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Though he was trying his best to catch up, Castiel could see Balthazar's grey-blue tail moving out of his sight field with increasing speed. When he finally reached the surface his siblings were already there, floating in the water and waiting for him. “And Castiel is last again. Don't worry, one day I'll let you win. Maybe.”
Anna scowled at his words. “Shut up, Gabriel. And don't act like I didn't beat you by a mile again.” Smiling at Castiel, she added: “I think you were faster than ever before. Not much longer and the only thing they'll be seeing of you is your caudal fin.”
Castiel nodded gratefully. He didn't really mind being last in all of their games involving swimming skills as long as they included him. Being the youngest often meant that your siblings didn't want to be associated with you, but Anna, Gabriel and Balthazar were different.
“Hey Gabe, over there.” Balthazar jerked his head a tiny bit to the right, causing the three teenagers to let their gazes follow the direction. About 70 feet away, two young mermaids waved them over when they noticed them looking.
“Meg and Hester? Yep, totally up for that. Sorry Castiel, sister dearest, but we plan to do a bit more... adult-y stuff. Nothing for your uncorrupted, sweet little minds. See you probably tomorrow.” With that said, Balthazar and Gabriel both winked at them before diving down and swimming away.
“As if they were so much older than us, geez.” Anna floated on the back, letting the sun warm up her body. Her long, light blue tail seemed to glisten as it was moved calmly up and down every time a wave came by.
Looking over in the direction of the coast, Castiel wondered whether he should ask the question he'd been dying to vocalize for quite a time. With Balthazar and Gabriel having left, and Anna being the most understanding and most unlikely to laugh at him, he decided to give it a shot. “Have you ever wondered how it would be like to have legs?”
Anna turned her head so that she was facing her little brother, contemplating what he just said for a few moments. “Yes. Yes, I have. I asked myself what the human world is like many times, and to truly explore it I'd need legs. But we will never know.” She sighed and looked up to the sky, obviously trying to estimate the time with the help of the sun. “Want to go back? It's getting kinda late and I hate swimming in the dark.”
“Sure.” They swam back without looking another time to the coast, but the thought of walking on sand didn't quite leave Castiel's mind.
Cracking the door of his room slightly open, Dean watched his father silently greeting his mother. He was supposed to be sleeping by now, but he hadn't been able to not knowing why his father wasn't home yet.
“John, what happened?” Dean had to strain his ears to make out what his mother was saying.
His father sighed deeply before sitting down on their armchair. “Some merfolk cut open our nets again, for the third time this month already. We even saw them swim away, they didn't notice us at first and we got really close, until one of them yelled at the others. If I ever get one of those monsters in my hands they can speak their last prayers.” He looked up to her. “Some of the nets are irreparable, and we can't afford new ones.”
Instead of answering, his mother cupped his face in her hands and placed a kiss on his forehead. “We still have enough to feed our children.”
John nodded. “Are they already sleeping?”
Dean quietly closes his door and quickly moves back to his bed, not wanting to be caught. He had never seen a merman or a mermaid, but it made him angry that they were making his family's life harder. What did they think they did? Just cutting the nets as if the humans didn't need the fish to survive. He didn't understand why they acted like that, all he wanted was for them to stop. He hated to see his parents worried like that.
While trying to get comfortable enough to sleep, he decided that he wanted to help his father. Tomorrow he was going to ask him what he could do.
“What were you thinking?! No, wait, I don't actually want to know what's going on in your stupid, freaking minds. Do you even know how dangerous that was? We have rules for situations like these, for god's sake. You cannot tell me that one of you has been on the lookout, if they managed to get this close.”
“Michael, we had to, you know that sereia fish are nearly extinct.”
“WHAT PART OF WE HAVE RULES DID YOU NOT UNDERSTAND?” If Michael was going to keep shouting like this, he will definitely have to swim up to get some air through his lungs soon. Castiel knew why Balthazar and Gabriel cut the nets open, but he also fully understood why Michael was getting this angry. He didn't say it often, but Michael cared a lot for all of them, and Castiel's brothers had been really careless.
Turning away from the scene that had attracted quite an audience, Castiel swam up to the surface. He didn't like to see arguments.
He hadn't really paid attention to where he was swimming and was mildly surprised that he came to the surface not far from the coast. Castiel wondered briefly whether he should swim farther away, when he saw a small boy, younger than himself, at the rocks near the water. He hadn't noticed Castiel, but he wasn't even looking at his surroundings anyway. He seemed to be focused on something floating on the water just out of his reach. Carefully swimming a tiny bit closer, Castiel could make out what it was – a miniature boat, and it was being pulled out to the sea by wave after wave.
After quickly looking around to make sure that no one was there who could see him (apart from the little boy) Castiel swam to the boat and pushed it to the boy. Smiling happily, he picked it up. “Thank you so much. It isn't mine and I would have got into real trouble if I didn't get it back. I'm Sam.”
He couldn't help but smile back at him, even though he eyed him cautiously. He had never spoken to a human, and he could count the times he had seen one or more of them on his hands. And he had always been far away, watching them work or at the beach. “Hey Sam, I'm Castiel.”
“Cas-ti-el? That's a weird name. But I like it. Are you going to come out of the water?” Sam looked expectantly down to him.
He didn't know? “Uhm, I can't. I haven't got legs like you.”
“Whaaat? Seriously? Is there just nothing?” Sam seemed to be really excited, so Castiel lifted his tail to the surface of the water next to him. “Oh wow, that's so cool. Why don't I have one?”
His father was going to be so angry with him. He had one job: Watch out for Sammy. And he had lost Sammy. Well, why did you have to go back to get a book? Your task was to watch out for Sam and not to read while doing it half-assed. “Sam?” But he did told Sam to stay at exactly this place, to play with Dean's boat, and to not do anything stupid. He's six years old, did you really expect that this was going to work? “Sam?!”
Suddenly he could hear his little brother laughing. Turning to the left, he saw Sam sitting on the far end of a rock leading out to the water. He began running towards him, his worries washing away and being replaced by relief. “Sam, didn't I tell you to stay-” and that's when he saw him. It was clear at first glance that he was one of them, a merman. His tail was clearly visible behind him. And he was touching Sam's feet. “Get the hell away from my brother, you monster.”
The merman's head snapped up and he could briefly see the panic in his eyes, before Sam stood up and turned to Dean. “Dean, why are you so angry? Castiel is nice and-”
“He's not nice. He probably wants us all to die from starvation.” Shoving his brother behind him, he mentally cursed himself for not bringing his knife, he could need it right now. But as soon as he made a step forward, the merman pushed himself of the rock, diving down and vanishing into the sea.
“Dean!”
He turned around and saw Sam staring at him angrily. “What?”
“That really wasn't okay. We were just talking and he was really cool, he had a tail.”
“Sam, he is dangerous. All of them are dangerous, and yes, all of them have tails. They bring our family into trouble, do you understand that? And if I tell you to stay at a place, don't go away, okay?”
Sam looked at him with big eyes. “Yeah, okay. But, why didn't I know of them? And is the tail the only thing different? Can you tell me more? Please?”
“I don't know. We didn't want to scare you, I guess. And no, I have no idea if there are other things that are different, and I don't care to be honest. And you shouldn't, too.” He knew Sam's excitement had no bounds when he found something that really captivated him. He just hoped that Sam listened to him and wouldn't do anything that could get him into trouble.
Still trying to calm down again, Castiel didn't really care where he was swimming, it just had to be as far away from that boy as possible. He didn't understand why that boy hated him so much; Castiel had often been told that humans didn't like merfolk, but after he met Sam he hadn't thought it could be that bad. Sam had been as interested in his tail as Castiel had been in his legs and feet. It must be so strange to have his lower half of the body parted in two. But when his brother, Sam had called him Dean, appeared he couldn't believe to see so much anger in his eyes, they had never met, yet he hated Castiel.
Suddenly he felt a tug at the base of his tail, forcing him to stop abruptly. Twisting around to look at what had caused it, he saw that he swam right into a fishing net. As if he needed any more problems right now. Looking to his left, he saw a bigger fish also being caught in the relatively small net. Castiel experimentally jerked his tail a bit to try to get out of it, but the movement only tangled him up more. He couldn't tear the net either, it seemed like you needed a knife to get him out of it. Which he didn't have. Feeling the panic rise in him again, he tried his best to not move more. He didn't know how long he would have to breath through his gills, and he really didn't want to drown because he couldn't stay calm. When someone comes to check on the net, you're probably going to die anyway.
He just hoped that a merman or a mermaid was going to find him first.
Dean was still a bit upset that he wasn't allowed to help his father on his ship. Why did he always had to do the unimportant nets, just because he was younger than the crew didn't mean that he couldn't help as much. Sighing he checked the first of the two nets on his way. As expected, only three trouts and a herring. He put the fish in his bucket and repaired the net at the parts where he had to cut it because the fish had been tangled up too much, before making his way to the second net. At least he had convinced Sam not to tell their parents about the meeting with the merman.
He climbed over the rocks to get to the buoy the gill net was attached to. The holes in this net were bigger than in the other one, made to catch bigger fish, and the net itself wasn't very big either, which also meant that it was very unlikely to get a fish out of it. Still, sometimes you could find a cod.
Leaning forward he tried to make out whether something was in it. The gill net wasn't that deep in the water. He saw a shadow near him, and one a bit farther away. His father was going to be happy with him when he brought back two big fish. And the second one really seemed to be big.
Focusing on the task of lifting the net, he didn't pay attention to the two fish until he began to drag the net toward himself and he heard a swash. He looked up and was met with a pair of blue eyes staring right into his.
The moment only lasted a few seconds before Dean let go of the net and scrambled back until he was in the middle of the rock. He now saw that the eyes belonged to the same merman who talked to Sam earlier this day. The merman took one last deep breath before the weight of the net dragged him back down underwater.
Remembering after a few moments that he was going to get into trouble if the net was damaged if it tangled up into the nearby rocks, he carefully reached into the water again and lifted the net. The movement caused the merman to get to the surface again, still wearing a cautious expression. For a minute or so the two just stared at each other, examining the other boy. He noticed that the merman was about the same age as Dean, when he had met him earlier talking to Sam, he had thought he was much older. He had black hair, and, from what Dean could see, his tail was dark blue. And he was trapped in the net.
“Hey.” Dean waited a moment, but it didn't seem like the merman was going to respond. Frantically searching in his mind to find something to say, he remembered what Sam had said earlier. “Your name's Castiel, right?” Just when he thought the merman wasn't going to answer again, he heard a faint “Yes.”
Dean stared at him, trying to find out what the hell he was supposed to do. Sure, he could get his father, but to be honest Castiel really didn't seem dangerous, he rather looked like he was frightened to death. And he remembered his father once saying that he wish he could kill all of these creatures. Then again, the merfolk destroyed the nets Dean and his family needed to survive. They weren't their friends, there was no plausible reason as to why Dean should help them.
Taking a deep breath, Dean ran his fingers through his hair. “How did you get into the net anyway?”
Castiel blinked once. “I didn't watch where I was swimming. It was an accident.”
“So you didn't come here to destroy the net?”
“Don't you think then I would have a knife with me which I could use to free myself?”
Okay, that made sense. He observed Castiel closely. His father had always told him that mermen and mermaids were monsters, out to make the life of humans more difficult. But Castiel didn't seem like a monster at all.
Dean realized that he had already made a decision. He didn't see Castiel as an enemy, therefore he was going to help him. “Okay, so, I'm going to get you out of there. First, I'm going to drag you closer to me and then I'm going to cut the net.” He felt like he was talking to a scared child, but then he remembered that he was doing exactly that. Of course Castiel was frightened, just a few hours ago Dean had screamed at him to get the hell away.
He waited until Castiel nodded once before he pulled the net towards himself again. Since he wouldn't be able to lift Castiel out of the water, he leaned down to reach the net tangled around Castiel's tail closely under the surface. Up close, he could see the parts where Castiel must have tried to tear the net with his hands without success. He pulled out his knife and brought it down, when he felt Castiel's stare on him. Dean turned his head a bit to the side and tried to form what he thought could be a reassuring smile, because if he was in Castiel's position, he wouldn't feel very comfortable right now. Focusing on the net again, he lifted one of the ropes and cut it. He didn't want to destroy too much of the net since he was going to have to repair it later on, but it seemed like Castiel tangled himself up quite a bit. Sometimes he accidentally touched Castiel's tail and couldn't help but think about how weird it felt – slippery, but at the same time very strong. When Dean thought he cut enough, he slowly moved the net down Castiel's tail, while the merman held onto the rock to keep still.
Once the net was removed from Castiel, he shuffled a few feet away from the rock and Dean. The two boys stared at each other for a few moments again, before Castiel's expression turned from feared to genuine. “Thank you, Dean.” Without another word he dove down and swam away, leaving Dean on the rock wondering what the hell he just did. Sighing he retrieved the cod from the net and repaired the damage before he made his way back. By that time the sun had nearly vanished behind the horizon, leaving him to thoughts about mermen and mermaids and deep blue eyes.
Swimming away from his home the next morning, Castiel still couldn't quite wrap his mind around the idea that Dean, who had first seemed so hateful, actually ended up helping him to escape. When he had first seen him he got quite shock, he had been to afraid to say anything really comprehensible. At least he got out his thanks before he fled, but Castiel wasn't sure whether it had been enough for Dean's work. He had pretty much destroyed the net for him and Castiel couldn't imagine that he would have done that in any other scenario. Back home he had simply told his siblings that he forgot the time, because if they knew he was careless enough to swim into a net they would never let him out on his own again.
By now he had reached the entrance to his favorite bay, a really quiet and peaceful place. Apart from the small hole underwater the whole creek was surrounded by rocks, which was why Castiel was fairly surprised to see someone already swimming in the light blue water in the normally deserted place when he reached the surface again. He considered swimming back, when he recognized it was Dean, floating on his back, eyes closed, and decided to come over. He wasn't really afraid of Dean anymore, he couldn't be that bad if he had helped Castiel, right?
When he was only ten feet away, Dean seemed to have noticed him because his legs suddenly started flailing so that he got into an upright position. Castiel didn't quite know what to make out of his expression, at first it was surprised and afraid, now it seemed more guarded. He swam closer so that he was within a tail length of Dean. “Hello, Dean.”
“Uhm, hey Castiel.” The silence that followed in which the two just awkwardly stared at each other was quite uncomfortable. It seemed like neither of them knew how to make conversation suddenly. After a while Castiel remembered why he had approached Dean in the first place and cleared his throat.
“I wanted to thank you again, for, you know, saving me. I'm really grateful.” Castiel tried to convey with his expression what he couldn't properly form into words- judging by the way Dean smiled at him he seemed to understand.
“You're welcome. And I'm sorry that I got mad at you earlier that day, it was unfair.”
“Oh. It's alright, I guess. But I've been wondering – why did you call me a monster?” It was the one thing Castiel couldn't get out of his head.
“Well, you've got a tail, that's pretty unnatural, don't you think?”
What? “ You're the one who's parted in half below the waist and you're calling me unnatural?”
Dean furrowed his brow, but then he started chuckling which caused Castiel to smile.”Yeah, I guess it depends on the point of view.”
It seemed like Dean wanted to add something, but didn't quite know whether he should or not. “What is it?”
“Just, uhm... how does that even work? I mean, do you breathe underwater? Or do you always have to come to the surface to breathe after a while?” Dean appeared to be genuinely interested.
“We do breathe underwater, with gills, yes, but they only provide small amounts of oxygen. So if we do something exhausting we have to come to the surface to breath through our lungs.”
“Huh.”
Castiel decided that Dean wouldn't mind him asking questions now, too. “Are you able to move the little things attached to your feet?”
“You mean my toes?”
“Yes? I don't know, I mean those fingers for your feet?”
Dean started laughing loudly. “Yeah, you mean my toes.”
They talked for a while about the differences between their bodies, getting more comfortable around each other with every information exchanged. Soon enough, the sun started to set, turning the water around them orange. Castiel let out a sigh. He really wanted to continue talking to Dean, but it was dangerous to swim in the dark. “I think I have to go. It was really nice to meet you, Dean.”
Dean seemed to be a bit disappointed, but nodded. “Yeah, I have to go home, too.” He hesitated for a moment, before adding: “I hope we meet again.”
Castiel couldn't help but smile at this. “Me too.” With a last wave to Dean, the merman dove down, and made his way back to the caves his family lived in, the darkening sea around him not impairing his mood in the least.
“I feel like they're getting cockier every time they manage to destroy a net before we reach it. Today they waited until the very last moment before swimming away. If there was a way to kill all of them I would do it immediately.”
Dean picked at his food feeling quite uncomfortable. His father had been angry since he came home because one of the more expensive nets had been destroyed today and now he was talking about the malice of the merfolk. Since Castiel had thanked Dean and after the conversation they had, he just couldn't think of them as monsters any longer. He hadn't been able to spot even a hint of malignity in Castiel. Dean should have asked him why they destroyed the nets instead of how many siblings he had. “Maybe they have a reason to do it? I mean,” he immediately backpedaled when he saw his fathers glare on him, “we don't know much about them.”
“I doubt they know much about us either, but do you see me destroying what is theirs?” He didn't seem to be expecting an answer, so Dean focused his attention on the food again. He didn't know why he had wanted to defend Castiel, or rather, Castiel's family, but he had just felt the need to do so.
“Soooo, Castiel, my sweet, little brother.” Castiel looked up to see a grinning Gabriel swimming towards him, Anna at his side.
“I'm sorry I'm late. I didn't keep track of the time.”
Anna frowned. “Are you okay? I mean, aren't you always afraid to swim in dark waters?”
“Oh, I'm sure Castiel didn't mind. His thoughts must have been with his boyfriend.” Castiel felt himself redden under Gabriel's smirk and Anna's unbelieving stare.
“I- He's not my boyfriend.”
Gabriel seemed to contemplate that. “Well, you sure are a bit young, but there definitely was chemistry. Who knows, maybe in a few years...”
Anna stared at both of them. “Will someone please explain to me what's going on?”
“Castiel met a human boy.”
Anna's eyes widened. “A human? Do you have any idea how dangerous that can be? They see us as their enemies, what if he-”
“Anna.” Gabriel cut her off, laid a hand on her shoulder and looked at her playing at a serious expression. “That boy is about nine years old.”
Anna didn't look entirely convinced, so Castiel added: “And Dean really doesn't want to do something bad.”
“Just promise me to watch out, okay?” Castiel nodded at Anna's words, she still seemed worried, but less than before.
“Please don't tell Michael, or anyone else about Dean.”
Gabriel and Anna shared a look. “Well, Balthazar was with me when we saw you, but I can tell him.”
Castiel smiled at the two. “Thank you.”
Anna let out a sigh and Gabriel laughed: “I wait for the day I meet someone who can resist those bright, blue eyes.”
Dean carried a rope to the other side of the ship. His father let him help out, since one of the sailors, Bobby, had had an accident which left him with an injured leg. Now Bobby gave him little tasks to do while he rested at the rail.
Dean put down the rope, when he saw him. They had just sailed around a headland with high rocks, which probably was the reason the merman looked so shocked, like he hadn't expected them. He dove down and Dean could only see a glimpse of his slightly green-ish tail.
“John!” The sailor next to him startled Dean. He hadn't noticed him before, but he was staring right at the point the merman had vanished. He quickly told him about the merman, and Dean saw his father's face getting darker with every word.
“We are going to check the net.” They set the sails and soon enough the net came in sight, as well as a mermaid and two merman, one of them the one from before. He seemed to be talking agitatedly to the other two. They had steered the ship nearer by now and could hear the three of them argue loudly, the merman who had been with the mermaid seemingly pleading them to calm down. They all stopped talking though when the ship was about 30 feet away. The red-haired mermaid shoots the two merman a look, before she turns to the ship. Dean felt his throat go dry when he remembered Castiel telling him about his sister Anna, her hair so red it seemed like flames underwater.
“Listen, I know you don't like it, but we really have to let these fish out.” Her voice wavered a bit, but she looked the sailors straight into their eyes.
“I don't think so.” Dean's father held up a gun, pointing at her. She just furrowed a brow, not seeming to know the danger of the weapon, which, probably, was actually the case.
“You have a really large school of sereia fish in there, we can't afford to lose even more of them due to your fishing. I don't even know why you would fish and eat them, they're so much more useful alive, but anyway, we need them to have the healing algae, sanar algas.”
The way his father calmly unlocked his gun frightened Dean, but it didn't stop him from saying: “No, wait Dad.” He ignored his father's incredulous stare and turned to Anna. He had an idea, and just hoped that everything would play out fine. “You said something about healing algae?” Anna nodded after a second. “Can it heal everything? Do you have something with you?”
“As far as I know, it can heal every possible disease and wounds, you just have to eat a bit. But I don't have anything...” She trailed off and looked behind her, one of the merman swam closer to the boat and pulled something green out of a bag.
To be honest, Dean was a bit surprised none of the sailors had stopped him yet, but maybe you had a few advantages being the son of the captain. When he leaned over the railing to retrieve the algae, he heard the merman mutter: “I hope you know what you're doing.”
“I hope so, too.” He turned around and saw every sailor staring at him with different stages of disbelief on their faces. Purposely not looking at his father, he ran over to Bobby. “Here.” Dean saw the reluctance in his face. “I can eat something from it first, if you want.”
Finally his father seemed to have found his voice again. “You trust them?”
Castiel was looking for his siblings. Michael had asked him to look for Gabriel, Anna, and Balthazar, probably because he had a sixth sense for occasions when they got themselves in trouble. Castiel at least was seriously contemplating that theory when he found the three – next to a ship. Sighing, he swam closer and got to the surface next to Balthazar who floated a bit behind the others. “Hey, Balthazar.”
“Castiel? What are you doing here?”
“Michael wanted me to look after you. What are you doing here?”
“Long story short: We were freeing sereia fish, humans found us, now your friend Dean is trying to heal someone on board with sanar algas.”
“Dean is here?” Both of them turned their attention when suddenly excited voices rose on the ship, followed by a man running to lean over the railing.
“Where did you get these?” The man had dark hair and a scruffy beard, and Castiel wondered why he seemed a bit familiar, when he saw Dean appearing next to him. Maybe they were related?
“They grow around places where sereia fish are, without them, they don't survive.” After answering, Gabriel pointed to the rocks covered in green algae next to Castiel and Balthazar. Dean smiled when he saw Castiel, nodding as a greeting.
The man next to Dean seemed to think about something for a few moments. “How about we don't fish those... sereia fish? …anymore and you give us some of those algae in exchange whenever we need it?”
Anna turned around to them. “Do you think Michael would be against that?”
“If we have more sereia fish, we would also have more sanar algas, I don't think he would have a problem.” Gabriel smirked. “Maybe he will even let me get a pet shark as reward for sealing the deal.”
“I doubt that.” Swimming to the railing of the boat, Balthazar pulled himself up. “You stop fishing sereia fish and also tell the other fishers to do the same and we will provide you with sanar algae in exchange. Deal?” He extended his hand.
“Deal.” They shook hands for a moment, before Balthazar let himself fall back into the water. Castiel caught Dean's eyes and they smiled at each other.
With a huge splash Dean dove into the water, before getting up next to Castiel, grinning wildly at him. The handsome young merman laughed. “Ready?”
“I can't wait.” They saw the school of dolphins coming in their direction and they each held onto one and let themselves with a jerk be pulled away. Castiel looked back at him, probably to make sure that he managed to get one and also wasn't drowning. His friendship with Castiel has grown a lot over the past years. He shouted an “I'm fine” before letting himself enjoy the adrenaline shooting through his body. Maybe their start hadn't been the best, but until now he hadn't regretted a single second of his time with Castiel.