fic: Shop Smart. Shop S-Mart.
Title: Shop Smart. Shop S-Mart.
Author: Aaeth Payne
Rating: PG-13
Genre and/or Pairing: Dean/Castiel
Spoilers: Assumes all of Supernatural and knowledge of Stonehenge Apocalypse
Word Count: ~1,300
Edit: Just back from the beta. Remaining mistakes are my own.
Disclaimer: None of these wonderful characters are mine. All these boys are belong to Kripke.
Summary: After one apocalypse comes another. Zombies and Winchesters and Jacob Glaser, oh my!
A/N: This was inspired by a prompt from Of Assbutts and Robot Heads though it quickly evolved from what the prompter requested. -_-* And it isn't nearly as cracky as I'd intended. Sorry, lassroyale this isn't quite what you had in mind.
This was really fucking bad. Dean threw himself against the door just in time to keep the thing from opening completely under the pressure of advancing zombies.
It figures that just when they settle down to a normal life the fucking zombie apocalypse rises up to bite them on the ass! Not the Croatoan zombie apocalypse, but a genuine shambling Romero Zombie Apocalypse.
“Lock the door!” Sam was already scanning the room for anything that could be used as a decent cudgel, but nothing seemed even remotely useful. The Winchester luck seemed to have led them into the back of a green grocer, and there wasn’t even a baseball bat in sight.
“I’d lock the door if I could!” Dean grunted between clenched teeth and pushed with as hard as he could. Still the door was opening in spite of his efforts, arms snaking in the widening opening to claw at him. “A little help here?”
“Duck!” An oddly familiar voice boomed in the small room, and Dean instinctively followed the order. He dropped down into a crouch, still pushing against the door, but out of the way.
Suddenly there was another man. His mind had only a moment to register ‘not Sam’ before the guy was hacking at the reaching arms with a machete. Dean had the good idea to huddle deeper, covering his face from the gore and limbs that rained down on his head.
With the door free of obstructions they were able to slam it shut and throw the lock. Dean felt himself slump against the door. They weren’t dead yet. Though they were obviously out of practice with the running for their lives stuff and it might still result in death.
Sam’s quiet gasp shocked Dean out of his thoughts and put him back on high alert. Immediately scanning the room for danger, Dean saw that they were safe for the moment at least, but he also saw what had surprised Sam.
“What are you doing here?” It couldn’t be. Dean hadn’t seen Cas since they last talked in the Impala. Before Sam was back. Before Dean realized he’d never be happy in a life with Lisa. Before he’d thought long and hard about who he might have been happy with.
“I’m scavenging for organic broccoli, what does it look like?” And it looked like he was doing just that, pulling out a bag and stuffing it with the green vegetable as Dean watched speechless. “It’s the most nutritious vegetable you can find, and unlike the stuff you get in the regular supermarket, it isn’t irradiated and mutated by the government.” He seemed perfectly content to lecture his silent audience about the properties of broccoli and the dangers of processed foods. It was so Cas to be so freaking literal at a time like this.
The pounding on the door hadn’t stopped, but Dean had stopped listening to it. Cas was in front of him, dressed like a hunter- no, dressed like Dean. He was definitely not Jimmy, though if anyone asked Dean couldn’t explain just how he knew it. Slowly Dean stood on shaky legs, taking a few steps closer. “Cas?”
“Yes? Wait- what?” Cas dropped the broccoli and bag, finally looking up and blinking like he’d only just seen Dean. His eyes narrowed and he tilted his head like he was trying to figure Dean out, and it reminded Dean intensely of that first meeting in the barn. “I know you, don’t I?”
“I’m gonna go make sure the front of the store is secure.” Sam interrupted only a moment before fleeing to the storefront. Dean barely acknowledged his leaving. He’d barely remembered his brother was in the room at all. He was too focused on Cas. The Cas that didn’t remember him.
Dean cleared his throat and spoke past the lump that had formed, “Cas?” He didn’t know what was wrong, but they were going to figure it out. “It’s me, Dean.”
~*~*~
“Dean.”
It was a prayer. It was the Holy Grail. It was the truth he’d been searching so hard for all his life as Jacob Glaser. His head seemed to pound with the rhythm of hammering zombie fists as memories flooded back to him. Hell and a knife in his chest in a barn. Talking on a bench and trapping a brother. Images and thoughts rushed to him in an instant ending with a deal.
The door groaned and broke under the relentless pounding fists. Zombies lurched through the opening, but Castiel only had eyes for Dean. “Do you love me? Do you want me, like this, for a lifetime?” He had no time to be subtle or ease Dean into a decision. The moans were nearly deafening and he had no power to protect them until he had an answer.
Dean stood before him, a little older than the last time he’d seen the man, but no less handsome. His face was awash with confusion but his soul shone bright with certainty. “Yes.”
Castiel ignored the press of rotting bodies and clutching hands as he pulled Dean close and mashed their lips together. He could practice this later, get it better- get it right. Because Castiel had won the bet.
In an instant the moans of the zombies were replaced with the sound of one man giving slow applause. “Congratulations, Castiel. You’ve won.”
Cas pulled back only slightly, glancing up at Dean and releasing a relieved breath that the hunter was watching him with some dazed lust and mild curiosity and nothing worse. Castiel faced his brother, arm still wrapped around Dean. “Were the zombies really necessary, Gabriel?”
Smirking, his older brother helped Sam up from where he’d apparently fallen under the zombie horde. “Zombies are always necessary, bro.” He made a show of dusting Sam off before the taller man batted him away. “Besides, you were taking your grand old time and in spite of my best efforts, I was getting bored.”
“The robot head. That was you.” Bastard. He knew he had been right about that. Gabriel’s smirk was all the confirmation he needed.
“Not to interrupt, but what is going on?” Sam was making his way to stand closer to Castiel and Dean, probably trying to move out of the line of fire.
“Castiel here just won the bet that even without his powers or his memories, he could get Dean Winchester to confess his love AND get a kiss in under a year.” Gabriel ticked off the points on his fingers with a flourish. “I should have known that the memory block would break down within minutes of you two chuckleheads meeting again.”
“In under a year? But you’ve been gone…” Dean trailed off uncertainly. “And you made a bet about this?” Castiel could tell that Dean’s uncertainty was giving way to irritation.
Turning, Castiel ignored Gabriel’s production of a violin and the ensuing musical accompaniment. “I had to reform Heaven. Many changes had to be made and there were some who resisted.” Later he could tell Dean everything in detail. “But when my role was finished, I knew I had to try to come back.” Dean relaxed slightly. Castiel felt certain he would have the chance to explain further. Later.
A jarring screech of bow across strings signaled the end of Gabriel’s patience. “Well, I’ve got to be going; I’ve got a Heaven to run into the ground.” A glare in triplicate sent the Archangel’s hands up in the air in surrender. “I kid! Enjoy your win, bro! See you when your time is up.” The Archangel disappeared with a snap, leaving Dean, Castiel and Sam alone on the street outside the green grocer. There wasn’t a reanimated corpse in sight.
“Your time?” Dean was still pressed against his body, and didn’t seem like he was planning to move any time soon.
Castiel could see Sam carefully sneaking away toward the Impala, probably to give them some privacy. He was a good brother. “Yes.” Castiel looked up, his lips twitching. “We wagered a vacation on Earth. Only a short vacation. Just a few decades or so.”
“I see.” Dean was also repressing a smile and doing a rather poor job of it. “You got any plans for those decades?”
Already his mind was whirling with the myriad possibilities his human life held. “I might have a few notions on how I can pass the time.”
“Anything I can help you with?” Dean gave up on hiding his smile, and it was beautiful.
“Absolutely. Pack your bags. We're going to Paranal Observatory and getting a photo of that damned robot head.”
“Awesome. Wait- what?”