Author's note: This chapter was the bane of my existence. I struggled with so much indecision!
Thanks for reading, dearlings~
Ch. 7
"Hey Sammy, while I'm here I'm gonna go check on smarmy dick."
"Balthazar or Crowley?"
Dean snorted, "The one keeping company with the cobwebs in our dungeon."
Sam and Dean walked into the dungeon; Crowley was slouched in the chair with his legs stretched out in front of him, crossed at the ankles, hands clasped in his lap.
"I don't guess you've changed your mind on giving us names now that Abaddon's stealing your thunder?"
Crowley's gaze was locked on Dean, clearly surprised.
"Crowley? Earth to Crowley!"
Crowley grinned, "You've got to be kidding me with this." He looked at Sam before looking back to Dean. "Congratulations on moving up in the food chain, squirrel."
"That's not important. You gonna help us or not?"
"Oh, I disagree. I think it's very important. But no." His answer was met with a pair of glares. "What? You think slaughtering a bunch of piss ant level demons is going to make a difference? That's like shooting the drummer boy and expecting the general to surrender."
"Well what's the alternative?!" Dean snapped at him.
Crowley gave a small, close-lipped smile, narrowed his eyes and tilted his head, keeping silent.
Dean sighed, "You're gonna have to crack eventually."
The boys left him behind in the room to himself once more.
Back at the house Dean stood shirtless in front the mahogany desk, pajama pants settled on his hips, a somewhat dully lit lamp directed at his self to cast a shadow on the wall. He had been trying for the last twenty minutes to get his wings to come out to play, but had yet to see a single feather. His muscles were cramped from strain and he felt a droplet of sweat travel down his tanned forehead and on down his cheek leaving a damp trail in its wake. He pressed his palms against his eyes, face directed towards the ceiling.
"Fuck me."
It was at that moment that Cas walked into the living space to return a book to the shelf but stopped short. He took in the desk lamp pointed at Dean, then at Dean himself.
He squinted at the scene, "What exactly are you trying to accomplish?"
"I'm trying to get my wings to come out, but they're being assholes."
"What are you doing to get them to expand?"
"Just-" Dean closed his eyes and furrowed his brow in concentration, pulling his shoulders back, peeked under an eyelid and then dropped his posture once he saw that he had failed again.
"You are trying with your vessel? An angel's wings are an extension of their grace, what you should focus on is inside."
Dean raised his eyebrows, "And how, exactly, do I do that?"
Pursing his lips in thought, Cas pondered how to explain the sensation that was so involuntary to him. "Concentrate on your grace here," Cas raised a hand over the center of his chest, "and you shouldn't be tensing it up. Spreading your wings is a relaxed motion, an outward unfurling of your grace."
"Sure, okay." Dean nodded and licked his lips before closing his eyes again. He took up a relaxed stance, rolled his shoulders to relax some of the coiled muscles, his arms hanging loosely at his sides as he took in unhurried, steady breaths. He focused his attention to where Cas indicated and envisioned a point of blue light there, glowing brightly, and then imagined it curling out, little by little. His skin tingled softly and he felt so completely at peace as he watched the light.
"Dean." Cas spoke quietly in the dim lit room.
Dean cracked his eyes open and, sure enough, manifested on the far wall was a large wingspan. His wings.
Cas wore a small smile, "It's kind of funny, isn't it?"
"What is?"
"You helping me to be a human and me helping you to be an angel."
"If it makes you feel better, I think you're a much better human than I am an angel."
"I should be, I've been watching them for a few thousand years." Cas smirked, "Give or take."
Dean huffed out a breath before turning his head to look behind him. Spotting his wings for the first time directly he nearly jumped out of his skin.
"Holy Humpty Dumpty!" He had assumed that angel wings would just look plain and transparent, just like the shadows on the wall. But he could see them solidly, they looked like falcon wings, red tinted brown feathers at the arches of the wings leading down into black and whited feathers with a grey stippled pattern throughout.
Cas hummed softly, "I suppose their true appearance would be new to you."
"Are they all like this?" Dean brought his right hand to his left wing and ran his fingertips over it and stopped abruptly, making a face before crossing his arms. Petting himself kind of freaked him out a little.
"Well, I can't see yours right now, but no. Wings are different depending on the angel."
"What do yours look like?"
Cas looked down at his bare feet, curling his toes, scratching absently at his collar bone under a grey t-shirt. "They were mostly black, with a little blue and green. White-throated needletail, to be precise."
Dean caught the past tense that he used and walked over to him, placing a comforting hand on his shoulder. "Hey, we're going to get your grace back." He gave him a pat before letting his hand drop back down limply to his side.
Cas gave a non-committed hum in response.
"Now, how do I put these things back?"
Dean was browsing news on his laptop, Cas leaning over the sofa behind him, when Balthazar popped in, his stance loose and thumbs tucked into his pockets.
"Hey, what gives, I thought your wings were scorched off?"
"Big brother Gabriel fixed them. He said he couldn't have a second in command without wings."
Stepping forward he clapped a hand to Dean, as well as Cas, and they were standing on a tropical beach.
"You took me with you?" Cas said, frowning.
"If you weren't here, I'm not sure I could keep from strangling your favorite fan."
"Assbag."
Balthazar ignored him, "First things first, we have to at least teach you to spread your wings."
"Done and done." Dean smirked and concentrated on expanding the light in his center, wings appearing and stretching out.
"Oh good. Do you want a cookie? Wipe that smirk off your face." Balthazar brought his own wings out, using them as a demonstration for his next lesson. They were large, white wings with a light brown arch, black spotting across it containing touches of grey among the wing tips. 'Bastard has owl wings.' Dean pouted internally, possibly experiencing a bit of wing envy, though he would rather sit on a cactus than admit to the fact.
After listening to Balthazar's explanation of flying—something along the lines of being equal parts wing manipulation and good judgment on when to stop—he readied himself for his first flight attempt.
He focused on the light being expanded out and then quickly curled it up into a pinprick of light. Dean was wholly unprepared for the reaction, he felt himself being hurled forward and then crash landed in a patch of foliage and palm trees about a quarter of a mile down the coast. He groaned, limbs akimbo on the ground and swatted a bright orange flower (that he swore was mocking him) out of his face.
"Ohhh, that's going to hurt in the morning." Balthazar chuckled, sounding delighted, but quieted when Cas gave him a dry look.
Dean walked back over to them, attempting to brush sand out of his hair on the way.
"That fucking sucked." Dean grouched, picking grass out of his pants pocket. 'How did that get there?'
"To be fair, you're one of the faster angels I've seen. Squat for landing, but fast."
"So it's not just me?"
"Oh, no, it's you. I've seen much swifter and he does just fine. Isn't that right?" He looked at Cas—who smiled softly and shrugged a shoulder—his blue eyes twinkling. "You see, Cassie here is the fastest angel in the garrison. Aside from Gabriel of course, but he also has an extra pair."
"Is that so? Well, Speedy Gonzales, I'm gonna challenge you on that." Dean smiled lopsidedly at Cas.
"You should probably stop crashing then." He quipped back.
Dean huffed out a laugh, "That's it, chuckles, you are so on." With that, he was off again. This time he ended up only smashing into two palm trees. 'And I thought airplanes were bad.', he thought as he spit out a mouthful of sand.
Author's note: I had a hard time deciding on whether I wanted celestial wings (because they are celestial energy) or bird species wings. I probably sat for like two hours trying to decide. When I thought of bird wings my mind immediately went to Balthazar with owl wings (though I also considered something flamboyant like parrot wings ;P) and then that's all I could think about so I went with that. Then I had to research birds and look at their wings to see what I wanted specifically for each angel. : | Had I gone with celestial wings, Dean's would have had blue lights, Cas cerulean, and Balthazar magenta.
I also had to consider whether they were corporeal or not but there was one episode where Dean had angel feathers in the trunk of the Impala, so that solved that.
Wings: Dean- /ovyvbhy
falcon-in-flight/
Castiel- /kk34u43
Balthazar- /kqt5upd
/labvgqy
