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Castiel Novak had been home schooled for the first 12 years of his life. Then, tragedy struck and his mother had died after a short battle with cancer. His mother who had also been his teacher and best friend. The person whom he had loved most in the world and the only person who seemed to 'get' him was cruelly ripped away. In the midst of Castiel's grief, his father had landed the final blow. He was too busy to either teach Castiel from home himself, or find an appropriate tutor. Castiel was therefore going to have to attend a 'normal' school for the first time in his life.
On the first day of school, Castiel stood in front of a full height mirror and looked at himself. He had no idea what people wore to school these days, so he had gone with a crisp white shirt and blue tie. He was also going to wear the trench coat he had insisted that his mom buy for him after seeing it in a thrift store even though it was too big for him.
Castiel's first morning at school passed by in a blur. He was not really paying attention to what was going on. He vaguely realised that a couple of his teachers tried to get him to introduce himself to the class, but Castiel just stared at them, without speaking until they gave up and waved him to his seat. In his English literature class, he waited until the last minute to arrive, then moved quickly and slumped into the only free seat before the teacher could say anything to him. Suddenly, there was a nudge to his ribs. Castiel looked up, annoyed, but was caught by a pair of extremely green eyes.
"Hey, I'm Dean." The boy whispered.
"Castiel." He murmured in response.
"I like your tie." Dean said. Castiel looked down and then back at Dean in surprise.
"Everyone else has been making fun of me, I've heard them whispering."
"They're all dicks, ignore them."
"Dean! Language in the classroom." The teacher had walked behind them at just the wrong moment. "As you are obviously very opinionated today Dean, can you tell me why Shakespeare set many of his plays in Italy?"
Dean gaped a little, so Castiel decided to step in.
"It's because Italy was considered to be an exotic place, where not many people knew what it was actually like, so Shakespeare could make creative changes as he needed to."
The teacher nodded. "Thank you. You must be Castiel. Welcome to the class, and that is certainly a good point. Does anyone have any other thoughts?" She turned away. Dean grinned at him and mouthed 'thanks'. Cas smiled timidly back.
At lunch, Cas picked up his tray and turned to face the room. This had been the thing he was dreading most, and as he looked out at the sea of talking faces, he remembered why. Then, there was a long arm waving at him over the heads of the crowd.
"Cas, come sit with us." Dean yelled across the cafeteria, earning a scowl from one of the lunch ladies. Castiel hurried over to the table before Dean could get himself into more trouble. Dean shoved the chair next to him outcrop the table with his foot, and Casiel sat down quickly.
"Cas?" He muttered to Dean, who shrugged.
"Castiel is a bit of a mouthful." Dean said. Cas considered.
"I like it."
A balled up piece of paper flew past Cas' nose and hit Dean in the side of the head.
"Are you going to introduce us, or pretend we're not here for the rest of lunch?" A red headed girl from the end of the table called out.
"That's Charlie," Dean said, "she is always like that. You just have to ignore her." Charlie stuck her tongue out at Dean, but smiled at Cas. "Next to her is Jo," the blonde on Charlie's right waggled her fingers at him. "Then we've got Benny and Garth." The two boys grinned at him, Benny was wearing a grey hat that looked like it never left his head. Garth was skinny and angular, with an easy smile. Talk resumed at the table, mainly centring around dungeons and dragons and something called LARP. It all went above Cas' head, but Dean involved him in the conversation as much as he could.
The bell rang, and they all stood. As they cleared their trays, Dean clipped a younger, sandy haired boy around the head. The boy turned around and glared. "Dean!" He whined. "Stop embarrassing me!"
"You know you love it, Sammy. This is Cas, by the way, he's new."
"Hey, Cas." The boy said, "it's Sam actually, to anyone who isn't my annoying big brother." He mock scowled at Dean.
"Hi, Sam" Cas said with a small smile. Sam did not look much like Dean, but you could see certain mannerisms that he had picked up from his brother.
"Go on then Sam, you don't want to be late." Dean wafted him away imperiously. "We should get going too, Cas."
The next few days and weeks passed by in a blur of friendship and acceptance from Dean and his group. Soon, the talk turned to Halloween and what everyone's plans were. Charlie was having people over for a night filled with zombie movies and scary video games. Dean and Cas were invited of course, but Dean had said that he had plans with his family, stuff they did every year and so he might not make it. Cas did not want to go without Dean - he liked the rest of the group a lot, but he was still most comfortable when the other boy was with him.
Cas' family had never celebrated Halloween anyway, and so he was resigned to spending the night at home alone, as his father was out of town on business. A couple of days before Halloween, Cas asked Dean for a movie recommendation to watch whilst at home on his own. Dean stared at him in obvious confusion for a few minutes, then frowned.
"Dude, didn't I ask you to spend halloween at mine?"
"No, Dean. You said you were spending the night with family."
"Well, maybe I just assumed that you knew you were family so were included in the invite." Cas felt warmth seep through him, and was lost for words. Dean read the emotion in his face and slung an arm around him as they walked to their next class. "You will come, right?"
"Of course." Cas said, still feeling a little choked.
On Halloween, Dean walked up to the front door of his house and produced his keys. Cas lingered by the fence, suddenly feeling nervous. Dean bounded back and grabbed Cas' hand.
"Come on, Cas. We're going to have fun tonight." Dean pulled Cas towards the house, and through the front door. They were immediately hit by warm smells of cooking.
"Is that you, Dean?" Dean's mom appeared in the hallway and enveloped her son in a warm hug. Dean submitted to it with a little muttering, but Cas could tell he loved it. She released Dean and looked at Cas, who held out his hand.
"Hello, Mrs Winchester, thank you for letting me spend Halloween with your family."
"Please, call me Mary," she said with a smile. She took a couple of steps towards him, hitting Dean lightly on the way past. "And so polite, I hope you're teaching Dean some manners." Mary ignored Cas' hand and enveloped him in a warm hug. She smelt like flour, cinnamon and roses. It was a very feminine smell, and it immediately reminded him of his own mom. Tears of grief and happiness sprang to his eyes, and he felt like he had come home.
Mary gripped him tightly, then finally let go. She smiled at him with understanding and wiped away the single tear that had escaped his eye.
"I'd better get back to making dinner." Mary said, and walked away. Dean punched Cas on the arm lightly, no judgement in his face, only understanding.
"Come on, let's go change while Mom finishes up." Dean grabbed Cas' hand again and dragged him towards the stairs.
"Get changed?" Cas asked, feeling worried.
"Yeah, you've got to wear a costume on Halloween."
"But, I don't have a costume."
"Don't worry Cinderella, you shall go to the ball."
"Dean, if you've got me a Cinderella costume, I will send you back to hell, and by that I mean get you into detention for the next month."
Dean grinned, but didn't answer. He pushed open the door to his room, and Cas caught his first glimpse of Dean's sanctuary. There were movie and comic posters all over the walls, and one wall was covered in shelves which held the matching DVDs and books, as well as some figurines. It looked a lot like his own room, and Cas immediately felt at home.
"Is that receipt with the Batman Forever poster signed by Val Kilmer?"
"Yeah, my Dad worked on his car one time after he broke down. Dad didn't know who he was, but recognised him from my poster, so asked him to sign the closest thing at hand."
"That's awesome." Cas continued to look around the room, while Dean sat on the bed, seemingly content to let him poke around. Finally, Cas turned to look at Dean, and noticed two piles next to him on the bed, one larger then the other.
"That's a small pile for a Cinderella costume. Or is it Pocahontas? Or maybe the Little Mermaid?" Cas teased.
"Should I be concerned about the number of Disney princesses you can name?"
"You're a Disney princess," Cas deadpanned, then realised his retort did not actually make that much sense. Dean smirked at him, then threw something at him that looked like a small dog. Cas caught it automatically, and looking at Dean quizzically, head tilting.
"It's a blonde wig. Given you look like him anyway, I figured you may as well dress like John Constantine from Hellblazer for Halloween. I've also got a red tie, and a fake cigarette, but you're already wearing the rest of the costume."
Cas grinned. "I like it. It's not very child friendly though." Dean shrugged.
"Who cares."
"What about you?"
"Me? I'm Batman." Dean growled, voice dropping at least an octave. "I'll just go get changed in the bathroom, you put your wig and tie on." Dean grabbed the pile of his costume and left the room.
Cas looked doubtfully at the wig in his hands, but spotted a small mirror on the windowsill. He put the wig on, and adjusted it until he was fairly sure it was sitting right. It looked strange on him, and felt scratchy, but he was not going to spoil this for Dean. He tied the tie loosely around his neck, leaving the collar open. Cas looked in the mirror again, and a very young Constantine looked back at him.
Cas grabbed the fake cigarette and put it between his lips as the door opened and Dean came back into the room. He was dressed head to toe as batman, including utility belt and full face mask. He took one look at Cas, and burst out laughing. Cas laughed too, and soon they were both laughing so hard they were gasping for air and leaning into each other for balance. Mary called them down for dinner, and they tumbled down the stairs, still laughing.
They entered the kitchen, and Cas stopped abruptly. He had entered a Halloween spectacular, with the table covered in pumpkin candles and Halloween confetti. The lights were off, so the only light came from the candles and the black lanterns hung strategically around the room. Cobwebs were draped over cupboards, and a big black cauldron overflowing with sweets sat on the kitchen top.
Mary turned and started to place plates on the table. She was dressed as a witch, in a black dress and pointy top hat. She noticed Cas staring, and grinned at him.
"What? Why should the kids get to have all the fun?" Cas nodded and smiled back. "I don't know who you're supposed to be, Cas, but I'm sure you look great." She turned to Dean. "Batman again, Dean? How many years is that now?"
"What? It's tradition, Mom! And where's Sam?"
"Right here, Dean." Sam walked into the kitchen, dressed as Daredevil in his red suit. He was also wearing sunglasses and holding a white cane. Dean scowled at him.
"You're supposed to be Robin. I put the costume on your bed."
Sam made a face. "I wanted to do something different this year, we can't always be the same. Besides, it will look weird in a couple of years when Robin is taller then Batman. May as we break the habit now."
"It will never happen. Besides, don't you know anything? Matt Murdoch always throws his stick and glasses away when he reveals his Daredevil costume." Sam opened his mouth to respond, but Cas decided to step in to stop the squabbling. He was quickly learning they could go on for hours.
"It seems like a sensible ploy that could get more trick or treating candy." That shut Dean and Sam up as they considered. Dean shrugged.
"Could work. Ok, Sam. I'll let it go this year, and we'll see what the candy levels are like."
"The sooner you sit down and eat boys, the sooner you can get out trick or treating." Mary said, as she sat down at the table. All three boys hastily sat down, with both Sam and Dean removing their masks, and looked at the spread prepared for their Halloween dinner. There was a pork roast with apple cornbread stuffing, a green bean salad, and buttered corn. It looked amazing to Cas, who had not had a full home cooked meal since his mom died, and he dug in when Dean passed the spoon.
After they had all helped themselves second helpings, Mary got up to clear the table, and Cas immediately jumped to help. Mary glared at Dean until he did the same, and in the end all three boys helped to clear the dishes from the table, while Mary got out clean plates for dessert. She pulled two delicious smelling pies from the oven.
"Two pies for four of us?" Cas whispered to Dean.
"Mom can never decide whether to make apple or pumpkin pie for Halloween, so she always makes both." Dean murmured back, "it's good with me, just means I get a piece of both. Don't worry, it doesn't get wasted."
"I'm sure" Cas muttered dryly, eyeing Dean's stomach.
The four of them retuned to the table, and Mary sliced the pies, putting a small slice of both pies onto each plate. When they had all finished eating, Mary shooed them out of the front door, ignoring Cas' offers to help clear up, and telling them to enjoy their trick or treating.
They wandered around the neighbourhood, Cas in his wig and fake cigarette, Dean with his batman mask back on, and Sam with both full Daredevil mask and sunglasses on. He clearly could not see very well, but it did seem to improve the candy haul, as people were never quite sure if Sam was actually blind or not, and did not want to ask, so were throwing more candy at the group to cover the awkwardness. They messed around a lot, pushing each other around and arguing about who the best superheroes were, and whether pirates or ninjas would win in a fight.
They eventually made their way home, stumbling through the door, high on sugar and laughter. Mary was sitting on the sofa in the dark watching a scary movie. Sam sat on the floor beside his mom, and Dean slumped next to her on the sofa. Cas hung back in the doorway, feeling awkward and not wanting to interrupt the family moment. Dean realised he had not followed, and patted the seat next to him, smiling broadly.
Cas pulled the wig from his head as he walked to the sofa and dropped it onto the seat beside him. Dean ruffled his hair fondly. "I prefer your dark hair."
"Me too." Cas smiled and leant back into the sofa.
"So, you've seen the Winchester family traditions for Halloween. Same time next holiday?" Dean whispered in Cas' ear,
"Absolutely." Cas said, feeling at peace and loved for the first time in a long time.