Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

He had to do something. They couldn't just take his brother like that and get away with it, There had to be consequences, danger be damned. He didn't care how stupid it was, he just knew that they were back and he had to teach them a lesson for taking his little brother. It had been weeks, weeks since he had been taken, and now they were back again. Granted, there was only one this time, as opposed to the four that there were last time, but that didn't matter. Revenge was revenge.

He skirted along the edge of a bush, watching the giant at their table, waiting for a good moment to strike. The table was a good distance from the edge of the bushes, so he had to wait until the giant was completely distracted to dart over. Their bare feet planted on the ground as they sat, one of their legs bouncing up and down erratically. He'd have to avoid that one. Finally, he found a good position to sneak to the table from, he started to dart out--

“Just where do you think you're goin'?” a harsh pull against his shirt jerked him back into the bushes. If the giant heard anything, they didn't give any indication.

“Let me go, Bobby!” he yelled out. “I have to avenge Adam, it was my fault!”

“You're going to avenge Adam by getting dead?” Bobby questioned, his eye brow lifting quizzically, “Last I checked, that's a terrible way to avenge someone who ain't killed.”

“He might as well be! You saw how they handled him!” He ripped his shoulder out of Bobby's grip. “Like he was some specimen for testing! Bobby I have to do something.” He backed away closer to the edge.

“Sam! Don't you dare, this isn't gonna help anyone, least of all Adam.” Bobby ground out in a warning tone, “Just come back home, work your frustrations out on the garden, but please, don't do something so stupid!”

“I have to.” he said with grim determination. And with that, he ran out from the bush towards the table, checking along the way that the giant was still distracted. Thank god it was.

“Sam!” Bobby whisper-yelled, his cries ignored. Sam continued on until he was under the bench, circling around until he was just in front of the bare foot. He glanced up at the giant, who was hunched over the table, focused on something. He raised his weapon, the sharpest staff he could make, and plunged it into the foot triumphantly. But just as he glanced up, he realized his mistake. He was too close, and the foot was jerking out too fast. It caught his forehead and knocked him down and out, he just barely heard Bobby's cries as the world faded away.

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Jade was working on a story when something bit her. Or stung her, it was hard to tell. One minute she was working happily on a how a wizard was battling a dragon, and the next there was a shooting pain from her foot.

“Ow! Motherfucker.” she yelled out, quickly bringing her feet up onto the bench. She examined her foot and started in surprise.

“The fuck...” there was a twig sticking out of her foot. She grabbed it and pulled, and man, was that thing deep in there. Blood started coming from the wound and she quickly grabbed a dish towel from the top of the table and pressed it against the small hole. How the hell did a twig get so jammed in there? She moved her un-injured foot down to examine the ground, and her mouth fell open.

There, on the ground, was a tiny man with a bun, knocked out. She carefully leaned down, scooped him up in the hand not applying pressure to her foot, and brought him up to the table top. He was a little longer than the length of her hand, from the bottom of her palm to the tip of her middle finger, and barely three fingers wide. She laid him down on her note book gently, and placed the twig next to him. It was the right size to be a hefty staff for him, he must've stabbed her. The question though, was why?

She leaned closer to him, moving his head around so she could examine it. She probably kicked him when he stabbed her. Not like he didn't deserve it, going around stabbing people, but she had to make sure she didn't kill him accidentally. There seemed to be a sizable bruise and bump on one side of his head, and she winced when she saw it. That was going to cause one hell of a headache. She withdrew her hand and checked back on her foot, tying the towel around it once she saw the bleeding had stopped.

When she turned back, there was a blue-jay standing next to her note book, and scrambling off, was another little man. His hair was short, and he seemed on edge.

“Oh.” she breathed. The second man started and turned towards her sharply, raising a shorter stick than the one previously stabbed into her. “I'm not gonna hurt you.” she spoke softly. He watched her a moment, keeping still, before he crouched down next to the first man, making sure she was still within eyesight. She watched him a moment, before turning her attention to the bird, which was watching her just as curiously. She chuckled a moment, before taking an almond out of a trail mix bag near by and placing it in front of the bird for it to eat. After which she noticed the second little man on edge again.

“oh, sorry.” she said softly again. She figured her voice would be too loud at full volume for their little ears. He watched her with scared eyes, his weapon raised again, his chest heaving. It was with slight surprise that she realized he was terrified. She made sure to hold as still as possible, to assure him she wasn't dangerous, and eventually he moved back down to the first man. After a minute or two of looking the first man over and wincing at the bump on his brow, the second man put his weapon away and tried to pick him up. It was obvious that it was difficult for him, the first man was bigger than the second, so Jade decided to do something risky.

She reached out, plucked the first man up from the table, and placed him on the blue-jay. The bird didn't seem to mind this, but the second man was shouting and pulling his weapon out. She snapped her hand back from the table and placed it in her lap with her other hand, watching as the second man looked the first one over for more injuries. She figured this would be a good time to leave, seeing as she had already terrified the poor little man enough, so she stood and limped over to her car, planning to deal with the wound in her foot. When she turned around, the second man was climbing onto the blue-jay, and urging it to fly away.

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“Dean! Dean!” a voice yelled out desperately. He turned from where he was about to de-saddle Balthazar to see Bobby running (if you could call it that, it was more like fast waddling) towards him.

“Sam....Giant......ran out.....attack it....” he wheezed.

“Woah, woah, woah, slow down. Sammy attacked a giant?” He asked.

“Tried to.....knocked out.....” Bobby leaned over on his knees.

“He got knocked out?” he exclaimed, “Did the giant get him?”

“don't...know....came here....”

“Fuck!” he jumped on Balthazar and spurred him into the air, thankful he was still ready to fly. He flew over to the clearing where the giants had set up a table many years before, and saw the giant prodding Sam with it's finger.

“God fucking damn it Sammy.” he muttered. He landed on a branch and waited for the giant to turn its attention away. It finally did, attending to its foot, and he spurred Balthazar down next to his brother. He'd just started scrambling off when he heard the giant make a sound. He turned around with his weapon out to meet brown eyes, and a startled expression. it said something to him, but he couldn't understand, it's voice was too muddled. He waited for it to attack, and when it didn't he slowly went over to Sam.

He crouched down, and jumped up as it moved to attack him—no.....it was giving Balthazar food? Dean watched the giant a moment or two. He knelt back down and looked Sam over. That was a nasty bump, definitely going to hurt in the morning. He tried to move Sam over to Balth, when the giant suddenly took him.

“NO! SAMMY!” he took his weapon out, this was not going to be a repeat of Adam. Not again. Not again. Not again.

And it laid Sam down on Balth.

It put its hands down in its lap.

Dean rushed over and checked his little brother over for any new injuries—who knew how rough the giant could have been?---When the giant suddenly stood and limped over to its portable house. He wasted no time lashing Sam to Balth's neck and climbing up behind him, spurring the bird into the air without a second thought.

To think Sam had bee so stupid filled him with anger, but seeing his unconscious form leaning in front of him stamped it down. He had to take care of him, he could be angry later.

Chapter Text

Jade didn't encounter another little person until two days later. She was hiking in a different park called Heaven's Gate. It was this little secluded trail with canopies of trees and flowers, vines crawling up the railing on the side where there was a river. The trail ended at a waterfall called Angel's Fall, and on the way back, she noticed a smaller trail that lead to a small shack. The shack was apparently housing for the person who used to work the now out of commission water wheel. She leaned over the railing to look down at the river, when she felt something plop into the hood of her sweater.

She looked around a second before reaching back into the hood to see what had fallen in. her fingers curled around something soft, hard, and very much alive. She grasped it gently, and brought it forwards to find yet another small man in her hands. This one had shaggy black hair, and looked terrified, but it didn't seem to be of her. He kept glancing from the roof of the house to her nervously.

Jade stood on her toes and peered over the top of the roof (It was a very small house) and glimpsed a few more little people moving towards the edge rapidly before they hid from view. She stood on the flat of her feet again and regarded the man carefully.

“You hiding from them?” she asked. He didn't seem to understand her, and shook his head violently when she gestured to the roof and back to him. She pointed to her front pocket to him and he nodded profusely. So he was hiding. She quickly stashed him in the pocket and turned away from the house, walking briskly back onto the main trail. She kept a hand curled under the small man in her pocket, trying to lessen the jostling of her walk. Why was she doing this? does it matter? she thought. Someone needed help, she could provide it. What more was there to consider?

She heard voices in the distance and felt a hard pressure around her finger. She carefully brought the man out of her pocket to find him gripping her finger tightly.

“They in cahoots with the people chasing you?” she asked. For further clarification she pointed up the trail and shook her head with her eyebrows raised. The man nodded his head and looked at her with desperation.

Thinking for a moment, she opened her jean's pocket (Thank god these jeans had decent pockets, the little man would've been squeezed to death in any others) and plopped him into it. She then took off her sweater and turned it inside out, thankful it was one of those weird reversible sweaters you can only find in thrift stores, before tying it around her waist. She took her ball cap off and flung it into the river, then started walking down the path again, careful of the leg that held the pocket with the man in it. This gave her a slight limp looking walk. Call her paranoid, but if the people ahead were as bad as the man looked like he thought they were, she wanted to be unrecognizable from when he jumped into her hood for refuge.

As it turned out, she was right to change her outfit.

“Excuse me, miss?” it was a man and a woman, the man seemed to be better dressed than the woman for hiking. i.e., he wasn't wearing a suit.

“Yes?” she replied sweetly.

“Have you seen a person wearing a grey sweater and a green cap along the trail?” the woman asked in a cold tone.

“No, sorry.” Jade's heart thumped. Thank. God. She was paranoid at the right time for once.

“Would you be so kind as to inform the authorities if you do? They're very dangerous, and we'd like to capture them as soon as possible.” the woman continued. She then walked briskly past Jade, and the man trailed behind her.

“Enjoy your hike!” he told her cheerfully.

“Thanks.” she frowned. Dangerous? Was the man in her pocket dangerous then?

She walked all the way back to her car before she took the man out of her pocket. He was sweaty, (jeans were not the most breathable material) but otherwise alright. She placed him in her cup holder and climbed into the car, pulling her keys out to start the AC. The man was startled by the rumble for a moment, before he sat down in the holder and started sobbing, his knees drawn up to his chest.

“Oh man you really want to get out of here huh?” she muttered. This time he seemed to understand, because he looked up and nodded violently with tear stained cheeks. “Ah so you can only understand me when i'm quiet then?” she said. He nodded again, and buried his head back into his arms. “Alright, let's go.” she shifted gears and pulled out of the parking lot, driving past the woman and man from before on her way out, but thankfully they didn't pay her any attention.

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Castiel was forever thankful someone had been on the other side of the roof when he jumped off. He hadn't really been planning anything, but he was desperate to get away from his family. He'd found out merely moments before he jumped that they'd been tampering with his memory, and that he'd apparently been doing things for them he wouldn't have otherwise agreed to.

As he landed squarely into the hood of the human, he nearly sobbed in relief. If only they wouldn't notice, he could finally get away. They'd drive away from the park, and he'd be safe, and—and oh, that's a hand curling around him. It lifted him from the hood and brought him face to face with a brown eyed girl with a green hat. She regarded him a moment before looking over the edge of the roof. She said something to him, but it was too loud for him to discern any words. She gestured to the roof and him, oh god she was going to put him back up there no, no, no, he shook his head. She pointed to her pocket. Yes! He could hide there. He nodded.

She stuck him into her pocket, and he was enveloped in warmth. She kept her hand under him, he was forever grateful, it acted as a stabilizer for her jostled walking. But it wasn't long before something dreadful happened.

He panicked when he heard Naomi's voice. The one who'd been performing the memory spell on him and forcing him to do things for her. He felt tears prickle his eyes. No, damn it! He was so close. Now she was going to recognize the girl and he was going to be taken back. He'd been so, so, close to finally getting freedom.

He squeezed the finger closest to him in a tight grip. The girl took him out of her pocket, and pointed at the trail in the direction of the voices, saying something indiscernible and shaking her head. Asking for confirmation, he thought. He nodded his head and she promptly stuck him in a confining, hot, jean pocket. He would have suffocated if he hadn't kept a hand near the top to hold it open. He felt her doing something, before the top of the pocket was slightly covered by a purplish material. She started walking, and she didn't get far before he heard Naomi's voice again. This was it. His few moments of freedom would be over. He started breathing deeply, preparing for the worst.

And then she kept walking, and Naomi's voice was no more. It was a good twenty minutes or so before the girl took him out of her pocket and placed him in a cup holder. He looked around, bewildered, when he saw why Naomi had let the girl go.

Her hat was gone, and her previously grey sweater was now purple and around her waist. She climbed into the car and turned it on, the sudden vibrations startling Castiel. It had been a while since he was in a car. And then it was then that it hit him. He was in a car, Naomi didn't know where he was. He was free.
His legs crumpled under him and he started sobbing in relief and terror. The entirety of the day's events catching up to him.

“Oh man, you really want to get out of here huh?” he heard the girl ask, finally soft enough for him to understand. He looked up and nodded “ah so you can only understand me when I'm quiet then?” she asked. He nodded again and returned his face to his arms. As she drove away, he didn't even move to brace himself against the jerking movements of the car as it drove over uneven ground. It wasn't until thirty-five minutes later that he finally uncurled.

He stood and tried to peer out the windows, but the cup holders were too low. The girl noticed him and put her hand down for him to climb on. He did so and she placed him on her shoulder, her sweater now back on and grey. When had she done that? He settled in the folds of the hood and watched the road as she drove down it.

He was finally, finally, free. He relaxed against the material and let himself doze for the car ride. He never had to worry about anything ever again. Nothing. And he certainly wouldn't have to worry about fairies. The girl would take him back to the city, a place he'd only ever heard about, and he would live in a park, and he'd be far away from his own kind.

But he was only right about one of those thoughts.

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Chapter Text

His stomach dropped when she turned into a park. He'd thought she was going to go straight to the city, and now she was pulling into a camp ground. She pushed him gently into the folds of her hood as she approached a booth, and he obliged, understanding her concern with hiding him. He'd have to wait to get back to the city, but at least for now he was more than 70 miles from his family.

She drove down a long, secluded road. Castiel stared in awe out the window. On either side were the tallest, darkest trees he'd ever seen. They towered so far up that he couldn't see the tops, and they grew so thickly hardly any sunlight dribbled through. The road was narrow and deserted, and on the left side there was a river running smoothly just through the trees. He was so caught up in the difference of scenery that he didn't notice she'd parked until she started getting out of the car.

She walked over to a table covered with items, and gestured for him to climb onto her hand.

“I have to get a few things from the car, but just wait here a moment 'kay?” she told him, he nodded distractedly as she set him down on the wooden surface. This was so different from where he'd grown up. There were two large, gnarled trees on either side of a trail, and a fire pit across the site from that. He spotted a portable house parked next to the car, and a pair of shoes in front of it. The trees weren't as thick here, and he could just barely see the river through the bushes.

The girl came back with boxes, and she set them heavily on the ground beside the table.

“All right, you hungry?” she asked. Castiel nodded and wandered over to the side of the table where she was standing. “okay, how about some strawberries?” He frowned and tilted his head. Strawberries? He'd never heard of those.

“Oh man, don't tell me you've never had strawberries.” the girl looked at him incredulously for a beat before smiling wickedly. “you're going to love this.” She reached into a box and pulled out a small container of red triangle shaped things. Strawberries. She carefully picked one out and laid it on the table in front of him.

“Just take a bite.” she smiled. Castiel squinted his eyes at her and carefully crouched to examine the strawberry, weighing the risks before eventually taking a large bite.

Oh holy mother. That was the most delicious thing he'd ever had. His eyes widened and he sat completely down on the table as he savored the taste. How had he never tried this before? He heard the girl chuckled and looked to her. She was smiling fondly down at him. He thanked the stars that she was human he'd jumped on. Humans were known to be selfish and dangerous, but it seemed he'd found a kind one. He leaned forwards and took another bite of the strawberry, settling down comfortably as he chewed and continued to scope the campground.

“I'm going to grab a few more things, you enjoy your strawberry.” the girl told him, walking off to her car again to rummage in the back. As Castiel sat peacefully, he noticed a large sharpened staff a little further down the table. A weapon? It was the right size for his kind. His heart started thumping, were there fairies here?

He stood up and waved at the girl frantically, and she came over quickly with a frown.

“what?” she asked. He pointed at the staff silently, hoping his face would convey enough of his panic for her to understand.

“Oh yeah. You're not the first little person I've met. Couple of days ago some little guy stabbed that in my foot. 'nother one came by to get him not much later. See I accidentally knocked him out, so I guess they forgot to grab it when they were leaving. They were wearing different clothes from you though. Theirs looked more like furs than clothing.” she went on. Castiel's heart slowed to a reasonable pace. Not fairies. Goblins. Or goblin-fairy hybrids, it was difficult to tell with all the cross breeding that had gone on in the past millennium.

“We're actually called fairies.” he told her. She stopped speaking a moment and frowned.

“Hang on, could you say that again? You're really quiet.” she leaned closer to him and he repeated himself, yelling this time,

“We're called fairies! The ones you described might be goblins!” he spoke slower as well, enunciating each word carefully.

“fairies?” she asked, leaning back. He nodded, rubbing his throat. It hurt to yell. “huh. I always figured they were just....well fairy tales.” she chuckled. “Oh!” she suddenly sat up straight. “I never told you my name! I'm Jade.”Castiel nodded before waving his hand to bring her closer.

“Castiel!” he yelled. Ah, ok. No more yelling for him. That really hurt.

“Cas-tiel?” she asked slowly. “Like the angel?” Castiel shrugged. He wouldn't know what names the humans had given their celestial beings. He rubbed his throat again, trying to ease the discomfort. Yelling wouldn't be so bad if he didn't have to yell at full volume.

“ah, is it hurting you to yell?” she asked. “Maybe I could teach to sign language.” she seemed to mutter to herself this time. “You want some water?” he nodded gratefully. She got up once again, but headed to the portable house this time.

That was when he met the goblins. Or, a goblin at least.

As soon as she stepped through the door, a bluejay came swooping down from the trees and landed next to the staff on the table. A goblin with short hair and a fierce look hopped off and grabbed the staff, freezing when he saw Castiel. Castiel's wings manifested themselves in his panic, and he fluttered back a step or two. The fierce look intensified and the goblin stepped forwards, stabbing Castiel in his shoulder with a smaller staff before he could react.

He cried out and crumbled to the table, watching through pained eyes as the goblin stood shocked in front of him. He breathed a moment, taking in the pain and redirecting it. Castiel growled lowly before standing again and yanking the weapon out, throwing it in front of him.

“Take your weapons and leave.” he snarled. “I want nothing to do with you, or any of you kind.” he finally found peace for once, and he gets stabbed. Of course. The goblin looked frightened for all of one second before he slowly crouched to pick his weapon up, holding the larger staff at the ready in case Castiel attacked.

“No need to be so touchy.” he muttered, straightening and backing away.

“You stabbed me!” Castiel frowned at the goblin, tilting his head in anger and hiding his wings. The goblin shrugged and his head snapped towards where Jade was coming out of her portable home, holding a bottle of water.

“Oh. Hey.” she seemed to recognize the goblin, and he quickly mounted the bird, urging it away in the blink of an eye. Castiel sighed and sank down to the table. His shoulder was throbbing. “oh, hey.” she spoke softer, coming over quickly to examine him. “what happ-oh shit.” she carefully cradled him in her palm while she looked at his shoulder. “are you kidding me? He fucking stabbed you?” she grabbed a roll of paper, or cotton, Castiel wasn't sure, and ripped some off, handing it to him. “press that against your wound. There you go.” He nodded and fully leaned into her palm. He escaped his family, got stabbed, and now he was passing out. This day was going wonderfully. He let his head fall back and the world went black.

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To be honest, Jade wasn't entirely surprised that the...goblin? Had stabbed Castiel. His friend had already stabbed her, and he'd proven ready to stab at a moments notice when she met him. But what was concerning, is now she had a fairy with a stab wound, and he was too small for her to effectively examine and treat the wound. And he'd passed out, so she couldn't direct him to treat it himself. How wonderful.

She pressed the paper towel against the shoulder for all of a forty seconds when stabby number two came back. He looked guilty and afraid, and he was carrying a bag. And with him, was a female goblin. She had long brown hair, and she pushed the short haired goblin towards Jade's hands. He seemed to say something to the female, and she glared at him. He stepped closer to Castiel and Jade covered him with her other hand. No way she was letting stabby near him. He gave her an incredulous look and looked back at the female. She made an exasperated motion and marched past him, grabbing a bag from his hands as she went.

She walked closer to Jade and opened the pack, showing the contents. Ah! It was a first aid kit! Thank god. She uncovered Castiel and laid him down on the wood, watching with a careful eye as the woman attended to him. She was ready to snatch or smack anyone away at a moments notice. She looked up and saw stabby standing off to the side with a guilty look on his face as the woman examined Castiel.

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“Dean, how'd the staff snatchin go?” Bobby asked as he landed.

“Swell. No kinks” Dean held up the staff to show Bobby, slipping off Balthazar “Oh, wait. I met a fairy. He seemed to be friendly with the giant. Damn near knocked me out with his wings when I jumped of Balth.”

“Really?” Bobby's neighbor, Ellen, walked over carefully, a frown on her face.

“Yeah. I stabbed him though, so it's all good.”

“You stabbed him?” Ellen exclaimed.

“Yeah.”

“Because his wings came out at you?” She continued.

“Yeah..” Dean placed the staff down on the ground next to his dagger.

“You idiot.” she breathed, “That's a defense mechanism. Fairy's wings pop out when they feel threatened.” she looked angry. “How bad did you stab him?”

“Couple of inches in the shoulder.” Dean told her, worry on his features as Ellen continued to look angrier by the second.

“We're going back and you're fixing him up. Lord knows the giant won't be able to.” she disappeared briefly in her house, and came out holding a med pack.

“Me?” Dean gestured to himself, “Why have I gotta do it?”

“Because you stabbed him.” Ellen said, exasperated. “Get on the damn bird and fly us out there.” Dean hesitated, “Now!” he scrambled towards Balthazar.

“okay, jeez.”

Now he was standing awkwardly by Ellen as she muttered under her breath and tended to the fairy. He shifted under the giant's gaze, his heart beating quickly as he realized he left his weapon on the ground by Bobby's house. They didn't have any protection.

“Dean!” Ellen called. He rushed over.

“Yeah?” he asked, crouching.

“I need you to keep pressure here, I gotta find the stitches. They're buried in here somewhere.” Dean leaned over the fairy and put his hands on the cloth that was slowly becoming more soaked with blood. He studied the fairy's features as he waited. His face was much more appealing when it was relaxed, more attractive.

Woah, there. Not attractive. Fairies weren't attractive. no. nope. He shifted uncomfortably and glanced at Ellen, checking that she hadn't seen him checking out the fairy. Looking at. Damn it.

She found the needle and thread, and had just started putting it together when the fairy thrashed with a startled yell. He scrambled away from Dean and Ellen with a terrified look on his face, and he backed into a large....thing. It was glass and plastic, and Dean didn't care to figure out what it was, because god, the fairy's eyes were blue. How had he not noticed before? They looked like the sky at twilight.

“Hey. It's ok. We're not going to hurt you.” Ellen told him. “Well, not anymore that is.” she pointedly glared at Dean. “I'm Ellen, the idiot that stabbed you's Dean.” The fairy looked wildly between them and pushed himself further into the plastic thing. Dean stepped forwards.

“Stay back.” he growled out.

“Ok. Ok, we're going to stay here. But if you don't want to bleed out, you might want to let us take a look at that shoulder.” She held her hands out non-threateningly, like she did when she came across a frightened animal. The fairy considered a moment, glancing between the two of them before slowly standing up and shuffling to the side a bit.

“Just you.” he gestured to Ellen. “I don't trust him.” he glared at Dean.

“Oh come on.” Dean groused, “I lightly stabbed you.” he started back when he saw a murderous glare flit across the fairy's features. “Ok. Maybe not so lightly.” Ellen sighed and shook her head, flapping a hand at Dean.

“Go wait by Balthazar.” she told him.

“Wha-”

“Go!” she raised her eye brows and fixed him with a a motherly gaze. He closed his mouth and marched over to his bird, grumbling the whole way. It wasn't his fault the fairy couldn't take a light stabbing. He sat down next to Balthazar, and watched the giant carefully as they kept an eye on the fairy and Ellen. If need be, he would get on Balth and get him to claw their eyes out.

He watched the fairy, becoming enraptured as his features softened again. Why was it that he had stabbed him? The fairy caught his eye and his face hardened, he turned away and kept his back to Dean for the rest of the time that he was being treated. Dean huffed and looked away, two could play that game.

Of course, this behavior didn't last too long.

Chapter Text

Waking up to find that the person who stabbed you is leaning over you, pressing on your wound, is not pleasant. (Whew long sentence). First, you have the fear that they're hurting you again, then you have the awareness that your shoulder is in pain, then you wake up completely to realize the reason that your shoulder is in pain is because mr. stabby is pressing on it.

Castiel shot out from under his grip and crawled back until he hit something solid, looking wildly around the table as his brain came to terms with what was going on. There was another goblin, this one had long hair, and Jade was nearby watching patiently. Why on earth was she so calm?? the goblin who attacked him was trying to kill him in his sleep! He looked down to the goblins again and the long haired one said something to reassure him, something he couldn't discern thanks to the blood rushing through his ears. The stabby goblin took a step towards him and his heart did a flip, he still wasn't completely awake, so his brain was on danger overdrive.

“Stay back.” he said, trying desperately to calm himself down. He was a warrior, damn it. This shouldn't be getting him so scared. But he was in a new place, wounded, and in the last twelve hours he'd found out he'd been tortured and had his memory erased. So maybe, just maybe, he was allowed to not entirely be warrior like at the moment. The second goblin started speaking again, but Castiel could actually hear her this time.

“Ok. Ok, we're going to stay here. But if you don't want to bleed out, you might want to let us take a look at that shoulder.” she held up her hands to show she was weaponless, and he nodded slightly.

“Just you.” he told her. “I don't trust him.” he looked pointedly at the first goblin. He didn't have the strength or will to fight, but he could glare just fine. He started towards the second

And then the first goblin had the audacity to say he “Lightly stabbed” Castiel. He turned around and shot daggers into the first one with his eyes. Maybe he was strong enough to fight. He'd show that goblin what “Lightly stabbed” felt like. The second goblin told the first to leave, and as soon as he had, Castiel turned back to the second.

“I'm Castiel.” he told her, sitting down on the wood dizzily. Losing blood was not fun. He happened to glance at the first goblin to see him staring at Castiel with a strange expression. He frowned and turned around to face the second goblin, who was sitting down in front of him. She nodded at his name, and he patiently waited for her to tell him hers. When she didn't, he huffed,

“And your name is?” he asked. She looked up at him,

“I already told ya, hon.”

“Did you?” he frowned, “was it just after I woke up? Because I was having trouble hearing for a few moments after.”

“Ah, it was.” she leaned forwards, reaching to put something on his wound. “This is gonna sting—there you go just breath—My name is Ellen. The moron who stabbed you is Dean.” she removed the cloth. “He's a warrior, stabbed you cause you startled him with your wings. I told him off for it. Its his fault he never payed attention during biology. Don't hate him too much though, alright? He's a good kid, just a little impulsive. All stab first, ask questions later.” she brought the needle up again, “His brother's injured right now, so he's on edge. Otherwise, i'm sure he wouldn't have stabbed you.” She smiled softly, and Castiel relaxed a bit, “Ok, I'm going to use this to sew you wound together, it's gonna hurt, so brace yourself.” He became alarmed. Sew his wound together?

“Sew my wound together? Like a cloth?” He leaned back a bit.

“How else am I supposed to make sure it heals? Or that nothing falls in there?” she asked with an exasperated tone.

“Magic?” Castiel offered. “Healing magic? Unless goblins can't perform spells.”

“Goblins?” Ellen raised an eyebrow. “We're gnomes. A mix between goblins, fairies, and any other small species that can reproduce. But we're not goblins. Those haven't existed for a couple thousand years. And no, we can't perform spells.” she raised her needle “You gonna let me fix you up?”

“There doesn't seem to be a better solution, so go ahead.” he leaned forwards and braced himself for the pain. He choked out a groan as Ellen stabbed him with the needle without any hesitation. Holy mother of stars, he wished he still had his magic. He clenched his hand in his shorts and squeezed his eyes, clenching his teeth and nearly yelling when she stabbed the other side of his wound and pulled the skin together. He was still panting when Ellen stopped stabbing him for a moment. He heard her sigh shortly.

“Alright, you're obviously not doing well with this, so I'm going to get Dean to distract you—don't give me that look—maybe you two will be so busy glaring you won't notice me stabbing you with a needle.” Castiel considered this a moment, and he eventually nodded. He blamed the pain in his shoulder for agreeing to this, but the real reason was unknown to him. If the only reason Dean stabbed him was because he startled him, and not because Dean was dangerous, maybe they could get along. Even if he was annoying. Then again, no one could be more annoying than his cousin Gabriel, and he got along with him fine.

“Dean!” Ellen called out. “Get over here!”

“What?” Castiel heard him reply, “You just asked me to leave, now you want me back again?”

“Dean!” Castiel flinched at the tone Ellen used. Everyone was afraid of the mom voice, even when it wasn't directed at them. He heard cursing behind him and foot steps, and Dean came into view on his right side.

“What?” he asked sharply.

“I need you to distract Castiel.”

“What?” this time it was incredulous.

“Distract him.” Ellen sighed and looked to the sky, as though she could draw patience from it. “I'm sewing his skin together, Dean. And as far as I can tell, he's never had stitches before—“ Castiel nodded, “—So I need you to distract him from the pain.” Castiel resigned his pride and looked up at Dean with a hopeful look on his face. Even if Dean was annoying, it was a welcome distraction.

“What about that stuff you use, the uh, pain killing stuff?” Dean asked, his voice a little softer this time as he made eye contact with Castiel.

“We used that up on Sam.” she reminded him. “It'll take months to make a new batch.”

“damn.” Dean looked off to the side and bit his lip in thought. “Ok.” he sat down next to Castiel, facing him as he crossed his legs.

“Great! I'll start as soon as you distract him.” Ellen poised at the ready at Castiel's shoulder, and he sucked in a breath, keeping his eyes on Dean.

“Ok, uhhh.” Dean sucked his teeth, “Uhh, what do you like to do for fun?” Ellen made a noise next to Castiel that sounded like a laugh. Dean glared at her.

“I don't 'Do' anything for 'fun'.” Castiel said, holding his fingers up to imply quotations, “I'm a warrio—Ah!” Ellen chose that moment to stab him, “A warrior.” His voice was strained now, “We were constantly—Mm—training or battling against—AH!” Castiel's voice choked off as Ellen hit a nerve, and his hands clenched painfully. He felt something cover his hands and try to pry them open, and he opened his eyes to see Dean's hands on his own. He glanced up at his face once before opening his hands and gripping Dean's tightly.

“Yeah?” Dean prompted. Castiel took a shaky breath and continued,

“We were constantly battling against other fairy-folk, one's who tried to take over out territo—aAhh—tory, or this one group of humans that tried to take some of us for—motherf—for study.” he squeezed Dean's hands tighter and heard him suck in a breath. “Sorry.” he grunted, “and I recently discovered that i'd aparentl—Mmmah—apparently been doing things I don't remember because of a superior that decided i—ah!—didn't need to. So needless to say, I've never had much time for 'fun'.” he looked up at Dean's face, who was watching Ellen's work, and thought for a moment, “What about you?”

“What about me?” Dean looked back to him and held his gaze with green.

“What do you—Agh—ok. What do you like to do for 'fun'?” Castiel refrained from letting go of Dean's hands to use quotations.

“Me?” he raised an eyebrow, “I'm supposed to be asking you questions, buddy.”

“No, you're supposed to be distracting me.” Castiel grunted and closed his eyes. Why was it taking Ellen so long to finish? “Talking about what you like to do for fun would qualify.” Dean looked him in the eye as he seemed to think it over.

“Alright.” he shifted his weight and looked off to the side, “I usually like to ride Balthazar, that's the bird I rode in on. I'll fly him over the area and sometimes i'll take him and Sammy up the river for a swim. Sammy's my little brother, I got another one but he's uh...not here right now. I used to take them out to find maple trees when they were younger, and we'd get wood peckers to poke holes in the trunk. Couple hours later, and we got syrup! It's even better when it's snowing, cause then we can freeze it.” he smiled fondly to the distance, “But I don't usually get to do that too often.” he chuckled, “My life is kinda similar to yours. My brothers and I, we gotta defend our territory and others against these nasty things across the river. We don't really know what they are, but they can do magic, and they're evil. Actually got a few scars from 'em,” He lifted up his shoulder to show his arm, which was indeed covered in scars. “What about you, you got any scars?” Castiel shook his head.

“I've had plenty of scarring wounds, but fairy usually use magic to heal them before they get a chance to scar. So, your stabbing wound would be the first that i'll have.” Ellen had stopped for a moment, and Castiel felt another stinging sensation as she put a wet cloth over his shoulder.

“What, you can't just whip up a spell and heal it yourself?” Dean frowned.

“No.” Castiel sighed, “I can't just 'whip up a spell'. I get my magic from my home as long as i'm within a seven mile radius. I'm currently 70 miles from my home, thus I am powerless.”

“huh.” Dean made a face. “Sucks.” he seemed to think for a moment, and Ellen began stabbing Castiel again.

“Fuck!” Castiel returned his grip on Dean's hands.

“You uh, you said you had a superior that 'decided you didn't need to remember' things that you'd done?” he gripped Castiel's hands back, “what did you mean by that?”

“I'm not—not really comfortable talking—about that now.” The memory was terrifying and painful enough, but talking about it while actual physical pain was plaguing him was worse.

“Oh, okay. Understandable....uhh.......you date anyone interesting lately?” He asked, eyebrows raised. Castiel glared at him,

“I think dating falls under the category of 'fun',” he replied tersely.

“right.” he thought a moment, “Got any siblings?” Castiel chuckled,

“I have a few. But I have more cousins than anything.”

“tell me about 'em.” Dean seemed genuinely interested.

“ok. Uuh, I have Anna, she's my older sister, and Samandrial. He's my little brother. They uh, they actually recently died in battle—no it's alright, i've had time to mourn—i have these four cousins, they're brothers, Gabriel, Michael, Raphael, and Uriel. I'm close to Gabriel, he's very....mischievous. He tends to have a lot of what you'd consider 'fun'. He's also incredibly powerful. Him, Michael, and Raphael are the most powerful fairies in the army. Uriel is powerful as well, but he's only just as powerful as me. Or as I was.” Castiel frowned. “i have many more cousins, it would take an eternity to go through them all, and i'm not really close to any others. There's the leader of the lower level fairies, though. Her name is Naomi.” Castiel shuddered and glanced at Ellen, who was finishing up. “She was the one who took my memories.”

“Wait, she actually took your memories?” Dean asked.

“Not literally. But I can't seem to restore them on my own. I was hoping they'd come back to me as soon as I was out of the radius of her power, but it seems it may take a bit more than that to retrieve them.” he released Dean's hands as Ellen put the needle away. “Thank you for the distraction.” he said.

“Uh, yeah sure.” Dean wiped his hands on his pants, “Say, uh, now that you're no longer apart of your uh, army, what do you say to learning how to have a little fun?” He smiled a charming smile at Castiel, but his eyes spoke of his nervousness.

“I think i'd like that.” Castiel told him. “I've never ridden a bird before, seeing as i've always had my own wings to fly me, but i'd like to experience it.” he smiled slightly. Dean smiled more brightly and nodded at his lap.

“Good. Good.” He continued wiping his hands on his pants.

“Alright, you're all fixed up now.” Ellen told him. Castiel turned towards her and inclined his head.

“Thank you. I am indebted.” He noticed Dean stand up in his peripherals and Ellen began packing her things up. Suddenly there was a hand in front of his face. He looked over to Dean, who was offering to help him up. Castiel took his hand and more or less hauled himself up, It seemed Dean was not as strong as he appeared. Ellen came up holding a piece of cloth.

“Here.” she guided Castiel's forearm across his chest. “I'm gonna put a sling on you, and it'll help your shoulder heal.” she put the cloth under his arm and around his neck.

“Dean tie the knot at the back, would you?” she asked. Dean went around behind Castiel and took the cloth from Ellen, tying it swiftly and securely before coming around to face Castiel at the front.

“So uh, you got any time that's good for you to have fun?” he asked.

“Dean. I abandoned my home and my duties. Any time during the day or night is 'good' for me.” Castiel grinned, giddy that he actually had time to be available whenever.

“Alright. Then I'll see you any time.” Dean smiled and walked past Castiel after Ellen.

“Thank you again, Ellen.” Castiel called after her.

“Any time hon.” she waved behind herself.

Dean turned and waved, tripping over a groove in the table as he attempted to walk backwards. Castiel smirked and chuckled, turning to Jade who was watching with morbid curiosity.

“Well that was interesting.” she said to him, “You still want that water?” Castiel nodded thankfully and turned to watch as Dean spurred Balthazar into the air. He laughed when Dean performed a flip in the air and Ellen started cursing at him.

_____________________________

God Castiel was gorgeous when he smiled. Dean's heart leapt straight out of his chest when it happened, and he was suddenly very grateful to whatever higher being set the stars to align, because after seeing that smile Dean didn't think he'd be able to handle Castiel being angry with him. He made Balthazar flip in the air when he left partly out of the adrenaline high he got from seeing the smile, and partly because he wanted to impress Castiel for whatever reason.

Ellen wasn't happy with him though.

“What kind of idiot are you?! Flipping in the air like that, I swear to god if you weren't flying this bird right now i'd smack you upside the head for your dumbassery.” She scolded him the whole way home, but he barely noticed. And to think that he'd stabbed Castiel. Guilt washed over him, Castiel was so....nice. He'd gone through so much, and Dean had just come up and stabbed him. He landed Balthazar and it suddenly occurred to him that he hadn't apologized. But then again, Dean Winchester didn't apologize. It wasn't his style. He does something wrong, he fixes it. But he doesn't apologize. Especially to strangers. Well, maybe to strangers. He could make an exception.

Just this once.

Chapter Text

Sam woke up. But not of his own will, no. he woke up because someone had left a damn curtain open and now the sun was in his eyes. He didn't know what day it was, or what time it was, or what had happened recently. He debated figuring out the time by the angle of the sun, but when he tried to think, his head throbbed. So he settle for squinting and groaning and rolling over. At least he wasn't dizzy anymore.

He focused on his memory and vaguely remembered having been in bed the last few...weeks? Days? He couldn't tell. He'd have to ask Dean or Bobby. His stomach grumbled, and he grumbled in reply as he sat up. His head throbbed and he continued to squint through the day light piercing through the windows as he walked down the stairs to the kitchen. He grabbed a glass from the cupboard and filled it with water, grabbing a piece of bread and looking out the window in time to see Dean landing Balthazar with Ellen behind him. Why was Ellen riding with Dean? And why did they have a med pack with them? He took a large bite of the bread and watched.

Dean stood outside while Ellen scolded him for a bit, probably for fancy flying if Sam was reading her facial expression right. And as soon as she was done, Dean turned around and his face broke into a smile. Met someone attractive then. Sam guzzled his drink and refilled it, walking over to the table and sitting down as he waited for Dean to come through the door. He munched on his bread while Dean finished up unsaddling Balthazar.

“Sam!” Dean exclaimed, closing the door behind him distractedly. “When'd you get up?”

“Couple of minutes ago.” Sam replied, his voice scratchy. “How long was I out?”

“Like out of it or sleeping?” Dean asked as he shucked his poncho off and hung it on a coat rack.

“Out of it.” Sam decided.

“Two days and a bit.” He sat down across from Sam, “We used up all the pain stuff on you.”

“All of it?” Sam frowned in concern, “You guys should've saved some for emergencies.”

“This was an emergency. You got kicked in the head by a giant!” Dean told him, “I mean, sure it would've been useful this afternoon, but I don't regret having used it all up on you.”

“Wait, this afternoon?” Sam set his cup down, “What happened this afternoon?”

“nothin special. Got in a fight, stabbed the guy, went back and stitched him up. Made some plans with him too, cool guy.”

“You got in a fight? And then you asked him to hang out with you?” Sam asked incredulously. “and he agreed?”

“Yeah! Turns out it was all a big misunderstanding. Guy's a fairy, his wings popped out at me, freaked me out a bit, but turns out it was a defense thingy. We talked for a bit while Ellen stitched him up. We're actually pretty similar.” Dean grabbed a nut shaving from the bowl in the middle of the table and munched on it. “You know he had a little brother named Sam too? Well, Samandrial, but same difference.” Sam frowned at the table, processing everything Dean was telling him.

“A fairy?” he eventually said, “Aren't those a myth? Or extinct or something?”

“Apparently not.” Dean leaned back and put his feet on the table, “he said he was something like, 60, 70 miles—whatever that is—away from his home. You should meet him sometime. You're still into fairies and stuff, right?” Dean continued munching on his snack and smirked to himself. Sam raised an eyebrow and glared at him.

“Are you sure he's not just one of those things we fight across the river?” Sam leaned forward.

“Am i—no Sam I just decided to follow my heart and trust the guy. Yeah i'm sure.” he frowned at Sam and looked away.

“Did you test him?” Sam asked. Dean's face fell for a moment,

“Did i—of course I tested him. I did all the—tests. The one's that we do, you know. The uh, the blade ones, and the water ones too. You know, the—the tests.” Dean nodded at Sam like he was making sense.

“Uhuh.” Sam ran his tongue over his teeth, “Then why are the blades and flasks still hanging up?”

“cause I uh—uh I—oh shut up.” Dean grabbed another shaving.

“No, I will not shut up. You need to test this guy! Whether or not you want to get into his pants, Dean!” Sam's head started throbbing. This was taking too much brain power. Dean nearly choked on his food as he put his feet down on the ground.

“I am not 'trying to get into his pants', Sam, god!” Dean threw the shaving back into the bowl.

“Ok.” Sam put his arms on the table, “So you weren't just smiling like you do when you meet someone you think it attractive?” Dean looked sharply at him, “I saw your face after Ellen finished yelling at you. You didn't, say, do a flip to impress this fairy, did you?” Sam raised his eyebrows, the satisfaction of calling Dean out trumping his headache. Dean leaned back in his chair,

“Pshhh—n—no. I didn't.” he took an interest in the table, “ok maybe a little bit.”

“Ha! Knew it.” Sam leaned back, “Do me a favor, if you're going to bring him back here at any point, just make sure you test him first.” he grabbed his cup and started up the stairs, “Oh, and try not to be too loud. I have an ongoing headache these days.”

“Sam!” Dean yelled incredulously, and Sam booked it up the stairs into his room, shutting the door before Dean could retaliate. He hoped this fairy was really a 'nice guy', the last time Dean'd hooked up with someone, it hadn't ended well. And even then, it'd been forever since Dean had a friend outside of Sam.

The next day, Sam's head had stop throbbing enough for him to go outside and help Bobby with the crops. He grabbed a pair of scissors and spent the morning cutting off dead branches.

“Hey, where's Dean?” He asked after two hours of gardening alone with Bobby.

“I think he went to see that fairy.” Bobby replied, “If'ya'ask me he's just looking for trouble. Fairies ain't nothin but dangerous.”

“Really?” Sam straightened his back, “How so?”

“They got magic, it's unnatural. And wings too. Not to mention they aren't the most trustworthy beings in the world, I've never heard of fairies bein' nice or helpful.” Bobby shook his head as he examined a tomato bush. Sam hummed in a non committal way, and went back to trimming.

“Hey, is the giant still at the campsite?”

“Yeah. Turns out it's friendly, from what Ellen was saying. Tried to help the fairy a bit before Ellen and Dean went over with the meds.” Bobby stood up and stretched.

“It's still at the site?” Sam became alarmed, “And Dean just went over there? Did he take a weapon, at least?” his heart was racing in worry.

“Yeah, he took the blades and water to test the fairy. He left his wooden dagger behind, though.” Bobby grumbled, “Stupid move if'ya'ask me.” he bent down to pick up the basket of ripe tomatoes and moved down the line, oblivious to Sam's worry.

“Hey, Bobby, I think i'm gonna take a break, my head's not feeling so good.” He said after a few moments.

“oh, alright. Take care of yourself, don't want you passing out cause you worked too hard.” Bobby waved him away and Sam nodded gratefully, heading towards his and Dean's house. There was no way he was just going to let Dean sit around with a fairy and a giant without protection. Who knows what could happen.

He grabbed his poncho and blade, and sneaked around the backs of the houses to Jo's house. He knocked on the back door a few times before she came out, disheveled and sleepy eyed.

“Hey, Jo, could I borrow Peaches?” he asked.

“What for?” she asked groggily.

“I need to fly over to that campsite, the one where Dean went to?” he hoped that she wouldn't ask any more questions, because the answers would just make her want to come.

“What campsite?” she squinted at him angrily, “You mean the one where Adam—?” Sam sighed,

“Yeah. There's another giant there, and a fairy. Dean went over to visit the fairy, without his wooden blade.” he held up Dean's blade, which he'd grabbed on his way out. “I'm going to go over and protect him, since i'm the only sensible one.”

“You're not the only one.” Jo muttered, slipping inside and coming out with a poncho. “I'm coming too. Don't—argue. You're injured, and even if you weren't I'd come because you are terrible at flying birds.” she closed her door behind her and the two trekked out to where Peaches, a large crow, was housed. Sam had to protect Dean, he had too. He'd already failed once at protecting a brother, and he wasn't going to let it happen again.

______________________________

Castiel was a little wary at first when Dean brought knifes, but when he explained it was something him and his brother did to make sure people weren't creatures they hunted, he obliged to the “tests”. After which, Dean seemed a lot more comfortable than he had been before. He had come by to also check on Castiel's wound, mumbling an apology when he'd given an update about the pain. They were currently sitting on a dish towel that had been folded up, and were talking. Dean apparently didn't know what humans were, or that Jade was one. He didn't know what any of the things they used were called either and it endlessly confused Castiel. Dean had grown up in a campground full of humans, and yet knew less than Castiel did. They talked for hours, about Castiel, his magic, his family, humans, and about the world.

At one point, they got to talking about food, and Castiel was struck with a thought.

“Have you ever had a strawberry?”

“A what-now?” Dean stopped rambling about maple syrup.

“A strawberry. I myself hadn't had one until yesterday, and it was delicious. I was just wondering if you'd ever experienced one.” Castiel leaned forwards on his lap.

“i dunno.” Dean pondered a moment, “What are they like?”

“They're red, and sweet.” Castiel decided he was going to ask for one weather or not Dean had had one, because now he was craving it.

“No.” Dean shook his head, “the only red things i've eaten are tomatoes. And that's on rare occasion.” Dean looked proud of this statement for some reason.

“Alright.” Castiel stood and gestured to Jade, who was writing peacefully next to them on the table. She looked up from her book and brought her ear down to Castiel. A method they had discovered worked quite well for communication last night.

“Strawberry!” He yelled. They'd also found it was easier for him to just speak in one word sentences, if possible. It peeved Castiel at first, but when he considered his aching throat, he agreed to it.

“You guys want a strawberry?” She asked. Castiel nodded. “Alright. Hey, how about I bring a banana too? I bet you'll like that.” She rose from the table and headed into her trailer, coming out a second later with the box of strawberries and a curved, yellow object. She set a strawberry down on the towel next to Dean who, after a long talk with Castiel about humans (This one specifically), didn't react in any way. She then peeled the yellow thing to reveal a pale middle, and broke the top off to lay next to the strawberry.

“Banana.” she told him, pointing to it and taking a bite out of the rest that was still in her hands.

Castiel walked back over to Dean, who was examining the strawberry and banana with a bewildered look on his face.

“Take a bite.” Castiel told him. “It's edible. I had some yesterday.” Dean nodded a moment before taking out one of the knives he'd brought and cutting a slice out of the strawberry. He took a cautious bite and chewed a moment, before closing his eyes and moaning. Castiel grinned.

“It's good, I know.” he proceeded to just lean down and bite straight out of the strawberry. Dean opened his eyes to agree, and huffed out a laugh at Castiel.

“What?” Castiel frowned and tilted his head, swallowing the small bite he'd taken. “Why are you laughing?” Dean swallowed and continued chuckling,

“Dude your face is smeared with strawberry.” he reached into his back pocket and pulled out a relatively clean hanker chief. “Hear, clean yourself up.”

“Ah, thank you.” Castiel took the cloth and swiped his face with it before offering it back to Dean.

“Hang on, you missed a spot.” Dean stepped forwards and took the cloth out of his hands, but just as he brought it up, a large crow swooped down and landed next to Balthazar, who was on the other side of the table happily pecking at some seeds. A tall gnome and a blond gnome jumped off the bird with their weapons at the ready, and they looked startled at the proximity of Jade to Dean and Castiel.

“Sam? Jo?” Dean stepped in front of Castiel. “What are you doing here? And what's with the weapons?”

“What the hell, Dean!” the tall one replied incredulously, “There's a giant right there! And you're just, what? sitting here eating food? How do you know it's not poisonous? Why aren't you attacking it?” he and the blonde one stayed by the crow.

“Because, Sam, not all giants are like the one's you met! And newsflash, i'm smart enough to tell when I need to attack or not!” Dean threw back.

“Actually, she's a human. Her name is Jade, she's incredibly kind. And I know the food isn't poisonous because I ate some yesterday and i'm perfectly fine still.” Castiel spoke up, peering over Dean's shoulder.

“Did you test him?” Sam seemed a little feral at the moment, and he gestured to Castiel with one of the blades. Dean nodded.

“He's good, Sammy. Just put down the daggers. You're injured, man.” Dean tried to calm his brother down, holding his hands out.

“I don't care! Dean, I don't care! You can't just—just sit next to a giant completely relaxed when you know what they did—what they did to—“ Sam gasped once or twice, his eyes suddenly rolled back into his head and he collapsed, and it was then that Castiel noticed he was paler than he ought to be. Dean rushed over to his brother, and Jade made a noise of surprise behind Castiel.

“Sammy!” Dean yelled as he slid down to where the blonde one, Jo, was failing to lower Sam down carefully. Castiel rushed over and crouched on the right side of Sam, across from Dean.

“Sam. Sammy! Sam, wake up!” Dean held one arm around Sam's neck, and the other one gripped his shoulder tightly. “Sam!!” he looked up at Castiel desperately.

“What's wrong with him?” he asked in a choked voice, and Castiel could see tears tracking down his face.

Castiel scooted closer and placed a hand behind Sam's head, bringing it up to examine the head wound. He felt a pulse of magic, just barely there—but that was to be expected, all fairy had a little magic at all times— enough to tell him that Sam had taken more damage than met the eye, and that he was dying from it.

“He's taken more damage than you can see.” Castiel swallowed and looked Dean in the eyes, regret pinging through him that he couldn't help more, “He's dying.” Dean's eyes widened and he looked back to Sam.

“No! No, no, no, no.” Dean leaned his face into Sam's shoulder, “No, Sammy no, you gotta hold on, Sammy.” he sobbed into his brother for a few moments, rocking back and forth. And then looked up at Castiel with puffy eyes.

“Can't you do something?” he asked, “You have healing magic, right? You can heal people?” Castiel shook his head sadly,

“i told you, I only have magic—“

“Have you tried?” Dean blurted out.

“What?” Castiel frowned.

“Have you tried to do magic outside of whatever bullshit boundary your bullshit superior told you about?” Dean started breathing a little harder, “It can't hurt, right? To try? You could just try, and if it doesn't work then fine, but please. Please try.” His voice cracked at the last word and tears spilled out of his eyes. Castiel considered a moment or two, before he sat forwards and rested his right hand on Dean's shoulder.

“I will try. But please, don't blame me if it doesn't work.” He said softly. “You will have to release Sam, otherwise my magic, if it does work, will harm you.” Dean nodded numbly and let go, collapsing into Jo, who had appeared by his side.

“Alright,” Castiel took a deep breath, and laid his hands on Sam's head. He focused like he would normally, sensing the magic deep in his veins and pushing it towards the tips of his fingers. He zeroed in on one thought,

Heal

the magic began stirring up in him, just barely, and he focused more

Heal

the magic started bubbling down his arms, sending shocks up his spine

HEAL

there was a blinding flash, and Castiel felt power surge through him that he'd never felt before. It was....more. More than anything he'd felt before, and somehow, it felt better. Cleaner. Like it was meant to be this way rather than the way he'd grown up with it. The light diminished, and Castiel barely remained upright long enough to see that Sam had indeed been healed, before he fell backwards onto the hard table and fell unconscious for the second time in two days.

Chapter Text

Dean flinched away from the blinding light coming from Castiel, and only looked back when he heard a dull thump. Castiel was lying on the wood, passed out, and Sam was sitting up from the wood, awake.

“Sammy!” Dean gasped out, at the same time Jo cried, “Sam!” and they both leaned forwards and hugged him. Sam gasped for air.

“I'm ok. I'm ok.” He panted out. “I'm fine, guys.” he patted them each on the back, and Dean leaned back with tears.

“You're ok.” he choked out.

“Yeah. Yeah.” Sam's voice was quiet. “But he might not be,” he nodded towards Castiel, who was still passed out. Dean swallowed hard and nodded, checking again the Sam was ok before getting up and crouching next to Castiel.

“Castiel?” He placed a hand on each shoulder, “Castiel? Cas!” he shook him gently and Castiel gasped, his eyes flying open. He gulped in a few breaths before looking over at Dean, and he grabbed one of Dean's arms.

“Did it work?” He gasped, a frown of uncertainty adorning his forehead.

“Yeah.” Dean smiled in relief, “Yeah it worked.” He glanced back at his brother and looked Castiel in the eye, “Thank you.” He brought Castiel into a sitting position and hugged him tightly. Castiel hesitated a moment before awkwardly placing an arm across Deans back. As soon as he did this, Dean felt a shock go through him, and he jumped back with a yelp.

“What the hell?” He looked at Castiel's hand and back to his face.

“Ah. I believe there may still be some residual magic in my hands.” He sat up by himself as Dean let go of his shoulders, “It seems my magic is more...powerful away from Naomi. I would thank you for encouraging me to try using my magic, but considering the circumstances under which you encouraged me I will refrain from doing so.” Castiel rambled on, all the while a fond smile was growing on Dean's face.

“Thank you.” he said again, punctuating it with a raise of his eyebrows. Castiel hummed and smiled slightly, ducking his head.

“I still don't like the fact that you're comfortable with a giant.” Sam said, breaking Dean's focus on Castiel.

“Oh come on, she's cool.” Sam pulled Bitch Face #1235 and Dean replied in kind.

“She's not a giant.” Castiel said, “I mean, she is giant, but she's not a giant. Her kind are called humans, and they can actually be quite friendly.”

“Yeah, dude, like I said. She's cool.” Dean smiled crookedly, “and they speak our language!”

“Some of them do.” Castiel broke in, “There are actually a multitude of languages that they speak.”

“So we're double lucky. Kind and speaks our language.” Dean looked back at Jade, as Castiel had told him, and saw her leaning worriedly towards them. “Hey, look she's even worried about you, Sammy!” he smiled and waved at her, giving her an ok sign to let her know it was all good now, “That is the right sign, right?” “Yes, Dean.” Sam still regarded her with caution.

“Ok. Well, if she's so good, how come she's staying in the campsite the humans who took Adam had?” Sam asked, “I mean, this is their campsite, right?”

“Yes and No. Cas, would you explain? You know more.” Dean sat with his legs crossed next to Cas, looking too smug for his own good.

“Yes.” Cas turned his gaze (which had been previously focused solely on Dean, but we're going to pretend not to notice) onto Sam, “Campsites can be rented to different people, sometimes people will rent campsites for long periods of time, but no one owns the campsites.” He looked over to all of the people around him, “You know, it baffles me that I know more about these things than you do, considering you actually live here.”

“Yeah, how do you know this stuff?” Dean asked,

“It's part of our education. We learn about the fairy-folk, and the humans. I believe we may have actually gotten our information from humans themselves not too long ago.”

“Yeah, you're people meet up with the humans for a Q&A?” Dean chuckled.

“Yes.” Cas nodded.

“Well that must've been tiring.” Dean frowned, “You guys would have to yell at them to ask questions, wouldn't you?” a look of panic blipped across Cas' face before he nodded, his expression stoic again.

“Yes. It was..very tiring, i'd imagine. It was before I can remember. At least,” he frowned, “Before I think I can remember. Naomi revealed to me that she'd erased my memories from me for years before I thought I met her.”

“Naomi?” Sam broke in, “Who is that?”

“My superior.” Cas sighed, “She runs Heaven's Gate.”

“Heaven's Gate?” Jo broke in, raising a skeptical eyebrow.

“The name of the park that i'm from.” Cas told her, “I am a warrior, and I discovered yesterday that she'd been controlling me and erasing my memory. I confronted her, and she revealed that she'd been doing it for years.” He got a forlorn, faraway look in his eyes, and Dean placed a hand on his shoulder. He'd known Cas had found out about the mind magic recently, but he hadn't known it was yesterday. “I barely escaped with my life. It's thanks to Jade,” He gestured back, “That I got out. She risked her life getting me out, even if she doesn't fully understand that.” Sam's face adopted a sympathetic expression, and he regarded Jade with a calculating look.

“Alright.” He said after a moment or two.

“Alright?” Dean looked at Sam dubiously, “You tried to attack her, twice, and you were raging not more than five minutes ago, and now it's 'alright'?”

“What, do you want me to rage some more?” Sam asked, “I accept that this Human isn't like the one's who took Adam. So, alright.” He looked at Dean like he was crazy, and Dean huffed in annoyance. Leave it to his brother to simplify a dramatic situation.

“Ok, so, since you guys have resolved whatever situation there was going on here, I'm just going to go home and sleep.” Jo said, “Nice meeting you, thanks for saving Sam.” She addressed Cas. He nodded in reply and Jo leapt up onto Peaches, taking off into the sky with a flourish.

“Showoff.” Dean muttered. Sam shot him a look before sitting up completely.

“So, what happened?” he asked Cas, “Like, I know you did something, but what was it?”

“I healed you with my magic, which I was unaware I could use before Dean prompted me.” Cas told him.

“Oh. Well, thanks.” Sam smiled softly, “So, I guess I should probably apologize for stabbing the human, right?” He started to get up, and Dean rose with him, holding his hands out ready to catch Sam should he collapse again.

“Her name is Jade.” Cas said. Dean leaned down to help Cas get up, grabbing the arm not in a sling. “And yes, I believe apologizing would be a good course of action.”

“Ok.” Sam took a deep breath, “Let's go.”

 _________________

Jade was unsure of what was happening, but as far as she could tell, it was nothing good. The tall gnome had collapsed, and Dean (As Castiel had told her) was crying. He was saying something to Castiel, urgently it seemed, before he leaned away from Sam into the shorter, blonde, gnome. Castiel laid his hands on the tall one, and there was a flash of light so bright Jade had to look away. When she looked back, the tall one was sitting up, and Castiel was lying down. The tall one also seemed to have lost the purpling bruise on his forehead.

She watched as Dean hugged the tall one tightly, before going over to Castiel and shaking him awake. Dean hugged Castiel tightly as well before they stared at each other for a longer than socially acceptable time. They could have been talking, but it was hard for Jade to make out. Dean noticed her studying them and held up an OK sign. Jade relaxed and watched the four of them have a discussion. At one point, it seemed Castiel was talking about something that was hard for him, because Dean put a comforting hand on his shoulder. Eventually, the blond one left on her crow, and they all stood. They paused a moment before walking towards her, the tall one a little more uncertainly than the others.

Chapter Text

Things were good for about two weeks. Dean showed Cas the wonders of maple syrup, from what he had saved since his last escapade, and introduced Cas to his community. Ellen was glad that Cas' shoulder was healed, Bobby was unsure of him but willing to trust him if Dean did, and Jo became fast friends with Cas. Whenever Dean was busy, Cas would hang out with Jo, and sometimes Sam (Though that was a rare occasion, Sam still didn't fully trust Cas), every once and a while Jo would hang out with Cas and Dean, but most of the time it was just them two and no one else. Dean taught Cas how to swim, as the river where Cas grew up was too fast and dangerous to swim in, and taught him how to cook, as well as shoot a bow and arrow. In turn, Cas told him about the Fae.

Dean learned that Cas' kind used magic for nearly everything, from preparing food to fighting. He also learned of a race called Body-Jumpers. They were constantly stealing bodies from Gnomes, Goblins, basically any race of Fae that wasn't magical, and using them to commit heinous acts. They were periodically trying to take over heaven's gate, as they lived just on the other side through a long tunnel. The tunnel was referred to as Purgatory, and the other side was called Hell's pit. There was a large sink hole with a waterfall leading down into it. There were tours that led partway down, but due to sharp rocks and unsteady walls, no one was allowed further down. Of course, the “unstable” walls and “sharp rocks” were just distorted images from perception magic performed by the Body-Jumpers. Dean decided to write down everything Cas told him, peeved that he'd lived so much of his life in ignorance of the rest of the world.

Dean hadn't had many hunts since Cas came around, but he was determined to bring Cas on the next one, especially since he'd learned how skilled a fighter he was. Even when it came to sparring. Which was why they were now fighting, and Cas was utterly owning Dean in hand-to-hand.

“Jesus, where'd you learn how to fight like this?” Dean panted, sweat dripping off and soaking every available surface. He charged.

“I told you,” Cas pulled Dean into a headlock, panting just as hard, “I'm a warrior. I've been trained to do this since I was five.” He pulled Dean down to the ground and spun around, locking his legs around Dean's waist sideways and pulling Dean's hand towards his spine, pushing up a little to ensure Dean couldn't move.

“Agh! Jeeze.” Dean tapped out and Cas released him, scooting back into a cross legged position. Dean mirrored his position and rolled his shoulder. “Five? A bit young, isn't it?”

“Fairies, my race specifically, tend to physically mature quicker than most. Five years old in my race would be equivalent to twenty years in yours.” Cas assumed a meditating pose and stretched his neck, mesmerizing Dean.

“So, uh.” He cleared his throat, “How old are you now?”

“Seven hundred and forty.” Cas replied casually, his eyes closed.

“Seven hund-” Dean nearly choked on air, “wait is that in your years or ours?”

“Mine. In your years, I would be-” he paused a moment to think, “185.”

“185?” Dean gaped at him. He was barely 29. “Holy shit.”

“In terms of how far along you are in life and wisdom, I would be somewhere around 32.” Cas reached behind himself and stretched his arms, “Though that's just an estimation. It's hard to calculate, and often times confusing to translate. You should stretch, you know. Otherwise your muscles will cramp and you'll be sore.”

“Yeah.” Dean copied Cas' movements, and while he would die before admitting he did the yoga poses Cas had taught him (Yoga was something Cas had introduced to Dean after he pulled a muscle rough housing with Sam.), He did admit that it was incredibly helpful and somewhat relaxing.

“You said translate,” He mentioned a few moments later, the sweat now dried and leaving him thirsting for a swim, “Do you speak a different language?”

“Yes.” Cas stretched his back, “My first language doesn't have a name translatable, but it's called Fae'len in my original tongue. Some of the body-jumpers can speak it, though not very well. I don't know of any other species that speak it naturally.”

“huh.” Dean muttered, “Well I feel gross, so i'm gonna grab a swim. You wanna come?”

“I suppose.” Cas finished stretching and stood, “I'll have to go back to Jade's camp to obtain a change of clothes, though.” He gestured to the shirt and pants he was wearing, “These are saturated.”

“Yeah I hear you.” Dean chuckled. “I gotta grab a change too, We'll hit Jade's camp on the way to the river.

Things didn't go quite according to plan.

Dean landed Balthazar on a branch, Cas' arms tightly wound around his waist, and was about to dive down to the table when he noticed another Car (Vocab thanks to Cas) parked in the road. From what Dean understood about car laws, it wasn't supposed to be there. Cas' arms tightened around Deans waist and he leaned forwards,

“What are they doing?” He whispered, despite Humans not having the eardrums to hear their voices at most volumes.

“Who?” Dean whispered back. Cas unlatched one arm to point at three individuals searching the foliage across the road with strange devices in their hands. There was another one surveying Jade's site with an appraising air. Jade suddenly burst out of her camper, a large hunting knife in her hand as she regarded the stranger.

“What do you want?” She asked him.

“Oh you don't need to worry.” The man eyed Jade and waved a dismissive hand at her, “We're not interested in you.”

“But you're very obviously interested in my site. You know this entire area, for ten miles, is considered the site? I rented this for two months, so for the duration it's more or less mine.” Jade growled out, and Dean was thankful Humans had such loud voices.

“Not necessarily, see—“

“Don't try and bullshit me.” Jade cut in sharply, “I talked to the rangers, I know the laws and rules, and you're trespassing. Now, I can either call the police, or the rangers. Or both.” she held up a square device in her other hand,

“It's called a phone. It's for long distance communication.” Cas whispered in Dean's ear, still leaned forwards and clutching him. Dean nodded distractedly. Both Cas and the drama down in the campsite were so distracting, he didn't notice Sam carefully sneaking around on the other side of Jade's camper.

“Oooh, you don't want to do that.” The man had a slightly playful tone now, “You know, if you let me look around your campsite for just an hour, I can offer compensation.” He raised his eyebrows and rubbed his fingers together.

“He means money.” Cas muttered, his arms twitching in nervousness, “Dean. Humans, even good ones, will sometimes do anything for money.” he sounded worried.

“But what about Jade? She's good, right?” Dean turned his head to face Cas a little, and his heart pounded at the proximity.

“I can't say, Dean. I'd like to say that she'll say no, but humans can be—“

“Are you kidding me?” Jade sounded incredulous. “If you want to look over the campsite, wait until you can rent it. Get out of here, i'm calling the rangers.” she tapped her box—phone, Dean corrected himself, and held it up to her ear. The man looked angry for a moment, before smoothing over his features.

“You're going to regret that, sweetheart.” He smiled predatorily and walked over to the other three. He gestured sharply for them to get into the car. A blonde climbed into the drivers seat, the man took the passenger side seat, and the other two black haired one's climbed into the back. The car sped off with a screech, and Jade stayed on the phone.

“Should we go down there?” Dean asked.

“Wait a moment.” Cas told him. They waited for five minutes, before Cas gave the ok, and Dean flew them down to the table. Jade noticed them and held up a finger, as she was still on the phone.

“Yeah. Uh, It was a Black SUV, license number was 27MG1C, one man, three women. They were wearing suits. Yeah. Yeah I know, weird. Yeah, they were just tromping around my site like they owned the place. Ok, ok. Yeah. Thank you so much, I would really appreciate that. Um, if it's not too much trouble, could you send someone to stay with me overnight? It's already evening, I know most of the rangers have gone home, but I really don't feel safe sleeping out here alone after that. Oh thank you, thank you.” she spent a few more moments talking to the people on the phone before she brought it away from her face and tapped it again.

“You guys see that?” She asked, Dean and Cas nodded, “freaky, right? The rangers are sending someone over to stay with me tonight, so Cas, you'll have to sleep somewhere else, is that ok?” She leaned worriedly down, her knife still in hand and resting on her knee. Dean examined it with interest, that was a good knife. He had to get one. He felt Cas nod, and he turned to Dean,

“Is it alright if I stay with you tonight?” he asked.

“Yeah, of course.” Dean replied, realizing a moment later he didn't have any spare beds. Eh, they'd get to that later. Jade looked relieved,

“Good. Good. Do you need your clothes? I know you don't have many.” Cas nodded again and Jade disappeared into the camper, coming out a moment later with a small bag in her hand that Dean had lent to Cas, along with some of his own clothes. Cas took the bag gratefully and attached it to the side of Balthazar's saddle, wrapping his arms around Dean once more.

“While that was worrying, could we still go to the river?” Cas asked Dean. Dean chuckled and waved at Jade, spurring the blue jay into the air.

“Of course.”

They spent until the sun had well set in the water. Dean made the mistake of trying to start a water fight with Cas, and discovered very quickly that the fairy wasn't against using his wings to slosh water at him. Needless to say, Cas won every fight Dean challenged him with that day.

Dean burst through his front door, hair sopping wet and laughing at something Cas had said. Cas followed close behind, hair equally wet and smiling brightly. He looked around Dean's house, admiring it even though he'd been there before. It was then that he noticed Dean didn't have any couches.

“So...” Cas trailed off as Dean hung up his poncho, “I don't see any couches. Is there a spare bed?” Dean ducked his head and rubbed his neck,

“Ah, see, no. I didn't think about it at the time, but I don't really have any spare surfaces for you to sleep on. Unless you like the floor.” He chuckled.

“I understand.” Cas' face fell somewhat, “I can find another place to stay. Perhaps Ellen will have a spare bed.” he reached for the door knob, and Dean started. Cas though he wasn't welcome?

“Hey, hang on.” He grabbed Cas' bag, “You can still stay. You just might have to—uh—share a bed, though. But you're more than welcome here.” he felt heat creep into his face slowly. God, what was wrong with him? Was he getting sick? “Unless you're uncomfortable with that.” He added on. Cas' face relaxed into a small smile.

“I'm not uncomfortable so long as it's you i'm sharing with. Sam doesn't seem to like me much.”

“Good. Good.” Dean turned and headed towards the stairs abruptly, “Come on.” he walked up, listening to the thump of Cas following him, and he noticed Sam's room was empty. “You know, I don't know why Sammy doesn't like you more. You saved his life.” he commented, opening his bedroom door.

“I can understand. Sometimes distrusting strangers is easier than trusting them.” Cas commented idly He hadn't seen the top half of their home, and Dean glanced back to see him observing the large, open space, of Dean's room.

“You like?” He asked, setting Cas' bag down at the foot of the bed. “I've had it for a few years.” Cas nodded and looked down at the desk and bookshelf (It only had a few books).

“It's very neat. I like it.”

“Yeah, give me a few more weeks and it'll be messy.” Dean chuckled. “Ok, I'm going to grab some grub. I'm just gonna sleep in this shirt, but you get into those pajamas I lent you. Okay? Come meet me down stairs when you change.” Dean left the room and headed down to the kitchen to prepare a long awaited meal. It had been too long since he last ate.

He managed to forget he was going to share a bed with someone up until he and Cas went up to his room. It would've been fine, if Dean's bed was bigger. But as it was, in order for them to sleep comfortably, they were going to have to practically cuddle.

“Are you sure this is alright?” Cas asked once they settled down back to back.

“Yeah, man. It's fine. Just go to sleep, I gotta get up early tomorrow to help Bobby with the garden.” Dean sighed, sinking into his soft bed even more. It was turning to fall, and the air was growing colder every night. Often times the cold kept Dean awake, but now he had his own personal heater, and he fell asleep quicker than he had in years. It might have also been that he had the company of someone he trusted beside him, but we're going to pretend that it wasn't so he doesn't get insecure.

He was so sleepy he didn't even notice Cas had turned over and was now practically spooning him. He just slipped off.

Chapter Text

Dean awoke from the deepest rest he'd had in a long time, and sighed sleepily. He was too comfortable to move. He snuggled deeper into his bed and clutched his pillow tighter. It was then that he noticed his pillow was a little too firm to be a pillow, and he opened his eyes to find himself draped over Cas, who was sound asleep. Well that was rude, sleeping on top of a guest was hardly good social etiquette. Unfortunately, Cas took up most of the bed and Dean was on the side next to the wall, and he couldn't get out of bed without jostling Cas. So he stared at Cas' face a while, admiring the way the early morning sun fell across his face.

He shook his head slightly staring at the guest you're currently sharing a bed with is creepy, Dean he told himself. Time to move.

Dean opted for sliding as much off of Cas as he could, and turned so he was squished between the wall and Cas, his back towards the fairy. He grabbed the extra pillow that Cas wasn't using and shoved it under his head, snuggling back into the bed and drifting off once more. He still had some time before Bobby needed him. Besides which, If he didn't make it, Jo or Ellen could take his place

When Dean woke up again, Cas was draped over him instead, and it was well past the time he was supposed to be up and helping Bobby. Dean looked down at Cas and nudged his shoulder.

“Hey. Wake up.” Cas didn't move, but he grumbled quietly and snuffed, “Dude. I gotta pee, get up.” Cas blinked his eyes blearily before noticing he was using Dean as a pillow.

“Apologies.” Cas spoke, his voice sleep garbled. He slid off of Dean and sat up so Dean could crawl out of bed.

“Don't worry about it.” Dean told him. He left the room and headed to the bathroom, thinking about what he could make his guest for breakfast. He was going to make a feast, but in order to do that, he would have to go back to the campsite to grab some things from Jade. Ever since he started visiting Cas more often, she had been giving him different foods to try. He was determined to use Cas' favorites in the breakfast. or--lunch. whatever.

He stopped by his room to check on the fairy, to find him passed out on the bed once more. Perfect, he could leave and come back without Cas knowing. If he stayed asleep, that is. Dean smiled to himself quietly before heading down the stairs and out the door. This was going to be good.

___________________________

Cas woke up to the smell of food. Good food. He groaned and sat up, running his hands through his hair as he looked out the window to his left. The sun had been up for some time, and birds were scavenging in the distance. The river wasn't too far away, and Cas briefly wondered if it would be possible for him to swim today.

“Ah! Good, you're awake. Come on down stairs, I made breakfast!” Cas started slightly at the voice coming from the door. He looked over and saw Dean smiling brightly and leaning against the door frame.

“Aren't you supposed to be working?” He asked, his voice gravely.

“Nah. Slept through the deadline. Jo or Ellen will've taken my place. Come on, I made all of your favorites.” Dean continued smiling brightly as Cas squinted at him sleepily. Cas nodded minutely and slid out of bed, shuffling after Dean, who nearly hopped down the stairs in excitement.

“Most of my favorites come from Jade, so I doubt you've made all of my—“ Cas stopped short as he came into view of the table. Dean really did get all of his favorites. “Oh.” Cas walked over to examine the assorted foods.

“Yeah. I woke up a while ago, and you were still sleeping pretty soundly, so I paid Jade a visit real quick and hopped back here.” Dean smiled shyly, “What'dyou think?”

“Dean, this is wonderful, thank you. You didn't have—“

“Relax, I wanted too. 'sides which, most of what you like is what I like too.” Dean blushed slightly and Cas frowned. That was an interesting reaction. He sat down at one end of the table and really looked at the food.

“I doubt we can consume it all, especially with the large quantity you've acquired.” He commented, Dean sat down on the other side of the table.

“That's fine.” He waved a hand, “Sammy'll just eat what we don't. Besides, I eat enough for three, so there's nothing to worry about.” Dean rubbed his hands together in glee. “Let's dig in.”

They didn't finish off the food, and neither did Sam, so they brought Bobby, Ellen, and Jo over to eat it. Bobby was apprehensive over the strawberries, but liked the bacon pieces. Ellen liked the fruit, and Jo liked everything on the table. They stayed until it was dark out, talking and generally having a good time, before Cas suddenly felt and heard a buzzing in his head.

He leaned over, rubbing his temples and resting his elbows on his knees.

“Cas? You ok?” Someone—Dean—asked, their voice muddled. It sounded like they were speaking through water. Cas tilted his head, trying to alleviate the pressure that had now joined the buzzing.

The buzzing grew louder, and Cas thought he might've groaned in pain, but he wasn't sure, everything was so loud, and the pressure was too much, and he didn't know if he could handle it. Then there was pain. Just a dull ache, but it increased with the buzzing, until the buzzing was so loud he was sure it would burst his ear drums, and the ache began to stab. He was vaguely aware he was now kneeling on the ground, and someone was in front of him grabbing his shoulders, but it faded away quickly. The buzzing and aching started pulsing, and just when it reached a crest, a pain so horrible he was sure he would die, and a sound so loud he was sure he'd explode, he passed out.

And he dreamt.

or he thought he did, at first.

He was in a white room, Naomi was in front of him at a desk, looking pleased with herself.

“You're quite a way from home.” She said. Cas looked around the room in panic. No, no, no. this couldn't be happening. Naomi couldn't have taken him again, please, god no.

“You're still where you are. I just accessed your conscience.” Naomi commented. Cas looked back to her. “It was difficult. What have you done to your magic? It's....different. Tainted.” She spoke the last word with disgust.

“It's not tainted.” Cas growled, “It is as it was meant to be. Get out.”

“Not just yet. I want to talk with you.” She placed her arms cooly on her armrests. “You need to come home. We need you to fight against the body-jumpers, you are a most valuable warrior.”

“I wasn't a warrior.” Cas spat out, “I was a tool. You used me and rinsed me out like a disposable weapon. I will not return.” He approached the desk angrily, “You will not track me, you will not contact me, you will never see me again. Get out.” He pushed magic into the last statement, but not without difficulty. Naomi was trying her best to keep it at bay. Naomi flinched slightly, but relaxed again and laughed,

“You're not powerful enough to push me—“

“Get out!” Cas was livid, “get out, get out, get out, GET OUT!” he pushed as much magic into each statement as he could, and the room began shaking. Colors began to adorn the wall to his left, blue to purple to pink, and he continued his mantra.

“It won't work.” She yelled over his voice. “I'm too powerful. You need me, Castiel, your magic is weakened. This is what I warned you about. Come home. You need me, Castiel.” something pushed into his brain like a needle, and he doubled over, groaning. Maybe she was rig—

“No!” He yelled. he took a deep breath, and he tripled his efforts, reciting an incantation against mind magic. One he'd learned a long time ago, but had been forced into believing he didn't need to recite every day like the warriors were supposed to. Naomi started as her office began to fade out.

“You can't escape me forever!” Naomi yelled at him as she faded further.

“GET OUT!” Cas thought of everything he'd made and found for himself over the past two and a half weeks. In such a short time, he'd found a real family, and a safe place, and peace. Naomi would not, could not, take that from him. Just before she blipped out, he held on for a moment to utter a spell. One that would make it near impossible for her to find him or his mind again. He poured everything into it, and heard Naomi distantly screaming in frustration and anger. Good. That meant it worked.

The white room disappeared, and Cas was left in darkness for a moment, before he lost awareness and began to dream. Flashes of battle, grassy fields, gardens, people, flitted across his mind before he became distantly aware of a voice calling his name. He was confused. Who was calling him?

He headed towards the voice, and it gradually became louder, and the dreams began to fade.

He came to. He was leaning against something, his head propped up by two hands on either side of his face.

“Cas? Cas!”

He blinked his eyes open groggily, and saw Dean kneeling in front of him, a concerned look on his face.

“Cas!” He brushed Cas' cheek with his thumb, “Hey, you ok, buddy?” Cas frowned a moment, what was going on? He looked around the room to see four other worried faces peering at him.

“What happened?” He croaked. His voice was dry, why was it dry?

“You passed out for like three hours, we were scrambling around trying to figure out what happened. You ok?” Dean's voice softened as he spoke.

“I don't—“ Cas frowned as memories filtered into his mind, “Naomi.”

“Naomi?” A hard edge was adopted into Dean's tone, “The bitch that brain washed you?”

“Yes. She broke into my consciousness. I don't know how. She tried to convince me to come back. I suspect she was trying to use magic through the link to brain wash me into following her orders.” Cas leaned into one of Dean's hands, “I couldn't get out at first. She had a strong hold. It took every ounce of magic I possess to make her leave. I made sure she couldn't find me again too.” He slouched down further against the chair he was leaning on. “I'm exhausted.”

“You sure you're alright?” Bobby piped up. “It sure looked like you were in a lot of pain there.”

“I was.” Cas sighed, “The further away from Naomi I am, the harder it is for her to breach my mind without consent. She practically ripped apart the barriers that separate people's minds. It's healed now, it's incredibly durable, but I have a headache from the initial damage.” Cas placed a hand on Deans arm, “I'd like to sleep for three years now.” Dean frowned,

“Three years?”

“Not literally, Dean.” Cas smiled slightly. Dean chuckled quietly.

“Figures now is when you start trying to joke.” He took his hands off Cas' face and turned towards the others. “Alright, show's over, go home.” Jo and Bobby nodded, heading for the door without further ado. Ellen, however, stayed behind.

“I just wanna check him over once before I leave.” She said by way of explanation. Dean nodded and rose, making room for Ellen and slapping Sam on the arm. He and Sam had a quiet conversation, there was a lot of scowling on Dean's end, and Ellen poked and prodded his face and head.

“You gonna be ok?” She asked Cas, “You need me to go and teach someone a lesson?” Cas chuckled,

“Thank you, but no, she shouldn't bother me again. As for myself, I am uncertain. At the moment i'm too tired to contemplate whether or not I will be ok. But as for now, I am. Thank you for your concern.” Cas spoke quietly, his eyes drooping more as he spoke.

“Alright, I can see you're tired, so I'll leave you alone. Take care.” Ellen rose, said something to Dean and Sam, and left the house. Sam smiled at Dean and winked, before retreating to the stairs from Dean's whacking. Dean turned towards Cas.

“Alright, can you walk or do you need to be carried?” Dean asked.

“I don't think I need to be carried, but I would appreciate support for walking.” Cas replied.

“no it was—yeah ok.” Dean slipped a arm beneath Cas' shoulders and hefted him up, supporting near his full weight for the walk back to his room. Cas collapsed onto the bed for a moment, before he remembered Dean needed to sleep there too. He turned onto his side with difficulty, facing the room with his back to the wall. Dean changed into his pajamas, and Cas was vaguely aware he was watching, but he was to tired to do much else. Dean walked over to Cas, and threw another, heavier, blanket on top of him.

“Ellen said it was going to rain tonight.” He told him. Dean slipped under the covers and faced Cas, “You sure you're ok?”

“I-” Cas paused a moment. Physically, he was fine. But emotionally, he was terrified. Naomi had been so close. He shook his head slightly and Dean pulled him into a hug, keeping him securely against his chest. Neither one said anything, and eventually, Cas drifted off into peaceful sleep. Dean had him, it was ok.

______________________

Dean stood up from Cas to let Ellen take a prod at him, and walked over to Sam.

“Looks like he's gonna have to stay here tonight.” Dean told him.

“Alright.” Sam commented, smiling cheekily at Dean, “You going to cuddle with him again?”

“what?” Dean was startled.

“I walked by your room this morning on my way to the bathroom, you two were curled around each other like squirrels in the winter.” He chuckled, “It was actually kinda cute.”

“We are not cute, and we were not cuddled.” Dean scoffed. “My bed's small, we were just making up for lost space.”

“You were spooning.” Sam looked way too pleased with himself.

“Shut up.” He said viciously. “No we weren't—No arguments!” He pointed a finger at Sam. Just then, Ellen came up to them.

“It looks like its gonna rain tonight, boys. Make sure you bundle up.” She left the house and Sam winked at Dean and ran away before he could get a good hit in. He looked to Cas and internally sighed.

They had not cuddled.

Chapter Text

Ok, maybe they had cuddled a little bit.

Right now, Dean was curled around Cas, and Cas was burrowed into his chest. They were hiding under the large, fluffy blanket, and the sunlight was barely peering through the window. Cas had woken up in the middle of the night, thrashing and yelling about Naomi, and Dean wrapped him up in a hug again. Cas shivered for about twenty minutes before he fell asleep again.

Currently, Dean was awake and watching Cas sleep, creepy, he knew, but it was nice to see a relaxed expression on the normally frowning fairy. Dean sighed and looked out the window next to Cas, watching idly as birds swooped down to eat, and squirrels scattered across the ground. He watched the river for a while, before Cas began to stir.

Dean glanced down to see Cas blinking sleepily up at him.

“Mornin' sunshine.” Dean quickly, but gently, unwrapped his arms from around Cas' middle. Cas grumbled something in response before turning over to look out the window as well. He burrowed further into the blankets and let out a happy sigh.

“I apologize if I ruined your sleeping schedule in any way with my nightmare last night.” Cas murmured. A robin hopped around some rocks, pecking intermediately.

“Nah, it's ok. Sammy and I used to get 'em all the time. I'm used to waking up like that.” Dean replied. a wrentit joined the robin. The two had a conversation before returning to their respective pecking.

“I doubt either of you woke each other up by punching one another and screaming.” Cas retorted. Dean chuckled, the robin flew away.

“More often than you know.”

Cas turned his head to frown at Dean.

“Really?” he asked. Dean nodded and stretched.

“It was more me than Sam, I used to have nightmares about the fire that killed out mom.” Dean sighed, the wrentit got in a fight with a squirrel.

“I'm sorry.” Cas looked genuinely sorry for an event that took place more than twenty years ago.

“It's ok. Happened a long time ago, I'm over it now. I actually got over it somewhere around my preteens. Sammy never knew her, so he didn't really have nightmares about that.” Dean kept his voice quiet, a barely there rumble. the wrentit won the fight, the squirrel scampered away. “My dad though, he never got over it. Insisted the fire wasn't an accident, dragged my brother and me across the whole Colony. It wasn't until three or four years ago that he finally kicked the bucket and me and Sammy found this place.” Dean shifted uncomfortably as Cas kept his gaze fixed on him. “We continued hunting, 'cause that's all Dad taught us to do, but Ellen and Bobby taught us how to garden and take care of birds.” Dean smiled. Another robin took the place of the previous one.

“I'm glad you found a permanent home.” Cas smiled slightly and turned back to the birds. Dean nodded and absently wondered if Cas would consider making it his permanent home too. The neighborhood, not his house. They watched the birds peacefully for a moment, the robin shook dew from it's feathers once or twice, before a knock came from the front door. Dean sighed and slowly extricated himself from the warm bed. Sam wasn't going to get up, he slept like a brick.

The person at the door was a friend from a neighboring village.

“Hey, Ash.” Dean greeted. “What's up.”

“Hey amigo, listen, I don't know if you're aware of this, but we got some Giants pokin' around all the communities.” He pointed a thumb behind him, “The Protection Society's doing rounds, tellin folks to be careful. I figured i'd head on by your place first to avoid any repeats of...you know.”

“Yeah. I know. Thanks Ash. They actually visited that campsite over there first. If you need a good giant to talk to, there's a friendly one currently camping there.” Dean leaned against the door frame and scratched his head absently.

“A friendly giant!” Ash raised his eyebrows, “Wouldn't've thought you the type to befriend Giants, hombre. I'll let the PS know.” Ash scratched his face, “There's also a meeting tomorrow, at the Straight Arrow, the P.S. Wants everyone to come.” Ash smiled slightly, “Who knows, maybe you'll pick up someone who doesn't know your reputation?” Dean chuckled.

“Yeah. Maybe.” Somewhere in his subconscious, though, a little voice said he wouldn't, nor would he want to. Ash nodded and chuckled.

Ash turned around and waved over his shoulder at Dean, “Adios, see you tomorrow, Dean!”

he hopped on a Crow with a blue ribbon tied around its neck, and took off.

“What was that about?” a voice said behind him. Dean jumped and spun around.

“Jeeze, Sammy. When'd you become so sneaky? It was Ash. Apparently those douche bags that were by Jade's site are going around the whole Colony.”

“Really?” Sam raised an eyebrow. “Huh. Well, i'm gonna make some tea, you want some?”

“Yeah, sure. Put some on for Cas too, dude didn't sleep too well last night.”

“Really? Was it cause you were hugging him so tight he couldn't breath?” Sam asked gleefully. Dean glared at Sam.

“Shut up, bitch.”

“Whatever, jerk.” Sam smiled and shook his head, chuckling to himself.

“What, you got something to say, chuckles?”

“Nah, nothing. Don't worry about it.” Sam continued with his tea making and chuckling. Dean frowned and just shook his head. Weirdo.

As it turned out, Cas didn't need the tea. Because he slept. For the entire day. Dude wasn't kidding when he said he was exhausted. Dean woke him up somewhere around noon to give him some water, and he got the mother of all death glares. Cas accepted the water, but he fell asleep immediately after he handed the cup back to Dean.

Dean spent most of the day gardening, and the rest of it making sure Cas was ok.

Sam spent the whole day teasing Dean.

(Dean may have squeezed in some much needed whacking-of-Sam into his schedule)

At the end of the day, two or three hours before sunset, Dean woke Cas up, concerned that he wouldn't be able to sleep that night if he slept anymore. Cas grumbled at first, but then his stomach gurgled over him and he relented. He shuffled down the stairs slowly, his hair sticking up at every angle known to man, fairy, and gnome, and melted into a dining room chair. Dean found it adorable.

Cas was silent for most of the meal they ate, (Nuts and berries and leftover bacon) but near the end, he cleared his throat.

“I should probably head back to Jade's for tonight.” Dean nearly choked.

“What?” Dean set down his bacon, “Why?”

“Because I am taking up space in your bed. And I, as you say, hogged your room the entire day. I just thought it might be time you got your privacy and space back.” Cas stated.

“Y-yeah, but I mean, I don't really mind, i'm used to it, i've never really had my own space, cause I grew up with Sam in my space all the time and—“ Dear god he was babbling, “It doesn't bother me so much anymore—“ he got a look from Sam, “But uh, I understand if you want your own, uh, privacy and uh space. So yeah. That's uh.” Dean trailed off uncomfortably, and resumed stuffing his face with food, maybe with a little more gusto than necessary. Cas just watched him with a confused look on his face, his head tilted to the side. Sam looked like he was trying (and failing hard) to contain a smile.

“I brought it up because I have no means of getting to Jade's camp on my own, as i'm too tired to fly myself, I was hoping you would fly me there.” Cas continued, choosing to ignore Dean's fumbling. Dean had too much food in his mouth and he looked to Sam for rescue.

“Uh, yeah, sure thing. I'll fly you Cas, how about that?” Sam replied.

“I would like that. Thank you.” And the two continued eating as though Dean hadn't done anything embarrassing.

It was around the time that Cas was helping them wash the dishes that Dean finally spoke again.

“Oh, hey uh, there's a safety meeting thing at a bar tomorrow. It's about the humans that are stomping around the Colonies. Apparently they're looking at other campsites too. Do you uh, do you wanna come?” Dean kept his eyes diligently glued to the plates in front of him.

“I would love to.” Dean spared a glance and relaxed when he saw the tentative smile on Cas' face. “Thank you for inviting me.” Cas caught his eye and held contact for a moment or two. Dean mumbled something under his breath in reply, and went back to washing. Noting out of the corner of his eye that Sam was smirking slightly.

 _________________________

If Sam noticed anything...different, about the way his brother and Cas were acting around each other, he wasn't going to say anything.

At least, not out right.

Smirks and smiles didn't count. Neither did chuckles.

When Sam dropped Cas off at Jade's camper, he stuck around a little bit, to see if he could get more info on the guys who came by two days before. And Jade helpfully supplied information.

“Hey Cas, Sam.” She greeted them. She was sitting down at her table, a notebook and pen laid out in front of her. “Where'd you go last night, Cas? I missed ya.”

“Sick!” He yelled. Sam slid off of Peaches, (Balthazar didn't like him much) and wandered over to where Cas was standing near Jade's head.

“Really?” She looked concerned, “Are you ok now?” Cas held up his hand in a certain way and she nodded. Sam was confused. “Well, I'm glad you're back and ok, but I don't know if you can stay here. That car drove by twice today already, so the rangers are setting up a more permanent station here. They're going to have someone camping with me. Her name's Jody, she's super nice, but I don't think she knows about fairies. Sorry.” Jade made a sympathetic face, “You'll have to stay where ever you were staying before for a little while longer. I can send you home with some food, though.” She reached over behind them to grab a cloth bigger than her palm twice over that was tied at the top. “I know it's kinda big, but it's got a lot of the stuff you like in it and I wanted to make sure you had enough to last a while.” She shrugged. Cas looked slightly terrified.

“Should I take it?” Cas asked Sam.

“The food?” Sam turned towards the confused, but touched fairy, “i mean, we'll probably have to get it to the community in more than one trip, but yeah, it's a gift so you should definitely take it.”

“Why would we have to take more than one trip?” Cas tilted his head.

“Because Peaches can't carry that big a load.” Sam frowned. How was this lost on the fairy?

“Why don't we just have Jade carry it to the community?” He asked. Sam blanched.

There was no way in hell, heaven, or earth, that he was letting a human near the community. Even a nice one.

“Are you serious?” Sam was incredulous. “I am not letting a human anywhere near my home—No I don't care how kind she is—my little brother was taken by humans. So excuse me if I'm a little apprehensive.” Cas unleashed the Ultimate Bitch Face™ onto Sam and, very patiently, addressed him in a low voice,

“I understand that you have had bad experiences with humans, but you cannot judge and entire race from four individuals. Who, by the way, Jade herself is afraid of. She is afraid for her life, and her safety, maybe even more so than you.” The patience Cas exhibited at the beginning of the sentence started running out, “and maybe, if it were a different human, I would agree with you. But considering that she saved my life, and showed me kindness that i've never been shown before in my entire 185 years of existence, I have to disagree. Get over your biased prejudices, Sam, we have an ally. Do not push her away.” he ended the sentence in a growl.

Cas was somewhat shy and confused most of the time, but right then, he was downright terrifying. Sam's heart was pounding in his chest, and every instinct was screaming at him to run.

“Alright.” Sam replied quietly. “Ok, but just, can we have her drop it off near the community, not in it? I don't think Bobby would be too happy about this.” His heart skyrocketed as he proposed the idea, but Cas' hard expression lifted up a bit.

“That would be amiable.” He replied. “I suggest you get on Peaches, I'm going to ask Jade to follow us.”

Cas told Jade to follow them, and climbed up behind Sam. The two took off, and through hopping along trails and taking the long way, they led her to the river bank, where a large cluster of trees and bushes made up the area around Sam and Dean's community. Sam landed Peaches a good distance (a couple of feet for Jade, but a long way for gnomes) away from the cluster. She set the bag down according to Cas' instruction, and left them with a wave and a jaunty smile.

Sam was still apprehensive about the whole ordeal, but he kept it to himself.

Bobby was livid.

“You did what?” He looked angry and incredulous and ready to throw a punch.

“We let a well trusted individual help bring food to the community.” Cas replied, the same cool tone he used with Sam now turned on Bobby.

“Yeah, but a human?” Bobby shook his head, “I don't know how trustworthy they are.” He held up a hand to stop Cas repeating the earlier speech, “I understand you trust her, but try not to lead her any closer. Or over here in general again, alright?” With that, he turned and left Sam and Cas, who were standing near Jo's house with the bag that Peaches had dutifully dragged across the ground the rest of the way with Balthazar's help.

“I'm just glad we get more bacon.” Dean muttered from his perch on the blue jay. Cas turned to Dean and smiled, and Sam watched on with rapt interest.

Maybe Dean had found a good friend for once.

He watched still as the two held eye contact for a little too long, before Dean turned away and scratched the back of his neck. He offered to give Cas a ride back to their house, but Cas politely declined, explaining that Jo offered her spare bed. Dean nodded and seemed to blush slightly, before stuttering a goodbye and flying off, leaving Sam to walk the long way home.

Or maybe not.

Chapter Text

The next day, Dean, Sam, Cas, Jo, and Ellen headed for the Straight Arrow. Sam and Jo rode Peaches, Dean and Cas rode Balthazar, and Ellen rode a squirrel named Butter. Needless to say, Ellen arrived last. Bobby was already at the meeting, having headed there earlier in the morning. Dean decided that waiting outside for Ellen was ridiculous, so he walked inside the bar. Cas followed.

And boy was there a surprise waiting for him inside.

He and Dean were sitting at the bar, waiting for drinks, when Cas suddenly perked up and a look of disbelief slapped him across the face. Dean frowned.

“What is it?” He asked. He received no reply. instead, Cas got up and nearly ran to the other side of the room, where a group of people were enraptured by a blond man telling a story. Dean watched as Cas approached, and the man suddenly stopped speaking to leap up from his seat and rush over. The two met in the middle and hugged fiercely, and the rest of the bar watched on in mild interest for a moment before returning to their respective conversations.

------------------------------------

Of all things that could have happened, seeing Gabriel across the room was the most unexpected and welcoming.

Cas had been enjoying his water, just idly casting his eye about the room and taking in the various types of Fae that were there, when his eyes landed on his cousin. His cousin, that had been missing from Heaven's Gate for over fifty years, that Naomi and many others had searched far and wide for, that was just casually sitting in a bar, telling strangers what looked like a hilarious story.

He barely heard Dean ask him a question as he leapt up from his seat and rushed over to where Gabriel was sitting. As he came over, his eyes never left the blond, and golden eyes met his and lit up with recognition and delight. He stopped mid-sentence and jumped up, coming over to Cas and crushing him in a hug that Cas returned with all his strength.

“Cassie!” Gabriel muffled happily into his shoulder. They stood there for a while, neither letting go or letting up on the pressure in the slightest.

“Gabriel.” Cas sighed, “I thought you were dead.” his voice choked, “We all did.” They swayed slightly, “I never thought i'd see you again.” Gabriel chuckled without amusement and pulled his head back to look Cas in the eye,

“Not dead, as you can see.” He sighed happily, but then his face darkened slightly, “Please tell me your not still working for Naomi.” He searched Cas' eyes worriedly, as though he could see into his mind.

“No. I'm not.” Cas smiled fully for the first time in years, and huffed a laugh “I'm free.” Gabriel returned the smile and pulled Cas back in for a tighter hug, and Cas felt tears pricking his eyes for some reason. Happiness, maybe, and relief, definitely. He heard someone clear their throat and noticed Dean standing near by with an eyebrow raised in question.

“Ah. Gabriel,” Cas pulled back, but kept an arm around Gabriel, who also left one of his arms on Cas' shoulder. “This is Dean, he's a friend of mine. Dean, this is my cousin, Gabriel. I believe I told you about him.”

“Cassie, you been telling stories about me?” Gabriel smiled up at Cas and turned back to Dean, holding up a hand to block his face on the side Cas was on. He stage whispered to Dean, “All good things is what I should say I hoped for, but considering that I'm not interested in doing good things, that's probably not the case.” he ended the sentence with a wink and leaned back towards Cas, both let their arms slip from each other as Ellen, Sam, and Jo approached.

“Well who's this?” Ellen asked, eyeing Gabriel suspiciously.

“Gabriel Steward, at your service.” Gabriel bowed down and took Ellen's hand, kissing it and letting it drop as Ellen remained unamused.

“Uh huh.” She said, eyeing him even more suspiciously. Gabriel shrugged and turned to Jo,

“And who is this lovely flower?”

“A lovely flower that will punch you in the face if you ever use pet names again.” Jo replied sweetly, a sharp smile on her face. Gabriel chuckled and raised his hands in surrender, finally turning to Sam.

“Who's the Sasquatch?” he asked. Sam gave an unamused bitch face and huffed,

“My name's Sam.” He turned to ask Dean something, but Gabriel interrupted.

“Ah! So a Sam-squatch then.” he smiled at Sam's absolutely unamused and irritated face and turned to Cas. “This reunion was lovely, but the meeting's starting, and I have an assigned seat, so catch ya later!” with that, he disappeared into thin air, and the immediate people around him startled in surprise, apart from Cas, that is.

“What the fuck was that?” Dean said, his voice on edge.

“Fairies can fly at high speeds, such that it can sometimes look like we've disappeared into thin air, but only if you're powerful like Gabriel. Normally you can see some movement before we disappear from view.”

“Wouldn't you fly like—” Dean made a motion with his hand, “—Into people or something?”

“No.” Castiel looked around the room at the people moving towards a set of double doors in the back, “We use magic to avoid that. It's hard to explain. We should head into the meeting room, it's starting.” With that, Cas left the four gaping fae to stand awkwardly before moving with the crowd.

The meeting was important, but boring. It was almost like colony officials possessed the ability to cast spells over the most interesting, dangerous, exciting topics and make them more tedious than watching a tree grow. That is, until Gabriel got up. He was a look out for the P.S., and because he could fly without birds, he could hide more places. Not to mention he had magic, and could make himself invisible at will. “Fairies can do that?” “Yes Dean, I'll tell you later what else we can do to. Pay attention, this is important.”

Gabriel had seen the four individuals with their black car waiting until people had left their campsites to invade the areas with devices. Gabriel said they were using the devices to look for the communities, and though they hadn't found any yet, they had gotten close once or twice before Gabriel caused a distraction.

He was suggesting the different ways they could prevent the humans from finding them, many of which involved moving across the river (No one liked those suggestions), when someone burst through the double doors, disheveled and injured, and sopping wet.

“They found us!” they shouted, and their voice broke at the last word. They stumbled down the line of chairs, their gangly arms and legs making it look like a new born dear trying to walk. “They found a community! They took everyone, everyone's gone.” they collapsed to the ground and sobbed, “They took my family. My friends. I only barely managed to escape by jumping into the river.” someone got up from their seat and crouched next to the fae, placing a hand on their back.

“What happened, Garth?” they said softly.

“They—“ He hiccuped, “They were nearby, but we thought we were safe, ya know? We were concealed by bushes and foliage and such,” He sobbed a bit more, “They pointed something at our community, and it made this—this shrill sound, and then they just surrounded us. They threw a net over our entire community, I slipped out along the edge just as it fell down.” he placed his head in his hands, “It was weighted. I couldn't get my family out. They told me to leave, and I almost didn't.” he broke down, and two or three more people surrounded him to comfort the broken man, including Ellen and Bobby.

Cas looked concerned and angry, as did most of the community.

But Dean and Sam?

They were livid.

The two brothers rose from their seats with a deadly furious calm, and Cas just barely followed them in time.

“Dean?” Cas tried to keep up, but they were so tall, their strides so long, he kept stumbling. “Sam?” neither one responded, they only approached Peaches with hard determination.

“Dean!” Cas tried again, raising his voice. The brothers snapped out of their focus for a moment. “Where are you going?”

“We're going to hunt those bastards down.” Dean replied, his voice hard.

“How?” Cas asked. “With what? Your weapons? Those are like twigs to them. You won't do anything but get yourself captured, injured, or killed.” Cas huffed in disbelief, “I understand you're upset, but that is no reason to go making such—such....idiotic decisions!”

“Do you?” Dean asked, his face frowning, “Do you understand? We lost our brother to those bastards, how can you possibly understand?”

There was a beat of dead silence, and before Dean could say anything Cas spoke in a quiet voice.

“'How can I possibly understand?'?” Cas' voice had a dangerous edge to it, “I lost my only siblings and countless cousins, not to mention how many of those were killed by careless or sinister humans.” Cas grabbed Dean by the shirt collar and hauled him up, “Do not ask me how I can possibly understand. I have lost more family, more friends, than you ever have in your pitiful, short, life.” Sam started in the corner of Cas' eye, and he froze the goblin with a glare. “I am a warrior, a tactician. So trust me when I say, you're being stupid. This will only end in death, or capture. Capture being the worst option for you.” Cas was furious, and unbeknownst to him, his eyes were glowing a slight blue.

Dean looked down with scared eyes, nodding as best he could with his shirt collar choking him, and Cas dropped him. Cas walked back into the building, trusting that he had made his point and that the brothers wouldn't do anything stupid.

Unfortunately, Cas didn't know the Winchesters, and they climbed up on Peaches as soon as he entered the bar.

----------------------------------

Dean knew Cas was right, on some level, so he voted for keeping his distance, but he wasn't going to give up completely on taking these bastards down. Sam agreed with Dean, though neither said anything to one another. They watched as the team of humans loaded small boxes with mosquito nets on top into the trunk of their car, the voices of the fae crying out the entire time. Dean felt anger stirring deep inside, anger that he couldn't do anything, and an anger that almost convinced him to ride Peaches down to gouge the human's eyes out. Sam touched his shoulder, and he looked behind him to see Sam had a similar angry expression.

They opted for following the car.

The car drove along back roads, and at one point, turned onto a dirt path that was probably meant to be only for the rangers or hikers. They drove along the path until they came to a section where the trees on the right parted enough for a car to squeeze through, and squeeze through they did. They drove over uneven terrain, weaving through the trees until they came to a campground that was hidden by surrounding trees and bushes. It wasn't an official campsite, but there were tents and trailers set up in the clearing.

There were tables under awnings, and lining those tables, were boxes and equipment. The boxes had more Fae in them, though all of them were from across the river.

“There goes Gabriel's foolproof plan of moving across the river to get away from them.” Dean muttered to Sam.

“Well, they didn't know the humans were here.” Sam whispered back, “And there are bridges and shallows they can walk across. You know how those fae are, they were probably caught because of their own stupidity. Gabriel's plan might still work.” Dean scoffed and kept his eye on the humans, when Peaches decided to start helpfully cawing to another crow in a different tree. One of the human's heads snapped up to find the origin of sound.

The brothers ducked down and laid flat on Peaches, hoping they were far enough away and at an angle that they wouldn't be seen. Dean's heart pounded, and on his back he could feel Sam's racing too. Peaches continued to obliviously have a conversation with the other crow, and eventually two or three more joined in.

“Damn crows.” One of the humans said, “It's like they know we're not supposed to be here.”

Which was hilarious, considering the crows were having a conversation about the best places to get worms, and not, in fact, the humans hiding out in the middle of the forest. Dean carefully tugged on Peaches' reigns, and caused her to fly upwards some before flying away. The entire time, his legs felt weak with the fear the the humans might have some how seen them.

Once they were a considerable distance away, Sam spoke up.

“That was too close.” he said.

“Tell me about it.” Dean muttered, “At least we know where home base is; And they haven't taken the other fae away yet either. We can still rescue them.” Sam hummed a non committal sound, and after a moment said,

“Cas is going to be pissed we went.”

“Mmm.”

“Let me know how that goes.”

“What?” Dean glanced back.

“Unless I heard wrong, you were the one who insulted him.” Sam replied, “You were also the one that he picked up and glowed at.”

“Yeah, that was pretty freaky.” Dean replied, “What do you think that was, magic?”

“What else was it going to be Dean, bio luminescence?” even without looking, Dean knew Sam was directing a bitch face at him.

“I don't know what that is, dude. I swear, you find one book that a human left behind, and now you think you're an expert.”

“It wasn't just one, there were two. Granted, the second one was a romance novel, but the first one was a—a stiens, a skense—“

“See, you can't even remember what it was called!” Dean maneuvered Peaches around a tight cluster of trunks.

“That's because someone took the book and threw it into the river!” Sam sounded exasperated, “I didn't even get to finish reading it.”

“Ha!” Dean considered himself the champion of the argument, and landed Peaches down in front of Jo's house. Jo wasn't home yet, and neither were Bobby or Ellen, but as soon as Peaches' feet scraped the ground, Cas was standing next to them, his face completely blank.

Dean and Sam glanced to each other, before Dean slapped on a smile,

“Cas! Hey, how's it going? Sammy and I were just looking around for some berries. We're running low, you know—“

“You followed them.” Cas said.

“What? N-Nah, no we didn't. We didn't follow the humans, right Sammy?” Dean twisted around to look at his brother.

“It's Sam.” was the only thing he had to say. Real helpful there, Sammy.

“You followed them, after I told you not to.” Cas' voice hardly changed in pitch or tone.

“W-well. Yeah, maybe.” Dean stayed on Peaches' back, using his perch as a false sense of security.

“Admittedly, you did not get captured, killed, or injured, but it was still a highly stupid move on your part.” Cas continued, and he stopped to sigh shortly, “Did you learn anything of use?” this completely threw Dean, and it took him a moment before he could reply.

“Uh, uh yeah. We found their home base, they're keeping the fae there. Most of the fae they have are those monstrosities from across the river. I don't think the place they're staying at is anything official either.” Dean explained. Sam hopped off Peaches.

“We should alert Jade, so she can tell the Park Rangers. I don't think what these humans are doing follows their laws.” Cas replied. “I'm still frustrated you went, after I requested—“

“—Requested? More like demanded—“

“—requested that you stay behind.” Cas finished, raising his voice over Dean's. “I would appreciate it, if you are going to continue on such endeavors, that you would alert me and bring me along with you.” Cas looked to Dean imploringly, “I have magic, I can give you some form of protection, not to mention I could potentially cause them some sort of harm if need be.” Dean nodded, still worried Cas was going to bust out his magic to show Dean just how frustrated he was. Cas looked back towards the direction of the Straight Arrow.

“Ellen and Bobby are still comforting Garth, Jo went home with Ash to look over the map and decide what kind of scouts they should put out.” He looked back to Dean and frowned, “Are you going to get off of Peaches, or do you plan to live the rest of your life up there?”

Dean went scarlet and scrambled off the bird, unsaddling her and letting her roam free.

“So, what's our game plan?”

Chapter Text

~hey guys, just a quick thing

i started school a few weeks ago, and while i have the plot out lined i haven't written anything new yet

this is just here to let you know i will be trying to update at least once a week, but considering that i quite literally did not sleep last night or the night before, i won't be adding a chapter until later this week

i will try to keep it weekly after i catch up on sleep

thanks for reading my story babes~

Chapter Text

Their game plan was stupid.

Not in the way that it wasn't well strategized, or that they hadn't thought out all the steps, no. It was stupid because they forgot to factor in the small detail that the humans had the ability to catch and sense smaller things through electronics. Nor did they count on the humans having an alarm system.

They had flown Peaches down to the sight, and waited for the humans to drive away. They flew down to the boxes and were just starting to figure out how to open them when the humans came back. They barely made it onto Peaches.

The humans shot the crow with something.

She started flying haphazardly, and Dean landed her next to a wooded trail. The three scrambled off the bird and started hiking away, once they made sure another crow was nearby to take care of her. Of course, this left the humans plenty of time to start catching up to them.

“I can see them, they're at the head of the trail.” Cas panted, “We need a plan!” He was not going to get Dean and Sam captured for his ignorance.

“What can we do? They can sense us even when we're hiding,” Sam huffed back, “the most we can do is jump off the side of the cliff.” Cas frowned and thought hard. He spent so much time looking at the ground thinking he hadn't noticed he'd stopped walking until Dean stood in front of him and shook him.

“Cas!” Dean frowned at him, and Cas responded in kind, before a solution struck him.

“Dean, do you trust me?” he asked, placing a hand on Dean's left shoulder.

“What?”

“Do you trust me?” Cas repeated. He needed to do this before the humans could see.

“Yeah, 'course I do.” Dean's frown deepened, “Why do you a—“

Before Dean could finish, Cas focused all his magic and energy into himself and Dean, and with a feeling that felt like he was exploding from the inside out, he spoke a spell.

There was a blinding flash.

And he leaned forwards into Dean.

And then Dean began to quietly freak out.

“Cas....?” he whispered. “Cas, what did you do?” Cas could feel Dean's heartbeat where his forehead was resting. With a deep breath, Cas leaned back and looked around himself.

The spell had worked.

He and Dean were human sized.

He quickly leaned down to the ground and found Sam, who was still little, and he scooped the man up in a large palm and dropped him in a jacket pocket.

“We need to change our clothes. Humans don't wear furs anymore.” Cas explained. Dean was still surveying the area around him.

“Dean.” Cas walked in front of the dazed man and placed his hand on his shoulder again. Dean jumped back and yelped like he was burned. “Are you okay?” Cas asked.

“Yeah. That was weird it felt like you burned me.” Dean cleared his throat and looked around. “okay. Okay. Human sized. Okay. We need different clothes. How are we going to do that?” Dean looked to Cas and Cas spoke another spell, one that was commonly used among fairy-folk when they enbiggened for a mission (i'm aware that enbiggened is not a word, but it's a description my mother uses sometimes and I thought it was funny, as well as a good description), and their clothes were swapped out for what might be acceptable hiking clothing for humans.

Jeans, a shirt, and a green jacket over a flannel for Dean, and jeans, a shirt, and an army jacket for Cas. Cas peeked into his inside pocket to find Sam alive and well, if not a little alarmed. Dean was busy looking at and jumping around in his hiking boots, as it was nothing like the foot wear he'd grown up with.

“Are they uncomfortable?” Cas asked. Dean looked up sharply,

“Huh? Oh, uh, no. no. they're just....different. If not more comfortable than what I was wearing before.” Dean's head snapped up and Cas spun around as he heard the sound too: the sound of a woman in the distance loudly complaining—

“Why do we have to wear suits? We're literally in the middle of the forest, if we wanted to blend in, we'd be sensible and wear normal clothes.”

Dean and Cas glanced at each other and started hiking up the trail, working up a sweat and waiting anxiously for the humans in suits to pass by. The humans caught up, and quieted down with their discourse about suits as they passed by Cas and Dean on their left. Cas was the closest to them, at the ready to throw a spell if for whatever reason they found out they weren't human. They passed by without a hitch.

Or at least, Cas and Dean thought they did.

It wasn't until they were well out of sight and earshot that they found something wrong. Cas checked his pocket for Sam, only to find that the gnome was gone.

“Dean.” Cas' voice was tight and urgent. Dean stopped dead and turned around slowly to see Cas peering into his pocket. He looked up at Dean and said in a quiet tone,

“He's gone.”

---------------------------

Sam was ecstatic. His plan worked. Of course, the plan was thought up on the fly, but so far it had been successful.

As soon as Cas had started hiking, Sam crawled out of the pocket and used zippers, buttons, and pockets to climb to a place where he could easily jump from. Now all he had to do was wait. The humans passed by, and he launched himself onto the nearest one, which wasn't hard considering how small the trail was.

Now he was hanging onto the back of a suit jacket, using a small hole he'd sliced into it as a hand hold.

“Hang on a second, boss.” one of the women, the blonde one, said. The suit jacket stopped walking, and Sam was scooped up so suddenly that he dropped his knife.

“Shit!” he tried to struggle out of the hand only to be dropped unceremoniously into a glass container with a net for a lid. He sat up and rubbed his head, looking through the distorted glass.

Four pairs of eyes surrounded and peered at him.

“Looks like we caught on of those little buggers that was spying on us.” the man said, his voice had a weird ping to it and was muffled through the glass. “i bet they were hiding on those two hikers we passed, this one probably jumped on me when we brushed by.” the man leaned closer and squinted, “you know,” he paused, “I think this is the brother of that other one we took.”

“The one who's always screaming vengeance?” the shortest woman said in a flat tone, “yeah, I think so too. Isn't he always talking about how his brothers' are gonna come and get us for taking him?”

“Been that way for a year.” the man commented. “Let's take that side trail up ahead back, i'd rather not have those two hikers get suspicious enough to call someone.”

“You mean, more suspicious than they already are.” the other black haired woman said, “We're running around in suits, how more suspicious can we get?”

“You're right.” the man straightened up, “we should change.” he gestured with his hand and the blonde woman stuck the jar into her jacket. Sam couldn't see anything anymore.

“What?” it sounded like the shorter woman, “I say something about it and you have nothing to say, Ruby makes a comment and now you're all gung-ho? What's up with that?” Sam tuned out the rest of the conversation. It wasn't exactly what he'd planned, but at least now he had a sure shot of getting to where Adam was.

Even if it meant being captured.

------------------------------

“Stupid, stupid, stupid!” Dean paced the trail, pausing briefly to let a family pass by before he began again. “why would he do something so stupid, how could he do something so stupid!” Dean ran his hands ferociously through his hair and looked up to the sky, breathing deeply.

“Ok. ok. It's fine. We're big now, we can just wait for the humans to leave again and we can just stroll up and take the boxes. Sam'll be in one of 'em, right?” Dean looked to Cas, who was standing to the side, a frown on his face and a hand against his mouth, the other hand across his torso to hold his elbow up.

“if we go to the camp, their sensors will be triggered. Not to mention they would discover that we're at the very least a couple of humans that are aware of Fae. In which case they'll probably apprehend us and interrogate us for information. Should they discover that we're Fae, however, that could mean something much worse for us.” Cas looked up to see an angry and disbelieving Dean, “But, I think if we wait long enough after they leave the campsite we could probably at least get away with Sam.” Dean relaxed some and nodded, looking down the trail for a moment.

“So, you guys can get big, huh?” He asked, looking back and raising an eyebrow at Cas.

“Yes.” Cas sighed, “It's a closely guarded secret, i'd appreciate if you didn't tell anyone. Not to mention that other Fae have been trying to copy or extract that ability from fairies for as long as we have existed.”

“Extract?” Dean questioned. Cas looked sadly at Dean and jerked his head towards the beginning of the trail.

“We should pick up Peaches and head towards the humans' site.” Dean agreed and the two walked down the trail, taking a minute or two to convince the crows guarding Peaches that they were, in fact, Peaches' friends.

By the time they'd made it back to the Human's site, it was quite a bit later.

There was no trace of them.

There was no chance of getting Sam back.

Dean screamed and took his frustration out on the surrounding foliage.

Chapter Text

Dean collapsed onto the ground near a ruined bush and let his arms drop on either side of himself, not bothering to wipe or hide the tears coming from his eyes. He didn't move for a long time.

Dean stared blankly at the dirt in front of him, didn't notice the birds, didn't notice the mist hanging in the air that told of future fog to come, didn't notice Cas trying to get his attention, didn't notice the smell of wet dirt and wood. It wasn't worth noticing. He'd lost both his brothers, both his responsibilities, all he had in life was them and now they were both gone. What reason did he ha—

Cas laid a hand on his left shoulder. It burned like a hot coal, and the pain snapped Dean out of his head. It sent him crashing back to reality, and he could suddenly smell the trees and hear the birds and see the intensity of the blue eyes looking into his and how—

“What the hell?” Dean's voice was raw. He looked between his arm and Cas' hand, “Why does it keep doing that?” He shrugged off the first jacket, letting it fall to the ground. He tried and nearly tore the second one off, becoming increasingly annoyed with the layers. He threw it down to the side. Dean finally lifted the sleeve of his shirt and revealed a big, red, hand print on his shoulder. It was raised and swollen, like someone had slapped him really hard with a metal brand in the shape of a hand. Dean poked at it gingerly and winced.

“What the hell man?” He looked to Cas, who was looking on with morbid curiosity.

“I don't know. As far as i'm aware, that's where I touched you when I performed the spell, but, it should not have done that,” He reached out and glanced at Dean for permission. When it was granted, he carefully moved Dean's hands away and examined the mark.

Cas frowned a minute or two, his eyes squinted and brow furrowed in concentration, before he let his hands fall away with a displeased hum,

“It seems I may have burned magic into you.” he stated, “Which shouldn't be possible. I apologize.” he seemed mournful.

“it's fine, dude. What's a little extra magic?” Dean cover his arm up and started donning the jackets he'd thrown off.

“It's not fine.” Cas' voice was tight, “It's—“ sigh “—You know what, it doesn't matter right now. We have bigger problems at hand.” Cas stood from his crouch and offered his hand to Dean. Dean vetoed the help and stood by himself, taking a deep breath as he looked around the ruined sight.

“Alright.” he murmured, his eyes scanning for any details they might've missed. “Alright. We can do this.” he was muttering to himself, “We got this. We can get them, we can get Adam and Sam back.” He paused a moment or two, thinking. He finally turned to Cas, a determined look on his face,

“Let's find Sammy.”

-------------------------------

Cas stood nearby, frowning in concentration at the surrounding area. He had noticed Dean was crying for some time now, but he wasn't sure what to do, not to mention that he didn't get the impression that Dean wanted to be comforted. Eventually Dean had been silent and still for long enough that Cas became concerned. He crouched next to him and touch his shoulder lightly. Dean didn't respond. Cas moved to the front of Dean, trying once more to grab his attention by touching his shoulder, the left on now. Dean reacted like he'd been burned again, and it seemed to shock Dean out of whatever speechless state he was in.

“What the hell?” Dean's voice was scratched from crying, “Why does it keep doing that?” Dean struggled out of his jackets and lifted his shirt sleeve, and revealed a large, red, hand mark. Cas stomach sunk at the sight. Please let it not be what he thought it was.

“What the hell man?” Dean glanced at Cas, and Cas was slowly dying inside as he tried to logic through other reasons why there was a red mark on Dean's arm.

“I don't know. As far as i'm aware, that's where I touched you when I performed the spell, but, it should not have done that,” Cas' heart raced as he reached out, stopping only to seek permission. He carefully touched the mark and the area around it, before he concentrated and performed a magical examination.

Cas sent pulsing magic through and examined the gnome, his mind becoming alarmed when he found his magic wound tightly around the very essence of Dean. It was incorporated throughout the entirety of him, and seemed to have stitched itself in very thoroughly. He took a shallow breath and turned the examination inwards, finding a similar state within himself.

He and Dean had swapped essences, and it seemed that the part of Cas' essence that was now inside of Dean was very happy to be there, and vice versa. This was bad, he'd accidentally started a bond with Dean. Shit.

He closed off the examination and took a quiet, steadying, breath.

“It seems I may have burned magic into you.” He stated. “Which shouldn't be possible. I apologize.” Maybe if he apologized right off the bat Dean wouldn't be so mad.

“It's fine, dude. What's a little extra magic?” Dean began dressing again, seemingly ignoring the life shattering statement Cas had just made, he was probably so upset he couldn't even address it.

“It's not fine.” he paused, on the verge of tears. Maybe Dean just didn't understand. That was more likely, “it's—“ he sighed, if Dean didn't understand that might be better. He had enough things on his plate without finding out he was practically attached to Cas for the rest of his life. “—You know what, it doesn't matter right now. We have bigger problems at hand.” He rose from the ground and offered a hand that wasn't taken. The back of his mind supplied that Dean didn't want to touch him because he was disgusted with the bond. The front argued. He ignored them.

Dean was muttering to himself as he glanced around the site, encouragements, it seemed, and he turned to Cas, his face set with determination.

“Let's find Sammy.”

-------------------------

It had been a while since Jade had heard anything from Castiel. Which, she hoped was because he'd found a better place to stay and the rangers being present, and not because those slimy suit wearing bastards had caught him. She was currently enjoying a cup of tea in the overcast afternoon, watching the birds fly and listening to them sing about the coming rain. A faint mist was creeping through the campsite, and worms were starting to come out of the ground.

She glanced at the road and did a double take. There were two very large men headed towards her, one had black hair, and the other had a dark indistinguishable color. Maybe brown or dark blond, she couldn't tell. They weren't talking, and the taller one had a hard look on his face. It was terrifying, until she really looked at the black haired one.

He looked like—

“Castiel?” she rose from her seat, keeping near her table as that's where her knife was should she be wrong. The man responded and smiled brightly, hurrying slightly to arrive to her campsite sooner.

“Hello Jade.” the man said, and, woah, his voice was a lot deeper than she was used to. Not to mention he was a lot bigger than she was used to as well.

“Castiel!” she smiled, sure that this was the fairy she'd helped, “How the hell are you so big?” she walked towards him and hugged him tightly.

“It's a spell.” He told her, stepping back as the taller man arrived next to him, “I'd appreciate if you didn't tell any one about this ability, it's a closely guarded secret.” Jade nodded quickly,

“Yeah of course, I won't say a word.” she smiled, “I'm touched that you find me trustworthy enough to let in on this secret of yours.” Cas quipped the sides of his mouth up, before he donned a grave expression similar to the man next to him.

“Listen, we need your help. You can refuse if you want, but it's quite an urgent matter and time is of the essence, so we'd really app—“ Cas was interrupted,

“My brother got himself captured by those douches in the suits and we need your help to find them.” the taller man's voice was near the pitch of Cas'. Jade really looked at him and recognition snapped through her brain.

“Oh! You're the one that was always coming by on that blue jay!” Dean didn't look happy with her answer. “sorry, off track I know, your brother? Is that the one that stabbed me?” Dean nodded, “Alright. I'll help where I can, but I don't know how much use i'll be.” she thought of her fighting skills, but figured that in a fight with corporate operations it probably wouldn't do much.

“You can be very helpful. We need you to drive us to the Ranger's office.” Cas told her.

“Oh ok.” she grabbed her keys and knife from the table and walked to the black vehicle, Dean and Cas following close behind. They all climbed into the car, (Dean with some confusion and difficulty) and she started it with a rumble. “Let's catch these motherfuckers.” She backed out of the space and drove down the way, unaware that she was being followed by a particularly rambunctious fairy.

 ------------------------

Dean didn't like the car. It was weird, it smelled funny, and it moved at speeds that he wasn't used to. He liked the way it looked, and the way it rumbled underneath him, but he still wasn't happy. He spent the entire car ride clutching the back of the seat and trying to look manly, while Cas sat calmly in the front seat chatting with Jade. Though the situation was grim, they decided to put the time they had to converse to good use.

They reached the Ranger's station, and it was thankfully devoid of other campers. Probably because it was nearing winter, and no sane person would be up there camping in the cold. Jade approached the counter and rapped her knuckled on the surface, startling the dark haired woman that was bending over behind it.

“Oh!” she stood up straight and spotted Jade, “Oh, hey there sweetheart, you ok?” she glanced at Cas and Dean with a protective glare.

“Yeah, I need your help, or well, they need your—“

With a loud snapping pop Gabriel appeared next to Jade and interrupted her sentence, startling a scream out of her and a yelp out of the woman behind the counter.

“Gabriel!” The woman seemed to both be angry and concerned, she glanced at the trio and raised her eyebrows at the grinning fairy.

“Oh they're fine Jody,” he waved a hand dismissively, “Say, you didn't happen to see that ugly car those business guys were driving leave did you?”

“I did, actually,” Jody frowned at Gabriel, seemingly confused by the sequence of events, “I was happy to see them go I thought they'd finally given up looking for the colonies.”

“Well yes and no.” Gabriel walked behind the counter and grabbed a lolipop from a large jar. “They're done looking, but that's because they found a colony and took 'em.” he unwrapped the pop, “they took his brother.” he used the loli pop to gesture at Dean, who looked wholly unamused at the whole situation.

“Oh no did your brother get captured, hun?” Jody turned a sympathetic look to Dean.

“Yeah because he's an idiot.” Dean ground out, “How long ago did they leave?”

“About hmmm.” she turned to the computers and typed for a second, “five and a half hours ago. That help?” She turned back, looking hopeful. Dean looked solemn.

“Yeah. Yeah it does. Thanks.” Dean turned and left, Cas and Jade following close behind.

“That's quite a while that they've been gone.” Cas muttered, “Jade, is it alright if we borrow your car?”

“Can you drive?” she asked, brow quizzically raised.

“Yes.” Cas looked sure of himself, “I will take care of your car, I promise.” Jade nodded and handed him the keys, Cas turned to Dean,

“I'm going to return you to your original size—“ he started,

“Like hell you are!” Dean overlapped, “I'm coming.”

“To do what?” Cas shot back, “You have no magic, you have no weapons, you know next to nothing about the human world, and you nearly hurled in the car—don't argue with me I saw you in the mirror.” Cas stepped towards Dean and raised a hand carefully to his shoulder, laying it near the mark. “I doubt I will be able to find Sam tonight, they've been driving for a while now. Go back home, wait for me. I know you want to help but there is nothing you can do here.” Dean looked like he wanted to argue, and he almost did, But Gabriel appeared before he could.

“I got the license plate from Jody, and she said we can borrow some suits if we wanna run the government scam.” Gabriel didn't look at Dean, only addressing Cas. Cas nodded and Gabriel turned back towards the doors,

“Hang on a second,” Dean was frowning, “I can't go but he can?”

“Gabriel has magic, not to mention knowledge of human culture.” Cas replied. “So yes, he's coming.”

“These are my brothers that we're talking about, though,” Dean looked angry, “You don't just get to tell me that I can't come on their rescue—“ Before Dean could finish, Gabriel reached out and tapped his forehead, simultaneously shrinking him and knocking him out in one go.

“Gabriel!” Cas exclaimed.

“What?” Gabriel turned and handed Dean to Jade, who was watching on with interest, “Now he's not a problem, and we can go find Sammy boy. Though I noticed he said brothers, is there another one I should know about?” Cas blinked a moment, before coming to a silent agreement with Gabriel's decision.

“Yes, i'll tell you in the car.” Gabriel grinned and walked to the side of the car, while Cas climbed into the driver's seat.

Jade stepped back and watched as the cousins drove away in her car.

How the hell was she supposed to get back to her site?

Chapter Text

Three months. It had been three months since Gabriel and Cas had started searching. For the first month and a half, Cas had constantly been coming back to the colony to update Dean. But after several consecutive reports of nothing, he stopped. Gabriel gave up searching somewhere around month two. Jade left with her things the day before, she told Dean that the ranger they spoke to was aware of the Colony, and that if he needed anything to go to her. Gabriel had brought back her car, but when Dean tried to question him about Cas, he only shook his head.

Currently, Dean was sitting on the riverside, drinking from a flask that he'd filled with a drink some campers had left behind. It had been unopened, which Jade quickly rectified a few nights ago. He made sure she placed it somewhere he could reach easily, and she did, but not without taking ¾ of the bottle first. It was bitter, but it gave him a nice buzzing feeling and it numbed his pain effectively. It made the ache in his chest lift some, or rather, it made him forget it was there.

He heard leaves crunch behind him, but he didn't turn. It didn't matter. Whoever or whatever it was could go fuck themselves, he was busy. There was a deep sigh somewhere to his left, and a voice—

“Come on, you've gotta come back home some time. You can't stay out here ignoring the world.” It was Bobby. “I understand that it's painful that you lost both your brothers, but—“

“—I didn't lose them.” Dean interrupted, his voice rasped. “They're alive, Cas is gonna find 'em. He's lookin' right now, he'll find 'em.” he took another swig, there was another deep sigh from Bobby,

“Cas ain't checked in for a month and a half. Y'ask me that means either he's dead or he gave up and doesn't wanna face you.” Dean turned sharply towards Bobby, ignoring how his vision blurred some and his head got dizzy. He threw something at him, wasn't sure what it was but it didn't matter.

“Shut up!” his voice shook, “Just shut up, Bobby, you don't know anything.” Dean fixed him with a glare, “Just get out of here if you don't have anything useful to tell me.” Bobby scoffed,

“I'd say tellin' you to come home is plenty useful.” he shook his head and held his hands up in surrender, “But, if you really don't want any help, or if you're too stubborn to take care of yourself, then i'll leave you alone.” he turned and walked away, muttering something under his breath.

Dean turned back towards the river and took another drink.

------------------------------

It had been four months, but Cas had finally found where Sam was.

It was a private building, there were security cameras everywhere, and fences almost too high to jump. It was six hours away from the campsite. Cas had been searching too close, and one day decided to go further than he had before out of desperation. He'd found a rich town, it was small place, mostly old people and a few teenagers. Once he went around in his government getup, the locals were a lot more forthcoming with information, and he learned they were weary of a few 'strange people in suits', but they didn't know anything apart from where they supposedly lived. He'd asked around, and after five clueless people, he got an address.

That's where he was now. Standing across the street from a building that looked too suped up with security, even in a rich neighborhood. He was trying to figure out a plan, frowning at the building as he leaned against a wall with vines crawling up the side. If he went in small, it would be easier, but there was the added risk that they would have security measures against fairies. Especially since this was where they were keeping the gnomes. If he went in big, they would see his face and probably capture him or have him arrested. It wouldn't be hard for them to discern he wasn't human.

In the end, he didn't have to figure out a way to get in at all, because a car screeched to a stop in front of him, the sliding door tore open, and four individuals jumped out and grabbed him. He struggled against them, punched a few in the face and almost won the battle, when he felt a sharp pain in his neck, and his muscles simultaneously decided to give out on him. He could feel his magic trying to work against whatever was making him weak, but the struggle of the internal fight just wore him out more. He sagged against the individuals as they roughly threw him into the van, and he was vaguely aware that it was turning towards the house he had been scrutinizing, before he slipped into unconsciousness.

“—key wakey.” the voice was too loud, “Helloo? You gonna wake up any time soon, cause I really would appreciate it if you didn't stay sleeping when I have important things to ask you.” he could barely comprehend what the voice was saying. God his head hurt. It was pounding, and his eyes felt glued shut. He took a rattling breath, why was it so hard to breath? There was a sudden sharp pain against his cheek and he snapped fully conscious. He opened his eyes and squinted against the light, trying to turn his head away from it only to discover it was surrounding him.

“There we go!” the voice sounded cheerful, “Welcome back, Castiel!” he tensed at that. How did they know his name? His brain jump started. Where was he? What happened? who was talking to him? Why was he in pain? His magic should have taken care of that. He tried to move, but his arms were bound tightly either side of him. His eyes finally adjusted to the light, though his head still hurt, and he saw the silhouette of someone standing just outside of the light that appeared to be coming from several lamps. He looked down to see himself slumped down in a leather chair, and he squinted back at the person.

“How do you know my name?” his voice hurt. What happened to him?

“You don't need to know, but I have a feeling it'll make things worse for you if I do, so i'm gonna to tell you anyways.” the lights shut off and Cas saw the man from the campsite standing in front of him, a smug look on his face and his hands in his pockets. The only lighting seemed to be natural light coming from somewhere behind Cas' chair.

“Naomi.” the man spoke. Cas' heart thudded painfully, and dread drowned him, “She put an APB on you and your buddy Gabriel. We were really very surprised when you were just....standing outside of our humble abode. Waiting, to be captured.” he chuckled and walked over to a table with liquor bottles on it, “You made it easy for us, Cassie. Really, couldn't have done it without you.” he poured himself a drink and started to take a sip, when he hummed,

“Where are my manners? My name's Lucifer, i'm the head of this little....organization here.” he tipped back his drink and began pouring again, “You're probably wondering why you still feel drowsy, or why your head hurts?” Cas frowned and Lucifer glanced back at him, “That injection we gave you was imbued with magic. One of the reasons I like working with Fae. Their concoctions are so....” he waved his glass around, looking for the right word it seemed, “Effective.” he decided.

“Let Sam go.” Cas spoke. He was worried about the fae that Lucifer could be working with, but getting Sam back to Dean was more important. It was why he was here, after all.

“'Let sam go'?” Lucifer chuckled, “That's what you have to say? Why would I want to do that?” Cas opened his mouth, and looked around the room. Trying to figure out what he could offer that would be valuable enough to let a gnome go. He came to a conclusion and dread crawled into his heart.

“Me.” he spoke, and Lucifer frowned, “You can have me in his place.” Anything for Dean.

“Yes but, Naomi is offering a staggering price,” Lucifer chuckled, “What can you offer?”

“Magic.” Cas swallowed hard, “knowledge about Fae, more than Naomi is willing to give you, as well as spells.” the dread settled inside his chest and snuggled close.

“Naomi hasn't given me anything but the APB.” Lucifer smiled, “I'm actually getting my magic from my assistants.” he looked somewhere behind Cas and nodded his head, and Cas twisted his head around to see who he was looking at. “They're something called, what was it, Body-snatchers?”

“Body-Jumpers.” a smooth voice spoke. One of the women from before walked out from behind Cas and stood next to Lucifer, turning to pour herself a drink. The dread flexed its claws into his heart.

“Whatever. Same difference.” Lucifer took a seat in a chair across from Cas, “You really think you can offer magic to us? Naomi said yours was tainted, that it didn't work properly and that's why she wanted you back.” Anger seeped up into Cas' heart, overcoming the dread.

“She's lying.” Cas told him, “She keeps us enslaved through spells and magic restrictions. My magic is more pure than it ever was before, and stronger as well. She wants me back so she can wipe my memory and make me into her perfect soldier again. I am more useful to you here than in her hands. I will give you magic, and I will give you knowledge, but,” he paused, hoping and praying to the universe that Lucifer would take his offer. “Only if you let Sam go.”

Lucifer squinted at him a moment, and turned towards the woman.

“Which one's Sam?” he whispered to her. She leaned down and whispered something in his ear before he asked another question, “Is he valuable?” he gestured to Cas. She whispered something else in his ear, and he nodded, pausing a moment.

“Alright.” he said, “I'll let Sam go, hell, I'll even be nice and put him back in the campsite we found his brother in,” Cas sagged in relief, “But you can't hold anything back from us. Nothing. We ask for something, you give it, no matter what, got that?” Cas nodded, steeling himself for the hard road ahead. There was no telling how long he would be here, or what they would do to him. But at least he was successful in his mission.

He just hoped they would actually put Sam back, and that Naomi wouldn't find out where he was.

----------------------------------

Dean was making a cursory security check of the surrounding area when he decided on a whim to go back to Jade's campsite. Something told him to go look there, he didn't know what or why, but he was too drunk to care about questioning strange feelings. Or drunk enough to question them, in the case of Cas. He shook his head, it'd been four months, Bobby was probably right. Cas gave up, and didn't want to face him.

His heart clenched at that thought.

He walked through the brush and wandered over to the table, knocking a hand against it and casting his eyes around the site. As he scanned the ground, he tensed and hope soured in his chest.

There was someone lying in the driveway, with suspiciously long hair.

He dropped his flask and ran over, skidding on his knees as he kneeled down before he'd even stopped. He laughed in disbelief and grabbed Sam's shoulders, shaking him a little.

“Sam! Sam, hey! Sam,” worry clenched in his chest, “Hey, Sammy, wake up. Sam!” he felt around Sam's wrist frantically for a pulse and sagged against his brothers chest in relief. His heart was pounding strong. He sat up and waited a moment, “This is no time for a beauty nap, Sam, wake up!” he tried patting Sam's cheeks, before going for an outright slap to wake him. Sam startled awake and made a noise of surprise, thrashing around as he looked wildly at his surroundings.

“Hey hey hey, it's okay, Sammy, you're okay, calm down, it's okay.” Dean held his hands out to steady Sam, and eventually Sam stopped moving and seemed to register who was in front of him.

“Dean.” He breathed out, laughing in disbelief. Sam leaned forwards and pulled Dean into a crushing hug that he returned.

“You're ok. You're ok.” Dean laughed and held on tight a moment before leaning back, frowning at Sam, “You're stupid too. What were you thinking, goin' off like that? You could have gotten yourself killed!”

“Dean, Dean I know. I know. But I saw Adam.” Sam ignored Dean's jab at his intelligence. “Adam's alive, Dean, he's alive.” Sam laughed, and Dean smiled in disbelief, his heart soaring.

“Really?” He asked.

“Yeah.” Sam smiled for a moment, but then he frowned, “They didn't let him go, though, they just took me out.” he looked Dean in the eye, “I saw Cas, Dean. They had him tied up. I think he traded himself for me.”

“What?” Dean's voice was quiet, and the happiness drained out of him, “Are you sure?” Sam nodded grimly. “Ok. ok. We'll get him out then.” Dean stumbled up, a hallow feeling in his chest, “He'll be fine, we'll just go back to where you came from and get him. Do you remember how far away it was?” Dean brushed the dirt off his pants and looked up when Sam didn't answer.

“Dean, no. They knocked me unconscious. I don't know where he is.” Sam looked apologetic.

Dean clenched his jaw and nodded. Anxiety swirled through him and he took a deep breath. That's fine. It's fine, they could figure something out. They would get Cas back. They'll find him, and he'll be okay, and they'll get Adam back too, and everything will be fine. Cas'll be fine.

Images swirled in his mind unbidden of Cas injured or dead, Adam's body next to him and the four people in suits surrounding them with knives. They were laid out on a table, the only light coming from above, one of the suits leaned forw—He shook his head, but all he could see was Cas, bloody and beaten down.

“fuck.” he murmured. Where was his flask? “We'll figure it out. We can talk to Gabriel, he's gotta have some kind of tracking spell or whatever that he can use on Cas.” Dean offered his hand to Sam and pulled his brother up, spotting his flask by the table as he did so. He marched over and swiped it up, taking a large gulp of the drink and relaxing some as it put a haze over his thoughts.

Sam looked over concernedly, but didn't say anything. Dean jerked his head towards the bush and started towards their house.

“Come on, Bobby, Ellen, and Jo'll wanna know you're ok.”

That night, the whole Colony celebrated. well, the whole colony apart from Dean, that is. He sat by himself, drinking his worries away.

At least, he tried to.

Chapter Text

A week later the dreams started.

At first, Dean just assumed it was the usual nightmares that he got when he drank too much, but it felt too real. It happened too often. It got to the point where he wouldn't and couldn't sleep without a nightmare. Sometimes he would drink so much alcohol that he wouldn't dream, or at least he thought he didn't. It was more that he just couldn't remember the nightmare. The dream was nearly the same every night. It was never exactly the same every time, but it was the same subject.

There was someone strapped to a chair, and coming out of their back were two giant bird's wings. It was dark in the room, and the wings were strapped and stretched out in what looked to be an uncomfortable position either side of the person. The wings looked to be about seven feet long each. There was a faint red light coming out of the floor behind the person, just enough to make out a silhouette but not enough to make out a face from the corner that Dean was always standing in. The one detail that remained the same was the sound of the person's voice when they screamed. The details that changed were the reasons why the person was screaming.

Every time he dreamt, three individuals would come in with instruments and just....slice into the person. Or take blood, or inject something. But it was mostly slicing. Whether they sliced at the wings or the shoulders or the torso was up in the air, and Dean always tried to stop them, to no avail. He couldn't interact with anything, they couldn't hear him, he couldn't touch them, he couldn't stop them.

It was torture.

But one night, two months after the dreams started, he discovered that the person strapped up could hear him.

It was a quiet night, and Dean waited anxiously for the nightmare to start, but nothing happened. Whoever or whatever his subconscious had placed to torture the person had decided to take a break from the usual night routine. So he tried talking to the person, tried comforting them, figuring maybe the nightmares would stop if the person wasn't in distress. He assumed the person was his subconscious maybe, or a representation of something that was worrying him. He was utterly surprised when the person weakly lifted their head and looked at him. This was the first time he'd been close to their face, and he was filled with dread and shock when he saw it.

This was the night he found out he was dreaming about Cas.

It was also the night he discovered that he wasn't dreaming.

Cas looked just as shocked as Dean felt when he made eye contact with him, and all at once the frown dissolved to hope and relief. He was covered head to toe in bloody cuts and wounds, but for a moment it looked like he didn't feel them.

“Dean.” His voice barely made a sound, and it cracked pitifully. Like he hadn't had anything to drink in a long time. He smile slightly before his eyes flicked over Dean's form, his face falling as he looked longer. “You're not actually here.” his voice was a whisper that Dean nearly missed.

“I'm here, Cas, i'm here.” Dean crouched in front of him and brought his hands up, but they just passed through Cas' face. Though it did look like, for a moment, that he had actually felt something. Cas sighed a laugh and a tear ran down his face.

“Your soul is, at least.” Cas sounded somewhat relieved. “I thought I was hallucinating to cope with this.” he tilted his head to the most recent injuries. His face flickered for a moment, “You probably won't remember this in the morning, will you?”

“No, no i'll remember.” Dean promised, scooting closer until he was just barely touching Cas' knees with his chest. “I'll remember. I always do, Cas.” he brought his hand up to Cas' shoulder and hovered it there, like he was actually touching him. “I promise i'll remember.” Cas nodded and shifted his head to Dean's hand. “Tell me where you are, Cas, we'll come get you.” he briefly wondered how his soul could be somewhere other than his body, but his focus shifted back to Cas as he opened his mouth to reply.

“No.” Cas looked panicked and hopeful all at once. “If you come then they'll go back for Sam. Dean—you can't come for me.” And though Dean had seen him sliced open multiple times, Cas never looked as tortured as he did now.

“Bullshit. We're coming for you. We'll bring reinforcements, we'll get those government people you and Gabriel pretended to be, We'll get you out of here, Cas. I'll get you out, ok?” Dean had both his hands hovering on Cas' face now, and Cas looked truly pained.

“Dean, you can't—“ His voice cracked and gave out, and he breathed a moment before trying again, “They have magic, Dean. The facility is run by body-jumpers. You won't last against them, they'll capture you too, and you'll be stuck he—“

“Then i'll be stuck.” Dean was filled with fierce determination. “But i'll be stuck with you. We'll find a way, Cas. Even if it means getting captured first—no I don't want to hear anything out of you—we're coming to get you, Cas, just tell me where you are.” Dean looked into Cas' eyes, trying to coax something out of him with just his gaze. Cas looked like he was fighting an internal battle, before he finally sighed and lowered his head, nodding once and looking up at Dean again.

“I hope you know what you're gett—“

“Dean get up!”

With a start, Dean jerked sideways out of his bed and onto the floor, his heart pounding. He looked up to see Sam frowning at him.

“It's 9 O'clock, Dean, why are you still sleeping?” Indescribable rage began to fill Dean as he realized that he probably wouldn't be able to talk to Cas until that night again. He had tested it in the past, and there were no dreams if he fell asleep during the day. It was really the only reason that Dean hadn't died of sleep deprivation yet, naps.

Cas had just been about to tell him where he was, and Sam woke him up because it was 9 O'clock.

“Get out.” he growled.

“Jeeze, grumpy much? I mean I know you're not exactly sleeping that wel—“

“Get out!” he yelled this time, jumping to his feet, “Do you even know what you fucking did? Get out! Don't wake me up! Get out!” he pushed Sam and shoved him out of the door, slamming it shut so hard that a few things fell of a nearby shelf. Hot tears prickled his eyes and he ran his hands through his hair.

He hadn't been dreaming. Cas really had been tortured every night for the past two months. He let out a scream in frustration and threw a chair against his wall. Dammit, Dammit, Dammit! Fucking hell he had been so close. He dropped on his bed and just held his head in his hands, thinking everything over.

There was nothing he could do but wait until that night to fall asleep again. And even then, there was no telling if Cas would be alone again or if he'd even be in a state to tell Dean anything. Fuck.

He sat on his bed for another two hours before he wiped his face of emotion and left his room.

That night he didn't dream about Cas.

In fact, he didn't have any nightmares at all.

He'd never felt so horrible after sleeping a full eight hours.

Another half a month went by, and he didn't have nightmares. At least, not the ones that connected him to Cas. He had plenty of his own nightmares where he didn't get to Cas in time and found him bloody and dead.

He was drunk all the time now.

At first he wondered if it really was just a dream, but as time went on, the more he was convinced that it was real. It felt like there was something blocking him from Cas. It felt like there was a tether connecting him to Cas' conscious and someone had just stuck a wall through it. He was more convinced now that it was real than ever. He figured maybe the body-jumpers had figured out a way to block whatever connection was letting Dean see Cas, and that's why he hadn't seen him.

He didn't want to think about the possibility that Cas had blocked him himself.

It all came to a head one evening, when Gabriel and Jo were over to discuss looking for Cas, and Dean passed out while he was walking to the table.

The first thing he noticed was fire.

There was fire everywhere, lights were flashing above, and there was a distressing shrieking sound coming out of the walls. Dean panicked for a moment before he spotted Cas, who was still strapped up. Dean glanced at the floor around Cas an noticed some kind of circle with symbols painted inside around Cas, and saw also that there was a piece of debris that had cracked the outer ring of the circle.

“Dean!” Cas was struggling against the bonds. “Dean, help me!” he was shouting but it was hard to hear him over the shrieks. Dean rushed over to Cas and stopped in front of him.

“Cas!” he shouted, “Where are you!” Cas continued struggling before he paused and looked up at Dean. He seemed to concentrate for a moment before Dean was flooded with information. a coast, a time, a distance, a town, a house. He knew where Cas was now.

“Dean, please come quickly. Naomi's here, I know she is, I can't go back, Dean!” tears were flowing freely now from his face, and Dean knelt in front of Cas and placed his hands around his face.

“I'm coming, Cas! I'm coming! I'll get you out of here, alright? I'll get you—“

“Dean!”

Dean sat up with a gasp, taking a moment to reorient himself. dining room, table, Sam, Jo, Gabriel. He came back to himself and immediately leapt to his feet, startling Jo and Sam, as they were leaned over him.

Dean wasted no time and began going around the house and grabbing his boots and poncho. When he noticed the three looking at him quizzically he huffed out “I know where Cas is.” when they still didn't moved, he exclaimed, “We need to go, now! He's in trouble!” he finished donning his things and noticed the three Fae weren't moving, just watching. “Now, Dammit! I'll explain how I know later, but we can't waste time he's six hours away and the fucking building is on fire!” Gabriel blinked and nodded once, and began gathering his things, before he smacked Sam and Jo upside the head with his hands.

“You heard the man, we gotta go!” Sam startled into action and went up stairs, and Jo glared briefly at Gabriel before turning to Dean,

“I'll go get Jody and bring her here. Drivings gonna be much faster than flying.” She ran out of the room and Sam came stomping down the stairs.

“I don't know how much good your weapons will do, but it won't hurt to bring them.” Gabriel said, “I'm going to make us human sized for this, god knows they can travel faster in one step than we can in sixty.”

Dean nodded grimly and the three left the house promptly.

The car ride was painful. Five and a half hours of speeding and silence, just Gabriel, him, and Sam. Dean was fidgeting the entire time, and Sam was going through all the weapons. Gabriel was going twenty over the speed limit, as fast as he could safely drive on a windy road, and using his magic to keep the cops uninterested.

Dean was nearly in a state of controlled hysteria when they reached the building.

It looked fine.

There was no shrieking, the building was whole and not on fire.

That is, until Gabriel gunned it and just fucking drove through the fence. The car was ruined, but as soon as they passed the walls everything changed.

Everything was on fire. The ground, the building, the trees. Half of the building looked like it had been blown up, and most of the roof was caved in. There was no one around. No guards, no humans, no body-jumpers.

Dean didn't waste a second before he jumped out of the car and just charged at the building regardless of the fire.

Chapter Text

The first five days they just asked him for information.

They didn't do anything, they provided food and water, however dismal a little there was of it, and they let him roam free around the room. But it seemed that the information he had to offer wasn't enough for them after all.

The first night they just tied him to a chair.

The second the forced him to let his wings out.

That alone was traumatizing for him. Because while wings did indeed come out when fairies were startled, they came out like armor. Hard and razor like, pure steel, dangerous and protective. But when they willingly bring them out they're comparable to birds wings. Sensitive and feathered, soft, vulnerable and intimate. Obviously fairies can consciously bring out the armor, but they did something to him. He didn't know what, but he was fairly sure they'd dosed him with some kind of sedative through his food over time so that he wouldn't notice.

It was why they got him so easily into the chair, after all. He just....didn't fight back. Couldn't make himself do it either. After they tied him down and forced his wings out, they'd tied them down with warded bonds, and they stopped feeding him. They still gave him water, but that was only so his voice could still scream. They never asked any questions.

The third night they brought in instruments.

They must've carved sigils into the knives, because they burned and ripped more than they should have. That night they just went after his shoulders and thighs. He wasn't prepared for what was to come. He didn't notice the figure in the corner just yet.

The fourth night was stomach and chest.

The fifth night was when they started in on his wings.

It was beyond agony. There was no way to describe the amount of pain that tore through him when the tip of the knife just barely pushed into the arch of his wing. They had definitely performed magic on their instruments. This was more painful than it ought to have been.

He screamed his lungs out, and they didn't stop. No matter how much he begged or insisted he could tell them more, they went on for hours.

Five and a half hours, his brain helpfully provided later, as he was bleeding and panting still, trying to meditate the worst of the pain to a managable level. There was a long, ragged, cut from the tip of his left wing right down to his back on the underside. His shoulders had two cuts on each side, one deep, and one just the skin stripped away. His chest and stomach were shallow as well, as for his thighs...well he could hardly feel his feet at the moment. Though that was probably just because of the pain.

They didn't bring the knives in that night, but the needles hurt just as bad. They'd performed magic on those as well. It was in the middle of screaming in agony that he threw his head back and saw the figure in the corner for the first time.

Though it would have been hard to ignore the figure considering he was screaming at the body-jumpers to stop. It took Cas a few moments to identify the person, but when he did he both got a chill down his back and felt his heart soar with hope.

Dean. He thought. He wanted Dean to come over to him, to untie him and stop the pain, but Dean never moved. He screamed as though he were in just as much agony as Cas, but he never moved, and the body-jumpers never reacted to him.

This became a regular occurrence.

The body-jumpers, whose name's he'd come to learn were Ruby, Lilith, and Azazel, were creative in the ways they hurt him. At first he thought they wanted something from him, some kind of information or magic maybe, but after the first month he came to realize they just like torturing him. They would let him heal sometimes, just so that they'd have more to work on. But they didn't let him use his own magic, they used a crude magic of their own that healed the wounds wonky and ineffectively, essentially making the healed scars just as painful as the cuts were. Sometimes they just let him stew in his injuries. The first twice that happened, Dean didn't show up.

Sometimes Dean materialized and just stayed slumped in the corner. Didn't move, or speak, just sat and looked at Cas with pain in his eyes. Cas didn't know why he hallucinated that. Because after all, that's all Dean was, right? A hallucination. Not there. After a month and a half passed they started only giving him water once a week.

It was two months later, Cas was just slumped over and breathing, hoping he'd just keel over from the injuries, when Dean suddenly started speaking to him.

It was soft words, Cas didn't catch them at first, but as he tuned in he realized Dean was addressing him for the first time. He lifted his head and looked over at Dean.

He was surprised to find Dean looking him directly in the eye, something he'd never done before. Relief suddenly washed over him, he could talk to Dean, even if he was a hallucination it was better than nothing. He croaked his name, he would get water tomorrow, and Dean came over to him. At first his tired mind thought Dean was actually there, but as he looked longer he noticed it was just an apparition. But it wasn't a hallucination, he came to realize quickly. Dean tried to touch his face and he felt his magic flare up in recognition, Dean's soul was astral projecting itself to him.

Or, his brain spoke up, you dragged his soul here to comfort yourself. He probably hasn't been sleeping well because of you. But then Dean scooted closer and tried to create the illusion that he was touching Cas. Cas felt it with his magic as though it was real all the same.

Dean wanted to come to him, wanted to get Cas out of there, and goddess above he wanted Dean to come get him, but he made a deal. Even if Lucifer and his goons technically broke their end, he didn't want to risk Sam or Dean becoming captured because of him. He told Dean no, but he insisted. Said he would get captured just to be there with him. It nearly broke Cas' heart that Dean thought he was worth that much. Cas took a second to go over his injuries, the ones on his wings especially, and his resolve broke. He nodded.

“I hope you know what you're getti—“ Dean flickered away, “—ng into.” he started. Where had he gone?

Then the door to his room burst open, and in came Lucifer and his torture goons.

“Well, has our pretty little bird been having conversations with his friends?” Lilith sneered.

“That was a pretty interesting conversation you were having there, Cassie. Who was it? Or rather, who is it? They're not still here, are they?” Lucifer walked into the room with his hands in his pockets. He stood in front of Cas and suddenly swung an arm out into thin air. Cas flinched, then glared at Lucifer.

“He's gone.” Cas croaked. “I didn't try to bring him here on purpose, i—“

“On purpose?” Lucifer replaced his hand in his pocket, “So you did bring him here?” Cold dread washed over Cas,

“I don't know if I brought him here, i'm just telling you if I did—“

“Not good enough.” Lucifer interrupted, he waved a hand at the group behind him and they surrounded Cas, each one crouching to the ground with a spray can in their hands.

“See, what we're going to do is we're going to strip you of your magic.” Lucifer smiled kindly and stepped out of the way of Lilith, continuing to the corner where Dean stood so many nights as he spoke, “It won't actually strip you, of course, but so long as you're inside the circle you'll be human. With the exception of your wings, that is.” Cas felt rage flare up inside of him with what energy he had left. Lucifer had broken the contract before, but this was just amoral.

“You'd dare to meddle with a Fairy's magic?” his voice growled, “Do you know the consequences of this act? You will die horribly, your assistants will feel the pain they inflicted on me, your compound will have the worst luck—“ he was interrupted by laughter from somewhere behind him.

“Spare the spiel, chicken wings.” It was Ruby, “It's a load of Bull, sir, he can't do anything once we finish the sigil.”

“I know. Don't worry about me, Ruby, just continue what you're doing.” Lucifer waved Ruby off.

“I never said I would do these things. These are Cosmic consequences. The Goddess herself will come down—“ he stopped as Lucifer began scrolling through his phone, as though this conversation couldn't be more boring.

“Oh, i'm sorry, were you saying something?” Lucifer asked. Cas didn't reply, his energy dipping. Let the Goddess handle them. “You guys done yet?”

“Almost.” Lilith said, stepping out of the circle as Azazel and Ruby flanked her. “One..more..mark.” she crouched and finished the outer ring of the circle, holding eye contact with Castiel and smiling psychotically.

The last thing Cas was aware of was that he felt like he was on fire.

He was on fire.

Or at least, everything around him was.

The roof was caved in on one side, it collapsed just after he finished talking to Dean, and he was pretty sure his right wing was broken. He would retract his wings but they were still bound. He heard screams and shouts, both of body-jumpers and humans. The screams of the gnomes and monsters from across the river were fainter, but just as horrible to listen to. Eventually it fell silent apart from sparse whimpering from the gnomes, as well as his own whimpers and groans. The fairies had left the building, he could feel it, and Cas nearly sobbed in relief. Did sob in pain. The roof was pinning his broken wing down painfully.

His back was burned, as well as the backs of his feathers. The straps holding his left wing up were mangled and holding the wing at an awkward angle. He couldn't feel his feathers in that wing anymore. He let his head hang and he lost all sense of time. He jumped a few times as various parts of the house cracked or broke, but for the most part he was fading in and out of consciousness. At hour six he passed out completely, the roof cavin in around him just a little more as he did so.

Where was Dean?

---------------------------------

“Cas!” Dean was screaming, was hoarse from screaming, and he tore through the burning hallways. Burned his arms and legs, slashed them too. Didn't care. He needed to find his fairy. Behind him, Sam and Gabriel were barely keeping up, yelling at him to slow down, and it wasn't until he came across a large section of roof caved in that he stopped. Stopped running, that is. He started tearing at the wreak with his hands, Gabriel caught up with him and huffed a breath before pushing him back and uttering a spell. The roof lifted itself and Dean didn't even stop to thank him.

Two doors down the roof was caved in again, breaking the wall to a room just enough for Dean to see Cas sitting unconscious with his wings out and twisted.

“CAS!” He yelled, “CAS!” oh gods please be ok, please don't be dead, Cas please.

Gabriel came up next to him and grabbed his shoulder lightly. Dean jumped as Gabriel grabbed a gash.

“It's gonna take some time to raise this roof. I don't want to cause anything to fall on Cassie.” Gabriel looked him in the eye and Dean felt him willing him to back down. Dean clenched his jaw and nodded once, stepping back to let Gabriel do his work.

Then he noticed his injuries.

“Fuck.” he muttered, looking at his arms and legs and the ruined clothes, then, “Fuck!” as the pain began to hit him full force. He sat down hard and breathed deeply, slapping away Sam's hand as he tried to comfort him.

He tried focusing on Cas instead of his pain, and he felt everything slip away.

Chapter Text

Sam paced in the small area of the hallway that wasn't collapsed, glancing worriedly between Dean and Gabriel. After a minute or so, Gabriel huffed in annoyance and paused his actions to look over his shoulder at Sam.

“Would you stop that?” he said. Sam stopped pacing a moment to frown at him, “It's very distracting. Why don't you take a page out of your brother's book and pass out on the ground. You'd be more useful that way.” Gabriel turned back to his project and began carefully floating pieces of the roof and walls around. Sam glared at Gabriel's back before he considered his words, one hand up to his mouth where he was chewing his fingernails, and the other holding the elbow of the hand being chewed up. He paused a moment, and sat down next to Dean. He looked over his brother and hummed in concern at the various injuries, taking his hand away from his mouth as he looked.

A deep gash on a forearm, slices and cuts up and down both arms and legs, what looked like a burn on his left forearm, and a particularly painful, and infected, looking gash on his right shoulder. Not to mention the veritable plethora of bruises covering everything. Dean's face had its own cuts as well, but they weren't as bad as the rest of him.

“Jesus.” Sam muttered, thinking about the way his brother tore through the hallways. He'd seen Dean desperate before, but not like this. This was entirely different from everything in the past ever. He noted the bags and stress lines under Dean's eyes, and how his shoulders still seemed to retain tension even in his unconscious state. Sam brought his hand back up to his mouth and looked over to Gabriel. He was carrying stress in his shoulder too, though this seemed to be directly caused by his task at hand.

He was very carefully moving small pieces of debris around, pausing and freezing up every time something shifted that he wasn't moving. So far, he had managed to get the stuff in the middle of the room into a corner, but there was still the biggest piece of the second floor pinning Castiel's wing down. The room was no longer on fire, thanks to a quick and easy spell from Gabriel.

As time stretched on, Gabriel eventually started working on the biggest piece. As soon as he shifted the piece a little, Dean whimpered in his sleep and tensed up. Sam frowned and glanced back to Gabriel, getting up and approaching the room. He looked closer at Castiel, unable to see his whole face but still able to discern an expression, and noted a similar tense frown to Dean's on his face.

Gabriel lifted the roof off of the wing completely and Dean and Castiel cried out in unison. Gabriel froze, waiting and looking at Sam in confusion, then continued, lifting the roof as far up into the second story as he could, shoving it away from the area above Castiel carefully. He started in on the debris blocking the entrance, and Sam went back to Dean and crouched in front of him. He frowned and huffed a displeased and concerned sigh at his brother, who was now frowning hard enough to split his face in half.

 ------------------------------------

As soon as Dean passed out, he knew something was different. It wasn't as heavy as usual, and while everything was black, it seemed to be lighter. As he slipped further in, he felt more awake, and he noticed a pearl light shifting in the air like a ribbon. Rainbows flashed through the folds, and it stretched out into the darkness and disappeared. It ended a few feet in front of his left side, shoulder level. With nothing left to do but either sit in the dark or follow the ribbon, he chose the more interesting thing of the two and began walking forwards.

The light didn't move apart from a rolling motion, like the surface of water but sideways, and as he followed the light down, he felt more and less connected to himself. It was weird. More connected to himself, less connected to what he could only assume was his body. He felt a flutter of anxiety in his chest as he realized that he didn't actually know what he was walking towards. But he kept going.

As he walked, he stuck his hand out and into the light, and he felt a tug in his chest and on the scar on his shoulder. It felt eerily similar to a sensation he'd felt a few times before, when he was feeling anxious or when he hadn't heard from Cas in a while. It usually came with a sense of calm and a nice warm feeling, but this time the feeling was anxious and unpleasantly hot. He quickly withdrew his hand and continued down the trail.

After a minute, he noticed a small, dimly lit, figure in the distance. The light seemed to plunge down towards the figure, though he couldn't tell if it went into the figure or if it just stopped a few feet before. At the moment, the person was about the size of a grain of rice. His steps sped up.

The figure came up faster than it should have, considering physics, but as soon as he made out a face the speed of the closing distance didn't bother him. In fact, he actually sped up.

“Cas!” He called out. The figure's head snapped up and before either of them could process, Dean was crashing into Cas and knocking him to the ground in a bone crushing hug.

“Dean.” Cas sounded somewhat relieved and very confused. He sat them up easily and put an arm around Dean tentatively, turning his head towards Dean's, “What—how—“

“—Fuck if I know, man. I'm just glad you're here.” Dean chuckled and held on a little tighter, waiting as Cas reciprocated for a moment. Dean leaned back and smiled shakily at Cas, smiling a little more when the shaky smile was returned. They stared at one another for a few moments, broken only as Dean jumped when he felt something brush his arm. His head whipped around in alarm, which was replaced by awe as he saw one of Cas' wings curling towards him.

“Holy shit.” he whispered. He stared in wonder and then blurted out, “Can I touch 'em?” When he heard no reply he looked to Cas and saw an amused look on his face. “I mean, is that ok? It's just, i've seen them before but they were all....shiny and dangerous lookin' and now they're...” He gestured to the soft feathers. “What's up with that anyways?”

“To answer your first question, yes, you can touch them. Just be gentle.” Cas brought his right wing closer to Dean and Dean brought his hand up to tentatively touch the flight feathers. He let out a breath when he felt how silky and warm they were. He pushed his fingers through the smaller secondaries and Cas let out a sigh and closed his eyes, his frame relaxing a bit more each stroke.

“And to answer your last question,” Cas' voice was quieter and relaxed, “Fairies have two states of being. Battle State and what roughly translates in your language to Home State. Battle State ensures we're protected and ready to fight, Home State is a relaxed and intimate state. Usually we only let that side show when we are in absolute comfort and safety, especially if we have those we trust around us.” Cas sighed deeply and leaned back on his hands, letting his head fall back. “You can't imagine how uncomfortable and exhausting it made me to have had my Home State out when I was in danger for the past two months.”

“I can kinda imagine.” Dean murmured, Cas huffed a chuckle. He started to reach further forwards, when Cas suddenly cried out in pain, and Dean did too. He wasn't sure how or why, but he felt a sharp, aching, pain on the right side of his back. He quickly drew his hand back and let out a strangled sound. He breathed through the pain, both him and Cas hunched forwards, they're heads barely touching.

“What the fuck?” He gasped out, “Cas what—“ there was a hard tug against what felt like his entire body. Cas let out a sound like he felt it too.

“Dean!” Cas suddenly sat up, “Dean you need to get back to your own body. I'm waking up, or your waking up, or we're both waking up, but Dean you can't be on this side of our connection when it happens.” Cas stood, winced as he did so, and pulled Dean up with him. “Go!” he pushed Dean away, and Dean stumbled a bit, looked back for a second, “Go!!” Cas was more insistent this time, even looked panicked, so Dean turned and ran. He ignored how wrong it felt to be leaving Cas there, and how anxious it made him. He kept going until he reached the other side of the ribbon, and then he waited. Nothing happened at first, but then he started feeling his injuries again, and the light feeling faded to something much sharper, and the darkness and ribbon of light were suddenly replaced with Sam's giant face. Talk about a rude awakening.

“Dean?! Dean!” Sam was shouting at him.

“What?” He snapped, “What? Why do you keep waking me up when i'm in the middle of somethin'?” Sam frowned at that, then glanced back at Gabriel.

“Dean you were screaming in pain. Cas too. Gabriel got all that shit off of him, but he's still attached to whatever's got his wings strung up. We need your help to untangle them.” Sam sat back and looked over his shoulder as Gabriel started exclaiming at Cas. “Look's like he's awake. Come on, we have to get Cas out of there.”

“Yeah, Yeah.” Dean shot up from the ground, stumbled as blood rushed to quickly, and hopped over the small section of wall remaining. The rest of the debris was either shoved to the side or on the second story, but Cas' wings were still in a bad state. The right one looked broken, the one he was stroking, Dean belatedly realized, and the left one was twisted unnaturally.

“Cas, you ok?” Dean made eye contact with the fairy, and though he had a painful expression on his face, he nodded slightly. Dean continued the eye contact and Cas dropped his head a little, shaking it barely. “Let's get this shit off your wings.”

Chapter Text

Dean and Sam were either side of Cas, holding him up, his wings dragged behind them as they walked. They'd gotten the wings untangled, and Gabriel had healed them where he could, but he was still incredibly injured. Cas tried his best to walk on his own, but his legs, after months of disuse, had just crumbled underneath him. And with the added weight of the wings, it took both brothers to hold him barely up.

As they walked, Cas tried not to listen to the conversation the brothers were having over his head. But it was hard, considering he was right in front of them.

“Dean we can't just not look for him!” Sam was adamant.

“I'm not saying we don't look for him, i'm saying we put Cas in the car first, then come back for Adam. You can see the guy, he can't even walk on his own. It doesn't make sense to bring him with us while we look.” Dean re-adjusted Cas' arm around his neck. “Obviously I still want to look for Adam. But we need to get Cas out first.” Sam was silent for a moment, not saying anything until they were nearing the entry point.

“Ok. How about this,” Sam leaned down a little to adjust Cas' arm. “You take Cas to the car, and Gabriel and I look for Adam.”

“What? No, I'm coming with you—“

“And what, leave Cas alone when he's injured?” Sam shot back, and Cas could tell he was trying to use him against Dean, “Dean, I was the one responsible for Adam when he was captured, I need to bring him back.”

“And I'm responsible for both of you! What happens if you get trapped inside, or you die, or you find Adam and then get trapped, huh? I can't do anything.” Dean gripped Cas' wrist a little harder than necessary, “I can't lose anyone else, Sam. I can't have someone I—I can't have someone where I can't reach them again.”

“Dean.” Sam stopped walking, and Gabriel, who had started eavesdropping by now, was stopped just ahead. “I have Gabriel with me, so if I do get trapped, he can get me out. I can take care of myself now. Cas, however, can't. Guy can't even walk on his own.” Sam looked to Gabriel and nodded, holding his hand out as Gabriel tossed the keys to him. “Take Cas to the car, we'll find Adam.”

Dean hesitated for a minute, and Cas could see him looking him over out of the corner of his eye. He reached across Cas and took the keys out of Sam's hand, grumbling about how he wasn't happy with any of this the entire time. Sam sighed and slowly let Cas' arm drop from his shoulders.

“Can you walk with just Dean, do you think?” Sam asked. Cas couldn't, but he nodded anyways. He was tired of conflict and he really just wanted water and sleep. He leaned his weight on Dean and tried not to feel guilty when Dean stumbled a little, but Dean seemed to handle it ok after a moment.

They walked (stumbled like zombies) to the car, luckily the trunk was fairly big, so when Dean collapsed the middle seat, Cas could fit somewhat comfortably into the car. He sat on the collapsed seat, his wings splayed out behind him into the trunk, and Dean sat in the space between the front seats. Cas started to doze off after a moment, and almost fell face first into Dean.

“Hey, you wanna sleep, right?” Dean asked, holding his hands out to keep Cas propped up by his shoulders. Cas nodded sleepily, and almost fell asleep again.

“Ok, how about this.” Dean scooted back until he was against the glove box, and carefully pulled Cas off the seat and in front of him. “Here, just put your head on my shoulder and stretch your wings out on the seat. Is that cool?” Cas complied and didn't even answer, just fell asleep as soon as he was sure he wouldn't fall over when he did. He was fairly sure that Dean chuckled while he slept.

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The halls in the other direction were darker. They hadn't been hit as hard as Cas' side, but there was still destruction. There were only small, smouldering, fires, and most of the lights were hanging by a thread or on the ground. For the first couple of hallways, the rooms were empty of life, and Sam would have been more despaired but Gabriel some how was comforting him. He managed to convince Sam that Adam was still alive, just in a different room, every time they found more bodies.

Those particular words became less comforting the deeper they got into the compound.

Eventually, they had checked every room on the first floor, and Gabriel had checked the second floor with teleportation, It was just living quarters, and Sam had begun to give up. But then Gabriel came flying back suddenly from one last sweep of the floor, and he was so excited he just flew straight into Sam.

“Woah, watch it.” Sam exclaimed, “What, what is it?”

“There—stairs—i found—“ Gabriel took a step back and took a breath, “I found a basement, Sam-squatch.” He grinned, “There's fae down there, alive.”

“Seriously?” Sam felt a surge of hope, and he crushed Gabriel in a hug, “Wait wait.” He stepped back, “Is Adam there?”

“Well I don't know what he looks like, but i'd say there's a high chance considering we didn't find his body. Come on, i'll show you.” Gabriel grabbed Sam's arm and he felt a lurch in his stomach, the surrounding walls blurred and suddenly he was standing in front of a mangled door and very nauseous.

“Shit. Gabe, a little warning next time, man.” Sam took a second to calm his stomach down, and Gabriel grinned all the while.

“I'll take care of the door, try not to throw up.” Gabriel snapped his fingers and the door disappeared.

“Holy shit.” Sam stood up straight from bending over, “Where'd it go?”

“Somewhere in a forest in Canada.” Gabriel waved his hand behind him in a dismissive way, “Doesn't matter. Let's go, Sammy boy!”

“It's Sam!” Sam chased the Fairy down the steps, and almost caught up before he blipped down the hallway to a doorway.

“This is where the Fae are.” He grinned. Sam ran down the hallway and didn't waste a second before he ripped the door open.

Chapter Text

hey guys, i'm having some unexpected life problemos rn so it'll be a little bit before i update the story

sorry!

Chapter Text

Adam and Cas were in bad shape.

They were alive and coherent, a miracle considering the shit they went through, but physically they had a lot of healing to do. For Adam, a couple of simple healing spells from Gabriel and some time would fix him up. For Cas, because he was a magical being that had magically inflicted wounds, it would take time and time alone, and there was a large chance his wings would never fully heal.

On the way back to the campground, Adam passed out peacefully in the backseat with Sam watching him closely, and Cas and Dean sat in the middle while Cas relayed everything that happened to him. Dean looked more pissed off with every word, somewhat with himself more than anything because he hadn't recognized Cas was actually getting tortured in those dreams of his, but mostly because of how badly Cas had been treated and that Dean hadn't been able to get back at those that had hurt him.

In the front seat, next to Gabriel, was a body-jumper they'd found in the basement, bound and gagged and very much not pleased looking. They learned from them that the attack on the compound had been from the fairies, and it had occurred because Lucifer had demanded a ransom for Castiel instead of turning him over like he was supposed to.

They set up a makeshift mini hospital for Cas in one of the rangers personal offices, someone named Donna, inside a cabinet that had a lock on it and a half doorway for the Fae. The side up against the window had holes punched in it to let natural light into the room, and the window was also open for most of, if not all, the day. Dean was there nearly 24/7, had Sam and Gabriel not pestered him about getting out and actually doing things. Cas didn't mind though, he enjoyed the company.

Somewhere along the first month, both Dean and Cas realized they maybe had more than platonic feelings towards the other. But neither said anything, and Sam and Gabriel and anyone else unlucky enough to be in the same room as the two had to endure the blatant flirting the two seemed to be oblivious to.

Both had heard the other talking in their sleep about said feelings, however, and that just added to the tension and flirting. Much to Sam's displease and Gabriel's amusement.

Dean helped Cas with his wing therapy pretty much every day, Gabriel laughing gleefully on the inside at the twin blushes that adorned the Fae every time. It was harder for the two to remain oblivious to the other as time went on. Gabriel tried his best to use whatever magic he could to heal Cas' wings, but they'd always be a little misshapen. After two months Cas' wings had healed enough that he could tuck them away, but as for the battle mode, it was painful for him to shift into and out of it, as well as painful to be in it for long periods of time. Cas was more or less fine with that, however, as he was both uninterested in fighting and it gave Naomi a reason to back off completely. Though the latter was a moot point, as it turned out she'd been killed by a rogue fairy during the attack on the compound.

After Cas fully healed, and during the healing process, he decided to talk to Dean about the sleep talking as well as his own realized emotions. He proposed they walk around the campgrounds while enbiggened, and originally Dean had floundered and failed to respond for about three days, but when Same told him Cas had decided Dean didn't want to be around him anymore and was going to leave, he yielded and agreed to walk and talk.

The talk quickly turned into a date and Gabriel spied the whole time.

Well, he would have had Sam not dive bombed him with Peaches and chased him off.

The two spent a year figuring things out, during which Cas wrote and published a successful book about everything that had happened to him under the guise of a fantasy book, which brought in a lot of money. They ended up buying a house nearby the campground, and to keep money coming in Dean made knives and assorted items the same way he had always, but bigger, and they lived there for two years before a large majority of the gnomes moved into their backyard. Their backyard being nearly half a mountainside, Dean and Cas had no issues with this.

Dean planted a vegetable and fruit garden, and Cas had his own flower garden just outside the backdoor. They sold the vegetables and flowers as well, which brought in spending money for them. Or, rather, spending money for Gabriel and Sam. Gabriel had taken to showing Sam, and occasionally Adam, the wonders of human food. Though, much to Gabriel disappointment, Sam had taken more interested in the health food rather than the sweets and fried stuffs Gabriel tried to get him hooked on. Dean like the sweets and fried foods, especially pies. He was constantly making pies with his berries, and at one point both him and Cas had to re-evaluate how much pie they were eating because they'd gained considerable weight. (Though Cas liked the slight pudge Dean somehow couldn't shake off).

It took a few years before they finally managed to get the Fairies to leave them alone, though. And Cas still had nightmares from time to time, both of the fairy-folk and the body-jumpers. Dean had his own nightmares, but they were far less frequent than they used to be.

Cas continued writing stories, now entirely fiction apart from a few details here and there, and the public loved it so much he was actually interviewed a few times. Eventually, they became popular enough that they surpassed Harry Potter, possibly because most of the characters weren't straight, and they had enough money to ensure the parts of the campground that still had Fae living in them stayed safe.

Chapter Text

Cas was walking down the street of the small town, enjoying the rainy weather and smell of pine needles, carrying groceries and a light attitude. He rounded a corner and nearly walked into, or rather on, a person sitting on the ground with a cardboard sign. She had red hair and a green beanie, her clothes colorful and eclectic.

“Oh, my apologies, I didn't see you there.” He said.

“No, you're fine, I chose a bad spot to set up.” the girl chuckled. “You wouldn't happen to have any change, would you?” she made eye contact with him as he started to apologize, as he only had a card, when she gasped loudly and her eyes widened, “Oh,my god. You're Cas Novak. You wrote the Fairy Chronicles! Holy crap, holy crap. I've always loved your work—“ she stood and started furiously tucking her hair behind her ears and tidying it up under her beanie. As she did so, Cas noticed a strange detail about her ears, but he didn't get a chance to say or do anything because the girl was still talking a mile a minute, “—been interested in where and how you came up with the idea, your writing is so incredible I couldn't put the book down until I finished it. The adventures and things that Cooper, Daniel, and Sean went through are just....so awesome! And the way Cooper and Daniel confessed to each other was just so realistic, and—“

“Hang on, hang on. Slow down there.” Cas laid a hand on her shoulder to calm her down, though this just made her more excited, so he quickly removed it. “Before we discuss my work, could you take your beanie off for me?” at this, the girl paled and she stuttered a moment or two.

“Uh, well—well I don't know, I mean it's—it's kinda cold out and i—i would—wouldn't want my ears to get cold and—“ before she could stutter through any more of an excuse, Cas reached up and yanked the beanie off, revealing what he thought it would. Two pointed ears. She paled even more and seemed at a loss for words.

“You're an Elf?” he asked, she didn't respond. “I'll let you in on a secret,” He leaned in close and smiled, “I'm a fairy. Everything I wrote about happened to me. Well, at least in the first book.” He chuckled as the girl sighed in relief and smiled.

“Thank god. I was scared to death for a second there, also that's really cool and concerning that you actually went through the crap your characters did. I'm curious to know which character is supposed to be you, also can I have my hat back?” She was back to talking his ear off, though this time in a more hushed tone.

“Oh, yes of course.” he handed her the hat and watched for onlookers as she donned it. “You're homeless, right?” he asked her, she nodded and shrugged, “I have an extra room in my house, and my husbands Fae as well, as long as you promise not to steal or cause any problems i'm sure he'd be just as happy as me to let you stay with us.”

“Really?” her eyes were comically wide now, and she looked completely disbelieving, “Please tell me this isn't some kind of prank or something, cause that would totally suck.”

“Not a prank. Pick up your stuff and walk with me, my car's just over there.”

“Oh my god, thank you so much.” She started scrambling to get her things together, “You have no idea how long i've been on the streets, I promise I won't steal or cause problems, cross my heart, i'll even do chores around the house, or i'll sell things, or something to repay you.” Cas chuckled as she finished talking and gathering and they walked back to the car.

“You don't have to repay me, though I won't mind the chores, I hate cleaning things up.” they got into the truck and Cas started the engine. “I forgot to ask, what's your name?”

“Oh, call me Charlie.” the girl smiled.

“Charlie, it's nice to meet you. I'm Castiel.”