zannes | Angel on His Shoulder (Ch. 2)

Title: Angel on His Shoulder (Ch. 2)
Author: ZanneS
Genre: RPF/AU/Gen
Rating: G
Characters: Jensen, Castiel, Uriel, extended members of Jensen's family
Summary: Castiel makes a far better Megatron than Josh ever did, even if he can't say the name right.
Author's Notes: Thanks to moony_mistress for betaing! She also inspired the Metatron comment. This story will be comprised of a series of vignettes of Jensen and Castiel at different ages as their relationship develops over the years.
Disclaimer: Jensen and his family own themselves, Kripke owns Castiel.

The sun was shining brightly upon the crisp, green grass, though the heat was tempered by the cool breeze wafting gently through the shrubbery, making the leaves chitter and rustle with satisfaction. It was a perfect spring afternoon; the flowers dancing brightly along the borders of the walk gave the house a flirty hem of color that made it seem alive. This was the worst day Jensen had ever had in his entire life. He knew this to be true because he felt all heavy and icky on the inside, and his eyes stung like he might cry.

But he wasn’t; he wasn’t a baby, no matter what Josh said.

Josh was the worst big brother in the world; Jensen was absolutely sure of this fact. So what if Josh’s friend from school had invited him over to play soccer in his backyard. That didn’t mean he had to leave Jensen behind with nothing to do on a Saturday. Josh had to be here so they could play Transformers. Jensen couldn’t do it without Josh, because there was no way he could be both Optimus Prime and Megatron all at once.

Jensen pouted at the toy in his hand, debating whether or not he should bury Megatron under the rosebushes or throw it in the pool so Josh couldn’t find it. The problem, Jensen had realized, was that Megatron was his and he didn’t want to lose it, even if he was really mad at his brother.

So instead Jensen banged the offending piece of plastic on a rock to show his displeasure, and then sat frowning at the scratch that now marred Megatron’s chest plate.

It was dumb Josh’s fault his toy was ruined.

“Why did you do that?”

Jensen’s head swung upwards, and he blinked in surprise at the little boy squatting in front of him, his clothes still immaculate, even outside where the dirt was so temptingly cool today. The boy stared back at Jensen with his head cocked to the side, as if Jensen’s answer was the most important thing in the universe.

“Because my brother is a stupid head.” Jensen’s eyes flicked to the patio door to make sure his momma hadn’t heard him using a bad word. He didn’t want to get in trouble, even if it was true. “You’re…Cas-Cash-Case….” Jensen’s tongue tangled around the name, and his forehead furrowed as he tried to force it out of his mouth. It had been almost two weeks since he’d last seen the boy, and the name had been a hard one to pronounce, he remembered.

“Castiel,” the boy corrected, taking a seat on the ground. His nose twitched, and his large, blue eyes fixed on Jensen. “You’re lonely.”

Jensen frowned again at the boy’s statement, and he covertly sniffed his own arm to see if he smelled. Momma had made him take a bath the night before, and he only had a little dirt on his hands, and maybe a lot on his clothes, but he didn’t think it was too bad.

It just smelled like dirt. Dirt smelled good, though his momma might not agree.

“I’m Jensen,” he replied, not quite understanding what the boy meant about smelling lonely, though it didn’t sound very nice. He scowled at the Megatron in his hand and then shoved it under his leg so he didn’t have to look at it.

Castiel continued to stare at him, watching Jensen lean forward to walk his Optimus Prime along a leaf.

Optimus Prime had just landed on an alien planet and was looking for a gas station, since Megatron wasn’t there to fight with him. But after several seconds, Optimus decided this place was boring, and debated flying over to the next planet, conveniently located in the mud puddle under the hose.

Suddenly, the evil Megatron was standing there in front of him, boldly blocking Optimus’ path to Mud Planet.

Jensen looked up, his green eyes meeting Castiel’s intense blue ones. A smile stretched over Jensen’s face and he sat back on his haunches to get down to business.

"Beware, Megatron! Optim-"

"Do you mean Metatron?" Castiel asked, turning the toy to study it impassively.

"Megatron," Jensen said. He worried Castiel might be kind of dumb.

"Metatron is...more luminescent," Castiel finally admitted, placing the toy back on the playing field.

As Optimus and Megatron decided to explore the new planet together, Jensen chattered away to his new friend, who listened raptly to his every word.

“Josh is my brother. He’s kinda bossy.”

Castiel nodded, as if he understood. “I have a similar situation, but his name is Uriel. He can be very…authoritative.”

Jensen had no idea what Castiel was talking about, but that didn’t stop him from doing what he did best, so he continued on with his story.

“Now that Josh is in school, he thinks he’s too big to play with me. He says I’m not grown-up enough to play with!” Jensen’s lower lip wobbled and he sniffled loudly. He wasn’t a baby. “He thinks he knows everything.”

“Uriel says I’ll remember more as you grow,” Castiel said, his placid face showing a hint of upset. Jensen didn’t understand what that meant, and it didn’t look like Castiel understood it either, so he didn’t feel as dumb. “He says the knowledge of the universe doesn’t fit in here,” and Castiel thumped his chest. “It’s a limitation of being assigned to a human when they’re so young.”

“He sounds like Josh. He doesn’t like to babysit, either.”

They continued to play in the mud, Optimus and Megatron battling over who got to rule Mud Planet. Castiel wasn’t the best player; he lacked imagination, as Jensen’s momma would say, but that just meant Jensen got to tell him exactly what he had to do to play the game the right way. Jensen kind of liked this about Castiel.

Not like Josh, who never listened at all.

They played the entire afternoon, no bossy big brothers necessary.

The funny thing was, sometimes, out of the corner of his eye, Jensen would see something hovering behind Castiel’s shoulders. At first Jensen thought it was just a trick of the light, a smudge of shadow that curved gracefully behind Castiel’s back, or flared outwards when his new friend was especially excited or agitated.

Not that it happened very often.

But it was always there, just out-of-sight, but not out of mind.

Only, when Jensen turned to see what had caught his attention, it would just be Castiel in his now dirty t-shirt and jeans, looking at Jensen with those big eyes as if awaiting his next command. There wasn’t anything spectacular about Castiel at all, when Jensen looked straight at him.

It was that sideways Castiel that made the hair on the back of Jensen’s neck stand up.

Didn’t matter, though. He was still a far better Megatron than stupid Josh.

Chap. 3...