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“Please stop, I don’t want to, you know I don’t want to, you’re being mean!”
Castiel said while being dragged through the parking lot of the local fair by his collar which was in the firm grip of his brother's fist. He was trying and failing to fight back, he squirmed, kicked and pulled every trick he knew to get out of his brother's grasp. He was making quite a scene.
Gabriel sighed and wrangled him around to face him. “You are not getting out of this, you lost the bet and you are going in that maze.” His tone meant no arguments.
‘The bet’ was to see who could get to school first earlier that morning. He only accepted it because he foolishly convinced himself that he could win. He knew was faster than Gabriel and knew all the shortcuts and backstreets through town. However, what he didn’t suspect, was that Gabriel would cheat, and made the bet then got their older brothers to drive him to school. Effectively winning the bet and all the brothers could watch Castiel’s terror when he arrived at school.
“You cheated! I am obliged to fight as much as I want!” Castiel cried as he continued to struggle in his brother's grasp.
“Doesn’t change the outcome, you’re going in that maze.” Gabriel grinned before pulling Castiel into the park. The bet was if Gabriel had lost, was that he would have had to stay and babysit Castiel's trick-or-treating. Unfortunately, since he won he got to drag him along with Balthazar and Lucifer to the Halloween park that had been set up for the October holiday. All the brothers knew how much of a scaredy-cat Castiel was, so it was a no-brainer why they all made sure Castiel lost that race. Balthazar and Lucifer had raced off as soon as the car stopped, probably headed to the food stands and whatnot.
Castiel struggled all the way to the ticket booth and Gabriel finally had enough when he saw the giant grins on his older brothers. He gritted his teeth as he hauled Cas in front of him, “Listen, if you make it through the maze without chickening out, I will drive you back home alright?”
Castiel stopped struggling and looked at him suspiciously, “Just the maze?”
“Yes, and if you keep struggling, I will make you go through every single haunted house they have.”
Cas swallowed and nodded, “Deal.”
“Aw, c’mon I wanted to hear him scream,” Lucifer pouted.
“Yeah, well, you didn’t have to drag him all the way here,” Gabe shot back, “He was seriously getting on my nerves.”
“Whatever, let’s just this ball rolling.” Balthazar said as he walked by the trio and to the ticket booth.
---
Dean loved his job at the park. He literally got paid to scare people. He got to dress up every night and scare the hell out of children. The best was when he got one of his classmates, hearing their screams was the best blackmail ever. Sammy worked in the section next to his, so they worked as a team making sure to scare the kids in the right directions and to the exit.
He was sipping on his soda when he heard the mummers and screams come closer to his section of the maze. He grinned as he set down his soda and fixed his costume. He was dressed as one of those generic movie horror villains, complete with the fake blood, mask and chainless chainsaw.
Grabbing said chainsaw he moved to the entrance of his section and pulled his mask down. His grin widened when he heard the pounding feet of several people, all running his way. His grin widened as they ran right by them and he stepped out revving his chainsaw and holding it high above his head.
---
Castiel ran like his life depended on it, and in his current situation, it certainly felt like it did. After the first person jumped out behind him just as he stepped into the entrance, he ran. He tore past Gabriel, Lucifer and Balthazar and ran straight into the maze, leaving his brothers in a case of ‘every man for himself’.
So far he had managed to run past most of the killers and have only run into two dead ends so he was counting on his luck, but the maze seemed to go on forever and he was running out of stamina fast. He considered himself a good runner, but he is no marathon runner.
He stopped in a corner to catch his breath when he heard pounding feet behind him.
“Run Cassie!!” He turned to see his three brothers sprint down the corridor of the maze and as they sprinted past he saw the maniac chasing them with a chainsaw. His eyes grew big with fear and he sprinted after them. He ran as fast as he could as he heard the sounds of the chainsaw get terrifyingly closer. As he ran, through the twists and turns of the maze, he managed to lose his brothers again and to run right into a dead end. Third times the charm… He heard the chainsaw behind him and he stiffly turned.
“No,” he whispered, his body beginning to tremble, “No. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no….”
He sunk and buried his face into his legs. He began to rock.
---
Dean loved runners, they were the easiest to scare, he began to chase after them, dragging the chainsaw along the ground behind him. He let out a crazy laugh.
As he turned a corner he saw one of the group of kids separated and ran down the opposite path. He chased after the lone kid as he ran straight into a dead end. The poor thing. Dean lifted up the chainsaw and let out another laugh. He saw the kid wince and turn.
His breath caught as he saw the kid's face. He seems only a year or two younger than him, with black sex hair and even from ten feet away with the dying light, those dazzling blue eyes were stunning. He wore a simple shirt and jeans with a cream trench coat. Dean's eyes widened as he saw tears start to trickle down his face and he sunk to the ground.
Dean turned off the chainsaw and started to approach the boy. As he got closer, he saw that the boy was rocking himself back and forth and was muttering a mixture of “please”s, “no”s and don’t”s. Dean lifted his mask and kneeled down in front of him and placed a hand on his shoulder, to which the boy cringed away with a “please don’t”
Dean smiled softly and muttered back, “I’m sorry, are you okay?”
The kid peeked up at him and blinked at him. Dean froze as the realisation hit him like a truck, he just scared Castiel Novak, the guy in the year under him, the guy who’s brother is dating his brother, the guy he may or may not have a small but not-so-small crush on, into tears.
Cas sniffed, “Dean? What are you doing here?”
Dean swallowed down his terror, “Hey, Cas, um, I work here.” He rubbed the back of his neck, with his free hand, “Are you okay? I am so sorry.”
Cas slumped on himself and tried to wipe his tears away. “It’s ok.”
His voice cracked at the end and Dean felt another wave of guilt roll over him. “It’s my fault, I would have gone after your brothers if I had known.”
Cas let out a watery laugh.
Dean rubbed Cas’s shoulders, “C’mon I’ll walk you out of here.”
“You- You don’t have to.” Cas took a few deep breaths and gave Dean a small smile.
Dean smiled back, “I have to apologise somehow.”
“You already said sorry, and I’ve forgiven you.” Cas tilted his head akin a confused puppy. It never failed to make Dean’s heart stutter and he had to bite his lip to prevent himself from cooing.
“No, I couldn’t walk away with that pathetic excuse for an apology. C’mon, I’ll buy you some candy. They’ve got a cotton candy stand near the parking lot.” Dean stood up and dusted off his pants before offering his hand to Cas.
Cas looked hesitant.
Dean softened his smile and tried to copy Sam’s puppy look, “Please, Cas? I’ll take my costume off if you want?”
Cas’s eyes widened, “Really?”
“I know it would look weird walking out the maze with one of the killers.”
Cas nodded and took Dean's hand, “Thank you, Dean.”
“Please don’t thank me, I scared you after all.” Dean winced slightly, “I’m real-”
Cas held his hand up, “Say sorry with the candy Dean.”
Dean couldn’t help but laugh, “Don’t think you can puppy-eye-look your way to free food every time I do something stupid.”
Cas tilted his head again, “I don’t quite understand.”
Dean swallowed hard, picked up his stuff in one hand and grabbed Cas’s hand with the other. He dropped by his basecamp, hid his props and bloodies, over sized costume. He grabbed his jacket and half flat soda and led Cas out of his sector of the maze. He offered Cas the can and smiled and nodded his thanks.
“Sammy,” Dean called out, hoping he wasn’t too loud.
Rounding a few more corners he came across Sam’s little hideaway spot. He nudged the open packet of candy to Cas with a grin.
“I can’t take Sam’s-”
Dean waved his hand at him, “With the shit he pulls with your brother, you deserve it.”
Cas laughed lightly as he took a handful of candies and started to munch on them.
Dean smiled at him before turned and whispered-yelled into the maze, “SAMMY!”
A minute later a masked phoney with a fake hook for the right hand came around and jumped Dean. Well tried to anyway, he got an elbow to the ribs for his efforts.
“What are you doing here?” Sam asked a little winded as he whipped off his mask.
Dean grimaced pointed back at Cas with his thumb, “Dickhead one, two and three ditched him back in my sector. I didn’t want you scaring him, he’s had enough tonight.”
“Cas?”
“Hey Sam.” Cas gave a small wave with his free hand.
“I’m going to walk him out and make sure he’s ok.. I,” Dean scratched the back of his neck and thanked the dying light for hiding his blush, “I got him pretty good.”
“He did,” Cas nodded and popped another candy in his mouth, he turned to Sam in shock, “Um, Dean said it was-”
Sam shook his hand at him, “Take the whole thing if you want, I’ve had enough. You probably need it more than I do.”
Cas smiled and nodded his thanks.
“I’m going to be a few, if anyone asks, tell them I’m on break please,” Dean asked and patted Sam’s shoulder.
“Sure,” Sam rolled his eyes and slid back on his mask. “Don’t be too long, you’ve got quite a few dead ends in your sector.”
“I know,” Dean scuffed his brother's hair before motioning to Cas to follow him. “Let’s get out of here, yeah?”
Cas smiled, “Yeah, thanks.”
Dean rolled his eyes and cast an arm around Cas’s shoulders, “I was the asshole for scaring you, I’m the fault.”
“You were doing your job,” Cas mumbled back but leaned into Dean anyway.
“Not the point.”
Both boys blushed as they walked the remaining sections maze, Dean flipping off the two remaining fake ‘killers’ while keeping his arm secured around Cas’s shoulders. Not that Cas seemed to mind, huddling close to his side the whole trip back. Once out Dean herded Cas the food stands.
“What do you want, Cas?”
“You really don’t-”
“Please Cas, I want to.” Dean tried his luck with the puppy eyes.
Cas huffed, “Those aren’t nearly as good as Sam’s.”
“Nothing comes close to Sam’s, but I’m trying here.” He kept his opinion of Cas's puppy-eyes to himself.
Cas smiled softly before he reluctantly pulled away and led Dean to one of the many candy stalls. He pointed to one of the decent sized assorted candy bags, “One of those thanks.”
Dean happily paid and led Cas to one of the empty tables, “I promised cotton candy, I’ll be right back.”
Cas smiled and started munching on his candy as he watched Dean run to the cotton candy stall. He tried to calm his flustered state and failed as he thought about Dean’s arm around him as they walked through the maze.
“There you are Cas!” Cas jumped and spun to see Gabe running up to the table, “We couldn’t find you once we got out of the maze, where were you?”
Cas glared back, “Still in the maze, you left me.”
“I thought you we with us!”
Cas rolled his eyes, “You weren’t paying attention.”
“I was.” Gabe glared back.
“Saw Sam them?” Cas cocked an eyebrow.
“What?”
“He was one of the murders or whatever.”
“We like to call ourselves, ‘Scaremiesters’” Dean appeared behind him with two cotton candy's and a forced smile, “Dickhead 3.”
“Dean-o” Gabe shot back.
“I was quite surprised too, thought I would find Sam snogging you in there somewhere.”
Gabe smirked, “Was too busy running.”
“Scared, aye?” Dean matched his smirked.
Cas elbowed Dean and Gabe, “Stop it. Please. You’ve brawled enough this week.”
Dean winced slightly, “Right, sorry, your cotton candy, sir.” He offered the ball of pink fluff.
“Thank you.” Cas took the cone and took a large bite out of the cloud of pink sugar.
Gabe snorted, “You two are gross.”
“Says you.” The boys replied in unison.
Gabe held up his hands in surrender, “I promised Cas to take him home after the maze.”
“I’ll do it.” Dean offered a beat too fast.
“Really?” Gabe shot him a look.
“Well, since you can’t be trusted not to ditch him...”
Gabe glared and gave Cas a twenty. “Fine. See you at home.”
Cas waved at Gabe’s retreating form. “You don’t have to.” Cas turned back to Dean as he sat beside him.
“I want to.” Dean smiled back.
Daring to hope Cas slid closer to Dean’s side and smiled when Dean draped his arm around his shoulders again. “Thank you, Dean.”
Dean huffed and huddled closer, “You have to stop thanking me.”
Cas replied, “Make me.”
Dean bit his lip, “Can I…?”
Cas huffed out an amused huff, “Yes.”
Dean gave him a fond look before leaning in and give Cas a chaste kiss. It was sweeter than to be expected due to the added sugar from the candies. When they pulled away both boys couldn’t help but grin at each other, looking like two idiots, one smeared with an absurd amount fake blood and the other carrying too much candy.
It was perfect.