~ 1 Month Later ~
"Cassie, Gabriel and I would like to talk to you," Balthazar gestured for Castiel to sit on the couch beside him and Gabriel, which he did giving a questioning look to his brothers, "We didn't exactly ask you down here because we were lonely, we have a job for you," Castiel's head tilted in confusion.
"A job doing what, Balthazar? What could possibly warrant my falling to do?" Castiel's eyes flicked between Gabriel and Balthazar as the shot a look between themselves.
"Remember when all those weapons went missing in Heaven Cassie, and no one had a clue where they went? Uriel staged a full scale search for them too," Gabriel laughed nervously, "We - well, Balthy here - took 'em."
Castiel's eyes rose in shock, Heaven's trove of weapons, the most dangerous objects is put in the wrong hands, had been missing for hundreds of years without a trace. "Why would you do that? You know how dangerous they are!" Castiel had no idea his closest brothers could do anything like this.
"We saw an opportunity and took it Castiel, and with the war between Heaven and Hell reaching its climax, both sides would be willing to do anything to have control over them," Balthazar continued, looking much less guilty than Gabriel, who had his eyes downcast to the floor.
"And what is it exactly that you intend me to do?" Balthazar's eyes lit up and he nudged Gabriel, bringing his attention back to the conversation.
"You and Gabriel are going to get them back for me. Naturally I couldn't keep them all around so I hid them all around the state, being the genius I am," Balthazar winked at Castiel, "They're hidden in museum displays pretending to be cheap plastic replicas," Castiel stared at him in disbelief, could he really be this selfish? Balthazar could see the gears turning in Castiel's head and shook his at his brother's naivety.
"Come on bro, why not break the rules a little now that you're down here? I know you think schools a dump, I do too but this can get your mind off it," Gabriel's uncertainty dissolved and gave Castiel a sympathetic look, as if performing an act of rebellion against Heaven was just what he needed. As Castiel looked into his brother's eyes, he could feel his walls breaking down and his shoulders slumped in defeat as he slowly nodded.
"I- I'll do it," he cast his eyes down to his hands, clasped together on his lap.
"Knew you would, now get ready you two," Balthazar stood to leave the room but Castiel grabbed his arm, stopping him from moving any further.
"We're going now?" Castiel was shocked, afraid even, that he was going through an act of such rebellion so soon. Balthazar simply chucked and clapped him on the shoulder, leaving with a wink. Castiel turned to Gabriel and saw him shrug and pulled Castiel into his room and started rifling through his wardrobe of clothes, pulling out a plain shirt and a tan trench coat that, upon inspection, appeared to have two thin slits down the back. Gabriel turned and shoved them into Castiel's arms and turned to leave the room.
"Gabriel, what are these for?" Castiel examined the clothes in his arms and slipped his hand between one of the slits in the coat.
"You can't exactly go wondering around shirtless when you have your wings out bro, we aren't exactly immune to the cold," Gabriel gestured for him to put them on and left the room, giving him privacy once more.
Castiel quickly replaced his shirt with the one given to him by Gabriel and shrugged on the trench coat, finding comfort in its warmth and weight on his shoulders. He then met Gabriel in the living room once more and unfurled his wings and with a quick lesson on the type of flight required to move around undetected, they blinked out of existence and reappeared in a dark hall. Their footsteps echoed as they searched for the room where Balthazar had hidden one of the many stolen weapons.
An excited yell from Gabriel was heard up the hallway, suggesting he had found the correct room and Castiel followed the sound to find Gabriel standing over a glass display case containing an old book and various cards informing the viewer of the original book's contents and origins, many of the facts were of course incorrect. Gabriel ushered him over and with a touch of his finger, the case exploded, shattering into a thousand tiny shards, harming neither angel in the process. Gabriel grabbed the book and pushed it into Castiel's arms, examining the remaining displays for any more of the stolen relics. Castiel stood still in the centre of the room, surrounded by the chips of glass, unsure of whether to follow his brother around the room or fly back home in distress, to terrified of being caught, by human or angel, wings pulling tight to his body in comfort.
Once Gabriel had checked every other display, he nodded to Castiel and disappeared in a flurry of feathers, the younger angel following soon behind, returning to the familiarity of home, or what he had come to call home in his short time on Earth.
x
"Dean!" Sam grabbed the wheel of the Impala, steering it back into the correct lane as a truck came blearing past, narrowly missing the car as its horn blew deafeningly loud. Dean woke with a start, head shooting up from its resting place on the steering wheel, once again gaining control of the vehicle.
"Sorry," Dean mumbled, eyes fighting to focus on the road once more.
"Dean, we've been on the road for almost 2 days straight, you need to sleep," Sam looked over to his brother, one year his senior, and rolled his eyes as he huffed in annoyance, "Bobby is only an hour's drive away, we can stop there for a couple of days, we don't need to be hunting all the time you know."
"We don't need Bobby, he'll just force us to stay, we need to keep hunting Sam," Sam sighed at his brother's stubbornness.
"Just for a few nights Dean, all we've been doing is hunting and you need sleep," Dean sighed and nodded reluctantly, increasing their speed slightly. Sam smiled at having won and sat back in the seat watching the darkness outside from the window.
Almost an hour later, the two brothers pulled into Bobby's driveway and an exhausted Dean, followed by Sam, pulled himself out from the car and stumbled to the front door, already being opened by a less than happy Bobby who wordlessly let them in. Sam quietly greeted him and slumped on the couch in the living room and watched his brother practically fall onto the spare room bed, falling asleep as soon as his head hit the pillow.
"So what do you know?" Bobby asked, moving to the kitchen and grabbing a newspaper. Sam raised an eyebrow at Bobby's seemingly random question.
"What do you mean?" he asked curiously.
"Well I'm assuming you two idjits are here about the break in," Bobby threw the newspaper onto Sam's lap, open to an article about a break in to a museum.
"But it's just a break in, Bobby. Those aren't usually our thing," Sam examined the article, some replica of an ancient book was stolen. Who would want to waste their time with a fake book?
"No forced entry or exit, only one thing, one /worthless/thing missing and glass doesn't shatter that small when you hit it, and it's the second of its kind, looks like your kinda thing," Bobby stated matter-of-factly. Sam sighed and looked towards the guest room where Dean was sleeping. They'd been hunting non-stop for over 3 months since their dad died and had just finished a basic salt and burn case a couple of states over.
"I guess we could check it out tomorrow," Sam said reluctantly, looking back towards Bobby.
"Uh-uh, you boys ain't doing nothing. You're teenagers for god's sake, you can wait a few days, do normal things. I don't know, maybe even go to school, it'd be good for you and your brother. You need to take some time off," Sam chewed his bottom lip thoughtfully. He liked the idea of taking a break, and he'd missed going to school more than anything. But they couldn't let a case go, no matter how small it seemed.
"I'll ask Dean about it in the morning, he won't like the idea but I can try and convince him," Sam declared. Bobby nodded and patted his head good night, walking back towards his room. Sam grabbed one of the blankets hanging over the back of the couch, spreading it over himself and settling himself down for the best sleep he'd had in weeks.
x
The next morning, Dean awoke to the voices of Sam and Bobby drifting down from the living room. He slowly got up and made his way out of the spare room and patted his brother's head as he sat on the couch next to him. Bobby nodded to him and left the house, restocking on hunting supplies he'd lent to Rufus, who'd never returned them.
"Dean come on, we've got to get ready," Sam stood up and walked towards the kitchen where there were various books and bags.
"For what? What's all this for?" Dean questioned his brother, looking at the various books -textbooks he realised- and raised an eyebrow.
"I wanted to ask you but Bobby figured it would be better to... Not," Sam suddenly found his hands to be the most interesting thing in the room and refused to meet his brother's eyes.
"Sam, what are these for? What do you mean?" he was handed a small slip of paper with an address and the name of a school. Dean's eyes widened as he saw where his brother was going with this.
"Bobby wanted us to stop hunting for a while, so he put us in school, Dean," Sam started shoving his pile of books in one of the bags and nodded his head towards a slightly larger pile, obviously for Dean, motioning for him to do the same.
"Sam, I'm not going. We can't just stop," Dean glared at the books as if they would lead to his demise. Sam sighed and retrieved the newspaper Bobby had shown him and pointed out the article about the break in.
"We can stay here and solve a case at the same time. I just want to do something a little more normal for once, I miss school Dean," Sam pleaded with his brother.
"Fine," Dean sighed, giving in to his brother for the second time in two days. At least they wouldn't just be trapped inside the walls of the school, he could still hunt - that was what he needed to keep his mind busy. He shoved the books into the remaining bag haphazardly and hauled it onto his shoulder and barging out the front door into the Impala, waiting impatiently for his younger brother who dashed out excitedly a minute later.
Following the directions Sam recited from memory, he pulled outside a monstrous school building and groaned as he got out and followed Sam to the office, receiving their class schedules and parting down different hallways, Sam with an eager grin and Dean with an eye roll but smile at seeing his brother so happy. Dean sighed when he saw his first class, one of his least favourites, Chemistry.
x
Castiel's focus was not on the class at all, it never was, he much preferred to stare out the window the whole day, it was much more interesting than the inside of it. He was the kid who never paid attention yet always got the top mark in the class. He'd gained a not so positive reputation from this, people thought he was just too weird, and as a result had made a total of zero friends. Not that he cared, he'd be out within two years and could travel -and search for the owner of that soul- to his heart's content. Chemistry was the last thought on his mind at that moment.
Balthazar had recovered two of his 'lost relics' as he had decided to call them, and there were still many more to retrieve. Gabriel had decided they would work their way from the closest to the furthest displays searching for them. Castiel huffed in annoyance at being dragged into their plans, 'getting rich' off of the war was not the most ideal lifestyles he had in mind.
He was distracted from his thoughts by a strange feeling he couldn't pinpoint, though it felt like a tugging at his wings, hidden within his back. The feeling wasn't necessarily uncomfortable, though rather unfamiliar. Castiel shifted in his seat, as if that would help the problem.
Still staring out the window, he heard the classroom door open and shut quietly, as if someone were trying to slip in unnoticed, though whomever entered caught the attention of every girl in the class as they started whispering amongst themselves almost immediately. The teacher must have noticed as he immediately called out in recognition.
"Dean Winchester, I'm assuming? Our second new student at such an odd time of the year, please take a seat next to Castiel back there," he gestured to the only spare seat in the class, the one sharing a large desk with Castiel at the back. His shoulders sagged as he realised he would lose his small corner of privacy to this stranger whose face he hadn't even bothered to look up at. He begrudgingly moved his bag off the chair next to his and shot a glance towards his new neighbour who was slowly shuffling down the rows of seats to the back.
As Castiel's eyes lowered to the window again, they widened, his breath catching in his throat, and he had to look back. He almost had to squint to see past the blinding light shining out from within him, within Dean. The feeling tugging at his wings spread throughout s body and he almost felt light headed. He could feel his heart pounding, something that was a lot more unpleasant that it sounded.
Dean.
Dean Winchester.
He didn't need to search in the end, he had found him in one of the most unassuming places. So plain and ordinary it was not even close to worthy of his presence, a presence that overwhelmed Castiel so much that he couldn't move, even if he wanted to. Which he didn't.
He felt heat rise in his cheeks as Dean raised an eyebrow at him as he sat down, catching him staring in such awe. His arm brushed against Dean's as he dropped into his seat and a sharp sensation, not exactly painful, shot through it. Castiel had to fight hard to keep enough focus on keeping his wings hidden as they threatened to burst forth from lack of concentration, though he could not pull his gaze from deep within the emerald eyes staring back in confusion.
"You okay there, uh..." Dean asked, trailing off as he tried to remember the name the teacher had mentioned. He shot glances around the room to see if anyone else was as confused as he was to this stranger's reaction to him. His words seemed to break the trance as he suddenly shut his mouth that had unknowingly opened and let out a breath he hadn't realised he had been holding. His whole body seemed to shudder and visibly relax with the loss of eye contact, though he still seemed uncertain about what to say or do.
"C-Castiel," he choked out, surprised at himself for stuttering over a human. Though he wasn't just a human, he was Dean Winchester, the soul he had been watching since the day of his birth in what could be considered endearment.
"Okay then, you okay there Cas?" Dean asked, shortening the name for convenience, who names their kid Castiel anyway? The nickname caught the angel off guard as he turned back go stare at Dean, his brow furrowed in confusion. Dean rolled his eyes in impatience and turned his attention to the desk, finger following a scratch carved into it, paying no attention to the boy beside him who had started staring at him once again.
Soon after, the bell rang signalling the end of the period. Castiel hurriedly packed up his books, eager to leave class and recompose himself. He'd thought meeting Dean would be a pleasant experience, but instead he made a fool of himself. As Castiel practically jumped from his seat, his foot got caught around one of the legs and he found himself sprawled on the ground, head just next to Dean's foot and books spread across the floor.
"Jesus man, be careful," Dean dropped his bag on the desk he had been sitting at and stooped to help Castiel pick up his textbooks, rolling his eyes. Castiel muttered a quiet apology and shook his head to himself for acting so... Human. The two both reached for one of the books at the same time, hands brushing as they both picked it up, Castiel felt yet another jolt of what could be compared to electricity. Dean's hand jerked away, dropping the book as he inspected it, looking for the cause of the similar feeling rushing through his arm. He narrowed his eyes at Castiel, as if he were the cause of it and watched the boy shy away from his gaze as he finished repacking his bag.
"Umm, so what do you have next?" Dean scratched the back of his neck, he didn't need to talk to this boy but something about him intrigued him. Castiel's eyes widened as he realised he was being spoken to again and he slipped out his schedule that was sticking out of one of his textbooks as a bookmark and showed him, not trusting his voice at that moment, "huh, English. I have that too," Dean got out his own slip of paper and compared the two, noticing there were very few classes they didn't share.
"I-I can show you," Castiel gestured to the door, offering to take him to his next class. Dean nodded and shoved his paper in his back pocket, motioning for Castiel to start moving, which he did hurriedly.
The two of them walked in silence, Castiel staring at the ground, glancing at Dean occasionally from the corner of his eye, and Dean with his eyes glued to the strange boy next to him. They walked into a classroom a couple of minutes and Castiel made his way to his usual seat at the back. Dean followed awkwardly and stood at the seat next to his.
"Does anyone sit here?" He pointed to the seat nervously, which was unlike his usual demeanour, though something about Castiel made him uncertain. He was surprised when he received a shaking head. Did the kid sit alone all day? Dean glanced around, spotting one other spare seat towards the middle of the room but decided against it and sat down at the seat in front of him.
Again, an uncomfortable silence enveloped the two. Castiel spent the lesson fiddling with a pencil and Dean could hardly tear his gaze from him, trying to figure the boy out, which he failed greatly at. When he had first walked into Chemistry, he looked like he cared for nothing around him, though when he saw Dean he had been reduced to a bumbling mess.
The day went by too quickly for the both of them, the two only separating at lunch when Dean disappeared to find his brother and Castiel went to his usual spot in the library, where he spent most break times at a desk behind the packed wooden shelves, reading whatever book he picked out. Few words were shared between them as neither could bring himself to talk. Dean had opened his mouth a few times, causing Castiel to look up at him expectantly, though he always shut it as he realised he didn't know what to say. He never missed the not-quite-hidden look of disappointment on Castiel's face as he looked away every time.
They parted ways at the end of the day with quiet 'goodbye's and both met with their respective brothers.
"You've got another job tonight, and this time I can't come with," Gabriel leaned against his car as Castiel approached, he relaxed because as soon as Dean had left, so had the strange feeling he got when he was around him. Though it felt that with it went something else, leaving him feeling like something was missing that he desperately wanted back.
"What am I collecting this time?" Castiel wanted to roll his eyes, though he knew it would do nothing more than amuse his brother.
"Staff of Moses. Well half. Balthy kinda broke it in the getaway," Gabriel got in the car and as Castiel followed, started it up.
"He broke the Staff of Moses?" Castiel exclaimed. Gabriel laughed at his distress.
"It's a long story, but you need to get it tonight so we can get the other half later," Gabriel said, unhelpfully. This time Castiel did roll his eyes, and nodded in reluctant agreement.
x
"Dean I think I might know which museum is going to be targeted next, if there is a next target," Sam explained to his older brother as they drove back to Bobby's, "Both of the break ins before have been at different locations and if the patterns not random, they're moving outwards from here."
"Point the way, Sammy. We'll get ready and head out tonight," Dean crept his foot down ever so slightly on the accelerator to get them home faster, he was getting restless already without hunting for not even a week.
"Bobby doesn't know we're on this case so you can't tell him," Dean raised an eyebrow at his brother, he wasn't usually into breaking the rules, he'd much rather follow them to the letter. But Dean wasn't going to argue in case Bobby forced them to stay back and take care of it himself.
That night, Bobby thankfully had to go out again, for what he didn't say, so Sam and Dean could sneak out without worry. Dean drove the Impala, following Sam's directions and parked outside a grand building, giving a facade of importance it obviously didn't have. Dean grabbed his gun his father had given him before he died, and checked to ensure it was still loaded before checking the grounds for any sign of entry or any means of inconspicuously entering the building themselves, with the aid of Sam's flashlight.
They found a window about shoulder height and Sam managed to pick the lock and open it, climbing through before helping his brother do the same. Once inside, Dean gave his brother a look that told him he didn't need his help to get in when in truth, he really did, being unfortunately shorter. Sam simply rolled his eyes and followed his brother as he moved to look around for any signs of disturbance.
The sound of shattering glass caused them both to jump and run towards the source of the sound, Dean grabbing his gun out from its place shoved in his back pocket. He aimed it at the figure standing over standing over a display case, grabbing what looked to him like a large stick, though he hesitated. Dean squinted to see what was wrong with the figure and as it froze, two things spread out from its back, which he soon realised were wings. He quickly lifted his gun which had unknowingly dropped to aim at the floor and let out three rounds as the figure disappeared in seconds with a flap of its wings, leaving two small holes on the opposite wall.
Dean rushed forward to where the figure had been standing and picked up a large, black feather that had been left behind by the thing.
"Dean, what was that?" Sam called to his brother from the doorway. Dean held the feather up, examining it, and ran his fingers along its side feeling a softness not usually found in ordinary bird feathers.
"I don't know, but whatever it is, we need to get rid of it," Dean went to drop the feather, then hesitated before placing it in his jacket pocket and putting away his gun.
"Cassie!" Gabriel cried as his brother came crashing into existence in the middle of the living room. Castiel struggled to sit up, wincing as his injured wing came into contact with the couch behind him, "Balthazar, Castiel's been shot!" Gabriel called out. Within seconds, Balthazar came running into the room.
"Bloody hunters, wasn't it?" Balthazar murmured, kneeling down next to him. Castiel shuddered at the pain as he placed his hand over the wound, attempting to draw the bullet from it. As he caught his breath, his mind wandered to the presence he'd felt behind him before he'd been shot. It felt so familiar, and if Castiel knew better, he would almost think it was Dean.