Chapter Twelve
Despite the slight buzzing of the atmosphere after the boys pinning each other on a car incident, the ride was relaxing. That was, of couse, until they started passing fimular surroundings, far too fimualr for Castiels taste, clearly, as he soon peaked up.
“Where are we going, Dean?” He asked, turning towards the boy in the drivers seat.
“I’m not taking you back home, Cassie,” Dean mummers in reassurance, not willing to offer any more of an answer. His passenger seemed annoyed at the nickname as he huffed and crossed his arms, but silenced his questions.
The drive was silent until Dean pulled them off into the field pull off where they had stopped that night of the first date. Instead of stopping and shutting off the headlights like he had over a week ago, the skilled driver tore down the rocky, unpaved road for a while. The soft echo of his name filled the car from Castiels lip. He didn’t become any more unpatient despite the way Dean didn’t answer him which led the Winchester to believe he was just saying it out of a jerk-leg reaction and wasn’t actually aware of the constant word tumbling from his lips resembling the stead beat of a metronome and the no longer steady beat of his own thudding heart.
A low chuckle finally left Deans lips when he smoothed the Impala into a careful halt. Finally Castiel fell silent as he saw what the headlights illuminated. A tent, set up carefully in an open, unused section of the field.
“You said you like camping, right?” Dean says, a grin on his face as he watched Castiel. Dean already knew the answer to his question: he could still hear Castiels voice confessing it over the table at the Diner. The way he tapered his sound and glanced down at the table, somewhat embarrassed at his own enjoyment of the activity. Dean couldn’t understand why, camping isn’t an embarrassing thing to most people. Castiels family felt different though, as they found anything not primp and proper to be strange and repulsive.
“Well, I figured this would be a good way to apologize for ditching out on you,” Dean explains without waiting for a response from his passenger, who was still clearly trying to wrap his head around the whole thing. “Come on,” Dean says, grinning as he gave Castiels shoulder a shove and smiled. “Lets go get settled before it gets really dark.”
“Wait, Dean, are you staying the night with me?” Castiel asks, stopping Dean who was about to swing his door open as he shut the car and headlights off.
“Of course, numskull. Now come on, lets go.” Dean opens the door this time with a slight grown of protest from the cold night that makes him wince. His dads car or not, the teenager was sure to be touching her up when he got back home. Castiel followed behind him, a smile on his face slightly visible in the dimming light of twilight.
After quickly exploring and modifying the sleeping bags and pillows inside the tent, the boys were back outside, per Castiels request. Despite the increasingly fridget tempatures, they lounged on the ground, hands clapsed behind their back in utter darkness to look up at the millions of stars. Their legs touched and slowly, without either one saying a word, their inner hands, Dean’s left and Castiel his right, fell from behind their heads and intertwined between their bodies. It was a new feeling for both of them, but neither interjected as they looked into the ever dark night sky.
Stars, the uncountable number there are, blinked and twinkled, more visible here in the empty darkness of a field than anywhere else either of them had been. New little shimmering specks seemed to appear each time their eyes adjusted further. They seemed to be layered back throughout the darkness although both Dean and Castiel knew there wasn’t much order to the layout of such exterior decorating.
“Do you ever question the existence of something out there?” Castiel asks, still gausing out into the stars. Dean, however, turned to him upon hearing the first syiball, his green eyes alert. Despite when he looks back up at the sky, he’s still clearly focused on the boy beside him.
“What like… Martin the Martian?” Dean asks, smiling at his own references to the Loony Toons character. A smile that somewhat falls at Castiels head tilt confusion. “What? You’ve never herd of that?”
“No.. what is it?”
“Oh you poor thing. It’s a character in Loony Toons. The cartoon?”
“Never seen it.” Castiel shrugs, but soon catches on that it’s a bigger deal than he thinks it is at the sight of Deans face. “I suppose our childhoods were far different.”
“You can say that twice. We’re marathning it sometime. “ Dean say, his voice leaving no room for argument despite the expansive space. They fell back into silence, Castiel content with Deans threat of watching cartoons. However, after a while, Cas remembered his original question.
“I meant god. A heaven,” Castiel turns to meet Deans eyes this time. Now it’s the Winchester that looks confused. “When I asked if you thought there was something out there.”
“Ah. See I would have stuck with marshans. But… I don’t know. If there is one, he’s a dick.”
“Why do you say that?” There was a long pause where tension started to fill the air.
“I’ve had a lot of shit go down in my life,” Dean says finally, clearly choosing his words with great care. “Seen stuff happen to people that deserve better lives.” Little did he know the boy with bright blue eyes was looking at him, seeing him as one of the people who deserves better.
And little did Castiel know that Dean was speaking of not only Sam, but of his date also.
And, although neither of them knew it, their better lives existed in the one they laid beside, stairing up at the dark sky, lit with bright, hopeful stars.
“We’re not gonna go into that deep ‘why are we here’ shit are we?” Dean asks, crushing the moment as he so often did to stay away from feelings and heavy pasts. Castiel laughs though and shakes his head. The sound of his laughter was as comforting, as calming as Deans favorite Led Zepplin tape… not that he’d say that out loud.
“Good.”
It wasn’t until a few peaceful moments later that Castiel spoke up with another question. “Do you always carry a gun around?”
“Yeah…” Dean muttered, silently worried when he wasn’t sure how to explain the constant need to have a gun somewhere on him plus the other ten in his trunk and the collection of knives. Not to mention the holy water. It was then and there Dean decided to never let Castiel anywhere near the trunk.
“Why?”
“It’s… a family thing.” He muttered, figuring it was as close to the truth as he could get. But when the silence setting between them pressed for more, he gave in. “I saw my mom get killed when I was really young. Ever since then I just always have protection.” Dean says and the atmosphere shifts to a somber one.
“I.. I apologize Dean. I had no idea that you-“
“Nah, it’s fine,” Winchester says, immeadly shaking off the heavy set ‘chick-flick moment’ by throwing in a joke: “I’m actually kind impressed. Any other date that has seen the gun just says it’s hot for a guy to carry a gun. You’re smart enough to see if I’m a killer.” He grinned a smile that made Castiel melt a little, even though he couldn’t see it very well in the dark.
“Well, it is a little hot,” With those words, and the tone they were said in, the feeling surrounding the pair of them shifted immeadly back to the air of their make out scene on the Impala a few hours earlier. Not a word more was spoken before they found themselves in the tent, lips locked.
It was hours later and the two boys laid on their sides, still clothed limbs tangled under the sleeping bag instead of lips. The temperature had dropped and the faint roar of cars passing them on the main road had fallen silent. There was nothing but the sound of wind pressing against the tent and whipping around it, the chirps and scattering feet of animals, and the soft whispers of two teenagers lost in their own word inside that tent. There was no reason for them to whisper, no fear of getting caught, but there was a certain mood encasing them they were careful about, not wanting to shatter it with volumes too high. Instead then curled closer to one another, noses touching, legs tangled, and shared body warmth.
“Shh.” Castiel whispered, pressing his index finger to Deans previously moving lips, starling the Winchester boy greatly. It was one thing to shush him, but wasn’t that going a bit far? He supposed it could have been worse-he could have been duct taped. Still, his mind went into hunter mode, peaking up and listening for any signs of loud, heavy movement or just anything odd. There was nothing out of the ordinary for a good minuet before Dean herd what Castiel shushed him for.
The howl of a wolf.
The wailing sound bounces off of the surrounding landscape, resonating in the air like a perfectly tuned note in a wrong key; beautifully incorrect. It ran a shiver down Deans spine to hear it in such clear accuracy due to the cold air.
“I love wolves,” Cas confesses beside him, the teenagers voice softer than normal, now not wanting to interrupt the wolves. “I think it’s really cool how they communicate like that: their family can be separated by miles but their never alone…” Dean could tell by the teenagers quiet, caring tone how deep that meaning ran, even if he couldn’t guess why. It didn’t stop him from taking Castiels hand in his as they listened in peace to the single wolfs howl that was soon joined by another, creating a beautiful melody as the two voices intertwined.
But there was no way in hell it was a chick flick moment.
The melody of bird songs and a cool breeze awoke Castiel Novak the next morning, a wide difference to the body heat and wolves howls that put him to sleep. He was just recalling whos body heat that had been as he rolled over to find nothing but an empty space. Frowning, the boys still tired mind started running through every worst possible case scenario that could have happened to him, the top of his list, the most horrifying, being the simplest one-Dean left. For good.
“Dean?” He called, sitting up and moving towards the tent door. “Dean!”
“Calm down, Cassie. I’m out here,” Deans voice sounded from just outside the tent, an amused tone to it. Castiel let out a sigh, ignoring his own annoyace at the nickname for the relief of Dean being okay and here with him. He fixed his clothes, which had gotten slightly messy during their making out session the previous night. Castiel could still feel Deans lips against his, dissolving every worry and care, or against his skin, exploring the skin over his collarbone. He was gentle around the bruises his lips reached, which weren’t many as Dean stopped as soon as Castiels showed signs of discomfort, and that was before a shirt even came off. Still, Castiel, and he hoped Dean, had enjoyed being in the boys arms and eventually falling asleep there, not a care in the world.
Castiel exited the tent and shivered violently as the cold sliced through any heat that had been around him. He stuck his head back into the tent and grabbed a jacket, pulling it on before moving over to the car. Still delirious with sleep, he didn’t notice it wasn’t his jacket he had grabbed until Dean chuckled beside him.
“Oh crap. Sorry,” Castiel crooked, laughing weakly as he made a move to strip the coat off of himself. Dean shook his head and tugged what Castiel had moved off back onto the tired teen.
“Keep it for now. It looks good,” He said simply, smiling as he hands over a little blue box that, upon inspection, Cas finds to be an indivualy packaged box of cereal. He couldn’t help but grin at it.
“What? Never seen one before?” Dean asked, cocking an eyebrow in a playful sort of way that made Castiels heart flitter slightly and the grin on his lips grow.
“No, actually. I haven’t. We rarely have cereal at my house.” He admitted, expecting the shake of the head that Dean delivered without fail.
“Here, eat up.” He leaned over and opened Castiels box for him, smiling softly before going back to eating his own cereal dry directly from the box. Castiel followed by example, slowly starting to relax, until a wind nipped at him. Frowning, he shivered and pulled his jacket tighter around himself. Dean, without a word spoken, scooted over closer to his boyfriend, sharing his body heat, despite the lack of clothing to keep himself warm. The Winchester boy was wearing the same outfit as the school day prior; a pair of worn down blue jeans, holes forming in the bottom cuffs, which laid about an inch above his ankle, and in the knees along with his black shirt that had been hidden under a plaid undone button up.
“Aren’t you cold?” Castiel asked, frowning in concern at the boy. He simply shook his head and finished his handful of frosted flakes before elaborating.
“I’m use to cold weather, so this doesn’t bother me. Plus I was out here most of the night so it’s kinda warm now.” He held the box out to Castiel in offering, since his cereal was a different flavor than his friends. He was also attempting to casually pass off the fact he had been in freezing weathers in only a t-shirt and felt nothing.
“Dean why were you out here for most of the night? How are you not freezing?” Castiel asked, now wide awake as he turned his body towards the boy. Dean looked up, an honest to god stunned look at the fact someone cared planted on his face that chilled Castiel to his bone.
“I just couldn’t sleep. And I’m not sure about the cold thing. Don’t worry about it, okay? I’m fine.” Dean says, smiling softly over at Cas. While he didn’t want to, Novak let his worries go with a heavy sigh and a nod of agreement. With that they, now moved so they were pressed against one another, continued their morning breakfast in content silence. The birds chirped and there were eventually cars buzzing behind them on the main rode, but the pair of them were happy with it all. It was peaceful. Safe for now. That’s what they both desperately needed. Safety and love. In each other, they had both.
*well guys, this was just a lot of filler wasn't it? I'm sorry. I'm kinda in a rough spot right now mentally and I'm rather uninspired. I'm trying to work out of it. But I wanted to let you know that there is the possibility that I won't be done with Chapter Thirteen next Sunday. If I'm not, I apologize. I'll put it up as soon as I finish it. I hope you guys are good. Thank you for reading! I love the responces I'm getting back on here-it really makes my day!! <3*