True Forms

"Fancy seeing you here," Dean said, his mouth going dry. He knew it was only a matter of time before Cas showed up, but he had not expected him so soon.

Cas was blue lightning and the scent of ozone. He was brilliantly bright beyond comprehension, crackling with power in a way that made Dean tremble and wonder how he had never sensed it, even with human-dull senses and dim eyes. He was light and love and grace and strength.

It made Dean feel even more tainted, with his twisted face and misshapen new body, surrounded by the stink of sulfur.

"Oh, Dean." Castiel saw the tremor in Dean's clawed hands as they twisted into fists. Dean glared at him defiantly.

This is who I am now. Deal with it, he postured, but Cas saw past that.

He saw past the fangs and pitch black eyes, past the rattlesnake coiled and ready to strike. He saw Dean's fear, at what he had become, at how Sam would react when he found out, of what he would do, now that he knew the truth.

"So, now you know," Dean said with feigned casualness, holding out his sinewy arms and arching large, bat like wings.

There was a strange grace to his new form, Cas mused, in a way he had never seen from any other demon.

But.

Cas gave a small smile.

He had never seen a demon with so pure a heart, a spark of blinding brightness amidst a sea of pitch. He may look different, and stink to high Heaven, but he was still the Righteous Man who Cas had fallen for, in more ways than one.

He was still Dean.