MagiStream

Dean groaned and hid his face in the pillow. The sun had risen and was streaming through the window onto him.
“Close the curtains,” he mumbled. Sam glanced at Dean’s half-asleep form on the bed. With a sigh, he got up and pulled the curtains closed, then sat down at the table again. Dean had gotten in late last night, so Sam figured that he could have his rest for now. Sam continued to search through the internet for more information on their current case. It didn’t take long for Dean to sit up. He rubbed his eyes and yawned. “What time is it?” he asked.
“Just after ten,” Sam answered.
“Why didn’t you wake me?” Sam shrugged.
“There was no reason to. I’ve just been doing research. You didn’t need to be awake for that.”
“Find anything useful?”
“Nothing that we don’t already know.”
“No hints on what we’re facing here?”
“Not exactly. I don’t think it’s a demon, but whatever it is, it loves causing problems,” Sam answered.
“Great. That’ll be loads of fun,” Dean said. He slid off the bed and walked over to where Sam sat. Sam folded the laptop shut before Dean could see the screen. “Hiding something Sam?” he asked.
“You wouldn’t have wanted to see that,” Sam said. There was a short silence, then Dean shrugged.
“I’m going to just pretend that you’re not acting weird and go take a shower,” he said. He headed into the bathroom without glancing at Sam again. Sam waited until he heard the shower turn on, then got up and walked out of the room. He headed for the Impala and got into the driver’s seat. There was someone he needed to talk to and Dean couldn’t be around for it.
Less than twenty minutes later, Dean stepped out of the bathroom, towel wrapped around his waist and chest glistening with the leftover water. The steam from the warm shower rolled across the floor at his feet.
“Sam?” he called. After a moment’s silence, he knew that Sam was gone. He walked over to the table where Sam had been using the laptop. He opened the laptop; the machine hummed as it was pulled from sleep mode. The screen glowed and shapes started to form on it. One picture dominated the screen.
“Ruby,” Dean spat, the word poison on his lips. He snapped the laptop shut again with more force than was necessary. “Son of a bitch,” he growled. He grabbed his cell phone and dialed Sam’s number. He almost chucked the phone across the room when it went straight to voicemail. He hung up and called Bobby.
“What do you need Dean?” Bobby asked, picking up on the second ring.
“Have you heard from Sam?” he asked. There was a short silence.
“Not recently. What has he done this time?”
“I think he went to meet with Ruby,” Dean said. There was a longer silence.
“Guess he didn’t learn his lesson,” Bobby said.
“Not helping Bobby.” Before Bobby could reply, Dean snapped the phone shut. Dean walked over to the window and checked outside. He had to bite back a growl when he saw that the Impala was gone. He couldn’t have called a cab or something? Had to take my car to go meet his girlfriend? Dean thought venomously. He stepped away from the window and grabbed some clothes from the bag. Alone in the room, he didn’t even bother going into the bathroom to dress. Once he was clothed, he sat down at the table and opened the laptop once more. Closing the picture of Ruby, he looked through the other things that Sam had opened. Nothing offered a hint as to where he could have gone. Dean didn’t have much of a choice other than to wait for Sam’s return, so he got settled for the wait. He eyed his Colt, sitting on the table where he’d dropped it the night before. At this point, he might end up using it on Sam when he got back. Dean had been sure that Sam was going to forget about Ruby, stop running off with her. If Dean didn’t use the gun on Sam, then it would be Ruby. If Sam didn’t want to stop trusting that demon, Dean would make him stop.
It was about an hour before Dean heard the growl of the Impala’s engine. He eyed the gun on the table for a moment, then looked at the computer again. It was a few minutes before Sam came into the room. Dean didn’t turn to look at Sam. There was a few moments silence before Sam spoke up.
“Dean-”
“Dean we have a problem,” a new voice said. The screen on the computer flickered for a few moments.
“Hello to you too Cas,” Dean said.

“Hello to you too Cas,” Dean said, twisting in his seat to face the angel. Cas was standing next to the door, less than three feet from where Sam stood. Dean’s eyes widened when he saw Cas. “What happened to you?” he asked.
“That’s the problem,” Cas said.
“I can see that. What happened?” Dean repeated. Despite the seriousness of the situation, Dean wanted to laugh at how ridiculous Cas looked.
“I don’t know. I have an idea, but I’m not certain that I’m right.” Sam, standing close enough to Cas, lifted and arm and reached for Cas. “Don’t touch them,” Cas growled. Sam hesitated for a moment, then dropped his hand.
“So you aren’t sure who did this or how to fix it,” Dean said. Cas didn’t answer for a few moments.
“The Trickster,” he said finally.
“Seriously?”
“Possibly. Who else could and actually would do this?” Cas replied. Dean finally smirked.
“I’ve always wanted a cat,” he said. Cas leveled a glare at him.
“We need to find the Trickster so he can fix this. It’s only a matter of time before he does the same to you and Sam,” Cas said. Dean watched as one of the ears on Cas’ head twitched. He laughed at how funny it looked. Cas glared at him again. Cas looked the same that he always did: black hair, blue eyes, beige trenchcoat with a black suit on under it, blue tie, apparent angry expression. Only now, he had three new additions to his appearance. Sitting on his head were two light gray cat ears, and, poking out from the slit in the back of his coat, a long, thin tail matching the ears flicked through the air, giving away Castiel’s agitation.
“Oh lighten up Cas, we’ll find the Trickster and have him set you right.” Cas didn’t reply. There was a slight breeze and Cas vanished. There was only a moment’s silence before Sam broke it.
“How are we supposed to find the Trickster?” he asked. Dean shrugged.
“Bait? We’ll figure something out.” He paused to turn back to the computer. “As for what we came here for, I’m almost certain that it’s not a demon. What it is exactly, I don’t know. Could be a ghost. Or several. Other possibilities are a wendigo or vampire clan. We need to talk to more people to narrow down the suspects,” he said.
“Should be easy enough,” Sam said.
“It would be even easier if we knew exactly what we’re facing.”
“So what now?”
“Now,” he said. He got up and walked over to the door. He put a hand on the knob and looked at Sam. “Now it’s your turn to do some research. I’m going to go get us some food.” He eyed Sam for a few moments, then opened the door and disappeared through it. Sam sighed and walked over to the laptop. He knew that Dean knew where he had gone. It wouldn’t take long for Dean to say something about it. Dean would be mad and that was an argument that Sam wasn’t looking forward to.
“I can tell you what you’re facing,” a voice said behind Sam. He spun to face the man laying on the bed as if he’d been there the whole time.
“Gabriel,” Sam breathed, slightly surprised that the angel had shown up now. Gabriel held his hands out to the sides, as if to say ‘the one and only’. “How coincidental. We were just talking about you.”
“I know.”
“What did you do to Cas?”
“Same thing I did to you,” Gabriel replied. He pointed at Sam. Immediately, Sam’s head felt a bit heavier. Sam was almost scared to check a mirror, but he faced the mirror on the dresser anyway. On his head, two rather large looking antlers and two brown ears poked through his hair. He rounded on Gabriel.
“Fix me. And while you’re at it, fix Cas too,” he growled. Gabriel smirked.
“‘Fraid I can’t do that,” he said.
“Can’t or won’t?” The Trickster just shrugged.
“I’ll tell you what’s causing havoc here though. In the meantime.”
“In the meantime? How long are you going to leave me and Cas like this? I can’t stay like this if I’m going to find this thing,” Sam said.
“It won’t just be you. Once Dean comes back, he’ll have a bit of animal in him too.”
“Why are you doing this now? We won’t even be able to go outside! How are we supposed to take care of that creature?” Gabriel was silent for a few moments as he thought it over.
“Alright fine.” He flicked his wrist and Sam expected to feel the weight lift. It didn’t. He glanced sideways at the mirror and wasn’t surprised to see that the antlers were still there.
“You didn’t do anything,” he said.
“Actually, I did. For the time being, they can’t be seen by other people. You, Cas, and Dean will be able to see them. And they’re still physically there, so you have to learn to work around them,” Gabriel said. Sam knew that there wasn’t any getting out of this. Gabriel was stronger and more powerful than Cas, and they didn’t have anything to bargain with.
“Any reason I have antlers? Cas got cat ears, why am I stuck with these?” he asked. He didn’t like it one bit, but for now, all he could do was accept it and get used to it until Gabriel got bored.
“I thought they’d fit the moose best,” he replied. Sam narrowed his eyes.
“Moose?”
“That’s what I said. Now, do you want to know what you’re up against or should I just go now?” he asked.