My Greatest Mistake

5. Ride

Ten minutes later Castiel sat beside Dean as he explained that they did have to pick up his younger brother Sam, but after that he would take Cas straight home.

"That's okay," Cas told him, "it'll give me a chance to let my brother know he doesn't need to pick me up."

"You have many siblings?"

"I have five brothers, and my cousin Crowley is living with us, too."

"Seven people? Dude, you better have more than one bathroom."

Cas blushed, "We, uh, have twelve."

Dean almost drive the car off the road. "Twelve bathrooms? Holy shit man! How'd you manage that?"

Cas proceeded to tell Dean the story of the Novak manor (as Gabe and Balthazar jokingly called it), feeling slightly awkward the entire time and not looking at anything that wasn't his lap or the road front of them.

"I get it. After Mom died my dad just shut me and Sammy out. Wouldn't talk to us, barely looked at us. Then one day he up and left. Took all the money, half the food. Thankfully I had Baby up and running, or Sam wouldn't even have been able to get to school." Dean glanced over at Cas, "Sorry. You don't need to hear my sob story. We're here anyways." 

Dean practically leaped out of the car, not giving Cas a chance to respond. Feeling slightly abandoned, he got out his phone and sent Raphael a quick text.

Hey, don't need a ride after all, a friend from school is dropping me off at home. Sorry for the inconvenience.

He hit send right as the doors to the Impala opened, and in climbed Dean and someone who Cas assumed to be Sam.

"Hey, I'm Sam," the boy held out his hand, confirming his identity.

"Castiel," Cas responded.

"Dude, Castiel's a mouthful." Dean looked over at him as he drove the car out onto the road. "Where'd you get the name, anyway?"

"It's a play on name Cassiel. He's an angel in the Bible. The angel of Thursday, if I'm correct. Apparently my mom had a thing for old names. All my brothers are named after angels, but for some reason she added a 't' to mine. I don't know why." Cas glanced over at Dean to see the boy looking at him incredulously.

"All your brothers are named after angels?"

"Yes," Cas frowned, "is that unusual?"

"Dude. Sam was named after our grandfather. I was named after my grandmother. Old names? Fine. Family names, great. Biblical names? Maybe one. But your whole family? What, did you not have any relatives available?"

"Wait, wait, wait - you were named after our grandmother?" Sam chimed in.

"What? No! Of course not. Cas. Left or right?" They had reached a fork in the road and Dean, desperate to change the subject, turned to Cas for help.

"Left." Castiel was going to add something about Dean being named after a woman, but thought better of it, considering the jock could make his life miserable at school. Instead, Cas warned Dean of the sudden turn once the fence of hedges ended. They rounded the bend, and both Dean and Sam's jaws dropped.

"Oh. My. God." Sam craned his head back as the car pulled up the drive to the front of the house.

Cas blushed. "Um, yeah. It's a shock for most people."

"Brother!" The door to the house was flung wide open to reveal Gabriel standing there in just his... boxers?

"As is he," Cas muttered.

"Question," Dean said.

"Just one?"

"Who is the guy in boxers hurtling towards us?"

Castiel opened his door just in time to be knocked back against the car by Gabe. "Balthazar, a little help here?" he pleaded weakly.

"Sorry, bro," Balthazar ran down the steps towards his twin, who was currently kissing Cas's cheeks, muttering incoherently. "Raphael called to tell us he was staying at the office overnight, and Gabe just about lost his shit when he was told you were getting a ride home with someone else. Drama queen."

"What. Did. You. Just. Say. You. Piece. Of. Rotten. Banana. Peel." Gabriel detached himself from Cas only to fling himself at his brother, screaming something about how Balthazar was threatening to call the cops if Cas hadn't arrived when he had, and how he's the real drama queen in this household, and shoving that title onto his brother was idiotic at best.

Cas sighed in a resigned sort of way before turning to Dean and Sam, both of whom had exited the car. "I'm so incredibly sorry," he told them. "If you value your sanity at all, you should go now."

Dean grinned at Cas, a sort of shit-eating grin that only comes across the face of those who enjoy chaos and resent the all around mundane feeling of peace. It made Cas nervous. Sam also had a grin on his face, but it was more a grin of amusement that anything else. Dean moved around the Impala towards the fighting twins. Balthazar had begun to pull Gabe's hair in self defence, and the two made a screeching, tumbling mess on the ground. Dean opened his mouth to speak but was cut off by the appearance of yet another Novak.

"Gabriel! Balthazar! Release each other!" Cas looked up to see Michael standing on the threshold of the house. Lucifer was behind him, looking onto the scene with barely restrained laughter. Michael strode down the steps and stood in front of his younger brothers, annoyance clear on his face.

"Hey big bro! We were just arguing over you!" Gabe looked up at his sibling with a smirk on his face. Lucifer snorted at that, his control having slipped, and was soon full out laughing as Michael glared at him. Gabe grinned even wider, and soon everyone except Michael had joined Lucifer. Defeated, even he began to laugh, his face splitting into a grin.

Cas turned to Dean and Sam. "Do you want to stay for dinner?" he asked, eyes widening in shock as he realized what he had just said. "I- I just meant in- in return for the ride home, that is."

Dean grinned, looking over at Sam, then back at Cas, "We'd love too."

||A/N: Before I forget, the petrichor fact in the last chapter is from Tumblr.

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