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Dean Winchester, physics teacher, had a reputation at school. A good reputation. Dean liked his reputation. Dean Winchester was known for always having a pencil when you asked. He would always give you a freshly sharpened, brand-new looking pencil. Both teachers and students knew about this and would frequently use a Winchester-pencil. The only rule was that you returned the pencil once you're done, so the next person could use it all well.
Castiel Novak, English teacher, had a reputation at school. Castiel didn’t know about his reputation, so he didn't really have an opinion on it, but even if he had known about it, he would merely be surprised. To be fair, saying he had a reputation might be exaggerating it, since only one person knew about his reputation. See, if you asked Dean Winchester about Castiel, the first three words to describe him would be absent minded, silent and a pencil hog (gorgeous would be the fourth thing, but that's not the point here).
See this is what happened to get Castiel this reputation. He, like everybody else occasionally borrowed a Winchester-pencil, but he, opposed to everybody else, didn't return it. If it had happened once or twice Dean would be able to overlook it. But so far it had happened 19 out of 20 times. And the one time Dean recovered his pencil, he had taken it of Castiel’s table when he had looked away.
But this school year Dean had a plan. When he had bought his usual stack of pencils at the beginning of the school year, he had bought a stash of pink glittering ones. The kind that let glitter all over your hands when used and all over whatever you touched next. His Cas-stack.
Let that pencil hog try to steal one now!
Cas fixed his tie in the rear view mirror one last time. He hated going to school. He never should have become a teacher in the first place. He had wanted to write when he had graduated, but decided to get a steady income first. Which meant that he was now stuck in a job which he hated with no spare time left to write.
He had been the odd one out when he was a child and every now and then he felt the same in the teacher lounge. He didn't fit in. For example, he was never invited to go to the bar after school. It mostly was his own fault though, he was just too shy to ask whether he could come along. Every time he gathered the courage to ask, Dean Winchester would say something and Castiel would chicken out.
Dean Winchester was probably the most perfect human being to have ever walked the earth, with his green eyes, his freckles and his amazing laugh. And as if that wasn't enough Dean was also incredibly outgoing and kind. In short, he was everything Castiel wasn't. He even gave you a pencil whenever someone asked for it. Of course you were expected to return the pencil when you were finished, but the dozen or so pencils at his house would prove that Castiel still failed in that part. Not that he didn't want to, he even regularly practised in the mirror what he would say when he could get a moment alone with Dean. He would be charming and funny and just flirty enough to make Dean wonder. But then he would get to the point where he should return the pencil and he realised that there was no moment alone with Dean Winchester, there was always someone talking to him. And then Castiel would have waited too long and it would be awkward to return the pencil. That’s how he ended up with so many pencils. He was pretty sure he could start passing them around himself by now, if people were to ask for them. Which they didn't. So he had made himself promise not to borrow any pencils from Dean this year. He had had enough.
He gave up on his tie and walked the school in, ready for another year of illiterate students and frustratingly handsome physics teachers.
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Things weren't going according to plan. School had started 2 months ago and Castiel hadn't asked for a pencil one single time. Which meant Dean carries around pink, glittery pencils for nothing.
But even more frustrating was the fact that Castiel and the new history teacher got on like a house on fire. Dean had hated the new teacher from the moment he had walked through the door. He had sat down next to Castiel, had seen Dean's glare and had wrapped his arms around Castiel and declared them best friends. And Castiel had allowed it, he even seemed to enjoy it. As if it were that easy to becomes Castiel's friend. Dean had been trying to get there for 2 years now. Well, maybe he hadn't tried as much as had been meaning to try, meaning to ask him to sit next to him, ask him to come along to The Roadhouse after work, but every time he tried, someone else needed his attention and when they were done, Castiel had disappeared. And now this complete stranger had walked in and stole him away. He probably now lend Castiel a pencil when he needed one. It felt like ages since he last had those blue eyes on him and Dean was only a couple of days away from admitting that he missed them. He was only a couple of weeks away from admitting that maybe gorgeous was the first word that came to mind when he thought about Castiel.
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Dean Winchester had a Plan. A good plan. A great plan. If Castiel wouldn’t ask for a pencil, Dean would just give them to him. Every time Castiel sat down, he would make a pencil appear. A pink, glittery pencil. And Castiel would know they were from him, who else gives pencils away – only to Castiel, the rest had to give them back – at the school. And then he would have glitter all over him and he would always be reminded of Dean. It would work. It had to work.
Castiel was confused. He used to have a collection of freshly sharpened, yellow pencils. These days he has a collection of freshly sharpened, pink pencils. With glitter. And he was pretty sure the pencils came from the same source. He had even caught Dean placing one in on his desk during his free hour. What Castiel was confused about was why. Why did Dean leave him glittery pencils. He had even asked Balthazar about it, but he had just laughed.
Balthazar had walked in on the first day of school and had just sat down next to him and that was that. And though Balthazar was his opposite in a lot of ways, they did get along. Except when it came to talking about Dean, whenever Castiel brought him up, Balthazar would either start laughing or told him to stop being dumb.
So he wasn't a help with the pencil-situation either. And that meant that if he wanted to know what was going on, he would have to do the one thing he swore to never do: talk to Dean
And that is how Castiel got here, with 19 yellow and about thirty pink pencils in his hands and a blush on his face, in front of Dean, stuttering his apologies about stealing the pencils.
And this how Dean got here, with a cute Castiel in front of him and nothing else to say than “I’ll forgive you, if you’ll have a date with me?”
And this how Dean Winchester ended up dating a pencil hog who had a preference for using pink glittery pencils.
(though this might be because Castiel liked the way there would always be glitter on Dean as well, a claim that only they understood)