A/N: I'm so sorry it's been so long! I've had loads on but hopefully should be getting back to normal updating now. Throwing in some Doctor Who references and Monty Python references, yay. A bit of plot thickening and Destiel angst because I can. Thank you so much for the amazing response to the previous chapters, it's been lovely! Please review and let me know what you think! Enjoy.
Two weeks passed and Castiel loved going to school and grew closer with Dean and the rest of his friend group. Sam and Jess had been an item for a while and Sam was infatuated and constantly in a state of bliss. Everything was great.
It was a Saturday morning and Dean had left for work after telling Sammy to take Jess back by eleven if he didn't get back before. As he waited by the bus stop at the end of his dusty road he thought about how everything seemed to be fitting into place recently. His life had been going so smoothly he'd almost felt normal for a while, he was slowly adjusting to civilian life and letting himself relax, not too much though, obviously. He was overjoyed for Sam but was wary he was head over his heels far too quickly and just hoped it didn't come crashing down on him.
Also he thought about how close he'd gotten to Cas recently. The guy was practically his opposite in most ways but they seemed to just fit each other perfectly. They were inseparable at school and most nights after school. He stayed over and if Gabriel came to pick Cas up some nights, he'd stay for a while and all four of them catch a movie or order in some food and just have a laugh. It all seemed a little too right, too good to be true but Dean cast that thought out of his mind, forcing himself to remain positive. Just then his bus came around the corner to pick him up from his dirty street and take him to the nicer part of town, way out on the outskirts, near where Cas lives come to think of it, Dean observed as they drove along.
He neared the stop and got off, straightening the collar on his jacket and walking towards the library. He checked in with Missouri, who kissed both of his cheeks and told him to take care of that over grown brother of his, before she left and left him the keys to lock up later on.
The library was dead, just the way Dean loved it to be. He chose this moment to pull out his music books from his bag and began to scrawl down a tune being composed in the orchestra of his mind. He took the music through a range of emotions and began to build into a crescendo filling his thoughts with notes and beats and melody and harmonies and-
"Is that music?" A voice brought him crashing down from his fantasy podium that music elevated him to when he let himself go with it. He slammed the book away, a little too violently and, without looking up, coughed awkwardly as he spoke to the desk.
"No. No it's.. No. It's not, its- No. …No." He finished smoothly and when he looked up blinked in shock.
"Hello, Dean." Castiel said, hair readily tousled, of course, shining blue eyes screaming 'guaranteed customer satisfaction every time' at Dean who shook himself, where had that thought come from, this was Cas for crying out loud.
"Dude, what the hell are you doing here?" He groaned, realising his cover was well and truly blown and his reputation utterly ruined. Castiel raised an eyebrow and smirked.
"I don't mean any offence, Dean, but who is the more unlikely candidate to be in the library out of the two of us… on a Saturday?" Dean narrowed his eyes and Cas' smirk grew slightly.
"Yeah, yeah. Point taken." He grumbled, defeated.
"You never told me that you worked here, Dean." Castiel said with interest and Dean groaned again.
"I've never told anyone, except Sammy. Now everyone's gonna' know what a total dork I am.." He said trailing off.
"I'm not going to tell anyone if you don't want me to, Dean." Castiel said simply with a content smile on his face and Dean frowned at him.
"What, seriously? Dude, that'd be awesome. I dunno' it's just kinda' lame to work in a freaking library, a total turn off too." He said with a shudder as he imagined the comments.
"I disagree; I think it'd be kind of hot." Castiel said quietly and picked a book up off of the shelf near to the counter and scanned the blurb as Dean tried to catch his breath after being winded by Castiel's 'matter-of-fact' nonchalant comment. He cleared his throat, collecting himself and letting the colour fade from his face.
"Well, yeah, you would." He said, plastering on his regular cheeky smile and Castiel snorted with laughter, agreeing.
They spent the rest of the day at the library and then when Dean closed up and they both had to go home they agreed to meet up the later that night to do their math work that'd been set. All in all Dean's day so far had been pretty great but Cas' comment about working in a library being 'hot' was plaguing his mind. Dean knew he meant if it was someone else, a girl, right?
XXXXXXX
As soon as he got home Dean knew something was wrong, it was just in the air as he walked to the door of his house. He opened it silently, his hunter instincts kicking in and closed it equally as mutely, not letting himself slip. It was dark in the house and when he went to the kitchen to get the shotgun he stopped, shocked as he opened the door.
The light was on and John was in the kitchen, hurrying about grabbing bits here and there from around the kitchen. For a hunt. An angel hunt.
Sam was sat at the table watching his Father move hurriedly making no attempt at movement or anything for that matter which was unlike him. Then Dean saw the tear tracks so very nearly disguised by the deliberate smudge of oil he'd smeared on his face in disguise. He instantly knew something had happened between Sam and Jess. Poor kid. But he had more pressing issues, if Dad was back and there was an angel in town he was going to need some back up short notice, and that probably meant Dean and Sam.
"Hey, Dad." Dean said. John looked up at him
"Get your gear, Dean. We've got an angel around here. Sammy, you're coming too, we need all hands on deck for this one." He said, clearly unhappy about bringing Sam along. Dean tried to calm the sickening feeling in his stomach as he saw Sam's distracted state and took in John's words.
"Dad, Sam can't go he's completely fried."
"Dean, I don't like it anymore than you do, but the more we have on this job the more likely we can get the bastard." John said without looking at him and Dean felt his anger flare at the fact his Father was willing to risk the life of his brother for the sake of one stupid angel hunt.
"Dad, he could get himself killed!-"
"Enough, Dean!" John bellowed and the two boys both straightened their backs and cast their eyes to the floor as the voice of their sergeant emerged and they regressed to soldier stance.
"Sam is coming on this hunt, you understand?"
"Yes, sir." Dean bit out and then marched away to get ready, feeling more sick by the second.
XXXXXXX
They followed the trail of grace down a long and empty road that was surrounded by trees. One night every couple of months, mature angels had to go away from civilisation and 'weep'. This meant letting out all the excess grace that'd built up over the months. The build up happens as they can't use their grace near humans and have to release it or it destroys them or explodes outwards and kills everything within a half mile radius. When they had to go and 'weep' – a term hunters gave them – they were most vulnerable as they couldn't control their powers properly, couldn't see anything due to the light that surrounded them when weeping and left a trail of grace which could be followed by hunters. However, weeping angels were deadly as their power was greatest at this period in time and could be even more dangerous as they had no control and could release their power at any given moment.
It usually took about four experienced and skilled hunters to track and kill an angel, which is why John had to have a lot of connections and friends to get the jobs done each time. However, this time no one had been able to come down quick enough and John refused to sit around as they went around killing people and so had dragged out his two boys on their first ever angel hunt and it was extremely risky. They wore hoods in case the angel got close enough to see them and also to shroud their eyes slightly from the blinding light they produced when weeping, but this also made it even more difficult to see and just furthered the dangerous manner of the hunt.
Had it been a wendigo or a skinwalker John may have been more logical, but with angels all of his hunter know how flew out of the window and tactics were non-existent, all that mattered was killing the thing and getting it's 'scum' off of the Earth.
As they closed in on the angel the trail got stronger. The grace was visibly shining on the floor in the moonlight.
"Careful boys, never taste grace, it completely throws you and you just do what feels natural and lose all sense of logic and self control and you could end up getting yourself killed." John hissed as they crept forward. The light got stronger and Dean's eyes stung as he forced himself to keep his guard up fully, struggling to see at all. A branch snapped under someone's foot and the light flickered. Shit. It knew they were here and there was now only one thing for it, attack before it could collect itself.
John surged forwards, fury releasing itself even with his legendary self control. He was thrown backwards and landed on the ground with a thud a few metres away. Dean took his turn and raised the angel blade that was already prepared in his hand, however the angel had turned and Sam was standing, unprepared, completely vulnerable. Dean threw himself in front of Sam, throwing back his brother into the protection of the dark and the angel immediately went for Dean. Dean got in one fatal slam of his knife before he was launched back and slammed into a tree, cracking his head and blacking out slowly as he felt blood trickling down his face.
XXXXXXX
Dean cracked open his eyes, his head throbbed in pain as he sat up. He stood up quicker than he intended and the dizzying sensation nearly made him throw up but he managed to stabilise himself before he was forced to eject the contents of his stomach. When he left his room he found his brother pacing outside who immediately rushed to him when Den appeared from behind his door.
"Hey, I'm fine. T'is but a scratch!" Dean quoted with a laugh, trying to make light of things. Sam's face didn't ease an inch and simply had confusion added to the pic n' mix of emotions playing with his features.
"Dude, Monty Python. …Seriously? How are you my brother?!" He exclaimed jokily again but regretted it with a wince of pain as his head throbbed again.
"Dean!" Sam scolded; worry giving his brow creases that were specifically for the purpose of worrying about Dean. But his face quickly fell into one of shame and despair as he hung his head.
"I'm so sorry, Dean. I completely screwed up, it's lucky you didn't get killed."
"Ah, come one, Sammy, don't do that to yourself. You were distracted. Dad was an idiot. And all I did was save your ass, like I always have and always will. It's no big deal, just a bumped head, don't get your panties in a twist, okay, little brother?" He said sternly and Sam sighed and nodded, still not fully placated.
"Now go do homework, or debate club practice, or whatever you geeks do on a Saturday night." Dean said with an authoritive smirk and Sam sighed again and trudged off to his room and shortly after his lame music was playing full blast, making the house vibrate comfortably. Sam knew Dean didn't mind and it clearly meant John had left if he was playing his music. Their Father had either gone to a bar, in which case he certainly wouldn't be back tonight, or he'd left again, in which case they'd not see him for another couple of weeks. Basically John wasn't winning any Father of the year awards.
When Dean heard a knock at the door he put down his can of beer – which had been refilled with something far stronger more times than he'd care to mention, turned the television to mute and hobbled to the door, a slight stabbing pain in his leg making walking risky. He caught sight of himself in the mirror in the hall and winced seeing his bruised face and clearly bloodstained head, strapped up with a bandage, disappearing into his hair but majorly visible from the front. He sighed, charms of the trade – you get souvenirs, he thought to himself as he went for the door. As he opened he heard a gasp.
"Dean! What happened to you? Are you okay?" Castiel asked in a flurry at seeing his friend's beaten and bandaged state. Dean had forgotten completely about his plans with Cas.
"Oh, Crap, Cas, sorry I totally forgot about us meeting up. Do you mind if we do this another time?" He said softly and apologetically, avoiding the question, as he went to close the door but unlike his other friends who would've accepted that when Dean was in this state you should leave him be, Castiel was having none of it. He whipped out his hand pushing the door, easily overpowering Dean in his feeble state and his eyes widened when he saw all of Dean, practically crippled as he hunched over in obvious pain.
"Dean," He breathed after closing the door.
"What happened to you?" Castiel asked again. Dean shrugged and then cried out when his shoulder protested noisily. Castiel moved forwards immediately to help but Dean's pride wouldn't allow him to accept any help and he backed off, shaking his head.
"Sam got into a situation, so I pulled him out and got a little bump on the way out, but don't worry Sammy's fine." Dean said casually and Castiel's eyes widened even further.
"What about you?!" He said as he followed Dean's hobbling form down the hallway.
"I'm fine, Cas." But his body betrayed him as he was ambushed by a pain in his leg and went plummeting to the ground and Castiel instantly swooped in and pulled him steady. Dean muttered a thanks and allowed himself to be steered to the living room. It was getting later now and Castiel had been worried that it was too late to hang out and hadn't bothered to bring any work at this time but couldn't resist seeing Dean twice in one day and Michael had allowed it. However now he purely concerned about Dean. Clearly something major had happened but he was unwilling to talk about it for some reason and it bothered Castiel.
They both sat down on the sofa, music was pumping through the house, clearly not Dean's taste, as Castiel watched Dean pour more whiskey into his beer bottle, who was he kidding? He spilt it over himself and Cas realised Dean must've been very drunk and took the bottle away from Dean who barely put up a fight, he was just so sleepy and the alcohol made his vision blurred and the pain numbed and he couldn't choose between succumbing to sleep or Cas.
"Dean, are you going to tell me what really happened?" Castiel asked softly, hoping he could maybe use Dean's drunken state to obtain some information, even though he felt bad about it, he was terrified Dean was getting abused or something. But then again he was always on his own, so that couldn't be it. Come to think of it, Cas had never seen Dean's Mom ever once.
"Cas, please just… just please don't. I just need you to, I mean, just, can you…" Dean's words were slurred and he was looking directly into Cas' eyes as his startlingly bright ones tried to tell him the truth that he couldn't say out loud. Castiel gulped at the small space between them and Dean only moved closer.
"Dean, you are very drunk." Castiel stated, going to move away, he needed to leave before something got out of control but Dean shot out a hand to his and tugged him back, still holding onto his hand tightly when Cas was back sitting. Castiel gulped again as Dean's eyes slipped to his lips several times and the air between them seemed to grow thinner as the lack of oxygen made both boys' heads spin for different reasons.
"Cas, I… I mean… I like your lips." Dean said croakily, but it was the only sentence not slurred and he seemed to be genuinely entranced. Castiel's heart was racing, crashing against the cage of his ribs as if trying to escape, to get closer to Dean.
"You- You do?" Castiel whispered, his breathing shallow. Dean frowned and nodded. He slowly inched his head closer, and Castiel fought with himself. Dean was really, very drunk and if he did remember this he'd be pissed. It could ruin their friendship. It could make rumours go around school. It could complicate everything but…
Dean was going to kiss him.
Dean brought his hand to the side of Cas' face and let his fingers trace down the side of his cheek before letting his hand rest there and incredibly slowly tilting Castiel's head up so their lips were a centimetre away and Castiel was looking up at Dean. It could be so perfect.
But Castiel couldn't. He didn't want it to be like this, their first and maybe only kiss a drunken, possibly forgotten mistake on a random night that would be buried and never spoken about and could ruin their whole friendship.
He took Dean's hand from his face and painfully tore himself away from Dean. He pushed Dean into a lying position on the couch and shushed his protests and told him he needed to sleep. Dean was out in seconds once he was free from Cas' alluring glow and Castiel fought back his emotions as he placed the only thing he could, his jacket, over Dean's sleeping form and left. As he opened the door he cursed. A blizzard was falling thickly, he'd clearly let his powers go again, only the scary thing this time was he didn't even noticed. Dean just did that to him. He should distance himself from Dean, put as much space between them as he could, in fact, for everyone's safety.
But he couldn't. It was Dean.
XXXXXXX
When he got home, shivering, having caught a cold from walking home, as he'd missed the last bus, and it was snowing heavily and his jacket was on the sleeping body of Dean Winchester.
He let himself in when he reached his door and was immediately hit by a wall of sound. Shouts, cries, screams of pain that made his stomach drop. He ran into the living room and sprawled of the sofa was Michael, Castiel had thought he was supposed to be weeping tonight. He was bleeding from a gaping wound in his side, his grace pouring from his body.
"M-Michael!"
A/N: Shoved in a load of fandom references for all the fangirls out there so let me know what you thought. I hope this was alright, I needed to add some underlying tension between angels and hunters for later reveals and things. Please let me know what you thought, what you'd like to see next chapter, or anything at all in a review it helps me so much and is amazing! Also I hope you liked the Destiel in this chapter, a bit more angsty than usual. Hope you enjoyed. Thanks for reading!
