So this was inspired by this post and I decided to go for it. Also available here on AO3 (gosh look at me go hyperlinking things I feel so modern and with it). Enjoy!
***
“Dean,” Castiel said, holding out the open box and getting down onto one knee as Dean gasped and pressed a hand to his chest. “You are my one true love, my better half, my soulmate. Will you do me the very great honour of deigning to become my husband?”
“Oh Castiel,” choked out Dean manfully despite the tears threatening to fall from his eyes. “This…this is all so sudden – I hoped, but I never truly believed that one day you might…want to marry me!” Castiel grabbed Dean’s hand in his own.
“How can you think that?” he asked. “Dean, there is no-one with whom I would rather spend the rest of my life. Will you let me?”
Dean smiled.
“Of course, Castiel. Forever.”
As Castiel slipped the ring onto Dean’s finger, the other diners in the restaurant broke into applause, and Dean grinned bashfully at them. Their waitress came up, clasping her hands together and gushing.
“Oh my God, that was so cute! And your meal and everything is all on the house, of course! Congratulations!”
Castiel clasped Dean’s hand in his and smiled at the waitress.
“Thank you,” he said. “But that’s not necessary—”
“Nonsense!” the waitress interrupted. “This is, like, the happiest day of your lives! Food’s on us!”
“Well…if you insist,” Castiel replied, smiling angelically up at her.
***
Later that evening, after a sumptuous dinner of all the most expensive things on the menu, Dean and Cas walked down the street, arms slung around each other’s shoulders, laughing.
“Dude, this was such a good idea!” Dean grinned, rubbing his full belly. He squawked as Cas poked it teasingly.
“Well Dean, we’re poor students,” he replied. “And with the amount you eat, we need alternative ways of getting a proper meal every now and again.”
“Every now and again?” Dean returned sceptically. “Cas, we haven’t paid to eat out for like six months now! This fake-proposal thing is genius, I tell you. And by the way, nice improvisation on the proposal – I thought maybe you were overdoing it a bit with the ‘my better half, my soulmate` thing, but man, they just lapped it up!”
“You’re one to talk about overdoing it,” Cas returned, with an air of wounded dignity which quickly evaporated as he clasped his hands together and started doing a rather mangled impression of Dean’s voice, with an exaggeratedly choked up tone. “Oh, Mr Novak! I never thought that I could hope that I could dream that one day you might think that you might somehow come to return my feelings...” Dean waved a hand in blithe dismissal of this performance.
“Haters gon’ hate, Cas. I’m just giving the crowds what they want. Oh, and before I forget…” he pulled off the ring (which was rather cheap but no one ever noticed) that he had so tearfully accepted earlier on, and handed it back to Castiel. “Wouldn’t wanna lose this,” he said with a wink.
Castiel took the ring, and pushed down the treacherous little voice inside him that thought wistfully of a day when maybe he could give Dean a ring that could stay snug on his ring finger for the rest of their lives.
***
Seven Years Later
Castiel gasped in surprise as Dean got down on one knee before his chair, holding out a small velvet box in hands that were shaking slightly.
“Castiel…Cas,” Dean began. “You’ve been my best friend for longer than I can remember, and the love of my life for all that time, too, even though I only got my head out of my ass for long enough to tell you how I felt, six years ago today. Anyway, I’m nervous and I’m kinda rambling now, but basically I can’t imagine spending even one more day without being able to properly call you mine, and I wanna be able to tell everyone that I’m yours. Always have been, Cas, always will be.” He opened the box, and Castiel was shocked to see an expensive-looking, beautiful ring nestled in the velvet inside. “So whaddaya say?” Dean asked, smiling tremulously. “Will you let me spend the rest of our lives letting the world know exactly how much I love you?”
Eyes shining with tears, Castiel could only nod, and hold out his hand for Dean to slip the ring onto. It fitted perfectly, and Dean placed a kiss right over it on his hand, before reaching up to Cas to press their lips tenderly together for a moment before returning to his own seat.
The middle-aged waitress, hands clasped joyously to her ample bosom, came up and, after lengthily and slightly tearfully congratulating them, insisted that their meal would be free. Cas grinned to himself and winked at Dean, who seemed to do a bit of a double take before smiling slightly hesitantly back.
After the meal, as they walked down the street to the Impala, Castiel slipped the ring (slightly reluctantly) off his finger and gave it back to Dean. He stared at it uncomprehendingly for a moment before looking at Cas which a strangely terrified expression.
“Cas? Wh-what’re you doing?” Dean stuttered.
“Wouldn’t want to lose it,” Cas said, winking. “Especially since you’ve done such a great job finding one that looks so realistic. Good idea this evening, Dean. We haven’t pulled that scam in forever! It was a wonderful thing to do for our anniversary. I love you.” He kissed Dean’s cheek and slipped the ring into Dean’s pocket.
“Uh, you…you’re welcome,” Dean said, sounding surprisingly gruff, before striding ahead and getting into the car.
***
On the drive back, things were silent. Dean couldn’t tell whether the air was as tense as it felt to him or whether it was just because he was sitting here, next to the love of his life, with a heart that was in serious danger of breaking.
He wasn’t even entirely sure what had happened. One second, he had his Cas—his beautiful, wonderful Cas—accepting the ring with tears in his eyes, then the next, his haze of happiness was crashing down around his ears.
He couldn’t stop kicking himself. He’d thought it would be romantic to propose to Cas, on their anniversary, referencing the stupid scam that they’d spent so much time pulling together in their youth. It couldn’t have backfired on him more spectacularly.
Dean didn’t know what to think. What if Cas knew it had been a real proposal, and pretended not to realise in order to spare Dean’s feelings? Dean had always known that Castiel was too good for him, maybe Cas had finally realised that too and was trying to let Dean down gently. Or maybe he really hadn’t understood, and would be angry with Dean for doing something so stupid.
Lost in a world of his own self-blame, Dean drove on, and didn’t notice the confused and slightly worried looks that Castiel was sending his way.
***
When they got home they got out of the car, and Castiel was increasingly concerned about Dean. One second he had been romantic and loving, and referencing the stupid things they’d done when they were young (it had been sweet and thoughtful, even if secretly Castiel wished that it could have been a real proposal), and the next he had become withdrawn and gruff.
If Castiel could think of a reason for it, he would have had no trouble in diagnosing Dean’s mood as a standard case of Winchester-indulging-himself-in-a-fit-of-self-flagellation, but he couldn’t for the life of him understand what had brought about such a mood swing. He followed Dean silently into the house, and was about to confront him and ask what the Hell had happened when Dean’s younger brother Sam burst into where they were standing in the living room, arms spread wide and a beam on his face.
“Congratulations, guys!” He shouted, throwing his arms around Dean and thumping him on the back, not realising that his brother wasn’t responding at all. Then Sam came towards Castiel, wrapping him up in a bear hug.
“Welcome to the family, Cas,” Sam said, his voice suspiciously husky. “I mean, you’ve been a part of it since you were a kid, but now it’s official, y’know?”
“I’m afraid I don’t,” Cas replied, rather stiffly. “What are you talking about, Sam?”
“Well, Dean proposed, didn’t he?” Sam said, as though it was obvious. Then his face fell as Dean, keeping his back to both of them, walked out of the room. A moment later, they heard the door to Dean and Castiel’s bedroom slam shut. Sam turned back to Castiel, gaping. “You said no?”
“I…what?” Castiel said, rather wildly. “I didn’t think he was serious!” Sam’s mouth fell open.
“You didn’t think he was serious?” he repeated dumbly. “How…I mean, he was down on one knee, right? He gave you the ring?”
“I didn’t realise he meant it, though!” Castiel returned, voice rising as he began to realise his mistake. His horrible, embarrassing, and hopefully not lethal to his relationship, mistake.
“How can you not realise something like that Cas, it’s pretty clear!” Sam hissed.
“I thought he was doing what we did when we were students! You know, pretending to propose to get a free meal!”
Sam made a noise somewhere between a sigh and a laugh, running his hand through his hair.
“No, Cas,” he said, using the same gentle tone of voice that one uses to calm a frightened animal. “You know that day when Dean told you he was at work late?”
“Yes,” replied Cas, wondering what that had to do with his monumental fuck-up.
“Well he wasn’t, he was buying that ring for you. Bobby gave him the day off; he was searching for the whole day, Cas, he wanted to find the perfect one for you.” Sam looked fondly exasperated as he was recollecting.
“We were looking at all these rings and discussing all the different ways he could ask you. It started off just me and him, but then we brought in Charlie even though she thought he should dress up as Captain Kirk and do an in-character proposal, then we tried Ash but he suggested that he propose to you over email. Then Benny came to help, and he was actually really helpful with picking the ring out – said Dean should stop thinking so much about what you would choose, and more about what he wanted to give you, what would show you how much Dean loves you.”
Cas felt a lump rise in his throat, not the fake kind that he had assumed in the restaurant, but real tears springing up in his eyes, thinking about how Dean had planned this and worried about this, and about how Castiel had managed to stomp all over it without even realising. Sam laid a hand on his shoulder.
“You need to go to him now, and sort this out,” he said quietly. “You guys are going to laugh about this at your wedding and for the rest of your lives, but right now? Unnecessary angst, dude. Go and accept my brother’s damn proposal, OK?”
Castiel swallowed and nodded. “Of course. Thank you, Sam.”
“No problem, bro,” Sam replied with a wink. “Now, go get your man.”
***
Dean didn’t look up as the door opened and Castiel’s recognisable soft footsteps entered the room.
“It’s OK,” he said dully. “Don’t really know what I was thinking. Obviously you’d never seriously consider marrying someone like me, I know that. I just thought that what we had was good enough that you might…that you might think about maybe settling for me. Stupid, huh? The thought that I was serious about marrying you never even crossed your mind, did it?”
Castiel padded over, and the bed dipped as he sat down next to Dean. There was a moment of silence that constricted itself in a tight band around Dean’s heart, then Castiel spoke.
“I know that you think all of this angst and self-loathing is terribly manly and interesting, but right at this moment it is entirely misplaced,” he said in that grave, gravelly voice that Dean loved so much. Dean felt a slight stirring of something – hope? – in his chest, but refused to give in and look at Cas just yet. Just in case.
“Dean, I love you more than anything else in this world, and you damn well know that,” Castiel said. “We are soulmates, we are meant to be together, and in your heart of hearts you know that the thought of us not being together forever is an utterly ridiculous one, and I wish that you would stop entertaining it.” He took hold of Dean’s chin, and Dean unresistingly lifted his head and looked at Castiel. Cas’ blue eyes were shining and serious, but with a spark of joy in them that only grew as he stared at Dean.
“I am truly sorry that I hurt you tonight, Dean.” Castiel said. “And I promise that next time you propose, I will take it as an entirely serious question. In fact, I would rather like you to ask me again now. If you want to?”
Almost before his brain had fully processed what Cas had said, Dean was on one knee and fumbling to get the little velvet box out of his pocket. He finally sorted it out and cleared his throat.
“Castiel Novak,” he said, voice getting stronger as he spoke. “There is no ulterior motive, no hidden reason for this. You’re it for me. I want us to be together in every way that we can be, and I want to see Sam cry like a girl with happiness, and I want to ask Bobby to walk me down the aisle, and most of all when I do, I want to see you at the other end and know that I’m not just walking towards you there, I’m walking towards our future together, and you’re gonna be walking right beside me through all of it. I want to marry you, Cas. For real. Do you…would you maybe want to marry me, too?”
Castiel smiled through the sheen of happy tears in his eyes as he tenderly cupped Dean’s cheek with one hand and stretched out his other hand for Dean to slip the ring onto.
“Yes Dean,” he replied. “I would very much love to marry you. For real. I’ll even pay for the food.”
Dean gave a slightly watery laugh and sat up next to Cas again on the bed, both hands holding Castiel’s left, fingertips stroking over the ring that now rested on the fourth finger. He rested their foreheads together until Castiel gently brought his lips to Dean’s, tongue slipping easily into Dean’s mouth.
The cool metal of the ring gradually began to warm and feel more like a part of his own body, and Cas smiled into the kiss.
***
One Year Later
“…So will you please join me in raising your glasses…to Dean and Castiel Winchester!” Sam called. The guests repeated the toast, then sat down again as Sam shuffled his note cards and cleared his throat.
“A few of you will know the rather interesting story of how Dean finally worked up the guts to propose to Castiel, but for those of you who don’t, you may, seeing how disgustingly in love with each other these two have aways been, be surprised at how badly that night initially went.”
Dean groaned quietly and leant over to Castiel, burying his blushing face into the crook of his new husband’s neck. Cas petted Dean’s hair soothingly, but his tone was unsympathetic.
“He’s your little brother and your best man, Dean, did you really think he was going to go easy on you?” Cas murmured. Dean made a wounded noise into the skin of Cas’ neck.
“It was only ever a forlorn hope,” he muttered. “Just wait ‘til it’s Sammy’s turn to get married, though. In fact, the way he’s been lookin’ at Jess these last few weeks, maybe I should start digging out all the embarrassing photos as soon as we get home.”
Castiel hummed noncommittally, fingers still scritching through the short hairs on the back of Dean’s neck.
“You could,” he agreed. “Or you could let me rip off that tuxedo with my teeth and then ride me until neither of us can stand.”
As if he’d received an electric shock, Dean sat up straight and cleared his throat.
“Yes, that idea.” He said in a slightly strangled voice. “I like that idea.” He grabbed for Cas’ hand and took it in his own, running his thumb over the two interlocking rings on the fourth finger of Castiel’s left hand.
“I love you, Castiel Winchester,” he murmured. Castiel squeezed his hand.
“As I love you, Dean,” he replied.
They gazed (really very sappily, to be honest) at each other for several moments before turning their attentions back to Sam, hands staying clasped together the whole time.
They would never be truly apart again.
Even if they started having to pay for their meals out.
***
Beta'd by the glorious Ismene_Jane. If you have any prompts for me, feel free to drop me an ask and I shall do my best!
i've gotten to the point where i know it's going to keep happening and i can't stop it. it's a really pretty state but i doubt i could live here my entire life
