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Castiel Novak shuffled through the rain, splashing the puddles with the tops of his shoes and shoving his hands further into the deep pockets of his trench coat. His breath fogged a little in the glow of the streetlight.
He blinked rain out of his eyes and smoothed back his hair a bit so it wouldn’t let water run down his face. He let out a long sigh as he stopped and leaned against a lamp-post. Since graduating several months ago, his life wasn’t really going as well he’d planned.
He was out of work, and currently in debt to the electricity company. He tilted his head back and knocked it gently against the post, water running down his neck and under his shirt.
“Damn, that’s cold,” Cas mumbled. He turned up his collar against the rain. Cas let his eyes wander for a little, bored, sad and lonely. A sudden creak and rustle of keys snapped Cas out of his little pity-party. A man, quite tall, was locking up an old building.
“Evening mate,” said the tall guy.
“Evening,” Cas replied.
“You here to have a look?” the tall man said.
Cas peered closer at him. His name-tag read ‘Sam Winchester’. At first Cas wasn’t sure what he was supposed to be looking for, but then the spotted the sad, fading sign on the building: ‘CITY POUND’.
“Um, yeah, alright then,” Cas said, meanwhile thinking, ‘What harm could it do?’
So Cas allowed Sam to let him into the dingy building.
Sam opened a door and flicked on a light. Cas blinked a little as his eyes adjusted. There were cages lining the walls, and a pen in the middle.
“Now mate, what are you looking for?”
Cas had to stop and think about that one.
“A, uh, a companion, I suppose. Something that doesn’t take too much effort to look after.”
Cas didn’t want his new pet to run away whilst he was passed out on the couch from a little extra scotch.
“Alright then mate.”
Sam led Cas to the pen in the middle of the room, and Cas peered down into it. Nestled amongst a bunch of blankets were two cats. One was a beautiful reddish-brown and the other was a shiny black. Cas smiled. They seemed so happy and comfortable. Cas began to feel pangs of jealousy for these two residents of the city pound.
Sam bent over and picked up the red-brown cat.
“Heya, Ruby! How’s my girl?”
Ruby the cat let out a little meow and licked Sam’s shirt affectionately. Cas smiled, and then went to pick up the black cat.
“Careful,” warned Sam, “He’s a little edgy. The poor fella musta been through all kinds of hell before I found him.”
Cas nodded and gently scratched the black cat’s ears, and he nuzzled Castiel’s coat sleeves. Taking this as a go ahead, Cas picked him up and stroked his fur. The black cat purred happily.
“I think he likes you mate.”
“You really think so?”
“Yeah mate, he scratched up a few others who tried to take him home. And others wouldn’t take him because he was black and bad luck and rahdy rah.”
Cas smiled and hugged the black cat a little tighter.
“You want me to get the adoption forms?” asked Sam.
“Of course,” said Cas, his mind made up.
Sam kissed Ruby’s head and set her back down in the pen, and went off to fetch the papers for Cas.
“How much does he cost?” Cas asked as Sam put the papers on a table nearby.
“Ah, nothin’ mate. You can have him. Get the poor guy outta my bosses’ hair.”
“Wow, thankyou so much!” Cas couldn’t have been happier.
“But, you have to sign the papers for legal reasons and crap,” Sam said.
“Sure, sure thing.”
So Cas signed the adoption papers, but hesitated over the name.
“Sam, what should I name him?”
“Whatever you want mate.”
“Alright then.”
So Cas inhaled deeply and wrote ‘DEAN WINCHESTER’.
“Aw mate, you didn’t have to,” Sam grinned.
Cas laughed and scratched Dean’s head again.
“I’ll take good care of him.”
“I know you will.”
Sam winked at him and then proceeded to shoo Cas and Dean out the door.
“It’s past closing. Off you pop.”
Sam stood at the now locked door to the pound and smiled. He’d saved up enough of his meagre wage to call Ruby his own. Sam felt that things were finally going to look up for him, and he realised that this was probably how Castiel felt too. ‘And Dean Winchester, what a great name.’ Sam was glad that he’d given him Dean for free. Cas needed him.
Castiel tucked Dean into the inside pocket of his trench coat and set off back down the dark street and into the rain. He no longer felt lonely. Or sad. Or bored. He was finally happy. He had Dean Winchester, his cat and his new best friend.