[FIC/ART] How to Take Care of Angels and Little Animals (2/2) for akadougal
Gift type: Art and Fanfic
Title: How to Take Care of Angels and Little Animals (2/2)
Author: remivel
Recipient: akadougal
Rating: NC-17
Warnings: Fluff, slight animal/angel abuse, animal angst
Spoilers: Set somewhere around Season 5 or 6, so very vague spoilers for both seasons.
Word Count: 21, 416
Summary: Gabriel is tired of having to listen to Castiel's woes about the Winchesters, so he decides to take matters into his own hands... and turns Castiel into a furry pet for the Winchesters to take care of.
Author notes: This took longer than expected. Answer to the giftee's prompt: "Animal transformation into something cute. Literal fluff." There maybe a good dose of angst there as well, so forgive me for that if that's something you didn't want mixed in with your fluff. I hope you have as much fun reading this as I had writing it.
(art can be found at the end of the fic)
Part One
Cas is left thinking up ways to somehow get his message across to Sam for the rest of the day, and before he knows it, night has fallen and he hears the roar of the Impala’s engine pulling up in front of the room.
Cas gets up from the bed to give them his usual greeting- by rubbing up on their legs (Dean had tripped on him a couple of times and had since sworn that if he trips one more time, he’s not going to be responsible for not-so-accidentally stepping on any part of the cat). However, when he reaches the door, he hears Dean’s voice along with someone else’s, and when the door swings open, Cas is kicked to the side (accidentally, this time) by two pairs of shoes stumbling on each other: Dean’s heavy boots… and some woman’s red stilettos.
Blue eyes widen in shock when he sees Dean drop onto the bed with a curvy brunette on top of him. He sees her pull off her tight dress, and her hair falls in delicate waves behind her pale back. He sees Dean’s fingers wrap around her tiny waist and-Cas can’t take any more of this and averts his gaze.
He hides under the table and suddenly he feels sick, which is weird because he still has his grace and he should not be susceptible to disease. He feels like puking, and it’s a different sensation than when he was purging out a hairball that time. This is much worse. He feels like his heart has sunk to his stomach and it’s rolling around there and making him all kinds of sick. He hears the woman moan and he feels his chest tighten unbearably, making it hard for him to breathe. He doesn’t know what’s happening to him, all he knows is he feels nauseous and he wants to be anywhere but here.
He’s seen Dean bring home girls more times than he can count. He has known for a long time how healthy Dean’s sexual appetite could be, and though he has never approved of any of Dean’s depravities, he has usually acted indifferent toward them. So to feel less-than-indifferent about this now should strike Castiel as very unusual, except it really doesn’t, because he knows exactly why he is feeling this way.
It’s the same feeling he had when Dean shoved him away and told him to forget they had just kissed. Forget that Dean looked at him with so much emotion just before their lips touched. Forget that Dean clung onto him and kissed him deeper and with more passion than he had ever thought possible. Forget that even for a short while, Dean made him feel like he loved him back.
But now Castiel is here, a scared kitten hiding under a table, and Dean is just a few feet away, kissing someone else. In bed with someone else. Is this his punishment? For putting the Winchesters above everything else, even above Heaven itself? It must be. Because he doesn’t think anything could be worse than this.
“Gabriel, please… if you’re listening. Take me away. Just this once,” he pleads as silently as he could, paws to his ears as he tries to muffle the sounds coming from the bed.
Gabriel doesn’t come for him, nor do the terrible feelings in his gut and chest stop.
He does, however, hear a sharp sound, like a cry, and before he knows it, he’s whipping his head towards the direction of the bed. He knows he probably shouldn’t have done that. Who knows what he could see? It could probably break him forever. But his dread melds into confusion when he sees the girl sit up on the bed and spit out an irritated, “Are you kidding me?!”
No sooner had she said this that she’s getting off of Dean and grabbing her dress from the floor.
“Sorry, Marie. Maybe next time,” Dean says with a forced grin.
“It’s Mindy, and don’t even think about a next time,” she huffs out indignantly as she pulls her dress on hastily. Dean sits up on the bed to put his shirt back on and rubs his face with his hands. He doesn’t even look up as the woman stomps angrily out of the motel room and slams the door shut.
A quiet minute passes with Dean’s face buried in his hands and Castiel quietly watching from under the table. He knows it’s wrong to delight in the misfortune of others, but he couldn’t help feeling relieved and happy about the turn of events. That is, until Dean zips up his jeans, stands up from the bed, and stalks to the table where Castiel is hiding. He crouches down and pulls Cas out by the scruff of his neck. He brings the kitten’s face up to his and stares straight into the round, blue eyes.
Cas gulps nervously at the indecipherable look on Dean’s face. Then Dean sighs. “This is all your damn fault,” he says before he walks back to the bed and deposits the kitten in his usual spot at the foot of his bed.
“My fault?” Cas meows quietly as he watches Dean trudge lazily to the bathroom.
+++
“Lemme get this straight…” Sam says, fighting the urge to burst into fits of laughter as he looked to his side at Dean driving, to the kitten lying on his lap, and back at Dean. “You… you heard the cat meow and… you can’t…” he pauses, trying to school his features into some semblance of indifference. “You… can’t…”
“I can’t get it up, alright?!” Dean blurts out angrily.
At this, the sound of Sam’s laughter engulfs the whole Impala and Dean wants to strangle his brother right then and there.
“I’m glad my problem is amusing for at least one of us,” Dean says with a fake smile.
“Oh come on, Dean. You have to admit it’s funny. What is it about this cat that makes you… you know… unable to perform?”
“Nothin’ alright!” Dean growls.
Sam laughs again. “If it was nothin’, you would’ve had Molly to yourself all night.”
“I’m pretty sure her name was Mandy…”
“Mindy!” Cas chimes in even though he knows he wouldn’t be understood. He doesn’t care anyway. He seems to be in a very good mood this morning.
“Whatever. The point is, you lost your uh, appetite… because of a cat. You’ve never been so affected before.”
“I just don’t like it when there’s another pair of eyes in the room, okay? Just thinkin’ of that cat lookin’ while we… while I… ugh….” Dean shudders. “It just creeps me out, alright?”
“Dean. He’s a kitten. You could’ve just locked him in the bathroom if you’re so worried you’ll taint his innocent eyes.”
“I did think of that, but by that time… Mr. Happy’s not so happy anymore…”
“Mr. Happy?” Sam says with a grimace.
“Oh you know what I mean.”
They drive in silence for a couple more minutes until Sam’s eyebrows knot as he recalls something. “There was an aquarium in one of our motel rooms a couple weeks back… you didn’t seem so creeped out by the little fishy eyes then when you brought back that red head…”
“It’s not the ‘little fishy eyes’ that creep me out… it’s that kitten’s eyes. They look too much like Ca-“ Dean shuts his mouth before the name could completely form on his lips, his eyes wide with disbelief at what he almost said.
“Like what?” Sam urges on, though he knows exactly what Dean was about to say.
“Nothin’,” Dean says, his eyes staring intently, too intently, on the road ahead, ignoring the pensive, almost knowing look Sam must be flashing him at this very moment.
+++
“They’re giant wolves,” Dean repeats as he talks to Sam on the phone. “Really. Giant wolves?”
“That’s what the witness said. She claims she saw more than a dozen.”
“A dozen? Shit, man. Maybe she was just exaggerating? You don’t think it could’ve been the shock of seeing her friends die?” he asks as he enters the motel room. Mr. Bonbon rubs against his legs and he ignores him and goes to sit on the bed.
“I don’t know. She is pretty shaken. But the coroner confirms it as an animal attack, most likely of wolves. Big wolves. Even if they were ordinary wolves, it seems fishy. Seven dead just in a week? And no deaths before that. At first we thought it was werewolves right? But you saw the bodies… there was hardly anything left of them.”
“And she swore they looked like wolves?” Dean asks again.
“Yeah. Pretty much, except they were as big as grizzly bears, and had ‘yellow, glowing eyes.’ How’d she see a whole pack of wolves eating her friends and managed to escape?”
Dean is stumped. Giant, man-eating wolves, a whole pack? “We should probably ask Bobby…”
“I’m on it,” Sam says before hanging up.
Dean sits on the bed, lost in thought as the kitten jumps up to sit beside him. He looks at the cat and its eerie wide eyes that reminded Dean too much of him. “An elderly couple went missing a week ago. And yesterday, five hikers were killed. One of them was a 15 year old kid,” he tells the kitten. “But this is the first time I’ve heard of giant wolves…” he thinks aloud.
He sits quietly for a couple more minutes, then he looks up at the ceiling. “I’ve got nothing here,” he calls out. “Seven innocent people are dead. A lot more are in danger. So if you’re listening, you sonnovabitch, get your feathery ass down here.”
+++
It takes Cas a couple of seconds to realize what Dean is doing. Hands clasped tightly in front of him, head tilted toward the ceiling, his Adam’s apple bobbing heavily with each word wrenched out of his throat. Dean is praying. For his help.
“Cas… come on, help us out here,” Dean swallows the lump in his throat and adds, “Please.”
A minute passes, then two, then five, and when nothing happens, Dean spits out a curse. “I knew it. You’re a vindictive son of a bitch, you know that? If you’re fucking angry at me, take it out on me some other way. Not like this. Not when people’s lives are at stake,” he tells the ceiling angrily. He breathes in, waiting for something, anything.
“Dean! I’m right here.” Cas meows but it’s useless. He’s useless. He moves forward and scratches at Dean’s thigh to get his attention. He doesn’t know what he plans to achieve once he gets Dean to look at him, but he just wants to tell him somehow. Wants him to know he’s right here, has always been right here with him, even if he doesn’t know it.
When Dean feels the soft paws scratching at his jeans, he turns to the cat and sighs, practically deflating on the bed.
“You don’t suppose you know where Cas is right now, do you?” he asks.
Cas’ eyes light up the moment Dean turns his eyes toward him. “Yes, I’m right here Dean. Can’t you see?” he meows.
“He’s not in any trouble, right? I mean, he’s been gone longer before, but… this time…” Dean says with another heavy sigh. “He’d come here if he needed help, right?” Dean asks the kitten.
For a moment Cas is confused. Dean was just angry at him mere moments ago, and now, he’s wondering how he is doing. Is he hearing Dean correctly? Is Dean… worried about him?
“Oh who am I kiddin', you don’t understand a word I say,” Dean says, picking Cas up and settling the kitten on his lap. He glides a hand down its back and finds the soft fur soothing. Then the kitten purrs and leans to his touch and Dean can’t help the smile that forms on his lips. “You’re still so small, where’s your family, baby?” he asks affectionately.
Cas’ eyes roll back into his head at the heavenly feeling of Dean’s fingers running down his back. Everything gets so fuzzy when Sam does this to him, and it’s no different now that Dean’s the one giving him a bit of attention. He almost misses what Dean says next.
“Don’t you miss ‘em?”
Cas looks up at Dean and cants his head to the side. “Who?” Cas asks.
+++
“You kinda remind me of him, you know?” Dean tells the kitten. “He can be a dick sometimes but sometimes, I just mi-“ the words die in his throat as his eyes lock with the kitten’s bright blue eyes. Something indefinable stirs inside Dean as he stares into the kitten’s eyes, like something’s not quite right, like there’s a trace of magic, of power he can’t see but he can feel heavy in the air.
He picks the kitten up again, the same suspicion rising inside him as he brings its face closer to his. He stares straight into the kitten’s eyes, and the kitten stares right back at him, and he is drawn into the unfathomable depths of those eyes, blue going darker and darker the deeper he goes, then in the depths, a light, and the eyes glow electric blue. And there it is again. The same indefinable feeling. He sees galaxies swirl in those blue eyes, clouds and wings of white against a sky so blue and bright it hurts his eyes. He sees more than that. He sees friendship and recognition, affection and infinite knowledge, and then a glint of pain in the eyes of a tiny kitten.
He barely registers the clink of keys and the door opening until Sam speaks. “Hey, so I talked to Bobby, and he hasn’t heard anything like it but he’ll ask around…”
Dean jolts and drops the kitten to the floor, whatever spell woven in that space of time broken by Sam’s intrusion. He can still feel it though… the weird, supernatural aura surrounding the kitten, and he stands up, goes to the mini fridge and grabs a bottle of water.
“You alright, Dean?” he hears Sam say.
Dean gulps in almost all the water in one go. He wipes his mouth and turns around, eyes going back to the kitten. And for a moment he thinks his mind just made it up. Mr. Bonbon looks just like the ordinary kitten that he is. Except Dean still remembers that feeling. And his gut tells him he’s right and he’s been right all along.
“I’ll be fine,” Dean says, eyes still locked onto the kitten, who, oddly enough, keeps its eyes locked at Dean as well, as if telling him something, challenging him to voice his concerns. And he does. “We should get rid of the cat,” Dean suddenly blurts out.
Sam pauses from unpacking the print outs and other materials he got from the library and turns to look at Dean. “What? Where did that come from?”
“Don’t you think it’s weird? It hardly eats or sleeps, and I’ve never seen it poop or pee anywhere. It uses the phone, types on your laptop… and it looks like he’s even listening to us… look, look at it. Tell me that doesn’t look like it understands us,” Dean points out.
Sam looks at the cat then back at Dean. “Can you hear yourself, Dean? You sound insane.”
“I’m not insane, man. I’m telling you there’s some weird shit going on with that cat!”
Sam strides to the kitten and picks it up. “So you’re saying Mr. Bonbon is, what? Possessed?” he asks, looking into the kitten’s bright eyes.
“No! I’m saying it’s weird, Sam. It stares at me like Ca-“ Dean stops, mouth agape. He stomps to the bed and flops down onto it.
“Like what, Dean?” Sam asks. “It stares at you like Cas does?” he ventures.
“Yes! Kind of. I dunno. All I know is when I talk to him, he seems to understand exactly what I’m saying. And look at him. He’s staring again.”
And Sam gets it. He looks down at the cat in his arms and the cat’s folded ears twitch, but his eyes never leave Dean. Blue and bright and intense and so much like Cas’, even Sam can see why Dean would feel uncomfortable. He sits down on the bed across from Dean’s and cradles the cat on his lap. “Don’t you think you’re thinking this way because…” Sam stops to hesitate.
“Oh spill it Sam,” Dean says irritably.
“You’re antsy Cas hasn’t showed up at all since that group of demons we killed three weeks ago. You’re pouring your frustrations on this kitten… and he does kinda look like Cas, now that you mention it.”
“Dammit, Sam, this is not about Cas!”
“It is, Dean. All of this is about Cas. That’s the only reason I could think of why you’re being all bitchy. Something happened back then and you’re not telling me, and I get it. Whatever it was, it’s between the two of you, but look, if you’re worried about him, we can ask around. I’m sure someone would know what’s happening up there…”
“I’m not worried, alright? He can handle himself. Why should I be worried about someone who ignores all of our calls and doesn’t even bother to drop by even once? Come on, we have a pack of giant wolves to kill.”
+++
‘Dean’s starting to realize I’m not just a cat,’ Cas thinks happily as he watches the brothers pour through the materials they’ve gathered about the killings. ‘It won’t be long,’ he thinks. ‘If Dean is starting to see it… then maybe Sam won’t be far along as well.’
“From the police reports and what the witness said, it all points to wolf attacks,” Sam says.
“But it can’t be ordinary wolves,” Dean insists. “There are no wolves at this part of the country. Besides, if there really are giant wolves running around in these woods, there’d be more sightings of them. Certainly when they’re killing people and coming this close to the town.”
Cas nods as he listens from the bed. ‘Dean is correct. This is not the work of ordinary wolves,’ he thinks. The moment they arrived at this little town, he felt it, despite the reduced state of his grace. A strong, sinister power. A danger far greater than a measly pack of wolves. He watches the window outside, watches the dark, heavy clouds that promise a deluge later in the day, watches the birds flying restlessly in the sky, sees that they, too, feel the power enveloping this wooded little town.
“Well, I’m drawing a blank here,” Dean says, closing the folder of police reports and other files they gathered.
Sam looks at his watch. “Let’s head out for lunch first, clear our heads or something.”
“Great idea. They better have pie.”
+++
Dean lays off the kitten for the rest of the day, and once he has eaten a couple of slices of the local diner’s apple pie, he’s back to his old self, much to Sam’s relief. Until that afternoon when they return to the motel and Dean spots the kitten again.
Sam warily watches as Dean picks the cat up and stares at its small, round face. “You don’t think he’s a werecat, do you?” Dean asks even as he turns the kitten upside down, over and around, looking for any tell-tale signs of the supernatural.
“You’re insane,” Sam tells him before plucking the kitten out of Dean’s fingers and cradling it possessively.
+++
Sam calls out for Cas’ help when a day of investigating ends with two more people missing and no additional clues to help them find the killers.
Dean watches him from across the motel room and snorts just as Sam finishes his prayer. “He’s not comin’,” Dean says darkly.
“You don’t know that…”
“Believe me, I tried. Practically begged for him to come this morning. He didn’t,” he says, standing up from his seat at the small dining room and grabbing the keys from the table.
“Where’re you going?” Sam asks as Dean puts his jacket on and heads for the door. “Out,” Dean just says and slams the door behind him.
Sam shakes his head in disapproval and spares a glance at the kitten on the bed. “Drinking again,” he tells the kitten, who looks at him as if he understands, and he, too, does not approve. Sam’s brows knot at that and maybe it’s because of Dean’s incessant claims that the kitten is not any ordinary kitten, but he suddenly sees where Dean may be coming from. There’s something… unusual about Mr. Bonbon, especially when he’s sitting like a Buddha statue and looking at him like he knows more than he’s letting on. He looks almost human and unearthly, innocent and darkly mysterious at the same time.
Almost like Cas.
It sounded ridiculous when Dean voiced it out, and it still sounds ridiculous even in Sam’s own mind. Yet, there’s just something nagging at him, refusing to let the thought rest now that it’s floating inside his mind. “You’d tell me if you were actually a werecat, right?” Sam asks the cat.
The cat’s ears twitch suddenly and his eyes grow wide before he jumps to Sam all excited. Sam laughs. “So you are then? A werecat?” he asks and the cat meows. “Alright, alright. I don’t suppose you also know what happened to Cas, huh? So we can stop Dean from moping.”
The cat meows loudly, enthusiastically and Sam is, for once, really concerned. He looks at the cat’s face, really, really looks at him. He stares into the cat’s eyes, and saw the warm light hidden in its blue depths, powerful and electric and ethereal like… like…
“Oh my god!”
He drops the cat on the floor and it yeowls.
“Shit. This is insane,” Sam says, combing a hand through his hair. He paces back and forth a couple of times, spares a glance at the cat and shakes his head. He strides to the window to open it a crack, inhales the fresh scent of the forest air to clear his head. He looks back at the cat, and it stares back knowingly and he shivers. It’s no use. “I need a drink,” he says before promptly walking out of the room and leaving the cat on the floor.
+++
Cas rubs at the slight throb on his head when Sam had dropped him. Whoever said cats always land on their feet had never met him. Then again, he isn’t a real cat anyway, so he doubts if he counts. Nevertheless, he’s thrilled that Sam’s beginning to realize who he is as well. He doesn’t know how exactly but they can see it, can sense his grace every time they stare into his eyes. Now, if only they realized what that powerful, glowing light in his eyes actually means, then they can finally help him get back to his old self.
+++
The night grows steadily darker and both Sam and Dean are still nowhere to be seen. The rain started to pour a couple of hours earlier and now a cold, damp wind blows in from the window, making Cas’ small body shiver. He has never been susceptible to heat or cold, but somehow in his weakened state, he has grown sensitive to weather changes and to loud, sudden noises. A lightning strikes a few miles away and Cas cowers, covers his ears just in time for the earth-shaking thunder clap to slice through the air. He shivers again and he tries to burrow in the comforter at the foot of Dean’s bed but the air in the room is still too chilly even for his fur. Usually, he’d snuggle against Dean’s leg to get some warmth, sometimes Dean would even let him snuggle against his broad back at night. But Dean’s not here, and neither is Sam.
He stands up and stretches his wings behind him to cover himself with them. They may not be able to fly at the moment, but Cas has recently discovered they can be a good source of warmth. He feels his invisible limbs ache from disuse, and he slowly, carefully stretches the left, then the right, spreading his feathers as far as they can go. Then, a lightning strike quickly followed by thunder, and the room fills with light for an instant. Cas dives to cover his ears, but it’s too late. He hears keys dropping on the floor, and he looks up to see Sam, eyes wide and jaw slack, frozen in shock by the door.
“Oh my god.”
+++
Sam can’t believe what he just saw. It was only for a split second, but it was long enough for him to make out the weird shadows that formed behind the kitten’s back and spread onto the wall behind him. They were wings. Wings!
Sam jolts from his shock, closes the door behind him without looking away from the kitten, and he says the thing that’s been bugging for the last few hours. “Oh my god,” he says again, “I must be drunker than I thought…” he says, shaking his head. “Cas, that’s you, isn’t it?”
+++
Cas can’t believe what Sam just said, and he jumps up happily. “Yes!” he meows. “Finally!”
Sam looks at him in shock again, and Cas realizes that isn’t the reaction the younger Winchester is looking for.
“Oh my god…” Sam says for the third time that night. He walks with heavy feet to the other bed and sits across the kitten. Then his brows knot, and he looks at the kitten suspiciously. “How do I know that wasn’t just a coincidence… and I’m not just drunk and talking to a cat?”
Cas tilts his head to the side in confusion. “How am I supposed to answer that?” he meows.
“Hmm…” Sam says thoughtfully. “I have seen weirder things… okay, listen up kitty,” he tells Cas, leaning forward and pointing a finger at the ceiling. “One meow is for ‘yes’…” then, he shows him two fingers, “…two meows is for ‘no’. Understood?”
‘This is ridiculous…’ Cas thinks before saying ‘yes’. It comes out as a single meow.
Sam’s eyes widen at that but he goes on. “You’re Cas, right?”
One meow.
“What are you then, Cas?” Sam tests. “A demon?”
Two meows and an indignant look.
“An angel?”
Cas looks at Sam like he’s lost it and answers, with a bit more force than he intends, “YES!”
And that is the only time Sam lets himself buy it. The blue eyes, the indignant look, and even that tone in the kitten’s voice sound so much like Cas now, Sam can no longer ignore it. Oh, and there were wings mere moments ago. “Shit. Cas. Really? All this time?” Sam says in disbelief.
“Meow!”
“Can you change back?”
“Meow meow”
“Who did this to you? Oh right, yes or no… Do we know who did this to you?”
“Meow.”
“Is it a demon?”
“Meow meow”
“An angel?”
Cas meows loudly, angrily.
“What? Seriously? Who’d play a silly trick like-“ Sam stops as it dawns on him. “Gabriel!” he hisses.
The cat meows in agreement.
“I should’ve known. Heh. Sorry for callin’ you Mr. Bonbon,” Sam smiles sheepishly. “You probably hated that.”
“Not particularly,” Cas says with a shrug. It comes out as two meows.
Then Sam realizes something. “Shit, Cas, you were in the bathroom while Dean showered. And that one time when he brought home that brunette… Oh my god, Cas. You were watching this whole time?”
“Absolutely not!” and at that the cat seemed very angry.
“Right, sorry. You probably didn’t have a choice, huh? So what do we do now… we gotta tell Dean.”
“We can’t,” Cas tells him.
“What do you mean ‘no’? We have to tell Dean. He can help us change you back.”
“Just no.”
“Ok, we don’t tell Dean. Will something terrible happen if we tell Dean?”
“Yes.”
“Fine. Let’s not. We have to find Gabriel then. Maybe he can change you back.”
“He won’t,” Cas tells him.
“Why not? How do we change you back, then?” Sam asks, and when Cas just looks blankly at him, he smiles sheepishly again. “Oh right. Uh… do you know how we can change you back?”
Cas nods. “Yes.”
“Well, that’s great. But… how can you tell me…” Sam says thoughtfully.
Cas jumps off the bed and walks toward Sam’s bag. He scratches at it. “This. Open this,” he says.
Sam looks in confusion at Cas then at the bag. “My laptop?” he asks. Then he remembers when Dean caught the kitten stomping on the keys, and that key smash he thought spelled out ‘Sam help me’. “So you were trying to type a message out back then,” Sam smiles as he gets his laptop out. “I thought I was only imagining it.”
He opens the laptop and goes to a program with a white background Cas has seen Sam use before to type in words. “You can type here. Go ahead,” he says as he sets the laptop onto the table and watches as the kitten walks up to it and, with concentration etched on its face, it begins to gently step on keys with the tip of his paw. “This is still so surreal,” Sam says just as Mr. Bonbon-no, Cas-finishes his message. He looks at the screen and the word typed onto it.
“Dean,” Sam reads. “Dean?” he asks Cas, and Cas meows once in response. “But I thought he can’t know it’s you.”
Cas goes back to the keys and types another word.
“Say,” Sam reads. “Dean… say… Dean has to say something?”
“Yes!” Cas says excitedly.
“Do you know what he has to say?”
“Don’t know,” Cas meows.
“Oh. I see, so you just know Dean has to say something… but you have no idea what it is?”
“Exactly,” Cas replies.
“You think it’s something like ‘I’m sorry’?” Sam asks. “Or, ‘I’m a dick’?” he guesses. “I love you?”
Cas grimaces at that, but he doesn’t discount the possibility that it could be any one of those, or something as random as ‘I’m a pretty, pretty girl.’ But knowing Gabriel… and knowing that the kiss incident is at least part of the reason why he did this… he’d guess Sam is closer than he realizes, despite the fact that Dean would never say any of those words. Not to Cas at least.
“This sucks. How do we get him to say something if we don’t know what it is? There’s gotta be a way…” Sam trails off, and just then, his phone rings. He looks at the number and frowns. “Wait a sec,” he tells Cas as he answers the phone. “Agent Young speaking. Yes, sheriff. No, it’s not too late…”
Cas watches as Sam’s face grows darker as the sheriff tells Sam something Cas can only barely hear from where he is sitting. When the phone call ends, Sam’s mood has made a definite turn for the worst. “A trucker found the bodies of the two latest victims. They were at the side of the main road, in a ditch, mangled and half eaten,” Sam tells him. “That’s nine victims in less than two weeks.”
Cas frowns as well. “It has struck again,” he says.
“Do you have any idea what might be behind this? We were trying to call you… Dean, I think has tried twice just for this case… but now I guess I know why you never came,” Sam tells him. “He thinks you’re just ignoring him or something…”
‘Yes, I have seen how foul his behavior has been,’ Cas thinks as he moves to type something.
“Guess?” Sam reads. “You have a guess about what’s behind this?” Sam says excitedly. “Go ahead. We need all the leads we can get.”
Cas nods and types again.
When Sam reads what Cas typed next, Sam’s face grows serious. “Witch… you think a witch may be behind this?” he asks.
“Yes.”
“Okay… that might be helpful. I can go ask Bobby if there’s anything in his books about witches that can control giant wolves or something…”
But before he can call Bobby, Sam gets another call. This time, it’s from Dean. “Dean! Where have you been? I think I’ve got a lead…”
“So do I,” Dean says. “I heard from the bartender that there’s this woman… she’s an old resident... been gone for quite some time but she recently returned just as the wolf attacks started.”
“Yeah, and I have a pretty good idea a witch is behind this.”
“A witch? It fits.”
“Where are you now, Dean? Something big just happened,” Sam announces, and Cas meows in protest. “I know!” Sam mouths at him.
“The Black Dog Pub.”
“Alright, be there in five,” Sam says before he hangs up. He sees Cas looking at him curiously. “Well, while we’re at it, it wouldn’t hurt to try and make him say stuff, right? Come here,” he says, gesturing for Cas to enter Sam’s bag. Cas looks skeptically at Sam before he follows, jumping into the bag.
+++
The old lady who owns the motel lends the ‘good looking FBI agent’ her husband’s pickup, and Sam drives hastily through the heavy rain. He got Bobby on the phone just before he left, and the old hunter told him what he already suspected. “I’ll look it up, but I can tell you now, if she can control these giant wolves, you can be sure she’s got enough juice to finish yer asses off with one blow. Be careful, boy,” Bobby had said.
“If we can return you to your old self, you can help us get rid of this witch,” Sam tells Cas, who has his head poking out of Sam’s bag on the passenger seat.
Cas nods. ‘That might be the smarter way to go,’ he thinks, but he knows it will be harder than it sounds.
+++
A couple minutes away from the pub, Sam gets a call from a frantic Dean. “One of the waitresses ran in crying, said the busboy was attacked by a wolf and carried off into the woods. I’m going after it,” Dean says.
“No, wait Dean! You can’t go there alone! I’m almost there.”
“No time. I might still be able to save him if I go now. Just get here as fast as you can,” Dean says before he abruptly hangs up.
“Dammit, Dean!” Sam growls as he tosses the phone to the passenger side, narrowly missing Cas’ head. “He’s probably drunk… and definitely not thinking like himself,” Sam says angrily, worriedly, and Cas feels a chill run down his spine at the possibility that Dean may just screw this up majorly… and he might not get out of that forest alive. Sam floors the gas pedal and the pickup zooms through the deserted, rain-slick streets.
+++
When they get to the pub, Sam immediately runs to the back where the waitresses told them Dean had run off to after the wolf. It is still raining heavily, and Sam can hardly see anything. He hears the howl of a wolf deeper into the forest… then another, and another, and it makes him shiver. “Shit, how am I supposed to find him here?” he asks. He reaches into his bag for the gun he knows is there, and Cas suddenly leaps out of the bag and runs in front of him.
“Cas wait!” he calls out, but the kitten ignores him and runs faster. “Fuck,” Sam curses as he follows the cat blindly, realizing Cas might have a better chance of finding Dean than him.
+++
Cas sniffs the air and runs faster, leaping over exposed roots and rocks. He concentrates and taps into his grace, letting his power propel his feet quicker on the slippery and uneven surface. Dean is close, he can sense him. But, he can also sense the wolves. They’re angry.
A gunshot pierces through the air, and both Cas and Sam jolt in surprise. Cas stops for a moment, eyes wide as he sniffs the air again, harnesses as much of his grace as possible to find Dean. And then he sees him through the darkness and the rain. Sees exactly where he is. Sees giant wolves, maybe four or five of them, in front of Dean. He has managed to shoot down one of them, but the others are angry. One of them lunges forward and Dean shoots again. Then, the remaining three attack.
Cas runs, his heart thumping heavy and quick in his chest, then he hears the click of Sam’s gun, and another gunshot rings in the air, and one wolf gets knocked down. Another gunshot, and another… but Cas does not wait to see if they reach their target… a big brown wolf lunges at Dean, Dean shoots at it but it continues, bearing fangs and claws bigger than Dean’s fists. Cas doesn’t think anymore. He leaps, unfurls his wings and envelops himself with all the grace he can summon and hits the wolf at the side of its head.
The wolf stumbles away from Dean, like it has been hit by a large rock and it is knocked off balance for a moment. The wolf growls, and Cas doesn’t have time to get away before sharp claws and a paw the size of a dinner plate descends on him, swats at him with bone-crunching force, and he slams to the nearest tree with a sickening thump.
Cas feels pain, tremendous pain, and he sees Dean for a split second, sees the anger in his eyes as he pulls the trigger of his gun again, before his vision fades and the world melts into darkness.
+++
“Dean! Are you alright?” Sam asks breathlessly after checking on the lifeless body of the busboy. The wolves lay unmoving around them, though there could be more of them in the forest. “We have to get out of here,” he says as he helps Dean up.
“I’ll be fine,” Dean says as he checks the scrapes and scratches on his own body. “Is he…?” he says, gesturing to the man’s unmoving body.
Sam shakes his head. “He’s dead.”
“Dammit,” Dean mutters, and suddenly, he remembers, and he whirls around, practically stumbles as he spots the cat lying eerily still between two protruding roots. He pales when he sees rain and mud... and blood matting the kitten’s black fur. “Shit, no…” he says as he reaches for the kitten.
“Oh my god,” he hears Sam say from behind him.
“Why’s he even here?” Dean asks as he touches the kitten tentatively. Then he withdraws his hand in surprise as the kitten twitches. “He’s alive!” he gasps. “Quick, Sam, we have to take him back to town,” he says as he picks the kitten up as gently as he could.
“Right, let’s go.”
+++
The pub owner offers them clean towels to dry off and a backroom with a small bed and chair where they can clean their wounds and take care of the kitten.
Dean carefully cleans the kitten’s visible wounds while Sam fetches bandages and disinfectant. “Dammit, who would bring a kitten to a hunt?” he shakes his head, angry at Sam for endangering the little creature’s life. He doesn’t know why he’s so affected. “And why the heck would you jump in front of a wolf to save me?” he asks the kitten next.
Sam enters with the bandage and the disinfectant and gives it to Dean. “They called for a veterinarian, but he’s from two towns over and won’t be here for another half hour at least,” he tells Dean.
“Mr. Bonbon might not make it in half an hour,” Dean tells him.
Sam silently watches as Dean carefully places a splint and bandages one of the kitten’s legs. He wonders if he should tell Dean that the kitten is Cas, and despite how he looks now, it’s very likely he will heal his wounds eventually. He’s an angel after all. Right? ‘Gabriel wouldn’t let his brother die because of a trick, right?’ he thinks next. ‘He wouldn’t,’ he continues, though it gives him little comfort. “I’m gonna go get us a fresh set of clothes from the motel. You need anything else?” Sam asks.
Dean shakes his head.
+++
“I didn’t think you’d show your face… Gabriel,” Sam barely hides the anger in his voice as Gabriel materializes in the empty motel room.
“How can I not, when you so lovingly prayed for my presence?” he teases.
“Cas is hurt because of you,” Sam tells him. “Reverse whatever magic you did to him so he can heal himself properly.”
Gabriel frowns. “I can’t do that.”
“So you’d rather let your brother die than change him back?”
“Like you probably already know,” Gabriel begins, bringing out a Twix bar and unwrapping it. “Dean’s the only one who can change him back,” he says nonchalantly as he bites off a chunk.
“You son of a bitch,” Sam growls, stepping forward menacingly.
“Hey, hey… there’s no need for violence,” Gabriel says, raising his hands in front of him. “I can’t directly change him back. There’s a trigger, and I can’t just bypass it. But I can help speed things up if you want.”
“Do it,” Sam says angrily.
“Mmm… why should I?”
“Castiel has done nothing wrong! Why are you making him suffer like this?” Sam explodes.
“I’m teaching him a lesson. I think he’s learned it enough. But I don’t think you two have learned yours…” Gabriel says cryptically.
“What do you want us to do? Beg you? Cas has been nothing but helpful to us. He’s helped us save more lives than even you can manage. He’s saved our lives more times that we can count.”
“Is that it?” Gabriel says, chomping on his Twix and sitting cross legged on the small dining table.
“Dammit, Gabriel! He’s your brother. He’s our friend, no, he’s practically family to us. If he’s gone Dean will be devastated. I will be devastated. Don’t tell me you don’t care about him as much as we do…” Sam says.
Gabriel smiles. “I’ve always known you were the smarter brother,” he says, finishing off his Twix and jumping off the table. Sam blinks as Gabriel smiles widely at him. “Now let’s see if we can drill the same lesson into Dean’s thick skull and get him to say something like that as well, hmm?” he says with that same smile.
“That’s it? Those are the magic words?” Sam asks in confusion.
“Mmm… more or less. Now I’m gonna need about five minutes. Be a good boy and stay away from the pub’s backroom while I work my magic, okay sweetie pie?” he says before he vanishes, leaving Sam alone and gaping at nothing but empty space.
+++
Dean watches the kitten’s chest as it breathes in and out weakly. He looks at his watch, barely ten minutes have passed since they called for the vet, and he fears the kitten will die before the vet even reaches town.
They’ve never had a pet longer than a few days, even as kids. They took home a stray dog back to their hotel once, and John got very angry at them. He dropped the dog off at a shelter and Dean remembers how inconsolable Sam had been. Dean had been ten years old then, and even though it saddened him to see the dog go, he understood their father. They can’t have pets like the other kids did. It was just something that they could never experience for themselves.
Now, looking at the frail kitten, he thinks how easy it had been to accept him into their lives, how he secretly enjoys it when the kitten brushes against his legs when he enters the room, and how he has grown to love the warmth of the kitten on his leg, or behind his back when he sleeps. It was something he didn’t know he wanted until he had it.
And despite his usual complaints that the cat is weird, he adored the little thing. It reminded him of Cas, the same innocent yet mysterious look in their faces, and the same bright, blue eyes, eyes that held a warmth, a power he can’t describe. He misses Cas’ presence deeply, more than he’d care to admit even to himself and so much so that he thinks he’s becoming insane, but seeing the kitten somehow calms him. Those same beautiful eyes he loves in Cas couldn’t possibly shine bright in a kitten that randomly fell on their laps for no reason. He was meant to have this cat. How can he not adore the kitten more because of that?
“Dammit,” he says as he buries his head in his hands. “Cas, come on…” he says before he looks up at the bare ceiling. “I know to you he might be insignificant, but this little kitten… he just saved my life. So please…” he stops as his voice breaks, “please, save him.”
When nothing happens, Dean stands up, stares more intently at the ceiling. “Come on, Cas, where are you? What’s happening up there? Why aren’t you answering us anymore?” Dean breathes in deeply. “You’re mad, I get it. And I’m a dick, I know that. I shouldn’t have pushed you away. I was wrong… and I was stupid. I panicked and… just dammit, Cas, please, at least tell me you can hear me. Tell me you’re alright. Tell me nothing bad has happened to you. Please…” he pleads to the old, wooden ceiling of the room.
He feels silly and helpless and he’s not sure anybody can even hear him, but he can’t help it. He’s sure he’s at least still half drunk, he’s sore from being a giant wolf’s punching bag, and he’s just really, really tired. But he feels it, prickling at the corners of his eyes, the heavy weight of unshed tears, and he hates it. Hates it with a vengeance. Hates it that only Cas can make him feel this way. “Please, I’ll stop bothering you if you don’t like it, just, Cas… just… tell me you’re okay.”
“He can’t hear you.”
Dean whirls around and sees Gabriel leaning by the door. “What are you doing here? Where’s Cas?”
Gabriel cleans his ear with a finger and looks up at Dean. “Your big, little brother can be very persuasive, you know? He called me. Told me to bring Cas back.”
“Bring Cas-wait, what happened to him? What did you do to Cas?” Dean says in anger.
“I didn’t hurt him, not directly, if that’s what you’re getting at. Bu-ut… as I see it, he’s probably this close…” he brings his thumb and forefinger within an inch of each other, “…to biting the dust, as you say.”
“You son of a bitch!” Dean spits out.
Gabriel chuckles. “Sam said the exact same thing. Though I think you’d be the bigger son of a bitch here,” he tells Dean.
“What the fuck are you saying?”
“I’m saying…” Gabriel begins. He takes a step forward, and lets his grace be felt in the room, heavy and oppressing. “…that my brother is suffering, not because of me, but because of you.”
“What are you getting at?” Dean asks, confusion evident in his voice.
“Time and time again, he gives you everything you ask, does everything for you. And you take him for granted. You call on him only when you need help, and he comes, every single time to do your bidding. And the one time, the one time, he asks something of you… you push him away.”
“What are you talking about? He’s never-“
“I know about the kiss, Dean,” Gabriel tells him, and Dean stiffens. “I know the one time he asked you to love him back, you shoved him to the dirt. I know my brother loves you… and you know what? I also know you love him back, just as much. But you’re just too chicken to show it. And now my brother’s dying, again, for you, all for you. And you can’t even admit your feelings for my brother.”
“That’s-“
“None of my business? Oh, believe me, it becomes my business when some bastard hunter uses my brother and throws him away like trash.”
“I didn’t, okay?!” Dean explodes. “And you have no right to come in here preaching to me about what I should or should not do. You know nothing about what I feel for Cas. You wouldn’t be able to understand even if I tell you. Cas is important to me. Next to Sam, he’s the most important thing in my life, and I value him more than you’ll ever know. So don’t tell me I treat him like trash, alright?”
“Right. So that’s why you pushed him away…”
Dean runs a shaky hand through his hair. “I was confused and surprised… and just… dammit. Can you see me, Gabriel? Can you seriously see me? I’m dirty and sinful. I steal, I lie, I cheat, I’ve been to hell and back, and I’ve tortured more souls than I can ever care to remember. Don’t tell me you think its right for me to be loved by an angel… by someone like Cas.”
Gabriel gives him a lopsided smile. “That’s not for you to decide, you imbecile. That’s for him to decide. My brother may be many things, but we both know he’s not stupid enough to love someone he thinks is dirty and vile. So give yourself a little more credit, Dean Winchester. If you’re good enough in Castiel’s eyes, then you must really be good enough,” Gabriel tells him. “And seriously,” Gabriel adds with a roll of his eyes, “if you care for Castiel as much as you claim, you’ll let him love you. And you’ll stop being a tragic hero and admit you’re crazy for him and you can’t live without him. Otherwise, you’ll lose him forever.”
Dean exhales loudly. “Is that what you want to hear? Will you save Cas, bring him back, wherever you took him if I say that? Then fine, yes, I admit it,” Dean says, swallowing the lump that forms in his throat, “…I miss him when he’s not around, I miss how he smiles at my jokes even if he barely understands half of them, I miss how fearless he can be in front of demons, but he cowers at the sight of a woman in skimpy clothes. I miss the sound of his wings when he arrives, and that slight smile on his lips when he says ‘hello’, and god, I miss the way he would look at me. Like I’m the most important thing in the world, like my sins and all the bad I’ve done don’t exist anymore. And dammit, I nearly die with worry every time I call and he doesn’t answer. Like I am right now. I’m dying here, and Gabriel, if you’re half the angel Cas is, you will stop this stupid game, whatever it is, and bring him back right now,” Dean pleads.
“So… lemme get this straight… you’re saying you have a thing for Castiel?” Gabriel asks, wiggling his eyebrows playfully.
Dean growls. “I love him, alright, you son of a bitch. I love Cas. And I swear if something happens to him-“
Gabriel chuckles. “Now was that too hard to say?” he asks before he snaps and the atmosphere in the room lightens.
Something moves behind Dean, and Dean whirls around, sees Mr. Bonbon lying there for a split second before he morphs, grows larger and larger right before Dean’s eyes, until the kitten is nowhere to be seen, and in its place lay a familiar dark-haired man, naked, bruised and beaten, but otherwise breathing normally. He hears Gabriel snap again, and a shirt, suit, and trench coat suddenly appears folded on the foot of the bed, worn black leather shoes and socks on the floor.
He turns stunned eyes at Gabriel. “Cas… has been Mr. Bonbon… all this time?” he asks breathlessly.
“Bingo. As I thought, you’d never be able to guess it,” Gabriel said. “Now that things are settled here, my brother’s on his way to a full recovery knowing he’s not unloved, you just spilled your heart and guts out on the floor, Sam’s nursing his third bottle of beer just outside the door… I think my job here is done. If you’ll excuse me…” Gabriel said, poising to fly away. He stops, though, and looks thoughtfully at Dean and Cas. “Word of advice. The next time you hurt my brother, I’m turning you into a snail and shipping you off to a French restaurant,” he says right before he vanishes into thin air.
“I swear I’ll wring your little neck first for putting us through all of this,” Dean grumbles to the empty room. He turns back to Cas and sits back on the chair beside the bed. Even after only a minute or two, the bleeding has stopped and the bruises have begun to lighten and fade. Cas’ color has begun to return as well. Dean notices Cas shiver and grabs a blanket to cover his body.
He still can’t believe Cas and the kitten had been one and the same. It makes him remember all the times he thought the kitten was weird, and feels a wave of guilt wash over him for all the times he cursed and got angry when Cas failed to show up. Especially now that he knows Castiel has been there all along.
Dean watches Cas’ sleeping face for a moment, and a smile forms on his lips. “I hope you heard everything I just said to your bastard brother, coz I don’t think I can repeat all of that ever again.”
+++
“I heard what you said, Dean,” are the first words out of Castiel’s mouth when he wakes up hours later. Weak but still better than before, Cas sits up on the bed, now in his usual white shirt and black dress pants.
Dean looks down at his feet and Sam just looks at them confused. “The magic words Gabriel wanted him to say all this time?” Sam asks.
“Uh yeah, that’s it,” Dean says, and if Sam didn’t know his brother that well, he’d miss the shy look and the slight blush that suddenly appeared on his face.
“So what was it? ‘I’m sorry’, or was it, ‘I’m a dick’?” Sam asks.
“Yeah, yeah… that’s what I said. ‘I’m sorry’, right Cas?” he turns to Cas, who looks back at them tentatively.
“Uh… sure. That’s what he said,” Cas says with a straight face.
“Right,” Sam feigns agreement. “I could’ve sworn I heard something like, ‘I love Cas,’ earlier though. Must’ve been just my imagination,” Sam says with a grin.
“Don’t you have a report to make with the sheriff, Agent Young?” Dean says through gritted teeth as he pushes Sam out of the door.
“Right, right. I’ll be back once I tell the good sheriff what happened last night. Except the part where our kitten turned into an angel, of course,” Sam says with a wink.
“Well, get to it then!” Dean says before he finally manages to shove Sam’s big body out of the room. He shuts the door with a sigh and with a grin playing on his lips. He turns around. “So, you heard everything huh?” he asks Cas as he returns to the bedside.
“Yes,” Cas nods with a small smile.
“I meant everything I said, though. I didn’t say that just to get Gabriel to change you back,” Dean explains.
“I know,” Cas’ smile widens.
“And…?” Dean asks. “What do you have to say… after hearing all that?” he says, leaning closer to Cas.
Cas thinks for a moment and frowns. Dean’s smile falters a bit at this. “Cas?” he asks in worry.
“I think…” Cas begins. “I think I would like another kiss. One that does not involve shoving at the end.”
The confusion fades from Dean’s face and he grins. “I think I can manage that,” he says, before leaning in closer and capturing Cas’ lips with his.
+++
Their second kiss starts miles better than the first.
It begins chastely. Just a press of lips against lips. Then Dean leans in more, pushes against Cas’ lips with his tongue, and Cas parts his lips slightly, allowing Dean to dive in deeper, to savor the flavor of Cas’ mouth. He feels Cas lift his arms, run his fingers through Dean’s hair before pushing against the back of his head to deepen the kiss. The touch of their tongues against each other is electric, sending shivers down Dean’s spine as he presses closer, half his body practically on top of Cas as he bites lightly on Cas’ bottom lip. It wrenches a groan out of the angel’s mouth, and the sound excites Dean more than he could ever imagine.
Their second kiss ends miles and miles better than the first as well.
It ends when the third kiss begins, and the fourth, and the fifth. It ends with clothes shed on the floor and Dean on top of Cas, showering him with more kisses down his neck. He kisses a quickly fading bruise on Castiel’s chest, the last evidence of the kitten’s heroic act the night before, and moves to lick circles around a nipple, pausing to lap his tongue against a freckle just to the side. Castiel shudders and Dean smiles, moves to the other nipple to shower it with the same attention.
It ends with Cas’ fingers running all over Dean’s naked skin, with Dean gripping Cas’ erection and with Cas arching off the bed like a cat with a delicious stroke of Dean’s hand. Cas’ hands fumble against Dean’s body, finding anything to hold onto. He grabs Dean by each firm globe of his ass and pushes him down against him, hard, and Dean gasps when their cocks brush against each other.
“I want…” Cas pants.
Dean leans in further, bites at the soft flesh of his earlobe, “Anything, Cas… anything,” he whispers, hips thrusting against Cas, the precome on their cocks mixing and slicking their cocks as they slide against each other.
“You…” Cas pants again. “I want you… all of you,” he says before he catches Dean’s lips for the start of their twelfth or thirteenth kiss, Cas doesn’t know. He’s lost count.
Dean smiles against his lips. “You sure?”
“Yes, Dean. I’m sure.”
Their second kiss is forgotten after the fourteenth and fifteenth, and more so after the gentle press of slick fingers against Cas’ opening, the burn and stretch of them dulled by Cas’ slowly returning grace. Then there is pleasure, somewhere deep, and Dean smiles again when Cas’ back arches off the bed, moans in pleasure at the stroke of Dean’s fingers deep within him. Another finger joins the others, and Cas is writhing on the bed, begging for Dean to get on with it, and Dean happily complies.
What could possibly be their twentieth kiss starts and ends with the slow press of Dean’s cock against Cas, the pressure hard and relenting until the blunt head breaches his opening. Cas’ jaw goes slack and he pants as Dean pushes all the way in, the slight pain mixing with the pleasurable drag of Dean’s cock inside of him.
Dean pauses once he’s all the way in, breathing heavily on top of Cas. He shuts his eyes at the incredible feeling of Cas around him, hot and tight, of Cas fingers clutching at his arms almost desperately, one palm against that mark near his shoulder, slotting like a long lost puzzle piece, Cas’ legs wrapped tightly around his waist, and he knows he’s been a fool to deny himself any of this for so long. He moves, thrusts shallowly a few times and moans. He withdraws almost to the tip then pushes back in harder, dragging another low moan from Castiel’s lips. The raspy sound of Cas’ voice spurs Dean on and he thrusts faster, harder, until he feels the fingers clutching his arms tighten painfully, feels the scorching hot muscles hugging him quiver and clamp tighter around him.
He reaches a hand out to stroke Cas’ cock in time with his thrusts, and Cas moans, whimpers even as Dean thumbs at the slit of Cas’ cock, spreading the leaking precome all over the head. And Cas can no longer take it. Unused to such intense pleasure and emotion, Castiel’s body goes rigid as he feels every fiber of his being spark and erupt like he’s about to explode and die, except it feels infinitely better than death, and his body sings with so much life it makes his eyes water. And when he opens his eyes, he sees Dean’s face, looking at him with so much love, he feels his chest start to ache again, a good ache, and that alone becomes enough and yet too much at the same time.
What is to be their last kiss of that morning ends with a scream, Cas’ back arching off the bed yet again as he feels blinding hot pleasure overtake his senses, Dean groaning loudly as he feels the wet splash of Cas’ come between them. Dean thrusts once, twice, before he too is coming hot and hard and deep inside Cas. He collapses onto Cas, panting heavily, drained of almost all his energy.
“I don’t want you to ever leave again, alright?” Dean whispers feebly into Cas’ ear, and Cas smiles weakly, brings an arm around Dean’s shoulder to hug him tight.
“I never left, Dean, nor will I ever leave you again,” he replies.
Dean falls asleep with a stupid grin on his face and the sound of Cas’ breathing in his ear.
+++
Sam returns later that day to a sight he would never admit to seeing. Thankfully, a sheet is covering most of what Sam would deem as ‘hurtful’ to his eyes, but he still shudders at the sight of his brother naked in bed with his angel. He smiles though, when he sees their position-Dean facing the wall, and Castiel snuggled behind his back, an arm slung over his chest. It looks exactly the way the kitten used to sleep behind Dean’s back whenever it was particularly cold in the night. And Sam wonders, as he closes the door and gives the two a few more minutes alone, if the kitten will ever be completely gone from Castiel. He doubts that will be the case anytime soon.
+++
In an old shack on the outskirts of town, a woman cowers on the corner of her room. “Loki… look, I’m not encroaching into your territory… so let me go, al-alright…?” she pleads as she clutches an old hex bag with the paw of a great wolf god inside.
“Tsk, tsk, tsk. Sorry, no can do,” Gabriel says as he takes a step closer. “Nobody messes with my little bro and lives,” he says with a lopsided grin that sends chills down the witch’s spine. He brings his hand up and snaps.
+++
That afternoon, residents claim to have heard a woman’s screams, along with the howling of several wolves somewhere in the woods, and when the police arrive to investigate, they find the mangled body of a woman tangled in electrical wires. The coroner finds she was killed by wolves, though how she got tangled in the high tension wires was something they cannot solve. Nor do they find any clues as to why she was found clutching an old broom, almost as if she was flying off on it.
The two FBI agents who arrived earlier that week also bid their farewell that day, along with a man in a tan trench coat who was from the SPCA intending to see if any of the wolves were harmed. They don’t find a single trace of the wolves anywhere, though, and since then, the wolves were never seen again.
+++
Castiel eventually leaves to do his ‘heavenly duty’ and Dean lets him, albeit not so willingly. However, the next time Dean prays for Castiel to come down, it isn’t for help in a case, or for clues to the newest killings in town.
He calls him down for a small barbecue with Bobby and Sam, and when he accidentally (or not so accidentally) calls Cas “Mr. Bonbon,” and later on, “kitten,” while they ate their burgers among the cars, it’s only Bobby who looks at them weirdly and with brows arching heavenward. Sam just smiles and chuckles to himself, while Cas seems to not notice the slip and just obediently follows as Dean gives him his twelfth or thirteenth burger of the day. If Bobby notices Dean’s unusually wide grin and Dean’s hand discreetly groping Cas under the table, he doesn’t say anything as well, and Sam just smiles again and eats his burger in peace.
THE END
Title: How to Take Care of Angels and Little Animals (2/2)
Author: remivel
Recipient: akadougal
Rating: NC-17
Warnings: Fluff, slight animal/angel abuse, animal angst
Spoilers: Set somewhere around Season 5 or 6, so very vague spoilers for both seasons.
Word Count: 21, 416
Summary: Gabriel is tired of having to listen to Castiel's woes about the Winchesters, so he decides to take matters into his own hands... and turns Castiel into a furry pet for the Winchesters to take care of.
Author notes: This took longer than expected. Answer to the giftee's prompt: "Animal transformation into something cute. Literal fluff." There maybe a good dose of angst there as well, so forgive me for that if that's something you didn't want mixed in with your fluff. I hope you have as much fun reading this as I had writing it.
(art can be found at the end of the fic)
Part One
Cas is left thinking up ways to somehow get his message across to Sam for the rest of the day, and before he knows it, night has fallen and he hears the roar of the Impala’s engine pulling up in front of the room.
Cas gets up from the bed to give them his usual greeting- by rubbing up on their legs (Dean had tripped on him a couple of times and had since sworn that if he trips one more time, he’s not going to be responsible for not-so-accidentally stepping on any part of the cat). However, when he reaches the door, he hears Dean’s voice along with someone else’s, and when the door swings open, Cas is kicked to the side (accidentally, this time) by two pairs of shoes stumbling on each other: Dean’s heavy boots… and some woman’s red stilettos.
Blue eyes widen in shock when he sees Dean drop onto the bed with a curvy brunette on top of him. He sees her pull off her tight dress, and her hair falls in delicate waves behind her pale back. He sees Dean’s fingers wrap around her tiny waist and-Cas can’t take any more of this and averts his gaze.
He hides under the table and suddenly he feels sick, which is weird because he still has his grace and he should not be susceptible to disease. He feels like puking, and it’s a different sensation than when he was purging out a hairball that time. This is much worse. He feels like his heart has sunk to his stomach and it’s rolling around there and making him all kinds of sick. He hears the woman moan and he feels his chest tighten unbearably, making it hard for him to breathe. He doesn’t know what’s happening to him, all he knows is he feels nauseous and he wants to be anywhere but here.
He’s seen Dean bring home girls more times than he can count. He has known for a long time how healthy Dean’s sexual appetite could be, and though he has never approved of any of Dean’s depravities, he has usually acted indifferent toward them. So to feel less-than-indifferent about this now should strike Castiel as very unusual, except it really doesn’t, because he knows exactly why he is feeling this way.
It’s the same feeling he had when Dean shoved him away and told him to forget they had just kissed. Forget that Dean looked at him with so much emotion just before their lips touched. Forget that Dean clung onto him and kissed him deeper and with more passion than he had ever thought possible. Forget that even for a short while, Dean made him feel like he loved him back.
But now Castiel is here, a scared kitten hiding under a table, and Dean is just a few feet away, kissing someone else. In bed with someone else. Is this his punishment? For putting the Winchesters above everything else, even above Heaven itself? It must be. Because he doesn’t think anything could be worse than this.
“Gabriel, please… if you’re listening. Take me away. Just this once,” he pleads as silently as he could, paws to his ears as he tries to muffle the sounds coming from the bed.
Gabriel doesn’t come for him, nor do the terrible feelings in his gut and chest stop.
He does, however, hear a sharp sound, like a cry, and before he knows it, he’s whipping his head towards the direction of the bed. He knows he probably shouldn’t have done that. Who knows what he could see? It could probably break him forever. But his dread melds into confusion when he sees the girl sit up on the bed and spit out an irritated, “Are you kidding me?!”
No sooner had she said this that she’s getting off of Dean and grabbing her dress from the floor.
“Sorry, Marie. Maybe next time,” Dean says with a forced grin.
“It’s Mindy, and don’t even think about a next time,” she huffs out indignantly as she pulls her dress on hastily. Dean sits up on the bed to put his shirt back on and rubs his face with his hands. He doesn’t even look up as the woman stomps angrily out of the motel room and slams the door shut.
A quiet minute passes with Dean’s face buried in his hands and Castiel quietly watching from under the table. He knows it’s wrong to delight in the misfortune of others, but he couldn’t help feeling relieved and happy about the turn of events. That is, until Dean zips up his jeans, stands up from the bed, and stalks to the table where Castiel is hiding. He crouches down and pulls Cas out by the scruff of his neck. He brings the kitten’s face up to his and stares straight into the round, blue eyes.
Cas gulps nervously at the indecipherable look on Dean’s face. Then Dean sighs. “This is all your damn fault,” he says before he walks back to the bed and deposits the kitten in his usual spot at the foot of his bed.
“My fault?” Cas meows quietly as he watches Dean trudge lazily to the bathroom.
+++
“Lemme get this straight…” Sam says, fighting the urge to burst into fits of laughter as he looked to his side at Dean driving, to the kitten lying on his lap, and back at Dean. “You… you heard the cat meow and… you can’t…” he pauses, trying to school his features into some semblance of indifference. “You… can’t…”
“I can’t get it up, alright?!” Dean blurts out angrily.
At this, the sound of Sam’s laughter engulfs the whole Impala and Dean wants to strangle his brother right then and there.
“I’m glad my problem is amusing for at least one of us,” Dean says with a fake smile.
“Oh come on, Dean. You have to admit it’s funny. What is it about this cat that makes you… you know… unable to perform?”
“Nothin’ alright!” Dean growls.
Sam laughs again. “If it was nothin’, you would’ve had Molly to yourself all night.”
“I’m pretty sure her name was Mandy…”
“Mindy!” Cas chimes in even though he knows he wouldn’t be understood. He doesn’t care anyway. He seems to be in a very good mood this morning.
“Whatever. The point is, you lost your uh, appetite… because of a cat. You’ve never been so affected before.”
“I just don’t like it when there’s another pair of eyes in the room, okay? Just thinkin’ of that cat lookin’ while we… while I… ugh….” Dean shudders. “It just creeps me out, alright?”
“Dean. He’s a kitten. You could’ve just locked him in the bathroom if you’re so worried you’ll taint his innocent eyes.”
“I did think of that, but by that time… Mr. Happy’s not so happy anymore…”
“Mr. Happy?” Sam says with a grimace.
“Oh you know what I mean.”
They drive in silence for a couple more minutes until Sam’s eyebrows knot as he recalls something. “There was an aquarium in one of our motel rooms a couple weeks back… you didn’t seem so creeped out by the little fishy eyes then when you brought back that red head…”
“It’s not the ‘little fishy eyes’ that creep me out… it’s that kitten’s eyes. They look too much like Ca-“ Dean shuts his mouth before the name could completely form on his lips, his eyes wide with disbelief at what he almost said.
“Like what?” Sam urges on, though he knows exactly what Dean was about to say.
“Nothin’,” Dean says, his eyes staring intently, too intently, on the road ahead, ignoring the pensive, almost knowing look Sam must be flashing him at this very moment.
+++
“They’re giant wolves,” Dean repeats as he talks to Sam on the phone. “Really. Giant wolves?”
“That’s what the witness said. She claims she saw more than a dozen.”
“A dozen? Shit, man. Maybe she was just exaggerating? You don’t think it could’ve been the shock of seeing her friends die?” he asks as he enters the motel room. Mr. Bonbon rubs against his legs and he ignores him and goes to sit on the bed.
“I don’t know. She is pretty shaken. But the coroner confirms it as an animal attack, most likely of wolves. Big wolves. Even if they were ordinary wolves, it seems fishy. Seven dead just in a week? And no deaths before that. At first we thought it was werewolves right? But you saw the bodies… there was hardly anything left of them.”
“And she swore they looked like wolves?” Dean asks again.
“Yeah. Pretty much, except they were as big as grizzly bears, and had ‘yellow, glowing eyes.’ How’d she see a whole pack of wolves eating her friends and managed to escape?”
Dean is stumped. Giant, man-eating wolves, a whole pack? “We should probably ask Bobby…”
“I’m on it,” Sam says before hanging up.
Dean sits on the bed, lost in thought as the kitten jumps up to sit beside him. He looks at the cat and its eerie wide eyes that reminded Dean too much of him. “An elderly couple went missing a week ago. And yesterday, five hikers were killed. One of them was a 15 year old kid,” he tells the kitten. “But this is the first time I’ve heard of giant wolves…” he thinks aloud.
He sits quietly for a couple more minutes, then he looks up at the ceiling. “I’ve got nothing here,” he calls out. “Seven innocent people are dead. A lot more are in danger. So if you’re listening, you sonnovabitch, get your feathery ass down here.”
+++
It takes Cas a couple of seconds to realize what Dean is doing. Hands clasped tightly in front of him, head tilted toward the ceiling, his Adam’s apple bobbing heavily with each word wrenched out of his throat. Dean is praying. For his help.
“Cas… come on, help us out here,” Dean swallows the lump in his throat and adds, “Please.”
A minute passes, then two, then five, and when nothing happens, Dean spits out a curse. “I knew it. You’re a vindictive son of a bitch, you know that? If you’re fucking angry at me, take it out on me some other way. Not like this. Not when people’s lives are at stake,” he tells the ceiling angrily. He breathes in, waiting for something, anything.
“Dean! I’m right here.” Cas meows but it’s useless. He’s useless. He moves forward and scratches at Dean’s thigh to get his attention. He doesn’t know what he plans to achieve once he gets Dean to look at him, but he just wants to tell him somehow. Wants him to know he’s right here, has always been right here with him, even if he doesn’t know it.
When Dean feels the soft paws scratching at his jeans, he turns to the cat and sighs, practically deflating on the bed.
“You don’t suppose you know where Cas is right now, do you?” he asks.
Cas’ eyes light up the moment Dean turns his eyes toward him. “Yes, I’m right here Dean. Can’t you see?” he meows.
“He’s not in any trouble, right? I mean, he’s been gone longer before, but… this time…” Dean says with another heavy sigh. “He’d come here if he needed help, right?” Dean asks the kitten.
For a moment Cas is confused. Dean was just angry at him mere moments ago, and now, he’s wondering how he is doing. Is he hearing Dean correctly? Is Dean… worried about him?
“Oh who am I kiddin', you don’t understand a word I say,” Dean says, picking Cas up and settling the kitten on his lap. He glides a hand down its back and finds the soft fur soothing. Then the kitten purrs and leans to his touch and Dean can’t help the smile that forms on his lips. “You’re still so small, where’s your family, baby?” he asks affectionately.
Cas’ eyes roll back into his head at the heavenly feeling of Dean’s fingers running down his back. Everything gets so fuzzy when Sam does this to him, and it’s no different now that Dean’s the one giving him a bit of attention. He almost misses what Dean says next.
“Don’t you miss ‘em?”
Cas looks up at Dean and cants his head to the side. “Who?” Cas asks.
+++
“You kinda remind me of him, you know?” Dean tells the kitten. “He can be a dick sometimes but sometimes, I just mi-“ the words die in his throat as his eyes lock with the kitten’s bright blue eyes. Something indefinable stirs inside Dean as he stares into the kitten’s eyes, like something’s not quite right, like there’s a trace of magic, of power he can’t see but he can feel heavy in the air.
He picks the kitten up again, the same suspicion rising inside him as he brings its face closer to his. He stares straight into the kitten’s eyes, and the kitten stares right back at him, and he is drawn into the unfathomable depths of those eyes, blue going darker and darker the deeper he goes, then in the depths, a light, and the eyes glow electric blue. And there it is again. The same indefinable feeling. He sees galaxies swirl in those blue eyes, clouds and wings of white against a sky so blue and bright it hurts his eyes. He sees more than that. He sees friendship and recognition, affection and infinite knowledge, and then a glint of pain in the eyes of a tiny kitten.
He barely registers the clink of keys and the door opening until Sam speaks. “Hey, so I talked to Bobby, and he hasn’t heard anything like it but he’ll ask around…”
Dean jolts and drops the kitten to the floor, whatever spell woven in that space of time broken by Sam’s intrusion. He can still feel it though… the weird, supernatural aura surrounding the kitten, and he stands up, goes to the mini fridge and grabs a bottle of water.
“You alright, Dean?” he hears Sam say.
Dean gulps in almost all the water in one go. He wipes his mouth and turns around, eyes going back to the kitten. And for a moment he thinks his mind just made it up. Mr. Bonbon looks just like the ordinary kitten that he is. Except Dean still remembers that feeling. And his gut tells him he’s right and he’s been right all along.
“I’ll be fine,” Dean says, eyes still locked onto the kitten, who, oddly enough, keeps its eyes locked at Dean as well, as if telling him something, challenging him to voice his concerns. And he does. “We should get rid of the cat,” Dean suddenly blurts out.
Sam pauses from unpacking the print outs and other materials he got from the library and turns to look at Dean. “What? Where did that come from?”
“Don’t you think it’s weird? It hardly eats or sleeps, and I’ve never seen it poop or pee anywhere. It uses the phone, types on your laptop… and it looks like he’s even listening to us… look, look at it. Tell me that doesn’t look like it understands us,” Dean points out.
Sam looks at the cat then back at Dean. “Can you hear yourself, Dean? You sound insane.”
“I’m not insane, man. I’m telling you there’s some weird shit going on with that cat!”
Sam strides to the kitten and picks it up. “So you’re saying Mr. Bonbon is, what? Possessed?” he asks, looking into the kitten’s bright eyes.
“No! I’m saying it’s weird, Sam. It stares at me like Ca-“ Dean stops, mouth agape. He stomps to the bed and flops down onto it.
“Like what, Dean?” Sam asks. “It stares at you like Cas does?” he ventures.
“Yes! Kind of. I dunno. All I know is when I talk to him, he seems to understand exactly what I’m saying. And look at him. He’s staring again.”
And Sam gets it. He looks down at the cat in his arms and the cat’s folded ears twitch, but his eyes never leave Dean. Blue and bright and intense and so much like Cas’, even Sam can see why Dean would feel uncomfortable. He sits down on the bed across from Dean’s and cradles the cat on his lap. “Don’t you think you’re thinking this way because…” Sam stops to hesitate.
“Oh spill it Sam,” Dean says irritably.
“You’re antsy Cas hasn’t showed up at all since that group of demons we killed three weeks ago. You’re pouring your frustrations on this kitten… and he does kinda look like Cas, now that you mention it.”
“Dammit, Sam, this is not about Cas!”
“It is, Dean. All of this is about Cas. That’s the only reason I could think of why you’re being all bitchy. Something happened back then and you’re not telling me, and I get it. Whatever it was, it’s between the two of you, but look, if you’re worried about him, we can ask around. I’m sure someone would know what’s happening up there…”
“I’m not worried, alright? He can handle himself. Why should I be worried about someone who ignores all of our calls and doesn’t even bother to drop by even once? Come on, we have a pack of giant wolves to kill.”
+++
‘Dean’s starting to realize I’m not just a cat,’ Cas thinks happily as he watches the brothers pour through the materials they’ve gathered about the killings. ‘It won’t be long,’ he thinks. ‘If Dean is starting to see it… then maybe Sam won’t be far along as well.’
“From the police reports and what the witness said, it all points to wolf attacks,” Sam says.
“But it can’t be ordinary wolves,” Dean insists. “There are no wolves at this part of the country. Besides, if there really are giant wolves running around in these woods, there’d be more sightings of them. Certainly when they’re killing people and coming this close to the town.”
Cas nods as he listens from the bed. ‘Dean is correct. This is not the work of ordinary wolves,’ he thinks. The moment they arrived at this little town, he felt it, despite the reduced state of his grace. A strong, sinister power. A danger far greater than a measly pack of wolves. He watches the window outside, watches the dark, heavy clouds that promise a deluge later in the day, watches the birds flying restlessly in the sky, sees that they, too, feel the power enveloping this wooded little town.
“Well, I’m drawing a blank here,” Dean says, closing the folder of police reports and other files they gathered.
Sam looks at his watch. “Let’s head out for lunch first, clear our heads or something.”
“Great idea. They better have pie.”
+++
Dean lays off the kitten for the rest of the day, and once he has eaten a couple of slices of the local diner’s apple pie, he’s back to his old self, much to Sam’s relief. Until that afternoon when they return to the motel and Dean spots the kitten again.
Sam warily watches as Dean picks the cat up and stares at its small, round face. “You don’t think he’s a werecat, do you?” Dean asks even as he turns the kitten upside down, over and around, looking for any tell-tale signs of the supernatural.
“You’re insane,” Sam tells him before plucking the kitten out of Dean’s fingers and cradling it possessively.
+++
Sam calls out for Cas’ help when a day of investigating ends with two more people missing and no additional clues to help them find the killers.
Dean watches him from across the motel room and snorts just as Sam finishes his prayer. “He’s not comin’,” Dean says darkly.
“You don’t know that…”
“Believe me, I tried. Practically begged for him to come this morning. He didn’t,” he says, standing up from his seat at the small dining room and grabbing the keys from the table.
“Where’re you going?” Sam asks as Dean puts his jacket on and heads for the door. “Out,” Dean just says and slams the door behind him.
Sam shakes his head in disapproval and spares a glance at the kitten on the bed. “Drinking again,” he tells the kitten, who looks at him as if he understands, and he, too, does not approve. Sam’s brows knot at that and maybe it’s because of Dean’s incessant claims that the kitten is not any ordinary kitten, but he suddenly sees where Dean may be coming from. There’s something… unusual about Mr. Bonbon, especially when he’s sitting like a Buddha statue and looking at him like he knows more than he’s letting on. He looks almost human and unearthly, innocent and darkly mysterious at the same time.
Almost like Cas.
It sounded ridiculous when Dean voiced it out, and it still sounds ridiculous even in Sam’s own mind. Yet, there’s just something nagging at him, refusing to let the thought rest now that it’s floating inside his mind. “You’d tell me if you were actually a werecat, right?” Sam asks the cat.
The cat’s ears twitch suddenly and his eyes grow wide before he jumps to Sam all excited. Sam laughs. “So you are then? A werecat?” he asks and the cat meows. “Alright, alright. I don’t suppose you also know what happened to Cas, huh? So we can stop Dean from moping.”
The cat meows loudly, enthusiastically and Sam is, for once, really concerned. He looks at the cat’s face, really, really looks at him. He stares into the cat’s eyes, and saw the warm light hidden in its blue depths, powerful and electric and ethereal like… like…
“Oh my god!”
He drops the cat on the floor and it yeowls.
“Shit. This is insane,” Sam says, combing a hand through his hair. He paces back and forth a couple of times, spares a glance at the cat and shakes his head. He strides to the window to open it a crack, inhales the fresh scent of the forest air to clear his head. He looks back at the cat, and it stares back knowingly and he shivers. It’s no use. “I need a drink,” he says before promptly walking out of the room and leaving the cat on the floor.
+++
Cas rubs at the slight throb on his head when Sam had dropped him. Whoever said cats always land on their feet had never met him. Then again, he isn’t a real cat anyway, so he doubts if he counts. Nevertheless, he’s thrilled that Sam’s beginning to realize who he is as well. He doesn’t know how exactly but they can see it, can sense his grace every time they stare into his eyes. Now, if only they realized what that powerful, glowing light in his eyes actually means, then they can finally help him get back to his old self.
+++
The night grows steadily darker and both Sam and Dean are still nowhere to be seen. The rain started to pour a couple of hours earlier and now a cold, damp wind blows in from the window, making Cas’ small body shiver. He has never been susceptible to heat or cold, but somehow in his weakened state, he has grown sensitive to weather changes and to loud, sudden noises. A lightning strikes a few miles away and Cas cowers, covers his ears just in time for the earth-shaking thunder clap to slice through the air. He shivers again and he tries to burrow in the comforter at the foot of Dean’s bed but the air in the room is still too chilly even for his fur. Usually, he’d snuggle against Dean’s leg to get some warmth, sometimes Dean would even let him snuggle against his broad back at night. But Dean’s not here, and neither is Sam.
He stands up and stretches his wings behind him to cover himself with them. They may not be able to fly at the moment, but Cas has recently discovered they can be a good source of warmth. He feels his invisible limbs ache from disuse, and he slowly, carefully stretches the left, then the right, spreading his feathers as far as they can go. Then, a lightning strike quickly followed by thunder, and the room fills with light for an instant. Cas dives to cover his ears, but it’s too late. He hears keys dropping on the floor, and he looks up to see Sam, eyes wide and jaw slack, frozen in shock by the door.
“Oh my god.”
+++
Sam can’t believe what he just saw. It was only for a split second, but it was long enough for him to make out the weird shadows that formed behind the kitten’s back and spread onto the wall behind him. They were wings. Wings!
Sam jolts from his shock, closes the door behind him without looking away from the kitten, and he says the thing that’s been bugging for the last few hours. “Oh my god,” he says again, “I must be drunker than I thought…” he says, shaking his head. “Cas, that’s you, isn’t it?”
+++
Cas can’t believe what Sam just said, and he jumps up happily. “Yes!” he meows. “Finally!”
Sam looks at him in shock again, and Cas realizes that isn’t the reaction the younger Winchester is looking for.
“Oh my god…” Sam says for the third time that night. He walks with heavy feet to the other bed and sits across the kitten. Then his brows knot, and he looks at the kitten suspiciously. “How do I know that wasn’t just a coincidence… and I’m not just drunk and talking to a cat?”
Cas tilts his head to the side in confusion. “How am I supposed to answer that?” he meows.
“Hmm…” Sam says thoughtfully. “I have seen weirder things… okay, listen up kitty,” he tells Cas, leaning forward and pointing a finger at the ceiling. “One meow is for ‘yes’…” then, he shows him two fingers, “…two meows is for ‘no’. Understood?”
‘This is ridiculous…’ Cas thinks before saying ‘yes’. It comes out as a single meow.
Sam’s eyes widen at that but he goes on. “You’re Cas, right?”
One meow.
“What are you then, Cas?” Sam tests. “A demon?”
Two meows and an indignant look.
“An angel?”
Cas looks at Sam like he’s lost it and answers, with a bit more force than he intends, “YES!”
And that is the only time Sam lets himself buy it. The blue eyes, the indignant look, and even that tone in the kitten’s voice sound so much like Cas now, Sam can no longer ignore it. Oh, and there were wings mere moments ago. “Shit. Cas. Really? All this time?” Sam says in disbelief.
“Meow!”
“Can you change back?”
“Meow meow”
“Who did this to you? Oh right, yes or no… Do we know who did this to you?”
“Meow.”
“Is it a demon?”
“Meow meow”
“An angel?”
Cas meows loudly, angrily.
“What? Seriously? Who’d play a silly trick like-“ Sam stops as it dawns on him. “Gabriel!” he hisses.
The cat meows in agreement.
“I should’ve known. Heh. Sorry for callin’ you Mr. Bonbon,” Sam smiles sheepishly. “You probably hated that.”
“Not particularly,” Cas says with a shrug. It comes out as two meows.
Then Sam realizes something. “Shit, Cas, you were in the bathroom while Dean showered. And that one time when he brought home that brunette… Oh my god, Cas. You were watching this whole time?”
“Absolutely not!” and at that the cat seemed very angry.
“Right, sorry. You probably didn’t have a choice, huh? So what do we do now… we gotta tell Dean.”
“We can’t,” Cas tells him.
“What do you mean ‘no’? We have to tell Dean. He can help us change you back.”
“Just no.”
“Ok, we don’t tell Dean. Will something terrible happen if we tell Dean?”
“Yes.”
“Fine. Let’s not. We have to find Gabriel then. Maybe he can change you back.”
“He won’t,” Cas tells him.
“Why not? How do we change you back, then?” Sam asks, and when Cas just looks blankly at him, he smiles sheepishly again. “Oh right. Uh… do you know how we can change you back?”
Cas nods. “Yes.”
“Well, that’s great. But… how can you tell me…” Sam says thoughtfully.
Cas jumps off the bed and walks toward Sam’s bag. He scratches at it. “This. Open this,” he says.
Sam looks in confusion at Cas then at the bag. “My laptop?” he asks. Then he remembers when Dean caught the kitten stomping on the keys, and that key smash he thought spelled out ‘Sam help me’. “So you were trying to type a message out back then,” Sam smiles as he gets his laptop out. “I thought I was only imagining it.”
He opens the laptop and goes to a program with a white background Cas has seen Sam use before to type in words. “You can type here. Go ahead,” he says as he sets the laptop onto the table and watches as the kitten walks up to it and, with concentration etched on its face, it begins to gently step on keys with the tip of his paw. “This is still so surreal,” Sam says just as Mr. Bonbon-no, Cas-finishes his message. He looks at the screen and the word typed onto it.
“Dean,” Sam reads. “Dean?” he asks Cas, and Cas meows once in response. “But I thought he can’t know it’s you.”
Cas goes back to the keys and types another word.
“Say,” Sam reads. “Dean… say… Dean has to say something?”
“Yes!” Cas says excitedly.
“Do you know what he has to say?”
“Don’t know,” Cas meows.
“Oh. I see, so you just know Dean has to say something… but you have no idea what it is?”
“Exactly,” Cas replies.
“You think it’s something like ‘I’m sorry’?” Sam asks. “Or, ‘I’m a dick’?” he guesses. “I love you?”
Cas grimaces at that, but he doesn’t discount the possibility that it could be any one of those, or something as random as ‘I’m a pretty, pretty girl.’ But knowing Gabriel… and knowing that the kiss incident is at least part of the reason why he did this… he’d guess Sam is closer than he realizes, despite the fact that Dean would never say any of those words. Not to Cas at least.
“This sucks. How do we get him to say something if we don’t know what it is? There’s gotta be a way…” Sam trails off, and just then, his phone rings. He looks at the number and frowns. “Wait a sec,” he tells Cas as he answers the phone. “Agent Young speaking. Yes, sheriff. No, it’s not too late…”
Cas watches as Sam’s face grows darker as the sheriff tells Sam something Cas can only barely hear from where he is sitting. When the phone call ends, Sam’s mood has made a definite turn for the worst. “A trucker found the bodies of the two latest victims. They were at the side of the main road, in a ditch, mangled and half eaten,” Sam tells him. “That’s nine victims in less than two weeks.”
Cas frowns as well. “It has struck again,” he says.
“Do you have any idea what might be behind this? We were trying to call you… Dean, I think has tried twice just for this case… but now I guess I know why you never came,” Sam tells him. “He thinks you’re just ignoring him or something…”
‘Yes, I have seen how foul his behavior has been,’ Cas thinks as he moves to type something.
“Guess?” Sam reads. “You have a guess about what’s behind this?” Sam says excitedly. “Go ahead. We need all the leads we can get.”
Cas nods and types again.
When Sam reads what Cas typed next, Sam’s face grows serious. “Witch… you think a witch may be behind this?” he asks.
“Yes.”
“Okay… that might be helpful. I can go ask Bobby if there’s anything in his books about witches that can control giant wolves or something…”
But before he can call Bobby, Sam gets another call. This time, it’s from Dean. “Dean! Where have you been? I think I’ve got a lead…”
“So do I,” Dean says. “I heard from the bartender that there’s this woman… she’s an old resident... been gone for quite some time but she recently returned just as the wolf attacks started.”
“Yeah, and I have a pretty good idea a witch is behind this.”
“A witch? It fits.”
“Where are you now, Dean? Something big just happened,” Sam announces, and Cas meows in protest. “I know!” Sam mouths at him.
“The Black Dog Pub.”
“Alright, be there in five,” Sam says before he hangs up. He sees Cas looking at him curiously. “Well, while we’re at it, it wouldn’t hurt to try and make him say stuff, right? Come here,” he says, gesturing for Cas to enter Sam’s bag. Cas looks skeptically at Sam before he follows, jumping into the bag.
+++
The old lady who owns the motel lends the ‘good looking FBI agent’ her husband’s pickup, and Sam drives hastily through the heavy rain. He got Bobby on the phone just before he left, and the old hunter told him what he already suspected. “I’ll look it up, but I can tell you now, if she can control these giant wolves, you can be sure she’s got enough juice to finish yer asses off with one blow. Be careful, boy,” Bobby had said.
“If we can return you to your old self, you can help us get rid of this witch,” Sam tells Cas, who has his head poking out of Sam’s bag on the passenger seat.
Cas nods. ‘That might be the smarter way to go,’ he thinks, but he knows it will be harder than it sounds.
+++
A couple minutes away from the pub, Sam gets a call from a frantic Dean. “One of the waitresses ran in crying, said the busboy was attacked by a wolf and carried off into the woods. I’m going after it,” Dean says.
“No, wait Dean! You can’t go there alone! I’m almost there.”
“No time. I might still be able to save him if I go now. Just get here as fast as you can,” Dean says before he abruptly hangs up.
“Dammit, Dean!” Sam growls as he tosses the phone to the passenger side, narrowly missing Cas’ head. “He’s probably drunk… and definitely not thinking like himself,” Sam says angrily, worriedly, and Cas feels a chill run down his spine at the possibility that Dean may just screw this up majorly… and he might not get out of that forest alive. Sam floors the gas pedal and the pickup zooms through the deserted, rain-slick streets.
+++
When they get to the pub, Sam immediately runs to the back where the waitresses told them Dean had run off to after the wolf. It is still raining heavily, and Sam can hardly see anything. He hears the howl of a wolf deeper into the forest… then another, and another, and it makes him shiver. “Shit, how am I supposed to find him here?” he asks. He reaches into his bag for the gun he knows is there, and Cas suddenly leaps out of the bag and runs in front of him.
“Cas wait!” he calls out, but the kitten ignores him and runs faster. “Fuck,” Sam curses as he follows the cat blindly, realizing Cas might have a better chance of finding Dean than him.
+++
Cas sniffs the air and runs faster, leaping over exposed roots and rocks. He concentrates and taps into his grace, letting his power propel his feet quicker on the slippery and uneven surface. Dean is close, he can sense him. But, he can also sense the wolves. They’re angry.
A gunshot pierces through the air, and both Cas and Sam jolt in surprise. Cas stops for a moment, eyes wide as he sniffs the air again, harnesses as much of his grace as possible to find Dean. And then he sees him through the darkness and the rain. Sees exactly where he is. Sees giant wolves, maybe four or five of them, in front of Dean. He has managed to shoot down one of them, but the others are angry. One of them lunges forward and Dean shoots again. Then, the remaining three attack.
Cas runs, his heart thumping heavy and quick in his chest, then he hears the click of Sam’s gun, and another gunshot rings in the air, and one wolf gets knocked down. Another gunshot, and another… but Cas does not wait to see if they reach their target… a big brown wolf lunges at Dean, Dean shoots at it but it continues, bearing fangs and claws bigger than Dean’s fists. Cas doesn’t think anymore. He leaps, unfurls his wings and envelops himself with all the grace he can summon and hits the wolf at the side of its head.
The wolf stumbles away from Dean, like it has been hit by a large rock and it is knocked off balance for a moment. The wolf growls, and Cas doesn’t have time to get away before sharp claws and a paw the size of a dinner plate descends on him, swats at him with bone-crunching force, and he slams to the nearest tree with a sickening thump.
Cas feels pain, tremendous pain, and he sees Dean for a split second, sees the anger in his eyes as he pulls the trigger of his gun again, before his vision fades and the world melts into darkness.
+++
“Dean! Are you alright?” Sam asks breathlessly after checking on the lifeless body of the busboy. The wolves lay unmoving around them, though there could be more of them in the forest. “We have to get out of here,” he says as he helps Dean up.
“I’ll be fine,” Dean says as he checks the scrapes and scratches on his own body. “Is he…?” he says, gesturing to the man’s unmoving body.
Sam shakes his head. “He’s dead.”
“Dammit,” Dean mutters, and suddenly, he remembers, and he whirls around, practically stumbles as he spots the cat lying eerily still between two protruding roots. He pales when he sees rain and mud... and blood matting the kitten’s black fur. “Shit, no…” he says as he reaches for the kitten.
“Oh my god,” he hears Sam say from behind him.
“Why’s he even here?” Dean asks as he touches the kitten tentatively. Then he withdraws his hand in surprise as the kitten twitches. “He’s alive!” he gasps. “Quick, Sam, we have to take him back to town,” he says as he picks the kitten up as gently as he could.
“Right, let’s go.”
+++
The pub owner offers them clean towels to dry off and a backroom with a small bed and chair where they can clean their wounds and take care of the kitten.
Dean carefully cleans the kitten’s visible wounds while Sam fetches bandages and disinfectant. “Dammit, who would bring a kitten to a hunt?” he shakes his head, angry at Sam for endangering the little creature’s life. He doesn’t know why he’s so affected. “And why the heck would you jump in front of a wolf to save me?” he asks the kitten next.
Sam enters with the bandage and the disinfectant and gives it to Dean. “They called for a veterinarian, but he’s from two towns over and won’t be here for another half hour at least,” he tells Dean.
“Mr. Bonbon might not make it in half an hour,” Dean tells him.
Sam silently watches as Dean carefully places a splint and bandages one of the kitten’s legs. He wonders if he should tell Dean that the kitten is Cas, and despite how he looks now, it’s very likely he will heal his wounds eventually. He’s an angel after all. Right? ‘Gabriel wouldn’t let his brother die because of a trick, right?’ he thinks next. ‘He wouldn’t,’ he continues, though it gives him little comfort. “I’m gonna go get us a fresh set of clothes from the motel. You need anything else?” Sam asks.
Dean shakes his head.
+++
“I didn’t think you’d show your face… Gabriel,” Sam barely hides the anger in his voice as Gabriel materializes in the empty motel room.
“How can I not, when you so lovingly prayed for my presence?” he teases.
“Cas is hurt because of you,” Sam tells him. “Reverse whatever magic you did to him so he can heal himself properly.”
Gabriel frowns. “I can’t do that.”
“So you’d rather let your brother die than change him back?”
“Like you probably already know,” Gabriel begins, bringing out a Twix bar and unwrapping it. “Dean’s the only one who can change him back,” he says nonchalantly as he bites off a chunk.
“You son of a bitch,” Sam growls, stepping forward menacingly.
“Hey, hey… there’s no need for violence,” Gabriel says, raising his hands in front of him. “I can’t directly change him back. There’s a trigger, and I can’t just bypass it. But I can help speed things up if you want.”
“Do it,” Sam says angrily.
“Mmm… why should I?”
“Castiel has done nothing wrong! Why are you making him suffer like this?” Sam explodes.
“I’m teaching him a lesson. I think he’s learned it enough. But I don’t think you two have learned yours…” Gabriel says cryptically.
“What do you want us to do? Beg you? Cas has been nothing but helpful to us. He’s helped us save more lives than even you can manage. He’s saved our lives more times that we can count.”
“Is that it?” Gabriel says, chomping on his Twix and sitting cross legged on the small dining table.
“Dammit, Gabriel! He’s your brother. He’s our friend, no, he’s practically family to us. If he’s gone Dean will be devastated. I will be devastated. Don’t tell me you don’t care about him as much as we do…” Sam says.
Gabriel smiles. “I’ve always known you were the smarter brother,” he says, finishing off his Twix and jumping off the table. Sam blinks as Gabriel smiles widely at him. “Now let’s see if we can drill the same lesson into Dean’s thick skull and get him to say something like that as well, hmm?” he says with that same smile.
“That’s it? Those are the magic words?” Sam asks in confusion.
“Mmm… more or less. Now I’m gonna need about five minutes. Be a good boy and stay away from the pub’s backroom while I work my magic, okay sweetie pie?” he says before he vanishes, leaving Sam alone and gaping at nothing but empty space.
+++
Dean watches the kitten’s chest as it breathes in and out weakly. He looks at his watch, barely ten minutes have passed since they called for the vet, and he fears the kitten will die before the vet even reaches town.
They’ve never had a pet longer than a few days, even as kids. They took home a stray dog back to their hotel once, and John got very angry at them. He dropped the dog off at a shelter and Dean remembers how inconsolable Sam had been. Dean had been ten years old then, and even though it saddened him to see the dog go, he understood their father. They can’t have pets like the other kids did. It was just something that they could never experience for themselves.
Now, looking at the frail kitten, he thinks how easy it had been to accept him into their lives, how he secretly enjoys it when the kitten brushes against his legs when he enters the room, and how he has grown to love the warmth of the kitten on his leg, or behind his back when he sleeps. It was something he didn’t know he wanted until he had it.
And despite his usual complaints that the cat is weird, he adored the little thing. It reminded him of Cas, the same innocent yet mysterious look in their faces, and the same bright, blue eyes, eyes that held a warmth, a power he can’t describe. He misses Cas’ presence deeply, more than he’d care to admit even to himself and so much so that he thinks he’s becoming insane, but seeing the kitten somehow calms him. Those same beautiful eyes he loves in Cas couldn’t possibly shine bright in a kitten that randomly fell on their laps for no reason. He was meant to have this cat. How can he not adore the kitten more because of that?
“Dammit,” he says as he buries his head in his hands. “Cas, come on…” he says before he looks up at the bare ceiling. “I know to you he might be insignificant, but this little kitten… he just saved my life. So please…” he stops as his voice breaks, “please, save him.”
When nothing happens, Dean stands up, stares more intently at the ceiling. “Come on, Cas, where are you? What’s happening up there? Why aren’t you answering us anymore?” Dean breathes in deeply. “You’re mad, I get it. And I’m a dick, I know that. I shouldn’t have pushed you away. I was wrong… and I was stupid. I panicked and… just dammit, Cas, please, at least tell me you can hear me. Tell me you’re alright. Tell me nothing bad has happened to you. Please…” he pleads to the old, wooden ceiling of the room.
He feels silly and helpless and he’s not sure anybody can even hear him, but he can’t help it. He’s sure he’s at least still half drunk, he’s sore from being a giant wolf’s punching bag, and he’s just really, really tired. But he feels it, prickling at the corners of his eyes, the heavy weight of unshed tears, and he hates it. Hates it with a vengeance. Hates it that only Cas can make him feel this way. “Please, I’ll stop bothering you if you don’t like it, just, Cas… just… tell me you’re okay.”
“He can’t hear you.”
Dean whirls around and sees Gabriel leaning by the door. “What are you doing here? Where’s Cas?”
Gabriel cleans his ear with a finger and looks up at Dean. “Your big, little brother can be very persuasive, you know? He called me. Told me to bring Cas back.”
“Bring Cas-wait, what happened to him? What did you do to Cas?” Dean says in anger.
“I didn’t hurt him, not directly, if that’s what you’re getting at. Bu-ut… as I see it, he’s probably this close…” he brings his thumb and forefinger within an inch of each other, “…to biting the dust, as you say.”
“You son of a bitch!” Dean spits out.
Gabriel chuckles. “Sam said the exact same thing. Though I think you’d be the bigger son of a bitch here,” he tells Dean.
“What the fuck are you saying?”
“I’m saying…” Gabriel begins. He takes a step forward, and lets his grace be felt in the room, heavy and oppressing. “…that my brother is suffering, not because of me, but because of you.”
“What are you getting at?” Dean asks, confusion evident in his voice.
“Time and time again, he gives you everything you ask, does everything for you. And you take him for granted. You call on him only when you need help, and he comes, every single time to do your bidding. And the one time, the one time, he asks something of you… you push him away.”
“What are you talking about? He’s never-“
“I know about the kiss, Dean,” Gabriel tells him, and Dean stiffens. “I know the one time he asked you to love him back, you shoved him to the dirt. I know my brother loves you… and you know what? I also know you love him back, just as much. But you’re just too chicken to show it. And now my brother’s dying, again, for you, all for you. And you can’t even admit your feelings for my brother.”
“That’s-“
“None of my business? Oh, believe me, it becomes my business when some bastard hunter uses my brother and throws him away like trash.”
“I didn’t, okay?!” Dean explodes. “And you have no right to come in here preaching to me about what I should or should not do. You know nothing about what I feel for Cas. You wouldn’t be able to understand even if I tell you. Cas is important to me. Next to Sam, he’s the most important thing in my life, and I value him more than you’ll ever know. So don’t tell me I treat him like trash, alright?”
“Right. So that’s why you pushed him away…”
Dean runs a shaky hand through his hair. “I was confused and surprised… and just… dammit. Can you see me, Gabriel? Can you seriously see me? I’m dirty and sinful. I steal, I lie, I cheat, I’ve been to hell and back, and I’ve tortured more souls than I can ever care to remember. Don’t tell me you think its right for me to be loved by an angel… by someone like Cas.”
Gabriel gives him a lopsided smile. “That’s not for you to decide, you imbecile. That’s for him to decide. My brother may be many things, but we both know he’s not stupid enough to love someone he thinks is dirty and vile. So give yourself a little more credit, Dean Winchester. If you’re good enough in Castiel’s eyes, then you must really be good enough,” Gabriel tells him. “And seriously,” Gabriel adds with a roll of his eyes, “if you care for Castiel as much as you claim, you’ll let him love you. And you’ll stop being a tragic hero and admit you’re crazy for him and you can’t live without him. Otherwise, you’ll lose him forever.”
Dean exhales loudly. “Is that what you want to hear? Will you save Cas, bring him back, wherever you took him if I say that? Then fine, yes, I admit it,” Dean says, swallowing the lump that forms in his throat, “…I miss him when he’s not around, I miss how he smiles at my jokes even if he barely understands half of them, I miss how fearless he can be in front of demons, but he cowers at the sight of a woman in skimpy clothes. I miss the sound of his wings when he arrives, and that slight smile on his lips when he says ‘hello’, and god, I miss the way he would look at me. Like I’m the most important thing in the world, like my sins and all the bad I’ve done don’t exist anymore. And dammit, I nearly die with worry every time I call and he doesn’t answer. Like I am right now. I’m dying here, and Gabriel, if you’re half the angel Cas is, you will stop this stupid game, whatever it is, and bring him back right now,” Dean pleads.
“So… lemme get this straight… you’re saying you have a thing for Castiel?” Gabriel asks, wiggling his eyebrows playfully.
Dean growls. “I love him, alright, you son of a bitch. I love Cas. And I swear if something happens to him-“
Gabriel chuckles. “Now was that too hard to say?” he asks before he snaps and the atmosphere in the room lightens.
Something moves behind Dean, and Dean whirls around, sees Mr. Bonbon lying there for a split second before he morphs, grows larger and larger right before Dean’s eyes, until the kitten is nowhere to be seen, and in its place lay a familiar dark-haired man, naked, bruised and beaten, but otherwise breathing normally. He hears Gabriel snap again, and a shirt, suit, and trench coat suddenly appears folded on the foot of the bed, worn black leather shoes and socks on the floor.
He turns stunned eyes at Gabriel. “Cas… has been Mr. Bonbon… all this time?” he asks breathlessly.
“Bingo. As I thought, you’d never be able to guess it,” Gabriel said. “Now that things are settled here, my brother’s on his way to a full recovery knowing he’s not unloved, you just spilled your heart and guts out on the floor, Sam’s nursing his third bottle of beer just outside the door… I think my job here is done. If you’ll excuse me…” Gabriel said, poising to fly away. He stops, though, and looks thoughtfully at Dean and Cas. “Word of advice. The next time you hurt my brother, I’m turning you into a snail and shipping you off to a French restaurant,” he says right before he vanishes into thin air.
“I swear I’ll wring your little neck first for putting us through all of this,” Dean grumbles to the empty room. He turns back to Cas and sits back on the chair beside the bed. Even after only a minute or two, the bleeding has stopped and the bruises have begun to lighten and fade. Cas’ color has begun to return as well. Dean notices Cas shiver and grabs a blanket to cover his body.
He still can’t believe Cas and the kitten had been one and the same. It makes him remember all the times he thought the kitten was weird, and feels a wave of guilt wash over him for all the times he cursed and got angry when Cas failed to show up. Especially now that he knows Castiel has been there all along.
Dean watches Cas’ sleeping face for a moment, and a smile forms on his lips. “I hope you heard everything I just said to your bastard brother, coz I don’t think I can repeat all of that ever again.”
+++
“I heard what you said, Dean,” are the first words out of Castiel’s mouth when he wakes up hours later. Weak but still better than before, Cas sits up on the bed, now in his usual white shirt and black dress pants.
Dean looks down at his feet and Sam just looks at them confused. “The magic words Gabriel wanted him to say all this time?” Sam asks.
“Uh yeah, that’s it,” Dean says, and if Sam didn’t know his brother that well, he’d miss the shy look and the slight blush that suddenly appeared on his face.
“So what was it? ‘I’m sorry’, or was it, ‘I’m a dick’?” Sam asks.
“Yeah, yeah… that’s what I said. ‘I’m sorry’, right Cas?” he turns to Cas, who looks back at them tentatively.
“Uh… sure. That’s what he said,” Cas says with a straight face.
“Right,” Sam feigns agreement. “I could’ve sworn I heard something like, ‘I love Cas,’ earlier though. Must’ve been just my imagination,” Sam says with a grin.
“Don’t you have a report to make with the sheriff, Agent Young?” Dean says through gritted teeth as he pushes Sam out of the door.
“Right, right. I’ll be back once I tell the good sheriff what happened last night. Except the part where our kitten turned into an angel, of course,” Sam says with a wink.
“Well, get to it then!” Dean says before he finally manages to shove Sam’s big body out of the room. He shuts the door with a sigh and with a grin playing on his lips. He turns around. “So, you heard everything huh?” he asks Cas as he returns to the bedside.
“Yes,” Cas nods with a small smile.
“I meant everything I said, though. I didn’t say that just to get Gabriel to change you back,” Dean explains.
“I know,” Cas’ smile widens.
“And…?” Dean asks. “What do you have to say… after hearing all that?” he says, leaning closer to Cas.
Cas thinks for a moment and frowns. Dean’s smile falters a bit at this. “Cas?” he asks in worry.
“I think…” Cas begins. “I think I would like another kiss. One that does not involve shoving at the end.”
The confusion fades from Dean’s face and he grins. “I think I can manage that,” he says, before leaning in closer and capturing Cas’ lips with his.
+++
Their second kiss starts miles better than the first.
It begins chastely. Just a press of lips against lips. Then Dean leans in more, pushes against Cas’ lips with his tongue, and Cas parts his lips slightly, allowing Dean to dive in deeper, to savor the flavor of Cas’ mouth. He feels Cas lift his arms, run his fingers through Dean’s hair before pushing against the back of his head to deepen the kiss. The touch of their tongues against each other is electric, sending shivers down Dean’s spine as he presses closer, half his body practically on top of Cas as he bites lightly on Cas’ bottom lip. It wrenches a groan out of the angel’s mouth, and the sound excites Dean more than he could ever imagine.
Their second kiss ends miles and miles better than the first as well.
It ends when the third kiss begins, and the fourth, and the fifth. It ends with clothes shed on the floor and Dean on top of Cas, showering him with more kisses down his neck. He kisses a quickly fading bruise on Castiel’s chest, the last evidence of the kitten’s heroic act the night before, and moves to lick circles around a nipple, pausing to lap his tongue against a freckle just to the side. Castiel shudders and Dean smiles, moves to the other nipple to shower it with the same attention.
It ends with Cas’ fingers running all over Dean’s naked skin, with Dean gripping Cas’ erection and with Cas arching off the bed like a cat with a delicious stroke of Dean’s hand. Cas’ hands fumble against Dean’s body, finding anything to hold onto. He grabs Dean by each firm globe of his ass and pushes him down against him, hard, and Dean gasps when their cocks brush against each other.
“I want…” Cas pants.
Dean leans in further, bites at the soft flesh of his earlobe, “Anything, Cas… anything,” he whispers, hips thrusting against Cas, the precome on their cocks mixing and slicking their cocks as they slide against each other.
“You…” Cas pants again. “I want you… all of you,” he says before he catches Dean’s lips for the start of their twelfth or thirteenth kiss, Cas doesn’t know. He’s lost count.
Dean smiles against his lips. “You sure?”
“Yes, Dean. I’m sure.”
Their second kiss is forgotten after the fourteenth and fifteenth, and more so after the gentle press of slick fingers against Cas’ opening, the burn and stretch of them dulled by Cas’ slowly returning grace. Then there is pleasure, somewhere deep, and Dean smiles again when Cas’ back arches off the bed, moans in pleasure at the stroke of Dean’s fingers deep within him. Another finger joins the others, and Cas is writhing on the bed, begging for Dean to get on with it, and Dean happily complies.
What could possibly be their twentieth kiss starts and ends with the slow press of Dean’s cock against Cas, the pressure hard and relenting until the blunt head breaches his opening. Cas’ jaw goes slack and he pants as Dean pushes all the way in, the slight pain mixing with the pleasurable drag of Dean’s cock inside of him.
Dean pauses once he’s all the way in, breathing heavily on top of Cas. He shuts his eyes at the incredible feeling of Cas around him, hot and tight, of Cas fingers clutching at his arms almost desperately, one palm against that mark near his shoulder, slotting like a long lost puzzle piece, Cas’ legs wrapped tightly around his waist, and he knows he’s been a fool to deny himself any of this for so long. He moves, thrusts shallowly a few times and moans. He withdraws almost to the tip then pushes back in harder, dragging another low moan from Castiel’s lips. The raspy sound of Cas’ voice spurs Dean on and he thrusts faster, harder, until he feels the fingers clutching his arms tighten painfully, feels the scorching hot muscles hugging him quiver and clamp tighter around him.
He reaches a hand out to stroke Cas’ cock in time with his thrusts, and Cas moans, whimpers even as Dean thumbs at the slit of Cas’ cock, spreading the leaking precome all over the head. And Cas can no longer take it. Unused to such intense pleasure and emotion, Castiel’s body goes rigid as he feels every fiber of his being spark and erupt like he’s about to explode and die, except it feels infinitely better than death, and his body sings with so much life it makes his eyes water. And when he opens his eyes, he sees Dean’s face, looking at him with so much love, he feels his chest start to ache again, a good ache, and that alone becomes enough and yet too much at the same time.
What is to be their last kiss of that morning ends with a scream, Cas’ back arching off the bed yet again as he feels blinding hot pleasure overtake his senses, Dean groaning loudly as he feels the wet splash of Cas’ come between them. Dean thrusts once, twice, before he too is coming hot and hard and deep inside Cas. He collapses onto Cas, panting heavily, drained of almost all his energy.
“I don’t want you to ever leave again, alright?” Dean whispers feebly into Cas’ ear, and Cas smiles weakly, brings an arm around Dean’s shoulder to hug him tight.
“I never left, Dean, nor will I ever leave you again,” he replies.
Dean falls asleep with a stupid grin on his face and the sound of Cas’ breathing in his ear.
+++
Sam returns later that day to a sight he would never admit to seeing. Thankfully, a sheet is covering most of what Sam would deem as ‘hurtful’ to his eyes, but he still shudders at the sight of his brother naked in bed with his angel. He smiles though, when he sees their position-Dean facing the wall, and Castiel snuggled behind his back, an arm slung over his chest. It looks exactly the way the kitten used to sleep behind Dean’s back whenever it was particularly cold in the night. And Sam wonders, as he closes the door and gives the two a few more minutes alone, if the kitten will ever be completely gone from Castiel. He doubts that will be the case anytime soon.
+++
In an old shack on the outskirts of town, a woman cowers on the corner of her room. “Loki… look, I’m not encroaching into your territory… so let me go, al-alright…?” she pleads as she clutches an old hex bag with the paw of a great wolf god inside.
“Tsk, tsk, tsk. Sorry, no can do,” Gabriel says as he takes a step closer. “Nobody messes with my little bro and lives,” he says with a lopsided grin that sends chills down the witch’s spine. He brings his hand up and snaps.
+++
That afternoon, residents claim to have heard a woman’s screams, along with the howling of several wolves somewhere in the woods, and when the police arrive to investigate, they find the mangled body of a woman tangled in electrical wires. The coroner finds she was killed by wolves, though how she got tangled in the high tension wires was something they cannot solve. Nor do they find any clues as to why she was found clutching an old broom, almost as if she was flying off on it.
The two FBI agents who arrived earlier that week also bid their farewell that day, along with a man in a tan trench coat who was from the SPCA intending to see if any of the wolves were harmed. They don’t find a single trace of the wolves anywhere, though, and since then, the wolves were never seen again.
+++
Castiel eventually leaves to do his ‘heavenly duty’ and Dean lets him, albeit not so willingly. However, the next time Dean prays for Castiel to come down, it isn’t for help in a case, or for clues to the newest killings in town.
He calls him down for a small barbecue with Bobby and Sam, and when he accidentally (or not so accidentally) calls Cas “Mr. Bonbon,” and later on, “kitten,” while they ate their burgers among the cars, it’s only Bobby who looks at them weirdly and with brows arching heavenward. Sam just smiles and chuckles to himself, while Cas seems to not notice the slip and just obediently follows as Dean gives him his twelfth or thirteenth burger of the day. If Bobby notices Dean’s unusually wide grin and Dean’s hand discreetly groping Cas under the table, he doesn’t say anything as well, and Sam just smiles again and eats his burger in peace.
THE END