Supernatural: Meeting the Angels

Chapter 8

The Winchesters meet at the Impala after school. It's the one thing that always stayed the same, even when they changed their location. The Impala would always come to school, and the Impala would always take them home. It gets a few looks from people passing by, but Dean chooses to think they're looks of admiration of his baby, not questioning why a high schooler is driving a '67 Impala to school. After all, who doesn't love a nice Impala?
"Hey, Sammy!" Dean greets him. "How was school?" Dean asks that every day after school, no matter how many times they would talk during the day. Granted, it usually wasn't as much as today, because their friend groups are usually pretty different, but it's a tradition Dean is not willing to break.
"Sam," he corrects. "Great! I've had one of the... Wait, what are their last names? Anyway, I've had someone from Gabriel's family in every one of my classes!"
"Me too," Dean tells him. "It's weird, actually, but hey, I'm not complaining. They're pretty cool."
"Not as cool as us, though," Sam says, hopping into the car.
Dean laughs. "No one's as cool as us," he agrees, sitting next to Sam and starting his Impala. Although the car is technically John's, both Sam and Dean consider it Dean's. He drives in it just as much as John, if not more. "Any homework today?" Dean asks.
"Nope!" Sam replies. "Finished it all in class."
Dean grins as he drives out of the parking lot. That's just like Sam, doing all his work before class ends. Dean's never been able to do that, but as someone who doesn't need school, it doesn't really matter to him. He doesn't do his homework most of the time, and though the teachers usually yell at him, he doesn't mind.
"Hey, Dean?" Sam asks.
"Yeah?"
"Do you think we could stay here for the rest of the year?"
"What?" Dean's honestly surprised at that. Although Sam has made it very clear he doesn't want to move around a lot, he's never asked to stay in a certain place for a while.
"I like this school," Sam tells him.
"I like this school too," Dean says, "but Dad will be back in a few weeks, and then we'll go on another case."
"Can I stay here, though?" Sam asks hopefully.
"Sam, it's bad enough you're staying in a motel room with your high school brother. Staying in a motel room alone would be even worse. Someone would find out eventually, and Dad would get in trouble for child abuse-or neglect, whatever-and the police would figure out he doesn't have a job and he'd get in trouble for credit card fraud and vandalism from digging up graves and from making devil's traps and things everywhere, and robbery and arson from burning things spirits are attached too and probably murder too. It would be a whole thing and it wouldn't end well."
Sam's quiet for a while after that. Dean knows he doesn't really like John, but he would never want to be the reason John was sent to jail. They've narrowly avoided it before, but if one time they can't get out of it, Sam wouldn't forgive himself if re was the reason why.
"Hey, Sam, what do you say we get McDonald's for dinner?" Dean suggest, hoping to brighten him up again.
"Ooh, yeah!" Sam agrees enthusiastically. "I love McDonald's!"
Dean chuckles at how easy he can make Sam happy. "Good. Tonight. Six o'clock. Let's get us some food!"

A/N I'm slightly editing small parts of the first couple seasons of the show for this part. Please ignore any inaccuracies here; I'm just trying to make the story work.
Castiel tries to be one of the first people to leave the gymnasium. He purposely stayed close to the door, in hopes that he'd avoid his siblings and make it home first, so he could go straight to his room and hide out until dinner. While the first part of the plan works well-he's one of the first people out of the room-he doesn't manage to avoid his siblings. Fortunately, it's just Michael the runs into him, so he doesn't have to worry about trying to talk.
It's never been easy for him to talk to people. He's always felt pretty out of place. His love of bees and distrust of new technology like computers has always made him feel singled out. Only Dean, the boy from his first block class, could get him talking. It was weird, being with Dean. He felt something he wasn't used to. He felt wanted. Not like when Anna asked him for help with homework, but like someone would rather talk to him than someone else. He doesn't know how to describe it. It's... Strange. That Winchester boy is something special.
"Hey, Castiel," Michael greets his little brother. Castiel gives him a nod as a sign of recognition, but doesn't say anything. They walk together in silence, and Castiel is glad. He doesn't want to have to talk to anyone, and he knows Michael understands the feeling. That's why he likes Michael. He knows more about Castiel than anyone, purely because he's like Castiel.
The walk is only about ten minutes, which seems long, but Castiel loves to take the time to enjoy nature. Not just the bees, though obviously he likes them, but the trees and the grass and the squirrels. He loves everything nature has made on this world. If only people didn't want to ruin it so much.
When they get home, Chuck and Amara are arguing on the couch. They stop immediately when the door opens, but Michael and Castiel both hears. They exchange a look but don't mention it. Everyone fights from time to time. The lack of arguments the kids had seen between their parents honestly shocked Castiel, who had seen many more between his siblings. They must have been a closer family when they were younger.
"Hey, boys," Chuck greets them.
"Hello!" Amara says.
"Hi," Castiel and Michael both say. They both go upstairs and both go straight to their rooms, just as they do every day. In the same way Lucifer and Anna fight about the bathroom every evening, Michael and Castiel have their own, much quieter habits.
A few minutes later, Castiel hears the door open, and immediately he hears Anna and Lucifer fighting. Although he can't tell exactly what they're talking about, he hears mentions of the Winchester's names. They just met the boys today, and they're already fighting about them. Well, if they hadn't, they would have found something else to fight about anyway.
There's pounding on Castiel's door. He gets out of bed to open it, not happy about having to stand up again. He expects to see Anna, probably to complain about Lucifer, but instead Michael is standing there.
"Hi?" He says it more of a question as to what he's doing there than an actual greeting.
"Hi, Castiel," Michael says, speaking fairly quietly. Michael may be shy, but his voice isn't usually this soft. "I... I found something out that... Well, I need someone to talk to about something who won't tell anyone, and I figured you were my best bet."
Castiel raises an eyebrow but opens the door all the way to let Michael in his room. Michael looks around discreetly, and Castiel realizes Michael has probably never been in his room. Castiel has never been in his, either, but he wouldn't want to anyway, because it's Lucifer's room as well, and he's sure Lucifer wouldn't be happy if Castiel was in his room. Castiel leans against his wall as Michael takes in the neatness in the room. If Castiel is one thing, it's organized, and that shows everywhere.
"Can I use your computer?" Michael asks.
Castiel nods and logs into his computer, then stands next to the chair that goes with the desk. Michael sits down and logs into his Google account, then goes to his Drive, pulling up a document with a lot of links on it.
"If I show you something, will you not tell Chuck and Amara about it?" Michael asks, cursor hovering over the first link. Castiel just nods, and Michael starts explaining. "So, I finished my classes early, so I decided to surf the web like I usually do when I have free time. Well, I was looking into supernatural things, and I found a whole bunch of missing persons reports." Michael pauses to see Castiel's reaction, but he's silent, ignoring the fact he broke one of the house's biggest rule-no paranormal stuff.
Michael continues. "They were all about the same age, about 15 or 16, no more than a year difference from all of them. The oldest went first and youngest disappeared last. The article didn't say much about them, only that there were a lot of disappearances, so I may or may not have hacked on to the police database and checked them all out."
Castiel can't help but laugh to himself when he hears that. He can't even figure out how to make a YouTube account, and here's Michael, hacking into government servers. It doesn't surprise him, though. Michael has always been technologically better than the rest of the family.
"Anyway, even though they were all in different places, they all came from Kansas," Michael continues. "And, if that's not weird enough, a lot of them had house fires at their house when they were exactly six months old, and someone died every time. No one ever figured out how the fires started, though, and I don't think anyone put two and two together." He looks at Castiel expectantly.
"Wow?" Castiel says, unsure of what he's supposed to say.
"Does it sound like it might be connected?" Michael asks. "Like, any chance at all?"
Castiel nods. "I... I guess so. Why?"
"Because there's one more family from Kansas who had a house fire when one child was six months old," Michael tells him.
"Who?" Castiel asks.
"The Winchesters."