TW: mentions of blood (mei got a flask with it in it)

"So what have you been up to?" Cas asked after a minute of walking in silence.

"If I'm being honest, there aren't that many interesting things in my live," Mei replied, "I spend most of my time either at home or at the hospital working, so there isn't much... Oh! Oh wait, I did do one interesting thing!"

"Hm?" Cas stopped to wait for Mei, who had let go of his hand, stopped walking and taken out her phone, looking for something.

"Wait just a sec, I must have it somewhere-" Cas walked next to Mei and peeked over her shoulder. Maybe peeked isn't the best word choice since he was almost a head taller than her and could easily see what she was doing without needing to stretch. Mei was looking for something in her gallery, but the movement was too fast for Cas to figure out what the pictures were of, "Here!"

Cas picked up the phone when Mei handed it over. It was a picture of a painting, a very good one in fact. A hand was holding a cup in the street's nighttime and- wait, that was his cup! It was the cup from the café he worked on! And it was Mei's name written on the cup-

"You painted this!?!?!" Cas exclaimed, lifting his wide-eyed head towards Mei, "It's gorgeous!"

"Aww thank you," Mei smiled shily, "It's not my best piece, but it is kinda-"

"What do you mean it isn't your best piece!? There's ones that are better?"

"Yeah... would you like to see?"

"Of course!"

Mei's smile grew larger, her eyes shining bright in the dark alley. As she scrolled through her gallery, the werewolf noticed how she seemed much more alive, as if art was the key to unlock a happy little place in her mind. Before, Cas had thought Mei was sweet, but it was nothing compared to the beam of genuine excitement and pride that radiated from her when she talked about her art.

"... And that's the best one I've done in the time being," Mei finished, showing up a drawing of a street at night.

It was a lonely street, with a mere shadow as the only pedestrian, hidden far away in the background. The main focus of the drawing was the corner of the street in the foreground, with ashy red bricks covered by a white, red, and black graffiti, an abstract shape or patters that simulated a raging storm, all of this enhanced by a streetlight who shone from above. The background was harder to decipher. It appeared to be a misty night; therefore everything was blurred and grey. The thing is it really looked like mist. The dim changes in tone and shadow made it seem like there was a park, with a humanoid shape walking through it, but as with real mist, the reality could be different.

"It's so good!!!" Cas awed, "How long did it take you to finish it?"

"Um... most people count in terms of hours, but I'm not sure how many of those it took. I started it on a Saturday and ended it on a... Wednesday, 4 days later? I'm not entirely sure, but I do know it happened about a month ago or so."

"Well it looks awesome. Which part of the city did you paint? I'm not sure I recognize it."

Mei laughed, "it's normal you don't recognize it, it's not an actual place."

"...what's that supposed to mean?"

"I made it up, it's not a real street of any real city. Look," Mei got her phone again from Cas and started to look through the gallery, picking up photos now and then, "See? I used this angle here to figure out a bit the placement, and these pictures here are from graffities I saw around that I thought where cool, and I took these photos a day that was very foggy so I could figure out how mist works, and in here I played around with different light and dark refences-"

"You're so freaking talented!" Cas interrupted, "I could never be able to paint something like that."

"Well, it's mostly practice, I've been playing with paint since before I can remember."

"And how is it that you ended up in medicine? You could really make a career outta this."

A shadow crossed through Mei's face. Maybe it was Cas's imagination, maybe it was a bird that flew by and blocked some light, maybe it was something else. But, just for a moment, it seemed as if Mei's brow furrowed, her eyes turned, her mouth clenched, her shoulders contracted. It was probably Cas's mind playing tricks on him, because in the blink of an eye, she was back to normal.

"Well," She put her phone back in her pocket and lifted her spare hand up to her neck and scratched the side of it, where the ";" tattoo was, "Medicine is something that pays better, it's more predictable. I still sell these, but it's not my main way of getting money."

"I see..." Cas nodded. The tattoo was still something that caught his attention a lot, but after the last time he asked about it, it felt safer to let it be, "Anyways, I think your art is amazing. You're an incredible artist."

"Aww, thanks," Mei smiled, not a trace left of the gloomy look she'd had a bare minute before. Now Cas was sure it had been his imagination, "Come on, if we don't hurry, we won't have time to eat before the movie starts."

"Oh, it's true! I've almost forgotten! Let's go!"

...

Cas had chosen the restaurant they were going, mainly because Mei didn't seem to know any places open at these hours. To be honest, not many where. Thankfully for him, Cas was friends with a few other werewolves; thanks to that he knew that there was a pizza place not far away that was open until 2am, which gave them more than enough time to go eat a pizza and get to the theatre just in time to catch the movie.

The restaurant, unlike the café where Cas worked, wasn't empty. You could see couples and a family or two dining here, with waiters going up and down. The atmosphere didn't feel crowded nor full, there were plenty empty tables, but the sole fact that there were more people in here was a tad bit surprising, considering the hours of the night.

At the door, there was a sign that asked customers to wait to be assigned tables. Almost immediately after they stood feet in the establishment, Alex, Cas's friend, came to attend them.

"Cassey! Fancy seeing you here," They said with a smile bright smile on their round face, "Isn't it a bit late for you? By now I'd think you'd be at home with Haze, sleeping."

"Well, there has been a change in the schedules and now I got night shifts, so I'm up until much later."

"Oof. Welcome to the gang man," they chuckled. Then, their green eyes fell on Mei, "Hey, hey, hey, you're here on a date?"

"Yeah, sorta! Mei, this is Alex, my friend and good pal. Alex, this is Mei, my..." Cas gestured with his hands. Shit, they hadn't discussed what their relationship was yet- "My date."

"In that case I'm not going to leave you two out and unattended. Come inside, I have a table perfect for you in here," Alex started to walk inside, Cas and Mei followed them. Alex guided the couple to a table in the center of the establishment, easy to access from the kitchen, "You darlings sit here and read the menu, I'll be back in about 5-10 mins to take your order. How does that sound?"

"Great. Thanks Alex!" Cas smiled as his friend disappeared through the kitchen doors.

"Your friend seems very nice," Mei said, speaking for the first time in a while.

"Yes! They are amazing, we've known each other for about 8 years already, but we haven't been close since forever, we became better pals about 6 years ago. It's a funny story actually, maybe I'll tell it to you some day!"

"Sounds fun," A kind smile appeared in Mei's face before she looked down at the menus.

Cas already knew what he wanted to order, but he picked up his menu anyways, to give Mei some time to think what she wanted and not impose pressure on her by just staring as she thought.

Alright Mei, chill. This was the part of the date that Mei was the most anxious about: ordering food. It was time again for Mei to take her meds, but you can't just shallow vampire vitamins with water. They had to be taken with blood. Human blood. And even if you could eat food after or before it, Mei wasn't in the mood for food. But if she didn't eat, she'll seem rude.

At least, the girl had a plan. A bad plan that'll surely go wrong and fail and make it all very awkward and make her look like a moron, but it was a plan. She would order something small, get her flask with the blood, drink it with the meds and clean her mouth with a napkin before Cas could notice the red liquid staining her mouth. Then, she'll eat a bit only to say that her meds stolen her appetite. Flawed plan, but it's the best she got; self-pity wasn't exactly going to make the situation magically better.

Something Mei hadn't thought about though was the outside noise crushing her. The more she tried to focus on the menu, on the food and on the prices, on the amount of each, the louder the fuzzing lights, the chewing of the people around her, the waiters walking from table to table and the sound her breathing lungs got. She closed her eyes and remembered her plan. Cas would hate her if he found out she was a vampire and had been hiding it. Vampires had a bad fame of making people like them and going on dates just to suck their blood and kill them. That never happened, but people still thought like that. And Mei didn't want Cas to abandon her, she didn't want to-

"Got anything in mind?" Cas's voice penetrated through Mei's mental storm and brough her back to the present.

"Hm?" her face had been hidden by the menu, so Cas hadn't been able to notice anything wrong. The vampire thanked that, "Oh, no... Everything sounds good, but I'm not sure if I'm that hungry, most of these things seem-"

"I was thinking we could order a pizza to share," Cas interrupted her, his face lighting up with red immediately after, "Um- that way we can share, if you aren't that hungry it sounds like a reasonable plan..."

"You're right, it is a good plan. I personally don't mind what we get, I like them all."

"How 'bout peperoni? I know it's somewhat basic but-"

"Peperoni sounds great," Mei smiled.

"Great!" Cas smiled back, turning around in his chair to look at the kitchen doors, "I'm sure Alex will be here in no time!"

Mei nodded, even if she knew Cas couldn't see her gesture. He was a good person. Mei wanted to be with him, to try it and do her best, even if deep down she knew it wouldn't work in the long term. But, just for now, she wanted to be happy, and Cas seemed to be able to help with that.