The strong aroma of coffee wafted its way into the brightly lit master bedroom. On the giant four poster bed, the large, white, fluffy comforter covered most of Dean's body as he drifted in and out of consciousness. He took in a deep breath blindly reaching over to the right side of the bed, expecting to feel the warmth of Castiel's body. When he felt nothing, he lifted his head, his short hair tousled by the pillows. He glanced around the room in search of Cas. He sat up, all the covers pooling into his lap, the cool morning air hitting his bare chest, giving him a small shiver. He swung his legs over the side of the bed, his feet hitting the cold, wooden floor with a light 'thud'.

"Cas…" he called out, as he headed towards the door, but not before grabbing a grey t-shirt.

Castiel sat on the counter, facing the French doors leading out to the back yard; the early morning sun coming in, lighting up the whole kitchen.

"I'm in the kitchen, Dean." He responded as he heard the familiar sound of creaking steps under Dean's weight as he came down stairs.

Cas held his large coffee mug with both hands clutching around it, the warmth of the black liquid giving him a comfy feelings.

"Good morning Dean. Did you sleep well?" Cas asked turning his head to watch Dean walk around the counter towards where Castiel was perched on the edge of the cold marble countertop. Dean smiled and walked right up to Cas, positioning himself right up against the counter, between Cas' knees.

"Hmmm, I slept fine, thanks Cas…" Dean's voice rumbled out, having deepened since they first met back in high school. Cas' large blue eyes twinkled from the sun light, and he smiled as Dean leaned forward giving Cas a kiss.

Dean broke away, but continued to litter Cas' face with small kisses. Castiel smiled at every brush of Dean's lips, and hummed his approval. Dean wrapped his arms around Cas' waist, pulling him closer, but before he could get too carried away Cas stopped him.

"Hey Dean, wait…Before I forget…" Castiel started to talk as he pulled back from Dean's embrace. "Dean, you remember a few months ago I told you I'd been in recent contact with an old college friend?" Castiel held Dean by the shoulders, as he looked at him.

Dean kind of gave him a shrug, "I guess I vaguely recall something like that being mentioned. Why is that important now?" Dean's tone was one that said 'why does this matter now?'

"Well I just got an invitation to a sort of reunion…It's this Thursday." The way Castiel said this sounded as though he was asking permission to go. Dean just nodded his head, stepping away to grab a mug to fill it with strong coffee. Dean brought it up close to his face, the sent very pleasing to him. Castiel always made the best coffee.

"Ok, so ya' gunna go?" Dean asked nonchalantly, taking a careful swig of his drink.

Castiel blinked at him for a moment, and then answered. "Well, I would like to yes. I think it would be nice to see my old classmates once again after five years…" Castiel trailed off, his manner indicting he was expecting something else from Dean.

Dean swallowed his coffee noticing Castiel's expectant facial expression. "Cas, what's wrong?"

"Well, will you accompany me to the social gathering? As much as I want to go, I don't want to go alone. I'd like to have you there with me." Castiel explained as he hopped off the counter to stand in front of Dean.

Castiel looked up into Dean's green eyes as he waited for Dean's answer. Dean didn't really want to go, but with Cas giving him his signature pleading face, Dean had no choice but to reluctantly agree.

The last thing Dean wanted to do was spend a long weekend with Castiel and a bunch of stuck up snobs who looked down at him because he only finished high school. Who where they to judge him? But Dean always jumped to the worst case scenario, so maybe this wouldn't be so bad.

But no, just like he guessed, here he was, two days later standing in line next to Castiel as they waited to pick up their stupid name badges to that everyone and their mother would know exactly who they were. He'd barely walked into the big fancy hotel this shindig was being held at and already he'd counted 10 different people giving him, and him alone, dirty looks.

Dean simply rolled his eyes. So what? Who cared? He was here for Cas, not them. "To hell with them and their fancy suits. At least my clothes are comfortable." Dean thought to himself. Dean would support Castiel stalwartly without any kind of second guess, and if this is something he wanted to do, Deal with just rough it out.

Once they finished signing in, and after Dean had much trouble with putting on his stupid name tag, which he was pretty sure the girl at the sign in booth laughed at him for, they were ready to 'explore and discover' all of Cas' old college buddies.

Just as they were about to be on their way, an older, rotund man approached them, reaching out his hand to greet Castiel.

"Mr. Novak, how wonderful to see you here! There was mention of your coming, but I was unsure! Yes well, I'm so very glad to have run into you, but I'm afraid I'm in bit of a rush. See you later, then?" The man spoke quickly with a British accent, only stopping his quick stride to shake hands with Cas before going on his way. He was overall a jolly looking man. Dean smiled to himself, inwardly chuckling because hey, Cas knew what looked to be Santa Clause.

Dean nudged Cas with his elbow, "Hey Cas…'Ho, ho, ho…' eh?" Dean laughed as he did the trademark laugh of The Jolly Fat Man.

Castiel however did not laugh, "Dean, don't make fun of Mr. Proctor, he was one of my favorite teachers. He's a good man." Castiel watched as Mr. Proctor waddled away.

"Pfft, if he's such a good man, how come he didn't have enough manners to say hello to me?" Dean was unimpressed so far because all these people had shown him was an ugly side.

Speaking of ugly, just then some guy with short blonde hair walked up, wearing some ridiculous get up that consisted of too-tight jeans and a black button up shirt, that wasn't actually buttoned up all the way, revealing some of what looked to be an unimpressive chest. What was this guy trying to do, scare everyone away?

Dean's thoughts were put on hold when this guy walked right up to Castiel giving him a familiar hug.

"Dear Castiel, how the hell are you, mate? Haven't heard from you in far too long." This guy also spoke in a British accent and was all over Cas, much to Dean's chagrin.

"Balthazar…it has been quite a while. I'm doing well, and yourself?" Cas smiled politely.

"Ah Castiel, your smile was always so effervescent. It was truly one the things I missed most about you." Balthazar gave a flirty smile.

Castiel seemed to ignore the comment and took a step back, turning to Dean. "Balthazar, this is Dean Winchester, my…" Cas paused for a moment, looking unsure of something, then continued. "My friend from high school."

Dean nodded, having earlier made Castiel promise that he wouldn't tell that they were a couple. Dean didn't want to chance getting Cas into any kind of trouble, after all their home town was pretty unaccepteding of their relationship, so who knew about this place?

Balthazar glanced from Dean to Cas and back to Dean, giving them a face that said he knew that was a bunch of bologna, but continued as though he knew nothing. "Ah, well, it's a pleasure, Dean Winchester." He put out his hand to Dean. Dean took it, nodding.

"Right, well, as much as I'd love to stick around, I've a few more people to go say hello to. I'll be seeing you again later, right Cas?" Balthazar turned his attention from Dean to Castiel, using the nickname Dean had given Cas.

This caught Dean a little off guard, but he let it slide for the moment. Balthazar waved at Castiel as he walked away. As soon as Balthazar was out of ear shot, Dean turned to Cas.

"He calls you 'Cas'?" Dean's tone clearly communicated a sense of angry perplexity. Before Cas could answer him, a group of people walked up.

"Castiel Novak. How long has it been? Six years? You've not changed one bit!" Some guy in a black suit walked up, holding a drink in his hand, a large golden class ring adorning his finger. Three other people stood around him, one woman stood right next to him, giving Castiel a smile.

"Castiel, how nice to see you here. We were worried that you wouldn't show up…" Her words were kind, but her smile betrayed here seemingly kind tone. Dean was really getting tired of all these people coming up to greet Castiel and completely ignoring him. This whole trip was really making Dean petulant. Dean didn't blame Cas though, how could he? This whole thing was for Cas, and it wasn't his fault that these peasants had no sense of manners.

"Hey guys…It's been a while indeed. This is Dean Winchester my…my friend." Cas put his hand on Dean's shoulder as he introduced him, but when it came time to give dean a title he paused again. When Dean had brought up the issue of telling or not telling people about their relationship, Castiel interested in what people would think or how they would treat him based on his life decisions. He actually really wanted to let everyone know that he was Dean's boyfriend; however Dean was adamant about making sure that there was no reason for anyone to give them trouble.

Dean on the other hand, had in the split moment of noticing the looks the people where giving Cas, wasn't going to have any more misunderstanding. He saw the sly smiles on their stupid faces and reacted by protectively, almost possessively intertwined his fingers with Cas' gaunt ones.

Castiel being unaware of Dean's sudden change of mind, pulled his hand away, quickly turning to face his friends.

"Truly, our relationship is abstruse, to say the least…" He let out a small, nervous chuckle.

The woman's coy smile faded into one that was taken aback. The man made a sarcastic laugh and rolled his eyes.

"I can see that you have a sense of amenability over Castiel. Clearly, because if he's willing to try and hide what's clearly a romantic relationship between the two of you when he's obviously the type to not hide anything from anyone. But what I can't understand if why you'd make him hide anything? Is it because you're possibly 'still in the closet'?" The guy's tone was oozing with snooty loathing.

Dean gave him a cynical smile, "Well no, actually. I was just worried that there might be a few pricks here that would make a big deal out of nothing. I didn't want to start any shit for Cas." Dean was done with these people, and had he not promised Castiel that he'd be on his best behavior, fists would be flying.

The woman let out an overly enthusiastic giggle, "Your companion has such a primeval personality, where ever did you find him, Castiel?"

The man turned to face the woman, smiling at her comment, "Yes, isn't just like the perfect little pet for Castiel? Tell us Castiel, what else does this man have to offer, because clearly this isn't a relationship based on mutual interests and intellectual equality." The man was talking bad right in front of Dean. Castiel was so caught off guard by these rude comments he wasn't unable to respond properly.

Dean Winchester was not stupid. Despite what everyone may have thought, he wasn't stupid. Just because he was lazy and didn't do his homework, or just barely passed his classes let alone graduate didn't make him dumb. He knew what these people where doing. Trying to use big words to intimidate him, it wasn't going to work. Dean was comfortable with his life, and these jackasses weren't going to mess up his weekend.

"Oh, aha-ha. That's funny. Calling me names, putting me down? Like I didn't deal with that during high school. Like there aren't still assholes that treat me like I'm less than them in some way. New flash; I didn't care then, and I don't care now." Dean's attitude had darkened from being simply annoyed to that of full blown anger.

Before any more words could be further exchanged, another man walked up.

"Excuse me, Sir…I would like to ask that you keep your voice down. This isn't some bar where you can break into altercation, let alone one of a physical nature." The look the man was gave Dean was dripping with austerity.

Then the man noticed Castiel standing there, "Mr. Novak, you now this gentleman?" He question, his large rimmed glasses sliding forward on the bridge of his nose.

One of the men standing with the group that had approached them made a nasty comment under his breath, "Gentleman? Yes of course, because it's so evident by his abundance in gentility."

Dean continued to let the insults towards him roll right off of him, but as they kept coming and the man telling Castiel about how he could really do better than Dean, he felt as though he was going to explode with anger.

Right as he was about to break and yell at them all, he heard another voice. He heard Castiel's voice.

"Excuse me! But I will have you all know, not that it's any of your business, but my relationship with Dean is very prolific in its own way. And your comments are not only unneeded, but unwanted." He spoke up, these rude and arrogant people surrounding him, telling him what he should have done, who he should be with.

"Dean Winchester is truly a virtuous man, and without him, I wouldn't be here this weekend, or perhaps I wouldn't be here at all."

The profoundness of that statement hit Dean like a ton of bricks. Did Castiel really feel that way about Dean? Did he really mean that? And here all this time Dean felt that Castiel made his life worthwhile. The vicissitudes of Dean's life always seemed to be of a better nature when he was with Castiel.

"I care not for what any of you have to say about me or my life decisions. I came here, I finished what I came here to do, and none of that ever included caring about what you people thought. I don't even live here anymore, so as far as I'm concerned, you all don't really have a reason to be troubled about my reputation and how Dean has affected it. I'm an upstanding citizen with no kind of problems where I live."

The woman rolled her eyes and pursed her lips, "Your reputation was vitiated the vary moment you brought that hooligan here. Personally," she paused, and then turned to face Dean, "Castiel fell from reaching any chance of success the moment he laid hands on you."

Castiel stepped forward, putting himself between the woman and Dean. Castiel had always had a sort of reverence for Dean.

"I asked Dean to accompany me this weekend because I wanted to see the people who kept me company while I was away from home. I wanted to see them again because I thought they were good people." He gave the woman a once over and then continued. "I was obviously wrong in thinking so. So you know what? I'm done here, I wanted to see what had become of all these people I used to know, and now I have." With that he took Dean's hand and walked out of the building. Dean simply followed behind him, silently smiling to himself.

"You really think that Cas?" Dean finally asked once they reached the Impala. Cas let go on Dean's hand and leaned on the car waiting for Dean to unlock it, crossing his arms over his chest.

Castiel took a moment before he answered, then looked at Dean, "What's the matter?" Castiel questioned, confused as he squinted his bright blue eyes tilting his head to the side. "You honestly don't know by now?"

He smiled at Dean, "Of course that's what I really think. Dean, trust me when I say, you have not one odious quality about you."

Dean tarried just for a moment before leaning forward and giving Castiel a kiss. "I feel like I should really treat you ten times better than I already do. Maybe buy you something nice, I don't know…just something." Dean held Cas by the waist, leaning his forehead on Castiel's.

"You act as though the only portal to my heart is through buying me something…" Cas laughed.

"Well fine, I'll make it buy hand then, more sentimental. Maybe if I find a something shiny and make it gold or whatever…" Dean was thinking out loud.

"Don't be silly Dean. Alchemy isn't possible." Cas said, smiling at the thought of Dean attempting something so ridiculous.

Dean made a playful pout, "Don't tell me what to do…"

"Dean, I'm on an emotional high, balancing myself between positive emotions and negative ones. I'm the precipice here; do you think it's wise to mess with me?" Dean didn't respond, only blinking.

"Besides, I know exactly how you can treat me better. Take me home."

"Seems do-able."