Chapter 3:
Warning: Slight use of torture(but not for long)
"Dad, what is this?" Dean spoke up first.
Sam was still in the middle of trying to decide whether to yell, cry or still run back inside.
"Well. We were meaning to just buy one for Sam, for his birthday. But, complications happened. So we figured you could both use one." John explained.
"What complications?" Sam managed.
"Well," Mary spoke up, "I had picked out Castiel, over there, but… when the shopkeeper got him out and started to prepare him, he freaked out. Normal I guess. But then, this one started acting up. He… he broke out of his cage, and Castiel managed to get away from the shopkeeper and other employees to get to him. Long story short, they managed to tranquilize Gabriel, they had to give a light dose to Castiel too. The shopkeeper told us we'd either have to buy both of them or buy another individual-"
"We think they're brothers, so we decided to get them both, we think they'd be a good companion for you two. Sam can pick first, of course." John finished for her.
Sam could barely contain his anger at this point.
"Let me- Are you… After that… The way they're being treated, you expect me to just…" Sam sputtered, too angry to come up with a decent argument.
"We spent a good amount of money on them. They aren't cheap." John said simply, holding out his chain.
"They aren't objects!" Sam argued.
"Sammy." Dean said in a quiet warning tone, and instead of saying anything else, he moved forward.
Sam watched after him, growing even more shocked than before as he walked over to John, taking the offered the chain, in which he willingly gave.
His jaw dropped.
Dean wrapped the chain around his arm a few times, giving it light yank, before heading back to the porch, the Angel following suit, seeming automatically obedient, if only slightly hesitant.
They walked past Sam silently, in which he got a close look at the small, clearly scared angel.
What sick birthday gift was this?
"Sammy." Mary's voice sounded.
Sam focused on her, features softening only slightly.
He didn't really have any argument left.
If he turned it down, it'd upset them.
Let alone, even if they sent this Angel back…
Sam looked him over, whatever he could see in the slowly falling sun.
He'd heard about how they were treated.
Caged and tortured daily. Their only freedom seeming to be ownership, even then, being owned wasn't a happy feat either.
Sam didn't want to be one of those people.
He also didn't want to be one of those people responsible for the Angel's pain, via sending him back.
'SHIT!' Sam cursed inwardly.
Slowly, he headed down the steps, approaching his mother, suddenly feeling as though she was a thousand miles away.
She smiled sadly at him, sensing his troubles, but didn't speak up either, simply offering him the chain.
Sam shakily took it, almost wanting to drop it as if it burned him.
Now that he was closer to the Angel, he was suddenly trapped into its glaring golden eyes.
"Alright. I think I'll order pizza. Sound good?" John spoke up, patting Sam's shoulder, breaking the sudden hold the Angel seemed to have on him.
Mary also handed Sam a large packet that had instructions and guides on Angel ownership labeled on the front, before following John inside.
Sam looked at the Angel again, who still glared at him.
He sighed, clearing his throat, "Uh, come on, let's go inside."
He didn't want to have to tug on the chain like Dean had, or use force of any kind, but the Angel did put some resistance in before following.
Sam guided him to his room before shutting the door, letting go of the chain, leaning his head against the door, sighing, hitting his head against it a couple times.
The Angel remained quiet behind him.
"Alright. Dad said we can take this cuff off once you're settled, so… how about we take a look." Dean said, approaching the Angel.
He immediately backed away, tripping over the excessively long chain, but continued backing up until he hit the wall.
"Woah, woah. Calm down. I'm not gonna hurt ya." Dean said quickly, putting his hands up in a defensive stance.
The Angel whimpered, wrapping his arms around himself to shield himself as best as he could.
"Castiel… Cas-" Dean moved forward, dropping down in front of him, "Look at me. Hey. Stop. Look at me."
It took a few minutes, but the Angel finally looked up at him.
"Good. Hey…" Dean trailed off, suddenly feeling drawn to his eyes.
They were blue. So blue. So… beautiful.
Dean shook his head, 'focus. It's not like you haven't seen blue eyes before.'
Not eyes like those…
"I'm just gonna take the cuff off. Wouldn't you like that?" Dean asked, gently moving Castiel's arms away from the area.
The Angel nodded barely.
"Yeah. Ok. Remember though, you can't go anywhere without my permission or anywhere I can't see you after I take this off. Got it?" Dean said.
Another brief nod.
"Ok." Dean nodded.
He carefully felt around the cuff for the lock, which of course made the Angel stiffen, but thankfully didn't move.
"There it is." Dean muttered to himself.
There was a click and the cuff came lose and onto Dean's hand, however, he almost dropped it when he saw the inside.
The outside of the cuff was plain silver. The inside, however, had spikes all around it, and they were all covered in blood.
Dean glanced down at Castiel, confused, soon finding the matching injuries the spikes from the cuffs made on his neck.
"Jesus." He glanced at the cuff and back at the Angel, before shaking his head, a look of remorse on his face, "If I had known these were there, I wouldn't have yanked you so hard."
Castiel didn't answer, just scooted a little further away from him.
"Let me go get a rag." Dean stood, heading for his bathroom.
When he returned, however, he was surprised to see all the injuries on his neck were gone.
Dean's brows lowered, pointing at him and then the cuff, "How'd you do that?"
Castiel didn't answer, simply shaking his head.
Dean sighed, glancing at the rag, before deciding to just set it aside.
The Angel flinched at the simple movement.
Dean noticed.
"Look. I'm not gonna hurt you. I… I don't even know how this stuff works. Ok. I mean. I guess I better do some reading." Dean tried to convince him, before picking up the large packet he had been given.
He laughed before thinking to himself, 'If only Sam could see me now. Reading.'
"Alright. Let's see how to get that thing off you." Sam sighed as he sat on his bed with the large packet, flipping through it, looking for the cuff information
"There's a lock in the back." The Angel spoke up, making Sam jump.
He looked up at the Angel standing in the corner, he was looking out the window, but somehow Sam knew he wasn't going to try anything.
However, when he turned to face him, he was still glaring at him.
"You have to click it though. It has some special effect on us angels, so we can't touch it." Gabriel pointed towards the back of his neck.
"O-oh. Ok." Sam said, getting up and walking towards him.
He was cautious, the Angel definitely intimidated him greatly.
"Alright, I'm just gonna, reach around…" Sam gently felt around the metal cuff on his neck until he felt the lock, and with a click, the cuff came off.
He was shocked when he saw blood all over the inside, as well as spikes, and then saw the injuries on the angels neck.
"You don't faint at blood do you?" The Angel raised a brow.
"Uh, no. I-I just… you're hurt." Sam managed.
"Yeah. It'll heal. Just had to get that off." Gabriel said, eyeing the cuff.
"O-oh. Ok." Sam said, throwing it in the trash can, and gathering the chain up and setting it somewhere. "Um… I… I don't really have a place for you to stay, I didn't really know they were gonna do this." Sam said.
"I'll manage." Gabriel shrugged, before walking over to sit on the end of Sam's bed.
Sam wanted to speak up about the obvious, but had a feeling that would go nowhere.
He sighed, before picking the packet back up and sitting down at the other side of his bed, giving the Angel plenty of space.
"So. What's your name?" Sam asked as he flipped through the pages, not really interested in them.
He looked up when he didn't get an answer.
The Angel raised his eyebrows as if he had just asked him the dumbest question.
"Well. You might have missed it when they introduced me to you. And it's also right there in those ownership papers in your hands… But if you need to know. They call me Gabriel." The Angel said.
"Wait. Aren't you like… One of the big guys?" Sam asked.
Gabriel gave him a mixed look of confusion and amusement, "You mean, archangel, yes...?"
"Yes!" Sam said, smiling.
Gabriel nodded, "Well. That info is also in the ownership papers. You can find out a lot of interesting things about me on there. Why don't you read that?"
Sam's brows lowered, confused by the sudden bitterness, "Because, I want to ask you. I…" He set the papers aside, "I want you to be comfortable here, not like, that."
"A pet?" Gabriel asked.
"Yes!" Sam practically snapped, growing irritated by his distance.
"But… I am." Gabriel said matter-of-factly.
"But you're not!" Sam said.
"See, you don't even want me." Gabriel crossed his arms, leaning against the bedpost.
"Yeah, but I don't want to send you back to… them and let them treat you the way you've been treated." Sam said, trying to sound defensive.
"But you don't even know how I was treated. So really, you're just being a hypocrite." Gabriel gave him a look.
"I-" Sam pointed at him, trying to come up with a counter-argument.
Gabriel tilted his head, waiting.
"Sam! Dean! Pizza's here!" Mary called from downstairs.
"Nice lady." Gabriel wiggled his eyebrows.
"Shut up." Sam grumbled, getting up from the bed, heading for the door.
"Aw, did I strike a nerve?" Gabriel called after him.
"I said, shut up." Sam warned quietly before shutting the door behind him.