FROM DARE, TO LOVE (A Destiel Fanfiction)
CHAPTER ELEVEN: "We learnt it from goats, you know."
Dean smiled childishly. "Your name is too long! I mean, I never noticed, but it's so long! We need a new name for you! A shortened version of your name, if you'd like."
Castiel cut Dean off. "Too long?" He repeated. "It's only three syllables."
Dean nodded, enthusiastically. "Exactly! It's three syllables!" He sighed dramatically. "And, would you look at this? 'Cherry-pie' is three syllables too!"
Castiel furrowed his brow. "So?" He had no idea where Dean was getting to. "It's not Jedidiah or Alessandro or Nathaniel or-"
"Yeah, well, it's still longer than Dean!" Dean stressed out his own name.
Castiel shook his head, in disbelief, at the aimless conversation they were having. "Are you sure you're not drunk?" He asked, with a look.
"Me?" Dean chuckled, in a false drunk drawl. "Oh, how did you know, pard'ner?" Any doubts Castiel might've had on the subject were removed. Dean was not drunk. He was just being Dean.
"Alright then," Castiel heaved out a breath. "My name is longer than yours. What do you plan to do about it?"
"Why," Dean began as if it was very obvious. "Call you by a new name, uh, of course!"
"Because three syllables is too much effort." Castiel tsked sarcastically.
"Yes!" Dean beamed. "Cass-tea-ell! Too much effort, indeed!"
Castiel frowned. "Well, what will you call me then?"
Dean gave it some thought. "I'll call yo-"
The bell rang; a shill continuous ring declaring the start of the sixth period, which drowned out his words.
"You'll call me..?"
"Cas!" Dean said, happily. As soon as the words rolled off his tongue, Castiel's eyes widened. 'Cas', it was such a normal name. It could've been short for 'Cassidy' or 'Casper' some other normal name, instead of the serious 'Castiel'. It sounded like the name of a guy who took things as they came at him, dealed with everything with a swagger in place, and was a cool, carefree, guy who wasn't afraid of feelings. Everything Castiel wasn't. But most of the things, he wished to be. So he liked the name. A lot.
"I like it." He smiled, unintentionally largely.
"Whoa there," Dean backed off, with mock terror in his eyes. "Keep it small. Too big a smile is too much of a cuteness quotient for common folks as me." He joked. "You look like a giant adorable kitten who just got a new name and is purring to show it's approval to it."
Castiel scowled. "There is absolutely no similarity between me and a kitte-"
"You gotta admit there is." Dean repeated. "I mean, it's the same kind of similarity which Sammy shares with a dog. Small, only occasionally overpowering, but there."
Castiel scowled deeper. "Why must you compare your brother and me-"
"-my boyfriend-"
"-to animals of any kind?" Castiel completed.
Dean shrugged. "It's obvious."
"And how would you like to be compared with one?"
"Well, compare away!" Dean offered. "Although, I only bear resemblance to certain species of ferocious wild cats, both in appearance, and as confirmed by several girls in bed-" he began, confidently.
"You look like a," Castiel cut him off, but paused mid-sentence, not really having thought it through. In his mind, Dean looked like nothing but Dean Winchester himself, quite possibly the best looking man he'd ever met. He'd not even thought of comparing him with an animal. He racked his brains.
"See, you got nothing!" Dean beamed. "So, you've got to accept, that although you're devastatingly handsome-"
"-I'm not-"
"You are, in addition to it, also similar-looking to a kitten!" Dean looked like he was having a lot of fun.
Castiel crossed his arms in front of his chest, once again, thinking how pointless the conversation was, yet how he was enjoying Dean's silly company, and laughing to his small ridiculous jokes. "Well, at least, I don't look like a lumberjack!" He countered.
Dean didn't appear too offended, only surprised. "Really? I do?"
Castiel nodded. It was true. He did look like a lumberjack, especially when he wore all that plaid and flannel, like he did at the moment. A really, really good-looking lumberjack, but one nonetheless.
"Well, you still find me irresistible, so I guess I'll live with it." Dean countered, by slinging an arm around Castiel's shoulder. "You're the only one who matters anyways, and I already landed you, so, I don't care."
Castiel flinched for a millisecond at this close contact, but then realised Dean was doing it casually, so he relaxed a bit. His eyes flickered down at his watch, and he remembered the bell. "Dean! Class!" He stood up, Dean's arm falling off.
"Do we need to go?" Dean stuck out his lip. "I'm having fun!"
Castiel sighed. He wanted to shake his head. But he nodded. "I think I have Geography."
"I'll go with you." Dean grinned.
Castiel grinned back. "Yeah, and you'll not let me study, by sitting next to me, and talking the whole period."
"Yeah," Dean shrugged. "I will do that. But even if I wasn't there, you'd not study because you'd be thinking of sitting next to me, and talking to me, the whole period."
"That's not true." It kind of was.
"When I entered Campbell's class, I clearly saw you looking out of the window, deep in thought." Dean challenged, as they stood up, and begun heading towards the classroom.
"There were bees outside." Castiel defended. "I was watching the bees. It was an accident that you came in at that very moment."
"Accidents don't happen accidentally, sweetheart." Dean winked.
Castiel huffed. "Well, that doesn't prove anything, Dean. I could've been thinking about anything else!"
"Yeah, but you weren't!" Dean almost chuckled; it'd been a while since Castiel had seen him chuckle like that, and he was reminded once again, of the beauty of it. "What else could you've been thinking of, anyways?"
Castiel thought about it. And when, nothing else came to mind, he quipped with what popped into the front of his brain. "Flavian Dynasty of Ancient Rome?" Dean looked at him, literally puzzled. "Discovery of Coffee?" He added, the second thing which popped into his mind. "We learnt it from goats, you know." He added, unnecessarily.
Dean continued to stare at Castiel, with an incomprehensible look in his green eyes, for a few moments, before his eyes crinkled into an overwhelmed smile, almost amazed. "Don't ever change."
Castiel stared back at Dean. Confused. What had he said about changing? He'd been spouting weird facts to change the subject? Where had that come from? "Dean?" He repeated.
"Yeah, Cas?" Dean smiled, looking more of himself now.
Castiel's heart leaped at the name. He discovered he liked it much more than 'cherry-pie' or even his own name.
He didn't say anything for a while, keeping to himself in his reverie, his eyes on the passageways they were walking through, and it was a while before Dean exhaled and it sounded like a little huff of laughter. "You really like the name, Cas."
"I do." They were about to reach the classroom.
"And I, you."
Castiel stared at Dean's face, searching for god knows what, but a quick typical Dean-Winchester smile had fit in place, as he politely asked the female teacher if they could be allowed inside. She nodded, even smiled, and Dean and Castiel took a seat in the middle row.
And they didn't talk about this other almost, again.
And all of this together forms, what is prevalent as, STRIKE TWO.
***
(I'll tag everyone in the comments)
A/N: THIS WAS A FLUFFY HEAP OF A CHAPTER! THE NEXT ONE'S GOT MORE THINGS HAPPENING IN IT! HOPE YOU ENJOYED IT! HAVE A NICE DAY!