Textbooks and LARPing
Chapter Thirteen: I wish I could quit this
It has been seven hours of this LARPing stuff and so far Castiel has gone up ten levels, which is apparently impressive. Although he wasn't going to actually try but every time someone hit him with a weapon the others laughed at him so he finally had enough and took initiative. He did actually pay attention when Dean tutored him over their dinner the other day, so it wasn't too hard. After a few spars with some elves and orcs, not to mention saving a damsel in distress, he's actually a few levels from being a knight.
Something he doesn't really want to be, since this is the only time he's going to play this.
Right now though it is not him fighting, but Dean sparring with an orc. He must admit that the way Dean battles is very...
Good?
Efficient?
…..Attractive?
It gets the job done. Well.
It isn't boring to watch, either.
Despite the full body armor Castiel can still see his eyes, he watches as they go a darker green when the opponent is a true threat, and sees them brighten every time he wins. His body also moves so elegantly sometimes that Castiel feels he is watching a choreographed play.
Then he realizes to a lesser extent he kind of is and becomes less impressed with the movement. As well as literally every single thing Dean has done today.
Finally the orc seems to look over in Castiel's direction and become distracted, so Dean takes them out. The orc grumbles under their breath before looking back to Castiel and removing their mask to reveal a very handsome person. He would say man, but that doesn't seem quite right. Neither does woman.
"Hey there. I'm Dylan." They say and Castiel becomes confused.
"That doesn't seem like a name for this era..." He looks to Dean who rolls his eyes.
"It's their real name, idiot."
"Oh. Hello, Dylan. I'm Castiel." Castiel politely returns the greeting and Dylan smiles.
"Hey, yeah, so...what are you up to after the training today? We've only got about half an hour left."
"Dorian and I are returning to his tent. I imagine Beelzebub and Moose have a tent together as well they will be returning too, and Kieran is...?" Castiel looks to Kevin curiously and he just laughs.
"Dylan doesn't give a shit what I'm doing afterwards," He teases.
"It's true, I don't." Dylan admits, standing up and leaving their orc head on the ground before going to Castiel, "So you are going to be spending the night with Dorian?"
"Well, yes. It seems to have become a fairly popular pastime for me." Castiel says and Dylan sighs sadly.
"I guess a gross orc can't compete with the supposedly handsome head knight."
"He's certainly not ugly," Castiel admits and the blush that creeps up to Dean's cheeks can even be seen through his helmet, "But I don't see how his looks..."
"Dylan is into you, Cas, jesus!" Dean finally snaps. "Dylan thinks you're with me, which he isn't, he's just a naïve idiot. I don't see you getting far with someone like him, Dylan." He fumes and Castiel frowns.
"There is no need to be so rude, Dorian." Castiel looks to Dylan, "My apologies, I was unaware you were flirting. I am not dating Dorian, we are simply friends. However, I also have no real interest in dating anyone, so I must still decline in a romantic entanglement. If you would like to be friends that would be wonderful, but I can give you nothing more."
Dylan laughs a little, "I never thought I'd feel like the lesser of two nerds before." They tease before gently nudging Castiel's shoulder with their fist, "It's cool, dude. We can be friends. I'll give you my cell and we can hang out some time."
Castiel smiles and writes his own number on some paper they have with them before giving it to Dylan and taking their number. "I will see you another time, then."
"You'll see me tomorrow," Dylan grins, "I'll try to be gentle but I can't make any promises." They say with a wink before heading off.
"Wow, little Cassie made some more nerd friends. Of course I'm still kind of shocked Dorian over here is one," Gabriel notices Dean tense up, "But I'll keep your secret valiant knight." He teases and Sam rolls his eyes.
"There is nothing wrong with nerds, Gabe. Besides, you're pretty into this too so I don't wanna hear it."
"You're damn right I am! People are calling me Beelzebub and I get to 'kill' people with the flick of a wrist. What's not to love?" Gabriel looks to Dean with a grin, "I totally get it now."
Dean groans, "I doubt it," He looks to Castiel and the teen can practically see his frown in the helmet, "We only have time to go back to camp now, so come on. We'll grab some food from the feast and head to our tent."
Castiel becomes nervous at the idea. A tent. Camping. He's never been camping before. They all grab their food, say goodnight, and go to their own tents to eat. Once they arrive, Dean ushers him to sit on the floor with him as Castiel looks around. It's not small, obviously not as small as a normal camping tent, and they have a real bed in here so he supposes it isn't all bad.
Until something moves on the ground beneath the bottom of the tent.
"DEAN!" He yells, clamoring over to the other man to see the outline of a snake under the tent's fabric, "Why is there a Isnake/i?"
"Because...this is nature...?" Dean offers as he holds Castiel off from climbing on his shoulders.
"But...this is a busy area, snakes should be far away from here." Castiel says in a panicked hurry before abandoning his food and Dean to go on the bed.
"You know..." Dean begins, watching the teen look at the floor in horror, "A little snake won't hurt you, princess." He teases, enjoying the offended pout from the teen.
Of course Dean knows Castiel doesn't want to be here, neither does Sam. In fact the only other person who seemed truly excited was Gabriel, whom Castiel and Sam had to practically force Dean to allow in on his secret. He still has yet to kick Gabriel's ass, so they made an agreement that as long as he never breathed a word of any of this to others, he would not get as close to murdering Gabriel as legally possible.
Still, despite their disinterest in coming, Dean is so glad they did. It's nice having an entire group of people you really know in a LARP game. Honestly everything is more fun when he brings Castiel. He's been spending a lot of time with the boy lately and has in fact been toying with the idea of bringing him out with his popular friends. Maybe to a movie, or dinner, or something.
A party is still too much, and he's not too sure if Castiel could handle even a dinner or movie, all he knows is he wants Castiel to be involved in all of the aspects of his life. He has been oddly attached to Castiel from day one, unable to get him out of his head for one reason or another and being with him today, enjoying the thing he loves most, Dean has realized a few things he is not happy about.
One, he does not like sharing Castiel with potential new friends.
Two, Castiel's intelligence and capability are extremely impressive.
Three, the guy is kinda cute once he finally lets his guard down.
Four, the idea of Castiel dating someone pisses him off. A lot. He doesn't want to share him with some lover. Those sleepovers where they curl up together on the couch or in his bed matter so much to him now, if he had it his way those would be as much a regular activity as their dinners.
Not that he'll ever admit it.
Honestly he doesn't like to think about it. He knows his feelings for Castiel are not normal for friendship, but he sure as shit is not going to admit to more than that. Not even to himself. There was a moment where he thought about confessing, so he joked around with Castiel a little and got shot down. Hard. At the last sleepover they had he knew damn well it was nothing more than friendship for Castiel and so he's decided to drop it. Ignore it and not face it.
That's what Winchesters do with hopeless situations.
It's completely healthy.
Conceal, don't feel, that sorta shit.
"Anyways, you can bring your food up to the bed if you want, princess." Dean teases and Castiel huffs, but does it anyways.
"Do you enjoy camping?" Castiel asks, "Did you do it a lot as a kid?"
"Well, yeah, I camped a lot as a kid. When mom was alive it was big family camping trips. Sammy wasn't even a year old when she died so he never got to go on those, which sucks for him."
"Did you go after your mother passed away?"
"The camping trips with just dad were survival training." Dean explains, "After mom was killed in a house fire, dad became paranoid and kinda focused on making sure we could fend for ourselves because he believed the apocalypse was coming. Well, he still does. So yeah, with mom it was barbeques and swimming and ghost stories, with dad is was going to butt-fuck nowhere and being left by him for three nights with nothing but a knife, tent, and sleeping bags." He looks over to Castiel, who now looks surprised.
"I did not realize..."
"Yeah, well, you Novak boys don't own daddy issues." Dean jokes, "I don't really tell people about it so keep it to yourself, ok?"
"Of course." Castiel nods, grabbing his food and sitting back down on the floor next to Dean.
It's shit like this that makes it hard to just accept they will only be friends. Castiel is so easy to talk to, to open up to. He never judges, only sympathizes, and while he still isn't great at the whole emotional stuff, Dean isn't either and they seem to have found a pretty good balance between the two of them.
Took a while, though.
"So, Cas, you gonna call Dylan when we get home?" Dean asks and Castiel shrugs, using his knife and fork to cut a piece of meat off his chicken leg.
Seriously.
Fucking princess.
"I do not know, honestly." Castiel admits, "Friends are a lot of work. I find it easier to let them come to me." He says before shoving the chicken into his mouth.
"Huh, now that you mention it, they really do come to you don't they?" Dean laughs, "Me, Sam, no doubt that other guy."
"Balthazar, yes, he bugged me until I caved as a child. Sort of like you but much nicer."
"Oh? What did the little playboy do to befriend you?"
Castiel thinks for a minute, "We were little, but I remember lots of flowers and toys from him. You did pranks, he did gifts."
Dean can feel his smile twitch slightly, "Ah, so he was trying to date you..."
"No, no..." Castiel shakes his head, "That is just how Balthazar is. He gets people with kindness." He looks to Dean blankly, "It's why he has a larger fanbase than you."
"Whoa! Hey! I have a huge ass fanbase!" Dean defends and Castiel frowns.
"If you insist."
"Don't condescend to me you little shit! You would know just how popular I am if you would hang out with me in public."
"There is no need for name calling, and spending time with your public friends sounds exhausting." Castiel points out, placing his empty plate on a table, "Between the two of you, Balthazar is the kind of person who just approaches everyone sweetly, you're too emotionally stunted for that. There's nothing actually wrong with it, people still know you care."
"With how dense you are I wouldn't be surprised if he was trying to get you to be his boyfriend." Dean grumbles and Castiel looks to him confused, tilting his head slightly like he usually does when he truly doesn't understand something. Like some slight angle change is gonna make shit clear to him.
It never does.
"I have been noticing a pattern with you lately...you seem upset whenever someone is hitting on me." Castiel points out and Dean gets a little nervous, "Why is that?"
"Because..." Dean groans, "Because you are literally the only friend who knows the real me that I don't have to hang out with in secrecy because you have no true titles attached to you. Well, I mean, people know you are a huge book nerd and Poindexter but that's different. Spending time with you won't make people ridicule me.
"If you started dating we wouldn't be able to see each other much. I mean it's not like we spend every waking moment together but, you know, people who are dating tend to and I don't want to share this secret with anyone else. I didn't wanna share it with you stupid brother, either, yet here we are. If you date, I lose you. Since I'm not going to be dating, it's not even like I can just pick up a chick and distract myself."
"Well, you could for one night." Castiel points out and Dean gives him a dirty look. "Sorry."
"I guess I just...I need you to be with me." Dean admits before getting a little panicky and quickly adding, "As a friend!"
Castiel looks a little surprised for a second before smiling at him, "I need you as well," He admits, "As a friend."
"Oh yeah?"
"Yes."
"Wow." Dean mocks.
"Wow as in your game or the wow that normal people use?" Castiel counters and Dean rolls his eyes.
"Why the hell would I-? Jesus your jokes are lame."
"Leave our savior out of this."
"Oh my god." Dean groans.
"Leave his father out of it as well."
A\n: So I'm a shitty person, I know. Life keeps kicking my ass. Really hard. It technically still is but I'm on summer break from work so I can finally, you know, distract myself from it with writing. Sorry if its shitty I literally have not written anything since I last updated this so I'm super rusty.