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The trip home seemed a lot longer than it usually did, Castiel mused, as he sat glumly in the passenger seat of his dad’s Mercedes. Then again, normally the two hour trip home from boarding school was spent in a state of joyful anticipation of whichever holiday he was going home for, the cheerful mood enhanced by the chatter of his two brothers. However, this time there was no Michael or Gabriel to alleviate the grim tension that sat between him and his dad. Only the growling of the engine and the occasional ticking of the indicators broke the strained silence.
Dad hadn’t said much to him since ordering him to get in the car, and Castiel stole sideways glances at him as the tyres ate up the miles. Cas could see Dad was grinding his teeth; his jaw was tight, the lines of tension making him look far more stern than normal, and Castiel swallowed down the queasy feeling it gave him. He turned to look out the window, watching the shadows lengthening and street lights begin to flicker on as dusk fell. He sighed quietly.
After what felt like an eternity, Cas finally began to recognise the familiar streets of his home town, and at long last they were pulling up outside their house. Cas smiled softly at the sight, his body automatically relaxing at the welcome sight and sensations of home. Nothing, neither the forbidding way Dad beckoned him to follow nor the knowledge of the huge amount of trouble he was in, could spoil the comforting feeling of being back where he belonged.
‘Go and put your bag in your room, and then come down to the kitchen for something to eat.’
Cas nodded at the command and picked up his bag, but then his mom came floating down the hallway, dressed in her bizarre paint-splattered robe and dungarees. Her eyes lit up at the sight of her youngest son, and she flung her arms wide and wrapped him in a fierce embrace.
‘Mom, I’m so sorry,’ Cas whispered into her shoulder as she held him close.
‘I know you are, sweetheart,’ she murmured, reaching up a hand to bend his head closer to hers. Cas’s eyes prickled with unshed tears as Mom kissed the top of his head and brushed back his unruly curls with a smile. ‘It’ll be alright. And it’ll keep until after supper. Go on, put your bag in your room and wash up. Mrs Hamilton made lasagne.’
Cas smiled weakly at the prospect of his favourite food in the whole world, Mrs Hamilton’s special lasagne, and at the incredible kindness the housekeeper showed in making it for him. He carried his bag up to his room, washed his hands and face, and then went back down to supper.
It was strange sitting down to supper at the kitchen table without either Michael or Gabriel around. It reminded him a bit of the two years he had had when his elder brothers had gone off to school before him, though Dad hadn’t tended to ask him quite so sharply to ‘pass the bread, please’, nor had Mom looked quite so upset throughout those meals. Then again, Castiel had never been in such serious trouble before. Being paddled for cheating in his Chemistry exam and then dragged home for the weekend by his father for an ominously titled ‘discussion’? Unheard of.
Cas did his best to make some headway into his meal, stirring the pasta and picking at it, but neither his heart nor his appetite was truly in it. Normally, his parents wouldn’t stand for fussy eating and would make him clear his plate, but Mom gave him a sympathetic smile and cleared it away without comment. Cas was immensely grateful to her for that. His stomach was too full of snakes to eat. Great big wriggling pythons, with icy fangs that nipped and chilled him to the bone. He drew a deep breath. Be rational, Castiel, he told himself sternly. There are no snakes in your stomach. It just feels that way because you are nervous. Deep breaths. It’s only a spanking. Dad’s turned you over his knee many times before, there’s nothing to get so het up about.
But the icy pythons kept wriggling and biting no matter what he told himself.
Dad finished his after supper coffee and stood up.
‘Let’s go and get it over with. C’mon, son. We’ll go to my study.’
Cas stood on wobbly legs and obediently went to follow his dad. He was stopped for a moment by his mom, who squeezed him tight in (what he assumed) was meant to be a reassuring manner. Unfortunately, her whispered ‘Be brave, sweetheart,’ made the snakes start performing cartwheels and circus acrobatics. She’d never said that to him before a spanking before, and it made his heart pound and his throat tighten nervously.
Cas took a deep breath, and made his way along the hall to his father’s study where Dad was already sitting in his chair, waiting for him. Castiel nearly backed out of the door when he saw something lying innocuously on the desktop. He had never seen it in the flesh before, but he instantly knew what it was. The Strap. Cas’s heart beat a terrified tattoo in his chest. Oh shit, no, surely not. Not The Strap. Please no. It was legendary in the Novak household, Gabriel having only just recently felt its bite for the first time, and he had described it to his horrified younger brother as feeling like ‘a billion bees stinging your butt at the same time.’ Cas wouldn’t normally take his brother’s word for such things, Gabe being rather prone to exaggeration, but unfortunately Michael had confirmed this to be the case based on his own experiences with The Strap. Cas could barely take his eyes off the horrifying thing.
‘Close the door, Castiel, and sit down.’
Cas swallowed around the lump in his throat and pushed the door to, settling himself on the edge of the sofa seat. Dad scooted his chair closer to the sofa and fixed Cas with a penetrating stare.
‘Now, we had a long talk about your behaviour with Mr Singer and Mr Morgan when I came up to school on Monday evening, so I don’t plan to rehash it in great detail. You know what you did was wrong, you’ve been paddled by Mr Morgan, and we have sorted out the problem that made you cheat in the first place.’
‘Yes sir.’ Castiel chewed anxiously on his fingernail, trying to ignore the rising panic in his chest.
‘Nevertheless, the fact that you got paddled does not excuse your behaviour, nor does it get you out of a well-deserved punishment from me. You are fully aware of our house rules –trouble in school means trouble at home.’
Cas hugged his knees and whispered miserably, ‘Yes, sir. I’m really sorry.’
‘I know you are. I just don’t understand why you didn’t tell me in the first place that you were struggling so badly with your course load. You’re a smart boy, Castiel. That it didn’t occur to you to talk to anyone about your problems worries me greatly. Especially because you lied to me over half term.’
Cas’s eyes widened. ‘No sir, I didn’t lie to you.’
‘Did I or did I not ask you directly how your studies were going?’
Cas bowed his head, defeated. ‘Yes…but, I didn’t lie, sir. I told you that I was behind from my trip to the San and that I would catch up over the half term break. That was the truth, Dad, honestly.’
Dad sighed, and took hold of Cas’s chin, gently tipping it up until Cas was staring into familiar blue eyes that looked so much like his own.
‘Castiel, sweetheart, Mr Singer told me that you never leave your desk for anything other than meals or lessons. That you didn’t try out for cross country because you didn’t have the time. That he’s never seen you relax once in the common room this term so far, and that the only reason you make an appearance at cocoa in the evenings is because Dean drags you with him.’ Dad stroked his cheek gently with his thumb. ‘That is not just being behind because you were sick.’
Cas’s eyes burned with unshed tears and he bit his lip at the expression on his father’s face.
‘For someone so smart, your lack of common sense or self-preservation is astonishing. You need to talk to us, Castiel. You don’t have to fight every battle alone.’
Cas sighed. It was all very well Dad saying that, but it was quite another for Cas to find the courage to tell his parents when he had problems. They were always so proud of him and his achievements, so quick to boast about their gifted son, so happy whenever he aced yet another exam. Not to mention the very natural distance that grew up between himself and his parents whenever he was away at school. School and home were two very different environments.
Dad sighed. ‘If you don’t feel you can talk to your mother and I about your problems at school, I want you to promise me that you’ll talk to one of your brothers instead.’
Sometimes Cas thought his Dad was a mind reader.
‘I know you worry that you’re ‘bothering’ your brothers, but they really do care about you, you know. You saw how upset they were on Monday evening.’
Cas grimaced at the remembrance. Gabriel had been fiercely protective and Michael had looked like he was going to take on a whole planet’s worth of guilt and responsibility until he had calmed down.
‘So, what are you going to do when you encounter a problem at school?’
‘Talk to Michael or Gabriel,’ Cas murmured, not liking the tone that Dad was using. It was a tone that said ‘the talking part is coming to an end’ and Cas was really not looking forward to what would happen next.
‘Good boy. And will you ever cheat again?’
‘No sir!’ Cas shook his head vehemently. There was no way he was ever going to do something so stupid ever again.
‘Alright then.’ Dad stood up. ‘Let’s get this over and done with. You’re getting a spanking and then your age with the strap. No matter what your reasons were, cheating is completely unacceptable and goes against every single value we hold dear in this family.’
Cas closed his eyes and took a deep breath before nodding and getting to his feet. Dad squeezed his shoulder briefly before settling himself in the middle of the sofa and looking up at Castiel expectantly.
‘Drop your pants for me, and then lie over my lap.’
Cas unbuttoned his trousers with trembling fingers and pushed his clothing to his knees, feeling like a naughty toddler. It had been a long time since he had been given a spanking. Privately, he thought he was far too old to be turned over his dad’s knee but he knew that Dad disagreed with this point of view. His elder brother, sixteen year old Gabriel, had already tried arguing it last half term holiday. The painful sounding slaps that could be heard coming from the study, not to mention the muffled yelps that accompanied them, ensured that not one of the brothers was left in any doubt as to what happened to naughty boys in their household. No matter how old they were.
Cas flinched as Dad grabbed his wrist and pulled, tipping him over his lap. Cas was left staring at the carpet and feeling horribly vulnerable. Somehow, he felt more naked draped over his Dad’s lap with his bottom bared than he did completely undressed when taking a shower. He wondered why that was.
Suddenly, there was no further time to wonder because Dad smacked his butt, hard, with a force that made Cas question whether or not his Dad really was an oncologist. Surely the man had to be a mechanic or a bricklayer or something else to have that sort of power in his arms. Cas hissed as the pain from the burning handprint reached its peak, and then another sharp smack landed, making him yelp.
Dad steadily spanked him, never deviating from the rapid rhythm he had settled into. He painted Cas’s bottom and thighs with livid red handprints, making a second and then third circuit across his target as if to try to permanently imprint the pain into Cas’s skin. By the time the fourth circuit started up, Cas was sobbing uncontrollably, wriggling and kicking and crying his heart out as his father methodically lit him up. Cas was sure that he would have no butt left after this spanking, that his Dad was just whacking the entire thing until it crumbled to dust or something. He howled and winced and wailed and cried until, all of a sudden, Dad stopped spanking and placed a soothing hand on his back.
‘Alright, sweetheart. Take a breath. Calm down and then we will do the last part. Breathe for me, Castiel.’
Cas hiccupped snottily, trying to control his breathing. In the pain and upset of the spanking, he had almost forgotten that he was getting the strap too, and he cried even harder at the prospect. He felt Dad’s strong arms helping him to his feet, and he scrubbed frantically at the tears streaming down his face.
‘P….please, Dad. D…do y…you have to?’
Dad squeezed his shoulder.
‘It’ll be alright, son. Take some deep breaths and then, when you’re ready, bend over the back of the couch for me. I’ll make it quick and get it over with, I promise.’
Cas shuddered and his Dad rubbed his back for a moment.
‘C’mon, sweetheart. One last little bit of your punishment and then it’s all over. You’re doing so well. It’ll be over soon.’
Cas nodded, then drew a deep breath and settled himself over the sofa. He howled as the first lick of the strap connected with his bottom and clutched the sofa cushions in his fists. Gabriel had been right – it felt like a line of bees had indeed stung his butt. Maybe not a billion of them, but it really hurt. A lot.
Dad wasn’t lying about getting it over with fast. Cas could barely draw a breath before the second lick fell and he squeezed his fistfuls of the cushion with all his might. Fifteen times the strap connected with his butt and he yelled each and every time. When the fifteenth lick was over, he lay there panting, trying to get his breath back after the fierce onslaught. He wasn’t sure he was ever going to sit voluntarily again.
Strong arms guided him to his feet and pulled up his pants, and then Cas fell against his Dad’s strong frame, crying piteously into the man’s shirt. Dad held him, stroking his hair and kissing his head and murmuring loving words into his ear the whole time.
‘It’s alright now, sweetheart. It’s all done. All over. You did good, I’m so proud of you, baby. I love you. It’s alright now, my love. You’re forgiven. It’s ok now.’
Cas allowed Dad to hold him until he calmed down, wiping his eyes and drying his face and generally fussing over him until he managed to stop crying. He stood there, soaking up the comfort and the love he felt while safe in his Dad’s arms. Eventually, he pulled away. Dad kissed the top of his head and gave him a soft smile, his eyes betraying the guilt he felt. Impulsively, Cas threw his arms again around his Dad’s neck and gave him another hug.
‘What was that for?’
Cas gave a wet laugh, swiping at the remaining tears on his cheeks.
‘Because I know you hated doing that almost as much as I hated you doing it.’
Dad gave him a genuine smile and ruffled his curls.
‘My smart lad. Can’t hide much from you, can we?’
Cas smiled back. ‘Is the ice-cream still hidden in the back of the freezer, or did you snaffle it while we were back at school?’
Dad grinned, his eyes dancing with mischief. ‘Well, I ate the raspberry ripple.’ He laughed as Cas gave him an outraged glare. ‘But I had Mrs Hamilton stash some Rocky Road ready for you instead. How about we go hunt it down and go watch a movie in the snug?’
To Cas, that sounded pretty perfect.