It's In Your Eyes

"Are you okay there?"

Castiel's POV -

At the top of the stairs is a giant hall, old and elegant in decor and architecture, just like the rest of the building. It had been like some royal estate or something. The whole building is the biggest I've seen, with whole wings and separate buildings. There is even a square courtyard in the middle of the main structure, as well as the vast fields and gardens around it.

People crowd near a desk along one wall, or next to older people who stand with clipboards. I assume they're being assigned rooms and being checked off a register. I can't see either if my siblings anymore and I find their absence and my sense of abandonment overwhelming. It wasn't like I hadn't been abandoned an uncountable number of times before, shunned and feared by my own parents on a daily basis, but this was a new kind of alone. Alone in a sea of people. Of strangers. More people to not accept me and to bully me and to make me feel abnormal...

I take it in as my heart gets faster and I press my fingers to the bridge of my nose, willing the panic attack to quell.

"Not now."

People move around me, the occasional one jostles me and I realise I'm still stood practically in the doorway. I'm about to move further in when a voice speaks behind me.

"Are you okay there?"

Dean's POV -

Inside the same old building, I get an overwhelming feeling of 'fuck this' and I want to turn and leave again, but I don't. I linger in the doorway for a moment. I should really stay. I take another deep breath and am about to stride in with my usual mask on, when I stop myself suddenly, so that I don't walk straight into him.

It takes me a second to realise who 'him' is. But he's wearing the same, long, tan coat as the boy with blue eyes I'd saw come in a good ten minutes ago, right before I was ambushed by a bunch of people who claim to be my friends.

I had been going to follow him and catch him up, see if he needed help. First year students were always so lost and stressy on the first day... I know I had been, and I'd seen others have mini freakouts too...

I told myself that was the only reason I wanted to make contact with him... But- but nothing.

Although I'd assumed he'd be long gone and lost in the muddle of people by now. And instead he was still here.

But I hesitated before reaching out to him, he seemed to be having a bit of trouble, breathing heavily and pinching the bridge of nose. I think I heard him mumble something.

Some idiot bumps into me and knocks him to. This seems to bring him back to himself and he glances around. Now is as good a time as any...

"Are you okay there?" I ask.