Chalk & Chainmail

Chapter 9

Several days after their talk, Dean entered the library and pulled his eyebrows together at the sight of his and Cas's usual table painstakingly void of Castiel. He glanced around the library, his anxiety only easing when he saw the familiar crop of Cas's dark hair peeking just above one of the worn couches that faced the big window in the library.

Dean walked over and dropped his backpack in front of the couch and then slumped down next to Castiel.

"Hey, baby," he said trying out the pet name.

"Hey baby yourself," Castiel replied, his voice flat and unamused. He didn't look up from the text he was furiously tapping out with his nimble fingers, and Dean shook his head. No to the pet names then, he thought.

"Why the couch?" he asked.

Castiel shrugged, "I'm tired of sitting at the table."  

"Easy enough," Dean commented then reached down and started to pull his chemistry book from his bag. The clearing of Cas's throat stopped him, and Dean looked over at the other boy, eyebrows raised.

"I, uh, thought we could not study today? I mean, if you need to it’s okay. I can help I just—"

Dean placed a hand gently on Cas's arm. Castiel clamped his mouth shut, and he stared at Dean with wide eyes. "We don't have to study today. That's fine. I didn't really have a whole lot that needs to be done anyway. What did you have in mind instead?"

Castiel swallowed hard before shrugging. "Can we go for a drive, maybe?" he asked.

Dean smiled and nodded at him. "Course."

As Dean maneuvered the Impala up the winding trail of the secluded hillside, he glanced over at Castiel. The other boy was watching the Lawrence landscape twist by as they drove, his shoulders held in a line of tension, and hands grasping his knees tightly.

"Cas, you okay?" Dean asked.

Castiel looked over at him almost startled as if he'd forgotten Dean was even in the car at all. "I'm perfectly fine, Dean. Why?"

"I don't know. You look—" Dean hesitated, "you look nervous."

"What would I be nervous about?"

Dean shrugged. "I dunno," he admitted 

"I'm fine, Dean, please just keep your eyes on the road."

Dean backed into a private overhang of trees and killed the engine. It was mere seconds before Castiel was scrambling across the seat and hoisting himself into Dean's lap. He fervently pressed his lips to Dean's and kissed him with an unbridled passion that seemed to come out of nowhere. As Dean fisted his hands in Castiel's messy hair, the other boy reached down the side of the seat and yanked at a lever, throwing the seat backwards. He pulled another, and the seat slid back giving him a little more room to maneuver around the steering wheel.

"Dean," Cas grated out as he pulled away and fastened his lips to the juncture where Dean's jaw began. He placed shaky hands on Dean's chest and kissed and bit his way down to Dean's collarbone. When Dean's tee got in the way, Castiel sat up and tugged at the hem. Dean got the hint and raised his arms, allowing Castiel to pull the shirt off. He watched as Cas stared down at his chest, heaving with gasps, Dean already breathless from Castiel's ferocity. The look in Castiel's eyes made Dean's stomach curl with unease, and he placed a hand gently to Cas's cheek.

"Hey, Cas, you okay?" he asked.

Castiel looked up at him—his eyes wild and broken—and nodded. He moved back in and bit lightly at Dean's collar bone before spattering his chest with kisses. Dean tugged him back up so that their lips met again, and he tried to slow Castiel down, offer a calming balm to the other boy's out-of-control intensity. It wasn't that Dean didn't want this from Castiel, he'd thought of nothing else too many times to count, but there was something off about the way Castiel was kissing him, something amiss in his eyes and the tremble of his hands.