It all happened after a case regarding a nest of vampires, Castiel had tagged along. Sam and Dean had come across another hunter at the bar while interrogating some people, and since he had also been hunting the nest, the brothers hadn't seen a problem with letting him join them.

The hunt had gone fine, the nest had been disposed of and there weren't major injuries. It had gone fine. Too fine.

Sam and Dean should have known something was bound to go wrong.

Which it did, Jake, the hunter, had invited them over for beer as a departing gesture. More like insisted. Should have been the first sign that something wasn't right.

But no one suspected a thing, not until it was too late.

All Sam and Dean got to do was step through the door before Jake was shoving them inside, pulling a lighter out and smashing it on the floor right infront of Castiel. And just like that flames roar to life, successfully caging the angel in a circle of holy fire. Startling both brothers and Castiel, the latter who instinctively freezes upon finding himself surrounded by the incandescent flames.

"What the hell are you doing?" Dean demands to know as he turns to look at the other hunter.

"Your friend has been possessed!" Jake shouts, pointing at Castiel and making the three frown.

"What? He's not possessed." Dean states, what the hell was this guy talking about?

"An angel has possessed him. I saw his eyes when he killed that vampire! They were glowing." He snaps accusingly.

Oh.

"Jake-"

"Don't worry. I know how to exorcise angels." The man cuts Sam off as he quickly pulls out a notebook. "They are not that different from demons. They can-"

Sam snatches the notebook away, prompting Jake to look at him with a bewildered look.

"What are you doing?! He's-"

"An angel. We know." Dean cuts off. "And he's our friend."

"Your- He's possessing someone! You should exorcise him, not fraternize with him!"

"You are not exorcising anybody." Dean snaps harshly, pulling his gun out as Jake takes a step forward. "And you sure as hell aren't coming anywhere near him." This was exactly why Dean didn't like teaming up with other hunters when Cas was around.

But the fact that he had known that Cas was an angel by just seeing his eyes glow, that he knew the holy fire ring or even how to exorcise angels left very clear he had certainly underestimated this guy.

"He's a monster!" Jake snaps angrily.

"Sam?" Dean called out to his brother, not taking his gaze off Jake, they needed to get out of here and get Cas as far away from this guy as possible.

"On it." Sam was quick to say as he took off his own jacket and used it to hit the flames, hoping to put them out. "Sorry." He winced apologetically when a stray flame from his hits twisted backwards, flaring a little too close to Cas and making the angel back off, he looked extremely tense, Sam couldn't exactly blame him.

"You can't let him out! He must be exorcised!" Jake shouted as he stalked forward, making Dean punch him straight on the face, knocking him out cold. The man dropped on the ground, angel blade clattering on the floor. Dean nudged him just to be sure.

He didn't move.

"Come on, let's get out of here." Sam called Dean as he finally put the flames out, Castiel quickly stepped out of the room, both Sam and Dean following after him, Sam took the notebook with him.

No one said a word as they got in the car and Dean drove off, no one said anything until they were long gone from the town.

"Cas? You alright?" Sam asks, breaking the silence, the angel doesn't answer as he stares out of the window, and then, he turns to meet Sam's gaze, something indecipherable on his face.

"I am fine."

"You do know that wasn't true, right? You are not a monster." Sam feels the need to say, he knows some might disagree, might find it hypocritical even. And maybe they were being hypocrites. But Cas wasn't a monster. He was their friend.

Yes, he had possessed someone, and that someone died, and somewhere between all that it might have been fucked up. But Jimmy made his choice, some things went wrong, but at the end Cas wasn't the monster. He wasn't. Even Claire had forgiven him.

"A monster is that which is not human. I am not human. I do not care if some choose to see me as a monster, it's human nature to see those who are not human as such. I don't care how they see me."

And Castiel isn't lying, sure, he didn't particularly like being called a monster, but he understood how humans felt about those who weren't, well, humans.

But as long as those he cares about didn't call or see him as such, he could care less about the rest. Even if a part of himself did, deep down, see himself as a monster.

Meanwhile, Sam and Dean shared a look, neither knew how to contradict him, but both knew he did have a point. They had said that many times, they hated to admit they also thought like that. Or well, sort of.

Because Cas might not be human, but he wasn't a monster, same as Garth and many others they had known, they were just… not human, didn't mean monster… and maybe that was it.

Maybe it was all about how you knew them that changed your perception of them…