After a full night of drinking and complaining about their lives at Bobby's without giving the older hunter much explanation as to why they wished to get so drunk so suddenly, they woke up the next morning and, ignoring their raging headaches, sent out the signal to their fellow hunters that they figured out the case of the Delphi Strawberry Service but strongly suggested no one go anywhere near it and just let it be.

When asked what was there, they replied "not demon business" and left it at that.

They didn't even want to talk to Cas, for fear of what seeing him would do to their mental state after learning all they did last night. There was still the possibility – the extremely high possibility, now that they sat and thought through it some more—that Castiel knew exactly what was at the Delphi Strawberry Farm and with these other gods, but didn't say anything to keep the Winchesters from getting involved. Nico had mentioned most pantheons had an unspoken agreement to leave each other be, and if this fell into that category, Cas might have chosen to let the unspoken bit go a bit farther than that. And it was sound logic, seeing as that if they hadn't run into Nico, they never would have known.

"Yeah, that's something he would do," Dean grunted, collapsing back into the bed of their motel room. "Leave us out of the loop just to keep us from meddling." He grunted.

"What would we even meddle in? You saw that sword the kid was carrying, I don't think shotguns of rock salt and silver daggers would do much against the kinds of monsters he mentioned." Sam added.

"It'd be like trying to train yourself all over again, from scratch." Dean agreed.

"Not to mention di Angelo his half divine and has powers beyond your mortal capabilities to make that training possible." A gruff voice said, and Sam nearly leapt out of the seat he'd just taken up, but all Dean did was tilt his head to the side and nod in acknowledgement at Castiel's sudden appearance.

"That still scares me." Sam muttered, rubbing the bridge of his nose in annoyance.

"Why didn't you just flat out tell us about the Greeks and forget all this secrecy crap!" Dean snapped half-heartedly, and the Angel standing above him just tilted his head to the side in polite confusion.

"You didn't need to know." He said simply, and Dean huffed while Sam rolled his eyes.

"Yeah, that's always the answer." Dean grumbled petulantly.

Cas frowned a bit, but seemed the brush it off. "I'm here because I was informed you'd crossed paths with a Greek, and we wanted to make sure nothing of incident happened."

"We didn't attack him if that's what you mean." Sam said.

"We're low, but we're not low enough to attack a twelve year old for no reason." Dean sighed, sitting up and rubbing his eyes in frustration.

Castiel's frown deepened. "I was under the impression the demigod you met was nearing eighty, but I assume there is more to it than that." He dismissed it while the brothers exchanged alarmed looks. "Age can be a subjective thing to Greek demigods: it has been known to be altered continuously for many different reasons as rewards and punishments."

"I know I'm used to weird, but this is just a bit too weird." Sam groaned. "I don't like thinking there are half a dozen different sets of monsters we can't fight on top of the demons we already deal with. Not to mention other gods and… hell, I don't even know anymore…" He sighed.

"Then I suggest forgetting about it." Castiel nodded with that business-like determination of his. "I cannot deal with, much less discuss at length, those of a different pantheon: it goes against the code of respect set up long ago."

"What? Pretending each other doesn't exist?" Dean snorted.

"Exactly." Cas nodded in agreement, obviously missing the sarcasm.

"No, I get it," Sam allowed, thinking it over again. "Mixing up different religions would get messy, and if each has enough power to keep out of each other's way and live side-by-side… why shouldn't they? So long as the world doesn't end from one of their apocalypses without keying into the others…"

"Which doesn't often happen until the Apocalypse is averted." Castiel admitted, and Sam face-palmed.

"Now that's just stupid." He muttered under his breath, but of course, the Angel heard it.

"But it is how it has been. No pantheon would ever accept help form another, even if they could. Different power sources for both sides of every Apocalypse mean even the sides trying to avert the end of the couldn't join forces, just as those trying to cause it couldn't either." Castiel explained.

"Nico said something of the same sort last night too…" Dean recalled.

"It is the ancient laws." Castiel side with the same reverent tone he used when referring to the God he was always trying to find. "Every pantheon follows them, whether they know the source or not. The Angels do not, but I doubt the Greeks or the Egyptians do either."

"And these laws say what exactly?" Sam asked curiously.

"Many things, too long to explain right now." Castiel dismissed. "It is likened though, to the reason an Angel cannot take a vessel without that host's permission, and why a Greek god cannot engage in battle with a demigod unless the demigod strikes first: they are old rules that are, for all intensive purposes, unbreakable and followed by all, though we've long forgotten why."

"And 'not interfering' with other pantheons is included somewhere in that?" Dean asked with a raised eyebrow.

Castiel nodded. "Yes. Less formally, but yes."

"So…" Sam said, sharing a look with Dean, who shrugged in answer. "We can forget about the Greek gods and pretend last night never happened?" He asked.

"I see no reason why not." Cas nodded again. "di Angelo was correct in saying you will never cross paths with another Greek encounter unless you meet him again. The Ancient Laws are meticulous in keeping everything separate—but your paths have crossed with the Son of Hades twice now, and I see that there might be a slight gap in the fabric that separates the two pantheons that your meetings have not been dissuaded."

"Dissuaded as in…" Dean fished.

"Dissuaded in that the night you met him, you three simply didn't cross paths in the night and never met face-to-face. Something about you two and him are compatible, so that the ancient forces at work didn't see reason to stop you from meeting."

"Good to know." Sam shrugged. "IN the mean time, can we go back to pretending we're on our own against heaven and hell? Everything made so much more sense back then."

"Hell yes." Dean agreed with a sharp nod.

Castiel looked rather confused at that exchange and their reasoning, but seemed to nod in accepting it.

"Very well. Just so long as Hades is not going to come after our pantheon for harming his son, we can go back to 'pretending'." He said uncertainly.

"Nope!" Dean sighed, popping the 'p' and leaning back down on the bed. "We didn't accidently start a war; at least, we don't think we did. We usually save that kinda stuff for the weekends, ya know?" He said with a smirk.

Castiel again, missed the teasing tone and looked eternally confused again, but nodded again in acceptance. Sam chuckled under his breath while Dean rolled his eyes.

"We didn't start a war, did w-?" Dean stopped his own statement with a side as he turned his head again and was met with only empty air. "Well, bye then!" He scoffed, looking back at the ceiling. "He needs to work on his exits." He muttered.

"And his entrances." Sam added with a shake of his head.

Dean chuckled, but then fell into a thoughtful silence.

After a beat:

"…Wake up tomorrow and pretend it didn't happen?"

"…Hell yeah."

The End!

For now.

I've got nowhere to go with this, but I'll leave it as an 'in-progress' fic because I do want to go on…

Leave a comment with how you want it to go next and I'll work on it. If no one does… well then, this is how it's gonna end!

Thanks!

Weezila.