The World's Our Stage
Fandom: Supernatural
Rating: T
Genre: Romance, Humor
Pairing: Castiel/Dean Winchester
Word count: 1645
Summary: Cas never asked to be involved in the annual Lawrence High play. He'd much rather be hiding behind the viewfinder of his camera than be up on stage. Yet, here he was: cast in a lead role and required to kiss Dean Winchester. And what kind of name was "Supernatural" for a play, anyway? Dean/Castiel ONESHOT.
AN: Hello, my little sockpuppets! I am back with this oneshot of AU-ness and Destiel. I hope you enjoy.
DISCLAIMER. I do not own Supernatural.
Inspired by this prompt: Imagine your OTP being cast in a school play where they have to kiss. Person A has never been kissed before, and Person B offers to practise.
"Supernatural?" Jimmy wrinkled up his nose as he leafed through a copy of the script for the Lawrence High annual school production, still warm from the drama department photocopier. "What kind of title is that?"
"Why don't you actually read the play, Jimmy? It's pretty self-explanatory." Castiel lowered his camera's viewfinder away from his right eyes to pull a face at his twin. To be perfectly honest, he wasn't entirely sure how exactly he got tangled up in all this school play nonsense; one minute he'd been standing outside Mr Henriksen's office with Jimmy, helping his brother go over his lines for his audition, and the next minute Henriksen had hauled him into the office and made him recite the audition piece in front of him, which had been horribly embarrassing on Castiel's part as he'd stumbled over every other word of every single sentence, but Henriksen had somehow seen something in him (it had to be a very small something, whatever it was), because, a few days later, Cas was standing in the hallway, staring dumbly at his name printed across the top of the cast list, with his twin cheering loudly beside him (he'd been cast as Human Casualty Number 420).
Jimmy let out a wordless grumbling sound, choosing to use to his brother's script as a fan. There wasn't exactly much air conditioning in the drama department's prop cupboard. "The play's about two brothers and some random guy from the Gas N Sip who go out and defeat evil. Whoever wrote it could have been a little more inventive."
"Chuck Shirley."
"Chuck who?"
"Chuck Shirley," Cas repeated, elaborating when he was met with radio silence. "You know, the playwright? Also known as Ben Edlund? He wrote that play about the archangel Gabriel? We've been studying him in Lit. class for the entire semester?"
"Oh, him!" Jimmy made a triumphant noise of recognition. "Should've guessed, really. That guy has a reputation for this sort of stuff. I mean, some of the names in this thing. What kind of name is Jensen?"
"It's called being creative," Cas replied, as he absentmindedly checked over the last photo he'd taken, of some graffiti that had been scratched into the cupboard walls with a pen knife.
"It's called being awkward, that's what," Jimmy corrected.
"What are you two whispering about in here?" Mr Henriksen had put his head around the door at some point during their conversation.
"Lunch," Jimmy replied quickly. "Speaking of lunch..." He glanced back at his brother, almost imploring now. "Can we please go and get some food now? I feel like I haven't eaten in months."
Castiel toyed with the camera strap around his neck. "You go on ahead. I think I'm going to try and grab some more pictures."
"Suit yourself." Jimmy rolled his eyes as a parting gesture, before he vanished out of the cupboard, letting the auditorium doors swing shut behind him.
"I've been looking for you, Castiel," Henriksen said suddenly into the silence, once the echoing sound of the other Novak's exit had faded away.
"You have?" Cas' eyebrows knitted together in confusion. Most of the time, people seemed to ignore him, as if he and his knitted sweaters and his tan trenchcoat faded to become part of the scenery in the background. "What for?"
"There's been some changes to the script."
"Changes?" Cas repeated. "What kind of changes?"
"I've been doing some research on Mr Shirley and the background of the play," Henriksen began to explain, beckoning Cas to join him outside of the cupboard, passing him another script, this one with SECOND DRAFT scrawled across it. "It's quite remarkable stuff, actually. Did you know he was an avid activist for gay rights back in the day?"
"Uh hu," Cas replied politely, flipping through his new version of the script. Everything seemed pretty much the same from what he could tell. "That's -" His sentence died in his throat. That was definitely different. "We have to what?"
"Apparently, according to a journal found in Mr Shirley's attic that contained the original notes for the play, your character Steve was intended to be gay - not that they could have mentioned that at the time of the play's release, of course, what with all the homophobia that existed. Anyway, after reading how that was what the great Mr Shirley always envisioned, I decided that it would only be a fitting tribute to his memory if we finally allowed Steve to be who he really is. Don't you agree, Castiel?"
"I -" Cas swallowed audibly, crinkling the corners of the wad of paper in his hands, trying to formulate a coherent sentence. It was bad enough that he would now have to act on stage in front of an entire audience without slipping up (something that was already a work in progress), but now he had to kiss someone in front of everyone too with absolutely no kissing experience? And not just anyone, at that.
The door slamming again - announcing someone's entrance this time - cut off his train of thought.
"Ah, Winchester." Henriksen folded his arms across his chest, looking at the new addition over Cas' shoulder. "You've finally decided to drag yourself away from goofing off for five minutes, I see."
Cas let out a silent groan, resisting the urge to cover his face with his copy of the new script and pretend to be invisible as usual. What was worse than having to kiss someone for the first time in front of a crowd of spectators?
Oh, that's right. Having to kiss Dean Winchester for the first time in front of a crowd of spectators. The very same Dean Winchester that Cas had been watching from afar ever since sophomore year.
He must have really pissed off Fate somehow.
Dean shrugged, unabashed by Henriksen's comment. In fact, if Cas was not mistaken, he looked a little smug. "What's up?"
"There's been some changes to the end of the script." Henriksen proceeded to repeat to Dean what he had said to Castiel only a few moments earlier, whilst the Novak shuffled awkwardly beside them, switching his weight from one foot to the other, trying not to look like he was analysing Dean's reaction as closely as he was.
The Winchester merely flicked through his script, only showing any sign of a reaction by raising an eyebrow when he actually reached the kissing scene.
"Okay," he said after a moment of silence. "We can do that."
"You can?" Henriksen looked relieved.
"We can?" Cas echoed, looking bewildered.
"'Course. Besides -" Dean winked in his co-star's direction "- it's not like we won't get any practice in before the big day, right?"
"Excellent!" Henriksen clapped them both on the shoulder. "I have a feeling this is going to be a great show with you two on board." He beamed at them. "Now, go on. Go enjoy the rest of lunch before fifth period starts."
Cas didn't say anything in reply; instead, he grabbed his backpack from the floor and tried his best not to sprint as he ducked out of the auditorium, finding his cellphone in his pocket. He only had two numbers in his contact list, which made speed-dialling very easy. The line rang twice, before there was a soft click.
"Human Casualty Number 420, speaking."
"Hello Jimmy."
"Cas, where are you?" There was the sound of Jimmy retrieving something from his plate and cramming it into his mouth. "Almost everyone's heading outside to the bleachers. Pep rally or something. I wasn't really paying attention."
"That doesn't matter!" Cas tried to keep his voice down. Thankfully, the hallway wasn't busy at this time of the day, but there were still a few odd students milling by their lockers just around the corner. He didn't really want to broadcast his conversation to everyone; plenty of time for that when rehearsals started. "You won't believe what Henriksen just told me. About the play."
"What?"
"Apparently my character Steve was intended to be gay, and now Henriksen's gone and -"
"Hey! Cas!" A familiar voice from right behind him caused him to turn around, dropping the phone from his ear, almost colliding with Dean Winchester, who had managed to sneak up behind him, undetected.
"Dean?" He frowned. "Is something wrong?"
"Nope. Nothin'. Just wonderin' if you wanted to practise our big scene."
"Big scene?"
"The kiss."
Oh. That. "Dean, I know what you said in front of Henriksen, but I really -" He was cut off quite suddenly, as Dean bent down slightly and gave him a soft peck on the lips, barely even there.
"Not bad, Cas," he remarked after a beat of silence, a grin stretched a mile wide across his face. Cas wasn't sure what expression he was making, but he was fairly sure it resembled that of a goldfish that didn't even have six seconds of memory. Dean gave his arm a warm squeeze, before side-stepping past him and starting off down the corridor. "Hey," he called back suddenly, over his shoulder. "You goin' to the game?"
"Huh?" Cas blinked.
"The game. Y'know, after school."
"I, uh -"
"Great." Dean threw him another wink, not giving him a chance to finish. "I'll save ya a seat, then, Cas." He disappeared off around the corner, practically emitting light from that megawatt smile. Could people go blind from smiles like that? (Mental queries like that really showed just what kind of mush his brain had become in the space of a few seconds.)
"Cas?" Jimmy's voice echoed out from the receiver, making him jump. "Cas, you still there? Castiel?"
Cas raised the phone back to his ear. "Still here."
"Are you okay? You kinda went radio silent on me."
"I'm not entirely sure," his twin replied slowly. "I think...I think I just had my first kiss. With Dean Winchester."