Dean Winchester was a horribly broken soul. He didn't really know how it had come to this, or why. But the scars running up his arms told the stories of many sleepless nights he'd had growing up. Many he'd think about, 'If only's', as if he would be able to change the past.

If only he hadn't gone out that night.

If only he had come home earlier.

He could have stopped them. He could have stopped them from killing his parents and brother.

If only he hadn't drunk so much..

Maybe those guys wouldn't have taken advantage of him.

He closed his eyes tight and poured another glass of alcohol, letting the burning liquid run down his throat and through his body, heating up his stomach.

The TV played old reruns of shows from the 90s and the clock ticked to just past 1 am. Dean rubbed his eyes, he knew he would pass out soon. And he had work tomorrow. He groaned, he needed the money, but he just wanted to sleep.

He curled up on his side in the couch, letting his eyes drift shut.

A blaring sound filled the tiny apartment, his alarm. Dean groaned and threw an arm over his face, a weight once again replacing itself on his heart as he debated whether to call in sick today.

He just didn't feel like doing anything.

He just wanted to stay home and watch old cartoons and maybe eat some pizza. And drink. Definitely drink. He sighed, picking himself up and going through the motions of getting ready. Pulling on a nice sweater and jeans. He looked in the mirror and smiled at himself, pretending to charm a girl he was waiting tables for at the restaurant.

His smile dropped as he realized it was about time to go. He grabbed his jacket and drove out to the restaurant.

When he got there he greeted everyone with a warm smile, making sure to put as much effort as he could in not shaking under their judgmental stares. They could probably tell how extremely empty he was on the inside. Maybe they couldn't, Dean was a pretty good actor.

"So, Dean, ready for the shift today?" An elderly gentleman adressed him, speaking in a lofty, upper class accent.

"Of course, sir." Dean said with a smile, "Always ready to work this job!"

"Great! That's wonderful. Today we're going to have you take one of our regular customers. It's a little bit of a bigger workload in the area of the restaurant you'll be taking today, but you'll get to meet a very interesting guy." The boss patted him on the back and handed him his table numbers.

Dean almost broke character for a moment, seeing the amount of tables he needed to take care of today. It was almost twice his normal quota and he was already exhausted.

"Hey hot stuff." Said a friendly voice from behind him. He turned around, it was Jo, a pretty blonde and probably his best friend, "How's it going?" she put a hand on his shoulder, looking at his schedule, "Ooh! You got an interesting shift today. Maybe you'll get to meet Cas, he usually comes in on Thursdays."

"Who's Cas?" Dean asked, a genuine interest piquing.

"You don't know?" Dean shook his head, "He's one of our most regular customers. I'm surprised you haven't waited a table for him yet. I think you'll like him. Just remember to do everything he says." she said winking and turning away to walk to the front desk.

Dean raised an eyebrow, going to the back and changing his sweater for the standard black shirt, he had gotten it long sleeved. Who was this Cas guy? Why was everyone so excited for him to meet him?

It was about two hours into his shift before Jo came up to him and said, "Cas just arrived, he's sitting at table 13." she pushed him over.

"I know where table 13 is." Dean snapped, walking towards it, immediately putting a smile on his face when the man looked up at him. He didn't understand why people kept thinking he was so special. He seemed to be pretty normal. He had a beige trench coat placed in the seat beside him and was wearing a pretty formal suit. His black hair was messy, and not in the stylish way, just as if he didn't really care.

Dean smiled and said, "What can I get for you today, sir?"

The other man looked up, an intense stare making Dean do a double take, "A cheese burger and a strawberry milkshake." Castiel smiled and tilted his head to the side. Dean was shocked at the low voice that came from the ordinary looking man. He was sure that there was something off about the face to voice ratio.

Dean was also 99.9% sure that they didn't serve cheeseburgers and milkshakes here, but he took Jo's advice and told the man that he'd be right back.

In the kitchen's the chefs weren't too surprised by the order and cooked it up in a short amount of time. Dean brought it out and placed it on the table in front of Cas.

Before Dean could lift his hand away, Cas ran his own hand over his forearm. Dean jerked back a shivery feeling rolling across his spine. His eyes opened wide in shock.

"Why is your shirt not short-sleeved like everyone else's?" Cas tilted his head to the side, his blue eyes capturing Deans and paralyzing him for a moment before Dean was able to react..

"I must just be special." he smiled and then quickly changed topics, "Is there anything else I can get you, sir?"

"No thank you." Castiel smiled and took a bite into his burger.

Dean walked away and continued to do his rounds until he noticed Castiel was finished and walked over with the bill.

"Thank you." Castiel said and Dean left the table, returning only when Cas was gone.

He picked up the receipt and noticed he had gotten a huge tip and there was a message scribbled at the bottom

The first time that our hands ever touched...

That magic... I want to feel it again.

-Castiel Novak

321-678-9876

Dean blinked in surprise. The romantic, poetry-like note was shocking. Something left behind for him by someone who really had no reason to want to leave such a note behind. He immediately decided to call the number as soon as his break was over.

His last table was finally done. It had been an exhausting day but he had brought in more tips than he had over the past week, plus the note from Castiel.

As he was just putting on his jacket Jo jumped up and grabbed his arm, "Soooo, how'd you like Cas?"

"Well, he gave me his number, so, awesome I guess." Dean smiled holding the receipt between two fingers.

Jo squealed, "Ugh, it's so lovely you to are getting it on." Dean almost protested but Jo carried on before he could, "He's really attractive, right, and almost every waitress here was trying to get his number, or at least his attention. After a while we all figured he was into dudes so we decided to ask the boss to let you have his table today."

"Why'd you think me?" Dean asked, crossing his arms and pursing his lips.

"Sorry, but we used the same methods on you. You just don't seem to have any sort of interest in girls. This isn't supposed to sound cocky or anything, but we literally have any type of girl you'd want here, from slutty to gothic to nerdy. You'd think a guy would at least try and hit on us."

Dean shrugged, it was perfectly fine logic, and their assumptions hadn't been wrong, but they also hadn't been completely right either, "I don't really have an interest in guys or girls." Dean said.

"So you're asexy then? Aromantic or what?" Jo asked.

"I'm sorry, I don't think I quite understand." Dean frowned, what the hell was... A- sexy? What?

"Sorry, asexual, you just don't feel the need to have sex. Aromantic as in only wanting platonic relationships and nothing else." Jo explained quickly and then blushed, "It's a little bit of a topic of interest with me."

"It's fine, and I'd say yes to the not wanting sex, but I would like to have romantic relationships. Ugh, I feel so stupid." Dean rolled his eyes.

"Why?" Jo asked, looking slightly concerned.

"I want to do silly, romantic things, but that's weird."

"Not at all, it's actually pretty sweet. Now go call your boyfriend!" Jo giggled and pushed him out of the restaurant..

"Not my boyfriend." Dean replied, pulling out his phone.


I don't know why, but writing these stories make me feel better. If you hate me for them then that means I accomplished something woo :)