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In the beginning, Dean didn’t notice the shy, dark-haired man who had removed his top and stood awkwardly at the edge of the pool in his navy swimming trunks. The way he shuffled around the edge of the lap pool, or the way he wrapped his arms around him to hide his upper body. He gave him a cursory glance when he did his usual left-to-right eye-sweep of the length of the swimming pool. Dean just saw another random person at his day-job as a lifeguard.
Sammy was the unlucky sucker who waited tables at the poolside cafe and by the looks of it, he hated it. Every time Dean looked over to the café to keep an eye on Sammy, his brother would have a pained expression on his face. The café’s uniform was a thin white v-neck and a pair of black shorts (coupled with his Converse) and as such, Sammy especially hated lunch hour when old women from the neighbourhood came down just to check him out. Once, he had glanced over and saw an old lady wink at Sam. The old lady then tried to grab his ass. Sammy’s mortified face carried him through a few weeks of mindless employment.
As for Dean, all he had to do was bask in the sun, take a nap at his highchair if he wanted and whistle at rowdy boys trying to drown each other.
The whistle made him their god, he thought.
But as the summer went on, Dean started to notice the dark-haired man. It happened like in one of those cliché teen movies, the first time. Every once in a while, he would feel as if someone was watching him in his highchair, and he would glance around the pool to find the perpetrator. The first day he felt the glance, he could not find the person. However soon enough, he caught on to the guy - who had slipped up by hiding his gaze a little too late. Dean had caught a flash of bright blue eyes followed by raven-black hair, and smiled to himself.
After that, they played a little game where Dean tried to catch the guy looking at him. He saw him again at the pool a few times a week, either coming alone or with a bunch of boys and (modestly-clad) girls.
But it wasn’t until now, a few weeks later, that Dean found out that his name was Castiel. The group of boys and girls he sometimes came with were screaming at him from one end of the pool to swim over to them at the other side where they were. The name was weird, but it suited him. But he liked the name Cas for him - it suited him better.
He watched Cas kick off the side of the pool in a powerful but graceful glide with sturdy thighs and calves, watching him streamline through the water in perfect form toward his friends. His back muscles bunched whenever he brought his arms back and released fluidly when he moved his arms forward. Dean could only wish that he had a camera or could draw to save his life to capture how beautifully Cas swam.
And usually, Dean tried not to watch him (but discreetly ogled him all the same) when Cas covered his lower half with a towel, his dripping upper body reflecting off the sunlight. But this time, he realized his attempt at discretion failed miserably when he saw Cas staring back at him. He tried to be unabashed about it, blushing when he failed at that too.
Screw it, he thought, he started it.
He focused right on Cas, body turned fully toward him and smiled for a beat before giving him a huge wink. He almost fell off his highchair laughing at the slack-jawed expression he got in return from Cas, the raven-haired man looked around him probably to see if Dean was winking at somebody else.
Me?, he motioned with a thumb pointed toward himself.
Uh huh, Dean mouthed, nodding his head deliberately. He’d be lying if he said he wasn’t thoroughly enjoying the bewilderment on Cas’ face. He motioned to Cas to come over to where he was, drawing another wide-eyed (if not completely deer-in-headlights) expression from the cutie. As if he’s forgotten how to move, Cas almost tripped over his feet walking over to Dean, and Dean smiled at him the entire walk over, unable to contain his beaming when Cas shuffled nearer.
“Hi, I’m Dean”, he supplied in manner of getting the bashful guy to ease up. He could see the guy’s blush spreading from his face into his neck and ears.
Cas looked up at Dean from beneath his lashes, trying to contain his blush and giving him a tight lipped smile. With an unexpectedly deep voice, he replied -
“Hi… I’m Castiel”
“I know. ”