Bite. Munch. Spit.
It was a routine he had perfected in the past hour. The floppy haired boy looked at the plastic box of red, diced of fruit on his lap and picked another one. The carefully collected seeds on the lid of the box were sliding against each other with each movement. As the juice rushed out of the watermelon into his mouth, he picked at a string of fruit fallen on his blue shorts. It was an unusual dress to wear at a hospital but he didn't really have much choice. It was either this or waste 20 minutes in changing into something more respectable. He didn't think Dean would appreciate 20 minutes of blood loss for a pair of jeans and a tee.
"Samuel?" The young nurse who came out the ward looked at the sweaty young boy with a lap full of red mess and shook her head slightly. Sam didn't really care. Carefully placing the box on the seat beside him, he covered it with the lid of seeds before brushing off his shorts. The tiny bits of juicy watermelon that had escaped his mouth fell on the pristine white floor making the nurse purse her lips. Sam knew that look and had learnt not to react, choosing to walk past her silently into the ward of his idiot brother.
"Hey there Samantha!" Dean grinned from beneath the bunch of bandages on his face. There was dried blood on his hair and surely on his torn up tee, but Dean didn't look like he noticed that. Sam rolled his eyes and twitched his mouth slightly before settling down on the hard metal chair near the bed.
"Hey back at you Assbutt." Sam flicked at the unhurt arm beside him receiving a yelp and glare from his brother.
"Is that a way to treat your injured older brother? No manners man. My heart bleeds little bro, it bleeds!" Dean clutched at his chest mockingly.
"Yeah right, your heart on the right side bleeds." Sam replied deadpanned, gesturing to the hand clutching the right part of Dean's chest.
"Yeah, well, I've got a large heart. Takes up more space." Dean stuck out his tongue at his younger brother before winking at the nurse who had just entered the room again.
At 13, Dean Winchester was the corniest flirt Sam had seen. And he had seen his share at The Troy Simon Home for the Abandoned. Not to mention, Dean was friends with the sleaziest con-man ever– Sonny. Yet, somehow Dean managed to charm people more than the others. It was this very 'charming' side that had gotten him a broken rib, jaw and an almost bitten off ear. It was probably tame to what could have happened though.
"So..Robin." Sam said without making it sound like a question. He saw Dean grin again at the name and resisted the urge to whack his head.
"She saw it all Sammy. Was the best fight ever. I think she'll ask me out at school." Dean looked smug like he had just won a National Level Spell Bee. More like a National Level Crochet Competition, Sam thought, looking at the small bundle of yarn Dean had picked from his wool bedcover.
"Oh, she'll definitely ask you out. The bruise fetish and all" Sam said nonchalantly "The question is, will your head survive another baseball drumming? You know that Lucifer will finish the job this time right? You're messing with his girlfriend Dean. It won't be a pretty bump on the head. He'll pretty much use the blade and carve out a nice Halloween pumpkin out of you."
Dean raised an eyebrow at the reference but somehow it didn't prove effective with the bandages covering most of his forehead. "Lucy-pie can carve out a nice rosette from his candy garden for all I care. I'm not scared of him Sammy."
It always came down to this. 'I'm not scared Sammy', 'I don't care Sammy' or 'Don't worry too much Sammy or you'll pop like a popcorn'. It was always one of these phrases that ended a conversation for Dean. Sam wanted to go beyond that today and opened his mouth to reprimand his brother when they heard a light knock at the door.
Sam turned to see a young boy with neatly combed brown hair. One hand rested on the door handle lightly and the other was clenched at his side. He was one of those 'pure-bred kids' Dean always referred to. Crisp white shirt with an indigo tie, smooth pressed dark trousers with not a single crease, spotless black Sunday church shoes and one of those black rimmed rectangular glasses on his nose. He was the kind of guys Sam and Dean wolf whistled at when coming back from school. Well, Dean whistled. Sam simply supported the whistle, silently. Now, this boy of about Dean's age stood in the dingy floor cleaner smelling hospital room, looking like he wanted to talk to them. Sam noticed the boy's eyes trained on Dean and opened his mouth to call him in when, as usual, Dean beat him to it.
"Well 'lo there Snow White. Lookin' for a lost dwarf?" Dean drawled in his well-practiced 'cool guy with extra sexy' voice while wiggling his eyebrows suggestively. Sam saw the boy's eyes narrow slightly at the nickname but the next second he was back to normal.
"You are free to go home." The boy said in a voice that meant 'You are free to kiss my ass'. He made no move to come into the room, his sharp blue eyes focussed on Dean.
"Aww really? No send-off party or giveaway goodies? Now what kind of discharge would that be? Boring right?" Dean acted like the perfect jerk he believed he was. He even gave an eyebrow wiggle for extra effect. Something that seemed lost on the boy.
"A party is deemed appropriate to celebrate an extraordinarily excess amount of joy. One not quenched by an exaltation of higher powers or inappropriately high pitched squealing. Then again, your departure does seem to spell joy in its most intense sense." The boy replied with a tone used by ridiculously boring teachers, old stuffy Court men or Queen Victoria.
"Excuse me?" Dean squeaked, apparently just as dumbfounded as Sam was. Of course, Sam's mouth wasn't hanging down like Dean's was, but still.
"All right, you're excused too. Now, you are free to leave." The boy nodded once with a stiff posture before turning to leave. He seemed to pause for a moment and half turned towards the still open-mouthed Dean. "A candy garden sounds nice. Though, a pie orchid would be easier to carve from. " He said before marching out. Sam realized that he had heard Dean's remark before he came in and stifled a laugh at the dry remark. Dean though seemed to have no qualms about laughing out loud.
He was still laughing when the doctor came in after fifteen minutes. Apparently, the boy was the doctor's son and had come to deliver his message.
"He got a name your Snow White?" Dean asked the doctor as he slipped into a dirty old spare tee.
Dr. Novak looked slightly annoyed by Dean's nickname but stayed quiet. It wasn't the first time he had met Dean Winchester. The boy had a knack for splitting up organs and he seemed to be the only doctor who had patience enough to treat him without doing additional damage.
"Castiel. His name is Castiel. And you better stay away from him boy" the doctor wagged a finger in front of Dean's face. Dean simply smirked and winked his thanks. and Dean had an unusual understanding. Dean didn't bother the Novak house with his gang of unruly boys and the doctor in turn patched him up every time he came in with bruises.
"C'mon doc, the boy gave me the telling off Sammy here wouldn't give and that's all I can know about him? My healthy curiosity is hungry! How come I don't see him here before?" Dean tried a bit more. Sam looked at him with a question in his eyes but Dean shut him up with a look.
Dr. Novak narrowed his eyes at Dean and it looked so much like the boy's stare had been that Dean grinned wider. After a few more minutes of silent staring the doctor huffed and opened the door for Dean to leave. Any other normal guy would take a hint but Dean hadn't learnt the art of hints yet. He wouldn't take it even if it was spelled with neon lights on a giant billboard. He stayed put, looking expectantly at the doctor. Sam was sure they would be kicked out this time.
"Dean.." the doctor signalled with a slight warning in his voice.
"It's just a normal question doc. Haven't seen him here before and I've seen all your people. So, where's he been at?" Dean was big at prodding the lion with a hot rod and he wasn't going to back down from the doctor.
Dr. Novak sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose slightly "He was..in New York. And that's all I'm giving. You want more, you've just got to ask him at school." The doctor's voice was firm and Dean simply nodded his head before walking out with Sam.
"What was that all about?" Sam asked as soon as they reached the gate of the hospital. He saw his brother look at the blue sky for a minute before he turned and grinned at him.
"That, little brother, is Lucy-pie's saviour." Dean quipped with a wide grin as he kicked a small stone on the street.
"Lucifer's saviour? What do you mean?" Sam persisted as he walked beside an insanely happy looking Dean. Did they feed him some drugs or something, Sam wondered.
"I meaaaan" Dean replied in sing-song as they turned around the corner towards the Home, "Robin's out of the scene now."
No Sam was really confused. What exactly did the boy..Castiel, have to do with Robin? "English please?" Sam asked with a scrunched face.
Dean rolled his eyes at his younger brother's snail paced brain. "Robin isn't on my interest list anymore. So, Lucy-pie doesn't have to get his butt bashed by me. Hence, Lucy-pie's saviour." Dean drew an imaginary flowchart with his fingers as he explained the most obvious thing in the world.
Sam knew all about the 'interest list'. A hand-picked group of people Dean thought worthy enough to give his attention. Charm and wrap around his finger rather.
"Oh no..No, no, no. No ways. Dean, this is the Doc's son. Son. He's not the type you want to mess with." Sam tried to make his partly mummified brother see sense. What drugs had he taken after all?
Dean grinned his wolf-grin at Sam's panicked face. It should be noticed that Sam hadn't pointed out that Castiel was a boy. Well, that was because it never mattered. Sure, it mattered to Dean, when he wanted things serious. But when he was in his charming mode, it never came in the way. He had always known his power over people. Girls and boys. You just needed to ask Chuck from the store to know how much power. Dean was a charmed magnet and the others were iron balls. Balls were always attracted to him. Ok, that didn't sound right, Dean thought as he noticed Sam glaring at him.
"Calm your pants Sammy boy. I'm just looking to loosen up Snow White. Can't have California frozen by his snowy-ness right?" Dean winked at Sam as the other grunted in frustration.
"You'll land in a cake of trouble. With an expensive cherry on top. Can't you just..let it go?" Sam tried one last time as they climbed up the stairs of the dingy building. The Home was the last place you could call home but it did its purpose of giving a roof. For the past 9 years, the boys had holed up in the shack with 15 other boys and the half-blind Simon.
"I like cake and things are gonna be just fine. You worry too much Sammy." Dean chided without looking at his brother as he flopped on the bug-bitten bed. "One day your head is gonna.."
"..pop like a popcorn. I know." Sam completed the usual dialogue as he lay on his mattress. Well, if Dean was hell-bent on going to hell, he couldn't really stop him. Maybe he could have some fun from this, he thought, as he remembered Castiel's smart-as comeback earlier.
Three streets away, Castiel looked into the mirror and found the blue eyes of his dead mother staring back at him. He just wanted to forget it all. That's why he had moved to California from New York. Taking a deep breath, he walked to his neatly set bed and sat down with fluid grace. This is going to be a good beginning he thought to himself as he looked at the clock ticking away. He couldn't wait to join the new school.
Dean had no such thoughts as his eyes closed with drowsiness. Castiel his mind thought with amusement this is going to be a fun ride.