Work Text:
“Cas, ya ever been to the moon?” Dean asks, for no reason except to procrastinate the research he was meant to do.
Cas raises his eyebrows over the book he’s reading, a cookbook, much to Dean’s amusement.
“Why, yes,” he begins in his deep and deliberate tone, “I spent a week on the moon many, many years ago when I was an adolescent."
Dean takes a seat across from him, excited to hear.
“A week?”, he whistles, “Why?”
Cas marks the page and sets the book down, focusing on Dean now. He smiles, and it’s a new smile. Reminiscent, or maybe even boyish.
“I believe it was one of my ‘teenage rebellions’”, he said and unsurprisingly did the air quotes.
“Oooh,” Dean goads, “Cas- a rebel? Who’d have thought?”
Cas gave Dean a look that Dean calls “I-want-to-smite-you-do-not-test-me." Dean smiles.
“As I was saying,” Cas pointedly looks at Dean, “It had to do with Gabriel not letting me go into the Garden. Something about there being snakes lurking in there. I had no patience-”
Dean interrupts, “Gabriel told you what and what not to do?”, his face disbelieving.
“Well, he was an Archangel. Gabriel and I were close when we were young and before we grew up as soldiers and drifted apart. In many aspects, he was to me what you’ve been to Sam in all his years.”
“So, I had no patience for Gabriel’s riddles. I tried sneaking in many, many times, greatly irked by Gabriel dragging me out at every occurence. I just wanted to play, and I wanted to do it three times more because I wasn’t allowed.”
Dean says nothing, but smiles adoringly, greatly amused by his vision of Cas as a boy being a little shit and dodging his older brother.
“Then one day, I decided to go to the moon.”, Cas says and shrugs, as if it’s an everyday occurence to spend a week on the goddamn moon.
Dean almost gaped, “You just decided to go to the moon? What were ya, a regular celestial Jimi Hendrix?”
Castiel looked at Dean head- on, “I do not know who that is.”
Dean was on his way to full on gaping, appalled, betrayed, shook and sad- before a corner of Cas’ lips quirked.
“You bastard-”, Dean began, “I should’ve known you were messing with me. I gave you the Hendrix mixtape a week ago”
Cas shrugs and Dean loves the mischief on the Angel’s face.
“Go on then.”, Dean grumbles, almost pouting.
“Well, fledgelings and ‘teenagers’ weren’t allowed to leave Heaven. And that’s exactly why I did it. Hid in an older Angel’s wings as they left the gates and then sailed to the Moon.”
“Took Gabriel three days just to find me. He looked everywhere in Heaven before the Angel who smuggled me out told him. Gabriel came and he was trying to be mad, but I could tell he was mostly just amused. Maybe even a little proud. It’s not like he hadn’t done similar things at my age.”
“He ruffled my hair and said ‘Cassie, you dumbass.”
Cas looked- Dean fished for the right word- pensive. Solemn. He isn’t looking at Dean, and sighs a little before bringing his eyes back to the hunter.
“Well, to cut things short, Gabriel joined me and we spent some days on the Moon. And then, he took me back to Heaven.”
Dean smiled, and something inside him wanted to hold Cas’ hand across the table. He didn’t though.
“Never knew you and ‘im were close”, he said softly. “Thought he was just a pain-in-the-ass Trickster and then a pain-in-the-ass Archangel who just won’t die.”
Castiel laughed. Not laughed, but its Cas equivalent. His shoulders shook a little and his eyes crinkled.
“That he was.”
fin.