Title: Carry On
Characters: Dean, Sam, & Castiel
Genre: Humor, Friendship
Rating: K+
Summary: Season 8 with character spoilers for future episodes - The boys finish a case involving a cursed boombox and then take in a meal as things calm down a little for one night. Redone after 8x07
Full Disclaimer: I do not own Supernatural (characters, setting, etc), Gangnam Style, or the Macarena - all of which are mentioned in this fanfic as well as its title which comes from the song by Fun.
I know I had already posted this fic but, after 8x07 came out, I kind of wanted to go over it again and change a few things to fit in more with the established plot points the show gave us. And that was a very good episode, wasn't it? So, anyways, I hope you like it and enjoy the wrestling match because that was still my favorite part about why I wrote this in the first place. ;)
They had only rolled into town three hours earlier, catching wind of a weird case on the news that piqued their collective interest. Now better equipped, Castiel stood next to Sam as the angel prepared to go head-first into the fray on his own.
"You sure about this, Cas? I kinda don't want you to get hurt or anything…"
"I'll be fine, Sam."
"Yeah, well do you want to go over the plan again?"
Castiel turned to Sam and said slowly, "I will walk into the heart of the crowd and find the object. I turn off the object and the crowd should revert back to normal."
Sam frowned but nodded. "And you're sure you can't just fly in there and grab it?"
"No, I attempted that after Dean..."
"Got caught up in it. All right then Cas, um, good luck?"
"Thank you, Sam." Castiel nodded and walked towards the nearest crowd that was at a far enough distance away that they were unaffected by the spell.
"Hey man," one of the young males said to Castiel, "what's going on in there?"
Staring ahead, Castiel said, "It's classified" repeating the lie the brothers had used earlier.
"But this is some kind of flash mob, right? One of those big group things people write about to their followers on Twitter so they can be found and watched and written about in newspapers and blogs?"
"It is confidential."
"What's the handle for this group because I always wanted to join one of those…?" the coed asked but Castiel ignored whatever nonsense he was saying as he continued forward.
Music was blaring from somewhere near the center of the next crowd - the unlucky ones who were bound under the curse. Castiel listened as the style of it changed to something with a fast tempo and modern unlike the swing music from the 1930s which had just been on. Castiel felt it the minute he was within range of the spell; it was like walking into a bubble. Looking into the eyes of the young woman beside him, Castiel could see that she had a glazed look and was only listening to the music. She was currently swinging her hips from side to side before pretending to ride an invisible horse.
"Oppan Gangnam Style!"
Castiel cocked his head while listening. The song wasn't even in English? The people around him continued uninterrupted so Castiel continued towards the center. Someone bumped into him and Castiel fell forward onto his knees. He looked up and his frown deepened when he realized that it was Dean - pretending he had a rope in his hand and doing a simple step, step, double step with the first foot and, like the girl, his eyes were also glazed over and unseeing. Castiel believed that Sam would somehow be upset if Castiel was unable to capture this moment of his brother dancing but he still needed to get to the center and there were many, many people blocking his path.
He pushed his way through more people and he believed he was almost there when abruptly the music changed and Castiel froze. He put one arm out and then the other. Flipped one hand upward and then did the same with the other hand. Crossed the arms. Put one hand behind his head -
"No," he murmured to himself as he released a wave of his grace to set himself free.
It felt like something shattered around him and the people nearest to him stopped their movements for sixty seconds before continuing right where they left off.
"Heeeey Macarena!"
Castiel continued until he came upon the center where a small boombox was set up and playing. Castiel flicked his wrist and his angel sword manifested in his right hand. Not wasting any more time, Castiel stabbed the machine with his sword effectively killing whatever magic was controlling the people that heard the music, causing them to dance nonstop for the last twenty-two and a half hours. People murmured around him as they reverted back to normal and went on their way in confusion. More than a few of them limped as they went. Suddenly someone smacked him on the back and Castiel turned with his sword at the ready - but it was only Dean.
"Whoa, Cas. Easy there, tiger," Dean said holding up his hands in a placating manner.
"Apologies," Castiel said, looking down while he made the sword go away, "I am not yet used to being...sneaked up on."
Dean gave him an appreciative once over."No, I bet you're not."
The two of them looked each other in the eye, neither one of them willing to be the first to say -
"Is that it?"
They both turned as one to see Sam running towards them, pushing several people out of his way as he came closer.
"Yes," Castiel answered, "I managed to destroy the cursed object and free the people from its spell."
"Thanks again, man. We'll call the next time if like a cursed basketball appears that people need to play H.O.R.S.E with and the ones who lose die or something," Dean said before giving the angel another hard slap on the shoulder that made Castiel wince.
"Come on Dean," Sam said while putting his arm around the angel and confusing everyone present, "Cas doesn't have to leave right away - right, Cas?"
"Um, actually..."
Dean thrust his hand forward and said, "See - he's busy."
"Actually I do not have anywhere to go at this very moment."
Sam's face morphed into a grin as he then proceeded to smack Castiel's back and walk off. Castiel winced once again, wondering when either the Winchesters had started getting stronger with their attacks or if Purgatory had really weakened him that badly.
"So," Dean asked, leaning towards Castiel's ear, "whose hit was worse?"
Within a few minutes they were back in their motel room, Dean lying on the bed looking through the phone book for a good take-out joint and Sam and Castiel were sitting at the small table talking quietly amongst themselves.
"You in the mood for pizza?" Dean asked.
"Cas says he wants to try Chinese," Sam answered.
"You ever have Chinese before?"
"No and I did not say…."
"Chinese it is."
Dean shrugged his shoulders and picked up the phone, dialing a local place. While he talked to whoever was on the line, Sam leaned forward and after a hesitant second Castiel mirrored him.
"Everything okay?" the younger Winchester asked.
The angel stared and contemplated his answer as Dean hung up and leaned back against the headboard with his arms behind him. "Should be about twenty minutes. You can get it, Sam."
"No - you get it."
"But I'm all achy and don't think I can stand for more than twenty sec -"
"I will retrieve the food," Castiel said while rolling his eyes at the bickering.
The room was silent for a minute and a half before Dean's cell phone rang. Sam and Castiel both stared at the offending object as Dean answered and then walked across the room and into the bathroom, shutting the door and locking it.
"I guess he can move then," Sam said, sounding annoyed.
Castiel sent Sam a look and the human sighed and leaned back in his seat. "I'm sorry Cas - I thought..."
"You thought what? That it would be like 'old times' - before stopping the apocalypse? Before the souls? Before the insanity -?"
"Yeah, Cas - I did. I admit it. I want things between the three of us to at least have some semblance to what it was like before. When we were friends - remember that?"
"I do."
"Well then can't you make a better effort?"
Castiel thought about the talk he and Dean had, had - about how Castiel did not wish to be saved. The bathroom door opened and Castiel whispered, "I can't" and vanished.
Dean reentered the room with a sigh as he flung his phone onto the bed and then collapsed beside it.
"What'd Benny want?" Sam asked, propping his head up on his chin.
"He had a question about, I dunno, something."
Sam huffed and Dean groaned in annoyance. "I know you don't like him...just give him a chance. He might convince you..."
"What? That he isn't some blood-sucking monster you brought back from the dead?"
"Hey!" Was all Dean managed to say before Castiel reappeared in the center between them, holding two overfull plastic bags full of warm, delicious smelling food.
"I have your order, Dean," Castiel said putting the bags on the table.
"Did you order enough for a small army?" Sam asked, bewildered.
"Pfft, no," Dean said, jumping from the bed due to the lure of hot food, "Cas said he wanted to try it so...I ordered enough to garner an honest opinion."
Sam and Castiel shared one of their recently synchronized, what the hell looks which Dean pretended to ignore as he opened cartons and set them out. It took Castiel exactly a minute and a half to get the handle of using chopsticks causing Dean to hand over five dollars to his smug younger brother and gave the angel his first real cause to smile at him today.
When the Winchesters were mostly filled and Castiel was poking at the remains in the bottom of a carton of fried rice, the brothers as one reached for their wrapped fortune cookies and opened them revealing the small white piece of paper within.
"Um, what are you doing?" Castiel asked before putting more rice into his mouth.
"Fortunes man - they're the best part. What's yours say, Sam?"
"Don't let the past and useless detail choke your existence."
"…In bed," Dean jokingly added before reading his, "A dubious friend may be an enemy in camouflage."
Castiel looked Sam in the eye while reaching for his own cookie and opening it. He frowned.
"What's it say, Cas?" Dean asked, grabbing the last egg roll and putting it in his mouth.
"In the end all things will be known."
No one said anything for a few minutes, everyone thinking about something else until Dean grabbed the fortunes and walked into the bathroom, removing his lighter from his pocket as he went. Sam and Castiel followed him a second behind.
"Dean," Sam asked cautiously, "what're you doing?"
"Burning them."
"Why are you burning them?" Castiel asked.
Dean didn't respond and once the papers were alight, he dropped them into the toilet and flushed.
"So," Dean said, looking at them and grinning, "what do you want to do now? Bar? Club? Den of Iniquity?"
Castiel brought his upper lip into his mouth and shrugged his shoulder. "There was something which I wanted to show Sam," the angel said leading the way back into the main room.
They stopped in the largest empty space the room had to offer and Castiel raised his hand towards the clock radio and it turned on. A techno song began to play and strange words were spoken by some male singer.
"Oppan Gangnam Style!"
"What the hell kind of song is this?" Dean asked after a minute of listening.
He looked to his brother but Sam only shrugged his shoulders and waited for Cas to elaborate. Castiel looked at Dean, cocked his head to the side and snapped his fingers. Immediately Dean's eyes once again glazed over as they had earlier and he was suddenly doing the same step, step, double step with the first foot move he had been doing when under the spell earlier. Sam doubled over from laughing so hard and Castiel even had to chuckle to himself. He snapped his fingers again and Dean became alert but continued dancing strange moves, thrusting his pelvis forward and even managing to do a proper back flip.
"What the hell, Cas?" Dean said while glaring.
"No, don't stop him," Sam said clutching his stomach and his laughter going up an octave.
"Cas, you'd better friggin stop me NOW!"
"Very well," Castiel said and the music died away and after a few extra seconds Dean stopped dancing -
-And then he tackled Castiel to the floor.
Within a second the angel was across the room and Dean leaped up to grab him again and again he vanished making Dean this time crash into the wall. Dean looked at his brother and Castiel peeked out from behind his shoulder, using Sam as a wall to hide behind.
"Sam, get out of the way!"
"Why?" his brother asked.
"Because I need to beat him up!"
"I am an angel of the Lord," Castiel said while still hiding, "you cannot simply 'beat me up.'"
"No," Dean said smirking and grabbing his lighter, "but I can run outside and grab our jug of holy oil from the trunk...That'll keep you in one place."
Both Castiel and Sam stared after this bold statement from Dean and Castiel moved just far enough away from Sam to be defenseless. Like a child, Dean immediately ran and grabbed him, holding him down and Castiel didn't even bother trying to struggle. Sam grabbed his brother by the shoulders and pushed him away from Cas but Dean wouldn't give up and he grabbed his brother, pulling him down to the floor with all of his strength. He wrapped his arms around his neck in a chokehold saying, "Say uncle!"
Struggling, Sam said, "We don't have any uncles!"
"Doesn't matter. 8, 9, 10 - I win." Dean raised his arms in victory and was immediately tackled back down by both Castiel and Sam at the same exact time. Dean tried to get away but all he managed to do was flip down onto his stomach and Sam held his wrists against his back, preventing any escape.
"No tag teaming!"
"10," Castiel said and he and Sam sat up.
Sam raised his hand, waiting for a high five and when it was obvious Castiel didn't know what he was doing he lowered it and helped Dean back up on his feet again. Both Sam and Dean were feeling the aching effects of the play-fighting where ten years ago they would have another quick go around for practice before bed.
And then someone's cell phone rang - Dean's. Dean didn't look at either Sam or Castiel as he went to answer it and then brought the phone outside so he could have some privacy.
"Do you think it's Benny?" Sam asked.
Castiel looked at Sam and said knowingly in reply, "Why else would Dean feel a need to vacate if it was not?"
Sighing, Castiel rubbed the back of his neck before saying, "I believe I need to go."
Sam also sighed. "All right, man - thanks for helping out."
"It was my pleasure." Castiel stood still for a second and raised his arm, hand up and palm out and waited.
"What? Oh," Sam said after a minute, giving him a high five, and "sorry."
Castiel looked up to the ceiling and vanished.
When Dean came back into the room twenty minutes later, he didn't bother asking if Castiel had gone because Sam was alone with his laptop out, searching for their next case.
Dean crossed the room to his bed, grabbed the remote control for the television and turned it on, trying to find something of interest to pass the time until sleep came.
I think that the fortunes now fit better after the episode came out too which was my other reason for redoing parts. Thank you once again for reading this and I hope you all have a very nice week. :)