"You're so cold but you feel alive,
lay your hand on me, one last time."
"You ungrateful, filthy little mongrel," Crowley growled, stepping forward amidst the desperate cries for him to stop. "After all I've done for you?" His voice was strained, trying hard to keep collected as he clenched his first - forcing more of a strangled shout out of his victim. "I saved you from the hellhounds, I provided safety and shelter - all I asked was that you don't do anything stupid!" The red-eyed demon howled, losing his temper as he lifted a hand.
Aiden's sharp cry was cut short when he was thrown across the room, slamming into the wall and sliding down to the floor with a pained whimper. "C-Crowley wait! I can explain!" He pleaded, rubbing the metallic tang from his lips and stumbling to his feet before crying out again as he crumbled against the cracked wall. "Fuck! Ah-Crowley! It's-It's not like-"
"Like what?" Crowley hissed, brows pulled down into a dangerous scowl. "I'm tired of your silly little games, boy. You've been far too much trouble than you're worth."
Doubling over from the pain, Aiden coughed and choked on blood as he stumbled back and looked for an exit. He couldn't just will himself away like everywhere else - he was trapped. Grounded. Spitting the blood from his mouth, all Aiden could taste was metal. He was seeing double and every step the demon took towards him his chest was gripped tighter. It felt like a giant hand squeezing his insides, making it hard to breathe now as he scrambled for words. "Mnguh, please... Ple-ease..."
After having used the halfling as a punching bag, Crowley grabbed the boy by a handful of hair, yanking him to his feet and narrowing his eyes for a moment. "Maybe I should just toss you over to those feathered wolves, the things they'd do to you..." Hearing the choked gasp of desperate pleading, Crowley rolled his eyes and dropped the bloodied teen to the cold floor. "Regardless, I have no use for unruly children that are worth next to nothing as a bargaining chip - turns out, you little wanker. They don't want you alive!" The demon wiped his hands together with a shrug, as if casually stating a fact.
Aiden stared at him in disbelief, still reeling from the feeling of his insides being clamped down on and varying bones cracking. What was he talking about? Coughing and groaning, he swayed in his seated position, trying to stay conscious.
"And here I thought you'd bring in the big bucks!" Crowley paced along an invisible line, hands clasped behind his back. "Earn me a spot on the bench for this silly game of fantasy football - shame really."
Trembling and trying to force air into his lungs, Aiden crawled to Crowley's feet with a small whine. "Please don't kill me... I - I won't run away again." He decided it was best not to argue and say the Winchesters kidnapped him.
"Why should I keep you alive? I only kept my pup from eating you because I thought you were useful, but since angel's are too good to make deals, - not having souls might do that to you - I don't need you anymore."
"What...?" Aiden stared up at him as his brain struggled to piece things together. Shoving his broken self to his feet, Aiden stumbled and frowned. "What do you mean? You sent those things after my family?" His voice trembled and cracked, legs fighting to hold his weight.
"Oh... I forgot to tell you, didn't I." Crowley mused, chuckling. "I sent my pup to kill your darling little parents so you'd have reason to seek refuge with... well. Me. Worked rather perfect, really." The demon admitted, casually. "They weren't even you real parents, but still you cried and ran-"
"You bastard!"
"I've been called worse."
~.~.~
Days had passed since anyone had heard from their new - partly - angelic friend. No one really knew how to get a hold of him and the general worry was that something bad had happened after he left Dean that night. Feeling the guilt of letting Aiden just... slip between his fingers, Dean seemed to have a new found determination for their task at hand. Lucifer. They had yet to find good leads, despite working even more over time than they were used to, but seemed to hit every snare and hiccup possible. Such is the Winchester life.
Looking out the window, Dean sighed. That white mustang was still parked out in the yard, untouched since Aiden first popped in on them. Why did the kid drive anyway? Couldn't he just appear anywhere he wanted? A flash of light and a deafening crash interrupted everything, Sam running down the stairs and Bobby grabbing for his gun.
"What was that?!" Sam called, looking around as Dean made a rush for the door. "Dean!"
Dean ran outside towards where the noise came from, looking around at the piles of junkyard cars and rusted parts. Hearing the whine of metal shifting and hearing something moving to his left. "Who's there!" He hollered, expression stern as he moved to investigate the continued movement - and what sounded like... coughing? Seeing Sam in his peripheral, Dean scaled one of the cars quickly and pulled out his gun, pointing it down into the crater of bent metal - shocked by what he saw.
"Aiden!" He dropped his gun and jumped down to him, instantly put into panic mode at the sight of the teen covered in blood. A lot of blood. Getting down on his knees he pulled the boy into his chest carefully. "Hey, hey, shh," he tried to calm the other down as he fought being touched and continued to choke and cough up blood - his body feeling broken and feverish. "What the hell happened to you... Hey! Stay with me buddy, come on!" Dean patted Aiden's cheek and watched his eyes roll back before he seemed to come to. "Sammy! Need some help up here!"
Aiden coughed and gasped a bit, eyes managing to focus on Dean with a weak grin, his fingers gripping at Dean's clothes loosely. "Hey you..." he whispered, voice hoarse from screaming and being choked - open gashes and bruises barely visible across his crimson drenched body. "I told you I... I'd be back for my car..."
"Hah hah, very funny kid," Dean forced out, not finding the comments amusing as he scooped Aiden up and carefully climbed down, meeting an equally distressed Sam at the bottom.
"What happened?!"
"I don't know," Dean bit out, clenching his jaw as he felt even more pangs of guilt. Whatever happened to this kid was his fault. If he hadn't let him leave in the first place...
"Dean! Snap out of it and call Cas!" They couldn't just take a missing teen to a hospital beaten to a pulp, police would be on them like white on rice. Castiel was their only hope.
Dean frowned and nodded, squeezing his eyes shut and trying not to hold Aiden too tightly, fearing he was hurting him more. "Cas! Get your ass down here we need your divine intervention!" There was a crack in his voice as he wildly looked around for their trench coat wearing friend. "Cas!"
"Dean." Castiel appeared stern, brows furrowed as he quickly assessed the situation, watching as the watery eyed Dean held the barely breathing Aiden. "Take him inside."
Barely needing further instruction, Dean sprinted into the house with Sam in tow, putting Aiden down on the couch and running his hands over his body to find there the most bleeding was coming from so he could apply pressure.
"It's internal, he has been badly injured... How did this happen?" Castiel showed what little concern he was capable of as he stepped over to Dean.
"No shit its bad, Cas!" The hunter growled before forcing himself to calm with a deep breath. "Look. He just crash landed a minute ago, practically dead on arrival, how the hell am I supposed to know what happened? Just help him already!"
Castiel seemed to hesitate, hovering his hand over the boy's forehead - almost as if he were debating on whether or not to use his powers to heal the clearly suffering child or put him out of his misery. He was not meant to live in the first place, this boy was an abomination, why should he waste his energy healing him... Looking over at the silent and tense pleading in Dean's eyes though, Castiel caved with a small sigh. Touching Aiden's skin, the angel healed the boy in a matter of moments, sinking him into a deep sleep until they could figure out what to do with him.
"He is healed."
Dean dropped his head on the bed and sank into the floor with a breathless swear. Looking up to Castiel, he climbed to his feet and offered a small smile as a mutually understandable and silent thank you - an expression the stony angel returned solemnly.
After a long moment, Sam stepped into the room and cautiously sat down. "So..." he looked to everyone with grave concern before his gaze fell back to the comatose teenager. "What do you think happened to him?
~.~.~
Every time he drifted to sleep, he heard him. The soft nothings whispered through his dreams, echoing and bouncing off the walls within his subconscious. They comforted him, wrapped him in a cold blanket of white light and told him everything would be okay in the end. At first, Aiden was frightened - who was this being and how could he be inside of his dreams? It just didn't make sense...
"I told you they would only be trouble, Little Fire..."
"I know..." Closing his eyes, Aiden stopped his swinging motions with a sigh. The toes of his boots skimmed the bark chips under him, displacing pieces as he slowly opened his eyes again - this time he was back home, on the swing in his neighborhood park. There were no other children, only the peaceful stillness surrounded him. Each dream was a different, familiar place for him, coaxing him to drop those walls and just accept this stranger with open arms...
Was it working?
Aiden looked over to his dream invader, staring him down as the other kicked his feet idly in the swing beside him. He managed to give a rather suspicious frown, gripping the chains on either side of him until his knuckles turned white before relaxing - almost as if checking if he were actually asleep, or just hallucinating. "Why am I here?" It was accusing, soured and embittered.
Lucifer feigned a small pout to hide the dark smirk, still swinging casually as he offered a shrug. "I thought you would like this place, you used to come here often as a child..." Letting himself smile, as hollow as it ended up being, Lucifer just kept swinging back and forth. "After what happened with your little demon friend," there was a touch of disapproval in his controlled tone, "it only seemed perfect to let you... whatever it is your do in a place like this."
Watching Aiden's building distress, Lucifer rolled his eyes and held out a gigantic swirled lollipop. "Will this make you feel better? You both-"
"Stay out of my head!" was Aiden's panicked response, shoving himself out of the swing and stepping away. He clenched his jaw and ground his teeth, fists balling to keep hot tears back. "Why are you doing this to me?" The teen choked out, trembling as he felt a touch on his shoulder to turn him around, staring up at Lucifer as if searching for answers.
"Shh, shh," the fallen angel hushed, grinning as he pulled Aiden into his chest and wrapped his arms around him - patting his back like you would a small child. "There, there. You miss this place, don't you? This... playground. It's hard, I know... but there's no going back, Aiden. I thought we had talked about this already," there was a soft scolding in his tone, his scoff being disguised as a gentle chuckle.
Lucifer felt the tense and pulled back to cup Aiden's cheeks with his cold palms. "You do not belong with these... savages. These hairless primates, these animals that have taken all of our father's creations for granted..." It was the same record, repeating those soft words "This is not your home, they are not your family," Lucifer brushed Aiden's soft skin with the pads of his thumbs, knowing he was just raking across raw nerves.
"I am your family now." ~.~.~
"What the hell happened back there, Dean?"
"What do you mean what the hell happened back there?" Dean nearly shouted, feeling worked up about the whole thing and rather defensive.
"Dean," Sam frowned, sighing as he moved back into the room with another beer. "What happened that night after you ganked that fang? You were gone all night! - You were the last one to see Aiden and haven't exactly been all that honest about what went down."
"Alright, alright," Dean scowled, downing the last of his glass before pouring himself more. "Look," swallowing and frowning deeper, the elder brother searched for a way to explain himself. He could feel Sam's probing bitch face boring into the side of his head as he tried to focus on the drink in his hand. "After I bagged the fang, we went out into the woods to burn the sonofabitch, you know?" Dean licked his lips nervously and tried to shrug it off before becoming frustrated.
"And?" Bobby pressed, only half as curious as Sam.
"And we had sex, okay? I'm not exactly proud of it, either!" Dean snapped, dropping his eyes as he took a drink.
"You... What?" Sam blinked as if he had heard wrong, frowning and hoping he hadn't just heard what he thought he had just heard.
"Sex, you baby-faced bigfoot," came a voice from the kitchen, holding a familiar mocking drawl. Aiden slammed the fridge door in annoyance, making a breathy comment about how men never seemed to believe in groceries, before walking into the room with a playfully quirked brow, watching the men's faces as they looked from him to the now empty spot on the bed he had been sleeping just moments before. "We had sex, Sam. Pretty good sex, if I do say so myself~" The blond beau winked playfully at Dean's somewhat horrified expression.
Sam stood up and frowned, nose scrunched in disgust. "Really Dean? - You know what... sorry I asked." He really didn't want that image burned into his memory, but it was too late.
Bobby grumbled as he rolled into the room, books in his lap. "How are you feeling anyway, kid? Sure took one hell of a beating back there."
"Yeah," Sam frowned and shifted, coming back to the situation at hand. Aiden only just woke up, so no one knew what happened or why he just showed up like he had. "Who did that to you?"
Aiden should have kept into consideration that they were only trying to be nice, but he couldn't exactly stop himself from rolling his eyes. "Who the hell do you think? Crowley, ya fucking bozos!" Duh. Seeming annoyed, Aiden dropped his gaze to dismissively open a chocolate bar.
"Crowley? Why? I thought you two were-" Dean made a face, not really sure what to call what he wanted to say.
"Butt-buddies?" Aiden snorted. "Up until he caught me playing good cop, bad cop with you ghoul busting ballerinas."
Noting the attitude, Sam attempted to soften the perceived attack, pulling one of his famous sympathetic frowns. "Well are you okay? You looked pretty bad..."
"That's kinda what happens when a demon rips you a new asshole," Aiden remarked sourly, shifting a crossing his arms. "But since you're asking, yeah. I'm fine. Great! Your fairy godmother fixed me up real good."
"I do not understand that reference. I am not a... fairy godmother," Castiel frowned, appearing with a small rustle of feathers, looking from Aiden to the rest of them with a confused expression, causing Dean to laugh out loud at the absurdity. His angel never seemed to fail when it came to a.) Not knowing a reference or b.) Appearing at horrifically inopportune times. The Angel stepped over to Aiden and ignored the hunter's amusement, his gaze studying and shrinking the youth with the utmost scrutiny. "Are you sure you are alright?" It was a quiet and concerning tone as Castiel took another step towards Aiden.
Now it was Sam's time to laugh. "What are you talking about, Cas? You healed him! Didn't you?" The kid looked perfectly healthy, even as his eyes seemed to narrow with suspicion and his fists balled up.
"That isn't what I meant," Castiel nearly snipped, giving Sam a measured look before watching as Aiden stood with a coy stretch. "Aiden."
Aiden exagerated his stretch with a loud yawn before squaring himself with the full fledged angel, forming a small smirk as Castiel seemed to shrink back almost. "While I... appreciate your concern, Castiel," Aiden's expression seemed to darken as stepped closer to the other and sized him up with a taunting quirk of a brow. "I really did just come back for my car, and I really should be on my way~"
"Aiden, what the hell," Dean nearly groaned, feeling an inkling of distress now that their new and even more flighty friend was acting weirder than normal.
The halfling looked over to Dean for a long moment before they seemed to stop tracking and glaze over - a soft whisper echoing and bouncing around in Aiden's head as his expression became unreadable. Almost as if Castiel could hear it as well, the angel reached out and firmly gripped Aiden's narrow shoulder with a flicker of fear dancing behind his eyes. He said nothing but Aiden reacted wildly, shoving Castiel away with surprising strength and curling his lip into a snarl.
"Do not try to stop me, Castiel," Aiden spoke only to the angel, eyes narrowed and lips cracking into a wide and haunting grin. "... It's already too late." It came off as a warning, one that had Castiel stepping back with a slightly wide-eyed worry. Before anyone could question or move to stop him, Aiden winked coyly and promptly disappeared.
Jumping to his feet, Dean scowled and marched stiffly to the door, hearing the familiar kick up and rumble of a car engine. "Damn it, Cas!" He swore and whipped around, brows furrowed as Aiden tore out of there like a bat out of hell.
"You mind telling us what's going on?"
AN: Shit's gettin' real now, kids! :3