It happened during a case in Colorado, Castiel had appeared without a word and tagged along, nothing unusual there.
He was as quiet as ever, appearing and reappearing at random intervals and giving little to no comment about the case. He hadn't mentioned the seals, so Dean guessed the angel was just… doing whatever was it that he did. Watching them, accessing them, who the hell knows?
For some reason, he decided to join the brothers when they went to speak with the wife of one of the victims. Things were fine up until the three stepped through the door and a little girl no older than 8 popped from around the corner, a curious look on her before her face lit up.
"This is my daughter Maddie." The woman introduced, just for her daughter to jump out from behind the wall and run up straight towards Castiel, stopping right infront of him and pointing at him while looking at her mother.
"Mommy, look! He glows too!" She called out excitedly. Her words making the brothers raise their eyebrows while the woman quickly hurried to grab her daughter and pull her away.
"Maddie, darling. Why don't you go play in your room?"
The girl seemed ready to protest, yet ended up doing as told, disappearing up the stairs.
"I'm so sorry about that." The woman, Tori, apologized. "She's… she hasn't been taking well the death of her father."
"We understand." Sam assures.
As the brothers follow after the woman. Castiel doesn't move, staring at the top of the stairs with a frown. That child…
"Cas? You coming?" Dean calls in a whisper, pulling him out of his thoughts and joining the others in the living room.
Unlike Castiel, Sam and Dean don't give mind to the girl's words until the three leave the house half an hour later.
"Wait!" Maddie calls as she closes the door behind her, running across the yard holding something, stopping yet again infront of Castiel and holding out a slip of paper.
Sam and Dean shamelessly peeking from behind to see.
A drawing.
It looks like a somewhat humanoid shape with tons of bright colors all over. Looks like a rainbow exploded inside the shape or something.
The brothers don't miss how the angel stiffens as he takes the drawing, he seems to inspect it for a moment before looking back at the girl.
"You said before that I glow too. Have you seen others?" Castiel questions, staring at the girl who just beams at him.
"Yup! But I didn't get to talk to them since they were so far away. And all of them had boring colors. You are the prettiest one I have seen so far! You look like a rainbow and you sound like the rain! I love rainbows and rain! Because if it rains it means we get rainbows!" She exclaimed, waving her arms around happily and running in circles.
Castiel frowned, it's been a long time since he last came across a human who could perceive angels. And this is certainly the first time he meets one so… odd.
"Don't talk to them." He ends up stating, making the child halt and frown at him.
"Why not?"
"They will hurt you if they know you can see them."
"You didn't hurt me."
"I'm not the same as them." Castiel doesn't seek to kill humans unless strictly necessary. His job is to protect his Father's creation, not end it. This child poses no threat to him either, he doesn't care if he's seen.
The others won't think the same.
The girl stares at him for a moment, and then she opens her mouth. Yet, she's cut off.
"Maddie! Stop bothering the officers! Come back inside!"
Maddie frowns, she seems like she wants to argue. Yet, she ends up sighing in defeat and nodding at Castiel before running back to the house.
He takes the drawing with him, staring at it as he reappears in the backseat of the Impala. He does admit he sometimes wondered how a human would perceive him. He also knows he's the one with the most… colors… among Heaven. It never failed to make him stand out and set him apart from the rest. Sure, angels had all kinds of colors in their grace and wings.
But none of them had all colors in existence carved within them.
A rainbow, the child had called him. Seems fitting for the angel who helped create rainbows, he guesses.
"What was that all about?" Dean's voice catches his attention and he looks up, the oldest Winchester has turned in his seat to look at him.
"I told you before, some humans can perceive my true visage." He gave as a form of explanation, which just prompted Dean to snatch the drawing from him.
Dean, who couldn't help but want to take a better look at the drawing, Sam at his side leaning over to look at it too.
The drawing looked like a vague humanoid shape, tons of bright multicolored lines all over, spreading through his limbs and centering around the chest. Thick and darker. Looking better at it, there were six massive wings too, even though Dean had seen the shadow of two at that barn. Two sets are bent forward though, the top ones cover his face while the ones at the bottom cover his feet.
It looks… stunning. And terrifying. And like something they definitely shouldn't be looking at. It sends shivers down their spines and makes their hairs stand on end, like a deafening reminder of what is sitting right now in the backseat.
Something as old as time with a power they are yet to decipher the extent of but that had pulled Dean out of hell as if it was an everyday thing, had obliterated an entire forest and that made fucking demons cower.
Same thing that burnt Pamela's eyes right off her sockets. Same thing who made glass explode whenever it spoke and that could knock people out with a single touch.
"This you?" Dean's voice does not squeak, he swallows past the nerves.
"In a sense." Is the cryptic answer the angel gives, and Dean doesn't ask what he meant with that, instead, he asks something else.
"What did you mean by saying they will hurt her because she can see them?"
"Angels do not like humans who can see them." Castiel states, as if that was general knowledge and Dean was stupid for not knowing it.
"You?"
"I find it irrelevant." Is all the answer he gives, and before Dean can ask further, the angel is gone with nothing but the sound of fluttering wings.
"And he's gone. Great." Dean sighs, giving the drawing one last long look before handing it to Sam, starting the car.
Meanwhile, Sam stared at the drawing, at the bright colors and the wings. Angel.
Sam hasn't known Castiel for long, and while the angel has left quite clear his dislike of him, he never fails to find himself letting his gaze wander towards him whenever he's in the same room as him.
Even now, it was hard to believe that Castiel was an angel. An actual, very real, angel.
An angel who disliked Sam.
He wouldn't lie, that did sting. But he also knew there was nothing he could do about it, he sealed his fate the moment he started drinking demon blood. He couldn't blame the angel for finding him aborent, even he himself found himself as such sometimes.
Yet, it didn't change the fact that he had felt excited over the prospect of a real angel. Angels are real. He might be doomed, but having an angel around sometimes makes him feel like his soul might have a chance. That maybe the presence of an angel was enough to chip away the rotten bits of his soul.
He smirks, carefully folding the drawing before putting it in the glove compartment for safekeeping.