Work Text:
Sam raised an eyebrow as he looked at the sandwich Castiel put in front of him. “What.”
“Dean told me that when he was a child, your mother would cut the crusts off of his sandwiches for him. He said that you had expressed jealousy that no one ever did that for you, in Heaven. I thought I would give it a try.”
“Okay, I get that, but…” Sam picked up the sandwich to examine. “Why a cat shape instead of just normal square?”
“There are two reasons. One, I wanted to talk to you about something cat-related.” Castiel wandered off, returning with a book.
Sam had eaten part of the sandwich, and he set the rest down as soon as Castiel was back. “You know no matter what, Dean won’t let us have a cat.”
“A real one, no, but that’s not what I was proposing.” Castiel opened the book, flipping to a section and handing it to Sam. “I was proposing turning myself into a cat. Dean probably would still object, but in this case, I thought you might be willing to stand up to him and say that he has no standing to override our decision.”
“Um…” Sam had a million objections, but he could at least read what Castiel had in mind before he expressed any of them. After all, Castiel was smart enough to have thought of them and have answers prepared, right?
The book was open to a ritual. In the ritual, a willing person could bind themself to a witch, taking on an animal form to serve as the witch’s familiar. In doing so, it would open a channel for the witch to draw on the familiar for greater power, control, focus, and even a way to share knowledge and thoughts. The main downside appeared to be a lack of privacy if the witch refused to honor their familiar’s mental barriers and the chance for a spell to backfire and cause damage to the familiar as well as – or instead of – the witch.
One of the ways to work around that was to bind yourself to your soulmate. The lack of privacy would already be there, and the risk of backfire would – for a decent witch – be a reason to avoid drawing too much power or doing something they were not in firm control of. It would be a way for Castiel to look after Sam when he couldn’t be along on a hunt, and to call for help himself if he needed it on his own hunt. Sam easily understood why Castiel would propose this.
“And you’re sure you’ll become a cat?”
Castiel nodded. “There are limited options, and while the preferences of the witch and the familiar-to-be can guide the selection, it can’t just make a new option. Between a cat, a toad, and a rat, I suspect we can agree that a cat is the preferable outcome.”
“Yeah.” Sam set the book aside, smiling. “Even Dean’s objections would be more about me embracing my witch side more than you turning into a cat, because as a familiar you wouldn’t be allergen producing. He’s accepting me turning into a Man of Letters, but the witch thing is still weirding him out a bit.”
“You’ve made it clear that what you’re doing is nothing like what the witches you hunt do, and he just needs to get his head around it. So? Are you agreed?”
“Yeah… we’ll need to get some things together, but I’m all for it. Catstiel is a go.” Sam leaned over and kissed Castiel’s cheek, and then picked up his sandwich. Seeing the cat ear reminded him. “What’s the other reason?”
“Hmm?”
“You said there were two reasons for the cat sandwich. One was to start the conversation about you signing on as my familiar. What’s the other one?”
“Oh. Yes.” Castiel smiled and ducked his head. “I asked Dean what to do with the crusts, since it seemed wasteful to just throw them away. He said that’s what his mom probably did, unless she ate them. I don’t make my own PB&Js anymore because of the waste in making them for myself, but if I can enjoy a piece of them without them going to waste… and if they’re not going to waste, then why not make them fancy instead of trying to minimize the amount cut off?”