Chapter Text
Dean could honestly say that he had never known fear quite like how he felt when he moved into his dorm room. He had been so excited about finally getting to college, after so many years of pretending he didn’t care and working night and day to make sure Sammy had everything he wanted, it was his turn.
Armed with all his worldly possessions in one single duffel bag, and a box, he stood outside what would be his room for the next year. For a moment he allowed himself to think about how much happier he would be if Sam was here, or Bobby or even his father - not like he had spoken to John in ten years, but it still would have been better than being alone. But Sam had a life now, and a job, and friends. Dean had a give ‘em hell attitude, a mechanic job which he'd had to give up to come here, and a college place for mechanical engineering. Sam had things to do, a life to live, Dean wasn’t going to drag him away for a weekend to help him move in. Bobby had wanted to come and help, but Dean had assured him that it was fine, he didn’t need to waste the journey.
Dean didn’t want to be alone, but he knew he wasn’t worth people's time.
The college he had decided to enrol in was very open, anyone could apply. Humans, creatures, it didn’t care. As long as you passed the SAT and you were respectable, you could get a place. He knew that his roommate was a creature - the college had called him up to make sure it wouldn’t be a problem - but he didn’t actually know what kind of creature he was. The college had said they were sorry, but that wasn’t something they could give away. It was personal. Dean wasn’t that bothered, he wasn’t like his dad who couldn't stand any supernatural creature ever. As long as they were respectful and polite, Dean didn't care what species someone was. He had no more problems with creatures than he had with humans.
It only took him ten minutes to unpack his things and get his half of the room how he wanted it, but even then it was oddly empty. In fact, from an outsider's point of view, the only things different about the two sides of the room was that one of the beds had bedding on it, there was a picture frame on the one bedside table, and Dean had left the cupboard open.
He would definitely need to go shopping soon so that he could get some posters or something to brighten the room up. Saying that, he would also need to get a new job if he wanted to eat anytime in the next year.
Dean had nowhere else to be today, and nothing else to do until his roommate arrived, so he grabbed his phone and earphones and put some music on, laying down in bed to listen to it and allow the familiar notes to drag him down to sleep.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
The next thing Dean was aware of was a quiet shuffling noise, and sound of a closet door opening and closing.
He sat up slowly, pulling his earphones out and blinking blearily towards the noise. He had to wait a moment before his eyes cleared, and when it did he was faced with the very handsome grumpy face of his roommate.
The guy - or not guy? He was a creature wasn't he? - was in the middle of putting his clothes in his closet and unless Dean was seeing double, he had more pairs of slacks than Dean had clothes all together. Either the guy was loaded, or he was planning on wearing a suit for the entire year.
"Hello?" Dean said, his voice rough from sleep. He was still half asleep, his brain not yet awake yet to phrase it as anything other than a question.
"Hello Dean, my name is Castiel. I'm your roommate," the guy said. His voice was even rougher than Dean's, despite the guy being clearly well awake, but his phrasing was awkward, as though he wasn't used to meeting new people and having to introduce himself to them.
"Hiya Catsti- Castle- Casle-," Dean tried, his brain unable to figure out what he was even trying to say. He blushed deep red, fixing his eyes on the floor and refusing to look up. He felt awful that this was the impression he was making. He couldn't even pronounce the poor guy's name. "Hiya Cas."
Cas didn’t seem that bothered about Dean’s inability to pronounce his full name, he didn’t correct him anyway. He just continued putting his clothes away, smiling like a cat who had just been given some of it’s favourite cream.
He didn’t look back around, so after a moment Dean returned to his phone, turning his music back on and relaxing back on his bed. He didn’t fall asleep this time, instead he watched Cas as he unpacked, methodically putting his clothes in the closet, his posters on the wall and his pictures on his bedside table. Dean didn’t mean to peer, but to be fair, they were going to spend the next year sharing a room. If Dean didn’t know now what was in his photos, he would by the end.
Most of the photos on Cas’ bedside table appeared to be of his family, as well as a cat which Dean could only assume was the guy’s pet. The posters on the wall were mainly of plants - maybe photos Cas had taken himself - and a few garden animals like birds and squirrels. Maybe the guy liked gardening? Dean knew that all the flowers and greenery should have made the room look stupid and girly, but somehow it managed to look both stylish and fairly neutral. It didn’t look mascaline, not by any stretch, but somehow the end result was more towards homely than stupid.
Other than his introduction, Cas didn’t say anything else for a long time. He was clearly used to being alone, unlike Dean who was very thankful he had his music or else he would have probably done something stupid like asking Cas what species he was and ruining any possible roommate friendship before it even started. Dean wished he could say he wasn’t that tactless and that he wouldn’t be able to do that on the first day, but he knew himself. He would totally be able to do that.
If he had one skill it was fucking stuff up.
Dean was pulled out of his thoughts by the sound of footsteps getting closer. He quickly opened his eyes - and when had he even closed them? - and pulled his earphones out, only realising once he was sitting up that the footsteps had been Cas and not whatever danger his mind had suggested. He tried his best to be more trusting and not react to every little noise, but even if he hadn’t seen John in years, old habits die hard.
Cas stood in the middle ground between their seperate sides for a moment, waiting until Dean was well and truly focused and no longer trapped in his head before he crossed onto Dean’s side. Dean couldn’t figure out why he did that, he was fairly sure he was subtle enough about his jumpiness that Cas wouldn’t have noticed it within a day, maybe Cas was just polite like that? Then again, as Dean watched Cas walk across the floor, holding something close to him as he did so, he noticed something. Despite the fact it was footsteps which warned him to Cas’ approach, his footsteps weren’t audible. Which implied either Dean was going crazy, or Cas had purposefully made noise to warn Dean. Dean couldn’t tell which it was after only an hour at most, but he vowed to figure it out before the end of the year.
Not that he expected it to take that long, he was more skilled than that. A year was just his absolute most amount of time he’d be able to have.
Cas paused at the side of Dean’s bed. He was standing right by Dean’s hip, closer than Dean really thought necessary, but before he could point out the fact personal space was a thing, Cas started speaking.
“Here, I noticed your wall was bare,” Cas said, his voice just as gravelly as it had been earlier in the day. He thrust the item he’d been carrying - which Dean could tell was a poster, but couldn’t tell what was on it, - into Dean’s hands and walked back to his side of the room. He didn’t seem bothered about what Dean thought of the poster, but then again, Dean didn’t know anything about him. That could've been his absolutely terrified face.
He gently unrolled the poster, revealing a A3 sized light blue poster. It had a cartoon bee in the middle, surrounded by some flowers and the words, ‘Don’t worry, bee happy’. Dean snorted at the awful pun, the stupid cartoon bee’s stupid cartoon smile somehow making him smile, despite how stupid he still thought it was.
“Thank you Cas,” he said with a smile and a nod, already rootling through his stuff for a blob of blu tack so he could stick it to the wall. However stupid it was, he could tell that if he ever had a bad day, that stupid cartoon bee would make it a little bit better.
From the look of the smile Cas gave him in return for his thanks, Cas would make it that bit better as well.