FicWad

This is for my fabulous, amaaaaaaazing and all-round freaking awesome twitter friend and BETA, @tellmeimanangel !!! If you're not following her on twitter I advise you do so. And if you want to see when I update this story, have any questions, suggestions, feedback (good or bad because I really need it) then the links for my twitter, tumblr and ask.fm are on my ficwad profile, just click my ficwad username under the chapter title to get to it!

Dean picked Castiel up from his house at 11:57 to be precise. Castiel had been waiting on the bottom step of the stairs glancing at his watch every minute since he’d woken up; just to make sure he wasn’t late by even a minute.

Obviously, his efforts had been for nothing.

He wasn’t sure why he was so insistent of not keeping Dean waiting; part of him thought that maybe it was the fact he hadn’t really had plans like this in a while, and another part of him thought that he didn’t want to have to invite him in. Not because he was rude or anything. Not at all. It was because he didn’t particularly want Dean to come across his family. Castiel had always been uncomfortable with people meeting those he lived with. Especially since he had moved to Kansas, anyway.

Anyway, Castiel had been kept waiting nearly an hour so he wasn’t in a particularly good mood when Dean knocked on his door.
“I assumed as you were so insistent on meeting me today, you’d actually be on time. But, whatever, I kind of expected it.” Castiel muttered as he closed the door.
“Sorry, dude, I got caught up. My brother wanted me to take him to his karate lesson then I needed to go get some gas. But then as soon as it was time to go get you, dad wanted me to run a few errands. I’m here now, right? That’s all that matters.”
“Whatever, Dean.” Castiel sighed as they walked towards Dean’s car.
“Oh, and I’ve already gotten our lunch. I thought we go could go to the park or something; a few of my friends are meeting there to go play basketball and I thought that maybe we could go join them.”
“What? Okay. I guess I don’t really have much of a choice, do I?” Castiel frowned as he slipped into the front passenger seat of Dean’s car.
“I’m sorry, Cas, but I got you a cheeseburger to make up for it.” Dean smiled proudly, handing Castiel a warm McDonalds bag.
“I’m a vegetarian.” Castiel sighed.
“Oh…dude I’m sorry. You can have my fries if you’d like?”
“No. It’s fine, I’m not even that hungry anyway.” Castiel lied.
“If you’re sure.” Dean shrugged as he started to drive.

* * *

They arrived at the park to find a group of Dean’s friends standing around a basketball court. But before they were even close, Castiel stopped in his tracks.
“Dean, I don’t think this is a good idea.”
“Why? You don’t have to join in if you don’t want to.”
“I know…but your friends don’t think particularly highly of me…they won’t want me there and, if I’m being honest, I don’t really like them much either.”
“But…what about me?”
“What about you?”
“What if I want you there?”
“That’s not the point, Dean.” Castiel sighed, sitting down on a bench. Dean sat back down on the bench beside him and looked out at the empty green.
“We can leave early and we can go get ice cream. Or are you lactose intolerant? If you are I’m sure you could get a hotdog or something. Oh, wait, you’re a vegetarian. Oh…I don’t know. Just at least come and watch? Please?”
“Uh, you’re impossible to argue against.” Castiel sighed with a slight smile as he got to his feet.
“Thanks kid. Here…I forgot to give these back to you yesterday.” Dean said as he held Castiel’s cigarettes towards him. “Just don’t let me see you smoking them, okay?”

As the two of them neared Dean’s friends, they all seemed to stop what they were doing to look at them both. It made Castiel feel uncomfortable, so he let himself walk slightly behind Dean. Dean, however, didn’t seem to mind the unnecessary attention, or notice that Castiel had fallen behind.
“Why’d you bring him?” One of the guys said quietly to Dean as he joined them. Castiel pretended to not have heard but kept his eyes down on the ground.
“We needed an extra player, didn’t we?” Dean muttered in reply.
“Yeah, whatever. We assumed you’d actually bring a good player. He’s not being on my team.” Another guy said.
“Or mine.” Garth added.
“It’s fine, actually.” Castiel said suddenly, looking up at the group of guys. “I didn’t want to play anyway.”

Castiel shot a sideways glance at Dean who just shrugged at him, and headed over to the side of the court where he could see everything without getting in the way. He pulled the packet of cigarettes from his pocket and lit one with the lighter he kept in his pocket. As he lifted it to his lips, Dean turned around and caught his eye. Castiel held his eye contact as he took a drag, and Dean’s face turned from curiosity to some sort of uncomfortable expression that Castiel didn’t quite recognise. Castiel didn’t particularly care that he’d upset Dean. In fact, he wasn’t even entirely sure Dean was actually upset. Either way, Castiel didn’t care what Dean thought about his smoking habits. Why should Dean Winchester, the popular, attractive, mouthy-asshole’s opinion even matter to him? After all, he was nothing more to Dean than a ‘loser’.

Castiel sat there, on his own, smoking his cigarettes, while he watched Dean and his equally-as-idiotic friends play basketball. The only thing stopping him from going home was the fact he’d only lived in this city for three days so didn’t know his way round very well, and that, if he left, Dean would have nobody to grin at whenever he scored a point.

Castiel decided that Dean was good at basketball. Like, really good. So good, in fact, that he was glad he didn’t decide to play, because if he did he’d be humiliated by the fact he could barely catch the ball. When the group decided to call a break, Dean jogged over to Castiel and smiled.
“I’m good, right?”
“You’re alright.” Castiel lied.
“I’d prefer it if you were playing though.”
“I don’t want to play, Dean. I just want you to drive me home.” He sighed, leaning back against the wall behind him. Dean offered Castiel his hand and pulled him to his feet.
“But I want to play the second half.”
“I don’t want to watch for another hour, or whatever. Please just take me home.”
“Stop being so boring, Cas. Why don’t you lighten up a little bit?”
“What the hell is wrong with you, Dean? You know, I was actually kind of looking forward to today! But you ruined it before I even got in the car.”
“Cas, listen, I’m sorry-”
“Please…just take me home.”
Dean sighed and looked over at his friends who were regrouping on the court. “Come on then. Let’s go.”

The drive back to Castiel’s house wasn’t as awkward as he thought it would be. In fact, Dean wouldn’t shut up about the half-game he’d played, and Castiel was kind of glad because otherwise they’d have nothing to talk about – even if it was Dean who was doing most of the talking.
“And then I tackled it right from Garth, and you know how speedy that little shit is, and I made that shot and it went clean in! Barely touched the net and-”
“Uh, Dean, you just passed my house.”
“Oh, right, sorry.” Dean laughed. He swerved into a sharp U-turn without checking for any oncoming traffic. Thankfully there was none, and Dean managed to pull up outside of Castiel’s house unscathed.

“So…uh…” Dean mumbled, looking down at his feet shyly.
Castiel frowned and looked over at Dean. “What?”
“Are we gonna…like…you know?”
“’Are we going to’ what?”
“Are we gonna, uh, kiss?”
Castiel started at Dean for a few seconds in utter shock and disbelief. “What the freaking hell?!”
“What’s wrong? I usually get a kiss on the first date.” Dean frowned.
“This wasn’t a date! And if it was, you should’ve A) made it a bit clearer and B) actually done something I wanted to do! Oh, and for your information: I’m. Not. Gay.”
“So…so I guess I’m not getting a kiss?”
“You can go fuck yourself if you think I’m going to kiss you. Maybe for once you won’t get what you want.” Castiel spat as he got out of the car.
“What did I do wrong?” Dean mumbled.
Castiel shook his head. “Just go home, Dean.”

*

Castiel was pretty proud of how well he managed to avoid Dean that week. He even managed to ignore the fact Dean had laughed whenever his friends shoved him to lockers or tripped him in the halls. In fact he had barely made eye contact with him until Thursday.

It was just after biology when someone stepped forward as Castiel walked out of the school’s science block towards the school’s canteen, grabbed him by the shoulders, and kneed him hard in the stomach. The pain caused the boy to cough blood onto the pavement and fall to the floor in agony. His eyes hadn’t even adjusted well enough to the light to see who it was who was beating him. A part of him prayed that it wasn’t Dean Winchester. But another part of him prayed it was so he had a better reason to avoid him.

But it wasn’t Dean. Sure, Dean was there, standing behind the group of guys surrounding him, but he didn’t seem to be too one of the guys who was actually hurting him.
“Aren’t you gonna do something?” Castiel choked. The group turned around to look at Dean.
“Why would I? You’re just a pathetic little shit that got me a detention in English class. I hardly know you.” Dean spat.
Just as Castiel began to cry in disbelief, Garth punched him clean in the mouth and the others in the group pushed him out of the circle.
Another one of the guys, Benny, crouched down beside a teary Castiel and pulled his packet of cigarettes from his pocket. Castiel tried to grab the packet back but one of the guys, whom Castiel didn’t recognise, stood hard on his hand, crushing his fingers against the cold hard ground. The helpless boy let out a slight whine of distress and looked helplessly at Dean who just turned away.
“You want your cigarettes back?”
“Keep them…I don’t need them.” Castiel hissed through gritted teeth. He looked up at the guy standing on his hand, who responded by crushing them even harder. “Just, please, stop hurting me.” He begged.

Just as Benny lowered the flame of one of the other guy’s lighter to the bottom corner of the packet, one of the other boys shouted: “Principal’s coming!” and suddenly every one of the boys took off. Every one of them except Dean who stood there, looking down at Castiel with a somewhat pained expression on his face.
“Cas…I’m so sorry.” He said slowly, kneeling down beside him.
“No you’re not.” Castiel coughed, inspecting his bruised hand.
“Let me get you cleaned up.” Dean sighed, lifting Castiel to his feet. “Your face is bleeding.”
“Get off me.” Castiel spat, pushing Dean’s hand away from his waist.
Dean looked down at Castiel desperately and sighed, reaching out carefully to wipe away a drop of blood forming at his friend’s lip. “I want to help you.”
“You could’ve helped me by telling those assholes to get the fuck away from me. What the hell is wrong with you, Dean?”
“Cas, listen to me when I say this: I’m sorry. I just couldn’t-“
“Couldn’t stick up for me in front of your friends? Well, fuck you. Stay away from me, Dean. I don’t want to have anything to do with you. You’re the biggest asshole I’ve ever met. Just leave me alone.” Castiel said. He turned away and began to walk back towards the nurse’s office.
“Just let me fix you up, okay? You don’t have to forgive me or even speak to me after today, but I don’t want to sit through the rest of the day knowing that I didn’t try and help you when you were hurt.”

* * *

So Castiel let Dean lead him into the old unused classrooms at the back of the school site. It appeared these rooms had been left vacant for a fair few years, because they were even more run down than the rest of the school. Even from just a few meters away, Castiel could smell the strong scent of damp wood and stale plaster that caught at the back of his throat making it slightly harder for him to breathe.
“Is this building even safe? I swear I’m getting intoxicated just by being in here.” Castiel hissed as Dean held the door open for him.
“It’s fine. I come here all the time when I want to be alone. You’ve just got to make sure none of the teachers see you.” Dean said.
Castiel followed him down a short dusty hallway until they came to what appeared to be the old teacher’s bathrooms. Dean gestured for Castiel to sit down on the ground and he did so with only slight hesitation.

“What was this place even used for?” Castiel asked.
“The old music block.” Dean said as he grabbed a paper towel from the dispenser with one hand and ran the water from the tap until it was warm with the other. “They had to close it down and sell all the instruments and things after the school lost a lot of money and couldn’t afford to keep it open. The only reason it’s still here is because the school can’t afford to demolish it. Hold still.” Dean instructed, kneeling down beside him.
“Is that water clean?” Castiel frowned, eyeing the damp towel in Dean’s hand.
“Yes, Cas. Just because this building is unused, doesn’t mean it’s not connected to the rest of the school’s water supply.” Dean laughed. Castiel just rolled his eyes and looked away as Dean lowered the towel to his bleeding lip. It stung a little, and Castiel couldn’t help but let out a small whine.
“Shh, it’s okay.” Dean said softly as he wiped the remainder of the blood away. “It’s okay. It’s all sorted now.”
“What about my hand?” Castiel spat.
“Let me see.” Dean said quietly, picking up Castiel’s swollen hand from his lap. He examined the purple swelling around the bones and tried to move one of his fingers, to which Castiel promptly hit him away. “I don’t think there’s much I can do for your hand. I think it might be broken.”
“Great.” Castiel muttered angrily, pulling his knees up to his chest.
“Just put some ice on it when you get home. Let me drive you home and maybe I can help you with it.” Dean suggested.
“I’ll let you drive me home, but you’re not coming in.”
“Why not?”
“Because I said so.”
“That’s not a very valid excuse.”
“You’re not coming in, Dean. Do you hear me? And if you dare try and get in, I’ll call the cops.”
“Okay.”
“Do you promise?”
“I promise.” Dean sighed.
Castiel raised his eyebrows.
“I promise, Cas.”