Title: Bruises
Summary: Castiel Novak and Dean Winchester live in two houses with meeting rooftops. One day, on said rooftops, a boy needs comfort. (Trigger Warning, I'm not kidding.)
Prompt: This post: post/46976245595/theperksofbeing-a-fanboy
Credits to Eric Kripke for Supernatural :)
Dean crawled out onto the small roof, the one that was almost directly connected to Cas'. It had been a week since they'd last met on the rooftops, college keeping them both away from the usually regular meetings. But tonight Dean had enough free time to go and have a nice cold beer. The sun was just setting, a sort of calming aura surrounded Dean as he relaxed on the roof, his back leaning again the siding of the second story.
A couple minutes later the window across the alley opened, a familiar black -haired head peeking out. Blue eyes met green as Castiel looked up at Dean.
"How's school been treating you?" Cas asked, popping open his can of beer. He took a swig and looked up at the sky.
"Lots of homework. It's actually a lot more boring than I expected." Dean sighed. Thinking back on the more-boring-than-he-thought lectures he'd been having all week he felt like it was almost a waste of time. He was hoping it'd get better as time went on.
"I never asked, what courses are you taking?" Castiel asked, still looking up at the sky, watching as the colours faded from blue to orange.
"I'm doing a mechanics course, a business course and a science course right now. I'm not really sure what I want to do with my life yet." Dean studied Castiel as Castiel studied the sky. He watched his companions blue eyes reflect the golden light coming from the setting sun and the way he drank the beer in his hand. It was almost mesmerizing.
"So you're smart then?" Cas said, turning his head to look back at Dean. Dean blinked to attempt to not look like he was staring.
"I guess you could say that. It's more that people think I'm smart. I'm not actually. If I were smart I'd know what I'm doing by now. What courses are you taking?" Dean asked.
"Religious Studies and I'm looking into a specialized teachers course." Cas shrugged, meeting Deans eyes.
Without breaking eye contact Dean said, "You want to be a teacher? And is the Religious Studies for fun, or does that somehow tie in together?"
"Religion is a long time interest of mine. Though I myself don't believe in much, I was raised a devout Christian so I got an early glimpse into that. In middle school I started reading Ancient Greek text, translated of course, and then I began to enjoy the mythology of it all. I went into many pagan mythologies before becoming interested in more recent religions. It's quite interesting really. Especially when you get into religions with multiple gods, like Greek, Norse and Roman where they literally have a god for everything." Castiel stopped for a breath.
"Do they have a God of beer?" Dean held up his bottle and smiled.
"Well, most do actually. Though not beer specifically, alcohol in general, some get more specific." Castiel's eyes lit up as he shuffled through all the information he knew on his passion.
"That's actually pretty cool. I used to enjoy Greek Mythology myself, it was a pastime when I was younger." Dean smiled, watching as Castiel bounced about like an excited frog.
"Greek Mythology is my absolute favourite!" And then he stopped suddenly, his face falling, "Sorry, I know it probably doesn't interest you much."
"I find it admirable that you know so much about a certain subject, especially since you look like you would be able to jump into a couple hours long speech about it." Dean laughed and stood up, his beer bottle empty, "Mind waiting here while I go get another one?"
Cas nodded.
Dean got up and crawled back through his window into the tiny apartment that was his home. He went to the fridge and pulled out another bottle. Before he went back outside he looked up and watched Castiel for a moment. He watched as the other man looked up at the sky, which was rapidly darkening. If Dean didn't know better he would say there were tears in those blue eyes. He frowned in confusion. Cas had looked like he was having fun just a few moments ago, and even though Dean didn't really care much about religions, he would have found anything interesting if listening to Cas speak so passionately about it.
He came back to the window and saw Cas blink really hard. In a split-second decision, Dean bypassed his own roof and went to go sit beside Castiel. Castiel turned and tilted his head to the side slightly, looking at him in confusion. Dean ignored him and looked at the sky.
"Hey look, there's already some stars showing." Dean pointed up, looking over at Cas when the other man looked up.
"Maybe I should study astronomy." Cas said absentmindedly, a far away look on his face. Dean slowly lowered his hand and waited until Cas came out of his reverie.
Dean wanted to say something, but he was suddenly out of words. Castiel was sitting so close to him, a peaceful aura drifting off of him and adding to the quiet night. Castiel always seemed like such a happy person, always calm and smiling. But why had he looked so sad beforehand?
"You okay Cas?" Dean asked quietly.
"No." Castiel barely whispered back, his attention focused solely on the stars in the heavens.
Dean put his beer down on the roof beside him and slowly slide his arms around Castiel, giving him a comforting hug. Dean was surprised when he leaned into it. Dean was surprised that he'd even hugged Cas at all. At least it was warm and... Nice.
"I want you to be okay." Dean said, a sort of mindless quiet falling over him.
Castiel turned and put his arms around Deans neck, burying his head into his neck. He finally let his tears spill over.
Dean didn't know why Castiel felt so sad, or why such a nice person would have a reason to. All he knew is that he wanted to be there whenever Castiel was down. And he wanted to be there when Cas was happy too.
They stayed there for a while before Castiel pulled back, he had stopped crying and blinked at Dean sadly, "I'm going to go to sleep now. You should sleep too Dean."
Dean nodded and returned to his bed.
In the morning Dean woke up as usual and ate breakfast as usual and went to the lectures as usual. It wasn't until he got home and saw the newspaper on his front step that his schedule changed. He picked it up and brought it in and placed it on the table. Not yet bothering to read the headline.
He went and got an apple, holding it in his hand as he went to read the newspaper.
...
...
Local Tragedy
Castiel Novak, a student at our own local college killed himself late last night...
The apple rolled on the floor, knees hit the ground as a heart shattered into a million pieces.
Really though, I'm not that sorry. I hope you enjoyed. Stay safe children :)
