SYNOPSIS: Angels need permission to enter a vessel- A human vessel, that is. They can easily inhabit animals without a 'yes.' Castiel, for example, could choose any animal he wanted. Gabriel could almost any. But just as Lucifer can only inhabit Sam, he can only inhabit snakes. Just as Michael can only inhabit the Winchester line (Dean specifically), he can only inhabit birds, but he prefers Sparrows.
Sam and Dean have spent their lives being followed by animals- which is annoying, more than anything else. When they started talking, then they knew something was terribly wrong.
(okay so Michael's animal symbol is a dragon but that's a bit difficult so I went with a different winged animal. also we're ignoring that luci was in the cage when the winchesters were kids. this is inspired by that one promo picture where sam's got a snake around his arm by the way)
TW:
SHIPS: Cas/Dean, Sam/Gabriel
--
A twelve year old Sam was sitting outside a library, head in his hands, when his phone started to buzz.
"Hello?"
"Sammy, any news?" Came a sixteen year old Dean's voice.
"Unfortunately, no. I can't even get into the library."
"What? Why not?"
"For some unfathomable reason, a garden snake has decided to be my best friend, and will not leave me alone, and there's no pets allowed inside. There's been lots of back and forth with the librarians yelling at me."
"Just get rid of the snake!"
"I've tried! The stupid snake is curled around my leg! I can't shake it!"
"So sneak past the librarians with the damned thing!"
"I can do lots, including sneaking past a plethora of different trained guards, but librarians who are on the lookout for the weird kid with the snake? No way."
"Sammy-" Dean was interrupted by a cacophony behind him, some sort of bird cawing like anything, "Hold on! I'll call you back!"
Sam sighed and tucked the phone in his pocket before looking down at the black, red, and yellow snake, "You're a Hell of a lot of trouble."
He could've sworn that the snake nodded in agreement.
-
Sixteen year old Dean batted at the bird flying over and around him, and then a shot of pain across his palm gave him the feeling that the bird had sharper talons than he had thought, "Stupid bird!"
The bird, a raven or crow or something, stopped cawing and settled down on Dean forearm, much to his chagrin. Dean attempted and failed to shoo it away before realizing that it was rubbing its head on his palm. He shook his arm, and the bird flew off to the top of a street light.
That was odd. Dean could've sworn that he'd cut open his palm, but there was only a bit of a scratch there. Maybe he was just getting soft.
Freakin' birds.
--
Sam and Dean had both given up.
Dean might've had it a bit better. When he was doing undercover work, or went inside a building, whatever bird had decided to follow him that day would leave him alone for a bit. Currently, a sparrow sat on the windowsill. It'd been hanging around for about a week now.
Sam, however, tended to have to pry off whatever snake it was that had decided to attach itself to him whenever he wanted to do just about anything. As of right now, it was a black one, red eyes, of a decent length, draped around Sam's shoulders as he read one of Bobby's many old books.
"Sam, can't you get that thing out of my house?" Bobby asked, though he probably knew the answer, "It's damned creepy."
"No self respecting hunter likes a snake," Dean chimed in, though he was distracted. He was giving his sparrow little bits of birdseed.
"Wish I could, Bobby, but it'll find a way back in," Sam said, sounding tired. He'd been researching on the apocalypse all day and found squat.
"Those things stick to you like moths to a flame," Bobby sighed.
"Yeah."
"I never get used to it, no matter how many times I see you with one of 'em. Don't 'spose it could be something worth a case?"
"Nah, we tried pursuing that like six times," Dean chimed in again, "The snakes are just snakes, and it's not like Sam's anything supernatural. Besides, that would make a terrible monster. Oh, it's snake guy! He's got a ton of snakes! Only they're not poisonous so I guess he's just here!"
Sam gestured at the snake around his shoulders, "Nah, this guy's poisonous. Well, venomous is the correct-"
Dean paled, "What?"
"Yeah. He just doesn't tend to bite."
"I've spent the last month in close quarters with a poisonous snake that 'doesn't tend to bite'?!"
"Yeah."
"You two are perfectly strange," Bobby chimed in.
"Yeah, well, my brother is nothing if not strange," Dean remarked.
"Hey!" Sam frowned.
"Look at the giant snake around your shoulders and rethink that 'hey!'" Dean snorted.
Sam made a face before turning back to the book and saying, "You say that, but you're practically a Disney princess, all the birds you attract."
"Don't disrespect the princesses!"
Sam laughed, and Dean got up.
"I don't know about you, but I am going to make myself a sandwich."
"Good for you," Sam nodded.
--
Dean crossed into the other room, opened the fridge, and gathered sandwich ingredients in his arms. He kicked the door closed, a song playing in his head as he started to assemble the sandwich.
"Dean!" Came a voice from the other room.
He leaned over to the doorframe so he'd be visible by Sam and Bobby, "Yeah?"
"Hm?" Sam looked up.
"You called me?"
"No."
"I distinctly heard somebody say my name."
"Nobody called you."
"I swear, one of you said my name."
"Dean!" Came the voice again. Now Dean was sure it wasn't Sam's or Bobby's voice.
"There it is! There it is again!"
"The bird?" Bobby asked.
"No! Someone said my name!" Dean looked around almost frantically before turning to the bird.
"Hello, Dean," It said, catching Dean completely off guard, "It's good to finally talk to you, now that the restrictions are lifted."
"The bird is talking," Dean paled.
"The bird is what now?" Sam knit his eyebrows, "Are you okay?"
"The bird is talking!"
"Birds don't talk!"
"Oh, jee, thanks, I didn't know!" Dean yelled, "Why can't you hear him?!"
"Why can you?!" Sam said, standing up so quickly that the snake almost fell off of his shoulders, which it didn't look too happy about. It hissed at him. Sam's eyes widened and he slowly diverted his attention to the snake, "What?"
It hissed again. Sam's perfectly sane reaction to that was to throw it across the room.
"What is happening right now?!" Bobby yelled.
"Are you hearing it talk?" Dean asked, talking over the bird.
"Yeah," Sam was eyeing the thing out of the corner of its eye. It was now sitting at the other end of the room, looking thoroughly disgruntled.
