Work Text:
"Are you fucking with me?"
Sam leveled a glare at Dean, bitch face in place. "Dude, why the hell would I joke about something like Cas getting turned into a freaking bird?"
Dean huffed and crossed his arms. "Fine, then. Where the hell is he?"
Sam groaned. "Dude, I dunno! He just kinda," he waved his hands in the air, "flapped off after I ganked the witch, ok?!"
Dean rolled his eyes and threw his arms out to the side. "Great. Just frikkin' great. It figures he just flaps the fuck off first chance he gets. Awesome." Dean squinted at his brother and asked, "Do you at least know what kind of bird he got zapped into?"
"Some kind of bird of prey. Maybe an owl? Whatever he is, he's tiny as hell. And quiet too. When he flew away, I could barely hear him, and I lost sight of him pretty quick."
Dean collapsed into a chair, groaning. "Awesome. At least you guys were close to home this time. I guess all we can do is wait for him to come home." He sat up and clapped his hands. "Alright, let's start digging and see if we can find a counter-spell. Might as well make use of the time we are waiting for him." He hauled himself out of his chair and headed back into the bookshelves as Sam watched him go, jaw hanging open in shock.
**
It was nearing dawn when Dean heard a faint thud filter down from the front door of the bunker. He stopped reading and focused on listening for the sound again, but after a few minutes of nothing, he went back to the tome in his hands.
When the second thump reverberated through the bunker, he shot up from his seat and ran to the staircase, hauling himself up as fast as he could. He opened the door and poked his head out but didn't see anything. His brows furrowed together as he looked around until he saw a small bird walking - yes, walking - towards him at a brisk pace.
"Cas?"
When it came to a stop in front of Dean, the bird hissed at him and shook itself out, feathers puffing up in all directions. It was very small, just a few inches tall at the most, and was a mottled brown and white with yellow eyes. And its legs were almost as long as its body was.
"Dude, you are the strangest looking bird I've seen in a long time."
The bird's feathers slicked down, and it looked up at Dean with a bitch face to rival Sam's. It then marched past Dean into the bunker and flew down to the War Room table and skidded across the top until it finally got purchase. The sound of its talons striking the table top drew Sam's attention as Dean closed the door.
"Oh good, he came back. Hey Cas," Sam said as he walked into the War Room. He held out his wrist for Cas to hop up on, but the bird just sidled away from him. When Dean stopped next to the table, however, Cas flapped up onto his shoulder before tucking in next to Dean's neck and closing his eyes, huddling down under Dean's flannel collar.
Dean stood stock still and looked at Sam, eyes wide. "What do I do?" he whispered to his brother.
"Uh, well. I guess just don't jostle him around too much. I'll uh," Sam cleared his throat, "I'll look up what kind of owl he is so we can make sure he stays healthy for as long as he's stuck like this. Why don't you go ahead and go get some sleep man, you've been up all night."
"Yeah, alright. I'll, uh. Yeah." Dean cut himself off and carefully made his way down the hall to his room where he gently dislodged the owl from his shoulder, setting him down on the bed. Cas looked around, blinking, as Dean stripped down to his boxers and undershirt and climbed into bed. Once Dean made himself comfortable, Cas made his way over to Dean and climbed on his chest, squirming his way under the blanket before making soft coos. Dean just whispered to himself, "How is this my life?" and went to sleep.
**
The following days were full of the two Winchesters making sure that Cas got fed correctly, research, and Cas stealing bits of anything he could get his beak on and building a burrow in Dean's bed, which Dean was not overly thrilled with.
As it turned out, Cas had been zapped into a burrow owl, one of the only owls active during the day. Cas spent much of his time on Dean's shoulder, snuggled up between his neck and the collar of his over-shirt or jacket. Cas was also constantly nibbling on the underside of Dean's chin and rubbing his cheek over Dean's.
It was distracting as fuck.
Cas had gotten good at flying around in an enclosed space. He'd swoop around and perform aerial acrobatics above Dean, completely enthralling him with his antics. When Cas wasn't riding around on Dean's shoulder, he could usually be found flitting around the bunker, searching out bugs and other pests, especially in the library.
It wasn't until Cas started playing with his hair that Sam began making fun of Dean.
"Dude, you do realize he's preening you, right?"
"Say what?"
Sam smirked as he nodded towards Cas. "He's preening your 'feathers,' Dean. Mean's he likes you."
Dean scoffed. "Well of course he likes me. I'm the only one he lets carry around too."
Sam rolled his eyes and waved him off, shooing them both outside so he could continue looking for a counter-spell for Cas.
Dean and Cas spent the afternoon exploring the woods right outside the bunker until both man and owl were tired, and the sun was going down. Dean attempted to leave Cas in the bedroom when he went to take a shower, but the owl was having none of that and hissed at the man until he finally gave up and brought him with. Cas seemed to be entirely happy rolling around in the water cascading off Dean's body though, so Dean put the episode out of his mind.
After they were both clean and dry, and Dean was clothed, they made their way to the kitchen where Dean made himself a sandwich. He fed Cas bits of the sandwich meat as he assembled his dinner, Cas making cooing sounds the entire time.
Sam walked in the kitchen and leaned up against the door frame, his lips quirked to the side as he watched. "So get this," he said quietly. "Cas is courting you as an owl."
Dean cut Sam a glance before he looked back to what he was doing. "Huh. Get any closer to finding a counter-spell yet?"
"What no smart-ass comment about the fact that I know Cas is doing his best to woo you as if you were another owl?" Sam straightened and crossed to the refrigerator. "As a matter of fact, yeah, I think I have found something. Gotta make sure we have everything, but it looks promising."
Dean grunted as he took an overly-large bite of his sandwich. He had a thoughtful look on his face as he chewed, and once Dean could speak again, he said, "Alright. Gimme a list of what you need, and we'll see if we can find it in the bunker. And no, no wisecracks. I'm actually a little worried about him being stuck like this, ok?" He paused as Cas butted his head on Dean's cheek and smiled at the feel of the owl's feathers running through his stubble. "I'm afraid he's losing himself, so I'd like to get him back to 'Cas' as quickly as possible."
Sam nodded, and they finished their meals in silence. After downing a beer each, Sam led the way back to the library and snagged a sheet of paper from the stack of books next to his laptop, passing it over to Dean. "That's everything. It's a pretty simple spell, so if you do find everything, you could probably just go ahead and do it whenever."
Dean nodded as he glanced over the scribbled words on the paper. "Got it. Pretty sure we do have everything, and I think I might even know where it all is. Wanna head down and check with me?"
Sam hid a yawn behind his hand and shook his head. "Naw man, I'm headed to bed. I'll see you two in the morning." Sam shut down his laptop, and they trailed down the hallway together before Sam split off for his room.
Dean continued to the storeroom, rubbing his cheek on Cas' head absently as he walked. As nice as it's been having his own personal shoulder owl, he's glad that Sammy had finally found a spell to turn Cas back into his normal state.
It turns out he actually missed the bastard.
Dean deposited Cas on a bookshelf once they got to the storeroom and started digging through the shelves in search of all the ingredients. They did, in fact, have everything on the list, and for once the spell didn't call for human blood, which was a plus in Dean's eyes.
Not that he would have minded bleeding for Cas if it meant getting him back to normal.
Dean set up the ritual circle and found the required candles, setting them at the cardinal points before lighting them in the order that Sam had written out. He fetched Cas off the bookshelf where he'd fallen asleep, one foot tucked up into his feathers, and brought him to the middle of the circle. Cas blinked and craned his head around, taking in everything around him as Dean struck the match and threw it into the brass bowl holding the spell components. Dean read off the spell and braced himself as he felt a tingling wash over him…
…and nothing happened.
"Son of a bitch," Dean muttered before he started cleaning up the storeroom. Cas had flapped up to his previous perch on the bookshelf and stayed out of the way as Dean put everything back to rights. Once Dean was satisfied, he gathered Cas and decided to be done for the day and headed to bed.
**
Dean's eyes snapped open, and he kept himself still as he listened in the darkness of his room. Something had woken him up, but he hadn't been able to pinpoint the cause in his half-awake state. He slowly moved his hand around under the blanket, looking for the small ball of feathers until…
…his hand collided with another human body.
Dean shot up in the bed and lunged for the lamp in one motion, the light making him squint. He turned toward the body in his bed to find Cas curled up, somehow still asleep.
Dean just stared.
"Cas?" Dean reached out toward the angel, hand trembling. Castiel stirred as Dean laid his hand on his cheek, and he blinked open his eyes and took in his surroundings. Cas' eyes widened as he took in Dean's face.
"Dean." He slowly pushed himself up into a sitting position and looked down at his hands. "Dean, I thought, I thought the spell didn't work?"
"I did too, man, but I'm not lookin' a gift horse in the mouth man. I'm glad you're back." Dean reached out and pulled Castiel to him in a rough hug. "Don't ever pull that shit again, you hear me?"
Castiel nodded as he pulled back. "I hear you, Dean." He looked at Dean and then down to the bed. "I guess I should go and let you get back to sleep." He started to pull back before Dean grabbed his wrist, drawing Cas' gaze back to Dean's.
"Stay."