Chapter Text
~~~~~ June, 2005 ~~~~~~
Three years… it had been three years since he had driven this road. Castiel had been home a few times in those three years, but he never came to this side of town. Most of his visits were over the holidays, choosing to stay in Cambridge for the summers. This summer he had no choice but to come home and bury his uncle Zachariah. He felt an emptiness in his uncle's passing, but he thought it was more for the loss of one of his last living family members than for the man himself. When he thought of his actual uncle, all he really felt at his death is relief. He knew it was a terrible thing to feel, but it was the truth of it.
He began to catch glimpses of the lake as he wound down the unmarked road. It was late afternoon as he pulled into the town beach parking lot. The last two moms were piling their kids into their cars—wet towels and goggles tossed in the back. Castiel waited in his car till they drove off, flipping through the radio stations. Suddenly a soft piano melody hit his ears and stopped his heart for just a moment.
“Nightswimming deserves a quiet night
The photograph on the dashboard, taken years ago”
REM drifted out through the speakers and Castiel closed his eyes a minute, letting the song bring him back. Thoughts of warm sun-kissed skin, fumbling hands, and a pair of green eyes filled his mind. It quickly became overwhelming and he turned off the car, jumping out and sucking in a long breath of the June evening air.
He headed toward the path leading down to the beach, and hopped over the rope with the closed sign. The beach looked just the same as he remembered. The big floating dock still sat offshore and small houses dotted the shoreline across the way. Lake Boon was fairly small as far as lakes go, but then again, Stow, Massachusetts was a very small town. He could remember when they installed the town’s first traffic lights at route 117 and route 62. What they lacked in people, they made up for in apple orchards and golf courses.
The sky was taking on a purple hue and the spring peeper frogs were already in full chorus. Castiel walked over to the empty lifeguard chair, ducking underneath to peer up at the old carving on the bottom: DW was here, scrawled in sharp edged lines. Underneath it in slightly more elegant script, so was CN . He smiled before climbing up the steps and sitting himself down in the old wooden seat. He looked over and saw the small ice cream stand was unchanged as well.
The armrests could use a sanding and a coat of paint, so he was careful to not give himself a splinter. He knew he should head back soon and start getting packed up. The house was already on the market with two potential buyers. He would be glad to be rid of it, and cut ties with that old, sterile life. He leaned back, closing his eyes and enjoying the soft breeze.
“Hey there, stranger… long time no see,” a familiar, deep voice called and Castiel looked down past his feet at the man staring up at him. He struggled for words—never had he imagined seeing him here after all this time. The man’s face looked as surprised as he felt.
He licked his lips a moment and cleared his throat before uttering the name he hadn’t said in years…
“Hello, Dean...”
~~~~~ June, 2002 ~~~~~
“Are you paying attention there, sport?” Gabriel asked, and Castiel turned his focus back to his cousin.
“Yes, sorry Gabe.” He tried his best to pay attention, but really, how hard could it be to run an ice cream stand?
“Well, pay attention nerd. Scoop the ice cream, put the money in the register and make sure to lock it up tight when you close.” Gabriel peered around, running a hand through his honey-blond hair. “You call if that ice cream truck comes down here making the rounds, alright? Don’t want his fudge bars and choco-tacos cutting into our business.”
“Yes, I got it,” Castiel added, and tried not to roll his eyes. He was going to be a junior at college next semester — he could handle this job blindfolded.
“Well, I’ll leave you to it. Just buzz the main office if you need me, but try not to need me.” Gabe slapped his arm and gave him a wink before heading out the back. Castiel was grateful his cousin could give him a summer job. There weren’t a lot of options for work back home and his uncle always insisted he work to “keep his mind sharp” and “stay out of trouble,” since he didn’t actually need the money. And because his options were between working the ice cream stand or volunteering at his uncle’s parish, here he sat, watching the locals swim and trying to avoid muscle cramps from scooping ice cream all day.
He only had one friend in this town growing up, a redhead named Anna, but she was staying out in California over the summer. He wondered if someone could die of boredom or not, and the first day wasn’t even over. He fiddled with the beat-up radio that Gabe had duct-taped to the wall, but the reception was tricky and the antenna was bent. Giving up and not wanting to listen to the static, he flipped the radio off and grabbed a book from his backpack.
He sat down, flipping open his copy of Of Mice and Men before propping his feet up to watch the swimmers. Mostly it was young kids up to middle school age, swimming and splashing and jumping off the dock. Mothers sat in rows with books on their laps and coolers at their sides.
He had been reading for a few hours and sold a few ice creams when a flash of red caught his eye. The lifeguard was hopping down off his tall chair and jogging out towards the water. His bright red swim trunks stood out against his seemingly pale skin. Castiel noticed the way his broad shoulders tapered down into slender hips. There was a splash as he entered the water, swimming out toward the buoy line. Castiel squinted and saw a little girl clinging to the rope. The lifeguard reached her and was soon swimming quickly back to shore with the girl in tow.
The lifeguard helped the girl over to her mother and waved off her thanks. The guy had on a bright smile that seemed to light up his whole face. The beaded water made his skin shine a bit in the sunlight, and even from afar Castiel could see that his nipples were hard as a rock from the cold water. Castiel quickly put his eyes back on his book. Last thing he needed was to be caught staring at the guy.
He glanced down at his boring polo shirt and khaki shorts and began to think he was in need of a new summer wardrobe. He continued reading in-between serving ice creams, glancing up at the lifeguard on occasion. The guy was sitting back a little, one leg resting up on the other and a pair of black sunglasses hiding his eyes. He thought the guy caught him looking a few times, but it was hard to tell with the glasses on. Castiel was pretty sure he was the definition of cool guy — basically everything he was not. What a guy like that was doing in a small town working for pennies as a lifeguard was beyond him. He was also pretty sure he had never seen him before, and in a town this small, that meant he was new—that he'd actually chosen to come here for the summer.
The day finally came to an end. The families started to clear out as the lifeguard blew his whistle, signaling the beach was closing. Castiel took that as his cue and started locking up the freezers and marking down the flavors they were lowest on. He was sweeping out the sand that had blown into the stand when he spotted Mr. Cool Guy leaning against the tall chair, tipping his sunglasses down the bridge of his nose, talking to one of the mothers. She was pretty, if he was into that kind of thing, and was playing with the string on her tiny cover up. Mr. Cool Guy flashed the mom his pearly whites and she nodded before turning to follow after her kids up the hill.
Castiel frowned after her, but turned to finish sweeping up, then locked all the doors, checking everything twice. He slung his bag on his shoulder and grabbed his bike, checking the back tire since it had seemed low earlier.
“G’night,” someone called to him.
Castiel glanced up to see the lifeguard walking past him. His voice was deeper than he imagined.
“Have a good night,” he hastily replied and the guy flashed him a small smile, then tipped his glasses down to wink before heading up to the parking lot. Castiel felt his heart thump a little faster in his chest as he watched the guy’s retreating form. He was so totally screwed if he was going to have to spend the whole summer staring at this very straight guy. He took a few calming breaths, willing his semi down before he finally climbed onto his bike to head home.
His uncle was already there, setting out the dining room table for dinner. Castiel avoided looking up at the giant cross over the doorway and headed to the bathroom to wash up before coming back down. His uncle placed the chicken casserole on the table right as he came back into the room.
“Hello, Castiel,” Zachariah said formally. “How was your first day at work?”
“It was good, thank you. How was your day?” Castiel sat at the opposite end of the long formal dining room table, placing his cloth napkin in his lap before serving himself some food.
“Doing God’s work, Castiel, so my day was splendid.”
They ate in silence, interspersed with his uncle’s gossip from the town. It was the same dinner they’d had every Monday night since he started living with his uncle at the age of five. Everything followed a strict set of rules in the Novak household. It was one of the reasons he had been so desperate to get out of the house and off to college. His uncle hated children, so he simply decided to treat Castiel like an adult and expected him to act as such.
Once he was done with dishes, he sat down to watch Jeopardy with his uncle before he was finally able to retreat to the sanctuary of his room. He climbed onto his bed and pulled his headphones on, sliding his new John Mayer CD into his walkman. He didn’t dare play any music his uncle could hear that wasn ’t Contemporary Christian.
He closed his eyes and thought about the lifeguard again. He wasn’t really ripped, not like a gym rat, but he was the kind of lean you got from manual labor. Castiel flexed his biceps on either side, feeling grateful he decided to bike everywhere in the city. He’d really wanted a car but couldn’t justify buying one. He wondered why the guy had winked at him — that had seemed a bit odd. Was that flirting or did he just wink at everyone? Castiel couldn’t wink…as Anna had informed him several times, he just ended up doing a slow blink.
He tried to think about his book from earlier to distract himself. When that didn’t work he pulled out an old textbook and started flipping through the pages, but that failed as well. His mind kept drifting back to Mr. Cool Guy. The way his red trunks hung low on his hips, and the strong bowed legs. He knew it was a sin to think of a guy that way. He knew he shouldn’t, but a pair of breasts never made him as hard as he was thinking of this guy’s broad shoulders. He let his mind wander along with his hand under the waistband of his briefs. He figured thinking about it couldn’t be a sin, so long as he didn’t act on it.
With that justification, he rolled his erection in his hand, feeling the warm weight of it. He took his time imagining his hands were really Mr. Cool Guy making him come undone. He bit his lip to hold back a whimper that wanted to escape as his hips bucked up into his hand. He came on a silent cry, imagining the weight of a firm body pressed against him.
He panted, catching his breath. Holding his softening cock, he felt sad and weary now. Rubbing one out had only served to solidify his sinful nature, yet another nail in his coffin for his immortal soul. The older he got, however, the less and less he began to care about that. How much was an immortal soul worth anyway, when compared with the chance to actually feel someone like that lifeguard in the flesh? He was starting to think he’d make a deal with the devil to bring that about, and unfortunately for him, that was what it would likely take.
