Dinner at the Shurley's went about the same as usual. The family gathered at the dinner table, and Chuck hurriedly said grace, not bothering to ask his children or wife what they had to be thankful for (not since Castiel's dreamy, "Dean Winchester's lower regions", or Gabriel's declaration of how pleased he was that he hadn't been arrested the week prior).
Amelia sat quietly next to Jimmy, who was alternating between shooting sharp warning glances at Gabriel, and even sharper looks of warning at Castiel. Castiel didn't really care — Jimmy just wasn't that scary — and the threatening glances seemed to encourage Gabriel rather than dissuade him.
"…and then Kali, that bitch, just comes out and says, "you're great and all Gabe, but Baldur fucked me last night. And this morning. And that's what I was doing just now, actually, until you interrupted." I mean, come on, Baldur?! That guy couldn't get it up if he tried! Hey Amber, do you know why she did it?"
"It's Amelia," Amelia replied hesitantly, while Jimmy snapped, "no one cares Gabe!"
"No, honey, go on," Becky encouraged. "You can't keep these things bottled up. You need to express yourself." She glanced around the table, at Jimmy's look of disbelief, at Chuck's reluctant acceptance, at Castiel's gleeful grin, and smiled indulgently. "I watched it on Dr. Phil."
"Mum!" Jimmy moaned.
"It's because I refused to change my name to Loki. Loki!" Gabriel's nose crinkled in distaste. "Kali has this thing for Norse Gods, yeah, so she tells me to change my name, and I was totally considering it, but…then I thought, 'is Kali worth all the future Marvel references?' I don't even like Thor that much; Iron Man is so much better. So I thought about all the great things about Kali — she's hot, foreign, and down for pretty much anything — and then I realised that she's kind of crazy, and this relationship probably wouldn't last very long. And I was right."
Gabriel swallowed a forkful of potato, while Jimmy's eye twitched manically.
"That's…sad." Amelia sounded uncertain.
"I'll slap the bitch," Becky promised.
Gabriel smiled. "Thanks mum."
Chuck glanced at Jimmy, noting his son's pleading expression, and turned to Amelia. "So, how did you and Jimmy meet?" he asked, in an obvious attempt to change the topic.
"We were doing a project at school," Amelia replied. "You know, those flour sack baby ones?"
Chuck grinned. "We used to have those back when I was at school! You know — "
"They named it Claire!"
Chuck blinked, while Jimmy groaned in despair. "I'm sorry, son?"
"Claire," Castiel repeated. "Claire."
"I like Claire," Jimmy retorted heatedly.
Grinning, Castiel leaned forward, and said in a mock-whisper, "Amelia named it."
Amelia blinked, unsure of how she was supposed to respond.
"I think Claire is rather simple, don't you?" Becky mused. "But I guess some people just can't handle the more colourful names — it nearly broke my heart when Chuck made me name those two James and Anna."
By now, reactions around the table were varied. James looked like he wanted to sink through the floor, Michael and Lucifer looked bored, Chuck was torn between regaining control of the situation (for Jimmy's sake), or allowing his family to wreak their havoc (because after a while, you just went with it), Anna was sighing, and Gabriel and Castiel looked equally gleeful.
"Thanks mum," Anna told Becky, although she didn't sound particularly offended.
"But then Castiel kind of balances it out," Becky continued, oblivious to Amelia's discomfort.
Castiel turned to Amelia. "Whenever I want to cry about my name, I remind myself that it's better than Lucifer's."
Lucifer glared.
"Oh get over it!" Becky retorted heatedly. "It's a good name! The minute I looked at my adorable baby boy, I just knew he'd grow up to be a real lady killer. And what girl doesn't love a bad boy? I'm just speeding things up for those little ingrates that don't realise what a bad boy my baby truly is."
She reached across the table to pinch Lucifer's cheek. Lucifer at least no longer looked bored, and was staring at his mother in mortification. Beside him, Michael was staring pointedly at the table (and oh, Castiel couldn't wait for that bombshell to drop).
Amelia watched them, gaping. Castiel grinned and leaned towards her.
"Yeah, she just loves those bad boys." He nodded towards his father, who had given up any attempts to stop his wife, and was awkwardly asking Jimmy to pass the potatoes.
...
It's late at night when Castiel finally finished his glorious invention. He sat back, staring at it proudly — and okay, maybe it wasn't his, but the thing had been an exploding disaster before he'd gotten his hands on it. And alright, maybe it still was, but there was no way he was allowing a tiny issue like getting trapped in a foreign, and possibly dangerous, universe dissuade him from going.
Just imagine the rewards — getting proof of British-Balthazar on video, discovering alternate versions of himself, his friends and family, showing Dean Winchester that they could be happy together (because yes, alternate him and Dean would be together, surely, and yes, Dean Winchester would definitely be coming with him).
"I'm not going with you," Jimmy said, and Castiel turned. He'd forgotten his twin was there — he'd listened to Jimmy's irritated rants about how they were all embarrassments, yada-yada-yada, for about ten minutes, and then he'd plugged his earphones in.
And he was not a bad brother — if anyone was, it was Jimmy, because of all the siblings he could choose to inflict his company on, he chose the one that actually had important work to do.
Castiel turned to him. "You? Why would I be taking you?"
"…Uh, because I'm your twin."
Castiel snorted. "Please. I'll have you know, there was an extensive application process for this — I had hundreds of applicants."
Well, okay, he had Crowley, and he had Balthazar (because he'd hacked into Balthazar's email, and had sent the application himself), and that was it. But that didn't matter, because he already knew who he was taking.
Inter-dimensional travel was a brilliant idea for a first date.
"So who are you taking?" Jimmy asked.
Castiel beamed. "Dean Winchester."
"…Oh god."
"I know right?" Castiel leaned forward eagerly. "Our first couples vacation." Pre-couple, whatever, no one cared about the specifics. "It can be like…an early honeymoon."
Jimmy stared at him for a few moments. "Why am I related to you?" he groaned at last.
...
Castiel knocked on his parents door, and then barged in without bothering to wait for a response. Yeah, it'd suck if they were in the middle of things he'd rather never see (unfortunately 'again' had to be tacked on to the end of that sentence; the consequence of barging in with no warning was that you saw way too much way too often), but if his parents weren't vigilant enough by now, then that was their fault.
Both his parents were sitting on the bed; although that was as far as it went. Becky was flipping through a magazine, while Chuck typed away on his laptop, probably working on his newest book. Castiel noticed the frequent glances his mother would shoot at his father — or more specifically, his laptop — but Chuck had made her promise that she wouldn't interfere with his writing anymore, not since the time she made changes to his final draft without his permission, and didn't tell him until after he'd sent it to the publisher (frankly, Castiel didn't know why he was so upset — the lead male fit way better with the secondary male character anyway).
"I won't be back for a few days," Castiel told them cheerily. "You know, dimension travel, and all that."
"Sure thing honey," Becky told him, without looking up from her magazine. "Follow your dreams!"
"What, no!" Chuck protested. "What are you talking about, it's a school night, and dimension travel!? What does that even mean?"
"We need to support him with whatever he wants to do with his life," Becky replied serenely, nodding her head. "I read it in this great psychology book about the developing child. And 'travelling to another dimension' is probably teen slang for eloping, right honey?"
"What?!"
"No, it means dimension travelling," Castiel replied, smiling. "But thanks mum, dad."
"I haven't said yes to anything!" Chuck protested.
Castiel left the room, ignoring his father's protests, and headed to his own bedroom. He shut the door behind him. The room was now empty, Jimmy having left sometime in his absence. He stared at the floor, at the machine that had cost him $2 and one of his mum's poisonous sandwiches, and bit back a squeal of excitement (because squeals totally weren't cool, unless someone else was doing them, and you had your phone present for some blackmail material).
He grabbed his pyjamas out of his closet, dumped them on the bed, and grinned once again. This was going to happen tomorrow, and it was going to be so fucking cool.
...
At the Winchester home, Dean was wholly unaware of the his role in ensuing events. He knew that Castiel was crazy, and he knew Castiel thought this 'dimension travel' machine actually worked, but he had absolutely no idea that Castiel expected him to try it out with him.
(Obviously if he'd known, he'd say something along the lines of "hell no, are you insane?!" Because there was no way he was going anywhere with Castiel Shurley, even if technically they wouldn't be going anywhere, because there was no way that machine was going to work).
Dean walked into his room, ran a hand through his hair, stretched, and turned towards his window, intending to close the blinds. Then his window — cheerfully positioned right across from Castiel's in the neighbouring house — decided to be a dick, and gave him a clear view of Castiel. Who had no shirt on. And was about to have no pants on, because apparently he couldn't close the damn curtains when he was changing, and also because, for some reason, the world hated Dean, and decided that the love letter wasn't enough — no, now he needed a striptease too.
He ran over to the glass, yanked it open, and frantically yelled, "SHURLEY, CLOSE THE DAMN WINDOW!"
Castiel looked up, and cried, "oh, hey Dean!", just as the lights in the room next to his turned on, and Gabriel appeared.
"HEY DEANO, SPYING ON MY BABY BRO?!"
"I'm not looking!" Dean snapped back. "Just — close your window! I mean, who opens the curtains when they're changing, geez!"
"What are you screaming about?" Oh great, now Michael had joined the conversation, because everyone's room just needed to be on the one side of the damn house.
"I think Dean Winchester is perving on Cas." Wait, was that Lucifer? What the hell was Lucifer doing in Michael's room, instead of doing something productive, like sleeping?
"Winchester, how dare you — "
His door opened, and Sam poked his head in. "What's with all the yelling?" he demanded.
"Nothing. Go to bed," Dean replied, quickly closing the blinds.
Sam blinked, stared dubiously at the window, and then turned around and walked off. Dean sighed and flopped onto the bed. Yeah, he really needed to convince his parents to move.
...
AN:
So…the actual dimension travel will probably happen in the next chapter, and then I'll be able to bring the canon supernatural characters in :D thank you to everyone who has read and commented on this, and I hope you continue to enjoy this story!