LovingAlex

Dean walks up to the front door of a nice town house settled in the middle of an ordinary burro. Damn people living in identical houses, hope this is the right one…

“Hello!? Up here!”

Dean looks around, questioning if the deep voice was calling for him.

“Yes, you! Pizzaman! Up here on the roof!”

Taking a few steps back, Dean raises his head, finding a man sitting on the roof of the house. “What… What are you doing on the roof?” he couldn’t help but ask.

The mystery man rubbed the back of his head. “W-well… you see,I was taking out the trash then discovered that I had accidentally locked myself out. I thought maybe I could get in by the attic window, but it turned out to be locked too…” Wow was this dude’s voice deep . Was he gargling nails while he was up there?

“Why are you still up there, though? I can’t imagine it’s comfy, especially with the bit of snow covering everything.” Yes Dean knew he was prying, but he couldn’t help it. He has a healthy curiosity and it’s totally not because the dude was really hot. And it definitely isn’t because the christmas lights lining the gutter made the man’s eyes sparkle and his dark ruffled hair shine with colors.

The man rubbed the back of his neck then fiddled with one of the blinking lights before answering, “The ladder fell down in the process of getting up here… I had gotten tangled in the lights and accidentally kicked it while unraveling myself.” It was said so shyly that Dean almost missed it.

Don’t laugh Don’t laugh Don’t laugh

He laughed.

The blush that spread across the man’s face made it worth it.

“Let me get this straight, you locked yourself out and got stuck on the roof, so you ordered a pizza?” Dean snickered.

“N-No!” the guy scoffed, “...I called for a pizza before I noticed I was locked out…”

With another chuckle, Dean set the pizza bag down on the porch swing. It wasn’t hard to find the latter laying on the thinly snow coated ground.

The man let out a grateful sigh. “Thank you, it’s colder having to sit on the snowy shillings than on the porch.”

“No problem,” Dean dismissed, climbing up the ladder and leaning an arm on the roof, “just one question… Why a meat-lover’s supreme with pineapple and olives ?”

The question caught the dude off guard if his wide blinking eyes had anything to say about it. Dean thought the guy was gonna say something snarky or along the lines of confusion, but instead he broke out in laughter. It’s beauty was contagious and Dean found himself laughing along, leaning farther onto the roof.

A bit of the dirt below one of the ladder’s legs gave way from the bustling of Dean’s laughter, tipping it. Dean only had enough time to let out a curse before he was grabbed up by the man, pulled onto the roof in preference of falling to certain injury.

The two lay on the roof for a moment, reeling from the suddenness of the situation. “Well shit…” Dean huffed, breath puffing a little cloud.

“I second that,” the other guy sighed, “now we’re both stuck up here for who knows how long.”

“You’re kidding… You’re not expecting anyone to show up? What, do you live here alone or something? This big house!?” How could the dude afford such a place on his own and at such a young age?

“Afraid so… I inherited this house from my grandparents and my father had gathered a substantial inheritance before disappearing,” the stranger sighed, which reminded Dean…

“Well, if we’re gonna be up here for a while,” He offered a hand, “Hi, my name’s Dean.”

A tiny smile graced the man’s chapped lips. “Hello, Dean. I’m Castiel.”

…

All in all, Dean enjoyed their night on the roof, consisting of a lot of talking, and ending in huddling close for warmth. It was a pleasant sort of eventful, mid-December evening.

Although being saved by Castiel’s brother, Gabriel, the next morning is a whole separate thing entirely.

The microwave gives off a high pitched beep.

Dean takes out his mug, being careful of the hot handle, and mixes it a little with a spoon before adding a few mini marshmallows. He blows on it a few times to cool it off while he makes his way to the living room. The TV plays a hallmark movie in a low volume, but he’d eat his own foot before admitting that he even has the channel.

It’s been snowing for the better part of the day, but when he glances outside, he notices that the snow has stopped. Dean moves closer to the window to see just how much has fallen. He takes a sip of hot cocoa as he observes how the snow gives everything a nice white coating.

Christmas lights and sunlight sparkle off the white crystals. Baby has a light coating that Dean’ll have to swipe off, along with clearing out the walk way again. Similar to the neighbor across the street, who’s already outside sweeping the inch or so of snow off his driveway.

Not many people are out right now since it’s already Christmas eve and it’s starting to get late. However, Dean does notice a man in a long beige coat making his way down the sidewalk. He’s carrying one large present and a few littler ones. The man is wearing a light blue scarf that hides most of his face, along with a blue snowflake patterned beanie with a white pompom on top.

The stranger has just passed by Dean’s driveway when his feet start to slide. Before the man can react, his feet shoot out from under him and he falls, presents flying into the air and landing in the snow bank at the edge of Dean’s yard.

“Shit,” Dean spits, setting his mug on the side table and rushing to his door. That fall looked pretty painful. When he steps outside, the man is still laying on the ground.

He rushes over to the man, making sure to stay off the black ice the man slipped on. “Hey, are you okay? That was a nasty spill!” Dean says as he helps the man to his feet.

“I’m… I’m okay. I didn’t see the ice…” The man sounds utterly humiliated and Dean has the urge to comfort him.

“It’s alright, everyone slips at some point. Especially with this kinda weather. Damn invisible black ice.” Dean offers his hand to the man. “I’m Dean by the way.”

The man takes Dean’s hand with his gloved ones. “Castiel.” It’s then that Dean gets a good look at the man. His scarf has been moved out of the way of his face, revealing chapped pink lips and a stubbled chin that could’ve been carved by Greek sculptors. The man’s blue --holy fuck, really blue-- eyes look Dean over and Dean has the decency to feel his cheeks burn.

“I don’t mean to be rude, but aren’t you cold?” The man -- Castiel damn it, call him by his name-- asks him. Dean looks down, only now noticing that he rushed out here in just his fuzzy Christmas socks, flannel pj pants, and an ugly Christmas sweater. Now that it was brought to attention, he’s fucking freezing!

He wraps his arms around his torso and his teeth begin to chatter as all the cold floods him at once. “Now that you mention it? Hell yeah. C’mon, inside, I’ll get you some hot cocoa and we can both warm up.” Dean rushes to pick up a few of the presents and practically jogs back inside, hoping that Cas follows. He does.

Dean sets the presents he carried on the table in the kitchen and Cas follows suit. Before doing anything else, Dean goes over to a vent in the floor and pulls out the hem of his sweater, letting it puff up with the warm air from the vent. He lets out a contented sigh, “much better.”

He doesn’t notice the way the corner of Castiel’s lips twitch upwards.

“Okay, let’s see… I promised you hot cocoa. Go ahead and sit down, make yourself comfortable.” Cas takes a seat at the tiny island while Dean busies himself getting the ingredients together. He works quick and efficient with the ease of someone who’s done this countless times before. He mixes everything together and places it in the microwave. “Quicker this way,” he reasoned, thinking that Cas might find it odd that he doesn’t just use the stove.

While the microwave is going, he slips into the living room real quick to grab his own mug, pleasantly surprised when he finds it still nice and warm. He comes back and the microwave beeps.

“How many ‘mallows?”

“I’ve never had it with marshmallows before.”

Dean gives an ever exaggerated gasp, putting his hand over his heart in offense.

“Never had marshmallows in his hot cocoa.” He says it as if Cas has offended his very way of life.

“We gotta fix such an outrage!” he declares, plopping at least six marshmallows into Castiel’s cup. “Try this. It’s the good shit.”

Cas gives a soft chuckle before accepting the mug and taking a tentative sip.

“You’re right, it is really good. I’ll definitely be adding them for now on.” A big smile splits Dean’s face. “Awesome. Knew you’d like it.”

There’s a moment of silence where they both enjoy their cocoa. It’s a comfortable silence where people can just soak in the other person’s company.

“So, what were you doing walking down the street at a time like this?” Dean asks, sitting down across from Cas.

“Well, I was heading to my brother’s house --me, a few of our siblings, and some friends gather there every year-- but my car broke down as I turned onto the street.”

“I can take a look at it if you want. I’m handy with anything that got a motor.”

“Thank you. That would be great.”

Dean lowers his mug, “wait, who’s your brother?”

“Gabriel Novak. He lives with our cousin Balthazar a few houses down from this one.”

“Oh those dudes. Honestly? Don’t see the resemblance.”

Cas laughs. “We get that a lot.”

Once they’re both done, the two bundle up into their coats, Cas putting the presents in the backseat of Baby while Dean throws some tools in the trunk, along with a small can of gas just in case.

The two go down the road and Dean laughs when he sees Castiel’s car. “Oh dude… no wonder you broke down!” he jokes as they get out.

“Hey, this car has been good to me so far!” Cas defends.

“Yeah, well, that doesn’t change the fact that this ol’ girl is about ready to retire!” Cas unlocks the car and gives Dean the keys accompanied by a pout. It only takes Dean one try of turning it on to know that it’s out of gas.

Cas blushes. “My-my gage must have broken…” Dean just gives him an amused look over his shoulder and grabs the little gas can from his trunk.

And with that, the car starts right up. Turns out the gage really was broken, saying that there’s three-fourths of a tank even though Dean had only put in half a gallon or so. Cas gets in and rolls down his window, letting Dean lean down on it. There’s a pause where neither of them know what to say.

“Well… uh…” Dean scratches the side of his nose with his thumb, “you should be able to get that checked out real easy. Um. My uncle owns the shop in town, Singer’s auto? I could call him and put in a good word for you.”

“Thank you Dean. For everything.”

Dean rubs the back of his head “It-It was nothing. It was nice meeting you. Uh, maybe we could meet up again at some point. Shouldn’t be hard seeing how your brother lives right down the street and all…”

Cas gives him a sweet and encouraging smile. “I’d like that.”

Dean’s face splits in a smile once again. “Awesome. Guess I’ll see you around then.” And with that, they say their goodbyes and Cas drives away.

Dean stands on the side of the road watching him drive away for a few moments before shaking himself out of his thoughts and driving back home. It was too cold to be standing outside having a mental breakdown about how cute the neighbor’s brother is.

…

It’s only a few days until New Years when there’s a knock on Dean’s door. When he opens it, there’s Cas, holding a pan of what looks like leftovers, and a shy little smile on his face.