#drunkj2

“Anything interesting for dinner tonight, Cas?” Dean asked. Cas turned round, an armful of sauces and more vegetable in hand, closing the fridge with an elbow and coming over next to him to share the hob.

“Um… just some chicken stir fry. I’m making enough for a couple of meals.” He told him, which would explain why he’d poured a whole bag of beansprouts into a pan. Dean moved over, out his way, the potatoes didn’t need watching anyway. Dean would’ve have rather watched him.

Ingredient after ingredient went into his pan and he set it to simmer when Dean gathered an idea.

“Hey, Cas?” He ventured.

“Yeah.”

“Could you, um…” Dean;s brain decided not to work in that moment, of course. “Um… teach me, how to do those origami things?”

“Cranes? Sure. I can show you when we sit down.” Dean breathed a silent sigh of relief. It shouldn’t have been that hard, they had been really good friends ever since they moved in. They don’t take the same subjects, Cas is studying English and Dean’s studying Mechanics, so they don’t see each other during the college day, but they make the effort to go over to the campus coffee shop when they can and have coffee and pie, well, Dean has the pie and Cas always has a muffin of varying flavours. Dean’s pretty sure Cas is trying to eat one of each throughout this semester.

Dean plated up his sausages and mash, placing the pans and grill tray on the side to wash up afterwards. Sitting down in his usual spot he waited patiently for Cas to finish up cooking before beginning his meal. Perhaps they should just share the cooking between them, Dean thought but he stopped that thought quickly before he began to imagine Cas and himself sharing their own kitchen. They’re not even going out, just friends. FRIENDS. Cas sat down a couple of minutes after Dean did and they began to eat.

Cas pulled out origami paper as he ate and handed one to Dean. He finished his meal quicker than Dean did and began to talk him through the motions of how to fold the paper correctly.

“You know, if you fold a thousand cranes you get a wish. That’s what they say anyway.” Cas informed him.

“Oh, that’s cool. What would you wish for?” Dean wondered.

“To pass all my exams so I can go to Uni.” Cas chuckled a little, and carried on folding the red paper. “What about you?” He asked Dean in return. Dean froze for a moment. I wish I could go out with you, is what he wanted to say, but Cas didn’t think of them that way that he knew of.

“I’d wish for getting a job at the end of this in a car shop, so I can fix cars all day.” Dean looked up to him, accidentally staring into his eyes for longer than was necessary before stopping and trying to catch up to Cas with the paper folding. It’s vaguely looking like Cas’ does, just a lot more messy, he couldn’t get the corners to match up as perfect as his did but when Dean pulled out the wings he was impressed with himself and what he’d achieved. A smile broke out across Dean face and he saw Cas smiling too. Dean loved it when he smiled, his whole face lights up, eyes twinkling and little crow’s feet appearing at the edges of his eyes.

Dean pulled another sheet of paper from the top of the pack, this one green, and began folding again, trying to make it without the aid of Cas’ help. Dean folded it incorrectly a couple of times, getting a little flustered because he knew Cas was watching him with those beautifully intense blue eyes, but he soldiered on and was finally pulling out the wings and completing it. There’s a strange feeling in his chest which he guessed was accomplishment and held out the finished crane to Cas.

“For you?” He said.

“No, you keep it Dean, you made it, without help, so you should keep it.” Dean felt his cheeks heating a little and dreaded to think how red his face just went, so he just smiled instead.

“Okay.” Dean scooped the last of his mashed potatoes into his mouth and set his knife and fork straight on his plate. He stood up, pushing the chair back as he did so and sauntered over to the sink, running the water steamy hot. “Hey, Cas?” He called over his shoulder. Cas mumbled some sort of reply. “You wanna go to the café at lunch tomorrow? I saw yesterday they had a new spring themed muffin, it had little chocolate chicks on some sort of vanilla frosting.”

“Dean, come on, you know I’ve got to meet Charlie tomorrow, I’m helping her with her essays, as good as she is with computers, her essay writing isn’t that great.” He said, pushing his empty plate across the counter so he could wash up after Dean. “But, now I really want a muffin, dammit Dean, you’re an evil, evil person.” He mocked, fake scowling at him, nose crinkling and eyes narrowing. Dean turned to him and laughed at his glare.

“You’ll get that glare real good one day, Cas; today is not that day.” They were stood fairly close now and as Cas went to playfully shove Dean out the way of the sink, Dean was able to throw his arm round his neck.

“Ahh!” Cas cried. “Dean, not the hair! Nooo, not the hair!” He protested, scrambling at Dean’s shirt trying to find his side to tickle him. Dean just ruffled his soft, black hair hair more.

Once he located Dean’s most ticklish spot, he began to tickle him relentlessly. Dean was howling with laughter, trying his best to tell him to stop.

“No! Aha! Ahhh! Stop! Haha! CAS! Ahh, it tickles!” Cas had managed wrestle them to the kitchen floor, not the nicest place to be lying but that currently didn’t matter. Cas was straddling Dean, hands planted at his sides and poking him lightly, the best way to tickle him. Dean had the biggest smile on his face, tears from laughing so much in his eyes, making the green stand out significantly and tear tracks running over his freckles. He looked so happy, he look so beautiful, Cas thought.

They slowly stopped laughing and stared at each other for moments too long. Dean huffed, “Okay, this just got weird.” He said, of course, it was anything but, though Dean knew Cas didn’t see them as more than friends and he was okay with that. He thinks so anyway. Dean pushed Cas off his stomach and jumped up before holding out a hand to help Cas. He pulled it away as Cas went to grab it, sticking out his tongue childishly.

“Seriously, Dean? What are you, like twelve?” Cas laughed, pushing himself up from the floor and brushing himself down.

“Twelve and a half, if you don’t mind.” He huffed and crossed his arms.

“Whatever.” Cas looked at his watch. “I’m gonna head up to my room and watch CSI. It’s gonna start in like five minutes. I’ll see you tomorrow. You owe me a muffin, Mr. Winchester.”

“Alright. How about three o’clock tomorrow then? I’ll meet you at Benny’s Café.”

“Sounds great. See you tomorrow Dean. Goodnight.” Dean watched as Cas left the kitchen, heading up the three flights of stairs to his room. Dean decided that TV sounded good and he’d try and catch up with the latest series of Dr. Sexy, M.D. He made himself a coffee and headed to his room.

Dean’s room was the standard size, with a bed, desk, wardrobe and a chest of draws and more shelves than were necessary. On the space wall space, Dean had hung AC/DC posters and pinned his lecture notes and pictures to the notice board behind his desk. His shelves were stacked with textbooks, folders for his work. There were a few picture frames dotted around of his family. There was one of himself and Cas from when they went to a park close to the beginning of the semester, Charlie had taken the photo of them without them knowing and they were both laughing at something Dean can’t quite remember. Once Charlie had showed him the picture, he asked for a copy and kept it.

Dean switched on the TV and brought up the recordings of Dr. Sexy M.D and watched the oldest one. As he was watching, Dean found himself squaring off a piece of scrap paper and making another crane out of it. It was becoming easier and his hands were more fluent in the movements. While watching the episode, Dean had made three cranes already, he lined them up on the side table and looked over at them as the episode finished.

He picked up his phone as he changed over the episode and decided to have a look at the Japanese myth of one thousand cranes.

The website he found looked interesting, it told him that the one thousand cranes had to be made by a single person and were often strung together; twenty-five strings of forty cranes. Dean had five already, only thirty-five left to go to finish the first set. Dean thought about his wish. What he’d said to Cas at dinner hadn’t been a total lie, but it wasn’t what his only wish. He would wish to go on a date with Cas. Yes, that was his goal. Make one thousand cranes and hope that his wish would come true.

So, he set to work.

He found some origami paper online to buy and bought enough to cover just the first 100, which was fine, he could buy more at a later date.

He met Cas for coffee (and the muffin he owed Cas) the next day at three o’clock just as they suggested. Cas was already there when Dean arrived. Dean hid his hands as best he could at first, the amount of paper cut he’d acquired from the origami was astounding.

“Hey, Cas. How’d it go with Charlie?” He asked as he pulled a comfy chair over to where Cas was sat and moved the hard wood chair out of the way.

“It went well. We got through quite a few of her essays that are due next week.”

“Great. What did you want – aside from the muffin?” Dean asked, grabbing his wallet from his trouser pocket.

“Just a latte please.” Cas smiled and dug his phone out his pocket. “You want any money?”

“No, I told you I’d be buying.” Dean wandered off to get their order, Cas flipped through his phone aimlessly, waiting for Dean to come back.

When Dean came back, he placed the tray of coffee, pie and muffin in the centre of them and sat himself down, breathing out a rush of air.

“Long day?” Cas asked him. Dean nodded and thought back to the thirty five cranes he’d made out of squared off A4 paper. He was still waiting for his origami paper to arrive.

Xx

It took Dean a little over a month to finish off the cranes, making about thirty a day, his fingers were sore and achy from folding the cranes and threading them all onto pieces of string to keep them together. Small paper cuts littered the sides of his fingers in various stages of healing. Cas hadn’t seemed to noticed which was good. They’d been spending a lot more of their free time together. One of Dean’s lectures had finished for the semester so he had that time to spend with Cas (or making cranes).

It was the middle of May when Dean finally finished every last one of the one thousand cranes. He’d been stashing them in his wardrobe, he didn’t have too much stuff in it and it kept them hidden for the times when Cas came into his room and they watched ridiculous old movies squidged up on Dean’s bed.

Dean decided to give Cas a ring and ask him to meet at the park, the same one the photo that sat on his desk was taken at.

“Hello?” Cas answered.

“Hey, Cas, you okay?” Dean asked, making small talk while his nerves did backflips and acrobatics in his stomach.

“Yeah. You?” He replied.

“I’m good. I was wondering if you’d meet me down the park after you’ve finished.” He spilled, his heart began to race and he was pretty sure he was blushing. Dean was grateful that he was talking on the phone and not face to face.

“Sure, we can grab ice cream from the ice cream van, he should be there today.” Cas told him. Dean could hear that he was smiling at his end of the phone.

“Yeah, that sounds real good.” Dean smiled, it didn’t matter that Cas couldn’t see it.

“So, you reckon you’ll be finished at two thirty?” Dean wondered, they knew each other’s timetables like the back of their hands.

“Yeah, meet you there at about quarter to three.”

“Okay, see you then.” Dean said and ended the call. More butterflies danced in his stomach and he looked briefly at his watch and decided that he’d head over to the park now and just wait for Cas, he’d only be another hour or so.

Dean shrugged on a red leather jacket even though it was probably too warm outside to be wearing it and gathered all the cranes from his wardrobe. He found a decent sized box and laid them in carefully as not to damage them. He put his wallet, phone and keys into his pockets and left for the park.

He crossed campus, watching most of the students passing in between classes. Dean had a fairly lax timetable compared to Cas and some of the other students which was good for Dean because he wasn’t really one for paying attention in lecture for long periods of time.

Dean entered the park, the grass looking greener than usual from the recent rain. Trees lined the edges of the park and near the back there was the park itself, multi-coloured and too small for them to play on as they found out when Kevin had got himself stuck in the swing.

Dean chuckled at the memory and found a spot in the sun. He took off his jacket and draped it over the box before leaning against it and soaking up the sun. He would have fallen asleep but the nervousness in his stomach was making him edgy and uncomfortable.

What if Cas said no, would it be weird? Dean would still want to be friends no matter the outcome, but he wasn’t sure he could deal with the awkwardness. No. Dean told himself. No matter the outcome they will be friends and it won’t be awkward!

Dean looked at his watch for what felt like the millionth time, thought running through potential scenarios though Dean was desperate to get them out his head. He just wanted to ask him already.

Two-forty-five came around soon enough and a couple of minutes later, Dean could see Cas wandering into the park. He stood up and waved Cas over. Dean was pretty sure he was hyperventilating as Cas neared him.

“Hello, Dean.” Cas greeted. He paused for a moment, looking at Dean. “Are you okay? You kinda look a bit pale.”

“Hey, I’m… Um, I’m totally fine. Come on let’s just sit here and soak up the sun for a bit.” Dean tugged Cas’ sleeve, pulling them both to the floor.”

“So, what’s in the box? Anything exciting?”

“Huh? Oh, that’s what I need to talk to you about.” Dean swallowed hard, reaching round behind him and pulling the box from under his jacket. “I wanted to thank you for teaching me to make those cranes.” God, this is cheesy. Dean thought. “But, I remembered the Japanese tradition you told me about. The one with making one thousand cranes.” Dean opened up the box and pulled out all the cranes. “I made them all, Cas. I wanted a wish.” He paused for a moment, collecting his thoughts. Cas’s hands were going through the cranes on the strings, paper rustling through his fingers.

“I wanted you to be my wish.” Dean said finally. He’d been looking at Cas the entire time, but now he’d finished, he felt like he couldn’t. Felt like his wasn’t allowed to look into those deep ocean pools that were his eyes.

“Are you asking me out, Dean?” Cas inquired. Dean blushed, from his cheeks to his ears. He nodded.

“Dean, I…”

“No, it’s okay. I, dunno, I kinda knew in a way, you wouldn’t. I’m so sorry.”

“No, Dean, you’re not listening. I will,” Cas fumbled through the cranes to find Dean’s hands and when he took hold of them Dean looked up. His emerald green eyes were staring at him like he was the last thing on Earth. “Go out with you, that is. I’m kinda ashamed to say that I’ve been meaning to ask you the same thing, pretty much since we moved in. I have to say, you’re pretty attractive.” Cas laughed softly.

“You’re pretty amazing, Cas.”

“Thank you, Dean. You are too. Now, what do you say we go get that ice cream?”

“That’s sounds really good.” They both stood simultaneously and Dean lifted the mass of cranes back into the box.

“Leave it by the tree, the ice cream van is only there.”

“Yeah.” Dean was still feeling shaky relief, it was almost a dreamlike state.

“Besides, I want to hold your hand.” Cas smiled, reaching out to take Dean’s hand in his. Dean wrapped his hand around Cas’ and turned to look at him. As he turned, Cas went to kiss him and when he did Dean practically beamed. They stopped for a moment.

“We’ve been missing out on so much.” Dean said before leaning in to kiss Cas properly. So this is what they meant about fireworks in the movies. Dean’s head was spinning by the time they broke apart.

“It’s okay, I’m sure we can make it up to each other.”  Cas told him, wrapping a hand around his waist and pulling him towards the ice van. “And, as much as I really like you, Dean, I also would love an ice cream. So, how about it?”