Hey, everyone! This story is a total rewrite of one of the first stories that I've written for . Castiel's First Human Experience. I've worked on some of the sentences and used some of the skills that I've learned from numerous competitions and challenge forums over the years. This is the end result. Warning for a slight bit out of character because it has been a while since I've seen Supernatural. Word count is 1,860 words. I hope you all enjoy The Experience of Being Human.
Three weeks. It had been three weeks since the host of angels had left all humankind to their fate. Which if Micheal and Lucifer had anything to do with it would be the destruction of every living thing as they fought each other in a battle to end all battles.
Only one of the heavenly host stayed behind with the humans. The angel Castiel had stayed in order to protect Dean Winchester. This also meant that he was protecting Dean's younger brother Sam as well. As a punishment for the crime of favoring the humans over his own kind, Castiel was stripped of his angelic powers and left to live life as one of the humans.
The change hadn't been an instant one that happened overnight. No. It had started slowly as most things do. The first hints of Castiel become human were the usual aches and pains that humans tend to get. Angels didn't tend to suffer from aches and pains and thus Castiel had become concerned but thought nothing of it more than being his punishment.
But after a particularly nasty run-in with the Croats, things got a lot more complicated in a way that neither Castiel nor the Winchester brother could have expected.
Monday had dawned far too early for the Winchester brothers, and Castiel. To be honest, it was like that with every day of the week. The apocalypse considered. Dean stretched as he drags himself out of bed and walked to the window of the apartment that they'd taken over from its Croatan-infected owner.
Looking down to the street below he could see that the Croats were already out in force. More than likely looking for a fresh batch of victims to infect. People had slowly started realizing that something strange was happening in regards to the disease that had started spreading. They still know how to stop it from spreading but some of them actually seemed to make it harder for the Croats to attack them.
"They're out in force today," Dean called into the room of the apartment that was Sam's. He heard a muffled reply but Sam, who'd been awake for much longer than he was, was still busy reading a passage in one of the books they'd found in the home of an old hunter friend who'd fallen prey to the Croatan virus.
Dean shook his head as he walked over to the cupboard and pulled out two bowls. He poured some cereal and milk into them both and walked towards the room where Sam was hauled up. He knew that Sam wouldn't be stopping his research anytime soon to eat. He also knew that Sam needed to eat and he was going to make damned sure that his little brother did.
"Sammy, breakfast," he said, putting the bowl of cereal down next to his brother on the bedside table.
"In a minute, Dean," Sam said, finishing the last line of the book he had been looking at. He didn't look very happy about what he'd found in the book.
"No luck?"
"No. You?"
Dean took a deep breath to keep from thinking about the failure that last night had been. He hadn't found anything on to keep Lucifer from gaining control of Sam. Search and search as they might the brothers were both coming up with nothing.
"Maybe Cas will have had better luck?" Dean said, hope filling his voice. He knew that since the angels left it would be a long shot for Cas to get any information from that source. But he couldn't help but hold out hope that Cas still had a few friends left upstairs or wherever the angels had retreated to.
That when Castiel actually made his appearance. It was obvious from the look of his tattered blue suit and trenchcoat that he'd been in an area heavily populated by Croats. But luckily he didn't seem to be affected. Besides his clothes that is.
Looking at each other Winchesters couldn't help but crack up. They'd never seen the angel in such a state of disarray when he'd appeared before them. He was usually just healing up from the battle that had been fought if not already healed.
"It's not funny," Castiel said, folding his arms like he'd seen the brothers do on numerous times when they were mad at each other. "I could have been infected."
Dean knew that Cas wouldn't have been infected by the Croatan virus. He still had a tiny bit of angelic power left in him. Just enough to travel from point A to B, and to heal at least his body from the looks of it.
When Castiel had had the full use of his powers his clothes would heal at the same time as his body would. Especially after dealing with an enemy that could cause this amount of damage.
"Why don't we give it a few more minutes?" Dean suggested, watching as Cas looked at his clothes expectantly as though that would cause them to become full once more. "If they aren't back to normal then we'll go from there. Okay?"
Cas had agreed to wait grudgingly. Thus they each took up a book to search for the answer to their little Lucifer/Sam problem while they waited.
An hour had passed when they finally all stopped their research to check on Cas. However, when checked in on Cas his clothes were still in tatters. The injuries that had caused the tatters were long gone. But the clothes had been longed ruined.
"I think it's time for some new clothes there, buddy," Dean said, noticing that angel was rather attached to clothes of Jimmy Novak: his human vessel. "I'm not saying that we have to throw these away. I'm just saying that maybe we could buy some new things for you to wear while we're researching how to stop the world from ending."
"Where do I buy new clothes?" Castiel asked, looking from Dean to Sam and then back to Dean again. A very perplexed look upon his face like he'd never been….
"Are you telling me that during this whole time you've only ever worn that one suit?" Dean asked, trying to keep his voice from sounding too incredulous. "You've never gone clothes shopping before?"
"No. I've never needed to go clothes shopping before."
Dean couldn't help himself from bursting out into laughter once more. Sam, however, seemed to take pity on Castiel.
"Well," he said, an encouraging smile crossing his face, "there is a first time for everything. We are going to take you shopping for some clothes."
The boys each took the angel by an arm and pulled him out to Dean's car. There was one place that they knew that they would be able to get affordable men's fashion wear. Walmart. They'd been shopping in stores like that since they were children.
As they drove they made a list of all the things that Castiel was going to need. Definitely a few shirts both long and short-sleeved. A couple of pairs of pants that would hold up the wear and tear of the job of being a Hunter.
But as they walked towards the Men's department of the Walmart Castiel started to look a bit anxious. Which no one would blame him for being. It was his first shopping trip after all.
"Okay," Dean said, motioning to the racks and racks of men's clothing that was on sale. "What jumps out you?"
Castiel looked confused as to what Dean had just said. He looked from Dean to Sam, who had a much easier time picking up on Castiel's confusion.
"What does that mean?" Castiel asked, looking at the racks of clothes as though expecting something or someone to jump out of them. "Do the clothes attack you in order to get chosen?"
"No," Sam said, chuckling at the thought. "They don't attack you. What Dean means to say is what do you want to wear. What looks like something you would be the most comfortable in?"
Cas walked around to the racks of clothes. He looked at what seemed like every article on the rack. Picking up an item here or there. Dean being the ever-helpful person he was tried to pick out a few items for Cas too.
In the end, Castiel walked into the dressing room with an armload of clothes to try on. Not that most of them were picked out by him. Dean had been very insistent that he at least pick out most of Castiel's clothes. Sam had insisted that Cas have some say in the matter which is why the ex-angel found himself forced into the small cubicle to try on clothes.
Castiel tried on all the clothes that he'd picked up and even the tighter clothes that Dean said would make chicks flock to him. Not that he truly understood what that meant. But in the end, he chose a couple of nice shirts and jeans and headed out to meet up with his friends.
"These clothes will suffice," he said, patting the pile of clothes that he clutched to his chest. "Thank you."
"That's good," Sam said, looking down at the remains of Castiel's shoes. "But we might also want to grab you good pair of shoes while we're at it. These look like they're on their last legs as it is."
Castiel looked like he was about to argue about wanting to keep his shoes. But in the end, he was herded over to the shoe department where the boys led him to the men's boots area. After all, in their line of work they needed to wear a tough pair of shoes.
After picking out a nice pair of work boots, the three men headed upfront with their purchases. Dean having picked up some groceries while they were there too.
Castiel watched as the number on the screen climbed higher and higher with every beep of the machine. He couldn't believe that clothes and food could cost this much. He looked at Sam and Dean who didn't even look that phased by this fact. That is when they finally reached the end of their purchases and found out the total.
"That'll be $720.89, please," the cashier said, looking at them as she waited to be paid.
"Do we really need the game system, Dean?" Sam asked, looking at the item that said it was an X box. "How much time do you think we'll have to play games while trying to stop the end of the world?"
"Yes, Sammy, we do need the X-Box," Dean said, swiping his card through the machine that must give the woman behind the register money in some way. "When this is all over we're going to teach Castiel how to live life up as a human. Doesn't that sound fun, Cas?"
After placing their stuff in the trunk of Dean's car, they all piled in and head back to the apartment. There they would start teaching Castiel to truly be a human. Dean could help but think that this was going to one hell of a ride.
I hope you all enjoyed The Experience of Being Human as much as I enjoyed writing it.
