Summary: The eight times Dean Winchester and Castiel Novak had a surprise encounter, and the one time it was on purpose. Just a nice little Destiel College AU in which Castiel is a hapless freshman and Dean is a helpful and friendly senior. Basically an excuse for me to practice my lemons that somehow gained some plot.
Disclaimer: XD Nope.
Warnings: Nothing new, see chapter 1. In fact, I'm sure you know what you came for, so no more warnings.
"Talking"
'Thinking'
"Phone calls"
A/N: M'back! Got another chapter for ya'll. This is honestly the fastest I've ever updated anything, feel privileged! This is going a lot easier than my other fics I've got in the works…XD in any case, here ya go!
A/N 2: I reposted this cause I had some stuff to add and a couple of edits to make. If you've already read it, you don't really need to reread it.
*****Line Break*****
The second time Dean met Castiel, it was not as much of an emergency, but no less of a shock than the first time.
Dean was headed through the mess hall, weaving resolutely through the throngs of people standing here and there as he made his way toward the food lines. He brushed against a few stubborn people, almost knocking down a few of the rude ass jocks who stood in his way, barely pausing to send them half-hearted apologies as he traveled along a single-minded path to his food source.
Amongst these accidental bumps, he felt a familiar subtle grope, but only paused to send the culprit (a widely grinning Pamela) a distracted wink before moving on. Within moments he'd reached his destination, and he breathed a sigh of relief as he put himself at the end of a short, three-person line. Peeking over the shoulder of a man who'd give Sam a run for his money in height, he perused the limited selection of foodstuff written on the slightly askew chalkboard behind the counter.
Perhaps oddly, Dean's college housed a single high school-like lunch line, nestled in amongst all the other more well-known food providers. It was less expensive than most of the other cuisine, and provided burly lunch ladies, mystery meat, hair in the corn, and all the other general…irregularities a public school might possess. Unsurprisingly, it didn't get much action, having to compete with the actual chain restaurants lining the walls, but it managed to cling to life in the cafeteria all the same, much like a grungy bit of gum would cling to the bottom of a reluctant shoe.
Dean reached the front of the short line, grabbing a styrofoam tray, and sending the lunch lady a charming smile as he pointed at the odd lump of noodles that was meant to be some kind of pasta, and stated "I'd like mine al dente." with an exaggerated wink. She sent him a flat look before simply dropping his...concoction on his plate with a sickening splat, and waving him on.
He moved along with a mental shrug, he'd get her to smile back some day, picking up a foil wrapped burger. Some fries joined the tray, and a lone apple somehow stole away from its brethren onto the tray as well. Most importantly, a piece of slightly lopsided pie migrated onto his platter as well.
Making his way back through the crowded lunch room, Dean sat down to eat his late lunch by himself, waving off a couple of his friends as he sat at the end of an empty table back by a window. They looked confused, but willingly left him to his own devices. He breathed a quiet sigh of relief; not that he didn't love his friends, but he had a project due next Monday and he wanted to work on it now so that he could party later (his little giant of a brother would be proud), and they were the absolute worst at letting other people be productive. He placed his backpack on the bench next to him, and spread his books out to his sides so that he could put his food in the middle.
He'd just finished setting up his lunch-study and begun futzing around with his books when felt eyes on him and heard footsteps a few feet from him. He looked up from where he'd been multitasking; finding the correct page in his textbook with one hand and eating his burger with the other, confused, only to see the freshman he'd saved from Crowley a couple of weeks ago standing across the table from him.
"Hello Dean." Castiel stated, staring at him, blue eyes flicking curiously over his setup.
"Oh, 'lo Cas." He said through a bite of food, cursing the freshman's timing. He swallowed his mouthful, spontaneously stating, "Don't just stand there dude, take a seat. Looks awkward with you just standing there." and gesturing with his burger for Castiel to sit down. Castiel stood for a moment more, eyes assessing him, before he slowly sat down.
"What are you doing?" Castiel asked, glancing over his setup again.
"Oh, I uh, I have a project due next week and a party this weekend, so I'm trying to get at least a little bit done before then so that I don't have to feel guilty about it. Or really so that my little brother doesn't try to make me feel guilty about it. His bitching is annoying." Dean responded with a snort.
Castiel just nodded in reply, taking off his own backpack and pulling out his supplies, copying Dean's arrangement of food and books before diving into his own studying. Dean smiled bemusedly, glad that the freshman wouldn't be bothering him while he tried to work, but confused that he'd asked him to sit down in the first place if that could've been an issue, before going back to his project.
The two sat companionably for a while, chatting lightly or snickering over stupid little things they found in their books, the sounds of the lunch room around them seemingly not penetrating their little study bubble. As Dean was handing Cas his physics book to show him a picture of a guy awkwardly sneezing (he was supposed to be figuring out something to do with distance of particles moving through air at a certain speed relative to their size or something but come on! The guy's facial expression was so stupid…) he happened to glance at his watch and see the time. To his surprise, nearly three hours had passed.
"Damnit," he muttered, startling Castiel from his silently amused study of the man on the page. He scrambled for his books, Castiel helpfully handing him his physics textbook when he almost forgot it, taking a moment to fold down the pages he'd stopped on and scribbling a last couple notes in his binder before carelessly shoving his books into his backpack. "Sorry Cas, gotta go! My brother's probably already pissed since I kept his gigantor ass waiting." Dean said, quickly standing up and swinging his backpack on his back.
Just as he was about to leave, he heard a quiet murmur of, "Cas?" From behind him.
"What?" He asked, turning around. Castiel was looking up at him from the table, still surrounded by books.
"You called me Cas." Castiel said, his head tilted to the side in confusion.
"Oh, did I? My bad, Castiel's just a bit of a mouthful." Dean stated with a shrug, tapping his fingers on the straps of his backpack. "If it bothers you I won't do it again." He offered, as Castiel was still staring intently at him.
Castiel looked slightly startled and shook his head. "No, no, it's alright. I've never had a nickname before, other than when my brothers call me Cassie…" he said, trailing off thoughtfully.
"Cassie?" Dean snickered, his urgency momentarily forgotten.
Cas paused in his musing to glare coldly at Dean, his eyes flashing angrily. "Don't ever call me Cassie." Dean held his hands up in mock surrender, smirking at the fuming Cas.
"Alright, alright, I won't call you Cassie! Jeez, you're kinda scary for a nerdy little freshman in a trench coat." He said, idly wondering what kind of body the other male was hiding underneath the rather baggy piece of clothing. Dean was a bit startled by the errant thought. Not that he was having some gay crisis over having such a thought about a guy, he was very proudly bisexual thank you very much, but that he'd had the thought about Cas was a bit surprising. He usually didn't entertain such thoughts about guys or girls who didn't show any interest to him, rare of an occasion as that was.
Cas glanced down at himself, muttering, "Technically it's an overcoat," with a slight smile.
"An overcoat then." Dean conceded, with an easy laugh, pushing away his previous train of thought. He opened his mouth to speak again, but his phone went off with his brother's ringtone. "Shiiiiiiit…" he breathed, looking at it warily, debating whether or not to just let it ring, before sighing and picking up.
"Dean, where the hell are you?" His brother's voice was slightly raised in obvious agitation, and Dean could pick up the sound of quiet voices in the background. "I'm on my way, I'm on my way. Jesus, Samantha, keep your hair net on, the thing doesn't even start for another 3 hours." He replied, mouthing a quick "Bye Cas" to his study buddy for the day and speed walking away, feeling deep blue eyes boring into his back all the way out of the mess hall as his brother bitched in his ear.
A/N: Not sure I'm completely satisfied with how this came out, but…eh. Yeah, I know, it was pretty short. Sorry 'bout that, but it didn't go with the next segment so I had to cut it off. Hopefully I'll have the next chapter up for you guys soon!
