Cas has an interesting encounter with minty bubbles, not to mention stubborn blood flow.


Even though Cas knows, as an angel, he never would've believed Dean; he lets himself believe this time because that's what his body is pushing him to do, and it's the easiest thing to do. Being able to agree with Dean—finally—after all these years of disputes might help Cas mend their ongoing broken relationship.

Dean lets go of Cas, and Cas reluctantly pulls away, following the hunter inside. Cas is now and will forever be more than grateful to have Dean. Not all humans are as forgiving and caring as Dean is, but Cas supposes that he's only correct in thinking that, after all Dean is the righteous man.

Silence fills the spaces around them, intertwining in all the crevasses, sending Cas uneasy rumbles through his chest. Leaving him scared, awkward, and wanting to break the steady quiet. Cas wants to ask Dean about Sam but he can't bring himself to. Cas has no clue whether Dean was able to stop his brother from completing the trials or not; and even if Dean had stopped Sam, Cas has no idea what kind of condition Sam would be in. Anything is better than dead, he thinks. He finds, as a human, it's harder to ask the 'difficult questions.' This being one of those, as an angel he wouldn't bat an eye at asking such a simple three worded question, 'how is Sam?' Now, however, despite how many times Cas tells himself, 'it's okay just ask,' he can't bring himself to ask.

Cas, finally gaining the courage, opens his mouth to speak but just as he does, Dean's cell phone starts to ring. Dean pulls his phone out of its snug place in his left jean pocket and answers quickly; before Dean can even form a 'hello,' Cas hears a babbling, high pitch voice squeaking through the tiny speaker at mile a minute.

Cas studies Dean, normally—Cas thinks— this sort of thing would piss Dean off, but not this voice on the other line. Dean just shifts and listens intently to the ongoing sentences protruding from the other end of the line.

Finally, Dean sighs, and gives the person an answer, "yes we're all fine Charlie, well at least not dead, and definitely not monster food."

That gives Cas his answer about Sam and he lets out a relieved sigh. Dean notices and flashes Cas a small smile.

The voice gets going again, then Dean says, "Ok see you then, be careful," and hangs up the phone.

"Who's Charlie?" Cas asks and he's not quite sure why that's the first question that surfaces, but it is. Surely as an angel he never would have been concerned with a mysterious voice on the phone.

Dean gives Cas a soft smile and replies, "she's a friend of mine and Sam's, a good friend."

Cas smiles back at Dean's dapper expression; but something, telling Cas he should be scowling instead, tightens in his gut. Yet another feeling Cas wishes he didn't have to identify, "Oh, I didn't realize you had any friends I didn't know." Cas adds, giving in a little to the demands of his new emotions.

"Well you're about to meet her," Dean looks at the clock on his phone, "in about twenty minutes, so boot up."

Cas scrunches his brow, and looks at Dean quizzically. Why would Cas possibly need to put on boots to meet one of Dean's lady friends?

Dean's concerned face lightens, seeming to understand Cas's confusion, and he laughs softly to himself before providing an answer to Cas's blank stare, "she's—ah—just a little intense."

Cas nods in understanding, he really needs to write down every human expression he doesn't understand and study them to avoid looking stupid in the future. Dean smiles back at Cas, a sort of light, toothy smile; a smile Cas has seen many times before, but now, as his and Dean's eyes meet, is sending a funny, tingling sensation straight to Cas's gut.

"Well first thing's first I guess," Dean closes the small gap between them and begins to take Cas's trench coat off, "you smell disgusting man."

After Dean gets Cas to the bathroom he starts to explain the basics, which instantly turns Cas's mood sour because honestly, does Dean really think Cas is a baby in a trench coat without his powers? He's been watching humanity for his whole life, Cas knew the correct way to take a shower before all the humans even figured it out.

"I know how to shower Dean," Cas begins sourly, "just because I don't have powers anymore doesn't mean I'm a baby." Cas finishes as sternly as possible, keeping his eyes on Dean, whose expression instantly falls into to one of the saddest looks Cas has ever received from the hunter.

"Look Cas I never should have said those things to you, okay?" Dean begins, "Because I didn't mean them at all. Even without your powers you are the smartest, most kick ass guy I know," Dean tells Cas, giving him a little smile. But Cas doesn't smile back because he doesn't believe Dean one bit, because Cas is weak, and definitely not 'kick ass' now.

"Then why did you say those things? If you didn't mean them," Cas asks, still staring Dean down.

Dean instantly gets uneasy as soon as the words leave Cas's mouth, Cas can tell by the way Dean's shoulders tense that Dean doesn't want to answer the question. But Cas isn't going to back down, he needs to know.

"I guess I just didn't want you being reckless and getting hurt." Dean answers after a moment, though his words are quick and rushed.

Before Cas has time reply Dean is talking again and moving towards the door, "anyways, Charlie's gonna be here soon…so get yourself washed up and come out here when you're done. Remember to put my clothes on before you come out, I left some on the counter for you. We don't want Charlie abandoning her lifelong goal of picking up pretty women just because she catches a glimpse of you. She already thinks you sound dreamy."

Again, before Cas can even ask why Charlie's biggest goal would be picking up women—because honestly who picks up women for fun? It seems very tiring on the back—Dean is slamming the door in his face. Leaving Cas full of questions and starting to sweat again from the steamy shower running next to him.


Dean cleans up a bit while Cas is showering so everything looks good for when Charlie gets there. All Dean can think about is the conversation Cas and him just had. 'I'm so fucking stupid,' Dean thinks to himself, 'I really need to watch what I say.' After wiping all the countertops Dean finally hears the Vader intro of their secret knock at the door. He races up the stairs two at a time and swings the heavy wooden door open to find Charlie on the other side, standing bright eyed and a bushy tailed as ever.

She leaps at Dean with all her intensity and grabs him up in the biggest hug her little arms can manage, "Deeeeaan!" She shrieks, "I've missed your punk ass so much!"

Dean smiles warmly against her soft, red hair and wraps her up in his arms with the same intensity right back, "you too, Charlie," Dean replies, after a couple of seconds of taking in the smell of lavender shampoo and bubblegum lip balm that is Charlie's unforgettable aroma.

Dean escorts the hacker to what they call the living room and makes sure she is nice, comfy, and has a drink in her hands before he spills the news.

"Cas is here," Dean blurts out rather randomly, but he couldn't really think of any other way to bring it up.

Dean realizes that it was probably a bad idea, getting Charlie a drink first, because now she's choking, and the coke she meant to swallow is shooting out her nose and landing all over Dean's favorite rug.

"Wait, what!?" she nearly screams, and then takes a minute to wipe her face on the black sleeve of her hoodie before continuing, "like the angel Castiel?" she asks once her face is ridden of all the sticky beverage.

"Yeah that one, but some shit just recently happened and he's actually not an angel anymore so just avoid bringing that up for now, okay? I promise I'll explain," Dean tells her and Charlie nods. The last thing Dean needs right now is to start crying to Charlie about 2014, when Cas could be out of the shower any minute.

Quickly moving on to the next subject, being the awesome friend she is, Charlie asks, "So I know you know about Carver Edlund's books, but have you ever heard of a Supernatural convention?"

Dean laughs from his spot across the table and explains, "yeah Charlie, been there, done that."

Charlie smirks, and pulls out her phone, and starts searching through it quickly. Once she finds what she's looking for, she clicks on it and then smirks even more deviously to herself before holding it up to show Dean.

If Dean would have been drinking something, then they definitely would be having a repeat of what just happened with Charlie. Because plastered across Charlie's screen is a picture of two guys, one dressed up like Dean, from the brown leather jacket to the beaten boots. The other one is dressed up like Cas, backwards tie and all. But these men pretending to be them isn't the worse part—the worst part is that they're kissing!—fucking making out!

In the corner of the picture Dean sees Charlie smirking with her thumb up, clearly taking the picture with her front camera. Dean looks up to see Charlie wearing the same smug grin she has on in the picture.

"What the hell Charlie!" Dean forcefully yells, while shoving the phone back at her. Charlie just cracks up, and right when she opens her mouth to answer Dean, Cas enters the room.

"Cas!" Charlie shrieks, and instantly darts over and wraps him up in her arms, "I know you don't know me but I feel like I already know you, well with how much Dean talks about you!" Charlie pulls off and adds, "I'm Charlie by the way."


The shower proves to be more of a task then Cas realized. Maybe he should have taken Dean's advice after all. First off, the water is too hot, so Cas turns the knob upward towards the blue stripe indicating 'cold.' Only, then the water turns icy and Cas is seriously tempted just to get out and say screw the whole ordeal. But Dean did say he stunk, and Cas really doesn't want to give this Charlie girl a bad impression. Now that Cas is human he figures he needs Dean's friends to like him; friends being a necessity to people who can't fly anywhere and smite anyone they want. So Cas messes with the knob a few more times until he's found a degree that's tolerable, ending up with a lukewarm spray washing down on him.

Next comes shampoo. Cas grabs the black bottle labeled shampoo, and begins scrubbing his scalp. The suds feel good massaging his head, that is, until a painful, burning sensation starts swelling in his eye. Again this small, human task has outsmarted him. He quickly rinses his burning eye, along with his soapy hair, out under the heavy spray; regretting yet again his decision to believe Metatron. Cas grabs the bar of soap next and lathers himself up, and then rinses under the spray a few more times for good measure.

Cas steps out carefully, making sure not to slip on the wet tile. The last possible thing Cas needs right now is a fractured skull. One time he saw Dean slip like this, as the hunter rushed to get out of the shower, and it looked like Dean had been in so much pain. Cas wanted nothing more than to go to Dean and heal him. Although Cas was too scared, and far too ashamed to let Dean know he'd snooped in on his shower time. Dean gets weirded out by Cas watching over him while he sleeps, Cas can't even imagine how angry Dean would be if he caught Cas lurking around during his shower time. Later on, the night Cas had seen Dean fall, Cas stopped in and pretended to notice the lump on Deans head. After pleading with Dean for nearly fifteen minutes, Dean finally gave in and let Cas heal it.

Cas dries off, finishing off the process by ruffling his sopping hair with the fluffy, damp towel. Cas takes a few careful strides and reaches the sink, looking up to find the mirror. Cas stunned by his own reflection, how his now wet hair is sticking up and flying aimlessly around his head. Cas tries to mash it down by using his damp, wrinkled hands to smash the stuck up, misbehaving hairs; but his efforts prove to be pointless and after a few minutes he finally gives up, with his hair still looking wrecked.

Taking a minute to look over his new body he notices, for the first time, his nakedness and wonders if this is how Eve felt the first time that she, too, realized she was showing parts that she shouldn't. Cas is experiencing a strange, and overwhelming feeling, that keeps shouting in his head, 'look at you, you're not even good enough to be a human.'

Cas has never looked at his own body like this before, now starting to better identify his new feelings and emotions, he realizes this overwhelming one he feels now is brand new. Feeling what he can only label as embarrassed, Cas self-consciously compares Jimmy's—well his—body to Dean's.

This giving him less comfort than before, only leaving Cas with a further disintegrating ego, when he realizes that Dean is way stronger than him now and Dean also knows how to make his hair look good all the time; which Cas is clearly incapable of.

Still gazing in the mirror Cas thinks back to all the times Crowley called him flattering pet names, and how that old women called him pretty, and Cas wonders for the first time if he actually is—by human definitions—handsome? The old lady had thought she was talking to someone named Charles, so that really can't be used as evidence. Cas also decides Crowley's flattery can't be used because Crowley has pet names for everyone, including some rather wild ones for Sam and Dean. Cas, although, does have one piece of evidence to support his human cuteness. A piece he has forever kept at the back of his mind, willing himself not to think about.

It was the time when Dean had almost said yes to Michael, Cas and Sam were locking Dean up in Bobby's panic room. Cas, nearly on the edge of exploding because he couldn't bring himself to hurt Dean anymore, was enraged and starring Dean down with all the wrath of heaven. Dean, being Dean, of course had to make a joke out of the situation by saying, "you know Cas, last time someone looked at me like that, I got laid."

Cas has never let himself think about that moment again, until now at least— and now— more than ever with all these new emotions bursting inside of him, Cas is confused. But he figures there is no use dwelling on it, and Cas, with his new found feelings especially won't be able to figure it out; so he lets his thoughts drift a bit.

Cas checks out his shoulders, they are way smaller than Dean's, but are still rather broad. He looks down at his own left shoulder, the corresponding shoulder to where Cas knows his hand print still reddens Dean's skin. After acknowledging this, Cas instantly gets all tingly inside his abdomen area.

He, Castiel, was the one to pull the righteous man out of hell; and what a righteous man Dean turned out to be, Cas thinks. Thoughts of when he claimed Dean's soul warm his belly now, causing violent tugs from his neurons; telling Cas to move the muscles in his cheeks and grin. A new feeling, different than the tingling, pulls tightly at his lower stomach muscles.

Cas notices a movement in the mirror and looks down to find himself fully aroused and—to say the least—Cas freaks. Not wanting to touch his new found hardness and make the situation worse, Cas throws his hands up instead and grips his hair tightly, messing up the wet mess more. If Dean ever knew about this he would kill Cas. Dean already lectured Cas about watching porn in front of him, saying 'dude you can't watch porn in front of other guys,' Cas can only imagine Dean's reaction to finding him fully aroused from solely thinking about Dean.

Cas quickly changes his thought process to his brothers and sisters who fell along with him. His whole mindset shifts instantly and it only takes him a minute of thinking about all the other Angels who don't have a home as welcoming as Sam and Dean's to come home to, to soften Cas back to normal.

Now a little sad, but mostly relieved that Dean won't find out, Cas gets dressed. Dean's shirt hangs loosely around him, but it smells like cheap detergent, and sugary apples. Cas never realized before, but the smell of Dean is probably the best smell his nose has come across yet. Cas takes a few long sniffs and feels the steady tug at his stomach again. Quickly halting his smelling, Cas finishes dressing, sliding easily into Dean's boxers and trying his best to not think about how tight they fit him—and Cas certainly isn't thinking about how tight they must be on Dean—not a bit.

Thankfully, Dean must have foreseen his jeans being too big on Cas because Dean left a belt. All Cas has left now is the task of brushing his teeth, which shouldn't be so hard, right? Cas squeezes the toothpaste out slowly, and patiently, yet somehow an ungodly amount still plumps itself on top of the bristles. Not wanting to waste it Cas sticks the whole ordeal in his mouth and scrubs. The minty-ness makes Cas want to puke, and then some of the foaming bubbles try and slip their way down his throat causing Cas a gagged out choke. White bubbles fly all over the bathroom, splattering the mirror and marble counter top.

"Damn it!" Cas swears with the toothbrush still hanging out of his mouth. Normally he isn't the swearing type but being human seems to have already changed that.

He spits the rest of his toothpaste into the sink, and cleans up the mess he made. The last thing Cas wants is to do is explain how he covered Dean's bathroom in white stuff by choking on his toothbrush.

Stepping out of the bathroom Cas hears loud, high-pitched laughter. That must be Charlie, Cas thinks, alright- game time.

Cas enters the living room, and sees one of the most beautiful, cheery women he's ever laid eyes on. The female, Charlie, warms Cas by giving him a wide, toothy grin.

"Cas!" Charlie basically shrieks and instantly leaps forward to wrap her small arms around him. Being in her embrace is calming, but it's nothing like Dean's was—comforting, needy, and all-fixing—hers is more exciting, friendly, and welcoming.

"I know you don't know me but I feel like I already know you, well with how much Dean talks about you!" Charlie says, and Cas's heart flutters. Maybe he doesn't have to get Charlie to like him; maybe Dean already said enough good things about Cas that she will automatically like him. "I'm Charlie by the way," she adds as she pulls away.

Now feeling a bit awkward out of Charlie's tight embrace, Cas steps back a bit, "ugh nice to meet you too?" he says because Cas isn't really sure what the customary reply is when someone jumps him, tells him they already know who he is, and tells him what their name is.

She continues to warmly smile in his direction, and then she reaches up and runs her hand through his hair. Cas's cheeks instantly start to blush realizing his hair is still stuck up like it was in the bathroom, and he remembers what he was going to ask Dean if Charlie wasn't here when he got done showering, turning to Dean he says "Will you show me how to do my hair like yours?" He directs his gaze towards Dean's perfectly neat, spiked hair, "I can't get it to stay like how it used to correctly."

"Sure," Dean answers almost immediately, "but I was just about to make us some dinner, you gotta be hungry right?" Dean asks, and Cas nods, because—yes—he is so hungry. "Okay then I'll go whip us up some burgers, and you can get to know Charlie a little."

Before Cas can answer Dean is turning, and striding off towards the kitchen, yelling behind to Cas, "and I promise I'll show you later."