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In the morning, the first thing on Castiel's mind is Dean. He hadn't thought about him, or dreamt about him, for the rest of the night, but he's the first thing on his mind in the morning, and he can't shake it.
He's awake before his alarm even goes off, sighing and turning his face into the pillow and ignoring the sun that streams in through the window, highlighting the dust in the air and just proving how dirty Castiel's room is. He should clean today, since he has nothing else to do. He should clean the funeral home downstairs too, and maybe leave the morgue for another day. The weekend, when he has more time.
Will's on the other side of Castiel's pillow, and he can hear his soft breathing, but the moment he stirs, he hears soft chirp from the cat and a grunt as Will stretches. There's paws pressing against the back of his head, and Cas can't help but smile and roll over, nuzzling into the soft fur of his cat's side.
"Good morning, Will."
The cat chirps again and moves, walking in a circle on Castiel's pillow before plopping back down, face to face with Castiel. Castiel reaches his hand out to scratch the cat's head, pushing forward to bump his nose against Will's. The alarm goes off and Castiel sighs again, rolling over to turn it off before sitting up and pushing his hand through his hair, yawning. Will gets up and makes his way to Castiel's side, meowing up at him before he hops off the bed and trots into the kitchen.
Castiel follows him, his sweat pants riding low, so he tugs them up, yawning again and rubbing at his face. Will's sat beside his bowl, watching Castiel expectantly as he moves to the cabinet to retrieve the cat food, pouring a bit into Will's bowl before picking up his water bowl to replace the water with fresh water. He moves to the coffee maker to start it up, pulling a cup from the cabinet, pausing a moment.
"I wonder if he liked coffee," he says absently, looking down at Will. "Dean. Do you think he liked coffee?"
The cat ignores him in favor of his food, eating soundly, crunching away at his food. Castiel shakes his head and pours his coffee into the cup, adding plenty of sugar and milk to it. He takes his cup into the living room and sits on the couch, turning the TV on. There's nothing good on this early in the morning, so Castiel leaves it on the news and drinks his coffee, barely paying any mind to what's going on the television. That is until a story comes on.
The woman on TV announces that they have found the person who was involved in the car accident from the other night, killing one man (Dean). Castiel sighs and turns the TV off, sitting in silence with his coffee, and eventually Will joins him on the couch, sitting beside him and staring at him.
"I shouldn't go find him."
Will chirps and curls up beside Castiel, tail curling around his face.
"I shouldn't get involved in this."
So instead of getting involved, Castiel finishes off his coffee and head into the kitchen, rinsing it out and setting it into the sink. That's not good enough though. There's the cup from last night in the sink too, and a couple of plates and bowls. He starts the water up and plugs up the sink, washing the dishes and setting them up to dry during the day, but when he finishes, he finds that it still isn't enough. So he sets about the kitchen, cleaning the counters, the cabinets, even the refrigerator; anything to keep his mind off of Dean.
The kitchen is spotless by the time that he's finished, so he moves on to the living room. Dusting, wiping the windows, vacuuming; everything. Will hisses and retreats to Castiel's bed once he pulls the vacuum out, but it's gone in almost no time, with how small his entire apartment is. So Will lays back in his spot on the couch and watches Castiel as he moves around and cleans.
It's near dark by the time that he finishes the entire apartment, and he realizes that he hasn't even eaten anything the entire day, too busy with cleaning and trying to forget. So he heads into the kitchen to make something quick. Macaroni and cheese isn't the healthiest thing to be eating, but hey, it's something.
Will sits beside Castiel's chair at the kitchen table as he eats, meowing reaching up to paw at his leg, and Castiel laughs and gently pushes him back down to the floor.
"You've already had your food for today. It's my turn now."
The cat makes a soft sound and walks off, leaving Castiel to his food, and his thoughts. He closes his eyes and pushes his food away, half-eaten. He really should go out and try to find Dean, seeing as how the poor guy is probably scared and alone, and has no idea what's going on because he can't return home, and no one else is able to see him. He's probably just walking around, trying to get peoples' attention, but no one's listening.
Castiel lays his head on the table and squeezes his eyes shut. He doesn't want this gift anymore, he doesn't want to have to help these people because all he knows is their pain, and he doesn't want that. He just wants to live a normal life, just wants to run his funeral home, and live alone with his cat. He doesn't want to help these dead people.
But really, he does. No one helped Castiel when he needed it, but now he wants to help these people when they need it the most. They need someone to talk to, and Castiel is the only person that can give them that.
Tomorrow, he decides. Tomorrow he'll go try and find Dean and talk to him, explain things to him and try to help him.
Tomorrow.
