glorious_spoon: (Default)
glorious_spoon ([personal profile] glorious_spoon) wrote2011-05-04 04:36 pm

Book of Lies

Title: Book of Lies
Pairing: Gen. Dean/Castiel if you squint
Warnings: None
Rating: PG
Summary: Alone in the panic room, Castiel contemplates faith and betrayal. Drabble-ish.

A/N: [personal profile] doughtier made me do it. As usual. :P

It’s Dean’s hand on his shoulder, Dean’s rough ungentle grip. Castiel is too drained to fight him, too drained to really register the furious words Dean snarls in his ear. He understands the tone, though, and the fingers gripping his upper arm, hot through the cloth of his bloody shirt, feel like a familiar brand.

There’s the creaking sound of a door, other voices that float outside his ability to comprehend. Bobby. Sam.

Dean snaps something else, and the hand on Castiel’s shoulders propels him violently forward, then lets go. The door slams shut, and he’s alone. Again.

***

The next time he opens his eyes, Sam is straddling the other chair. He has a plate of food in his hand, and he looks sympathetic. “Here. Brought you something.”

“I don’t need to eat,” Castiel says. He doesn’t meet Sam’s eyes. “Where’s Dean?”

Sam sighs and sets the plate down, but not before Castiel sees his mouth tighten a little. “Upstairs getting hammered.”

“He’s not taking this well.” Dean does not have good coping mechanisms. This much, Castiel has observed. This much is something he’s certain of. Dean is human, weak, unreliable. He can’t help it, but that doesn’t make it any less true. Castiel has watched Dean for a long time; his fault lines are predictable, and he always breaks along them.

“No,” Sam admits. “He’s not. He trusted you.”

The past tense stings, but Castiel doesn’t let it show. If Dean hasn’t learned by now to be careful where he places his trust, he never will. It’s no longer Castiel’s problem. “And you?”

Sam shrugs. The smile on his face is small and hard and almost entirely without humor. “Let’s just say I get where you’re coming from.”

He leaves the plate when he goes, and Castiel looks at it for a long time before reaching out and pulling it to him. Cheeseburger and french fries, all of it going soggy and cold now. He eats every bite all the same, salt-grease taste on his tongue, and he’s thinking of the echoes of Jimmy that still linger in his mind. Jimmy could afford to eat well, but greasy fast food was one of his few vices.

One of Dean’s, as well, but Dean is a man of many vices and Castiel isn’t willing to think about him now, anyway.

***

The next day, Bobby brings the food. Noodles, this time, in a takeout container. Castiel explains yet again that he doesn’t need to eat, and Bobby just snorts. “You got anything better to do down here?”

“No,” Castiel admits. “I suppose I don’t.”

Crowley will find him, sooner or later. There’s no love lost between them, but he needs Castiel. Until then, all he can do is wait.

He doesn’t ask about Dean this time. Bobby leaves without another word.

***

Bobby has a soul of steel and sharp edges, weary cynicism and a stubborn brightness that doesn’t know how to go out. It’s familiar to Castiel. In another twenty years of living, it will be Dean.

If Dean lives another twenty years, which is looking more and more unlikely as time goes on. This is no longer Castiel’s concern. He cannot continue to risk the fate of heaven and earth for a single flawed human soul.

Two floors up, Dean has clawed his way out of the stew of alcohol and bitterness that he’s been soaking in for the past several days. Two floors up, Dean is tugging on his boots and loading his gun and pulling the hard jingling shape of car keys from his pocket. He moves quickly, an efficient stormcloud of temper with Sam trailing uncertainly in his wake as he stomps out the door.

Outside the borders of Bobby’s house, Castiel cannot sense him, but that’s really just as well.

He closes his eyes, leans his head back against the wall of the panic room, and waits.

For Crowley, maybe. Or maybe not. Certainty was the first thing that died when he chose to follow Dean Winchester rather than Heaven, and he’s already outlived the end of days. The earth has shifted beneath his feet; there is nowhere left to stand, and no one left to pull him back now when he falls.
(deleted comment)

[identity profile] glorious-spoon.livejournal.com 2011-05-11 11:38 pm (UTC)(link)
XDDDDDDDDD Thank you!
sistabro: (Default)

[personal profile] sistabro 2011-05-04 10:27 pm (UTC)(link)
:DDDDD YOUR CAS IS MY FAVORITE CAS, JUST SAYING OKAY?

poor broken friendships and understanding but cold Sam and Dean == Bobby and Cas refusing to let himself regret his regrettable things ♥

[identity profile] glorious-spoon.livejournal.com 2011-05-11 11:39 pm (UTC)(link)
I'M SO GLAD YOU THINK SO :)

I think Cas is deep, deep in denial right now, but hopefully he finds a way to climb out of it.

[identity profile] borgmama1of5.livejournal.com 2011-05-04 10:57 pm (UTC)(link)
Harsh. And likely.

And written beautifully.

[identity profile] glorious-spoon.livejournal.com 2011-05-11 11:40 pm (UTC)(link)
Thank you. I'm hoping it won't come to this.

[identity profile] irismay42.livejournal.com 2011-05-04 11:17 pm (UTC)(link)
Cas! Nooooo!!

Wish Dean and Castiel's relationship didn't have to break down just as Dean and Sam's relationship starts to fix itself.

I do like the way Cas knows he's betrayed more than just Dean, but it's his betrayal of Dean that weighs on him the most. And your description of Bobby's soul and how that would be Dean in 20 years? Just perfect.

[identity profile] glorious-spoon.livejournal.com 2011-05-11 11:42 pm (UTC)(link)
I think there's something about Dean that makes it basically impossible for him to be having a good relationship with all the people he loves at once. It's like his curse.

Dean and Castiel do share a more profound bond :P Glad you liked.
kalliel: (:Deanimated)

[personal profile] kalliel 2011-05-05 06:54 am (UTC)(link)
There is so much fantasticness in this piece I don't know where to start. Your writing is gorgeous as ever, but this is certainly more than that. Either Castiel's perceptiveness or the piece's perceptions of Castiel or maybe--probably--both. Beautiful. <3 Thank you for sharing this!

[identity profile] glorious-spoon.livejournal.com 2011-05-11 11:43 pm (UTC)(link)
((hugs))

I'm really glad you liked. Castiel's POV is always interesting for me to play with, so it's good to hear that it worked.

[identity profile] shaitanah.livejournal.com 2011-05-05 08:08 am (UTC)(link)
So beautiful! This is a terrifying scenario to be honest, but the story is powerful and IC nonetheless. And maybe it's my particular love for Bobby, but I just adore this line:
Bobby has a soul of steel and sharp edges, weary cynicism and a stubborn brightness that doesn’t know how to go out.
Such a uniquely beautiful and spot-on description! <3

[identity profile] glorious-spoon.livejournal.com 2011-05-11 11:44 pm (UTC)(link)
Thank you so much!

I was just thinking about the similarities between Sam and John, and who does Dean have to model himself after like that? Well...Bobby. :P
geckoholic: (Default)

[personal profile] geckoholic 2011-05-05 08:29 am (UTC)(link)
Wonderful writing and believable reactions all around. Great work! :)

[identity profile] glorious-spoon.livejournal.com 2011-05-11 11:45 pm (UTC)(link)
Thank you so much. I'm glad you liked :)

[identity profile] switchbladesis.livejournal.com 2011-05-05 01:38 pm (UTC)(link)
I'm tempted to respond to this piece with a Caaaaaaasss, but it deserves more than that. You get into Cas's headspace perfectly, the guilt and desolation and hurt from hurting others. And Sam bringing the burgers (because he remembers and Sam can't be that much of a hypocrite) and Dean going on a drinking binge to get over the betrayal and okay, you wrote it, I don't need to quote the entire thing back to you.

This is making me even more excited for the next episode. Why isn't it Friday yet?

[identity profile] glorious-spoon.livejournal.com 2011-05-11 11:47 pm (UTC)(link)
Caaaaaas was kind of the headspace I was at when I wrote this, TBH. :P

I kind of liked the idea that Sam has learned something from his own experience of being an untrustworthy jackass--he's going to be sympathetic, without letting Cas off the hook. And Dean's coping mechanisms are...well, not good, to say the least.

I'm really glad you enjoyed this.

[identity profile] nyoka.livejournal.com 2011-06-22 11:14 pm (UTC)(link)
Congrats! ☆ Your fic is recced here at [livejournal.com profile] sawedoff_recs.

[identity profile] glorious-spoon.livejournal.com 2011-06-22 11:59 pm (UTC)(link)
Thank you! :)