Dean Winchester woke up, and sighed heavily. Black and white. He'd gone to an annual search party, where hundreds of high school and college students in the Midwest quarter were, greeting people, trying to find their soulmates. Dean had talked to every single girl there, almost all of them from school. But nothing changed. No colour appeared.

It was slightly depressing; Sam, his younger brother, had already met his, a sweet girl named Jessica. They would both spend each day after finishing homework sitting on the porch of their room, marveling at what Dean was unable to see. Sam described meeting her once.

"I saw her on the first day of freshman year. I could tell from across the class that he was stunning. I felt my heart kind of jump, and then… Everything sort of burst into colour and I knew it was her."

Dean got out of bed, bummed that he couldn't tell what his dorm room really looked like. He walked into the bathroom, brushing his teeth and looking at himself in the mirror. At the hint of stubble around his jaw that made girls, single or soulmate bound, turn a darker grey and giggle. His grey eyes, which he didn't know the real shade of.

Dean spat into the sink, and got dressed in his signature leather jacket, white t-shirt, and stressed jeans. He pulled on his boots and ruffled his hair before grabbing his backpack and motorcycle helmet and out his dorm room.

He walked down the fire exit stairs; the elevator was broken again. Someone had to fix it soon, he was tired of the ten flights of torture. Reaching the bottom level and the steadily growing crowd, he followed the sea of freshmen, sophomores, juniors and fellow seniors out of the dorm building entrance. As he did, most of the girls who saw him giggle and whispered to their friends, about that guy with the sexy face. Like they always did. Not that Dean really cared much, he was just nervous about finding his soulmate before graduating from college.

Once in the parking lot, he searched in the Kansas section for his motorcycle, spotting it easily. After starting it and riding out of the lot, he reached Midwest Quarter High School, to his district's parking lot. He got off and found Sam and Jessica in the crowd, hand in hand. Dean jogged over, stuffing his helmet into his backpack. "Hey! Sammy, Jess!"

The couple turned around, Jessica smiling. "Dean! Wow, you got up on time for a change. Seeing colours yet?"

Dean shook his head. "Nah. I don't get it. I talked to every girl there, and I got nothing. It's bullshit."

Sam laughed. "Don't worry, there's supposed to be tons of people coming from the North Quarter. Maybe she'll be one of them." The three of them separated, Sam and Jessica to Year 2 Spanish, Dean to his Biology room.

The classroom was huge, with 100 rows accommodating about 893,500 seats total, and that was for every single classroom. Dean thought of college classes whenever he walked into one of his high school ones, and it was slightly strange when he figured out the previous year that college classes were far smaller in comparison.

He went up the slowly rising steps to the middle row, sitting in his usual seat near the end, where not as many people sat. But it was not that day.

About seventy more students came into the already nearly full room, and most of them went straight in Dean's row. He knew what Sam was now talking about; they were all from the North Quarter, due to their high school being destroyed after a huge earthquake during summer vacation. All thirteen district's high schoolers were moved to the quarter of another family member, so naturally, most of them went to the Midwest.

As the class started, Dean looked to his left and right, at one of the only empty seats left. "Shit," he sighed to himself, hoping that whoever was late wasn't a girl who'd annoy the hell out of him by staring the entire year.

Five minutes into the teacher's speech on the school year plan, the double doors burst open. A guy- another senior, Dean could tell- had entered, his dark hair a mess, his eyes dead tired, but holding the potential to be sweet when they were awake. He was panting; he had obviously gotten lost. Probably another North Quarter student. Dean sat up a bit in his chair as the teacher nodded.

"You must be Castiel Novak. Let's see… Ah, yes. Take a seat next to Dean Winchester…Dean, could you wave your arm, please?" Dean obliged, and Castiel bounded up the steps two at a time, dropping into his chair as soon as he reached it. He took out the biology textbook, and Dean noticed a light blue notebook fall out with it onto the floor. He picked it up, giving it back to Castiel. Then he stopped.

Blue. He could see blue.

As he looked around the room, the world seemed to bloom into colour, and everything Sam had told him couldn't add up to the real thing. His heart raced as the world he knew disappeared, and was replaced by something beautiful. He looked back to Castiel, and saw his eyes. Bluer, more beautiful than anything he'd seen.

And in that moment, Dean Winchester, who had to be his brothers guard since they were kids, who didn't care about the girls and guys who stared at him, who rose a motorcycle since he was ten, who wanted a good life, knew he was screwed. All because his soulmate just happened to be a guy.

A loud clear bell rang across the huge Midwest High School campus three classes later, signaling the beginning of the lunch break. Dean walked from his English class to his dark green locker (he decided the colour was disgusting), putting his backpack inside as soon as it opened. He slowed down his search for his motorcycle keys when he saw Castiel, tan jacket, blue jeans and untidy dark hair standing out in the sea of students in the hallway, coming towards him. And opening the adjacent locker. Dean sprung at the chance.

"Hey, there, Cas."

Castiel jumped, giving a small and barely discernible yelp. After seeing who it was, though, his eyes relaxed and he smiled. "Oh, hey, it's you! I still can't believe that w-"

"Shh! Keep your voice down if you're gonna say it, someone could hear you. You do know what happens to soulmates like u..." He stopped and changed his wording. "To soulmates like that in the three quarters besides yours, right?"

Castiel cleared his throat and swallowed. "Y-yeah. The…um…the treatment thing. I saw a documentary on it once…scared me to death what people go through. It's something like enough volts to cause irreversible brain damage or something... If they're held for too long."

Dean looked down; everybody knew how many volts the unlucky few were shocked with in 'treatment.' Hell, he'd known since he was in elementary school, after a terrifying class trip to the district treatment center when he saw a woman get shocked to death. He shook his head, and replaced his frown with a grin. Shutting his locker door, holding his helmet under one arm and an extra under the other.

"So, where do you wanna go for lunch?"

Castiel turned to look at him, and closed his own locker. "What, you mean…" He looked around, making sure nobody could hear over the hallway's noise level. "You mean like a date?" Dean smiled even wider. "Yeah, a date. Why the hell not? I'll pay." He held the extra helmet out towards Cas, who furrowed his eyebrows in thought. Dean took a mental picture; his eyes- probably without him even knowing- were almost bedroom eyes, and they were at school. Cas sighed and grabbed the helmet from Dean. "Fine," he said, checking to make sure his locker was locked before turning back to Dean, "But the next time we do this, we're walking." Dean led the way out of the building and into the Kansas parking lot, stopping at his motorcycle. Castiel whistled.

"Wow. That's…a '67 Impala, right?"

"Yeah, Chevy made only a couple hundred. My dad found it on the side of the road when I was a kid back home, and he started restoring it. Then he died, and I started where he left off, so I ride it now."

Castiel nodded. "My dad collects bikes, he'd freak out if he saw this."

"Cool. So, where d'you want to go?"

Cas watched Dean put his helmet on, turn a couple of switches on the bike, and after he got onto the seat, slightly jumped when Dean kicked the bike to life. Over the roar of the engine, he heard Dean say, "Fine, I'll choose. Get on." After ten minutes of riding through Logan, they ended up in front of a diner. After he stopped the bike, Dean put his helmet into a case attached to the back. Castiel did the same, and followed Dean into the restaurant, where a girl with blonde hair and brown eyes who looked their age was busy wiping down a table using a towel in one hand, balancing four plates on the other. She looked up when the door opened, and smiled.

"Dean! I've missed you!" "Hey, Jo!" The two hugged, and she smiled at Castiel. "You must be Castiel, right? Dean told me he was bringing you here for lunch. Careful, though, you two. Mom doesn't appreciate PDA." She winked, and shouted towards the kitchen, "MOM, DEAN'S HERE WITH A FRIEND! FOOD'S ON THE HOUSE!" A woman walked out. She looked like Jo, but with dark brown hair, a slightly rounder face. "Dean Winchester. How long has it been now, four years? How's Sammy doin'?"

"Fine. He's got his soulmate, Jessica Moore. Oh, Ellen, this is Castiel. Castiel, Ellen."

Ellen shook Cas' hand. He smiled and said, "Well, I also use Cas. Not as much of a mouthful."

Ellen nodded and eyed Dean, shook her head and put a grin on her face. "You boys get whatever you like. Joanna, two more are comin' in, honey."

Jo rolled her eyes. "Let me get them to a table first, Mom! God! Okay, guys, here you go. I'll be right back with menus and water, 'kay?" After Jo left them with another wink, Dean leaned back in his seat, the red leather under him creaking slightly as he did. "So, Cas is your nickname, huh? I like it. Sounds a lot better than Castiel, no offense."

Castiel laughed. "None taken. So," He copied Dean, leaned back. "Dean, we should tell each other about ourselves. You know, before we risk everything we've got so far to be together."

"Okay, then. I was born in Lawrence, Kansas on January 24 in '96. My brother was born when I was three, and my dad died when I was eight. I'm probably bi, but I dunno, really. It's not that safe to be open about that here. I like classic rock more than any other kind of music in existence, I've got a soulmate after looking for the past four years, and…that's it, I guess."

Cas nodded. "My turn, I guess… I'm from Seattle, I've got three big brothers. Michael, Gabriel, and Raphael. I have a little sister, Estielle, she's an equal rights activist in our quarter, and everyone there knows her. My birthday is Christmas Day, also in "96, and…um…well, you already know about my dad. My mom likes to bake a lot. I am bisexual, and I haven't been looking, I just didn't really have any time to go to search parties."

Dean smiled. "So this was pretty much chance, then?"

"Yeah, I guess it was."

Jo came back with two menus and a large root beer float. "Sorry, we were all out of water..."

Dean scoffed. "Bullshit, you want us to share."

She grinned mischievously. "Maybe I do, maybe I don't. Maybe I think you are just, like, fucking adorable. I dunno." She shrugged and walked back to another table where two people were sitting.

Dean took a sip of root beer and smiled at Cas. "Christmas Day. You must have been one hell of a Christmas present." He raised an eyebrow as Castiel's cheeks grew red. "You're blushing, Cas. It's pretty cute." They looked at their menus for another five minutes and got their food as more and more people came in, most of them other students. The diner was soon overcrowded, Jo running around, getting order after order, her soulmate David and her little brother Bill helping Ellen cook plate after plate. After they had ordered, they noticed that everybody else was getting up and leaving, handing Jo money as they hurried out to their cars. Jo saw Dean and Cas in the empty restaurant, and threw two to-go boxes at them.

"Hurry up, you two!" She cried, stuffing their fries and burgers into the boxes and forcing Dean and Cas to drink the soda in record time, "Class starts in eight minutes!" Castiel swore.

"Shit! I have calculus, I heard that the teacher is a complete terror if people are late!" Dean grabbed their boxes from Jo as they headed out and put them into the case, attaching them together with duct tape. "We're going to be riding in sport mode. We'll be going fast. Like, really fast. Okay? Just hold on to me and don't let go, alright?" Castiel nodded, and put on his helmet before getting on behind Dean, who kicked the motorcycle on. Dean was telling the truth; Cas felt like if he hadn't been wearing a helmet, his skin would have turned red from the speed of the wind. In just six minutes, Dean was slowing down to the front of the high school entrance, taking Cas' helmet. Castiel turned around.

"Thanks, Dean, for lunch. It was good."

Dean smiled. "No problem, Cas. I'm excited to see you later."

There was an awkward silence, where the warning bell for class sounded. Cas took his phone from his pocket.

"Can I get your number? You know, in case you wanna talk or something."

"Yeah, it's 1-866-907-3235. How 'bout yours?"

Castiel finished putting the number into his phone, and said, "425-887-2301."

"Okay. Thanks for coming with me, Cas."

"No problem. See ya, Dean!"

Dean went towards the Kansas parking lot, thinking to himself, "Thank God I found him…"

Three Hours Later

Dean tapped his pencil rapidly on the desk, staring at the clock over the teacher's head without blinking. Another hour until school was out and he could see his soulmate again.

The thought sparked an idea. He got his phone from his pocket and started a message to Castiel.

Hey, Cas. How's it going?

He sent it, and in a couple of seconds, got a reply.

Dean, its class! Oh, and I'm good.

Dean smiled and took some fake notes.

Where are you guys staying?

The temp dorms. It's crowded. Do you have a roommate?

Dean looked around and sent another message.

Can you get out of class for a little? And no, I don't.

You do now!

Why do you want to get out of class?

So I can see you. It's been three hours, man.

Okay, fine. Meet me by our lockers?

Sounds good. Say you have to go the bathroom or something.

Okay. See you there!

Dean locked his phone and put it back in his pocket, raised his hand. "Can I go to the bathroom?"The teacher waved towards the door, and kept talking about the year's plans. Dean bounded up the stairs, and went out of the doors in the back. He walked quickly towards his locker, and smiled when he saw Cas there. He stood in front of his locker, and couldn't help but take a sharp breath. Cas tilted his head. "What is it?"

Dean chuckled, looking down. "Nothin', I just forgot how blue your eyes are. God, that's cliché…" Cas laughed and sighed. "Yeah, well, I think the soulmate thing is nature's great big fuck you to people who hate clichés in the first place, so don't worry about it."

They stood there for a second, not really saying anything, just noticing what they never had before about each other's features; Cas could see the spatters of freckles across Dean's nose, that his face was perfectly symmetrical. Dean discerned the faintest hint of green mixed into the blue of Cas' eyes.

Dean moved closer towards Castiel, and placed both of his hands on either side of the other boy's head against his locker. "No one's here…" Cas' eyes widened. "And I have a feeling we're past the clichés."

Castiel made to weave under Dean's arm but Dean was quicker, and caught his lips in a second. Castiel stood up straight, and stayed still for a few seconds after Dean pulled away. Dean felt panicked. Was he going too-?

No, not too fast at all. Cas grabbed the nape of his neck with a strong grip, forcing their lips back together. Dean recovered from surprise in no time at all, held onto his soulmate's face, getting as close as he could manage. Castiel bit Dean's bottom lip, and Dean twisted his fingers into Cas' hair, who was gripping his shoulders with white knuckles, his nails leaving marks in Dean's shoulders through his AC/DC t-shirt. Too early for Dean's expectation, Cas broke away and said in a quiet voice, "We have classes, Dean, they'll send someone out to look for us." Dean nodded, but didn't move until a good minute after Cas had ducked under his arm and back to calculus. Dean sighed, and said to himself, "Oh, God, Dean, you are so fucked. What are you doing? What the hell are you doing?"

After school, Cas met Dean at his bike, and they both put their books into the case. After putting on their helmets and Dean kick-starting the motorcycle, they went to the temporary dorms, Dean dropping Cas off. "Okay. So, when you get to the main dorm building, you go up to floor ten, and turn left as soon as you get up there. Go down the hall to the door with the Led Zeppelin poster on it, and that's my room. You can put your crap on the floor. I'll call the dorm manager and tell him you're coming, he'll set up something for you to sleep on."

Cas nodded, entered the temp dorms. Dean sped to the huge permanent dorm building, the same one his mother and father had been in in high school. It was huge; a brick structure fifty floors high with a hundred rooms each, towering over the temporary dorms, which had only one hundred rooms total. He got into the now working elevator after parking in his designated spot in the Kansas section, smashing the ten button at least twenty times before the doors actually closed. He tapped his foot impatiently as the elevator crawled its way up the building, and as soon as the doors opened, ran to the door of room 1021, flinging it open.

Dean's room was like any teenagers room. Messy, with band posters all over the walls and clothes hiding the floor. His posters, however, weren't the same as most of his friends; they were AC/DC, Kansas, even more Zeppelin, Black Sabbath, and Metallica. Pictures from his childhood were on a corkboard by his bed. A picture of him in the hospital the day he was born; him holding Sam after he was born; sitting on the floor with his dad working on the Impala when he was five; a family picture in Lawrence of his mom, dad, him, and Sammy the year before John would be killed in a car crash during Dean's 3rd grade year; a picture of him with Jo in the first and second grade, and him finishing up the 8 years of repairs on the Impala the summer of sophomore year. He hastily picked up his clothes off the floor by the armful, dumping them into the drawers of his dresser in no particular order.

He stopped, remembering that he could see colours now. He had never even seen what his family had looked like after he'd met Cas. He went over to the corkboard, took out the pin holding the family portrait, and stared with new eyes. His mother had hair like Jo's, the same blonde-brown. He could tell that her eyes were blue, like Sammy's were now, but in the picture, his and Dean's were a light grey. He had nearly brown hair like John's, with just a hint of his mother's hair colour, while Sam was all blond. The sky behind them was blue, their house looking warm and inviting. His mom looked happy, with light red cheeks that made her even more beautiful than Dean had ever seen her. John had that effect on her. She was never really happy after he had died.

Dean put the picture back, and looked at the door as it opened up, Castiel in the entrance. He had two suitcases, and Sammy was next to him, carrying a third. His arms were tense from the weight, but not even looking like the case weighed anything. Dean hated that awkward moment when Sam was both taller and muscular than him. Dean took one suitcase from Cas and set it down on the floor by his bed, his brother and soulmate doing the same. Sam smiled and whispered in Dean's ear, "He told me everything. Don't be too loud, alright?" Dean smacked his little brother on the arm, and said, "Fuck off, Sammy! Go be with your girlfriend!"

Sam left and closed the door behind him, laughing all the way back to the elevator. Dean finally noticed the dark and ugly shade of green in the corner opposite his bed that was an Army style cot when Cas said, "I guess that's what I'll have to sleep on." Dean shook his head. "No. No way in Hell. I don't care, you're gonna to be with me, okay?" Castiel blushed. "But, Dean, isn't that, like, illegal or something here?"

"Shut up. It's our room, and it's our space until we graduate."

CAS looked around, mainly at the corkboard. He pointed to the picture of Dean's family. "This your dad?"

Dean nodded. "Yeah. He was a mechanic, he could build a go kart out of anything. He could fix things that most people would think would never work. I remember that he started on the Impala when I was five or somethin', taught me about what I had to do to keep it in shape. After he died, I sort of continued for him. I actually kept going the day after he died."

Cas smiled. "That's nice. Kind of a thing to remember him by?"

"Yeah."

"So, where did your parents stay here? I'm guessing they both went here for high school."

Dean laughed. "You're right. They actually stayed in here, believe it or not, that's why there are a few posters that my mom picked out. Like the Guns N" Roses one. My dad put them all up when they were juniors, and no one liked them who went here after he left, so I think I'm the only other person to have this room. Except for about two other people. I've been in here since freshman year."

Cas opened the closet and turned around slowly. "Dean, did you clean up before I got here?"

Dean made a face, and said quickly, "What makes you think that?"

"Well, a shitload of stuff is spilling out of your dresser."

Dean tried to keep his nerves calm by pressing play on his CD player, and sighed with defeat when it was AC/DC. "Fine, I did. I was nervous, and I only really clean up when I'm nervous. Which is also why my room is never clean." Castiel smiled and turned back towards the corkboard, and touched the edge of a picture of Dean in what looked like first grade, standing in front of the gate of the Midwest quarter airport's school section with Jo. A Dean with blond hair, light grey eyes, a Patrick Star backpack on the ground in front of him, and a nervous smile on his face. The almost baby-faced Jo held onto his hand, her thumb in her mouth as she looked away from the camera. Cas froze when he felt a set of arms snake around his waist and Dean's lips against his ear.

"You know, Cas, we didn't have the chance to go any further with that thing in the hallway." Castiel breathed in a shaky breath as Dean moved to his neck. "We just…didn't have the privacy…" He turned around, and Dean smirked at the look on Cas' face after realizing how close they really were. He laughed and said softly, "It's okay, Cas, it'll work out. You and me, we can get through a goddamn year of this and then we can leave. Right? You trust me?" Castiel nodded and closed his eyes as Dean kissed him, and Dean scoffed as Bon Scott sang, and said to no one in particular, "God, I really am on the Highway to Hell."

Cas grinned, taking off Dean's leather jacket as he replied, "I call shotgun."

Dean woke up, expecting it all to have been one crazy prolonged dream, the kind where a day lasts for only a few hours of sleep. But everything, from seeing the colours for the first time and Castiel's eyes, to the hallway and Highway to Hell…It all was so detailed. Every single second seemed to be locked in front of anything else in his mind, more than anything he could remember. Especially the first time with Cas. He'd been nervous as fuck, but Castiel had said that everything was okay, that Dean was safe, and he'd even held, really held onto Dean afterwards, and Dean had just spilled out everything; how his dad and mom had started fighting the week before he died and she never forgave herself, how he was freaked out about people finding out about them, how he really wanted it to work, more than anything. And then he'd said it.

"Cas?"

"Mhm?"

"I think I'm seriously in love with you. For real."

"You're just saying that because it's the first time…"

Cas had given Dean a sad look that broke his heart, so Dean, with sincerity, told Cas, "If I didn't love you, I wouldn't have told you any of what I just said. Sammy doesn't even know about Mom and Dad falling out. I know I shouldn't want to be with you and that if anyone finds out about it, we're fucked, but you know what? I don't care. I don't care that people could take you from me, cos I'd just find my way right back. You know why? Because I'm here, right now, with you and this feeling that we're safe here. Cos I've got you with me, and, believe it or not, that's all I fucking want."

Castiel had tightened his grip on Dean's shoulder, and had fallen asleep smiling, even though sunlight streaked through the cracks in the blinds and hit his eyelids. Now, as Dean sat up in bed, he looked at the window. No light coming through. He carefully brought his arm out of Castiel's and stretched, his back cracking after being curled up by his soulmate for God knows how long. He eyed Cas' suitcases, and looked back to the sleeping person on his bed. He opened up the one Sam had been carrying, and was greeted by a stack of record covers and a turntable, a photo album and a light blue Polaroid camera. Picking up the photo album, Dean leafed through the pages, and noticed a picture of Cas and a girl at least a foot shorter standing in front of the North quarter's school gate, both of them hugging the other tightly. The date read August 30th, 2014: Going to the Midwest Quarter. So the girl was probably his sister. She looked pretty, and Dean couldn't even see her face. All he could see was the waist length waves of brown that cascaded down her back and floral jeans, oversized sweatshirt and brown boots. He heard a voice from his bed.

"If you're wondering, yeah, that is Estie. She's two years younger than me, so we're pretty close. Our brothers are all seniors in college already. I should call her and introduce you guys." Dean smiled and nodded.

"That'd be nice. But first, you gotta unpack all of your crap. And we have shit due tomorrow. THEN we can call her." Cas laughed, and said, "NO WAY IN HELL!" But he did it all anyway. It was weird how well Dean seemed to know his soulmate already, and it wasn't even day one.