Author's note: Well, ah, hello there, my pretties... It's been ages... In the words of Sherlock (the s03e03 ending is just gAAAAHHHHH) Yikes. I don't even have an excuse other than lack of motivation. Agh. But basically last night after the devastating SPN episode I couldn't sleep...which wasn't directly relatted to the episode, our heater went kablooey. Anyways, I got the perfect idea for where to take this plot next. So back to writing. Also, I am now fully immersed in the Teen Wolf fandom... Janeway out.

"I'm going to go, uh, take a shower," Dean said, reluctantly breaking apart from their embrace. Cas glowered at him but let him go. "Just...just wait here. I promise it'll be worth it."

"It better be," Cas said, an underlying threat in his tone that made Dean's blood temperature ratchet up a few hundred degrees. He forgot himself for a moment, aroused, until Cas brought him back sharply. "Hurry up."

"Y-yeah," Dean said, smirking self-consciously, backing into the adjoining bathroom and shutting the door behind him.

Cas watched him go with a mixture of impatience and fond exasperation. He was certain that they were on the same page as to what was 'going' 'down' next, or so Dean might put it. But that was confusing, because he had found that 'going down' could also mean administering oral sex. Humans were weird.

He stripped himself until he wore only his boxers. For some reason he felt shy at the thought of baring himself completely before it was necessary. Dean knew every inch of him, head to toe, so why did he feel so awkward at the thought of the hunter walking up to his naked body?

As he heard the shower turn on, the spray hitting the cheap linoleum, he absentmindedly reached for the television remote to clear his musings and occupy his time preceding Dean's return and the activities thus heralded.

How do humans stand it? Lust? As an angel, it always looked so...crude, so vulgar, but I think I am starting to understand the longing, the reasons Troy fell because of Helen... Castiel watched idly as the credits of the soap opera program the TV was previously set to changed to a commercial about cars. Car commercials, he realized, would be a very effective method of torture. Just sit a demon down in front of a never ending parade of Kias and Toyotas and SUVs. Then, he might turn it off, let the demon beg for respite, and approach him, whispering in a spooky tone of voice, 'the all-new 2014 Honda Civic has better gas mileage than-' and by the time he had finished speaking the demon would be absolutely ecstatic to divulge his secrets. Huh. He could have to approach Dean about this.

On the other channel was a news broadcast, a balding man in a suit next to a provocatively dressed woman. Cas felt indirectly wrathful at the double standards there, how the women were painted and paraded and patronized, existing only to accessorize the man, who would have a job no matter how old and decrepit he got. No wonder so many angels and demons alike chose white males as their vessels; it was simply inconvenient to wander around in an objectified form. Men were respected for character, women for elegance. If he ever became an angel again...

They were now running a story about a school shooting in Atlanta. Cas's heart ached for the parents he saw in the clips, screaming over the news that their children had been murdered, for the kids who had been shot for no reason. He watched, disgusted in the race he was now a part of, as the police gave details and a friends and family 'hot' 'line' was displayed.

After a few minutes, the police announced that they had identified a suspect and taken him into custody.

Castiel's heart stopped for a moment. He knew that vessel.

It was Malachi.

Keep in mind that since this is an alternate timeline, Malachi has not done the things that the TV Malachi has. You'll see why he dreads him so much.

Come visit me on Archive of our Own. I'm 2spooky4u and I've posted some fics since the last ATKM update which won't be found here for a variety of reasons. Mainly because it's so much easier to update via mobile.