Chapter Text
"Vanya! Yo, Vanya!" Rick hissed. "He's right outside. The really hot dude. Oh fuck, he's coming in."
Letters and leaves did okay, for a sleepy bookstore in an even sleepier town. Sure, they had their slow days, but August brought kids looking for glitter pens and washi tape and exhausted parents looking for “the cheapest pack of notebooks you have, please.” The bell above the door gave its annoying little jingle as one of the new semi-regulars strolled in. Look, Rick was a straight man: he'd dated girls his entire life, never so much as fantasized about another dude, but holy shit, Latin Guy's brother was hot.
He flashed a smile at Rick in greeting and Rick could have sworn his knees went weak for a second. While he tried to decide on a very normal, cool yet professional greeting, Vanya emerged from one of the aisles and he watched as her customer service smile turned into a genuine grin.
"Mr. Winchester! What are you looking for today, sir?" she asked eagerly. Right. Winchester, like the rifle, he'd said. Rick had only seen Hot Dude a couple of times. He knew his brother better, the guy who regularly checked their tiny corner of books in latin. Him, Rick had no problems talking to.
"You can call me Dean, you know", Hot Dude Winchester said. "I'm actually looking for a journal. Ring bound, if you have 'em?"
"Something like a Filofax? Sure! We’ve got that." Vanya lead Dean further into the bookshop, to their little stationery section, and Rick tried to go back to sorting out the November schedule, but his ability to concentrate had gone out the window the second Dean entered. So if Nate comes in and works Fridays like he said, he thought, that means... that means... he could hear Vanya and Dean in the background, and wondered briefly if the guy was married. How old could he be? Early forties, maybe? Rick was twenty five. That’s almost thirty. That's not too big of an age gap.
"I'll be right back, I’m parked close by", Dean suddenly said, and then he was out the door, as quickly as he'd appeared. The doorbell echoed through the shop in his wake.
"What happened?" Rick asked with a frown. Vanya jumped up to sit on the counter, careful not to knock over the tower of post-its she'd spent the entire morning meticulously stacking.
"He was looking to replace an old journal, but he wanted to bring it to compare ring sizes or something. Amount of rings? But dude, I can't believe that's your Hot Guy. Dean is your Hot Guy?"
Rick stared at her.
"You ‘can't believe?’ Are you blind? I know you’re a lesbian, but are you blind?”
Vanya gave him a very unimpressed look.
"I mean, sure. He’s pretty, or whatever. But I really don’t swing that way.”
"Me neither."
Her look turned into one of disbelief.
"Right. But look, I always thought you meant Castiel when you said the New Attractive Semi-Regular Guy. You know Cas, right?"
"Yeah, Jack's dad, you mean?" The Winchesters and the (alright, attractive) Castiel were semi-regulars; Jack was a regular. Great kid, albeit a little strange. Then again, so was Castiel. Coincidentally also quite interested in their (rather bleak) ancient languages shelf. Regularly browsed the books on religion and theology.
"Now he's dreamy", Vanya said. "Dean is too... I dunno."
Dunno or not, he’d be back soon. Rick crossed his arm on the counter and buried his face in them, groaning miserably.
"He’s so hot. What's happening to me?"
"Are you having a little gay awakening?" He could feel a hand patting his shoulder. It felt condescending.
"No", he said, voice muffled into his own arm. "I'm gonna head out back when he returns. I can't even be in the same room as him.”
The doorbell jingled again and Rick's heart almost stopped. He immediately sat up straight and Vanya quickly jumped down from the counter.
"Are you okay? You looked upset. Is this a bad time?" Castiel, in his usual trench coat and tie. He seemed genuinely concerned.
"Can we help?" Jack asked, taking a step towards them. Rick shook his head and plastered on a smile, trying to shake his very embarrassing man-crush.
"No, no, no, I'm fine. And hey, you’re stealing my line here. Here for more stickers, Jack?"
Jack nodded eagerly. "Think we got new Rogue One ones", he added. He'd actually thought about Jack when they unpacked them.
"Really?" While Jack hurried over to the stationery shelves, Castiel looked around the shop curiously.
"Has Dean been here yet?"
Vanya looked a little surprised.
"Yeah, he just left, but he'll be right back, actually. Do you two know each other?"
Now it was Castiel's turn to look confused.
"Dean and I live together."
And oh. Oh. Rick wanted to facepalm himself. He knew Cas was gay; Jack always talked about his dads, plural, never a mom. And of course the two most attractive men in Lebanon were married to each other. If he felt a sting of jealousy looking at Castiel, well. No one had to know.
"Really? Sorry, I had no idea! I didn’t know you were gay, oh my God. I think Lebanon’s queer population just increased by like 25%.”
Castiel looked a little stricken, but in that same moment the doorbell of doom jingled again and Rick tried very hard to act normal.
“Hi again, Dean”, he croaked. Dean winked at him, waving the journal in his hand.
“Got it. Heya, Cas. Did you get the, uh, the--”
“--rice milk? Yeah.”
“And the--”
“-- plant based butter, yes.”
Rick sighed a little on the inside. They were married, alright. I’m straight, he told himself firmly. Knock it off. Meanwhile, Dean leaned in to give Vanya a conspiratorially look.
“Ever tried vegan baking? It’s a pain in the ass.”
Cas huffed.
“Yesterday you said it’s not that different from normal baking.”
Dean made a who, me? face and Rick bit his lip thinking about this gorgeous man in an apron, flour on his face, making him all kinds of baked goods. Castiel rolled his eyes, but a very fond smile tugged at his lips. Fuck, Cas was a lucky man.
“Oooh, is it like a recipe book?” Vanya asked curiously, eyeing the worn journal. “That one was passed down to you, and now you’re looking to start your own?”
Dean and Cas shared a look.
“Something like that”, Dean said. “Alright, show me what you’ve got.” Dean and Vanya joined Jack over by the shelves of pens, notebooks, stickers and sticky notes. Cas looked around the bookstore again.
“Slow day?” he asked.
“Today’s been pretty good, actually”, Rick replied. “It’s August, you know.”
Castiel frowned.
“What do you mean?”
“Back to school season?” He glanced over at Jack. It was surprisingly hard to determine his age, but he had to still be in school. Vanya would say he had an old soul; Rick saw a lot of his niece in him. And his niece was in kindergarten. They’d argued over his possible age before, neither of them thinking to actually ask him.
“Right. Yeah, alright. Students, in need of... supplies.”
“Exactly.” He looked over to Jack again, and chuckled. “You gonna let Jack buy all of those?” Cas turned his head and let out a sigh at the sight of Jack, who looked like he’d picked one sheet of each little hanger on their sticker rack.
“He has something of an addiction”, Castiel said with a shake of his head. “We have stickers everywhere.”
Jack put them all on the counter and Rick started scanning them. For each dull beep, Jack’s grin grew wider. And pretty soon Dean and Vanya joined them at the counter; Dean seemed to have settled on a sleek, black leather binder.
“See?” He showed Cas the insides of the journal. “Same rings. I can just transfer the pages we need from Dad’s journal to this one. And I got a bunch of refills, pre-punched.”
Cas nodded.
“Jack found some stickers. I didn’t stop him.”
Dean looked from the pile of scanned sheets to Castiel.
“Does he really need more?”
“Yes!” said Jack.
“No”, said Cas, “but he really wants them.”
Dean put his own pile of items on the counter, and Rick silently scanned them too.
“Just cause you really want something--”
“Dean”, Cas pleaded. Jack looked hopefully up at Dean.
“Fine. But you can’t keep spoiling him like this, buddy.”
Buddy? Castiel seemed completely unfazed by the name.
“I can, and I will”, he muttered. “He deserves it.”
Dean rolled his eyes and proceeded to pay for everything.
“And what happens when he wants, what, a puppy?”
Jack's reaction was immediate; he lit up like a whole Christmas tree.
“A puppy? Can I have a puppy? Please, can I?”
Castiel looked straight at Dean, a little distressed.
“I can’t say no to him.”
Dean looked straight at Jack.
“Hey, kid. You can have stickers. Here, you’ve got--” He checked the receipt. “Forty-six sheets of ‘em. Don’t ask Cas for a puppy.”
Jack looked a little defeated, but nodded.
“Okay. Thank you for the stickers, Dean. Bye, Rick! Bye, Vanya!”
“Bye, Jack!” they replied in unison. Vanya was smiling from ear to ear and despite his mild case of heartbreak, Rick felt himself smile at their customers too. Even if they didn’t make a lick of sense, they seemed like a very happy family. Castiel smiled and thanked them for their help; Dean used two fingers to discreetly tug at his coat.
“See you around, kids”, he said over his shoulder.
The bell gave a final jingle as they left. Rick and Vanya stood in silence for a few moments, just staring at the door. Then they spoke simultaneously.
“He called him buddy.”
“He called me a kid.”
“Did you hear that? That was weird, wasn’t it?”
“Yeah. And they weren’t wearing rings”, Rick said.
“Why were you looking at their fingers-- oh my God.” His previous comment seemed to catch up with her. “Oh, my God, get over it. You’re out of his league anyway. But do you think...”
“No, they have to be together. They live together.” It didn’t make sense. “But wait. Has Cas ever said anything about being married?”
Vanya shook her head.
“Not that I can recall.”
“Is he on Facebook? Is it weird to stalk your customers? That’s weird, right? I’m not gonna do that.” Vanya very much looked like she wanted to do that, but Rick shook his head and motioned for her to come sit down next to him and help him figure out the November schedule.
“Yeah, let’s not do that”, he sighed. “If Dean turns out to be, I don’t know, a serial killer or something, I’d rather not know.”