Sam and Dean came back earlier than anticipated, the brothers had run into another hunter while hunting ghouls in Delaware, his help had helped them finish things faster. Which good, Dean couldn't stand ghouls.
As Sam and Dean climbed down the stairs, the sound of something crashing somewhere caught their attention, alarm hitting deeper as the familiar metallic, high pitched ring rippled through the air, making the lights flicker.
"What the-" Dean cut himself off as another crash was heard, that's all he needed to bolt towards the sound. The ringing still in the air, not as deafening as he's heard it before. Different, skipping beats and glitching in something odd and almost musical.
As Dean slams the door to a room open, he comes to an abrupt halt.
Castiel is there. Unharmed. Sitting cross legged on the floor and hands covering his face. And he's got wings.
Real. Honest to God. Wings.
Giant wings. Big enough to touch the walls. There's a shelf on the ground with tons of books scattered across it.
He's got wings. Wings that are an explosion of blues and purples, of black and pink. Like galaxies that shift and glimmer in-between feathers. Silver specks that shimmer like bright stars beneath the light. Reflecting the light and giving it a prismatic weave that shifts whenever the wings shift.
It knocks the air out of them, sending shivers down their spines. Because those are wings. Very real wings.
"Will you stop moving?" Meg's voice breaks them out of their stupor, she's standing behind Cas, an irritated look plastered on her face, her hands resting on the bone of the left wing.
A demon.
Is touching an angel's wings.
Was that allowed? That felt like some sort of taboo or silent rule to just not break.
But again, an angel and a demon together did also feel like some sort of taboo.
Sam coughed, catching Meg's attention.
"Is… uh… is everything alright?" Sam tried to not look at the wings, a bit hard since that's literally all he could think about right now.
"Does it look alright?" Meg asks, sounding as if she was calling Sam stupid for even asking. He makes a face before noticing Castiel's shoulders shaking, Dean notices it too.
"What's up with him?" Dean questions, still not quite at ease, sure, Meg's shown enough times that she would never hurt Cas, was even willing to put her life on the line for him, but old habits die hard and he still has trouble not jumping to conclusions whenever she was involved.
"Dear daddy fixed his wings as a way to flip off the other angels who didn't help him. But the feathers need to be straightened out."
"So?" Dean asked as it became apparent Meg wouldn't be elaborating more, her shit eating smirk making his eyebrow twitch. Seriously, of all the friggin women in existence why did Cas have to pick Meg?
"The little tree topper is ticklish."
That got Dean doing a double take and Sam raising an eyebrow, mouth twitching in amusement as his gaze fell on Cas. Cas? Ticklish? That sounded like some sort of impossible joke. But he had to admit he found it amusing, the idea of Cas being ticklish let alone an angel being ticklish because of wings.
"Alright then." Dean ends up speaking, now a bit awkward as he just walks off. So Cas wasn't dying. Good.
Sam follows after Dean, closing the door before doing so.
The ringing comes back not long after, lights flickering, but since the lightbulbs don't explode and the ringing isn't headache inducing but sort of… musical, like Church silver bells or something of the sorts, with hitching beats and interlocking weaves…
The brothers decide to ignore it, which is a bit hard all things considered.
And both can't help but wonder when did their lives become weird enough that knowing there was a frigging demon torturing (with tickles) an angel down the hall didn't even faze them.