Work Text:
“It’ll just be a few days, and then we’ll move on. We just need to hide while Cas’s leg heals. Please.” The red-haired girl was persuasive, but Sam didn’t think Dean would go for it.
Dean looked over to Sam. “A few days?”
Sam shook his head. “An injury like that’s gonna take at least a week to heal, probably longer, and that’s if Cas doesn’t try to do too much too fast. I don’t mind taking them in for a while, but it’s gonna be more than just a few days.”
Dean scowled and folded his arms over his chest. “What’s after you, that you need to hide?”
“Our… my dad,” Anna said. “Cas is my boyfriend, my dad caught us together, and if he ever sees Cas again he’ll kill him and he’ll force me into a convent.”
“I don’t think that’s how it works anymore, convents aren’t a place to dump off wayward daughters,” Sam objected.
“Yeah, well, he’ll do something like that.” Anna bit her lip. “And that’s if his brother doesn’t find us first. His brother’s even stricter than Dad, and would probably kill me, too.”
Dean nodded once, and his decision didn’t surprise Sam at all. “Okay. Come in. Hide. You run into someone looking for me or Sammy, you don’t know us, either. Our dad’s a paranoid bastard who’s convinced that Sam’s some sort of corruptive force and wants to kill him before he drags me into his evil, and wouldn’t hesitate to kill me after I ran with him. Two weeks, Cas’s leg is better, you move on. Sam, do what you can to help him.”
Sam and Cas bonded while Sam was looking after Cas’s leg injury. After a few days, when Sam was changing the bandage on it, Cas finally asked. “How do you know so much of this? You’re too young to be a nurse.”
“Internet research and practical experience. I’ve been patching up Dean and our dad since I was old enough to handle things.” Sam smoothed the edges of the bandage. “What happened to you?”
“Uncle Raphael got close enough that I tried to fight him while Anna ran. He threw me through a window, a chunk of glass got stuck in my leg, and I ran as far as I could before the adrenaline gave out." Cas gestured to his leg. "Anna found me and got the bleeding stopped, and then we came here because we thought this house was empty.”
“Not empty. But probably a good place for you and Anna to hide. It's just me and Dean here, and we're hiding, too.”
“Where's your dad?”
“He's what we’re hiding from,” Sam said. “Dad tried to kill me, Dean took me and we ran.”
“Your own father tried to kill you? Why?”
“Man, I don’t even know. He started spewing some nonsense about me being possessed by a demon and he couldn’t let me take Dean from him, and then he went after me with a knife. Dean hit him over the head, we packed as much as we could in two minutes, stole the car, and fled.” The fact that he'd caught them in bed together, well, Cas didn't need to know that.
“Wow. Dad threatened to kill me, but to see him with an actual weapon aimed at me? That’s scary and I’m glad you got out.”
“Your dad threatened to kill you?”
“When…” Cas’s eyes got wide as he realized. They’d said it was Anna’s dad. “Anna and I have been close since we were little, her dad was always…”
Sam knew the lies. He and Dean had used the lies. “Cas, are you and Anna brother and sister? It's safe to tell me, I'm not going to kick you out or judge you.”
Cas tried. He honestly tried to lie, but he couldn’t. “Please don’t tell Dean. I know he was against letting us stay here while my leg healed, and I don’t want to give him a reason to kick us out. Don’t tell Anna you know, either. She’s understandably paranoid about telling people.”
“Cas, I think we should tell Dean.”
“To explain why you’re kicking us out?” So much for Sam's promise, if that was the case, but Castiel couldn't blame him.
“No. Because Dean just might let you stay longer.”
“I don’t understand.”
“Dean didn’t want to let you stay because it meant that he and I would have to hide in what we’ve come to think of as our own sanctuary. You and Anna aren't going to judge us for being together, are you?”
Oh. That certainly explained a lot, then. “I don’t think we have any room to talk.”
“So we don’t have to hide. If we don’t have to hide, Dean’s a good guy, we know how to hide and how to run when someone gets close. It’s worth asking.”
Cas was still hesitant, but Sam wasn’t kicking them out, and Dean probably wouldn’t. There was still Anna’s wrath to contend with, but even that dissipated quickly once she realized Sam and Dean were like them. “Even gives us some easy smoke to blow, if we make it look like Anna’s my girlfriend and Cas is Sam’s boyfriend,” Dean said.
“Why that way instead of Cas being your boyfriend?” Anna asked, eyebrow raised.
“Well, for one thing, it pairs the older siblings together and the younger siblings together. But then there’s also have you not noticed Sam and Cas?”
“Wha… Dean, we’re friends,” Sam protested. Cas agreed. He was not getting between the brothers. At least, not without invitation.
“And you and Anna aren't friends?” Cas asked. Sam didn't exactly spend much time hanging out with Anna...
Sam shifted in his chair. “Anna’s my friend too.”
“Not like Cas is,” Dean said, waggling his eyebrows.
Anna smiled. “I’ve noticed. Just wanted to be sure you had, because if you were the jealous type, you might want to flip it. I give them two months of being fake boyfriends before they become real boyfriends.”
Dean raised an eyebrow. “You don’t have a problem with that?”
“No. Unless Cas completely abandons me, but I don’t think he will.”
“Sounds good." Dean got up and clapped a hand to Sam and Cas's shoulders. "You two, if you wanna do the two months of fake boyfriending I guess you can, but you may as well skip it.”
“What about you two?” Sam asked. “I mean, fair’s fair, and don’t even try to tell me you aren’t into Anna, Dean. Only thing stopping you before was she has a boyfriend.”
“Doesn’t mean she’s into me.”
Anna smiled. “I am. You’re cute. And the risk you took, letting us stay… I very much appreciate how hard that must have been.”
“Awesome. Welcome to the family, then.”