Artist: @entropic-saudade
Pairings: Castiel/Dean Winchester
Tags: Soulmate AU, Cashier Cas, Dog Dean, Fantasy AU - Mages, Angst, hurt/comfort, temporary MCD, but not really, it's complicated, happy ending.
Summary: At a very young age, Cas was bitten by a dog. At the time he was scared and traumatized, but had no real grasp of how that attack would affect his life.
Years later, Cas is trudging through life. He has a simple, unimportant job, a small apartment and nobody but his cousin to annoy him from time to time. And no matter what he tries, he can’t find his soulmate. Because his soulmark is nothing but a smear of colors under a scar.
Everything changes when one day, he stumbles upon a lost, hungry dog. He doesn’t know why he feels so drawn to it, especially considering his fear of canines, but there is just something about the dog’s green eyes that simply pulls him in. He does the unthinkable - he takes the dog in, feeds it and gives it a home.
Little does he know that little act of kindness will change his life forever.
Sneak Peek: Cas finds himself frozen in place, staring at the dog before him, paralyzed with fear. His heart is hammering in his chest and he can feel his skin growing hot as he starts to sweat. Even though the dog does nothing but observe him curiously as it lies on some cardboard next to the dumpster, Cas still can't help the anxiety that is growing within him with every passing second.
For a moment he is thrown back into the past, over twenty years ago, when he was just a small, happy child, playing around in the park. He can almost smell the scent of the fresh cut grass and taste the ice cream he had prior. He was such a foolish child who thought dogs were interesting and he wanted to pet one. The bite mark on the inside of his forearm throbs as he remembers the look in the dog’s eyes and the sudden attack.
The dog that's in front of him now shifts, and Cas’ focus is brought back to the present. He tries to make himself breathe, tells himself he is much larger than the dog now and could either stop it or outrun it. He sucks in a breath when the light brown dog sniffs the air, but relaxes marginally when it lowers its head to the ground and closes its eyes.
