Strings Attached

Chapter 14

It's well past sunset when Castiel finally hears a voice he recognizes. How Dean found him, he doesn't know, but it doesn't matter. He doesn't want to talk to anyone, so he runs in the opposite direction.

"Hey, Cas, wait up!" Dean calls after him, but he doesn't. Dean catches up to him easily, though. "Cas, what are you doing out here?"

Castiel ignores him.

"You're not even in Sioux Falls anymore," Dean adds.

Castiel doesn't respond. He was vaguely aware he had crossed city lines, but he just thought it meant he wouldn't be found. Apparently, he was wrong.

"Cas, talk to me," Dean pleads.

"What are you doing here?" Castiel asks finally.

"Looking for you," Dean replies. "Gabriel called and said you were missing, so Sam and I started looking, too."

Castiel sighs. Great. Just great.

"What are you doing here?" Dean asks.

"Well, I was trying to be alone," Castiel replies. "Clearly, that didn't work."

"You came all the way out here, without a jacket or a phone or money or anything, to be alone," Dean repeats. "Why did that ever sound like a good idea to you?"

"Because I'm not allowed to be alone anymore," Castiel replies, rolling his eyes.

"What? Seriously?"

"Yep. Dad's rules."

"That's stupid," Dean replies.

"Tell me about it," Castiel mutters.

"Here, how about I take you to my place, and we can be alone together?" Dean suggests. Before Castiel can protests, he adds, "It's as close to alone as you're gonna get, so you might as well take it."

Castiel hesitates, then says, "I guess..."

Dean grins. "Great! Come on."

Dean leads him back to the junkyard he lives at. He tries to get Castiel to talk throughout the walk, but Castiel never says more than a few words at once.

"I'm going to call Gabriel," Dean announces. "So he knows I found you."

"No," Castiel says quickly. "If they know where I am, they're going to come pick me up, and I don't want to go home."

"They're freaking out about you," Dean says. "They should at least know you're okay."

"No," Castiel repeats. "If you don't want me here, I'll leave, but I'm not going home. Not yet."

"You're always welcome here," Dean assures him. "How about I just tell Sam that I found you? I won't tell them where you are but that they can all stop looking?"

Castiel hesitates, then nods. "Alright."

Dean pulls out his phone and sends a quick text. "There. Okay, so now that you're stuck here with me, what do you want to do? Board games? YouTube? Talk?"

"Depends," Castiel replies. "Do you have Sorry!?"

~~

Long story short, Castiel is way better at Sorry! than Dean. There's a lot of swearing involved, and it ends with a very satisfied Castiel holding up the front of the box of the game, a slight smirk on his face.

"Sorry."

"I think you cheated!" Dean announces.

"How did I cheat?" Castiel asks.