Rated T for mentions of bisexuality.
This is an experiment. Plot bunnies have been gathering in my mind all summer for this, so... If you like and want more, tell me. If not, I'll just let the bunnies back into the wild.
Summary: When you're seventeen years old, your after school job either sucks or rocks. Dean Winchester would tell you he landed one that rocked. Castiel Novak would say he was stuck with one that sucked. The catch, of course, being that they did the same job. But, anyone would tell you, there were no two boys with less in common in the (soon to be) senior class over at Lawrence High than Winchester and Novak.
-*-
Another Friday night was upon the crew of the Pizza Hut of Lawrence, Kansas. In any other town this may not be a big deal, just another busy night. But, when you work at the only pizza joint in town, "busy" just doesn't cover it.
Dean Winchester pulled up to the restaurant in his old, beat up truck and sighed. Sure, he liked his job, but sometimes he missed having Friday nights free. After taking a moment to get mentally prepared, Dean grabbed his uniform shirt and cook's apron from the passenger seat and made his way to the employee entrance. Punching in a code and slipping in the huge metal door meant avoiding having to help any customers at the counter.
Everything in the back seemed pretty calm right now, the sound of a phone ringing echoing a bit in the silence before one of the girls up front grabbed it. Reaching in his back pocket, Dean pulled out his phone to check the time, 3:39pm. Perfect, 20 minutes to eat before he had to clock-in and take over the kitchen for the night. A personal pan sounded good...
After pulling one out of the walk-in freezer Dean walked to the make table of toppings and found the Friday day cook still there cleaning up.
"Hey, Ash. What's up? Have a good day?"
Ash pointed at him in a way meant to threaten but that only amused. When Dean only laughed Ash hit him with a clean sauce ladle. "Man, I am so sick of this place." He adopted a high pitched, annoying voice. "I ordered extra cheese. This is only the required amount of cheese. Ash, why can't you go faster? Where are my breadsticks, Ash? I said extra crispy! Ash-"
"Alright, alright, I'm sorry!" Dean laughed again. Day shift with the waitress Anna was never fun, but Dean never had to deal with her anymore. After the incident that may or may not have included him "accidentally" dropping a pizza at an angle perfect for getting her whole front dirty because of something she said, Bobby decided that the two of them working together was a bad idea.
"Anyway," Ash pulled Dean from his thoughts and he went back to loading up his pizza, "who's back here tonight? Usual crew?"
Dean nodded as he plopped a mushroom in his mouth. "Far as I know. Chuck and Andy on make, probably Ava for a bit, too. Then," he sighed dejectedly, "Cass over on the cut table."
"Ha. Don't sound so excited, man. We all know you just love workin' with Novak the Youngest" The glare Dean shot at him made Ash chuckle. From the minute Castiel Novak had walked into Dean's kitchen, they both knew it would be best to avoid each other. They were already as different as two 17 year old boys could be, but Dean assaulting the other boy's older sister with food couldn't have endeared him to Dean either.
"I just don't get it. The Novaks are all complete polar opposites. Gabe was awesome, besides the pranks and shit anyway." Dean and Ash both chuckled. "Then he left for school and we got Anna the bitch, who comes in here and acts like she owns the place."
"And who's leaving in a week," interrupted Ash, a smug smile plastered on his face.
"Hallelujah," laughed Dean. Pretty much everyone at work would be doing a jig when Anna left for school. He slid his pizza onto the conveyer belt of the oven and turned back to Ash. "But, even without the bitch here, we're stuck with freak angel boy. The guy can barely do his job!"
"Ah, come on, Dean. He's not that bad. No one's good when they first start back here." Dean only rolled his eyes and checked how far the personal pan was in the oven. "Ya remember when you first started cookin'?"
"Oh, don't even. I may've had trouble at first, but I got my shit together and did my job."
"Yeah, yeah, alright. Calm down. Don't worry, we all know Winchester is the man."
Dean cocked a smug smile. "Damn straight." Ash made a sound like a strangled laugh being very poorly concealed by a cough. Dean's smile fell into more of an irritated smirk. "Yeah, ha ha, very funny, Ash. Dean is bi, let's all point and giggle."
"Aw no, Dean," the smile on Ash's face immediately fell, "I didn't mean it that way, man, really. You know I-"
Raising a hand Dean interrupted him. "It's cool. I know. I-. I'm just...still adjusting."
There was a small awkward silence broken by Ash belching loudly. Dean cracked a smile and helped Ash finish up to leave for the day, feeling his spirits lift back up, before wolfing down his personal pan.
When Dean came out to his family a month back, it hadn't been that big of a deal. In fact, it was a lot less dramatic than he expected. He'd been nervous as hell when sat his parents down to tell them, but havin' his brother Sammy (who he'd already confided in) there to support him had helped. His mom was a given; she'd love him no matter what and he knew it. Sure, his dad would too, but the guy was very "apple-pie-American-family" being ex-marine and whatnot. So him clappin' Dean on the shoulder and telling him he didn't care who Dean slept with as long as Dean was "safe", besides being all kinds of embarrassing, was a huge relief.
Then the real worry came, telling his friends. Because, while Dean liked his friends, he also knew by now that teenagers could be cruel and the guys at school may not think he was so "epic" with "likes guys" added to his list of qualities and characteristics.
After coming straight out to his closest friends, he just let the news circle the way it does in small towns. Jo, who was a year younger but also one of Dean's oldest friends, had just joked about there being even more competition now in the battle for Dean Winchester's heart. Vic had been supportive immediately as well, telling Dean he didn't care and to turn off the pause and get back to blowing up aliens.
Everybody at work, or everybody he cared about anyway, was cool with it. Dean was unofficially the head of the kitchen most nights and his team respected him. From the get go, they all had fun cracking jokes about gay porn and trying to make Dean blush, and Dean loved them for it.
His life was still pretty much the same as before, only now if he gave the rare guy an appreciative look, he didn't feel guilty about it.
Leaning against the make-table of the kitchen, Dean was pulled from his thoughts by the cell phone in his pocket going off. Ah, a text from Sam.
BRING HOME WINGS 2NITE?
God, Sam was nearly addicted to the wings here. Sure, they were good, but geesh. He sent back a message, shaking his head. 8PC HOT?
AND RANCH PLZ
His brother so owed him, little punk. They both knew Dean would end up bringing home some messed up pizza or something too.
Since his phone read 4:00 he headed up front to the computers and clocked-in, threw on his apron, and made his way back to the kitchen in time for two tickets to print out. Pulling the first and scanning the order, he thought 'and so it begins.'
As the next couple hours passed and business got faster, his crew slowly trickled in person by person. The line-up was what he expected, his least favorite cook coming in last and taking over the cut table so Andy could help handle the flood of in-coming orders. Luckily the waitress out on the floor was Becky. She may have been a little spazz-ish, but at least she was organized and had a good attitude.
The night went on in a blur of orders, the occasional mistake, and sending people on breaks. Dean's break consisted of hanging around the counter and flirting with the phone girls, Carmen and Bela, while ignoring half-hearted threats from the night shift manager Ellen.
He and Carmen had kind of a thing when he first started working back in the kitchen last summer, but didn't really work out. His excuse was something about work place romances being a bad idea, but honestly? He just was in the middle of a private "oh god I think I might be gay" freak out.
As business started slowing down, Dean got the OK from Ellen and started slowly sending people home. By 9:30 he was the only one left besides Castiel, who was still working the cut table. Dean had to admit, grudgingly, that the other boy had pulled his weight tonight and seemed to have finally gotten a grip on his job. Only took the nerd all summer.
"You mind grabbin' me the sanitizer bucket before clockin' out?" Dean asked Castiel as he handed him a ticket for an order in the oven. He was careful to avoid looking into the boy's face, but instead glanced at a point right above his head. Castiel nodded his agreement. "Thanks. I'll get the next pizza boxed; you go grab the stuff." As Castiel walked away he knocked into Dean slightly.
"Sorry," Castiel mumbled, shrinking away from Dean's space.
Castiel was three feet away before Dean realized he'd been holding his breath and let out a huge exhale.
"God I hate that guy." Dean was sadly aware of how cliché his current situation was.
Starting his after school job and realizing he likes guys when he falls for the guy training him? Cliché. But hey, he liked Gabe more for his personality than looks, even if he he'd been kinda cute...in a pain-in-the-ass kinda way. Then Gabe left for college and Dean figured, hey, must've been a fluke, one-time thing. Except of course it wasn't.
Now, a year later, he was out and happy to be, but life never stays good for long.
Anna Novak helped her younger brother get a job at Pizza Hut back in the beginning of the summer working the kitchen, and Dean, who'd never really paid attention to the quieter boy, was suddenly hyper aware of him. He was pretty sure havin' the hots for an old crush's younger sibling was pretty damn cliché. Not to mention creepy.
But somehow he couldn't help it; that black hair always caught his eye from over at the cut table and made him itch to touch it and the awkward way he moved and acted only intrigued Dean. Hell, he complained about how slow to guy worked the cut table but honestly found it a bit adorable. And the eyes...
That was something Dean couldn't believe. Even unaware of his attraction to other guys growing up, how had he missed those eyes for eleven years? Guy must've always had his head down or somethin', 'cause Dean was certain he would've realized his sexuality much earlier if those baby blues had been landed on him across a classroom.
Gabe's eyes had been a kind of hazel, and from what he'd heard Anna's were the same. So where the hell did that oceanic blue come from?
"Dean?" The height Dean's feet reached off the floor was actually pretty impressive.
"Holy shit!" Dean spun to see Castiel standing less than a foot to his left, staring at him curiously. "What the hell, man? Why'd you sneak up on...me?" Oh shit, the eyes. Evasive action, find another focal point.
"I spoke your name several times but you seemed to be lost in thought." The other boy's raised eyebrow seemed to question the idea of Dean having thoughts in the first place.
This, of course, was the most ironic part of Dean's problem. With Gabe, he'd been drawn to his charisma and character. When it came to this Novak, though, it was all physical; one look at Castiel had him feeling hot under the collar. But all Dean ever seemed to get was questioning looks and quick, dismissing remarks. When he deemed to speak to Dean at all, that was.
Dean's face seemed to turn to stone. "Yeah, sorry. Got the bucket?" Castiel silently set down a blue bucket with "SANITIZER" printed on the side brimming with steaming water, careful to not spill any.
"Rag?" A blue wash cloth was pushed into Dean's hands. "Thanks. You can go ahead and get outta here."
The other boy simply nodded and turned as if to leave and walked a few paces before turning back to stare at Dean, chewing on part of his cheek. Dean hadn't noticed Castiel still standing a few feet away and was surprised to hear his voice.
"Dean," Castiel started, his expression conflicted.
Dean waited a few beats before making a gesture that seemed to say Yeah?
"I just wanted to say, well, thank you. For putting up with me, I mean. I know I'm not very good at my job, but you haven't asked Bobby to replace or move me. I appreciate it." The shock Dean felt at Castiel's words was so great he made the mistake of looking Castiel in the eye.
"Oh, uh, well, um," spluttered Dean. Finally managing some semblance of speech he forced out, "No big. You got better, anyway." Then, with a nod, added, "See ya." When Castiel nodded back and turned around Dean let out an audible breath and shook his head. He couldn't help but watch Castiel as he walked away.
Before he realized what he was doing, Dean found himself yelling, "Novak!" When Castiel turned back around, his expression was all big, surprised eyes.
"Yes?" asked Castiel, his head tilting slightly, as if examining Dean.
"I was wondering," Dean started, feeling stupid for opening his mouth in the first place, "what took so long? Why'd it take you the whole summer practically to learn to cut and box fast food?"
The way Castiel curled in on himself the slightest bit and the touch of pink on his cheeks distracted Dean from his answer of, "Oh, I guess I just couldn't focus."
"Ah," said Dean, still intent on the color spreading across the other boy's face. "Okay. Least you focus now."
Castiel let out a sigh and looked down. "Yes. I learned to avoid distraction. Good night, Dean." And with that turned back around again and walked away from Dean, who heard the jingle of the main door a moment later.
By the time the restaurant was closed for the evening and Dean was driving home in his truck, he was tired and ready to drop in his bed; showering could wait for tomorrow. Walking in the door felt great, and toeing off his shoes felt even better. Veering to the right he popped in the kitchen to throw Sam's wings in the fridge before heading up the stairs to the hallway. Dean didn't even stop as he gave the first door on the left, Sam's, a quick knock before heading to the end of the hall, shoving open his door, and dropping on his bed. The sigh he let out this time was nothing but content.
The bedroom was pretty typical: decent desk from a garage sale, same dresser he'd always had, shelves with dusty model cars, bedside table littered with food wrappers and controllers, 10 year old TV hooked to a DVD player that worked sometimes and XBOX360 he bought off a buddy, dusty book shelf with a handful of books and some old toys and car parts. Alright, maybe not typical, but the room was everything he needed. The walls were still the same as when he'd slept in a cradle with two opposite walls painted tan, the other two painted a forest green.
In the privacy of his room Dean let all the thoughts he kept, or tried anyway, under wraps at work to permeate his mind. He thought about long fingers curled awkwardly as if afraid to make contact with anything, thin wrists and arms, torso hidden by layers of uniform, pale skin at the back of a tantalizing neck, hair that always looked wind-swept, eyes with a blue so clear you could see the flecks of other hues of blue...
Great, now he was gonna have to take a shower tonight.
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So, I work in a Pizza Hut. We really have a waitress like Anna, so she's only a bitch here because it was fun to write about the person...if that makes sense. If any termonology doesn't make sense let me know
Anyway, Review peeps. I love them all, good or bad.