"I'll tell ya, I'll tell ya. Calm yourself down." Bobby drained his glass and set it back down on the table. "I met Dean when he first walked into the bar, 5 years ago. He was working a job then with... who was it?"
"Benjamin."
"The one who went insane and thought he was a vampire then tried to kill you a few years later?"
Dean grinned. "That's the one! That was a fun job."
Cas looked aghast. "What did you DO to him?"
"He got him thrown in jail." Bobby said before Dean could answer. "Like he does to every 'partner' he's ever had."
"So are you really bad at doing your missions, or really good at getting caught?"
Once again, Bobby cut it. "He's helping, ya idgit!"
That threw Castiel. "Can one of you please explain to me simply what exactly it is that Dean does?"
Bobby rolled his eyes. "Your boyfriend here's a bit thick, son."
Dean and Castiel both turned beet red at the phrase. But to Castiel's surprise, Dean didn't rush to contradict the man. Well that was... Interesting.
"Simply put, Dean is a thief."
"Technically, I'm not really a thief." Dean corrected.
"What part of simply put is not going into your thick skull?
Dean raised his palms in a gesture of surrender. Bobby grunted. "Now stop interrupting."
"Back to that crackpot Benjamin. So Dean was sitting at the bar with him, laughing and drinking away like old friends. I'd seen Benjamin in the bar here and there, but Dean was a newby. So I strolled on over there-I still had my legs at the time- and tried to learn their story. Benjamin had caught Dean when he was trying to hold up the carriage of a some rich merchant guy coming into the city."
"He was selling kids as slaves on the black market." Dean muttered.
"You don't need to defend yourself to me, boy. Just let me tell the story.
"After catching him, Benjamin scooped Dean up, offering to make him his apprentice. Except Dean caught on a lot faster than that nutjob ever realized and before long, he was slipping the money he pickpocketed from people right back into their bags. And later, at night, Dean would claim he'd lost the money he'd 'earned'. Made Benjamin furious."
"He thought I was spending it at the brothel down the block." Dean chuckled.
"Yeah, but then he beat you because of it." Bobby said sternly. Dean shrugged, as if this was completely normal. But Cas's mind had ground to a halt.
Who was Dean? When Cas met him, he thought he was some thieving lowlife that had snuck into his tower and dragged him back out with him. But now he was hearing that Dean had suffered beatings by a madman for refusing to steal. Who was this guy?
"So eventually, despite all the missing cash, Benjamin decided Dean was ready to pull of a real job. When I met the pair of them, they were heading off the next morning to break into one of the merchants storehouses down by the shores. A shipment of foreign cloths that would be worth a fortune on the black market had just come in and were being stored there. There were even rumors that they'd had some ivory with them."
Cas gave a low whistle.
"Exactly. So Benjamin wanted to join up with the artisans, all the guys the merchants give the first pickings to on their stuff, and steal both the merchandise and the cash the merchants made. It was a pretty clever idea, but the idiot had no idea how to actually execute a damn plan."
"He hadn't even brought proof that he even owned a store where he could sell the stuff." Dean snickered.
"The guy was a few coins short of the treasure chest. Anyways, Dean and Benjamin get there and join the line of store-owners standing there, waiting to buy the stuff. The 'plan', if you could call it that, was for Benjamin to buy the stuff, and while the merchant was out back grabbing the material, Dean was gonna rob the box they were using to store the money. Then when the guy came back with the cloth, Benjamin would plead innocent, turning out his pockets and everything, and then leave with the cloth."
"It's not an awful plan." Cas admitted.
"Yeah, it was fine, until we got there and there was about 8 different guys working stands, all of whom put the money directly in a safe in a box in the back of the warehouse." Dean reminisced. "Ben was not happy."
"So what happened?"
"Well, Benjamin tried a good old fashion stick up, which worked brilliantly." Bobby snorted. "Port soldiers were there in less than 2 minutes."
"Wait, but how did you get away? Or did you get sent to jail too?" Cas asked, suddenly concerned.
"Who, me?" Dean laughed. "I had half a brain cell to pretend I was just another artisan. Cus I, for one, actually had the official papers to prove it. I got off with a couple of gold pieces for aiding the justice, which basically meant not having a good freak out when a guy pulled out a brand spanking new musket."
"So you put a guy in jail, got off free, and got a reward to boot?" Cas was amassed.
Dean rubbed the back of his neck, turning his face downwards. "It was nothing."
"It was the start of his career, is what it was. After that, Dean here put himself in the business of putting thieves in jail, all the while stealing from them."
"But if all the people you work with go to jail, why would anyone work with you?"
"Because most of the thieves out there are idiots." Dean said simply. "They think that I must be some awesome thief, because I always make it out of there, and I always have plenty of money."
"Always?" Bobby ribbed Dean, who scowled.
"Okay, maybe not always. But I get by."
"By some miracle of God."
"God doesn't have anything to do with it." Dean finished the last dregs of alcohol that were left in his glass. "Thanks for the drink and the loving hospitality, but we better get going."
"Where are you headed?" Bobby asked, clearing the glasses. Thankfully, he didn't comment on Castiel's still full one.
"To the big city, I think. I'm giving Cas a tour of our little world here."
"What, you've never been into town?" Cas opened his mouth, not really knowing what he was going to say, when Bobby said, "You know what? I don't really want to know. Just don't do anything stupid, especially something that starts with Dean saying, 'trust me, it'll be fun'."
Cas turned an accusatory look on Dean. "That's what you to get me to leave in the first place."
Dean shrugged. "Oops." He didn't look very regretful.
Bobby sighed. "I guess that ship has sailed, then. Just don't do anything too insanely stupid, alright?"
Dean grinned, and Cas could swear, it was like someone lit an entire candelabra, lighting up the 5 foot radius around the not-so-criminal-thief. "Bobby, insanely stupid is my middle name. Say hi to Ellen for me." He turned to Cas. "Ready to go see the big city?"
Castiel took a deep breath, steeling himself. "No. But I don't think that's going to matter very much to you anyways."
"Nope. Let's go." He grabbed Cas by the wrist and led him to the door, shoving it open with a lot more force and imagined bravado than was entirely necessary. Wait, that wasn't Castiel's wrist. Did Dean just grab his hand?
Well this was going to be fun.
Okay, so I wasn't really going to update. I had the first bit of the chapter cellphone saved on my cellphone, but I'd pretty much given up on the story. But then it kept getting reviews. And kudos/followers/favorites even. Simply put- you guys wore me down. Here's the next chapter. Hopefully there'll be a new one soon. So enjoy!
