Castiel woke the next morning with the feeling of something tickling his nostrils, a soft feeling that felt familiar but he couldn't place it. He also felt an absence, sitting up quickly and nearly flinging Dean off his chest, who wasn't actually sat on him at all. Castiel stared at him, eyes wide with shock at the sight he was seeing, and Dean didn't seem to notice.
"Cas! Look what I got!" Dean span around, giving Castiel a full view of what was keeping him in the air, and Castiel's stare got impossibly wider.
"How...?"
"Aren't they awesome, Cas? Now I jus' like you!" Dean let himself fall onto Castiel, knocking the wind out of him, but Dean just hugged the angel as hard as he could. Castiel didn't know how to respond, sat staring at Dean in what could only be described as wide eyed disbelief. He didn't even realise Dean had started poking him to get his attention.
"Cas... What's wrong, Cas?"
"Dean, how did this happen?" Dean shrugged his shoulders, causing the new appendages to give him a small amount of lift that greatly reduced the pressure on Castiel's chest.
"Dunno..." Dean mumbled his response, turning away from Castiel but was stopped. Now Dean looked alarmed, fear in his eyes as he desperately tried to figure out what he'd done wrong. Castiel noticed, stopping looking at Dean's back long enough to recognise the look of fear etched onto the young boy's face and before Dean knew what was going on, Castiel had pulled him into a tight hug. Dean squirmed, trying to get away from Castiel but failed rather miserably.
"Let me go, Cas! Let me go!" Dean's now high pitched voice next to Castiel's ear was not something he had been expecting, quickly letting go of Dean in a vain attempt to stop his ears from hurting. He rubbed the inside of it in an attempt to stop it from ringing, looking at Dean with his usual calm expression.
"Dean. I am sorry, I am not angry with you, and I apologise for making you think that. I only wish to know how you gained wings, as you are not an angel." Dean had his back to Castiel, the wings in a position that told the older angel the de-aged hunter was upset.
"I dunno. You tried to fix me, an' I fell asleep, an' I waked up like you... You maked be better, Cas!" Castiel ran over these events in his head, remembering his grace brushing against something within Dean and the feeling of electricity that accompanied it. Then it hit him - the something had to have been whatever the witch left behind to affect Dean, and an invasion of grace had altered the spell so rather than just de-aging the hunter, it had turned him into a fledgling. Castiel hit himself in the forehead in realisation, making Dean jump again and giving him more lift that he had before.
"The witch! Her spell... My grace changed it, instead of just de-aging you, it gave you wings, turned you into a fledgling..." Castiel's voice trailed off towards the end of the explanation, stopping pacing after realising he'd started. Dean just followed the movements with his eyes, falling back onto the bed that the older angel had vacated whilst staring intently.
"It's my fault you're like this, Dean. I couldn't stop the witch, and when I tried to heal you, I did this instead. I'm sorry-" Dean's hand over Castiel's mouth stopped his rant, taking Castiel by suprise. He could feel Dean experimenting with the bit of grace that had passed over, trying to reassure Castiel as best he could, but the nerves of not knowing what to do passed over easier.
"It's not your fault Cas. Pwease, dop saying it. It was an akident, you didn't mean it." Then Dean succeed in getting his borrowed grace to do what he wanted, a feeling of reassurance washing over Castiel and he stopped worrying, slightly in awe that Dean had quickly managed to manipulate it. "We can fix it, jus' wiv books not magic." Castiel nodded, still feeling calm after Dean's experimentation, and tried to think which books would best be needed to fix their current situation.
"Cas?" Dean stared up at Castiel with wide eyes, drawing him out of the memories of the first day and night of Dean being a fledgling, and Castiel automatically picked him up.
"Yes, Dean?"
"Where are your wings?" With this higher vantage point, Dean began to poke the air blindly just behind Castiel's shoulders, trying to connect with something solid and failing. "I wanna see them Cas, why are they hiding?"
"They are not hiding. They are there, you just cannot see them." Dean looked up at Castiel with big eyes again, and he noticed that they were similar to the ones Sam gave - he also found himself bending to a will behind a question that was yet to be asked.
"Can I see them? Wait, I won't get an ouch from seeing like Pam did, Cas?" Castiel laughed gently to himself, shaking his head in the process.
"No - the grace that lets you have wings will stop you getting an 'ouch'." Big eyes were turned to him again, and he saved Dean the bother of asking. The air around Castiel's shoulder seemed to melt as his wings were brought into vision, and a lamp suffered as a wing crashed into it. Dean looked at Castiel, then to the broken lamp and back again, eyes wide in amazement before breaking down into giggles at the carelessness of the older angel.
"You gave the lamp an ouch Cas!" Castiel turned to see what Dean was on about, frowning when he saw the broken lamp on the floor. He extended his arm with his eyes closed, moving the lamp back to its original position and fixing it in the process. Dean gasped in amazement, giggles stopped sharply when Castiel's arm extended.
"Can I do that?" Castiel nodded, and Dean looked almost longingly at the now fixed lamp.
"No, Dean. We are trying to fix you, not make you more of an angel." He pouted and started to squirm, but Castiel held tighter and moved his own wings to try and distract him. Dean watched more intently as they moved, and craned his neck to get a better look as they wrapped around him. He slowly extended a hand to them, looking back at Castiel before touching them for approval to do so, and the older angel nodded. A small jolt similar to the feeling of electricity passed up Dean's arm as it connected with Castiel's feathers, and up Castiel's wing causing him to retract it just out of Dean's reach. He looked up at the older angel with wide eyes, confusion and wonder etched onto his face at the same time.
"What was dat Cas?" Confusion worked its way onto Castiel's face to almost mirror Dean's.
"I don't know." Dean took this as a good enough answer and tried to reach Castiel's wing again, moaning when he just missed it.
"Caas...!" He moved his wing back into Dean's reach, and the feeling of electricity happened again but Castiel didn't move this time. "They nice Cas. Why you hide dem?" Castiel hesitated.
"They should not be... This colour... They were damaged rescuing you from Hell, now other angels scorn them for what they went through." Dean absentmindedly ran his hand over the feathers he could reach, trying to manipulate the grace he had to let Castiel know what he thought of them.
"They pretty Cas. Other angels are silly." Dean yawned, pulling himself closer to Castiel's chest and wrapping his own wings around himself. "Tired, Cas."
"Okay, Dean." He hid his wings again, giving the lamp a dirty look before placing Dean on one of the motel beds. He sighed, turning to the pile of books that littered the table to resume his search to how to get Dean back to normal.