This is a long chapter. I'm not entirely sure where the length came from, I just kept waffling on and on... I'm really sorry. The exhibition is finally here – it feels like I've been working up to it forever! There should be a lot more Destiel action next chapter – no smut, I've already mentioned that, but there'll certainly be more intimacy than we've seen so far. If you're lovely and give me enough reviews I may even write a little one-shot companion piece with le smut in it... *wink*. It depends how much time I have before NaNoWriMo. Is anyone else doing that? I'd love to add you all as writing buddies so we can support each other. Anyway, enjoy the chapter and, as always, please review with your comments and criticism so I know what you think! I love all my readers and reviewers, you're all amazing and you deserve a ride in the Impala with Dean.
Side note: I can't be the only one obsessed with the wing imagery from that scene with Ezekiel!Sam in Devil May Care can I? Those broken wings, my goodness...
As always, a huge thank-you to my beta rdmnss!
Disclaimer: As upsetting as it is, I don't own Supernatural or any of the characters.
Dean awkwardly straightened his tie as he glanced at himself in the mirror, grimacing at how he looked. The borrowed suit was too short and uncomfortably tight around the shoulders, and the only cufflinks he had been able to get hold of were novelty poké-ball ones that one of his college mates had received for an eighteenth birthday present. He looked like some kind of idiot playing dress-up, but at least he had made the effort. Hopefully Castiel would appreciate Dean's foray outside of his comfort zone, even if no-one else did.
"Hey, Jerk, you nearly ready? We need supposed to be there in fifteen minutes." Sam poked his head round the door of Dean's room and frowned at Dean. "Huh. You weren't lying when you said the suit was small on you."
Dean rolled his eyes. "Man, I feel like I'm being suffocated."
"You can take the jacket off when you get there." Sam clearly didn't have much sympathy.
"What's the point in wearin' it if I'm just going to take it off as soon as I arrive?"
Sam gave Dean one of his patented bitchfaces. "Just wear the jacket until you're actually in the gallery. It won't kill you. Now come on, Cas'll be disappointed if you're late and we still have to pick up Jess."
Dean smiled slightly at the thought of Cas, before grabbing the Impala's keys and preparing to leave. "I still don't understand why she couldn't get ready here."
Sam chuckled, a smirk spreading across his face. "You can so tell that you've never had a girlfriend."
"Hey! I slept with plenty of girls before I met Cas, thank you very much. Plus, Cas is better than any girl."
"I said girlfriend, not random hook up that only lasted one night."
The two continued bickering all the way to the car, and by the time they got there Dean was nearly ready to punch his brother in his smug little face. Stupid posh kids with their superiority complexes.
Once they were sitting in the Impala, Dean decided it was time to enact his revenge. Rooting around in the glove compartment he extracted a mix-tape of his favourite old metal albums and shoved it in, turning the volume all the way up.
"Dean! Turn it down!"
Sam attempted to hit the volume but Dean shoved him sideways, almost swerving into a lamppost as he did so.
"Driver picks the music, shotgun shuts his cakehole. Now stop being a bitch and let me drive."
Five minutes later, they pulled up outside the quaint little apartment block that Jess lived in. Sam hurriedly got out to go and meet her while Dean stayed in the car, anticipation building about seeing Cas and his artwork.
Dean knew that this was really important to Cas – he had seemed really nervous the last time Dean had spoken to him, and Dean wanted to be as supportive as possible. He was also really curious about what Cas had produced – after all, Cas had based everything that he had done on Dean. It was going to be pretty weird seeing multiple images of himself in an exhibition, but even though he had never really seen any of Cas's work, he was sure it would be incredible. After all, Cas had produced it, and Cas was just amazing.
The door of the Impala swung open and Dean smiled to himself as Sam held it open so that Jess could get in the car. He turned the music down (to Sam's obvious relief) before taking in the baby pink dress that Jess was wearing and her carefully done makeup and letting out a whistle.
"Well, Jess, don't you look incredible! I'm surprised my brother can keep his hands off."
Jess smiled and blushed a little, and Sam punched Dean on the shoulder as he climbed in beside Jess and took her hand.
"I think you're going to be very impressed with Castiel's art, Dean. What he's produced is better than anything anyone has seen him do before - but then again, seeing as his work is the centrepiece of the exhibition I presume you already know that."
Dean's mouth opened in shock, and he had to force himself to keep looking at the road instead of turning to face Jess. "His work is the centrepiece? Like, the main part of the exhibition?"
"Castiel didn't tell you that?" Jess sounded surprised.
"No!" Dean felt a little hurt that Cas hadn't shared that gem of information with him – but at the same time, he felt a surge of pride on his boyfriend's behalf.
"He probably wanted to surprise you. Don't tell him that I gave the surprise way."
A thought suddenly popped into Dean's head. "Wait, so does that mean that the main thing for everyone to stare at is this massive picture of me?"
Jess laughed. "It's a very flattering picture, don't worry."
Dean wasn't sure if he was entirely comfortable with that, but he let it slide. He couldn't afford to show nerves here – this was Cas's time to shine, and the poor guy was probably a hundred times more terrified than Dean was about people's reactions. He had to be strong and supportive for his boyfriend.
Soon enough, Dean was pulling into the car park of the art gallery and being directed to one of the private parking spaces next to the entrance (there were definite perks to arriving with one of the teachers). Adjusting his uncomfortable suit jacket to try and make it look slightly less constricting than it was, he got out of the car and waited for Sam and Jess.
"I have to go and make sure everything's set up. I'll see you inside." Jess kissed Sam briefly on the lips before turning to walk inside, leaving Dean and Sam to make their own way.
"Have you seen any of Cas's art?" Sam asked as the two of them made their way to the queue of people waiting to be allowed inside.
"Not really, he's quite private about it. I've seen scribbles and stuff lying around his flat but nothing finished."
"Jess says that art is like an extension of the soul – it's a way of displaying your most private thoughts and emotions. I suppose it makes sense to be private about something like that."
Dean rolled his eyes at the soppy way in which Sam talked about Jess. "Sam, as much as I think you and Jess are cute together I'd rather not hear that tone of voice from you ever again."
"You're one to talk! You should see the glazed look in your eyes that you get whenever you talk about Cas."
"I do not!" Dean denied, trying to stop the blush that as attempting to make a home on his face.
"Oh stop denying it, it's painfully obvious. It's not like I have a problem with it, I think it's cute."
"Bitch." Dean really didn't want to have this conversation with his brother.
"Jerk."
The pair fell into silence for a few moments, before Dean felt a tap on his shoulder and spun round to see a familiar looking girl standing behind him in the queue.
"Hey, Dean. Remember me?" Her voice was flirtatious and she batted her heavily made up lashes as she said it.
"Urmm..." Dean wasn't sure that he wanted to get into a conversation with her, but deciding to be polite he racked his brains for why she sounded familiar. "Oh! Lisa, right?"
She gave him a dazzling smile. "I'm so excited to see all the pictures that were done of me. I mean, the weird gothic ones that Madison or whatever her name is did are just going to be weird, but the nice ones Ezekiel did should be lovely. Do you know much about the ones of you?"
Dean stepped backwards, realizing that Lisa was rather crowding his personal space. "Not really. I haven't even spoken to Michael since the shoot, but I know Cas – I mean Castiel – has some nice ones."
"Cas?" Lisa raised a single plucked eyebrow. "The weird kid in the trenchcoat? You two are friends now?"
"They're dating." It was Sam who answered, finally cluing in one the conversation, and Dean couldn't help but feel glad that he didn't have to explain that himself.
"Dating?" Lisa looked incredulous, and stepped back from Dean hurriedly. "You're gay?"
"Bisexual. And if you have a problem with that, then I suggest you stay outta my life."
Fortunately for Dean, the queue started to move forwards and he managed to escape with Sam before Lisa could reply with a scathing comment.
"Old flame?" Sam asked curiously.
"No, just a random chick. But would you really want to know if she was?"
Sam chuckled. "Not really."
Dean followed the crowd of people into the gallery, glancing around to try and spot Cas. He could see Jess and a couple of older people who he presumed were the other teachers conversing on the other side of the entrance hall, and Sam slipped away to go and join them, but none of the students were anywhere to be seen. Dean guessed that Cas was with them inside the exhibition itself, but he couldn't help but feel rather awkward and out of place without Cas beside him.
"Dean!" A voice in his ear made him turn around and he grinned at the sight of the girl beside him.
"Charlie! It's great to see you again! Have you seen Cas?"
Charlie grinned. "Pining after your boyfriend already? He's inside, I think he was having an argument with one of the gallery attendants about how to display his work. I might be able to sneak you in if you want?"
A smile spread across Dean's face. "I knew there was a reason I liked you. Lead the way."
Charlie slipped out a side door beside a painting of a very obnoxious looking old man and Dean followed, trying to avoid being seen by Jess as she'd probably complain to him later.
"It's amazing by the way, everything that Cas has done. I mean, he's always been talented, he's a scholarship student, but I've never seen him produce anything with quite so much emotion in. He really likes you."
Dean could feel himself blushing. "I really doubt it's because of me, he's probably just improvin' with practise or somethin'."
Charlie glanced back at Dean. "Seriously, dude, it's because of you. He's totally in love with you. Although I hate to pry, but did you have an argument at some point or something?"
A cold and confused feeling settling in Dean's chest, he frowned, unsure about where the question had come from and a little worried about what it could mean. "Uhh, everyone has arguments, but we're really happy at the moment as far as I know. Why? Did he not want to see me? Have I done something wrong?"
"No!" Charlie shook her head, red hair whipping around behind her. "No, it's nothing like that. He's been looking forward to seeing you all day. It's just his centrepiece... I'm wondering where he got the inspiration from. It's quite emotional. You'll understand when you see it. Now, just wait here a minute so I can check that the coast's clear."
Charlie disappeared, and Dean was left on his own in the softly lit corridor. Shrugging his shoulder s a little to try and relieve some of the tension on them, he pulled off his suit jacket and chucked it over one arm, relieved that he could finally breathe normally again. He resisted the urge to pull off his tie and undo a couple of shirt buttons, instead simply running a finger around the collar to try and ease some of the discomfort.
"Why are you hiding in a corridor?"
Dean turned round with a huge smile on his face and wrapped his arms around his boyfriend, the suit jacket falling to the floor.
"Cas." He breathed, burrowing his face into Cas's neck.
Cas's arms came up slightly stiffly and wrapped around Dean.
"I missed you." Dean mumbled, his voice muffled by the way he had pressed himself into Cas.
"I missed you too." Cas replied, slowly relaxing into Dean. "But that doesn't explain why you're hiding in a random corridor."
Dean laughed. "I'm not hiding, Charlie brought me here so that I could see you."
"Charlie hasn't spoken to me." Dean could practically hear the frown in Cas's voice.
"Awww! You two are just so adorable."
The voice made Dean and Cas spring apart, and Dean narrowly avoided tripping over the abandoned jacket.
"Shut up Charlie."
"Hey, you think I'm bad, you're going to die when Becky sees you!"
Dean winced just imagining it, before realising that Cas had moved to stand protectively in front of him with a scowl on his face.
"Why is Dean going to die? Is Becky going to kill him? I will not allow Dean to come to any harm, from Becky or otherwise."
A pang of love shot through Dean at the cuteness of his boyfriend's actions. Cas's innocence and cluelessness really was amazing sometimes.
Wrapping his arms around his boyfriend from behind, he whispered into Cas's ear, "No-one's trying to kill me, Cas. But thank you."
"You two are making me feel like a third wheel. I'm going to find Gilda. Catch you later!" Charlie wandered off, leaving Dean and Cas still embracing in the corridor.
"Dean, while this is very pleasant I need to get back to the exhibition. It opens in two minutes and I need to answer questions on my work."
"Can you show it to me first?" Dean allowed some of his excitement to seep into his voice.
Cas tensed, and it was a few seconds before he answered quietly, "Of course, Dean."
Dean's eyebrows knotted. "Is that a problem? I can wait if you want, I don't have to see it now..."
"It is fine, Dean. I want you to see it." Cas paused again. "It's just..."
"It's personal?" Dean queried, stepping back.
Cas smiled at his understanding. "Yes. It is not an issue for those who do not know me, but you... you will understand. It makes me nervous, that is all."
"Well, I'd be amazed if you weren't nervous, being the star of the show." Dean joked.
"I don't remember telling you that."
Dean shrugged, thinking quickly. "Charlie let it slip. Congrats!"
Cas gave another small smile, but his eyes were fearful and Dean started to feel really worried that he'd done something badly wrong. A moment later, he felt a slightly sweaty hand work its way into his own and he relaxed, squeezing it reassuringly. It would be fine. Cas was afraid of how people would react to his work and Dean was overreacting. At least, Dean hoped he was overreacting.
Gently, Cas pulled on Dean's hand to indicate that he should follow and Dean squeezed back again, walking behind Cas and he went though yet another door that Dean hadn't even known was there, stepping into the much more brightly lit gallery. Dean's eyes widened as he took in the sets of pictures lining the walls, each dramatically different yet all showcasing the extreme talent of their artist's. On one wall, three brightly coloured pop art paintings of someone's face stood out in dramatic contrast to a double exposure photograph of a girl in a Victorian-era dress and a landscape of hills in the snow. On the other side, an abstract-type image consisting of multiple triangles was displayed, everything coming together to form what seemed to be a strange, contorted human shape. Some of the pictures were grouped together, presumably all by the same person, whereas some stood alone, perhaps art that had already been in the gallery prior to this display, or perhaps some people had only done one piece of work.
"Where's yours?" Dean asked softly, feeling the need to keep his voice down in such a place despite the fact no-one had told him to.
"The centrepiece is always in a private room." Cas was just as quiet, although that seemed to be from fear more than anything else.
Dean nodded, although Cas couldn't see him doing so, and continued to walk through the rooms, glancing at all of the different pictures. He noticed an image of someone painted in a red Star Trek uniform and grinned, realising that such a picture could only have been done by Charlie. She really was a great artist – the attention to detail was incredible – and the fact that her incessant fangirling even extended to her schoolwork amused him.
Finally, Cas lead him into a small room to one side and stopped. He was actually trembling, and Dean took a moment to run one hand over his back in a soothing motion before looking up at the work displayed on the wall.
His eyes took in the painting in the middle and his brain short-circuited.
It was the most amazing picture he had ever seen.
The main focus of the picture was himself – but not as a human. He was standing tall and upright, a storm raging around him, with eyes that just screamed majesty and power. He was shirtless (and Dean felt that Cas had rather over-exaggerated how muscular his naked chest was, but it was very flattering anyway) with some form of sigil on his chest that he would be interested to know the meaning of. But the biggest shock was the huge, incredibly detailed and complex wings unfolding from his back, every feather seeming to glisten and shine despite the fact it was only a painting. Dean had been painted as an angel, a powerful, almighty warrior of God and the very emblem of goodness. The simple fact that Cas thought of him like that made him feel a thousand things at once, and Dean felt tears well up in the corners of his eyes.
But there was something else about the painting. Emotions of anger and insignificance radiated out of it as well, with more power than Dean had ever thought was possible with just a piece of art, and as he looked he noticed the hunched figure in the corner. The figure was also shirtless, but bloody, broken down, defeated by angel Dean's mere presence. As he looked harder, Dean came to the startling realisation that the figure was Cas – the jet black, mussed up hair was unmistakeable, as was the torn trenchcoat that he only noticed when he looked really hard.
"Cas?" Dean questioned, completely bowled over by the image. "When did you..."
"After we argued." Cas's voice was quiet, resigned, and Dean hated how forlorn it sounded. "I just felt so angry and defeated... you were always too good for me..."
Dean wheeled round. "You thought I was too good for you?" There were tears in his eyes as he said it.
"You are too good for me! You are so kind and selfless, putting your brother before yourself and doing so much for him. You helped me so much when I did not want to be helped, showed me that I needed friendship and love and everything else that I had put beneath me. You reached out when no-one else would. I owe you my happiness, I owe you everything, and you should never have had to deal with me at all. I cannot even love you the way you deserve to be loved because I cannot handle intimacy or fornication after locking myself away for so long. I am just a burden to you."
Dean couldn't believe that Cas really felt that way. How on Earth could someone so amazing believe that Dean was better? Reaching out, he placed his hands on Cas's shoulders and looked deeply into his eyes.
"You." He said simply. "Are the best thing that has ever happened to me. You understand? The best thing ever. You are amazing and perfect and I'm the one who doesn't deserve to have you. I'm just a stupid trainee mechanic who couldn't even get through school, whereas you're a genius. Plus, you think you can't handle intimacy? I only ever had random sex 'cause I couldn't handle it either, and maybe I coped in a different way but it was the same situation. And now it sounds like I've been pressurin' you into it and I'm so sorry, I'm just an awful person, I can't even treat the people I love right."
"You love me?" Cas's eyes were so hopeful and round and Dean couldn't believe that he'd been so stupid.
"Of course I love you, Cas! How could I not?"
Dean barely had time to react before a pair of warm, chapped lips collided with his own and he moaned softly as Castiel pulled him in as close as possible, fisting his own hands in Castiel's hair as they engaged in a battle of passion.
Cas pulled back, looking up at Dean with shining eyes.
"I love you too."
"I know." Dean smiled down at Cas, wiping his thumb along the man's cheek.
The sound of a throat being cleared made Cas leap back and Dean glanced, eyes widening, as he took in the sight of a random man who looked like a teacher in the doorway.
"Much as I hate to break this up, the exhibition is opening and people are coming here to see the art, not a display of homosexual love." Heavy sarcasm laced every single word.
"I'm sorry, My Roche. It will not happen again." Cas seemed very apologetic as he awkwardly straightened his suit – Dean allowed his eyes to roam over as he noticed how nicely fitting and flattering Cas's suit was. Cas always looked amazing in his various suits, but this one had to take the cake.
Mr Roche just rolled his eyes before walking out and leaving Cas and Dean alone again.
"This isn't over." Dean promised.
Cas smiled at Dean, true happiness shining on his face. "No." He agreed. "It is not."
I hope you enjoyed the chapter and it wasn't too horrifically long! Please review so that I know what you think, and whether you would be interested in a companion one-shot for any future M rated stuff. Once again, thanks so much for your support, and hopefully it won't be too long before the next update is up!