Archive of Our Own ^beta

“You’re joking, right?” Dean says into the phone.

“Sorry, Dean-o. You’re really on your own today. Benny’s sick, and I uh- I’m still...wasted as heck.”

“Damn it, Charlie!”

“Relax. Go make- other friends. People actually like you more than you think!”

Dean groans. “Yeah, but I don’t like them. I just pretend to, because they’re jerks!” he hisses as he makes his way to his first class.

“Don’t be a- oh, oh man, I’m gonna throw up.”

“Charlie? Charlie!” Dean rolls his eyes to himself as there was no response on the other end. He puts his phone away and enters the classroom, where Biology was his first class.

Before Dean knows it, it’s lunch break.

And he has nowhere to sit.

And nobody to sit with.

He hates the rare days when both his friends aren’t at school. More pressure, more panic. He takes a deep breath and finally decides to skip lunch and head to the library instead, the only place of comfort he’d secretly go to when he needed it.

He shuffles and runs his hands through the books on the shelf light-heartedly, scanning his eyes for a familiar title. His eyes light up when he sees the first book of The Lord of the Rings.

His hands find their way brushing the spine and he smiles at the memory of reading it for the first time. He shrugs and grabs the book, before making his way to his regular corner.

He never went to the library often, but when he did, he preferred not being interrupted while reading, so he had his own place to read; the Geometry section at the back left corner, because nobody goes there anyway.

He walks and walks and walks… only to find somebody else sitting in his corner.

That somebody is a dark haired boy, who’s completely oblivious to Dean’s presence, eyes completely focused on the book he’s holding gently in his hands.

He only looks up from his book when Dean clears his throat, revealing impossibly blue blue eyes behind his thick framed glasses, leaving Dean stood astounded for a while.

Dean’s never seen the guy before, or at least he thinks he hasn’t, because he’d sure recognize a face like his if he did.

“Oh- um,” the guy stutters as he stares back at Dean, panic written clearly on his face.

It takes a while for Dean to realize this is probably his queue to tell the guy that it’s okay. “Uh, it’s fine. Is this your spot?”

The guy shakes his head and shuts his book, getting up from the floor. “No, I’m still- new, I didn’t really— wait, is this your spot?”

Dean stays quiet, not knowing what to say, because it’s not like he owns the small corner, or goes here every day. “Um…”

“It is your spot. Sorry, you probably- would mind if I sat here so, I’m gonna-” the guy stammers and points to some unknown direction, pacing away.

A rush runs through Dean. “I wouldn’t, actually.”

He has no idea what he’s doing. It wasn’t like him to accept people at his school into his life so easily, but this guy seems different, and polite, unlike most of the students at the school. Wouldn’t hurt to make another friend.

The guy spins around, and Dean notices he has a sense of style. The only things that categorize him as ‘nerd’ are his glasses, and the fact that the textbooks in his hand have a hundred post-its stuck in between its pages. He continues to stare down at the ground, blushing, before looking up with a raise of the eyebrows.

“What?”

Dean forces a smile. “I said I- wouldn’t mind. You can… sit here, with me,” he says awkwardly, getting a soulful look in return.

He feels his stomach fly up to his chest. “Or- not, I mean, your choice man,” he continues with a nervous laugh and a rub to the back of his neck.

The guy in front of him nods and reassures him with a small smile, and relief washes over Dean so quickly it’s almost invisible.

His eyes dart to a book in the guy’s hands and smiles. He’d recognize that cover anywhere.

“You uh, fan of horror?” Dean asks, gesturing his hand to the book.

The guy looks down at the book and then up at Dean. “Uh, trying it out. First time reading a work of Stephen King, never really thought I would. Good, so far.”

Dean smirks. “Wait till you get to the middle,” he puts one hand behind his back, digging his fingernails into his palm as he continued, “Literally… ‘It’ will scare your pants off.”

The guy lets out a breathy laugh, looking down at the floor. “How long have you been waiting to make that joke?”

“Way too long,” Dean replies, a beam spreading wide across his face. He hesitates, biting down on his bottom lip as he catches himself staring at the guy in front of him.

He holds out his hand in front of him and meets the guy’s eyes. “I’m Dean.”

The guy’s eyes light up with hope and takes Dean’s hand in his, shaking it.

“Castiel.”

They sit next to each other on the floor, a fair distance between them, and read their respective books in silence.

The bell rings after twenty minutes of silent reading, and Dean’s the one to get up first. He tilts his head at Castiel, who’s still on the floor, still completely absorbed on the book he’s reading.

“Uh, you gonna get to class?” Dean asks.

Castiel looks up and nods. “Yeah, sure. Um…” he takes out his schedule, poring his eyes over it. He must’ve been newer than Dean thought.

“Is today your first day here?” Dean asks.

“Second, technically. I went home early the other day for— reasons. Uh, any chance you could show me where this Math class is?” Castiel says with a hopeful look on his face.

Dean raises his eyebrows. “Math? Yeah, I’m headed there too. We better go now, ‘cause trust me, you don’t want to be late for Ell- Ms Harvelle’s class.”

++

“New kid, eh? What’s your name, son?” Ellen asks in a cheery tone, beaming up at Castiel who had walked in before Dean.

Dean walks by them and watches as the two introduce themselves. He smirks and whispers to Castiel when he’s close enough, “Thank God she’s in a good mood today. You should see her when half the class doesn’t get her homework done, yeesh, nightmare come true.”

Castiel bites his lip to hide a snicker.

“What was that, Winchester?” Ellen snaps, turning her head to their direction.

Dean quickly shakes his head and innocently smiles. “Not- nothing. You look very pretty today.”

Castiel smiles in response, and looks away as he tries to find a seat. Dean looks around the room to find a free seat for Cas; that was what he decided to call him at least, since saying ‘Castiel’ all the time was getting tiring, even for the both of them.

Ellen rolls her eyes and turns her back to him, facing the blackboard as she writes down the lesson of the day. “One more remark like that, I’ll have your father know what you do in between classes.”

‘Damn it, that was one time.’ Dean thinks to himself as he immediately shuts up at the memory of Ellen catching him doing more than kissing with a girl in the girl’s locker room.

He sighs and looks over halfway across the room at Cas, who has managed to find a seat somewhere at the back of the class. Cas seems like he’s blushing, looking at his hands as he fiddles with his fingers. Dean nearly jumps in his seat when Cas looks up and meets his eyes with Dean’s. Both pairs of eyes go slightly wider at surprise and flushes of red creeps onto their cheeks.

It’s hard to look away, but Dean forces himself to after showing an awkward, sheepish smile at the other boy. He turns back slow enough just to see Cas smile back, and he almost feels the tenseness of Castiel’s facial muscles doing it.

Dean snaps out of his thoughts and focuses on the lesson instead, because there’s no way, no way, this could potentially grow into something more.

For one; he barely knows the guy. Dean probably creeps the heck out of him already.

Two; he’s not even out of the damn closet yet.

++

The next day Dean passes by the library during the first break. He walks backwards and eyes the door for a while.

No. Charlie and Benny are waiting for you downstairs.

He sighs to himself and shakes his head. They’d probably ask.

“Dean?”

Dean turns around at the call of his name, and he inhales and freezes in his spot when he figures it’s Castiel who’s calling him.

“Hey, Cas. How are ya?” Dean manages to ask casually with a smile.

Castiel smiles back. “I’m good. You kind of uh, looked like you were having some sort of guilty affair with the library, though,” he says, momentarily moving his eyes to the place next to them.

“Yeah, that happens,” he mumbles to himself after letting out a nervous laugh and clears his throat.

“So are you, going in?” Cas asks, hugging his textbooks tighter to his chest.

Dean looks up to face the boy in front of him, and hesitates before shaking his head.

“Can’t, I’ve got some- stuff to talk about with a couple of friends of mine,” he says, shrugging his shoulder with an innocent smile.

Cas nods and starts to pace past him. “Oh, okay. See you at Math.”

With every being of Dean telling himself that there was clearly no disappointment in Cas’ eyes, and that he was just imagining things, he couldn’t help but wonder of the small consequences of getting to know the guy a little better. Charlie and Benny have each other, it wouldn’t hurt to skip the first break.

Before Dean knows it he’s stepping into the library, and spots Cas from the corner of his eye walking into the Geometry section. He hurries along and grabs two random books from the Classics section.

“Hey,” Dean announces his presence in a short breath as he quickly sits down crossed-legged beside Cas.

Cas is shocked at first, before his brain sort of registers the situation. “Dean? I thought-”

“Which classic?” Dean interrupts, holding up two books. He sounded the slightest bit nervous, and probably looked it as well, but he was good with hiding it sometimes.

Cas darts his eyes to the two books and furrows his eyebrows. “I- don’t understand?”

“Which classic do you like more, you dork?” Dean has a moment of panic at the sudden name calling, but he hides it and pretends to act casual.

“Yeah, I get that- but how do you expect me to choose when one isn’t a classic and instead an apocalyptic horror novel about a zombie plague?” Cas implies with a half-smile.

Dean faces the covers of both the books and studies them. He rolls his eyes at his random choices and drops his head, failing to hold back a laughter.

“Damn, this library sucks. Only one where you find World War Z and Phantom of the Opera together in the same section,” he says.

He looks up to find Cas beaming at him with so much soul in his eyes, it makes Dean’s stomach flip.

“Are you always like this?” Cas asks.

Dean shrugs. “Hm, I don’t know. Maybe. Sometimes, rarely.”

Cas shakes his head and attempts at hiding a smile, staying quiet for a few moments.

“Ass.”

“What you calling me an ass for?”

“You called me a dork, so I’m calling you an ass,” Cas says with a shrug.

Dean lets out a laugh and looks up hopefully. “If it helps, I didn’t mean to.”

“Good. ‘Cause I didn’t mean to either. You’re- nice,” Cas says with a nod and a blush, looking down momentarily.

Dean feels his own cheeks go red and clears his throat. “And… you’re some sort of Math genius, huh?”

Cas smirks. “No, what are you talking about?”

“C’mon, I saw your workings on the board. You’re literally the only one who managed to solve Ellen’s ‘new kid question’. Not anybody else, not even me; and she’s been teaching me math ever since I can remember,” Dean says, glancing at Cas as he spoke.

Cas nods and shrugs. “Math is okay, Chemistry, that’s hell. Why do you call Ms Harvelle by her first name, if I may ask?”

“Her and her husband are long-time friends of my Dad. They come by every now and then,” Dean answers.

Before Cas can say anything else, a vibrating buzz comes from Dean’s pocket.

‘Not in today? Where are u?’

Dean scans his eyes over the text message from Charlie and thinks of some excuse to tell his friends. Homework, probably.

“Why are you here, Dean?” Cas asks, keeping his eyes locked on Dean’s.

Dean stares back into Cas’ blue eyes, wondering how it was possible for a pair of eyes to own that shade of blue. He breathed in.

“To be honest? I don’t know. Maybe, it’s because I find you…” he trailed off. Cas tilted his head in response, waiting for Dean to complete his sentence.

What the hell is he supposed to say next? Dean doesn’t know himself.

Cute? Interesting? Completely mesmerizing?

“Cool,” he finished off.

Damn-fucking-it, Dean.

Cas raises his eyebrows and lets out a breathy laugh. “Why on earth would a person like you find a person like me, cool, of all things?”

Dean casually shrugs. “Well, why wouldn’t I?”

Cas blushes and looks away, attempting to hide a smile.

Hell, he’s gorgeous and cute all at the same time.

“Am I creeping you out?” Dean asks and bites his lip.

Cas shakes his head and smiles. “No. But there’s definitely something strange and different about you.”

“Is that a good thing?”

Cas nods. “I guess. People at my old school weren’t so nice.”

Dean sighs. “Man, I hate to break it to you, but, we’ve got people in our year here who are a-holes too. Gotta pick the right people to be friends with.”

Castiel’s eyes drop to his hands. He seems to be in thought, recalling a certain memory as he frowns.

A small pang of guilt hits Dean, and he tries to break Cas out of whatever he was thinking about.

“We’ve got about ten minutes left. Do you want to read?”

Cas nods and smiles softly, so they read.

++

Dean watches as several groups of people enter one by one, keeping his focus on the cafeteria entrance. His eyes search the crowd for Cas and goes completely out of range of what his friends are talking about next to him.

A snap of the fingers pulls him back, and he whips his head to see Charlie and Benny giving him questioning looks.

“Hm, what?” he mumbles, switching his glances from each of them. His eyes momentarily dart to the entrance a few times by accident.

“You okay?” Benny asks, furrowing his eyebrows together.

Dean nods. “Mm hmm, yeah. Sorry, what were you saying?”

“I was just asking where you were this morning, we thought you weren’t here today,” Charlie says. She questioningly turns her head to where Dean keeps looking at and turns back to him.

“Why do you keep-”

“Uh, homework. Just finishing up some homework, left it at school yesterday,” Dean quickly insisted. He takes a spoonful of his soup in front of him. “Man, this soup is crappy,” he says, changing the subject as he pushes the bowl slightly away from him.

“Why is Dean Winchester suddenly starting to care about homework?” Benny asks with a smirk.

“Maybe, Dean Winchester is starting to think about- life choices, and the future,” Dean answers the first thing that unfortunately comes to mind.

Charlie and Benny exchange looks and burst out laughing.

Dean shakes his head. “Y’all a bunch of dickbags, I could be the President in a decade’s time,” he says seriously.

Benny beams and clears his throat. “Right, good. Now I can tell everyone I know in ten years, ‘the President of the United States once called me at 2 in the morning, to come pick him up from a diner. He made me bring some extra clothes with me, because the waitress he had sex with in the bathroom stole his.’” he mutters, whispering towards the end as several people passed by.

Dean fails to suppress the laugh that escapes his mouth, shaking his head at the two of his friends in front of him chortling madly.

“Ay, quit it, you two. I’m not the only one here with embarrassing sex stories,” Dean says knowingly, motioning his eyes to the two of his friends one by one.

The group sinks into their regular goofy everyday conversations, going from topic to topic, while the thought of why Dean had acted so strange drives away from their minds.

Dean continues to steal glances at the cafeteria entrance whenever Charlie and Benny aren’t focusing on him, keeping it as casual as possible.

The silly, wonderful things that happened in Math still stuck at the back of his mind.

Dean took every ounce of his courage to turn his head to look across the classroom, only to find Cas laying his blue eyes straight at him. Dean could catch the moment of panic written on Cas’ face right before Cas quickly turned his eyes away to whatever was written on the board at the time, biting his lip nervously.

Dean had flashed him a smirk and a raise of the eyebrows in return to make it less awkward, only for Cas to attempt at ignoring Dean for the rest of the lesson while he pressed his lips together to hide a smile.

Dean shook his head and took the challenge. Not within a minute Dean made eye contact with Cas again, having the both of them to press their hands into their face to prevent a laugh from escaping their mouths.

Ellen definitely wasn’t going to tolerate anything like that in her class, so they did their best.

“Well, what do you know? You are a real dork,” Dean said as he hurried to catch up to Cas’ pace.

Cas smirked. “Shut up, you’re one to talk. Ass.”

“Hey, you said I was nice. And different,” Dean said in a joking manner.

“Don’t forget strange. I have to get to class, Dean,” Cas replied, smiling sheepishly.

“Ay, be thankful I’m not in any of your other classes!”

Cas turned around and continued to pace backwards slowly. “Trust me, I am.”

++

The next morning Dean makes up another excuse involving ‘homework’ and leaves his two friends confused at the cafeteria, as much as he feels the slight guilt panging at him.

“Do you eat?” Dean asks, catching Cas by surprise once more as he made his presence in the Geometry section.

“Shit— Dean, how the hell are you so quiet with walking?” Cas curses, shaking his head as he shuts the book he’s reading and lifts the frame of his glasses that seemed to drop lower at the bridge of his nose.

“Sorry,” Dean breathes out, innocently smiling at the boy sitting in front of him. He sits down opposite Cas and studies his features. Castiel’s eyes are always the first things he notices, the blue filled in them that had a shade of its own. The next thing is his mouth, the plump lips of his that carried a light tint of pink. Then Dean notices his hair, of all things, dark and raven, neat in its own messy, bed head way, it almost seems soft enough for Dean to casually run his fingers through—

“I’m not an alien, so yes, I do eat. Why do you ask?” Cas says, pulling Dean away from his thoughts.

Dean flickers his eyes to his Cas’ hair again, before he keeps his eyes in contact with the other. He shrugs.

“Uh, didn’t see you at lunch yesterday. When did you even have lunch yesterday?”

“3, 4? When I get home, basically,” Cas says casually.

Dean furrows his eyebrows. “What, why?”

“The same reason you decided to skip lunch two days ago.”

Dean’s confused for a while, until he registers what Cas means. He nods and reassures him with a soft smile. “People, right? It’s tiring being around them by yourself. Just- drains your energy.”

Cas nods and swivels a glance at Dean, before dropping his eyes back to the ground.

“Yeah. I guess— we’re different.”

Dean breathes in and out, gathering up courage as he says,

“You should come have lunch with me and my friends.”

Cas looks up, raising his eyelids as his eyes go wide at surprise. “Dean, I- I really wouldn’t want to bother any-”

“C’mon, it’s been just the three of us ever since middle school. Yeah, from time to time they’re a little needy and whiny but hey- they’re the people I never ever want out of my life,” Dean says with a smile.

Cas hesitates as he opens and closes his mouth repeatedly.

“Trust me, they’d love you the second you say hello.”

++

“Hello,” Cas says with a smile so cute Dean has to pinch himself underneath the table.

Charlie and Benny exchange glances with each other and then with Dean.

“Well, Hallelujah,” Benny whispers. “We’ve got an endangered species here!”

“A nice person who looks good, with glasses!” Charlie chimes in, sharing a high five with Benny.

Dean sighs, putting his hand over his face in embarrassment. “Guys…”

Cas grins and takes a seat next to Dean, sitting opposite the other two. “Are there that many jerks around here?”

“Ninety-percent of this school are either jerks, or just- plain, bratty annoying,” Charlie answers as she takes a bite out of her burger.

Charlie and Benny introduce each other to Cas in their own manner, despite Dean already doing so for them. Dean sighs at the behaviour of his friends and turns to Cas, regarding him with a embarrassed smile. Cas returns the smile with a grateful look, before he turns his focus back to Charlie who’s already asking the fifth question.

“Are you a virgin?”

“Charlie!” Dean and Benny call at the same time.

Charlie shrugs. “What? Do you want me to whisper it so he can whisper back? No judgement on this table.”

Dean waves a hand at Cas and does a gesture to assure him, “You don’t have to answer that, man.”

“For the sake of your curiosity—” Cas starts.

The other three whip their heads toward Cas, Dean being the first one.

Cas looks at all of them one by one and wears a smile so wide at the scene and laughs.

“No.”

Dean raises his eyebrows and attempts to hide a mischievous smirk. “No? No, as in-”

“No, as in, I’m not, and I have had-” Cas halts as people walk behind them and softly smiles to himself, blushing. “I was half-drunk.”

“Hm, we got a rebel over here,” Dean says, nodding approvingly.

He can’t help but try to picture it, though. Cas, half-drunk, for God knows how he even got to that state in the first place as Cas clearly wasn’t a person for parties. Must’ve been a long, whacky story, but it’d be best to tell for another time. He’s only known the guy for three days, anyway.

“Speakin’ of virginity, you should hear how Dean lost his,-”

Dean rolls his eyes and grabs a bunch of fries from Benny’s plate.

“Oh boy, she was-”

He shoves the handful into Benny’s mouth casually before he could go on further with his sentence.

“Aaand, thank you for your input, Benny. Cas? We better go grab somethin’ to eat before they run out again,” Dean says with a smile as he faces Cas, acting completely oblivious to Benny’s cursing at him.

Cas nods and they head over to get some food.

“Your friends are nice. They’re wonderful,” Cas uttered, walking beside Dean as he held his tray.

“Yeah, well. They’re your friends now, so the sooner you get used to them, the lighter the ride.”

“Thank you, Dean.”

“Half-drunk, though?” Dean says with a wink, and Cas guiltily chuckles, the red blush appearing on his cheeks.

“It was one time.”

++

Dean’s on the verge of losing it.

He groans into the bed and digs his fingernails into the pillow his face is planted into.

“Get out of my head, get out of my head,” he mutters.

Castiel and his blue, blue, eyes.

Castiel and his cute smile.

Castiel, no- Cas, Novak.

Cas and his wonderful personality.

Cas and how cute he is when he’s blushing.

“Damn it!” he hisses and gets up from the bed, rubbing his face.

A couple of weeks have gone by since Cas first had lunch with Dean and his friends. He’s been fully accepted and welcomed to the group, and yeah, Dean’s happy with that. The guy’s super nice, and cute. That’s all Dean thinks.

Or thought.

Within the two weeks of Cas joining them every day at lunch, Dean’s gotten to know him better. His hobbies, his favourite colour, book, album. And hell, he’s got one hell of a hidden personality once you’ve cracked him. He’s funny, and kind, and gorgeous in a way you’d want him to be the one you wake up next to in the morning, clothes on or off.

The way Cas looks at Dean when he talks to him hints that Cas could maybe actually feel the same way Dean does, but then again Dean thinks, it could just be thankfulness he’s showing.

Hell, as if Dean would know anyway.

Dean questions himself; it was either he really really hated Cas, or he actually liked him, a lot more than he should.

He decides to go with the latter.

Dean curses again, and this time, he’s heard within earshot.

“Something wrong, honey?”

He turns his head and sees his Mom, a look of concern shown on her face behind the blond waves of her hair.

Dean smiles and shakes his head. “Hm, it’s nothing, Mom.”

Of course, Mary Winchester isn’t going to give in.

“I’ve walked past this room twice in an hour, and both times you’ve had your head in your pillow, swearing to yourself. I didn’t teach you those bad words, Dean,” Mary says as she sits beside him on the bed.

Dean chuckles. “C’mon, Mom, I’m seventeen-”

“Which is what worries me most of the time about you. What’s bothering you?” Mary asks, pushing the hair out of Dean’s face.

Dean smiles thinly and waits. Hell, he doesn’t even know what to say.

“It’s- it’s really nothing, Mom, you don’t have to worry. Go back to bed,” he says.

Mary’s eyes lower to the ground as she sighs, nodding. “I should, because it’s late and I have an interview in seven hours,” she says. Relief floods over Dean as she stands up from the bed.

“But hey- the minute you get back from school tomorrow, we are having this talk,” she states firmly. Dean stutters a few unintelligible things, but she smiles down at her son and leaves a kiss on the top of his forehead.

“Good night. Get some sleep, don’t think too much about what’s bothering you.”

And with that, his Mom leaves the room.

Dean sighs and lays his back flat against the bed.

That’s the problem, Mom. There’s nothing bothering me.

Nothing bothering me at all.

++

Bam!

Dean furrows his eyebrows and whips his head to the direction of the sound.

“What the hell was that?” Charlie asks, the shock clear on her face as well.

Dean shrugs and goes to the next corridor, where the sound came from, as he hears a faint whimper.

He looks further down to see several figures crowding around another.

“Whoa, hey, careful boys, not too close, he might not be able to control himself!”

Dean rolls his eyes at the voice. Bartholomew was a dick, even when he wasn’t trying. He was a dick in general, a dick in any situation. Dean couldn’t stand breathing next to the guy.

Dean’s eyes widen as he sees Cas, hunched and hurled against the locker with what looked like his workbooks scattered on the floor. The three figures surrounding him were Bartholomew and his two usual sidekicks, Dean hadn’t even bothered to find out their names.

Dean can’t hear the things they’re calling Cas, but it sure isn’t anything nice.

“Hey!” Dean calls out angrily, pacing quickly at them. Cas looks up, and it hurts for Dean to see the amount of pain in his expression.

Bartholomew smiles. “Winchester!”

Dean eyes Cas from the side as he comes face to face with Bart.

He flickers his eyes back to Bart, not a single regard given. “How about we make this clear, Bartholomew; you mess with him, you’re messing with me. Back off.”

Bartholomew snorts. “What’s gotten into you?” he gestures his head at Cas in a cocky manner. “The guy’s a fag.”

The word makes Dean slightly flinch, and from the corner of his eyes he can see Cas’ head drop down.

“Yeah, and what’s it to you, Bart?”

“Got a problem with queers?”

Dean turns around to see Charlie with her arms folded across her waist, dead seriousness written all over her face as she keeps her eyes locked on Bart.

Bartholomew presses his lips together and stays quiet for a while, switching his momentary glances between Charlie and Dean.

Dean scoffs. “Kay- look man, it’s senior fucking year. Get the hell over yourself. I see you bothering Cas again, just know that you’re messing with me, with her, and Benny at the same time,” he says, a false smile plastered on his face.

Bartholomew and his gang snicker. The leader rolls his eyes and mutters a, “Whatever,” before he makes his leave.

Dean turns to Cas, who’s crouched on the floor, eyes not daring to look up at either of them as he starts collecting his workbooks on the floor.

“Cas, buddy…” Dean murmurs. He squats down and helps Cas with the books.

“I’m fine,” Cas replies, looking up and giving Dean a reassuring smile.

“They’re not gonna bother you again. If they even look at you, I’ll make sure their insides are bubbled up,” Charlie comforts, offering a smile.

Cas shoots her a smile back. “I’m used to it, don’t worry. But if you’ll excuse me I- I need some air,” he says. He turns and walks another direction, leaving the two of them standing in the hallway.

Dean sighs. He shakes his head angrily at the thought of Bartholomew. Dean feels willing to throw a punch at the guy, but that’d just lead to so many complicated things, with Bartholomew being the beloved son of a rich business man.

Seeing Cas in that state, it was all a little too overwhelming, and he never ever wants that to happen again.

++

“So…”

“So what, Mom?” Dean looks up from his hands and sits up on the bed.

“You looked really tense when you came home today. Does it have to do with whatever was going on yesterday?” Mary asks in a soft tone.

Dean pauses and breathes in, looking back down at his hands that started to fidget. He’s not going to lie to her, he never wants to do that.

“Dean.”

Dean looks up and stays silent for a while, before he tugs one corner of his mouth upwards. “Mom, can I- can I ask you a question?”

“Of course,” Mary smiles as she sits down on the bed next to him.

Dean breathes in. “Was there- any moment of time when you realized, Dad wasn’t just some friend, or tiny crush?”

Mary looks taken aback by the question, but she answers anyway, nodding slowly as she spoke. “Well… there was a time. An unfortunate time, actually. Your father was on the field, he played quarterback. Coach made me sit on the bench that night,” she says with a smile.

Dean smirks. He remembers the story of how his parents met when they both signed up for the football team, and fought about their differences and tactics, but ended up falling in love anyway.

“We weren’t dating at this point. He was playing and throwing winks and faces at me from time to time throughout the match. And I think halfway through the game, an opponent player came right at him when he got the ball. He was much bigger than your father. From the benches, I could see… that your father wasn’t moving, laying still on the ground,” Mary explains slowly.

Dean tilts his head to show he’s listening in.

“So I ran up to him. Moved my way past the other big guys and just called out his name over and over. He woke up, and when he did, he smiled at me. Told me everything was okay. Then well, he got taken over by the paramedics, fractured his leg a little,” she stories, smiling at the memory.

“And that’s when… you knew?” Dean asks.

Mary nods. “Yes. I think I knew from the moment he woke up and smiled at me. We both knew, actually. Seeing him like that, it just… it was too much. It wasn’t like me to run like that,” she finishes.

Dean sighs, looking at his hands again.

“Honey, what’s this about?” Mary asks, shifting her position to face him.

Dean takes a deep breath, before he lets it out. “Mom, I think— I can relate.”

Mary furrows her eyebrows in confusion. “What do you mean?”

“I- I like someone,” Dean mutters. “A lot.”

Mary’s face softens. “Who is she?”

Dean swallows hesitantly.

“His name’s Cas.”

Mary’s mouth curls up one side and shifts her gaze to get a better look of her son.

“He?”

Dean nods silently, taking quick breaths. “I know- I should’ve- said something about it, I’m sorry—” he comes to a halt, swallowing the lump in his throat.

Mary simply looks to the right, recalling something and smiles. “I should’ve seen it coming when four year old you said that guy from that boyband was cute,” she says jokingly.

Dean doesn’t even realize there are tears welling up in his eyes until Mary looks at him with concern and pulls him into a hug.

“Oh, sweetheart. It’s gonna be okay, you’re gonna be okay,” Mary assures. She plants a kiss on the top of his hair and pulls him in even tighter.

Dean lets a few tears spill. He then tells her all about Cas, about the wonderful things he thinks of him. And then about what Bartholomew did to him, and how angry and upset it made Dean feel.

“Mom? Would it be okay if—” he pauses.

Mary waits.

“If you kept it between us? I wanna tell Dad and Sammy myself about- the bi thing. When I’m ready, that is, which is soon,” Dean says.

Mary smiles. “Of course. Will you be ready by dinner?” she asks.

Dean tenses up. Not that soon.

“I-”

“I’m kidding. No pressure, honey. Take your time. I’m glad we had this talk.”

Dean sighs in relief. “Me too, Mom. Thanks.”

Mary smiles in return. “Now Ellen tells me you’ve been kind of spacing out in Math lately…”

Oh boy.

++

Dean hurries his pace to walk up to Cas, who’s placing books into his locker one by one carefully. A smile automatically appears on his face when Cas looks up and sees him, eyes lighted up like they always did.

Cas grins and for a moment his books almost slip out of his hands, before he steadies himself and shoves the entire stack into his locker at a time. Dean can’t help but laugh at his carelessness, and for a second he wonders if Cas was only careless around Dean.

“Hey,” Dean greets.

“Hi Dean,” Cas replies, using the same adorable smile that gets Dean every time.

“Listen uh, I gotta talk to you—”

“Guys, guys! Got any extra pants?” a voice calls out to them, breaths heavy in between her words.

Dean and Cas turn to their panting red-headed friend in confusion.

“Charlie, what?” Dean asks as Charlie takes a few breaths.

Charlie sighs in aggravation. “Benny, he— the guy lost his pants.”

Dean raises his eyebrows, trying to register what his friend just said.

“Again, Charlie, what?”

“He was in the bathroom and the sink sprayed him all over,” she explains quickly.

Dean’s eyes go wide, before his mouth forms into a smirk. “Hm, that’s karma for laughing at me the other day.”

Cas questioningly looks at him.

“Dean!” Charlie calls seriously.

“Okay okay, what do we do? I don’t have an extra pair, neither does Cas. Who’d bring an extra pair of pants to school?” Dean says, scrunching up his face at the weird thought.

Charlie thinks for a moment and turns to Dean. “You live the nearest. You’re the only one with a car…”

“Charlie, no,” Dean shakes his head at her.

“Dean Winchester, if you make me walk and sit next to Benny Lafitte wearing wet pants on for the whole day—”

“Alright, fine! I’ll be back in half an hour, make up some excuse and tell Mr Edlund I’ll be running late for class.”

Charlie nods and flees to another direction.

“Has this ever happened before?” Cas questions with a worried look on his face.

Dean smirks. “More or less,” he mumbles. “Hey- I gotta go get Benny some pants, but I need to uh- talk to you about, some things- later, first break? Uh- library, usual spot? Good? Okay, good,” he makes things clear quickly, starting to pace backwards. He turns around quick before he can catch Cas’ reaction.

“O- Okay.”

++

“Dean?”

“Cas, hey.”

Dean stops fidgeting with his hands to hide his nervousness, but his voice falters when he speaks, it’s easy to tell.

“Are you okay?” Cas asks.

Dean nods and reassures him with a warm smile.

“So, you want to start telling me what we’re here for?”

“Right. Um,” Dean starts. He’s been standing there for a few minutes, thinking of what to say and rewriting the script in his head over and over, but all the words in his head go blank.

Cas offers him a light smile while he waits for Dean to start talking.

“Uh, welcome to our group. You’ve been a great addition, and well, you’re cool man, so,” he says nervously.

Cas eyes Dean and raises his eyebrows knowingly. “Thank you. Now, do you want to tell me what you actually want to talk about?”

Great save, Dean.

Dean sighs. “Okay, here’s the thing.”

There’s no way I’m going through with this.

He swallows hesitantly and licks his lips, before finally gathering up his courage to speak as he meets the other’s eyes.

“I like you- Cas.”

Castiel’s eyes squint in confusion. “I know that, Dean. You wouldn’t have welcomed me if I was just another jerk in this school,” he says obliviously.

Dean laughs and blushes. “No, you dork— as in, I really, really, like you.”

Dean watches as Cas goes red in the face at the realization hitting him. Cas wears a smile on his face so genuine and different, Dean’s hopes go high to his chest.

“Really?”

“Yeah.”

“Me?”

“Who else?”

Cas hides his face for a while, blushing insanely as he fails to stop smiling so much. Dean can’t help but laugh at the sight, letting whatever anxiety and nervousness he felt before fade away.

Cas looks into Dean’s eyes and then down at their hands, stepping closer to the other boy. He takes Dean’s hands in his, interlocking their fingers together as they look up at each other at the same time.

Dean’s heartbeat is thumping and thumping when Cas leans in slowly, but his body relaxes as soon as their lips meet.

They kiss carelessly a few times after, when Cas’ glasses accidentally bump into Dean’s nose or cheek every time they lean in. Dean laughs and takes the glasses away, hiding it behind his back as he uses his other hand to pull Cas’ face closer to his.

Cas smirks when they pull away, letting his forehead rest against Dean’s. “You’re lucky I’m short-sighted,” he says quietly.

Dean leans in and smiles into Cas’ cheek as he brushes his lips against it.

“So uh, I’m guessing you like me too?”

Cas laughs. “I like you so much, it’s crazy. It’s been driving me nuts this whole week, actually.”

Dean pulls back and shows him a bright beam on his face. “How am I supposed to concentrate in Math now?”

Cas shrugs and squeezes the hand in his tighter. “I can teach you some math. I’ve been told I’m quite a genius,” he says jokingly.

“Wow, you’re a flirt.”

They both sit on the floor and stay like that, kissing and holding onto each other when they did. Dean always found his hands in Castiel’s hair, finally, and yes, to Dean’s expectations, it was soft.

“Listen, um,” Dean says as he pulls away from another kiss.

Cas’ eyes are shut for a few seconds before they flutter open, meeting Dean’s with a smile.

“Yes?”

Dean hesitates. “I’m not- exactly out yet,”

“Oh.”

“I mean- only one who knows is my mom, and I just told her about you three days ago. The people who don’t know are… Benny, Charlie, Sammy, Dad, and…”

“The rest of the world,” Cas finishes for him.

Dean nods, pressing his lips together and waits for Cas to respond, but all he does is look to the ground.

“Hey,” Dean whispers, cupping the side of Cas’ face to look at him. “Soon, I promise.”

Cas gives back a warm-hearted smile. “I’m not gonna force you out, Dean. I know what it’s like.”

“Good, great. Thanks Cas,” Dean says.

Cas bites his lip, attempting to hide a smile as he asks, “So uh, you talked to your mom about me?”

“Yeah. She knows everything about you,” Dean says with a nervous chuckle.

Cas’ eyes light up and dart to Dean’s lips. “Hm, like what?”

“Like how you,” Dean starts. He gently caresses Cas’ chin as he pulls him in for another kiss. “Have a gorgeous face.”

Cas blushes and smiles into the kiss. “Dean.”

“And how you look cute when you’re blushing,” Dean says, pressing a kiss to Cas’ cheek. “And how you’re so smart and talented and nice, and you dress nice.”

Cas is grinning from cheek to cheek, looking away from the other boy. “Dean, is this really you talking?”

“And how, you have mesmerizing eyes behind those thick-framed glasses,” Dean says as he places a kiss at the corner of Cas’ mouth.

“Did you really use the word ‘mesmerizing’ for my eyes?”

“For your eyes, yes.”

Dean’s surprised by another crash of lips against his.

“How am I supposed to resist you now?” Cas asks.

Dean runs his fingers through Cas’ soft hair and glides them down to his face. “Tell you what— until I come out-”

“Soon.”

“Very soon,” Dean corrects. “We could- sneak around, do a little… reading,” he says knowingly.

Cas breaks into a soft chuckle. “Reading?”

“Mhmm,” Dean hums. “In fact, why don’t we do a little more reading, and math homework when I take you back to my place after school?”

Cas thinks for a second, moving his eyes to the right in a playful manner. “Fine. But only if we do actual homework at some point,” he says.

“Deal,” Dean mutters, before leaning in for another kiss.

Cas laughs at Dean’s annoyed expression when the bell interrupts them, but he leans back into Dean and kisses him anyway.

++

“Mom, I uh- brought a friend home, we’re just gonna- do some homework in my room.”

“Who is it?” Mary calls out from the kitchen.

“Uh… Cas,” Dean says his name shyly.

Mary stays silent for a while over the running water in the kitchen, and the muffled sound of plates rattling against one another is heard from where Dean and Cas are standing.

She walks out of the kitchen and greets Cas with a smile so bright it could light up the room.

“You’re Castiel,” she says, poring her eyes over him. She looks over to Dean for a sign of where they are now, in which he nods in confirmation.

She grins even wider. “My son has told me a lot about you. You do have mesmerizing eyes.”

Cas blushes and laughs. “Thank you, Mrs Winchester.”

“Please; Mary.”

“Mom…” Dean says, looking at her with a sheepish smile and raise of the eyebrows.

“Oh- yeah, you both go do your homework. Have fun, but not too much, you really don’t want to ruin the chemistry by moving too fast—”

“Yeap, thanks Mom,” Dean quickly says as he turns her around for her to start pacing. “Love you,” he whispers and presses a soft kiss to the side of her face, before he hurries along next to Cas.

 Dean reaches for Cas’ hand and slides his thumb gently across Cas’ knuckles.

“We’re not actually gonna move fast, are we?” Dean asks.

Cas shakes his head. “That can wait. Now I’m just really into kissing you. Clothes on.”

Dean breaks into a smile and rests his forehead on Cas’, before planting a sweet kiss on his lips.

Within minutes they’re on the bed. Cas’ body is topping Dean’s with hands moving from one place to another, lips pressing onto each other in many different ways. They try their best to not make any sounds, but a soft moan escapes Dean’s mouth when Cas leaves trails of kisses down Dean’s jawline and his hand is hardly stroking at his torso—

“Dean, did you take my calculator—”

Dean widens his eyes at the voice of his brother and Cas goes tense as well, pushing himself off of Dean, laying still as a stick next to him with flushes of red covering his face.

Sam’s standing in shock at the door, flickering his eyes over at the both of them. He nods and presses his lips together in a straight line.

Dean realizes it’s probably his queue to say something. “Sam, hey. Uh— no, haven’t seen your calculator anywhere.”

“Yeah, okay… I’ll just-, yeah,” Sam stammers. He looks away, disbelief still written clearly on his face as he slowly shuts the door.

Dean shrugs and guiltily smiles at Cas. “So- guessing my thirteen year old brother knows.”

“I guess so,” Cas says.

Dean sighs. “Great, now I gotta have some long-ass heart to heart talk with the kid.”

“I’m sorry,” Cas apologizes, looking to his hands.

Dean furrows his eyebrows. “What? No hey, look,” he says, shifting closer to Cas as he regarded him with a warm smile.

“Not your fault. We can forget that,” he continues, adding a smirk before he pulls Cas in for another kiss.

Cas smiles into it, and pulls back with the side of his head resting on the pillow, facing Dean.

“Tell me about yourself, Dean.”

Dean grins and does the same, putting his hand underneath the pillowcase.

“What do you wanna know, besides the things you already do?”

Cas shifts closer. “Everything.”

“That’s a lot of information, Cas. But for your sake, I’ll try.”

Cas smiles genuinely, and Dean wonders where to begin. “My name’s Dean Michael Winchester. Born on the twenty-fourth day of January. I like- cars, hamburgers, pie, more than one gender, reading, writing, but most of all…”

“Me.”

“Yes, me.”

Cas laughs breathily and shakes his head. “Am I not anywhere near that list then?”

“I guess I could make an exception for you to be the top of that list. In other words…”

“Don’t say it.”

“You top me.”

Cas hits Dean playfully and turns away, blushing furiously to himself. “You and your lame ass jokes, I swear.”

“It’s too bad you like me,” Dean says and pulls Cas back to face him.

Cas is smiling from ear to ear. “I like you way too much. You like to write?”

Dean blushes and clears his throat. “Yeah, kind of. I uh- I want to write a book someday.”

“That’s wonderful.”

“But at the same time, I wanna fix cars. So, whatever decision I make, it probably won’t feel complete,” Dean admits.

Cas lifts a hand and runs it through Dean’s hair, sending a shiver down Dean’s spine.

“Why not both?”

Dean smiles and mumbles a “you’re awesome” right before he kisses Cas again.

Dean watches Cas’ face intently when Cas tells Dean about his secret love for designing, whether it were rooms, houses, or clothes, even. The guy has pretty good taste, anyway. Cas tells him he doesn’t want to be a lawyer or a businessman like the way his dad wants him to be, and how he’d like to study psychology one day, but not pursue a career in it.

“Life’s way too short to do things you don’t like. I mean, if you had to have one thing to eat for the rest of your life, and you had a choice between say, sunflower seeds and burgers, which would you pick?”

“I do enjoy burgers. But that would be extremely unhealthy, and I'd bloat.”

Dean tells Cas he’s missing the point, and that he should just do what he wants, in which he adds a ‘babe’ at the back of his sentence, making him go visibly still for a while. Cas laughs and grabs his face softly, pulling him in for another kiss.

“I think it’s time we do actual homework.”

++

“Mom? I’m just gonna send Cas home, I’ll be back in a few,” Dean calls out.

Sam snorts from across the room, eyes still peeled onto his homework with his pen shaking in his hand.

“Sure you are.”

Dean eyes him and guiltily presses his lips together. He turns to Cas, who’s equally blushing but at the same time trying to fight a smile.

“Why don’t you stay for dinner?” Mary’s voice fills the room as she hurriedly walks in.

Cas’ hands go up in front of him and offers a warm smile to her. “Oh, I really wouldn’t want to intrude-”

“My husband’s working late tonight, he won’t be home for dinner, so there’s some extra food and really, it’s fine. Any friend of Dean’s is welcome here,” she persuades with the same bright smile Dean recognizes every time he sees it.

It’s impossible to say no to that smile.

“Definitely not just a friend,” Sam mumbles in the background. Dean sends a quick glare at his direction.

Cas sighs. “I—”

“Please. It’d be great to know you, Cas.”

Cas slumps his shoulders in defeat and turns to Dean, who regards him with a raise of the eyebrows and a look that says ‘Why not?’

“Yes, okay. Thank you,” he finalizes.

Mary grins and switches her gaze to Dean, before turning on her heel to head back to the kitchen.

“Your mom’s a charm,” Cas whispers, leaning towards Dean.

Dean smirks. “Yeah. Gotta be that smile, right?”

“Mhmm, now I know where you got it from,” Cas says, turning towards Dean with a wink.

Dean swivels his head at the compliment and blushes, turning him speechless for a while. “I better be the only one you flirt with like that.”

“You are.”

Dinner is awkward for the first few minutes, with Sam sitting beside Mary and constantly adverting his eyes between the couple opposite him. Mary notices and asks him to stop, before she jumps into a conversation with Cas about himself.

Cas it at ease and gets along with Mary very well, much to Dean’s relief. They talk about when Cas moved here, how he’s settling in, and then Dean somehow becomes the main topic of dinner.

“So, you two met in the library?”

A cheeky thin smile appears on Cas’ face as he turns to Dean, keeping his lips sealed together as he chewed his food. He looks so cute, Dean wants to kiss him right there.

“Hm, yeah. I almost forgot about that, actually,” Dean teases in a serious tone.

“Did you now?” Cas says. Dean chuckles at the sight of his mocked hurt face, but almost clearly tenses up when he feels a foot slide against his under the table.

Cas continues to secretly tease him throughout the rest of dinner when it was necessary, by gliding his foot up Dean’s leg, caressing Dean’s thigh up and up and up. Dean doesn’t give in that easy. He simply smiles and laughs as if nothing was going on, causing the tension between them to grow and grow.

Cas helps Mary clear the table and Dean already knows they’re talking about him in the kitchen, he doesn’t feel the need to eavesdrop.

“So you and him, huh?” Sam appears beside him.

“Uh, yeah. But uh- I know this whole time-”

“Dean. You don’t need to explain yourself. I’m cool with it,” Sam casually says, shrugging his shoulders. “Just, lock your door when you do your- stuff next time.”

“Yep, sure thing buddy. Thanks, and oh- do me a favour; don’t tell your friends.” Dean gives his brother a clap on the back and gets up from his seat when he sees Cas and Mary walking out of the kitchen. He hears a ‘Why not?’ from Sam but chooses to storytell him later.

Cas says goodbye to both Mary and Sam, with a huge thanks for dinner, and how it was a pleasure to meet them. The second him and Dean are out of the house and the door is shut behind them, he’s instantly pulled by the hand and pressed onto Dean’s body.

“You just couldn’t keep your hands off, could you?”

When they get to Cas’ house, which Dean discovers, isn’t so far away, Dean clasps his hand onto Castiel’s face as he kisses him goodbye.

“See you tomorrow- Dean,” Cas stutters, still taken aback from the kiss. He offers Dean a genuine smile and leaves the car.

Dean breaks into laughter when Cas turns back to check if he’s still there, and he tries to shoo him away with a grin spreading widely across his face.

With that, Dean gives in and drives off, taking in all that actually happened in one day. He doesn’t even notice he’s smiling from ear to ear until Sam points it out when he gets back. Then he realizes.

He’s probably gonna have to come out soon.

++

Dean and Cas spend Tuesday’s first break in the library, again. They talk and touch and touch and kiss it drives Dean crazy in a good way. It makes Dean feel a bit guilty that they’re neglecting their friends and not telling them yet; in which, was Dean’s decision. Dean offers to bring Cas home again, but Cas has errands to run with his brothers, much to Dean’s dismay.

“Hm, what time do you gotta do these errands?” Dean whispers as he slides his mouth to the corner of Cas’ jaw.

He feels Cas smile against him. “Dean.”

“What time?”

“Um- I don’t know, five? Why, what are you planning?” Cas shrugs slightly and flickers his eyes towards his eyes, squinting them in a cute manner Dean noticed he did a lot.

“Well maybe, we could spend a little more time together after school,” Dean says and lifts his head up at Cas.

Cas sighs softly and smiles down at Dean. “Do you plan to spend every waking moment with me?”

“Not really, no. Just for an hour after school, then I’ll ditch you forever,” Dean jokingly says.

“You wouldn’t. You like me too much and I like you too much to let you go so easy.”

Dean blushes. “Yeah, you’re right. So what do you say? Spend some time with me after school, then I’ll send you back at five.”

“Hm.”

“Please?” Dean drags the word a bit hopefully and moves his mouth right above Castiel’s neck.

Cas tilts his head for Dean to get a better spot comfortably, a smile automatically forming on his lips.

“Mhmm, fine.”

The bell rings, and the boys have to get to class. They share a brief kiss before they leave their usual spot, and Dean sneaks a stroke on the other’s lower back right before he enters English.

They see each other during lunch again at the cafeteria, deciding to join their friends this time. There was no way they could ditch them forever. Dean can tell Cas enjoys their company as well, even though he’s the quietest among them all, listening in attentively to what they say and laughing when it was necessary. Castiel’s as quiet as a church mouse compared to the other three of them, but he has his moments.

“So, where were you guys today?” Charlie starts the conversation.

Cas looks up for a very, very, brief moment at Dean before he settles his eyes on Charlie.

“Hm?”

“You and Dean, been missing the whole morning,” Benny answers.

Cas straightens up in his seat. “Oh, there’s this project due somewhere next week, Ms Naomi’s insane about it, it’s nothing,” he lies straight through his teeth so casually, taking a sip from his drink. “I don’t know where Dean went though, thought he was with you.”

Charlie nods and mouths an ‘oh’, before she turns to Dean, expecting him to speak.

“I uh, homework,” Dean says a little too forcefully and looks down at his food, digging into them.

“Again?”

“Yep, senior year. Gotta focus,” he lies more casually, and it’s as if he’s learnt from Cas just like that.

Charlie snorts. “If you want to focus so much you could start with bringing your homework back.”

“Never mind that, I’m just wondering how you two work on projects and homework with no food in the morning.”

++

“Mm, Dean- don’t you- have to send Sam back home or something?” Cas says in between breaths as Dean lands a bunch of kisses along the crook of his neck.

“Don’t worry, he’s going back with a friend,” Dean mumbles. “Is it crazy that I’m crazy about you even though I’ve only known you for like, three weeks?”

Cas smiles and puts a hand to the back of Dean’s head. “I don’t know, ‘cause I’m just as crazy as you are,” he mutters before pushing their mouths together. Again. And again.

Dean’s lost count on how many times they’ve kissed in the library that day.

++

It’s Wednesday and an excitement rushes through Dean to come to school. He’s excited to see Cas again, knowing there’ll be another time when both him and Cas are free for a good, good, amount of time.

When he sees Cas walking his way to Math, he runs straight to him and turns him around, holding him by the arms in a way that looked friendly to other people.

“Dean.”

“We’re not going to Math.”

“Dean, come on—”

“Ellen’s not in today, sub doesn’t give a crap. Come on, we have way more than ten minutes this time,” he whispers so other people don’t hear.

Cas registers what Dean says and a smile spreads across his face. “Okay, where are we going?”

“Up to you,” he says and throws a wink at his direction.

Cas thinks for a moment, before he guiltily smiles with his eyes, if that was possible. “I’ve always wanted to…”

“What?”

Cas leans in and lets Dean be the only one to hear it. “Make out with someone in the janitor’s closet. Know anyone willing?”

“Oh, hell yes.”

So they do.

Cas is the one sitting on the counter with his arms wrapped around Dean’s neck, pulling Dean’s body closer to his between his knees. His glasses are off, since Dean keeps bumping his face into them. One of Dean’s hands finds its way at Cas’ waist, while the other rummages through his hair like it’s the last thing he’ll do.

Their lips meet often. They pull away to breathe every once and then, and when they do, their foreheads rest against each other for a few seconds.

“I don’t think I’ve kissed someone for that long,” Dean says as they pull away again, breaths heavy.

“Same,” Cas replies, panting and smiling at the same time.

“Talk to me. Tell me about yourself, Novak,” Dean breathes out. He presses his lips and sucks on Cas’ neck, pulling him with both hands at his boyfriend’s waist.

Cas gasps at the sudden action and exhales a laugh. “Ah— don’t think I can talk with you doing that to me.”

“You’re gonna have to try,” Dean says into his neck.

“You’re so close to me, Winchester, it’s almost getting me hot and bothered.”

“Almost?”

Cas laughs in return.

Dean continues doing what he’s doing and slides his hand down Cas’ torso, as it goes lower, and lower, and lower.

He earns a soft gasp from Cas. He isn’t sure if he’s even doing the right thing, hell, he’s never done this with a guy before. He pulls himself back from Cas’ neck.

“Are you- are you okay with this or am I doing it really wrong or did you not want that at all, fuck, I’m so sorry—”

“Dean,” Cas cuts him off. “I lied. I’m actually very hot and bothered right now. But you don’t have to force yourself, I know it’s something you’re not used to.”

“But— Cas, I wanna make you so happy, I just don’t know how,” Dean says desperately.

“I am happy.”

“You know what I mean,” Dean says, blushing slightly.

Cas pauses and wanders his eyes to the left. He flickers them back to Dean and bites his lip, saying completely innocently as he tugs on Dean’s shirt,

“I could teach you a thing or two.”

++

All of a sudden hands and mouths are involved with their throbbing dicks, and even though it’s Dean’s first try, he’s doing pretty well, considering the fact that Castiel’s knuckles on one hand are white from pressing hard against the wall, the other pushing the back of Dean’s head.

“Oh- Oh God, okay okay, not too fast Dean,” Cas pants silently.

Dean rubs his palms up and down Cas’ thigh as he slows down. He sneaks a peek up at Cas, who’s face instantly relaxes in pleasure. He bobs his head up and down Cas’ cock, receiving a quick hard grip of his hair he can’t help but enjoy.

Cas comes a few minutes later when Dean brings his face back up to his neck, letting his hand take over the work. He kisses him all over when Cas is clearly out of breath, but still smiles like a dork when he’s done.

“Wow,” Cas breathes out. He slowly wears his boxers back on and straightens his glasses. “Where’d you learn to do that?” he jokingly asks.

Dean smiles and leans in before he kisses Cas genuinely and sweet. They both sit on the counter and lean back against the wall for a few seconds without saying a word. Cas is still smiling like an idiot when he slides a hand into Dean’s, earning a squeeze back in return.

“You’re amazing,” Dean says.

“So are you.”

“Tell me about yourself, Castiel.”

Cas furrows his eyebrows at the sudden full name calling and smirks.

“Again?”

“Hm, nothin’ wrong with knowing more about you.”

Cas thinks for a few moments. He then reveals to Dean that he used to travel a lot when he was a kid, going to places like Puerto Rico, London, and Thailand. He admits to Dean that his brother Gabriel used to make fun of his drawings, but helped colour in when Cas made a sad face. He admits that he’s been lost by his nanny in supermarkets at least four times, because of how he loved to sneak off to grab an extra loaf of butterscotch bread and put it in the trolley when his nanny’s back was turned. That makes Dean laugh, and promise that one day he’ll serve butterscotch bread for Cas as breakfast.

Then, Cas suggests it’s Dean’s turn. There’s still about ten minutes till the bell rings for the next lesson.

Dean tells him about the time he made Sam laugh as a baby for the first time, and how it was because he let Sam smear peanut butter spread all over his cheeks. He tells Cas that on the first day of sixth grade he helped Charlie escape from PE class by letting her hide in the boys’ toilet and guarded the door. That was how they first met. He also tells him about the time he was a toddler he finds his mom crying at Titanic, and when she tries to tell him the story but fails, he pretends to cry as well to make his mom feel better.

“More reasons to like you,” Cas states.

Dean feels shy and blushes when Cas says that, because he still can’t come to believe where they are at the moment.

“Um, Dean, how long are we— gonna keep doing this?” Cas asks.

Dean stays quiet for a moment, rubbing the back of his neck nervously. “Oh. Uh…”

Cas sits up. “I mean- no pressure. No pressure. Just wondering, that’s all.”

Dean sighs. “I’m sorry. I know, it’s completely unfair for you, and I’m such a dickbag I just—”

“Hey,” Cas cuts him off. “I said no pressure,” he assures with a smile. He lifts his head and gives a sweet peck on Dean’s forehead, pulling him in a little.

Dean smiles back automatically before he checks the time on his watch. “Okay, we better go. Five minutes left.”

“Five minutes is plenty, just saying…”

Five minutes later, Dean’s never smiled so much on the way to History class.

++

On Thursday they don't have a time slot to themselves alone, since Cas has an errand to run with a teacher during their first break. They see each other during Math, and Dean sneaks a wink when Cas writes the answer to a tough question on the board. Dean almost kisses him goodbye after school, until the reminder that Charlie and Benny are with them hits him quick enough to not lean in.

Friday's breaks are shorter for some reason, so they meet at the library again. They laugh and joke about the almost kiss yesterday, and Dean learns that Cas had nearly grabbed his hand out in the open after lunch too. Cas suggests that they should attempt to read together like the old times. They do, grabbing random books from different sections. Dean's on the second page of his book, which he isn't exactly a hundred percent concentrated on, when he feels a pair of familiar lips slide over his neck.

Dean laughs. "Good enough attempt, Cas."

He shuts and puts the book away, feeling Cas smile into his neck. Dean lifts Cas up by the chin and smashes their lips together, immediately softening into him after that. The kiss is slow, and sweet enough to leave their foreheads rest against each other.

Dean flutters his eyes open to see Cas' blue ones staring at his mouth.

"Have I ever told you how much I like you?" Dean whispers.

“Too many—”

Cas is interrupted by someone else clearing their throat.

“Boys.”

Dean recognizes that voice anywhere. His eyes go wide in horror as he turns to look at the woman standing across them, arms folded across her waist with a geometry book in one hand.

Nobody in the space around them says anything for a while.

“Get to class, the bell just rang.”

Cas immediately stands up and walks past her, bowing his head down slightly in a nervous manner.

“Morning, Ms Harvelle.”

Ellen forces a hard smile and a nod. She raises her eyebrows at Dean questioningly, and places a hand on his arm when he tries to escape from her.

Dean backs up and shrugs. “I can explain?”

“You and I will have a chat after dinner tonight,” Ellen says.

Dean lets out a sigh, not knowing whether it’s a form of relief or guilt or understanding. He simply nods and walks past Ellen, just in time to hear her say,

“The geometry section though, really?”

++

“Cas, these are- amazing!” Charlie says in awe, flipping through the pages of a large sketchbook.

“Woah, holy mother,” Benny joins in, when he sees a large, detailed design of a mansion.

Castiel wears a smile so big, Dean’s trying to control his own. Seeing Cas so happy makes him happy as well.

“Thank you, that really means a lot,” Cas says politely.

Charlie’s eyes go even bigger when she gets to a certain page. “Clothes too?”

Cas nods.

“These are amazing,” Charlie repeats in a soft tone, eyes poring all over the designs on one page.

Dean turns to Cas, smiling. “So do you ever like, bring the fashion designs to life?” he asks. He already knows the answer to that one, and Cas knows that.

Cas bites his lip for a second and shrugs. “Yeah, just a few, maybe. The uh, ones that turn out, I guess, are the ones on the last page.”

Charlie furrows her eyebrows and quickly flips to the last page. There were at least five designs perfectly sketched and coloured in on it.

Dean slips his foot onto Cas’ under the table, making the both of them smile.

“I know it’s not shopping or celebrity material, but-”

“Hold up,” Benny comes to a halt as he points at a certain sketch. “Is that the same scarf you’re wearing right now?”

Charlie stares between the sketch and the real thing, gawping without saying a word.

“Yes. And yes, Charlie, to answer your question, you can touch it,” Cas says in a laughing tone, untying the navy patterned wool scarf around his neck. He stretches his arm over the table to pass it to an excited Charlie.

That’s when Dean nearly swears aloud.

A purple bruise is half-visible at the side of Cas’ collarbone.

The day before Cas had gone over to Dean’s, because he couldn’t study for his Chemistry test at his own house when his brother was having a fun, loud gathering there with his college friends. Cas was stressed as hell, and Dean could tell from the other side of his room.

“You okay?” Dean asked.

Cas sighed. “I just- hate Chemistry.  I mean, when the hell am I going to need to know about the chemical equilibrium or how fast this stupid thing reacts with that stupid thing—” Cas’ voice had gone off edge.

“Hey,” Dean cut him off. He rolled his chair towards him in a matter of seconds, and held an upset Cas by the arms from behind. “It’s just a test, it’ll be over before you know it,” he said, offering a smile.

Cas instantly smiled back and relaxed into him as Dean massaged his shoulders, sighing completely.

“I hate Gabriel.”

“You don’t mean that,” Dean said lowly.

 “Hm, not generally, not really. But right now punching him sounds nice,” Cas said in a deadpan manner.

Dean laughed. “You don’t have to think about it too much.” He pressed his lips to the side of Cas’ neck.

“Dean, I’m supposed to study,” Cas attempted to say, laughter mostly coming out.

“Hm, okay then,” Dean said, smirking as he removed his mouth from Castiel’s neck and rolled back to his desk of papers.

“Damn it,” he heard Cas mutter from behind. Within three seconds his chair spun around for him to be cupped by the face and kissed hardly.

He could feel himself and Cas smiling into the kiss, bumping his face with Cas’ glasses every time. Cas sat in between his legs and leaned in some more while they made out, causing the chair to stretch back with Dean’s back fully pressed against it, wheels at the base squeaking slightly.

Dean smirked as he pulled away. “What happened to studying?”

“Screw that.”

“Swear to God, Cas, we break this chair, you’re paying for it.”

Dean has no idea how to tell Cas to hide the bruise away before any of their friends realize with not making it obvious.

“Neck, bruise, hide,” he whispers so softly only for Cas next to him to hear while Charlie idolizes the scarf itself.

Cas turns to Dean. “Did you say something?”

“Woah,” Benny says. “Fun weekend, Cas?” he asks.

Dean doesn’t know what to do other than act surprised.                                                                      

“What?” Cas says, oblivious to the situation.

Dean clears his throat. “How’d you get that?” he asks, blinking hard at the spot on his neck.

Cas’ eyes go wide at the realization. “Uh-”

“Holy crap, who’d you have fun with?” Charlie says, looking up from the scarf.

“I assure you- not what it looks like,” Cas attempts to calmly say, but ends up faltering at his own words as he quickly slaps his hand on the bruise, covering it.

So much for good liar.

Benny smirks. “No offense Cas, but everyone on this table would recognize that kind of bruise.”

Dean watches Cas think for a moment, shoulders dropping down.

“Okay, you got me,” Cas says, raising his hands in surrender.

“What?” Dean says a little too quickly.

Cas shrugs. “My brother had a few friends from college over yesterday, parents weren’t home the whole day.”

Damn it, Dean thinks. He hates when other people lie for him. It felt wrong, and unfair, and it doesn’t help that this is Cas making up some story for him.

“So one of them gave you that? How old was he?” Charlie asks, still surprised with the situation.

“Uh, nineteen? I don’t know, I didn’t really mind. He was nice,” Cas lies so casually it makes Dean jealous for a while before he reminds himself it’s all made up. Cas takes a sip from his juice box and tangles his leg around Dean’s. Nobody could see them anyway.

“Hm,” Charlie hums. “Never really thought you as the wild kind.”

“Yeah, you don’t look the type to get little love bites from people you just met,” Benny adds in.

Cas laughs. “I guess- stuff happens. I let loose sometimes. But uh, nothing further happened of course. Definitely. Anyway I need to- get ready for my Chemistry test, couldn’t focus at all yesterday.”

Dean smirks, remembering the oh-so-amazing hand job he received yesterday. Cas actually had to cup his hand over his mouth from being so loud.

Charlie hands the scarf and sketchbook back to Cas, an amused expression still captured on her face. “Don’t have too much fun without us again.”

Dean watches Cas go with a light smile playing in his eyes, before he reminds himself he’s not supposed to be the one that stays quiet at the table.

“Hm, it’s like we discover something new of him every time,” Dean smiles when says it.

“About time the guy’s had a little action, though,” Benny says.

Dean’s about to curse when his mind goes back to the janitor’s closet all over again.

++

“Hey. Been looking everywhere for you,” Dean says when he spots Cas in front of the sink, hands pressed at the sides, while he’s pensively staring at something in the mirror. “Lunch is half over, what are you doing here?”

Cas doesn’t turn, or at least make eye contact with him, instead lowers his eyes to the ground. “Dean. Sorry, I was- occupied.”

 Dean walks over to him slowly. “With what?”

Cas stays silent and it looks like he’s bracing himself for something.

Dean furrows his eyebrows. “You wanna tell me what’s going-” he halts.

He tilts his head to look if he’s seeing right. A small thin graze is drawn at the side of Cas’ head, the blood already dried up.

“Cas, what the hell?” he exclaims. He cups Cas’ chin and turns his head to see the cut, earning a guilty look in return.

“It’s nothing-”

“To hell with nothing! You didn’t have that this morning, or at Math, who the fuck did that to you?” Dean’s angry as hell. No way was anyone going to get away with hurting Cas, even if it was just a little bit.

“I was shoved, my landing was a little off.”

“Cas, who did that to you?” Dean asks. He thinks for a moment. “Was it Bartholomew?”

Cas sighs. He nods lightly for Dean to know.

Dean shakes his head in frustration. “He’s meat.”

“Dean-”

“I’ll fix this,” Dean states firmly, letting go of Cas as he heads to the door.

“Don’t do anything stupid,” Cas pleads from behind him.

Dean sighs and turns back around. He walks over and kisses Cas right on the lips, planting another soft one on the spot of his small cut.

“I won’t. I’m doing the exact opposite.”

++

Dean’s walking fastens on the way to the cafeteria, Cas trying to catch up behind him.

“Dean,” he tries calling. “Dean, you don’t have to do this.”

Dean keeps walking, offering a small wink and a smile to Cas as he turns his head momentarily.

He pushes open both doors to the cafeteria, little more dramatic in his head. He spots Bartholomew’s gang at the centre of the whole cafeteria; of course.

“Bart! Hey Bart!” Dean calls out, pasting a false smile on his face.

Bartholomew’s chattering with a bunch of people Dean couldn’t care less about, before he looks up with a grimace at Dean.

“It’s Bartholomew. Winchester, what brings you here?” he calls out in a snarky and loud tone, bringing attention to the centre.

Dean hates it.

“Nothing,” Dean says when he’s close enough, slowing down in his tracks. “I just came by to remind you of our deal, remember that? The one where I told you to uh, quit bothering him?” he continues, adding a tone of annoyance as he gestures his head to Cas, who’s standing behind him a few feet away.

Bartholomew smirks. “Sure do. Did we really take that seriously?”

“You didn’t,” Dean says furiously, followed by a bitter laugh. “You see, I’ve always had the urge to punch you. And now that you’ve hurt him, breaking your nose is kind of on the top of my to-do list,” he rambles on. He notices people starting to look and point, he swears he even hears Charlie somewhere with a “What the hell?”

“Dean,” he hears Cas say from behind him.

“Why don’t you? Make it a quick punch, break my face if you want,” Bartholomew teases, squinting with one eye cockily.

“Well that’s the thing. I’m not gonna, because that’s just something you’d do. I ain’t gonna stoop to your level,” Dean admits.

Bartholomew glowers at Dean before he plasters a fake smile, thin press of the lips. He smirks and turns to his friends around him.

“Seriously, what’s the deal? You a coward or his boyfriend?” Bartholomew jokes. His friends around him have quiet laughs, some probably forced.

Dean bites down on his lip and smiles.

“His boyfriend, actually, thank you very much,” he says.

Dean already hears a few gasps coming from behind him, followed by the chatters between the crowds of students surrounding them. Bartholomew’s face is priceless, Dean wants to capture that moment forever and laugh at it.

Bartholomew’s gang are completely speechless as they start shifting uncomfortably away, avoiding any eye contact with Dean. He laughs to himself and searches the crowd, which has already at least gathered half of their year. He looks and smiles at Charlie, who has her hand over her chest, a grin spread wide across her face.

“Yeah, well- some of you know me, some of you don’t. Some of you know me that way,” he says, throwing a light wink at the blushing cheerleaders.

He clears his throat and thinks, hell, he should’ve thought this through.

He hopes and prays at that moment that Cas is still there and hasn’t run off from the whole scene before Dean could realize it.

He turns and sees, and yes, fucking yes, he’s there, looking as gorgeous as ever, even with the small graze on his face, or the way his scarf is loosely tied around his neck ever since Math. Dean doesn’t care, because Cas is standing there with proud and happy eyes, a smile so soft it makes him melt a little, it’s the only thing that matters.

“I’m just gonna cut it short. I like him a lot, he likes me a lot. And if there are any asshats who have a problem that,” he eyes a silent Bartholomew when he says that. “Well, then you’re gonna have to stick it up your ass and live with it, whatever crap you wanna say to me ain’t gonna change the way I feel. Lay a hand on him though, you’re meat.”

He ignores everyone in the room, and walks over to Cas, offering a hand. Cas places it in his and smiles.

“Everyone’s looking,” Cas whispers.

“I don’t give a damn,” Dean whispers back. “But, it’s actually pretty awkward ‘cause the bell’s gonna ring in like five minutes, and I don’t know if we should just walk out of here proudly or go back to our seat.”

Cas laughs. “I’m proud of you.”

“Me too. We should go, I can’t stand the thought of so many people looking at you,” Dean says in a hushed tone, smiling.

Cas nods and squeezes his hand tight, kissing the knuckles on Dean’s hands. There are a bunch of ‘Aw’s and ‘Oh’s, and cheering, even. Maybe not half the school were jerks after all. Dean breaks into a smile when he sees Charlie still at the same state, and Benny mocking her right at her side.

He turns to the crowd and says,

“Ladies and gentlemen, Dean Winchester is now out of the closet.”

++

“So basically all those times you two never showed up for first break it’s cause you’ve been screwing?”

“…NO!”

++

-THREE MONTHS LATER-

Dean sighs as he flips through the pages of an old newspaper, forcing his eyelids to open as his mind tries to focus on whatever he’s supposed to find.

He looks up next to the redhead beside him, who isn’t as distressed or bored as he is.

“Remind me to never be your partner for an assignment again,” his mouth drawled, flipping through absent-mindedly.

Charlie snickers. “You say that all the time and we somehow end up working together, probably because we make a good team. Besides, it’s the last English assignment, like ever. Why shouldn’t it be last minute?”

Dean huffs another breath, and flickers his eyes to his phone. He clicks on the home button, the lock screen displaying a not-so-candid photo of him and Cas that was taken by Benny. It captured them together at the lockers, Dean laughing at something Cas had said, with Cas smiling just as wide back at him.

It probably isn’t the best picture of them, but it’s Dean’s favourite. They look happy together, and the startled look in Cas’ eyes just when he realizes their picture is being taken makes it a little humorous, making Dean smile every time he saw it.

‘Sorry for the late reply. I fell, but I’m okay.’

“What?” Dean says out loud, scanning his eyes over the new text message.

Charlie raises her eyebrows and turns her head to Dean’s direction. “Hm, what?”

Dean shrugs and types back, confusion sprawled over his face.

‘What are you talking about where the hell are you?? You hurt?’

He sends the message. He turns to Charlie, eyes not really leaving his phone screen.

“All the dude says is that he freaking fell, God knows how or where he-” he says.

“Hold up, Dean, my dad’s calling. Sorry, gotta take this,” Charlie cuts him off without looking much at him, before she rushes off and puts the phone to her ear, trying to keep her distance from the librarian monitoring the area.

Dean rolls his eyes when he sees the big stack of newspapers next to him left for them to look through. He doesn’t even know what he’s really supposed to find for this assignment, Charlie just kept beckoning him to do stuff in one day.

He feels the vibration of his phone buzz on the table and he reads the message.

‘I said I’m okay. Might be a big deal, though, but you don’t have to worry.’

If he wasn’t confused then, he was sure confused now. He types back.

‘Cas, I swear you’re not making any sense right now’-

“Dean, I think what we’re lacking in our research here is a little originality,” Charlie appears in his sight, walking quickly towards him. He doesn’t send the text.

He looks up at her, eyebrows quirked. “What? We’ve got like piles of newspaper here, what are you—”

“I just remembered, there’s this good enough book at the back, it can help us out,” Charlie says to him enthusiastically, clapping her covered palms together once before walking over to an unknown direction.

“Charlie—” he calls out, before the librarian hushes him. “Charlie,” he repeats in a lower tone, but by how far she’s away from him now she’s out of earshot.

He rolls his eyes, getting up from his seat and follows her, trying to catch up to her speed. What the hell was with everyone today, he thinks to himself. He spots her red hair from the corner heading to the Social Studies section, and then he loses her.

“Charlie?” he calls softly.

“Dean,” Charlie whispers from a shelf behind him, it startles him.

He turns around and sees a pair of playful eyes behind a shelf, books hiding half of her face. “Charlie, what the hell is up-”

For a second he thinks he loses her again, but he catches the bright red heading quickly another way, a familiar way, in fact.

He makes his way and expects her to be right there. He calls out,

“C’mon, we’re not in sixth grade anymore-”

He pauses when he sees nobody there. It was either him going crazy, or Charlie going crazy. He looks around, no hints of his friend around the area. But he knows this area so well.

The variety of comic books to romance novels arranged messily in between the majority of Geometry books the school happened to have a special section for.

He knows this area too well.

He squints as he sees the empty space in front of him all the way at the back row, which he realizes isn’t as empty as he thought at first glance.

He walks slowly over and gets a good look at what’s in front of him lying on the floor.

There are four books laid in specific order; It. The Lord of the Rings. Phantom of the Opera. World War Z.

Small post-its placed on each one is scribbled by familiar handwriting with the same instruction that says;

TURN OVER.

Dean smiles so wide, he’s not even sure what to expect next. He turns all of them quickly, and bloody well shakes doing it, an exciting rush running through him.

P             R             O             M

Before he can even begin to react, an awfully familiar, gravelly voice fills the air.

“I wanted to add a question mark, but there were only four books I remembered and that probably meant that those were the most important ones, so there’s actually a very very small question mark at the corner of the ‘M’ page if you look close enough.”

Dean’s already turning before that voice finishes talking. He breaks into a great beam and shakes his head.

“Cas… I-”

Cas steps forward, blushing a little and looking down before he speaks, “I said I fell. I know we’ve only been together for three months, but- wow, I fell hard. To be honest, I’m still falling, and I’m only close to believing that you’re not just a dream that could drift away when I wake up.”

Dean’s in denial that all of this is happening right now. He forgets to breathe.

“Cas-”

“I have,” Cas clears his throat. “Unbelievably, sickeningly, desperately fallen in love with you at the age of seventeen, Dean Winchester. Will you go to this stupid prom with me and not make it as stupid?”

Dean finally catches his breath and paces over, crashing his lips against his boyfriend’s. “Hell yes,” he mutters against his lips when he pulls away. He holds him by the face and smiles. “You really mean all that you said?”

Cas nods shyly.

“Damn, and I was here thinking you fell down a ditch or something,” Dean says with a huff.

Cas laughs. “Charlie’s actually already covered your assignment. I just needed her to stall you while I struggled using sharpies with very little ink.”

“You’re awesome, you know that?”

“I know.”

Cas leans in and kisses him again, letting their hands hold on to each other sweetly. Dean smiles into it, until he hears a faint whisper from the back.

“Cas, do I stop recording?”

“Damn it. Benny too?”

++

Prom goes great. It isn’t Dean or Cas’ favourite place or event, with so many of the school people around, but they actually have fun taking pictures and dancing and spending time with their friends. Dean throws a wink at Charlie, who got last minute asked by Gilda, the new girl she’s been crushing on.

It’s only a matter of time before they decide to leave early, as things were getting far too loud for them. Just as they exit the doors the electro music or whatever Dean called it, comes to a stop. They hear the DJ announce something they can’t quite get a grasp of from outside.

Then he hears the base of soft strumming, the beginning of a song he knows so well. He stops, and grabs Cas by the wrist, pulling him in.

“Dance with me, Cas.”

Cas smiles. “Here, on the school field?”

“Yeah, who cares? It’s this song,” Dean says, placing a hand on Cas’ waist.

Cas relaxes and rests his hands on Dean’s shoulders, then lets one of them slide around his neck while the other holds loosely in Dean’s as they sway to the music.

Childhood living is easy to do

The things you wanted I bought them for you

Graceless lady you know who I am

You know I can't let you slide through my hands

Dean smiles when Cas rests his head at Dean’s neck, and he’s so happy he’s sure he could cry. They continue to sway to the calming sound of Mick Jagger’s voice and the base of the instrumental.

Wild horses couldn't drag me away

Wild, wild horses, couldn't drag me away

“I like this song. I don’t want it to end,” Cas says, lifting his head to look at Dean.

“Me too. You look great, by the way, have I told you that?” Dean asks.

Cas smiles against his neck. “Too many times.”

“You know, I’m so glad I had the balls to tell you I liked you that day in the library. We probably wouldn’t be here if I didn’t.”

“I’m glad I had the balls to be your friend even after you caught me staring at you endlessly in Math,” Cas expressed back.

“Yeah well, all the times you weren’t looking, I was.”

++

Dean’s never had a better morning when he sees Cas cuddled up next to him on the couch, glasses loosely hanging from his face. He’s still wearing the white button up from his suit he was lazy to get out of. Dean smiles and cups his face, carefully removing the glasses from his face.

He snaps a quick picture of him sleeping soundlessly, hoping for this moment to be a happy memory in the future. He gets up from the couch, heading to the kitchen as he sees a smiling Sam on the way and pats him on the back. He shuffles through the fridge, aching to find the one thing he has in mind for breakfast.

He finds it and with two cups of coffee, he returns to the living room. Cas is stretching and squinting at him with a cute smile, and it goes even wider when he sees what Dean has in his hands.

“Butterscotch bread?”