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Castiel should have never undergone this bet. He should have known that Gabriel would cheat so well that nobody would be able to prove that he did, and Cas knew that he would end up losing. But he took it anyways because Dean told him to have fun, stay alive instead of hiding away while he’s gone, so Cas took a leap. Maybe it was because he thought only of Dean that day, of their Friday night video chat dinner date that would happen in a few hours, and so maybe that’s why he thought of Dean’s parting words, but regardless, Cas is a dumbass.
A dumbass in a chicken costume. In front of his students. College students as that. Having to act like he’s not wearing this atrocious yellow costume with a beak on the hood. And bright orange feet and feathers that just keep falling all over the floor. Even more humiliating is the egg for a chair that Gabriel bought just for the bet. Perfect. It’s just a perfectly normal day with a dumbass professor taking the amused and confused looks of his students with ease and everything is normal.
If only Dean could see him now. This fun enough?
Cas has been thinking of Dean for the entirety of the week, just wanting to see his husband again but knowing that it won’t be for another month or so before Dean is done with his deployment and can come home, but Cas just wants to hold his husband again. It’s been just over a year and it’s their anniversary today. All he wants is to be able to hold his husband to him again, to hear his heartbeat, to maybe just kiss his forehead and run his fingers through his hair. Is that too much to ask? Cas doesn’t think so, but here we are.
So maybe it’s all that thinking of Dean that has Cas continuing his previous talk about Bi-Erasure and bisexuality in general as well as starting his discussion on gay marriage and whether the problem is fully solved just because they can marry.
“-even though the bisexual person may be with the person of the oppisite sex as them, that does not mean that they are in a ‘straight’ relationship, just as if they are with the same sex they are not in a ‘gay’ relationship. They are still bisexual through it all and they are allowed to be attracted to other people outside of their partner, it’s just the way of life. They are not just looking for threesomes, however.
“That is not to say that some do not desire threesomes, but that is an entirely different discussion on sexual kinks that we will discuss later in the semester. My point is that bisexual people, as all sexual people, will find other people attractive and as long as they don’t act outside the bounds of their relationship, then that is perfectly fine. Yes?”
Kevin has his hand raised while his other hand is taking vigorous notes and looks up without pushing his glasses up before speaking. “Professor, what exactly do you mean within the bounds of the relationship? Isn’t it just called cheating if they are with anyone outside of their partner?”
“That’s an excellent question, Kevin. Does anyone have any ideas why I would phrase it as such?” Cas asks, looking around the lecture room where a tentative hand is raising: Garth’s. Cas gestures to him and he smiles shyly - a trait he still hasn’t gotten over despite this being a very open class that Cas has established will never judge for an answer unless it is deliberately critical.
“Well, it might not be cheating if they are in an open or a polyamorous relationship. Sometimes the bounds of the relationship are non-monogamous, but that doesn’t make the relationship any less valid, you know?” Garth says hesitantly.
“Perfectly right, Garth, thank you. Now, does anyone know how these relationships still work? Is monogamy the only way or is it legitimately possible to maintain these open relationships?” Cas asks, looking around again. Kevin raises his hand this time.
“Professor, open communication is key to any relationship as you always say. Both partners need to be willing, open, and honest. They need to talk about the relationship and make sure that everyone remains secure within the relationship. Monogamy is just a construct put in place by the church and reinforced by society which is ironic because many kings used to have many wives and mistresses while still remaining Catholic. Sometimes it’s just overlooked. So it’s entirely possible, but not for everyone.”
“Very good, Kevin, thank you. And if the relationship doesn’t work, should we generalize that all relationships like that won’t work? Should we use that as an example as to why we are against those relationships?”
“No,” the entire class courses out, making Cas swell with pride, even as feathers drop to the floor with how much he’s gesturing with his hands as he talks.
“Good, now, I’d like to transition to gay marriage which is similar to what we’ve been talking about. When it was legalized in 2016, many people thought, well, hoped, that maybe society would be more accepting. Maybe that’s the case, but the church still condemns us, the people stand with the church, and can anyone give me some of the reasons people give to hate the community? Think about where we were going with the previous question with using one instance to weakly support their views, if you can. Yes?”
This time it’s Charlie’s hand that’s raised, seeming very eager to answer this. She’s usually the one to rant a bit, but she’s quite intelligent which shows when she actually gets to her point. Cas sympathizes with her because he knows that she’s had problems from people within the school concerning her relationship with her girlfriend Dorothy, so Cas has been trying to support her as much as he can when she comes into all of his office hours to learn as much as she can. A bright student that just needs to form her ideas to be more cohesive and less heated in nature to get people to understand her and acknowledge what she’s saying.
“Well, there is always the argument that the church uses of mistranslated verses that are in the works of being solidly proved are mistranslated, but the church will never listen to it because they are afraid to have their views challenged,” Charlie starts.
“And why are they afraid?” Cas asks, trying to help her out a bit to get a complex argument.
“It would cause them to question how much of their Bible is actually accurate if they accept this one change. It would cause the whole religion to be questioned and it’s easier for them to just bully the community instead of accepting them and loving them. Also, there’s the rumor of homosexuals, mainly men, though, being pedophiles.”
“Explain,” Cas says, knowing where Charlie is going since they had this discussion a few weeks back in office hours. He’s quite proud of her actually for bringing this up.
“Well, the ancient Greeks actually had man and boy relationships which were very normalized at the time which somehow translated into the modern day which is a weak argument. And the church and society point out individual cases in modern day society of LGBT individuals being charged of being pedophiles while completely discounting that there are plenty of heterosexual pedophiles out there as well. Actually, one of the misunderstood verses is about how men and boys should not lie together and is an abomination because of the age difference.”
“Now, when you mention age difference, let’s make sure to clarify that you mean underage boys and older men since age differences in two consenting adults isn’t to be looked down upon in society and is in fact to be accepted as long as it’s for love, not some ulterior motive, right?”
“Yes, of course,” Charlie says, nodding her head vigorously.
“Good, thank you, Charlie. Now gay marriage has brought about more questions about the community. Sure, we’re allowed to marry, but now all our other rights are being questioned. Does anyone know the question that’s being pondered by the supreme court right now?”
Kevin again. “Whether people are allowed to be fired because of their sexuality. They’re questioning what the meaning of ‘sex’ is in the workplace concerning discrimination.”
“Very good, Kevin. It’s questions like these that are able to be brought up. Sure, the more rights we have, the more we demand, but these are basic rights that heterosexual cis individuals have that we from the community don’t exactly have. Like teaching kids about all forms of sex within sexual education and not just abstinance which is, to be frank, bullshit because we all know that sex is a very natural thing that everyone has a right to be knowledgeable about. But again, that is another topic for another time when we reach our sex unit, which is coming up next week.
“Back to the subject at hand, though, the Supreme court will be ruling on many people’s future careers when many of the people in the court are heterosexual cis males that will determine whether I should be fired from the university for being an openly gay man in Kansas. I would like to think no.”
The room is full of agreement, some louder than others that they love him and he should not be fired because he’s an amazing professor.
“Thank you,” Cas says, trying not to tear up. “The other questions come around with should soldiers be denied from the military because they are bisexual, like my husband who is currently deployed. Should there be discrimination for them when they are defending our country so heroically yet just because they have a husband as a male, they are to be hated, shunned? I think not.”
There’s murmurs going around the room now which is unusual, so Cas is appalled that he even has to ask what he asks next.
“Is there some problem with what I just said?” Cas asks, about to kick some kids out of the room and fail them on the spot if they have anything to say against his husband.
“No, no problem. I think that statement is quite accurate, actually. They’re more curious about who I am,” a familiar voice calls out that has Cas giving himself whiplash to look at the door of the lecture hall to see the man in a soldier’s uniform standing there.
Cas’s heart clenches so painfully that tears run down his face without him even noticing and he’s on his feet, running and leaving a trail of feathers.
“Dean,” Cas cries, his voice cracking, but he doesn’t care. His husband is home. He throws himself into Dean’s arms, openly sobbing in joy that his husband is safe and home in his arms. The entire room is cheering and yet that doesn’t matter because Cas is with his husband on their anniversary, Cas’s husband is actually home.
“Cas,” Dean croaks, sounding just as wrecked to have Cas in his arms and if Cas feels wetness on his neck where Dean is nuzzling, he doesn’t comment.
“I love you,” Cas says once he’s stopped sobbing and is just hiccuping, still trembling so much that he’s sure that only Dean’s arms are keeping him upright right now. Cas’s consolation is that Dean’s arms are gripping him just as tight, probably pulling out feathers in the process and...shit. His husband actually just saw him like this in his own humiliation.
But Dean still says, “I love you, too. God, Sunshine, I love you so much,” Dean says, pulling back to kiss Cas right on the lips, causing louder hoots in the room and shouts of encouragement, but Cas doesn’t care. He kisses his husband back as dirty as he’s getting, promising for the night ahead of them after this class, causing Dean to groan which is only heard by Cas. Well, felt, since Cas felt the vibrations that had gone throughout Dean’s body at the contact. Yep, a very, very long night from the looks of it.
Dean pulls back first, panting and his pupils dilated, looking about to rip the costume right off of Cas’s body that he must have forgotten about because he smirks and winks and Cas knows that he’s in trouble now.
Dean turns to address the whole class when he says, “If you couldn’t tell, I’m Cas’s husband. Oh, sorry, Professor Novak’s husband. But I think the real question we should be asking here, is what the hell is the costume doing on him? And why is he sitting on an egg?”
Cas is blushing so profusely that he just wants to hide his face in the crook of Dean’s neck, but he needs to own up to this.
“Well, good husband of mine, I lost a bet to your brother’s husband and my colleague and might I dare say my friend: Mr. Winchester. He bet me that his class would raise more for the Human Rights Campaign and whoever lost would have to wear this horrendous costume. I lost but only because he cheated. I can’t prove it, but there’s no way he raised the amount he did in the time given, but regardless, I had to wear the costume.”
The class is silent until Dean just laughs full-heartedly with his head thrown back so beautifully, tears starting to come to his eyes from laughing so hard that people in the class joined in and hoots of how good he looks is heard to which Dean so elegantly responds by pulling Cas into a kiss to claim him.
“You do look good,” Dean says for everyone to hear, but then leans in to whisper the rest. “But I think you’d look even better with it off, husband of mine.”
“Class dismissed,” Cas hurriedly calls out, pulling his husband after him which had hoots of him ‘getting it’ (whatever that means). Gabriel took pictures of the whole class and just shakes his head, knowing just with the two husbands would be getting up to. At least he has something to bring home to share with Sam. Definitely going into his all time greatest prank book, especially since Gabriel was the one that Dean coordinated with to come home without anyone spilling the beans to Cas.
Easy enough, just put him in a chicken suit. Happy anniversary to them.