SPN Fic: MUD in Your Eye 1/1
Aug. 29th, 2006 04:46 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
gilascaveTitle: MUD In Your Eye
Author: James
Rating: PG
Pairing: Dean/ofc UST
Disclaimer: not mine, no profit made
Word Count: ~1300
Prompt: #190 Dean crushes on the nerdy/shy kid in school.
Notes: written for the![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-community.gif)
spn_flashback Back to School challenge.
Since he was twelve years old, every school Dean had ever been to, he'd been popular. Even if he avoided the really "popular" kids -- which was usually -- he'd found himself unavoidably popular as well. Sometimes he played it up, letting other kids bring him sodas in class and getting the smart girls to do his homework. Sometimes he used his 'cooler than you' attitude to keep them all at a distance, wishing they could have some of this and knowing they never would. Sometimes he just really didn't care what the other kids thought of him.
Usually he just let it work for him. What he wanted, Dean Winchester got, and if he left a few dozen broken hearts across the country, then, well, that was life. They'd forget about him sooner or later after Dean moved on, and God knew it wasn't like Dean could remember all the cute faces he'd ever met.
When he was sixteen, he thought that maybe he needed a new strategy. He'd been at Holbert High for two months, and it was decent enough. Big classes with over-worked teachers who really only wanted you to shut up and not get into fights. It was easy to not get hassled if you just stayed off the radar. But the library had a new computer network, one of those government grants that gave what the school didn't really need.
Dean only had to smile at the librarian and she was waving him towards the computer desks. He always made sure to clean up his stuff, never gave her any backtalk, and once in a while he'd stay and help re-shelve books or something.
And he got to play MUDs during study hall. It was the sort of thing he would have killed Sam if he'd ever found out his brother was playing Dungeons and Dragons online, but Dean told himself it was just like training -- if not the body, then his instincts and strategic thinking and sometimes he even learned a bit about folklore and legends that he thought were probably based in truth.
It was nice to be able to take a hit without bleeding, too.
He still knew Sam would rag him for years if he knew Dean was such a geek, so Dean only played at school and never, ever gave in to the temptation to stay after school and play. All he needed was for Sam to walk over from the middle school and ask him when the hell he was getting a ride home.
Everything was pretty awesome until one day Dean noticed that the computer three down and across the aisle was always occupied by the same girl -- Mellissa something or other. She was in his history class, but otherwise they were in completely different circles. Mellissa was doing the whole AP course, pre-college, egghead brainiac track while Dean was scooting along in Shop and remedial math and the easiest electives he'd been able to find: typing and psychology.
She was OK to look at, even with her thick glasses and ponytails that looked like she'd just rolled out of bed with them already up. She didn't have the stuttering awkwardness that most geeks did, which Dean counted as a point in her favor. But she'd always been one of those kids he didn't think twice about, because even if they lusted after him, he could easily find prettier faces to indulge himself with.
The trouble was, the third time he noticed her sitting at the computer, he realised she was playing Avalon. He'd been playing that one off and on, and as he watched over her shoulder, he realised two more things. The first was that he'd played her, online. The second was that she'd handed him his ass both times they'd met up.
That was going to make it impossible for him to just walk over and introduce himself -- no way was he letting this geek girl laugh at him for being a pansy-ass fighter online. It wasn't like he could say "You should see me in real life", even if he was a hell of a lot better with a real shotgun than a virtual crossbow. but unless she was playing at home, she wasn't spending any more time online than he was, so how the hell was she so much better?
Dean watched her play every afternoon for two weeks, and all he could figure out was that no matter how she was doing it, she was still capable of kicking his ass.
He reconsidered his decision not to play after school. To hell with Sam, he could walk home. Only Dad would kill him and Sam really would tease him for the next decade, and the only thing worse than being beaten by a geek-girl was being laughed at by his little brother. Dean did start playing during lunch, and whenever his Shop teacher was in a particularly pissy mood Dean would skip that class as well, and spend it in the library.
No matter how much practise he got, whenever he met up with her online -- she kicked his ass.
He started spending more time watching her outside the library. There wasn't much opportunity; sometimes in history they'd answer questions or read bits of their essays out loud. Mellissa's were always pretty good, as good at the academic thing as Sam was, as far as Dean could tell. She stammered at first, but when she got going she'd ramble on like she knew what she was talking about.
Dean figured out where she hung out before school, the Geek Enclave gathering behind the science rooms and talking about shit that was completely over Dean's head. She seemed perfectly in her element there, surrounded by other kids who wore glasses as thick as hers and who had the dress-sense of tree frogs. Nothing like when she walked to her math class past the gym, head down so no one could see her face as the cheerleaders went through their routines.
One day she came to school with her hair down, all the frizzy bits brushed out. She was wearing a shirt Dean hadn't seen her in before, one that fit a little tighter and a blue that really looked good on her. She actually kinda looked pretty. As he made his way to the library for his study hall, he thought.. well, maybe it wouldn't be so bad if he talked to her.
She wasn't in the library that day, though, and as Dean played he didn't see her online at all. She didn't show up for a week, but her hair stayed down and her shirts stayed kinda tight and she was smiling a lot more.
When Dean saw her behind the science rooms being kissed by one of the math jocks, he realised why.
The next day, Dean skipped study hall. A month later they moved again, and Dean's new high school didn't have a computer network available to students, and the librarian was a mean bitch who saw right through him anyhow.
That summer he managed to get online, and he logged into the game. It took a few hours but he found her character.
And she still kicked his ass.
Author: James
Rating: PG
Pairing: Dean/ofc UST
Disclaimer: not mine, no profit made
Word Count: ~1300
Prompt: #190 Dean crushes on the nerdy/shy kid in school.
Notes: written for the
spn_flashback Back to School challenge.Since he was twelve years old, every school Dean had ever been to, he'd been popular. Even if he avoided the really "popular" kids -- which was usually -- he'd found himself unavoidably popular as well. Sometimes he played it up, letting other kids bring him sodas in class and getting the smart girls to do his homework. Sometimes he used his 'cooler than you' attitude to keep them all at a distance, wishing they could have some of this and knowing they never would. Sometimes he just really didn't care what the other kids thought of him.
Usually he just let it work for him. What he wanted, Dean Winchester got, and if he left a few dozen broken hearts across the country, then, well, that was life. They'd forget about him sooner or later after Dean moved on, and God knew it wasn't like Dean could remember all the cute faces he'd ever met.
When he was sixteen, he thought that maybe he needed a new strategy. He'd been at Holbert High for two months, and it was decent enough. Big classes with over-worked teachers who really only wanted you to shut up and not get into fights. It was easy to not get hassled if you just stayed off the radar. But the library had a new computer network, one of those government grants that gave what the school didn't really need.
Dean only had to smile at the librarian and she was waving him towards the computer desks. He always made sure to clean up his stuff, never gave her any backtalk, and once in a while he'd stay and help re-shelve books or something.
And he got to play MUDs during study hall. It was the sort of thing he would have killed Sam if he'd ever found out his brother was playing Dungeons and Dragons online, but Dean told himself it was just like training -- if not the body, then his instincts and strategic thinking and sometimes he even learned a bit about folklore and legends that he thought were probably based in truth.
It was nice to be able to take a hit without bleeding, too.
He still knew Sam would rag him for years if he knew Dean was such a geek, so Dean only played at school and never, ever gave in to the temptation to stay after school and play. All he needed was for Sam to walk over from the middle school and ask him when the hell he was getting a ride home.
Everything was pretty awesome until one day Dean noticed that the computer three down and across the aisle was always occupied by the same girl -- Mellissa something or other. She was in his history class, but otherwise they were in completely different circles. Mellissa was doing the whole AP course, pre-college, egghead brainiac track while Dean was scooting along in Shop and remedial math and the easiest electives he'd been able to find: typing and psychology.
She was OK to look at, even with her thick glasses and ponytails that looked like she'd just rolled out of bed with them already up. She didn't have the stuttering awkwardness that most geeks did, which Dean counted as a point in her favor. But she'd always been one of those kids he didn't think twice about, because even if they lusted after him, he could easily find prettier faces to indulge himself with.
The trouble was, the third time he noticed her sitting at the computer, he realised she was playing Avalon. He'd been playing that one off and on, and as he watched over her shoulder, he realised two more things. The first was that he'd played her, online. The second was that she'd handed him his ass both times they'd met up.
That was going to make it impossible for him to just walk over and introduce himself -- no way was he letting this geek girl laugh at him for being a pansy-ass fighter online. It wasn't like he could say "You should see me in real life", even if he was a hell of a lot better with a real shotgun than a virtual crossbow. but unless she was playing at home, she wasn't spending any more time online than he was, so how the hell was she so much better?
Dean watched her play every afternoon for two weeks, and all he could figure out was that no matter how she was doing it, she was still capable of kicking his ass.
He reconsidered his decision not to play after school. To hell with Sam, he could walk home. Only Dad would kill him and Sam really would tease him for the next decade, and the only thing worse than being beaten by a geek-girl was being laughed at by his little brother. Dean did start playing during lunch, and whenever his Shop teacher was in a particularly pissy mood Dean would skip that class as well, and spend it in the library.
No matter how much practise he got, whenever he met up with her online -- she kicked his ass.
He started spending more time watching her outside the library. There wasn't much opportunity; sometimes in history they'd answer questions or read bits of their essays out loud. Mellissa's were always pretty good, as good at the academic thing as Sam was, as far as Dean could tell. She stammered at first, but when she got going she'd ramble on like she knew what she was talking about.
Dean figured out where she hung out before school, the Geek Enclave gathering behind the science rooms and talking about shit that was completely over Dean's head. She seemed perfectly in her element there, surrounded by other kids who wore glasses as thick as hers and who had the dress-sense of tree frogs. Nothing like when she walked to her math class past the gym, head down so no one could see her face as the cheerleaders went through their routines.
One day she came to school with her hair down, all the frizzy bits brushed out. She was wearing a shirt Dean hadn't seen her in before, one that fit a little tighter and a blue that really looked good on her. She actually kinda looked pretty. As he made his way to the library for his study hall, he thought.. well, maybe it wouldn't be so bad if he talked to her.
She wasn't in the library that day, though, and as Dean played he didn't see her online at all. She didn't show up for a week, but her hair stayed down and her shirts stayed kinda tight and she was smiling a lot more.
When Dean saw her behind the science rooms being kissed by one of the math jocks, he realised why.
The next day, Dean skipped study hall. A month later they moved again, and Dean's new high school didn't have a computer network available to students, and the librarian was a mean bitch who saw right through him anyhow.
That summer he managed to get online, and he logged into the game. It took a few hours but he found her character.
And she still kicked his ass.