Chapter Text
California
Castiel didn’t exactly sign up for this road trip as such. He only found himself in this mess because his brother thought that it would be a good idea to drag him along because he was the ‘sensible one’, and because the fact he was a scout when he was twelve years old meant that he was apparently “good with directions”. Truth: he’s not, but Gabriel wouldn’t let him argue otherwise.
So there he was: sitting in the living room of his brother’s apartment - the apartment his brother shared with his two friends who were attending Stanford with him, Sam and Balthazar – with a backpack packed to bursting point on his back, and his laptop held tight against his chest as Sam and Gabriel argued over who had the maps. After they set off on their journey, he would be sleeping in unfamiliar towns on lumpy motel mattresses with a bunch of older university guys, thousands of miles from home and the security of familiarity for nearly a month. The thought of this alone made his stomach fall and his bones turn to something like lead.
Castiel watched the argument unfold while they waited for Sam’s older brother to pull up in the parking lot outside, and something inside Castiel’s head kept praying that something would pop up and stop them from having to embark on this godforsaken road trip. He contemplated faking illness, but he knew Gabriel would see right through him. He’d already tried to use the excuse that he had a lot of work to catch up on, but Gabriel knew that he was lying because Castiel was top of all his classes and never handed in an essay a second late.
Besides, it was summer, and Castiel knew that if he didn’t go on this trip he’d just end up staying alone in his apartment until college started up again in the fall. He had no friends at Stanford and it didn’t look like he would be gaining any either, any time soon. So what did he have to lose by going?
“Boys, I have the maps. And if you’re going to argue like this the whole summer, I’m really going to have to reconsider my decision to road trip with you.” Balthazar said as he stepped out of the kitchen.
“At least you had a choice to come.” Castiel muttered.
“Hey, you’re gonna thank me for forcing you to come when you’re lying in the bed of some shitty hotel room with three hot blondes we picked up in Nevada. Trust me.” Gabriel said, eyebrows raised, as he took the maps from Balthazar and packed them into Sam’s bag for him.
“Nothing about that sentence sounds appealing to me.” Castiel sighed under his breath. He stood up and grabbed a bottle of water from the table in the middle of the room and slumped back into the sofa just as there was a loud knock on the apartment door.
Sam jumped up to open it and in stepped a rough looking man, maybe in his mid-twenties or so, dressed in a leather jacket with the collar turned up. His jeans were dirtied and ripped at the knees, but the smile he carried and the green of his eyes instantly seemed to make up for it.
“Dean.” Sam sighed happily, pulling the stranger into a hug.
“Hey Sammy.” He grinned, ruffling his little brother’s hair a little as he broke from the hug. “You ready?”
“Yeah. Let’s do this.” He grinned as he slung his backpack over his shoulder and followed Dean back out the door. Balthazar followed close after, then so did Gabriel and Castiel.
“Just a little heads up,” Gabriel muttered as they stepped towards the door, “Dean lives the kind of lifestyle I know you’d disapprove of, but we need him for this trip because he’s the only person we know with a decent car. So please just try and put up with him, okay, for me?”
“Whatever.” Castiel sighed as he watched Gabriel lock up. “As long as he doesn’t mess this trip up for the rest of us he can do whatever he wants.”
“That’s my boy.” Gabriel grinned, nudging him so suddenly he nearly dropped his laptop down the stairs.
***
Once he’d dumped his bag and laptop in the boot of Sam’s brother’s car, he climbed into the middle seat between Balthazar and Gabriel, Sam upfront with Dean. As the others buckled up their seat belts, Dean turned back to look at him and smiled with a wink. “They drag you along too?”
“Something like that.” Castiel murmured as he sank back against the uncomfortable leather seat that he’d have to get used to over the next month or so.
“Yeah, we’ll it should be a laugh. I didn’t want to go at first either, but Sam convinced me it would be fun. Besides…he promised to pay for my food, so there’s that too. I’m Dean by the way: Sam’s older and considerably more attractive brother. ” Dean grinned, forcing himself to lean back further in order to offer Castiel his hand.
“And I’m Castiel.” He replied, shaking it somewhat apathetically.
Dean turned back to the front and drummed his hands impatiently on the wheel. “Come on ladies, let’s go.”
Sam turned back to the guys sitting in the backseats. “Everyone got everything we need? Money? Maps?”
“Beer?” Dean interjected.
“I think we’re all set.” Balthazar said.
“Then let’s go.”
And so they set off – the five of them, three of whom Castiel barely knew at all – on a 6,073 mile road trip across the United States and back again which Castiel was fairly sure they’d never finish in one piece, even if they tried. He did his best to force the dread of the coming month out of his head and closed his eyes, willing himself to drown out the sound of the shitty band playing on the radio as they pulled out into the highway.
“Dean…we’re going the wrong way.”
Castiel opened his eyes to find Sam frowning over at his brother; Dean on the other hand held a knowing smirk on hips lips that Castiel prayed he wouldn’t grow to resent.
“I know.” Dean said simply. The car carried on down the highway and suddenly pulled out at a junction a few hundred metres away from a small chain fast-food restaurant. “I wanna get a burger first.”
Castiel took a sharp breath and he felt Gabriel’s gaze on the side of his face, which he gladly ignored.
“Seriously, Dean? It’s seven AM. Are you sure that place even sells burgers at this time?”
“Yeah, ‘course it is. I can see Lisa’s car in the parking lot.”
“Lisa? You’ve gotta be kidding me, you’re meeting Lisa? Dean, we’re supposed to be quarter of the way to Nevada by now. We don’t have time for this.”
“Chill, Sammy. I’ll be five minutes. Ten at most.”
And before anybody could say another word against him, Dean stopped the car and jumped out before the engine even had time to cool, and was walking happily towards the door swinging his car keys around his thumb. Silence filled the car and Castiel watched as Sam shook his head slowly in disbelief. Balthazar appeared to have fallen asleep and Gabriel was apparently trying to stifle a laugh.
“I need to get some air.” Sam mumbled before climbing quickly from the car, shutting the door nearly too hard.
“I should go with him.” Gabriel shrugged, vacating the car too.
And so Castiel found himself more or less alone. He sat there in silence picking at the dead skin around his thumb, and when he looked up he found that from where he was sitting he could see Dean inside the restaurant with a pretty dark haired lady who appeared to be particularly upset about something. She was gesturing angrily towards the car Castiel was sitting in, then at a young boy sitting at the table behind them. He tried to lip read what she was saying to him, but all he got were numerous Fuck Yous.
Out the side window Castiel could see Sam and Gabriel pacing back and forth across the grassy verge beside the highway. Sam had his hands in his pockets and was still shaking his head in disbelief and Gabriel was still trying to hide the fact he found the whole situation hilarious. Castiel considered making a run for it; Gabriel and Sam were facing the other way over by the highway, and Dean was preoccupied with whatever was happening between him and Lisa so there would be nobody to stop him even if he tried.
But just as he’d managed to unbuckle his seatbelt, Sam and Gabriel returned to the car and Castiel forced himself to think of something else, returning his gaze to Dean and Lisa in the restaurant. He felt somewhat invasive for watching whatever was occurring between them in the restaurant. He felt invasive just sitting in his car. But that didn’t stop him. It was the only thing vaguely more interesting than listening to Sam and Gabriel discussing possible sleeping arrangements once they reach Nevada.
He watched as Dean stepped forwards and placed a hand on her shoulder, only to be pushed away. Then a small brown bag was forced against his chest, and he was shoved hard towards the door.
Castiel watched as Dean walked hastily back towards the car, digging what appeared to be a freshly wrapped burger from the brown bag, and began to unwrap it before climbing back into the car. Once he’d fastened his seat belt, he sat back in his chair and took a bite of the burger.
“So…?” Sam frowned.
“So, she broke up with me.” Dean shrugged “I was supposed to be taking her and Ben down to Miami to visit her parents and she’s kind of mad at me for bailing last minute. At least I got a cheeseburger though.”
“If you’d told me you had plans with Lisa we could’ve found someone else to drive.” Sam said slowly in disbelief.
“Nah, it’s fine. I didn’t want to go to see her parents again anyway. They’re expecting marriage proposals and I just don’t think I’m into all that commitment.”
Castiel watched as Dean picked at the burger bun.
“And you’re just gonna let her break up with you like that? I thought you were into her.” Sam asked.
Dean just shrugged and switched the ignition, dumping his half-eaten burger in his brother’s lap. This time as they entered the highway Dean didn’t turn on the radio, and the silence was filled by the heavy rumbling of the Impala’s engine and the rushing of wind as they passed by countless cars. Countless cars of people heading to their own private destinations: whether that destination is work, or home, or a city in a faraway state that they’d never visited before. Everybody was headed somewhere, no matter how long it might take for them to get there.