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Mark stood against the preschool wall, running weary fingers through his hair as he kept an eye on his small class of 10.
It was only his second day subbing for the kids' normal teacher, but he was exhausted. The kids were hyper 99% of the time and napping the remaining 1%.
Only at lunch that day had he realised that the energetic blond by the name of Dean Winchester quieted as soon as the black-haired blue-eyed angel Castiel Novak and Dean's little brother Sam were placed beside him for any activity and he used this fact as often as possible, making sure that they were side by side for everything. Since then he had had a much easier time, which wasn't saying all that much, and had thanked the oblivious kids mentally about fifteen times an hour.
The children were playing some sort of skip-rope hand clapping game that had them giggling and rosy-cheeked by the time Mark rang the small bell to mark the end of recreation. Dutifully but still giggling they paired up in a short line. Sam, a tiny little fella that the preschool had agreed to look after as he behaved perfectly and had no problem following their activities even though he was a year and a half younger than Dean, ran up to the front and held tightly onto Mark's hand with a big smile.
Mark decided to have them settle down in the reading corner for a short story, then nap time when most of them started rubbing their eyes and yawning. He helped them lie down on their little mats with their blankets and soft toys, occasionally quieting down a couple of the kindergarteners. He grinned when he realised Dean, Castiel and Sam had pushed their mats together and were curled up in a small tangle of limbs.
When they awoke they were not so adorable, zipping around during their free play half hour. He convinced Lilith to not go at Ruby's hair even if they were only safety scissors, then Crowley not to push Alastair, then took the tape from Charlie's hands when it started ending up on people's faces. He was just trying to pull the tape off of Ash's forehead without taking his eyebrows off when he heard a dull thunk. He quickly finished and sent Ash off towards the safer toys before turning round in trepidation.
Dean lay on his back on the floor in front of the fake wood drawers near the little tables, giggling furiously with a red mark on his forehead. Mark stared at him incredulously. It was impossible to run into those drawers unless you were deliberately trying. Then again, this was Dean. Sure enough, Cas crouched next to his friend and eyed him curiously, head tilted to the side.
"Did that not hurt, Dean?" he asked when Dean stopped laughing, now uniformly red.
"Nah, s'okay." replied the other child, still lying on the floor beaming.
Sam watched curiously, then started to take a run up. Mark couldn't get over there in time before Sam too connected with the wood with a dull thunk. Dean startled, turning to his little brother lying a foot from him with a confused expression. Sam quickly turned to tears and just as his lip started to wobble, Mark swooped in to pick him up.
"Hey hey now, it's okay, let's put some ice on that, yeah?" Big tears were rolling from Sam's eyes and he nodded, arms tightening like a vice round Mark's neck.
He carried him to his desk and unlocked the medicine drawer, swiftly pulling a cooling patch out before relocking the drawer out of the reach of sticky little fingers. He sat Sam on the edge of his desk, feeling three pairs of wide eyes watching him, then stuck the patch over the blooming red mark, offering Sam a small piece of candy as he stopped crying, eyes wide with wonder as he raised a hand to the patch.
"See, its going to get all better now. Just, no more running into furniture, okay?" Sam sniffled and nodded. Mark nodded back and smiled, lifting the child to the ground, where he clasped his leg in a hug before running off to his brother, candy secure in his hand.
Dean scuffed his shoes on the floor and looked contrite.
"I'm sorry Sammy, you were copying me and got hurt." His lip wobbled, but Sam smiled and waved the pudgy fist containing candy.
"S'okay De, I got candy!" Dean gasped dramatically and helped Sam with the plastic wrapping before the littler brother ate it.
"I am glad that you are unharmed, Sam." Castiel added quietly as the three of them settled down with a safer game of little metal cars and lots of sound effects.
Mark took a couple of moments to 'aww' internally as he watched them play with their heads low together, Cas' hand tucked into Dean's, until a suspicious muffled giggle caught his attention and he turned, eyes widening in horror.
"No! Lilith! Where did you even get that mud?!" He exclaimed as he ran across the room to where the blond haired demon was about to smear the concotion into another girl's hair.
Oblivious to the ruckus, the three boys continued in their own world, pains forgotten as they lost themselves to the game.