FIC: The Awesomes (Part I)
Title: The Awesomes
Author: blue_fjords
Claim: The Incredibles
Genre: Domestic/Adventure/Romance
Pairing(s)/Characters: Dean/Cas; Dean, Castiel, Sam, kid!Anna, kid!Gabriel, kid!Balthazar, Bobby, Ava, Meg, Lucifer, Ruby 2.0, various cameos
Rating: R
Word Count: ~28,700
Warnings: None.
Summary: Twenty years after going into hiding, the former Mr. Awesome and Righteous Man are attempting to raise their family in peace and quiet. But peace and quiet does not find them. Written for dc_everafter
A/N: Many, many words of thanks and praise to my betas for going above and beyond the call of duty! kel_reiley and paragraphs, you guys deserve dozens of vegan cupcakes. Thank you so much!!!! I had horrible writer's block w/ this, and finally hit on how I wanted to write it less than three weeks ago. And then I wrote almost 30k. This story has eaten my life. ETA: And now with added artwork here by moonofblindness.
Twenty years ago, superheroes still walked the earth, and it shook with each mighty footstep. The hills echoed with the cries of heroes and villains, engaged in fierce battle. Secret caves were well-stocked with super-powered vehicles and laboratories, and stock in spandex soared. 'Nary a day passed by when some little tyke couldn't look to the sky and see a valiant protector soaring past, fighting for truth, justice and free will. And as anyone could tell you, the most awesome of these protectors was the man himself, Mr. Awesome.
Calm in the face of certain danger, cranky in the face of evil-doers, Mr. Awesome was that most fearsome of creatures: a righteous man. How fitting, then, that one day in the midst of doing awesome deeds, he met a fellow superhero, Righteous Man, and fell totally and completely in love with him. Once they joined forces with Mind's Eye, the younger brother of Righteous Man, they became this nigh-unstoppable unit, Team Free Will.
The fearless trio roamed all over, saving people, hunting things - a virtual family business once Mr. Awesome and Righteous Man made it official and tied the knot. Their future looked brighter than the sun.
And then came The Troubles. Jealous of the strength and good looks, not to mention unusually long lifespan, of the superheroes, Senator Azazel started a movement to de-super all superheroes. Citing the massive collateral damage in metropolitan areas and individual testimony from people such as Bela Talbot, who claimed Righteous Man had saved her life when she didn't want to be saved and Madison Wolf, who claimed living next door to Mind's Eye diminished her quality of life, as he kept her up at night by practicing moving his furniture with his mind, Senator Azazel succeeded in getting a hearing ordered before Congress.
The hearing was a disaster. The superheroes looked small and vulnerable in the courtroom, and hugely out-of-place in their bright costumes amongst the dull grays and blacks of Congress. Mr. Awesome's fabled stoicism ill-served him in the hearing, as he came across as distant and emotionless. Congress, speaking as The People, directed their vitriol at him. Righteous Man lost his temper at the callous treatment of his husband and had to be escorted from the building after breaking a table with one clenched fist.
In the end, Senator Azazel's movement was successful, and the supers were stripped of their names and forced into hiding with secret identities. The mother-daughter team of Tough and Sassy went to somewhere in the Midwest, the curmudgeonly Badger into a bottle of Jack's, the whizz kid Mulletman to Vegas - and Mr. Awesome, Righteous Man and Mind's Eye, inseparable as always, first to the Pacific Northwest, then New England, then Texas, then Florida, then Ohio, finally winding up in Southern California. Life continued, and over time, Mr. Awesome and Righteous Man were blessed with a daughter and two sons, in the nature of superheroes. And for the time being, those children had only one set of names, the same as their fathers. Just an ordinary family.
But it was impossible for them to forget being Awesome.
And they weren't the only ones who remembered.
***
Castiel Novak worked in the smallest cubicle in a sea of cubicles, on the thirteenth floor out of thirty-two, pushing paper for Zachariah Adler's Righteous Insurance. Castiel was an accountant, processing insurance claims that were to be paid out to the policyholders. As Mr. Zachariah Adler felt that no claims should ever be paid out, and Castiel believed in truthfulness and fairness, they butted heads on a frequent basis. On this particular Tuesday, they butted heads quite spectacularly.
"Tell me, Castiel." Zachariah's voice was smooth and oily, and not a word left his lips that was not thoroughly tested for the maximum allowance of condescension. Castiel loathed it. "Can you read this pamphlet?"
He tapped the company's glossy business pamphlet, his eyes bugging out a bit as he waited for Castiel's answer.
"I am capable of reading that pamphlet," Castiel said, keeping his voice even.
"That's good, Castiel. I suggest you give it a look-see, and soon. Let's start now. What does it say on the cover? Whose name is that?"
Castiel entertained a very brief, and very violent, daydream of crushing Zachariah's head like a grape between his hands. "It says 'Zachariah Adler's Righteous Insurance,' and Zachariah Adler is your name."
"That's right!" Zachariah sat back in his chair and swung his legs up to prop them on his desk. "My name! My company!" He gave Castiel a broad smirk. "That means that I am God of this company, and what I say goes."
Castiel waited a beat before standing up. "If you are finished with your lecture, I have more claims to process."
Zachariah's lips thinned into a straight line. "I did not dismiss you."
Castiel gave him a flat stare. It worked almost as well on Zachariah Adler as it used to on dastardly villains. His feet re-connected with the floor and he looked down at the pamphlet, unnecessarily smoothing the paper.
"It's good we had this talk, Castiel. Just you remember it. You may go."
Castiel was already turning on his heel. He ground his teeth as he marched to the stairs. He was much too agitated to take the elevator and practically flew back down to the thirteenth floor.
Working a "normal" job was something he just could not get the hang of. This was his fourth job, and they seemed to be getting worse. He'd stayed home when the kids were born, changing their diapers and singing them to sleep at naptime when they were very small, and bandaging their scraped knees and cutting the crusts off their peanut butter sandwiches as they grew older. But once Balthazar started school full-time, Castiel entered the workforce and immediately regretted it. He'd entertained the idea of asking Dean if they could try for another baby, but dismissed it as illogical. They should not bring an additional life into the world simply because he was having difficulty adjusting to civilian life and missed the feel of a tiny hand in his.
He had six more cases waiting on his desk when he got back to his cubicle. Six more cases that Zachariah would dismiss out-of-hand. He picked up the first one and gave it his full attention. It was likely the only justice it would receive.
***
Dean Winchester liked his job. Though "like" was perhaps too strong a word. He didn't mind his job. It wasn't what he wanted to be doing, but the hours were just right.
When he first went undercover with Castiel and Sam, he had thought they would just get real jobs as civilian heroes - firemen, EMT's, jobs like that. After all, they saved people all the time and no one held Congressional hearings to destroy their faith in humanity. (Dean was perhaps a bit bitter over Senator Azazel's movement, especially the effect it had had on the two people he loved more than anything.) However, there was a clause in the government's undercover placement paperwork: superheroes were not to use their powers outside of their homes.
Dean had ignored it, at first. He got a job as an EMT and lifted a car off a trapped woman outside Seattle. She had been unconscious, but his fellow EMT's saw and asked questions that raised red flags, and led to the family's first relocation. The same thing had happened in Portland, Oregon, and Castiel fell into a deep funk. He and Sam sat around asking existential questions about identity while Dean tried to find a non-heroic job in Portland, Maine. Their saving grace arrived with the birth of their daughter, snapping Castiel out of his funk, galvanizing Sam to apply to graduate schools, and bringing so much joy into their lives, Dean could forget what it was like to be a superhero and focus on being a Dad-hero instead.
It worked for a while. They moved again for Sam to attend graduate school, and again for his internship, while Dean and Castiel became fathers twice more. Castiel was happy raising the kids, Sam was happy with school and Dean was happy that they were happy.
The trouble started seven years ago when Balthazar started school. Castiel felt he should get a job, the government gave him a falsified work history as part of the undercover package, and soon they were moving again, as Mr. Awesome's famed calm did not extend to the workplace. His famed crankiness did, however, and they moved once more. Dean did his best to soothe him, but it was difficult for him, too.
Finally they wound up in Southern California, in a small town a few miles off the coast, halfway between Los Angeles and San Diego. Sam opened his own practice and got reacquainted with Dean's least favorite of his past girlfriends, and then up and married her. Castiel started one job, quit before he completely lost his cool, and moved on to a new one. The two oldest kids began to discover their powers, and Dean eagerly welcomed the distraction. It was good for them, he thought, but sometimes he could see a look in Castiel's eyes late at night when they were alone in their bed, sweaty skin sliding together just like always, and though Castiel was inside him, Dean could tell his mind was a thousand miles and twenty years away. It was only a matter of time, he knew, before Castiel would erupt and Dean didn't know if even he was strong enough to put him back together again.
Most days he tamped down his worries and covered them with a quick grin and a witty (or not so witty) quip. But they were always there, just under the surface, eating away at him while he worked at his part-time job writing and editing for the town paper, a tiny publication that managed to get by on the efforts of just two part-time employees, Dean and Ava Wilson. The best thing about working for a newspaper in a town that never had any news was the ability to leave work at the drop of a hat when the high school called to report that Gabriel Winchester-Novak was at the principal's office yet again, and could one of his fathers please show up for a meeting with Principal Henrikson?
Dean pulled up outside the high school and put the Impala in park. His fingers drummed against the steering wheel as he surveyed the blocky building.
"This fucking sucks," he said out loud.
Gabriel was waiting on a bench in the hallway outside the office, his feet swinging several inches off the floor. Dean had assured him that Sam was also a shrimp when he was fourteen, and look at him now! Cas's family was not particularly tall, though, but Dean kept that bit to himself.
The look Gabriel gave Dean was a mix of guilt, defiance, amusement and relief. Dean grit his teeth. He hated this aspect of being the one with the flexible hours, but he and Cas had agreed that one of them should be available for these impromptu meetings, as there were so many. He held out his free hand to Gabriel, and hauled him to his feet, both to offer assurance and to prevent him from running away.
"Courage, Squirt. Time to face the music," Dean murmured. Gabriel squeezed his hand briefly, and Dean squeezed back. He had been in Gabriel's place too many times as a kid to do any less, though he had no problem with dropping hands before leading his son into the principal's office to meet his doom.
Principal Henrickson sat behind his desk, fingers steepled and tolerant if slightly annoyed expression on his face. Standing beside him was Gabriel's biology teacher, Mr. Walker, another matter entirely. It didn't help that Dean and Gordon Walker had hated each other on sight. Apparently Gabriel had adopted his father's attitude. Dean really didn't want to know how Gabriel was using his (quickly growing) powers to torment his teacher.
"Principal Henrikson! To what do we owe this honor?" Dean asked, giving his best shit-eating grin as he lowered himself into one of the visitor chairs. In the chair next to him, Gabriel's feet still didn't reach the floor.
"I'm going to let Mr. Walker tell you what he told me." The words were barely out of his mouth before Gordon Walker surged forward, fist clenched.
"Your child is incredibly disrespectful, Mr. Novak!"
"I'm Mr. Winchester," Dean answered, a note of steel creeping into his voice. Cas was the one with the deep, gruff voice, but sometimes Dean could rival him.
"Gabriel is disruptive in class. It is detrimental to the rest of the students!" Mr. Walker continued, ignoring Dean's correction.
"What has he done?" Dean asked, reminding himself to be patient.
"He laughs!"
Silence followed the pronouncement until Dean sighed.
"What does he laugh at, Mr. Walker?"
"It's - she means no harm by it. It's Gabriel who causes the disturbances!"
Dean frowned and leaned forward. Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed Principal Henrickson also looking at Mr. Walker, a quizzical wrinkle in his brow.
"So, let me get this straight," Dean started. "Another student, who has not been brought to the principal's office and had a parent called in, keeps making disrespectful jokes in your classroom, and Gabriel laughs at them."
Mr. Walker opened his mouth, closed it, and opened it again. "She does not mean anything disrespectful by them."
"You informed me that Gabriel here was the ringleader of a group of troublemakers in your classroom," Principal Henrikson said slowly. "But who is this other student? We should meet with the class clown." He directed his attention at Gabriel. "Young man. It's entirely possible that your fellow student is being egged on, so to speak, by the reaction they receive from classmates."
"She's pretty funny," Gabriel muttered to his shoes.
"Regardless," Principal Henrikson continued. "Can we agree to try not to laugh at jokes that might contain questionable material?"
Might as well try to stop the sun from rising, Dean thought, but held his tongue.
Gabriel nodded, widening his eyes in an attempt to look innocent.
"Thank you." Principal Henrikson stood, and both Dean and Gabriel shot to their feet. The principal shook both their hands, just as the bell signaling the end of the school day rang loudly. "My apologies for calling you in unnecessarily, Mr. Winchester.
"No problem. Had to pick them up anyhow." Dean reached over and took Mr. Walker's hand in a vise-like grip. "It's been too long since Parent-Teacher night, Gordon. Take care." He gave him a particularly hard squeeze before letting go.
Gabriel gathered his backpack and followed him wordlessly down the hall and out to the Impala. Dean waited until the doors were closed before turning in the front seat to narrow his eyes at Gabriel in the back.
"Okay, spill. What was that really about?"
"I don't know why he was blaming me, Dad! I only laughed!" Gabriel fiddled with a strap on his backpack, trying to gauge if Dean bought his story.
"Gabe. I am your father. I do not for a second believe that farce we went through. Speak."
Gabriel sighed. "Mr. Walker's a douche, okay? I'm good at biology, but he would never call on me. So I, maybe, wanted to get him back. A little."
"And you . . . ?"
"Maybe made myself a friend who said everything I wanted to?"
Dean did a double-take. "You . . . what?"
"I made this student, and Walker liked her, so she could get away with it."
Dean's mind reeled. How the hell had Gabriel progressed so quickly? And- "Wait, what was she getting away with?"
"She could just say stuff. Like when we did Survival of the Fittest, she asked how Walker had survived, and when we did biological urges, she made a very innocent comment on how there were no little Walkers running around." He was starting to speak very quickly now, and Dean knew they were heading towards the piece de resistance. "And today she asked why the phrase was 'fucking like bunnies' when she knew some humans who went at it even when their kids were downstairs playing Wii."
Dean blinked. "You discussed your fathers' sex life in biology class? That is so-"
"No, I didn't, Dad! She did!"
"Gabriel Winchester-Novak, that is the same thing and you know it."
"I just wanted to make fun of Mr. Walker without getting into trouble," Gabriel mumbled. "He's mean to me."
"I'm sorry, kiddo. Sometimes adults don't act very mature either." He let out a huff. Instead of telling his fathers he was having trouble with a teacher, Gabriel was trying to handle everything on his own. Dean didn't know whether to burst with pride or cringe. It was time for a different tact. "So. You made an entire girl, she attends classes and everything, just to take the heat off you?" Dean's eyebrows were well within aim of his hairline now. "And let me guess. She's a hot blonde."
"It wouldn't have worked if she wasn't hot, Dad." Gabriel tried the puppydog eyes, but he hadn't inherited them. Thank God.
"What's her name? Bambi McSnuffy or something?" Dean snorted as Gabriel tried to hide his smirk. "Jesus, Gabe. You're definitely my son," he muttered.
Gabriel grinned at him in the rearview mirror before a cloud passed over his expression. "Are you going to tell Dada?"
Dean sighed. On the one hand, he hated keeping secrets from Cas and really sucked at it. Also, if Gabriel was progressing in his powers enough to do something as complicated as Bambi, Cas should definitely know about it. But on the other hand, Cas was under a lot of stress at work and most certainly did not need the added worry.
"I haven't decided, Squirt." Dean drummed his fingers on the steering wheel. "What the hell is taking Anna so long? Didn't I tell her 2:30 in front of the sycamore tree?"
He almost missed the flicker in Gabriel's eyes, but fourteen years as his father had taught Dean to notice when Gabriel was about to tell a whopper. He held up his hand as Gabriel opened his mouth.
"Nope! Whatever you were going to say, can it. You know exactly where your sister is, and you're going to tell me." He kept an inward count as he held Gabriel's gaze in the mirror. At 'four,' Gabriel let out an explosive breath.
"Okay, okay! She's right outside the car."
Dean's head whipped around. There was nothing outside the Impala. He climbed out the driver's side door and slammed it angrily. "Anna Winchester-Novak, if you are running around school naked- "
His voice cut off in a strangled yelp. There were two outlines of wings coming towards him, somewhat at chest level - at Anna's shoulder-blade-level.
"You got a damn tattoo?!" He made a grab for what he sincerely hoped was an arm and ignored the squawk from the empty air. "Gabe!" he yelled over his shoulder. "Blanket!"
Gabriel rolled down his window and threw out the emergency blanket Dean kept in his car for just this type of occasion. "Anna's gonna get in tro-uble," Gabriel hummed in a singsong voice, and Dean spared a glare for him, too.
"Bambi McSnuffy," he told his son in a threatening voice and Gabriel shut up. Dean threw the blanket at Anna's presumed body and it stuck. "Ah-ha!" Dean crowed. "Get your skin back on and get in the car, or else we'll be late to pick up your little brother."
"I'm not putting my skin back on, Dad!"
"What's this I hear?" Dean cupped a hand around his ear. "Methinks I heard my daughter talk back to me. My underage daughter with an underage tattoo who's going to get her underage ass into the car and tell her Dad what blithering idiot tattoo artist gave her underage shoulder blades wings without permission from her two awesome dads."
Anna hmphed. Even the damn blanket looked sulky. "I can't believe you're complaining about a little ink while baby seals are being slaughtered in Canada!"
Dean blinked. "You're going naked to protest something in Canada? You realize we're in California, right?"
"The baby seals are being killed for their skins, Dad!" Anna flickered a moment as she lost control in the heat of her passion. "I have to show solidarity!"
Dean barely refrained from rolling his eyes. "Anna - "
"It's not stupid!" Her voice was getting a little choked up. Great, he was making his daughter cry. "I'm seventeen years old and I can make up my own mind!"
"That's awesome, Anna, really it is. But there's a time and a place for nudity, and school is not that place!" Sometimes he couldn't believe the words that came out of his mouth. Really, Dean? His conscience's voice spoke to him in Sam's pissy tone whenever he chastised his kids for doing things he had done when he was their age. It was annoying as shit.
"I would like to state for the record that I waited until school was out. And I am getting in the car! But under duress."
Dean waited until the blanket-swathed form got into the front passenger side before getting in himself, muttering darkly about his own stubbornness and Cas's self-righteousness forming an unholy union in their daughter.
"Don't think I've forgotten about those tattoos, either, Anna," he said, putting the Impala into drive.
The silence next to him turned a little frosty.
"Aw, come on, Dad, the tats are kind of cool," Gabriel piped up from the backseat.
"That's not the point!"
"Then what is your point?" Anna learned that tone from her uncle. Dean certainly never sounded all hoity-toity.
"The point, Ms. I'm Seventeen, is that you can't get tattoos at seventeen without permission from a parent or guardian, and I don't recall anyone asking me or Cas if you could permanently mark your body!" He eased on the brakes at a red light. No sense taking out his bad mood on his baby.
"Do you think Dada will be upset?" Anna asked in a small voice.
"Cas will be upset you tried to hide it from him, and didn't talk to him about it," Dean answered, and dammit, he was definitely going to have to tell Cas about Gabriel's foray into Casa Erotica territory, if he didn't want to be a huge hypocrite.
"But I got wings! Like Dada's!" Anna protested.
"And he'll be honored. Eventually."
Anna flickered into view next to him, suddenly solid pale skin and red hair and lower lip trying not to tremble. "I hate being invisible. I wish I could fly like Dada."
"We don't get to choose our powers, sweetheart," Dean said softly.
"I mean, I'm a woman, Dad. I already have to fight against the invisibility of being the powerless minority!" Anna cried dramatically.
"There are more women than men in the world, so technically, you're the majority," Gabriel chimed in.
"Shut up, hoser!" Anna retorted.
"Knock it off, both of you." Hoser? She preparing to move to Canada to protect the seals? "When Cas gets home from work, you're going to explain to him about your tattoos, Anna. Just, tell him why you came to your decision and why you didn't damn well tell us about it yourself, okay? And Gabe," he continued, raising his eyes to the rearview mirror, "we'll have to tell him about Bambi McSnuffy."
"We? Together?" Gabe asked hopefully.
"Yeah, we, together. Chin up, Squirt."
Anna looked out the window. "I want to talk to Dada alone."
"We'll see," Dean grunted. Anna played favorites all the time; according to Sam, it was a perfectly natural phase. That didn't mean Dean had to like it. He pulled up outside the middle school just as the bell rang.
Balthazar came running pell-mell down the front steps, almost tripping down the walkway, before reaching the Impala, yanking open the back door and leaping in, trampling Gabriel in the process. "Blimey! Drive, Dad, drive!" His voice sounded weird.
Dean turned in his seat to survey his sons. They had moved on to batting uselessly at each other with their hands. "You want to save some baby seals, Anna, we've got a couple in the back seat."
"The seal hunt is no joke, Dad," she said with a note of asperity.
"Of course it's not," Dean mumbled. He shifted back into drive and pulled out into traffic. He liked to imagine other cars made room for his baby out of a sense of awe at her utter awesomeness, and not just because she was a behemoth with a determined driver. And noisy occupants. "Hey, Balthazar," he said, raising his voice to be heard over his sons, "you mind telling me why you shot out of school like a bat out of hell?"
"Oh, Father, you're so droll," Balthazar began, still with the strange lilt, and Dean's eyebrows shot up, "I was simply removing myself from the presence of a few choice Neanderthals."
"Droll? Seriously? And what's up with that accent? Who are you trying to be, Dick Van Dyke?"
"Is Dick Van Dyke British?" Balthazar asked hopefully, accent slipping.
"In his dreams," Dean muttered. "Your accent is supposed to be British?"
Balthazar's face fell. "I don't sound British?"
Gabriel snickered. "You sound like a druggie trying to-"
"Whoa, whoa, whoa," Dean interrupted as Balthazar's face scrunched into a scowl. "We don't call each other druggies in this family."
"What if I become a druggie?" Gabriel asked.
"Then you have to go live with your Uncle Sam and Aunt Ruby."
The car was blessedly silent for a moment before Balthazar broke it.
"Aunt Ruby scares me," he said in a small voice, and for once Gabriel didn't make fun of him, but nodded his head in agreement.
"That's just because the two of you are threatened by a woman with power," Anna declared, and then they were off and running, Anna passionately asserting her side while Gabriel took it all as a joke and Balthazar mimicked his attitude, eager for his older brother's approval.
Dean turned into their driveway while Anna was listing the attributes of Tough & Sassy, the mother-daughter superhero team now undercover as Ellen & Jo Harvelle, and how they would surely win in a battle with any pair of male superheroes, "except for Dada and Dad."
Their house in Southern California, their sixth since going undercover almost twenty years ago, was not especially pretty and, in fact, looked just like all the other houses on the street. What it had going for it, though, was a bedroom for each kid. And as their bickering reached a crescendo when Dean put the Impala in park, he gladly sent each to their own room to get started on homework while he saw to the feeding of the family pet. Uriel was a large shaggy dog with the personality of an especially pissed off cat, but Cas loved him regardless so Dean begrudgingly accepted him and kept him fed.
After a couple of hours spent helping Balthazar with math homework, quizzing Gabriel for an upcoming history test, asking Anna if she was ever going to come out of her room ("I'll come out after I talk to Dada!") and breaking up no less than three fights over the remote control, who got to choose the Wii game, and which character was more awesome, Princess Leia or Marion Ravenwood (he took the coward's way out and called it a draw), Dean was actually relieved to escape to the kitchen to start tackling dinner. He was in the midst of stirring a pot of Dad Delight on the stovetop when Cas got home from work. Uriel immediately got up from his spot in the middle of the kitchen, where he'd been trying without success to cause Dean to trip and impale himself with his paring knife, and padded over to the backdoor, throwing a Look over his shoulder at Cas. Cas'd been well-trained, however, and opened the door for him before doing anything else.
Dean snorted. "Don't mind me, Cas, I've only been slaving over this hot stove to create a gourmet meal for you and our beloved children."
Cas slipped his arms around Dean's waist and nuzzled at his neck. "And now you're trying to placate me with your lewd behavior."
"I would never attempt to placate you, Dean," Cas replied. Dean could see his nose wrinkle out of the corner of his eye. "What is this you are making?"
"Dad Delight. You're gonna eat it and like it." He turned in Cas's loose embrace and walked them across the kitchen's linoleum floor until he had Cas pressed against a counter. "Hey. How was your day?"
Cas frowned. "I believe the phrase you would use is that the day 'sucked ass.'"
Dean raised his hands to cup Cas's face and ran a thumb over his lower lip. As much as he hated the necessity that forced them into hiding and Cas into his crap job, he did love Cas's frown faces, and he loved leaning forward and sucking on that lower lip until it quirked into a smile. He especially loved doing all that without an audience making gagging noises.
"Ewww, kisses!" Balthazar shrieked from the doorway.
"Can it, Midget. When Daddy and Daddy make out, it's a beautiful thing," Dean shot back, glancing over his shoulder.
"Ugh!" Balthazar exclaimed and ran back into the living room.
"Dean," Cas said reproachfully.
Dean grinned and leaned in to kiss his frown away once more. "He's already been scarred for life," he murmured against Cas's lips. "Remember that stormy night? Or that other stormy night? Or-"
"Is Dada home?"
Dean sighed and leaned his forehead against Cas's. "Seriously, Gabe? Now? Dada's just walked through the door."
"Does that mean I should wait?" Gabriel asked, face scrunching up.
"Jesus, it's like you were raised by a tactless - oh, right." Dean gave Cas's waist a reassuring squeeze. He looked tired and stressed, but then he'd been looking tired and stressed a lot lately and Dean hadn't the faintest idea how to fix it. "Okay, come in here, Gabe, and tell your Dada what happened at school today."
Cas shot him an alarmed look as Gabriel shuffled forward. "Um," their son began. "So, meet my friend."
He snapped his fingers and a busty blonde who looked way older than fourteen appeared next to him. Cas didn't bat an eye, though they narrowed as he gazed at Bambi McSnuffy. Dean had to give Gabriel credit - she was definitely hot. And the attention to detail was almost obscene.
"Why do I get the feeling that the creation of this co-ed is only the first phase in your misdeed?" Cas asked, crossing his arms. Dean smirked as Gabriel's face fell. There was no putting one over on Cas.
"Well, okay, so you see how hot she is? Isn't that distracting?"
"You should remember who you are talking to, Gabriel," Cas said dryly. Dean snorted.
"Yeah, well, she's distracting to Mr. Walker," Gabriel mumbled.
"Your biology teacher?" Cas shot Dean a quick look for confirmation, and Dean nodded.
"Uh-huh. She could get away with a lot of stuff in his class," Gabriel said to his feet. Cas sighed. "I didn't do anything to hurt him! We, well she, just talked back a bit. I would have done it myself, 'cept I'd totally get in big trouble."
"Like today when you laughed again, and it was the last straw," Dean reminded him. Gabriel looked chagrined.
"Dare I ask what it was you as she said?" Cas dared.
"Uh…"
Dean cleared his throat. "I honestly think you're better off not knowing, Cas, and it really wasn't important."
Gabriel let out a relieved sigh when Cas slowly nodded.
"What is important here is that Gabriel is going to work on remembering the first rule of being an Awesome, right? 'Don't be a douche.'" Dean paused for Gabriel to nod vigorously. "And what's also important is - well, just look at her! She's even solid. She's perfect!"
Cas cut his eyes over at Dean, then took a step forward to peer more closely at Bambi. "This is exquisite work, Gabriel. What does her voice sound like?"
"Thank you, Mr. Novak," said Bambi in Ruby's voice.
"Huh. Your Aunt Ruby would probably get a kick out of this," Dean mused.
"Please don't tell her!" Gabriel's voice cracked in alarm, and Dean and Cas exchanged knowing glances.
"Alright, Gabriel, your secret is safe with us," Cas said. "And I am impressed with your skill and imagination. But you do not torment your teachers, no matter if you do not like them. They are there to teach you things you will need to know. Show them at least a modicum of respect, and don't abuse your powers just because you can. We were forced undercover for a reason."
Gabriel nodded, eyes wide. "Yes, Dada," he whispered. "I won't blow our cover, I promise."
"Good man, Squirt." Dean reached forward and ruffled his hair. "Now scat, I want to talk to your Dada."
Gabriel snapped his fingers again, and Bambi disappeared as he went scurrying from the kitchen.
Cas sighed at his retreating back. "It is difficult to believe Gabriel has already achieved so much with his power."
"Yeah, it seems like just yesterday he created that headless chicken when he was aiming for a Twix." Cas nodded absently and Dean stretched out his hand to cradle his husband's jaw. "Hey. Stay with me here."
"I am always with you," Cas replied, frowning. "If I had my way, I would never spend even an hour separated from you."
Dean huffed a laugh. Twenty years in, and Cas routinely came up with romantic shit like that all the time. It had stopped embarrassing Dean after the time Cas went with him to a holiday party at the place he'd been working at in Ohio, and he'd announced to Dean's boss and co-workers that they had a profound bond. Then the receptionist had walked in on them making out in the coat closet and had taped up photographic proof all over the office the next Monday, with the words "profound bond" scrawled across the bottoms of the pictures.
"You'll have to put up with at least a little separation tonight, as difficult as it is to resist my charms," Dean said, leaning in to kiss him again. "Anna wants to talk to you alone."
"What's wrong?" Cas asked, brow furrowing again.
"Not necessarily wrong, but . . . why don't you have a cup of coffee first?" Dean moved his other hand up to massage Cas's neck. He was so damn tense, and Anna's tattoos were not going to help anything.
"No, I should go now. What is it about?" His hands clung to Dean's waist, more of a handful than there used to be. Dean still worked out, and occasionally played racquetball with Sam, but he had more middle age spread than the other two, and it bugged him. Cas would just tell him that his body was perfect in every incarnation, and fit his own perfectly. And then he'd fuck him into the mattress to prove his point.
"She wants to tell you what it's about without me there," Dean said, rolling his eyes. "She broke the rules, I've seen them, but you remember what Sam said."
Last time Dean had talked to him about Anna, Sam had said that she was "exploring her boundaries" and needed "non-interfering guidance" and "support." Dean just wanted his little girl back, at which Sam had shaken his head and told him the little girl was gone, and he should get to know the young woman who took her place. Easier said than done, as Anna had decided that Cas was now the confidante father and Dean was the chauffeur father.
"I remember Sam's advice." Cas straightened his tie. "We will be down to dinner shortly. Thank you for preparing it."
"No prob." Dean pressed his lips to Cas's forehead, then gave him a light smack on the ass to get him moving. "Call for me if you need reinforcements."
***
Castiel paused outside Anna's door. This month it was painted in swirls of purple and blue, last year's unicorn painted over time and again until Castiel could barely make out the tip of its horn. An earnest female voice was singing inside, asserting that she had a voice. That's evident, child, but what did you want to say?
"Anna," Castiel called through the door. "I wish to enter and speak with you."
The volume of the music was lowered, and he could hear Anna's footsteps approaching. "Are you alone, Dada?"
"Yes, but I feel it is foolish to have this conversation without Dean also present."
She opened the door and stood on the threshold, swaying from foot to foot and hunching her shoulders beneath her black hoodie. It was going to be one of those father-daughter talks then. "Dad already saw."
She shifted aside then and let him enter properly. His nose wrinkled at the smell of her candles. The jar called the scent "midnight garden" but Castiel privately agreed with Dean that the odor was more akin to "emo hysterics." He would have to tread lightly, and stifled a sigh. Treading lightly was not his strong suit.
Castiel sat stiffly on the bed and patted the quilt next to him. It was a holdover from when they lived in New England, a complicated pattern that had been hand-stitched and sold at a church rummage sale. It was also the only brightly-colored object in the room. Anna shoved it aside and sat cross-legged on the bed, her elbows on her knees so that her hood and hair both worked to hide her face. He shifted awkwardly so they were at least facing each other, and folded his hands in his lap.
"Okay, Dada," Anna began. "You know how Dad and Uncle Sam have matching tattoos?"
A shiver of unease crawled up his spine. Surely she could not mean -
"I am well aware of your father's tattoos," he replied.
She inclined her head, acting the part of gracious lady, but all he could see was the three-year-old quivering with excitement the first time he placed her baby brother in her arms.
"And they're important, right? Dad and Uncle Sam wouldn't be the same people they are now without them."
"Your father and uncle would still be your father and uncle no matter what they looked like," he countered. This was most definitely about tattoos. Anna had gotten a tattoo, and - and damn Sam's "exploring boundaries" speech!
"But their tattoos say something - "
"Anna, would you do me the honor of simply saying what you mean?" Castiel cut her off, his head beginning to pound right between his eyes.
She disappeared abruptly, and he was left facing an empty hoodie. "I got wings tattooed on my back," it whispered at him in Anna's voice.
Castiel closed his eyes and counted to five before opening them again, striding to the door and yanking it open as well, yelling down the hall, "Dean, I am calling for reinforcements!"
"Dada!" Anna's hoodie protested from the bed.
Dean was already at the door and slipping inside, shutting it behind him. He looked at the hoodie, then back at Castiel. "Has she shown them to you?"
"Not yet," Castiel answered grimly. "Anna. The wings."
"I just want to be like you!" she wailed. The hoodie sailed through the air and crumpled into a heap near her desk. She was wearing a button-down beneath it, Castiel recognized it as one of his cast-offs, and it was on backwards and unbuttoned. The wings appeared hazy against the inner pale blue of the shirt.
"Anna. Show yourself." Dean shot him a warning look, probably about his tone, and Castiel moderated it. "I would like to see them properly, Rosebud."
The pet name worked, and Anna flickered into solid form. The tattoos were . . . not atrocious. Fluffier than his own wings, and much, much smaller, but that was to be expected as his wingspan was enough to wrap him and Dean up like a burrito. True wing-size tattoos would never fit on Anna's slender back. He extended a finger and gingerly touched one wing. It felt like skin.
"Anna, why would you do this? Truly?" he asked.
She flickered minutely. "I told you," she said in a small voice.
"If you meant to honor me by choosing wings, Rosebud, why did you not tell me you were getting them?"
She was silent. Dean took a step closer to him, and Castiel drew gratefully on his strength. Anna disappeared again, the blue shirt falling backwards back-forward onto the bed. Castiel and Dean both leaned forward to try to catch the muffled words from the vicinity of Anna's pillow.
"Speak up, Shortcake, we can't hear you," Dean told her. The shirt turned over.
"I wanted to show them to someone," she said.
"I take it you mean someone other than us," Dean said.
Castiel could hear her take a deep breath and let it out slowly. "When you and Dada, I mean, the first time you - he showed you his wings and you knew you loved him, didn't you?"
Dean looked pole-axed. "Whoa, whoa, whoa! This is about sex? You want to have sex with some - boy? And you think showing him tattoos will make it - what? True love? Are you -"
"That's enough, Dean." Castiel laid a hand on Dean's shoulder. "Anna, that was a very different situation."
"It was different because you didn't have to hide that you were a superhero!" she burst out. "You didn't need tattoos to be special!"
"Listen up, kid - you are incredibly fucking special," Dean said forcefully, Castiel wincing at his choice of words. "Always have been, always will be. You do not want to be with some idiot who can't see that!"
"I believe what your father is saying," Castiel added, gingerly picking a place on the bed to sit so he could clumsily pat her shoulder, "is that having intercourse for the first time is a very big decision, whether you are a superhero or not."
"But you knew he was the right one when you showed him your wings, didn't you?" she asked.
Castiel sighed. "Anna, I had had several lovers before I met Dean -" Dean shot him a panicked look and gestured frantically to him to shut up, forgetting that Anna could still see him, even if she was invisible "- but Dean was the only one I showed my wings. And I did so because the moment I met him I knew I wanted to spend every day beside him and every night making love to him." Dean made a strangled noise, but Castiel continued regardless. "The wings came out after the fact."
"Enough with the wings!" Dean's voice was rather more high pitched than usual. "You're not having sex until you're forty!"
"That is an unrealistic expectation," Castiel said, "though I certainly wish it were so."
"You guys are upset over nothing, anyhow," Anna said glumly. "Stan doesn't even know I exist."
"Stan? Stan? You want to give your - your most precious gift - to a Stan?"
There were moments - not many, but definite moments - when Castiel simply could not comprehend how Dean's mind worked.
"Did you just call our daughter's virginity her most precious gift?" he asked, wonderingly. "What about her kindness, her intelligence, her bravery? These are all worth much more."
"Cas." Dean's eyes bugged out a bit.
"And what is wrong with the name 'Stan'?" Castiel continued.
"There's nothing fucking wrong with Stan!" Dean exploded. "Just the fact that he exists!"
Castiel touched Dean's forearm, finally getting it. "Dean. I did not mean to make light of the situation. I apologize. Anna," he eyed the jeans sticking out of the shirt and laid a hand on a possible ankle, "you do not need to show this Stan your wings to get him to love you. Do you understand our concerns?"
"You don't want me to cheapen myself by having sex with someone who'd only do it because I have cool wings, and not because they love me?"
"Yes, that." Dean nodded vigorously. "And you should really wait a long time, and have your father and I vet him - or her - first."
"Then I'd never have sex."
"Would that really be so bad?" Dean asked. Castiel didn't need to see Anna's face to know what expression she was wearing. After all, she'd learned it from him. Dean knew it, too, and held up a hand in a placating gesture. "Alright, alright. Just - promise you'll talk to us before you make these kinds of decisions, will you? We're not idiots; we've been there, you know?"
She flickered back into view and nodded her head. "Okay, Dad. And I'm sorry I got the tattoo without permission."
Dean leaned over and kissed her forehead. "Awesome. Now I need to check that Dad Delight to make sure it didn't boil over. Wash up, dinner's ready in five." He bent to kiss Castiel on the lips and left, shutting the door gently behind him.
Anna threw her arms around her Dada as soon as the handle snicked closed. "I'm sorry I didn't tell you," she mumbled into his shirt.
"It will be okay, Rosebud," he murmured, pressing his lips to her bright red hair. If it was within his power, he would keep Anna a child forever. But though she would always be his little girl, she was no longer a child, and it was time he remembered it.
"Are you at least a tiny bit honored by the wings?"
"I am deeply honored." He kissed the top of her head again. "Now. Put your shirt on properly. I will meet you downstairs for dinner. I love you, Rosebud."
"I love you, Dada."
***
Part II and Part III
Author: blue_fjords
Claim: The Incredibles
Genre: Domestic/Adventure/Romance
Pairing(s)/Characters: Dean/Cas; Dean, Castiel, Sam, kid!Anna, kid!Gabriel, kid!Balthazar, Bobby, Ava, Meg, Lucifer, Ruby 2.0, various cameos
Rating: R
Word Count: ~28,700
Warnings: None.
Summary: Twenty years after going into hiding, the former Mr. Awesome and Righteous Man are attempting to raise their family in peace and quiet. But peace and quiet does not find them. Written for dc_everafter
A/N: Many, many words of thanks and praise to my betas for going above and beyond the call of duty! kel_reiley and paragraphs, you guys deserve dozens of vegan cupcakes. Thank you so much!!!! I had horrible writer's block w/ this, and finally hit on how I wanted to write it less than three weeks ago. And then I wrote almost 30k. This story has eaten my life. ETA: And now with added artwork here by moonofblindness.
Twenty years ago, superheroes still walked the earth, and it shook with each mighty footstep. The hills echoed with the cries of heroes and villains, engaged in fierce battle. Secret caves were well-stocked with super-powered vehicles and laboratories, and stock in spandex soared. 'Nary a day passed by when some little tyke couldn't look to the sky and see a valiant protector soaring past, fighting for truth, justice and free will. And as anyone could tell you, the most awesome of these protectors was the man himself, Mr. Awesome.
Calm in the face of certain danger, cranky in the face of evil-doers, Mr. Awesome was that most fearsome of creatures: a righteous man. How fitting, then, that one day in the midst of doing awesome deeds, he met a fellow superhero, Righteous Man, and fell totally and completely in love with him. Once they joined forces with Mind's Eye, the younger brother of Righteous Man, they became this nigh-unstoppable unit, Team Free Will.
The fearless trio roamed all over, saving people, hunting things - a virtual family business once Mr. Awesome and Righteous Man made it official and tied the knot. Their future looked brighter than the sun.
And then came The Troubles. Jealous of the strength and good looks, not to mention unusually long lifespan, of the superheroes, Senator Azazel started a movement to de-super all superheroes. Citing the massive collateral damage in metropolitan areas and individual testimony from people such as Bela Talbot, who claimed Righteous Man had saved her life when she didn't want to be saved and Madison Wolf, who claimed living next door to Mind's Eye diminished her quality of life, as he kept her up at night by practicing moving his furniture with his mind, Senator Azazel succeeded in getting a hearing ordered before Congress.
The hearing was a disaster. The superheroes looked small and vulnerable in the courtroom, and hugely out-of-place in their bright costumes amongst the dull grays and blacks of Congress. Mr. Awesome's fabled stoicism ill-served him in the hearing, as he came across as distant and emotionless. Congress, speaking as The People, directed their vitriol at him. Righteous Man lost his temper at the callous treatment of his husband and had to be escorted from the building after breaking a table with one clenched fist.
In the end, Senator Azazel's movement was successful, and the supers were stripped of their names and forced into hiding with secret identities. The mother-daughter team of Tough and Sassy went to somewhere in the Midwest, the curmudgeonly Badger into a bottle of Jack's, the whizz kid Mulletman to Vegas - and Mr. Awesome, Righteous Man and Mind's Eye, inseparable as always, first to the Pacific Northwest, then New England, then Texas, then Florida, then Ohio, finally winding up in Southern California. Life continued, and over time, Mr. Awesome and Righteous Man were blessed with a daughter and two sons, in the nature of superheroes. And for the time being, those children had only one set of names, the same as their fathers. Just an ordinary family.
But it was impossible for them to forget being Awesome.
And they weren't the only ones who remembered.
***
Castiel Novak worked in the smallest cubicle in a sea of cubicles, on the thirteenth floor out of thirty-two, pushing paper for Zachariah Adler's Righteous Insurance. Castiel was an accountant, processing insurance claims that were to be paid out to the policyholders. As Mr. Zachariah Adler felt that no claims should ever be paid out, and Castiel believed in truthfulness and fairness, they butted heads on a frequent basis. On this particular Tuesday, they butted heads quite spectacularly.
"Tell me, Castiel." Zachariah's voice was smooth and oily, and not a word left his lips that was not thoroughly tested for the maximum allowance of condescension. Castiel loathed it. "Can you read this pamphlet?"
He tapped the company's glossy business pamphlet, his eyes bugging out a bit as he waited for Castiel's answer.
"I am capable of reading that pamphlet," Castiel said, keeping his voice even.
"That's good, Castiel. I suggest you give it a look-see, and soon. Let's start now. What does it say on the cover? Whose name is that?"
Castiel entertained a very brief, and very violent, daydream of crushing Zachariah's head like a grape between his hands. "It says 'Zachariah Adler's Righteous Insurance,' and Zachariah Adler is your name."
"That's right!" Zachariah sat back in his chair and swung his legs up to prop them on his desk. "My name! My company!" He gave Castiel a broad smirk. "That means that I am God of this company, and what I say goes."
Castiel waited a beat before standing up. "If you are finished with your lecture, I have more claims to process."
Zachariah's lips thinned into a straight line. "I did not dismiss you."
Castiel gave him a flat stare. It worked almost as well on Zachariah Adler as it used to on dastardly villains. His feet re-connected with the floor and he looked down at the pamphlet, unnecessarily smoothing the paper.
"It's good we had this talk, Castiel. Just you remember it. You may go."
Castiel was already turning on his heel. He ground his teeth as he marched to the stairs. He was much too agitated to take the elevator and practically flew back down to the thirteenth floor.
Working a "normal" job was something he just could not get the hang of. This was his fourth job, and they seemed to be getting worse. He'd stayed home when the kids were born, changing their diapers and singing them to sleep at naptime when they were very small, and bandaging their scraped knees and cutting the crusts off their peanut butter sandwiches as they grew older. But once Balthazar started school full-time, Castiel entered the workforce and immediately regretted it. He'd entertained the idea of asking Dean if they could try for another baby, but dismissed it as illogical. They should not bring an additional life into the world simply because he was having difficulty adjusting to civilian life and missed the feel of a tiny hand in his.
He had six more cases waiting on his desk when he got back to his cubicle. Six more cases that Zachariah would dismiss out-of-hand. He picked up the first one and gave it his full attention. It was likely the only justice it would receive.
***
Dean Winchester liked his job. Though "like" was perhaps too strong a word. He didn't mind his job. It wasn't what he wanted to be doing, but the hours were just right.
When he first went undercover with Castiel and Sam, he had thought they would just get real jobs as civilian heroes - firemen, EMT's, jobs like that. After all, they saved people all the time and no one held Congressional hearings to destroy their faith in humanity. (Dean was perhaps a bit bitter over Senator Azazel's movement, especially the effect it had had on the two people he loved more than anything.) However, there was a clause in the government's undercover placement paperwork: superheroes were not to use their powers outside of their homes.
Dean had ignored it, at first. He got a job as an EMT and lifted a car off a trapped woman outside Seattle. She had been unconscious, but his fellow EMT's saw and asked questions that raised red flags, and led to the family's first relocation. The same thing had happened in Portland, Oregon, and Castiel fell into a deep funk. He and Sam sat around asking existential questions about identity while Dean tried to find a non-heroic job in Portland, Maine. Their saving grace arrived with the birth of their daughter, snapping Castiel out of his funk, galvanizing Sam to apply to graduate schools, and bringing so much joy into their lives, Dean could forget what it was like to be a superhero and focus on being a Dad-hero instead.
It worked for a while. They moved again for Sam to attend graduate school, and again for his internship, while Dean and Castiel became fathers twice more. Castiel was happy raising the kids, Sam was happy with school and Dean was happy that they were happy.
The trouble started seven years ago when Balthazar started school. Castiel felt he should get a job, the government gave him a falsified work history as part of the undercover package, and soon they were moving again, as Mr. Awesome's famed calm did not extend to the workplace. His famed crankiness did, however, and they moved once more. Dean did his best to soothe him, but it was difficult for him, too.
Finally they wound up in Southern California, in a small town a few miles off the coast, halfway between Los Angeles and San Diego. Sam opened his own practice and got reacquainted with Dean's least favorite of his past girlfriends, and then up and married her. Castiel started one job, quit before he completely lost his cool, and moved on to a new one. The two oldest kids began to discover their powers, and Dean eagerly welcomed the distraction. It was good for them, he thought, but sometimes he could see a look in Castiel's eyes late at night when they were alone in their bed, sweaty skin sliding together just like always, and though Castiel was inside him, Dean could tell his mind was a thousand miles and twenty years away. It was only a matter of time, he knew, before Castiel would erupt and Dean didn't know if even he was strong enough to put him back together again.
Most days he tamped down his worries and covered them with a quick grin and a witty (or not so witty) quip. But they were always there, just under the surface, eating away at him while he worked at his part-time job writing and editing for the town paper, a tiny publication that managed to get by on the efforts of just two part-time employees, Dean and Ava Wilson. The best thing about working for a newspaper in a town that never had any news was the ability to leave work at the drop of a hat when the high school called to report that Gabriel Winchester-Novak was at the principal's office yet again, and could one of his fathers please show up for a meeting with Principal Henrikson?
Dean pulled up outside the high school and put the Impala in park. His fingers drummed against the steering wheel as he surveyed the blocky building.
"This fucking sucks," he said out loud.
Gabriel was waiting on a bench in the hallway outside the office, his feet swinging several inches off the floor. Dean had assured him that Sam was also a shrimp when he was fourteen, and look at him now! Cas's family was not particularly tall, though, but Dean kept that bit to himself.
The look Gabriel gave Dean was a mix of guilt, defiance, amusement and relief. Dean grit his teeth. He hated this aspect of being the one with the flexible hours, but he and Cas had agreed that one of them should be available for these impromptu meetings, as there were so many. He held out his free hand to Gabriel, and hauled him to his feet, both to offer assurance and to prevent him from running away.
"Courage, Squirt. Time to face the music," Dean murmured. Gabriel squeezed his hand briefly, and Dean squeezed back. He had been in Gabriel's place too many times as a kid to do any less, though he had no problem with dropping hands before leading his son into the principal's office to meet his doom.
Principal Henrickson sat behind his desk, fingers steepled and tolerant if slightly annoyed expression on his face. Standing beside him was Gabriel's biology teacher, Mr. Walker, another matter entirely. It didn't help that Dean and Gordon Walker had hated each other on sight. Apparently Gabriel had adopted his father's attitude. Dean really didn't want to know how Gabriel was using his (quickly growing) powers to torment his teacher.
"Principal Henrikson! To what do we owe this honor?" Dean asked, giving his best shit-eating grin as he lowered himself into one of the visitor chairs. In the chair next to him, Gabriel's feet still didn't reach the floor.
"I'm going to let Mr. Walker tell you what he told me." The words were barely out of his mouth before Gordon Walker surged forward, fist clenched.
"Your child is incredibly disrespectful, Mr. Novak!"
"I'm Mr. Winchester," Dean answered, a note of steel creeping into his voice. Cas was the one with the deep, gruff voice, but sometimes Dean could rival him.
"Gabriel is disruptive in class. It is detrimental to the rest of the students!" Mr. Walker continued, ignoring Dean's correction.
"What has he done?" Dean asked, reminding himself to be patient.
"He laughs!"
Silence followed the pronouncement until Dean sighed.
"What does he laugh at, Mr. Walker?"
"It's - she means no harm by it. It's Gabriel who causes the disturbances!"
Dean frowned and leaned forward. Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed Principal Henrickson also looking at Mr. Walker, a quizzical wrinkle in his brow.
"So, let me get this straight," Dean started. "Another student, who has not been brought to the principal's office and had a parent called in, keeps making disrespectful jokes in your classroom, and Gabriel laughs at them."
Mr. Walker opened his mouth, closed it, and opened it again. "She does not mean anything disrespectful by them."
"You informed me that Gabriel here was the ringleader of a group of troublemakers in your classroom," Principal Henrikson said slowly. "But who is this other student? We should meet with the class clown." He directed his attention at Gabriel. "Young man. It's entirely possible that your fellow student is being egged on, so to speak, by the reaction they receive from classmates."
"She's pretty funny," Gabriel muttered to his shoes.
"Regardless," Principal Henrikson continued. "Can we agree to try not to laugh at jokes that might contain questionable material?"
Might as well try to stop the sun from rising, Dean thought, but held his tongue.
Gabriel nodded, widening his eyes in an attempt to look innocent.
"Thank you." Principal Henrikson stood, and both Dean and Gabriel shot to their feet. The principal shook both their hands, just as the bell signaling the end of the school day rang loudly. "My apologies for calling you in unnecessarily, Mr. Winchester.
"No problem. Had to pick them up anyhow." Dean reached over and took Mr. Walker's hand in a vise-like grip. "It's been too long since Parent-Teacher night, Gordon. Take care." He gave him a particularly hard squeeze before letting go.
Gabriel gathered his backpack and followed him wordlessly down the hall and out to the Impala. Dean waited until the doors were closed before turning in the front seat to narrow his eyes at Gabriel in the back.
"Okay, spill. What was that really about?"
"I don't know why he was blaming me, Dad! I only laughed!" Gabriel fiddled with a strap on his backpack, trying to gauge if Dean bought his story.
"Gabe. I am your father. I do not for a second believe that farce we went through. Speak."
Gabriel sighed. "Mr. Walker's a douche, okay? I'm good at biology, but he would never call on me. So I, maybe, wanted to get him back. A little."
"And you . . . ?"
"Maybe made myself a friend who said everything I wanted to?"
Dean did a double-take. "You . . . what?"
"I made this student, and Walker liked her, so she could get away with it."
Dean's mind reeled. How the hell had Gabriel progressed so quickly? And- "Wait, what was she getting away with?"
"She could just say stuff. Like when we did Survival of the Fittest, she asked how Walker had survived, and when we did biological urges, she made a very innocent comment on how there were no little Walkers running around." He was starting to speak very quickly now, and Dean knew they were heading towards the piece de resistance. "And today she asked why the phrase was 'fucking like bunnies' when she knew some humans who went at it even when their kids were downstairs playing Wii."
Dean blinked. "You discussed your fathers' sex life in biology class? That is so-"
"No, I didn't, Dad! She did!"
"Gabriel Winchester-Novak, that is the same thing and you know it."
"I just wanted to make fun of Mr. Walker without getting into trouble," Gabriel mumbled. "He's mean to me."
"I'm sorry, kiddo. Sometimes adults don't act very mature either." He let out a huff. Instead of telling his fathers he was having trouble with a teacher, Gabriel was trying to handle everything on his own. Dean didn't know whether to burst with pride or cringe. It was time for a different tact. "So. You made an entire girl, she attends classes and everything, just to take the heat off you?" Dean's eyebrows were well within aim of his hairline now. "And let me guess. She's a hot blonde."
"It wouldn't have worked if she wasn't hot, Dad." Gabriel tried the puppydog eyes, but he hadn't inherited them. Thank God.
"What's her name? Bambi McSnuffy or something?" Dean snorted as Gabriel tried to hide his smirk. "Jesus, Gabe. You're definitely my son," he muttered.
Gabriel grinned at him in the rearview mirror before a cloud passed over his expression. "Are you going to tell Dada?"
Dean sighed. On the one hand, he hated keeping secrets from Cas and really sucked at it. Also, if Gabriel was progressing in his powers enough to do something as complicated as Bambi, Cas should definitely know about it. But on the other hand, Cas was under a lot of stress at work and most certainly did not need the added worry.
"I haven't decided, Squirt." Dean drummed his fingers on the steering wheel. "What the hell is taking Anna so long? Didn't I tell her 2:30 in front of the sycamore tree?"
He almost missed the flicker in Gabriel's eyes, but fourteen years as his father had taught Dean to notice when Gabriel was about to tell a whopper. He held up his hand as Gabriel opened his mouth.
"Nope! Whatever you were going to say, can it. You know exactly where your sister is, and you're going to tell me." He kept an inward count as he held Gabriel's gaze in the mirror. At 'four,' Gabriel let out an explosive breath.
"Okay, okay! She's right outside the car."
Dean's head whipped around. There was nothing outside the Impala. He climbed out the driver's side door and slammed it angrily. "Anna Winchester-Novak, if you are running around school naked- "
His voice cut off in a strangled yelp. There were two outlines of wings coming towards him, somewhat at chest level - at Anna's shoulder-blade-level.
"You got a damn tattoo?!" He made a grab for what he sincerely hoped was an arm and ignored the squawk from the empty air. "Gabe!" he yelled over his shoulder. "Blanket!"
Gabriel rolled down his window and threw out the emergency blanket Dean kept in his car for just this type of occasion. "Anna's gonna get in tro-uble," Gabriel hummed in a singsong voice, and Dean spared a glare for him, too.
"Bambi McSnuffy," he told his son in a threatening voice and Gabriel shut up. Dean threw the blanket at Anna's presumed body and it stuck. "Ah-ha!" Dean crowed. "Get your skin back on and get in the car, or else we'll be late to pick up your little brother."
"I'm not putting my skin back on, Dad!"
"What's this I hear?" Dean cupped a hand around his ear. "Methinks I heard my daughter talk back to me. My underage daughter with an underage tattoo who's going to get her underage ass into the car and tell her Dad what blithering idiot tattoo artist gave her underage shoulder blades wings without permission from her two awesome dads."
Anna hmphed. Even the damn blanket looked sulky. "I can't believe you're complaining about a little ink while baby seals are being slaughtered in Canada!"
Dean blinked. "You're going naked to protest something in Canada? You realize we're in California, right?"
"The baby seals are being killed for their skins, Dad!" Anna flickered a moment as she lost control in the heat of her passion. "I have to show solidarity!"
Dean barely refrained from rolling his eyes. "Anna - "
"It's not stupid!" Her voice was getting a little choked up. Great, he was making his daughter cry. "I'm seventeen years old and I can make up my own mind!"
"That's awesome, Anna, really it is. But there's a time and a place for nudity, and school is not that place!" Sometimes he couldn't believe the words that came out of his mouth. Really, Dean? His conscience's voice spoke to him in Sam's pissy tone whenever he chastised his kids for doing things he had done when he was their age. It was annoying as shit.
"I would like to state for the record that I waited until school was out. And I am getting in the car! But under duress."
Dean waited until the blanket-swathed form got into the front passenger side before getting in himself, muttering darkly about his own stubbornness and Cas's self-righteousness forming an unholy union in their daughter.
"Don't think I've forgotten about those tattoos, either, Anna," he said, putting the Impala into drive.
The silence next to him turned a little frosty.
"Aw, come on, Dad, the tats are kind of cool," Gabriel piped up from the backseat.
"That's not the point!"
"Then what is your point?" Anna learned that tone from her uncle. Dean certainly never sounded all hoity-toity.
"The point, Ms. I'm Seventeen, is that you can't get tattoos at seventeen without permission from a parent or guardian, and I don't recall anyone asking me or Cas if you could permanently mark your body!" He eased on the brakes at a red light. No sense taking out his bad mood on his baby.
"Do you think Dada will be upset?" Anna asked in a small voice.
"Cas will be upset you tried to hide it from him, and didn't talk to him about it," Dean answered, and dammit, he was definitely going to have to tell Cas about Gabriel's foray into Casa Erotica territory, if he didn't want to be a huge hypocrite.
"But I got wings! Like Dada's!" Anna protested.
"And he'll be honored. Eventually."
Anna flickered into view next to him, suddenly solid pale skin and red hair and lower lip trying not to tremble. "I hate being invisible. I wish I could fly like Dada."
"We don't get to choose our powers, sweetheart," Dean said softly.
"I mean, I'm a woman, Dad. I already have to fight against the invisibility of being the powerless minority!" Anna cried dramatically.
"There are more women than men in the world, so technically, you're the majority," Gabriel chimed in.
"Shut up, hoser!" Anna retorted.
"Knock it off, both of you." Hoser? She preparing to move to Canada to protect the seals? "When Cas gets home from work, you're going to explain to him about your tattoos, Anna. Just, tell him why you came to your decision and why you didn't damn well tell us about it yourself, okay? And Gabe," he continued, raising his eyes to the rearview mirror, "we'll have to tell him about Bambi McSnuffy."
"We? Together?" Gabe asked hopefully.
"Yeah, we, together. Chin up, Squirt."
Anna looked out the window. "I want to talk to Dada alone."
"We'll see," Dean grunted. Anna played favorites all the time; according to Sam, it was a perfectly natural phase. That didn't mean Dean had to like it. He pulled up outside the middle school just as the bell rang.
Balthazar came running pell-mell down the front steps, almost tripping down the walkway, before reaching the Impala, yanking open the back door and leaping in, trampling Gabriel in the process. "Blimey! Drive, Dad, drive!" His voice sounded weird.
Dean turned in his seat to survey his sons. They had moved on to batting uselessly at each other with their hands. "You want to save some baby seals, Anna, we've got a couple in the back seat."
"The seal hunt is no joke, Dad," she said with a note of asperity.
"Of course it's not," Dean mumbled. He shifted back into drive and pulled out into traffic. He liked to imagine other cars made room for his baby out of a sense of awe at her utter awesomeness, and not just because she was a behemoth with a determined driver. And noisy occupants. "Hey, Balthazar," he said, raising his voice to be heard over his sons, "you mind telling me why you shot out of school like a bat out of hell?"
"Oh, Father, you're so droll," Balthazar began, still with the strange lilt, and Dean's eyebrows shot up, "I was simply removing myself from the presence of a few choice Neanderthals."
"Droll? Seriously? And what's up with that accent? Who are you trying to be, Dick Van Dyke?"
"Is Dick Van Dyke British?" Balthazar asked hopefully, accent slipping.
"In his dreams," Dean muttered. "Your accent is supposed to be British?"
Balthazar's face fell. "I don't sound British?"
Gabriel snickered. "You sound like a druggie trying to-"
"Whoa, whoa, whoa," Dean interrupted as Balthazar's face scrunched into a scowl. "We don't call each other druggies in this family."
"What if I become a druggie?" Gabriel asked.
"Then you have to go live with your Uncle Sam and Aunt Ruby."
The car was blessedly silent for a moment before Balthazar broke it.
"Aunt Ruby scares me," he said in a small voice, and for once Gabriel didn't make fun of him, but nodded his head in agreement.
"That's just because the two of you are threatened by a woman with power," Anna declared, and then they were off and running, Anna passionately asserting her side while Gabriel took it all as a joke and Balthazar mimicked his attitude, eager for his older brother's approval.
Dean turned into their driveway while Anna was listing the attributes of Tough & Sassy, the mother-daughter superhero team now undercover as Ellen & Jo Harvelle, and how they would surely win in a battle with any pair of male superheroes, "except for Dada and Dad."
Their house in Southern California, their sixth since going undercover almost twenty years ago, was not especially pretty and, in fact, looked just like all the other houses on the street. What it had going for it, though, was a bedroom for each kid. And as their bickering reached a crescendo when Dean put the Impala in park, he gladly sent each to their own room to get started on homework while he saw to the feeding of the family pet. Uriel was a large shaggy dog with the personality of an especially pissed off cat, but Cas loved him regardless so Dean begrudgingly accepted him and kept him fed.
After a couple of hours spent helping Balthazar with math homework, quizzing Gabriel for an upcoming history test, asking Anna if she was ever going to come out of her room ("I'll come out after I talk to Dada!") and breaking up no less than three fights over the remote control, who got to choose the Wii game, and which character was more awesome, Princess Leia or Marion Ravenwood (he took the coward's way out and called it a draw), Dean was actually relieved to escape to the kitchen to start tackling dinner. He was in the midst of stirring a pot of Dad Delight on the stovetop when Cas got home from work. Uriel immediately got up from his spot in the middle of the kitchen, where he'd been trying without success to cause Dean to trip and impale himself with his paring knife, and padded over to the backdoor, throwing a Look over his shoulder at Cas. Cas'd been well-trained, however, and opened the door for him before doing anything else.
Dean snorted. "Don't mind me, Cas, I've only been slaving over this hot stove to create a gourmet meal for you and our beloved children."
Cas slipped his arms around Dean's waist and nuzzled at his neck. "And now you're trying to placate me with your lewd behavior."
"I would never attempt to placate you, Dean," Cas replied. Dean could see his nose wrinkle out of the corner of his eye. "What is this you are making?"
"Dad Delight. You're gonna eat it and like it." He turned in Cas's loose embrace and walked them across the kitchen's linoleum floor until he had Cas pressed against a counter. "Hey. How was your day?"
Cas frowned. "I believe the phrase you would use is that the day 'sucked ass.'"
Dean raised his hands to cup Cas's face and ran a thumb over his lower lip. As much as he hated the necessity that forced them into hiding and Cas into his crap job, he did love Cas's frown faces, and he loved leaning forward and sucking on that lower lip until it quirked into a smile. He especially loved doing all that without an audience making gagging noises.
"Ewww, kisses!" Balthazar shrieked from the doorway.
"Can it, Midget. When Daddy and Daddy make out, it's a beautiful thing," Dean shot back, glancing over his shoulder.
"Ugh!" Balthazar exclaimed and ran back into the living room.
"Dean," Cas said reproachfully.
Dean grinned and leaned in to kiss his frown away once more. "He's already been scarred for life," he murmured against Cas's lips. "Remember that stormy night? Or that other stormy night? Or-"
"Is Dada home?"
Dean sighed and leaned his forehead against Cas's. "Seriously, Gabe? Now? Dada's just walked through the door."
"Does that mean I should wait?" Gabriel asked, face scrunching up.
"Jesus, it's like you were raised by a tactless - oh, right." Dean gave Cas's waist a reassuring squeeze. He looked tired and stressed, but then he'd been looking tired and stressed a lot lately and Dean hadn't the faintest idea how to fix it. "Okay, come in here, Gabe, and tell your Dada what happened at school today."
Cas shot him an alarmed look as Gabriel shuffled forward. "Um," their son began. "So, meet my friend."
He snapped his fingers and a busty blonde who looked way older than fourteen appeared next to him. Cas didn't bat an eye, though they narrowed as he gazed at Bambi McSnuffy. Dean had to give Gabriel credit - she was definitely hot. And the attention to detail was almost obscene.
"Why do I get the feeling that the creation of this co-ed is only the first phase in your misdeed?" Cas asked, crossing his arms. Dean smirked as Gabriel's face fell. There was no putting one over on Cas.
"Well, okay, so you see how hot she is? Isn't that distracting?"
"You should remember who you are talking to, Gabriel," Cas said dryly. Dean snorted.
"Yeah, well, she's distracting to Mr. Walker," Gabriel mumbled.
"Your biology teacher?" Cas shot Dean a quick look for confirmation, and Dean nodded.
"Uh-huh. She could get away with a lot of stuff in his class," Gabriel said to his feet. Cas sighed. "I didn't do anything to hurt him! We, well she, just talked back a bit. I would have done it myself, 'cept I'd totally get in big trouble."
"Like today when you laughed again, and it was the last straw," Dean reminded him. Gabriel looked chagrined.
"Dare I ask what it was you as she said?" Cas dared.
"Uh…"
Dean cleared his throat. "I honestly think you're better off not knowing, Cas, and it really wasn't important."
Gabriel let out a relieved sigh when Cas slowly nodded.
"What is important here is that Gabriel is going to work on remembering the first rule of being an Awesome, right? 'Don't be a douche.'" Dean paused for Gabriel to nod vigorously. "And what's also important is - well, just look at her! She's even solid. She's perfect!"
Cas cut his eyes over at Dean, then took a step forward to peer more closely at Bambi. "This is exquisite work, Gabriel. What does her voice sound like?"
"Thank you, Mr. Novak," said Bambi in Ruby's voice.
"Huh. Your Aunt Ruby would probably get a kick out of this," Dean mused.
"Please don't tell her!" Gabriel's voice cracked in alarm, and Dean and Cas exchanged knowing glances.
"Alright, Gabriel, your secret is safe with us," Cas said. "And I am impressed with your skill and imagination. But you do not torment your teachers, no matter if you do not like them. They are there to teach you things you will need to know. Show them at least a modicum of respect, and don't abuse your powers just because you can. We were forced undercover for a reason."
Gabriel nodded, eyes wide. "Yes, Dada," he whispered. "I won't blow our cover, I promise."
"Good man, Squirt." Dean reached forward and ruffled his hair. "Now scat, I want to talk to your Dada."
Gabriel snapped his fingers again, and Bambi disappeared as he went scurrying from the kitchen.
Cas sighed at his retreating back. "It is difficult to believe Gabriel has already achieved so much with his power."
"Yeah, it seems like just yesterday he created that headless chicken when he was aiming for a Twix." Cas nodded absently and Dean stretched out his hand to cradle his husband's jaw. "Hey. Stay with me here."
"I am always with you," Cas replied, frowning. "If I had my way, I would never spend even an hour separated from you."
Dean huffed a laugh. Twenty years in, and Cas routinely came up with romantic shit like that all the time. It had stopped embarrassing Dean after the time Cas went with him to a holiday party at the place he'd been working at in Ohio, and he'd announced to Dean's boss and co-workers that they had a profound bond. Then the receptionist had walked in on them making out in the coat closet and had taped up photographic proof all over the office the next Monday, with the words "profound bond" scrawled across the bottoms of the pictures.
"You'll have to put up with at least a little separation tonight, as difficult as it is to resist my charms," Dean said, leaning in to kiss him again. "Anna wants to talk to you alone."
"What's wrong?" Cas asked, brow furrowing again.
"Not necessarily wrong, but . . . why don't you have a cup of coffee first?" Dean moved his other hand up to massage Cas's neck. He was so damn tense, and Anna's tattoos were not going to help anything.
"No, I should go now. What is it about?" His hands clung to Dean's waist, more of a handful than there used to be. Dean still worked out, and occasionally played racquetball with Sam, but he had more middle age spread than the other two, and it bugged him. Cas would just tell him that his body was perfect in every incarnation, and fit his own perfectly. And then he'd fuck him into the mattress to prove his point.
"She wants to tell you what it's about without me there," Dean said, rolling his eyes. "She broke the rules, I've seen them, but you remember what Sam said."
Last time Dean had talked to him about Anna, Sam had said that she was "exploring her boundaries" and needed "non-interfering guidance" and "support." Dean just wanted his little girl back, at which Sam had shaken his head and told him the little girl was gone, and he should get to know the young woman who took her place. Easier said than done, as Anna had decided that Cas was now the confidante father and Dean was the chauffeur father.
"I remember Sam's advice." Cas straightened his tie. "We will be down to dinner shortly. Thank you for preparing it."
"No prob." Dean pressed his lips to Cas's forehead, then gave him a light smack on the ass to get him moving. "Call for me if you need reinforcements."
***
Castiel paused outside Anna's door. This month it was painted in swirls of purple and blue, last year's unicorn painted over time and again until Castiel could barely make out the tip of its horn. An earnest female voice was singing inside, asserting that she had a voice. That's evident, child, but what did you want to say?
"Anna," Castiel called through the door. "I wish to enter and speak with you."
The volume of the music was lowered, and he could hear Anna's footsteps approaching. "Are you alone, Dada?"
"Yes, but I feel it is foolish to have this conversation without Dean also present."
She opened the door and stood on the threshold, swaying from foot to foot and hunching her shoulders beneath her black hoodie. It was going to be one of those father-daughter talks then. "Dad already saw."
She shifted aside then and let him enter properly. His nose wrinkled at the smell of her candles. The jar called the scent "midnight garden" but Castiel privately agreed with Dean that the odor was more akin to "emo hysterics." He would have to tread lightly, and stifled a sigh. Treading lightly was not his strong suit.
Castiel sat stiffly on the bed and patted the quilt next to him. It was a holdover from when they lived in New England, a complicated pattern that had been hand-stitched and sold at a church rummage sale. It was also the only brightly-colored object in the room. Anna shoved it aside and sat cross-legged on the bed, her elbows on her knees so that her hood and hair both worked to hide her face. He shifted awkwardly so they were at least facing each other, and folded his hands in his lap.
"Okay, Dada," Anna began. "You know how Dad and Uncle Sam have matching tattoos?"
A shiver of unease crawled up his spine. Surely she could not mean -
"I am well aware of your father's tattoos," he replied.
She inclined her head, acting the part of gracious lady, but all he could see was the three-year-old quivering with excitement the first time he placed her baby brother in her arms.
"And they're important, right? Dad and Uncle Sam wouldn't be the same people they are now without them."
"Your father and uncle would still be your father and uncle no matter what they looked like," he countered. This was most definitely about tattoos. Anna had gotten a tattoo, and - and damn Sam's "exploring boundaries" speech!
"But their tattoos say something - "
"Anna, would you do me the honor of simply saying what you mean?" Castiel cut her off, his head beginning to pound right between his eyes.
She disappeared abruptly, and he was left facing an empty hoodie. "I got wings tattooed on my back," it whispered at him in Anna's voice.
Castiel closed his eyes and counted to five before opening them again, striding to the door and yanking it open as well, yelling down the hall, "Dean, I am calling for reinforcements!"
"Dada!" Anna's hoodie protested from the bed.
Dean was already at the door and slipping inside, shutting it behind him. He looked at the hoodie, then back at Castiel. "Has she shown them to you?"
"Not yet," Castiel answered grimly. "Anna. The wings."
"I just want to be like you!" she wailed. The hoodie sailed through the air and crumpled into a heap near her desk. She was wearing a button-down beneath it, Castiel recognized it as one of his cast-offs, and it was on backwards and unbuttoned. The wings appeared hazy against the inner pale blue of the shirt.
"Anna. Show yourself." Dean shot him a warning look, probably about his tone, and Castiel moderated it. "I would like to see them properly, Rosebud."
The pet name worked, and Anna flickered into solid form. The tattoos were . . . not atrocious. Fluffier than his own wings, and much, much smaller, but that was to be expected as his wingspan was enough to wrap him and Dean up like a burrito. True wing-size tattoos would never fit on Anna's slender back. He extended a finger and gingerly touched one wing. It felt like skin.
"Anna, why would you do this? Truly?" he asked.
She flickered minutely. "I told you," she said in a small voice.
"If you meant to honor me by choosing wings, Rosebud, why did you not tell me you were getting them?"
She was silent. Dean took a step closer to him, and Castiel drew gratefully on his strength. Anna disappeared again, the blue shirt falling backwards back-forward onto the bed. Castiel and Dean both leaned forward to try to catch the muffled words from the vicinity of Anna's pillow.
"Speak up, Shortcake, we can't hear you," Dean told her. The shirt turned over.
"I wanted to show them to someone," she said.
"I take it you mean someone other than us," Dean said.
Castiel could hear her take a deep breath and let it out slowly. "When you and Dada, I mean, the first time you - he showed you his wings and you knew you loved him, didn't you?"
Dean looked pole-axed. "Whoa, whoa, whoa! This is about sex? You want to have sex with some - boy? And you think showing him tattoos will make it - what? True love? Are you -"
"That's enough, Dean." Castiel laid a hand on Dean's shoulder. "Anna, that was a very different situation."
"It was different because you didn't have to hide that you were a superhero!" she burst out. "You didn't need tattoos to be special!"
"Listen up, kid - you are incredibly fucking special," Dean said forcefully, Castiel wincing at his choice of words. "Always have been, always will be. You do not want to be with some idiot who can't see that!"
"I believe what your father is saying," Castiel added, gingerly picking a place on the bed to sit so he could clumsily pat her shoulder, "is that having intercourse for the first time is a very big decision, whether you are a superhero or not."
"But you knew he was the right one when you showed him your wings, didn't you?" she asked.
Castiel sighed. "Anna, I had had several lovers before I met Dean -" Dean shot him a panicked look and gestured frantically to him to shut up, forgetting that Anna could still see him, even if she was invisible "- but Dean was the only one I showed my wings. And I did so because the moment I met him I knew I wanted to spend every day beside him and every night making love to him." Dean made a strangled noise, but Castiel continued regardless. "The wings came out after the fact."
"Enough with the wings!" Dean's voice was rather more high pitched than usual. "You're not having sex until you're forty!"
"That is an unrealistic expectation," Castiel said, "though I certainly wish it were so."
"You guys are upset over nothing, anyhow," Anna said glumly. "Stan doesn't even know I exist."
"Stan? Stan? You want to give your - your most precious gift - to a Stan?"
There were moments - not many, but definite moments - when Castiel simply could not comprehend how Dean's mind worked.
"Did you just call our daughter's virginity her most precious gift?" he asked, wonderingly. "What about her kindness, her intelligence, her bravery? These are all worth much more."
"Cas." Dean's eyes bugged out a bit.
"And what is wrong with the name 'Stan'?" Castiel continued.
"There's nothing fucking wrong with Stan!" Dean exploded. "Just the fact that he exists!"
Castiel touched Dean's forearm, finally getting it. "Dean. I did not mean to make light of the situation. I apologize. Anna," he eyed the jeans sticking out of the shirt and laid a hand on a possible ankle, "you do not need to show this Stan your wings to get him to love you. Do you understand our concerns?"
"You don't want me to cheapen myself by having sex with someone who'd only do it because I have cool wings, and not because they love me?"
"Yes, that." Dean nodded vigorously. "And you should really wait a long time, and have your father and I vet him - or her - first."
"Then I'd never have sex."
"Would that really be so bad?" Dean asked. Castiel didn't need to see Anna's face to know what expression she was wearing. After all, she'd learned it from him. Dean knew it, too, and held up a hand in a placating gesture. "Alright, alright. Just - promise you'll talk to us before you make these kinds of decisions, will you? We're not idiots; we've been there, you know?"
She flickered back into view and nodded her head. "Okay, Dad. And I'm sorry I got the tattoo without permission."
Dean leaned over and kissed her forehead. "Awesome. Now I need to check that Dad Delight to make sure it didn't boil over. Wash up, dinner's ready in five." He bent to kiss Castiel on the lips and left, shutting the door gently behind him.
Anna threw her arms around her Dada as soon as the handle snicked closed. "I'm sorry I didn't tell you," she mumbled into his shirt.
"It will be okay, Rosebud," he murmured, pressing his lips to her bright red hair. If it was within his power, he would keep Anna a child forever. But though she would always be his little girl, she was no longer a child, and it was time he remembered it.
"Are you at least a tiny bit honored by the wings?"
"I am deeply honored." He kissed the top of her head again. "Now. Put your shirt on properly. I will meet you downstairs for dinner. I love you, Rosebud."
"I love you, Dada."
***
Part II and Part III