A/N: ….oops. I got really excited about this chapter and accidentally stayed up all night to write it. Some of the information might be outdated (especially about the EMP, that's what it was like in December) If anyone is familiar with the area, and you see anything incorrect, let me know! I hope you guys like this asdfghjkl this chapter is just so much fun
Title: Flow Sweetly, Hang Heavy
Chapter Title: The Emerald City
Rating: Overall- M; This chapter- G (because kids)
Words: 2,276
The Emerald City
Cas sat propped up against the wall sitting on his bed, phone in hand. Dean had called to make plans, which naturally with them, had turned in to a full-out conversation.
"So, where's your favorite place in town?" Dean asked from the other line.
Castiel sighed. "Oh, I don't know. I don't go much of anywhere. I don't leave the house that much, remember?"
"Well you go to Target."
"Heh, yes Target, but only because that's like home."
"I bet the Target at home didn't have two floors."
"It did not."
"It does here."
"I'm well-adjusted."
Dean paused to think about how to respond.
"What about the Space Needle?" Dean asked. At least there had to be that. Everyone's seen the Space Needle.
"No."
"The EMP Museum? The aquarium? The underground? The Pinball Museum? Come on, the market?" Dean questioned hurriedly. Cas had to have done something.
"No." was all Castiel answered with. He had always considered going to these places, but it never seemed right to go alone, and he always frowned when he thought of taking Gabriel with him. However, this sounded like it was some sort of crime in Dean's eyes. Cas understood that it was a wonderful city, but he never had much desire to go see it.
"How long have you lived here?"
"A few years now, I suppose."
Dean sighed audibly. "If we leave now, we can do pretty much all of those things today. You're lucky it's early."
Uneasily, Castiel answered, "Dean—I don't know if that's a great idea. I mean we haven't made any formal plans and I—"
"Cas." Dean's stern voice interrupted him. "Do you trust me?"
"Of course" Castiel whispered.
"Then let me do this with you. I promise leaving the house will be super great for your artist mojo. I can easily reschedule some things, and I just—I just really want to do this with you, Cas." Dean felt the weight of the sincerity of his words as he waited for his boyfriend's answer.
"I'll come with you, Dean. Can you pick me up in twenty minutes?"
"Of course." Dean whispered back, an echo of Castiel.
"We're walking." Dean said as soon as Cas opened the door. "It's a lot easier than having to keep on finding parking. "Are you ready to go now?" he asked, stepping in to the small apartment.
Castiel shifted in place. Physically, yes, he was ready to go. But mentally, he wasn't so sure. "Are you sure about this?" he asked softly.
"Very." Dean answered sympathetically. He had a friendly smile stretched across his visage, the same one that Castiel had become so accustomed to trusting.
Cas smiled and let Dean take his hand as he led him out of the apartment and down the road.
First on the agenda was a quick stroll through the Pike Place Market. Dean stopped to ogle the Doctor Who merchandise (something Cas swore never to speak about) and Castiel took extra time to admire the hand crafter jewelry. It was early, but it was also Saturday, so the wet cobblestoned road sectioned off for sellers was rather crowded, and Castiel was twice bumped in to, once by another man holding proudly on to the hand of his partner, who offered his best apologies, and once by a girl dressed in laced up combat boots, and all kinds of red, purples, and blacks. She turned out to be quite friendly, perhaps to Castiel's surprise, but much to his relief. The chatter of people in all kinds of accents and even in different languages mildly overwhelmed Castiel, but whenever he felt uneasy, he would look to Dean, who would smile and squeeze his hand just a bit tighter. It was an almost interesting sight, so many people, so many different kinds of people, all crammed in to one damp street, lined with foldable tables piled with handcrafted goods (Castiel of course definitely did not see Dean have a mini fan boy attack over a hand crafted Ocarina, just like the one in Legend of Zelda) They stood for a moment to watch fish being tossed at customers, but Dean hurried them along, as they had much else to do.
"We might have to skip the underground today, but I swear it's really great." Dean spoke as he pulled Castiel down the street by the hand. The next leg of their walk was awfully long, so he wanted to fill up the time by talking. "Basically, after a lot of flooding and fires and stuff, the city of Seattle basically gave up and decided to build all new roads over top the preexisting ones, which would be fifteen feet tall. However, there were businesses and things there. So basically, there's a whole section of the city whose first floor is underground, and some of it's been completely abandoned on they do cool tours now. Or at least I think that that's how that goes. It's been awhile since I've gone."
"That's very insightful of you, Dean." Castiel said, now being pulled up what he was sure must be the steepest part of one of Seattle's seven hills. This one, like all the other parts of the city, were lined the many interesting stores, including record shops, boutiques, and even a few art galleries. Walking around with Dean, Castiel remembered a lot of the reason that he had chosen this city to reside in. The culture emanated from every street corner, and every person walking along the sidewalks.
Dean smiled at the praise, and ducked his head to hide the blush that he was just sure was now covering his ears.
When they finally reached essentially the other side of the city, Dean stopped and turned to face Castiel. "Okay." He started, "The next two things I want to do with you are fairly close together. First, we're going to go to the Space Needle, we can grab a bite to eat at the top. Then, there's a few exhibits at the EMP you have to see. We can go see the otters at the aquarium another day, I promise."
"Sounds excellent." Castiel replied, now a million times more confident than he had ever felt in public. Dean was all-around giddy about showing Cas the town, and Cas was enjoying being dragged round, listening to his chatter, and seeing the sights through the drizzly fog that Seattle always had looming.
Upon arriving at the Space Needle, Castiel was needless to say, impressed. The surrounding landscape was marvelous, and despite being over-commercialized, the structure itself was something of amazement. Cast wandered around the small gift shop as Dean went and got their tickets. He held in his hand a small Space Needle figurine when Dean returned, and he would have likely not seen the bow-legged man approaching him had he not been flaunting the largest smile Castiel was sure he had ever seen.
"You're beautiful, Dean." Castiel muttered lowly, gripping on to Dean's jacket.
"Aw shucks, you don't mean that." Dean responded jokingly. Castiel pulled him down a little tighter, as if to show that yes, he really did mean that. He lifted himself up and pecked Dean on the lips lightly, a small gesture that in that moment meant the world to the both of them. Dean hummed against Castiel's mouth pleased, but did not allow the kiss to linger, because after all, they were on a bit of a schedule.
After waiting in a bit of a line up a spiral hallway, Dean and Cas were shoved in an elevator with about seven other people to be sent to the top of the tower. When they got to the top, it was as amazing as Castiel could have ever imagined. You could see everything from up there. Munching on overpriced sandwiches, they admired the view of the hills, the tall buildings, the lakes with ferries crossing them, Mount Rainier, and even the far more quaint outskirts of the city, where nearly everything seemed brightly colored. They even allowed themselves to share another kiss at the top of the tower; right after Dean took a picture on his cell phone of Cas with the view. After the circled the top all the way around, and took some time to read the timeline that was so largely painted on the wall of its interior, they descended back down to the bottom.
Much to Castiel's relief, the walk to the EMP museum was much shorter than the previous journey that they took. Dean knew exactly what he wanted to see first, so Castiel just eagerly followed along. First was an exhibit of famous sci-fi movie and TV props, followed by a display of important artifacts and information in the world of scary movies. Next, they had an exhibit of the leather jacket throughout history, which Dean had to see, for obvious reasons. Castiel pulled Dean through the "Jimi Hendrix Experience" the best that he could, because there was something that he really wanted to see. An entire exhibit on Nirvana and its impact on modern culture. Castiel, however not obviously, was a huge fan of the band's work, and was more than ecstatic to see what the museum had to offer. He was not at all let down. And entire history of the band, plus, samples of music, plus sweaters Kurt Cobain wore, and many other amazing things were all on display, which Cas would have easily enjoyed wandering amongst for hours, had Dean's watch not constantly been ticking away, He did, perhaps get a rather unfair share of time to spend there because by the time that they left the museum, it was a little after seven.
"One more place I want to take you, but this time, we're taking a cab." Dean whispered in to Castiel's ear as the exited the museum and stuck their stickers on an outside pole, as per tradition. They hauled to the street were Dean had minimal trouble hailing down a cab that the both of them eagerly poured in to. Dean gave the cabby an address that Cas did not recognize, but judging by the driver's response, it was somewhere that he must have been familiar with. Dean left his arm around Castiel's shoulders for the entire car trip, pulling him closely to his side. The trip in the taxi was fairly short, and they were soon stopped in front of a small building in the oriental district, which at first seemed to be nothing special to Castiel. Then, as he looked closer, he noticed a sign that read "PINBALL MUSEUM"
'This is definitely something new.' Cas thought to himself as he entered the building with Dean, which clearly a lot larger than it appeared to be on the outside. Lined against every wall, both up and downstairs, were pinball machines, of which with the purchase of a wristband, Cas learned that he could play unlimitedly for as long as he wanted.
The machines came from all different brands, each labeled with their age of creation. Every game was different, but equally exciting, and Castiel soon found himself lost in the wonder of it all. One machine was opened and being repaired on, all its parts and tinkers effectively on display as one of the employees worked on it with a screwdriver. Dean was always close behind him, either leaning over him as he played, or at the machine next to him. He half expected to have to warp his arms around Castiel's and show him how to play, but how found that his boyfriend picked it up easily on his own. They challenged each other at one point to a game that was soccer themed and had a bit of a confusing game play, and Castiel beat Dean by a rather overwhelming majority. Dean wouldn't admit that he was embarrassed, but he was actually rather expecting to win. Castiel's favorite machine was one on the second level, up a little carpeted flight of stairs. It was plain and simple, and from the seventies, but it was one of Castiel's favorite things. He played on the machine over 12 times before Dean decided that it was time to move him along.
"Are you about done?" Dean asked, after about nearly an hour and a half of pinball playing.
"Um, yes, I think." Cas answered, decided that the machines that he had not yet tried he would not be too broken up about missing. Dean took a second to look around the room as he held Cas around the waist. "Wait here just a moment, I'll be right back." Dean muttered against Castiel's neck. Cas complied, and sat on one of the green stools that rested in the middle of the room.
A little over ten minutes had passed before Dean returned back in through the main door with a small plastic bag in his hand. "I got you something." He said through a smile, as he extended his arm out to so that Castiel could accept the bag.
Cas carefully removed the contents from the bag, and smile brightly upon seeing what it was."Simon and Garfunkel…" he whispered as he ran his fingers lightly over the cover of the vinyl record he now held.
"Uh… yeah. Kind of a thank you for coming out with me, it just really means a lot." Dean explained nervously.
Castiel wrapped his arms around the back of Dean's neck and pulled him in for a strong kiss, which was sweet and loving."
"You don't have to thank me, Dean." He whispered against the other man's mouth. "Today was perfect, all of it."