Stuck Between Wings and You
Title: Stuck Between Wings and You
For the Dean/Cas Secret Santa Exchange!
Author: Sofiwick
Recipient: SoraKHdemyx!
Beta: Kodamasama
Pairings: Dean/Castiel, possible pre-slash Sam/Gabriel.
Rating: PG-13.
Disclaimer: These characters do not belong to me. I am making no profit from this fanfiction.
Spoilers: It's all good if you know who Gabriel is.
Word Count: 4,135 words.
Warnings: AU where angels are a thing. No other warnings, I believe.
Prompt: Fusion between two prompts: "Dean is in high school when 3 new students (brothers) arrive, Balthazar, Gabriel, and Castiel. Dean tries to go on with his normal life but he just keeps running into the youngest brother... Castiel."
And: "Castiel hasn't been keeping up with his wing grooming, and Dean is more than happy to help."
Summary: AU. Dean wants to spend his last semester of high school counting the days until the SAT, but the new angel student seems to think making him fall in love is even more important.
Read below or on AO3, where they made us post it for the exchange!
*º*º*
I really hope you enjoy this, dear recipient!
*º*º*
High school was not made for Dean Winchester.
Or better yet, Dean Winchester was not made for high school. In fact, he might even go as far as claiming he's allergic to it.
He doesn't appreciate the drama, the gossip, the shitty food - and most of all, the social ranking bullshit that seems to happen in the cafeteria with each little group sitting at their own little table - Dean sits anywhere he wants and would like to see who is going to stop him, thank you.
And it is thus that he cannot possibly comprehend why someone who is school-free for life would ever choose to put themselves through it.
"Castiel, is it?" the teacher asks as he tries to read the name on a piece of paper.
"Yes."
"Class, this is Castiel, he's the new angel student," he says quite pointlessly since the guy's wings are probably bigger than his body when stretched. Everything about him screams 'foreign', from his dorky trench coat to his messy black hair. "Is this your first time in a school?"
"This is my first time in a city," he answers, and the class grows noisy with murmurs.
"Right… You can sit behind Mr. Winchester over there."
The angel nods and makes his awkward way between the rows of desks as his wings knocks cases and notebooks to the ground. Castiel apologizes and a few students laugh, but Dean knows it can't be helped - whenever they have angel students they're made to sit in the back so their wings won't be in anyone's way.
As he passes by Dean, his wings give an involuntary flap, and Dean finds his himself with a face full of feathers.
"I'm sorry-" The angel hugs his rebel wing and rushes to his seat. Dean hopes his face doesn't look as flushed as he thinks it does when all his classmates laugh openly at the scene.
"It's fine, really," he says and pretends to read his book like he can't still smell the feathers. They were like wet grass and clothes dried by the sun - "Sun kissed", his mother would say - and he decides to stop thinking before he starts to analyze how they felt too.
He does his best to ignore the rustle of wings on the floor throughout the lesson. Angels can get away with anything and it pisses him off a little. Some kid just got in 6 months in? Don't bother catching up or anything, it's all fine. He'll probably even get into a decent college, why not - after all, what is some guy with average grades compared to an angel who is… you know, an angel.
*º*º*
Turns out weird new angel student comes with a collective set of equally weird siblings. Dean sees the three of them walking by in the hallway the very next morning.
They went through so much trouble to 'be weird' it would be very inconsiderate of him not to take notice.
"They are everywhere," he mutters, and Sam looks up from his book to where Dean is staring.
"Oh, they're brothers; I know two of them," he says. "The short one is Gabriel - I almost tripped on his wings yesterday - and the guy next to him is Balthazar."
Gabriel is a pocket sized version of a celestial being - made even shorter by the presence of his taller brothers. That would be the only remarkable thing about him if he wasn't wearing a t-shirt reading 'angels do it better' in disgustingly neon red letters. He would considerer Balthazar to be the 'normal' brother if he didn't poke girls' behinds with the tip of his wings as he passes by and then smile apologetically as if it had been an accident.
Dean's new classmate looks exactly the same from the day before - trench coat and feathers sticking out everywhere.
"If they all decide to apply to KU, it's three vacancies less for us humans."
Sam rolls his eyes. "Just study harder."
Dean is about to mess his brother's hair when trench coat student from yesterday hesitantly raises his hand to wave at him. Dean turns around before it's too late to pretend he hasn't seen the action.
On his way to class he can't stop thinking about the guy's rumpled clothes and the contrast of his darker wings against his brothers' lighter ones.
*º*º*
He's just trying to mind his own business - he really is. But apparently the new student finds it very amusing to knock him over with his freaky appendages every time he's around.
"Sorry!" he shouts and then apologizes again in a whisper, realizing the people in the library are all looking at him. "I'm sorry again."
"Cas, right?" Dean shortens it since he can't, for the life of him, remember this guy's odd name.
"Castiel. But you can call me that. My brothers call me that." Cas shyly strokes one of his feathers and avoids looking him in the eye.
Dean doesn't like the conclusions he's getting from this. "'kay. Listen, your wings already hit me yesterday and the day before. You got restless wing syndrome or something?"
"I'm sorry. I just can't keep them still when I'm around you."
Right. This is pretty much why Dean avoids talking to angels. They say whatever is on their minds, completely disregarding social conventions and uncaring of other people's opinions about them.
He turns to leave. "Just, try to control them, okay?"
"Wait." Cas points at his hands. "Do you have plans for KU too?"
Dean notices with surprise the angel is holding the same flier as him. He never meddles in other people's business, but curiosity gets the best of him when he asks, "You're going to the University of Kansas?"
Everyone says KU is a great university, but while other students are prioritizing education quality, Dean feels a little bit ashamed to admit he's just picking somewhere close to be with his family.
"My brothers' decision. It took a long time to convince my family to let me come down here, and they only allowed it because my brothers promised they would look after me."
Dean studies him for a moment. Castiel keeps his eyes somewhere around his shoulder and his wings give what seems to be an aborted flap. "You know, you can just send a letter of application and they will probably take you in even if your SAT scores are crap. You don't need to go through the process."
Castiel shakes his head. "I've been told this, but I don't believe it's fair when so many people are studying hard to get in."
He has no answer for that. Despite not being a complete nerd like Sam, Dean has been trying his best to get into college - even if his best might not be enough. "That's cool. I didn't have a very good opinion of angels, but you're actually working hard like anyone else…"
Castiel smiles shyly and waits a moment for the conversation to continue. When nothing happens, he leaves, all his steps made awkward by the dragging of his heavy wings on the floor. Dean finds himself full of questions about this angel - How long has he been on Earth? What courses are he planning on taking? Does he date humans? - and none of them are his place to ask.
"Cas, wait." He catches up to him at the door, Castiel's wings almost hitting him again as the angel turns to him. "Let's go have lunch together."
He blinks at Dean as if trying to determine what he's hearing. Hesitantly, he clears his throat. "Yes."
As they make their way to the cafeteria, Dean can't help smiling as Castiel steals glances at him, wings moving out of control behind them even with the angel trying to contain them. "You ever visited the campus? Friggin' huge."
*º*º*
College is all they talk about for the next two weeks. Dean didn't know he was this interested until he actually caught himself listing all his expectations about campus life.
KU or not, Castiel is just happy to be allowed to stay on Earth and hasn't much to contribute to the conversation besides hanging on his every word with huge eyes. Dean had been horrified when he first found out the angel actually thought College was for studying.
"Actually, I only clicked on 'Mechanical Engineering' 'cause it had 'mechanical' in it," he confesses on a Thursday during lunch. "Not what I expected, but it's still pretty cool. I help fix cars, so…"
Castiel almost let his fork fall from his hand. "You know how a car works?"
"Well, yeah?"
"That is..." He looks around as if disbelieving the students around them are not even listening to this. "I thought years of study were required, but you're so young."
"It's just practice. No biggy." He shrugs. "My sort of uncle fixes cars. I work for him three times a week."
One of the wings stretches without warning and knocks someone's tray right out of their hands.
Dean really doesn't know why he takes an angel to his work that afternoon. Maybe it has something to do with the way Castiel looked positively amazed with the prospect of going to the place where they fix cars. Besides, the poor guy has no idea how a job actually works; Dean is doing society a favor, really.
"Bob's Garage. That's Bobby, and this is the garage."
The man in question looks suspiciously at Castiel before remembering he doesn't care and going back to his own work. The angel takes in the surroundings with awe - or what Dean likes to think is awe, since Castiel is getting better at keeping his emotions to himself.
He clears a desk for Castiel to sit down. "Please, keep your wings close to your body at all times. We shall not be held responsible for oil on any misbehaving feathers."
The angel looks at a wrench. "Can I touch this?"
Bob shouts from the other side of the garage, "Don't let him touch anything."
"Don't touch anything."
"Sorry."
Dean gets ready for work as Castiel analyzes his work space. It's not a glamorous job, but for a guy who has never been anywhere, it probably feels like a kid going to the supermarket.
"Humans are very exotic," he tells Dean matter-of-factly.
"I take it you like cars?"
"4,000 pounds of steel moving about like it's nothing."
He can't disagree with that.
Castiel becomes silent after that, and Dean puts his mind to the task at hand. About half an hour later, he turns around to check up on him to find the angel looking at him. He seems strangely comfortable sitting on the desk doing nothing in particular, his wings behaving for once.
"Don't you got homework?"
"I can finish it later," Cas tells him. "Does it bother you if I look?"
It doesn't take long for Dean to decide. "No."
*º*º*
"Bob tells me you befriended the new wing in school," his father says that night. Mary shoots him a dirty look for the poor choice of words.
'Wing' became a derogatory term some humans enjoyed using when referring to angels. You see, it's not that John has anything against angels. He just, you know, has things against angels.
He shrugs. "Yeah. His name is Castiel."
"What is he like?" Mary kindly asks.
Solemn, serious, straightforward, blue eyes. "He's nice."
John nods absently. "No underage flying."
Sam snorts behind his fork. "Dad, c'mon. You know flying is the last thing on my list of Stupid Things To Do In High School," he burst out with impatience. His father looks at him unimpressed. "Sir."
"He's in your class?"
"Yeah, I felt sorta bad for him, you know. New kid, no friends. And he kept bumping into me in the halls."
"Why is that?"
I think he's attracted to me. "His wings are too big."
Mary takes his hand and gives it a kiss. Dean always loves when she does that. "Invite him for dinner, honey."
"What for?"
"So we can meet him. You rarely make friends with anybody."
He almost chokes on his potatoes. "I got lots of friends."
"I mean outside the family circle, Dean," his mother explains patiently, and his father doesn't try to persuade him.
"It's not a big deal, Mom," he complains, but Mary already has a pleading look on her face. "Fine, I'll ask him."
"I think I'm making friends with his brother, Gabriel," Sam tells him rather excitedly.
Dean stops to consider this. "He's too old to be in your class."
"We just eat lunch together." Sam shrugs. "Actually, he just sits on my table and refuses to leave. And he keeps nudging me with his wing. It's annoying."
Dean feels grateful he only has the attention of the quiet brother.
*º*º*
"Your socks are mismatched, dude," Dean informs his friend the next day.
Castiel sits down and looks puzzled at his socks. "How come?"
"This one is blue and the other is red?"
"Oh, I see. I always wear them like this; no one ever told me it was incorrect."
"Angels don't wear socks often?" Dean raises his eyebrows.
"We live in Heaven and we can fly."
Sam laughs. "When he puts it like that…"
"My mom wants you to come over this Saturday," he says slowly. For some reason, inviting his new friend to meet his parents makes him feel uncomfortable, like he has something to be embarrassed about.
Castiel just looks at him for a long time until Sam bursts out laughing again. Dean can't help smiling. "As in, for dinner. You come to my house. There is food. You eat."
"I know what dinner is, thank you," Cas says with amusement. "I accept the invitation. Your parents must be fascinating humans."
"Geez, Cas." Dean snorts, and Sam only laughs more. "We're not lab rats."
"Shall I bring something?"
"Just comb you hair, okay?"
When Dean answers the door on Saturday, he can feel his hands sweating on the doorknob for reasons he can't quite explain. Castiel looks the same - as always - and Dean makes a mental note to convince him to buy some new clothes.
Settling his wings in their small dinning room is not as huge a problem as it would have been if Dean hadn't taken away everything that could be knocked to the floor. John looks suspiciously at the wings - like they might explode at any moment - and Mary not once allows her eyes to look straight at them.
"You ever been to Earth before, kid?" John decides to initiate the small talk.
"Only on vacation, sir," Cas replies politely, and again Dean is grateful he's not friends with the obnoxious brother. At least John seems pleased to be addressed respectfully. "But mostly to deserted beaches and small towns. My family distrusts humanity."
"How are you keeping up with classes, Castiel?" Mary quickly asks before her husband can make a remark.
The angel smiles a little. Dean makes a point not to look at him or else he might stare for too long and clue his parents in that he has started to enjoy how his friend’s face looks more relaxed when he smiles. "They're fairly easy to understand. Thank you, ma'am."
"Cas is, like, super smart," Sam says. Dean wants to roll his eyes. These two have been spending too much time together talking geek.
"Not really, angels just retain information better, I suppose."
Mary seems to enjoy his modesty. "Do you have plans for College?"
Castiel gives his friend a shy glance and Dean starts chewing his food faster. "Yes. KU."
"You're both going to the same college?" Mary beams. "That's wonderful! You boys should be roommates!"
"Mom!" Dean shouts with his mouth full.
"We can?" Castiel looks from Dean to his mother. "I didn't know that."
"Well, you know, don't even know if I'm getting in, so..."
"Of course you are Dean," the angel says with confidence. "I have faith in you."
Sam makes a mental note to use this for future teasing material, John watches his son closely, and Mary decides to invite Castiel for dinner next Saturday too.
*º*º*
Dean knows it’s unavoidable - especially with everyone talking about it.
"Gabriel says prom is taking place soon."
"You should start this conversation with 'the SAT is taking place soon'." Dean still can't believe he became this person who actually counts the days to a stupid test.
"You'll do fine, Dean." Castiel looks solemnly at him. "I have faith in you."
"Please, stop saying that." He can't remember the number of times he's heard this in the last few months - both from Castiel and from his brother, who won't let it go. "You even know what prom is?"
"Gabriel showed me movies with a lot of dancing, kissing, and women making mean remarks about each other's dresses." Cas smiles when Dean looks at him with amusement. "The characters seemed to think it was very important."
"It isn't."
And he leaves it at that.
It's hard for Dean to define at what stage their friendship is as the semester approaches its end. Balthazar walked up to him one day and said, "Oh, it's you! The guy my brother is in love with… I expected taller." Gabriel also makes useful kissing sounds every time he walks past their lunch table, to Sam's amusement and Castiel's puzzlement.
Supporting brothers, everyone.
There seems to be a lot of wing touching lately - casually resting on his thigh or encircling his shoulder, brushing his arm and pressing against his palm - but never any skin contact.
He wants it. The skin contact.
Dean calmly thinks he and Cas should get together eventually.
He can't possibly say what has been keeping him from making a move, except for the fact getting into College became a huge deal at some point and if he screws up, someone else will be Castiel's roommate, part of his College life, someone smart and funny. And Dean will be the mechanic he once knew in high school.
"Please, stop thinking too hard about this," the angel asks him when they are lying down on the hood of the Impala - his father's car, who gave him the keys with a suspicious eye and still said "No flying". Dean is thankful it wasn't 'use protection'.
They parked on the top of a hill, and Dean can't remember ever being this carefree and this worried all at once. Castiel's wings seem to enjoy the breeze, arched slightly over his head. The feathers are always untidy and sticking out everywhere, like Castiel walked through a summer storm and hasn't bothered to groom them.
"You know what, I'm tired of this messy thing. Give it here," he says quickly before he starts to think too much about what exactly he's asking here.
By the look on the angel's face, Dean might as well have said 'whip it out, man'. "You don't have to-"
"I want to; it's annoying me." He makes to grab the closest wing but it arches even higher.
"Dean-"
"Gimme."
"It's really-"
"Just- give me the wing, Cas."
He can swear his friend's face turns red in the semi-dark as his left wing lowers onto Dean's lap. He gives it an experimental touch and can feel the muscle stiff under his palm. "Relax, dude."
Castiel’s response is to hardly breathe. The feathers are misleading - soft like fabric but harder closer to the skin of the wing. There are even more feathers beneath the ones on the surface, and Dean has no idea if he's grooming them in the right direction or just making then messier.
It takes five minutes for him to find out how to brush them with his fingers and for Castiel to finally relax. The radio is playing faintly inside the car, and Dean decides wings are just like arms or legs, and as long as they belong to Cas, he enjoys touching them.
"Your socks are still mismatched..." He notices for no particular reason.
"Oh." Castiel pulls his hemline up like he hasn't noticed. "I find I enjoy them like this. I do not see the importance of pairing off things just because someone said they're supposed to go together."
"Yeah, I hear you." Dean needs to write this down to use as an allegory for something or another later on in his life. "I like you like this."
The angel looks at him. This is the first time Dean has said anything about what he thinks or feels about his friend.
"Are you going to prom?" Dean asks rather casually.
"Are you?"
"No."
"Then no."
He lets out a breath he didn't know he was holding. Part of him feared Castiel might choose to go with someone else since Dean refused to approach the subject again. "Sorry I don't wanna go. I just think… it's stupid, you know?"
"I would take no joy in going to a place where you'd cringe every two minutes." Castiel's wing nudges slightly against his chest, complaining that the touching has stopped. "Besides, these things are not like you, and if you were not like you, I would not like you so much."
The words are so sincere, Dean has nothing else to say on the subject. They stay still for some time. Dean is about to sit on Castiel's right side to groom the other wing, when Nick Cave's 'O'Children' start playing on the radio.
The idea hits him like an arrow to the chest.
"Ha, this is great!" He gets up and turns up the song. On second thought, he also turns on the car's headlights - they will need to see what they're doing. "Harry and Hermione dancing. My brother actually cried, that baby."
"Who-"
"C'mon, pretty angel boy." He offers Cas his hand and leads him a few steps from the car. "But keep the wings to yourself."
Dean starts moving around a little, and when Cas finally catches on to what's happening, he starts laughing in a way Dean hasn't heard him do in all their months together.
His hands are warm and they grip him tightly, a thumb caressing the back of his palm as if the chance might slip away if he doesn't do it now. Despite watching movies and dancing with a girl at a birthday party when he was six, Dean still hasn't any notion of how to dance. He starts by moving his feet around and having Cas do the same, both looking at their feet and still stepping on each other none the less.
The angel takes a step closer, and it becomes easier to position his hand on his shoulder. He wants to spin Cas around, but it's impossible with the wings - and so Dean finds himself being twirled by a happy angel, again and again, until Cas decides they should slow dance.
It's the most fun he remembers having with someone.
He can't remember what the next two songs after 'O'Children' were about when Castiel asks, "Are we dating, Dean?"
And with that, Dean is suddenly very conscious that their hips and chests are pressing together. "Cas, your head is on my shoulder, and your fat wings are hugging me. I don't think this can get anymore 'datey'."
"It can if we kiss."
That's a good argument, he thinks before taking his face with a hand and leaning in for a kiss. Chapped lips should not feel this good but there you have it - especially when Cas makes a content noise that could only be described as a cat who just had everything it wanted.
Cas rests his head on Dean's shoulder again, and he can feel wings closing in on them, bringing them closer. "Can I be your boyfriend then?"
He sighs, smiling to himself. "You might as well, since we're gonna live together in a few months and all." Between studying - even if Sam describes it as 'somewhat studying', his part-time at Bob's, and helping his father, Dean hasn't found much time to actually get someone to take their clothes off for him. He's been hoping it's the same for Castiel.
"What does a boyfriend do, exactly?"
Dean takes a loose feather poking him in the ear and puts it in his pocket. "He adds kisses to everything we've already been doing."
*º*º*
Author notes: I feel I should apologize for not including more Gabriel and Balthazar, since the recipient mentioned them in the prompt. I'm sorry for that. I sincerely hope you enjoyed this!
There's also no sexy times. I'm a horrible person who didn't have the time to write any scenes like that and poor Sam and Gabriel, no kissing for them
Merry Holidays if you celebrate anything! For me it’s Spend All Your Money on Crap Day!
For the Dean/Cas Secret Santa Exchange!
Author: Sofiwick
Recipient: SoraKHdemyx!
Beta: Kodamasama
Pairings: Dean/Castiel, possible pre-slash Sam/Gabriel.
Rating: PG-13.
Disclaimer: These characters do not belong to me. I am making no profit from this fanfiction.
Spoilers: It's all good if you know who Gabriel is.
Word Count: 4,135 words.
Warnings: AU where angels are a thing. No other warnings, I believe.
Prompt: Fusion between two prompts: "Dean is in high school when 3 new students (brothers) arrive, Balthazar, Gabriel, and Castiel. Dean tries to go on with his normal life but he just keeps running into the youngest brother... Castiel."
And: "Castiel hasn't been keeping up with his wing grooming, and Dean is more than happy to help."
Summary: AU. Dean wants to spend his last semester of high school counting the days until the SAT, but the new angel student seems to think making him fall in love is even more important.
Read below or on AO3, where they made us post it for the exchange!
*º*º*
I really hope you enjoy this, dear recipient!
*º*º*
High school was not made for Dean Winchester.
Or better yet, Dean Winchester was not made for high school. In fact, he might even go as far as claiming he's allergic to it.
He doesn't appreciate the drama, the gossip, the shitty food - and most of all, the social ranking bullshit that seems to happen in the cafeteria with each little group sitting at their own little table - Dean sits anywhere he wants and would like to see who is going to stop him, thank you.
And it is thus that he cannot possibly comprehend why someone who is school-free for life would ever choose to put themselves through it.
"Castiel, is it?" the teacher asks as he tries to read the name on a piece of paper.
"Yes."
"Class, this is Castiel, he's the new angel student," he says quite pointlessly since the guy's wings are probably bigger than his body when stretched. Everything about him screams 'foreign', from his dorky trench coat to his messy black hair. "Is this your first time in a school?"
"This is my first time in a city," he answers, and the class grows noisy with murmurs.
"Right… You can sit behind Mr. Winchester over there."
The angel nods and makes his awkward way between the rows of desks as his wings knocks cases and notebooks to the ground. Castiel apologizes and a few students laugh, but Dean knows it can't be helped - whenever they have angel students they're made to sit in the back so their wings won't be in anyone's way.
As he passes by Dean, his wings give an involuntary flap, and Dean finds his himself with a face full of feathers.
"I'm sorry-" The angel hugs his rebel wing and rushes to his seat. Dean hopes his face doesn't look as flushed as he thinks it does when all his classmates laugh openly at the scene.
"It's fine, really," he says and pretends to read his book like he can't still smell the feathers. They were like wet grass and clothes dried by the sun - "Sun kissed", his mother would say - and he decides to stop thinking before he starts to analyze how they felt too.
He does his best to ignore the rustle of wings on the floor throughout the lesson. Angels can get away with anything and it pisses him off a little. Some kid just got in 6 months in? Don't bother catching up or anything, it's all fine. He'll probably even get into a decent college, why not - after all, what is some guy with average grades compared to an angel who is… you know, an angel.
*º*º*
Turns out weird new angel student comes with a collective set of equally weird siblings. Dean sees the three of them walking by in the hallway the very next morning.
They went through so much trouble to 'be weird' it would be very inconsiderate of him not to take notice.
"They are everywhere," he mutters, and Sam looks up from his book to where Dean is staring.
"Oh, they're brothers; I know two of them," he says. "The short one is Gabriel - I almost tripped on his wings yesterday - and the guy next to him is Balthazar."
Gabriel is a pocket sized version of a celestial being - made even shorter by the presence of his taller brothers. That would be the only remarkable thing about him if he wasn't wearing a t-shirt reading 'angels do it better' in disgustingly neon red letters. He would considerer Balthazar to be the 'normal' brother if he didn't poke girls' behinds with the tip of his wings as he passes by and then smile apologetically as if it had been an accident.
Dean's new classmate looks exactly the same from the day before - trench coat and feathers sticking out everywhere.
"If they all decide to apply to KU, it's three vacancies less for us humans."
Sam rolls his eyes. "Just study harder."
Dean is about to mess his brother's hair when trench coat student from yesterday hesitantly raises his hand to wave at him. Dean turns around before it's too late to pretend he hasn't seen the action.
On his way to class he can't stop thinking about the guy's rumpled clothes and the contrast of his darker wings against his brothers' lighter ones.
*º*º*
He's just trying to mind his own business - he really is. But apparently the new student finds it very amusing to knock him over with his freaky appendages every time he's around.
"Sorry!" he shouts and then apologizes again in a whisper, realizing the people in the library are all looking at him. "I'm sorry again."
"Cas, right?" Dean shortens it since he can't, for the life of him, remember this guy's odd name.
"Castiel. But you can call me that. My brothers call me that." Cas shyly strokes one of his feathers and avoids looking him in the eye.
Dean doesn't like the conclusions he's getting from this. "'kay. Listen, your wings already hit me yesterday and the day before. You got restless wing syndrome or something?"
"I'm sorry. I just can't keep them still when I'm around you."
Right. This is pretty much why Dean avoids talking to angels. They say whatever is on their minds, completely disregarding social conventions and uncaring of other people's opinions about them.
He turns to leave. "Just, try to control them, okay?"
"Wait." Cas points at his hands. "Do you have plans for KU too?"
Dean notices with surprise the angel is holding the same flier as him. He never meddles in other people's business, but curiosity gets the best of him when he asks, "You're going to the University of Kansas?"
Everyone says KU is a great university, but while other students are prioritizing education quality, Dean feels a little bit ashamed to admit he's just picking somewhere close to be with his family.
"My brothers' decision. It took a long time to convince my family to let me come down here, and they only allowed it because my brothers promised they would look after me."
Dean studies him for a moment. Castiel keeps his eyes somewhere around his shoulder and his wings give what seems to be an aborted flap. "You know, you can just send a letter of application and they will probably take you in even if your SAT scores are crap. You don't need to go through the process."
Castiel shakes his head. "I've been told this, but I don't believe it's fair when so many people are studying hard to get in."
He has no answer for that. Despite not being a complete nerd like Sam, Dean has been trying his best to get into college - even if his best might not be enough. "That's cool. I didn't have a very good opinion of angels, but you're actually working hard like anyone else…"
Castiel smiles shyly and waits a moment for the conversation to continue. When nothing happens, he leaves, all his steps made awkward by the dragging of his heavy wings on the floor. Dean finds himself full of questions about this angel - How long has he been on Earth? What courses are he planning on taking? Does he date humans? - and none of them are his place to ask.
"Cas, wait." He catches up to him at the door, Castiel's wings almost hitting him again as the angel turns to him. "Let's go have lunch together."
He blinks at Dean as if trying to determine what he's hearing. Hesitantly, he clears his throat. "Yes."
As they make their way to the cafeteria, Dean can't help smiling as Castiel steals glances at him, wings moving out of control behind them even with the angel trying to contain them. "You ever visited the campus? Friggin' huge."
*º*º*
College is all they talk about for the next two weeks. Dean didn't know he was this interested until he actually caught himself listing all his expectations about campus life.
KU or not, Castiel is just happy to be allowed to stay on Earth and hasn't much to contribute to the conversation besides hanging on his every word with huge eyes. Dean had been horrified when he first found out the angel actually thought College was for studying.
"Actually, I only clicked on 'Mechanical Engineering' 'cause it had 'mechanical' in it," he confesses on a Thursday during lunch. "Not what I expected, but it's still pretty cool. I help fix cars, so…"
Castiel almost let his fork fall from his hand. "You know how a car works?"
"Well, yeah?"
"That is..." He looks around as if disbelieving the students around them are not even listening to this. "I thought years of study were required, but you're so young."
"It's just practice. No biggy." He shrugs. "My sort of uncle fixes cars. I work for him three times a week."
One of the wings stretches without warning and knocks someone's tray right out of their hands.
Dean really doesn't know why he takes an angel to his work that afternoon. Maybe it has something to do with the way Castiel looked positively amazed with the prospect of going to the place where they fix cars. Besides, the poor guy has no idea how a job actually works; Dean is doing society a favor, really.
"Bob's Garage. That's Bobby, and this is the garage."
The man in question looks suspiciously at Castiel before remembering he doesn't care and going back to his own work. The angel takes in the surroundings with awe - or what Dean likes to think is awe, since Castiel is getting better at keeping his emotions to himself.
He clears a desk for Castiel to sit down. "Please, keep your wings close to your body at all times. We shall not be held responsible for oil on any misbehaving feathers."
The angel looks at a wrench. "Can I touch this?"
Bob shouts from the other side of the garage, "Don't let him touch anything."
"Don't touch anything."
"Sorry."
Dean gets ready for work as Castiel analyzes his work space. It's not a glamorous job, but for a guy who has never been anywhere, it probably feels like a kid going to the supermarket.
"Humans are very exotic," he tells Dean matter-of-factly.
"I take it you like cars?"
"4,000 pounds of steel moving about like it's nothing."
He can't disagree with that.
Castiel becomes silent after that, and Dean puts his mind to the task at hand. About half an hour later, he turns around to check up on him to find the angel looking at him. He seems strangely comfortable sitting on the desk doing nothing in particular, his wings behaving for once.
"Don't you got homework?"
"I can finish it later," Cas tells him. "Does it bother you if I look?"
It doesn't take long for Dean to decide. "No."
*º*º*
"Bob tells me you befriended the new wing in school," his father says that night. Mary shoots him a dirty look for the poor choice of words.
'Wing' became a derogatory term some humans enjoyed using when referring to angels. You see, it's not that John has anything against angels. He just, you know, has things against angels.
He shrugs. "Yeah. His name is Castiel."
"What is he like?" Mary kindly asks.
Solemn, serious, straightforward, blue eyes. "He's nice."
John nods absently. "No underage flying."
Sam snorts behind his fork. "Dad, c'mon. You know flying is the last thing on my list of Stupid Things To Do In High School," he burst out with impatience. His father looks at him unimpressed. "Sir."
"He's in your class?"
"Yeah, I felt sorta bad for him, you know. New kid, no friends. And he kept bumping into me in the halls."
"Why is that?"
I think he's attracted to me. "His wings are too big."
Mary takes his hand and gives it a kiss. Dean always loves when she does that. "Invite him for dinner, honey."
"What for?"
"So we can meet him. You rarely make friends with anybody."
He almost chokes on his potatoes. "I got lots of friends."
"I mean outside the family circle, Dean," his mother explains patiently, and his father doesn't try to persuade him.
"It's not a big deal, Mom," he complains, but Mary already has a pleading look on her face. "Fine, I'll ask him."
"I think I'm making friends with his brother, Gabriel," Sam tells him rather excitedly.
Dean stops to consider this. "He's too old to be in your class."
"We just eat lunch together." Sam shrugs. "Actually, he just sits on my table and refuses to leave. And he keeps nudging me with his wing. It's annoying."
Dean feels grateful he only has the attention of the quiet brother.
*º*º*
"Your socks are mismatched, dude," Dean informs his friend the next day.
Castiel sits down and looks puzzled at his socks. "How come?"
"This one is blue and the other is red?"
"Oh, I see. I always wear them like this; no one ever told me it was incorrect."
"Angels don't wear socks often?" Dean raises his eyebrows.
"We live in Heaven and we can fly."
Sam laughs. "When he puts it like that…"
"My mom wants you to come over this Saturday," he says slowly. For some reason, inviting his new friend to meet his parents makes him feel uncomfortable, like he has something to be embarrassed about.
Castiel just looks at him for a long time until Sam bursts out laughing again. Dean can't help smiling. "As in, for dinner. You come to my house. There is food. You eat."
"I know what dinner is, thank you," Cas says with amusement. "I accept the invitation. Your parents must be fascinating humans."
"Geez, Cas." Dean snorts, and Sam only laughs more. "We're not lab rats."
"Shall I bring something?"
"Just comb you hair, okay?"
When Dean answers the door on Saturday, he can feel his hands sweating on the doorknob for reasons he can't quite explain. Castiel looks the same - as always - and Dean makes a mental note to convince him to buy some new clothes.
Settling his wings in their small dinning room is not as huge a problem as it would have been if Dean hadn't taken away everything that could be knocked to the floor. John looks suspiciously at the wings - like they might explode at any moment - and Mary not once allows her eyes to look straight at them.
"You ever been to Earth before, kid?" John decides to initiate the small talk.
"Only on vacation, sir," Cas replies politely, and again Dean is grateful he's not friends with the obnoxious brother. At least John seems pleased to be addressed respectfully. "But mostly to deserted beaches and small towns. My family distrusts humanity."
"How are you keeping up with classes, Castiel?" Mary quickly asks before her husband can make a remark.
The angel smiles a little. Dean makes a point not to look at him or else he might stare for too long and clue his parents in that he has started to enjoy how his friend’s face looks more relaxed when he smiles. "They're fairly easy to understand. Thank you, ma'am."
"Cas is, like, super smart," Sam says. Dean wants to roll his eyes. These two have been spending too much time together talking geek.
"Not really, angels just retain information better, I suppose."
Mary seems to enjoy his modesty. "Do you have plans for College?"
Castiel gives his friend a shy glance and Dean starts chewing his food faster. "Yes. KU."
"You're both going to the same college?" Mary beams. "That's wonderful! You boys should be roommates!"
"Mom!" Dean shouts with his mouth full.
"We can?" Castiel looks from Dean to his mother. "I didn't know that."
"Well, you know, don't even know if I'm getting in, so..."
"Of course you are Dean," the angel says with confidence. "I have faith in you."
Sam makes a mental note to use this for future teasing material, John watches his son closely, and Mary decides to invite Castiel for dinner next Saturday too.
*º*º*
Dean knows it’s unavoidable - especially with everyone talking about it.
"Gabriel says prom is taking place soon."
"You should start this conversation with 'the SAT is taking place soon'." Dean still can't believe he became this person who actually counts the days to a stupid test.
"You'll do fine, Dean." Castiel looks solemnly at him. "I have faith in you."
"Please, stop saying that." He can't remember the number of times he's heard this in the last few months - both from Castiel and from his brother, who won't let it go. "You even know what prom is?"
"Gabriel showed me movies with a lot of dancing, kissing, and women making mean remarks about each other's dresses." Cas smiles when Dean looks at him with amusement. "The characters seemed to think it was very important."
"It isn't."
And he leaves it at that.
It's hard for Dean to define at what stage their friendship is as the semester approaches its end. Balthazar walked up to him one day and said, "Oh, it's you! The guy my brother is in love with… I expected taller." Gabriel also makes useful kissing sounds every time he walks past their lunch table, to Sam's amusement and Castiel's puzzlement.
Supporting brothers, everyone.
There seems to be a lot of wing touching lately - casually resting on his thigh or encircling his shoulder, brushing his arm and pressing against his palm - but never any skin contact.
He wants it. The skin contact.
Dean calmly thinks he and Cas should get together eventually.
He can't possibly say what has been keeping him from making a move, except for the fact getting into College became a huge deal at some point and if he screws up, someone else will be Castiel's roommate, part of his College life, someone smart and funny. And Dean will be the mechanic he once knew in high school.
"Please, stop thinking too hard about this," the angel asks him when they are lying down on the hood of the Impala - his father's car, who gave him the keys with a suspicious eye and still said "No flying". Dean is thankful it wasn't 'use protection'.
They parked on the top of a hill, and Dean can't remember ever being this carefree and this worried all at once. Castiel's wings seem to enjoy the breeze, arched slightly over his head. The feathers are always untidy and sticking out everywhere, like Castiel walked through a summer storm and hasn't bothered to groom them.
"You know what, I'm tired of this messy thing. Give it here," he says quickly before he starts to think too much about what exactly he's asking here.
By the look on the angel's face, Dean might as well have said 'whip it out, man'. "You don't have to-"
"I want to; it's annoying me." He makes to grab the closest wing but it arches even higher.
"Dean-"
"Gimme."
"It's really-"
"Just- give me the wing, Cas."
He can swear his friend's face turns red in the semi-dark as his left wing lowers onto Dean's lap. He gives it an experimental touch and can feel the muscle stiff under his palm. "Relax, dude."
Castiel’s response is to hardly breathe. The feathers are misleading - soft like fabric but harder closer to the skin of the wing. There are even more feathers beneath the ones on the surface, and Dean has no idea if he's grooming them in the right direction or just making then messier.
It takes five minutes for him to find out how to brush them with his fingers and for Castiel to finally relax. The radio is playing faintly inside the car, and Dean decides wings are just like arms or legs, and as long as they belong to Cas, he enjoys touching them.
"Your socks are still mismatched..." He notices for no particular reason.
"Oh." Castiel pulls his hemline up like he hasn't noticed. "I find I enjoy them like this. I do not see the importance of pairing off things just because someone said they're supposed to go together."
"Yeah, I hear you." Dean needs to write this down to use as an allegory for something or another later on in his life. "I like you like this."
The angel looks at him. This is the first time Dean has said anything about what he thinks or feels about his friend.
"Are you going to prom?" Dean asks rather casually.
"Are you?"
"No."
"Then no."
He lets out a breath he didn't know he was holding. Part of him feared Castiel might choose to go with someone else since Dean refused to approach the subject again. "Sorry I don't wanna go. I just think… it's stupid, you know?"
"I would take no joy in going to a place where you'd cringe every two minutes." Castiel's wing nudges slightly against his chest, complaining that the touching has stopped. "Besides, these things are not like you, and if you were not like you, I would not like you so much."
The words are so sincere, Dean has nothing else to say on the subject. They stay still for some time. Dean is about to sit on Castiel's right side to groom the other wing, when Nick Cave's 'O'Children' start playing on the radio.
The idea hits him like an arrow to the chest.
"Ha, this is great!" He gets up and turns up the song. On second thought, he also turns on the car's headlights - they will need to see what they're doing. "Harry and Hermione dancing. My brother actually cried, that baby."
"Who-"
"C'mon, pretty angel boy." He offers Cas his hand and leads him a few steps from the car. "But keep the wings to yourself."
Dean starts moving around a little, and when Cas finally catches on to what's happening, he starts laughing in a way Dean hasn't heard him do in all their months together.
His hands are warm and they grip him tightly, a thumb caressing the back of his palm as if the chance might slip away if he doesn't do it now. Despite watching movies and dancing with a girl at a birthday party when he was six, Dean still hasn't any notion of how to dance. He starts by moving his feet around and having Cas do the same, both looking at their feet and still stepping on each other none the less.
The angel takes a step closer, and it becomes easier to position his hand on his shoulder. He wants to spin Cas around, but it's impossible with the wings - and so Dean finds himself being twirled by a happy angel, again and again, until Cas decides they should slow dance.
It's the most fun he remembers having with someone.
He can't remember what the next two songs after 'O'Children' were about when Castiel asks, "Are we dating, Dean?"
And with that, Dean is suddenly very conscious that their hips and chests are pressing together. "Cas, your head is on my shoulder, and your fat wings are hugging me. I don't think this can get anymore 'datey'."
"It can if we kiss."
That's a good argument, he thinks before taking his face with a hand and leaning in for a kiss. Chapped lips should not feel this good but there you have it - especially when Cas makes a content noise that could only be described as a cat who just had everything it wanted.
Cas rests his head on Dean's shoulder again, and he can feel wings closing in on them, bringing them closer. "Can I be your boyfriend then?"
He sighs, smiling to himself. "You might as well, since we're gonna live together in a few months and all." Between studying - even if Sam describes it as 'somewhat studying', his part-time at Bob's, and helping his father, Dean hasn't found much time to actually get someone to take their clothes off for him. He's been hoping it's the same for Castiel.
"What does a boyfriend do, exactly?"
Dean takes a loose feather poking him in the ear and puts it in his pocket. "He adds kisses to everything we've already been doing."
*º*º*
Author notes: I feel I should apologize for not including more Gabriel and Balthazar, since the recipient mentioned them in the prompt. I'm sorry for that. I sincerely hope you enjoyed this!
There's also no sexy times. I'm a horrible person who didn't have the time to write any scenes like that and poor Sam and Gabriel, no kissing for them
Merry Holidays if you celebrate anything! For me it’s Spend All Your Money on Crap Day!