A/N: So I left off on a cliffhanger, I just realised that. I also realised that I've never done that before. Ever. Only once and it made me really uncomfortable.
Castiel's jaw drops. He turns to his brother slowly. Just as Gabriel starts talking, he's got an onslaught of panicked orange covering his vision. And when the stranger, Winchester, starts talking, the colour becomes a soothing indigo, but he's dying on the inside.
Soon all of the sounds of wind and voices and cars and yelling and birds and animals and insects becomes too much and overwhelms Castiel's vision. He presses the balls of his hands into his eyes and shakes his head, trying to calm the headache that accompanies these feelings. He feels firm hands on his shoulders and the headache stops.
It just stops. He opens his eyes. As usual, the colour of the sound of wind is a lovely pale pink, but other than that, his vision is clear. He anticipates having to look down, but realises that he's staring at the wide expanse of a man's chest. Slowly, cautiously, he raises his eyes upwards until they're locked with green. Fanfiction green. Where that description came from, Castiel will never know. But there it is. And honestly, he can't think of a better green to represent this man's eyes.
"Uhm…" Castiel utters as eloquently as possible. And it still comes out as ineloquently as one would expect.
Once Winchester realises what he's doing, he lets go of Castiel instantly and stumbles back a step. "R-right. Well, yeah, you uh...looked like you were gonna faint…" He managed to stutter out. His expression changes from concerned to livid in half a second as he turns his eyes on Gabriel. "So...Trickster?"
"I haven't been for a very long time, Dean." Gabriel's voice has changed from orange to a curious yellowish-green. His way of speaking is much more chipper and sarcastic. "I've been kicking it here with my step brother."
Dean...the stranger's name is Dean. Somehow that seems awfully familiar. And it's tearing at Cas' mind, maliciously and brutally.
"Step brother?" Dean asks incredulously. "That's where you were when the world went to Hell? That's where you were when my brother jumped into the pit? Now you're faking your identity? Again?"
Gabriel casts a worried glance towards his brother who is staring at him with wide eyes. "No, I am who I have always been. I was taken in by a family several years ago."
"Yeah, your own little witness protection program. Who are you, really?" Dean is slipping one hand into his pocket, but his eyes are world weary and he looks near expiration.
"My name is Gabriel." Gabe lifts his hands in his defence and takes a step towards Dean in front of Castiel. "Don't hurt my brother. He's innocent in all of this."
"How can I believe that?"
"Says the man who just rushed to his aid."
Cas' head is spinning. He hadn't thought that coming to Kansas would have some repercussion. Perhaps the Universe and its entirety has devoted a portion of its existence into ensuring that Castiel will have no peace in his life for a steady period of time. He glances around the park that they're in and tries to focus on a single colour. Indigo, he chooses. Dean is speaking. And he doesn't really even know what he's saying. The words aren't being comprehended in Cas' mind.
"-Kansas? Why? There were so many other places you could have gone." Dean snaps.
"You think I decided to come here in the slight chance of running into you? No." Gabriel chuckles. "We're clearing his mind because he needs it."
"I would appreciate if you didn't speak of me in the third person." Castiel finally speaks up. The world is reeling and the vertigo is nearly succeeding in making him fall. He feels Gabriel wrap a firm arm around him to keep him upright. Against his will, Cas is being moved forwards. And sat down on something. A bench, most likely, given the circumstances of being within a park.
"Relax. It'll be okay."
Two people sit on either side of him. To sit whilst being as far from the other as possible. Leaving Castiel in the middle between an argument he doesn't understand.
Before either of them can start speaking again, Cas raises a hand to silence both of them and he opens his eyes when it feels safe to. When the world isn't tipping. When the colours aren't taking over.
"Who are you? And how do you know my brother?" Castiel turns his eyes on Dean who matches his stare levelly, if not for a slight taken aback expression of confusion.
"My name is Dean Winchester. And I met you brother a few years ago when he tried to kill me."
"I never really tried to kill you." Gabriel mutters. Castiel's eyes grow side. "I succeeded a hundred times. But I brought you back. And it was to show Sam a lesson." He says in his defence. Which is actually a poor attempt at proving innocence.
"You don't get to use his name." Dean shakes his head. "I hunt supernatural creatures and your brother was one of them."
Cas' face scrunches up a moment in thought and then he looks between Gabriel and Dean. After a moment, a smile breaks out on his face. "I get it. You told me to learn how to take a joke and now this is one of them. How do you really know each other?"
Dean stares at Castiel for a long moment before he realises that he's actually being serious. "Shit, man. I tell the truth and you think I'm joking?"
"Supernatural? You think Gabriel is supernatural? I'll admit he's really weird, but he isn't-"
Castiel is cut off when Gabriel snaps his fingers and a candy bar appears in his hands. "Maybe I haven't been completely transparent with you the last decade and a half…"
Cas is on his feet in an instant. "That isn't possible."
"You have no faith."
"And you aren't one to speak…" Castiel is taking small steps away from his brother, or rather, just Gabriel. The world is threatening to tilt again, the headache returns as an onslaught of murderous intent. All of it is, in a word, horrible. "What are you?"
"Yeah, Gabriel, what are you?" There is no patience in Dean's voice.
"You shut your cakehole, Winchester." The snap earns Gabriel a mixed look of disgust and confusion. "You aren't in this family."
"Yeah, you take your time." Dean seems to be amused by this entire situation, and Castiel feels a sort of anger at his nonchalance. And actually, Dean reclines back and watches and Gabriel stands up and moves towards his brother and how Castiel takes a step back.
A flicker of hurt flits across Gabriel's face. "Cassie...I'm not gonna hurt you. I'm still your brother."
It takes a few world-spinning moments before Cas nods. "Okay...I know. I'm sorry. But...I just…" He struggles to find the right words. A vocabulary length of a Tolstoy novel, and yet he's drawing blanks.
"I know." Gabriel lays a hand on Castiel's shoulder. "I'm an angel, Cas."
Cas tilts his head to the side and looks at Gabriel searchingly, trying to fully comprehend the situation. "Gabriel…" Expressions of incomprehension flash across Castiel's face. "An angel…?" Is how he vocalises his millions of thoughts.
"Hard to believe I know, but I can't exactly prove it to you…"
"But...the adoption…" Castiel attempts to protest.
"Yeah, I was fifteen. In human years. Of course, I'm much older than that." Gabriel stuffs his hands in his pockets, his usual bravado gone. "Truth is...I'm not human."
Castiel freezes and stares blankly at Gabriel. Not human. Of course, he had postulated the existence aliens is nothing short of proven, but Angels on the other hand are a completely different subject. To mix science and theology is mind-altering. Perhaps not completely impossible, but they are not exactly coinciding or even complements of each other. In fact, there are many contradictions from one to the other.
"I think you shorted out your brother." Dean's voice is now concerned. Cas feels hands on his shoulders and he tries to comprehend it, but he can't.
The headache is blinding and the world blacks out.
A/N: I just want to start out apologising for not updating this sooner. I wasn't sure how to end it...hence the abrupt end. Where will Cas wake up, dear listeners? I'm not sure. Perhaps...he won't wake up again. Perhaps this is the end and I haven't told you that. Castiel…is dead. I regret to inform you. To the lovers and admirers of Castiel, I regretfully inform you that along the duties of being a character in fanfiction, Castiel is dead. Love, Pyxie xx