Horror High: Chapter Five

[vanimadin]

Title: Horror High

Pairing: Destiel

Rating: Explicit

Warnings: Sex, Violence

Summary: John Winchester plants his eldest son at Caspar High in Jacksonville because weird things have been happening there: people disappearing. People reappearing only dead and drained of all their bodily fluids. Cocoons. It’s up to Dean to figure out what’s stalking Caspar’s halls and deal with it accordingly; but then he meets the New Kid—newer than him, even, the New-New Kid—Castiel Novak, and all his plans get severely derailed. Now Dean has to juggle the supernatural case—a really hungry jorogumo—and also the fact that he’s very quickly falling in love, something that is absolutely forbidden by his dad.

Meanwhile Castiel, shoved into the third new school in a year because his adoptive father—Chuck Shurley’s—job has them moving around a lot, struggles to fit in at Caspar High, not only because he’s the New Kid but because he’s the weird New Kid. Dean seems like a saving grace, a harbor in a storm, someone who doesn’t judge him—that is until Cas finds out about Dean’s night job. Cas’s life just got a whole lot stranger—but that doesn’t stop him from falling for Dean, regardless.

Notes: Some minor NSFW in this chapter. Just a bit. More in Chapter Six. The next chapter will be posted next Thursday/Friday depending on how my life is going. I hope SOMEONE out there is enjoying HH besides just me. :| Can also be read HERE ON AO3.

HORROR HIGH
Chapter Five
By Senashenta

“So did he like it?” Charlie was twisted around in her seat to face Cas again, an expectant expression on her face. Cas stared at her. “I worked really hard on it!”

“You told me it took you half an hour while you were watching American Idol.” Jody countered from her own seat, elbow on the desk and her chin in her palm.

Charlie gasped dramatically, “how dare you call me out like that, Jody!”

“She’s got a point.” This came from Garth, who was seated next to Cas on his right. He was grinning. “You sell for a hell of a markup, too. It’s a real racket.”

“Definitely. Charlie’s ripping you off, Cas.” Jody commented, a little smile on her own face now.

Cas tilted his head quizzically. “Are you ripping me off, Charlie?”

 

“I’m not!” Charlie insisted, patting one hand against the top of Cas’s desk for emphasis, “it’s about the quality of the materials and—and! That braiding was complex! You believe me, don’t you, Cas?”

“I believe you.” Cas conceded after a brief consideration, making Jody and Garth groan.

“You’re a conwoman, Charlie.” Garth accused cheerfully.

Charlie grinned at him before returning her attention to Cas. “So? I really hope he liked it.”

Cas smiled, just a gentle quirk of his lips, expression so soft and smitten that Jody actually palmed over her face at the sight of it. Garth snickered. “Yeah. He did. It was perfect. Thanks, Charlie.” Then, more seriously; “I’ll bring the money tomorrow, okay?”

“Aw, look at your cute face. No wonder Dean likes you so much.” Charlie poked a finger at Cas’s cheek gently and he lifted one hand to swat her away, his smile fading into a little frown. Charlie laughed. “Don’t worry too much about the money, Cas. Just get it to me whenever you can.” Then, after a second’s thought, “you’re really serious about him, aren’t you?”

Cas nodded, glancing down, almost embarrassed. “Yes.”

“He’s handsome enough. For a guy.” Charlie allowed with a shrug, “but I don’t see the appeal.”

“Because you like girls.” Jody and Garth both chimed in at exactly the same time.

Charlie stuck her tongue out again. Cas just laughed softly. These were his friends, and he wouldn’t trade them for the world—just like he wouldn’t trade Dean for the world, now, either.

--
--

Cas went over to the motel again on Saturday, carrying his backpack, packed to capacity with his laptop, notebooks, half a dozen peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, two apples and a fruit cup. Dean met him at the door with a grin and a kiss as usual, and Cas just hummed out a happy noise at the affection. “Hi.”

“Hey.” Dean tugged him into the room and closed the door behind them, locking it securely.

Sam was seated at the kitchenette table with his laptop and turned to give Cas a little wave. “How’s it going, Cas?”

“Pretty good,” Cas allowed—and then perked slightly when his eyes lit on the object on the table in front of Sam. “Hey, is that the thing you found in the basement?” And when Dean shrugged and Sam nodded, he asked, “can I see it? It looks… familiar. Somehow.”

That made both the Winchesters blink. Sam reached to pick it up and held it out for Cas to take. “Why would it look familiar?”

“I don’t know, I…” Cas shrugged out of his backpack and set it down on the chair opposite Sam’s, then took the object from the younger teen to inspect it. And it took him about thirty seconds before he gave it a surprised look and told them; “it looks like a piece of spider exoskeleton. A moult, like what Itsy does.”

Sam asked blankly, “Itsy?”

“His pet tarantula.” Dean supplied.

“I mean, it’s on a much, much larger scale, obviously, but… it’s even got the tarsal claws, see?” Cas poked at one of the claws in question, noting how sharp it was, then looked up at Sam and over to Dean; “is that helpful at all?”

Dean and Sam both looked at him for a long moment—and then they both just started to grin. Sam immediately turned back to his laptop and started opening up new searches, and Dean came over to wrap his arms around Cas from behind, resting his chin on the younger boy’s shoulder with a smile. “Definitely helpful. You’re the best.”

“You’re biased.” Cas reminded him.

“True.” Dean agreed easily and kissed his cheek before letting go of him and easing away, “you can set up on one of the beds, since Sam’s using the table. We’ll order something in for lunch later. Or we could go out. Either way.”

“I brought sandwiches,” Cas offered as he went over to retrieve his bag, “as long as you’re not sick of peanut butter and jelly by now.”

Dean laughed, amusement in the sound. “I was thinking burgers, but that works, too.”

Cas took a couple of minutes, then, to unpack the food he had brought and stash it in the little mini-fridge. Sam commented that he actually hadn’t had a peanut butter sandwich in practically forever, which made Cas brighten a little more, because he really felt a little bad, always shoving peanut butter and jelly sandwiches at Dean—it had to get old, after a while, he assumed.

But Dean never complained, or rolled his eyes, or even sighed, and it was well established that those sandwiches were about the only thing Cas could reliably make, besides which, peanut butter and jelly had been his favorite for as long as he could remember.

If his father wondered why they were going through so much bread, peanut butter and jelly lately, not to mention fruit cups, he hadn’t said anything, and Cas didn’t care to volunteer the information. He would just keep feeding his boyfriend for as long as necessary. As long as Dean was still around, anyway.

And it would be weird, he thought, once Dean and Sam moved on, going back to making lunch for just himself…

Sighing, he finished tucking the food away and closed the fridge, then carried his backpack over to one of the beds and started pulling his laptop and notebooks out. These were the notebooks that were strictly dedicated to Monster Research now, of course, and never seen by anyone other than himself, Dean and Sam. Most of what was in them had turned out to be dead ends, but still. It could maybe be useful someday.

Dean trailed along behind him to sit down on the bed beside him, and when Cas looked up the older boy leaned in for a brief kiss. “You know you’re being helpful, right?” He asked with a smile, “I get the feeling sometimes you doubt that, but you shouldn’t. Having you around for this is definitely a plus.”

“You just like having him here so you two can make out.” Sam accused from the kitchen.

Dean glared over at his brother before returning his attention to Cas. “Ignore him. You’re helping. We wouldn’t let you keep coming around if you weren’t.”

There was a brief pause before Sam conceded, “he’s right, you know.”

Cas smiled as he opened his laptop up and shuffled his notebooks off to the side, starting to dig out his pencil case, “I’m glad. I… sometimes I do worry that I’m just getting in the way, so it’s good to know I’m not.”

“You’re definitely not.” Dean confirmed, and dropped a kiss against his forehead, just gentle affection.

They got down to work, then, Cas and Sam both typing away on their respective laptops while Dean was relegated to Book Duty, which he complained about but was privately glad for. He wasn’t really into computers.

Around one o’clock they took a break for lunch, and Dean left the room long enough to hit up the vending machines for drinks and bags of chips to go with the sandwiches Cas had brought. Sam seemed very pleased to see the apples. They put Monster Work aside while they ate, just talking about nothing in particular—school, books, movies, whatever—until Sam mentioned Dean’s new phone, at which point Cas paused, halfway to a bite of his sandwich.

“New phone?” He asked curiously.

“Yeah, I—” Dean began, then broke off and glanced at Sam before continuing, “after all that stuff we talked about at your house, I decided you’re right. Don’t get me wrong, I would much rather keep using my flip phone, but I can’t really text on it, at least not easily, and I definitely can’t video call… uh. Anyone.”

“I know you’re talking about Cas, you idiot.” Sam mumbled around a bit of apple.

“Shut it, Sam.” Dean glared, then glanced at Cas again. He was picking at the sandwich in his hands absently. “I’m gonna get a computer, too, later, so we can… you know. Keep in touch. Because I…” Trailing off, he offered a little, almost sheepish smile, “I’m trying. For you. Okay?”

Cas, for his part, just regarded his boyfriend with the utmost fondness for a long moment before smiling softly and asking, “do you need help figuring out the new phone? I could give you a hand.”

Dean heaved a sigh. “That would actually be great, the thing practically has all the computing power of freaking NASA and I have no idea what I’m doing with it.”

“Do you have the same phone number?”

“Ah… no. I have a new one.”

Cas set his sandwich aside and dug his own phone out of his pocket, “give me the number.”

The older teen rattled off his new phone number and Cas updated his contact information in his cell before tucking it away again. Dean finally lifted his own sandwich to take another bite. “Even Dad doesn’t have that number yet. I have to give it to him next time he calls my old phone.”

Apparently, it was commonplace for Hunters to switch phones often, or carry more than one at a time. Cas privately thought that must be very complicated and confusing at times—but it also made sense, since they had to put on so many different characters. Or, at least, most of them did. Dean and Sam were still young enough that they skated by with their actual identities. Most of the time.

Now Cas just picked his lunch back up and started eating again, giving Dean a reassuring smile. “We’ll get you all sorted out.” He assured him, “we’ll be video chatting in no time.”

“I’d rather just talk face-to-face.” Dean grumbled as he finished off his sandwich and reached for a second one. “Technology is crazy these days. It’s gonna take over the world. We’ll go extinct. Like the Terminator movies.”

Cas didn’t get that reference, and glanced at Sam, who just rolled his eyes. “I think you have a bit of technophobia, Dean.” He said finally, “but we’ll work on that.” Then a pause before he added softly, “and anyway, you know it won’t be long before we won’t be able to talk face-to-face. At least not easily.”

Another grumble, this time around a bite of sandwich, and Dean’s eyes flitted to the floor. Cas almost winced. He shouldn’t have said that.

“I’m sorry,” He apologized, “I didn’t mean to bring it up, I just—”

But Dean shook his head with a sigh. “It’s fine. I know what’s coming down the line. Hence the new phone.” He offered a little smile, “help me out with it when we’re done lunch?”

Cas returned the smile with one of his own, almost sad. “Yeah, I can do that.”

--
--

On Sunday, Cas had a metric ton of homework to do, so he couldn’t go back to the motel again, despite Dean pouting at him when he announced that fact the day before. It was really hard not to cave in when Dean gave him puppy eyes like that, but Cas needed to keep his grades up—he was hopefully going to university in the fall.

So, he got up early on Sunday, didn’t make his bed (as usual), had breakfast and chatted with his father, and then brought a cup of coffee up to his bedroom to buckle down and get things done. Today was calculus, history and ancient civ. He wasn’t a big fan of calculus (except the actual class because his friends were in it), but general history and ancient civ were interesting, at least, so it wasn’t really all that bad.

Cas plugged in his ipod and tucked the earbuds into his ears to listen to music while he worked. He listened to mostly indie bands, ones that most people hadn’t heard of, but that was fine with him. Dean had tried to talk with him about music once or twice and Cas had been completely lost—his taste in music was so niche he didn’t really know anything else.

At lunch time he wandered downstairs and made himself some instant ramen. Not the most nutritious thing in the world, but one of the few things he could reliably make without burning the house down, and when he was finished eating, he made his way back up to his room—where his phone was blinking that he had a new message.

Cas sat down at his desk and opened his texts curiously, surprised and delighted to find a new one from Dean:

[How’s the homework coming along? Research still sucks. Typing on this thing is weird and I don’t like it. I hope you appreciate what I’m going through for you.]

Cas chuckled to himself. He grabbed for one of his earbuds and tucked it into his right ear, leaving the other one out for now, then started up his music again before replying:

[Done calculus and working on history. Still have ancient civ to go. I appreciate what you’re doing for me, Dean.]

Setting his phone down, Cas settled in to get back to work. He figured it would take a while for Dean to reply, and he was right: not only was the other boy busy doing research (or so he said), the touchscreen typing was a huge learning curve, especially coming straight off a flip phone.

It took a few minutes, but eventually he did get a response:

[The struggle is real. What are you wearing?]

Cas snorted. He could practically see the grin on Dean’s face right now. He shook his head:

[Clothes. A lot of clothes.]

This time Dean’s reply was a bit quicker, but to be fair it was only one word:

[Spoilsport.]

Cas laughed and went back to his homework.

--
--

Monday was always pleasant because Cas got to see his friends again—and spend time with Dean, of course, not that he wasn’t spending time with him on the weekends nowadays, too. Tuesday was much the same, though Cas stayed up late doing homework and talking to Dean on the phone—too late, as it turned out, because Wednesday started off… poorly.

Cas slept through his alarm in the morning and was late getting to school, so he missed being able to hang out with Dean before class. Then he spent his morning classes being hounded by the idiots around him. Now that he and Dean were well and truly out, Cas was definitely getting picked on, off and on, just not when Dean was around to defend him.

The bell for lunch was a welcome reprieve and Cas hurried out of his classroom and practically ran for the gym, where he found Dean somehow already waiting for him. Cas gave him a slightly breathless smile—and Dean reached to smooth down a stray strand of his hair with a fond little chuckle. “Hey. Did you run here?”

Cas nodded. “Yes. I had to get out of class. People were being…”

Dean’s smile faded into a frown, and he asked, “do I need to punch someone again?”

“No more punching.” Cas chastised and leaned in to kiss him gently. “I can handle it.”

“Are you sure?” Dean asked into the kiss.

“I’m sure.”

Cas reached to grab Dean’s hand and together the two of them ducked into the gym. Once they were safely behind the bleachers, he dug out their lunches—and then made a surprised noise when Dean slid an arm around him and pulled Cas into his side. The younger boy smiled to himself and settled there comfortably while they ate.

When they were finished eating and just sitting there enjoying each other’s company, Dean tilted his head to kiss by Cas’s temple and murmured, “I’m sorry the assholes in this school are giving you trouble. I wish I had classes with you, I could take care of you, then.”

“It’s okay, Dean.” Cas assured him. He turned his head to kiss his boyfriend, gentle affection. “It’s not so bad, just looks and whispers. I think everyone is afraid to actually do anything else, after the other day. They’re afraid you might do something.”

“Damn straight.” Dean grumbled, but he was already angling his head for another kiss.

“So, it turns out you’re taking care of me anyway, right?” Cas laughed softly, shifting a little to face Dean better—and then just making a soft sound in his throat and climbing into the other boy’s lap entirely. Dean grunted quietly but didn’t protest—quite the opposite, in fact. He shifted to accommodate Cas easily. “We have about half an hour.” Cas told him with a conspiratorial smile.

“And you call me incorrigible.” Dean grinned, leaning in to kiss him.

“You are.” Cas hummed against his lips, “…but I guess I can be, too.”

Dean laughed and dove into the next kiss, and then they were making out, first slow and deep, then hot and heavy, Cas straddling Dean’s lap and Dean’s hands rubbing restlessly at Cas’s hips until both of them were completely worked up and breathing heavy—and hadn’t Cas decided, at one point, that doing this in the gym wasn’t the greatest of ideas?

In any case, they had come this far before, and then been interrupted. This time they weren’t.

When Cas dropped his hands to start tugging at Dean’s belt, the older boy broke away for a moment, head falling back against the wall behind him, and brought his own hands around to still Cas’s. “Shit, Cas, wait wait wait wait wait…!”

Cas licked his lips and swallowed absently. “You don’t want me to?”

“Are you kidding? I—” Dean leaned forward to kiss him again, hot and deep and wanting. “Of course I do, just—are you sure it’s what you want?”

“I want…” Cas trailed off before finishing somewhat breathlessly with, “I want what makes you happy. Would it make you happy?”

“So happy.” Dean admitted, voice rough.

Then it was decided, as far as Cas was concerned. He gently pushed Dean’s hands away and got to work undoing his belt—then his jeans—and finally sliding a hand inside his pants and boxers, ignoring his own arousal the entire time. Cas’s fingers brushed across the slick head of Dean’s cock, then slid farther down until he could wrap them around the swollen shaft, and Dean groaned, hips bucking slightly into the touch, and let his head fall forward until his forehead came to rest against Cas’s shoulder.

While he had admittedly never done this for someone else before, and the angle was a little tricky, for Cas it felt like a fairly natural thing to do, probably because he was a teenage boy himself. He had thought he would be nervous about it, but no, he just jerked Dean off with quick, almost practiced motions, the cock in his hand hard and throbbing, and at the same time tilted his head to trail a line of kisses along Dean’s jaw.

Dean just moaned softly, muffled into his shoulder, hips twitching and rocking lightly along with his strokes.

And Cas was hard, too. Of course he was. So hard. But… in his head, this was about Dean. About doing something nice for Dean, so he continued to steadfastly ignore his own erection in favor of the other teen’s, enjoying the smooth slide of Dean’s cock against his palm and the little, almost whining noises he was making by Cas’s ear.

This was a simple thing, though, and quick—which was good, really, because they didn’t have much time. It didn’t take long before Dean’s entire frame was locking up and he was coming across Cas’s hand, face buried in Cas’s shoulder to muffle what might have been a too-loud moan.

Then Dean slumped against Cas for a few breaths before pushing back to lean against the wall again, breathing heavily. He ran a hand through his hair, a little, lopsided grin on his face. “Okay. Yeah. That was…”

For his part, Cas just sat back a little, still perched in Dean’s lap, and pulled his hand away, lifting it up to look at the cum that was smeared across his fingers and palm almost analytically. After a moment he brought his hand up and nonchalantly began licking it away. Dean stared at him.

When Cas realized he was being looked at he paused, licking his lips, and asked, “what?”

“Oh my God you really have no idea, do you?” Dean let his head fall back against the brick wall, green eyes watching sharply as Cas went back to cleaning off his hand. The taste was… salt, mostly, and musk. It wasn’t terrible. “You’re gonna get me hard again if you don’t quit that.”

Cas just shrugged and finished what he was doing, then wiped his hand on his jeans absently to get rid of the spit. “It’s not like we have any towels or anything. What did you expect me to do?”

“You really don’t get it. You’re unbelievable. In like the best possible way.” A grin, and Dean reached to pull Cas closer, ignoring the fact that his pants were still undone. He kissed the younger boy lightly. “That was hot.” And then, “but what about you?”

But Cas shook his head. “We don’t have time. I’m okay.” Alright, so he was hard as a rock, still, but it would go away if he thought about things other than jerking Dean off. And maybe got out of Dean’s lap while he was at it.

“You sure?” Dean asked, bumping their foreheads together lightly, “we could skip next period, just stay here.”

Cas’s lips quirked into an amused smile. He leaned in for another kiss. “I have calculus next period. I like calculus.”

It was still the only class that he had friends in, though if he walked in with a hard-on they would probably never let him forget it. To that end, Cas slid out of Dean’s lap and settled on the floor beside him, leaning against him just a little. Dean grumbled under his breath but took the opportunity to do up his jeans and belt.

“I’m gonna be sticky for the rest of the day, thanks to you.”

“You’re welcome.”

“I wasn’t complaining…”

“I should hope not.” Cas smiled sideways at the older teen—then looked up when the warning bell for the next period rang. He shifted in his seat slightly, willing his erection to go away a little faster, even as he began packing his bag back up. “I’ll see you after school?”

“Of course. Hey, Cas?” And then Dean reached to grab his arm, tugging him back over for another brief kiss. “That was great. Thank you.”

“Any time.” Literally. Cas had really enjoyed himself. He dropped one more, little kiss against Dean’s lips and then scooted out from behind the bleachers, dragging his backpack with him, to hurry off to class, privately hoping he wasn’t walking too awkwardly. Hopefully his hard-on would be gone by the time he reached calculus.

Also, he thought, maybe Wednesday wasn’t so very terrible after all.

--
--

Cas managed to skate by in calculus with no one noticing he was half-hard when he arrived, thankfully, and chatted with his friends like usual until the teacher arrived to start the class. After calculus was computer class, which Cas rather liked even though he had no friends in it. He was pretty good with computers.

The big problem came during the third period after lunch, when Cas had gym class. This, naturally, found him back in the gymnasium, and, also naturally, found him surrounded by a class full of other boys, all of whom seemed to have it out for him. He usually got pushed around, shoved a little, jostled in gym, though he had yet to admit that to Dean. He didn’t want his boyfriend to worry, and besides that there was really nothing he could do. Usually, the teacher kept the bullying to a minimum, anyway.

Cas had never been particularly good at gym class, he excelled in more academic pursuits, so he tended to trail behind the pack, which also didn’t help things. He was always chosen last for teams, and it had been that way for his entire life—or at least for as long as he could remember.

Today, though, aside from being shoved around in the locker room while everyone was getting changed into their gym uniforms—one other boy threw an elbow to his ribs that knocked the wind out of him for a minute or two—nothing really happened. Because while they were all getting changed, suddenly someone gave an alarmed shout from across the locker room.

Two minutes later they were all crowded around one corner of the room, where a large object was webbed to the ceiling.

Cocoon. Cas thought, though he didn’t say anything out loud, instead easing away from the group of boys and vanishing out into the hall. He side-stepped the teacher, who was just coming into the locker room to see what all the fuss was about, and quietly made his way to the science hall.

Even though they didn’t share any classes, Cas still had Dean’s schedule memorized, and now he wandered the halls, hoping he didn’t get caught without a hall pass, until he reached Science 102, where he paused and peered into the room through the window in the closed classroom door.

Dean was seated near the back, obviously not paying attention to the lesson, writing in his battered notebook instead. Cas stood there for a long few moments, trying to figure out how to catch his attention—when Dean suddenly looked up, head lifting and eyes flitting toward the door. Cas gave a sigh of relief and waved one hand toward him.

There was a little exchange between Dean and the science teacher, and then Dean tucked his notebook safely into his inside jacket pocket and stood, crossing the room and stepping out into the hall. Cas moved out of the way to let him through, then stood to the side so the teacher wouldn’t be able to see them talking.

“I told her I had to go to the bathroom, we need to make this quick. What’s up?” Dean asked, then paused before adding, “I never pictured you in a gym uniform. They really don’t look good on anyone, do they? Too bad.”

“It probably looks good on you,” Cas pointed out idly. He thought anything would look good on Dean. Or nothing. But then he shook his head and nodded down the hall, the way he had come, “there’s a cocoon in the boy’s locker room. One of the guys just found it. Webbed up to the ceiling by the showers. Definitely big enough to have a body inside.”

Dean frowned and glanced back at the science classroom, then sighed. “Lead the way.”

Together they made their way back down to the gym, where a small crowd had gathered outside. The teacher had somewhat cordoned off the locker room, moving all the boys out into the gym proper, but he had a lot of students to corral, so it was easy to slip past him and get inside.

Cas motioned to the back wall, where the bank of showers was located, then followed behind Dean as the older teen made his way down one of the rows of lockers to take a look. What he saw made him frown again, which wasn’t a surprise to Cas because, really, who would smile at a giant cocoon with (probably) a dead body inside?

“It’s just like the other ones.” Dean muttered and was about the pull out his buck knife when Cas hurried to stop him. If he got caught with that in school, he would be expelled. Cas explained his concerns and Dean tucked it away again: “I don’t think I can get up there, anyway.”

“It’s like a spider sac.” Cas commented, “right? Webbing and silk. Are there spider monsters?”

“Probably.” Dean snorted, “there are everything monsters.”

That wasn’t encouraging. Cas sighed. “Sorry for bothering you in class, I just wanted you to know before they cut it down and carted it away.” Because that was almost definitely what was going to happen, and as soon as possible. The school seemed very committed to keeping whatever was happening there under wraps. “Even if you can’t cut it open, at least you got a look at it.”

“No, it’s fine. You did the right thing.” Dean waved one hand. “I wish I could get some pictures of it, though, to show Sammy.”

Cas perked at that, and turned around, disappearing around the corner and going to his own locker, where his clothes and other belongings were stored for the time being. He quickly dug out his cell phone, then returned to Dean’s side.

“This is why you need to learn how to use all the features on your new phone.” He informed the other teen. He would have to teach Dean how to use the camera function on his new cell later, but for now it was easier, and faster, for him to just do it himself. He quickly snapped a few pictures from different angles, then flipped through them to make sure they were good. “That should do. We can upload them to Sam’s computer later.”

Dean offered a little smile. “You’re a lifesaver.”

“Sometimes.” Cas returned his phone to his locker and then went back to Dean again. “What now?”

“Now we get the hell out of here before we get caught. I don’t want detention again.”

That seemed like a good idea to Cas.

--
--

Gym class was officially cancelled for the day and the students were allowed back in the locker room, briefly, to get dressed and collect their things. Then they were told they had the rest of the period free, but to do something constructive with it. Most of them would just blow off that time, but Cas went to the library and read through dusty folklore books until final period, when he hauled himself off to biology.

After school got out, he packed up his homework from his locker, and then of course went to wait outside for Dean, who met him there a few minutes later, the same as always, ready to walk him home.

They walked slowly.

The first few times Dean had walked him home they had walked at a normal pace, but lately they had slowed down to a much more sedate stroll, probably trying to drag out the time between the school and Cas’s house as much as possible. Dean was still wary of the James Street area, but Cas felt safe with Dean there and was able to stay relaxed. They hadn’t seen anything since the one vampire, at the very least.

Today they were both quiet for a while, just walking in silence, before Dean finally broke it to clear his throat and say, “so… today. At lunch. That was…”

Cas could feel himself flushing red, the slightest bit. “Yeah.” He agreed quietly, “it was.”

“You really didn’t have to do that, I…” Dean ran a hand through his hair almost awkwardly, “I mean, I’m not saying I didn’t enjoy it, because I did. Um. Obviously. But then you were kind of left hanging, and…”

“Would it have been better if I’d gotten off, too?” Cas asked. He wasn’t really looking at Dean, feeling a little shy about the entire scenario, but he was curious. Dean seemed genuinely bothered that Cas hadn’t gotten a chance to reach completion as well.

Dean glanced at him. “Well… yeah. I would’ve liked that.”

“Oh. Sorry.”

“Don’t get me wrong, it was great. You’re great. I just, uh… I prefer when my partner gets there, too, you know?”

“It was my first time… doing that.” Cas admitted, then amended, “with another boy. I mean, obviously by myself, but…” He looked up at Dean finally and offered, “if it helps, I really enjoyed myself, even if I didn’t… you know. Touching you like that was…” He trailed off, unable to find the right words, then managed, “intense.”

Dean made a quiet agreeing noise. “It really was.” He said softly, “everything with you is intense, Cas.”

Cas offered a little smile. “That’s true.” He agreed, “but you’re my first boyfriend, so I’m not really sure what’s… normal. If that makes sense. Everything is really intense and high definition with you, but is it because you’re my first boyfriend, or because there’s something really going on between us?”

“None of the people I’ve ever dated have ever felt like you do,” Dean offered, an almost contemplative tone to his voice, “I mean, not that I’ve dated anyone the way I am with you. I think there’s just really something there. We really click.” A wry little smile, “Sammy teases me about it all the time.”

Another smile. “Sam’s a good kid. He cares about you.”

“He has a funny way of showing it.”

“He’s just being a little brother. That’s what little brothers do.”

“Says the Only Child.”

Cas couldn’t dispute that one, so instead he said nothing and reached to take hold of Dean’s hand as they walked. Dean made a soft surprised noise, but then just went with it, threading their fingers together with a little smile. It faded out again when Cas finally spoke once more, though:

“What are you going to do about the cocoon thing?”

Dean sighed. “I don’t even know, honestly, until we figure out what the thing in the school is and how to kill it, there’s not much I can do.”

Cas squeezed his hand. “Well, we know about the cocoons, and the webbing. And the exoskeleton piece that you found in the basement. It seems pretty obvious that it’s something related to a spider, at least to me.”

“That doesn’t necessarily narrow it down much, though.”

“True.” They reached the end of James Street and just had to cut across to King and Cas’s house, and Cas tugged Dean to a stop, pausing to look at him. “You know you’re doing your best, right? You’re doing a good job. We just have to keep working at it. We’ll get it eventually and then you’ll kill the thing, and that’ll be that.”

Dean frowned and glanced down, “Dad would’ve had this in the bag ages ago.”

“But your Dad has been Hunting for decades, right?” Cas asked, then smiled fondly and added, “besides, not that I want more people to get eaten, but… the longer it takes the more time we get to spend together, and that’s a good thing to come out of all this. But then again, I’m a little biased.”

A slight pause—and then Dean’s frown faded, and he offered a little smile of his own. “Cas,” He leaned in to kiss the younger boy, “don’t ever change, okay?”

Cas hummed a pleased sound. “Only if you don’t change, either.”

--
--

When Cas eventually got home—after making out with Dean on the street corner for a minimum of fifteen minutes—his father was in the living room, seated on the couch, a cup of coffee in his hand, waiting for him. That couldn’t be good.

“Father,” Cas greeted dubiously as he toed his shoes off at the door.

“Cas,” Chuck waved his free hand, “come over here, I want to talk to you about something.”

Definitely not good. They were probably moving again. Cas dropped his backpack next to his shoes and made his way across to the living room with a little pit of dread in his stomach, and when Chuck gestured for him to sit, he carefully lowered himself onto the opposite end of the couch.

“We’re moving again, aren’t we?” Cas tried not to sound completely dejected and failed miserably.

Chuck blinked—then laughed and shook his head. “No, no. No. I promised you, didn’t I?”

“Yes, but…”

“We’re not moving again, Cas.” His father assured him, “though I do have a seminar in Maine this weekend, so I’ll be leaving Friday morning and won’t be back until Monday afternoon. You’ll be fine here by yourself, right?”

“Of course, I…” The relief was so intense that Cas sank back into the couch and let out a sigh. He asked, “can Dean come over?”

Chuck took a sip of his coffee. “I wanted to talk to you about that.”

Cas stared at him. “About what?”

“About Dean.” Clearing his throat, Chuck set his mug on the coffee table and angled himself to face Cas properly. He made a vague gesture with one hand as if he were searching for the right words. “Dean’s a good kid, and I know you really like him, but you really should watch out for him.” Cas continued staring at him, unsure where this was headed, “he’s a teenage boy, and teenage boys are only interested in one thing.”

And oh, God, Cas suddenly realized what this was. He sank down in his seat a little. “Father, no.”

“We’ve never really had this talk, Cas, it’s way past time.”

Considering the goings on at lunch that day, he wasn’t entirely wrong about that. Cas still shook his head, “I know all about that kind of thing from health class, I swear. You really don’t need to—”

“I don’t mind if you have Dean over while I’m out of town,” His father was steadfastly ignoring his protests, “as long as you promise me you’ll be safe, make sure to use condoms and—”

Cas covered his face with his hands and silently wished for the torture to end.

“Here.” When Cas looked up, Chuck was holding a box of condoms and a tube of lubricant out for him to take, an amused look on his face. “I’m not stupid, Castiel. You’re seventeen and I’m going to be gone for four days. I just want to be sure you’re safe about it. Take them.”

His face firetruck red, Cas snatched the offered items, then looked down at them in abject horror. Not that he didn’t want to use them, just… this was… “I could have gone and got these on my own.” He protested weakly.

“Well now you don’t have to.” Chuck sounded smug.

Cas sank further into the sofa. “Is that all? Please tell me that’s all.”

“For now, yes.”

Cas was off the couch and up the stairs in ten seconds flat. He quickly shoved the box of condoms and the lube into one of his nightstands and slammed the drawer shut. Then he flopped face-first onto the bed, buried his face in the pillow, and tried very hard not to spontaneously combust.