Curate, connect, and discover
@naiinaii thank you for enduring my rants about this stupid, stupid hc
Castiel is an orphan, the banker's wife finds him and decides to take him in. he is brought up along the banker's own son, Nathaniel. the two boys are roughly the same age, maybe Nathaniel being a bit older. they grow up together, and while it was never a secret before them that they are not blood brothers, they treated each other as such
when they got older (15~17), Castiel started getting into smaller troubles here and there; not paying the baker, breaking the carriage that was trusted to him, doing all kinds of inappropriate things with the well-mannered little ladies in town
rumour said that he got into bad company one night, and now he joined them. lighting the mayor's house on fire, causing chaos at the carnival, occasionally theft
this caused a divide between Castiel and his adoptive family; while Nathaniel wanted to redeem him, his parents (especially his father) didn't even want to hear his opinion. when he felt like Castiel stepped over a line, he kicked him out without a second thought. Castiel laughed in his face "like I need your help anymore"
for years, the two boys have not met. Castiel continued the journey he started as a young man, while Nathaniel became a town marshal to clean the stain on his family's name. every single day, he'd see his old brother's face on the 'wanted' signs, wondering what went wrong
Castiel didn't stay in one place; he roamed the wild west, along a group of bandits, becoming notorious criminals. he promised himself never to return to the old town he grew up in. he caused a lot of troubles there, sometimes even people he loved (even if he denied it). he will keep himself out of their lives, that's the least he can do
he sees that he must break his promise though when a new line is built near his hometown. trains aren't the easiest to rob, but in case of success, the loot usually makes up for it. he can't betray his associates, but he also fears from returning
they have done it thousands of times. they assign the roles, take their places, and wait for their part to come. Castiel himself got the role of bait; with a smaller part of the takings, he's supposed to flee south, attracting the attention from his companions as they take the majority of the loot. there was one thing he wasn't prepared for though: with the old sheriff stepping down, Nathaniel was elected as the new one
Nathaniel expected Castiel and co. to be interested in the freshly built railway, and he knew what was the right thing to do, he only wasn't sure if he could follow through. hell, he wasn't even sure if he wanted to
picture this: Castiel and Nathaniel, standing a few steps apart from each other, eyes fixated on the other one quite homoerotic if you ask me, but let's move on
"who will I arrest today? friend or foe?" "no one. I know your tricks, you can't catch me" THE FEELINGS
everyone is free to interpret what happens later on, but I'd like to think Nathaniel lets Castiel go (maybe ask him to never return, with aching heart, but knowing this is probably for the best u_u)