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Dean sat beside Cas at the back of the room in English and noticed something weird. The kid read everything the teacher assigned so quickly that his head spun. After what he assumed was a chapter, Cas took down pages of notes. But he wrote nothing down that the teacher wrote on the board. For a nerd, that’s strange, right?
And there was that one time in gym class when Luke, that dick, threw a baseball right at the kid’s head. Now as a baseball player himself, Dean knew that seeing the ball with the sun shining directly into your eyes was a bitch and nearly impossible. But it was a cloudy day, so Dean assumed it was because Cas wasn’t necessarily the most athletic guy around.
It wasn’t until he saw Cas walking down the hall towards him one day after school that he started putting things together.
While Dean knew that he and Cas weren’t the closest of friends, they were at least friendly. Cas was always nice enough to lend him his notes on the chapters he couldn’t read through because of practices or games.
So it was baffling when Cas spun so quickly on his heels that he ran smack into someone’s open locker door and promptly fell down, spilling everything in his hands.
“Shit! Cas! You alright, buddy?” Dean hurried over.
Cas sat up and grabbed at his head. He looked alright, just somewhat disoriented.
“Dean?”
“Yeah, you didn’t see me? I was like five feet in front of you.” Dean chuckled out, as he started collecting Cas’ papers.
“Sorry, it’s just you looked like – I mean, I didn’t see you,” Cas mumbled out, taking his stuff from Dean. “Thank you.”
Dean furrowed his brows. He knew that Cas was about to say that he didn’t recognize him. He looked down and realized that he was wearing Luke’s camo jacket instead of his own worn down hunter green one. He must have taken it and put it on after baseball practice and not noticed. Well, it was a relief knowing that was the truth. He thought he was eating one too many pies because the jacket didn’t fit right.
But it clicked. It finally clicked. Cas thought he was Luke from afar. And Luke, well, he was a downright ass to Cas. No wonder he turned around.
“Hey Cas, you free right now?” Dean asked, shoving his hands in his pocket.
Cas tilted his head. Dean groaned internally. For a teenage guy, Cas had absolutely no idea what being cool was. It was like he was aiming for adorable instead.
“Why, Dean?”
“I want to take you somewhere,” Dean spewed out, without even realizing what his words implied.
He got it when Cas turned bright pink under his gaze. The dark-haired boy lowered his blue eyes. “You mean…like a date?”
Now Dean wasn’t shy about his bisexuality at school. He knew that. He and Aaron did go out for like two weeks before calling quits. But it still wasn’t something he was completely comfortable with yet. At least not enough to tell his parents.
Dean brought a hand up to rub his neck. He really didn’t mean to ask Cas out.
Cas looked up at him, hesitantly, but expectantly under his lashes. And how had Dean not noticed how utterly cute this boy was?
Dean grinned, dropping his hand, to wrap both of them around Cas’ arms. He could feel his own cheeks warming.
“Yeah, Cas. A date.”
Cas returned his own glorious, gleeful smile. “I’d love to. I mean, I have to call my mother to let her know, but it should be fine.”
“Great,” Dean took the books from Cas and started walking towards the other boy’s locker. “There’s just one stop we gotta make before we go.”
—-
“Dean?”
“Yeah, Cas?”
“Why are we at the optometrist?”
Dean turned off the ignition to his dad’s black Impala. He turned to the slightly smaller boy sitting beside him with dread in his bright blue eyes.
“Because I know you can’t see. Clearly, at least,” Dean muttered, not wanting to scare off Cas.
“I can see.”
“Not at a distance. What’s that called again?” Dean questioned, squinting his green eyes.
“Near-sightedness,” Cas whispered. Turning his face away from Dean. He sighed. “I know. It’s just…”
“Just…?”
Cas mumbled something incoherent.
“What was that?”
Cas sighed again. “I don’t want to be more of a nerd than I already am.”
Dean sat in slight shock before he burst into a hearty laugh. That earned him a punch in the arm.
“It’s not funny, Dean,” Cas shouted over the laugh, frowning at him.
Dean’s laugh subsided. “Oh, babe. That was too good.”
Dean was clearly on a roll today for saying things before thinking. But he can’t say he didn’t like the reaction.
Cas blushed again from the term of endearment.
Dean sighed and quickly got out of the car. He walked over to the other side and pulled open the passenger door. He stuck out his hand. “Hey, if anything, you’ll just be a cute nerd with glasses, okay?”
—-
Dean later found out for himself how true his words were when he couldn’t keep his lips off his boyfriend every time the boy looked up at him from behind his thick black frames.