Warnings - Slash (Colt Cabana/Cm Punk) (Brock Lesnar/Seth Rollins), High School AU, Mild Profanity. Eventual Warnings - Slash (Kevin Owens/Dean Ambrose), Smut.
"So this surprise?" Dean's been on edge thinking about it all day. He knows what he wants it to be, and he wants to have his hopes either confirmed or shattered quickly.
"You don't want to order a sundae first?" Kevin grins at him lazily, and Dean resists the urge to smack the grin right off his face.
"Fine... I'll order a damn sundae." Dean scowls up at the list of the different sundaes above the serving counter. "What you wanting?" Kevin starts to shake his head, and Dean levels him with a heavy look. "Don't make me order the heartthrob." Kevin barks a surprised laugh at him. The sundae in question is large covered in strawberries, sprinkles, and chocolate moulded into hearts.
"I'll go halves with you, but not on that thing... I'm not a big strawberry fan." He wanders off in search of a table, leaving Dean to make a decision.
"This surprise?" Dean asks as he slides into the booth opposite Kevin, who's sitting fiddling with his phone.
"What did you get?" Kevin's stalling for time or trying to put Dean off for some reason.
"Hot fudge. C'mon, Kev. All day I've been trying to work it out, and I've got my heart set on something, and I wanna know if-" Kevin holds his hand up, a slow smile spreading over his lips.
"Five minutes, and I can tell you for sure." He settles into his chair more comfortably, and sets his phone down on the table. "I guess we should start working out how to present the list."
"I'll do the more, you do the less?" Dean's leg is bouncing, his mind is too. He knows what he wants this surprise to be. He wants for his cousin to come walking into this little ice cream parlour with Kevin's mother. He wants for her to be safe, happy, and living nearby.
"Alright..." Kevin pulls the notebook with the list in it from his bag, and tosses it on the table. "There anything you want to add?" Dean shakes his head, and flips open the book. The two lists are long, the handwriting alternating between Dean's scratchy scrawl, and Kevin's utilitarian print. Their handwriting is as different as they are.
"Your sundae gentlemen." The server sets a bowl down between them, and two spoons. "Anything else, boys?" There's a strange little smile on the old lady's face, an odd little smile that Dean is sure he's seen on Colt's mother's face when she's watching her son and Punk. Kevin tells the server no, and then meets Dean's eyes.
"You okay over there?" He asks, picking up one of the spoons to swipe up a dollop of ice cream.
"I'm good." Dean says, shaking his head. His mind is skipping to what Punk had implied at lunch. Our men. Punk and Seth have men. Dean has a new friend, and certainly doesn't want a man. "You ever want to date?"
"What?" Kevin pulls his spoon from his mouth, his face screwing up in confusion. "Do I want to date who?"
"Anyone." Dean starts eating, regretting starting this line of conversation. "Our friends are all dating... Aren't you ever jealous of them?"
"Am I jealous of them dating each other?" Kevin smirks slightly, and sets his spoon down. "Dating Seth makes Brock flustered, and skittish. He's a beast, but for Seth he's a lamb. Dating Punk... Jesus, I have no idea how Colt manages that. Can you imagine having to deal with Punk every day?"
"He's my friend. I've dealt with him for years." Dean takes some more ice cream.
"Yeah, but he's your friend, not your source of..." Kevin trails off, and grins suddenly. "Mom!" He calls out, and Dean freezes. He's hoping that Kevin's mother is going to be coming with his cousin, but he's trying to not get his hopes up too high.
"Move up." A middle-aged lady with a sweet smile sits besides Kevin. "You must be Dean. It's nice to meet you."
"Uh... Yeah, I'm Dean. It's nice to meet you too, Mrs Owens. Would you like some ice cream?" Dean's disappointed. The woman is alone. There's no sign of his cousin at all.
"Ice cream? Well, I'm not going to say no." Kevin's mother swipes his spoon, and takes a big scoop of ice cream for herself. "It'll take a few weeks, a month at most for her to be cleared." She grins at Dean. It's the same slightly mischievous grin that Kevin has.
"My cousin?" Dean asks softly. He hopes that's what she's talking about, he hopes it so much more than he can say.
"Who else?" Kevin's mom has her son's flippancy, and deadpan delivery down to a tee. She takes some more ice cream, and continues watching Dean. "I'm hoping we can get all the paperwork, and hoops jumped through in two weeks, but the system sometimes drags its heels. It definitely shouldn't be more than a month." She takes more ice cream, and smiles at Dean. A soft, motherly smile. "As soon as she's with us, I'll have this one tell you." She ruffles Kevin's hair.
"Mom." He almost whines, and slips his spoon from her hand. "Is dad cooking tonight?" Kevin's grinning at her cheerfully. She nods absently, and rolls her eyes at him.
"He is..." She answers, and Kevin turns to Dean with a bright, sincere smile.
"You wanna come to dinner? My dad's a great cook." Kevin's mother makes an indignant squawk that Kevin doesn't react to at all. For a moment Dean considers saying no, solely for the reason he's never been invited to dinner before. Punk's not going to invite anyone to his house, his old house at least, for very obvious reasons. Seth's family are too focussed on Seth succeeding to want him to have friends, so there have been no invitations from Seth either.
"Sure." Dean offers a tentative smile to go with his response, one that's met with a huge grin from Kevin, and a vague nod from his mother.
If he'd been expecting anything odd about having dinner with Kevin's family, Dean was disappointed. They're a normal family, two parents, two kids, and a pet dog. They're so normal that Dean feels especially abnormal sitting with them, or least he would if they gave him the chance to. Kevin's mother is sweet, and chatty. His father is sharp and witty. His younger brother is painfully a jock, but so just nice that Dean finds himself relaxing. He has a good time, despite his misgivings, despite his reservations about being there. They eat dinner, they play some weird board game, and then Kevin gives Dean a lift to the diner near his trailer. He'd thanked Kevin with unreasonable levels of honesty. He'd not expected to enjoy something so mundane so much. Kevin had waved it off, and told Dean he'd see him tomorrow.
"You coming to the game this afternoon?" Kevin's in Dean's first class the next morning. Dean flops into the seat beside him, and shakes his head.
"Nope. Punk's holding court." Dean starts pulling the right books out of his bag, hoping the teacher doesn't lecture too long, and mostly lets them get on with their work.
"Oh ho?" Kevin's already got his own books open, and seems to be doodling in the margins.
"I'm hoping for some answers as to what the fuck happened to him." Dean elbows Kevin when the teacher starts coming too close to them. The teacher scowls at Dean, and starts the class.
"Share when you find out, okay." Kevin mutters, and returns to his doodles.
Dean had agreed to meet Seth and Punk on the little patch of grass near the school whilst the football game was ongoing. Seth had seemed a little disappointed at missing the opportunity to watch Brock play, but catching up with his friends was, thankfully, more important to him than his Brock. When Dean arrives, Punk's already there, sitting under the old tree, reading some book.
"Hey." Dean flops down on the grass beside him, squinting at the book's cover. He thinks it's the one they were assigned for English, but Dean doesn't know, and mostly doesn't care.
"Hi." Punk mutters distractedly. Dean takes a moment to look him over. He looks a little better than he had yesterday. His bruising has faded a little, but the stark white bandages around his head, and the cast, now liberally covered in badly coloured in pink hearts, remain. "Why are you staring at me?"
"Because you look like you got hit by a truck." Dean snaps, and Punk looks up from his book. "You gonna tell me what happened?"
"When Seth gets here."Punk goes back to reading. Dean rolls his eyes, and stares up at the sky. "How's your project coming?"
"Fine... Good actually. It's going good." Dean can feel a smile on his face for reasons he can't really explain other than he's enjoying hanging out with Kevin. He'd not expected it, but they get on surprisingly well. He'd expected his resentment from middle school to linger longer, but it hasn't. He can't really hold anything against Kevin. He was going along with the crowd. He was a victim of the crowd too. They've more in common than Dean had ever expected, and that's allowing them to be pretty good friends.
"Hmm..." A sly smirk spreads over Punk's lips.
"Not like that, Punk." Dean glares over at him, and Punk doesn't nothing more than nod slowly, still smirking. "You're an asshole."
"I know." Punk closes his book, and smiles at Dean. "I am only teasing." There's a very definitive edge to Punk's tone, as though he really is only teasing.
"Good." Dean grabs Punk's book from his hands, and starts flipping through it. "Why are you reading this?" The book looks decidedly boring; not at all like something Punk would willingly read.
"Because we have to write an essay on it, and I know that Colt sure as hell isn't going to read it." Punk laughs, and shifts to lean against the tree behind him more. "There's Seth." He gestures with his good arm at the figure hurrying over to them.
"Sorry I'm late." Seth's panting, and carrying three ice cream cones awkwardly when he arrives. "I was grabbing these, and wishing Brock luck." He beams, and passes Dean and Punk their cones. "So, what the hell happened to you?" He's glaring at Punk, glaring as much as a man eating ice cream can at least. Punk laughs nervously, and licks at his ice cream.
"Don't tell us you moved, we know. Why are you beat to hell?" Dean snaps before Punk can offer the same evasive answer he has so far.
"You know how you joked I looked like I'd been hit by a truck..." Punk starts blushing, and ducks his head. "I was crossing the street, and... I wasn't paying attention and-"
"You were hit by a truck?" Seth asks, his tone flat and utterly unimpressed.
"A car actually, and it wasn't going that fast. The broken arm is the worst of it." Punk looks painfully embarrassed, his cheeks redder than Dean's ever seen them.
"The bandages?" Dean waggles his ice cream cone in the direction of Punk's head.
"They're worried I might have cracked my head... It's probably fine, but they want them there for a few more days... So like I said the only important thing is that I moved house." Punk smiles brightly at them both, his smile dying in the face of the blank looks from Dean and Seth. "Fine." He hisses. "I was sending Colt a text at the time, confirming that I was moving in with him and his family when this old lady, doing like twenty, bumped into me. I landed hard, broke my arm, knocked myself out cold, and got covered in bruises. I was in hospital for like ten minutes... It's stupid and embarrassing, and the only important thing is that I moved house." Punk takes a large lick of his ice cream, looking as though he's proved some kind of point.
"That's it?" Dean says blandly. Punk nods slightly. "I thought your fucking dad did this to you." Punk laughs softly, and shakes his head.
"Me too. I had to talk Brock out of going and killing him." Seth adds. "Brock's very protective of his friends... On that note, he thought there was something off between you and Kev at first, Dean." Seth shifts so he can sit beside Punk. "He kept asking if he should talk to Kev."
"Ah... Ha-ha, nope nothing-"
"Dean." Punk interrupts what was going to Dean laughing off Seth, and by extension Brock's concern.
"He was one of the bullies from middle school." Dean says quietly, but all Seth does is nod.
"Yeah I know. What?" Seth looks confusedly from Dean to Punk. "I worked it out... You're not subtle, Deano." Seth laughs loudly, and starts chomping down on his wafer cone. "It was pretty obvious from day one, but you seem pretty tight now."
"Yeah, we declared a truce." The truce seems to be being replaced rapidly with friendship, and Dean's not complaining in the least. He likes hanging out with Kevin. They get along well, and seem to have similar senses of humour, which is key to any friendship. "I told you about my cousin yesterday?" Dean supposes he should deliver the last piece of news he has before they find out if Seth has actually done anything but be swoony with Brock lately. "Kevin's family foster, and they're in the process of taking her in."
"Really? That's awesome! You two really are getting close aren't you?" Seth's grabbed Dean's hand, squeezing it tightly. "If she's with Kevin you'll be able to see her, and hang out with Kevin, which would be the best of both worlds, wouldn't it Deano." Seth's wearing a weird, sleazy look on his face, leering at Dean as he talks.
"I don't like Kevin like that, Seth. Not everyone is looking to hook up." Dean mutters, and finishes his ice cream cone.
"Wouldn't matter anyway. Kevin's probably not single... Anymore or maybe ever... It's confusing." Punk looks uncomfortable, seeming to squirm in place. "I'm not meant to talk about this, he swore me to secrecy.
"Why and about what?" Seth's face has lit up at the prospect of gossip, but Dean's almost entirely sure he doesn't want to know what Punk could tell them. Kevin's his friend, and he doesn't want to taint their friendship by knowing more than he's revealed.
"I asked him about dating yesterday..." Dean trails off, trying to remember if Kevin had said anything directly about not dating anyone, but he's drawing a blank.
"It's complicated, and I said nothing." Punk says firmly, and turns to Seth. "I've shared, Dean's shared, now you spill." Seth laughs nervously and starts rambling about Brock and the lies he's been telling his parents so they can spend more time together, but Dean isn't listening. He's busy thinking through everything Kevin's ever said to him about dating trying to find some clues as to what Punk could have been talking about, and wondering why he cares.
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Next update - 2016/06/04