The half-brother Chapter 8
Title: The half-brother
Fandom: Supernatural
Summary: AU: John left when Mary got pregnant with Dean. Few years later he came back with a new family. Now, almost 17 years later, Sam and Dean learn what it means to be brothers.
Beta’d by: Lotrspnfangirl and Renversermonmonde (Trickstermoose67 on tumblr)
AN:Yay, an update!
Huges thanks to both Lotrspnfangirl and Renversermonmonde. I couldn’t do this with out them!
Chapter 8
“The rumors, are they true?” asked Castiel all of the sudden while he and Dean walked together towards the cafeteria. Thankfully, the hallway was empty; Mr. Devereaux had let them out from class early and the rest of the class had pretty much ran towards the cafeteria to be first in line.
“What rumors?” asked Dean, even though he was fairly sure what rumor Castiel was talking about. Dean hadn’t really gotten the opportunity to talk to Castiel alone since the rumors of him being gay started going around school. To make matters worse, rumors that Dean had a crush on Castiel had somehow started floating around school, too.
“The rumors of you liking, you know--” said Castiel, clearly having trouble with how to phrase this. If Castiel wasn’t gay, then he would most likely be freaking out, if he had heard the rumors of Dean liking him. Castiel had never given Dean a reason to think he was against gay people, but Dean knew that some people did not take the news of someone close to them coming out well. In fact, one of his best friends had been a great example of that.
“Boys,” finished Castiel at the same time Dean added, “You?”
“What did you just say? Did you just say ‘you’? As in, you like me?” asked Castiel, shocked.
‘Guess he hadn’t heard that rumor after all,’ thought Dean. Before Dean could answer him, the door next to them opened and students filled the hall. “Can we talk about this later? I don’t want to have this discussion here in school... I have a detention after school this week, but other than that I’m free.”
“I can meet you at your mom’s cafe after your detention, if you like,” offered Castiel with his head tilted slightly to the side and his eyes never leaving Dean’s. “I have some homework that I need to do anyway and I could use the change of scenery to do it. It’s way too loud at home nowadays. Gabriel recently found some rock band that he’s been playing at the highest volume just to annoy Naomi. I’m not even sure he likes the music himself,” he added with a shake of his head.
“Great! It’s a dat-” Maybe calling it a date wasn’t the best idea.
“It’s two friends meeting to discuss some things,” corrected Castiel and Dean was pretty sure his heart just got crushed into tiny pieces. He was so busy trying to wrap his head around it that he almost didn’t notice that Castiel was still talking, just in a lower voice so the people near them wouldn’t hear him. “I just mean that when I take you out on a date it’s going to be someplace else than your mom’s cafe shop. Not that it’s not a great place for a date, I just think you deserve to go somewhere new and exciting for our first date.”
Dean was so shocked that he actually stopped on the spot and the person behind him walked right into him. Dean didn’t even notice who it was when he apologized. ’Did he just say when? As in, not a matter of if, just when it will happen?’ thought Dean and a smile broke out on his face.
Castiel hadn’t noticed right away that Dean had stopped so he had gotten a little ahead of Dean and was now waiting for him in front of the cafeteria. After Dean caught up with him, they walked inside together, both of them smiling. Even though their class had ended early, a lot of other classes had gotten to the cafeteria before them. Like Sam’s class for example. When Castiel noticed him, he turned back to Dean and said, “Listen, Dean, I promised Sam I would sit with him today so I will meet you at the cafe-shop. Around 5:15?”
“Yeah, I will see you then.” Castiel sent Dean a smile before he turned around and walked over to Sam’s table. Dean took a quick look to see if any of his friends were there yet. Unfortunately, their table was empty so it looked like he would have to wait for them alone. He grabbed some food and took his normal seat. As he picked apart his sandwich, Dean went over everything that had just happened.
He had a non-date with Castiel! And Castiel had pretty much just asked him on a date! How awesome was that! He couldn’t keep from smiling. That is how his friends found him, sitting all alone with a huge, goofy smile on his face.
“Okay, spill, pretty boy!” said Jo as she put her tray down next to him and sat down in front of it.
After taking a big bite of his food, Dean, with his mouth full, said, “I have no idea what you are talking about.”
“Sure you don’t! I haven’t seen you smile so much since a certain someone started school. Now spill, what happened?” demanded Charlie from across the table, not offended by Dean’s bad table manners.
“It’s nothing, really. Castiel and I are just hanging out after school.”
“Like a date?” asked Charlie, with the biggest grin on her face, and if Dean didn’t know any better he would say she was more excited about it than he was.
“It’s not a date!” ’This time,’ thought Dean, but he decided to keep that little bit of information to himself for now. Castiel hadn’t actually asked him out yet, so there was no need to get his friends overly excited for something that potentially wouldn’t happen. Dean knew that Charlie would go insane with planning what he should wear, where they should go, what he should talk about, the moment she heard that Dean had a date. Hell, she would probably drag Jo down the rabbit hole with her! “It’s just two friends hanging out.”
“So you wouldn’t mind if I showed up too?” asked Benny, with an evil glint in his eyes.
Dean really, really wanted to say, “Show up and I will take your frigging head off!” but that would imply that this was a date. Which it wasn’t. So he gave the polite answer, “Sure, you’re welcome to show up.” ’Please, please don’t show up!’
He didn’t think any of them believed a word of what he was saying, so it didn’t surprise him all that much when Benny said, “No man, I have no interest in being your third wheel.”
Something told Dean that Benny wouldn’t appreciate it if he reached across the table and kissed him right then and there. Plus, he was pretty sure Castiel, who was looking over to them, wouldn’t like that either.
After sending a small nod in Benny’s direction, Dean turned his attention towards the girls. “Turns out Castiel isn’t related to Lucifer after all, not by blood at least. Apparently, Cas’s dad married Lucifer’s mom when Cas was little,” he said trying to change the subject.
“What? Poor Castiel! What was his dad thinking?” Charlie wondered out loud.
“Who knows? He probably had his head stuck in a book somewhere. That reminds me, I invited Castiel to join our ‘Daddy Issue’ club,” said Dean with his mouth half full.
“Okay, that’s not random at all,” said Jo at the same time Charlie asked, “What is it with this town and dads?”
“I know! I mean, you would think that the great Chuck Shurley could take a break from writing to spend some time with his son every now and again,” said Dean just to get a rise out of Charlie, which seems to have worked if you went by how Charlie’s eyes had widened.
Since Charlie was still trying to process what she had just learned, Ash, who up till now had been doing god knows what on his phone, asked, “Wait! Isn’t that the guy that wrote the books Charlie is always talking about? You know, the ones about the two models or something.”
“I think you mean the two underwear models,” said Benny joining in, since they all knew from experience that it would get a rise out of Charlie. Charlie could get quite protective over things she cared about - real or fictional.
“For the millionth time, they are not underwear models!” said Charlie defensively. “They’re-- You know what, never mind. Is Chuck Shurley really his dad? The Chuck Shurley?”
“Yeah! Not that that is his real name, but yeah,” confirmed Dean. “Please don’t make a big deal out of this next time you see Cas.”
“I would never!” said Charlie offended. Adding, “I wouldn’t!” after getting an eye-roll from all of her friends. Suddenly Charlie’s eyes widened and she said, “I just remember, I have to be somewhere. Bye!” before she stood up and left the cafeteria.
It went unnoticed by her friends when Sam followed behind her a few minutes later.
- Supernatural -
The clock on the wall read 5:45 when Dean walked into his mom’s cafe-shop later that day, which made him half an hour late. Detention with John had been hell and had gone on and on; Dean was completely exhausted.
Normally, detentions at school would be an hour of sitting in a classroom doing nothing. Occasionally, depending on the teacher, the students would get an extra assignment that they had to do. On the rare occasion Crowley was in charge of the detention, the students would have to stand in line for the whole hour. If you stepped out of line, you would have to go to the back and your hour would start again. The school record for the longest detention was four and a half hours. Since Crowley had given John complete power over Dean’s detentions, John decided to make them as hard as he possibly could.
Today’s one had been nothing but one hard task after the another. And this time, John hadn’t left him alone for a single minute. He had just stood there, watching, counting, and criticizing everything Dean did. If Dean didn’t do something a hundred percent up to John’s standards he would get a, “You call that a push-up, you pussy? Again!” and he would have to start over from the beginning. Which was why Dean was late, John had used every trick in the book to delay Dean. It was like he knew Dean had somewhere important to be. He had even accidentally locked the locker room and turned off the water in the showers so Dean had to spend ten minutes looking for him to get access to his stuff again and to wash off.
Of course, Dean could go and complain to Crowley about how John was treating him, but he might as well go and try to find Santa Claus and ask him for a new dad. After all, as far as Crowley and John were concerned, Dean had gotten himself into this mess by changing Sam’s signature. Besides, Dean had never been one to complain to authorities.
The only thing that made the detention durable was that Dean had been determined to not have John ruin his good mood before his non-date with Castiel. Dean hoped he hadn’t given up on waiting for him... Straight after his detention, Dean considered calling Castiel to let him know that he would be a little bit late, but as he took his phone up from his pocket he had realized that they had never exchanged phone numbers. He, of course, checked what number the SMS was from, but it had come from a blocked number so no luck there.
The shop was quite crowded and most of the tables were in use; Dean didn’t see Castiel anywhere when he looked over the place. As Dean made his way up to the counter, the door behind it opened and his mom stepped out from the back room, carrying a tray with some coffee cups on them.
“Hey, sweetie! How was your day?” asked Mary as she put the tray down and started making two cups of hot chocolate. She pulled out two plates and served up a slice of blueberry pie on one plate and a chocolate cake piece on the other.
“It was fine.” That is, if you don’t count the detention, but his mom didn’t need to know that John was making his life a living hell. She felt bad enough about the whole John thing already. “Do you know if a-”
“Can you take this to the booth all the way in the back for me? I need to go check on the oven. Thanks, sweety!” And with that, she was gone.
“But I-” with a sigh Dean looked over the tables in search for Castiel one more time before picking up the tray and making his way over to the booth in the back. The booth looked empty from where Dean stood and he didn’t notice anyone sitting there until he was standing right next to it.
The person had his head buried in a book in front of him, which explained why Dean hadn’t seen him. Even though the trench coat was a dead give away, Dean would have recognized Castiel straight away without it. He was so deep into the book that he didn’t notice Dean until one of the mugs of hot cocoa was slid beside his book.
His head shot up and he said, “Oh, I didn’t order any- Oh! Hi, Dean.”
Dean took a quick look to make sure there was nobody else on the nearby tables that could have ordered this, but all the tables nearby were empty. Casting a quick look behind him he saw his mom’s and Charlie’s heads peeking around the corner. Leave it to his mom to provide food for his non-date without even being asked. His mom had the courtesy to stop and go away when she saw Dean looking at them, Charlie did not. Thankfully his mom dragged Charlie away too after Charlie had shown no signs of stopping. The last thing Dean saw of them was a thumbs up from Charlie before she disappeared behind the corner.
“Hi, Cas! Sorry, I’m late. Detention took longer than it was supposed to,” said Dean as he sat down across from Cas. Since Dean knew that Castiel wasn’t a fan of pies he offered Castiel the cake and offered to go get something else if he didn’t want it.
“No! Chocolate cake is my favorite. How did you know?”
“I wish I could take the credit for that, but you’re going to have to thank my mom. I don’t know how she does it, but she seems to have a sixth sense about what people like or dislike.”
“Or she just has a good memory. I ordered the same thing last time I was here,” said Castiel, smiling.
“Then you must have been something special because she usually doesn't remember what people order the moment they are out the door unless they are regulars. Most of the time she doesn't even remember what I had. She just knows that I most often have the pie if I can.”
“You look a lot like her. I mean, Sam gets his looks from John, but I can’t see anything from him in you. You get everything from her. Which might be why I didn’t believe at first that you two were brothers, you don’t really look alike,” said Castiel looking at Dean like he could find the answer to all the world’s problem if he just looked hard enough. “And she’s super nice, just like you! We talked for some time while I was waiting. I didn’t mention knowing you though. It wasn’t like I was trying to hide it, it just didn’t come up,” Castiel added in hurry.
“It’s okay, I think she knew. Did you have to wait long?” asked Dean as he started on his pie. He didn’t think he had ever waited so long to start eating when he’d the pie right in front of him.
“Ohh, don’t worry about it. I came here right after school and I managed to finish all my homework. Then I started reading my dad’s next book and I totally lost track of time. He usually makes me a copy and asks me for my opinion before he has them published,” Castiel answered as he picked up the book to show it to Dean.
Dean could see right away that it was a part of the Supernatural series. Dean had borrowed a few of Charlie’s books in the past and read them. He liked them quite a lot, actually, but he wasn’t about to let his friends know about it. It was kind of his guilty pleasure. He had even bought two of his favorite books and they were now well hidden in his bedroom, far better hidden than his porn magazines. He wasn’t really worried that his friends would ever find the books, either. Benny and Ash had learned their lesson when they had gone through his room looking for porn. Why they thought he would have some magazines with naked girls in the first place was beyond him. They stopped looking after that and Dean quickly learned that it was just better to let the girls know where they were instead of letting them tear through his room looking.
Maybe thinking about porn right in front of Castiel wasn’t the best idea after all...
“So, about that thing we were talking about at school…” said Dean quietly after making sure nobody - more importantly his mom or Charlie - was in a listening radius.
“You mean about you liking boys or you liking me?” asked Castiel with a grin on his face that Dean wanted to hide from. Even though he was ninety-nine percent sure that Castiel liked him too, Dean was kind of hoping to disappear right about now.
“Yeah, that.” That didn’t really answer Castiel’s question, but Dean figured they were kind of the same thing, so it didn’t really matter.
“Dean,” Castiel waited until Dean looked up so he could look him in the eyes before continuing, “I like you too, but…” The pause that followed wasn’t all that long, but it felt like time had stopped for Dean, especially since the happy look that had been on Castiel’s face earlier had now been replaced with a far more serious one.
But. God, he hated that word. If he could choose, he would erase that word from the dictionary. Nothing good ever follows the word but; I brought pie, but you can’t have any until after dinner. Dean, you have a brother, but he doesn’t want anything to do with you. Dean, you’re on the team, but John is going to be in charge.
“…I won’t hide who I am. I’ve tried that before and I can’t--I won’t do it again. I’m not saying that you have to go tell everybody right now, but--”
Dean hadn’t realized that he had been holding his breath until he let it out and started laughing lightly. “Cas, I’m out, I’ve been OUT for years. Everybody that knows me, knows I’m gay. I just don’t shout it from the rooftops. If someone were to straight out ask me, I wouldn’t lie.”
Castiel was visibly relieved to hear that, and the smile that had disappeared for the short period of time was back. Dean had to admit that he was curious about whether there was something more to Cas’s coming out story or not. “So… would you like to go out with me sometime? On a real date?” asked Castiel, and even though he had been nothing but confidence earlier that day at school when he talked about taking Dean on a date, he sounded nervous now. Like Dean could ever be stupid enough to turn him down.
With all signs of nervousness gone, Dean said, “Hell, yes!” a little too loudly apparently, since now everyone else in the shop was staring at him. Including his mom, who was giving him the stink eye for disturbing the quiet in the shop, even though Dean could tell she was trying to keep the smile off her face at the same time. A little quieter he said, “Yes, I would love to go out with you.”
“How does around seven on Saturday sound?” asked Castiel.
Dean tried to remember if he had promised Bobby to work longer that day. He was fairly certain that he had not and if he had, Bobby was sure to understand and let Dean off the hook this once. “Yeah, that works for me, I have work until six so that gives me time to get home and change.”
“Then I will pick you up here around seven,” said Castiel, and Dean was sure that the smile on his face mirrored the one on Castiel’s.
They sat there for hours, just talking. They had invited Charlie to join them when she was on her breaks, but mostly they were left alone.
“It’s probably getting late, I should get going now,” said Castiel before standing up and begun to gather his stuff. Taking a look around him, he noticed that they were the only once left. “Wait, where is everyone?”
“The shop closed more than an hour ago,” said Dean with a chuckle as he started cleaning up on the table. “My mom is still in the back but everyone else is long gone.”
“I’m so sorry,” said Castiel and started helping Dean clean everything up in a hurry. “Why didn’t you say anything?”
Dean reached across the table to put a hand on top on Cas’s to try to stop him. “Dude, don’t worry about it. It’s fine, really. The gang and I have done this a million times.” Okay, that wasn’t exactly true, but what’s one little lie gonna do?
Dean ended up having to half drag Castiel away from the table and Castiel kept looking back at the dirty dishes left there, all the while asking if Dean was sure he didn’t want any help cleaning up.
Mary walked out of the kitchen right as they reach the door. “Oh, you’re leaving? Do you want anything to eat on the road? We have some leftovers that you are more than welcome to,” she offered.
“Yes, I would love some. Your baking is very good. Thank you, Mrs. Win--” Castiel seemed to have forgotten for a moment that Dean’s mom never became Mrs. Winchester. Since he was Sam best friend, Dean figured that he must know the real Mrs. Winchester.
It wasn’t the first time people had made that mistake, and Dean hated it every time he heard it. He knew that his mom had dreamed about marrying John back when they were dating and now every time she heard it, it was just a painful reminder of what could have been. Everybody that had known them back then had been sure John and Mary would get married and, since Mary had a son with John’s last name, people often presumed that they had.
Mary was so used to it that she didn’t even hesitate before saying, “It’s Campbell, but you can just call me Mary. All of Dean’s friends do,” before she started putting some of the pastries that were left into a box.
“Right, thank you Mrs. Camp- Uhh, Mary,” Castiel said as he sent a quick look in Dean’s direction only to get a small, sad smile in return.
“Here you go, Castiel. It was very nice meeting you,” said Mary as she gave Castiel the box.
“And you,” replied Castiel before Mary made her way back to the kitchen. Castiel reached for the door before turning back to Dean. “I must get going. Thank you, Dean, I had fun tonight and I’m really looking forward to Saturday.”
“Me too, Cas.” With one final smile, Castiel was gone out the door. Dean didn’t turn away until he had seen Castiel get in his car and drive away.
As he went to clean up their table Dean could help but think that as far as a non-date went, it had been a pretty good one.