Castiel pressed a ten dollar bill into Gabriel's hand the next time he saw his brother.

"What's this?" Gabriel asked, amused. "Did I win our bet? Or is this charity?"

"Shut up," Castiel muttered.

"Remember, I'm always right." Gabriel grinned. "This'll buy me a few candy bars. Excellent. Thanks, little bro."

Castiel glared at him, which only made Gabriel grin widen.

"So, how did the rest of it go?" he asked. "Tell me everything. I need details. Did you make out in the back of the theater? On a scale from one to ten, how intense was your eye sex over dinner? When he drove you home, did he stay the night? How big is his-"

"Gabriel!" Castiel admonished. "We had dinner, saw a movie, and that was all. And we don't have eye sex."

"Of course you do." Gabriel waved him off. "Did you kiss? Please tell me you at least kissed."

Castiel rolled his eyes. "Yes, we kissed. Briefly."

He remembered the first kiss they shared. Dean's lips had been warm against Castiel's. It had been revealing and intimate and passionate and theirs, he'd never had anything quite like that. The second had been just like it, but more.

Castiel could have kissed him forever. Next time he saw Dean, he decided, he would do that.

Castiel's wist must have shown, because Gabriel laughed. "Okay, lover boy. Let's restock the flowers, unless you'd rather keep drooling over Dean-o."

Castiel sighed, and made to help Gabriel. To be honest, he would rather keep thinking about Dean, but the shop opened in less than an hour, and there was plenty of restocking to do before then.

"Well, while you were off going at it with Dean-"

Gabriel was cut off for a moment by Castiel's protests.

"Yes, you were, even if it was only with the eyes- anyway, Kali and I made up. I'm taking her out for breakfast on Friday, so I'm going to have to leave a bit early."

"That sounds fine," Castiel said.

"No 'congratulations?' You wound me, Cassie." Gabriel put a hand over his heart dramatically.

"You two have broken up and gotten back together more times than I've seen the Princess Bride, and I watch that every time I get sick," Castiel told him.

"You never get sick," Gabriel said dismissively. "I could count the number of times you've had to stay home on one hand."

"Two hands," Castiel corrected. "Four times during school, three since-"

"Whatever. Point being, you don't watch the Princess Bride all the time, so your comment about me and Kali is irrelevant."

Castiel rolled his eyes, and continued to take inventory and restock flowers.

Monday was a long day for business. The shop wasn't open quite as long on weekends, but when customers were scarce, the hours dragged by. The only things getting Castiel through the day were Gabriel's ridiculous banter, and the knowledge that Dean would be calling or texting him eventually.

Eventually turned out to be four o'clock on the dot.

"You there, Cas?"

It had been less than forty eight hours since Castiel had seen him, but nonetheless he was thrilled to hear Dean's voice.

"Hello, Dean. Aren't you still at work?"

"Well, yeah, physically," Dean said, "but technically my shift is over. Yours is too, right?"

"Yes, we just closed," Castiel said, watching as Gabriel hung up a "sorry, we're closed" sign.

"Great. How was it?"

"Work?"

"Yeah."

"Not very eventful. It was a slow day. Yours?"

"Pretty busy- Kevin has his test tomorrow, so he didn't come in after school, and he won't be in until Wednesday. Charlie took a day off. So it was just me and Bobby working the garage. We're- hold on."

There was a muffled voice on the other side of the line.

"No, Bobby, I won't forget to check the garage- yes, I'll be in early tomorrow. Okay, anyway-" Dean turned his attention back to Castiel. "I was-"

The muffled voice started talking again.

Dean sighed. "No, I'm not talking to Sam. I'll tell him you send your love, though." He paused again. "Jesus, Bobby, can I just talk to Cas? Thanks. Alright, I'm back. So I know you said Sunday, but any chance that later this week, if you've got a slow day and you can get away from the shop, any chance that you would, uh, want to come by the garage around lunch and meet the guys? If you can't or don't want to, that's fine, it was just, uh, just a thought."

Castiel smiled. "I'll see if I can get Gabriel to cover for me later this week."

"Great." Dean sounded surprised, but Castiel could hear his grin over the line. "Great. Let me know when, alright? Just so I can let Bobby know. If you show up unannounced in the garage, he might think you're an intruder and throw a wrench at you."

"He does that?"

"Ash- that's Jo's brother, he's in college now, he worked at the garage before he left- he showed up once on his day off without calling Bobby. He nearly got his eye gouged out with a screwdriver."

"That sounds painful."

"I'm sure it is, but how about we not find out?"

"Yes, I think that would be best."

It had been decided that Cas would be at Bobby's Auto on Wednesday. Kevin would come during his open lunch and pick up pizza. Sunday, Dean would head to Cas' apartment to watch Titanic.

Dean was most excited about Wednesday; the few times he had mentioned Cas, Charlie, Kevin, and Bobby (in his grumpy, stotic way) were all enthusiastic about meeting his new "friend." He was equally excited for Cas to meet them. Sunday... he wasn't thrilled about watching Titanic, but it meant more time with Cas, and Dean wasn't complaining about that- far from it. He was more than happy to spend time with Cas- hell, he would spend the whole day doing calculus with the guy, which was one of the most boring classes he had ever taken. Somehow, Cas would make it interesting, the way he made everything. Worth it.

There was a buzzing from Dean's pocket. Sam. He answered.

"You know we just talked this morning, right, Sammy?"

"Yes, I'm aware that we talked this morning," Sam said impatiently. "I just got off the phone with Jo."

Dean's stomach dropped. He froze.

Oh god. This couldn't be happening. She had promised. Jo had fucking promised she wouldn't tell Sam. He'd thought he could trust her. She had fucking promised. It was too late now, though. Too late to avoid the slurs that were bound to fall from his brother's lips.

Dean braced himself.

"Why didn't you tell me you and Cassie went out on a date?"

The words didn't register for a moment.

Same continued less seriously, "When I asked you why you were in such a good mood, you told me 'no reason!' It was because you and her went out, wasn't it?"

Dean didn't respond. He was in shock.

"Dean? You there?"

"Wha- yeah. Yeah. Cassie?"

"That was her name, right?"

"Right."

Cassie. Her name. So Jo hadn't told him. Dean breathed a sigh of relief.

"Are you going to tell me how it went?" Sam prompted. "Or am I going to have to blackmail you?"

"It- uh, it was good. Great, actually. Cas liked A New Hope, even though h- they claimed it was just 'not awful.' Still agreed to watch the next one. I'm heading over to their place to watch Titanic later this week."

"Wow. You watching romance?" Sam laughed. "You're serious about her, huh?"

"Uh- maybe," Dean said.

The question caught him off guard. Was he serious about Cas?

Of course he liked him and wanted to spend time with him. More than just that; Dean was usually bar then sex then exchange phone numbers kind of guy. He didn't take it slow. With Cas, he was okay with taking it slow. Actually, he was more than okay with that. And that hadn't happened before, not with Dean. Cas was different.

But a serious relationship? Move in with each other, maybe exchange vows, give himself up wholeheartedly? He let himself picture it for a moment;

A small house somewhere between the flower shop and garage, Baby parked in front. Probably a flowering garden, courtesy of Cas. The inside would likely be laden with botany as well. A comfortable living room, complete with a couch small enough that they would have to sit touching each other, and a full collection of Star Wars movies. Maybe some of those romances Cas liked. A shower just the right size for sharing. A bedroom perfect for time together.

It was too good to be true, and anyway, Dean had only known Cas for a few weeks, even if it felt like longer. What were the odds that he'd get a white picket fence life with Castiel Novak? He wasn't sure, and wasn't sure how well he would take it if he let himself fantasize over one only to have Cas move on, or something get between the two of them.

But if it did happen.... Dean would throw himself into it wholeheartedly.

"That's good, Dean. Really good." Sam paused. "Shit. I've gotta go, there's a party at Garth's place in ten minutes."

"Remember to enjoy yourself, but don't get so drunk that you can't walk in a straight line, got it? Because I'm not driving thirty hours to bust you out."

Sam (at least, Dean assumed) rolled his eyes. "I'm not going to get drunk. And anyway, it's only twenty six hours."

"My point still stands. I've got work tomorrow."

Work tomorrow, then Cas would be coming to the garage for lunch. He wasn't going to miss that, unless Sam was on his deathbed.

"See ya, Dean."

"Don't stay up past your bedtime!" Dean reminded him.

"Jerk."

The line went dead. "Son of a-"

Sam had, he was sure, done that intentionally.

Dean called him back and was sent to voicemail. He left his message.

"Bitch."

Dean hung up. There. His work on Sam's voicemail was done.