Movie night tonight. Your place. Charlie's message greeted him when he woke up in the morning. He rubbed the sleep out of his eyes and read it again. She had sent it at 8:00 am. It was after nine now and he knew that he needed to drag his sorry butt to the shower.
Will call later, much hangover. He got out of the bed and striped down to nothing. He got the shower going and after talking care of other needs, got in, relishing the steam and comfort of it. He thought about the wine, and realized that one should not endeavor to pour four glasses of wine into two glasses while telling one's self that it only counts as two.
The water poured over his shoulders and down his back. He pressed his head to the cool tiles in front of him. He let his mind slip over the day before. It had only been one day, and already it felt like everything was better, brighter somehow. Was it yesterday that they weren't even speaking with each other? He turned into the water and scrubbed at his face. Dean had visited him in dreams. He was standing at the end of Cas' bed, a billowing white sheet wrapped around him in lieu of clothes. He was smiling at him as he took several slow steps toward him. He had come down to the bed and crawled up to him, spreading out the sheet over them both, pulling it up over their heads, making a bright, white tent. The early morning sunlight penetrated the sheet giving Dean a look of summer brightness. He was the sun hovering over him, and all was bliss.
That was dreams though. Cas thought that maybe he had imagined some things, saw the world through rose colored glasses or a wisteria induced type of hysteria. He would look up the effects of inhaling too much pollen from wisteria. Maybe it was a hallucinogen or something like that. He finished his shower and thought about the prospect of a movie night with both Charlie and Dean. At least with Charlie there, he could trust himself. He would at least be more capable of making safe decisions.
He looked down at his chest as the water ran over it. He cringed and looked away. It was hard sometimes to see himself as anything more than damaged. He raised a hand to the scar and traced it from his sternum to just below his collarbone. He still found it troubling to look at. He wondered how long it would be before he could look at it without feeling sick. He wondered if anyone would ever be able to handle looking at him. This is why shirts were invented. He finished up and shut off the water.
He towelled off and pulled on a t-shirt. He got his underwear and jeans on, but not easily. He hadn't dried off enough for the jeans, and was hopping around while yanking up on the belt loops. There was a knock at the door. He still had the towel and was doing another quick ruffle of his hair to keep from dripping everywhere when he answered the door.
Dean stood there, eyes wide, smile firmly in place. A beat and, "Hey, Cas." He was holding what looked like breakfast, two plates containing omelettes and potatoes.
"You are officially my new bestie. Come in here." Cas grabbed his arm and pulled him in. "Table. I'll make coffee." Dean obeyed and set them up with utensils. Cas got the coffee brewing. The bubble and hiss of it, made him feel more awake than the shower, or maybe that had been Dean.
He turned and leaned against the counter. Dean said, "Thought that you might need a bit to eat and that the hangover would make things difficult."
"It's minor. I just maybe need to be more careful with wine." He raised a fist to the heavens and said, "Deceptive drink of the gods."
Dean laughed at him. "So you still in the 'I had a good time last night camp?'"
"Nope." Dean looked disappointed for a moment before Cas continued. "I had a great time. I'm a new convert to the cult of wisteria. I am going to plant it in every corner of my house."
"You know it only blooms for like a tiny amount of time each year right?" Cas pulled down a mug and gave Dean a little scowl.
"You don't have to poop on my plans. I mean geesh use your imagination. Wisteria in every freaking corner." Cas scooped a spoonful of sugar into Dean's mug and filled it with coffee. He gave it a stir and set it on the table in front of him. He went back and did the full treatment on his own mug.
"You know how I take my coffee?" Dean sipped at it.
"Yeah, I know. Not bad for a guy that was too drunk to hang out with last night huh?" Cas took a seat across from him and smirked past the top of his mug.
Dean choked a little on a swallow. "Guess you weren't that drunk."
"Actually, I pretty much passed out the moment you left. Thanks for not hanging around to draw mustaches on my face with a sharpie or something." There was noise coming up to them from out in the courtyard. "They doing something out there?" Cas got up and wandered over to the window to look down. Dean followed him and stood at his side.
"Pam decided that since the courtyard parties have been kinda successful and a rather regular thing that we need a proper stage for the band. She figured that if it can double as a sun deck that it is a reasonable thing to build." They both stared down at the work in progress when a very attractive, woman emerged from the side of the courtyard carrying two large wooden beams over her shoulder. She was wearing a grey tank top and shorts. Her deep brown hair was pulled back in a ponytail. Her skin was golden brown and glistening in a fine layer of sweat that was discernible even as high up as Cas' window. She set the boards down and started marking them with a pencil. Dean said, "Whoa. That's a good looking woman." They both stared down a moment longer, and then Dean went back to the table and started eating the breakfast again.
Cas lingered at the window. He watched the woman work and was impressed by the fluidity of her movements. He glanced back at Dean and said, "Hey Dean?"
Dean tipped his head back and said, "Yeah?"
"Could I ask you a personal question?" Cas turned back to the window wondering what he hoped to gain with his question, but he wanted to ask it anyway.
"Of course." Dean turned around in his seat a little and settled his arm over the seatback.
Cas turned back to him and reconsidered for a moment. "It wouldn't be weird?"
Dean laughed a little and said, "Cas, everything about our relationship is weird. Weird is just gonna be par for the course where we are concerned. Ask me your question, and let's just assume that it is gonna be weird, just like everything else."
Cas thought about it a moment longer and then asked, "Is that your type?" He turned back to the window and stared down at the woman again.
Dean got up and walked back over to the window and looked back down. "Shit, Cas. That right there is everyone's type."
"Not my type."
Dean looked away from her and directly at Cas. "Yeah, well, you are different. I guess I've always been a sucker for brown hair, the darker the better." Cas watched Dean's lip quirk up into a little grin. "A smokin' hot body doesn't hurt either."
"So, that woman is your type because she has brown hair and a smokin' hot body?"
"I've recently come to think that I have many types. How 'bout you? What's your type, Cas?" Dean tipped his head against the glass and kept his gaze on Cas.
Cas hadn't expected the question and didn't know how to answer without being obvious. So he evaded. "I don't know. I am limited in my dating experiences."
"What do you mean? I mean, everyone knows what they find attractive. Haven't you ever just looked at someone and had to do like a double take or remind yourself that breathing is necessary?"
Cas took a deep breath, because he had forgotten to do that for a few seconds while Dean was talking and standing so close. "I don't think that that means that I have a type though."
"So, tell me about the last guy that you dated. What did he look like?" Dean moved from the window and headed back to the table. Cas followed.
"Like I said, my dating experience is a little limited." Cas picked up his fork and started poking at the omelette in front of him.
"Oh." Dean seemed to get what Cas was saying. "So, like you haven't seeded any pastures or whatnot is what you are saying?"
"Wow, I don't know if there is a worse way for you to phrase that."
"Even still, that doesn't mean that you don't have a type. We should go out sometime, get you drinks, and find you a type." Dean grinned into the mug and Cas decided to just eat his feelings.
The pounding outside was picking up in volume. "I wonder how long they're going to be working on it."
Dean said, "I'm supposed to be helping with it. She also wants to have me change out the lanterns."
"Oh, so you plan to be busy today." Cas didn't mean to sound disappointed and tried to cover it with some generous bites of food.
"Uh, don't have to be. I told her that I'd help, but if you need me…"
Cas looked back up at him and said, "Charlie wanted to do a movie night thing. Thought you might want to hang."
'Well, I'll be plenty done by then, I'm sure." He dipped his head a little and ate another bite of his omelette.
"Good, then I'll tell Charlie to come over at say, sixish?" Cas was absentmindedly stirring his coffee now, trying to look casual and not too pleased like he actually was.
"Yeah." That tone again. "That sounds good. I don't think that it will take me too long."
Dean left after breakfast and Cas cleaned up after them. He called Charlie, but she was already on her way over. She claimed boredom as a motivator. She showed up at his door sweatpants and a loose fitting t-shirt. "I am ready for the sleepover party. I have popcorn, movies, candy…" She held up the pile of items that she was carrying in a giant bowl, presumably for the popcorn.
"You do get that it is barely noon, right? Movie nights usually begin at, well, night." She bustled past him despite his words and set the items on the dining room table.
"You have no imagination. Where's Dean?" Cas moved over to the fridge and pulled out two bottled sodas and uncapped them. He waved over to the window, handing her one of the sodas as they went.
"Wanna watch people work hard and look attractive while doing it?"
"Uh, are any of those people women?"
"One is, and she's attractive, according to Dean. Also, one of them is Dean." He popped open the window and they climbed out onto the fire escape, which was still shaded a bit from the afternoon sun.
Charlie looked down at the workers below and let out a loud wolf whistle. Dean looked up at her and waved. She waved back and called down, "Hey Winchester, lookin good."
"Hey, Bradbury, enjoy the gun show." He did a cheesy arm kiss to himself and Charlie rolled her eyes.
They sat with their backs to the brick wall and drank their sodas. They didn't talk for awhile, just watched the work down below. Cas followed Dean's efforts. There was a running list of things that looked just right, growing in Cas' mind. Dean's shirt was tight, and made clear just how muscular he was. He was strong, as evinced from the massive amount of boards he felt the need to carry with each trip back and forth into the courtyard. He was tan, which Cas already knew from the lake trip. He had strong calves, which he hadn't spent nearly enough time looking at until now. Then apparently it had gotten too hot for clothes, because Dean pulled off his shirt and tossed it onto a nearby chair.
"Shit," Cas actually said outloud. He realized that thoughts had become words and looked to Charlie for a reaction. "I mean it is way hot out today, maybe we should go inside."
Charlie laughed, "And miss the show."
"I don't think that this is supposed to be a show." Dean had his back to them, but he was bent over a corner of the stage/sundeck, and he was hammering something.
"It's totally a show." Charlie laughed again. "You think that Dean doesn't know that we are watching him?"
"I don't know. Why would he want to give us a show?"
"I don't know, Cas. Why do you think?" She waggled her eyebrows.
"Pretty sure that he got the memo on your sexuality."
"Yep, I'm pretty sure he did." She waggled her eyebrows again.
"Stop doing that. It's weird." He looked away and back at Dean. They kept on enjoying the view for another twenty minutes. It might have been the best twenty minutes of Cas' life, he thought, but then he recalled visions of wisteria and proximity and...Stop. Charlie was supposed to be helping him reign it in.
"I'm gonna grab some bottled waters. Be right back." Charlie ducked into the apartment, and Cas thought that he should follow her, but then Dean started walking toward his side of the building, looking up at him as he came closer.
Cas leaned forward off the wall toward the edge of the fire escape. He had temporarily forgotten his fear of heights and falling. Dean would be there if I fell. He'd catch me. Sappy. Shut-up brain. Dean called up to him, "You have any bottled water up in your place?"
"Yeah, Charlie's getting some. You want some?" Cas was about to get up to holler in to Charlie.
"Yeah. I'll come up." Dean jumped up and grabbed the edge of the fire escape. He swung himself up onto the landing and then proceeded to climb up. Cas watched him through the grate. Dean got to the level that was just below him and then popped himself up on the railing so that he was sitting just below Cas.
"You better not fall." Cas was nervous. Dean wasn't even really holding on. He was just sitting there, back to the world, looking up at Cas.
"I won't. You afraid of heights or something?" Dean leaned back a little and Cas felt his stomach flutter.
"Yes, especially when people that I care about seem to be in peril." He gripped the edge of the landing as if holding it tighter would keep Dean from falling.
Dean smirked and reached up to the landing that Cas was on. He pulled himself up so that he was hanging from it. He started doing little pull-ups. "So, this is maybe freaking you out a little?"
Cas' heart was racing, but he wasn't sure if it was out of fear now or because of the fact that Dean was so goddamn attractive like this. "Damnit Dean, stop it." He had to look away. Dean lowered himself back down.
Charlie came back out onto the landing. "Nice show, Winchester." He reached up for water and she passed one to him. "Heard you out here, and figured you'd want one." She handed the other bottle to Cas and had one for herself too.
"Thanks." He drank down the water in one long series of gulps.
Cas watched that too. Charlie elbowed him and said, "So, Cas you remember what I was saying before." He snapped out of it and gave her a not now glare. She continued, "Just want to point out that I was inside, not out here enjoying a damn thing. Just keep that in mind."
Cas elbowed her. He looked back down at Dean, who, thankfully, did not seem to be following a damn thing. "Should we get take-out tonight, to go with our movies?"
"Sounds fine by me. Just let me know the damage, and I'll get some money from my place after all of this is done." Dean put the empty bottle of water in his mouth and grabbed the landing again to pull himself up. He got his head over the edge and nodded toward Cas as he released the bottle. "Here ya go." He grinned at Cas' expression and then slowly lowered himself back down. He did have the decency to take the stairs the rest of the way. Cas wasn't sure if he could have handled much more of the climbing.
"We need to go inside." He looked over at Charlie.
"You think you might need a little alone time?" She elbowed him. "I could go get the take-out."
"Shut-up." He elbowed her back. They went inside, and Cas made a point of avoiding the window for the next two hours.
There had been a time while he had been sick, in which he had thought that his imagination had dried up. He had stopped writing because he had stopped thinking that anything mattered. He had stopped spending time with friends and had even started limiting his communication with his family. It had been a dark time. He had tried today to draw on some of that in order to temper down the very active, very lively imagination that seemed to be in existence today.
Watching the movie would likely help, he had thought, seeing as it would be dark, and Dean would be clothed. Thank God for clothing. What he hadn't counted on was Charlie telling Dean to get his pjs and that they would be invading Cas' bed for the film. Crap, crap, crap.
Charlie made popcorn, and they had already consumed every last morsel of orange chicken, and chow mein that had been crammed into the little to-go containers. Charlie had offered up several choices in films. The winner ended up being Ghostbusters. Cas had a t.v. mounted on the wall across from his bed. He put the movie in and turned back to the bed. Charlie was firmly settled in on one side of the bed, and Dean was firmly settled on the other. He stood there staring at the situation, trying to determine where he was supposed to go, until Charlie patted the space in the middle.
Cas crawled up the bed to the spot that Charlie indicated. He felt like he was stiff in the space. He was trying to not take up more than his allotted space. He didn't want to make Dean uncomfortable. Charlie set the bowl of popcorn on his lap. "You are now the keeper of the popcorn." She nuzzled into his side a little and squirmed under his comforter. "You should get under the comforter so that I can actually pull it around my whole body." Cas looked at her and saw that she was only partially covered.
"Here." He handed the popcorn to Dean, and got under the comforter. Dean passed the popcorn back to Cas. Dean got under the comforter then too. "Don't judge, but I haven't actually seen this movie before," Cas admitted.
"What?" Charlie and Dean both said in unison.
Charlie punched Cas on the shoulder, "Get outta town. Everyone has seen this."
Dean leaned forward and said around Cas, "I'm starting to think that Cas lived under a rock. You know that he has never dated anyone?"
"I didn't say that. I said that my dating experience was limited." Cas started eating the popcorn to have something to concentrate on.
Charlie ruffled his hair, and he dipped his head away from it. "Ah, so sweet, so innocent."
Dean laughed at them, and reached over to get a handful of the popcorn. The movie finally started playing; they had been looking at previews for long forgotten movies. Dean reached over to the nightstand and hit the light. They got through the first movie and all of the popcorn. Cas was painfully aware of Dean at his side. As the movie progressed, he drew closer and closer. Cas thought that he might fall asleep during the first film. He had worked hard out in the hot sun all day.
When the first film finished though, everyone said that they had to watch the second one. Charlie got up and changed out the dvd for the second one. Half way through and Charlie was asleep, face pressed into his side. He moved an arm up over her shoulder for comfort's sake. He turned to Dean and saw that his eyes were growing heavy too. "I might need to go home. I'm falling asleep here."
Cas stretched out his other arm and settled it over Dean's shoulders just like he had with Charlie. Dean closed his eyes and fell asleep. The movie finished with him sitting there, the only one awake. He turned off the t.v. and let his eyes adjust to the dark. He took a few moments to look at Charlie, lips drooping open as she sucked in sleepy breaths. He turned his attention to Dean then, and noted the very quiet sleep that was his. He eventually closed his own eyes and happily fell into a deep dreamless sleep. It was good to have them here, he thought as his mind swirled off.