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“Dean, what if no one wants one of my friendship bracelets? I can’t just…talk to people. I think I made all of these for nothing.” Cas frowns while he stuffs his stadium approved clear shoulder bag to the brim with colorful handmade bracelets.
Dean smiles at Cas and walks over to hug him from behind, resting his chin on Cas’ shoulder. They’ve been married for two years, Dean likes to think that he knows his husband pretty well by now. He’s already secretly prepared for this scenario.
“Cas, trust me. Everyone is gonna love them. I bet by the end of the show you won’t have any left.” Dean lets Cas go and grabs his keys from the table.
Cas sighs.“If you say so, Dean,” he zips up the bag and puts it over his shoulder with a small frown on his face. “I’m ready.”
Dean kisses Cas’ cheek and opens the front door for him to go first, mostly because he’s a gentleman, but also because he doesn't want Cas to see what he carefully stenciled on the back of his shirt while Cas was preoccupied making friendship bracelets.
The drive to Lumen field takes about 45 minutes from Sam’s house, but Dean doesn't mind. Cas puts in the Era’s tour playlist that Dean made for him on cassette and is content humming along to the music with his arm out the window, enjoying the mild weather. They’re on their anniversary road trip; they left their home town of Lawrence a little over a week ago and are spending a few days in Seattle with Sam and his fiancé Jessica. Sam and Jess braved Ticketmaster and surprised Dean and Cas with Taylor Swift tickets for Christmas, officially making Sam the best brother ever.
They arrive early and park within plenty of time. Dean looks over at his husband, who is looking in the car mirror making sure that the pink glitter heart encompassing his right eye is still perfect. Cas is wearing light pink shorts and a pastel striped short-sleeve shirt in the “Lover” era colors. Cas’ left arm has at least 20 bracelets on it already, he left his right arm bare just in case he received any bracelets from other people.
Dean loves him so much. He reaches over and grabs Cas’ hand and kisses it.
“Sweetheart, you look perfect. Let’s go inside.”
Cas nods and after they get out of Baby they hold hands and head towards the entrance. Dean makes sure that Cas is never behind him, he doesn’t want to ruin the surprise.
The first time someone asks Cas for a friendship bracelet, they’re in the ticket entry line. A woman dressed in her “Reputation” era taps Cas on the back. Cas’ bright blue eyes widen as she asks to exchange bracelets and he looks at Dean with poorly contained excitement. Cas unzips his shoulder bag and grabs a handful of bracelets, then zips it back again. He hands the woman a bracelet with black beads, the phrase “I’m your daisy” with two white bead daisies with a yellow center (Dean’s not sure how Cas made it but he’s so proud of him).
The woman grins and gives Cas a “Fuck John Mayer” bracelet. The woman tells Dean she likes his shirt, Dean has on a black t-shirt that on the front says “Karma is a cat, purring in my lap” featuring Olivia the cat with her back leg sticking straight up, but he knows the woman isn’t talking about the front of his shirt. He winks at her, grateful that Cas is too distracted to pay attention. Cas puts the new bracelet on his right wrist gleefully and tugs Dean in for a kiss.
By the time they enter the stadium, Cas has exchanged close to 30 bracelets. They take selfies with most of the people and Cas uploads some to his Instagram and finds himself tagged by his new friends in theirs.
The next time Cas gets asked for his bracelets, they’re in the beverage line. Cas exchanges bracelets with what seems like a whole college sorority while Dean pays too much money for two themed drinks in a pink, purple, and blue mirrorball cup.
Cas has almost run out of bracelets by the time they make it to their seats.
Around the eighty-ninth time someone asks Cas for a bracelet, it’s while Taylor plays the first surprise song “This Is Why We Can’t Have Nice Things”. Cas taps on Dean’s side repeatedly until he looks over at the man talking to Cas—it just so happens to be Cas’ ex-fiancé, Mick, of all people.
Dean isn’t sure who is the most surprised, but he ain’t interested in hearing excuses about how Mick just happened to know what city Cas had tickets in or how he knew Cas’ seat number. Mick is a travel nurse, and it makes Dean furious to think about how long the dude could have been planning this. It’s fuckin’ creepy.
Dean doesn’t mean to go all possessive husband, but Mick is interrupting during a damn good song and Dean doesn’t want this to ruin Cas’ fun. Dean misses part of what Mick is saying due to all of the screaming and singing around him so he steps closer to hear.
“How about one of them friendship bracelets, Castiel? Maybe afterwards we can catch up, for old times sake.” Mick is touching Cas’ arm and is speaking close to his ear, either due to the noise or because he’s a fucking douchebag.
Cas looks very uncomfortable.
“Listen buddy, If my husband wants to give you a bracelet that’s fine, but after that how about you go back to where ever the fuck you came from so we can enjoy the rest of this, without you.”
Dean turns away from Mick, but wraps his left arm around Cas’ side, holding him close. Mick opens and closes his mouth a few times while looking between Cas and Dean.
Cas throws his head back and laughs before wrapping his arms around Dean’s neck and kissing him deeply.
(Spoiler: Mick does not leave with a friendship bracelet, only a bruised ego.)
They dance in the position they’re in for the rest of the song, grinning at each other like love-struck idiots—which, fair.
This is why we can't have nice things, darling
Because you break them, I had to take them away
Mick doesn’t reappear, but the incident caused the people seated around them to become their new best friends. More bracelets are exchanged and Cas finally runs out. Both arms are covered with bracelets and Cas couldn’t look happier.
The first notes to “Everything Has Changed”, Taylor’s second surprise song of the night, starts to play and Cas starts to sob, with actual tears and everything.
“It’s our song, Dean.” Cas rests his head on Dean’s shoulder and holds his waist tightly as they sway to the song.
Dean kisses Cas on the head, mindful to not smear his pink glittery heart, and holds him tightly right back. It is their song. Dean remembers it like it was yesterday…
All I know is we said, "Hello"
Your eyes look like comin' home
All I know is a simple name
And everything has changed
All I know is you held the door
You'll be mine and I'll be yours
All I know since yesterday
Is everything has changed
Dean was working at his coffee shop the day Red (Taylor’s Version) was released, so he had it playing over the speakers on repeat. The door chimed and Dean closed the lid on the freshly stocked display case to see a handsome man in navy blue scrubs walk in. As he got closer, Dean noticed he had bags under his eyes but they didn’t distract from his piercing blue gaze.
The morning rush was over, so the man was the only customer in the shop.
“You headin’ in or gettin’ off?” Dean asked with a smile when blue eyes stepped to the register.
The man tilted his head and slightly narrowed his eyes in confusion.
Dean gestured to the man’s well fitting scrubs, still grinning.
“Oh! I’m getting off of work, but I have to stay up today so I can move out of my apartment and into my new one.” The man rubbed his eyes and sighed. “This requires caffeine, a lot of caffeine.”
“How about some breakfast too? On the house.” Dean winked. Dean would never hear the end of it from Charlie if he didn’t try, at least a little bit.
The gorgeous man tried to argue, but Dean wouldn’t take no for an answer. Finally, blue eyes told him his coffee order and that he had no dietary constrictions (how adorable was this guy, dietary constrictions).
“Thank you…” the man raised his eyebrows and looked expectantly at Dean.
“M’ Dean. It’s nice to meet cha,” he stated while carefully putting together the breakfast sandwich and placing it on the panini press, then starting the espresso machine.
“Thank you for breakfast, Dean, I’m Castiel.”
“Castiel, huh? Well, Cas, find you a seat and I’ll bring your order to you. Would you mind some company?” Dean looked up to gauge his reaction.
Blue eyes—Cas— turned a lovely shade of pink and mumbled out that he would be amenable to that before sitting by the window.
“Hey Charlie?”
Charlie poked her head out of the backroom. “What’s up, boss?” Charlie’s eyes swept across the empty coffee shop until she saw Cas. “Or should I say whom, ” Charlie waggled her eyebrows obnoxiously.
Dean rolled his eyes. “Cover the front for me, will ya?” He said while taking off his apron and hanging it up.
Charlie made a few more lewd comments which Dean ignored, grabbing Cas’ sandwich and quad espresso.
Dean set it all down in front of Cas and sat in the empty seat across from him.
“Thank you again, Dean.” Cas smiled and gave a moan of appreciation when he bit into the warm sandwich.
“Anytime, Cas. Sounds like you have a full day ahead of ya.”
Cas nodded his head and swallowed. “Yes. My brother and his boyfriend are going to help me move everything and hopefully we get finished before lunch.”
Cas paused. “Are you playing…Taylor Swift? I forgot the album was coming out tomorrow—already came out—today.” Cas shook his head like he was an etch a sketch. “I work night shift at the hospital, so ‘yesterdays’ and ‘tomorrows’ are always subjectively hard for me.” Cas rubbed his eyes and took another bite of his sandwich.
Dean laughed. “No worries. I would say I’m a secret Swiftie, but this is my shop so I pick the music. I have to say though, it’s nice to run into a fellow fan in the wild.”
Castiel swallowed the rest of his sandwich and wiped his hands on the napkin. “I love Taylor Swift,” Castiel whispered it like it was a secret.
“My brother Gabe took me to see her for all of her tours, Fearless was actually my very first concert. My fiancé—ex-fiancé—Mick, hates Taylor. He won’t—wouldn’t—let me listen to her in our apartment when we were both home.” Cas opened his mouth like he’s going to continue, but shuts it suddenly, looking at Dean with a horrified look on his face.
“I am so sorry, I didn’t mean to unload all of my relationship drama onto you. It’s just so fresh and I’ve worked for 12 and a half hours last night,” Cas pinched the bridge of his nose, “—today, or whatever—and you’ve been so kind and,” Castiel pauses to listen to the song currently playing, “and I love this song so fucking much.”
“It’s pretty fitting, right? Cas, not to be cliche, but I would like to know you better. I know you’re going through some shit right now, but I’m going to leave you my phone number, and I want you to call me when you’re ready.” Dean patted his shirt to find a pen, but realized he took his apron off. Cas reached into his scrub pocket and pulled out a pen, handing it to Dean over his empty plate.
Dean grabbed a napkin and started to write down his number on it, but suddenly Cas snatched the pen back. Dean looked up in shock, assuming Cas changed his mind.
Instead, Cas took out his phone from his other pocket and punched in the passcode, handing Dean the phone afterwards.
Dean raised an eyebrow at Cas, who just shrugged. “I don’t want to lose your phone number while I’m moving today.”
Dean tried to conceal his smile while he added himself as a contact and passed Cas his phone back.
Cas stood up and drank the rest of his espresso. “I’ll message you…when I’m ready.” Cas seemed to be holding back a smile.
“Sounds great, Cas. Looking forward to it.” Dean really wanted to get to know the guy, he hoped Cas would reach out soon.
Dean watched Cas leave, but Cas stopped outside of the shop window and pulled out his phone.
Dean’s phone vibrated, he pulled it out of his pocket to a message from an unknown number:
“And all I've seen since eight seconds ago is green eyes and freckles and your smile, in the back of my mind making me feel like…”
Dean looked up, finding Cas grinning at him through the window. Dean typed out a quick response:
“I just wanna know you better, know you better, know you better now…”
Cas read the message with a gummy smile making an appearance.
Dean waved bye to Cas as he walked away and he chuckled to himself. Life was never gonna be the same; he was looking forward to the change, as long as Cas was there with him.
All I know is we said, "Hello"
So dust off your highest hopes
All I know is pouring rain
And everything has changed
All I know is a new found grace
All my days, I'll know your face
All I know since yesterday
Is everything has changed
The rest of the show is magical and they have no other rude interruptions from ex-fiancés.
Dean and Cas walk out of the stadium hand in hand, wrist bands still lighting up. Someone taps Dean on his shoulder and asks if they can take a picture of the back of his shirt with his husband pointing to it next to him.
Cas tilts his head and looks at Dean. “Why would they want a picture with—“ Cas gasps as Dean grins and turns around, revealing the back of his shirt:
Please ask my
husband about
his friendship
bracelets
(he’s shy)
“Oh Dean,” Cas says in awe. They take the picture and then rejoin hands while they walk to the Impala. Cas is quietly sniffling.
“Sweetheart, you okay?” Dean asks, worried that he hurt Cas’ feelings and that the whole thing backfired.
Cas nods his head, tears still in his eyes, and pulls Dean towards the car. Dean rubs his thumb over Cas’ hand until they reach Baby. Dean goes to open the passenger door for Cas, but Cas grabs his hand.
Dean is slightly more concerned that he fucked up. He runs his free hand through his hair. “Cas—“
Cas puts a finger over Dean’s lips to shush him.
“I love you, so, so much. Thank you.” Dean pokes his tongue out to lightly lick Cas’ finger.
Cas laughs, but more tears start to stream down his face. “I’m so happy you’re my husband. I’m so happy I went into your coffee shop and you were so kind and bought me breakfast and that you were playing Taylor Swift over the speakers.” Cas wraps his arms around Dean and rests his head in the crook of Dean’s neck.
Cas sniffles again. “I’m just so happy that I have you. I didn’t know what it meant to be truly happy; to think I could have ended up with, with Mick—“
Dean lightly pulls away from Cas and caresses his face. The sparkly heart is a little smudged and Cas’ eyes are a little red and swollen from crying.
Cas is absolutely perfect.
“Sweetheart, I love you so much. I’ll always be here for you. Whether I need to change your tire or to wear a shirt advertising homemade friendship bracelets because I know you’re shy. I’m so happy you picked me, I love being your husband. Happy anniversary.”
Dean wipes away a tear falling down Cas’ cheek with his thumb and then kisses his husband in the middle of the parking lot, because he can.
And ah, take me out, and take me home (forever and ever)
You're my, my, my, my
Lover