When Castiel arrived on Earth it was shrouded in darkness. Remarkably enough, this was the normal kind of darkness that could usually be found on this side of the Earth at twelve o'clock at night instead of the apocalyptic shroud of death and despair that had occurred over the past year or so. Throughout the Singer household there was a kind of absolute silence; something Castiel usually basked in while it lasted. Today, however, there was no time for that.

He located Dean quickly enough; the man having been confined, once again, to the sofa in Bobby's living room because Sam had taken the guest room and refused to share the bed. Under normal circumstances Castiel would have watched over the suffered human; would have watched as the years of horrors and adrenaline was replaced with a kind of numbness and peacefulness. Tonight, Dean was lucky to have a peaceful slumber, for once, uninterrupted by nightmares of Hell or any of the other horrors he'd been through during his lifetime. But tonight he didn't have time for it. The angel felt bad about it, because he really did care for Dean's health and sanity, despite the man's claims that he didn't, but- seeing as this was an emergency- he woke the brunette up.

"Dean!" The hunter woke the way he always did; suddenly, with a preposterous amount of thrashing, heart pounding, and with a pathetic cry of 'Ugha huhg!'. Twisting spastically Dean finally got his feet planted on the floor and was able to sit upright. It took him a few more moments to come down off of his adrenaline rush to compute that it was a tall, black-haired, blue-eyed angel wearing a trench coat that stood in front of him and not just another monster.

"Cass!" The eldest Winchester whined, rubbing a hand over his face. He looked more rested than the last time Castiel had seen him, though he hadn't shave in what might have been the entire twenty-one days Cass had been gone. "What do you want?" The whine was still there. Under normal circumstances Castiel might have found it endearing but today, with everything already dropping into chaos, he found that Dean was irritating when he whined.

Dean tugged at his black AC/DC t-shirt and rubbed his eyes again. Blinking up at the angel in the trench coat Dean found himself very confused. Behind Castiel, stretching themselves out and quivering ever so slightly from the strain he'd put on them hurrying here, was a pair of large, feathery black wings. "Cass?"

"Dean, please we have no time. Get up." Castiel brushed by the couch, heading for the stairs that lead up to the second floor bedrooms. "Hurry!" He called over his shoulder, glaring at the Winchester still sitting numbly on the ratty piece of furniture.

Incredulously, the brunette turned, watching as the wings tucked themselves against Cass's shoulders to avoid knocking into the wall or stairwell. "Wait, what? Cass?" The angel disappeared upstairs. Even from downstairs Dean could hear him opening doors and slamming them shut again as he went along the corridor searching for the other two men.

Dean stood up, shaking his head in confusion at the angel's behavior and grabbed the demon knife from under his pillow, just in case. "Cass!" He hollered, padding across the wood floors barefoot after the angel.

"SAM!" Even the older Winchester flinched that time. The cry was followed by another, much more panicked yelp, and then by a heavy thump as the tall moose fell from his bed to the floor. Rolling his eyes, Dean took the stairs two at a time and met Castiel as he was coming out of Sam's room.

"Quickly Sam!" The angel snapped, directing a glare to the youngest of the group.

"Cass-"

"Stop, wait." The angel commands, his voice hard with an edge the brunette hasn't heard since they became friends. He brushes past the freckled man and continues to Bobby's room. Dean doesn't stop him but that's only because he's still staring at those wings; those big black wings, tucked against the back of his best friend.

"Bobby-" Castiel ducks as a shoe came flying towards his head. As he crouches, his wings flair out behind him, helping to keep balance him as the object flies over his head. Frowning, Castiel looks into the room.

"Shut up ya idjit," Bobby barks, pulling on a plaid shirt over his white night shirt. "I'm up, what is it?"

"Gabriel is coming, you need to be ready." The black haired angel says while standing, his gruff voice full of urgency. He turns to the other two standing in the hallway staring openly at his wings as they again tuck themselves up close.

"Um, Cass?" Sam asks hesitantly. "When, um, when did you get wings?"

This time, it's Castiel who is surprised, the angel stares at them, blinking slowly. "How-" He stops and draws back, tilting his head to the left before blinking at them again. "You perceive my wings?" It occurred to him then that, in his haste to reach the three men, he had unintentionally forgot to shield them from human eyes. It was a mistake that could have cost these humans their eyes.

"Are your... wings usually big, black and- and fucking feathery?" Dean asked carefully. Castiel nods, blue eyes wide with the astonishment at this news. "Wow." The angel agreed silently, knowing that he had once again underestimated the Winchester's abilities. Very few humans could perceive an angel's true form and voice and, when they had first met, Castiel had already determined that Dean and Sam and Bobby were not amongst those humans. However, it had never occurred to him that, with all their recent deaths and now Sam's pull from the Cage, they had changed a lot over the last year or so. It amazed him that the Winchester's- and friends- never ceased to amaze him.

"You are-" He'd wanted to congratulate them, to tell them how much they impressed him, an angel of the Lord. At that moment however the house began shaking, glass rattling and books falling from their shelves and off tables, in a ruckus that startled everyone. It reminded Cass why he was there in the first place. "Quickly, Gabriel is coming!"

He charged down the hallway, rushing past Dean who and down the hallway, his wings again stretching out to compensate for his unstable balance.

Sam stopped his brother from following. "Pants!" He cried shoving Dean in the direction of his room, where they had both been storing their clothes. Dean looked down to see his black boxers and bare feet before nodding and slipping past Bobby as the old man joined Sam in heading downstairs. Sam in the lead they rushed down, grabbing various items of protection as they followed Castiel into the living room.

A few moments later, the eldest Winchester stumbled back out into the hallway. Struggling into a pair of jeans he hoped were his, Dean charged down the stairs. The brunette managed to slide into the room just as Gabriel ripped through dimensions. A huge gust of air had the humans stumbling backwards; shielding their eyes from the strong, biting cold wind. Papers flew from their position on the floor and the nearby table and into the air, joining the century's worth of dust to create a whirlwind of white and dirt. When it settled the humans shook themselves, blinking they caught sight of the archangel trickster as he brought his wings back again. The pairs of immense golden wings curled backwards, framing the short angel and dwarfing Castiel's own black ones easily. Incredibly, the archangel had two large wings at the top of his shoulders, a smaller set beneath those, tucked more closely to his body and in front of the bigger ones, and an even smaller pair underneath those, closest to his body and at the forefront of all of them. The humans gaped at the sight of them, finally understanding that angels were considered to be creatures of majesty and grace not only because of their connections to God or the fact that they were holy creatures.

"Cass!" Gabriel panted, panic in his voice even as he spoke. "They know you're in cahoots with me!" He crossed the living room's expanse, short legs stretching wide to cover the distance from windows to couch. Quickly the honey blonde candy-eater set his burdens down onto the couch in a bundle of white cloth. "We've got to draw them away!"

"Away? Wait, who away?" The Dean asked, stepping forward.

"The angels are hunting us Dean." Castiel explained, already unfolding his wings.

"What?!" Dean exclaimed, staring at the two angels. "Why?"

"Because we're protecting those guys, Dean-o." Gabriel said jerking his thumb back towards the couch. He turned back to his brother and ignored the interruption of the annoying human man. "Come on Cass, we've got less than a minute before Raphael catches up to me."

"Wait," Sam stepped up to stand beside Dean, holding out a hand to stop the two angels. Gabriel let out a noise of frustration and turned his head to give the younger Winchester an annoyed stare.

"No time to explain Sammy gotta run! See ya boys later." Unfolding their individual pairs of wings Gabriel and Castiel turned to face the window. "Put as many angel wards on every surface as you can guys!" The eldest angel called over his shoulder. "Every surface!"

"I will return Dean, Sam," Castiel told them, nodding over his left shoulder to reassure them even as he pushed his wings down. The combination of Gabriel's wings and Cass's forced the three humans to the floor. A mere moment later both angels were gone and paper was still tumbling to the floor.

"Jesus Christ!" Dean exclaimed, rolling to his feet as he looked around the room.

Beside him Sam coughed, he turned over onto his hands and knees, squinting through the disaster area to see Bobby shaking the impact off. Staggering up from his position and waving away the dust from in front of his face, Sam coughed again. "How come we've never seen that before?" He asked, referring to the chaos and destruction that had come from the angel's wings.

His older brother sneezed before shrugging. "Beats me." The other brunette said, voice gagging on the mustiness still hanging about in the air.

Behind them, Bobby grumbled all the way to his feet. Pausing to dust out his cap and wipe away the layer of grime from his face the older man turned his head to glare at the mess the angels made with their departure. He made a mental note to dust and clean the place up before any more angels came to visit. Then, Bobby leaned against the couch to clear his old lungs and found the present Gabriel had left for them. Well, to be a little bit more exact he found the three presents the trickster had left for them. All of which were hastily wrapped in white linen and sleeping peacefully on Dean's haphazardly vacated bed.

"Balls." He cursed.