"Charlie!" Castiel whines as soon as his friend picks up the phone. He's walking home, not the way he usually walks, but really slow. To him it feels like a nightmare, one of those where you run and run but your feet are just stuck in the place, and you move in slow motion while everything around one is on full speed. He can hear Charlie responding at the other end of the line but somehow even the noises seem to stop right before they hit his ear. He hears something familiar: his name. His name is being repeated. He tries to answer, but his tongue moves through jelly now and he hardly manages to gasps out a sound. The voice at the other end stops, before rapidly picking up again. Castiel's brain can't follow. He barely even notices the sound that signalizes the end of the phone conversation. Somehow, and Cas really doesn't know how, he pushed his phone back inside his pockets. His feet feel heavy when he tries lifting them, one at a time. He doesn't get far.

A warm and solid hand on his shoulder tears him out of his state of trance. The hand turns him around to face the person touching him. Castiel thought it would be Charlie or another nice face. He couldn't have been more wrong. Castiel wants to say his name, but his tongue is still stuck, unwilling to form words.

The other boy, Alistair, has an evil grin plastered on his face. "All alone here today?" he mocks. Castiel tries to shake the hand from his shoulder, but the grip keeps getting tighter, his nails digging into Cas' flesh. Finally his mouth is able to make a sound, a pained cry, followed by a groan as Alistair punches into his stomach.

The sweets form earlier say hello and wave goodbye as they land on the sidewalk in front of Castiel.

Alistair jumps away from him, in order to not get any of this on his precious designer shoes. Castiel can't hold himself up any longer and kneels down on the ground, one hand clutching his stomach and the other holding him steady on the ground.

Castiel prepares himself for a punch against his back as he heaves up what's left in his stomach.

Once Cas stops puking, he can feel Alistair coming closer again, he closes his eyes and tenses his muscles. He can hear a car screeching to a halt next to where he's still kneeling on the ground. A door is shut violently, followed by heavy and fast steps. Castiel looks up and behind him, just in time to see Charlie punching her fist in Alistair's face. The sound of her hitting his nose is disgusting. You can hear it crack under Charlie's fingers, she quickly retreats her hand and presses it against her chest. Her eyes wide in shock as she takes in the blood that rushes out of the bully's nose and down his shirt. Alistair looks at her the same, but whereas Charlie is proud of her punch, Alistair is angry. Incredibly angry.

Castiel scrambles to his feet. His vision going blurry and unfocused. He reaches out for Charlie's hands. The touch makes her snap out of it and her shock filled eyes are focused on his. He drags her in the back seats of her car. Thankful to see Anna sitting at the steering wheel with a mix of surprise and something Castiel isn't so sure of. He pushed Charlie towards the other side of the car and follows her inside. Before Castiel manages to fully close the car door behind him, Anna has already started driving again, making the engine roar. Castiel looks out of the back windows, he watches Alistair. His blood running down in between his fingers, and the way his jaw clenches tightly. Cas' stomach jumps at that, but not in the nice way he has gotten so used to over time with Dean.

"Charlie. What the fuck just happened?"

"We could ask the same to you, Cas." Anna states smirking, "By the way, that was amazing, babe."

Anna checks to see Charlie's reaction in the rear view mirror, and grins as she sees Charlie's slight blush creeping up her cheeks.

"No." Cas groans, "You are kidding me, aren't you?"

"What?" Both girls cry in unison.

"Anna, please tell me I am wrong?"

Now it's time for Anna to blush and shyly look away.

Charlie looks at Cas questioningly. Castiel laughs out loud before answering a bit breathless:"Anna is aroused." He starts laughing again like a maniac and it only gets worse as he sees both girls turning a deep shade of red while avoiding anyone's eyes.

Castiel's whole body shakes with laughter, but suddenly something in the atmosphere of the car changes. Cas can feel a warm hand on his and soothing voice close to him. He is handed a pack of tissues, and only then does he realize that his laughter has turned into violent sobs.

After some time Anna announces that they're here. By 'here' she probably means Castiel's house, but as he looks outside they are parked in front of Charlie's. Together they stumble into the house and towards Charlie's bedroom. Castiel excuses himself and goes to the bathroom, trying to clean himself up a bit. He steals some of the floss to wash his mouth from the disgusting taste on his tongue. He washes his face clean from any tear streaks and walks into Charlie's room.

Without saying a word his crosses the room and closes the distance between himself and Charlie. To hell with personal space he things as he hugs his best friend tightly. It's not a normal hug between friends, it's a hug that says a thousand words. The way his hands cling to her shirt and how tight he holds her are enough words for them both to understand.

Even though unnecessary, he thanks Charlie and of course Anna for what they did.

Thankfully both girls chose to ignore his sobbing from earlier and they talk about how much of a badass Charlie is.

Pain flashed through Cas' body when he notices Charlie holding an icepack against her knuckles. There's no way to stop Cas' tears from falling hot and heavy down his cheeks. His best friend got hurt because of him. Because he was to weak to do it himself. Soon the tears are followed by pained sobs and he buries himself against the palms of his hands. Charlie's hands are quickly surrounding him, he can't hear what she whispers in his ear. "I'm sorry." he presses forth and Charlie grips his wrists, he doesn't even try to pull away.

Charlie pulls at his hands and eventually manages separate his tear-slick palms from his face.

"Castiel." He looks up as Charlie says his full name. "I wanted to do this, okay? I wanted to help you, but you know what I wanted to do more?"

Castiel shakes his head.

"I wanted to punch Alistair in the face since day one of freshman year."

Anna chuckles at that, and a small smile tugs at Cas' lips.

"Sorry to tell you that I didn't just do it to save your grace, angel." Castiel rolls his eyes at this.