AGE CHANGED. Sammy is the older brother in this one 'cause I wanted to write it differently... I do know who is the oldest but that's what makes an AU an AU (: Anyway... This is just a short, fluffy destiel fic. It's the boys' first day of kindergarten and Dean already has to deal with the bully of the class-Uriel, who seems to only mess with Cas. Some Sabriel I guess. I hope you enjoy it! I had a lot of fun writing it, fluff overload. As always, feedback is greatly appreciated(:

Finger Paint

Gabe shook Cas until he woke up, suddenly sitting straight up in his small bed, the covers already stripped off him by his brother. He cocked his head to the side in confusion of what was going on as Gabe smiled and dragged him out of the bed by his feet, causing Cas to whine in annoyance and kick at his brother.

"First day of Kindergarden! Yesterday was the last free day of your life, hope you enjoyed it!" Cas didn't understand what his older brother meant by this but it scared him. Gabe walked him over to where their mom had left his clothes out for the day, guiding his younger brother by his small shoulders. Castiel rubbed his eyes as his brother pulled his pajama shirt over his head, causing his black hair to stick up, arms over his head awaiting the clean shirt Gabe was picking up from he table. Gabriel was only in third grade but their parents always said he grew up too fast so they occasionally saw that as an opportunity to leave him to watch out for his younger brother. Today was one of those days. The only breakfast was some cereal without milk. Gabe said they ran out last night but that was probably only half true. Just as Cas was sitting down to eat there was a short knock on the door followed by Sam Winchester dragging his younger brother, Dean, behind him as they walked into the house. Sam was the same age as Gabriel and Dean was Cas' age. The Winchesters had been their neighbors for as long back as Cas could remember. Back when his parents didn't trust Gabe enough to watch Cas while also fending for himself, they would drop the boys off next door.

"Hey Gabriel, you mind if I drop Dean off with you guys? He can walk in with Cas, my parents already made sure they were in the same class. I have to go with them like right now and Dean threw a fit, saying he wanted to go to school with Castiel." Sam said, turning around to eye Dean who was wearing a red tank top and jeans, his usual gold necklace hanging around his neck. He was trying to dart out of Sam's reach and run over to Cas, but Sam grabbed him by his shirt, pulling him back. He got down on his knees so that he was eye level with the younger Winchester, holding his shoulders.

"If you need me at any point of the day just ask someone to walk you to the office and ask for me. Okay?" Dean nodded his head. "Cas is pretty smart too, if you stick with him, you'll be fine" Sam smiled, patting Dean's shoulder before standing up, waving to Gabe, who just rolled his eyes and may or may not have blushed, as Sam walked out the door to a waiting car. The second he was gone Dean ran over and sat next to Cas in the kitchen, bouncing in his seat excitedly.

"Geez kid... Chill." Gabriel said before he walked into the living room to gather their stuff.

"Club FW meeting at the treehouse once we get out of... School." Dean said to Cas, saying school as though he were trying out the word in his mouth, rolling it over his tongue experimentally. Cas smiled and went back to eating his dry cereal, feeling Dean's green eyes on him the whole time. Club FW was something the boys made up, they really didn't know what the FW stood for yet, but it just seemed right to call it that since they found the initials carved into the decaying wood on the floor of the treehouse. They kept all their most prized toys in there along with random objects they found in the small woods in back of their house. Sam and Gabe had found the treehouse a while ago, it had been left abandoned for years. Their parents told them they didn't want them playing in it because of how old it looked, that it might break any day now. But Dean never listened to them and continued to drag Cas down with him.

"Come on kiddos, we gotta go. You don't wanna be late to your first day of kindergarten." Gabe said, picking up Cas by the collar of his shirt to get him out of the seat and onto the floor. Dean got up and followed the brothers out into the yard, on their way to the narrow sidewalk. The school wasn't far from the house, maybe two blocks, so Gabe always walked to school. Cas reached to grab his brother's hand and held his other out for Dean as they all crossed the small road connecting to the school. Gabriel said good morning to the old crossing guard as they passed just like he did everyday. Once they entered the door to the school Gabe walked them down a colorful hallway that had finger paintings and bad drawings hung up all over its walls and smelled like peanut butter and jelly sandwiches with a hint of puke. Cas scrunched his nose in disgust, trying to get the smell away but ending up failing miserably. Dean was swinging there connected hands back and forth, clearly not able to stay still for even a second. When they finally reached the right room Gabe pushed them inside by their backpacks, patting Cas on the shoulder before leaving, saying he would be late to his own class. Cas and Dean stood there dazed for what seemed like forever, still hand in hand, about twenty kids their age staring back at them along with an older woman that must've been someone's mom. Why else would she be here? Cas thought to himself. Dean shifted closer to Cas to whisper in his ear.

"Is this... Kindergarten?" He asked before pulling back, his grip on Cas' hand tightening when the strange woman who smiled too much started to approach.

"You must be Dean Winchester and Castiel Novak. Welcome to our class, I'm Ms. Milton, your teacher. And these are your classmates." The red headed woman said, still smiling, pointing to the kids staring back from behind her. There were a few parents mixed in, whispering to their kids to make friends and stuff. Cas couldn't really hear them but he wondered why Dean and his parents didn't want to come. Almost everyone's mom or dad was here...

"Class, say hi." Suddenly the whole class was waving and smiling and it made Cas feel even more uncomfortable than he already was.

The teacher led them to their desks, the only two spots open towards the corner of the room. There was only one other kid at their table, his name was Uriel, his parent hadn't come with him either. He didn't look so nice though... He would pick his nose and try to hold out what he found to Cas, causing the black-haired boy to lean as close as he could to his friend, grabbing his hand under the table. After a while of having colored papers being shoved in front of them and introductions being made, they were allowed to explore the classroom. Dean jumped out of his seat the second the teacher said they could, dragging Cas up with him. He pulled him to the corner of the room where there were large bean-bag seats and books sitting on a small self. Dean plopped down on one and Cas sat on the one next to him, reaching behind his head to pick up a book from the shelf. All the other kids started running through the room freely, causing the teacher to raise her voice and chase after the few that got into the scissors box. The parents tried to help and it all just ended up with paint, toys and paper flying everywhere.

"I don't like it here." Dean said, voice loud enough to be heard over the chaos. Cas nodded, uninterested in the book he had picked up, placing it back in its spot.

"I don't like Uriel." Cas said quietly, looking around the room to make sure he wasn't anywhere near. Dean laughed, nudging Cas' foot with his own and smiling.

"If he tries to mess with you I'll trip him." Dean said proudly. Cas just smiled and nodded before standing up and grabbing Dean's hand.

"I wanna look at the art stuff." He said brightly, pulling Dean through the mess of kids, that teacher always looking at them quizzically, staring at their connected hands and smiling, making Cas feel uncomfortable... Again. The second they had got up a few kids jumped onto the bean-bags and started taking every book off the shelf. Ms. Milton sighed and got up, walking over there to yell at them, parents scrambling around the room trying to control their own kids. Dean snickered and Cas smiled as they made it through everyone and finally made it over to the finger paints where there was a large canvas set up on a tripod that they were able to reach. Cas collected red paint on his hand before starting to make nonsense designs on the blank canvas. Dean helped, opening the blue paint and mixing with Cas' finger strokes, the two of them laughing whenever their fingers touched and their paint mixed with the other's. When they were almost finished with their red and blue blob, Uriel came over and grabbed Cas by his shoulders, swiftly spinning him around, Cas' heart almost lurching out of his chest. Dean was right behind him within a second, grabbing onto the back of his shirt protectively.
"Whatcha painting squint?" Uriel asked causing Cas to stare at him questionably, slightly tilting his head to the side in confusion.

"Why did you call me squint? My name is Castiel, Dean calls me Cas for short." Cas said smiling but Uriel just laughed and started picking his nose again, making Cas cringe.

"I know, Ms. Milton said your name, but I'm gonna call you squint 'cause your eyes are squinty. You can barely see their color." Uriel said nonchalantly causing Cas to back further up against Dean, feeling the grip on the back of his shirt tighten. Uriel leaned in closer and demonstrated squinting his own eyes as if he were trying to figure out the color of Cas'. Cas turned around quickly to face Dean, widening his eyes as much as he could.

"Do I squint? No one has ever said that before? Is it a bad thing?" Dean shook his head saying no quietly so only Cas could hear him before glaring at Uriel over his friend's shoulder. Cas smiled shyly and went back to painting with the red finger paint, Dean still standing close to him with his hand fisted in his shirt, continuing to glare at Uriel.

"His eyes are blue by the way. You can see them, you're just too stupid to notice. Maybe you're the one who squints!" Dean yelled causing the class to go quiet, parents to turn their attention to the three kids by the finger paints, and Ms, Milton to sigh frustratingly and walk over there. But she didn't get there fast enough... Uriel lost it and pushed Cas from behind, causing him to fall on top of Dean, his hand that was covered in red paint now holding Dean's shoulder. Cas quickly sat up and pulled Dean into a sitting position before they both looked back at Uriel. Ms. Milton was pulling him away to 'talk to him' so Cas didn't worry anymore. Their classmates lost interest after a few moments and went back to playing with everything they could get into, a few parents were walking towards them to see if they were okay but they ignored them. Cas let out a sigh before looking back at Dean. He started laughing causing Dean to pinch his eyebrows together in confusion. He had Cas' red handprint painted on his bare shoulder perfectly.

"Looks like I left my handprint on you." Cas said smiling causing Dean to look at his shoulder and start laughing also.

"I like it." He said, looking back up at Cas just as Ms. Milton's voice yelled their names from her desk.

"Sam Winchester and Gabriel Novak, please report to the office." The intercom voiced throughout the classroom. Sam and Gabe immediately turned and looked at each other awestruck.

"What did you do?" They both asked at the same time causing each other to groan in annoyance. The class laughed and the teacher raised his eyebrows, nodding his head at the door. They both got up from their seats and sluggishly started walking towards the door. Once they were in the hall and on the way to the office Sam turned and confronted his friend.

"Seriously though, what is it this time?" Sam asked, "And why am I involved?" Gabe shrugged his shoulders innocently causing Sam to punch him in the shoulder.

"I swear on my candy stash under the floorboard, I didn't do anything, I seriously don't know what-" right when they turned the corner they saw Cas and Dean siting on the bench outside the office door. Cas was pushed up against Dean's side as close as he possibly could be, far from the kid on the other side of the bench who kept glaring at him whenever Dean wasn't looking.

"Dean!" "Cas?!"

"What the heck?!" They both yelled in astonishment, causing their brothers to jump off the bench and run to them, hugging them around the waist. Sam sat down on his knees to look at Dean questionably, knowing Cas wouldn't ever do anything wrong.

"What did you do?" He asked more sternly than he was going to, sounding a lot like their father, "It's only the first day Dean!" Tears started welling up in Dean's eyes making Sam suddenly regret it, rubbing his brother's shoulder in an attempt at calming him down before he started crying. Cas was already reaching from Gabe to grab the end of Dean's shirt comfortingly, twisting his fingers in the fabric.

"We didn't do anything! That kid, Uriel, told Cas he had squinty eyes so I yelled back that he didn't. And then he pushed Cas into me and we both fell on the ground and the teacher got mad at us!" Dean yelled causing Sam to look to Gabe for help, who simply shrugged and pointed to Dean's shoulder smirking.

"What's on your shoulder?" Sam asked smiling, following Gabe's amused gaze when he finally noticed the red handprint clear as day. Cas laughed and Dean smiled.

"When Cas fell into me we were fingerprinting, that's his handprint." Dean said and Sam laughed, messing up Dean's hair playfully before standing up. Cas moved over to Dean's side again, both of them looking up at their brothers.

"He does have squinty eyes..." Uriel's voice came from the bench behind them. At the sound of it Dean was already holding onto his friend protectively. Sam and Gabe both shot glares at the small kid before yelling shut up at the same time and winking at one another. Cas smiled before turning around and sticking his tongue out at Uriel who was watching the third graders worriedly, jumping off the bench and running into the office. Cas smiled proudly and Dean laughed. Maybe kindergarten wouldn't be so bad...

After all, he did have his best friend with him.