A Study In Stanford

2. The Cursed Crown

Dean was sure he was running a fever, or worse yet a rut was coming on, when he saw Castiel carry two huge boxes out of the Impala as if they weighed nothing. To help Dean with the moving of his stuff, Castiel had taken off his tan trench coat and his black suit jacket, rolling his white shirt sleeves up to expose his forearms. Dean had never before stared at elbows like a man dying of thirst in the desert and those elbows were made of life giving water served with a side of pie, rainbow ice cream, whipped cream, with sprinkles and cherry on top. For a brief second, Dean wondered if perhaps Castiel felt the attraction between them, could that have possibly been the reason for his outright rejection when they had first met? It was hard to tell, by the way Castiel leaded against the Impala and mopped the sweat from his forehead casually, then bent and stared at the tread of the car's tyres with fascination. Could Castiel ever be as interested in Dean than he was in say ash or slime? Would that interest surmount the amount of interest Dean had in the lean of Castiel's hip as the omega peered at the gutter? Dean wondered and wondered and then he saw the confident manner in which Castiel stared at him as he set down the boxes on the dining table, licked his lips, then turned, unfazed, to fill a glass bottle with cold water from the tap. He gave Dean a clam nod and drank, a drop dripped from his stubbled jawline down to his shapely neck. Dean sat down on a box he had dumped onto the ground and wiped his palms down his face.

"I am expecting a guest in the afternoon," Castiel said, handing Dean a beer from the fridge.

It was some sort of microbrew infused with honey, alchemically designed by Castiel personally and it tasted like magic and evoked desperate longing. Dean sighed as he downed the whole thing, this was a terrible idea, he was ready to propose marriage to his flatmate while still just moving in. Were they even friends, or mere acquaintances? What if Castiel found him annoying to share an apartment with, what if he hated Dean's tape deck, or despised Dean's cooking. Not that Dean was gonna cook in some sort of doomed attempt at seduction because he wasn't enamoured with Castiel or anything. Already.

"Yeah sure I'll make myself scarce," Dean kept his tone chipper and sunny. "I gotta go meet Sam on campus anyway, someone has to give the law librarians a break. This person, uh, man, woman, whatever, they staying the night?"

Dean cleared his throat as the silence from Castiel stretched long and awkward.

"I don't know, would it take that long?" Castiel said. "I haven't met them in person, we connected online. I'm not sure of their gender, primary or secondary."

"Oh," Dean scratched his stubbled chin. "Um, okay, no judgement."

"I am somewhat indifferent to gender," Castiel added. "It seems to hold no special importance."

"Yeah okay, but they're hot right?" Dean asked despite inserting his knuckle between his teeth.

He was so curious as to what kind of alpha Castiel found attractive. Or if it was even an alpha. Dean frowned to himself, he could already smell this wonderful synthesis of their belongings in the air. The cinnamon scent of Castiel mixing in with Dean's own crisp apple tang. They were practically making apple pie with the air molecules, it was almost the sort of homely mated scent Dean had long dreamed of, at the end of crap dates or when it was fall and getting cold and the couch looked inviting and Dean wanted to invite someone to mess around on it. Definitely not to cuddle because Dean Winchester was no cuddler. Surely not. Anyway to have a visitor here in their apartment (as of like half an hour ago it became their's, combined, boxes count as possession and possession was nine tenths of the law or something nerdy like that according to Sam) might totally ruin it, but Dean knew that was the alpha in him posturing. Castiel deserved respect and he could entertain whoever he wanted and Dean was going to be a great accomodation sharing guy and make sure he's not home when the other alpha (surely it was an alpha, the jealous hiss in Dean's head insisted) is around because Castiel could do what he wanted, he was intelligent and gorgeous and weird in the nicest ways ...