Work Text:
Noah hated living on Kansas, it was boring and everytime they left the house it felt like someone was going to call them a slur, but it's not like they could do much, with their boss sending them down to take care of the Kansas office, at least the company paid for their house, a small cabin that looked straight out off a hallmark movie, cozy, small and really isolated, the only house close being an identical empty cabin next door.
They found it easier to move around town with a motorcycle, the roads were too narrow and their old car would never be able to travel down those, so they had to make the sensible choice and sell it. So there Noah was riding their bike enjoying the autumn wind on their face that made their long auburn hair go wild flowing around, yeah maybe not wearing a helmet was a bad idea but it's not like there were others cars around to knock them out of the bike, and listening to their favorite podcasts "Weird people" yeah they knew the name sounded boring but it was mostly about speculating about weird deaths and disappearances, besides the girl who hosted had a really soothing voice so it was nice to hear, it helped them to distract themselves and feel like they had a friend around.
"Today my dear listeners, we will cover one of my favorite weird cases, the disappearance of James Novak or Jimmy Novak"
That was a new case, Noah had never heard about it at least, a part of them hoped that the episode wouldn't be that interesting since they were almost home and then they had to do chores like washing the dishes, tending the garden things like that.
"Ok so, this case begins in 2009, I know almost two decades ago! It's basically a vintage case!"
Oh so that's why they had never heard about it, it happened when they were 13 still living in England with their parents and making their boy dolls kiss each other, apparently the casa hadn't been weird enough to get out of America.
"Ok so, James Novak, or Jimmy like he prefered to be called, was a pretty normal dude, with a wife and daughter living in the suburbs and working as a salesman at a radio station. A pretty boring dude would not stop to talk to him in the street."
That seemed a bit harsh to say about a guy who had disappeared so many years ago, Noah thought while parking their bike.
"But you know what would make me stop the guy in the street? People say he was hot! like smoking hot with blue eyes and dark hair, looking like he just came out out of a romance novel, sorry to his wife but I would fuck her husband hahaha!"
Yeah okay, it was getting a bit uncomfy, they would resume listening later, after his brain buried that weird comment.
When Noah got out of their bike, they noticed some odd movement at the house beside theirs, it had been empty until yesterday but someone was moving in apparently, a cool black car was parked by the door and a tall guy was taking boxes out of it, they wondered a bit if they should offer help, the guy looked a bit ill suited for the task wearing a big trench coat and a full suit get up, but before they could decide something another guy got out of the house holding a blonde baby who was looking everywhere with curious eyes, this one had a familiar face but if they had meet a guy this good looking they were sure they would remember, ok yeah maybe ogling a guy's husband wasn't a good first impression for your new neighbors.
"Cas c'mon let me help." The guy with the baby said, even though he was kinda bush with the kid trying to get down probably wanting to explore, the one in the trenchcoat, Cas apparently, rolled his eyes.
"Dean, you can't hold boxes and Jack at the same time."
"Sure I can! I'm still strong." The man lifted up the baby in the air, imitating a plane while the kid laughed. "Isn't that right buddy?"
Noah smiled automatically seeing the baby laughing out loud, it was nice to hear it and the sound made everything feel better, the two guys still seemed to be arguing about the boxes so Noah decided that was a good time to offer help and met the neighbors. They approached the guy in the trenchcoat.
"Hi, sorry to interrupt, but do you guys need any help?"
Dean, apparently that was the baby guy's name, held the baby tighter with one arm while the other went to the back of his jeans, oh shit did he have a gun? Had to be just their luck to get a pro gun neighbor.
"No, we are good."
The guy with the blue eyes looked at Noah as if scanning them for a threat, as if they could offer any danger to the guys who were at least twenty centimeters taller than them.
"Sorry sorry, let me introduce myself first! I'm Noah your neighbor" they pointed to their house, hoping this would convince the couple that they weren't some weirdo. "And you two looked like you could use some help, so I thought I'd offer."
The tension visibly left Cas shoulders and he smiled at Noah, a gentle smile that although it did not meet his eyes it was still beautiful.
"We would love your help thanks Noah."
"No problem, Mrs… I don't think I caught a name, sorry."
This time the guy with the baby answered, passing the baby to his husband.
"I think Jack wants you, sweetheart"
The baby was indeed looking a bit fuzzy pointing his tiny hands at his other dad and making noises.
"Da!!!"
The man smiled at the baby who was now in his arms.
"Wanna go inside Jack? You can show me your stuffed animals."
Before going inside the house Cas looked at his husband and Noah could swear they were having an entire conversation with just a look. After the other man had gone inside the guy turned to him, smiling this time but they could see how tense his posture was.
"Your name is Noah right?"
"Yep, Noah Sanchez."
"I'm Dean, that was my husband Castiel, sorry about earlier we… we come from a rough line of work so you know, we get a bit jumpy."
Yeah ok it made sense now, Noah wondered if Dean and Castiel were police officers, it would explain the jumpy reaction and the gun.
"Ah it's okay, my aunt was on the military so yeah I get it." The silence was uncomfortable, god they hated small talk so much, why did they decide to try to be the nice neighbor? "So… how can I help?
Dean seemed to remember why he was talking to them.
"Right, right, can you get some boxes and help me bring them inside? I would do it all myself but Cas forbade me after a work… accident.
Ok the way he said accident sounded weird, but maybe he just wasn't allowed to say what really happened.
"Yeah sure, where do you want me to put them?"
"The kitchen is fine, we will unpack later, gotta get the baby sleeping first."
It made sense, Noah had never been around a lot of babies, their sister had forbidden them from seeing her daughter afraid that they would corrupt her with the notion of gender or some crap like that. The boxes were a bit heavy and made noise of things falling inside when they moved them, books maybe although none of those guys looked like the reading type, but hey who were they to judge?
In the kitchen they found Castiel, sitting on the floor with his son, since no couchs had been set out yet, he was trying to teach letters to the kid.
"C'mon Cas! can't you ease up on the lessons at least today?"
Castiel looked at his husband completely serious.
"I don't want him to feel left behind in kindergarten."
Dean rolled his eyes while he put the smaller boxes at the floor and bended over to pick up the kid.
"C'mon Jack tell you dad that you are tired of those lessons."
All the baby did was mumble some words in baby language, which Noah couldn’t understand but it probably made sense to his parents.
"Da! Down"
Dean laughed and put his kid back onto the floor.
"You are bossy like you daddy hum? All you need to match him now is learn to insult me."
Castiel rolled his eyes fondly at his husband and put his right hand at his shoulder.
"I don't insult you Dean."
Dean turned around to pass his arms around his husband's waist, and with a little smile said.
"And what about all those times you called me a demon?"
"Dean don't start, we have a guest, remember?"
The men turned around suddenly, smiling nervously the way people did when they were caught in an intimate moment.
"Sorry kid, can we offer you some water? I would offer you some juice but we have to go grocery shopping."
"Water is fine, thank you Mrs Dean.
"Oh no, just Dean is fine, I'm not that old, right Cas?"
"You are younger than me."
Dean put a cold metal cup on their hand, weird but maybe it was all they had without unpacking so Noah was trying not to judge.
"The world is younger than you Cas, you aren't helping."
The water was really cold but it was nice to drink after helping with the boxes.
"Hey so, I should get going, I have some stuff to take care of at home.
Castiel was the one to talk, since Dean was now busy playing with the baby.
"Thank you for the help, Noah."
"No problem, welcome to the… neighborhood" not that you could call where they lived a neighborhood, the only other house was at least half an hour away. Noah began to leave and after the door closed behind them, they could hear the voices of the two guys talking.
"What do you think?"
"I tried to scan them, but… I forgot I can't anymore."
"Hey hey, don't be sad, you know I love you, it doesn't matter that you are human now."
"I'm not sad just… Can we talk about this later?"
"Okay so, the holy water that they drank was fine so not a demon."
"Rowena would have told us if a demon was looking for us."
"True, but it doesn't hurt to be safe. Also no reaction to the silver cup so…"
"We have just a regular human neighbor."
Noah got away from the door, who the fuck wore those guys.
A few hours later Noah had forgotten everything about their weird neighbors and instead they were busy cooking homemade bread from scratch, why? Well they didn't really have a good reason, but they were doing it! While listening to the podcast from earlier, and doing their best to ignore the comment from earlier.
"Alright back to the case, like I said Jimmy was a pretty normal guy with a job, wife and daughter, and according to people who knew him, a very devout catholic who helped everyone around him. But then one day, he just vanished during the night!"
Wait, what? There was no way they heard that right! How the fuck did a guy just vanishes like that?
"I know, I know! But strap yourselves in! Cause I still have one hour of recording left and it gets weirder! So, it's the day after Jimmy's vanishing and his wife shows up to the police station wanting to make a missing person report, apparently the guy who she first talked, told her that type of report wasn't allowed less than 72 hours after the disappearance, which is very dumb right?"
Police officers being bad at their job sounded like the most believable thing of this entire case to Noah.
"So the poor woman comes back after 48 hours, finally gets to file the report! And then, things just go completely silent for months. Neighbors start to gossip that maybe this was just a cry for attention from her, that maybe he left her for a younger woman and one even said that maybe he left to buy drugs and just never came back!"
Noah rolled their eyes, apparently bored neighbors at the USA made up the same rumors their old neighbors back in England did, everytime a husband in the neighborhood went on a fishing trip or something it was the same story of saying he was cheating or was going to leave her and the kids. But to be fair, those husbands usually didn't vanish from inside the house in the middle of the night.
"After this, months of silence like I said, some people tipped off the police saying they saw a man fitting the description, but usually there was nothing. Until one day, after almost a year! Jimmy came home without a scratch and still wearing the same clothes from the day he disappeared, a black suit with a beige trenchcoat and a blue tie."
They hit pause on the podcast, that description sounded… oddly familiar, wasn't one of the guys next door wearing exactly this? The one with the blue eyes who fitted the description a bit too well… Noah looked out of the kitchen window, it's view was turned to the kitchen of the house next door, which seemed a bit invasive. Castiel had his eyes turned to the window, but the man seemed focused on something else, Noah wondered what could make someone have such a haunted expression on their face.
"I'm just seeing things for sure, there is no way he is the same guy from that case, life can't be that weird."
They were aware that it was creepy to keep looking, especially since the man was also looking at the window, but something about this new neighbor made them want to keep looking, only when the men's husband entered the kitchen and hugged Castiel while saying something was that Noah looked away, giving a moment of privacy to the couple.
Two days later Noah was at the grocery store still listening to that damn podcast, they had taken a break from it since work got really busy, but buying food was the best way to listen to it while still being productive.
"A elderly lady that lived across the street from the Novaks claims that a friend of the family went to checkout what was happening but he nerver came out again. At the same time two unknown men were seen entering the house, it was unclear who they were but a few hours later they had the Novaks in their car driving somewhere. After this, the whole family disappeared!"
Fuck, that was the worst ending possible, that poor family, they wondered if the unknown men had something to do and if that family was lucky enough to come out alive, probably not.
"After this no one heard from the family again, the only thing that resurfaces from this case sometimes is people claiming to have seen Jimmy Novak hanging around… pay attention this is important, Dean Winchester! You know the St. Louis serial killer! Yeah apparently people have seen them together on more than one occasion, but it's never for long enough that they are able to see if it's really Jimmy Novak and Dean Winchester. So that's all for today, if you have any information that might help this case please call the number in the podcast description, next week I will be taking a break so sorry and."
Noah turned the episode off, shit it had to be a freaky coincidence that his neighbor was called Dean like the serial killer and his other neighbor looked exactly like that Jimmy guy. Before they could finish that line of thought, their cart bumped into another quite strong cart, making Noah lose balance and fall in the middle of the dairy aisle.
"Fuck kid, you okay?"
They looked up seeing Dean offering them a hand, it was a nice gesture but, it didn’t seem right to accept kindness from the guy they thought was a serial killer, so Noah got up by themselves ignoring the kind hand.
"Yeah, sorry about that."
"You seem distracted, everything ok?"
Noah knew he was just being nice, trying to make small talk with the only person he knew in town.
"Yeah, just work stuff, it's nothing."
Dean looked confused now, as if he couldn’t believe a word Noah was saying.
"Aren't you a little too young to be working?"
Nice, one more day of passing as a teenager, danm how they wish they could grow a beard, but even taking testosterone they had no luck and still had a smooth face and chubby cheeks.
"I'm 26 actually, I work in marketing."
"Oh shit sorry kid, after you hit the big 40s all young people look the same, no offense. "
"None taken" they started to arrange stuff on their cart looking for an excuse to get away. "I should get going actually, I have a meeting in a few hours."
"Sure sure, don't let me make you late." He stepped aside with his cart, trying to give passage to Noah. "Ah actually kid" Dean called after them "Is there a mechanic shop in town?"
"Yeah sure, if you get to the town's exit there is one, but it's pretty crappy almost no one works there."
"Nah, it's fine, just need to go there to…" a cell phone ringing interrupted the man and since Noah's phone was always on silent it could only be Dean's.
"Heya Sammy, how is Eileen? Stop bitching, you know I like her better."
Noah took that as their cue to leave, the last thing they heard before turning around into the next aisle was Dean's voice
"Wait! I'm gonna be an uncle!?"
Noah's week had been filled with research, about Jimmy Novak and Dean Winchester, they were pretty sure they had a headache from looking at whatever pictures google could provide, both were kind of old already, you could see that both men were a lot younger but the resemblance was there. Noah was sure of something now, they were living next door to a serial killer who had probably kidnapped Jimmy and did… something to him, and oh my god they had a baby in the house too! Okay yeah they needed to call the police like right now!.
But before they could pick up their phone from the charger a knock was made at their door. Noah wasn't expecting anyone, so it could only be their serial killer neighbor, maybe he was planning on killing Noah now. But when they opened the door it wasn't a monster with knives and guns, just Castiel… Jimmy, whatever name was the real one!
"Hello Noah, hope I'm not disturbing anything."
"Nope, do you need something?"
They couldn't help but look over the man's body, for signs of bruises or wounds or anything, but the only thing he could see was a hickey, poorly hidden by the wide neckline of the black shirt he was wearing.
"Well, Dean's brother is coming into town and he was planning to throw a little barbecue on the yard, and apparently humans consider it rude to not invite their neighbors to things like that so, it's going to be tomorrow if you want to come."
The man turned to leave and go to his own house when by impulse Noah held him by the arm, really not expecting to find muscle.
"Hey wait, can I… ask a weird question?"
The man's blue eyes turned to where Noah was holding, asking himself what the fuck was happening.
"Sure?"
"What is your name?"
"Castiel"
"Yeah but I mean like your full name, we have been neighbors for a while now and I don't know your surnames, what if there was an emergency and I need to tell your names to someone?"
"Okay… It's Castiel Campbell."
"Alright, thanks."
Castiel looked at them like they were crazy and okay maybe they were feeling crazy with all those theories.
"Well, see you tomorrow Noah, I guess."
Only after the man had left they stopped to realize he had said human as if he was not one.
It was the middle of the afternoon when Noah heard a car parking next door, they went to look out of the window seeing a very tall man with long hair getting out of the car followed by a woman with brown hair in a high ponytail, probably Dean's brother judging by the way his neighbor hugged the men, from inside the house came Castiel with the kid jumping excitedly at the sight of his uncle and aunt. Noah smiled seeing the family reunion, for a moment forgetting about all the suspicion they had regarding the couple.
Hours later there was knocking at their door, at the same time the oven bipped, making them aware that the carrot cake they were making was ready.
"Coming! Just a minute!"
They wiped their hands full of flour on the floral dress they were wearing and went to the door, before opening it they looked at the window seeing Dean with his son in his arms, the man looked a bit nervous when Noah opened the door.
"Hey, kid, so Cas told me he invited you to our little barbecue?"
"Yeah, was he… not supposed to?"
The toddler started trying to get down from his father's lap, looking very fixated at something on the floor.
"Yeah yeah, just wanted to confirm with you if he actually did… Don't go down the stairs Jack!"
Jack turned around to look at his dad, with a bug in his hands, Dean just sighed.
"Put the ladybug down buddy, c'mon don't look at me like that."
The kid was looking at his dad with pleading eyes, begging in silence to let him keep the bug.
"Why did I let Cas teach you the stare?" It didn't take long for Jack to become fascinated with something else on the poarch.
"Sorry about that, he is at the curious phase, he is worse than his dad when I met him I swear."
Noah smiled a bit nervously, did the man mean when he kidnapped his husband? God they needed to stop thinking about that!
"Yeah, anyway, my brother's wife is setting up the grill already, so if you wanna come you can… Yeah that sounded weird, I'm not good at this neighbor shit."
Was it because you were busy killing people in St Louis?
"I was baking a cake to take with me actually, so just give me like 5 minutes and I will be there."
"Awesome, see you in a bit, c'mon Jack Claire must be arriving."
"Cla?"
"Yes buddy, and when she arrives tell her that her other dad put her and Kaia on babysitting duty."
"Kai!"
Oh so there were going to be more people on the barbecue, that was nice, Noah didn't get to socialize a lot and… Wait, wasn't Jimmy Novak's daughter named Claire? Oh god.
Even with their instincts of self preservation screaming at them to not go, Noah got up put some light makeup and got their cake under their arms, it was time to discover the truth.
The first people they saw were two young adults, around their age actually and oh boy one of them was very intimidating with long blonde hair and blue eyes, they were kinda dreading to go speak to the girls.
"Hum, hello?"
"Hi, who…" the girl rolled her eyes and looked back to scream "Dean! Did you and Cas adopt another orphan?"
"No! For fucks sake Claire, they are our neighbor!"
"Not my fault that you and Cas like to go around the country collecting orphans."
"Shut up kid, you are making me look like an old pervert!"
The blonde girl, Claire apparently, turned back to Noah smiling.
"Sorry about that, had to be sure that I wasn't gaining another sibling by accident, Jack's is enough already, trust me."
"So are you Dean and Castiel's daughter?"
"Well in a way, more like adopted daughter, my bio dad had a… intimate relationship with Cas, so when he… passed away I became his legal daughter."
"Oh, sorry that I brought it up."
"Oh no it's okay really, it's just a weird story to tell and I don't want people to think I'm crazy."
She pulled the girl at her side by the waist so they could be closer, the girl giggled.
"A warning next time would be nice! You know I'm ticklish!"
"I know, wanna some juice?"
"Isn't there some beer?"
"Yeah no, they don't buy it because of Dean, you know why."
They could feel Claire looking at them, probably meaning that she didn't wanna talk about Dean's problem with alcohol in front of a stranger.
After some hours of mingling Noah was starting to give up on the theories of living with a serial killer as a neighbor, the dude was wearing a kiss the chef apron, for God's sake! He couldn't have killed all those people, maybe he just looked like the guy that's all.
They were sitting on a table with Eileen, Sam's wife, thankfully they had taken sign classes in college so their conversation was going pretty comfortable.
"So" They "how did you and Sam meet?"
"Work, he and Dean were working on… a meeting and they needed my help, after that I kept in contact with Sam everytime he needed to talk or complain about how Dean and Cas wouldn't stop doing love eyes at each other."
Weird, Noah thought Dean was a police officer, did those guys even have meetings? Something wasn’t adding up.
"Excuse me, I need to go help my husband with something. SAMUEL I TOLD YOU TO NOT DROP THOSE BOXES!
Yeah, Noah went somewhere else not wanting to interrupt the couple's argument and ended up just standing under a tree drinking their lemonade and observing the family in front of them, they seemed nice and very attached to each other, maybe… maybe that podcasts put worms in his brain, cause it was clearly those were all normal… He heard something, Dean and Claire talking and going a little deeper into the woods, should they follow them? Dean seemed nice of course, but something in their mind couldn’t let go of the fact that Dean looked exactly like the St Louis serial killer. So they started to follow.
They didn't go too deep, soon both started talking and Noah hid behind a tree to listen.
"Kay Kid, what do you need?"
"You know that vampire nest where you got hurt?"
"The one with the rusty nail?"
"Yeah course I remember the fuckers who made my back be miserable."
"I'm pretty sure that's just your age, old man."
"Get to the point, blondie."
"Asshole."
"Yeah yeah, go on"
"Some of the ones you didn't kill were seen around those areas, Kaia saw them when we were driving towards here."
"And you want me to kill them? Kay I'm game!"
"No, Dean, I want you to stay away from them alright? They want revenge against you."
"I'm the closest hunter!"
"No you're not, I'm here, Kaia too, Sam and Eileen, she might be pregnant but she can still kill some vampires! Just please don't go after them, last time was a close call already.
"Okay kid, I promise."
Yeah Noah had enough! Vampires? Maybe those people weren't serial killers but they were a bit weird that's for sure.
When Noah returned home, trying to not be seen by the rest of the party, they went straight to their laptop and started looking for apartments to rent around there, they needed to move.