Dean was becoming frantic. Castiel would be coming over to his dorm soon so that they could work on their history presentation and Dean wanted to make sure that his room was spotless.
He'd always been a little high maintenance when it came to keeping things clean and germ free. He had to when he had a little brother who use to finger-paint all over his bedroom walls and leave candy wrappers everywhere (and now that Sam was older and healthier that had only been replaced with dropping lettuce leaves).
Overall Dean's family life had always been a little chaotic, so he liked to restore order and tidiness wherever he could. Now he was at college with his own space that had become a lot easier.
Dean wouldn't deny, however, that he had another motive. He was harbouring something a kin to a crush on Castiel and wanted to be sure to impress him. He found Castiel, smart, humorous, attractive...
His mind stopped wondering when there was a knock on the door.
"Okay" Dean said to himself quietly as he took a deep breath.
He went to answer the door and Castiel greeted him with a crescent smile that made Dean's heart flutter.
"Hello, Dean."
"Hey, Cas" Dean said as he stepped aside. "Come on in!"
Castiel walked into the room and Dean wrung his hands together nervously as he watched the other teen's eyes trail around his room.
"I like this very much" Castiel told him. "It feels like a home."
"Thank you" Dean said. He nervously hurried over to the bed and started to smooth out a couple of creases in the sheets. "I'm sorry about the mess" he fretted as he straightened a couple of books on his bedside table.
"Dean, this room is spotless" Castiel assured him. "You have nothing to be sorry for. In fact I don't feel like I should sit anyway from fear of ruining it."
"It's okay. We can sit at my desk" Dean said as he pulled the spare chair over.
"Excellent" Castiel said as he joined the other teen. "I was thinking that we could focus on witch hunts in the seventeen hundreds."
"Yeah, I think that's an awesome topic" Dean said. "I have my notes here somewhere..." He said as he quickly flicked through his alphabetical pile.
"You really are organised" Castiel commented. "I suppose that's just another one of your many attractive qualities" he added with a soft smile.
Dean smiled back in gratitude and the turned away slightly in the hope that Castiel wouldn't notice him blush.
Castiel had insisted that they continued work at in his room the next evening as it only seemed fair.
He didn't have much awareness or care when it came to mess; not that he was lazy. Growing up in a house with four older brothers there was no point trying to keep his room tidy as they just barged in whenever they liked and wrecked it. Gabriel in particular had a habit of accusing Castiel of stealing something of his and then emptying all of the drawers looking for it (if he did find anything it was usually because Lucifer had planted it there).
Castiel had also gotten into the habit of stashing food in his room since there were often fights at the dinner table. Now that he was in college he couldn't break the habit though as it had left him with severe trust issues with his other dorm mates. He did have cheery pie in his stock on that particular evening as he remembered Dean mentioning it was his favourite.
When there was a knock on his door Castiel jumped up from the bed- where he had already scattered his notes out - and answered it with an eager smile.
"Hello, Dean."
"Hey, Cas" Dean replied with matching enthusiasm.
"Make yourself comfortable" Castiel said as he stepped aside.
When Dean entered the room he was surprised to say the least.
There were clothes thrown across the backs of chairs and in small piles around the room and the desk was barely visible beneath mounds of unorganised paper.
Castiel flopped back down onto the bed and looked around before making a pleased sound. He picked up a half-eaten bag of pork rinds and stuffed a few in his mouth before offering them to Dean.
"Um, no thanks" Dean said sheepishly.
"No matter" Castiel said as he leaned over and picked something up from the side of the bed. "I got you this" he said, brandishing the pie. "I remember you said you loved it."
"Oh, wow, thanks!" Dean said hoping his blush wasn't becoming visible again; he couldn't believe Castiel would remember something so small about him.
He went to join the other teen on the bed, zigzagging his way through the mess.
"I'm sorry" Castiel said. "Altering seeing how neat your place was you must think I'm a pig."
"No!" Dean assured him. "I'm just overly OCD about my own stuff."
"It's bothering you" Castiel insisted.
"No, really-"
"Dean, your eye is twitching."
"Okay! I'm sorry" Dean conceded as he ran his hands down his face to hide his embarrassment. "It's your room so of course you can have it how you want. I'm just being intrusive."
"No, I'm sorry" Castiel said sincerely. "It's just never bothered me before, but you are my guest and I should have made the effort. I just hope I haven't upset you or caused you to think less of me..."
"Of course not!" Dean exclaimed quickly. "I really like you, Cas."
He swiftly snapped his mouth shut as he realised he'd blurted out the one thing he'd been trying to keep to himself.
Castiel smiled back at him softly.
"I really like you too, Dean."
Dean's shoulders visibly slumped with relief. He looked at Castiel sheepishly.
"Um...would it maybe be okay for me to, um, pick up a few things before we get started?"
"I'll do it" Castiel told him as got off the bed. "It's my responsibility. Besides, tidying my room would not be a great couple's activity for the first date."
"First date?" Dean repeated as he tried to prevent himself from breaking out into an over excited grin.
"Yeah. How about dinner at a restaurant tomorrow instead?" Castiel suggested.
"Sure" Dean said, unable to hide his wide smile anymore. "That sounds awesome."