Okay so apparently "Screw life, right in the face" isn't a philosophy I'm allowed to use when describing being lazy and wanting to sit around forever.
Well, I'll do it anyway. It's fun to say.
Installment 10!
Dean and Castiel followed Sam into the bar, Cas looking at everything like it was going to jump out at him. From the stools to the bottles and glasses, he was all over the place. Dean had to tug him along by the sleeves, he'd stopped in the doorway.
"Ellen?" Sam leaned over the bar and examined the floor, as if she would be sitting back there or something. Really Sam, think before you act.
"We're in the back!" Came the call. Sam shrugged and walked around the bar to the door behind it, the door leading to the house portion.
"Alright, we're comin' in!" He returned, pushing the door open. The room he walked into was the living room, Dean and Sam hung out over here a lot, and they knew this house almost as well as they knew their own. The only difference was, Ellen had been using the same appliances since she bought the house. Jo sat on the couch, waving lazily without looking up from the television. She wasn't dressed and ready for the actual day yet, still wearing her pajamas. Ash was lying on the floor in front of the couch, looking at the wall instead of the TV. Hearing what was on, Dean couldn't blame him. He could feel the angst coming from the soap from the doorway.
Castiel was still standing at the counter of the bar, poking all of the various things they kept back there. Dean gestured for him to follow, and reluctantly he did so.
"Good morning, boys." Ellen greeted, walking out of their kitchen and tossing a rag at Jo. "Go get dressed!" Jo huffed and stood up, turning back to the narrow hall to the bedrooms. Ash, relieved of having to leave the program on for Jo, spun around and grabbed the remote to change the channel. He took notice of Castiel, nodding quickly before losing interest. Dean shuffled over to the couch, flopping over the arm and landing on his back.
"What's up, Ash?" He asked, introducing his fist to the back of Ash's head.
"Same old, same old. Formatting sites isn't the most interesting thing in the world."
"Dude, you need a new job." Sam laughed, taking the leftover couch space.
At this point, Jo came back out of her room, dressed. It was obvious she hadn't seen it necessary to brush her hair, though; it was still a rat's nest on the top of her head. She yawned, as if she hadn't been up for two hours before they'd come over, and then noticed Castiel.
"Mom?" She called over her shoulder into the kitchen.
"Hm?" Ellen hummed, the clatter of her dropping glasses and plates into the sink following shortly after.
"Who is this?" Jo pointed at Castiel, giving him a once-over before deciding he didn't look too menacing.
"Who's who, honey?"
"Uh…" Jo waited for her mother to look over the counter into the room, when Castiel coughed.
"My name is Castiel. I'm here to observe Dean's friends." He said, smiling. Jo blinked, looking in Dean's direction, who shrugged—awkwardly from his position.
"Ob…Serve, Dean's friends?" She inquired, raising an eyebrow.
"Yes. It has been a very long time since I've had friends on the land, and I wanted to see everything I could." Castiel continued. Jo's mouth fell open and looked back at Dean, who shrugged yet again. He wasn't being all too helpful right now, she thought.
"So you're the," Jo walked closer, examining him more closely. If Cas was uncomfortable with her staring, he didn't show it. He caught Dean's eyes, asking him silently what she was trying to do. Dean couldn't answer that; Jo did whatever Jo did. "You're the merman?" She finished finally, stepping back to a less awkward distance.
"Yes." Cas grinned, "So you understand?"
"Yeah, Dean told me all about it!" She bounced a little bit where she stood, and then calmed herself. Her eyes betrayed how exited she still was, though. She walked over to the couch and leaned back on Dean, looking Cas over again. "So how is it, underwater all the time?" She folded her hands on her lap.
Ash looked up, interested, and Sam wouldn't have admitted it, but he did too.
"Well, it's wet." It took everybody a couple of moments to find out that he was joking, but by then anything that would have been funny wasn't funny anymore. When they didn't laugh, Castiel looked nervously around the room, wondering what he had done wrong. It was the same kind of sarcastic answer that Dean would have given in his position. Had he not used the right terminology? Had times changed so much that 'wet' was no longer a word? "Damp." He corrected himself. Still nothing, but Jo and Sam exchanged confused glances. "… Soaking?" Dean shook his head, and Castiel stopped trying to fix whatever it was he'd done.
Dean was surprised he'd even tried making the joke, and would have been impressed had he not said it in a serious tone. The way he was speaking, anybody who wasn't dealing with an adult-sized baby who would probably ask what you meant would say he had a giant stick up his ass. But Dean wasn't going to do that. He didn't need to be explaining profanities to the merman in the middle of his friends' living room.
"Nice try." He managed, giving a thumbs-up. Castiel mimicked the movement, staring at it for a good while before lowering his hand again.
Short!
I had some more to add to this, then read it again shortly after it'd been written and realized it was stupid so. That's gone now.
Well, you understand what your job is.
-D