Warnings - Slash (Colt Cabana/Cm Punk) (Brock Lesnar/Seth Rollins), High School AU, Mild Profanity. Eventual Warnings - Slash (Kevin Owens/Dean Ambrose), Smut.
The rest of the week flies by. Dean stays each night at Kevin's house. It's nice, better than nice really. He sleeps ridiculously well in Kevin's room, which on one hand is good, on the other it proves Punk right. Dean loves Punk, but generally the only thing that comes from him being right his him being an even smugger than normal, and Punk is smug enough.
Thursday comes far sooner than Dean had been prepared for, and as he settles into his air bed, he feels wired and hyper. He can't seem sleep, and judging by the blue glow coming from Kevin's phone, neither can he.
"You better not be looking at porn up there." Dean laughs, and Kevin tosses a pillow down to him. It's somehow become something he does every night, and somehow Dean sleeps so much better curled around a pillow that smells of his friend.
"No, not porn. Sami." Kevin sighs, and the light from his phone goes off. "His plane gets in at seven."
"Cool…" Dean trails off, not really knowing where he's going with that statement. Kevin sighs again, and suddenly his face appears above Dean.
"I've no idea if it is or isn't cool." Kevin's wearing the strangest almost frown as he looks down at Dean. "He's generally my friend, but I've no idea what the hell we are." For a moment Dean's confused. For a moment he thinks that maybe Kevin's talking about what they are, and not what he and Sami are.
"It is what is, I guess… You're in high school, Kev. You don't have to be dating him to… Christ, all I can think of to say is fool around, and that makes me sound like I'm from the fifties." Kevin cracks up at Dean's comment, and makes what is becoming his traditional grab for his fallen pillow. As ever he gives up, but unlike the last few nights he doesn't retreat back up the bed. Instead he stays staring down at Dean.
"We've kissed… Like second base stuff… I don't think I want to fool around with Sami." Kevin sighs, and then vanishes back to his pillows. "We've been talking about what's going on… I told him about Punk being insane, and Brock and Seth being the most ridiculously sappy couple we know." Kevin falls silent, and Dean has to keep himself from asking if Kevin's told his Canadian side hoe about him. "I told him about your cousin… About our project… I…" Kevin falls silent once more, and Dean finds himself leaning on the edge of his bed staring at him.
"You mention me in all of these tellings?" Dean tries to make it sound light, but he can't help but think it sounds horribly needy. Kevin laughs softly, and ruffles Dean's hair.
"You think I won't tell him about my best friend? I've told him so much about you, he's nicknamed you my American side hoe." Kevin laughs, and Dean smacks his arm.
"He's got that the wrong way around." Dean mutters, and flops back down to his pillow, only then realising what he said.
"Hmm… Probably." Kevin says it thoughtfully, and Dean can feel his heart start to pound in his chest. "You definitely spend more time with me than he does, so I suppose he is my Canadian side hoe." Kevin chuckles, and Dean forces himself to laugh along. He's not entirely sure how he feels about this, not entirely sure how he should feel about this, and is once more cursing Punk.
"When's Colt back?" Dean finds himself asking without thought. He needs to bitch at Punk, he really needs to bitch at Punk.
"Uh… Should be tomorrow tonight from what he said. You want me to message him?" Kevin's phone lights up again.
"I'll take your word for it. We should get to sleep, it's pretty late, and we've school in the morning." Dean closes his eyes, and hopes that sleep comes to him quickly, but he has the feeling for the first time since he's stayed in Kevin's room, he'll sleep badly.
His feeling turns out to be incorrect. He slept like a log, and is only woken up by Kevin shaking his shoulder lightly on his way to the bathroom for his morning shower.
"Sami said he was arriving at seven. You're picking him up?" Kevin's mother asks once she's set breakfast on the table. Kevin looks up at her, and nods absently. He's wearing an odd expression, and is being surprisingly quiet. Dean fidgets uncomfortably, and considers if he should ask if he's still allowed to stay. The more pressing matter is does he want to stay. He's not entirely sure he wants to be here when Sami is. He's sure Sami is great, but he's also sure he won't be comfortable around someone Kevin's kind of involved with. "Good, I'm putting him in with your brother's room." Another nod from Kevin, as his brother comes into the kitchen.
"Sami's with me? How come? He's Kevin's friend." Kevin's brother starts shovelling food into his mouth, whilst getting a dirty look from his mother.
"I could head-"
"You're going nowhere, Mr Ambrose." Kevin's mother cuts Dean off before he can finish his sentence, and his cousin beams over at her.
"Dean could stay with me." She offers, and Kevin's mother shakes her head.
"Nope. It was long ago decided that Dean stays with Kev." She chuckles, and starts eating.
"You think me staying with you was Punk's plan?" Dean asks Kevin in the car to school. Kevin shrugs slightly, and rubs at his eyes.
"Knowing him, probably… But why would a fully grown woman do what a scruffy asshole like Punk wants?" Kevin grins over at him, Dean shrugs in response.
"Punk is a manipulative asshole, and all mothers apart from his own adore him." Dean fidgets in his seat and considers what to say next. He wants to ask if Kevin is okay with Sami not staying in his room, but he can't work out how to phrase it without sounding like an idiot, or desperate. So instead he fidgets, and stares out of the window. "You know what you and Sami are gonna get up to this weekend?"
"Nope… I've no idea… I guess we could go to the fair… You wanna see if you've gotten any better at darts? I could win you another puppy." Kevin laughs, and Dean glances over at him. Kevin's wearing a smile that stops squarely at his eyes, and Dean has no idea as to why.
"You sure you're okay?" Dean lightly touches Kevin's shoulder, and Kevin gives him the same tight nod he'd given his mother at breakfast. "Alright, but remember if you need to talk, I'm here to listen."
"I know, I know. We're bros, I know that." Kevin mutters, pulling into the school parking lot. "I'll see you at lunch?"
"Later, Kev." Dean flashes him a grin, and gets out of the car to smoke his first cigarette of the day.
"How was your morning?" Kevin flops down beside Dean at the lunch table. Dean shakes his head, and rubs his temples. His morning was annoyingly long. All of his classes were ones he should have shared with Punk, and Punk is still AWOL, so Dean was alone and an easy target for teachers looking for answers to questions. "That good, huh?" Kevin laughs, and slides a tray of fries over to Dean. "I come bearing gifts."
"You're a saint, Mr Owens." Dean laughs, and swipes one fry from the tray. "So, how was your morning?"
"Not bad." Kevin mutters. Seth and Brock arrive, and take the seats opposite Dean and Kevin.
"Hey guys!" Seth sounds incredibly cheerful, a big happy smile on his face. "Punk called me last night. He needs hugs, lots of hugs."
"They were on the phone for hours… I got a text from Colt complaining about it." Brock laughs, his arm wrapping around Seth's shoulder.
"That's nice." Kevin mutters, and starts reading some book. Dean smiles vaguely, and wonders just what the hell Punk and Seth were talking about that's put Seth in such a good mood. It might be that Seth's just relieved that Punk's opened up to him, it might be that Seth spent all night just talking and he's happy that Punk was listening. It's hard to say with Seth.
"It was. He's not spoken to me in ages… I forget what a closed off asshole he is when it comes to himself." Seth chuckles, and starts eating.
"That's Punk for you." Dean shrugs, and starts reading over Kevin's shoulder. He's reading the passage they were supposed to as homework for their next class, and Dean too hasn't read it. "You guys coming to meet Sami tonight?" Dean asks the question without really thinking. He'd not meant to say it, he'd certainly not meant to imply that he was going, because he'd not wanted to go at all. Kevin glances over at him, a slight smile on his face.
"You're welcome to come with us. Me and Dean are heading to the airport at about six-thirty." Kevin doesn't question him, in fact he plays along perfectly, as though he'd assumed Dean would be coming with him all along.
"Nah, we're having dinner at my place tonight." Brock replies, squeezing Seth's shoulders tightly. "Seth's parents are coming over too, so we're on our best behaviour." He laughs, and Seth turns crimson.
"Oh shush you! I'm always on my best behaviour." Seth gripes, and snuggles a little closer to Brock. "We'll definitely come hang out sometime on the weekend though. I wanna meet the Canadian si-"
"Me too." Brock cuts Seth off before he can finish side hoe, and Dean has never been more grateful for Brock in his life. Kevin doesn't need to know that Sami's been referred to as the Canadian side hoe for longer than it being briefly mentioned last night.
The airport is busy, and Dean's regretting agreeing to come and meet Sami straight off the plane. He should have gone to Seth's, or even back to his mom's trailer, but instead he's standing beside Kevin at Arrivals waiting for Sami. It occurs to Dean that he has no idea what the Canadian side hoe actually looks like, but it's definitely too late to be asking now.
"I…" Kevin still seems quiet, and it's very disconcerting. Dean's used to his partner in crime making snide jokes, or at least comments as opposed to this stumbling silence.
"Does Sami always make you tongue-tied?" Dean elbows Kevin, and grins over at him. Kevin rolls his eyes in response, and sticks out his tongue.
"I've never had to introduce him to the fact he's in like second place before, as a friend that is." Kevin tacks the last part of the sentence on so fast the words are almost garbled. Dean throws his arm around Kevin's shoulders with a hearty laugh.
"I'm sure he'll take one look at me, and realise why he's in the number two friend slot." Dean hopes he sounds normal, because he thinks he sounds like a nervous wreck, although that's mostly because he feels like one. The last few days he and Kevin have been all but inseparably, and he's not entirely certain he wants someone coming between them. All this time together has resigned Dean to his crush, and he's content to deal with it alone, well at he's going to bitch at Punk about it but that's it. All the time together has pointed out one other odd little thing to him, and that's that Kevin isn't himself today. What exactly that means, Dean's not sure, but he does know it's somehow linked to Sami's arrival. If the results of this difference in Kevin will be good or bad is up in the air.
"Kevin!" Kevin jumps slightly at the sound of his name, and turns into the fierce embrace of a boy with a shock of ginger hair. Dean fidgets awkwardly, fighting down the stab of jealousy in his gut. "It is good to see you, my friend." Sami holds Kevin out at arm's length, and then spots Dean. "Who's this?"
"Dean." Dean thrusts his hand forward to shake Sami's. Sami looks at him in confusion for a moment, then exchanges a look with Kevin. The expression that flits over Sami's face is indecipherable to Dean, and he briefly curses his lack of people reading skills.
"Sami. Kevin's told me a lot about you." Sami's handshake his firm, but not too hard. Dean has the terrible feeling he squeezed just a little too hard on his.
"Yeah, he told me about the tellings." Dean laughs, and Kevin smacks him gently on the shoulder.
"You make it sounds ominous. It was nothing like that, I swear." He gives Dean a smile, a soft, sweet, gentle smile that has Dean glancing downwards and returning it. "Ominous was you and Seth planning that movie." Kevin laughs again, and this time Dean joins in.
"I'd forgotten about that. When Punk's better we should rope him into helping us properly. He's pretty good with words." Kevin nods enthusiastically at Dean's words, a grin on his face.
"My dad has a pretty decent camera, and I'm sure he can teach me to use it. It'd pretty awesome. We can get the rest of the guys on the team to help, and I'm sure some of the cheerleaders would be up for being in a movie." Kevin seems unreasonably excited about this, his hands on Dean's shoulders, Sami completely forgotten despite him standing right there.
"Yeah… Sounds great… Who are these people?" Sami cuts in. He doesn't sound annoyed so much as confused, and kind of interested.
"Oh! My other friends. We're gonna meet them up tomorrow afternoon." Kevin takes Sami's bag from him, and starts walking out of the airport. "You want a smoke before we head back? My mom's making dinner." Kevin asks Dean casually over his shoulder, and Dean finds himself feeling slightly confused by this. He'd expected to be all but ignored in favour of the Canadian side hoe, but it seems Kevin is truly sticking to his bros before hoes sentiment.
"Yeah, I'll meet you guys at the car." Dean nods, and heads towards the smoking area. He supposes Kevin was trying to get some time alone with Sami, which makes sense, but he'd looked slightly disappointed when Dean had taken off.
The rest of the night is pleasant. They have dinner, they play board games, and it's all fun. Dean's cousin likes Sami. All of Kevin's family like Sami. Even Dean can't see anything wrong with him, and yet he can't not see something wrong with him. He can't say what it is, but there's something not right about this whole thing. It's probably down to Kevin, because he seems off somehow.
"So… Sami seems…" Dean trails off, and stares up at the ceiling of Kevin's room as they both lie in their separate beds. Sami is nice. That's really all Dean can think to say about him. He seems nice.
"He seems?" Kevin prompts. He sounds slightly off, and Dean isn't sure why. There's no reason for Kevin to sound anything other than like Kevin.
"Nice." Dean offers vaguely, and sighs. "I'm gonna head home tomorrow I think."
"No you're not." Kevin tosses the pillow down at Dean, and then appears above him. "You're staying here, and we both know that. My mom won't let you go, your cousin won't let you go, I won't let you go." There's a fiercely determined look on Kevin's face, and Dean finds himself nodding awkwardly. "Sami is nice. You'll like him."
"I'm sure I will." Dean mutters staring up at Kevin.
"I don't know that I want you to though…" Kevin sighs, and rests his chin on his forearm. "I want you two to get along, but… You wanna meet up with Punk and Colt tomorrow for breakfast? They should be back by now."
"You wanna bitch at Punk too?" Dean laughs, pulling out his phone, and sending Punk a message telling him that he's coming to the diner for breakfast tomorrow whether he wants to or not.
"He's good for bitching at." Kevin concedes, and retreats back up to his pillows.
"He is." Dean agrees, and flicks his phone to vibrate mode. "Kev?" Dean says it softly after a while, partially hoping that Kevin's fallen asleep.
"Hmm?" Kevin sounds like he's falling asleep. Dean sits up, and rests his chin on his folded arms.
"I'm not sure I want to like Sami either." Dean admits quietly, and ruffles Kevin's hair. Kevin looks at him in confusion for a moment, and then a slow smile spreads across his lips. He catches Dean's hand for a second, and then lets it go with a quiet good.
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Next update - 2016/10/22