? Forget the couch, kid." Castiel settled back against his pillows completely confused. Dean looked stern, his eyes trying to burn a hole through Castiel's retinas, his grip on his shoulder tightened.

"If you don't want to talk that's fine, because I'd probably screw it up anyways, but you've got to promise me you aren't going to go get hammered in the park again. I'm all for the healing powers of a drink or seven but, next time it might not be Sammy that finds you and takes you home. You understand?"

Castiel nodded and Dean nodded back at him.

"Okay then, I'll, let you get some sleep." He shoved the burger wrappers into the bag, swept the crumbs off the bed and stared for the door.

"I don't usually drink," Castiel heard himself saying. Dean stopped, turned around, perched back on the bed edge.

"So what made last night different?" he asked.

"It was," Castiel clasped his arms around his knees, like an anchor. "It was everything. Everything seemed to be falling apart and I didn't want to think for a while, you know. I didn't want to over analyze, or try to understand why things had happened. I just wanted to…be happy for a minute."

"You really loved this Fergus guy huh?"

Castiel paused, had he?

"I think it's more that, I thought he loved me." He tried to explain, "And then when it turned out he didn't. It was a low blow. I've had too many of those lately and I don't know, I … went off on a bender."

"A bender?" Dean asked, cracking half a smile, though Castiel didn't see how anything in this situation was funny.

"Are you laughing at me?" he asked hotly. Dean's smile melted.

"No, I'm-I understand, I've been there. The world has done its fair share of shitting on me. Ask Sam, things didn't used to be so peachy for us."

"They didn't?" Castiel couldn't picture a down-on-his-luck Dean, a happy-go-lucky-less Sam. They seemed like the kind of people that always rose above.

"Nah, but we made it through." He smiled softly, squeezing Castiel's knee through the blankets, "I'd tell you everything always works out in the end, but that's a load of bull. I think we just got lucky to be honest."

Castiel sighed, "You were right, you're not very good at this pep talk thing." Dean chuckled, slapping him on the shoulder.

"I tried to warn you; next time talk to Sammy. He's such a giant girl he'll probably start crying and braiding your hair afterwards." Castiel shuddered at the thought.

"That sounds disturbing."

"Actually it's kind of therapeutic, we do it every Friday. Really establish a manly bond." Castiel giggled, was it called giggling when a man did it? Tittered? Gave a little laugh? Oh, who cared, he could call it giggling if he wanted to.

Dean stood up, "I gotta get to my second job, you gonna be okay?" Castiel nodded and Dean smiled at him.

"Alright. See you Cas."

Castiel stayed awake for a long while after that, rolling their conversation around in his brain. Cas…he liked that.

….

The next day Castiel stood in the middle of his mostly empty apartment and took mental inventory. It seemed that Fergus had taken everything that was his as well as everything of Castiel's that he had wanted. Castiel no longer had a toaster, a microwave, or his Plasma screen TV that he wasn't entirely done paying off.

Also, his trench coat was missing. Now that was just cruel, Fergus knew how much he loved that stupid coat.

He let out a long sigh. The easiest thing would probably be to give everything up for lost, just finish paying off the TV and go buy a new microwave, but…the trench coat.

Anna and Gabe had given him that coat. Paid for it with their own allowance money so he would have something warm to wear over his suit going to concerts. Their chubby little faces had practically glowed when they saw him in it for the first time.

Castiel let out another sigh, pulling out his phone. Fergus' number still had a kissey mark next to it, before dialing he changed it to an emoticon of the devil.

"Castiel," Fergus picked up on the first ring, "Surprised to be hearing from you. Were you hoping I would want you back? Because I must say love, it's very unbecoming for a man to beg the way you did. Please don't leave me and all of that. I honestly couldn't find you less appealing right now."

"Do you have my coat?" Castiel managed to ask in a semi-steady voice.

"That mangy, old thing?" Fergus laughed. "It may have slipped its way into my possessions. Perhaps it was trying to escape your clinginess? Maybe you should give it some space? Take some time apart to get to know yourselves as individuals."

"Fergus you know what that coat means to me." Castiel fought the hammering of his heart. He wasn't going to back down; he wasn't going to be a doormat this time.

"You're not going to start crying again are you? Girls are never attractive when they cry no matter what Cosmo tells you Castiel."

"Please," Castiel tried switching to reasoning, "you can even mail it to me, just give it back."

"How generous," Fergus sounded like he'd just won a game of poker, "but I have no idea where it might have wound up and I can't be bothered to go through everything right now. Moving is hell on the shoulders you know, I must go get a massage or I'll be standing crooked all week. Ta." And then before Castiel could say anything more he hung up.

Castiel had to sit down, he sunk into his lone chair and took a deep breath, hiding his face in his hands.

"Yeah, you really took charge of that situation," he mumbled to himself, "You sure told him."

He needed some air.

Shaking, he locked his apartment door and started for the elevator. Maybe he could just show up at Fergus' door, barge in, grab the coat and leave. No, that wouldn't work, he didn't know where Fergus was staying.

"Cas?"

Castiel jumped, the elevator had arrived and he hadn't even noticed. Dean was in the car, along with Sam, he stepped inside and gave an awkward wave.

"Hello Dean…Sam." He pressed the down button.

"We were just on our way to check on you." Sam explained, "I was worried even though Dean said you were fine when he left yesterday." Castiel glanced over at Dean, palms going sweaty. What exactly had he told his brother? All about how he'd bawled like a four-year-old? The older man had his hands buried deep in his pockets, face betraying nothing.

"You look better," he was all he said.

"I am." Castiel said. Adding, "Thanks." as an afterthought.

What did it matter what Dean had or hadn't said, he reasoned? Sam had already seen him in just about every single embarrassing position there was to be seen in anyways. Unconscious, drunk, projectile vomiting…

"Were you going out?" Sam asked after a moment of silence.

"Do either of you know anything about getting things back from exes?" Castiel found himself asking.

"Your ex took your stuff?" Sam asked horrified at the same time Dean said, "Yes."

"Most of it." Castiel answered Sam.

Sam's eyes grew huge. He reminded Castiel of a puppy in one of those commercials about the pound. The ones that made him want to immediately go to the nearest shelter and adopt every animal in it.

"Do you know where he lives now?" Dean asked. Castiel shook his head. Dean held out a hand, "Give me your phone for a second." Castiel unlocked it and handed it over, watching mystified as Dean started doing…whatever?

"I wouldn't bother," he babbled, "but he took this coat that my little sister and brother gave me." The elevator dinged as it stopped in the lobby of their building. The doors slid open.

Dean handed his phone back. "Let's go," he said to his brother.

"But Dean-." Sam protested.

"Now. Sam." Sam sulked after him.

"Bye," he called to Castiel.

"Um…Goodbye?" Castiel started to wave, but they were already gone.

…...

An hour or so later Castiel's phone rang.

He was sitting outside Starbucks having needed caffeine in order to mentally process the elevator scene, but it was proving more confounding than even a Grande quad shot Americano with three inches of cream could decipher. Man expresses interest in your well-being, asks to see your phone, does something and then leaves without so much as a, "have a nice day."

What the actual fuck?

"Hello?" Castiel said to whoever was calling him. The caller ID said unknown.

"Castiel Novak?"

"This is he."

"This is Meg from Lambs Elementary School," the woman on the other end said, "I'm calling because you are listed as a back-up emergency contact for your brother Gabriel."

All the breath whooshed out of Castiel's lungs, cold sweat broke out across his forehead. "What happened?!" he managed, his voice gone squeaky, "is Gabe okay?!"

"He fell off the monkey bars at recess and cracked his chin open. He was taken to the emergency room and I've been trying to get in touch with your parents, but neither of them are picking up their phones." Castiel gritted his teeth, of course they weren't. Mother was at bible study, where cell use wasn't allowed, lest it distract them from the Lord's truths and Father would be in a meeting until Armageddon.

"Gabriel is ready to be discharged, but he needs a family member to come take him home-" Meg continued.

"What hospital?" Castiel asked, before she had finished the final syllable.

"St. Michaels."

"I'm on my way." Castiel pushed end, and ran for his car. It was over six blocks away and by the time he got there he was out of breath and sweaty, but it didn't even register. He cut off people and ran a couple of red lights before screeching into the hospital parking lot.

"Gabe!" he cried, busting into his little brother's emergency half-room.

"Castiel!" a small pigtailed person plowed into his legs and clung to them.

"Cassie?" Gabriel asked, weakly from his cot.

"You must be their older brother," the nurse standing next to Gabe's bed said. She smiled as he detangled Anna from his legs and picked her up. She'd gained a few pounds since September, he let out a quiet grunt.

"Castiel Novak," he said, holding out his free hand, the one he wasn't using to hold up Anna. She shook it.

"Your brother was very brave," the nurse told him, "he didn't cry at all."

"I got to ride with Gabe in the ambulance," Anna shouted in Castiel's ear, "there was blood ev-ery-where."

"Was there?" Castiel asked his little sister.

"I just have a bit of paperwork for you to fill out," the nurse went on, "and then you can take Gabriel home." Castiel nodded, setting Anna on the floor. She grabbed his hand.

"I'll be right back Anna-banana," he assured her, "I'm just going to sign some stuff okay?" Anna frowned at him, but let go.

"Okay," she sounded dubious. Probably remembering how he'd promised he'd see her after school and then completely disappeared. They hadn't even let him leave a note.

Before walking to the nurse's station to begin his paperwork filling out, he gathered Gabe up in a hug.

"I missed you," his baby brother whispered.

"I missed you too." Castiel whispered back.

….

He took Gabe and Anna to Chik-fil-a, as a reward for Gabe not crying a single tear over his five stiches, and Anna not coloring on anything she wasn't supposed to while at the hospital.

"We're doing a Christmas play for school!" Anna told him excitedly on the drive there. "I get to be the front half of the camel!"

"The good half huh?" Castiel laughed, but inside his heart broke a little bit more. It didn't look like his parents were going to lift their no contact ban anytime soon, which meant he was going to miss Christmas.

Anna was six this year and Gabe was eight, but it seemed like only yesterday they were just tiny squirming babies. Castiel didn't want to miss a single moment of their growing up, especially not the photo opportunistic ones. Under the Christmas tree, surrounded by their presents. Anna with about seventeen wrapping paper bows in her hair.

"Cassie?" Gabe asked, breaking him out of his thoughts, "When are you coming home?"

Ouch. Right in the feels.

"I'm not Gabe," Castiel sighed, "Mother and Father asked me to move out."

"Because you kissed that boy?" Anna asked.

"Yes, because I kissed Fergus." Castiel grimaced at the memory. Father red faced and screaming rounding the corner where he and Fergus were locked in an embrace. Mother being told, her sinking onto the couch, pale as death, the conversation that followed.

"So?" Gabe was starting to pout, he kicked the back of the passenger seat angrily, "I don't see why that means you can't live with us."

Castiel sighed again, "I don't either Gabe, but it's how things are."

"But me and Anna miss you!" Gabe kicked the seat harder, "It's not fair!"

"My teacher says life isn't fair, but we should still count our blessings." Anna chirped. Castiel smiled.

"Your teacher is right," he beamed at his sister in the review mirror.

"It'd be a blessing if Mother and Father changed their minds," Gabe grumbled.

"I wouldn't hold your breath on that one Gabriel." Castiel told him. Gabe glared out the window.

"Will you come to my play Castiel?" Anna asked.

He said he'd try his hardest and by the time they'd eaten and he'd driven them back to the family manor Gabe was a little less pouty. However, that may have had something to do with the two ice cream sundaes with hot fudge and whipped cream that Castiel had let him eat.

"Mother and Father won't be home for hours," Gabe begged him, "Come inside for a little bit." Castiel agreed and both his siblings had grabbed his hands dragging him across the threshold.

The manor was already decorated for the holidays, even though December had barely begun. Evergreen wreaths on the front doors. Garlands and ribbons woven around the banisters. The air inside smelled like freshly baked gingerbread. The solid silver nativity scene was sitting, as always, on the piano. Castiel touched the metal manger.

"Hello little baby Jesus," he said. Anna giggled.

"Give him a gift," she prompted. Castiel fished around in his pocket and found nothing but a slightly bent stick of gum. Nonetheless he placed it before the manger with great ceremony.

"I bring to you the gift of this stick of evergreen mint," he said, "may it freshen your breath, or that of your father's. Who probably needs it, because they didn't have toothbrushes when you were born." Gabriel started laughing too.

"Castiel?" All three Novak children whirled around. Their mother was standing in the entrance to the sitting room, clutching her prayer journal and wearing a frown. "What are you doing here?"

"I had to pick up Gabe from the hospital," Castiel said coldly, "the school called, he cracked his chin open." Anna and Gabriel moved closer to him as he spoke. Anna grabbed his hand again.

"You cracked your chin open?!" their mother asked her younger son, "why didn't the school call me?"

"They tried like a million times, you wouldn't pick up." Gabe told her. Their mother pulled her phone out of the pocket of her yoga pants.

"Oh silly me, it's turned off." She laughed at herself, then turned back to her children. "Well, I'm glad you're alright Gabe. Thank you for picking him up Castiel, but I think you better leave before your father gets home. You know he doesn't want you around your siblings."

"But he isn't doing anything!" Gabe told her, "Why won't Father let him stay?"

"You are too young to understand Gabriel, but your father is doing what is best for you and Anna. Now say goodbye and go up to your rooms."

"No!" Anna screamed, wrapping her arms around Castiel's waist, "No! No! No! Noooooo!"

"Anna!" their mother scolded.

"Don't make him go away again Mother!" Gabe begged, "Please!"

"Don't go Castiel!" Anna howled. Castiel pried her arms off him and pulled her into a hug.

"Anna-banana," he soothed, "Shh. It's going to be okay."

"Don't leave!" his little sister sobbed.

"I've got to," he explained, "but it won't be forever I promise."

"Really?" Anna sniffed.

"Really," Castiel said, "I'll be back before you know it."

"Okay," Anna gave him a wet snotty kiss on the cheek and backed away. Gabe rushed forwards to fill her place.

"I'll call you when I can," he whispered, "Father is being stupid." Castiel squeezed him tight.

"Watch out for Anna, okay buddy?" he smiled, barely holding back tears of his own. "I love you."

"Love you too." Gabe gave him one last squeeze and then went to stand with Anna by the stairs. He wrapped an arm around her shoulders.

"Goodbye Mother," Castiel said at the door, "I love you. Tell Father I love him too."

"Oh Castiel," his mother sighed, "if you would just renounce your evil and go to that camp your father found you know he would forgive you. I know you're confused and set in your ways but is it worth creating this rift in our family?"

"I'm not confused Mother," Castiel told her, "and I'm certainly not going to a gay-sinners redemption camp. Goodbye Anna-banana, Bye Gabe. Talk soon. Love you guys." Then he got out of there before he could either start cursing or crying.

Crying won out and the drive home was a long water works filled affair. He'd completely forgotten about Dean and the elevator oddness from earlier until he unlocked his door and stopped in shock.

All of his things were back!

His toaster! His microwave! His plasma screen TV! His comfy reclining chair! And best of all there was a tan trench coat folded, somewhat sloppily at the end of his bed. He wandered around in a daze for a minute wondering how this could have happened until he noticed the note pinned to the fridge.

"I returned it all. Please accept my apologies. F. Crowley." It was messy, like he'd written it with both hands tied together, but it was defiantly Fergus' handwriting. What, Castiel wondered, could have caused him to have such a huge change of heart?