Summary: Dean Winchester is a popular Youtuber. Castiel Novak is one of his viewers who's never had the courage to initiate a conversation. But when Dean decides to hop on the "Draw My Life" bandwagon and manages to leave a rather strong impression on Castiel, will he finally be able to find the courage to speak up? Inspired by "The Road Between Us," by the lovely and talented humanity_is_lost on AO3.
"Hello there my beautiful viewers! This is Winchester speaking and today, I'm going to draw my life! I'm not sure why anyone would want to watch this but lots of people have been asking, and I live to serve!
"Anyways, on a certain date which I'm not going to disclose to you all, I was born in Lawrence, Kansas to a mother who I believe is the most beautiful and amazing woman to have ever lived. She was kind and funny, and she used to sing me to sleep with Hey Jude. My father was also an amazing man, and I looked up to him more than anything in the entire world. The first four years of my life were absolutely perfect, and I guess that should have been enough warning for everyone that something would go wrong eventually.
"When I was four, my baby brother Sammy was born. And, just like any brat at that age, I was so jealous of him, you wouldn't believe. I was so used to having my parents all to myself, I didn't see why I should have to start sharing now. Then, it happened.
"It was a night like any other. Mum had sung me to sleep, dad had just come back from work, Sammy was crying his head off. And then suddenly, I was waking up and everything was too hot, and I felt like I was choking, and my mum was handing Sammy to me, telling me to take him outside. Then next thing I know, I'm on the front lawn with my baby brother in my arms, and there are ambulances and firefighters and police officers everywhere and my dad is stumbling out of the house, but my mum's nowhere to be seen. And I never see her again.
"After that night, everything changed, including my dad. He never smiled anymore, but I guess losing the love of your life will do that to you. Due to him pissing off the wrong people and not being able to hold a stable job, we ended up moving around really often. As in, Sammy and I didn't bother unpacking our bags after the fifth time. He'd often disappear for days or even weeks, leaving me to "Take care of my brother" and sometimes we'd run out of money for food, leaving me to do some things I'm not proud about. But hey, anything to make sure my brother didn't starve, right?
"Then, one day, when I was twelve and Sammy was eight, the second life-changing thing happened. And thankfully, it was a good life-changing this time. So Sammy and I were just sitting on the couch, doing homework or whatever the hell we were doing, and dad, for once, was actually home, passed out on the couch. Then, out of the blue, someone busts in our door, and in march like ten police men, all completely armed, and they cuff our dad and drag him off.
"Now, y'all are probably wondering why the hell this is a good thing, right? Well, it means that our grandparents got custody of us. Not our mom's douchy parents who abandoned us after our mom died because they thought it was our fault, but our dad's awesome parents who tried their best to help our dad before he cut off all ties with them. I remember sitting in the police station, Sammy clinging to me, and then suddenly, grandma and grandpa Winchester walk in all smiles and love, and I just can't help feeling like everything's finally right with the world again. I know, terrible thing to say, considering my dad just got arrested, but hey, it's the truth.
"Anyways, after that, things settled down a lot. Sammy and I started at the local elementary school and that's where I met my best friends, Jo, Charlie, Benny, Ash, and Garth.
"I'm not going to lie and say things were perfect, because seriously, things got pretty dark for me for a bit during high school, and I had some horrible thoughts I'm pretty sure most teenagers have at one point in their lives. For a while, I fell in with the wrong crowds, which led to a falling out with my best friends and only ended with me relying more on the wrong people. It took my baby brother falling in with those same crowds for me to finally snap the hell out of it. I was beaten nearly to death by my new so-called "friends", but in the end, they were arrested, Sammy didn't have a scratch on him, and I made up with Charlie and the rest.
"It was rough, recovering from that, and I honestly wouldn't have made it through without the help of my family and friends. But I guess that's all a part of life, right? Everyone has their problems. Just remember that you ain't gonna get help if you don't ask for it.
"And that's it for me spilling my beans to you all about my life! Wow, that was a long video. I still don't know why you'd want to watch this, but hey, it's your life! So, I guess it's time for me to say goodbye, but let me just leave you all with a some words once told to me by a very wise, grumpy old bastard.
"Family don't end with blood."
Top Comments
1 hour ago
Sam Winchester: Dude, I can't believe you actually did it. Now I owe Jess twenty dollars. Thanks a lot, jerk. (21 likes)
20 minutes ago
Benny LaFitte: "You ain't gonna get help if you don't ask for it." Don't you think you should take your own advice, brother? When was the last time you actually asked anyone for help? (13 likes)
All Comments
AngelOfThursday: … [Post]
3 minutes ago
YaoiFangirl66439: Awwww! You poor baby! I just wanna hug you so tightly right now! :'(
5 minutes ago
Alexandra Kingsford: Such an inspirational video! I can't believe you've had such a hard life! You always seem so happy!
9 minutes ago
Georgia Kiel: Amazing 3
13 minutes ago
VioletViolence: Ugh, those guys who beat you half to death are so lucky I don't know their names or I would claw their eyes out!
14 minutes ago
Lyle Archer: Best Draw My Life ever!
19 minutes ago
Mike Riley: Dude, in your place, I wouldn't have been able to do half the stuff you did. You're inhuman, man.
22 minutes ago
JarxofxHearts: Your little brother is so lucky to have someone like you as a big brother! I wish you were my big brother!
26 minutes ago
Leo Hawkins: Oh my God! You were born in Lawrence? That's where I live! My dad told me he even remembers the house fire you were talking about! Wow!
Show more
Castiel stared at the screen, sitting with his hands poised over his keyboard as he tried to think of something to write. But just like every other time he'd tried, like with every other video he'd watched, he couldn't think of a damn thing to say that wouldn't sound creepy and/or boring.
Why the hell did this have to be so hard?
Sitting back with a defeated sigh, Castiel just stared at the screen for a moment, his eyes roving over the "suggested videos" bar on the right side of the screen, all the thumbnails showing Dean's face.
Castiel had been following Dean Winchester's channel for almost a year now, and he never ceased to be amazed.
A high school dropout currently working at his family friend's garage and taking online courses at a local community college, Dean had shown Castiel just how stupid it was to believe that education meant intelligence.
With his quick wit and outside the box thinking, Dean was easily one of the most intelligent people Castiel knew (or at least knew of, seeing as he'd never actually had a conversation with the man), and his extensive knowledge about mythology was, frankly, slightly terrifying at times.
When Castiel had first discovered Dean's channel during his winter break in his first year of university, he'd immediately become hooked, watching every video he could get his hands on. And by the time he'd finished every one of Dean's videos, he'd found he had a completely different view of the world.
Dean Winchester's channel was like a collision zone, with videos about a million and one different things, whether they be rants about how the music industry had been going down the drain lately and attempting to educate his viewers on "proper music" (aka classic rock), debates with himself about popular controversial issues (which were distressing, considering he made equally good points for both sides), completely random and epically hilarious skits with his friends, informational videos about the ancient mythologies of different nations, and even the rare personal video thrown in here and there about his life.
In this latest video, Dean had revealed more about his life than he ever had before, and Castiel just couldn't believe such a perfect person (okay, so maybe he had a tiny crush on the guy) had had such a hard life. Somehow, it made him all the more alluring.
And Castiel didn't know what it was about this certain video, maybe it was just the raw emotion in Dean's voice as he talked about his past, but something about it gave Castiel that last little push he needed towards something he'd been trying to find the courage to do for a while now.
Taking a deep, nervous breath, he sat forward and clicked his camera on.
"H-hi."