I left to meet with Castiel after we finished off the rest of the vampires. Sam told me where they knew he was in tracking Dagon (and promised to try and make headway on Dean), and I kind of just showed up at his hotel door a few hours later with my Canada bag slung over my uninjured shoulder (Everything that wasn't in my bag was stashed under the seat of my bike, parked behind the motel), his favorite food (peanut butter and jelly sandwiches) and a large bottle of soda. No real plan or actual heads-up for Cas, I just stood outside his hotel room and realized exactly what I was doing. I was still a bit beat up (my shoulder was wrapped up quite nicely, thanks to Mick, but it was still jacked up), I hadn't even showered, I KNOW I had at least three different bloodstains on my shirt alone, and all I was bringing with me was cheap as shit food.

"Maybe I should shower, at least." I murmured, looking down at myself. Then again, I was already there. I couldn't quite turn around when I was right in front of his door. I knocked hesitantly, and when I heard him come to the door I almost forgot to breath.

The second it opened he crushed me in a hug, and I fought back a wince at my still-injured shoulder being involved in said crushing. "You're here," he whispered, burying his face in my hair. I nodded, wrapping my arms around him as best I could.

"I'm here." I agreed. "To stay, if that's alright."

"Yes," he agreed, nodding. "Of course."

"I brought food." I offered. He still held me close. "And my shoulder is actually a little injured." Castiel let go immediately, examining my shoulder. That was when he actually noticed it was bandaged, about halfway concealed by the shirt I wore.

"I'm sorry." He said immediately. "I didn't see it at first."

"It's no worries." I said, wishing I hadn't brought it up in the first place now.

"How did you hurt it?"

"I… It's a long story." I said. "But I'm here now and if you don't mind I'd like to sit down and eat with you."

"Yes, yes, please come in." He looked a little flustered and uncertain, but he was still happy. "How are you doing?"

"Pretty good." I said, walking in to take a seat in the nearest chair. I looked around the room. Small, but not half bad for a cheap-ass motel. Livable. "We just finished with Project V yesterday, and we took out the Alpha Vamp."

"Is that how your shoulder was injured?" He asked, moving to take a better look at it.

"Might've been," I said, smirking. Castiel gave me an unamused look, and I caved. "I may have thrown an angel blade at said Alpha, and nailed him square in the shoulder by the way," I added, my voice rushed. "However he may have decided to just throw it back at me."

"This was caused by an angel blade?" He asked. I nodded. "And you're not…" He stopped, remembering a few things.

"Witchiness plus angelic grace makes me hard to kill, I guess." I said. "Didn't stop it from hurting like a bitch, though."

"But besides that, you're alright?"

"Oh yeah, I'm downright spiffy." I said, nodding enthusiastically with it. Castiel just shook his head, smiling.

"I missed that." He admitted quietly.

"What, my crappy old-school lingo that I use?"

"You smiling," he explained. "Even when you're probably in a lot of pain and swearing up a storm, you still smile." I couldn't help but smile at that, at how well he knew me. He pointed for a moment at my face, right around where my mouth was. "Like that."

"You're too sweet." I stated. We both sat in our respective spots, staring at each other like… Like… Like nothing else mattered around us, and we were in our own world where there wasn't any war or fears or Nephilim or problems, just us in our own sort of small, pure bubble of happiness.

Like I was Kylie, and he was Castiel, and we both just were in love with each other. We both just… just loved each other so much.

I moved my sleeve out of the way, and Castiel paused for maybe a moment before putting a hand over it. In a matter of minutes, there was nothing left of the wound but a scar. "I'm sorry I can't make it disappear entirely," he said. "Angel blade wounds are different than those of a normal weapon."

"Don't worry about it." I assured him, rolling back down my sleeve. "Are you OK? How have you been?"

"I am fine." He promised. "The hunt for Kelly has gone… less than well, but I'm still working on getting closer."

"How are you, though?" I asked. "I mean, how are you as you?"

"I'm alright." He said, nodding. "Yes, I'm much better now."

"Good." I offered him the food. "You hungry?"

"You remember that, as a celestial being, I physically cannot feel hunger nor have any need to eat, correct?" He asked. I blanched a little, withdrawing the bag of PB&J sandwiches.

"Sorry," I muttered. "It was just a thought. They're your favorite and I didn't want to just show up out of the blue without anything, you know?"

"I am just making a joke with you." He replied, gently taking the bag from me. "Thank you. You didn't have to bring anything." I shrugged.

"I didn't know what else to do." I stated. "It was bring food or feel like a bad guest."

"You are the best guest." He assured me.

That was how the rest of the evening went. We sat, we talked, we laughed, and we just… We were two normal people that hadn't seen each other in a very long time. We didn't worry about work or Hunting. We just talked. He asked more about college and what that had been like. I asked more about how he was adjusting to life on earth. It was just…

It was perfect.

It was exactly what we had both missed.

Once it hit the late AM's I finally let out a yawn, and Castiel checked the time. "You should sleep." He said.

"When do I ever?" I asked in response. He just raised an eyebrow at me. "What? You don't sleep!"

"I don't need to sleep."

"Neither do I."

"We both know that that isn't quite true."

"Give me a few pep pills and I'll be up all night." I offered. Cas rolled his eyes.

"Yes, actually, I remember that," he reminded me. "You lasted three days before you fell asleep for a full 24 hours in my room with me, leaving a stack of five different books and your laptop at the Bunker table to go back to later." He had me there. I hadn't even realized I'd slept an entire day away until he woke me up afterwards to make sure I was still alive.

"I don't have a leg to stand on here, do I?" I asked.

"Actually, you have two." He kept a straight face with that, and I couldn't tell if he was being serious or not. But when he cracked a small smile, I laughed.

"You had me!" I exclaimed, pointing at him. "Oh my gosh, Castiel, master of sass and wit. I didn't expect to see this!"

"I will take that as a compliment." He decided. "And I still think that you need sleep."

"Yeah, yeah." I muttered, nodding. I turned to my bag, rooting around for a toothbrush, toothpaste, and a shirt to sleep in. Then I paused, feeling the urge to double check one last time. "You don't mind that I sleep here, right?"

"Of course not." Castiel assured me. "Actually, if you will wait a moment, I have something for you." Now it was my turn to raise an eyebrow as he walked to his dresser, and pulled something out. When he turned around, I almost froze.

It was a dress shirt. The one he'd handed me years ago, after I'd gone through a bottle of pep pills trying to stay up and do research. I'd gone with him to his room, hadn't had any pajamas, and he'd tossed it to me. I'd just kind of kept wearing it to sleep after that until, well… Until Lucifer, and I'd had to leave it behind.

I hadn't seen it since then.

"It still suits you better than it did me." He said. "If you don't want it, don't feel pressured to. I just... I couldn't quite wear it myself after seeing the clothing on you." He explained. "It didn't look as right on me." He looked away, a little sheepish. I smiled, holding up a hand. The shirt flew from his grasp to mine, and I smiled at the expression on his face.

"It'll be comfier than anything I have." I pointed out. Castiel looked relieved as I stuffed my own shirt back in to my backpack, and disappeared in to his small bathroom. Once I had the small space to myself, I took a moment to relax against a wall and think. I felt like I was back at home. Not the home I'd grown up in, with my mom and dad and siblings, but instead with Castiel. The sense of home and belonging that I had felt with him whenever I was with him, before everything had happened, it had come back as though it never left.

Home was with him, like this. And I finally had my home back. I hadn't felt like this when I was with the Men of Letters, or when I'd been in the cabin. The closest I'd gotten was living with Mrs. Tran, but that was a different sort of home. That was the kind of home where I knew I could always come back, but at the same time leaving for Hunting hadn't been something I'd been entirely against. It was more of a home base, a reminder that I wasn't completely alone. With the cabin, it was always a rest stop; always a temporary stay without any permanent plans in my mind. And with the Men of Letters, it was a sense of acceptance, but not home. I felt comfortable, I felt happy, I felt safe and successful, but it wasn't home. It was… just a job I was really good at.

With Castiel, I was finally home. I felt relaxed and happy.

I took a moment to take a shower first, grateful to get the dirt and grime and vampire off of me. From there I got dressed for bed, brushed my teeth, and walked out feeling as though everything was completely right. It wasn't a back to normal feeling, or a reverting to my past. It was a feeling of being able to move forwards confidently, and without fear. Cas and I could do this.

I felt good about that.

Castiel's face was an almost perfect imitation of that look from the first time he handed me the dress shirt, right down to the slack-jawed expression with it. "You gonna stay up a while longer?" I asked.

"I… I think I may lie down for a few minutes, if you don't mind."

"No problem!" With that, I made myself comfortable on the bed, moving to my usual side. Castiel joined me a little bit later, the biggest smile on his face. I didn't ask what it was for, I already knew. I was wearing a matching smile myself, after all.

It felt nice, being cuddled back up to him. I felt comfortable, warm, happy. Castiel's hands rested gently on my back, offering a small squeeze of a hug for a moment.

"Kylie?" He asked.

"Yeah?"

"I want to make you a promise." He stated.

"Why?"

"Because this is one that needs to be said, and one that I intend on keeping." His voice was serious. I sat up from his embrace a little, looking him in the eyes.

"What's wrong, Cas?" I asked.

"You were right." He said. "You are a different person than the one I moved in to an apartment with. It does not mean I love you any less, though," he said that sentence quickly, almost afraid that I would misconstrue his words. "But it means that I am aware of who you are now. You're more…" He thought for a moment. "No, you're not more of anything," he corrected. "It's the same you, just with different aspects heightened now, and in different ways. Headstrong. Intelligent. Aware. Wary." He paused for a moment. "You smile differently. Less pure happiness, more in acknowledgement."

"You're not making a lot of sense." I pointed out.

"I'm sorry. Let me try again." He took a breath, reorganizing the words in his head. "You have become more serious and still more headstrong, as though you aged fifty years inside your mind." That, I understood clearer. I nodded for him to continue. "And in acknowledgement of you being different, I know that our relationship will probably be different, but I do still want one." His hand moved to my neck, lightly pulling on the chain until the ring was revealed. "Do you?"

"Yeah." I agreed. "I do. I wouldn't be here if I didn't."

"Then I want this time to be different." He said. "I don't want us to be leaving each other without speaking with the other first. I don't want either of us to feel abandoned or hurt."

"You want us to be in this together, united." I summed up. He nodded.

"I want to do better." He added. "I don't want to leave you like I did, or make you feel as though you need to leave me. I want us to work together, and to want to work together. So I am promising you," he gripped the ring tightly, pressing it in to his palm. "That I will be in this together with you, as long as you will have me with you. I will not abandon you or stop communicating with you. I will rectify the mistakes of the past so that we may move forwards as a stronger couple. I want us… To be a better us. A stronger us." He looked up at me, his gaze staring deep in to mine. "And I promise you that I will work towards that; that I will work to rectify what happened."

"And in return," I took a small breath. "I promise to not disappear and violate your memory like that again. I know that was an absolutely awful thing to do," I said. "And I felt awful every day that I did that to you. I don't want to leave either, I want this to work and for us to be us again with our new differences." He smiled at that. "We're in this together. You and me."

"You and me." Castiel agreed. I smiled, leaning down to kiss him. His hand found its way to my hair automatically, deepening the kiss. He smiled against my lips afterwards, looking absolutely happy.

"Thank you." He whispered. I settled back in to sleep, my head on his chest.

"I'm just happy to be with you again." I admitted. "I missed you."

"I missed you as well." Castiel let his hands rest gently on my back again, and I smiled. It had been a long day, but this made it all worth it right here.

I fell asleep with ease, still smiling.

When I woke up, though, it was difficult. Castiel was asleep, which shocked me immensely for about a second. He was squirming, shaking his head. He looked scared, his eyes clenched shut tightly.

"Cas," I whispered, shaking him. He kept squirming, kept shaking his head. "Castiel. Cas, wake up, you're dreaming. Cas!" I shook him a little harder. He woke up startled, his eyes flickering around the room until he saw me and grasped my shoulders.

"Kylie," he said, breathing heavily. "Kylie, you're alive. You're OK."

"Of course I am, Cas." I promised. "What's wrong? You don't need sleep."

"I have been… indulging in it." He said. "I missed the human activity of sleeping, so I learned how to imitate it even though I do not require it."

"And you… you dream?"

"Sometimes, yes." He admitted.

"Are you alright?" I asked. "Nightmare?"

"Yes." He said.

"You wanna talk about it?"

"I… I don't know."

"Well, how about this," I sat up straight, leaning my back against the headboard. Castiel followed suit, sitting up next to me. "Remember when Kevin died? And I was having awful nightmares?"

"Yes."

"And you stayed with me, we stayed up and talked until I fell asleep again."

"Yes."

"If you'd like, we don't have to talk about your nightmare." I offered. "We can just… Just talk about whatever."

"OK." He agreed, thinking for a moment. "You stopped having nightmares. How do you do it?"

"Well, it's in part because I kind of have to stop." I explained. "My magic is tied in part to my emotions just as much to my intent and cognitive brain. When I fall asleep, if I have nightmares," I remembered the first few nights of living with Mrs. Tran. I had to put spellwork around the room after I woke up in the middle of the first night. I'd almost drowned out the room, which I was thankful for because it was either that, a cyclone, or a bit of flame action. Water damage could be fixed a lot easier, at least for me. After that, I'd had to put enchantments on myself and the area until I got it under control. "If I don't set things up beforehand, I kind of trash the area."

"So what did you do?"

"I enchanted a small vial and wore it around my neck at night." I said. "It was easier that way. Any magic I did in my sleep was redirected to the vial, and there were safeguards in the room to make sure it was safe if there was any overflow. And once I woke up, I emptied out the vial in to Mrs. Tran's garden." I smiled. "She never knew why it suddenly looked better than the neighbors, but those neighbors were insanely jealous."

"Wow."

"Yeah. And once the vial started turning up empty every night, I stopped doing it. Still put the safeguards up in rooms, though." I shrugged. "Just in case."

"Do you still have the vial?" I stood up after that, and turned on the lights as Iwent to my Canada bag. I pulled it out from a small side pocket, and held it up for him to see. "I keep it on me no matter what." I said. "Just in case it happens again."

"How come you didn't put up wardings in here?"

"I don't have nightmares with you." I said. "I don't know why, I just… They don't happen with you." It was true. I hadn't had a nightmare any time I slept beside him. He'd woken me up from plenty, but he was never in the room with me when they happened. I'd always chocked it up to him just being… Him.

I put it back in my bag, and walked over to the bed once more. "Do you ever fear that you will need to wear it again?"

"Yeah," I admitted, crawling to sit back beside him. "But I have it in case I ever lose control. I don't want to become a…. a thing that Sam and Dean would have to hunt. This is what would protect everyone else from that ever happening."

"It won't." Castiel assured me. "You are not a bad thing."

"I'm a witch." I said, shrugging. "If I'm not careful, I'm dead." We both sat in silence for a while, the heavy weight of those words resting over both of us.

No. This wasn't how this was supposed to work. We were supposed to relax with each other, this was supposed to be calming not making us feel worse. "What's your favorite color?" I asked. He laughed. "What?" I asked, laughing a little myself. "What's so funny?"

"I asked you the same question," he answered, still laughing a little bit. "After I woke you from your nightmare. You told me it was red." He looked over at my hair.

"That's why I dyed it this." I said. "I always thought I would be a better redhead than a blonde."

"I miss the blonde." Cas admitted. "But I do like the change as well."

"Thanks." I smiled, casting him a sideways glance. "It doesn't make me look too much like Rowena?"

"Not at all."

"I could probably do that, if I wanted to try to." I pointed out. "Make myself look like Rowena, or any other person for that matter. It's just a question of figuring out the right spellwork in tandem with the right physics."

"I actually understand what you're talking about." Castiel said. "Angels and some of our powers work in the same way."

"Really?"

"Yeah."

"Huh." I thought on that. "Never really put two and two together in my head."

"What did you think it was?"

"God magic." We both laughed at that.

"God magic?" Castiel asked.

"Seriously. God magic." I confirmed. "And you never answered my original question. What's your favorite color?"

"Brown."

"Like your coat or like your truck?"

"Like dirt." He answered.

"Why dirt?"

"It's simple." He said. "Natural. Calming and peaceful."

"Nice. What about… Hmmm…. What kind of music do you like?"

"Dean loaned me a tape of Led Zeppelin songs that I enjoy." He said.

"Really? You got Stairway to Heaven on that tape?"

"I believe so, yes." I laughed a little again.

"Dean's got a sense of humor." I decided.

"I like it." Castiel defended.

"I do too." I agreed. "It's a nice song. Calming and peaceful." I mimicked his tone as I said it. We stayed silent for a bit until Castiel spoke again.

"Kylie," his voice changed, and I could feel hesitancy in it. "Do you… Do you think that I keep failing?"

"What do you mean?"

"Exactly that. I feel as though I continue to fail at endeavors I attempt." He explained. "And I don't want to. I work so hard to do well and succeed but… It just doesn't work."

"I still think you succeed." I stated.

"You do?"

"Yeah."

"How?"

"Well, lets put things in to perspective." I offered. "Name something you think you failed at."

"Keeping track of Kelly."

"Dude, she's a pregnant woman." I said. "She's all hormonal and shit, and knowing she's Lucifer's baby momma probably isn't helping. She's doing what any woman would do, trying to figure out her shit and do what she thinks is right." I shrugged. "Not your fault. Not a failure. Besides, you're not even done with trying to find her yet, so you can't make conclusive decisions on whether you've done good or not."

"What about keeping you alive?"

"Which time?" I offered a small smirk, but he didn't share the joke this time. "Cas, I'm my own individual person. You can't control what I do or consider me a failure or success. We're just… People. Doing our own things."

"But I did fail you. Multiple times." Castiel argued. "I failed to keep you alive, to keep you safe, to marry you," he shook his head. "I did fail there."

"Trial and error." I said. "You do your best, you do what you think is right and hope for the best. It's an entirely human quality, and you're still figuring out the kinks. It takes time."

"I am older than you, and Sam and Dean, yet you three seem to have a firm handle on doing the right thing correctly."

"We've been doing it longer." I pointed out. "You've been on Earth, what? Eight years, give or take?" I shrugged. "I've been on Earth doing this for over 20, and Sam and Dean have been for easily over 35. We have more practice. You've only got eight years of doing this, and trust me, no eight-year-old does the right thing correct all the time."

"Still," he sounded wistful. I cut him off before he could finish his thought.

"Cas, you're doing something good right now." I said. "You're looking for Kelly. You're trying to save her as well as everyone else from Lucifer's damn kid. And as far as I can tell, it hasn't turned to bad just yet. You're you," I reached down to grasp his hand. He looked at it, rubbing his thumb slowly across my knuckles. "And you're just doing the best you can in a world you weren't technically built to inhabit, you know? You're an angel. You were made to follow orders originally, not give them or take initiative. And I've gotta say," I squeezed his hand a little. "For defying your factory settings and going all I, Robot on the world, you're not doing a half bad job. You're just doing the best you can."

"Thank you." He said, and he sounded like he meant it; like he believed what I was saying. "Do you think that… That I can succeed this time?"

"I don't place bets or fall in love with people who I don't believe can do good." I replied. "I wouldn't be here if I didn't believe in you."

"You always have believed." He commented. "Even when things were at their darkest, you always had faith in me."

"Why wouldn't I?"

"I believe my track record speaks for itself."

"Yeah, well, I guess I'm not smart enough to see that as relevant, then." I offered.

"You are extremely intelligent."

"Then I guess your track record isn't relevant." I reiterated. "Besides, if you really wanna run track records, look at mine." I held up my free hand, counting off my history. "I couldn't save my family, and ran when they died." That was one. "I didn't call Dean for months after you first gave me his number, because I didn't believe he existed or could help." Two. "I was supposed to guard Kevin and we both got captured." Three. "I died afterwards because I was too stubborn to not go." Four. "And now I'm kind of somewhat OK friends with the guy that killed my family and tried to kill me until he actually succeeded because of aforementioned stubbornness." That was five. I was gonna need another hand if I wanted to continue. "I've got a pretty fucked track record myself, Cas. And Sam and Dean aren't any better." I closed my fist and made a new list. "Demon blood, Mark of Cain, selling their souls, trusting Metatron, aaaaaaand trusting Gadreel, to name a few." I closed my fist again, and let it rest back beside me. "Everyone does the right things for the right reasons, at least in their minds. Everyone tries to do good and get the best outcomes from it, to get a win or a success. But everyone also fails a few times in their life, and sometimes you get in a failing streak. It sucks." I shrugged. "But it happens. You just gotta keep doing your best until you finally break your slump."

"And what do I do after I 'break my slump,' as you put it?" He asked.

"What do you want to do?"

"I would like to take you out for dinner." He said. "When this is all over. No magic. No angels. No demons. No Nephilim. No… Hunting." He decided. "None of any of this. Just us, as an ordinary human couple."

"You realize we're both the absolute farthest things from ordinary, right?"

"Yes," he agreed. "But… I liked being human." His eyes stayed forwards, and he smiled a little as he focused not on the beige wall in front of him, but on a memory. "I liked being human with you, and leading a human life. I felt like… Like I truly was doing the right thing again, without the worries of failure."

"But that's not what life is." I pointed out.

"What do you mean?"

"Life is about failing," I explained. "It's about making mistakes and screwing up and making a complete ass out of yourself, but at the end of the day…" I thought for a moment. "You pick yourself back up, dust yourself off, and you keep trying."

"How do you remain so optimistic?"

"AP physics." I answered. "That was the worst year of my life."

"Really?"

"No." He laughed. "It was a pain in the ass, though. I think the only reason I passed was because I brought the teacher brownies during tutoring sessions. Other than that, though, it sucked. I hated it, but now I understand it, and I can put it with chemistry and magic to do, well," I looked around the room for a moment, trying to find a specific thing. The light switch. That would work. I grabbed a piece of paper from the nightstand and crumpled it in to a small ball before throwing it at the opposite wall as hard as I could. With the help of magic, as hard as I could turned in to being able to make one wall to bouncing it off of all four before it hit the light switch, effectively shutting it off.

"You could've just done that with magic." He pointed out.

"You can feel it." I answered. "I know you can, like how I can. Do you really think that?" He didn't answer for a moment.

"No." He said. "No, you didn't. You're right, I can feel it."

"Yeah." I flicked my index finger towards the light switch, and it flipped back on. "That time I used magic though."

"How does it feel?" He asked. "Doing that? Knowing how to use your magic?"

"Good." I said. "Like a switch flipped in my head. I could see things differently, once I finally got the hang of it. Like…" There was no good way to explain what I saw now, like how I saw the current from the light switch through the wall to the bulb and the opportunities with it. Turning off and on the light from the switch itself, amplifying the current to a point that would make the bulb burst, completely destroying the circuit or changing just one part of it so that the light is filtered in to another room, all without moving from my seat. I could unscrew the bulb and screw it in somewhere else, or light a fire inside of it that could sustain itself until I left, never destroying the bulb or the filaments inside but burning brighter than the electricity could ever do.

And that was just with the simple lights. That wasn't including anything about the air around us, the water and combustibility and little bits of dust and dirt all swirling within it. That wasn't including the furniture and how easy it would be to warp and twist and burn and change. That wasn't including the feel and thrum of magic and power just under my own fingertips, awaiting the moment I needed to leave and be somewhere else, be it outside the window or the room or in a whole other state.

There was no good way that I could ever explain that to him.

"Like the individual molecules have all become apparent to you." Castiel said. "And you can see more than you ever thought you would."

"Yeah." That was a good way. "Is it the angel grace or just… me?"

"I don't know." He told me honestly. "Does it matter?"

"I don't know either." I admitted.

"Are you happy as who you are?"

"Yeah."

"You wouldn't change it?"

"Not even a little bit." I said. "I made my peace with my past. I've made my peace with who I am now, and I feel better for it. Just because I'm a witch doesn't make me automatically bad." I smiled at that. "And just because you've made mistakes before doesn't mean they'll happen again."

Out of the corner of my eye I saw Castiel glancing outside. The sun was starting to rise. "I kept you awake." He stated. "For much longer than I probably should have."

"Eh, I don't mind." I smiled over at him. "Besides, we've got things to do, don't we? Finding Kelly, figuring things out, whole nine."

"Are you sure you do not require more rest?"

"Yeah, I'll be fine."

"Alright." We both sat there for a while in comfortable silence, waiting for the sun to fully come up and shine through the windows. It was nice, talking like this and being with each other and just… Just us. Just being us and being together and not really having to worry too much. It was relaxing.

I looked at the light with curiosity. I hadn't really ever tried to mess with light before, I didn't think I could. Then again, I could mess with fire. I could mess with electricity. Angel magic caused me to exude light if I healed myself or another person (which was very rare. I still didn't have a complete understanding as to how to use it all properly, save for the small bits here and there). Could I change the light entirely? The sun is just one big ball of fire, after all.

Then again, did I want to?

I chose to move the dust and dirt in the air instead until it created shapes in the shadows on the floor. I made wings first, but that was too easy. I wanted to challenge myself, to put forward effort and see what I could do.

"Hey, Cas?" The words formed in the shadows as well, and I could see his gaze fixed on them.

"Yes?"

"Do you have a favorite book?" I asked. "Or song? I know that Metatron forced all of that information in your head, but I was curious."

"I quite enjoy a song from a mixtape that Dean gave me."

"Dean gave you a mixtape?" Music notes filled the shadows on staves, rolling across the limited expanse of light that they had.

"Yes." He nodded. "A small compilation of Led Zeppelin songs."

"Is Stairway to Heaven on there?" The shadows formed in to a small stairway, leading up in to a pretty good looking group of shadow clouds.

"Yes." I laughed.

"What's so funny?"

"Just that song." I said. "And that it's on a tape Dean gave you."

"I don't think I understand the reference you're making."

"I'll explain it on the road." I promised. "But which one is your favorite?"

"I don't really know." He admitted.

"Well, then name one off the track." He thought for a moment.

"I enjoy the simplicity of 'Nobody's Fault But Mine.'" He finally said.

"Ok." I pulled out my phone and did a quick search for the song. A few minutes later, it was playing through my small cell speakers.

Nobody's fault but mine

Nobody's fault but mine

Trying to save my soul tonight

It's nobody's fault but mine

The shadows started dancing with the lyrics, first turning in to the image of a person running. They shifted in to him jumping for something, an eye, before missing and falling down through the light.

Devil he told me to roll

Devil he told me to roll

How to roll the log tonight

Nobody's fault but mine

The shadow person hit an imaginary sense of earth, and started rolling as a pitchfork rose behind it. He stood up, and in a quick motion jumped again to reach for a large log. This time, though, the shadow man reached it.

Brother he showed me the gong

Brother he showed me the ding dong ding dong

How to kick that gong to light

Oh, it's nobody's fault but mine

The shadow swung it's log at a gong, sending it sailing out of the light and shadows I controlled until it reached what appeared to be the edges, and exploded in its own version of light.

Got a monkey on my back

Got a monkey on my back

Gonna change my ways tonight

Nobody's fault but mine

The log transformed in to a monkey, holding the eye above the person's head just out of reach. It jumped up and down, beating the person down until it got smart and grabbed the monkey. Once it did, it fought him for the eye, struggling to acquire the idol.

I will get down rollin' tonight

Once he had the eye in his own grip, the monkey dissolved in to dust and dirt before disappearing from the light.

Nobody's fault

The eye was thrown in to the air, until it was the only thing left to see in my own shadows. I dissipated them after a few moments, smiling at my handiwork. I couldn't control light like that, but I could control the shadows it created. Castiel looked over at me.

"Why did you do that?" He asked.

"I didn't know if I could." I admitted. "And now I know."

"So now that you know, what do you do?" I felt as though he wasn't talking about the shadows anymore. I looked over at him, leaned over, and kissed him. Once I pulled away, I smiled.

"I get up and get dressed." I said. "And move on to the next thing." I got up and started getting ready for the day, almost to punctuate my words. Castiel waited a while until he spoke again.

"You may be a different Kylie," he finally decided. "But you've got the same stubborn determination, as well as the same curiosity."

"Is that a bad thing?" I asked him, raising an eyebrow. He got up and came in close, wrapping his arms around me tightly.

"No." He said. "It's one of the things I love about you."