SPN- Big Brother is Watching You 1/2
TITLE : Big brother is watching you
CHALLENGE : spn_reversebang
AUTHOR : moonliteknight
ARTIST : xlostloonax
ART: Masterpost
RATING : PG
PAIRINGS : Dean x Cas
WORD COUNT: 6000
WARNINGS : some mentions of homophobia
SUMMARY : Sam is trying to set Dean and Cas up. Jimmy is trying to keep them apart. Cas spies on Dean from bushes. And Dean might or might not be interested in Sam’s new blue-eyed, trenchcoat wearing science tutor. High school AU in which Jimmy is Cas' twin brother.
For as long as Jimmy could remember, it had been his job to look after Cas. Younger by exactly thirty-six minutes, Cas was the last of the twelve Novak kids. The baby of the family. It had always fallen on Jimmy to protect Cas from the pranks of their numerous siblings, to save him from their parent’s wrath every time Cas decided to ignore rule number one and asked “Why?”, and to keep the bullies away. He’d never minded being the protector, and thankfully, no one was dumb enough to pick on a kid with ten older brothers and two older sisters, one of which was notorious at school for making the toughest boy in her year cry.
Unfortunately, Cas was the type of kid who attracted a lot trouble solely due to the fact that he could not walk away from someone who needed help. Jimmy loved and hated that about his twin. On one hand, it proved that he was right and there was no one in the world better than his brother. On the other hand, a majority of Cas’s opponents tended to be twice his size and while Cas knew how to fight (all the Novak kids did), he had never really learned how to duck.
Their parents liked to joke that Jimmy’s overprotective tendencies had started in the womb. No one had realized that the last Novak child were actually the last Novak twins. It turned out that Jimmy had been curled around Cas the entire time their mother had been pregnant, blocking him from view of any sonograms. Everyone had been surprised when Cas popped out less than an hour after Jimmy.
Jimmy privately believed that while his protective tendencies might have started in the womb, it was only after the two of them arrived in the outside world and he realized that Cas had absolutely no self preservation instincts at all that his protective tendencies became overprotective.
So yeah, Jimmy had been looking after Cas pretty much his entire life. Which was why, when he realized that Cas had a CRUSH, he was a little upset. His little brother was growing up, and noticing people in that way. He was entitled to feel a little nostalgic. However, when he found out that the object of his brother’s affections was none other than DEAN WINCHESTER, the neighborhood bad boy, ladies man, the very type of person their parents DESPISED. Well. He freaked.
Hey, he had every right too.
It wasn’t the guy thing. Jimmy had never really understood his parent’s views that homosexuality was evil and a sin, but he had just nodded along and never thought much of it, thinking it would never affect him. How wrong he was. After the sixth time, he saw Cas lurking at the end of the block after they’d gotten home from school, trying to catch a glimpse of Winchester as he came back from whatever deviant acts he did during the day, Jimmy spent an entire week reading about same sex rights, and laws, and reread the bible so many times that he lost count.
He came out of it mentally scarred, (why he’d thought it would be a brilliant idea to conduct some of his research on the internet without safe search on, he’d never know) but much wiser. Hey, it was for Cas. He could endure a little mental scarring for his little brother. He was never going to eat cucumbers again, but he could deal.
What he couldn’t deal with, however was the fact that it was DEAN WINCHESTER that had caught his brother’s attention. DEAN WINCHESTER who was in line to inherit an ugly muscle car, who (according to the rumors) cut school every other week, who (again according to rumors) had a new girl every week and likely wasn't even gay. Okay, maybe rumors weren’t the best or most reliable sources of information, but it was really the only thing at his disposal. His only other option was talking to Winchester, but Jimmy wasn’t about to risk or suffer through that just yet.
See, the thing was, Jimmy knew Cas liked Dean. Cas did not know that Jimmy knew that Cas liked Dean. Dean did not know that Cas existed.
Actually, Jimmy was pretty sure Dean didn’t even know that Cas existed. Which was another point against him. There was also very little possibility of him ever knowing given that Cas preferred to sneak glances at him through bushes instead of talking to him like a normal person. Cas was weird like that.
Jimmy briefly debated pushing his brother to take the first step and talk to the guy, but discarded it quickly. Not because it was DEAN WINCHESTER, okay it was a tiny bit that, but mostly, Jimmy was loathe to do anything that would mean less attention for him. He might accept that Cas had a crush, and he could kind of accept that it was on Dean Winchester, but he wasn't going to push at it to become something more.
So life continued and everything was fine and dandy.
Until Cas came home one day, a couple of weeks into their start of their first year in high school, almost bursting with happiness. Which on Cas meant that he looked even more messy than usual, had somehow managed to turn his tie backwards, and had his lips turned upward in a little smile.
Without the smile Jimmy would have guessed that Cas had been in a fight. With the smile, he guessed that there had been a fight, and that Dean had been involved some way.
Probably started the fight, Jimmy thought sourly as he side-eyed his brother’s failed attempts to stop grinning and fidgeting as they lounged in the family room. It was their ritual that whenever their parents weren't home (which was most of the time) to just sprawl in front of the TV after school until nine or until one of their siblings kicked them out. Whichever came first. Usually Cas would force him to watch the Discovery Channel and spend the entire time glued to the screen. Today however, not even the documentary on watching bees could hold Cas's attention.
He sighed and gave in. “What happened?”
Cas stilled.
Guiltily, Jimmy’s mind supplied.
“What makes you think something has happened?” Cas said, staring intently at the TV He probably had no idea what they were watching. He’d probably been too busy daydreaming about Winchester to notice that that Jimmy had changed the channel ten times in the last five minutes, and had finally settled a "who's the daddy" type talk show that Cas absolutely hated.
“Your face.”
Cas frowned. “What on my face is telling you that something had happened?”
Jimmy poked him in that fleshy part just under the ribs. “Just tell me.”
“There is nothing go tell.”
“Liar.”
Cas blinked at him. Jimmy blinked back. They held each others gazes, without blinking until Jimmy had to forfeit or risk letting tears fall down his cheeks. He scowled and rubbed furiously at his eyes ignoring the smugness that his twin was radiating next to him. Cas always won their staring contest. Fine if he wanted to be like. Jimmy slowly reached out and grabbed the TV remote and pushed into the cushion behind him.
“Absolutely nothing has happened today." Cas said, still too smug. "Nothing at all."
Jimmy scoffed and slouched down, effectively hiding the faint lump of the remote.
Three, two, one...
Loud applause erupted from the TV Cas glanced sharply at it and frowned.
"Jimmy? Do you have the remote?"
Bingo.
"I don't know," Jimmy said, mimicking Cas's gruffer tone of voice. "I didn't do anything to it."
"Jimmy, give me the remote."
"I told you, I don't have it" he said, still half growling his words. "What, you don't believe me?" He broke off with a cough. Ugh. Talking like Cas made his throat hurt. He had no idea how Cas managed to talk like that all the time.
Cas glared at him. "Jimmy this is not funny. You know how much I dislike this show."
Jimmy shrugged but didn't move
Cas poked him, starting to look faintly panicked. "Jimmy. He's about to do the ‘not baby daddy’ dance. Please. " He actually made quotation marks with his fingers.
Jimmy raised an eyebrow. "How do you even know what that is?"
"Anna."
Jimmy winced in sympathy. He was well acquainted with their eldest sister’s misguided attempts at sibling bonding slash torture. Anna had once made him watch a six hour marathon of Robot Chicken. He'd deny it forever but it had given him nightmares for weeks.
But that didn't mean he was going to let Cas off the hook that easily for keeping even more secrets from him. He grit his teeth against the annoying sounds emitting from the TV and steeled his heart against his brother's pleading eyes. Okay, more like he just resolutely avoided looking at Cas.
Cas broke down when the people on the screen got into a screaming match that was more censored bleeps than actual words.
"Alright fine. I'll tell you."
Jimmy crossed his arms and waited.
Cas sighed heavily, as though it was a great burden to not lie to his brother. “Sam Winchester has asked me to tutor him for his upcoming science fair and agreed. We start tomorrow. Will that be okay, Father?”
Jimmy ignored the ‘father’ and concentrated on the rest of the words. Cas had a tendency to call him father when he thought Jimmy was being too overprotective. He wasn’t really, he was just worried. Brothers did that, right?
"So,” he said slowly, drawing out the word. “You're that happy, because you're tutoring a fifth grader."
Cas shrugged. "I told you it was nothing. You're just making a big deal out of nothing."
Nothing? This was not nothing. Cas was tutoring Sam. Sam Winchester. As in Dean Winchester's younger brother. At their house, where Dean lived. Where there was a chance that the two might end up in the same room and actually talk.
Cas winced at the catcalls that suddenly erupted from the TV "If you are not going to change the channel, then I'm going to the kitchen." he announced and did just that.
Jimmy stared after him.
This was not nothing.
~~
Cas wasn’t really sure why Sam Winchester had decided to ask him to tutor him in science. Jimmy was the more obvious choice, he was the one who had won 2nd place in the Science Fair at their school when they were kids. Cas was fascinated by science, but not as much as he adored history. While he and Jimmy had worked together on the project, Jimmy had been the one who did the actual building and designing. Cas had just done the theoretical stuff.
But whatever Sam’s reasons were, he was glad the boy had asked him. It was unbelievably selfish of him, but the only reason that he had immediately said yes was because of Dean. Sam’s older brother.
Cas had accepted because of the tiny possibility that one day, while tutoring Sam, Dean would come home early, and see Cas, and by some miracle, decide to talk to him, and tell him that he’d liked Cas all along and wanted to date him and...
Okay most likely not. But he might at least be able to catch a closer glimpse of Dean than he could from the bushes in Mrs. Turner’s yard and that was good enough for him.
Now all he had to do was knock on the front door and go in. Just knock. Cas leaned back onto the balls of his feet, hands clenched into fists in the pockets of his favorite trench coat He’d been standing at the front door for a while now, trying to knock, but he just couldn’t. What if Dean answered the door? What if he talked to him? What was he supposed to say? There were just too many what ifs running through his head.
Cas took a deep breath and leaned forward. He was being ridiculous. Dean probably wasn’t even home. He didn’t have Dean’s schedule memorized, but he was pretty sure that Dean was at his uncle Bobby’s garage. So there was really no cause for him to be nervous. But he was kind of disappointed
Cas raised his hand to knock.
The door flew open, and Cas froze, his hand just inches away from knocking into the head of one very startled Sam Winchester holding a large garbage bag.
“Castiel?”
“Hello, Sam.”
“Hi.” Sam said warily, eying Cas’s fist which was inches from his face. Cas quickly let his hand drop. “You’re early.”
Cas would have been earlier if it hadn’t been for Jimmy. Every time Cas tried to leave, Jimmy would drag him back inside with some excuse or another until Cas finally just snuck out the back door.
"It’s fine, uh" Sam said, after a minute. He glanced at the bag in his hands. " Just let me just throw this away and then we can get started."
Cas nodded, wondering if he should follow Sam or just wait on the doorstep.
Luckily Sam returned before Cas too long, though he did give Cas a weird look when he saw his standing exactly where he had left him.
The Winchester house was very different from his house. It was smaller, messier, and warmer.. Cas loved it.
“Sorry about the mess,” Sam said, grabbing an armful of clothes off the table and dumping them on a chair. “My brother is a pig.”
Cas added that piece of information to his mental list of Dean. He wasn’t a particularly neat person himself. In fact, that was how most people told them apart. Cas’s hair was usually a wild mess, his clothes were often oversized and rumpled. Jimmy on the other hand always had neatly brushed brushed hair and perfectly pressed clothes.
“You said you needed help with your science project?” Cas asked, sitting down.
“Oh, uh. Yeah.” Sam sat down, opening his science textbook.“Hey, Castiel? I forgot to say, thanks for yesterday.”
Cas hadn’t exactly told Jimmy the entire truth. He hadn’t lied, he’d just neglected to mention the fight. He knew Jimmy would just needlessly worry, so there was no point in mentioning it. He had run into Sam on the way home from the local library. Well, technically, he’d run into Sam and a few older kids who had the boy surrounded. He made the boys back off and Sam, after thanking him, had asked him for help on a science project after he saw all of the science books that Cas was carrying. Cas had agreed.
At that moment, he could think of nothing better. Now though he was kind of regretting it. He’d reread his old Science textbooks last night to refresh his memory, but it didn’t seem to have helped. He really didn’t remember having to learn about thermodynamics when he was in fifth grade. Odd.
Cas was so busy frowning at the textbook that he missed the door opening. He didn’t, however, miss Sam calling out, “Hi Dean! You’re home early.”
Cas looked up and froze. Dean Winchester, walked into the room. He looked even more gorgeous close up.
“Hey squirt.” Dean Winchester said, pausing to take a drink out of the fridge. Then he leaned against the counter and took a drink, his gaze falling on Cas.“So, you Sammy’s new tutor?”
Cas nodded stiffly, only vaguely aware that he was staring at Dean. And that Dean was staring right back. Cas wasn’t sure how long the two of them just stared at each other, but it must have been awhile since Sam resorted to pointedly clearing his though to get their attention.
Dean broke eye contact first.
“Uh, cool. I’ll just, uh. I’ll just let you two science geeks get to work then.” He quickly left the room.
Sam frowned “Okay, that was weird even for Dean.”
Cas looked back at the textbook, trying not to blush. He had definitely made the right decision.
~~
The next few tutoring sessions went by quickly. Sam really knew what he was doing and made significant progress on his project in just a few days. Cas wasn’t really sure why the boy thought he needed a tutor at all. Surprisingly, he continued to see Dean around the house. They didn’t really talk. Cas was perfectly okay with that. Just being able to see Dean from this close everyday was enough.
Sam on the other hand, seemed to be getting more and more annoyed with how much Dean was around. From what Cas overheard, it was very unusual for Dean to be home in the afternoon. Cas didn’t mind. He tried to tell Sam that it was fine with him if Dean wanted to be lounging around in front of the television while they were working, but Sam’s only response was to give him a weird look. He did stop glaring at Dean whenever he was in the room however.
Sam had insisted, out of the blue yesterday, that he was going to treat Cas to lunch as a thank you for helping him with his science project, not that Cas had really done that much to help. The only reason Cas had accepted was because Sam had immediately invited Dean to come along with them, to which he had had answered, “Sure, whatever.”
Which was why he was at Ellen’s Diner at 11am on Saturday morning, waiting impatiently in a booth, ignoring the dirty looks he got from the owner for not ordering anything to eat. He was a good half hour early. He’d left early, thinking that Jimmy would keep trying to distract him like he usually did whenever it came to the Winchesters. Surprisingly though, today Jimmy hadn’t even seemed to notice that Cas was clearly getting ready to go out. He would probably be more suspicious if he wasn't so excited to see Dean.
“Hey Cas.” Dean greeted ,sliding into the seat across from Cas.
“Dean.” Cas tried not to grin. He felt ridiculously pleased that Dean had started called him Cas. “Where’s Sam?”
“Oh, uh” Dean looked flustered for a moment. “He was taking forever to get ready, so I came ahead. You been waiting long?”
“No.” Cas lied.
Ellen chose that moment to come over. “Finally ready to order? Really Dean, you don't keep your date waiting this long.”
Cas;s He glanced at Dean and was surprised to note that Dean’s face was a little pink was well as he glared at Ellen.
“It’s not a date.” He protested.
“Right.” Cas agreed.
“Uh huh” Ellen said, clearly not believing them. “Will you be ordering or not for your ‘not date’?”
“I’ll have a burger and fries.”
“Same.” Cas added. “Shouldn’t we wait for Sam?”
Dean waved a hand “He can order his rabbit food when he gets here.”
Things were awkward after Ellen took their order
“So,” Dean said finally, drawing out the word, clearly searching for a topic. “You go to St. Angelos’ right? Heard it was a good school. Sammy really wants to go there.”
“It’s a good school. Sam would likely benefit from it.”
It was a good school. It was also strict, conservative, and had a lot of rules. From what Cas had knew of Sam so far, he was sure the boy would hate it.
Cas leaned close. “I-”
And then Jimmy plopped down next to him.
“Cas? What a surprise seeing you here!”
His voice was too light and surprised. Cas’s eyes narrowed, as he pushed back the disappointment at being interrupted. He knew that tone. Jimmy was lying.
“Hi,” Dean said. He didn’t look any happier at the interruption than Cas felt. “You must be Jimmy.”
“And you must be Dean.” Jimmy grinned at him, the too sharp grin that he used n bullies and people he did not like. “Nice to meet you.”
“Same.” Dean returned the grin warily, no edge.
Cas got a bad feeling about this. This was to going to go well.
Five minutes later, he realized he was wrong. This was way worse than he could have imagined. Jimmy and Dean seemed to be just moments away from taking a swing at each other right then and there.
“Hey guys! Sorry I’m late!”Sam said, appearing out of nowhere, sliding into the seat next to Dean. “Dean, why did you wake me up before you left? My alarm didn’t go off.”
But it didn’t seem to make a difference. Jimmy and Dean were too busy glaring at each other to even notice Sam’ arrival.
They continued arguing, making snide marks at each other until finally Cas snapped.
“Sam, I will see you tomorrow,” Cas announced suddenly standing up, grabbing Jimmy’s arms and forcing him to his feet as well. “Let’s go Jimmy. Bye Dean.”
He more or less dragged Jimmy out the restaurant.
“I am never talking to you again.” he hissed, when they were outside. “Never.”
He let go of Jimmy’s arm, ignored the startled look on Jimmy’s face, and turned around and headed home.
~~
Part 2
CHALLENGE : spn_reversebang
AUTHOR : moonliteknight
ARTIST : xlostloonax
ART: Masterpost
RATING : PG
PAIRINGS : Dean x Cas
WORD COUNT: 6000
WARNINGS : some mentions of homophobia
SUMMARY : Sam is trying to set Dean and Cas up. Jimmy is trying to keep them apart. Cas spies on Dean from bushes. And Dean might or might not be interested in Sam’s new blue-eyed, trenchcoat wearing science tutor. High school AU in which Jimmy is Cas' twin brother.
For as long as Jimmy could remember, it had been his job to look after Cas. Younger by exactly thirty-six minutes, Cas was the last of the twelve Novak kids. The baby of the family. It had always fallen on Jimmy to protect Cas from the pranks of their numerous siblings, to save him from their parent’s wrath every time Cas decided to ignore rule number one and asked “Why?”, and to keep the bullies away. He’d never minded being the protector, and thankfully, no one was dumb enough to pick on a kid with ten older brothers and two older sisters, one of which was notorious at school for making the toughest boy in her year cry.
Unfortunately, Cas was the type of kid who attracted a lot trouble solely due to the fact that he could not walk away from someone who needed help. Jimmy loved and hated that about his twin. On one hand, it proved that he was right and there was no one in the world better than his brother. On the other hand, a majority of Cas’s opponents tended to be twice his size and while Cas knew how to fight (all the Novak kids did), he had never really learned how to duck.
Their parents liked to joke that Jimmy’s overprotective tendencies had started in the womb. No one had realized that the last Novak child were actually the last Novak twins. It turned out that Jimmy had been curled around Cas the entire time their mother had been pregnant, blocking him from view of any sonograms. Everyone had been surprised when Cas popped out less than an hour after Jimmy.
Jimmy privately believed that while his protective tendencies might have started in the womb, it was only after the two of them arrived in the outside world and he realized that Cas had absolutely no self preservation instincts at all that his protective tendencies became overprotective.
So yeah, Jimmy had been looking after Cas pretty much his entire life. Which was why, when he realized that Cas had a CRUSH, he was a little upset. His little brother was growing up, and noticing people in that way. He was entitled to feel a little nostalgic. However, when he found out that the object of his brother’s affections was none other than DEAN WINCHESTER, the neighborhood bad boy, ladies man, the very type of person their parents DESPISED. Well. He freaked.
Hey, he had every right too.
It wasn’t the guy thing. Jimmy had never really understood his parent’s views that homosexuality was evil and a sin, but he had just nodded along and never thought much of it, thinking it would never affect him. How wrong he was. After the sixth time, he saw Cas lurking at the end of the block after they’d gotten home from school, trying to catch a glimpse of Winchester as he came back from whatever deviant acts he did during the day, Jimmy spent an entire week reading about same sex rights, and laws, and reread the bible so many times that he lost count.
He came out of it mentally scarred, (why he’d thought it would be a brilliant idea to conduct some of his research on the internet without safe search on, he’d never know) but much wiser. Hey, it was for Cas. He could endure a little mental scarring for his little brother. He was never going to eat cucumbers again, but he could deal.
What he couldn’t deal with, however was the fact that it was DEAN WINCHESTER that had caught his brother’s attention. DEAN WINCHESTER who was in line to inherit an ugly muscle car, who (according to the rumors) cut school every other week, who (again according to rumors) had a new girl every week and likely wasn't even gay. Okay, maybe rumors weren’t the best or most reliable sources of information, but it was really the only thing at his disposal. His only other option was talking to Winchester, but Jimmy wasn’t about to risk or suffer through that just yet.
See, the thing was, Jimmy knew Cas liked Dean. Cas did not know that Jimmy knew that Cas liked Dean. Dean did not know that Cas existed.
Actually, Jimmy was pretty sure Dean didn’t even know that Cas existed. Which was another point against him. There was also very little possibility of him ever knowing given that Cas preferred to sneak glances at him through bushes instead of talking to him like a normal person. Cas was weird like that.
Jimmy briefly debated pushing his brother to take the first step and talk to the guy, but discarded it quickly. Not because it was DEAN WINCHESTER, okay it was a tiny bit that, but mostly, Jimmy was loathe to do anything that would mean less attention for him. He might accept that Cas had a crush, and he could kind of accept that it was on Dean Winchester, but he wasn't going to push at it to become something more.
So life continued and everything was fine and dandy.
Until Cas came home one day, a couple of weeks into their start of their first year in high school, almost bursting with happiness. Which on Cas meant that he looked even more messy than usual, had somehow managed to turn his tie backwards, and had his lips turned upward in a little smile.
Without the smile Jimmy would have guessed that Cas had been in a fight. With the smile, he guessed that there had been a fight, and that Dean had been involved some way.
Probably started the fight, Jimmy thought sourly as he side-eyed his brother’s failed attempts to stop grinning and fidgeting as they lounged in the family room. It was their ritual that whenever their parents weren't home (which was most of the time) to just sprawl in front of the TV after school until nine or until one of their siblings kicked them out. Whichever came first. Usually Cas would force him to watch the Discovery Channel and spend the entire time glued to the screen. Today however, not even the documentary on watching bees could hold Cas's attention.
He sighed and gave in. “What happened?”
Cas stilled.
Guiltily, Jimmy’s mind supplied.
“What makes you think something has happened?” Cas said, staring intently at the TV He probably had no idea what they were watching. He’d probably been too busy daydreaming about Winchester to notice that that Jimmy had changed the channel ten times in the last five minutes, and had finally settled a "who's the daddy" type talk show that Cas absolutely hated.
“Your face.”
Cas frowned. “What on my face is telling you that something had happened?”
Jimmy poked him in that fleshy part just under the ribs. “Just tell me.”
“There is nothing go tell.”
“Liar.”
Cas blinked at him. Jimmy blinked back. They held each others gazes, without blinking until Jimmy had to forfeit or risk letting tears fall down his cheeks. He scowled and rubbed furiously at his eyes ignoring the smugness that his twin was radiating next to him. Cas always won their staring contest. Fine if he wanted to be like. Jimmy slowly reached out and grabbed the TV remote and pushed into the cushion behind him.
“Absolutely nothing has happened today." Cas said, still too smug. "Nothing at all."
Jimmy scoffed and slouched down, effectively hiding the faint lump of the remote.
Three, two, one...
Loud applause erupted from the TV Cas glanced sharply at it and frowned.
"Jimmy? Do you have the remote?"
Bingo.
"I don't know," Jimmy said, mimicking Cas's gruffer tone of voice. "I didn't do anything to it."
"Jimmy, give me the remote."
"I told you, I don't have it" he said, still half growling his words. "What, you don't believe me?" He broke off with a cough. Ugh. Talking like Cas made his throat hurt. He had no idea how Cas managed to talk like that all the time.
Cas glared at him. "Jimmy this is not funny. You know how much I dislike this show."
Jimmy shrugged but didn't move
Cas poked him, starting to look faintly panicked. "Jimmy. He's about to do the ‘not baby daddy’ dance. Please. " He actually made quotation marks with his fingers.
Jimmy raised an eyebrow. "How do you even know what that is?"
"Anna."
Jimmy winced in sympathy. He was well acquainted with their eldest sister’s misguided attempts at sibling bonding slash torture. Anna had once made him watch a six hour marathon of Robot Chicken. He'd deny it forever but it had given him nightmares for weeks.
But that didn't mean he was going to let Cas off the hook that easily for keeping even more secrets from him. He grit his teeth against the annoying sounds emitting from the TV and steeled his heart against his brother's pleading eyes. Okay, more like he just resolutely avoided looking at Cas.
Cas broke down when the people on the screen got into a screaming match that was more censored bleeps than actual words.
"Alright fine. I'll tell you."
Jimmy crossed his arms and waited.
Cas sighed heavily, as though it was a great burden to not lie to his brother. “Sam Winchester has asked me to tutor him for his upcoming science fair and agreed. We start tomorrow. Will that be okay, Father?”
Jimmy ignored the ‘father’ and concentrated on the rest of the words. Cas had a tendency to call him father when he thought Jimmy was being too overprotective. He wasn’t really, he was just worried. Brothers did that, right?
"So,” he said slowly, drawing out the word. “You're that happy, because you're tutoring a fifth grader."
Cas shrugged. "I told you it was nothing. You're just making a big deal out of nothing."
Nothing? This was not nothing. Cas was tutoring Sam. Sam Winchester. As in Dean Winchester's younger brother. At their house, where Dean lived. Where there was a chance that the two might end up in the same room and actually talk.
Cas winced at the catcalls that suddenly erupted from the TV "If you are not going to change the channel, then I'm going to the kitchen." he announced and did just that.
Jimmy stared after him.
This was not nothing.
~~
Cas wasn’t really sure why Sam Winchester had decided to ask him to tutor him in science. Jimmy was the more obvious choice, he was the one who had won 2nd place in the Science Fair at their school when they were kids. Cas was fascinated by science, but not as much as he adored history. While he and Jimmy had worked together on the project, Jimmy had been the one who did the actual building and designing. Cas had just done the theoretical stuff.
But whatever Sam’s reasons were, he was glad the boy had asked him. It was unbelievably selfish of him, but the only reason that he had immediately said yes was because of Dean. Sam’s older brother.
Cas had accepted because of the tiny possibility that one day, while tutoring Sam, Dean would come home early, and see Cas, and by some miracle, decide to talk to him, and tell him that he’d liked Cas all along and wanted to date him and...
Okay most likely not. But he might at least be able to catch a closer glimpse of Dean than he could from the bushes in Mrs. Turner’s yard and that was good enough for him.
Now all he had to do was knock on the front door and go in. Just knock. Cas leaned back onto the balls of his feet, hands clenched into fists in the pockets of his favorite trench coat He’d been standing at the front door for a while now, trying to knock, but he just couldn’t. What if Dean answered the door? What if he talked to him? What was he supposed to say? There were just too many what ifs running through his head.
Cas took a deep breath and leaned forward. He was being ridiculous. Dean probably wasn’t even home. He didn’t have Dean’s schedule memorized, but he was pretty sure that Dean was at his uncle Bobby’s garage. So there was really no cause for him to be nervous. But he was kind of disappointed
Cas raised his hand to knock.
The door flew open, and Cas froze, his hand just inches away from knocking into the head of one very startled Sam Winchester holding a large garbage bag.
“Castiel?”
“Hello, Sam.”
“Hi.” Sam said warily, eying Cas’s fist which was inches from his face. Cas quickly let his hand drop. “You’re early.”
Cas would have been earlier if it hadn’t been for Jimmy. Every time Cas tried to leave, Jimmy would drag him back inside with some excuse or another until Cas finally just snuck out the back door.
"It’s fine, uh" Sam said, after a minute. He glanced at the bag in his hands. " Just let me just throw this away and then we can get started."
Cas nodded, wondering if he should follow Sam or just wait on the doorstep.
Luckily Sam returned before Cas too long, though he did give Cas a weird look when he saw his standing exactly where he had left him.
The Winchester house was very different from his house. It was smaller, messier, and warmer.. Cas loved it.
“Sorry about the mess,” Sam said, grabbing an armful of clothes off the table and dumping them on a chair. “My brother is a pig.”
Cas added that piece of information to his mental list of Dean. He wasn’t a particularly neat person himself. In fact, that was how most people told them apart. Cas’s hair was usually a wild mess, his clothes were often oversized and rumpled. Jimmy on the other hand always had neatly brushed brushed hair and perfectly pressed clothes.
“You said you needed help with your science project?” Cas asked, sitting down.
“Oh, uh. Yeah.” Sam sat down, opening his science textbook.“Hey, Castiel? I forgot to say, thanks for yesterday.”
Cas hadn’t exactly told Jimmy the entire truth. He hadn’t lied, he’d just neglected to mention the fight. He knew Jimmy would just needlessly worry, so there was no point in mentioning it. He had run into Sam on the way home from the local library. Well, technically, he’d run into Sam and a few older kids who had the boy surrounded. He made the boys back off and Sam, after thanking him, had asked him for help on a science project after he saw all of the science books that Cas was carrying. Cas had agreed.
At that moment, he could think of nothing better. Now though he was kind of regretting it. He’d reread his old Science textbooks last night to refresh his memory, but it didn’t seem to have helped. He really didn’t remember having to learn about thermodynamics when he was in fifth grade. Odd.
Cas was so busy frowning at the textbook that he missed the door opening. He didn’t, however, miss Sam calling out, “Hi Dean! You’re home early.”
Cas looked up and froze. Dean Winchester, walked into the room. He looked even more gorgeous close up.
“Hey squirt.” Dean Winchester said, pausing to take a drink out of the fridge. Then he leaned against the counter and took a drink, his gaze falling on Cas.“So, you Sammy’s new tutor?”
Cas nodded stiffly, only vaguely aware that he was staring at Dean. And that Dean was staring right back. Cas wasn’t sure how long the two of them just stared at each other, but it must have been awhile since Sam resorted to pointedly clearing his though to get their attention.
Dean broke eye contact first.
“Uh, cool. I’ll just, uh. I’ll just let you two science geeks get to work then.” He quickly left the room.
Sam frowned “Okay, that was weird even for Dean.”
Cas looked back at the textbook, trying not to blush. He had definitely made the right decision.
~~
The next few tutoring sessions went by quickly. Sam really knew what he was doing and made significant progress on his project in just a few days. Cas wasn’t really sure why the boy thought he needed a tutor at all. Surprisingly, he continued to see Dean around the house. They didn’t really talk. Cas was perfectly okay with that. Just being able to see Dean from this close everyday was enough.
Sam on the other hand, seemed to be getting more and more annoyed with how much Dean was around. From what Cas overheard, it was very unusual for Dean to be home in the afternoon. Cas didn’t mind. He tried to tell Sam that it was fine with him if Dean wanted to be lounging around in front of the television while they were working, but Sam’s only response was to give him a weird look. He did stop glaring at Dean whenever he was in the room however.
Sam had insisted, out of the blue yesterday, that he was going to treat Cas to lunch as a thank you for helping him with his science project, not that Cas had really done that much to help. The only reason Cas had accepted was because Sam had immediately invited Dean to come along with them, to which he had had answered, “Sure, whatever.”
Which was why he was at Ellen’s Diner at 11am on Saturday morning, waiting impatiently in a booth, ignoring the dirty looks he got from the owner for not ordering anything to eat. He was a good half hour early. He’d left early, thinking that Jimmy would keep trying to distract him like he usually did whenever it came to the Winchesters. Surprisingly though, today Jimmy hadn’t even seemed to notice that Cas was clearly getting ready to go out. He would probably be more suspicious if he wasn't so excited to see Dean.
“Hey Cas.” Dean greeted ,sliding into the seat across from Cas.
“Dean.” Cas tried not to grin. He felt ridiculously pleased that Dean had started called him Cas. “Where’s Sam?”
“Oh, uh” Dean looked flustered for a moment. “He was taking forever to get ready, so I came ahead. You been waiting long?”
“No.” Cas lied.
Ellen chose that moment to come over. “Finally ready to order? Really Dean, you don't keep your date waiting this long.”
Cas;s He glanced at Dean and was surprised to note that Dean’s face was a little pink was well as he glared at Ellen.
“It’s not a date.” He protested.
“Right.” Cas agreed.
“Uh huh” Ellen said, clearly not believing them. “Will you be ordering or not for your ‘not date’?”
“I’ll have a burger and fries.”
“Same.” Cas added. “Shouldn’t we wait for Sam?”
Dean waved a hand “He can order his rabbit food when he gets here.”
Things were awkward after Ellen took their order
“So,” Dean said finally, drawing out the word, clearly searching for a topic. “You go to St. Angelos’ right? Heard it was a good school. Sammy really wants to go there.”
“It’s a good school. Sam would likely benefit from it.”
It was a good school. It was also strict, conservative, and had a lot of rules. From what Cas had knew of Sam so far, he was sure the boy would hate it.
Cas leaned close. “I-”
And then Jimmy plopped down next to him.
“Cas? What a surprise seeing you here!”
His voice was too light and surprised. Cas’s eyes narrowed, as he pushed back the disappointment at being interrupted. He knew that tone. Jimmy was lying.
“Hi,” Dean said. He didn’t look any happier at the interruption than Cas felt. “You must be Jimmy.”
“And you must be Dean.” Jimmy grinned at him, the too sharp grin that he used n bullies and people he did not like. “Nice to meet you.”
“Same.” Dean returned the grin warily, no edge.
Cas got a bad feeling about this. This was to going to go well.
Five minutes later, he realized he was wrong. This was way worse than he could have imagined. Jimmy and Dean seemed to be just moments away from taking a swing at each other right then and there.
“Hey guys! Sorry I’m late!”Sam said, appearing out of nowhere, sliding into the seat next to Dean. “Dean, why did you wake me up before you left? My alarm didn’t go off.”
But it didn’t seem to make a difference. Jimmy and Dean were too busy glaring at each other to even notice Sam’ arrival.
They continued arguing, making snide marks at each other until finally Cas snapped.
“Sam, I will see you tomorrow,” Cas announced suddenly standing up, grabbing Jimmy’s arms and forcing him to his feet as well. “Let’s go Jimmy. Bye Dean.”
He more or less dragged Jimmy out the restaurant.
“I am never talking to you again.” he hissed, when they were outside. “Never.”
He let go of Jimmy’s arm, ignored the startled look on Jimmy’s face, and turned around and headed home.
~~
Part 2