Chapter Text
Nothing in life was simple. Life hadn’t been all that simple back when it had been just Cas. There was a reason he worked late shifts at a gas station and lived alone in a pokey apartment. He had never done too well with people. People were always either too loud (his brothers and their endless screaming feuds came to mind), or too quiet (the homeless man who came in twice a week for the old donuts Cas would take out back and ‘forget’ to toss in the dumpster). People were frustrating and kind in the same breath, and Cas had worked at least a little to make sure his life was as free from human stress as he could make it, with the vague idea that he would someday get a cat. He satisfied his social side through interactions at work and came home to comfortable silence. It was nothing fancy, but he was comfortable.
Turns out Dean was allergic to cats.
They had both discovered this sad fact about two weeks after Dean had come into his life, given birth, rearrange his furniture and made himself at home. Cas had found himself surprisingly ok with all this, although he was a little disappointed about the cat.
He was a lot less ok now.
It was probably a level of exposure issue, he mused grumpily as angel chaos reigned around him. Dean was one angel, maybe 1 ½ angel if you counted the egg. Plus, he was cute, and did nice things for Castiel like bake for him, and smile, and clean constantly for whatever reason. These angels did the opposite in every way.
First off, there were way more of them than had any right being here, a fact that Dean had tried to communicate through lots of shouting and whining, but the other angels were unmoved. If Dean was going to hatch his egg here then here is where the flock would be, at least for now. In the few hours since this was all decided several of the angels, mostly Sam and the first shouty angel, Jo, kept dropping rude hints that Cas better not get used to the idea of Dean staying. Along with that came rude remarks about his home, his belongings, his heights and species, and a bunch of mess. Angels came and went, bringing things in and out of the apartment with much shouting and wing smacking.
At first Cas had tried to play good host, figuring that would at the very least de-escalate tensions. No such luck, and he had quickly retreated to what was left of the nest to cuddle with the egg and pretend a flock of assholes hadn’t invited themselves into his life.
He understood now why everyone always complained about the in-laws.
Deep in his bitter thoughts, Castiel let the noise of the apartment wash over him. Absently his fingers traced circles on the egg, taking comfort in its steady warmth. There was so much he didn’t understand about angels. It felt rude to judge Sam’s handling of the flock just because the angel’s customs were different from his own culture. But the choices he made were clearly unfair to Dean, who was strong and perfectly capable of making his own choices. This Balthazar angel seemed relieved too, at finding himself out in the human world. Perhaps Dean wasn’t the only one struggling under the expectations of gender.
“Your family’s a bit of a mess, huh little one??” he hummed, pulling the egg closer and adjusting the blankets around it. “Don’t worry, your daddy’s a tough cookie. We’ll get this sorted out.”As if in agreement there was a solid thump from inside the egg. Something hitting squarely under his palm.
“What?” he blinked, shook his head, and pulled the egg into his lap. It thumped again, a small knock from inside the shell.
“Dean,” he called, not taking his hands, or eyes for that matter, off the egg.
“-Hovering all the time, man. I would go crazy-” Dean was arguing again, not surprising but Cas had more important issues at hand.
“Dean.”
“It’s not unreasonable! You need help, you should never have been-”
“DEAN!”
The engels turned to him in shock, Sam with wings raised to defend, a couple of the others looking decidedly puffed up. Dean just looked worried, shoving his brother out of the way as he moved to drop down next to Cas.
“What? What’s wrong?” he hovered anxiously, unsure if Cas or the egg were the issue.
Instead of answering, Cas just reached out, pulling Dean’s hands into place on the egg.
“I think the little one wants to say hello,” he said, more to the egg than angel, hoping that the sound of his voice would encourage a repeat performance.
“Wait, really?” Balthazar leaned in, obviously interested and more animated than he had been since arriving.
“I don’t feel any-” Dean cut off with a gasp and Cas could imagine that the same knocking feeling was happening under the angel’s hands.
“Holy cow.” Dean’s face was full of wonder, hands pressing around the pink shell to feel as much movement as possible.
“The kid’s moving?” Sammie squealed, before being almost knocked over by the whole flock suddenly clambering to get close and feel.
“Please can we go home now?” Sam was staring at the egg, hand hovering over it like he was scared to hurt it. Cas groaned in frustration, sick to death of this old argument.
“Goddamn it, Sam,” Dean snapped, pulling the egg away from his brother. “We are home. This is my kid’s home. Get it through your head. We aren’t leaving. We live with Cas now.”
“But why?” Sam turned to Cas, who was surprised to see less anger in the look than usual. “What do you want with some random angel’s kid?” I get maybe wanting to hook up with Dean.” Both brothers made a face at this, “But this isn’t your kid, and having a hatchling around isn’t going to be easy.”
Cas considered this seriously for a moment. Even Dean seemed interested in his answer, despite having hashed this out for days with the other angels.
“Well,” he didn’t know what to say, to be honest. ‘I don’t not want kids? It just wasn't an option before.” He shrugged. He hadn’t really given it much thought to be honest. “Contrary to logic, most people don't think that hard before having children.” He brushed a gentle hand down the egg. “My own parents had many, but I doubt they ever stopped to think on whether they actually liked children enough to warrant having any. It’s just what you do, in their world.” He sighed, shaking off those thoughts and leaning forward to place a small kiss on the pink shell. “I didn’t ever expect to have an angel child, but that doesnt mean I don't love them just the same now that they are here with me.”
The room was quiet for once, although judging by the scrunched noses and constipated expressions, most of the angels were perplexed by his answer. Dean was smiling though.
“Yeah, I know what you mean. Our omelet was a total accident, but that doesn’t change much, does it? Now about how much I love them at least.” He turned to Sam, eyes turning flinty. “SO there, we aren’t leaving,” Dean said, and Sam wilted, obviously unhappy to be back into an argument.
“Of course you aren’t, hun,” Said Ellen, cutting over Sam with a firm look. “Any idiot with eyes can see that what you have here is a fine alpha and a comfortable nest.”
“Wouldn’t be fair to separate your egg and boyfriend now,” Bobby agreed after a sharp nudge from Ellen. “Probably ain’t safe either,” he gave Sam a level look. “I ain’t helping you move a whole omega nest halfway across the state, not with the fit Dean’ll throw. Just let your brother be, you overbearing alpha pup.”
Cas had to hide a snort at the offended look on the alpha angel’s face. Clearing his throat he fussed over the egg, pulling the covers back around it now that the nestling seemed done showing off.
“Great!” Balthazar clapped his hands together loudly. “Now that we’ve got that cleared up I think we’re going to need to move some furniture around. The space is abysmal, but I supposed humans are rather small. We’ll make it work.”
The youngest angel fluttered at this, excitement in his eyes. “We should bring the big futon over! If we get rid of the couch it will just fit, I think.”
Cas groaned. He hoped his landlord wouldn’t notice some half dozen angels illegally living in his tiny apartment.