A/N : And I finally posted the new story. I'll update every two/three days, so make sure to keep posted :)

A/N2 : Cover image is from tumblr (I think) but I don't know the owner. If he/she happens to see this, please PM me. I'll mention you. And I hope you don't mind me using the image.

'Italics' – thoughts

"Normal" – talking

Chapter 1

Castiel was an artist and a famous one at that. He had always excelled at everything he put his mind to, so when he decided to become an artist, it was no surprise that he became quite famous rather quickly. He had majored in arts and he liked to draw ever since he was kid. His parents had been supportive of his decision to become an artist and let him do what he liked. Now, after many years of hard work, he was headed to one of his gallery shows.

The only problem was that his older brother Gabriel had booked a bus ticket instead flight like he had asked. And why was that when he asked Gabriel, he simply replied, 'cuz he felt like it.' Oh, how much he hated his brother sometimes for his pranks. And to make matters worse, his parents agreed with this evil brother saying something along the lines of, 'You need to stop acting like a child Castiel, you are almost 24 now'.

Castiel sighed thinking about what his parents said. It just..he was bus sick. There! He said it! How was it his fault whenever he travelled in bus, he would feel nauseous every 5 minutes? Sometimes it was so bad that he couldn't even stand near the damn vehicle. And if he had his way, he would avoid the thing like plague, taking any other possible means of travel.

And that's what he would have done this time, if it wasn't for his brother. But now, he's struck with ten hour bus travel from Lawrence to Stanford. He had to leave at 10 pm so he still got some time on his hand as it was just 3 pm. He decided to get some sleep because he sure as hell wouldn't get any on that damn bus.

Gabriel and their parents came with Castiel to drop him at bus stop, and he froze at the sight of the sleeper bus waiting there. The large vehicle stood there with its shadow looming over the house across the street. He looked at the house and absolutely didn't think it looked like one haunted house. Nope, he didn't just think that, at all.

He had travelled by bus before, but it was mostly normal travel buses where you sit all the time with your legs cramped up. And now here he was, standing before this..this thing!

It looked like a double story bus with windows packed shut. He saw curtains hanging in windows but couldn't see much of the inside. There was space at the back of the bus to keep heavy luggage. There were 2-3 small compartments at the side too for small bags, suitcases etc.

As he was warily eyeing the giant (as he had named it), the clerk there asked for his luggage to stuff at the back of the bus. He saw the clerk putting his bag in one of the side compartments along with some other passengers' bags. He still had nearly 15 minutes till bus left so he went to one of the shop he saw nearby to buy some snacks.

He went behind the bus where he had seen few shops and climbed down the stairs to reach there. He bought few bags of chips, 3 candy bars, and one cold-drink bottle. He paid for them and turned around to exit the shop. He was about to rejoin his family, but thought otherwise. 'Gabriel will no doubt want the sweets I just bought', he thought and turned back to the shop.

He bought few more candy bars thinking that he'll now at least have some for travel. He turned and slammed straight into someone, causing him to drop his bag, spilling all the contents all over the floor. He apologized promptly, and knelt down to collect the things.

"Don't apologize man", a voice said and the person knelt down with him. "It was my fault anyway. Let me help."

He looked up and saw the most vibrant green eyes staring back at him. For few seconds, he thought he lost his voice. He cleared his throat and replied, "It's okay, I'll manage".

The person introduced himself smiling, "No, no, let me help. I'm Dean, by the way".

He smiled hesitantly and replied back, "I'm Castiel". As he was picking up his things, he noted Dean had dirty blonde hair and freckles were splattered across his face. He would have counted them too if his brother had not shouted at him to hurry up. He smiled once again and muttered thanks and returned back where Gabriel was bitching about him being too clumsy. He just ignored his brother and offered him two candy bars, effectively shutting the loud-mouth up.

He saw Gabriel's face lit up at the sight of sweets. "Thanks Cassy!" exclaimed Gabriel. "Now, care to tell me who the handsome hunk was?" he teased while sucking on the candy bar.

Now it was no secret to his family that Castiel was, in fact, bisexual. He still remembered the time he was dreading on how to break the news to his family and was shocked to hear that his parents were ok with it.

He just rolled his eyes and said, "His name is Dean. I bumped into him and he just helped me pick my things up".

"My, my, Cassy! You sure chose one handsome guy to 'bump' into." continued Gabriel with his teasing.

He just rolled his eyes again at his brother's antics, thinking how Gabriel was supposed to be the elder brother. He checked his ticket for his seat number and went back towards bus where his parents were waiting for them. Gabriel followed still sucking on his sweet, and making enjoying noises that were not supposed to done in public.

The clerk who had earlier stored away his luggage told him it was nearly time for bus to leave, so Castiel bid his parents and brother a goodbye and went inside the bus. He had never travelled in sleeper bus so didn't know what to expect and what he saw left him slightly panicked and slightly awed.

Just as he had seen from outside, there were two berths – one upper and one lower. There was a door that separated the driver's side along with the door through which he came inside and sleeping bunkers. There was soft mattress on every berth with two pillows. He noted it looked like bunker beds he used to share with Gabriel when they were younger, the only difference was their bed was made for only one person to sleep in.

He once again checked his seat number and went further inside. He passed people who were settling in their respective seats and saw one passenger was a mother with a baby. 'Great!' he thought, 'Now I'm never going to get to sleep. I'm sure that baby will cry as soon as the bus starts.' He reached his seat noting, it was lower berth, and slid in.

He was already feeling nauseous and looked around people also settling in their seats. He put his backpack and bag of snacks into one corner and looked out of the window. He saw his family waving him and he waved back, smiling a little.

He turned back when bus started, its rumbling making his already upset stomach even more queasy. The bus then started moving and he looked out again and watched Gabriel wave at him again before turning back to their parents, to presumably head back home.

He sat back folding his legs under him and sighed. 'Well..here goes nothing', he thought 'Just ten hours and I'll be at Stanford'. He tried to control his breathing, thinking it would help his nauseous feeling. Just as he was taking deep breaths, he felt mattress sink at the other end and someone muttering. He opened his eyes and saw familiar green eyes staring back.

"What luck!" said Dean smiling, "So, we meet again, Cas".

Castiel stared for few seconds and replied "Hello, Dean".

"So it seems we are sharing the bed, huh?" said Dean. "Where are you going?"

"I'm going to Stanford. I have-" He was cut off by Dean, "Stanford? Really? What a coincidence, man! I'm going there too".

"I see," he said. Now, Castiel was usually a very quiet and reserved person but he didn't know what came over him when he started talking with Dean. He was easily speaking with Dean telling each other about their family, profession etc. Dean told him that he was a mechanic and just like Castiel, he also lived in Lawrence. He was going Stanford to see his brother, Sammy. Although he still felt nauseous, talking with Dean seemed to distract him for most of the time.

It was around midnight when Dean turned in, saying, "good night," and within minutes, he was out like a light. But Castiel was still awake and now nothing to distract him from his upset stomach which seemed like having fun in reminding him about it every few minutes.

He ate one candy bar, thinking it will settle his stomach but to no avail. He ate one chips packet after some time, and emptied half of the cold drink bottle a little later. Nearly an hour had passed, and yet he was still restless. His nausea had kicked up a notch and it was making him more and more uncomfortable. He thought about stepping out of the bed and going to the front but saw Dean sprawled at his side. He had asked Dean if he could have window side and he had agreed.

He regretted his decision now because if he had to step out of the bed, he will have to climb over Dean or wake him up and then go out. He didn't want to wake Dean up. He looked so peaceful while sleeping, lips parted slightly. Castiel licked his lips thinking about how it would feel to kiss those beautiful lips-

And suddenly he covered his mouth, feeling bile come up his throat. His eyes widened with fear. He had to get out of this bus, right now. He considered his options and when he felt another wave in his throat, he hastily climbed over Dean knocking his backpack and rushed towards the front of the bus.

He opened the door leading to the front of the bus and explained the driver to stop for a minute with one hand covering his mouth and other flailing animatedly. Driver understood his problem and started slowing down the bus. He rushed at the door when he couldn't wait any longer and spilled his guts once while bus was slowing down.

Once the bus came to a stop, he jumped out and bent at this waist and spilled out his stomach's contents. He felt so dirty but he couldn't help it. One of his hands was on his chest near his heart and other at his throat. He was rubbing his throat up and down while he heaved. It was getting painful when he felt a hand on his back rubbing soothing circles.

"Hey Cas, buddy" came Dean's voice. "Are you okay?" he asked, continuing with his hand on his back.

He was feeling embarrassed that Dean had seen him in such a state. He tried to talk to tell Dean that he was fine and Dean should go back but heaved once more and started coughing. He felt Dean continue rubbing his back and gave him water bottle.

"Here, take this" Dean said and he took the offered bottle without looking at him even once. When he felt his body wasn't going to spill his guts out, he washed his hands and face and finally turned to Dean. He smiled gingerly and opened his mouth to thank him when the clerk shouted at him to hurry up.

Dean turned towards the clerk and told him kindly to shut the fuck up. "Can't you see he's not okay?" he yelled and turned back to him. "Hey, are you okay now?" he asked. He was looking at him so much concern, Castiel didn't know how to respond.

He shook his head and rasped out "Yeah. I'm okay now. Let's go inside". He smiled and Dean returned his smile and both went inside. They went in their bed when they felt bus had started moving.

Castiel had his eyes closed but he could feel Dean staring at him.

"Why didn't you wake me, Cas?" asked Dean.

He didn't know what to respond so went with the truth, "I didn't want to bother you. You were sleeping."

Dean shook his head and grinned at him. "Dude, I could feel you fidgeting in your place the whole time."

He felt bad that he had kept Dean awake this whole time and his face must have showed his emotions as Dean said, "Don't worry man. I sleep like log and you didn't keep me awake. When you ran out of here, you knocked your bag on me and THAT woke me up".

"I'm sorry to cause you trouble, Dean". Now he was feeling even worse that he had woken Dean up in his haste to get out.

"Cas..didn't I just tell you it was no problem? Now chill out." he said grinning. "Now that we are both awake, what do you say about a friendly game of poker?"

Castiel looked puzzled for a moment but then shrugged; it wasn't like he was going to sleep any time soon. "Sure" he said, "but you have to tell me how it is played."

"Dude! You never played poker?" and at his nod, Dean said, "well.. I'll make you master at this by the time this night is over."

Dean told him basic rules about the game and they played for an hour or so. He was actually enjoying a card game, he thought. It was almost 2 am when they called it quits and decided some sleep would be good.

Before sleeping Dean had teased him again, "You aren't going to run again after I sleep, are you?" He smiled sheepishly, shaking his head no, and Dean promptly went back to sleep. He sat there for some time and then arranged his backpack so that he was leaning with his back to it. He leaned his head back and tried to sleep. He had spread his legs and folded his arms over his chest. And before he knew it, he fell asleep.

Castiel when woke up later, it was still dawn and he realized two things. One, he had slid down somewhat in his sleep and his neck now hurt like hell and two, there was a hand around his waist holding him down and a face pressed at his chest. He panicked and looked besides him to see who it was and saw Dean. Last night's events came back to him and he relaxed a little.

He tensed again when he felt Dean nuzzle his face in his chest. He tried to wriggle out of Dean's grasp when he felt the hand tighten around him.

"Mhmm,Cas" said Dean groggily "stay still for a sec, would ya?" and he froze, waiting for Dean to wake up. After few minutes he felt Dean stiffen and lift his head up staring up at him. Both stared at each other before Dean snapped out of his daze and removed his hand and sat up.

They glanced at each other every second and both blushed profusely. Castiel cleared his throat a little, "Good morning, Dean".

Dean replied back, "Morning, Cas". He shuffled a bit in his place and just as he opened his mouth to say something, the clerk at the front hollered that they had reached Stanford. He saw Dean close his mouth and smile a little sheepishly.

"So," started Dean, "see you around?"

He only nodded and watched Dean slung his sack over his shoulder and went ahead of the bus. He saw through window as Dean called for a taxi and looked up once again at him. He saw Dean smile at him once waving and then he went off.

He shook his head once, took his backpack and he too climbed off the bus. The clerk took out his luggage and hand him over. He watched as the bus started again and went off. He called for taxi and gave the driver address of the hotel he was going to stay.

He checked his cell phone for any messages or missed calls, seeing one missed call from his mother and few messages from Gabriel. He promptly ignored the messages and dialed his mother's number. After three rings, his mother picked up and they talked for a minute, him telling that he reached safely and he didn't tell her about his 'incident' during the night.

He reached the hotel, paid the driver and went inside. He had already booked a room so he asked for the key to his room from the reception and took the elevator, thinking about Dean and thanking his luck that Gabriel at least didn't mess with his hotel arrangements.

So, here's the first chapter. How's it?

Review everyone. And I may just update this sooner than I said ;)

Special thanx to my beta, nimthriel. We sure had some fun commenting back n forth on many things in the fic :D :P