Jump the Track: Chapter 12 (part 2)
Jo got a ride in with them on Monday morning, and she pulled Dean aside before they got into the car. “I just thought you should know that there were some... rumors going around at the end of last week when you weren’t in school.” Dean frowned in confusion, and she rolled her eyes. “About you and Cas! I dunno, I think someone saw you two fighting on Monday, and then a few people had overheard the discussion you had with Lisa and... well, people are starting to figure stuff out. I mean, it’s not gotten too bad because we’ve been playing things down, but... well, I thought you should be prepared.”
Dean smiled grimly. “Yeah. Thanks, Jo.”
Castiel looked over at him anxiously when he got into the car, and Dean tried to look as relaxed as possible. He didn’t care for himself, not really, but he was worried about how Cas would take it. He was still pretty fragile after everything that had happened. They’d spent the whole weekend just laying low, watching movies with Sam, and not talking about anything too serious. If anyone did or said anything today that made Cas feel bad... well, Dean might just have to kill them.
The first half of the day passed without incident. Dean kept his head down and stuck close to his friends. Maybe a few more people were glancing at him than usual, but he was studiously not paying attention.
Nothing actually happened until Dean was on his way to fourth period, when his old associate Steve accosted him.
“Is it true then, Winchester?” he sneered.
“Yeah, Steve, they’re thinking of banning pizza from the lunch menu. It’s tragic, I know.” He knew he wasn’t going to deter the guy for long, but it was worth a shot.
“No, I’m talking about you and Jesus boy. I heard that the two of you are fa-”
Dean had fisted a hand in Steve’s shirt before he could finish speaking, and shoved him up against the lockers. “You’d better not have been about to say what I think you were,” he growled, vaguely aware that passing students had stopped to watch.
Steve coughed. “I’ll take this as a confirmation, shall I?”
“Yeah, you know what? You can.” Dean let him go with another backward shove. “Me and Cas are together,” he said, loud enough for other people to hear. “I’m not gonna hide it or be ashamed. Cas is awesome, and frankly I couldn’t give a fuck what you people think. I mean, why the hell should I? You’re pathetic, dude! You’ve been following me around for years, kissing ass, trying to be like me, and you know what? I’m through with pretending to be who you want me to be. I’m Dean fucking Winchester! I’m ten times cooler than you could ever hope to be, and I can do whatever, and whoever the hell I want! And if I ever catch you saying homophobic shit again, I’ll... you know what, my boyfriend will kick your ass. I think we all know how that would go for you.”
Dean didn’t pay attention to how people reacted as he stalked off to go to Spanish. He was too busy trying not to pass out.
...
Dean and Castiel decided to blow off their senior prom. Dean hated having to wear formal attire, and Cas had gotten that rabbit-caught-in-headlights look on his face whenever anyone mentioned dancing. Besides, neither of them especially felt like being gawped at by the entire school as Lawrence High’s token gay couple. Sam was out somewhere with his friends, so they figured they’d just spend the evening at home in front of the TV.
But then Bobby turned up on the front doorstep wearing a tux.
He didn’t look very happy about it. “I’m here to pick you up,” he told Dean resignedly.
Dean’s gaze travelled from Bobby to the sleek black limousine parked in the road behind him. “Bobby, what the hell?”
Bobby shook his head. “Not my idea, kid.”
“But we’re not going to prom.”
Castiel had come out to join him. “I can’t dance,” he said quickly.
“Alternative arrangements have been made,” Bobby sighed. “Look, you think I wanna be dressed up like this? I was put up to it. Now you two idjits get into the damn car before I change my mind.”
“But-”
“Just get going already!” John and Mary had appeared in the hallway behind them, both of them grinning.
“You guys knew about this?” Dean demanded. “What the hell’s going on?”
“Shh, just go,” Mary told him. “Have fun.”
Dean rolled his eyes, seeing that he was getting nowhere. He grabbed Castiel’s hand and pulled him out of the door. Clearly, everyone was conspiring against them.
“You owe me one for this, John Winchester,” Bobby groused as he followed them to the limo.
“Dean, what are we doing?” Castiel muttered as they drove off. “I don’t dance, Dean. Please don’t make me dance.”
Dean laughed. “Dude, no one is gonna make you dance.”
They didn’t seem to be heading in the direction of the school, which was some comfort. However, when they pulled up in front of the auto shop Dean was more confused than ever.
Bobby opened the door for them, looking more hang-dog than ever. “Go round the back,” he said. “If anyone wants me, I’ll be in the office.”
Dean and Castiel shared confused glances before heading round the side of the garage. There was a lot out back where John and Bobby sometimes kept the vehicles they were waiting to work on, only now the alleyway leading to it was lined with fairy lights, and there was a big banner saying ‘Lawrence High Antiprom!’ The lot itself had been cleared, and it was lit up with Chinese lanterns and fairy lights.
“About damn time!” Pam shouted when she caught sight of them. “We thought you guys were never going to get here!”
Dean broke into a grin. “What the hell did you do?”
They were all there - Pam, Jo and Ash, as well as Jo’s boyfriend Mark, and Sam, Becky, Ava and Andy.
“Well, none of us were exactly keen on the idea of getting all dressed up and spending the evening in the school gym with a bunch of people we’ve spent the last four years reviling, listening to crappy music,” Jo told him. “So we figured we’d throw a little prom of our own - awesome people only. And then your kid brother and his friends decided they were going to crash. Andy persuaded the guys at the Jet Lag Lounge to let us borrow their sound system for the evening, so we thought it was only fair.”
Dean laughed. Andy could talk people into doing pretty much anything. “You guys are insane,” he said. “This is so awesome.”
Jo shrugged. “You two have had kind of a tough year. We figured you could do with a nice surprise for once.”
“Enough talking!” Ash yelled. “Music! Food! Beer!”
Dean considered it the best prom ever. Ash reprised his role as DJ Doctor Badass for the evening, playing a soundtrack that consisted mostly of AC/DC, Led Zeppelin and Metallica. Becky was dancing around like a maniac with Ava yelling about how the songs playing were totally about Spike and Angel! while Sam and Andy looked on in bemusement. Pam tried to talk everyone into playing strip poker. Dean spent most of the time making out furiously with Castiel behind the speakers, stopping only when their friends got sick of them and started pelting them with M&Ms. At midnight, Bobby came out and helped them set off fireworks. Dean didn’t think they could have wanted for anything more. He had everything, everything that had been good about his high school years, right there. There couldn’t have been a better send-off.
...
“I’ve heard from Anna,” Cas said.
“Is she okay?”
They were lying in bed together, curled up in the dark. It was the part of Dean’s day he always looked forward to.
“She seems to be fine. She made it to our uncle Lucifer’s house in California. He’s taken her in, and they’re going to try to get some form of court injunction so that she doesn’t have to go back to her father.” He stirred uneasily.
“What?”
“Dean, I’ve been trying to find my father.”
Dean didn’t say anything. Personally he was pretty fucking angry at Manuel Delacroix and thought that a father who abandoned his kids like that without even trying to keep in touch wasn’t worth looking for, but he knew better than to voice that opinion. This was Cas’s thing.
“It’s not going well so far,” Castiel sighed. “I tried to contact Uriel, but he won’t take my calls. I’m beginning to suspect that he’s been working with Zachariah all along. I’ve spoken about it to Anna, but she doesn’t know anything. Uncle Luke hasn’t spoken to my father in years. I’m going to try and contact my other cousins, but I very much doubt that Raphael will help me if he’s spoken to Zachariah.”
“I can help you, if you’d like,” Dean said, affection slightly outweighing his better judgement. “I mean, my mom can probably look something up for you. She knows quite a lot of people through her job, so she might be able to chase up someone who works for your dad.”
“That would be nice,” Castiel replied. “He’ll want to know, won’t he? He’ll want to know what’s going on, and what Zachariah’s been doing?”
It hurt Dean to hear the innocent hope in Castiel’s voice. “Yeah, course he will,” he lied.
...
The conversation came back to haunt Dean three days later when he and Pam found Castiel sitting by himself at one of the picnic benches in the school quad, a studiously blank expression on his face. Dean was getting pretty good at reading the subtle nuances of Castiel’s facial expressions. He hated it when people made fun of Cas for being like a robot. It was completely untrue that he didn’t have emotions, it was just that he wasn’t used to being around people and he didn’t know those little social rules that other people seem to pick up intuitively. If you took the time to get to know him, he’d start to relax, and then he’d unfold and open up, and was possibly the most amazing person who ever existed, in Dean’s opinion. It was just that when he was nervous or unhappy, he went blank. Right now, Dean could tell Cas was unhappy blank.
They sat down at the bench, Pam opposite him, Dean beside him, sitting as close as he was comfortable with in public. They waited.
“It’s about your dad, isn’t it?” Dean ventured after about five minutes. He was regretting telling Castiel that Mary could help. He’d known all along that it would come down to this.
Castiel gave a small nod. “Your mother found me the number of his publicist. I called her this morning, and she said she’d pass my contact details on to my father. He... he called me back.”
“And?” Pam prompted gently.
“And he thinks it would be for the best that he doesn’t get involved. According to him, I’m coping just fine by myself. He doesn’t see the point in returning. Apparently, seeing me would be counterproductive. Apparently, I’m better off without him. He is, of course, willing to pay my college fees,” Cas added with a note of bitterness.
Dean grit his teeth. He was fairly sure that he wanted nothing more than to punch the good Reverend right about now. He couldn’t understand how the guy could have the gall to go on TV and preach about love and kindness, then turn his back on his own children.
“I’m so sorry, Cas,” Pam breathed. “Are you gonna be okay?”
Castiel shrugged, a funny jerk of his shoulders. “I don’t know.”
“What do you want to do?”
Castiel stared at the table top. “I think... I want to find a liqueur store. And drink it.”
“I’m taking you home,” Dean said. “No, come on, we only have study hall. We’re gonna go home, and we’re not gonna talk about your dad.” He hauled Castiel to his feet and marched him to the Impala. He’d had an idea that maybe he could distract him with sex, but when they got in Cas just wanted to curl up in front of the TV, not really watching, definitely not talking. Dean didn’t know what to say to him. The last vestige of Castiel’s old life, the system of belief he’d held so strongly since childhood, had just been shattered. Anything Dean thought of to say seemed so trite and pointless. It would be better if Cas was angry. Dean understood angry, he didn’t understand this strange, pained silence.
It went on for the next couple of days. Cas was remote and unresponsive, except when they were alone at night when he would tear Dean’s clothes away and pull him down onto the bed, telling Dean shakily to do anything he wanted to. Dean held him tightly, glad to help in any way he could.
On the third day, Mary told Castiel that she’d found his brother Gabriel. He was living in New York, and she had a contact number for him. For the first time since the failure with his dad, there was something like hope in Castiel’s eyes.
“Are you gonna call him?” Dean asked later that night as they were going to bed.
“I would like to. Very much.”
“But?”
“I am nervous,” Cas replied carefully, feeling the words out.
“Because you’re scared he’ll be the same as your dad?”
“Partly, yes. But also... Dean, when Gabriel left, he was sixteen. We hadn’t seen our father in months, Zachariah was being... Well, he and Gabriel had their differences. Gabe had a little money saved up, and he... he couldn’t stay. But he wanted me to go with him. He asked me if I would because he didn’t want to be alone, but I was too scared. I mean, I was thirteen, and I... I didn’t want to... I’d never disobeyed before. I was too scared, and I said I was staying. I’ll never forget how hurt he looked.”
“Cas, you were a kid. I mean, you both were. Of course you were scared. He’ll want to hear from you.”
Castiel looked so tired. “Could we... Dean, would it be alright if you just held onto me tonight?”
Dean turned off the light and pulled him in close.
The next morning he sat next to Castiel as he nervously called up his long lost big brother. Dean had been right - Gabriel was delighted to hear from him. So much so that he immediately bought a ticket for Cas to fly out to New York to visit him the next day.
Apparently, Gabriel had come into some money since running away from home.
...
It was only four days, Dean kept telling himself. He was being incredibly lame, pining after Cas when he was only going to be away for four days. He’d see his brother, and then he’d come back home in time for graduation. It was all arranged, and Dean was being stupid. Jo kept laughing at him about it, and he couldn’t in all fairness blame her for it. It was a little worrying how quickly he’d gotten used to having the guy around all the time.
Sleeping was the worst.
Sharing a bed with Castiel had been an interesting experience for Dean. Not just the parts when they were awake and trying to have sex as quietly as possible (because as happy as Sam was about their relationship, Dean didn’t think he’d appreciate them fucking rampantly on the other side of his bedroom wall). It was the actual sleeping together thing that was going to take some getting used to. Castiel talked in his sleep. Dean could only ever catch the odd word or phrase, and sometimes he’d entertain himself by having pretend conversations with the sleeping Castiel. He liked it whenever he caught his own name amongst the indistinct muttering. Sometimes Cas would laugh in his sleep. This was actually pretty disturbing because it sounded nothing like Cas’s regular laugh, and it was really creepy when you were on the verge of falling asleep and there was this sinister chuckle from the other side of the bed. Cas also liked to cuddle, which Dean liked way more than he thought he would. But then Cas sometimes got a little aggressive about it. One time Dean had had to get up to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night and had carefully extracted himself, only to have a still sleeping Castiel grab hold of his t-shirt and haul him back into the bed before wrapping his arms and legs around Dean tightly. Cas always seemed to have more limbs than he actually did at times like that. Dean had had to actually wake the guy up in order to escape. It was, he thought, a bit like sharing a bad with a large, possessive octopus.
It was safe to say that Dean didn’t sleep as much now he was sharing his bed, but he hadn’t realized how much he’d miss it when Cas went away. The bed was just too damn big. Dean took to hugging his pillow.
The best thing, though, were the texts Castiel would send him about life at his brother’s house:
GABRIEL HAS RED SATIN SHEETS ON HIS BED. GOOD GOD, WHAT AM I DOING HERE?
I WOKE UP THIS MORNING TO FIND BLONDE SKANDANAVIAN TWINS MAKING WAFFLES IN THE KITCHEN WEARING ONLY THEIR UNDERWEAR. IT WAS TERRIFYING.
I SUSPECT THAT GABRIEL IS RUNNING SOME KIND OF DEN OF INIQUITY. I HAVE A HORRIBLE FEELING YOU WOULD LIKE IT HERE.
Cas had a way of being funny without realizing it. It was at times like this that Dean loved him especially. He didn’t want him to go away and leave Dean behind.
When Castiel called on Wednesday evening, he sounded much too far away. Dean tried to work out how many miles there were between them, and realized that he’d probably have to get used to doing that.
“We went over to see Cornell today. Gabriel’s bought me a house near the campus,” he told Dean. “I honestly don’t know where he’s gotten all this money from; he’s only three years older than me. I don’t like to ask, to be honest with you.”
“A house, huh?”
“Just a small place. It’s nice, though.”
Dean smiled painfully. “That’s good, Cas. Hey, you will be back for graduation on Friday, won’t you. I mean, you’re the valedictorian. You can’t miss it.”
“Yes, Dean, I’ll be back. I miss you.”
“I miss you too.”
Dean hung up. He had a feeling he’d be saying that quite a bit over the next few years.
...
“I don’t think teal is my color,” Dean told Mary as she adjusted his ceremonial robes.
“Don’t be silly, it brings out your eyes.”
Dean sighed. “Please don’t be Embarrassing Mom today.”
She laughed. “I’ll try, I promise. It’s just that... do you realize how far you’ve come? Just a few months ago we weren’t sure you’d even finish up the school year, and here you are on graduation day.”
Dean shrugged, still not quite sure how to cope with being proud of himself. “I had a lot of help.”
“You also worked hard, and you tried, and you made us all very proud of you. You did that, Dean. You’ve been amazing.”
Dean nodded, pleased and embarrassed. He went over to join the other graduates, and finally caught sight of Castiel, sitting two rows in front of him, somehow managing to look like he’d just rolled out of bed in spite of the formal occasion, with the collar of his robes askew and his cap at an oddly jaunty angle. Dean was sure that Mary would be dying to get her hands on him. They were too far away for anything more than a wave and a smile. It made Dean feel oddly wistful, like they were already being split up, Cas was already moving away from him. He was so preoccupied that he was barely aware of what he was doing as he went up on stage to collect his diploma, his smile fixed and brittle.
Castiel’s valedictorian speech was brief and nervous. He couldn’t even look at the audience, and Dean just wanted to hug him the whole time. He knew that Cas didn’t have to leave for college until the end of September and they had the whole summer ahead of them, but he felt like it was happening right now. It was the end of high school, the end of everything that had brought them together in the first place. So much had changed, Cas had, he had, and now they were going to be set adrift with nothing but the sense of the bond they shared to keep them together. Graduations were fucking depressing.
Dean’s family hugged him afterwards, as did Ellen Harvelle, who was trying to persuade Jo to keep her mortarboard on long enough for a few more photos. Dean tried to be enthusiastic about everything and hide the fact that he was feeling a strange mixture of happy and sad and he didn’t know how to deal with it.
John inclined his head, and Dean followed him a short distance away from the rest of his family.
“What’s up, Dad?”
“I got something for you.” John reached into his pocket at pulled out a folded piece of paper, handing it over to Dean.
It was a cheque. Dean figured his dad was giving him a graduation present, until he saw the amount written down. He felt a little dizzy.
“Dad, what the hell is this.”
John cleared his throat. “The day you were born, I went to the bank and I set up a savings account. I’ve been putting a hundred bucks a month into it ever since. I did the same for your brother. It’s, you know, a college fund. Dean, you might not think college is for you, but you’re a damn smart kid. You could... you could really do something with that brain of yours, and I don’t wanna see you working at my garage your whole life.”
“Dad, don’t be ridiculous! You’ve been dreaming about it since before I could walk, how I was gonna take over the family business one day.”
“Yeah, and maybe it was unfair of me.” John looked at him evenly. “Those were my dreams, Dean, not yours, and it was wrong of me to make you feel like... like you had to live up to them. Of course I want to keep you here forever, see you every day, watch you become a man, but maybe I was being selfish. Your brother, I had no chance of hanging onto him, he had his big ambitions from the start, but with you... I guess I took advantage. But I... I want you to be your own man, Dean. I want you to go out there and figure out who you are and what you want. I mean, d’you think my old man wanted me to join the Marines? Hell no, I was supposed to be a doctor. I didn’t do what he wanted, and I... don’t want you to do what I want, either.”
“Dad...”
“No. No arguments. You think I didn’t know about that road trip dream of yours? All those maps you used to buy? Why don’t you and Cas take off for a couple of months before he starts at Cornell?”
“I can’t just-”
“Yes you can, Dean. And there’s something else. I’ve... I’ve been asking around. Rufus knows a guy called Caleb who owns a garage near Cornell. Apparently he gets a lot of rich students bringing their cars in during term time and could use an extra hand. I called him up, and he’d be willing to take you on if you’re interested. So if you wanna go be with Cas, you can.”
Dean didn’t know what to say. He hugged his dad tightly, swallowing past the lump in his throat, hoping that the older man understood how deeply grateful he was. He could go now. He could be with Castiel and see if they could really make it work by themselves, two adults together in the world. Dean could do anything he wanted. The sense of potential was nothing short of terrifying.
“Dean!”
Castiel was standing across the quad, standing with a man in jeans and a khaki jacket who had his arm around a stunning young woman Dean was fairly sure he recognized from last month’s Busty Asian Beauties.
Dean ran over to him. “Cas,” he gasped before the other boy could say anything. “Cas, I’m coming with you. I’m coming to Ithaca. My dad, he’s found me a job near the college, and he says I can go.”
Castiel’s eyes grew wide with shock. “Are you... what?”
Dean’s face grew hot. It hadn’t occurred to him to think whether Cas would really be pleased with the news or not. Maybe he’d been looking forward to getting away by himself. Maybe the thought of having Dean around all the time freaked him out. Dean couldn’t bear the thought of not being wanted. “Yeah,” he said soberly. “That is, if you’d like me to.”
Cas laughed weakly. “Are you joking?” He suddenly threw his arms around Dean’s neck in an uncustomary public display of affection. “Of course I want you to! Do you have any idea how scared I’ve been? I can’t do this all by myself, I don’t know how! No one will talk to me! I’m awkward and I make people uncomfortable, and I forget that I’m supposed to make eye contact, and I don’t want to be away from you, because you’re the one person in the world who makes me better at being a human being, and I can’t be without you.”
Dean breathed a sigh of relief. “Then I’m with you.”
“So this is the guy who’s introduced my baby brother to sexual deviancy,” the guy standing next to Castiel said.
Cas sighed, pulling away. “Dean, this is my brother Gabriel.”
“Pleased to meet you, Dean-O!” Gabriel said, shaking Dean’s hand enthusiastically. “This lovely lady here is Kasha. We figured we’d fly over and see Cas’s big day. I have to say, it’s an honor to meet the man who seduced the kid away from the straight and narrow. I can’t say I’m all that surprised now I’ve met you, you are pretty for a guy. Hey, what d’you say I treat you all and your family to lunch? Is there anywhere good around here? D’you want some Skittles?” All of this was said at such a pace that Dean had trouble keeping up; Cas had mentioned his brother’s candy addiction so Dean figured the guy must be on a constant sugar high. Cas had warned him, but Gabriel was someone who had to be experienced to be believed.
He spent the next two hours with his very confused family, listening to Gabriel discuss the finer patisseries of New York, make sexual innuendoes, and tell a story about a cabbie, a parrot and a tub of ice cream that he was pretty sure would get Gabriel arrested if true. Castiel was sitting next to him, looking at Dean with mournful, apologetic eyes.
Dean didn’t care. He was going. He was actually going to leave here and try and make a life for himself. He was going to really make a go of things with Cas. He was going to go on his damn road trip. He was going to live. And sure it was scary, and it might not work out, and he didn’t really know what the hell he was getting himself into, but it was his life. Dean was living his life, and he wasn’t afraid anymore.
...
They left Kansas on the Fourth of July.
They figured they’d spend a couple of months driving round the country, stopping off in motels along the way. Dean had saved up enough over the years working at the garage to fund the trip, and he’d brought his old maps out again, plotting routes with Cas, planning what they wanted to see. It was much more fun doing it with someone else.
Dean tried not to think about how far New York State was from Kansas. Unlike Sam, who had picked out what college major he was going to take in kindergarten, Dean had had very little time to get used to the idea of leaving home, and the thought of not being able to see his family whenever he wanted was a little unsettling. He’d spent hours - literally hours - teaching John how to use Skype.
John helped Castiel load the last of their bags into the car, and Mary took the opportunity to give Dean one more hug. “There’s a good community college near Cornell,” she whispered in his ear. “I know you think higher education isn’t for you, but will you at least think about it?”
Dean nodded. “Yeah, Mom. I promise.”
Sam hadn’t spoken to him much over the past few days, and he was still standing on the front porch, scowling at his feet.
“Hey, bitch-face,” Dean called, going to stand beside him. “You know you’re not getting rid of me for that long; I’ll be back in a few months. And Mom was talking about flying out to see us for Thanksgiving.”
Sam nodded. “I know. You realize Dad and I are gonna kill each other without you around.”
“Go easy on him. He doesn’t always get it, but he tries real hard.”
Sam sighed again.
“Hey, you know what? If you want, the summer you graduate, we’ll do this. We’ll go on a road trip, just you and me. If you want to.”
Sam smiled at him then. “That’d be awesome, Dean.”
Dean suddenly found himself enveloped in his not-so-little brother, whose arms seemed to have doubled in length over the past year. “I’ll miss you too, Sammy,” he mumbled.
He had to blink back the tears when he pulled out of the driveway, waving at his family without being able to look at them properly because that would make it so much worse. Castiel understood, and gave his knee a little squeeze.
“Well, Cas,” Dean said as they left the last of Lawrence’s suburbs behind them and headed into the open country. “It’s been one hell of a year.”
“Yes,” the other boy agreed gravely. “A lot has happened. Some of it quite portentous.”
Dean laughed, the tight feeling he’d had in his chest after driving away from his family dissipating in the excitement of being young and free and with the person he loved. “Oh, Cas,” he said, turning up the radio so that AC/DC blasted through the open windows. “Don’t ever change.”
A/N 1: So that's the end. Only not really, because I've already planned out around five follow-up one shot fics, which will hopefully be posted soon, and I'll tag them with Jump the Track. Also, if anyone wants to prompt me, I'll do JtT drabbles/ficlets. Just comment with either something from the story you'd like to know more about, or even just a word prompt, and I'll get on that as well. Basically, this fic has taken over my life and I don't know how to stop. But thank you so much for reading and supporting this!
Edit: I've created a Master Post for the sequels and prompt fics, which will be updated as and when fics are completed. Also, you can download a PDF version of Jump the Track, which is here :)
A/N 2: Many, many thanks to the wonderful Sparrowsarahnade who has been looking over this for me and has explained to me how American high schools work. My only points of reference were Buffy and Glee, so I needed the help! Also, she is going to write a companion fic to this verse where Dean and Castiel run into Alastair at a party. It sounds amazing, and I'll let you all know when it's finished! Also, if you have a tumblr and you're not following her, what what what are you doing? Look at your life, Dean/Cas shipper. Look at your choices.
A/N 3: I have entered the latest challenge at dc_everafter which is a glorious community providing Dean/Cas takes on fairy tales, Disney movies and romantic comedies. I'm posting my fic (based on The Snow Queen) at the end of next week. Do go and check out the community, because some of the prompts look amazing!
Chapter 1, Chapter 2, Chapter 3, Chapter 4, Chapter 5, Chapter 6, Chapter 7, Chapter 8 Chapter 9 Chapter 10 Chapter 11
Dean smiled grimly. “Yeah. Thanks, Jo.”
Castiel looked over at him anxiously when he got into the car, and Dean tried to look as relaxed as possible. He didn’t care for himself, not really, but he was worried about how Cas would take it. He was still pretty fragile after everything that had happened. They’d spent the whole weekend just laying low, watching movies with Sam, and not talking about anything too serious. If anyone did or said anything today that made Cas feel bad... well, Dean might just have to kill them.
The first half of the day passed without incident. Dean kept his head down and stuck close to his friends. Maybe a few more people were glancing at him than usual, but he was studiously not paying attention.
Nothing actually happened until Dean was on his way to fourth period, when his old associate Steve accosted him.
“Is it true then, Winchester?” he sneered.
“Yeah, Steve, they’re thinking of banning pizza from the lunch menu. It’s tragic, I know.” He knew he wasn’t going to deter the guy for long, but it was worth a shot.
“No, I’m talking about you and Jesus boy. I heard that the two of you are fa-”
Dean had fisted a hand in Steve’s shirt before he could finish speaking, and shoved him up against the lockers. “You’d better not have been about to say what I think you were,” he growled, vaguely aware that passing students had stopped to watch.
Steve coughed. “I’ll take this as a confirmation, shall I?”
“Yeah, you know what? You can.” Dean let him go with another backward shove. “Me and Cas are together,” he said, loud enough for other people to hear. “I’m not gonna hide it or be ashamed. Cas is awesome, and frankly I couldn’t give a fuck what you people think. I mean, why the hell should I? You’re pathetic, dude! You’ve been following me around for years, kissing ass, trying to be like me, and you know what? I’m through with pretending to be who you want me to be. I’m Dean fucking Winchester! I’m ten times cooler than you could ever hope to be, and I can do whatever, and whoever the hell I want! And if I ever catch you saying homophobic shit again, I’ll... you know what, my boyfriend will kick your ass. I think we all know how that would go for you.”
Dean didn’t pay attention to how people reacted as he stalked off to go to Spanish. He was too busy trying not to pass out.
...
Dean and Castiel decided to blow off their senior prom. Dean hated having to wear formal attire, and Cas had gotten that rabbit-caught-in-headlights look on his face whenever anyone mentioned dancing. Besides, neither of them especially felt like being gawped at by the entire school as Lawrence High’s token gay couple. Sam was out somewhere with his friends, so they figured they’d just spend the evening at home in front of the TV.
But then Bobby turned up on the front doorstep wearing a tux.
He didn’t look very happy about it. “I’m here to pick you up,” he told Dean resignedly.
Dean’s gaze travelled from Bobby to the sleek black limousine parked in the road behind him. “Bobby, what the hell?”
Bobby shook his head. “Not my idea, kid.”
“But we’re not going to prom.”
Castiel had come out to join him. “I can’t dance,” he said quickly.
“Alternative arrangements have been made,” Bobby sighed. “Look, you think I wanna be dressed up like this? I was put up to it. Now you two idjits get into the damn car before I change my mind.”
“But-”
“Just get going already!” John and Mary had appeared in the hallway behind them, both of them grinning.
“You guys knew about this?” Dean demanded. “What the hell’s going on?”
“Shh, just go,” Mary told him. “Have fun.”
Dean rolled his eyes, seeing that he was getting nowhere. He grabbed Castiel’s hand and pulled him out of the door. Clearly, everyone was conspiring against them.
“You owe me one for this, John Winchester,” Bobby groused as he followed them to the limo.
“Dean, what are we doing?” Castiel muttered as they drove off. “I don’t dance, Dean. Please don’t make me dance.”
Dean laughed. “Dude, no one is gonna make you dance.”
They didn’t seem to be heading in the direction of the school, which was some comfort. However, when they pulled up in front of the auto shop Dean was more confused than ever.
Bobby opened the door for them, looking more hang-dog than ever. “Go round the back,” he said. “If anyone wants me, I’ll be in the office.”
Dean and Castiel shared confused glances before heading round the side of the garage. There was a lot out back where John and Bobby sometimes kept the vehicles they were waiting to work on, only now the alleyway leading to it was lined with fairy lights, and there was a big banner saying ‘Lawrence High Antiprom!’ The lot itself had been cleared, and it was lit up with Chinese lanterns and fairy lights.
“About damn time!” Pam shouted when she caught sight of them. “We thought you guys were never going to get here!”
Dean broke into a grin. “What the hell did you do?”
They were all there - Pam, Jo and Ash, as well as Jo’s boyfriend Mark, and Sam, Becky, Ava and Andy.
“Well, none of us were exactly keen on the idea of getting all dressed up and spending the evening in the school gym with a bunch of people we’ve spent the last four years reviling, listening to crappy music,” Jo told him. “So we figured we’d throw a little prom of our own - awesome people only. And then your kid brother and his friends decided they were going to crash. Andy persuaded the guys at the Jet Lag Lounge to let us borrow their sound system for the evening, so we thought it was only fair.”
Dean laughed. Andy could talk people into doing pretty much anything. “You guys are insane,” he said. “This is so awesome.”
Jo shrugged. “You two have had kind of a tough year. We figured you could do with a nice surprise for once.”
“Enough talking!” Ash yelled. “Music! Food! Beer!”
Dean considered it the best prom ever. Ash reprised his role as DJ Doctor Badass for the evening, playing a soundtrack that consisted mostly of AC/DC, Led Zeppelin and Metallica. Becky was dancing around like a maniac with Ava yelling about how the songs playing were totally about Spike and Angel! while Sam and Andy looked on in bemusement. Pam tried to talk everyone into playing strip poker. Dean spent most of the time making out furiously with Castiel behind the speakers, stopping only when their friends got sick of them and started pelting them with M&Ms. At midnight, Bobby came out and helped them set off fireworks. Dean didn’t think they could have wanted for anything more. He had everything, everything that had been good about his high school years, right there. There couldn’t have been a better send-off.
...
“I’ve heard from Anna,” Cas said.
“Is she okay?”
They were lying in bed together, curled up in the dark. It was the part of Dean’s day he always looked forward to.
“She seems to be fine. She made it to our uncle Lucifer’s house in California. He’s taken her in, and they’re going to try to get some form of court injunction so that she doesn’t have to go back to her father.” He stirred uneasily.
“What?”
“Dean, I’ve been trying to find my father.”
Dean didn’t say anything. Personally he was pretty fucking angry at Manuel Delacroix and thought that a father who abandoned his kids like that without even trying to keep in touch wasn’t worth looking for, but he knew better than to voice that opinion. This was Cas’s thing.
“It’s not going well so far,” Castiel sighed. “I tried to contact Uriel, but he won’t take my calls. I’m beginning to suspect that he’s been working with Zachariah all along. I’ve spoken about it to Anna, but she doesn’t know anything. Uncle Luke hasn’t spoken to my father in years. I’m going to try and contact my other cousins, but I very much doubt that Raphael will help me if he’s spoken to Zachariah.”
“I can help you, if you’d like,” Dean said, affection slightly outweighing his better judgement. “I mean, my mom can probably look something up for you. She knows quite a lot of people through her job, so she might be able to chase up someone who works for your dad.”
“That would be nice,” Castiel replied. “He’ll want to know, won’t he? He’ll want to know what’s going on, and what Zachariah’s been doing?”
It hurt Dean to hear the innocent hope in Castiel’s voice. “Yeah, course he will,” he lied.
...
The conversation came back to haunt Dean three days later when he and Pam found Castiel sitting by himself at one of the picnic benches in the school quad, a studiously blank expression on his face. Dean was getting pretty good at reading the subtle nuances of Castiel’s facial expressions. He hated it when people made fun of Cas for being like a robot. It was completely untrue that he didn’t have emotions, it was just that he wasn’t used to being around people and he didn’t know those little social rules that other people seem to pick up intuitively. If you took the time to get to know him, he’d start to relax, and then he’d unfold and open up, and was possibly the most amazing person who ever existed, in Dean’s opinion. It was just that when he was nervous or unhappy, he went blank. Right now, Dean could tell Cas was unhappy blank.
They sat down at the bench, Pam opposite him, Dean beside him, sitting as close as he was comfortable with in public. They waited.
“It’s about your dad, isn’t it?” Dean ventured after about five minutes. He was regretting telling Castiel that Mary could help. He’d known all along that it would come down to this.
Castiel gave a small nod. “Your mother found me the number of his publicist. I called her this morning, and she said she’d pass my contact details on to my father. He... he called me back.”
“And?” Pam prompted gently.
“And he thinks it would be for the best that he doesn’t get involved. According to him, I’m coping just fine by myself. He doesn’t see the point in returning. Apparently, seeing me would be counterproductive. Apparently, I’m better off without him. He is, of course, willing to pay my college fees,” Cas added with a note of bitterness.
Dean grit his teeth. He was fairly sure that he wanted nothing more than to punch the good Reverend right about now. He couldn’t understand how the guy could have the gall to go on TV and preach about love and kindness, then turn his back on his own children.
“I’m so sorry, Cas,” Pam breathed. “Are you gonna be okay?”
Castiel shrugged, a funny jerk of his shoulders. “I don’t know.”
“What do you want to do?”
Castiel stared at the table top. “I think... I want to find a liqueur store. And drink it.”
“I’m taking you home,” Dean said. “No, come on, we only have study hall. We’re gonna go home, and we’re not gonna talk about your dad.” He hauled Castiel to his feet and marched him to the Impala. He’d had an idea that maybe he could distract him with sex, but when they got in Cas just wanted to curl up in front of the TV, not really watching, definitely not talking. Dean didn’t know what to say to him. The last vestige of Castiel’s old life, the system of belief he’d held so strongly since childhood, had just been shattered. Anything Dean thought of to say seemed so trite and pointless. It would be better if Cas was angry. Dean understood angry, he didn’t understand this strange, pained silence.
It went on for the next couple of days. Cas was remote and unresponsive, except when they were alone at night when he would tear Dean’s clothes away and pull him down onto the bed, telling Dean shakily to do anything he wanted to. Dean held him tightly, glad to help in any way he could.
On the third day, Mary told Castiel that she’d found his brother Gabriel. He was living in New York, and she had a contact number for him. For the first time since the failure with his dad, there was something like hope in Castiel’s eyes.
“Are you gonna call him?” Dean asked later that night as they were going to bed.
“I would like to. Very much.”
“But?”
“I am nervous,” Cas replied carefully, feeling the words out.
“Because you’re scared he’ll be the same as your dad?”
“Partly, yes. But also... Dean, when Gabriel left, he was sixteen. We hadn’t seen our father in months, Zachariah was being... Well, he and Gabriel had their differences. Gabe had a little money saved up, and he... he couldn’t stay. But he wanted me to go with him. He asked me if I would because he didn’t want to be alone, but I was too scared. I mean, I was thirteen, and I... I didn’t want to... I’d never disobeyed before. I was too scared, and I said I was staying. I’ll never forget how hurt he looked.”
“Cas, you were a kid. I mean, you both were. Of course you were scared. He’ll want to hear from you.”
Castiel looked so tired. “Could we... Dean, would it be alright if you just held onto me tonight?”
Dean turned off the light and pulled him in close.
The next morning he sat next to Castiel as he nervously called up his long lost big brother. Dean had been right - Gabriel was delighted to hear from him. So much so that he immediately bought a ticket for Cas to fly out to New York to visit him the next day.
Apparently, Gabriel had come into some money since running away from home.
...
It was only four days, Dean kept telling himself. He was being incredibly lame, pining after Cas when he was only going to be away for four days. He’d see his brother, and then he’d come back home in time for graduation. It was all arranged, and Dean was being stupid. Jo kept laughing at him about it, and he couldn’t in all fairness blame her for it. It was a little worrying how quickly he’d gotten used to having the guy around all the time.
Sleeping was the worst.
Sharing a bed with Castiel had been an interesting experience for Dean. Not just the parts when they were awake and trying to have sex as quietly as possible (because as happy as Sam was about their relationship, Dean didn’t think he’d appreciate them fucking rampantly on the other side of his bedroom wall). It was the actual sleeping together thing that was going to take some getting used to. Castiel talked in his sleep. Dean could only ever catch the odd word or phrase, and sometimes he’d entertain himself by having pretend conversations with the sleeping Castiel. He liked it whenever he caught his own name amongst the indistinct muttering. Sometimes Cas would laugh in his sleep. This was actually pretty disturbing because it sounded nothing like Cas’s regular laugh, and it was really creepy when you were on the verge of falling asleep and there was this sinister chuckle from the other side of the bed. Cas also liked to cuddle, which Dean liked way more than he thought he would. But then Cas sometimes got a little aggressive about it. One time Dean had had to get up to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night and had carefully extracted himself, only to have a still sleeping Castiel grab hold of his t-shirt and haul him back into the bed before wrapping his arms and legs around Dean tightly. Cas always seemed to have more limbs than he actually did at times like that. Dean had had to actually wake the guy up in order to escape. It was, he thought, a bit like sharing a bad with a large, possessive octopus.
It was safe to say that Dean didn’t sleep as much now he was sharing his bed, but he hadn’t realized how much he’d miss it when Cas went away. The bed was just too damn big. Dean took to hugging his pillow.
The best thing, though, were the texts Castiel would send him about life at his brother’s house:
GABRIEL HAS RED SATIN SHEETS ON HIS BED. GOOD GOD, WHAT AM I DOING HERE?
I WOKE UP THIS MORNING TO FIND BLONDE SKANDANAVIAN TWINS MAKING WAFFLES IN THE KITCHEN WEARING ONLY THEIR UNDERWEAR. IT WAS TERRIFYING.
I SUSPECT THAT GABRIEL IS RUNNING SOME KIND OF DEN OF INIQUITY. I HAVE A HORRIBLE FEELING YOU WOULD LIKE IT HERE.
Cas had a way of being funny without realizing it. It was at times like this that Dean loved him especially. He didn’t want him to go away and leave Dean behind.
When Castiel called on Wednesday evening, he sounded much too far away. Dean tried to work out how many miles there were between them, and realized that he’d probably have to get used to doing that.
“We went over to see Cornell today. Gabriel’s bought me a house near the campus,” he told Dean. “I honestly don’t know where he’s gotten all this money from; he’s only three years older than me. I don’t like to ask, to be honest with you.”
“A house, huh?”
“Just a small place. It’s nice, though.”
Dean smiled painfully. “That’s good, Cas. Hey, you will be back for graduation on Friday, won’t you. I mean, you’re the valedictorian. You can’t miss it.”
“Yes, Dean, I’ll be back. I miss you.”
“I miss you too.”
Dean hung up. He had a feeling he’d be saying that quite a bit over the next few years.
...
“I don’t think teal is my color,” Dean told Mary as she adjusted his ceremonial robes.
“Don’t be silly, it brings out your eyes.”
Dean sighed. “Please don’t be Embarrassing Mom today.”
She laughed. “I’ll try, I promise. It’s just that... do you realize how far you’ve come? Just a few months ago we weren’t sure you’d even finish up the school year, and here you are on graduation day.”
Dean shrugged, still not quite sure how to cope with being proud of himself. “I had a lot of help.”
“You also worked hard, and you tried, and you made us all very proud of you. You did that, Dean. You’ve been amazing.”
Dean nodded, pleased and embarrassed. He went over to join the other graduates, and finally caught sight of Castiel, sitting two rows in front of him, somehow managing to look like he’d just rolled out of bed in spite of the formal occasion, with the collar of his robes askew and his cap at an oddly jaunty angle. Dean was sure that Mary would be dying to get her hands on him. They were too far away for anything more than a wave and a smile. It made Dean feel oddly wistful, like they were already being split up, Cas was already moving away from him. He was so preoccupied that he was barely aware of what he was doing as he went up on stage to collect his diploma, his smile fixed and brittle.
Castiel’s valedictorian speech was brief and nervous. He couldn’t even look at the audience, and Dean just wanted to hug him the whole time. He knew that Cas didn’t have to leave for college until the end of September and they had the whole summer ahead of them, but he felt like it was happening right now. It was the end of high school, the end of everything that had brought them together in the first place. So much had changed, Cas had, he had, and now they were going to be set adrift with nothing but the sense of the bond they shared to keep them together. Graduations were fucking depressing.
Dean’s family hugged him afterwards, as did Ellen Harvelle, who was trying to persuade Jo to keep her mortarboard on long enough for a few more photos. Dean tried to be enthusiastic about everything and hide the fact that he was feeling a strange mixture of happy and sad and he didn’t know how to deal with it.
John inclined his head, and Dean followed him a short distance away from the rest of his family.
“What’s up, Dad?”
“I got something for you.” John reached into his pocket at pulled out a folded piece of paper, handing it over to Dean.
It was a cheque. Dean figured his dad was giving him a graduation present, until he saw the amount written down. He felt a little dizzy.
“Dad, what the hell is this.”
John cleared his throat. “The day you were born, I went to the bank and I set up a savings account. I’ve been putting a hundred bucks a month into it ever since. I did the same for your brother. It’s, you know, a college fund. Dean, you might not think college is for you, but you’re a damn smart kid. You could... you could really do something with that brain of yours, and I don’t wanna see you working at my garage your whole life.”
“Dad, don’t be ridiculous! You’ve been dreaming about it since before I could walk, how I was gonna take over the family business one day.”
“Yeah, and maybe it was unfair of me.” John looked at him evenly. “Those were my dreams, Dean, not yours, and it was wrong of me to make you feel like... like you had to live up to them. Of course I want to keep you here forever, see you every day, watch you become a man, but maybe I was being selfish. Your brother, I had no chance of hanging onto him, he had his big ambitions from the start, but with you... I guess I took advantage. But I... I want you to be your own man, Dean. I want you to go out there and figure out who you are and what you want. I mean, d’you think my old man wanted me to join the Marines? Hell no, I was supposed to be a doctor. I didn’t do what he wanted, and I... don’t want you to do what I want, either.”
“Dad...”
“No. No arguments. You think I didn’t know about that road trip dream of yours? All those maps you used to buy? Why don’t you and Cas take off for a couple of months before he starts at Cornell?”
“I can’t just-”
“Yes you can, Dean. And there’s something else. I’ve... I’ve been asking around. Rufus knows a guy called Caleb who owns a garage near Cornell. Apparently he gets a lot of rich students bringing their cars in during term time and could use an extra hand. I called him up, and he’d be willing to take you on if you’re interested. So if you wanna go be with Cas, you can.”
Dean didn’t know what to say. He hugged his dad tightly, swallowing past the lump in his throat, hoping that the older man understood how deeply grateful he was. He could go now. He could be with Castiel and see if they could really make it work by themselves, two adults together in the world. Dean could do anything he wanted. The sense of potential was nothing short of terrifying.
“Dean!”
Castiel was standing across the quad, standing with a man in jeans and a khaki jacket who had his arm around a stunning young woman Dean was fairly sure he recognized from last month’s Busty Asian Beauties.
Dean ran over to him. “Cas,” he gasped before the other boy could say anything. “Cas, I’m coming with you. I’m coming to Ithaca. My dad, he’s found me a job near the college, and he says I can go.”
Castiel’s eyes grew wide with shock. “Are you... what?”
Dean’s face grew hot. It hadn’t occurred to him to think whether Cas would really be pleased with the news or not. Maybe he’d been looking forward to getting away by himself. Maybe the thought of having Dean around all the time freaked him out. Dean couldn’t bear the thought of not being wanted. “Yeah,” he said soberly. “That is, if you’d like me to.”
Cas laughed weakly. “Are you joking?” He suddenly threw his arms around Dean’s neck in an uncustomary public display of affection. “Of course I want you to! Do you have any idea how scared I’ve been? I can’t do this all by myself, I don’t know how! No one will talk to me! I’m awkward and I make people uncomfortable, and I forget that I’m supposed to make eye contact, and I don’t want to be away from you, because you’re the one person in the world who makes me better at being a human being, and I can’t be without you.”
Dean breathed a sigh of relief. “Then I’m with you.”
“So this is the guy who’s introduced my baby brother to sexual deviancy,” the guy standing next to Castiel said.
Cas sighed, pulling away. “Dean, this is my brother Gabriel.”
“Pleased to meet you, Dean-O!” Gabriel said, shaking Dean’s hand enthusiastically. “This lovely lady here is Kasha. We figured we’d fly over and see Cas’s big day. I have to say, it’s an honor to meet the man who seduced the kid away from the straight and narrow. I can’t say I’m all that surprised now I’ve met you, you are pretty for a guy. Hey, what d’you say I treat you all and your family to lunch? Is there anywhere good around here? D’you want some Skittles?” All of this was said at such a pace that Dean had trouble keeping up; Cas had mentioned his brother’s candy addiction so Dean figured the guy must be on a constant sugar high. Cas had warned him, but Gabriel was someone who had to be experienced to be believed.
He spent the next two hours with his very confused family, listening to Gabriel discuss the finer patisseries of New York, make sexual innuendoes, and tell a story about a cabbie, a parrot and a tub of ice cream that he was pretty sure would get Gabriel arrested if true. Castiel was sitting next to him, looking at Dean with mournful, apologetic eyes.
Dean didn’t care. He was going. He was actually going to leave here and try and make a life for himself. He was going to really make a go of things with Cas. He was going to go on his damn road trip. He was going to live. And sure it was scary, and it might not work out, and he didn’t really know what the hell he was getting himself into, but it was his life. Dean was living his life, and he wasn’t afraid anymore.
...
They left Kansas on the Fourth of July.
They figured they’d spend a couple of months driving round the country, stopping off in motels along the way. Dean had saved up enough over the years working at the garage to fund the trip, and he’d brought his old maps out again, plotting routes with Cas, planning what they wanted to see. It was much more fun doing it with someone else.
Dean tried not to think about how far New York State was from Kansas. Unlike Sam, who had picked out what college major he was going to take in kindergarten, Dean had had very little time to get used to the idea of leaving home, and the thought of not being able to see his family whenever he wanted was a little unsettling. He’d spent hours - literally hours - teaching John how to use Skype.
John helped Castiel load the last of their bags into the car, and Mary took the opportunity to give Dean one more hug. “There’s a good community college near Cornell,” she whispered in his ear. “I know you think higher education isn’t for you, but will you at least think about it?”
Dean nodded. “Yeah, Mom. I promise.”
Sam hadn’t spoken to him much over the past few days, and he was still standing on the front porch, scowling at his feet.
“Hey, bitch-face,” Dean called, going to stand beside him. “You know you’re not getting rid of me for that long; I’ll be back in a few months. And Mom was talking about flying out to see us for Thanksgiving.”
Sam nodded. “I know. You realize Dad and I are gonna kill each other without you around.”
“Go easy on him. He doesn’t always get it, but he tries real hard.”
Sam sighed again.
“Hey, you know what? If you want, the summer you graduate, we’ll do this. We’ll go on a road trip, just you and me. If you want to.”
Sam smiled at him then. “That’d be awesome, Dean.”
Dean suddenly found himself enveloped in his not-so-little brother, whose arms seemed to have doubled in length over the past year. “I’ll miss you too, Sammy,” he mumbled.
He had to blink back the tears when he pulled out of the driveway, waving at his family without being able to look at them properly because that would make it so much worse. Castiel understood, and gave his knee a little squeeze.
“Well, Cas,” Dean said as they left the last of Lawrence’s suburbs behind them and headed into the open country. “It’s been one hell of a year.”
“Yes,” the other boy agreed gravely. “A lot has happened. Some of it quite portentous.”
Dean laughed, the tight feeling he’d had in his chest after driving away from his family dissipating in the excitement of being young and free and with the person he loved. “Oh, Cas,” he said, turning up the radio so that AC/DC blasted through the open windows. “Don’t ever change.”
A/N 1: So that's the end. Only not really, because I've already planned out around five follow-up one shot fics, which will hopefully be posted soon, and I'll tag them with Jump the Track. Also, if anyone wants to prompt me, I'll do JtT drabbles/ficlets. Just comment with either something from the story you'd like to know more about, or even just a word prompt, and I'll get on that as well. Basically, this fic has taken over my life and I don't know how to stop. But thank you so much for reading and supporting this!
Edit: I've created a Master Post for the sequels and prompt fics, which will be updated as and when fics are completed. Also, you can download a PDF version of Jump the Track, which is here :)
A/N 2: Many, many thanks to the wonderful Sparrowsarahnade who has been looking over this for me and has explained to me how American high schools work. My only points of reference were Buffy and Glee, so I needed the help! Also, she is going to write a companion fic to this verse where Dean and Castiel run into Alastair at a party. It sounds amazing, and I'll let you all know when it's finished! Also, if you have a tumblr and you're not following her, what what what are you doing? Look at your life, Dean/Cas shipper. Look at your choices.
A/N 3: I have entered the latest challenge at dc_everafter which is a glorious community providing Dean/Cas takes on fairy tales, Disney movies and romantic comedies. I'm posting my fic (based on The Snow Queen) at the end of next week. Do go and check out the community, because some of the prompts look amazing!
Chapter 1, Chapter 2, Chapter 3, Chapter 4, Chapter 5, Chapter 6, Chapter 7, Chapter 8 Chapter 9 Chapter 10 Chapter 11