title: gazing into each other's (and other people's) eyes
"Did Sam change any of our plans?" I ask as Dean hangs up the phone.
"Nah, just making sure I hadn't forgotten and to mock me a bit." He rolls his eyes. "Gave me an idea, though."
I raise my eyebrows. "Should I worry?"
"It's nothing too bad. It's just that his mocking involved telling me how often we happen to 'gaze into each other's eyes like you're drowning and his eyes are the only source of water around for miles'."
"Well, that's poetic."
"Yeah. Anyway, the plan is to see how many times we can make prolonged eye contact without anyone catching on that we're doing it on purpose."
"Care to expand on that a bit?"
"What do you mean?"
"How long is 'prolonged'? I mean, they're going to notice if we just stare into each other's eyes non-stop."
"Yeah… I guess you're right. Okay, we count ten seconds and look away on the tenth every time. Don't break it before that."
"What if someone talks to us?"
"You can respond while still 'gazing', or pretend you didn't hear. The second might raise less suspicion, though."
I nod. "Yeah, okay. Do we 'gaze' whenever we meet eyes, or just on occasion?"
"On occasion."
"Okay, and what happens if no one notices anything off about it?"
"Then we accept that we stare into one another's eyes a lot."
I laugh. "Yeah, okay."
###
Our plans for the night were just to go out bowling and for dinner with friends – Sam, Jess, Benny, Anna, and Jess' friend, the awkwardly named Meg. She said she was inviting her to balance the numbers of boys to girls. Sam said Dean filled that criterion. Dean mocked Sam's hair. Meg was invited.
In any case, opportunities for any group of us to go out were rare, so much emphasis had been placed on the importance of everyone attending – leading to many phone calls and texts to remind us. Never mind that Dean and I were the ones with very few busy nights.
We meet at the bowling alley.
"Jess!" Dean says, going over for a hug. "It's great to see you when you're not dumping your kids on us!" I follow with a laugh, greeting Sam on the way.
"I've missed you, too, Dean." She rolls her eyes. "Hey, Cas."
"Hello." I say with a smile.
"This is Meg," Jess introduces the brunette girl to her right. "Meg, this is Dean and Cas."
"Cas is a guy?" Meg immediately asks.
"Yeah. Excuse Meg, she has no filter."
I laugh kindly. "It's all right, she isn't the first. It's nice to meet you."
"You, too." She raises her eyebrow in an almost-predatory manner. Dean, somewhat conspicuously, takes my hand from where it lies. "And you, Dean." The sultry tone of her voice continues.
"Nice to meet you. Hey, Benny, over here!" Dean uses his free hand to wave the man over.
"Good to see you, brother." The 'brother' is an affectionate term for a friend that he and Dean have adopted from LARPing as a joke.
"You, too." Dean grins.
"And you, Cas, I never properly thanked you for introducing me to Dean." The twinkle in his eye intrigues Meg – or she isn't keen on being discarded for a slightly overweight man.
"That sounds like an interesting story."
Benny laughs. "Yeah, Cas here saved my life, which was good enough, but then he introduced me to some of my current best friends. It was a pretty good day, all around." He flashes a quick wink at me, a habit he picked up from Dean, before going to introduce himself to Jess and Meg.
"Cas!" Anna calls before wrapping me in a hug. "Thanks for inviting me."
"Of course, Anna. It's good to see you again."
"Hey, Dean." The two hug with smiles, and then I introduce Anna to the rest of the group. Meg seems to view her as competition, so I take it upon myself to make sure nothing too dramatic happens there.
Sam claps his hands loudly, "Okay! Let's go get shoes and a lane."
###
The first instance of prolonged eye contact occurs when Dean is inputting names for turns. He stipulated that real names cannot be used, and so far he has been put in as Batman, Jess as Smurfette and Sam as Rapunzel.
Dean turns to me, ponderingly. "And Cas…" Eye contact is made, and I can see his lips moving slightly as he counts to ten. We both have smirks turning up the corners of our mouths.
"Jesus, hurry it up! I'm getting old here." Meg complains.
"You can't rush genius." Dean replies, still holding eye contact. On the tenth second exactly, he looks away and says, "aha! You've got to be Mr. Fizzles."
Sam and Jess laugh as I groan. Sam takes the liberty of explaining. "Garth, has a sock puppet he swears can tell when someone's lying. He tormented Cas for a whole weekend once because Cas dared lie in Mr. Fizzles' presence and say he didn't love Dean."
"In my defense, Dean had just served up a pancake on my head."
"It's not my fault you're grumpy in the mornings!"
###
The second instance of prolonged eye contact happens after Dean scores a strike. He turns around with fists pumped to a crowd of groaning adults. He comes to sit next to me, so I turn to face him with a dramatic fist clenched over my heart to make eye contact. "I am so proud of you." He imitates my expressive face and nods. After ten seconds exactly, I turn away to watch Jess' turn.
"If one of you was a girl, you'd be so pregnant." Meg mutters.
###
The third instance of prolonged eye contact occurs roughly halfway through the game. Drinks are getting low and the placings are starting to be set – Dean is winning, followed closely by Sam. Jess and Meg constantly swap third and fourth place, with Benny occasionally swooping into fourth but mostly staying in fifth. Anna is solidly sixth and I am dead last.
"Hey, Cas, mind getting me another drink?" Dean grins at me, launching eye contact.
I roll my eyes. It still counts. "If you take my turn."
"You drive a hard bargain." He pretends to tap his chin.
"It's my lowest offer."
"Very well then, I accept." The ten seconds are up, so I turn around and grab my wallet.
"Hey, can you fill up my drink?" Jess asks, followed by Sam, Benny, Meg and then Anna nods and asks me too.
"If you guys pay." I say.
"You're paying for Dean." Anna pouts.
"I'm paying with his money."
###
We don't manage more eye contact until dinner. However, since we choose to sit across from each other, it ought to be easy. In fact, we manage a simple 10 seconds as everyone moves around us to grab seats.
###
"Hey, Cas, have you eaten here before?" Meg asks from my right.
"Um, yes; once or twice."
"What do you recommend?"
"The burgers are great."
Dean hears that and looks over at me, interrupting his conversation with Benny to make eye contact.
"Oh, is this a couple thing?" I can hear the grimace in Meg's voice.
"Yeah, we came here for our first date." Dean grins.
"God, you guys are disgusting."
Dean winks at me on the ten second mark, turning back to Benny.
###
"How are you, Anna?"
"I'm… all right, actually." She smiles faintly.
"I'm glad to hear it. You know I'm here if you need me."
"Thanks, little bro."
"Must you always bring up the ages?"
"Yup, I've always got to assert my authority."
"I can accept that. Oh, and Dean told me to tell you that he's there for you, too."
Dean turns. "Dude, that was more of a 'if you see her before I do'."
"How was I supposed to know? You merely informed me to tell her."
"You're useless."
The end of the ten seconds has a challenging air. If it weren't for the rules, I would continue eye contact until Dean apologised, so when we both turn at the tenth second, he smirks.
Anna leans in close. "Are you and Dean up to something?"
"I'll tell you if you don't tell the others. And if you help."
She nods easily.
###
Anna finishes her glass of wine and laughs. "Guys, is it immature to do staring contests? I'm feeling it."
Sam grins. "Don't start this; I always won when I was a kid."
"Have you ever met Cas?" She retorts.
Everyone looks at me. "You make a good point," Sam concedes.
"I like the idea anyway." Dean looks straight at me, realising I've let Anna in on the idea.
We get another nice ten seconds there while Sam and Anna argue over rules.
"Okay!" Anna claps once, loudly. "You turn to the person across from you and see if you can hold eye contact for a full ten seconds. Anyone who can't is out. That's the first round, we'll figure out the next one later."
As Anna is at the head of the table and thus not across from anyone else, she is umpire. "Okay, I'll give you a count of three. When I say 'go', you start. One… two… three… go!"
Dean and I easily manage ten seconds without blinking, ignoring Jess and Benny groaning.
Anna laughs at the end of the ten seconds. "Okay: Dean, Cas, Sam and Meg are through! I'm gonna pair Sam with Dean and Cas with Meg, whoever lasts longest goes through to the championship round. Jess, you help me umpire Sam and Dean, Benny, you help with Meg and Cas. You guys ready?"
We all affirm, and she counts. "Go!"
Meg is not a fair player. She licks her lips, moves her chest and tries to portray a 'come hither' look with her eyes. Never has my preference for men done me more of a service; I maintain level eye contact for long enough for her to blink harshly.
Jess has already declared Sam the winner as Benny calls my name.
"Okay, Dean, do you mind swapping seats with Sam here for a sec?"
He sighs laboriously. "I suppose I can."
"Okay, everyone, choose someone to monitor for blinking. You two ready?"
Sam and I nod, eyes closed.
"Okay… three… two… one… go!"
Our group is in rare silence. I prefer playing against Sam, who keeps his face straight and doesn't twitch at all.
That is, until I feel his foot touch my shin and start crawling upwards.
I raise my eyebrows at Sam, who widens his eyes slightly in innocence. We both relax our faces quickly, knowing they both affect how long our eyes can be kept open for.
I decide against any revenge action in the hope that the concentration required in his choice of action will work to my advantage.
His foot works its way up smoothly. It is halfway up my thigh when Anna gently says "thirty seconds", presumably in a manner so as not to disturb us.
My eyes don't even feel dry. Sam's are starting to twitch slightly.
Sam's foot reaches his destination just as he blinks violently. Unfortunately, that causes a chain reaction, and he jerks his leg in an action that would be hilarious were it not so painful.
"Sam… did Sam blink first?" Anna is asking, as the table is in slight disarray after Sam's violent kick. My eyes are tightly shut.
"Yeah," Benny replies.
"Dude, what happened?" Dean asks, slightly worried.
"Cas, seriously, how did you withstand that?" Sam asks me.
"Have you ever met your brother?" I ask in a slightly strained voice.
"Shit. I kicked you, didn't I?"
I nod.
"Crap, I'm sorry!"
"Sam. What the fuck?" Dean asks.
"I'm… gonna get some ice." Sam says, turning around to find a waiter.
"It's okay!" I call, sitting up straight with only a slight twinge of pain.
"Someone want to fill us all in?"
"Sam's plan of attack was footsie." I say with a shrug. "Unfortunately, his blink/kick combination coincided with the end of the game."
The boys all wince.
"Well," Dean says. "Tonight was fun, but I think it's time we go home and I treat Cas to some TLC. Thanks for paying for us, Sam, bye!"
He grins and pulls me out of my chair.
"You're a dick, Dean!"
"Well, you may have done damage to Cas' dick, so I think I'm off the hook."
Sam grumbles, but we're allowed to leave.
not so keen on this ending, but if i'd made it any longer i wouldn't have revised at all. hope you enjoy anyway :)
i'm not entirely sure of the purpose of most of the characters being in here buT I DID IT ANYWAY
i also may have bought coke bottles with not only my name on, but also sam, dean and adam for stupid supernatural purposes and then had to explain it to my mum so i could put them in the fridge. oops.