A/N: I'll try to make this quick. I'm sorry I'm so awful at updating, I'll try to move a bit quicker. It's just that with my finals coming up...I'm a little nervous. Especially because whatever grade I get on my Calculus final is what grade I get in the class. No pressure. So I'm sorry everybody. Now, let's write some fanfiction! -Pyxie xx
There's the sound of raises voices. The feels of something comfortable. And the smell of fresh coffee and books. Not just any books. No, the smell of books that have been archived for decades and touched only when appropriate. The smell of something more than just a library, and something more than a used bookstore. And it is comforting.
And then the sound of raised voices and crashes. Distant, as through air vents and winding hallways. Through doors and walls and cracks. Wherever this place is, it feels incredibly secretive. Even with his eyes closed, Castiel can still discern as least that.
Something damp and cool is pressed against his forehead. The headache has receded into a dull throb. Painful, but manageable. Castiel opens his eyes cautiously, weary for the light in the room. As a pleasant surprise, the room is dark. Probably Gabriel's doing. Slowly, Cas sits up and looks around. A plain room. One brick wall, the rest plaster, a metal door. Industrial, yet cozy.
Castiel takes the towel off of his head and stares at it. How long has he been unconscious? Long enough, clearly. Long enough for the edges of the towel to become dry and stiff. For once, there are no sounds in the room. For once, Castiel can see the actual colours of things. And that in itself is enough to send a shock through his heart. The yelling down the hall and through the vents has stopped, leaving Castiel in blissful silence.
No air conditioning, no buzzing of electronics. Nothing. Wonderful silence. The walls are a beige colour. A colour he doesn't get to see often in voices and in sounds. His eyes adjust to the faint light and he sees a light switch next to the metal door. With varying degrees of hesitance within a few moments, he stands. A little light-headed, hardly any vertigo. He makes his way to the door, each step more confident than the last. And then he flips the light on. The room is bare, save a bed and a nightstand. And he's in different clothes. Comfy. And...not his. And not Gabriel's.
He opens the door. It's a hallway in what appears to be a military bunker. A military bunker that also just so happens to be cozy. A cozy military bunker. The sound of his socked feet against the cold tiles is a deep purple. Something down the hall clatters, loud, and echoes down the hall in dark oranges and reds, fading off into a pale yellow.
Castiel follows the sound. In all honesty, he knows he's handling being in this alien situation quite well. But that desn't stop the small jitters of nervous excitement that make their ways through his belly. More nerves than excitement. He hears a voice swear. Familiar, but he can't place his finger on it.
Through more winding halls he goes, he passes a kitchen, and he almost walks right past it had he not heard someone cough. Slowly, he peeks his head in. A man sits hunched over at a small table, a glass filled with an amber liquid is cradled in his hand. He peels his eyes away from the man and looks around the room. Broken pieces of ceramics and glass litter the floor.
"Dean…" Castiel' voice comes as a surprise to both of them. Dean jumps in his seat although the greeting had not been loud at all.
Dean raises his eyes from his glass and for a moment, Castiel swears that he sees tears, but they're gone an instant later.
"Hey, Cas." Dean sets his glass on the table and walks over to Cas, careful for the broken pieces of everything. "How're you feeling?" His eyes roam over Cas' body as if to check for injury.
"Fine. All things considered." Castiel looks around and out the hall. "Where am I?"
"Lebanon, Kansas. I live here. It just seemed like a good idea to take you somewhere safe. And I know your brother."
"He tried to kill you."
"He succeeded." Dean smiles as though thinking of a distant memory. "But he saved me too."
"You were yelling." Cas looks at the mess in the kitchen.
"Yeah. Uhm…" Dean walks out of the kitchen and walks them down the hall into a larger, cleaner area, filled with books and a long table. A library. And if Cas were feeling better, he would be rather excited about all of the books. Had circumstances of being here been different.
"He's an Angel…" Cas says. Dean sits him down and pushes a glass of water from the middle of the table towards him. "And you're a hunter." He says after a drink.
Dean looks guilty. "Yes. Gabriel will...he'll be back soon."
"Why were you yelling?"
Dean runs a hand down his face and plops down in a chair next to Castiel. "It's a long story." When it seems as though Cas wouldn't let it go, Dean sighs. "Alright. I'll tell you, but only when he gets back so that this all makes sense."
With that compromise, Cas nods. "Okay...so why...here?"
Dean narrows his eyes. "What's wrong with Kansas, man?"
"Nothing. Parts of it have very clear skies for exospheric observations and quiet for meditation." Castiel cradles the glass of water in his hands and looks over at Dean when the silence lasts too long.
"Are you sure you're human?" Dean's expression has fallen into something close to amusement.
Castiel tilts his head to the side. "As far as I'm aware, I am."
Before Dean can inquire more, a door opens. Loud and creaking. Chartreuse and dandelion. Not the best combination. Of course, the sound isn't the best either. Dean is on his feet in an instant, his eyes glued to the door. Gabriel and a taller-a much taller-man stand at the top of the stairway where the door is.
The taller man breaks out in a smile. "Hey, Dean."
"Sammy…" Dean stands at the table in shock and as Sam walks down the stairs. "You're back."
"Yep. Like you could get rid of me for so long." Sam embraces Dean and they hug for a long period of time.
Gabriel appears suddenly next to Castiel and smiles at him. "For a while there, I thought I wasn't going to be coming back…"
"Where did you go?" Cas looks at his brother in shock. As a physicist, all evidence points to his brother's being an Angel impossible. But as it's happening right in front of him, he can't just ignore it.
"Hell. Visited my brother. My real brother. The once I wasn't adopted by, y'know."
At this point, Castiel is beginning to accept that nothing is normal and he starts to piece everything together. Dean had said that his brother had jumped into the Pit, whatever that means. Supposedly Hell. Where Gabriel just was. Which means that this very tall person, Sam, is Dean's brother.
"I've always loved hearing your thoughts." Gabriel drapes an arm around Cas' shoulders and pulls him close. "Look, I know things aren't exactly peachy and perfect, and hell, I was really hoping that I could keep all of this away from you until the end of your corporeal life, but that didn't happen. Twenty-seven years of being fully human only to have the paranormal shoved back onto you." He smiles in an attempt to lessen to blow of his statement, but it doesn't work.
Cas' eyes grow wide. He doesn't get a chance to ask, because suddenly Sam is turning around and hugging Gabriel. "Thanks, Gabe. I'm glad you're back."
"Thanks, Samsquatch. I'm sorry it's taken me so long." Gabriel returns the hug and pats Sam's back.
"Witness protection again?"
"More like...returning home." Gabriel spares a second to give Castiel a wink.
But that place isn't home anymore. There is nothing home-like about Arizona for people like Castiel. There are people who share his mindset and his intelligence, but the actual state government and a large majority of the people would rather he take his idealism and belief in evolution out of their state. So he did.
Castiel looks at Dean who's staring fondly at his brother. Even though Castiel has never met Dean before, or even laid eyes on him, this feels normal, as though a chunk of his existence has been removed and replaced. It's unshakeable and altogether quite uncomfortable. But his surroundings remind him to relax. The colours are warm and soothing, a nice lull to the atmosphere. Perhaps, if possible, he could grow to get used to something like this.
A/N: Oh my Chuck, everybody. I am so sorry that this has taken me so long to get up. But now that I know where this is heading, I should start to update just a tad faster. Hopefully, at least a chapter a week. After this, the chapters won't seem so disconnected and confused. LIKE MY BRAIN! Yep! Please review, a recent study conducted by gnats and grains of rice states that the more people review, the faster I'll post. -Pyxie xx