Chapter Text
"You okay?" You asked, raising a brow at the trenchcoat-wearing man. He blinked a few times and put whatever he'd been staring so intently at into his pocket, then turned to look at you.
He stared into your eyes for a moment and frowned, "I'm fine."
With that he abruptly walked off in the opposite direction from where he'd come. You set down the book you'd been skimming through and followed him curiously toward the back of the library. Most of the time when you came to the library you people-watched more than you read, and this was one of those rare times when someone interesting entered. Unlike most people who went to your hometown's biggest library on a friday evening, this man had an aura of impatience about him; not to mention the fact that he frequently, almost religiously, pulled out something from his pocket to stare at it every few seconds. None of the surrounding patrons' judging eyes seemed to bother him either. After mentally deciding that he probably was not an escaped mental patient, you created a goal for yourself to find out who he was.
"What's your name?" You called as you hurried to catch up at his quick pace. He wandered into the elevator and you stepped inside with him.
"Castiel."
You both sat silently for a few moments. You told him your name and as he reached his hand into his pocket, but you spoke before he looked down at it, "Why do you keep doing that, Castiel?"
He gave you the same frown from before. His emotionlessness was starting to dwell on your energy.
"Doing what?"
Trying to avoid any more awkwardness, you hesitantly reached into his pocket and showed him what you were seeing clearly for the first time. It was some kind of necklace with a golden amulet hanging at the end.
"Looking at," you gestured with your free hand to it, "this. What is it?"
"It's my friend's." He muttered, tugging it from you grasp and shoving it back into his coat.
Your brow furrowed, "Are you expecting it to come to life or something?"
As if in answer, the elevator dinged and the doors opened on the ground floor. You followed Castiel out of them and all the way out the front door of the building with plenty unanswered questions. The contempt he threw towards you wasn't enough to get you to go away, so he stopped in the middle of the sidewalk and turned around, "I don't have time for this. I'm sorry, but I need you to...screw off."
Taken aback, you frowned, "Excuse you?"
He averted his gaze and sighed, "It's a phrase my friend taught me."
"I'm not sure I like your friend, Castiel."
He closed his eyes in frustration and continued to frown when he opened them, "You cannot follow me any longer. You will be presented with imminent danger if you do."
You grinned, "Imminent danger sounds exciting."
"It's not."
He stared right at you for a short while, but you could not be deterred. You figured he guessed as much, because he looked away and took a breath, "Alright, you may join me for a while. But if you do you'll need to know the truth."
And before you could open your mouth to give a comment about how 'all ears' you were, he spoke the truth, "I'm an angel."
You raised a brow, "Yeah, and I'm the tooth fairy."
His frustration emanated the closer he got to you, which you hadn't realized he'd been doing until his face was inches above yours, "The amulet I carry burns in the presence of God."
You leaned away from him and frowned in disappointment, "Dammit. Every time I meet someone fun they're either crazy, obsessed with Jesus, or all of the above." You glanced warily at him, "You happen to fit into the third category. Not to mention you think you're an angel--"
"Look me in the eyes and tell me I'm crazy." He commanded.
You wanted to leave and forget about the whole encounter, but something about the intensity of his stare told you he at least thought he was telling the truth. And the further you went on talking to him, the more time you wanted to spend with him and find out just how he turned out thinking he was some perfect, winged creature.
"OK, let's go." He said and turned on his heel once again. You jogged to catch up and walked along with him to wherever he was headed. For now, that happened to be a side street devoid of people.
You sent him a questioning stare, "You aren't going to try to sell me drugs, are--"
But before you could say "you," the environment around you had changed completely. The flickering street lights had been replaced with bright neon signs. The dusty, abandoned buildings were now 40-floor skyscrapers. Oh, and it was snowing. In august.
You gasped and grabbed Castiel's arm to keep from fainting. Your head spun slightly at the sudden change and your stomach was doing flips from whatever ride you'd just taken to get to wherever the Hell you were.
Castiel held your shoulders to keep you steady, "Are you alright?"
"Where the Hell are we?" You managed to sputter out the one thing you'd been thinking.
You swore you saw a smirk flicker mischievously onto his face for a moment, "Sydney, Australia."
You took a deep breath and took it all in now, but didn't move to take his hands from your shoulders. His touch was the only thing assuring you that you weren't dreaming or horribly delusional. And of course, you glanced to your right and to see a very familiarly shaped opera house in the distance.
"...Okay, am I crazy?"
He tilted his head, "Why would you be mentally ill? I told you I'm an angel and I proved it to you by taking you across the world."
You closed your eyes and breathed slowly, "Yeah, I'm crazy."
Castiel waited silently until you opened your eyes. He had the same look of concern that he'd had when he chose to prove his angelicy to you, which worried you more than a little. You held up your arms in protest and he finally dropped his hands back to his sides, "No no no! I mean, no need to prove anything else. I just...I need a minute, okay?"
He looked confused, but he nodded. You thanked him and sat down on a bench that just happened to overlook half of the large city of Sydney. For the first time you seriously considered everything he'd said. He couldn't be an angel...but he had to be. What else could throw you across an ocean with a snap of the fingers? And what he said about the amulet couldn't be true...could it? Thankfully Castiel sat next to you on the bench and interrupted your self-barrage before you could actually drive yourself crazy.
"It has been a minute."
You glanced at his serious face and felt yourself smile, "You counted?"
He nodded grimly. When you chuckled and shook your head he went back to his confused expression, "Did I do something funny?"
"Yes...well, no. I suppose you were doing exactly what I asked you to." When he didn't respond, you allowed your curiosity to get the best of you -- something you didn't allow to happen too often, "Castiel...if you're an angel, can I ask why you're carrying around an amulet that burns in the presence of God? Shouldn't you be checking for it to be burning in Heaven and not Earth?"
His stared down at the city below, "No. Things are...complicated at the moment when it comes to God," he paused, "And Lucifer, but that's a different story."
"Lucifer?" you almost smiled, "Like...Satan, Lucifer?"
He looked at you as if willing you to take every word he spoke seriously, "Yes. That Lucifer."
Your brain was taking in too much information at once. Not only had you shrugged off suddenly appearing in Australia, but now you were shrugging off anything this man said to you. If Castiel was annoyed by this he didn't show it, but you wouldn't be surprised to find out you were not the only person he'd ever tried to convince of the existence of so many supernatural beings.
His gaze shifted back to the neon lights gazing up from the city below, "And now that this is happening, only God will be able to stop Lucifer."
You dared to ask, "What's happening?"
"The apocalypse."
You stood from the bench and clapped your hands together loudly, "Alright, that's quite enough of that. You've obviously proven your sanity to me, now take me back home so I can...enjoy the apocalypse."
Castiel stood up next to you (next to, as in "I need a bubble of personal space" next to) and tilted his head again, "Are you sure you wouldn't prefer to stay here?"
"I'm sure."
You glanced over his shoulder for a moment, and when you looked back at his face you were back in the top floor of the library at home. Once again you felt dizzy and slightly nauseated, but now you knew to expect it. Castiel steadied you unnecessarily to make sure you were okay. You shrugged him off and glanced around quickly to assure yourself that you weren't in some other part of the world.
He pulled the necklace from his pocket and glanced at it momentarily, then put it back and looked seriously at you, "I should go."
"Right, er..." Since you didn't exactly know how you felt about that, you didn't exactly know how to answer. As usual, he seemed to pick up on your thoughts and gave you a small, but reassuring, smile. Somehow it made you feel better seeing his smile than noting the seriousness of his voice.
He took a deep breath and looked from your eyes, to the enclosing bookshelves, and back to your eyes again, "Just...one more thing before I leave."
When you opened you mouth to respond, Castiel closed the distance between the two of you by pushing his lips onto yours. Taken by surprise, you nearly knocked over a shelf or two of neatly stacked books, but Castiel's arms caught you waist and balanced you. Without much hesitation you felt your eyes close and your lips move along with his to return the kiss. He moved one of his hands up your back and you moved your arms to rest around his neck. As the kiss got more passionate you moved your hands to his hair and his grasp on you became tighter and tighter. It didn't take you long to realize he wasn't planning on coming up for air anytime soon, and despite how badly you didn't want to move your lungs willed you to breathe.
Finally you pulled away, gasping for air with a dumb smile on your face. You closed your eyes and leaned against the bookshelf, still breathing intensely and smiling like an idiot, "You know, if there's one way to get me to believe you're an inhuman being, it's a kiss like that." When he didn't respond, you opened your eyes and looked back to the place he'd been standing.
Castiel was gone.