DAY 59: CAFETERIA

[touchedgod]

Billy surfaced into wakefulness. Sleep receded like an inky tide, and it didn't say anything to him before it was gone. His dreams had been nothing but the sensation of water, rocking him restlessly in his bottle. There seemed to be an ocean beyond his confines, but he couldn't see it and couldn't reach it. He pawed at the glass, but any progress

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[poorexample]

Nightmares were things that Castiel had only heard of. Dreams, in general, were impossible for angels to experience, just as sleep should have been something they could only observe. And yet as his eyes opened to the sound of a man's voice, that was what Castiel felt had happened: he'd woken from a nightmare.

He wanted to get out of the bed immediately, as if it was the reason for what had happened to him. And... what had happened, exactly? Normally he was so composed, his thoughts in such good order, but now it was like everything that had happened over the past day was rushing through him and he hardly knew what to think. He managed to get off of the bed without losing his balance or running into anything. That should have been a simple matter, but he was disoriented, and so accomplishing something as basic as that felt like a feat

[poorexample]

And then, of course, there was Sam and Dean. It would be far easier to clear things up with them, seeing how he doubted they had believed him in the first place. However, during his temporary insanity he had also spoken openly with both of them regarding Ruby, which was undoubtedly going to cause more friction between them. That was the last thing he needed at this point

[touchedgod]

Billy had been content to pretend he was alone, but his resolve decayed when the man who had sat across from him spoke. He didn't realize the voice was familiar until he looked up, presumably to offer a smile and some kind of weak greeting. That intention was derailed, lost like so many other expected morning rituals. Why was he still clinging to normality? Would that really float him through a conversation?

Castiel, his brain immediately provided. Several iconic images came to mind; lightning flashes with nicely rendered CG wing shadows cast on walls, an intensely puzzled expression with his head cocked like a bird, shabby trenchcoat and slipping tie. All of those were missing at the moment, for reasons such as not being on a television screen or having no reason to look at Billy as though he'd grown another head. That might change, however, if Billy continued to stare. For the life of him, he couldn't remember the name of the actor. Likely he never had any reason to look it up. Oddly enough, the sight brought him back to a more

[poorexample]

At first Castiel had taken the stranger's smile as a good sign. It wasn't quite as wide as some others that he'd seen on human's faces, but it was still an improvement over the way that the man had been hiding his face in his hands. Castiel knew enough about body language and expressions on humans by now to realize that much

[touchedgod]

Billy's memory was able to anticipate the tilting head and the expression before they had even completely manifested, he had seen them often enough. There was even the ghost of a small thrill in reaction to it. His delay before speaking, his rough voice, they were all perfectly predictable because they were so Castiel. Billy knew that unnatural rhythm to the character's voice. He'd always enjoyed the performance.

But... he would have expected that while off the job, the man would be looser, and more, well, human. Maybe it was a mistake. It could be a somewhat understandable reaction to Billy's own strange behavior. Fan recognition filtered through fresh wounds. Billy wasn't ready to call himself traumatized, but he genuinely couldn't care much about these unexpected brushes with celebrities. Not when he couldn't forget the context of the last few weeks. It was intriguing, but he didn't want to gush and tell the man how he loved his work, or ask where Sam and Dean were

[poorexample]

Unfortunately, despite the questions asked this situation was only growing to be more puzzling. The one upside was that it drew Castiel's thoughts away from the past day or so. If one thing about being an angel was familiar, it was being confused by the behavior of humans. In a way, this conversation was the best way to ease back into his own skin -- even though this body still wasn't his

[touchedgod]

Billy sat back in his chair. When he met Castiel's eyes, it was with plenty of mirrored confusion, but also with consideration. Billy wasn't entirely certain of what was passing between them, or what was being missed. Mostly, it was on Billy's part, as he handed expectations to Castiel-not-Castiel, who had promptly refused to accept them.

No, they hadn't met, but Billy knew him. This wasn't the reaction of an actor off duty. Billy's prompt for a name had been flatly refused, because there was apparently no cause for him to know it. Oh, but he was gaining the sneaking suspicion that he did know it. Once again, he certainly knew that expression he was being evaluated with. It was unlikely that Castiel was coming up with any fantastic conclusions about Billy based on this conversation. Or the character wouldn't be. Who knows what the actor was thinking. Billy couldn't come up with the circumstances that would require it, but the man was committed to staying in character. Very committed

[poorexample]

It seemed that his line of questioning had been wrong, seeing how the man closed up almost immediately afterward. Castiel had spent enough time around Dean Winchester to recognize when "nothing" truly meant "something," and yet this wasn't the sort of situation where he could pressure for a real answer. Trying to get information out of a stranger was a surprisingly difficult process.

Starting over might be the best option either way, and so Castiel decided to accept it. Unfortunately, what he was asked next wasn't something he could easily answer, mainly because he didn't know. He was an angel that had been tethered to the earthly plain by unknown forces, cut off from his abilities and his friends. Dean and Sam were here, but they weren't truly here. More than that, he'd spent the past day thinking he was a human. There was no simple answer to the question

[touchedgod]

This was their conversation so far. A start, a stop, a curious advance, an uncomfortable deflection. Now both of them had been guilty of it, although Billy didn't exactly mind. The conversation seemed to be proceeding more comfortably now. It was the most he could hope for out of an exchange, and it wasn't as though Castiel was impolite. In fact, if Billy was going to go ahead and make believe with him, he knew Castiel meant well. He would simply be struggling with Billy's fickle human nature, smiling one second, looking near ready to slam his head into the table the next. God, he wanted to go home

[poorexample]

It seemed that Billy hadn't given the food much consideration thus far. That was strange, seeing how if there was one thing all humans shared in common, it was their hunger. They had to eat to survive, and animals -- at the base level -- functioned on instinct. His disinterest in food either meant he was distracted or he didn't require much of it for some other reason

[touchedgod]

"Sorry," he muttered, even if Castiel seemed as unmoved as ever

[poorexample]

The apology was accepted with little more than a nod. Dean Winchester had made him accustomed to loud outbursts by now, so it had hardly bothered him

[touchedgod]

This was more interesting than the maggots. One larvae was the same as the next (generally speaking, but luckily there were no telepathic entomologists nearby to take issue with his private thoughts) even when it was making a home in your meal

[poorexample]

Last night? Castiel had to think back for a moment, forced to sort through the haze of memories that didn't feel as if they belonged to him any longer. It was like what Michael had felt, only in reverse, and just that thought was enough to tire him. Still, he could recall hearing the intercom and Aguilar's voice, if nothing else. That was how he and Gabriel had learned about Harrington's whereabouts.

Having woken up in the night himself, Castiel realized how disorienting it was. He was now the first person entrusted to answer Billy's questions unless the man had run into others last night. (As Castiel had with Orihara, he realized, though he had been just as ignorant.) Focusing on that made it simple enough to avoid the fact that he had just spent a day living someone else's life.

As for the next question, Castiel had a good idea of why he was here, but for some of the others he could not begin to guess. Orihara had shown some of his true colors during their conversation yesterday, enough to make it clear that he was not as normal

[touchedgod]

"Soldiers?" The word landed thickly in his psyche. He smiled, but his face was drained of happiness. The association wasn't pleasant anymore, even if it was just the word, not the circumstances, that meant anything to Billy. "If you're right, they're going to be disappointed, because I'm not a soldier

[poorexample]

By Castiel's estimation, many of the people here weren't soldiers. It wasn't something he was willing to assume just by looking at them (he didn't appear to be one himself, in this form), but there was a certain bearing that one carried if they had a few battles behind them. Billy didn't have that look about him. If anything, he seemed strikingly young