Note: Sorry for not updating this story in so long! I don't really have a good excuse, but school has kept me fairly busy the past few months, but now all my exams are over so I should have a lot more free time during and after school to write, so I hope to get this story written faster.

"So, their food is at the bottom of the pantry and they each get one scoop in the morning and one scoop at night and-"

"Add half a bag of wet food to each bowl at night," Gabriel interrupted. "I know, I know, jeez Cassie. This isn't the first time I've looked after your cats. And I have a cat of my own if you hadn't noticed," he said, emphasizing the fluffy Himalayan cat in his arms.

"No, I know, and you take very good care of Catalie, but it's just the first time you've taken care of my cats in this apartment," he said carefully.

"What's different about the apartment?" Gabriel asked, letting Catalie Portman hop down and sniff around.

"Nothing, just you know, new environment," he lied, he couldn't say the real reason he was worried.

Said reason was sitting on the back of the couch, watching the exchange with boredom. Castiel glanced at him discreetly and sighed.

"Bro, you worry too much," Gabriel said, bringing Castiel's attention back to him. "Everything will be fine, the cats get along, I know how to take care of them, and if I have a question, I'll call you, alright? What could go wrong?"

Castiel wanted to sigh again. "Nothing. I probably am worrying too much." That was a lie. A lot could go wrong and Castiel wasn't sure if he was worrying enough.

If he had his way, Gabriel wouldn't be here at all while Castiel went away for the weekend to a friend's wedding. After all, Dean was perfectly capable of taking care of the cats. But during one of their weekly bonding sessions, Gabriel had asked if he had someone watching the cats and he was distracted by reading the menu and had replied "no" just before realizing what he said. It was too late though, Gabriel immediately jumped on it and volunteered his services and refused to be persuaded otherwise.

It wasn't that Gabriel couldn't take care of them, in fact, he normally did take care of them when needed, but Castiel didn't want him alone in the apartment all weekend with Dean. Dean had promised he wouldn't do anything, but Castiel didn't believe him for a second. Dean would get bored within a few hours and start messing with Gabriel, he just hoped that his apartment would be left undamaged.

"Look, just," Castiel took a deep breath, "if anything...weird happens, just...blame it on the cats, okay?" He felt bad about throwing his cats under the bus, but better than explaining Dean. They had both decided it was best that he remain a secret.

"Weird? Like what? I thought your cats had backed off the weird stuff after the first few weeks after they adjusted," Gabriel said.

"Yeah, they did, just, I don't know, Gabe. Look, nothing weird should happen," he said, sending a glare to Dean who just rolled his eyes, "but if it does, it's the cats, okay?" he pleaded.

Gabriel raised an eyebrow but agreed. "Well, Cas, you better get going if you don't want to be late to Hannah's wedding."

"It's not 'till tomorrow."

"But you don't want to get to the hotel super late and oversleep," Gabriel argued.

Castiel rolled his eyes but smiled. "Right. Well, I'm off, so just...good luck," he said, sending one last weary look at Dean before leaving.

Gabriel turned back around and looked at the cats which were in various parts of the room. "Looks like it's just us now. But don't worry, because we're going to have a lot of fun," he said grinning.

Meanwhile, Dean, still sitting on the couch, was smiling mischievously.

Gabriel startled awake at a loud noise in the apartment. He sat up groggily, pulling off his sleep mask and looking around. There was another loud thump in the apartment.

Carefully, quietly, he slid out of the bed and felt around on the ground, all the while keeping his eyes on the closed door. His hand finally felt what it was looking for and Gabriel grasped the baseball bat tightly. Slowly he walked towards the door and opened it, trying not to make any noise.

He heard another thump.

He crept towards the front of the apartment, bat poised and ready to strike at any moment. His heart was pounding in his chest and really hoped that it was just Castiel, returning because he forgot something.

As he reached the light switch to the living room at the end of the hallway he took a breath and flicked it on. The apartment flooded with light as he jumped forward, bat raised high, mouth open and ready to yell at any intruder, but as he looked around, no one was there. The apartment was empty except for him.

He cautiously lowered the bat and walked further into the living room. He looked all around and gave a cursory glance in the kitchen, but all he saw were the cats.

Sander looked down at him from atop the tv cabinet with big eyes.

"Well, Cassie did say you might do weird things," he said to the cat. "But, jeez, you guys scared me. Guess you guys just got a little rambunctious, huh?" he teased, looking around.

The cats that he could see just stared back at him. "Right. Well, keep the noise to a minimum 'till the morning, yeah?"

He walked back to the bedroom and shut the door behind him. He put the bat back under the bed and promptly fell asleep, not thinking anymore on the incident.

It was Saturday afternoon and Gabriel was sitting on the small balcony overlooking a small patch of trees. It was peaceful, with only the occasional chirping of birds and he was almost asleep, lulled into a midafternoon nap. But then there was a crash and what sounded like something fragile breaking.

Gabriel cursed and hurried to investigate. He walked into the kitchen where he found the ceramic bowl he had used for breakfast in three pieces on the floor. He cursed some more as he bent down to collect the pieces, glad that it had been a clean break and easy to clean up. He looked around, trying to find the culprit, but he couldn't see any of the cats. He shook it off though, figuring the noise had probably scared them off.

"First last night, then my orange juice this morning, and now this," Gabriel muttered under his breath. "Are you always like this?" he asked the air around him.

"Only when I'm bored," Dean replied from where he was sitting on the counter. Of course, Gabriel didn't hear this response, but he did feel the slightest chill up his back, causing him to look around suspiciously.

Right as Gabriel was getting into bed that night, a picture frame suddenly fell from the nightstand, landing right on his foot. "Fuck!" he cursed.

He whipped around to find the furry culprit that was responsible for his pain, but there was no cat in sight. They had all been in the living room last he checked, but just in case he quickly made his way back to the living room to check again.

He counted all six lounging in various places, none looking like they had moved in the last few minutes. Gabriel walked back to the bedroom and looked at the picture frame on the floor. He picked it up and set it back in its place before climbing back into bed. "I probably just bumped it," he murmured, though he was very sure he had not bumped it.

By Sunday night, Gabriel was positive that Castiel's apartment was haunted.

There had been more bumps in the night and things knocked over and the lights and the tv had started flickering a bit as well, and there was no way the cats had been responsible for every single weird occurrence. Most of the time the cats were nowhere near the what was happening.

Not to mention the occasional chill he got.

Finally, he couldn't stand it anymore and dialed Castiel's number into the phone and waited for him to pick up, panicking only slightly.

"Gabriel? What's wrong?" came Castiel's concerned voice.

"I think your apartment is haunted," he exclaimed without preamble into the phone. He was currently pacing in the living, looking around for any signs of a ghost.

"What?" Castiel asked sharply.

"There's been a bunch of strange shit happening and it is definitely not cats," he explained hurriedly, "I don't know why this ghost hasn't been bothering you lately, but it's going nuts right now."

He could hear Castiel take a deep breath. "Gabriel. There are no ghosts," he said, sounding weary. "I'm sure you're just paranoid and letting your imagination get the best of you."

"Cas, I am definitely not imagining this. I swear to God, I feel a presence. There is somebody here besides me."

"Well, with six cats I would hope you feel multiple presences."

"Don't make fun of me! I already told you it's not the cats," Gabriel exclaimed.

Castiel sighed. "Alright look, Gabe. I'll be home tomorrow morning and I'll check it out then. So just survive one more night in the 'haunted' apartment, then you can leave and not worry about it."

"But Cas! I can't spend the night knowing there's a ghost!"

"Has the ghost tried to hurt you?" he asked, trying to sound sympathetic, but coming across more annoyed than anything else.

"Well, it dropped a picture frame on my foot last night."

"Anything more serious than that?"

"...No."

"Look, if it wanted to hurt you, it would've by now. He's probably just messing with you for fun."

"He?"

"It. I meant it. Anyway, not the point. Suck it up, go to bed, I'll see you tomorrow."

"Cas, wait—" Gabriel said, but he had hung up. "Rude."

He put his phone away and looked around. "Alright, Ghosty, here's the deal. I don't know if you just don't like me, or you're mad that Cas left, or whatever. But he'll be back tomorrow, and I'll be gone so let's agree to a truce 'till tomorrow morning, alright? So, stop the creepy noises at night so I can sleep," he called out to where he assumed the ghost was.

Confident that he had gotten his point across he walked down the hallway to the bedroom. As he walked into the room, there was a loud thump behind him that caused him to jump and let out an undignified shriek. He slammed the door behind him and hunkered down under the blankets, hoping to be left alone for the night.

Gabriel was tired when he woke up the next morning to cats scratching at the door and meowing. He'd had trouble falling asleep last night, his heart jumping at every little noise, though most of it was caused by the upstairs neighbor. He had eventually fallen asleep, but it was a restless one, with lots of tossing and turning.

He hauled himself out of bed and opened the door and the cats immediately started swarming his legs, making it hard to walk straight. "I know, I know, you're hungry and I'm late with feeding you, jeez."

After feeding the cats he made the bed and packed up his and Catalie's stuff so he would be ready to leave the moment Castiel got back. He ate a bowl of cereal and sat on the couch and waited for Castiel to get back.

And waited. And waited. Thankfully, without disruption from the ghost.

Finally, he could hear a key turning the lock and he bounded up to greet Castiel.

"Cassie!" he exclaimed, as Castiel walked through the door, pulling his suitcase behind him.

"Hello, Gabriel," he replied, much more calmly.

"Alright, well, the cats have been fed and they've been good all weekend, but now that you're here, I'll be going," he said in a rush, trying to get Catalie into her carrier, though she was evidently not happy about it.

Eventually he succeeded and with Catalie safely in her carrier he grabbed his bag, gave Castiel a kiss on the cheek, and walked out the apartment.

"Gabriel—"

"Have fun with your ghost, Cassie!" he called, waving a hand before disappearing around the corner.

Castiel watched him go before shutting the door and turning to Dean who was laying on the couch with a pleased smile. "What did you do?"

"Nothing," Dean replied innocently.

"That's such an obvious lie, but I can figure what you did," he said with a disapproving eye. "Though I told you not to do anything."

"But it's so boring when only the cats can see me," he complained.

Castiel sighed. He was doing that a lot lately. "Well, I suppose it's too late to do anything about it now. But if Gabe ever comes over again, no more ghost stuff, alright?"

"Fine," he relented.

Castiel didn't believe him for a second.

Note: Thanks for reading, comments are much appreciated. :)

I don't know when the next part will be out, hopefully a lot sooner than this one, but not too soon because I have another work that I've been neglecting that I want to work on first.