"What are you thinking about?" Cas whispered in Dean's ear. Dean slyly opened one eye to peek at Cas. "Hm?" Dean was leaning back on his elbows in the soft sand, his legs comfortable stretched out and crossed, his head leaned back soaking in the afternoon sun.

"You've been silent for a long time." Cas sat beside him on his side, leaning into Dean's personal space.

"Oh, I was just enjoying the moment," Dean said. He let himself sink into the sand and rested his head on his hands. Cas was distracted by the way his shoulders bulked and his ribs rippled beneath his golden, smooth skin. Cas mirrored Dean and followed his gaze at the slow, puffy white clouds drifting by. The warm water of the lake lapped happily on the pebbled shoreline. The water was shallow near the shore and dropped off further than the eye could make out, the brown pebbles beneath the surface gave the water a rich orange and royal blue light.

"What were you thinking about?" Dean asked Cas. Cas fluttered around his answer, "um, nothing."

Dean winked, "riiight." Cas blushed.

"Want to take a dip?" Dean asked as he started unbuttoning his jeans.

"What do you mean?" Cas was distracted by Dean shimmying out of his clothes.

"To cool off, in the lake," Dean muffled through his t-shirt that was stuck around his head. Cas helped him tug it off, he held back the urge to smooth Dean's ruffled light brown hair. Dean grinned and ran towards the water, crashing through the waves and dived under the surface. He came up a few feet away, shook the water from his hair and waved at Cas to come. Cas resisted for a moment, analyzing the situation and found it to be one he wanted to experience. He quickly stripped off his coat and tie, had one shoe off and had to hop on his bare foot in the hot sand to take the other one off and he ended up falling, when he looked up Dean was laughing at him. He laughed too and managed to pull his shoe and sock off and ran to the waters edge.

He tested the water temperature with a toe and found it to be pleasantly cool, much cooler than the hot sand and sun. Before he could take a step Dean yelled at him, "you have to take off your pants and shirt!" Cas looked at Dean bobbing in the deeper water far out and threw his khakis and button down on the beach. The only stroke he knew from a summer of swimming lessons when he was a kid was the "frog" stroke, sliding through the clear water Cas felt as free as that kid who loved jumping in lakes any chance he could. Cas forgot how amazing it felt to be buoyant and like all his stress rippled away with each smooth stroke.

The house he shared with Dean and his brother Sam was big with a furnished basement and attic but Dean and Sam were usually fighting and it was difficult for Cas to be around Dean since he realized he felt different about him. He never was interested in relationships while in school and archeology wasn't the sexiest course to teach and the few flings he did have were more about lust than anything else. Since Sam studied law at the same college Cas taught at and Dean put an ad out for a housemate that was clean and liked Zepplin (Cas never listened to them before but actually kind of like Dean's music after a while) it had been a good fit. Actually, it was a great fit as all three got along despite their differences and it seemed to Cas that Dean was growing to care for him too, if Dean starting to cook Cas' favorite foods on Saturday nights meant anything and now, Dean begging him to play hooky and go to the beach with him.

When Cas finally swam out to Dean, he was lying on his back, floating. Cas swam up to him and lightly splashed water in his direction. "Hey!" Dean laughed and splashed back. They were giggling and splashing until Dean went under the water and Cas couldn't see him, "Dean?" Cas was pulled under the water by something strong around his ankle and then big arms wrapped around his waist and pulled him back up to the surface. Dean's eyelashes parted like stars around his green eyes, his arms still held Cas close to him as the bobbed and Cas couldn't look away from his parted lips nor pull away from the strong hands on his back. After an eternity Dean kissed him and when his lips landed soft on Cas' he felt warm bubbled in his belly and tingles down his spine.