Chapter Text
The sky was a little cloudy that day, but the sunrise was still beautiful. It revealed everything in their little corner of the world, from the lush forest in the spring, to the large river surrounding it almost completely and the mountains behind it as the last protective barrier between Castiel’s home and the outside world.
He suppressed his tiredness, wanting to see all of it in the daylight. A sunrise was a rare sight for someone like him and it was especially beautiful from this cliff. Castiel was glad that he came here, despite the hesitation he felt less than half an hour ago. Anyway, it would be weird if he would have found it easy to leave his village for the first time in a few dozen years. The elders had always said there wasn’t much to see outside, but Castiel disagreed with them at that moment.
He let out a yawn, which reminded him that he was supposed to be asleep then, but what could he do about it? He already spent a lot of time rolling in his bed, unable to close his eyes. He wondered if it was because of the nightmare he had the day before or because of his latest failure to break his curse. While the latter wasn’t usually bothering him, this time he had made the mistake to get his hopes up, even if Balthazar seemed confident that his proposal would work. But as his kissing partner retreated their lips to ask someone to mend the new burns left by the curse, Castiel had to admit that nothing changed inside him. He was still just a defective moth that harmed everyone he touched.
He lifted a hand to his own dry lips. He’ll have to apply some balm to them once he’ll return home. Of course, a proper moth could use their innate healing ability to help him with that, but Castiel didn’t like asking for that since he couldn’t return the favor. He was completely unable to heal anyone since he was very young. He couldn’t have been older than 10 the last time he managed to heal someone and then… nothing but burns, rashes and other unpleasant conditions out of nowhere. A lot of moths had been unintentionally hurt by the time the elder brothers finally understood that there was something wrong with his touch. He couldn’t blame them for taking so long. Every moth could also hurt others with their abilities whenever they wanted as self-defense, but Castiel was the only one who couldn’t control it, not even being able to turn it off for a moment. He wasn’t proud about how envious that made him feel sometimes.
But what good was there to think about it, especially then? Now there was no other moth around, which strangely didn’t make him feel any more lonely than usual, quite the opposite actually. There was peace in knowing that every moth but him was sleeping at this time, but he wasn’t sure why he felt that way. A moth was not supposed to be awake when the sun was up in the sky except if they were on guarding duty, which wasn’t the case for him until Tuesday. A moth was not supposed to leave the village and risk exposing where their current ancestral tree was placed, unless they were doing some work designated by the elders, like gathering resources or helping other tribes with healing their injuries. So what was he doing there? Perhaps the fact that he was acting so… unlike any other moth proved that there was a good reason he was cursed. Maybe he was even causing this all by denying his nature through useless rebellious acts, that’s what he could imagine Michael telling him. Yeah, Michael would definitely scold him as if he was a teenager since that was how he was acting sometimes, though not as much as Raphael would. The more he thought about it, the more his inner peace disappeared. He decided to get back home before that embarrassing occasion would arise.
He got up from the cliff, but as he turned around he realized he wasn’t alone anymore. There was someone watching him, a stranger he was not happy to see. Castiel wasn’t really surprised to see someone else around there and he actually wouldn’t have minded meeting most other people. Many tribes were active at this hour, from the frivolous butterflies to the unreliable hummingbirds or even the untrustworthy water spirits. Castiel didn’t meet much of their lot since he was less than 150 years old (though he wasn’t keeping an exact count) and his duty kept him around the village with no excuse to travel the world. He only knew about most of the other tribes from books and what his peers were saying about them - which was rarely something good, but often intriguing.
However, this other person did not have to say a thing for Castiel to know all he needed about him. He had bright red hair that was moving oddly in the wind. His clothes were a plain mix of cloth, leather and iron, all creating an attire more focused on practicality than catching someone’s eyes. His facial expression was confused rather than aggressive, but he was holding a dagger in his hand nonetheless. Castiel was face to face with a fire spirit, one who was certainly capable of fighting if he decided that’s what he wanted to do. And how could Castiel know what this stranger’s intentions were? This could easily turn into a dangerous situation. After all, everyone knew how impulsive and destructive fire spirits could be. And every moth knew they were behind the fire that consumed their first ancestral tree and village, which had scarred Castiel’s entire tribe. Fire spirits didn’t even deserve a simple greeting after that heinous act.
“What are you?” the redhead asked.
Castiel stopped himself from touching his wings out of reflex, being relieved that they were hidden under his cloak. Bright white hair like his was unusual, but it wasn’t only specific to moths so that alone wouldn’t betray his nature. This meant that he wouldn’t be able to fly out of there if he wanted to keep his secret, but that wasn’t much of a problem for him. Another effect of the curse was that his wings were not fully grown and useless in most cases, so Castiel was more used to walking and running anyway.
“Are you going to answer or just stare at me like a deer in front of a cougar?” the fire spirit insisted.
Castiel knew that he couldn’t avoid any answer altogether, but he also didn’t want to unintentionally lead the stranger to the truth. He’d rather risk starting a fight than doom the new moth village.
“I am what I am,” Castiel replied, controlling his facial expression so he’d seem confident. Still, he couldn’t help but look at the dagger, an action the fire spirit noticed.
“I’m sure you know how suspicious that answer is, pal” the answer came with a shrug.
“Is it more suspicious than you interrogating people at random? Why would I say anything to a stranger?”
The redhead shook his head. “A stranger, huh? Fine. I’m Dean.”
“Good for you.”
“You really are something… Is your name a secret too?”
Castiel didn’t answer. His name was more likely to give away what he was than his looks, aside from the wings. Many moths had names ending in “el” to honor the founder of their first village, who had suddenly vanished long before Castiel even started existing.
“Playing hard to get?” the fire spirit asked. “Whatever, I’m not that curious anyway. But unless you're a bee you should probably carry on from here. The new queen bee is not fond of trespassers.”
Castiel frowned, unable to hide his skepticism. “I’ve been here for a while and haven’t seen any bees around.“
“Don’t bee too sure you’ll always be lucky like that,” the redhead replied with an inexplicable smirk.
“Your concern is noted,” Castiel replied coldly.
“Hmm. You have the same stick up your ass that I hear moths have.”
Castiel tried to not seem alarmed by the strange remark. “It is obvious I do not. What an inappropriate thing to say!”
“Right…” The fire spirit turned around, but still looked at him. “If you get attacked by bees, just shout and if I’m still around I’ll come help.”
Castiel didn’t say anything while the fire spirit walked away so he wouldn’t make him return by accident. This stranger… Dean… was such an odd person anyway. Offering to help him, to protect him? As if a moth ever needed protection from the tribe who destroyed his original home! Of course, the redhead didn’t know that Castiel was a moth, but what a preposterous offer regardless… Though it wasn’t wrong that he shouldn’t provoke other tribes, so he hurried back to his village.
Soon after he left the cliff, he heard a buzzing passing over him. By the time Castiel looked up, the source of the sound was nowhere to be seen, but it wasn’t hard to guess that it was a bee. He groaned to himself, realizing that Dean’s warning had not been a lie after all. Did that mean that this one fire spirit was not as bad as Castiel thought?
He wondered about that until he took the first step in the moth village. He stopped for a moment and closed his eyes to avoid getting dizzy while the settlement with the great tree in the middle was becoming visible to him. Making this all invisible to the outsiders had not been easy for months, but it had been worth it to assure the safety of their home.
Once he opened his eyes again he saw Balthazar waving at him until a yawn made his friend cover his mouth instead. The other moth wasn’t still awake because he appreciated sunrises, but because someone had to guard the village while most villagers slept. Everyone respected the shifts, even the usual troublemakers like Balthazar, not wanting to risk another fire.
Castiel was even more glad to see his best friend than usual since it meant his little adventure outside could remain a secret. No one except the guarding moth was walking around at this hour or even being awake, so sneaking back into his house was easy. Balthazar would still question him about leaving the village which was going to be annoying, but at least that meant Castiel wouldn't get in trouble with the elder brothers.
As soon as he began laying in his bed, Castiel wondered if he should go and talk now with his friend about the unexpected meeting with a firefly. He quickly gave up on the thought, already feeling very tired and unsure if that was a good idea anyway. He let out a sigh. What he needed was sleep, not to think about anything, especially not about a fire spirit.