Castiel woke up in the early afternoon the next day, took a shower and then went downstairs to make himself some toast. Micheal was sat at the kitchen table reading the newspaper. His reading glasses slid down his nose as he looked over at his youngest brother. Castiel grunted a hello, realizing that it was a Saturday and cursing his luck that Micheal would be home. As much as Castiel loved him, he hated the nagging.

"Wash your hands." Micheal said just as Castiel was reaching to open the refrigerator. He grumbled under his breath about having just taken a shower, but walked over the the faucet to wash up anyways. "So," Micheal continued, turning his face back down to the newspaper but continuing his talk anyways, "those doors are going to be expensive. How were you planning to pay for them?"

Castiel sighed and reached for the soap. "I was hoping the company would pay for it."

"I looked into that for you." His blonde haired brother answered. Ever the do-gooder. What a saint. "Since you're only a customer now, they pay 3 quarters damage. If you were an employee, they'd pay full damages." Fuck. That smug supervisor bitch. "I guess it has to do with time there and risk of accident." Castiel turned off the sink and reached for a hand towel dejectedly. Micheal sighed heavily. "Listen, Castiel..." He started, sounding sympathetic. "I'll pay for for it."

Castiel's head snapped towards his brother, whose nose was still buried in the paper. "Really?" He questioned incredulously, raising an eyebrow in disbelief. "You'd do that for me?" Castiel had never really been a bad kid, but he'd never been a good kid, either. While him and Micheal never got into fights, Castiel still rebelled slightly. Never as much as the others, but... he smoked and drank, and he dropped out on quite a bit of Micheal's charity business. Heck, he'd stopped going to church except on holidays, but Micheal still went religiously twice a week. Micheal shouldn't be going out of his way to do Castiel a favor. There had to be a catch.

"Yes." Micheal said, more resolution to his voice than before. "...If you quit smoking."

Ahh, there it was. Castiel cringed. Tobacco and nicotine seemed to be the only things keeping him sane these days, since he'd given up weed and stopped binge drinking. He still got drunk, but only on occasion. Cigarettes were always there for him, though.

As he thought about it though, it wasn't like he could afford to say no. Micheal would be saving him a huge cut of his savings fund, and really, since he no longer had an income cigarettes would start depleting his fund, too. Castiel took a deep breath, readying himself, and said, "...Alright."

Micheal finally put down the newspaper and beamed up at his brother across the room. "I'll pick up nicotine gum for you, too. And those mint toothpicks for when you get shaky. Next time I go out." He promised. "But you have to promise me it'll work this time. You have to see this through." Castiel thought back to the last time Micheal had tried to get him to give up smoking. Castiel hadn't really gone out of his way to hide it when he started 3 years ago, and when Micheal found him casually leaning on the fence out back with a stick in his mouth, he'd told the father of their church. Father Matthews had come to the house, offering a program that would help Castiel get over his 'addiction'. Of course it didn't work, because most of it involved finding the source of distress that caused the smoking and Castiel found the whole business to be a load of bullshit. He'd do this, though. No half assing it. If not for the money, than for himself. He'd been trying to clean up his act recently, anyways.

"The gum would be helpful." Castiel admitted. "I'll..." He faltered. "I'll do it."

No longer wanting to be around his brother, Castiel grabbed a single peice of bread out of the refrigerator and took his leave. He walked out of the house and pulled out his cell phone. It was a cheap thing and completely prepaid, because Castiel was poor and didn't want to spend money on a contract. He flipped it open and scrolled through his contacts, instantly finding another of his brothers' and pressing send. It rang twice before a chipper voice answered. "Gabriel." Castiel said simply.

"Cassy! My favorite brother! What can I do for you?" Gabriel asked excitedly. It'd been about a week since they last talked, and if Castiel didn't talk to his other brother on a regular basis, Gabriel would whine of 'seperation anxiety'.

Castiel continued walking towards the end of his street, and made a right down a main road. "I'll be at your apartment in about 10 minutes. I need you to drive me to Singer's so I can pick up my car." Gabriel lived with the last and most rebellious of Castiel's several brothers, Lucifer. After a big fight with Micheal, Lucifer had walked out only days after turning 18. Gabriel had gone to follow him a few years later. Castiel missed them greatly, and being left alone with an uptight brother like Micheal was not something that he really enjoyed, but he understood why his brothers had chosen to leave. Castiel might have actually fallen suit with them, but he tolerated Micheal enough that he didn't want to hurt him by walking out like the others. And it wasn't like they had gone far - Lucifer had chosen the cheapest apartment in the area, which only happened to be a 15 minutes walk or a 4 minutes drive away. Castiel was welcome over there whenever he liked (which he'd taken avantage of on several drunken occasions).

The dark haired boy truged through the streets towards the apartment. It was drizzling slightly, which dampened Castiel's trench coat but did little to dampen his already-low spirits. As much as he had daydreamed of just talking with Dean, he actually found he was dreading having to do it again. He'd always been socially awkward and never had more than 2 friends - Chuck, another socially awkward kid who he'd met a few years ago, and his cousin Anna, who didn't really count. He wasn't really sure what Dean thought of him, but it probably wasn't as high as Castiel thought of Dean. Just thinking about it made him depressed.

Before Castiel knew it, he was riding the elevator up to the fifth floor and knocking on the firmiliar wooden door of room 503. His brother opened it, smiling broadly at him (he was a few inches taller than Castiel was, and 2 years his senior) and enveloping him in a hug. "Cassy! So we're going to go stalk Dean Winchester then?" He cried, making Castiel blush a deep shade of red. He'd forgotten that Dean and Gabriel had become friends at school during their high school years when Gabriel had pulled a rather lame prank on the other. Castiel had also forgotten that Gabriel had figured out his crush.

"Some ugly preteen hit my car, I had to take it somewhere that did body work." Castiel grumbled awkwardly into his older brother's shirt. "Singer's was the only place I could take it."

"Oooh, body work!" Gabriel intoned, pushing Castiel back slightly by his forearms and waggling his eyebrows suggestively. The blue eyed teen scoffed, rolling his eyes.

The drive there had been spent with bad pop music and Gabriel making some rather crude jokes, which Castiel tried his hardest to ignore. Once a particular Ke$ha song came on, his brother had insisted they open their windows wide and blast the stuff. His brother even tried to accompany the singing, which was earshattering. After a long, agonizing drive, they ended up at the equally as agonizing auto shop. Castiel got out of the car.

His shoes crunched, once again, across the dirt lot to the front door. He pushed it open, and found Dean sitting on a bench to his left, polishing some kind of metal tubing with a cloth. He looked up at Castiel and smiled, which turned into a full on grin when he saw the brother tagging along behind him. "Hey Cas, Gabe!" He greeted with a wave.

Castiel flinched. Nobody but Gabriel called him by a nickname. It was so personal, so... endearing, that hearing it come from Dean's voice was extremely weird. In a good way. He suddenly felt tingly.

Gabriel seemed to have noticed, because he looked down at his shorter brother and smirked. "I heard my bro broke the law and got smashed!" He exclaimed, spreading his arms out wide. "Cassy, you badass you! And running from the cops too!" Once again, Castiel found himself being hugged tightly by his older brother.

Dean's green eyes widened and he looked over at Castiel with doubt. "Naw way. I turned that car on to check the oil level and heard freaking classical music." Gabriel busted up laughing. Castiel narrowed his eyes and looked at the wall to their left. It was scientifically proven that Mozart raised your IQ before tests, he just wanted to do good in school. "So anyways, I switched that out and popped some AC/DC into your casette player for 'ya." Dean winked at Cas and sent him a thumbs up. Castiel almost snorted. Dean was acting like he'd just done Castiel the biggest favor.

He studied a public service announcement on the bulliten board. 'No smoking indoors'. Great, as if he hadn't already wanted a cigarette. His hands fumbled in the pockets of his trench coat. He pulled the tobacco sticks out and almost shook one loose before remembering his promise to Micheal. Gingerly, he took the box over to the trashcan and tossed it.

Dean noticed, but said nothing. Instead, he tossed the keys to Castiel's car over, which Castiel only barely managed to catch, and picked their bill up off the front desk. "After labor, oil, and parts, you're running almost $1800 here." He said, pointing to the total and showing them the recipt for the car doors. Castiel leaned over slightly to look, close enough to smell Dean's cologne. He wondered if perhaps he was invading the other's personal space, something Chuck had once told him he did quite frequently.

Gabriel snatched the bill out of his hands and grabbed Castiel's sholders, pushing him back and stepping forward into his place. "Well that's great to know. But there's actually places we gotta go. People to see, errands to run." No they didn't. Gabriel's social life recently consisted mostly of work, and he was not one to run errands. "Here's Cassy's number." He handed Dean a small slip of paper. Castiel almost protested but stopped himself short. "Call him when you get the stuff. Or for a date. Whatever." And with that remark, his brother was dragging him out the door, leaving a confused Dean inside.

"Jeez, the sexual tension in there was driving me nuts!" Gabriel exclaimed loudly, making Castiel blush once again and he sat down in his now half-plastic car. He shouldn't have asked Gabriel for a ride. His brother always managed to make already awkward situations even worse.

Frustrated, he reached into his pockets for a cigarette.

Damn.

A/N: Hey dudes. Second chapter. Yay.
Wrote this listening to 'Paradise on E" by BOUNC3 on loop for 2 hours. Hell yeah.