Strings Attached

Chapter 73

"He's here! He's here!" Charlie squeals, running away from the window. "Castiel, he's here!"

Castiel chuckles at her enthusiasm. "Yeah, I told you he was coming," he reminds her.

"I'm gonna sneak out," Charlie tells him. "Pretend I'm not even here."

She runs from the room, and before Castiel can follow, she's out of sight. He wheels over to the door, opening it just as Dean approaches with a bag of chips. His hair is wet as if he just got out of the shower, back in his flannel instead of a basketball uniform. Dean gives him a smile as he steps inside, and they share a hug.

"Happy Valentine's Day," Dean greets him.

"Happy Valentine's Day," Castiel replies. "Ooh, Doritos! Come on, let's eat."

Dean chuckles as Castiel leads him to the living room. They sit together on the couch, and Dean opens the bag of chips before putting it between them. Castiel takes a bite of a chip, while Dean shoves a handful in his mouth at once.

"It's been too long since I've had Doritos," Castiel says.

"I have them all the time, so I can't relate," Dean replies. "Is it bad that our idea of Valentine's Day is eating chips?"
"Probably," Castiel says with a light laugh. "But come on. Doritos are delicious."

"True," Dean agrees. "So, how did you spend your time without my awesome company?"

"I was hanging with Charlie," Castiel tells him.

"That's always fun," Dean replies. "What'd you do? Did she fangirl the whole time?"

"Uh, no, actually. She basically wrote that article for the paper for me."

Dean chuckles. "Of course she did. What's it about?"

"Wanna read it?" Castiel offers instead.

"Damn straight I do."

Castiel grabs the paper, which they had finished later, from the table and gives it to him to read. It's not that Castiel wants him to read it, really, but he knows Dean will anyway. He might as well read it now, and not convince everyone at school to get a copy like he did last time.

"It's a South Park reference," Dean tells Castiel without looking up from the paper. After a pause in which Dean reads some more, he adds, "I'm glad you're over that thing with Crowley last year. I still feel really bad about that, by the way."

"It's fine," Castiel replies. He honestly couldn't care less about that now.

There's another pause, and then Dean laughs.

"What?" Castiel asks, attempting to look over his shoulder.

"Just the Mine Craft thing," Dean replies. "'It's like when you dig straight down in Mine Craft. I started on the surface and I kept digging down and down until high school and I fell in a cave.'" He looks over at Castiel with an amused smile.

Castiel shrugs. "Well, it's true. Actually, I could've made a more accurate description of it, but it would've killed the joke."

"Can I hear it anyway?" Dean asks hopefully.

"Sure, but when you get bored, tell me, because you will get bored. So, I spent the first four years of my life building this giant dirt tower making friends and stuff like that, and then when my mom died, I fell off the tower. Then I kept digging down until high school, when I fell in a giant cave, and then I kept digging down and down until I finally fell in lava when I decided to... You know. Anyway, I jumped out of the lava when I was down to one heart, and then I found some diamonds, meaning you guys, and now I'm using my new diamond pickax to mine a staircase back to the surface."

Dean laughs. "That sounds so accurate, it's kinda scary."

"You're not the one living a Mine Craft game," Castiel replies with a grin.

"No, I'm living some crappy sports game simulator," Dean jokes. "Which would make this some sort of crossover game."

"Or a mod," Castiel suggests.

"Or a mod," Dean agrees. "But you know what's great about this mod is that I get to do this." He leans over and kisses Castiel, who kisses him back slowly.

They stay like this for a long time, not even noticing the billion pictures Lucifer takes of them. The only pull apart when Gabriel comes running in the room, a huge smile on his face.

"Hey, Castiel! Guess what! Guess what! Oh, hi Dean. Hey, Castiel, guess what! Sam said he loves me!" Gabriel squeals, jumping up and down excitedly.

Castiel chuckles. "Well, good for you guys! I'm happy for you."

"Me too! I'm super happy too!" Gabriel squeals again. "I mean, I'm sure you guys have been saying it for weeks, but, like, Sam said he loves me!" Noticing the sudden awkwardness in the room, he asks, "Or maybe you haven't said it yet... Should I not have said that? Was that not...? Changing the subject. Sam said he loves me! Squee! I'm gonna go tell Lucifer!" He runs out of the room, leaving the other two boys alone again.

"Well," Castiel says after a moment. "Who woulda guessed?"

"Me," Dean replies. "Sam was bugging me all week about it. 'Should I tell him?' 'Do you think he'll say it back?' 'Am I moving too fast?'" Dean rolls his eyes, but he's grinning.

"That's actually kinda cute," Castiel says. "And it looked like it all worked out for them."

"Just like I told him it would at least fifty times," Dean adds. "But yeah. I'm glad it worked out for them."

They lapse into silence. Now that the topic has been brought up, it's hard to forget. The two of them haven't said it, except maybe in passing jokes, but those don't count. They haven't officially said the "L" word, in all seriousness.

"So..." Dean says after a while.

"So..." Castiel repeats.

"Whatcha wanna do?"

Castiel shrugs. "I don't know. You?"

Dean purses his lips for a moment. "Yeah, I got nothing."

"Same."

And awkward silence. Again.

"Oh my god, really?" Lucifer screams, and though he's on the other side of the house, it carries easily to the living room because he's so loud.

Castiel and Dean laugh. When all else fails, you can always count on your idiot brothers to make it not awkward.