A/N:
I'd like to thank a few who have PM'd, reviewed or acknowledged the effort of the work put in (even if I am updating more sporadically than I like):
Thank you, oiwatchitwatson, cutieepiee, kamja, Ventorum, najs118, HuntingwithAngels, LoveGD, ArtisticNerd, Jamie-Destiel Leigh, silversky13, and Kae Gates for your support.
For those who are STILL waiting for Upon My Knees updates... sorry... I am working on it... but, this character that I made up keeps trying to take over. I'm still trying to figure out how to exorcise her from the story or tone down her involvement. I may need to scrap and start over. It was supposed to be about Cas and Dean and others keep getting in the way!
Thank you to those who left Kudos, too. I appreciate the acknowledgment of my work.
Chapter 3
The two friends got dressed and as Cas placed boxes in the common area of the dorm, Dean carried them off to the vehicle. Cas opened the door to take the last box out to the parking lot when Dean arrived.
"This is the last one, I can take it." Cas told him.
Dean shook his head and grabbed for the box. "Go tell the RA that you are ready to leave. Make sure the room is clear. I'll be right back and we can go get food."
Cas grinned and watched as the muscles rippled under Dean's shirt when he hefted the box into his arms and began walking away.
Karla came over to stand next to Cas and watched Dean with the same appreciation he did. He turned to look at the woman and she was unapologetic about the leer she wore when she stared at Dean. She sighed and turned to Cas.
"It really is a shame that two incredibly hot guys like you and your boyfriend are completely off the market for us women…" She shook her head and linked her arm in Cas' as she walked with him to his room. "I've been watching you two since Christmas, and I can't tell you how jealous I am. But…" She looked at Cas in the eyes as they approached his door. "I will miss you next year, Cas. Got into Stanford and I'm moving to Cali."
Cas smiled as he turned to hug her. "You've been a great RA, Karla. Have fun in Cali. You won't have any trouble picking up on a hot guy there."
Karla laughed as she looked at his room and accepted the key he held out to her. "Yeah, but it's California, Cas… More gay guys than straight, I'd wager…"
He laughed this time and waved at her as he made his way out of the hall. "Have a safe summer."
He heard her sigh as he turned toward the common room.
He was walking out to the parking lot, looking around for the Impala when he saw Dean leaning against a tricked out truck. He couldn't believe Dean would give up the Impala for anything. He walked toward him with a sad feeling in the pit of his stomach.
The truck was older, though you couldn't tell with all the extras and shiny red paint. The fenders flared slightly to accommodate the nearly too large all-terrain tires and the heavy chrome-plated wheels. The chrome pipe over the front grill housed a wench and flood lights. The windows held a slight tint and the bed was covered with a hard, red tonneau bedcover. The bumpers were diamond cut chrome and there was similar material along the running board step. He looked at the sleek paint and ran his hand over the gleaming metal. He sighed as he turned toward Dean.
Dean's smirk faltered. "Don't you like it?"
Cas sighed. "I liked the Impala better." He admitted. "What made you get a truck instead?"
Dean laughed. "It's not mine, Doofus!"
Dean flipped the keys to him as he walked around to the other side of the truck. He looked at the keys in his hand. He recognized the key rings as his own. He looked back at the truck with a new eye. "Mine?"
Dean climbed into the cab and waited. Cas felt his heart-rate speed up with giddy excitement. He climbed into the driver's seat and smoothed his hand along the dash. Everything seemed familiar and new at once. He felt Dean's eyes on him. When he turned his head, he swallowed a hard lump in his throat at the intense stare from his boyfriend. "What?"
Dean's eyes hardened to agates and his face wasn't at all amused. "If I ever find this truck in the kind of state it was in before, Cas… I swear to…" Dean stopped what he was saying with clenched jaw and tightened fist at his side. "Don't abuse this truck, Cas."
Dean turned his face away. Cas felt suddenly panicked. He didn't know how to read Dean at the moment. He'd never seen him so upset. "Okay." He replied in a small voice.
He didn't put the key in the ignition. They sat in silence for a while as Cas tried to get his body to calm down. He felt like he was vibrating in his seat. When he felt Dean's warm hand fill his cold, clammy one, he looked through tears to see Dean's expression cooled from the heat of a moment ago.
"I took this damn truck apart, Cas. It was a deathtrap. Every new problem I found in it made me angrier and angrier. I can't tell you how freaked out I was. Bobby had to stop me from beating the hell out of it a couple of times. The idea of you driving that piece of crap around nearly broke me… I can't lose you, Cas. Every time I saw this truck sitting in the garage, I thought about you in a ditch somewhere and it killed me! Every. Single. Time. So… you have to promise me… right here, right now… you won't let it get that bad again."
Cas swallowed around the tears and nodded his earnest agreement. Dean studied his blue eyes to be sure he understood. When he saw what he needed to see, his lips twitched and rose at the sides. His eyes softened and revealed crinkles at the corners that Cas loved so much. Cas' own lips began to curve into a smile. He was suddenly excited about driving his truck. He placed the key in the slot and turned. He felt the growl of the engine as much as heard it. His smile grew and the twinkle in his eyes gave Dean the satisfaction that Cas could feel the level of his love for him.
Cas was dumbstruck. He never once imagined that it could be this way outside of the Impala. The only way he ever got to drive the Impala was when Dean was drunk or injured, so the effect was mitigated in those occasions by other emotions. But, this was his truck. He could understand, now, all the hours Dean spent maintaining the Impala and keeping her clean. He could feel that level of commitment in the turn of the key.
He also was able to understand something else.
He knew, for years, that he felt something more than friendship for Dean. In the last ten months, he knew he felt love for him. He knew, feeling the engine rumble, vibrating the beast of a truck around him, that Dean loved him, too. There was a sense of Dean's desire to keep him safe and secure in the solid metal encasing him. There was a fierce protectiveness that Dean expressed in the extras, like the winch and tonneau cover, the side steps and the roar of the engine under the hood. The stick at his knee, shiny chrome along with the other accents on the fire-engine red truck, told him that Dean took care with each detail. It described perfectly how Dean treasured him, cared for him, desired him. The tears in Cas' eyes turned from confusion and concern to love and happiness.
He flung himself across the bench seat to pull Dean into his embrace. He buried his face into Dean's shoulder. He couldn't believe how lucky he was to have Dean Winchester. Dean wrapped his arms around him and squeezed. Cas pulled away from him and looked into his face, beaming in his joy.
"I love you!"
Dean looked embarrassed by the outpouring and blushed. He coughed and smiled. "Yeah… well…are we gonna get breakfast or not?"
Cas never took these moments personally. He continued to grin like a loon even as he put the truck in gear.
Over breakfast at a nearby diner, Dean told him about all the features and took pains to describe, in detail, what steps he took to restore his truck. Cas didn't follow any of the technical processes but smiled and nodded with appreciation as he listened. As they finished their meal a thought occurred to Cas.
"Dean?"
Dean looked up from his wallet as he handed a credit card and the bill to the waitress to pay for their food. "Yeah?"
Cas fought a wave of worry. "How… how did you pay for the restoration?"
Dean shrugged. "Some of it was donated by Bobby. I just had to scour the scrap yard for some of it. Some parts that I couldn't find or needed to be completely replaced…" Dean shrugged again.
"How?"
Dean looked at Cas and sighed. "Your family. Gabriel and Kat, mostly. I didn't want to accept the money, Cas. I wanted to do it on my own. But… the engine, bedcover and winch… the radio… some of the things needed to be new."
He signed his name when the waitress returned and he rose with Cas to leave. They walked in silence out to the truck. Cas looked at the object of Dean's months of labor. "I'll pay you… I'll pay everyone back… I promise."
Dean took Cas in his arms. "Just take care of it, Cas."
Cas nodded. He knew he couldn't afford to take for granted the gift of love the truck really was. They rode down the highway, the satellite radio piping 70's rock through speakers above them in a sound bar behind the bench seat. Neither spoke the entire way home. They rolled up to the apartment driveway and Cas parked the truck next to the Impala in a covered carport below the kitchen window of the apartment. Dean jumped out and popped the tonneau. He grabbed a box and began walking toward the stairs. Cas watched him before he smoothed his hand over the dashboard cover and reluctantly opened the door to do the same.
He walked into the silent apartment and headed toward the room he and Dean were meant to share. Dean was just straightening, having put the box in the closet. Cas moved toward him; their eyes met and Dean's fingers brushed Cas' as he removed the box from him.
"Welcome home." Dean whispered.
The returning smile sent a tightening in Dean's groin. Dean turned to put the box down next to its match in the closet when Cas wrapped his arms around Dean's waist. The lingering kiss they shared began tentative and sweet. The push of Dean's solid form against Cas caused him to gasp in reaction. Dean used the opportunity to plunder Cas' mouth with his tongue. Cas could hear the increase in Dean's breathing, the fingers gripping Cas' arms tightened and the kiss turned passionate and deliberate.
Cas pulled away with a reluctant sound and laid his forehead against Dean's shoulder to try and catch his breath.
"Shouldn't… shouldn't we finish bringing stuff in?" Cas gasped out. "Or at least lock the truck?"
He lifted his blue eyes to gaze into Dean's green ones. The question and lust reached out through his expression. His whole body whispered please to Dean. His light touch of fingers to his boyfriend's chest as Dean clasped his upper arms in a tight grip. The soft, warm breath ghosting over Dean's neck and cheek as his lover looked down at him with a heated look of passion. The press of his hardening erection against Dean's body only to find a similar reaction to Cas' proximity.
Dean's words were strangled and forced. "Go. Lock it up. Quick."
Cas turned, and as quickly as he could, he hobbled down the stairs. His pulsing erection caused him pain as he moved. He pulled the tonneau cover down on the bed of his truck and turned the handle to lock it. He climbed the stairs and locked the front door behind him, nearly sprinting, as much as his ache would allow, back to their room. He entered to find Dean standing near the door. He had worn-looking work pants with his button fly undone without a shirt over his bronzed pectoral muscles. Music was playing from the old style boombox in the corner; soft, jazzy instrumentals slithered over and burrowed under their skin to resonate in their blood, shaking them to their bones.
Cas entered the room closing the door behind him and pushing the locking mechanism with a soft click as he approached his lover.