Superheroes and RegularLifeHeroes
A/N: Just, before you start reading, keep in mind that even though this is AU, Dean and Sam are still hunters, their Mom still died in the fire, monsters still exist, only Cas is not an angel.
Read on. :)
It was yet another small town, settled in another flee bag motel, their dad gone on another job, and yet another high school for the boys.
Sam was 15 and he was having his first day of junior high for the third time. Dean felt sort of sad that, while Sam had his very first day of high school he was actually very happy and excited to try it out, but now, having to go over the motions he was just angry. Angry to his dad for making them do this, and angry at Dean for letting this happen.
So, now, all that Dean could do was to try to cheer up his brother and toughen him up a bit, turn that bitch face around to one of determination.
Still, Sam was if anything, highly stubborn more so than himself and nothing could really brighten that look on his face.
So Dean settled for just getting him there in the Impala his father left him, get him to class, and watch over him in the hallways make sure he doesn't get bullied. And maybe even score some hot chick, who knows. Hey, it was his fourth and last year of jumping from school to school, he was allowed to have some fun.
Change to Dean was never new.
Every school he changed looked exactly the same.
Had the same football field, different team, had the same building, different name, had the same chattering, laughing and squealing demented children, different names, had the same classes, different teachers, had the same chairs, different seat.
So walking to his designated classroom, Dean wasn't feeling nervous, instead he felt bold. If he was gonna have to go through a couple of days in this hellhole than he was gonna do it laughing all the way.
He didn't bother knocking on the door, and stepped in with a casual swagger, cutting the teacher mid sentence.
"Oh, I gather you are Mister Winchester? Decided to finally join us?" –The lady looked old enough to demand authority, but not old enough to receive it from Dean.
And hasn't he heard that line before. Really, do teachers like, have an internet forum where they all meat up and share their highly interesting, vivid stories of how they made the latest kid embarrassed?
"Well, I wouldn't wanna leave a sweetheart like you waitin'." –Dean retorted with a smirk. And yes, having to endure the same unoriginal lines sent by various teachers, he came with a load of original replies.
His statement arose a loud 'Ooooooh' from the crowd of children. He didn't bother with spearing them a glance, he had the idea of the arrangement they took. Geeks with braces front and center, blond bombshell trying to get good grades so her parents would 'like, stop bitching' somewhere behind them, a couple of douchebags around her, lonely stoner next to the window watching mindlessly at the trees seeing God knows what in them, and Dean himself probably out back next to the stoner or the ugly girl everybody avoids.
And by next class, said blond bombshell would grab his arm and pull him to sit next to her.
Yeah, so says the script.
"When you talk to me, Mister Winchester, you will talk with respect!" –She rose her voice, her eyes widening comically having not expected the disrespect.
"Ya know, people best start earnin' their respect, 'stead of demanding it, cause you'd be sure to get it then, Miss." –Dean said with a false tone of serious in-depth thoughtfulness.
This earned him an eruption of guffaws across the room.
"You, young man, have disrupted the education of these children, and if you don't want to learn than you can just leave, right now, and pay the principal a visit!" –The woman looked absolutely mad at his point, and dammit if Dean didn't find it hilarious. He was about to voice his opinion on the matter when he was stopped.
"Excuse me, Miss Trammel, but wouldn't you be disrupting his education by sending him off?" – A boy with very bright eyes, and messy hair, probably another stoner, spoke from the very back of the room. But, his gaze was too focused and voice too steady, expression too serious to be one. Although he did look like someone that just woke up.
"I've had it with your 'free will' hippie attitude, Castiel! And if you don't keep quiet in my class, you will be sent to the principal's too! Now, you! Out of my class! Now!" – The woman full out yelled at him and the boy, Castiel, and Dean really didn't like her by this point.
"I'm going. But, lady, maybe you should tone down your 'respect me' nazi attitude, alright?" –Dean retorted with a grin and left the classroom as another set of laughs began, and as he descended through the hallways he could hear the teacher screaming at them to settle down.
Leave with a bang, as always.
-/-
By the time the school day was over, Sam was still sulking.
When Dean left the class he got into his car and just drove around, trying to find something fun for Sam and him.
Even back at the motel, Sam was still huffing and puffing. Dean tried asking him how was school, was he making friends, but Sam would just glare him. So he told him his story, expecting a laugh, but instead he got a scolding, how Dean was taking things too lightly, how he should watch his attitude, how this was his last year and he'd best not mess it up.
So seeing as talking with Sam wasn't gonna be productive in the least, he thought he'd take him to the comic book store, let him geek out for a bit.
He had some money of his own, besides the small amount John left them with and thought he'd be able to buy something he liked.
"Dean..." –Sam whined when he was where he was taken, letting out a long sigh.
"Come on, you know you love it." –Dean said with a chipper tone, trying to lighten up his brother.
"I know you mean well, but, come one, we don't even have money, I'm not some brat that you can just..." –But Sam trailed off, frustrated that Dean tried to cheer him up. Trust Sam to be a bitch about everything. Trust him.
"I have some of my own. Now I can either lock you up here, and have all the fun all by myself, or you can come and stop bitching." –Dean grinned into the rear-view mirror at Sam's upturned mouth.
"Jerk."
"Bitch"
And with that and a small, satisfied smile, Dean left the car followed by Sam.
-/-
The bell jingled as they stepped inside the small shop.
"Comic-Zone" was the, pretty unoriginal name of the shop, although you couldn't mistake it for a butcher's shop so that was a plus.
Dean looked around himself eyeing the stands with comics upon comics. He caught Sam running his eyes with hidden glee over the little books.
"Look around, and tell me what you want. And we'll get it." –Dean bent down to whisper to Sam. And even though it was almost in Sam's nature by now, to decline any offer on needless money spending, he gave Dean a grateful smile, slight dimples in his round cheeks.
In return Dean smiled fully, giving his shaggy hair a rumple, which extracted a yelp from Sam, but his smile still didn't falter.
While Sam craned his neck upwards the shelves, Dean trudged around slowly, seeing a bit of this and that.
His eyes finally landed on the cashier, who had his head bent down over, what Dean could see was Sandman 'Preludes and Nocturnes'. The cover looked like a really fancy book, maybe on art of the 12th century, but the pages he could see showed otherwise.
He walked towards the man, maybe try a bit of a small talk, ask him what's there to do in this town, maybe ask for the closest bar.
To receive a wink from Dean, would not only charm you into giving him a beer, it quite possibly might make you buy it for him.
"Hey, dude." –Dean said casually, and the head that snapped up surprised him with recognition.
It was the same boy from the school that, quite frankly stood up for him.
Up close Dean noted that, yeah, the guy had a hell of a set of eyes. He could probably pull of the wink and grin even better than him.
"Oh, you're that guy, from before, Castiel right?" –Dean said with a snap of his fingers, although the snap didn't arose any kind of reaction from the boy, just following his movements with a look of curiosity.
"I am. And you are?" –Wow and that voice. Puberty hit his Adam's apple hard, to come out with that kind of gravel.
"Dean. You already heard enough of my last name." –Dean said with a chuckle offered his hand for Castiel to shake.
The boy eyed his hand cautiously, and slowly took it into his own, but his grip was that of a sure man, just like John had taught him.
"Nice to meet you, Dean."
"Wow, you're hella polite." –Dean chuckled with a raised eyebrow. No kid his age should talk like that.
"I try." –Was Castiel's simple reply.
And since Dean really didn't have any witty retort to that except maybe for a very ineloquent whisper of the words 'The fuck?', he settled for changing the subject.
"Hey, uh, thanks for stepping up back there, but, seriously, there's no need. You'd just land yourself in trouble. I'm good on my own" –Dean explained, feeling the need to stress how he really didn't need anyone stepping up for him. All his life he'd been stepping up for others, even helped save a life here and there, so a small tussle with the teacher wasn't really something he couldn't handle.
"I was merely pointing out the flaws in her reasoning. It's that kind of attitude that got us where we are now. Dismissing the problem and not solving it. " –Castiel spoke with unblinking eyes.
"Oh, so I'm a problem?" –Dean wasn't really offended, he just wanted to pique a reaction from this outspoken albeit quite person.
"Not to me you're not. But, to the teacher you were, at the time." –Castiel said matter-of-factly.
"Oh, come on, tell us how you really feel." –Dean said with a laugh, trying to see if he could get the serious boy to smile.
"I just did." –Which was fruitless. This guy really was a stone statue.
"What cha readin' there, Cas? You mind if I call you, Cas?" –Dean said with grin, as he propped himself on the counter, his chin resting on his palm. He really found this guy interesting, he thought he'd mess around with him.
"Uh, no, I guess not." –Castiel mumbled as his face seemed to grow hot with embarrassment from Dean's closeness.
"The book?" –Dean directed with a hand as Castiel seemed to stunned by looking at his face to remember to answer the next question.
Yep, embarrassing him was working.
"Oh, uh, the book. It's uh, it's Sandman from Neil Gaiman, if you've heard of him."
"No idea."
"... Nevertheless, he is a fantastic writer, and well, the story revolves around Dream, or Morpheus, Oneiros-"
"Oreos!"
"...No, Oneiors, and well, it tells the story of his adventures, and how he is trying to settle back his kingdom, kingdom of Dreams that is, he is the ruler, and after his long imprisonment the kingdom has fallen apart, and..." –And sure enough, Dean found a way to get Cas to smile. The boy's eyes were bright as he spoke, his features softening with enthusiasm.
Dean listened idly, not really catching his words, and when he did, he make a remark, which made Castiel stutter and made him speak more, and Dean was glad to listen to his voice. He had the voice of a story teller, one that would excite Sam, and send Dean to blissful sleep.
"Sounds real interesting, Cas." –Dean said with a smile as Castiel came to a halt. Even though Dean was known to be an all around ass, he wanted to give this to Cas, to not make him feel like his words were worthless.
"I-If you'd like, you may borrow it." –Castiel said with his head dipped down, an obvious blush adoring his cheeks. Damn if it wasn't cute, and Dean would forever pretend like he didn't think that thought.
"I'd love to." –Dean said with a smirk, causing Castiel's head to leap up, and a soft, almost relieved smile spread his lips.
"Hey, Dean, is this ok?" – Sam disrupted their little moment, as his gangly little frame came to stand beside Dean offering him a book.
Dean straightened his form from the bent he held over the table, and turned the comic around, catching the price. Twenty-five dollars. Shit.
He had the money, but still, damn, all for some 20 page sketches.
Turning to the cover to see what Sam picked out he let out a whistle.
Batman 'The Killing Joke'.
"Nice choice, Sammy." –So he could sacrifice some dough for Batman. Because come on, it was freakin' Batman!
"Here 'ya go, Mister." –Dean flopped the book on the counter, for which Castiel had to stand to run through the cash.
And now, when Dean saw his outfit, he couldn't help but laugh.
"Dude, really, I get that you work in a comic book store, but, Constantine, like, really?" –Dean said in between fits of laughter.
He couldn't really see the obviously embarrassed expression on Castiel's features, topped of with a slight glare.
"Don't worry, my brother's basically a James Hetfield ripoff." –This stopped Dean's laughter, and he instead turned to glare at Sam, but when he saw the sort of amused smile on Cas' face as he put the book in a plastic bag, he thought he'd best drop it.
"That will be 25 $." –Castiel said with a nod, and his smile still didn't falter.
Dean pulled the crunched up money from his pocket and onto the counter.
"See ya tomorrow, Cas." – Dean said with a wave as he and his brother left the shop.
Into the car, as he was driving back at the motel, half way home Sam's voice peeked up.
"Dean! What did I tell you about stealing?" –Sam basically yelled, and Dean had to quickly compose himself before he swiveled the car off the road.
"Dude, I didn't steal anything!" –Dean yelled back, angry because Sam might have potentially jeopardized them.
"Then where did this come from?" –Sam said with tone of a 'hah!' in his voice, though why catching your brother stealing something would ever bring that out in you was out of his understanding.
He looked into the rear-view mirror with furrowed eyebrows and yes, there was indeed another item there, they hadn't bought.
The word 'Sandman' stood out in the middle.
So, yes, I know I keep starting up new stories, but believe me I started writing the next chapter of Brighter, and it didn't work out, I tried with Start Making Sense and it didn't work out, and I started with this, and voila! So all in all this will be three chapters more tops, and I have a pretty clear idea of where this is headed, so no worries there my friends! Although, there will be a fair bit of angst :/
On a side note, the comic books I mentioned, are all really awesome and I'd recommend you all give them a look.
Also, if you'd care to review, please do so, as it means a lot to me. :)