The first day Castiel comes to school after the school's Easter break, Dean seemed to be the only one who noticed that the teen was in pain. Which was rather unusual. At least for Castiel, not for him.
He first notices it when he hugs him, like he always does when he gets to the courtyard in the mornings. He remembers how Cas winced and nearly pulled back at the contact. Cas doesn't say anything about it, just settles down at a bench and allows Dean to listen to the Weezer mix CD he made. They sing along to 'Pork and Beans', scaring a few freshman in the process.
In the one class they share, health; they're forced to go to the gym, and Castiel gets in a basketball match with his brother Balthazar. At one point, the 'orange abomination' (as he affectionately calls it), hits him roughly on the chest. He yells in pain and almost doubles over.
After that, he gives up and joins Dean, who asked him if he was alright, but gave up after being told to 'bug off'. He allows Cas to watch him try to beat his high score in Flappy Bird (Which was 69). Soon enough Castiel tries too, which was entertaining to watch.
He had his tongue barely stuck out in concentration, eyes closed to slits as he calmly taps on the screen of Dean's iPhone. Only to get a score of 10.
"Flappy Bird is a piece of shit, Dean. Why was it even created?" he asked, finally giving up after nearly twenty tries and handing Dean his gel-cased phone back.
"To mess with our minds, Cas." Dean laughed in response as he leaned tenderly into Cas' side and breathed in his Old Spice and leather scent.
Castiel silently pouted about it for the rest of the class, but gave Dean a kiss on the temple before splitting ways with him, until lunch period.
By the time lunch period rolled around, Dean had nearly forgotten to look for the signs that his boyfriend was in pain. He had finally found the raven-haired teen in the corner of the cafeteria, slowly munching away at a strangely craved carrot stick.
"Where'd the rabbit-food come from?" Dean questioned as he sat down next to him, noting that it was odd for Cas to ever have food of his own free will, for he'd always shared lunch with Dean.
Castiel looked up at him with tired eyes and shrugged, taking the remainder out of his mouth. "Macaroni day or quesadilla?"
"Neither. Pizza day. They had some veggie shit that looked under-cooked. You avoided my question again, Cas." Dean carefully split the pizza with the cheap plastic fork he had been given and spread the greasy slices around the Styrofoam plate the way he liked it.
"I'm tired, Dean." Castiel hastily defended himself, belting out a yawn to prove his point. "Dad wanted Sammi and I to help him with his new Xbox, which is a load of crap compared to your Wii."
"Okay, okay. Sorry about pushing your buttons, Casbot." Dean sighed, handing Casa carton of strawberry milk and a cup of peaches.
The two of them ate in silence for a long time, only mumbling to eachother as Cas let Dean wear his prized jacket to keep warm. There was quite a bit of solitude in the back of the cafeteria compared to the rest of the large room, and they embraced it by not adding to it.
Until Gabriel decided to pay a them a visit.
"Hey kiddo!" the senior's voice rang out, following with a wraparound hug that was more like a double chest slap and hug.
Castiel nearly screeched, but he instead shoved Gabriel away with a hiss and tearing eyes. "Personal space, Gabe! Fucking personal space!"
Gabriel stepped back, eyes narrowed into a confused look and hands up in surrender. "Geez, little bro. Just a friendly hug! I'll leave you alone to do your time bomb shit around Deanie here." He quickly turned away and walked back to his friends, but not before he stuck his tongue out at them with rolling eyes.
Dean by then had had enough with not knowing why Cas was being so moody that day. He turned to him, and set a glare onto him. "Tell me what's going on. No bullshit, Cas."
Castiel looked almost taken aback, but got up from his seat. "Come with me, I've got to show you something and I can't quite show it here legally." There was a small hint of a blush on his pale cheeks as he picked up his belongings.
Dean decided not to harass him anymore (he was getting an answer to his question); picking up his Batman backpack and adjusting his glasses.
As he followed Cas down the hall, people and teachers gave them odd looks. He wasn't quite sure why and didn't ponder it as he realized they were going into the men's room. The same one they had first me in.
It was dim and reeked of cleaning solution, the walls scratched up with graffiti of swears and rude humor. Cas didn't seem to care as he leaned back against the grimy mirror and started to unbutton his red dress shirt.
Dean's mind raced a million miles a second, going into the gutters and wondering what he'd have to do in unforeseeable situations. That only lasted for a few seconds though, for he saw….
A tattoo flowing around where Cas' heart was on his chest. It was a beautiful black cursive that read; 'The Righteous Man'.
For a few moments, Dean was in shock, because he couldn't believe that Cas had actually gotten a tattoo. Then he realized that the ink on his skin had been done illegally, and his mouth went slightly agape.
"Are you okay, Dean?" Castiel murmured, cocking his head to the side, as if to decode the freckled boy's expression.
"Y-Yeah, I'm…Okay. But, what does it mean? Please tell me you didn't get a super-religious sounding tat without a fucking good reason." Dean finally sputtered, brows still furrowed in question.
Cas' mouth opened up as he tried to reply, but only a sliver of a word came out, followed by a mild blush. The next few moments have the older boy looking like a fish out of water, but he finally spat something out.
"I consider you my…Righteous Man." He whispers, almost low enough that Dean nearly didn't catch it.
"No shit? Your one and only 'Righteous Man'? Not Jesus?" Dean replies in a state of disbelief.
"Yes. I think of you far more than of the Son of the Lord. You are more things to me than Christ probably ever will be, not that he truly was, to be honest."
"Fucking shit. So basically you got a double-meaning tattoo about me?"
Castiel nodded, and made a move to button up his shirt. Dean went to grab his hands before he could put the first brass button in. "Let me get a nice long look at this real quick. Do you mind if I…touch it?"
"Not too much, it's only been four days though. You can look all you want."
Dean took a few quiet moments before tracing invisible squiggles around Cas' heart, humming nonsense to himself with eyes closed and expression pleasant.
To Cas, the soft touch touches and traces felt almost intensely too real. It felt like an electric shock was leaping through him, and it took his breath away.
"Dammit Dean. Stuff like this is the shit that makes me wanna kiss you even more." He gasps, voice barely echoing in the restroom.
"Then maybe we should, hm?" Dean whispers back, peering at him happily.
From that day on, whenever Dean made contact with Cas' chest, the teen swore that he felt that same pulse go through him. Dean however, swore that when he laid his head against Castiel, he could hear his heartbeat more clearly than ever before.
For now there was a bond created between the boy and his Righteous Man.
End.