Pairing: Chastine

Rating: K

Disclaimer: you know the drill: "Not mine. Never will be."

Summary: John watches Chas sleep…

Glimpse

John fits the key into the lock and turns it.

When he steps inside, his hand automatically reaches for the light switch, but before he can flip it, he notices something.

A faint shaft of moonlight sifts through a grimy window, illuminating a silent figure.

It's Chas.

He was waiting up for him, but it's 3:30 in the morning now, and the boy is fast asleep.

He's sprawled gracelessly on the couch, half sitting up, powder blue blanket twisted around his lower body.

A sleepy smile tugs at the corners of a pink mouth. Black lashes curve gently, casting soft shadows on pale cheeks. Neck muscles stretch, burdened by the tilt of a heavy head topped with messy brown curls. His chest rises and falls rhythmically beneath a tattered white shirt and a hole in his blue jeans reveals tight, grey boxers.

Chas shifts in his sleep, perhaps unconsciously aware of John's intense scrutiny.

The blue blanket drops to the floor and the shivering that ensues is visible from half a room away in the dark.

John sighs, finally moves from his place in the doorway and kneels down beside the sofa.

Gently, he lays the boy down, taking care not to wake him and, lifting the blanket from the floor, he covers Chas' shaking body.

Almost immediately, Chas stops shivering and smiles contentedly, still sound asleep.

John lightly strokes his warm cheek and can't help but smile a little himself.

When he crosses the room to close the blind, John turns to look at Chas one last time.

He feels a little awkward, actually, seeing the kid exposed like this.

Stripped of all his quirks: his incessant complaining; his dependence on the licorice and cookies that he somehow always manages to push into his mouth without obstructing the stream of words spilling from it; his job as full-time smartass; the constant chewing on his lip; his adolescent clumsiness.

It's almost like seeing him naked. Uncovered, unprotected by his coat of human foolishness.

And it is times like these that John can see who Chas really is, sneak a peek at his soul.

Catch a glimpse of the angel John knows the boy will someday become.