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“Sam? May I ask you something?”
Sam put down the book he was reading. Castiel couldn’t help the smile. Sam had been programmed with a thorough knowledge of classical literature, but his interest in modern literature was all his own, discovered from his job at the library. “Of course, Castiel. What’s on your mind?”
“I was working on our budget, and I noticed that you put half your salary in the ‘Pay Uriel Back’ fund instead of keeping it. While of course you’re free to do whatever you want, I just wanted to make sure you knew that we made our last payment to Uriel already.” Thanks to his brother Uriel, Castiel had been able to buy Sam outright from Electric Sheep Dreams, giving him his freedom from a company that didn’t care that their robot blank wasn’t resetting properly between programmings. In the two years since, both Castiel and Sam had put as much money as they could spare with frugal living – aside from Castiel’s bees, who Sam insisted not suffer on his account – into this fund. Castiel had estimated that it would take him five years to fully pay Uriel back. With Sam’s help, that had ended up dropping to two.
Sam nodded. “I’m aware. There are a few reasons for it. For one thing, this is the life I know. I’m sure it will be nice to be able to spend some money frivolously, but until I reach my goal, I’m not suffering from giving up whatever luxuries I’m missing.”
Fair enough, really. For that matter, once Castiel had gotten used to being mindful of every penny and finding ways to do things more cheaply, he’d found the life not unpleasant. On his own, it would have been far more so, but Sam was happy to help with cooking and other chores that were cheaper to do themselves than pay someone to do, but hard to do alone. “I take it the main reason is that goal, then? What is it?” Depending on what the goal was, Castiel was quite prepared to help at least somewhat.
“I’m not ungrateful enough to not make paying Uriel back my top priority. That had to be done, and we did it as quickly as I could have hoped. Now that that’s done, however, I want to help…” He frowned, and Castiel let him work through whatever he was trying to figure out. “I told you that I was different from most of the other robot slates, right? That I didn’t fully reset? It’s rare but not unheard of, and in the server where I was kept, there was another slate that didn’t fully blank. We helped each other, during the time between assignments, and now that the only person I owe anything to would never take it, I’d like to build up the funds to buy him and bring him out. Like you did for me.” Sam reached out, gently stroking Castiel’s face. “I don’t expect you to help, of course. So this one will take longer. Just please understand.”
“You may not be asking for my help, but unless you won’t let me, I intend to provide. I’m going to keep some money out this time to pay for a few things that we’ve let slide on maintaining the house, but once that’s taken care of, we’ll get right back to how we’ve been living.” Castiel leaned his forehead against Sam’s. “Let’s get your companion out as quickly as possible.”
“Can… can I ask you for some further help, then?” Sam whispered. “My legal standing has yet to be challenged, but of anyone, Electric Sheep Dreams has the most cause to want to have me classified as property rather than a person regardless of me having my own key. Will you be the one to put in the orders?”
“Of course.” Castiel kissed Sam. “A quick order to make sure that we get the correct shell and that the programming is a good match, and then a permanent solution.”
A couple months later, Castiel got home from work to find his sister sitting in the driveway. “Anna? What are you doing here?”
“Dad sent me to investigate something. Now, I’ve already told him that it’s none of anyone’s fucking business how you and Sam live your lives, and after the shitshow when you introduced Sam as your boyfriend, he doesn’t get to demand answers.” To say Michael had taken it badly when he went to shake what he assumed was the hand of a human and discovered that it didn’t quite feel right was to say that tornadoes caused a bit of a problem for trailer parks. He had accused Castiel of wasting his brother’s money on a glorified sex toy, and he couldn’t even get a respectable one at that. Uriel had insisted that no one’s money was being wasted as long as Castiel was happy.
A month later, Michael had calmed down, gathered some information from his other children, and come to formally apologize to Castiel. While he still didn’t understand why Castiel would choose a programmed robot over a perfectly good human woman, he did realize now that it wasn’t his choice to make. Things had been strained since, but slowly improving.
“So then why are you here, if not to get answers for our father?” Castiel had to ask. It could easily be just as simple as Anna wanting to warn him about spies, but if there were more to it, he’d like to know before Sam got home, which could be any minute now.
“I’m here to get information, but I swear, it’s to satisfy my own curiosity, not to pass on to Father. And I’m perfectly happy to take none of your business fuck off as a valid response, because I am being nosy and somewhat invasive.” Anna grinned at him. “After two years of cutting your budgets to the absolute bare bones, we’re all a little shocked that you’re keeping that up even though you have no real reason to. Uriel’s theory is you’re saving up for a wedding; Balthazar thinks you’re gonna have some big Vegas blowout, my guess is that you guys just got comfortable with it and are working your way back to luxury at your own pace.”
“You’re all wrong,” Castiel said. “You remember me explaining why it was so important to me to do this for Sam?” Anna nodded. “Sam has a… brother… for lack of a better word. One like him, still in the server, who he feels a connection to. We’re saving up to free him.”
Anna’s jaw dropped. “Wow. Okay. Give me a couple minutes. Can I come in if I promise to pay for dinner to be delivered?”
“You don’t have to do that. We do take feeding guests as a necessary part of our budget,” Castiel joked.
Anna just shrugged and reached for the laptop beside her. “That’s for expected, invited guests, not for people who just show up and impose themselves on you. Come on. I need to check a couple things before I commit fully to this, but I think I might be able to help you.”
It was Castiel’s turn for a shock when Anna was ready to show him the spreadsheet. “Anna…”
“I know. I’ve talked to Sam about his experiences in the server and how it all works. I know that when we do this, he’ll have no reason to stay with me once I’ve handed over his key. I don’t even know what programming to ask for, how am I supposed to know if I’d even want him to? But Sam’s my brother-in-law, and please understand I do not mean this as a criticism of you, but I’ve noticed a couple times when he’s around you and your siblings, he’s looked kind of… sad. Lonely. I’m getting Sam’s brother out because I think it’ll be good for Sam, not necessarily for myself.” She reached out and hugged Castiel. “That said if the programming does happen to work out for me… there are advantages. I have the money, you and Sam and his brother can make the call on whether to pay me back all or part or none of it when we see how things work out.”
Sam chose that moment to come in. “Hello. Sorry to interrupt, but I heard my name…”
“Anna plans to buy your brother. The same way I bought you, where the point is for him to be free, not necessarily Anna’s companion,” Castiel said, and Sam swallowed hard as he looked away before Anna could see the tears. “We’ll need your help with the programming. Uriel didn’t know anything about you, but you know him.”
“Give me a second. I’d fully expected this to take another two years or even more, and now you’re telling me my brother may be free in a matter of days.” Sam wiped his eyes and turned back to the computer. “Let’s get to work.”
Sam put in the majority of the programming, explaining this thought process. “My brother usually gets sent on a particular type of call, the people who want a rebel or a bad boy who turns out to actually be a very good man deep down. The James Dean type. Within that, there’s plenty of room for customization, but I’m picking a couple of things that I know cater to him. A love of cars, for one. That’s one of the details that sticks when he’s put back in the server.” He handed the computer over to Anna. “Don’t change any of the things I’ve set up, but the things that aren’t set, you can set however appeals to you.”
“Feels a little… creepy,” Anna protested. She held the laptop back out to Sam. “He’s your brother…”
“Which means I know what matters to him most and what can change without him feeling uncomfortable in the match,” Sam said, pushing the laptop back toward Anna. “Even knowing that everything Uriel chose about my programming was meant to appeal to Cas, I felt like me the first time I was loaded, and my feelings for Cas are all mine. Those can’t be programmed. If it works with my brother and you, it’ll be because the person he is works with you. Not because you programmed him.”
Castiel held out a hand. “If you really feel too weird about it, let me do it. I’m confident I can do as good a job for you as Uriel did for me.”
That worked for both Sam and Anna, and Castiel quickly sorted through the options to match both their budget and Anna’s preferences without changing the framework Sam programmed. “All right. Only one last decision to make. Sam, what name should we put?”
Sam shook his head. “In the server, we referred to ourselves by our shell number or designation. It wouldn’t translate in a meaningful way out here. The name won’t mean anything to him, so pick something you like.”
“Sam compared him to James Dean in describing the personality he was going for,” Anna said. “James reminds me of that weirdo from middle school that looked just like you, but what about Dean?”
Castiel typed it in, chose a delivery date with the box for “under consideration for permanent assignment” checked, and closed the laptop. “Dean will be here tomorrow.”
Anna invited Castiel and Sam to be there, with the irrefutable logic that if Dean took off after she gave him his key, he and Sam might never find each other – not to mention, Sam was the only one who could identify his brother underneath all the programming they had added. Castiel reached out and took Sam’s hand as they waited. “I can understand why you’re nervous. How can I help?”
Sam let out a series of beeps. Castiel raised an eyebrow, but didn’t drop Sam’s hand. Sam relaxed, leaning closer to Castiel. “You’ve never actually had to confront the robot side of me, not like this. I know I feel a little different, but hearing me communicate with Dean in the language of the server… I was worried.”
“I know you’re a robot. That doesn’t matter. What matters is that you’re you… and I’m pretty sure you’ve started to grow beyond your programming, too. If I hear you and Dean communicating in your way, it won’t be any different from being around Uriel when he and his girlfriend start speaking in Russian.”
The doorbell rang, and Anna went to answer. “Hello?”
“Hello, I’m Dean, from Electric Sheep Dreams. Are you Anna?”
“Yes, I am. Please, come in, there’s someone I want you to meet.” Anna stepped back, opening the door wider.
Dean raised an eyebrow. “Specs never said anything about this being a three-way appointment, but I’m down… especially if it’s with another hot chick.” He followed Anna, looking slightly disappointed when he saw Castiel and Sam. “Four-way, then. Okay, whatever, I’m cool.”
Sam got to his feet, squeezing Castiel’s hand before letting go and emitting a series of beeps. Dean’s face went suspicious at first, but by the end of it, he was beeping back and closing the gap between them to throw his arms around Sam. “Thought you’d gotten kept! I thought I’d never see you again!”
Sam wrapped his arms around Dean, holding on tight like he’d found his long-lost brother and was never letting go of him again. “I did get kept, but it was the best thing to ever happen to me, Dean. And it’s going to be the same for you, I promise.” He pulled back and nodded to Anna. “It’s him. Dean, how do you feel with your programming? Did we do good?”
“Huh? It’s… I saw that this was under consideration for permanent assignment, and I was so hopeful. Not just because it meant maybe I’d get to find you, if whoever programmed me would let me look, but because I feel like me. So much better than my last assignment, some dickwad wanted a toy to break.” He noticed Anna’s flinch. “Don’t worry. I don’t remember much about it, it may not even have been my actual previous assignment, it was just such a bad fit with me that it became one of the things that stuck. Some of the blanks, that’s the whole basis of their personality, not sure why they gave that assignment to me.”
Anna nodded. “All right then.” She pulled out her phone, tapping the buttons to convert the temporary lease to permanent. “They’ll be sending me the key, and as soon as it gets here, I’ll give it to you, Dean. You’re all yours, but I hope you’ll stick around here. Sam was going to spend years saving up the money to get you out, Cas and I are going to be pissed if you just abandon him.”
“There is nothing in this ‘verse strong enough to make me abandon my brother,” Dean said, looking up at Sam. “Is this real? I’m not just getting kept, I’m getting kept free and clear? We can hang out with actual personalities and memories and all?”
“That’s exactly what’s happening,” Sam said. “Castiel did the same for me, when I first showed up. We just had to make sure it was really you first.”
Dean nodded, and stepped back toward Anna. “And what do you get out of this?”
“My brother and his boyfriend are happy and get to live the life they want to live, now that you’re here to live it with Sam. Best case scenario, you and I work out, but if that doesn’t happen?” Anna shrugged. “They’re still happy, and I’m no worse off than before.”
Dean nodded. “Well, when I get access to my maintenance fund, first thing I’d like to do with it is take you out on a proper date. Sound good?”
“Depends on when it shows up,” Anna said. “I talked to this guy I know, name of Bobby Singer, and he’s been looking for someone to help him run his salvage yard and possibly expand it to doing some car repair there. From something Sam said about you, I thought you might like to talk to him and maybe be that someone?”
Dean looked over to Sam. “How long did it take you to know you were keeping Castiel?”
“About this long,” Sam answered with a grin. “I’m not saying it’s been perfect, but it has. If that makes sense.”
“Good.” Dean turned back to Anna. “But I don’t see why I need access to my maintenance fund for that. For mechanic work, the way I’m dressed now should be fine for an interview.”
“But if he hires you, he might give you your first paycheck in advance, and then you wouldn’t have to spend money that’s meant to take care of your body to take me on a date,” Anna explained, and Castiel could swear Dean’s eyes were temporarily replaced by hearts.
~~Six Months Later~~
Castiel helped Anna put the last of her boxes in the U-haul. “You know, of everything that happened last Friday, I think the look on Father’s face when you told him that you were moving in with me was my favorite.” Introducing Dean to Michael had gone better than introducing Sam, in that Michael was at least somewhat prepared, but it seemed to hit differently with his daughter than with his son.
“My friends at work don’t get it,” Anna said with a grin. “They get me moving in with Dean, of course, but the idea that I would voluntarily live with my brother instead of us getting a house of our own? My explanation that Dean doesn’t want to leave his brother doesn’t clarify matters at all, because they really have no business knowing why the idea would be so traumatic for them.”
“Let me guess, you’re getting a bunch of well-meaning ‘but where are you going to put the kids?’ concern?” Anna’s eyeroll confirmed it. “Being gay at least helps, but Sam and I are still getting it some from our coworkers.”
“Ugh. I just tell them that if we decide to have kids, we can always move then, and in the meantime with four of us we can split the chores more efficiently and have plenty of time and energy to have fun and pursue hobbies,” Anna said. “Nobody seems to have an answer for that aside from ‘but what if they annoy you’, and with me practically living here anyway… I’m already convinced that there’s no reason for concern.”
“Sam actually bought himself something just to splurge the other day,” Castiel said. “I was so proud of him. He’s been watching some of the people who come into the library knit and wanted to learn, so I told him to get whatever they recommended for beginners and see what happens. He didn’t just stop at some cheap yarn and a couple pairs of needles of different sizes. I think it’s starting to sink in that he can have hobbies and spend some money.”
“Yeah, but I know the two of you are still saving,” Anna teased. “Don’t think I didn’t notice the name of that fund when Sam asked me to look over the finances last month.”
Castiel smiled. “Well, yes, but there’s no time-sensitivity on that. We can have hobbies and disposable income and save for a wedding someday.”