https://archiveofourown.org/works/29587719 Rinse Cycle by hellosweetpea, 111/100
thank you for the rec!!!
Rinse Cycle by @hullosweetpea
Rating: Teen
Words: 2044
Tags: Non-Traditional Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics, Beta Castiel (Supernatural), Trans Beta Dean Winchester, Implied/Referenced Sexual Harassment
Summary:
Dean's tapping and humming merge as one with the machines. Cas could watch Dean's hands as he sorts and cleans for any number of hours. He’d never caught Dean’s scent in the seven months they’ve worked together. Between Scent-B-Gone, the scent neutralizer sprays on the main floor, and so much soap and cleaner Cas could barely smell himself after a shift.
Dean is kind. A bright soul amongst the many.
Dean holds up a top sheet and pulls a face. "Does the slick spot look like a dick to you?"
"I didn’t know slick spots could so accurately portray Ronald Reagan.”
Dean throws his head back and his laugh echoes against the cinder block walls.
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prompted by @suckerfordeansfreckles: a/b/o true mates, roommates*, first meeting and: oops um shit, i think that‘s my rut coming
(*sort of)
[on ao3]
Cas paid a pretty penny to move into an apartment building that boasts the newest and best scent-blocking technology used in the walls between apartments. But on the evening of his move-in, listening to This American Life while putting away his dishes, a sweet scent wafts in from the living room. It’s so strong he darts out of the kitchen, sure he’ll find an alpha in his home.
The apartment is still a blank slate full of boxes, Ira Glass’s voice the only sound. Cas’s door is still locked.
The air smells sticky-sweet, like watermelon on a summer day.
Cas goes back to the kitchen, vowing to contact the landlord first thing in the morning. It’s not like the scent is unpleasant, after all, so no need to make a fuss yet.
Cas sleeps deep and warm, and puts off the phone call all day under the guise of a busy work day. The scent is stronger when he gets home, and he stands just inside his doorway breathing deep.
There’s definitely no scent blocking if Cas’s dull nose feels coated by it, but the scent feels like it belongs in his home. Like he has a mate waiting for him.
He keeps unpacking, taking the occasional break just to inhale the scent. He wonders if this is how alphas and omegas feel all the time, thoughts jumbled and slow, intoxicated.
He even swears he can smell it in his sheets, like he’s nested with a partner for many nights in a row.
Cas wakes up in the middle of the night without knowing why. The scent has soured and he sits up without realizing it, goosebumps racing over his arms when the sheet falls away.
He checks his phone. 2:38.
His doorbell rings, followed up with a soft — but insistent — knocking.
He grabs a pair of boxers and pulls them on before hurrying to the door. He doesn’t think to grab his phone, to even check the peephole before opening the door. He feels compelled to go to whoever it is on the other side. The person whose scent has changed so rapidly in just hours.
There’s a devastatingly gorgeous man waiting at Cas’s door, eyes alpha-red and chest heaving. His hand is still raised to knock again but he just stares, nostrils flaring.
“Are you all right?” Cas says, peering over the alpha’s bare shoulder as if someone might be chasing him.
The alpha squints, his eyes fading green again momentarily. “You’re beta.”
“Indeed.”
“Do you live with someone?”
“No,” Cas says. He’s feeling a little drunk again, swaying on his feet like he might just bury himself in this stranger’s neck, rub their scents together, as faint as Cas’s is.
“Ok,” the alpha says. He clenches his fingers around the doorframe. “Ok, I’m — I’m on suppressants, but then you moved in, and I’m in rut for the first time in — like, years.”
“Sorry to disappoint,” Cas says. “Your mate isn’t here.”
The alpha’s nostrils flare, eyes crimson again. “Can I — scent you?”
Cas is so surprised that he just nods, and then the alpha is pressing close, nuzzling into Cas’s neck. The gentle huff of his breath is strangely comforting, and Cas reaches up to stroke his fingers through the alpha’s hair.
“Sorry. Usually I’d at least ask your name first,” the alpha says, but he doesn’t come out from Cas’s neck. There are fine tremors running through his shoulders, but his smell is sweetening again.
“I’m Cas.”
“Dean.” Two shaky breaths, his lips soft against Cas’s skin. “I think you’re my mate.”
Cas’s heart turns to glacier. “As you mentioned, I’m beta,” he says, trying to keep his tone light. “So that would seem unlikely.”
Dean pulls back, and Cas’s breath catches to see how beautiful he is, flushed and wild-eyed. “You can’t feel it?”
Cas can’t stop staring. The light from the walkway is bad, but he thinks he catches the shadow of freckles on Dean’s cheeks. Cas wants to touch the delicate bow of his mouth, the stubble along his jaw, the rise of his cheekbone. Wants to bury himself in the afternoon scent of him.
“Oh,” Cas breathes.
“I — I can’t be here with you when I’m — I’ll call someone. To pick me up.”
“Or you could come in,” Cas says.
“Cas — this ain’t gonna be a dinner and a movie situation —”
“I know.”
Dean holds himself back for so long that Cas is sure he’s formulating a rejection, but then he growls, deep in his chest, and steps inside.
Tags: Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics, Non-Traditional Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics, Beta/Beta, DeanCas FlipFest 2019, Yoga, Yoga Instructor Dean Winchester, business exec Castiel, Frottage, Ferris Wheels, Masturbation, Scent Kink, Massage, Self-Worth Issues, Homophobia, Recreational Drug Use, Marijuana, Mentions of Conversion Therapy (in the past), LGBTQ Themes, Closeted Character, A/b/o as allegory, Coming Out, Beta Dean Winchester, Beta Castiel (Supernatural), Secrets, fake Omega Dean, fake Alpha Castiel
Summary:
Castiel Smith has spent his life climbing the corporate ladder, and has sacrificed a lot to get where he is. Including pieces of his own identity. Nobody can know he's not actually an alpha....
Dean Winchester has carved out a life for himself in spite of his troubled past. When Castiel Smith shows up in his yoga class, there might finally be someone he can open up to, truly....
Hidden truths are intimate things, and you never know what you'll discover when you're honest with someone.
An Archive of Our Own, a project of the
Organization for Transformative Works
If Charlie’s going to bribe, threaten, cajole, or otherwise guilt Dean into one date with this beta friend of hers, well, fine. He'll give the guy just one date, that's the deal. Then Dean can walk away and go back to being the badass beta he is: geeking a little, baking a lot, and not dating the Awkward Professor.
He just wishes everyone else’s goddamned presentation hormones would stop interrupting.
Once I forgot to tell my beta the plot of my fic, and so they suggested something and I essentially responded with the worst joke that they took seriously for like...two seconds.
