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Castiel was a reasonable neighbor. He didn’t care what other tenants of the apartment building did for the most part, and he was almost always quiet as he lived alone so no one complained. If there was ever a nuisance, it usually stopped. It was a comfortable peace between all of them, he thought.
But this was over the top.
What could have possibly been Zeppelin has been going on for what seemed to be over two hours. Castiel looked over to his clock for what felt like the hundredth time tonight- this morning- whatever time of day it was. It was only 3:27. As in 3:27 am. It’s only been going on for half an hour. Or at least that’s how long he had been awake for to listen to the music that had been blasting in the apartment above his own. The song that was playing ended, and Castiel sighed in relief as the small amount of time of silence existed before the next song started up. That was it. Castiel needed to go up there and shut whoever it was the hell up.
Castiel stood up, putting a t-shirt on since that would probably be better than an angry guy in just boxers and socks would be a little odd. Maybe a little bit more effective, but he ignored that thought and left his apartment. He decided it wasn’t worth it to wait for the elevator so the stairs it was. He was barely up to the next level and he regretted his decision for not putting any more clothes on.
He made his way up to the middle of the hallway and looks to make sure the numbers are arranged the same, which they were. So he made his way to 415, which was directly above his own at 315. And sure enough, that sounded to be the source of the music once Castiel approached the door. He let out a deep breath, and knocked on the door.
No answer.
Again, he knocked and he heard a thud. There was no actions or noises that could be heard past the music, and he was about to knock a third time when the door quickly opened.
“Look, if it’s about the music-” A voice gruff with sleep says, until they abruptly stop. Castiel sucks in a breath.
The guy is slumped against the door they just opened, with light brown mussed up hair in a way that Castiel found to immediately soften his mood from his angered demeanor. His eyes were squinted when he first opened the door. Now, his very bright green eyes popped past the lenses of his thick framed, black glasses. For a second they stare back at each other until Castiel clears his throat.
“I actually did come up...because of the music.” He muttered, not breaking his gaze from the other man who stood a few inches shorter than him. The other man nodded.
“Right, yeah.” He cleared his throat, standing up straight and growing to being a few inches taller than Castiel. “Sorry, about that. Do- Do you want to come in? I can get you something for your troubles...and stuff.”
Castiel shifts as the other man opens the door that much more. The music is more coherent, and he was right about it being Zeppelin. He looks at the other man, who sits with a tired, nervous face. “I don’t even know your name.”
“I’m Dean, Dean Winchester.” He sticks his hand out for a handshake. “I’m the resident of apartment 415 and an annoying one who plays loud-ass rock music at ass o’clock in the morning and I accidentally pissed off a tired but cute tenant.”
Castiel is taken aback, but his face turns a dark shade of red, making Dean smile sheepishly. He sticks his hand out to Dean’s and shakes his hand. “I’m Castiel, Castiel Novak from 315. And you are a pretty smooth talker, Dean Winchester.”
Dean laughed, rubbing the back of his now red neck. “Yeah, you liked that huh? I was hoping that it was gonna go over as pretty smooth. Do you wanna come inside? You look a lil’ cold,” He gestured to Castiel, who was now holding himself due to the cold without even noticing.
“Uh, yeah, sure. I’m up so I might as well.” Castiel smiled as Dean opened the door to his apartment the rest of the way, to which he walked in to join him, where the music was still going at full blast. “Now how do I not know that you’re some weird murderer that’s just using the music as a way to cover the screams of your victims or something?”
“Well that’s vivid,” Dean scoffed, closing the door and rushing over to a true record player to stop it. Castiel sighed in relief, as Dean gave a sheepish grin. “It’s also untrue, by the way. I was just trying to stay awake and I got lost in the volume I guess.”
Papers were strewn across the floor along with a laptop, spiral notebooks, writing utensils, and a mug with the Batman logo, which matched- oh. Dean wasn’t wearing any pants like himself. He had a plain green t-shirt that didn’t stand a chance compared to his eyes. It was paired with a pair of boxers that were covered with the Batman bat. If Castiel wasn’t so tired maybe he would have definitely been able to tell for sure if there was the logo on the side of his glasses as well.
“Would you like some coffee? I was planning on making some more. But this’ll be decaf if you want any.” Dean said as he headed for the kitchen.
“I’m more of a tea person, but thank you.” Cas smiled, taking a seat at one of the benches that was sitting in front of the tall counter where Dean was starting to set up his coffee maker, when he stopped.
“I got that in decaf too, man. I hope green is okay.” Dean said, abruptly changing pace to making his way to a pantry to grab a can of loose leaf tea. Castiel was astounded with the guy he discovered to be living right above him that was now grabbing two clean mugs.
“So you’re a DC fan I’m guessing, by the way.” Castiel said, leaning his arms against the counter with his chin resting on his hand.
“Only Batman, Marvel has my heart aside from that. I like Batman’s story with the parents stuff,” Dean grabbed a tea infuser from his counter after he set the two mugs in the microwave. Castiel ignored the comment for now seeing as how Dean reacted when he mentioned parents. “What about you, Cas?”
“Marvel, I love Captain America’s morals and character.” Castiel said, “‘Cas’?” He then asked. Dean’s head shot up, like he was unsure of Castiel’s confusion.
Dean only shrugged, “What?”
“Nothing, I’ve just never had a nickname.” Dean smiled a little, laughing. “What?”
“Not even like a boyfriend pet name? Like ‘snuggle-butt’?” He pulled the two steaming hot mugs of water from the microwave, putting the infuser in the wide, dark blue mug, and setting it in front of Cas.
“I think someone’s called me ‘babe’ or something before, but nothing that’s really stuck.” Cas said, holding the mug gingerly due to the heat.
“Was it...a girl who called you that? Or a guy?” Dean asked nervously, picking at the label of the tea leaves can. “Maybe someone agender?”
There it was. “It was a girl,” He felt both of them tense up a little bit. “But I actually swing all ways.” Dean looked up at him, almost a confused look on his face. “I’m pan, actually. Just not that many guys around,”
Cas looked down at his mug, watching the tea essence spill out of the infuser further. He did not want to make this awkward, but it seems that it already has. “I’m bi, y’know.” He looked up to see Dean’s sheepish grin. “I know what you mean about the lack of guys available around here, but I’ve never officially dated a guy personally.”
“Me neither,” Cas smiled, picking up the chain of the infuser, and let it stop dripping before handing it over to Dean. He emptied out the used leaves and replaced them before walking around to sit next to Cas.
“I was working on something I’ve been writing,” Dean stated, looking over to the mess in the middle of the floor where his stuff sat. “I write for a living, actually.”
“What do you write?” Cas asked, looking down to the mess. It matched Dean well with how his glasses were slightly askew and hair messed beyond a state that his own would usually get into. “Don’t let it be Batman fanfiction.”
Dean chuckled, looking down at his own mug. “No, there’s nothing there in Batman fics aside from too much sadness and weird kinks anyways.” He shivered, shaking his head. “I write review articles for the news site over popular topics for money. My own stories whenever I have time, which was what I was working on not too long ago since I got caught up in a part.”
“Well I know what site I’m checking out on my lunch break tomorrow,” Cas yawned, covering his mouth. He looked up to see the smile from Dean’s face now gone, now replaced with a concerned look.
“I’m sorry for waking you up, Cas.” He said, looking down to his hands. “If you want, you can head back down to your apartment. All music off, I promise.”
Cas reached for one of his hands, holding it. “It’s fine, Dean. I don’t work tomorrow anyways.”
“What job do you have that you don’t work on a Thursday?” Dean asked, looking at Cas but swiping a thumb over the back of Cas’ hand.
“I work from home- er, apartment.” Cas explained, yawning again. “I do artwork, mostly graphic design. I’m also trying to branch into 3d stuff, but I need to be able to afford a printer first.”
Dean’s eyes lit up as he grabbed his hand that much tighter. “Seriously? That’s awesome! Like way more awesome than writing. We could even-” Cas was smiling, but yawned again. “Dude, you need to go to bed. I don’t care if you work or not tomorrow.”
Cas only shook his head. “No, I’m fine. I just need to keep listening.”
“No way. You can even stay on my couch if you don’t think that you’re going to be able to make it back downstairs.” Dean offered, standing up. Cas was about to argue, but he saw the serious embedded on Dean’s face.
“If you insist, but lemme see something first,” Cas said, standing in front of Dean and slowly raising his hands to the other’s face. Dean stiffened slightly, but let Cas take his glasses off. Hiding underneath the thick rim of black that was his glasses was what looked to be a galaxy of freckles spread out that Cas hadn’t noticed earlier. “Your face…”
“What about my face?” Dean asked, looking into what he thought to believe were the bluest eyes that were the color of a glorious ocean that he was looking over.
“It’s...it’s a nice face.” Cas said as he lost the words to be able to say what he wanted. Dean huffed, looking down at his own bare feet and Cas’ white socks. “I don’t know the words for it, that’s more of your department I think.”
Dean nodded, stepping a little closer. “Yeah it is,” He reached for the hand that was previously holding his own. “I know that the word at least for yours is ‘kissable,’ Cas.”
Cas’ stomach flipped happily, and started to jump as Dean slowly inched closer to him, but Cas laid his other hand to Dean’s chest, stopping him. “I rather do this when I have more than two hours of sleep and a better mental capacity than I have right now, Dean.”
He was worried that Dean would possibly even kick him out at that point from him denying that kiss from happening. But Dean only smiled lazily and leaned his forehead against Cas’ shoulder. “I like that idea, Cas.”
Cas wrapped his arms around Dean’s neck, almost in a hug with a tight feeling in his chest that made him feel like he had a pretty good shot with him that honestly made him almost excited enough to not sleep. Dean then wrapped his arms around Cas’ waist before standing up again. “Wanna hang out here for the rest of the night? I don’t go into until noon tomorrow since I just need to post articles and I can guarantee at least some sleep before the sun rises.”
“I would like that,” Cas smiled and let Dean go so he could turn off the lamp that was on by all of his papers. In the dark he took his hand and they walked back to his bedroom. “As long as you tell me what your stories that you’re writing are about.” Dean hummed in agreement. “And say that even though Batman’s great, Iron Man is better.”
“Okay, hold the phone mister.” Dean halted halfway through throwing back the blankets on his bed before turning around to where Cas was laughing quietly. “Do you think this is a game, Castiel?” Cas only laughed a little bit harder. “I will steal that first kiss away right now because Batman is awesome.”
Cas walked up to Dean, placing his hands on either side of his face and pecked his lips lightly. “Iron Man is way better because he was still rich and developed his company up whereas Batman just bought everything.”
“What happened to waiting until you had more than two hours of sleep?” Dean asked, putting his hands on Cas’ waist since he couldn’t continue pulling back the blankets. “And that may be true, but Batman is still awesome.”
“You got offended just enough that it was cute I guess.” Cas smiled, keeping his hands on the others’ face, stroking his cheek with his thumb. “Batman is kinda cool too, I guess.”
Dean huffs, smiling against Cas’ hands. “I was gonna try asking if I was allowed to kiss you back since I didn’t really get to enjoy that one but I don’t know if I can kiss a guy who ‘guesses’ that Batman is only kinda cool.”
“What if I drew you as Batman tomorrow?” Cas asked, knowing he wouldn’t even need to see Dean again to get the majority of his facial features down if he were to actually draw him.
“Then hell to the yes I would if you wanted me to.” Dean smiled, especially after Cas nodded. He dipped down slightly for a kiss, making sure it lasted longer than the first.
A calm thrill of sparks raised throughout Cas, but he wasn’t paying attention to that since he was tired enough as it was. He now felt it even more tired with the warmth of Dean radiating entirely with him. They didn’t get past a simple kiss, and that’s all they needed before falling asleep curled up next to each other in Dean’s bed, with no interruptions of any sorts.