The angel markets were a terrible place and Sam kind of hated his brother for bringing him to one. But Dean was insistent in wanting to get Sam an angel for his birthday, even though Sam had made no bones about the fact that he hated angel slavery and didn't want one.
The market was a compromise, in a way. The angels here would be cheaper, most likely, because they were second-hand (and didn't Sam just HATE that sort of talk) but it also meant that they might be rescuing an angel from a far worse fate. And Sam was going to be the one to choose the angel Dean bought.
Angels had been enslaved centuries. They were, by most, considered to be about the mental equivalent of a really smart cat with the ability to follow orders like a dog, only able to follow more complex commands. They could understand pretty much any human language, but they couldn't speak them. Sam still wasn't certain how, exactly, that equated to 'too stupid to be considered a person', but apparently it did. They didn't age once they reached their mid twenties, though they could die. Historians said that they were called 'angels' simply because of the wings on their backs.
Just the sight of so many crowded in the warehouse where the market was held made Sam sick, though. The pain in the room was nearly palpable, though he wasn't certain how Dean could ignore it. He pushed through it, looking around the room. There were angels everywhere, with wings of every hue. He knew some of those would be dyed, as owners were likely to do, but many of them would be natural. The religious imagery of angels said that their wings would all be white. The physical Angels, though, had wings of all colors. Some of them were even multi-colored, which was in vogue at the moment.
Turning, Sam's eye caught on a pair of black wings. Fashionable around the time that Sam was born, he knew they'd fallen out of favor. The wings themselves were ragged and obviously hadn't been well taken care of in a while. The angel himself was scruffy, with five o'clock shadow and dirt, which meant he had probably been in the market for a while.
What really got Sam, though, was the fact that Crowley was looking the angel over. He knew damned well that Crowley owned the local brothel. Before he realized exactly what he was doing, he had crossed the room and looked to the man holding the chain. "How much?"
He didn't want an angel. But there was something about this one that made his blood boil at the thought of Crowley even touching him.