daemonprompts: You're in suspension, you know no love....
daemonprompts : "Gods die. And when they truly die they are unmourned and unremembered. Ideas are more difficult to kill than people, but they can be killed, in the end."
-Neil Gaiman, American Gods
Daemons were among the many, many traits about humans that Castiel had learned not to question too deeply for all that they confused and perplexed him. Such a vulnerable part of a human- the soul, the part that they say belongs to God alone- worn outside the body so that everyone could see the shape of it. He knew his vessel had a daemon, vaguely remembered her shape, but beyond that, she was a myth, a memory, and other daemons were simply aspects of humanity to be ignored.
Jezebel, like her person, was not the sort to be ignored.
She'd been all out of sorts since Sam and Trinity left, clearly pining so much for the touch of another daemon that she'd whine plaintively every time Dean was around people- Castiel noticed that anyway. He also noticed that in the dark and shadows of the abandoned house they'd procured for their purposes, she was watching him keenly, tilting her head to the side.
Castiel watched back, but couldn't bring himself to question her. Speaking to a soul seemed... Strange. In the year or more he had been walking the earth, he'd never seen another person directly address another person's daemon nor had he ever seen a daemon directly address another person. Jez, also like her person, wasn't much for rules.
"So you're just going to sit there and wait to die?"
Dean whirled, thinking Jezebel was talking to him. "Jez, what the-" And then it occurred to him that she wasn't looking at him at all. Castiel tore his eyes away from the daemon in order to look at Dean with an expression that was vaguely apologetic, but also deeply, deeply confused. It never occurred to him to learn how one should behave in this situation. Dean just threw up his hands, clearly just as perplexed, but not willing to question it too much. "Don't look at me."
Castiel looked back at Jez. For a dog, she had a remarkable ability to look utterly judgmental. "I was talking to you," she said. Her tone suggested that she was speaking to someone extremely stupid and Castiel had to take a moment to wonder if there was any part of Dean that gave anything the respect it warranted.
"Yes." It was both an answer to her original question and his affirmation that he was well aware she was talking to him. Castiel spared another glance at Dean, who had turned his back on this entire conversation, his shoulders knotted with tension, as if this conversation was physically causing him pain.
Jez let out a guttural growl, her hackles up, earning Dean's attention again. "Jez. Geez. Calm down. You're actin' crazy."
Both human and daemon shared a moment of silent staring and Castiel had to turn his eyes away, feeling as if he was intruding on something sacred. God clearly had a purpose when he separated man from his soul and moments like this seemed to suggest exactly why- it seemed like some sort of perversion to look upon it, somehow.
The next thing he knew, Jez was laying her head in his lap.
"You can't die," she muttered. Castiel, once again, looked to Dean, who had turned a little green around the edges- clearly, he hadn't been expecting this. There might have been something more there, but Castiel was too busy focusing on Jezebel to pay Dean as much attention.
"Jez..." Dean called, voice choked. It was almost heartbreaking enough to make Castiel want to shove the daemon away, for Dean's sake, if nothing else. If just watching both human and daemon had seemed like a perversion, then this was complete blasphemy and he wanted no part of it, but the way Jez was looking up at him and the way Dean didn't move to pull her away stayed his hand.
"You can't die," she repeated with more force, finally moving her head of her own volition to go and stand next to Dean, her deep brown eyes apologetic, and he responded by leaning down to rub her behind the ears until she laid down at his feet, contented. The moment passed, almost as if it had never happened at all.
Castiel was left sitting there, blinking and utterly dumbfounded. Humans and their daemons shouldn't be so hard to figure out and, after over a year, he would have liked to have thought he understood them a little. Moments like this, however, made him realize just how much he had to learn.
And how much he'd probably never learn.
Muse: Castiel
Word Count: 751