clooneynotes on tumblr requested Dean Smith/Castiel Novak business AU. I think I took this a bit extreme. I'm surprised at myself, because I don't read AU, let alone write it. Here it is, nonetheless.
A bit of Sam/Gabriel got thrown in there two, because apparently I can't write Destiel without Sabriel, or vice versa.
Title is from the Rihanna song, but I'm pretty sure it has nothing to do with the fic itself.
Enjoy.
Yellow Diamonds
Dean Smith, CEO of Smith & Wesson Industries, let out a long sigh. He had been filling out paperwork all day, and, quite frankly, he was sick of it. There were much better things he would have liked to have been thinking about. Like that feisty new intern in HR…
"Long day, sir?" a voice interrupted his thoughts.
Dean looked up at the man who'd entered the room with a pile of more paperwork for him to fill out.
"The longest," Dean said. "You're the guy who's training to replace Jo when she leaves, Castiel, right?"
"Castiel," he corrected with a nod.
"Right. Good to have you on board. Please tell me that isn't more paperwork."
Castiel scrunched his face a little. "Sorry, sir. I could get you some coffee, if you'd like," he offered.
"That would be fantastic," Dean said, returning his attention to the mounds of papers, while Castiel walked toward the door. "Oh, and if you call me sir again, I will be forced to fire you," he added jokingly.
A few minutes later, the door opened again, and a pregnant woman practically ran inside.
"So, what do you think of him?" Jo Harville asked happily.
"Who?" Dean asked, not bothering to look up from his desk.
"Castiel Novak," she exclaimed. "He was just in here, don't tell me you've forgotten him already."
"No, he was fine," Dean nodded absently. "Seems eager."
"You think he'll be a suitable replacement?" she asked.
"I only talked to the guy for forty seconds. Do you think he's a suitable replacement?"
"Of course I do," she said. "I'm the one who reviewed thousands of applications and narrowed it down to three contenders. He's not perfect, which is to say, he's not me, but he's pretty good. I've still got a month to work on him, so he'll be even better. Please try not to scare him away, the other two contenders are not nearly as pretty to look at."
"I don't care how pretty they are, so long as they get the job done," Dean said, rolling his eyes.
"Yeah, see, you say that now, but you would not be happy with some creepy bald guy delivering your coffee in the morning."
"Fine," Dean said. "I'll try not to scare him off. I'm not even that scary, anyway."
"We had twelve interns quit last year alone because of you," Jo exclaimed.
Dean looked up at her and grinned. "That was not because they were scared of me. That was because I had sex with them and didn't call them after."
Jo gasped. "Dean Smith, you rascal!" she said with a laugh.
(Yellow Diamonds)
Castiel returned with his coffee a few minutes later.
"You are a godsend," Dean said gratefully, taking the large insulated mug.
When Castiel didn't leave immediately, Dean looked up to find him staring.
"Something I can do for you?" Dean asked, giving him a strange look.
Castiel shook out of his trance. "Sorry, sir, no," he said hurriedly, as he shook his head and walked out of the office.
"Don't call me sir!" Dean reminded him.
(Yellow Diamonds)
Castiel was a likeable enough guy, and pretty good at the job. He had accompanied Dean to several meetings (Jo was there too, of course), and always brought coffee in the morning (and in the afternoon, and sometimes in the evening). He didn't talk like most people did. He used strange word and was often overly formal. It was strange, but Dean kind of liked it. The fact that Dean had caught him staring at him on at least eleven occasions in two weeks (not that he was counting), was slightly disorienting, but not so bothersome that he felt it was a problem.
"Is he gay?" he asked Jo one morning.
"Who? Castiel?" she asked. "I don't know, I didn't ask him. Why?"
"No reason."
"Please don't have sex with him and make him leave," she begged him.
"Oh, but I can have sex with him, so long as I don't make him leave?" Dean asked, amusedly.
"How 'bout you just not have sex with him at all, then we won't have to worry about it."
"Jo, I have never, nor do I ever intend to sleep with a man," Dean assured her.
"We bother know that's not true," she grinned knowingly, as she walked back out of the office.
"Oh," she said, popping her head in a few minutes later. "About you're meeting tonight. I'm not going."
"What?"
"Don't freak out, Castiel is going. It'll be fine. I'll be gone in a little under two weeks, and I want to make sure he can handle himself when I'm not there."
Dean looked a little more relaxed when he realized that he would not be alone at the meeting. He relied on Jo to know what was going on, and to take notes, and to bring him coffee when he started to get agitated with the absolute morons in accounting.
(Yellow Diamonds)
"So, how am I doing?" Castiel asked after the meeting had ended and he and Dean were the only ones left in the conference room.
"You worried about your job security?" Dean asked, a smile on his lips.
"You're an important man. This is a big job. I don't want to screw it up," he said.
"Don't worry, Cas," Dean assured him. "You're doing good. I'll let you know if you screw up."
Castiel gave him a strange look, but said nothing.
(Yellow Diamonds)
Two weeks later, Jo entered Dean's office for the last time as his assistant.
"Well, this is it," she said.
"Remind me again why you're leaving," Dean said, rising from his desk.
"Dean," she said obviously. "Have you seen the size of my stomach? I'm gonna burst any day not. I feel like I'm pregnant with elephants. Two of them."
"You're pregnant?" Dean asked, and at first, Jo thought he was serious. "I had assumed you'd swallowed a planet."
She rolled her eyes and punched him in the arm. "So you think you'll be okay without me?" she asked as Castiel walked in with Dean's afternoon coffee, and a slice of pie from the bakery across the street.
"Thanks, Cas," he said gratefully. He opened the container and inspected the pie. "Ohh, cherry, my favorite."
"You're feeding his addiction," Jo said, as Castiel gave Dean a strange look.
"Hey," Dean said with a mouthful of pie. "If he wants to give me pie, by all means, let the man give me pie!"
Castiel stifled a smile. "Anything else I can get you?"
"Nope, I'm good, thanks," Dean said. Castiel smiled and left.
"Oh yeah," Jo grinned when the door closed. "He totally has a crush on you." She turned to look at her former boss, and a look of realization hit her. "Oh my god, you like him."
"What are you talking about?" Dean asked, returning to the paperwork on his desk.
"You have a big gay crush on Castiel Novak," Jo said, a wide grin covering her face. "Gotta say, didn't see that one coming. I wish you luck on your endeavors to get in his pants."
"I thought you were trying to discourage that thought," Dean said, munching on his pie.
"Hey, you can do whatever you want now. If he quits, it's on you to find a replacement now."
Dean let out a gasp. "And you would just leave me alone to fend for myself?"
"It would serve you right," she smirked.
"Remind me again why I like you?"
(Yellow Diamonds)
"You have a meeting this afternoon at 3:30 with legal," Castiel informed Dean, who promptly slammed his head into his desk. "And a meeting at 7:30 with R&D. And a video conference with Mr. Nakamura at 9." Dean groaned. "Sorry," Castiel said. "At least your morning is clear," he added optimistically.
"Yes," Dean said, looking up at him. "So very clear. It's not like I have a desk full of paperwork or anything."
"Sorry," Castiel said again.
"You know what, screw it," Dean said, standing up at grabbing his jacket. "I'm taking the morning off, and you're coming with me."
Castiel blinked. "Oh-okay," he said, clearly unsure of what was happening.
(Yellow Diamonds)
Dean took his assistant to his favorite burger joint a few blocks from the office. Castiel was still greatly confused by the outing, but very much enjoyed the burgers. Dean told himself to stop thinking of this lunch as a date.
"So, tell me about yourself," Dean said.
"What?"
"You've been working for me for over a month, but I hardly know anything about you, beyond your name and your keen organizational skills."
"There's not much to tell," Castiel shrugged.
"Come on, everyone's got a story. You got a girlfriend, family?"
"I am unattached," he said. Dean pretended not to care. "My family is… We are not as close as we once were," he said.
"Why, what happened?"
Castiel shrugged. "Many things. It is a very big family. I have many sisters and brothers and even more cousins. They are very religious."
"Oh," Dean said curiously. He had never gotten the religious vibe from Cas. "Are you?"
"Not so much as I once was," Castiel said. "That's why we aren't really close anymore."
"Man, I'm sorry, Cas."
Castiel gave him a strange look. "You keep calling me that. Why?"
"What, Cas?" Dean shrugged. "I don't know, it's just a nickname. You don't like it?"
Cas shook his head. "It's just different. But I like it," he smiled. "What about you, Dean," he said, changing the subject. "I have told you something about myself, now it's your turn."
"What do you wanna know?" Dean asked, his mouth full of food. Cas laughed a little at the sight.
"You hate paperwork," Cas said. "You hate going to meetings and you hate having to deal with the people that work for you. So how why are you here?"
"I don't hate you," Dean pointed out. Cas smiled. Dean swallowed. "I always wanted to be a mechanic."
"And somehow you ended up the CEO of one of the biggest corporations in the world?"
"This was my dad's baby. He built the business practically from the ground up. My mom died when I was a kid, this was all he had. He poured himself into it. My brother and I didn't have much of a childhood. Dad kinda forced us into this. Our Uncle Bobby tried to help out, let us have some fun, but Dad didn't like it. He wanted us to be just like him. Sammy, my brother, got out. He's at Stanford or something. We don't really talk anymore.
"When my dad died, I took over the family business. It's not ideal, but it's not like I could say no, right."
(Yellow Diamonds)
The following week, Dean was quite sick. Hoarse coughing, runny nose, a massive headache. And whenever he breathed, it felt like there was an elephant sitting on his chest.
"You shouldn't be here," Cas said when he realized just how sick his boss was. "Why don't you go home, get some rest?"
"Sounds boring," Dean sniffled, resting his head on the desk. "No more boring than this of course, but at least here I'm doing something." And you're here, he doesn't say.
"It's not supposed to be fun," Cas says, handing him his morning coffee. "You're supposed to rest so you can get better. Tell me you didn't drive here," he added, noticing that Dean's focus seemed to be a little off.
"Of course I drove here," Dean snapped.
"I'm calling you a cab," Cas said, reaching for his cell. "You're going home."
"I most certainly am not," Dean retorted. "I'm the boss here, not you."
Cas sighed, but left the room without another word. Twenty minutes later, her returned with cough medicine, and a large bowl of soup from a French bistro Dean had never heard of.
It was the best damn soup he'd ever tasted.
(Yellow Diamonds)
"Alright, that's it, you're going home," Cas said when he entered Dean's office to find him half asleep on his desk.
"Don't wanna," Dean mumbled.
"Come on," Cas said, lifting him off the desk. "No arguing, you're going home."
"Mmhmmmm," Dean grumbled.
Cas gathered his things and helped him down to the parking garage.
"This isn't my car," Dean mumbled as they climbed into something that was completely the wrong shape.
"No, it's mine," Cas said. "You think I'm letting you drive like this? You're barely conscious."
"Can we get more soup?" Dean asked, his face pressed to the cool window as they drove out of the garage.
Cas smiled a little. "Yeah, we'll stop and get more soup." He stopped off at the little bistro while Dean fell asleep in the car, then drove him home.
"Come on, Dean," Cas said when they arrived. "You can go back to sleep as soon as you're in your bed."
Dean grumpily awoke and allowed himself to be dragged into his house. Cas was practically carrying him, with Dean's head buried in his shoulder. He helped him into the bed and pulled the blankets over him.
"You want the soup now or later?" he asked.
"mmmm" he said. This meant almost nothing to Cas, but he put the soup in the fridge for later.
(Yellow Diamonds)
When Dean awoke a while later, he ran to the bathroom to hurl. As he washed his hands and face, he noticed a sticky note on the mirror.
Soup in the fridge, if you're hungry.
-C
Dean smiled and wandered into the kitchen. He wasn't hungry, but he went for the fridge anyway. Stuck to the outside of the door was another sticky note.
You should probably go grocery
shopping when you're feeling better.
-C
Inside was completely empty, save a case of beer and a bowl of soup. On the soup, was another sticky note.
Even if you aren't hungry, eat it.
-C
Below were reheating instructions.
Another note was stuck on the case of beer.
No beer!
-C
Dean let out a small laugh, which led to a fit of coughs.
While waiting for the soup reheat, he found a fourth note attached to a package of cold medicine.
Take two, AFTER you eat the soup.
-C
(Yellow Diamonds)
A few hours later, while Dean was lying, half asleep, on the couch, watching reruns of some show called Supernatural, Cas stopped by.
"How you feeling?" Cas asked when Dean opened the door for him.
"Like I've been run over by a bus," he replied. "Repeatedly."
"I brought more soup," Cas said, holding up the container. Dean smiled.
(Yellow Diamonds)
Cas came to check on Dean at least twice a day until he was feeling well enough to return to work.
"Where the hell is my car?" Dean said into the phone the morning he intended to head into the office. The past several days had been a hazy blur.
"It's still at work," Cas told him. "I'll pick you up on my way in. I'll be there in twenty."
(Yellow Diamonds)
A few weeks later, Cas entered Dean's office with a strange look on his face.
"What's the matter?" Dean asked.
"It's…um… It's my cousin," he said, clearly very distracted by his thoughts. "We haven't heard from her in a few years. We had always believed she was dead… she's been found, in a mental ward. My family has brought her home. I was wondering if I could take the afternoon off."
"Woah," Dean said. "Yeah, man, of course. Take the rest of the week. I can manage for a few days."
"Thank you," Cas said, with a distant look in his eyes.
(Yellow Diamonds)
Castiel returned sooner than Dean was expecting, and he almost told his assistant to get back home, but he could see by the look on his face that it was the last thing he wanted to do.
"You okay?" Dean asked.
"I'm fine," Cas replied.
Dean doesn't push it until later, when they're at lunch that afternoon. It's become almost a regular thing for them; they eat lunch together nearly every day, sometimes they go out, sometimes Castiel gets something to-go and they just sit at Dean's desk. Today, it was the former.
"She doesn't remember much of anything," Cas told him. "Our family, her childhood. She doesn't remember any of it."
"Ah, man, that blows."
"I envy her," Cas said, defying Dean's expectation.
"What?"
"She got away," he said. "She did what I have wished I could do for a long time. She got out. And she has forgotten a childhood that is better forgotten."
"You never said it was that bad," Dean said.
"I love my family," Castiel said. "But I don't see eye to eye with them. If they could just see that there are other views than just theirs… but they don't. Anyone who does not share their opinions is wrong."
"I'm sorry," Dean said, laying his hand over his assistants for a moment of comfort.
"And now they are putting Anna through therapy to force her to remember. I wish that she could escape again, live a new life, free of them."
(Yellow Diamonds)
Dean didn't ask Castiel about his family anymore. Though he was curious about Anna, he knew that, if Cas really wanted to talk about, he would when he was ready.
"She is starting to remember," Cas told him one day. "I don't know how much, but I can see it in her eyes. The way she looks at them. Like she hates them."
"They had a big fight," he said a few days later. "She remembers everything now. They fought, then she left."
They don't talk about it anymore after that.
(Yellow Diamonds)
"There's a call for you from someone called Sam Wesson," Cas said, walking into Dean's office several weeks later.
"What?" Dean asked, clearly surprised.
"Sam Wesson," Castiel repeated. "Do you want me to take a message?"
"No. No, I'll talk to him," Dean said, a confused expression on his face.
"What are you doing this weekend?" Dean asked Cas fifteen minutes later.
"I have no plans yet, why?"
"My brother just got engaged," he explained. "He's having some sort of gathering with a bunch of his friends from school. I don't know why he invited me, but it'd be rude to say no, and to be honest, I kinda miss him. And I'd really like to meet his soon to be wife."
"What does this have to do with my plans for the weekend?"
"I could use a buffer," Dean admitted. "I don't know any of these guys, and Sam and I aren't close anymore. You wanna join me?"
Castiel smiled. "Sure."
(Yellow Diamonds)
Dean wasn't sure what he was expecting to find when he and Cas arrived at Sam's place. Maybe he was expecting that Jess girl. He'd seen her picture a few years back, the last time he'd seen Sammy. They'd looked happy, so, in Dean's mind, she could have easily been the one his little brother was going to marry. It wasn't like he'd heard anything to the contrary. Then again, he didn't hear much of anything from Sam. He'd been surprised to have even been invited to the engagement celebration.
Whatever he'd been expecting, it wasn't…
"Gabriel?"
Dean stared at Cas in confusion. Sam looked back and forth between Castiel and 'Gabriel', equally confused.
"Hi, Castiel," Gabriel replied.
"How do you know each other?" Sam and Dean asked at once.
"He's my brother," Gabriel ad Castiel replied in unison.
(Yellow Diamonds)
"So," Dean said, when he and Sam were alone (Cas and Gabriel were in the other room, catching up). "Gabriel. Not what I was expecting."
"You're one to talk," Sam said. "When you asked if you could bring someone along, I was expecting… well, breasts."
"What? You think-? No!" Dean said, attempting to eliminate Sam's assumption that Castiel was his date, despite the fact that he kind of thought of it as one. But there was no way in hell that he was going to tell that to Cas, let alone Sam.
(Yellow Diamonds)
"So, how's the fam?" Gabriel asked.
"The same as always," Castiel said.
"Yeah, no surprise there. I heard Anna found her way back."
"Briefly. The moment she remembered all that had happened, she left again."
"Smart kid," Gabriel said. He stared at Castiel for a few moments, trying to read his face. "You're angry," he finally deduced.
"No," Castiel said, but it was clear he was lying.
"No, you are. You're pissed. You're good at hiding it, but you're pissed."
"You left," Castiel hissed.
"Anna left," Gabriel pointed out.
"Anna was not my sister. She was not my best friend. She wasn't the one I looked up to. I was older when she let. I was eleven years old and you left me alone with them."
Gabriel closed his eyes. "I know I haven't been the best brother," he said. "What I did wasn't fair, and it probably wasn't right, but I don't regret it."
"You should have taken me with you," Castiel said. "Instead you left me alone."
"I never left you along," Gabriel replied. "I always stayed nearby. I kept an eye on your for years, just in case."
"You should have taken me with you," Castiel said again.
"Yeah, I should have."
There was silence for a few moments.
"So, what's up with you and this Dean-o?"
"Nothing," Castiel replied, a little too quickly. A grin appeared on Gabriel's face.
"You so like him."
"We are just friends," Castiel assured him.
"Only because you're afraid to make a move."
(Yellow Diamonds)
"So," Dean said, as he and Cas drove home the following morning. "How was it seeing your brother?"
"Strange," Cas replied. "It's been so long since I've seen him. It was… strange." He changed the subject. "What about you and your brother? Things seem to have gone better than you expected them to."
Dean nodded. "Yeah," he said. "I mean, I doubt we'll be best friends anytime soon, but-"
Whatever Dean was going to say was cut off by a semi smashing into the driver side.
(Yellow Diamonds)
Dean didn't remember. He wakes up somewhere cold and sterile. The smell choked him.
"Dean," Cas' said. Dean hadn't even realized he was in the room. He had fallen asleep in the chair beside Dean's bed. "You're awake."
"What happened?" Dean asked. Cas had a few partially healed cuts on his face, and his arm was wrapped in bandages.
"We were in an accident," Castiel replied. "T-boned by a semi."
"You okay?" Dean asked, worriedly.
"I'm fine," Cas said. "It's you I'm worried about. You've been unconscious for days. How do you feel?"
Dean moved around so he was sitting up, propped against a mound of pillows.
"Like I was hit by a truck," he half laughed, his eyes closed as he massaged his temple.
"That's not funny," Cas said.
"It's a little funny," Dean replied.
(Yellow Diamonds)
Castiel had been taking care of things at the office. He already knew most of the ins and outs of Dean's job, given that he did a good portion of it when Dean wasn't in the hospital. He stopped by the hospital a couple times every days, and always brought a treat along with, Sometimes a burger, sometimes a bowl of that damn good soup. If he was really lucking, Cas brought pie.
A large vase of flowers appear one day. They're cheesy, but Dean secretly hopes they're from Cas.
One day, he brought Sam.
"Sammy!" Dean said in surprise.
"He has been very worried," Castiel said. "Demanded that I call the moment you woke up."
"Sorry I didn't come 'round sooner," Sam said while Cas walked out of the hospital room. "Been really busy with school."
"It's cool," Dean said smiling. "Glad you're here."
(Yellow Diamonds)
"So, are you ever gonna make a move on him?" Gabriel asked his little brother.
"What?" Castiel asked, grabbing a cup of coffee from the dispenser.
"Oh, don't even try to play the naïve card. You're in love with him."
"I am not."
"Liar."
"You have no right to come back into my life and behave as if you never left," Castiel snapped harshly.
Gabriel looked genuinely upset by the outburst, and turned his attention to his feet.
"I know," he said. "I just want to make things right. I don't know how."
"Yeah, me neither," Castiel said after a moment.
(Yellow Diamonds)
"You're feeling better?" Castiel said, entering Dean's room. He was out of bed and dressed in his street clothes.
"98 percent," Dean said. "Doctors say I'm free to go."
"I think they said you were free to go, so long as you rested at home."
"What's the difference?"
"I have no doubt you will spend your 'rest time' at work."
"Right you are," Dean said.
"I do not understand you sometimes," Cas said. "You dislike your job, and yet, you would rather be there than at home. Why about your home is so awful?"
"Home is," Dean began. He thought about it. "Home is lonely," he shrugged. You're at work.
It was sudden, catching them both by surprise, but Castiel's lips were suddenly pressed against Dean's. Before Dean had the chance to react, Cas had pulled away, his eyes wide with terror.
"I- I'm sorry," he stuttered.
He ran from the room.
(Yellow Diamonds)
Dean tried to call him about a dozen times, but Cas wasn't answering his phone, and Dean was pretty sure that if he had, he would have no idea what to say.
When Dean arrived at work, Castiel was sitting at his desk as if all things were normal. Dean greeted him pleasantly. They would definitely talk later, when they had a moment to themselves. When Dean wasn't busy catching up on over two weeks of missed work.
Cas, of course, had already taken care of most of the work. Dean smiled at the large stacks of paper that only needed his signature. He hardly looked at most of them as he signed.
But one of them looked different than all the rest.
Dean picked up his phone and pressed one.
"Yes?" Cas answered.
"You mind coming into my office?" Dean requested.
"Just a moment, sir."
Sir. Dean had kicked that habit out of his assistant in his first week. They were back to sir now?
"Close the door," Dean said when he entered. He stood up and walked around his desk. "What is this?" he asked, holding up the paper.
"My resignation," Cas answered plainly.
"You're leaving," Dean said. He wasn't sure if it was a question or not. "Just like that?"
Castiel sighed. "I made a mistake. What I did was extremely inappropriate. I am lucky if you don't fire me."
"I'm not gonna fire you, Cas," Dean assured him. "And stop talking like I'm just some dickwad boss. I'm your friend."
"You act as though what I did… you act like it changes nothing," Cas said, staring at his feet. He hardly noticed that Dean had moved closer. He did notice, though, because Dean was standing so close that is took Cas' breath.
"It changes everything," Dean said softly, pressing their lips together.
Cas pulled away and looked at him in shock.
"You're a good assistant," Dean said, kissing him again. "I'd really like it if I didn't have to replace you." He kissed him again. "What do you say?"
Cas smiled and kissed him.