Daisuki CES: THANK YOU! Heh heh.
Slurpee: Ah, it's been a while (mostly because I didn't intend to continue with this), but here ya go.
Esquirella: Oh yes ((nods)), Dean really is that clueless.
Limited Edition: Heh, I figured it would be (it's on mine too.) There will be one more chapter where you can get your smut fix.
Painted Desert: Yes! I think I shall. Heh heh heh.

Author's Note: Currently too tired to go through and look through the second half for errors... so... don't worry about pointing them out, I know they're there. I'll get to it later. Heh heh. Okay, Originally, this was going down a horrendously different path than it is now. That's the reason I didn't write it. The original path was Dean's old bf comes back and blah blah, he's a jerk, blah blah, Dean accidentally kills him O.O

Yeah, so you see the reason for another storyline there. Heh heh heh. Ack... Anyway, this one is a little lighter ((just a smidgen...)) and much easier to write. Not as complicated or involved. Yes, thank you! ((PRAISES!!))

“So, how’d it go?”

“Badly…”

“What? But you studied so hard, you knew everything about those stupid Egyptians.”

“They weren’t stupid. They invented a lot of stuff like the calendar and-”

“How badly did you do then? Eighty-five? Ninety?”

“Ninety-nine…” Dean sighed in disappointment, staring at the ground and completely oblivious to my glare. One point away from getting a perfect and his panties are all in a bunch. He’s probably blaming me for stealing away his last week of grunge work. I could tell by the way he was pouting.

“You’re an overachiever. I’m going to puke on you if you make this into a big deal.” I put my hand on top of his head and sighed, closing my eyes in an exaggerated performance of ‘you’re hopeless’. Dean swiped it off and planted his feet on the ground, arms straight at his side and fisted. He was glaring over the top of his glasses, an angry flare collecting in spots on his cheeks.

“It is a big deal. I had a perfect GPA and now it’s going to fall!”

“Yeah, a quarter of a point. It’s not going to make a difference! Besides, you don’t have another big test like this for at least a month; why not relax a little over it instead of stressing out? Come on, I’ll take you to dinner.” I moved my arm around his shoulders and grinned down at him, trying to soften that iced over little heart of his.

“How about you take me to the library? The next test is on the major wars throughout history. There’s a lot to research.” Dean was walking quickly to my car, books huddled against his chest. I hopped after him, catching his shoulder. Consequently, all his books and papers flew from his hands like he was letting them free and splattered on the ground. That earned me a frustrated whap in the stomach. I pretended to be hurt, picking up his things for him and handing them back with an apologetic expression, but he wasn’t in the forgiving mood. “I’ll walk there if I have to,” he growled, snatching his books away.

“Alright, I’ll get you there Mr. No License For Me. I just have to stop home quick first, can you deal with that?” I looked back and he groaned and nodded his head, knowing I could drive around the block at five MPH before he could ever get onto the block of the university library. He got into my car and we drove back to my apartment. I got out of my side, coming around to Dean’s, since he stayed in, and opened his door for him. He looked up at me with a questioning look. More like, “what the fuck do you want now?” look, but Dean wasn’t one to curse. Dean was much too mild.

“What?”

“Come with me?” I said, holding out my hand for him. I don’t know why I liked him so much. He was stubborn, annoying, and extremely anti-social. He wouldn’t go with me anywhere unless it didn’t involve interaction. So movies were okay; parties, bars, or small get-togethers weren’t. He was a pain in the ass. And for the most part I was just a fuck buddy on the side. We weren’t really going out… at least, by my standards we weren’t. The best way to shut him up was for me to say I loved him. Then he’d blush and look defeated at his hands. Because of that, I didn’t consider us official. Call me sentimental, but that’s the way it was.

Dean puckered out his bottom lip and groaned again, sliding out of the car and slumping while I closed the door. I was starting to get a little perturbed. I mean, he admitted to having fun with me, so why was it every time I was near him, it seemed like he’d just gotten word that the world was coming to an end?

I dragged him upstairs with me, getting him inside the door. Then I turned and locked it, glaring at him a little in amusement. He was staring at me. “I would beg for an apology, but I know you wouldn’t give it to me even if I threatened you. So I won’t try.” But I knew something I would try. Dean was sensitive, easily excitable and I was blaming his sheltered habits for that. If you don’t know what it feels like to be excited, then you can’t stop yourself. He just couldn’t quell anything. Even just touching his neck would sometimes get him up. So, naturally, it was easy to get him to beg for release. I waltzed around the apartment slowly, juggling the key in my hand. Dean followed me around, probably expecting me to pick something up and then head back out. I walked into the bedroom, heading to my dresser, and he followed, snooping after me.

I turned and looked at him, smirking. “I locked the doors. You can’t get out without the key.” I showed him the key, then stuck out my tongue and placed it on top. He grimaced, probably thinking about germs and shit like that, and then his eyes flashed and he was trying to stick his thin fingers into my mouth.

“Don’t you dare swallow that! I need to go to the library, Andre. You said you would take me there.”

“And you said after the test you would spend some time with me,” I garbled, turning my head away and fending off his attacks. He stopped, pushing his head hard into my chest.

“Can’t you wait until after college?”

“Hahaha! In three years? Are you kidding me? I’m sorry if I like to see you once and a while.” I quickly lost any humor I had and spit the key out onto the floor. “Take the damn thing and leave then. I’ll stay here and wait for another one-thousand and ninety-five days for you to get with the program.” I pushed him off and crossed my arms, officially put off, and watched him dash over to the key and pick it up. He was about to walk out of the bedroom when he latched onto the frame and looked back at me.

“Wait, are you angry with me?”

I pursed my lips and refused to answer, wishing I could shut the door in his face without moving. We got into fights like this constantly because Dean was clueless. Afterwards, I would realize I was the one that got myself into it. Did I think one casual screw would suddenly make the worm suddenly crawl out of its hole in the book? Certainly not, but I acted like I did. He was still the same old Dean. Chasing things down for him for a month in the library and silently watching boring documentaries did nothing to change his habits. Merely enforced them. Then that one night I’d up and confessed to him, he hadn’t lied to me and say he loved me back, he just stayed silent. So I knew he didn’t feel for me that way and he had no reason to try and please me because of it. I should just give up now.

Dean was still staring at me from the door, slowly steadying himself as the crickets continued to make their music. Cautiously, it seemed, he made his way back into the room and to me, putting the key on the dresser. He frowned. “What’s your problem?”

“Absolutely nothing, Dean. Skip on over to the Bookatorium and have yourself a ball,” I snapped, snatching the key and sticking it to his forehead. It stayed for a second and then clattered down to the ground between us. Now he knew I was upset and he nudged at his eyes, bouncing his glasses a little.

“What’d I do?” he mumbled quietly, picking up the key and putting it back on the dresser.

“Absolutely nothing, Dean. You never do anything wrong, you cute little son of a bitch,” I said harshly, face smoldered.

“No, really. What’d I do?”

“Absolutely nothing, Dean.”

“What’d I do?” Dean asked again, pulling on my shirt a little. I gave him a poisonous smile and picked up the key again. He watched me grab his hand and push his fingers open, then stick the key into his palm and close his hand around it. I gave another venomous grin and breezed past him.

“We’re close enough to the library. It should only take you ten minutes to get there.” I walked into the kitchen and grabbed myself a glass, filling it with warm water. I was too angry to wait for the taps to turn cold. Dean was right behind me, fingering the key with his hand.

“Are you sure you’re not mad? I really need to study.” Dean touched my shoulder and I shrugged it off quickly, pretending to move to the refrigerator for some food even though my stomach was screaming, “Don’t you dare feed me,” because of the huge lunch I’d splurged on that afternoon. I ducked down low in the fridge and glared at the ranch dressing, waiting for Dean to walk away. “Andre? Are you sure you’re not mad at me? Can I go study?”

I stood up quickly, Dean bouncing off of my shoulder blade, and slammed the refrigerator shut, somehow managing to glare and grin at the same time. Dean seemed impervious to common sense and just stared at me with slanted eyes and waited for my answer. “I never said you couldn’t. Go and study your little brain to mush, babe. I’ll be waiting here when you get back like the idiot I always claim to be ready for your callow manipulation. Have fun.”

Dean beamed at me and kissed my cheek, calling out ‘thanks’ over his shoulder and unlocking the door. I leaned against the counter and crossed my arms, looking down at the folds in my orange shirt sleeves. I felt like throwing something, but I paid for everything in this house and I knew how much things cost and I wasn’t willing to smash my Ben Franklins against the wall just yet. Instead, I fumed at the floor, not exactly sure how else to deal with it. Of all the insensitive and completely ignorant men I had to dote after, I chose Dean; perhaps the most sensitive and caring of the bunch, but still completely odd and air headed. Granted, he didn’t push me around or cheat, but the lack of attention was still just as bad. He cared more about his A’s than he did about me.

And yet what had I been expecting? Just because I said I loved him didn’t mean he would come running to me and change his ways and get straight A’s while being all completely wrapped up in me. I felt like I was chasing a firefly in the dark. Sometimes it was there for me to see and to try and catch, but it would disappear in a flash and I would be left standing there waiting for another signal.

I sat down in the living room, turning on the television so the sound was merely a dull droning in the background before settling my head on the pillow and drifting off to sleep. It was nice to finally have my own apartment, to not have roommates grudging about the phone bill or the water bill or banging on the bathroom door for me to ‘please get the fuck out of the shower’.

“Andre?”

Or to call my name out and try to wake me up while I was sleeping so nicely on the couch. Or to push my shoulder and try and get me to open my eyes when I was obviously traveling in a very deep slumber.

“Andre?”

“Go away you fucking moron!” I cursed loudly, turning onto my stomach and burying my face into the pillow. Yet as soon as I did that I realized I wasn’t at the dorm anymore and it wasn’t my old roommate bothering me about something he could figure out on his own if he read the goddamned textbook. I immediately propped myself up on my elbows and flipped my head around. “Dean?”

“Uh… sorry. I just came back to give you the key. I’ll leave now.”

I caught his wrist, almost falling off the couch completely, but managed to pull my knees underneath me enough to be able to stumble painfully after him. Bouncing along on a wooden floor with unpadded bones is rough business. I ended up releasing him just so I could stop. I was thankful he didn’t rocket out of there and turned and stopped to look at me instead.

“Hahaha. I thought you were my old roommate. I must have been dreaming. I’m sorry.” I stood up, my joints creaking a little, and looked at him, throwing my arms up and stretching. “I was just about to go to bed anyway, so if you wanted to stay, I could pull out the mattress in the closet and you could stay over since it’s late and you’ve got quite a walk to get back to your dorm rooms.”

Dean looked at me, but I couldn’t really see his face because it was so dark in the room. I just got the sense that maybe something was wrong since he didn’t reply right away with a quick and determined, “No!”. I let my arms fall slightly, my elbows slipping down to be parallel with my shoulders, blinking and squinting my eyes to try and get a better look. It looked like he was shaking, but it could have been just the darkness playing tricks on my eyes. For some reason, I was rooted to my little spot on the floor, my arms frozen by my head, eyes straining against the dark spectrum of obscuring gray to try and see his face, to tell if he was okay when I could have just asked and he would have told me if he was or wasn’t.

Yet when I heard the sharp intake of breath and the sniffles, I knew nothing was trying to pull the wool over my eyes and that he really was having trouble with something. I was about to walk up to him when he barreled into my chest, knocking the air clear out of my lungs and throwing my back onto the floor. While he sobbed on my chest and hugged my neck, I struggled for air, wheezing a little and attempting to put my arms around his back.

“I’m so sorry Andre. I’m an idiot. I really am. I thought all this time that it was different than it was, but it wasn’t because it was a whole month and stuff and I was just being stupid and not looking. I might get good grades, but I’m not really smart. I’m so sorry.”

His sobs turned into wails, loud ones right in my ear, and I finally got a good intake of breath, the wheeze leaving and the constricting feeling in my chest fluttering out. I put my arms around Dean’s narrow back and crushed him against my chest, bringing my knees up and frowning.

“What the hell are you talking about? You’re gonna make me go deaf.”

There was a thudding on the wall and then the muffled shrieks of my neighbors as they politely told me to be quiet through the plaster. Dean brought himself down to a quiet whimper and loosened his choking grip on my neck enough so I could sit up with him. He peeled off his glasses from his tear smudged face and threw them on the couch, something I’d never seen him do before since he was always complaining about how glasses were ‘delicate’ things that got twisted easily. I leaned back enough on my hands so I could see his face, or his forehead since he had it bowed pretty low, and waited for him to answer.

“You were mad at me when I left, weren’t you? Don’t be sarcastic this time.”

“Yeah… but I’m not anymore.”

“Why not? I think you had a good enough reason.”

“Heh, Dean, you came straight out and said that you didn’t love me. Me being mad at you for you not making me your first priority is stupid. Besides, school is more important than trying to please someone you don’t really have a relationship with. It’s fine. I was just mad that you’re better at studying than I am. I wish I had the attention span you do. Then maybe I wouldn’t fail all my te-”

“I love you.”

I expelled the rest of my air like I’d been punched in the gut. I stared at him with wide eyes, not able to do anything but gape at him when he raised his head and gave an extremely weak looking smile. “I… thought before… that it wasn’t really what you said it was. That you just wanted to have sex with me because I wasn’t someone who you thought would get attached because the first time I ever got a hint that you cared for me was when you cornered me here that one time. I thought the only reason you liked me at all was because I was someone you could easily dominate. But I was sitting in the library today, alone for the first time in a long time, and I realized that you had been there for me longer than just that one moment. I’m really such an idiot, to not have noticed all those hints you gave me. It must have been frustrating.”

Dean rubbed at his eyes with the back of his hands and I grinned, putting my hands behind my head and lowering myself back down onto the ground. “It sure as hell was. There were times when I thought for sure you’d get it, but you would get send me on another hunt for a book. You’re a clueless dope.” I started laughing.

“Andre, I love you.”

I looked up at Dean and he looked back down at me, conviction in his eyes, like it was a double or nothing sort of situation and he thought he was going to luck out and go home empty but look noble even in his loss. I brought myself back up (with difficulty mind you) and laid one of my hands on his face, smiling a little.

“I, uh, I figured you weren’t lying,” I mocked, remembering how he had responded to me. He started to laugh and then cry and I felt I’d been rude enough and gave him a squeeze, smiling against his hair. “I love you too Dean, you big dope.”

He started laughing and, for once, it felt really good to be in love.