(no subject)

[heavenonearth]

[ getting to know sam winchester has been a pleasure.

he's young, but he's smart, and more than that he is engaging, and that is something that too many full-time, serious students sorely lack. castiel doesn't consider himself particularly entertaining, blames his lack of friends on it rather than his own introverted tendencies, but the point remains that his peers can be so terribly boring that it's all but mind numbing to spend time around them. research labs are enough to make him want to suck his own brains out with a straw, sometimes, and that's saying something, considering his threshold for entertainment is really rather low. and there are some of them who aren't so bad, really, but it isn't like the movies make it seem, that's for sure.

still, castiel is a graduate student. he's quiet and serious, so climbing the social ladder isn't terribly important to him, but even still, sam winchester is a breath of fresh air, smart and clever and funny, with a winning smile and an incredibly active mind. interacting with him is a privilege.

it had started as a tutoring job. sam had asked for a little help understanding his physics course, and someone had directed him to castiel, who had graciously, if uncertainly, agreed to do it. he doesn't fancy himself a teacher, and he certainly didn't think he'd be very good at it, though after a stiff and uncomfortable start, sam had begun to warm to him, and castiel found that he was glad of it. he'd worried that the gap in age might have been a deterrent, but sam is friendly and more mature than any undergrad he's ever known, and they get along well, swimmingly even now that castiel has begun to open to him more, unfolding himself bit by bit as their friendship develops into something more comfortable, something less about classes and more about simply spending time with one another.

they study together twice a week, on fridays and tuesdays. sam doesn't need much help with physics anymore, so castiel brings his own books and notes, works on whatever it is that he's writing or researching while sam buries himself in biology or organic chemistry. it's nice.

it's friday today, when castiel arrives at the little house sam rents off campus, and he tightens his overcoat against the brisk spring breeze as he moves quickly down the block; it's not far from the campus, so castiel always walks. he's rounding the corner when he feels his shitty ancient phone buzz in his pocket, and finds on it a quick message from sam: Picking up pizza, hope you like extra cheese. The garage door is unlocked, go ahead in, I'll be back soon. once castiel arrives, he finds the tiny one-car garage not only unlocked, but flung open wide, filled up by a broad but sleek black classic car that castiel doesn't recognize, loud music blaring from an old, dented radio resting on the workbench. the hood is up, but castiel can't see anything past it, can't see anyone until he's stepping inside the garage itself, dark brows drawn tight, his mouth a moue of disapproval. someone is bent over the engine, obscured by the raised hood of the car, and castiel is bewildered, confused - sam hadn't mentioned company. he certainly hadn't mentioned noisy company. he clears his throat. ]

Excuse me.

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( if there's one thing he'd never pictured his baby brother needing from an academic standpoint, it was a tutor. he's never needed one before, more often than not being the one to tutor other dummies in his classes in high school, and he guesses it makes a fair bit of sense when you take into consideration that physics is a son of a bitch – and why is he taking it again?

for the hell of it. for a more rounded curriculum. i've got a focus on science, dean. physics is science.

physics is impossible.

you thought geometry was impossible, and you still passed.

well, yeah, but –

suffice it to say that it hadn't been an argument that he'd won, and he'd dropped it, because there's only so much arguing you can do with your little brother about things like string theory and keep your head on straight. he'd gotten a tutor, and he's been passing everything with flying colors, so he can't complain. let him be a nerd if he wants, because he's always been the one with the straight-up brainpower while dean has always been better with hands-on learning, and that would be why they're studying on opposite ends of the spectrum.

besides, you can only learn so much about cars from your old man if you want to end up building them from the ground up. this is way more his style than sitting in a lecture hall for the better part of three hours and expected to take notes instead of using it as naptime. ( let's just say his freshman and half of sophomore year had been a little harder on him than they'd needed to be, just because getting all of his prerequisites out of the way had involved a lot of falling asleep in class and getting smacked in the forehead a few times by several different professors.

college is hard, okay. leave him alone. )

he's never been around for those study dates, but that doesn't mean he hasn't heard all about castiel. how smart he is, what he's researching, how he's been working on his thesis for so long already that his defense should go off without a hitch when it actually comes up – and even though dean doesn't exactly get all of it ( because why would you want to be in college for longer than four years? ), he listens to all of this schoolboy-crush-gushing with a tiny smile curving the line of his mouth at the edges, nods along with all of the excitement and pretends that he has at least a loose grip on the subject matter.

sometimes he does, sometimes he doesn't, but he's good enough at bluffing that he's pretty sure he's managed to get away with it.

this particular friday afternoon finds him in the garage, under the hood of his baby with grease up to his elbows. nothing wrong with her, just a little bit of routine maintenance that he's been putting off in favor of a couple of shop projects to get him through the end of the semester. sam's off who-knows-where, maybe having his playdate at the nerd's place this week, and he isn't expecting to nearly bonk his head on the underside of the impala's hood when he hears a voice he isn't familiar with.

talk about graceful.

he peers around the impala, both brows raised at the intrusion, and even though he's never so much as seen a glimpse of this so-called hot nerd, he knows that's exactly who he has to be looking at.

… hm.

not bad. ) Castiel, right? Hey. ( and here comes the flash of one of his winning smiles, eyes crinkling at the corners as he reaches for a rag to wipe his hands on. ) Sammy's told me a lot about you.

[heavenonearth]

[ it had taken some time for him to grow accustomed to dean, but somehow they have hit it off far better than castiel could ever have expected. they have little enough in common when it comes to hobbies, but there's an odd sort of understanding between them, a synergy that is rare between people to begin with, and even more rare for someone like castiel, whose social function barely outstrips a toddler's.

but he is.. comfortable around dean, and that is a strange and impossible and precious thing. dean is genuine. he's smart and he's tough, but there's a warmth and kindness in him that never ceases to amaze him, and beneath all that tough-guy, beer drinking pool shooting overblown masculinity there is a gentle softness the like of which he has never known before, and it wasn't really until he began to see and understand that side of dean that he really began to open to him. that, he thinks, is far preferable to the hard cover he tries to maintain - all that machismo, the leather and the car and the tough-guy voice - sure it's all attractive enough on the surface, but it's all the things beneath it, dean's warmth and affection, how genuinely he cares about people.. that is truly what castiel finds praiseworthy, what has him caught on dean every moment he is near him.

it is a gift, this friendship that he has built with dean, this ease in his company.

still, he can't help but feel a little guilty for dragging him here. this was supposed to be he and sam, and while he will always enjoy dean's company, castiel knows that this isn't really his thing. he's tagging along to be nice, because sam's too sick to come, and castiel had offered to cancel, to stay behind, but with such short notice there's no chance of their money being refunded, and sam had known how very much castiel had been looking forward to this, and there won't be another meteor shower again 'til july, and it won't be as good as this one so cas should just shut up and go. still, he'd hesitated, guilty as a loyal dog until finally dean had rolled his eyes and piped up, offering to come along in sam's place to keep him company, and he'd brook no damned argument.

castiel had still been apologetic when they'd left, promised sam he would tell him all about it, and book the hotel for the july shower the moment they walked in the door, and sam, of course, was satisfied.

it'll be nice, he thinks, to spend some time with dean, even if it might be a little distracting, because he's been mooning over dean for months and he knows it, has done nothing about it, won't do anything about it beyond suffering through it, and that's fine. being close friends with dean - that's good enough. that's plenty. and castiel wouldn't do anything to jeopardize that.

the drive is comfortable and easy, several hours to cherry springs state park in upstate pennsylvania, one of the top twenty best night sky reserves in the entire world, certainly the best on the eastern seaboard, and castiel has been pining to go for years. he'd meant to pack his telescope and star charts and books, but in the end he'd left most of them behind and brought only a single atlas. visiting with dean will be very different than it would have been to come here with sam, and maybe it's best if he keeps things simple. not because dean couldn't understand it, of course, but because he's just not as into it as he and sam are, he's doing castiel a favor, here, keeping him company here, and the least castiel can do is be personable, not keep his eye glued to the lens of a telescope while ignoring dean all night.

they check in, and as promised, castiel immediately reserves the time for he and sam in july, and he's giddy as a schoolboy while they drop off their duffels and pile back into the impala for the short drive up to the viewing area. the parking lot is relatively full; meteor showers are in high demand for astronomy fans, after all, but the viewing area is large enough that they're easily able to find a spot at the crest of a small hill away from anyone. a thick blanket is spread over the grass, and castiel sits cross legged, his jacket still on to protect him against the spring chill, a half-empty beer tucked against his knee, his sky atlas open, the red light of his cellophane flashlight bleeding over it, but it's largely ignored.

instead he's tucked in near to dean's side, half-turned toward him and speaking rapidly, animated, his hands moving and his eyes bright. ]

Well no, it's entirely possible that Eta Carinae's collapse could certainly end the world - I mean, it's not likely, and even if it goes hypernova, chances are slim that it would affect us.. but, you know, you never know. There's a lot that we still don't know about the stars, and life is very fragile.