happy belated aro week!
castiel is aromantic.
"it'll be different when you meet the right person," they used to say, always the second thing when cas told someone. never the first thing. that was reserved by variations of "there's no such thing." but the second? that didn't change. the same words, in the same voice, accompanied by the same sympathetic look in their eyes. he hadn't wanted their sympathy — he wasn't broken.
at least in the beginning, he wasn't.
("things will change." they promised, still. "you won't always feel this way; you just haven't met the right one for you yet.")
and as ridiculous as it had been to tell a queer, afraid teen they were wrong about themselves, there had been some truth in their promises after all.
it was different now.
with dean, everything was different than it ever had been.
when cas had paused their the good place marathon mid-episode — dean's hand still deep in the popcorn bowl on his lap and now a confused, lightly concerned wrinkle between his eyebrows — because he was too scared of holding it in any longer, getting too attached only to lose someone all over again, and had then spilled a confession: a rushed "i'm aromantic" at the beginning, and a sad, if inevitable "if you want to stop...this, what we're doing, i understand," at the end, dean hadn't gotten up and walked out.
instead, he'd finished shoving the handful of popcorn in his mouth, wiped the salt off on his jeans, and proceeded to pull cas into a hug.
things did change, because instead of being yelled at, and called a freak of nature, a robot, or the relatively more understandable heartless, he got dean whispering, "i'm not leaving you for anything, buddy," close into his ear while his hand stroked down cas's spine and threatened to coax out the tears that were already pricking his eyes.
and they'd been right. cas did feel different now, too.
no longer alone, because dean stayed. no longer misunderstood, because dean googled articles when he thought cas wasn't looking, and fell asleep with his face pressed against a google answers about being an aromantic identifying person's partner, on his work table at eleven pm on weekdays, and cas loved him so much for it. and no longer afraid, because dean promised he wouldn't let go.
and that was a promise he believed — even if it took them some time getting there. and then he believed it for good.
because, you see, it is different once you meet the right person.
and nothing was ever going to be the same again, once castiel met dean winchester.
