He'd like to say he was the kind of teenager that put posters on his wall of his favorite bands or his favorite movie ads. Or even a half-naked attractive person. But no, when Castiel had been growing up, the most interesting thing he found visually pleasing were wide angle, high definition shots of nature. He had a poster made out of a picture he took, where he'd perfectly captured a bolt of lightning striking the very tip top of a tree. He has pictures somewhere of the resulting fire it started, probably in his closet. There was another picture of the many paths and narrow crevasses the Grand Canyon made, at a bird's eye view. There was another poster, the one hanging up above the head of his bed, of an old, run down shack of a house surrounded by the woods and a thin fog had settled on the ground below it.
That was his favorite one. The house was rumored to be haunted, and some nights, when he couldn't sleep, he'd write out an adventure he would have, about confronting the spirits that resided there and casting them out. Usually he didn't finish any of those stories because they got him tired enough to finally fall asleep, or they were so incomprehensible he couldn't make heads or tails of what they meant. He'd been half asleep, anyway.
When he moved to Seattle, he thought about the little stories he wrote about the haunted house in his room and maybe he should finish them and publish them. But then he met Chuck, and he decided that the little stories were too closely related to what Chuck wrote.
He sighed, staring up at his ceiling. He'd woken up some time ago, and he'd been eyeing his old room since. There wasn't much else in the way of décor in his room besides the posters. He made a small grimace, realizing he was a very bland teenager. He then sat up, scratching a hand through his hair and stood to head out through his door. Before he could take hold of his door handle though, it was turning and then being opened.
"Oh, I didn't know you woke up." Gabriel mumbled. He was holding two of Castiel's luggage in his arms, and it was then that Castiel realized there was some more of his luggage already placed inside his room.
"Were you bringing all this to my room by yourself?" he questioned, taking the bags from his brother and setting them with the others.
"Well Kali sure as hell wasn't going to help." He grumbled, a small wisp of irritation leaking through his words.
Castiel grinned, "Kali is here?" He hadn't seen Kali for a whole year. Last year she went home to India to spend time with her family for Christmas. So, Castiel hadn't seen her in what seemed like forever.
"Yeeep." Gabriel answered, then suddenly looked behind him, as if expecting to see her standing there. He sighed, turning back to Castiel, "She was out getting some shopping done earlier today. She just got back maybe 20 minutes ago." He shrugged, "I didn't feel it was important enough to wake you."
"So I'm not important anymore, huh?" came a very sultry voice from down the hall.
Gabriel's eyes went wide, his lips taut, "That's not at all what I meant, Sweet'ems…"
"Uh-huh." Kali smirked, coming up to her fiancé and brushing him aside so she could come up to Castiel and give him a warm, affectionate hug which Castiel recuperated in earnest. "I've missed you, my chota bhai." She murmured to him.
"Isi taraha, meri bahana." Castiel responded, though his Hindi was a little rusty.
Kali pulled back, "Ooooh, look at that." She then looked over her shoulder at Gabriel, "Look how easy it is for your brother." She hissed at her fiancé.
Gabriel rolled his eyes, "I'm sorry I haven't picked up any Hindi books lately, Kali." He groaned. Then he looked to Castiel, "Stop making me look bad." He warned, then left back down the hall. It wasn't any secret that Kali wanted Gabriel to learn Hindi so she could finally take him to her home in India. Gabriel was just stubborn and lazy, and every time he tried to pick it up on a program like Rosetta Stone, or take a class, it proved too hard, and he'd give up. And then Kali would threaten him again, and he'd have to try, or at least he had to seem like he was trying again.
Castiel had picked up all his books and programs for himself and learnt it all on his own, as a pass-time. He thought if he'd learnt it, he could help Gabriel learn it as well, but it had only made Gabriel angry, to say the least.
Kali smiled impishly at Castiel, "I love the man, I do. But he is so lazy." She complained to him, then gave him a few pats on the cheek. "Come downstairs. Lucifer made dinner." Kali then let Castiel go, turning back to go back down the hall.
"But…" Castiel frowned, but Kali had gone too far to hear him ask, "Why hasn't Dad woken yet…?" He stood by himself, then, his brows knit in confusion and worry. No one had come and got him in the few short hours he'd been asleep, and still, no one seemed to mention whether or not he'd woken.
Castiel sighed, leaning against the door frame as he dragged a hand down his face. He tried not to be troubled by this any further, about still not being able to see his father, but he failed. He wondered if he could just…
Castiel glanced down the halls, to his left and then to the right and made for the stairs as quickly and quietly as he could manage. He made his way to the left set of stairs, so he wouldn't be seen going to the hall leading to the downstairs bedrooms. He glanced into the dining room, seeing that everyone was gathered at the table, serving portions of food on plates that Lucifer had no-doubtedly set on the table. The foyer was dark and unlit, allowing Castiel the cover he needed to sneak into the hall.
He glanced once behind himself, making sure no one had seen him, then he made his way back down the hall. The first thing he noticed were the beeps and chirps of machines, probably the ones the making his father's condition more comfortable. As he got to the last door at the end of the hall, the one for the grand, master bedroom, Castiel found himself frozen. He couldn't move his hand to open the door. He was afraid to see what kind of state his father was in. He suddenly realized he didn't want to do this alone. A sigh came from him, stuttering past his lips as he began to choke up.
No, he couldn't do this, not right now, not alone.
Suddenly there was a hand on his shoulder, and when he turned, he wasn't expecting to see who he saw. Maybe Lucifer, or Kali. Or maybe even the nurse he saw running around earlier.
"Michael…" he murmured, and then Michael was wrapping his arms around his younger brother, rubbing his back and holding him close. It felt odd, having Michael hug him like this. Usually he only hugged his brothers and family when he was trying to make a show of being the 'caring older brother'. With Michael it was hard to tell what was his normal face and his public face.
"It's time for dinner, Castiel." He told him, then, in a motion that was a little less caring and a little more forceful, he pulled away from the hug and gripped Castiel loosely by the shoulder and guided him away from their father's door. He stared at the ground as he could physically feel the distance growing between him and his father. For a moment, he felt the stare of his brother, but he didn't pay it any mind. He stayed quiet until they made it to the dining room, where most everyone had already taken a seat with a plate full of food.
"There you are. I thought you got lost in your own house." Kali chuckled, then took a sip of her red wine. Castiel only rolled his eyes.
"Come on. I made ham, beans and rice to go with your potatoes." Lucifer spoke up, already standing to start making Castiel's plate for him. Castiel didn't stop him, even though he felt like asserting again for the thousandth time that he was an adult and he didn't need his brother to make his plate for him, but he found himself too weak to do it himself. He had a feeling he wouldn't be able to eat much as it was, but he would try.
"So…" Lucifer began after he set Castiel's plate down at an open spot on the table. "Gabriel tells me Seattle is miserable this time of year." Michael laughed as he made his own plate, spoons and forks sinking into the dishes and bowls laid out before them. "I hear the same." He mumbled, sending Castiel a quick glance from his dark eyes.
Castiel sighed, taking a seat in front of his plate, "It's not really all that bad. I knew about the weather conditions before I moved there, and they aren't making me leave." He answered simply.
Confusingly, that got a laugh out of everyone at the table. He didn't try discerning what was so humorous about his response, and he began to eat, a bit begrudgingly, albeit. He was tired of getting laughed at, and he decided to stop listening to it.
"Oh come on, Castiel. Don't pull that face." Gabriel spoke above the ebbing laughter. "It's just been such a long time since we've all been together like this. We've missed your Castiel-isms." He produced a reasonable answer.
Castiel wasn't impressed, "I'd like it if you'd all stop laughing at me, regardless." He mumbled, staring down at his slice of ham.
"Castiel is right, we do need to lay off him a bit." Lucifer glanced around the table, gesturing with his wine glass, his eyes stern. "But there is reason to celebrate." He then made eye contact with Castiel, the tip of his glass pointed to his youngest brother as he gave a smirk, "He's found himself a ray of sunshine in that dreary rain town." He then took a sip, still holding his brother's eyes until the glass obscured them. So, Lucifer could clearly see how Castiel's eyes went as wide as his dinner plate.
"Oooooh." Kali's eyes were wide as she made a sound of astonishment, glancing between everyone at the table.
"Lucifer, please." Castiel begged, his moody eyes drooping in embarrassment.
"No, no, Castiel. I want to congratulate you. She seems nice enough. A proper church going girl." Lucifer spoke as he poured himself another glass of wine.
Michael raised a brow, "A girl?" he mumbled, glancing to Castiel before he ate a forkful of potatoes.
Castiel sighed, his eyes closing as his head fell. "Yes, a woman has decided to focus her affections on me."
"What's her name?" Kali spoke up, leaning almost into her dinner plate. If anyone would have been looking, they would have seen the almost vicious amusement splayed across her face.
"Rachel." Gabriel produced for her. "She can bake some mean brownies, too." He smirked to Castiel. What he didn't expect was to get a glare from his brother beside him.
"You ate some other woman's brownies?" Lucifer annunciated each word like a scorned lover, his expression scarily calm.
Gabriel giggled, "I only ate one, I was being polite." Gabriel reasoned, for some reason feeling the need to protect himself.
"I only ate one, and Gabriel had the rest of the batch on the trip home." Castiel quickly threw his brother under the bus so the attention could finely divert itself away from him and his issues. He was relieved when Lucifer looked to him with an agape gasp that turned to Gabriel. Gabriel looked to Castiel mouth wide, despite the amused grin trying to take over, appalled by his betrayal.
"Of course. It's so unlike Gabriel to only have one." Michael chuckled, cutting into his ham with an amused grin.
"So. What kind of recipe did she use?" Lucifer smiled then, the fake kind of smile that his brothers have grown to fear. "Did she put nuts in it?"
Gabriel laughed, his head falling back, "Shut up."
"Oh, no. It's too late now." Lucifer countered, "You're gonna tell me what was so special about those brownies, and I am going to outdo them." He seethed in feigned rage.
Kali and Michael only laughed, eating and drinking as Lucifer tried to scare Gabriel, while Gabriel seemed entirely unapologetic. "Well, if you really must outdo them…" Gabriel grinned, "I have no power to stop you. I would be a slave to your confectionary perfectionism."
Lucifer's eyes narrowed even as he grinned back, "Oh, you'd love that, wouldn't you. Too bad I'm making Castiel eat them." He countered with a devilish smirk and victorious cackle.
The gasp that left Gabriel had everyone, even Castiel in uproarious laughter, and for a moment, Castiel wasn't worried about his father.
Kali said "I've missed you, my little brother."
And Castiel responded with "Likewise, my sister."
So, even though I might change it in other fics I write that include Michael, in this one, Michael is in the form of young John Winchester.
(BLD)