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Castiel liked his job. For the most part. Kohl’s wasn’t a bad place to work; his coworkers were nice, and folding and organizing clothes gave Cas plenty of time to think.
He had just finished meticulously folding and arranging the display of men’s graphic tees, when another man wandered up to them. The first thing Castiel noticed was that the man was gorgeous. He was tall, with hair that was just slightly spiked. He wore an open flannel shirt with the sleeves rolled up to elbows over a worn out Led Zeppelin tee. Cas noted that the man’s worn out jeans hung deliciously off of his hips.
As the man browsed, Castiel turned his attention back to the disheveled display of polo shirts with a sigh. He had just fixed the display an hour ago, and it was already messed up again. Why did people feel the need to unfold every shirt in the display, just to look at them? And it wasn’t that hard to at least attempt to refold the shirts.
Beside him, Castiel heard the man walk away, and he glanced up, watching the man as he went. He really was gorgeous. The man paused, feeling Castiel’s eyes on his back, and turned around. Castiel’s eyes met the man’s for the first time, and Cas noted just how green they were.
Cas stood there, just staring at the man, who stared right back at him. A moment later, a shopper bumped into the man, and he glanced down at her, effectively breaking their eye contact. The man glanced up again, and ran his fingers through his hair before ducking his head and walking out of the store. Castiel’s gaze followed him the whole way.
“Damn he’s hot,” the redhead said as she walked up beside Castiel. “I would so go for that if I, you know, went for that.”
Castiel sighed, “Hello Charlie.”
Charlie smirked up at Cas. “I thought you two were about to go at it right here on the floor.”
Cas glared down at Charlie. “I assure you we were in no way, shape, or form about to,” Cas used his fingers to make air quotes, “go at it”.
Charlie laughed and reached up to pat Cas on the arm. “Sure Cas, whatever you say.” Cas rolled his eyes and Charlie turned to leave, heading back to her register. “By the way,” Charlie said over her shoulder, “You might not like him as much when you see what he did to your t-shirt display.”
Cas whipped around to look at the display, and growled under his breath. All of his impeccably neat work had been ruined. One t-shirt from each stack had been pulled out and thrown haphazardly into the top if the stack. Some of the shirts weren’t even in the right stack. Castiel sighed as he walked over to the stack. It was going to be a long day.
***
Castiel saw the man again the next Tuesday. He was once again straightening the clothing displays in the men’s section, when the man entered the store. He wasn’t alone; this time he had come wandering into the store with a Sasquatch of a man, who was hunched over and gesturing, his long hair bouncing as he attempted to get the shorter man’s attention. As Cas watched, they walked over to the graphic tee display. Castiel dropped his head and looked back at his work.
“Why are we even here?” the taller man was saying. “Dean, are you listening to me?”
The shorter man, Dean, shrugged off the taller man’s words as he continued to browse the shirts. Cas continued to meticulously fold the clothing in his display.
“But seriously,” the taller man continued, “Jess had her birthday on Friday, and you got her a gift already, so there’s no real reason to be here.
Dean lifted his head up suddenly to look at the taller man. “Maybe I like the clothes, Sammy.”
Sam scoffed and followed Dean as he continued to pick up and unfold the shirts. “Dean you have never wanted to shop anywhere besides Walmart and second hand stores. As long as you have t-shirts and flannel, you’re good. So why the sudden need to go department store shopping?”
“Maybe I finally listened to Jess and decided to buy some decent clothes.”
“Bull.” Sam rolled his eyes as Dean shrugged and continued to destroy all of Cas’s hard work. “Dean, you love your clothes. The last time you shopped at a department store was when you were with Lisa, and-” Sam cut off, his eyes widening as he looked at Dean. “That’s it, isn’t it?” Sam grinned at Dean’s confused expression. “There’s a girl here, isn’t there?”
Dean chucked at Sam’s question as he slapped a hand onto Sam’s shoulder. “I can assure you,” Dean said through his laughter, “there is no girl here that I’m interested in.”
Cas frowned down at the shirts he was folding, deciding to ignore the men, no matter how green Dean’s eyes may or may not be. He didn’t look up again until he heard Sam tell Dean that “if they didn’t leave that minute, he was going to be late to the firm,” and, “if Dean made him late one more time, Dean would be buying his own damn beer”. Castiel’s eyes followed Dean as he walked toward the exit. As Sam led the way out the door, Dean turned around catching Cas’s eye before he followed Sam out of the exit.
Cas glanced at Charlie, who was dutifully ringing up an elderly woman, and waited until she caught his eye and gave him a sympathetic shrug before he turned to look at the mess Dean had made. Cas’s shoulders slumped when he saw that Dean had somehow managed to make an even bigger mess. The graphic tees were nowhere near their right stacks, and it seemed that Dean had deemed it necessary to pull out two of each kind. Cas sighed as he braced himself for spending part of his afternoon cleaning up Dean’s mess.
***
The third time Castiel was Dean, he was already in a bad mood. Gabriel had woken him up at three a.m. by stumbling into Cas’s apartment with two strippers, making Cas question why he ever gave Gabriel a key in the first place. It had taken Cas a good two hours before he had been able to herd Gabe and the strippers out of his house, and then it had taken him an hour and a half to get rid of all of the glitter. The result was a stressed fifteen minutes of yoga, instead of his usual half hour, a rushed shower, no breakfast, and Castiel barreling onto his bus just as the doors were closing.
So when Dean wandered into the store on Saturday, Cas sighed in irritation. His coworkers, with the exception of Charlie, had steered clear of Cas all morning, seeming to sense his aggression.
Cas had been forcefully folding the polo shirts, having just finished with the graphic tees, when Charlie had come scurrying up to him.
“Hey Cas,” she had said, bouncing on her toes a bit, “Your favourite, incredibly handsome customer is back again.”
Cas had looked up, and sure enough, Dean was wandering down the aisle, heading straight toward the graphic tees. Castiel ground his teeth as Dean began to browse. The shirts hadn’t even changed since the last time Dean had been there.
Castiel folded the polos, slamming each shirt down with more and more aggression as Dean made his way around display, unfolding and discarding graphic tee after graphic tee. By the time Dean was half way around the display, Cas had stopped paying attention to the shirts and was just watching Dean, occasionally shifting the polos. With each shirt Dean unfolded and discarded, Castiel felt his anger growing, so when Dean discarded the last shirt and turned to walk away, Castiel lost it.
“Stop.” Castiel commanded. Dean stopped in his tracks and turned to face Cas, surprise written on his face. “Every time you enter this store,” Castiel continued, walking toward Dean, “you go through every style of shirt in the display, which I have always just finished arranging, and then you discard. Every. Single. Shirt.” Cas came to a stop six inches in front of Dean, and drew himself up to his full height. “Now, you will help me fix the display.” Dean’s tongue darted out and he licked his lips before nodding.
“Good.” Castiel stated as he turned and walked back to the display. He showed Dean how to properly fold the shirts, and the two worked in comfortable silence until all the shirts were once again organized.
As the last stack was straightened, Castiel cleared his throat. “I apologize for raising my voice. I have been having a less than satisfactory day, and the disorder in the shirts seemed to have been the metaphorical last straw.”
Dean chuckled, and Cas cocked his head in confusion. “It’s okay man, I’m sorry I messed up your shirts.” Dean ran a hand through his hair. “I guess I didn’t think that you’d have to fix it.”
Cas nodded his head firmly, “You are forgiven, Dean.”
Dean’s eyes snapped up to look at Cas. “How do you know my name?”
Castiel blushed and ducked his head, “I heard the man you were with on Tuesday, Sam, say your name.”
“And you remembered?” Cas nodded, and Dean took a step closer. “Damn, that’s hot.”
Castiel looked up again, confusion obvious in his eyes, but before he could say anything, Dean continued. “Cause I’ve gotta say, you’ve been killing me.” Dean took another step closer to Cas. “I mean, after that first day, when I came back, I mean, do you really think I have an interest in shirts with dumb memes on them?”
Cas smiled slightly at Dean’s words. “Dean…”
Dean laughed and took another step closer. Cas realized Dean was now close enough that if he leaned forward, he could kiss the other man.
“Now,” Dean started, “What’s your name?” He glanced down at Castiel’s nametag, “Because I’m pretty sure it isn’t Debbie.”
Cas chuckled. “Castiel. My name is Castiel.”
“Cas,” Dean breathed.
Cas smiled. “Dean.”
“Fuck,” Dean exclaimed, and then he crashed his lips into Castiel’s. For a moment Castiel’s brain went blank, and then he was kissing Dean back, his tongue licking at Dean’s lips, seeking entrance. Dean moaned and opened his mouth, letting Cas back him into the display in the process. Dean grabbed Cas’s waist, pulling him closer, and Cas groaned, if he could just-”
“Eee-hemm,” a voice cleared their throat behind them, and Cas and Dean sprung apart. Nora raised an eyebrow. “Castiel, shouldn’t you be straightening the ties?”
Cas nodded his head. “Yes. I will do that immediately.”
Nora smiled. “Good,” and she turned and walked away. Cas blushed and turned towards the ties. As he went to walk away, Dean grabbed his arm.
“Hey.”
Castiel turned around. “Dean, I must attened to the ties.”
“Yeah, I get that but,” Dean ran his hand through his hair again. “Can I take you to dinner? I mean, if you want to.”
Castiel smiled and nodded. “I would like that very much, Dean.”
“Good,” Dean mumbled, “That’s good. Pick you up here at eight?” Cas nodded, and Dean smiled. “Good.”
“Goodbye, Dean.”
“See ya, Cas.”
Cas turned his attention to the ties, smiling slightly to himself as he heard Dean trip over a display rack on his way out of the door.
Over at the registers, Charlie slipped a twenty to Nora, mumbling to herself as she did.
“Damn idiots couldn’t wait another day.”