An Unconventional Kind of Place (8/?)
PG
2,381 words
Dean/Castiel AU. Dean runs a day care center for human and angel kids, the first of its kind. Castiel is a parent.
Apologies again for the slow updates. I have so many things to write for this and so little time!
Thanks again to C. and of course to all my readers who have really encouraged me to keep going. ♥
Now, onto the next chapter!
An Unconventional Kind of Place
8.
Glitter, Dean decides, is an invention of Satan. There's just no other explanation for the sparkly, all-consuming mess the damned stuff has made of his classroom. He wonders why he ever thought this was a good idea; how he ever could have imagined this would end any other way.
Dean remembers Sam, aged four, with pink flecks stuck to his hair and Dean had found it for weeks afterwards, in the laundry, in his school bag, in his freaking ear.
But that morning, Dean had been in a good mood, and Camael had asked sweetly if she could please use the glitter pens. Dean should've known right then and there the day could never have ended well because Camael and politeness were generally an omen of bad things to come. This was Dean had learned very quickly and repeatedly. She was angel who Dean didn’t think had ever been told No in her entire life.
And somehow, Dean thinks, the glitter thing is all Castiel's fault. Because Castiel has somehow managed to put Dean in a good mood. Made Dean let his guard down when he should be vigilant against the sly nature of small children. It's not likes he called, but he texted Dean to thank him for the invitation. To tell Dean he was looking forward to trying coffee. Apparently that's all it takes for Dean to be completely distracted. It's not his fault, Dean decides. How the hell was he supposed to know Castiel knew how to send text messages. It shouldn't be this big a deal. Except it is, to Dean, and he hasn’t been able to stop thinking about it since he’d gotten up that morning and his phone had blinked at him, announcing, One New Message.
So here he is, faced with glitter carnage, because there's no way he was thinking straight when he agreed to art time with added sparkles. There's glitter in the kids’ hair, stuck in clumps to their fingers, streaked up their sleeves and across their faces. Worst if all it's gotten into the angels’ wings. There's more of the damn stuff on the kids than ever made it onto the paper. As soon as this mess is cleaned up Dean’s throwing out every glitter dispensing thing in the entire center and he's banning them forever.
Forever.
"This was a poor choice," Uriel intones, surveying the damage and not helping Dean pick flecks out of Sabiel's sweater at all.
It's not like Uriel said anything earlier. And anyway, Sabiel is grinning as she picks green glitter from her own soft yellow wings.
"My brother will be so jealous. These sparkles are pretty," she says. "Do I have to take it out?" she pulls a feather up, angles it so it glints in the light, admiring the colors. Or something. From the way Uriel is scowling at the kids' wings Dean guesses that's a no.
"Alex," Uriel barks. "Wash your hands before you start picking glitter from your hair. Nakir, Liwet, ask another to remove the infernal mess from the back of your wings." Interesting, Dean thinks, so there are times when touching wings outside of family members is acceptable.
Nakir turns to Camael, gives her a dubious look before turning to his other side, to Matthew, an angel kid with a fondness for trains and cars. To Dean, the kid’s got awesome taste and they’ve talked a lot about engines and how the Impala is the greatest vehicle ever created.
Uriel is distributing handtowels so Dean watches as Nakir asks Matthew something shyly in Enochian, and Matthew replies and they go through a whole, long conversation that Dean imagines is some permission thing. It goes on forever so Dean leaves them to it and turns to Lee, curious to see who he'll choose. It shouldn't really be any kind of surprise, but it still is when Lee looks to John, blushing so red Dean thinks he's gonna explode, and asks, "Will you help me?"
Even Uriel raises an eyebrow, but he remains silent. The other angel kids whisper among themselves, and John looks close to terrified.
"Um," he says, eyes flicking to Lee’s wings and then back to his friends face. "Um. Is it okay? I mean, I don't know how..."
Lee shrugs. "Don't pull hard. I know you’ll do it okay."
John seems to take strength from Lee’s confidence in him because he nods decisively. "You'll have to turn around."
The grin Lee gives John before he turns away is fearless and completely trusting and it's an awesome thing to see. This, Dean thinks, is why he started the day care in the first place. So that angels and humans could learn to understand each other. Dean has learned where misunderstanding and mistrust lead, and he doesn't want to go back to that. He's seen the way some angels scorn humans and how there are humans who hate the angels, blame them for the War and for the death of loved ones and it's all pointless. They should be united against the evil fuckers who kill angels and humans and don't care which is which.
Every time John touches the feathers of Lee’s wings he asks if it’s okay, if he’s doing it right, and Dean knows that John gets it.
It takes way too long to get all the kids clean and glitter free, but they're all happy and laughing by the end of it. Even Camael is talking to Alex again and it feels like the tension of the past few days has lifted. The kids and Dean play tag at lunchtime and, on a high from a weirdly awesome morning- even if Dean is never looking at glitter ever again- and running around the playground for an hour Dean sends Castiel a text telling him he's looking forward to their meeting too, and if Castiel is texting him from Heaven then he has some seriously amazing coverage. He doesn't think about how weird it is to be texting the parents of one of his students in the middle of the day. And anyway, Castiel started it.
It's kind of a disappointment when it comes to the end of the day and it's not Castiel who comes to pick up Lee.
"Anna," Uriel informs Dean, because Dean’s never met this chick and he's not letting Lee run off with any old angel who comes along.
She's stunning, with perfect red hair and an almost human warmth in her smile. "She was in Castiel's garrison during the war," Uriel informs him. The way he says it makes Dean think that means something, like maybe Castiel's garrison were awesome or scary or something. Knowing Castiel and his quiet intensity Dean can imagine it. Anna has a similar fierceness and Dean can understand why Lee grins at her attention and John blushes as he's shakes her hand in greeting. From the way Lee tugs at the arm of her sleeve there's no doubt Lee knows Anna well. She's wearing jeans and a loose jacket and she’s the most casually dressed angel Dean has ever seen.
There's no way Dean can miss how cute she is, and Dean is not thinking about exactly what kind of relationship Anna and Castiel have. He's really not.
Because he's not thinking about that it's easy to smile and shake her hand when Lee pulls her over to meet Dean.
"I've heard a lot about you," she says, and then with a weird grin Dean can't decipher adds, "From both Liwet and Castiel."
Like that's something strange.
Dean shrugs and replies, "Good things, I hope."
Dean shouldn't be surprised when Anna responds in that absolute straight, direct angel way, "Yes."
"In Iad likes you," Lee confirms, and Dean laughs.
Anna is watching him closely and Lee seems to be expecting some kind of reply so Dean tells him, "I like your dad too." To Anna he takes the opportunity to ask, "Where is Castiel anyway? I was texting him earlier and he didn't mention you."
Anna raises her eyebrows. "So that's why he wanted to know how to send text messages. Congratulations," she smiles and it's a vaguely terrifying thing. "You've managed to do what no one else before you could: you've dragged Castiel into this millennium." After a pause Anna adds thoughtfully, "He's been petrified of anything with switches or buttons since they were invented."
The way she says it, like it’s nothing, is just a throwaway comment but it reminds Dean of just how old Castiel must be. How powerful. He wonders how old Anna is. He wonders how long they've known each other. There must have been through so much shit together. It's kind of amazing that Castiel thinks Dean is worth hanging out with at all. That he's worth learning to deal with human technology for, because Dean has seen exactly how badly angels and electronics mix. Mostly they frazzle the circuits with their angel-juice.
Dean shrugs it off as something to maybe think about later. Or maybe not. "I can see that," he says. "Castiel was confused by the barbeque."
Fascinated is maybe a better word because Castiel had watched the coals turn red and white and Dean had thought it was cool how much wonder Castiel still had in everything.
Anna nods knowingly. "He's a rare one." The fondness in her voice makes Dean wonder how close the two angels are. She goes on, "Works too hard too. That’s where he is now. Got caught up in some big important meeting."
There's something funny, Dean thinks, about the thought of angels suffering through meetings like corporate douchebags the world over. Except Dean guesses Castiel's meetings are one hell of a lot more important.
"He's always working," Lee complains despondently, scuffing his shoes against the ground.
Anna lays a hand on the kid’s shoulder, turns to him before crouching down to his level.
"He does this so you'll be safe," she says gently. Lee nods but he doesn't look any happier, like this is something he gets, that he's heard a hundred times before but it doesn't make it any easier. Dean remembers what that's like, always waiting for his dad to get home, always feeling like he was playing second best to a world of strangers who his dad was more interested in than hanging out with him and Sam. He won't judge Castiel though, because someone has to do the work he does or they'd be overrun in a week.
Anna takes Lee’s hand, standing up. "Let's go and wait for his meeting to finish." She grins at Lee conspiratorially. "I know Rachel would love to see you again." Lee grins shyly back and Dean's got to wonder who this Rachel is that the kid has gone all gooey over.
The day after the barbeque Sam dumped a whole bunch of angel books off at his house and Dean will never admit it to anyone but he's been reading through them and he's learned that angel's form small groups of close friends that would, by human standards, seem like family. It's something Dean can relate to, with Bobby and Ellen and Jo and even Rufus when he's sober and crashing at Bobby's after a hunt. None of them related but all of them might as well be. Maybe this Rachel is like that to Castiel and Lee. Their life in Heaven, separate from the day care and earth and the physical, is something it's hard for Dean to get his head around.
They say their goodbyes, Anna winking at Dean as she disappears in that sudden way angels favour, a flurry of wings and a blast of warm air all they leave behind.
As Dean locks up he has time to consider how little he actually knows about Castiel. About his life, or his work, or the people- angels- he knows. So that evening Dean texts Castiel, How do you feel about television? It's lame, but Dean wants to know something about him. He kind of wants to ask about Anna, or Rachel, or how his big important meeting went, but that would be weird. It's none of his business.
He resists the urge to call Sam, pretending he's not really waiting for Castiel to text him back. Playing racing games with John would have helped, except that Dean loses so horrifically John laughs at him.
It's not until John’s gone to bed and Dean is dozing on his couch having flashbacks filled with neon green glitter that Castiel replies, his phone startling him awake. Dean really hopes his meeting didn't last that long.
I have never seen any television. I enjoy reading human crime novels, he's written. The TV thing is no surprise but Dean barks a laugh at the crime novel comment. He texts a reply, and before he know it it's nearly midnight and Dean has learned that Castiel reads trash and isn't ashamed, that his favourite color is green, that he loves flying, hates boats, and wishes he had more time to spend with Lee. Castiel offers without asking that his meeting was tedious and unproductive.
If he could, Dean would've carried right on texting Castiel all night but he has a bunch of five and six year olds to take care of early the next morning so he has to cut short their discussion of awesome dogs through history.
The last thing Castiel asks is, Is eleven o'clock next Sunday convenient? and, oh yeah, they hadn't arranged a time for coffee yet.
Dean agrees, not caring if it's convenient or not. He'll make it work.
He goes to bed trying to decide if he should take Castiel to a Starbucks or if angels would prefer one of those independent coffee shops Sam gets so hot for. It's not like Castiel would know the difference. Probably.
Jesus, Dean thinks. His life is so weird.
But six years he would have gone to bed wondering if he'd survive the night, and this is so much better.
Dean wouldn't change it for anything.
Part 9
2,381 words
Dean/Castiel AU. Dean runs a day care center for human and angel kids, the first of its kind. Castiel is a parent.
Apologies again for the slow updates. I have so many things to write for this and so little time!
Thanks again to C. and of course to all my readers who have really encouraged me to keep going. ♥
Now, onto the next chapter!
An Unconventional Kind of Place
8.
Glitter, Dean decides, is an invention of Satan. There's just no other explanation for the sparkly, all-consuming mess the damned stuff has made of his classroom. He wonders why he ever thought this was a good idea; how he ever could have imagined this would end any other way.
Dean remembers Sam, aged four, with pink flecks stuck to his hair and Dean had found it for weeks afterwards, in the laundry, in his school bag, in his freaking ear.
But that morning, Dean had been in a good mood, and Camael had asked sweetly if she could please use the glitter pens. Dean should've known right then and there the day could never have ended well because Camael and politeness were generally an omen of bad things to come. This was Dean had learned very quickly and repeatedly. She was angel who Dean didn’t think had ever been told No in her entire life.
And somehow, Dean thinks, the glitter thing is all Castiel's fault. Because Castiel has somehow managed to put Dean in a good mood. Made Dean let his guard down when he should be vigilant against the sly nature of small children. It's not likes he called, but he texted Dean to thank him for the invitation. To tell Dean he was looking forward to trying coffee. Apparently that's all it takes for Dean to be completely distracted. It's not his fault, Dean decides. How the hell was he supposed to know Castiel knew how to send text messages. It shouldn't be this big a deal. Except it is, to Dean, and he hasn’t been able to stop thinking about it since he’d gotten up that morning and his phone had blinked at him, announcing, One New Message.
So here he is, faced with glitter carnage, because there's no way he was thinking straight when he agreed to art time with added sparkles. There's glitter in the kids’ hair, stuck in clumps to their fingers, streaked up their sleeves and across their faces. Worst if all it's gotten into the angels’ wings. There's more of the damn stuff on the kids than ever made it onto the paper. As soon as this mess is cleaned up Dean’s throwing out every glitter dispensing thing in the entire center and he's banning them forever.
Forever.
"This was a poor choice," Uriel intones, surveying the damage and not helping Dean pick flecks out of Sabiel's sweater at all.
It's not like Uriel said anything earlier. And anyway, Sabiel is grinning as she picks green glitter from her own soft yellow wings.
"My brother will be so jealous. These sparkles are pretty," she says. "Do I have to take it out?" she pulls a feather up, angles it so it glints in the light, admiring the colors. Or something. From the way Uriel is scowling at the kids' wings Dean guesses that's a no.
"Alex," Uriel barks. "Wash your hands before you start picking glitter from your hair. Nakir, Liwet, ask another to remove the infernal mess from the back of your wings." Interesting, Dean thinks, so there are times when touching wings outside of family members is acceptable.
Nakir turns to Camael, gives her a dubious look before turning to his other side, to Matthew, an angel kid with a fondness for trains and cars. To Dean, the kid’s got awesome taste and they’ve talked a lot about engines and how the Impala is the greatest vehicle ever created.
Uriel is distributing handtowels so Dean watches as Nakir asks Matthew something shyly in Enochian, and Matthew replies and they go through a whole, long conversation that Dean imagines is some permission thing. It goes on forever so Dean leaves them to it and turns to Lee, curious to see who he'll choose. It shouldn't really be any kind of surprise, but it still is when Lee looks to John, blushing so red Dean thinks he's gonna explode, and asks, "Will you help me?"
Even Uriel raises an eyebrow, but he remains silent. The other angel kids whisper among themselves, and John looks close to terrified.
"Um," he says, eyes flicking to Lee’s wings and then back to his friends face. "Um. Is it okay? I mean, I don't know how..."
Lee shrugs. "Don't pull hard. I know you’ll do it okay."
John seems to take strength from Lee’s confidence in him because he nods decisively. "You'll have to turn around."
The grin Lee gives John before he turns away is fearless and completely trusting and it's an awesome thing to see. This, Dean thinks, is why he started the day care in the first place. So that angels and humans could learn to understand each other. Dean has learned where misunderstanding and mistrust lead, and he doesn't want to go back to that. He's seen the way some angels scorn humans and how there are humans who hate the angels, blame them for the War and for the death of loved ones and it's all pointless. They should be united against the evil fuckers who kill angels and humans and don't care which is which.
Every time John touches the feathers of Lee’s wings he asks if it’s okay, if he’s doing it right, and Dean knows that John gets it.
It takes way too long to get all the kids clean and glitter free, but they're all happy and laughing by the end of it. Even Camael is talking to Alex again and it feels like the tension of the past few days has lifted. The kids and Dean play tag at lunchtime and, on a high from a weirdly awesome morning- even if Dean is never looking at glitter ever again- and running around the playground for an hour Dean sends Castiel a text telling him he's looking forward to their meeting too, and if Castiel is texting him from Heaven then he has some seriously amazing coverage. He doesn't think about how weird it is to be texting the parents of one of his students in the middle of the day. And anyway, Castiel started it.
It's kind of a disappointment when it comes to the end of the day and it's not Castiel who comes to pick up Lee.
"Anna," Uriel informs Dean, because Dean’s never met this chick and he's not letting Lee run off with any old angel who comes along.
She's stunning, with perfect red hair and an almost human warmth in her smile. "She was in Castiel's garrison during the war," Uriel informs him. The way he says it makes Dean think that means something, like maybe Castiel's garrison were awesome or scary or something. Knowing Castiel and his quiet intensity Dean can imagine it. Anna has a similar fierceness and Dean can understand why Lee grins at her attention and John blushes as he's shakes her hand in greeting. From the way Lee tugs at the arm of her sleeve there's no doubt Lee knows Anna well. She's wearing jeans and a loose jacket and she’s the most casually dressed angel Dean has ever seen.
There's no way Dean can miss how cute she is, and Dean is not thinking about exactly what kind of relationship Anna and Castiel have. He's really not.
Because he's not thinking about that it's easy to smile and shake her hand when Lee pulls her over to meet Dean.
"I've heard a lot about you," she says, and then with a weird grin Dean can't decipher adds, "From both Liwet and Castiel."
Like that's something strange.
Dean shrugs and replies, "Good things, I hope."
Dean shouldn't be surprised when Anna responds in that absolute straight, direct angel way, "Yes."
"In Iad likes you," Lee confirms, and Dean laughs.
Anna is watching him closely and Lee seems to be expecting some kind of reply so Dean tells him, "I like your dad too." To Anna he takes the opportunity to ask, "Where is Castiel anyway? I was texting him earlier and he didn't mention you."
Anna raises her eyebrows. "So that's why he wanted to know how to send text messages. Congratulations," she smiles and it's a vaguely terrifying thing. "You've managed to do what no one else before you could: you've dragged Castiel into this millennium." After a pause Anna adds thoughtfully, "He's been petrified of anything with switches or buttons since they were invented."
The way she says it, like it’s nothing, is just a throwaway comment but it reminds Dean of just how old Castiel must be. How powerful. He wonders how old Anna is. He wonders how long they've known each other. There must have been through so much shit together. It's kind of amazing that Castiel thinks Dean is worth hanging out with at all. That he's worth learning to deal with human technology for, because Dean has seen exactly how badly angels and electronics mix. Mostly they frazzle the circuits with their angel-juice.
Dean shrugs it off as something to maybe think about later. Or maybe not. "I can see that," he says. "Castiel was confused by the barbeque."
Fascinated is maybe a better word because Castiel had watched the coals turn red and white and Dean had thought it was cool how much wonder Castiel still had in everything.
Anna nods knowingly. "He's a rare one." The fondness in her voice makes Dean wonder how close the two angels are. She goes on, "Works too hard too. That’s where he is now. Got caught up in some big important meeting."
There's something funny, Dean thinks, about the thought of angels suffering through meetings like corporate douchebags the world over. Except Dean guesses Castiel's meetings are one hell of a lot more important.
"He's always working," Lee complains despondently, scuffing his shoes against the ground.
Anna lays a hand on the kid’s shoulder, turns to him before crouching down to his level.
"He does this so you'll be safe," she says gently. Lee nods but he doesn't look any happier, like this is something he gets, that he's heard a hundred times before but it doesn't make it any easier. Dean remembers what that's like, always waiting for his dad to get home, always feeling like he was playing second best to a world of strangers who his dad was more interested in than hanging out with him and Sam. He won't judge Castiel though, because someone has to do the work he does or they'd be overrun in a week.
Anna takes Lee’s hand, standing up. "Let's go and wait for his meeting to finish." She grins at Lee conspiratorially. "I know Rachel would love to see you again." Lee grins shyly back and Dean's got to wonder who this Rachel is that the kid has gone all gooey over.
The day after the barbeque Sam dumped a whole bunch of angel books off at his house and Dean will never admit it to anyone but he's been reading through them and he's learned that angel's form small groups of close friends that would, by human standards, seem like family. It's something Dean can relate to, with Bobby and Ellen and Jo and even Rufus when he's sober and crashing at Bobby's after a hunt. None of them related but all of them might as well be. Maybe this Rachel is like that to Castiel and Lee. Their life in Heaven, separate from the day care and earth and the physical, is something it's hard for Dean to get his head around.
They say their goodbyes, Anna winking at Dean as she disappears in that sudden way angels favour, a flurry of wings and a blast of warm air all they leave behind.
As Dean locks up he has time to consider how little he actually knows about Castiel. About his life, or his work, or the people- angels- he knows. So that evening Dean texts Castiel, How do you feel about television? It's lame, but Dean wants to know something about him. He kind of wants to ask about Anna, or Rachel, or how his big important meeting went, but that would be weird. It's none of his business.
He resists the urge to call Sam, pretending he's not really waiting for Castiel to text him back. Playing racing games with John would have helped, except that Dean loses so horrifically John laughs at him.
It's not until John’s gone to bed and Dean is dozing on his couch having flashbacks filled with neon green glitter that Castiel replies, his phone startling him awake. Dean really hopes his meeting didn't last that long.
I have never seen any television. I enjoy reading human crime novels, he's written. The TV thing is no surprise but Dean barks a laugh at the crime novel comment. He texts a reply, and before he know it it's nearly midnight and Dean has learned that Castiel reads trash and isn't ashamed, that his favourite color is green, that he loves flying, hates boats, and wishes he had more time to spend with Lee. Castiel offers without asking that his meeting was tedious and unproductive.
If he could, Dean would've carried right on texting Castiel all night but he has a bunch of five and six year olds to take care of early the next morning so he has to cut short their discussion of awesome dogs through history.
The last thing Castiel asks is, Is eleven o'clock next Sunday convenient? and, oh yeah, they hadn't arranged a time for coffee yet.
Dean agrees, not caring if it's convenient or not. He'll make it work.
He goes to bed trying to decide if he should take Castiel to a Starbucks or if angels would prefer one of those independent coffee shops Sam gets so hot for. It's not like Castiel would know the difference. Probably.
Jesus, Dean thinks. His life is so weird.
But six years he would have gone to bed wondering if he'd survive the night, and this is so much better.
Dean wouldn't change it for anything.
Part 9