The Silver Lining

Summary: Dean is a college student, living an ordinary, messy college life. One day he gets an e-mail from the school that there is another student, Castiel, transferring into his room for unknown reasons. Dean isn't questioning why at first, but soon enough he notices Castiel's odd behavior and questions begin to rise to the surface.

Pairing: Destiel

Overall Rating: MA

Beta Reader: The awesome Littleaprilroses. :)

Note: I'll be posting a new chapter every Thursday possibly. Enjoy and tell me what you think.

Every morning in the Winchester's house there was a routine. Mary woke up first, and started making breakfast. John was next; he picked up the newspaper and mail from outside before going to sit down on one of the chairs and start reading. He did all this while happily drinking the hot coffee he'd made earlier.

Then Sam woke up and brushed his teeth, got dressed for school, and went downstairs to eat his breakfast. Dean slept in of course because his alarm didn't wake him up on time, so Mary had to go upstairs and do it herself. Finally the whole family was downstairs eating breakfast and poking fun of each other like normal families often do.

Even though they were all different, every one of them respected their family and put it before anything else.

Now Dean Winchester wasn't home anymore. Mary didn't make him breakfast and she most certainly didn't wake him up. John wasn't there to take care of him, and Sammy wasn't there to annoy him. He didn't think that going to college would make him miss his family so much, but it did.

He mostly missed Sam because even though he was just his younger brother, he was also the only person he trusted completely. Now, he doesn't know if he can trust anyone, and that made Dean question his decision of even going to college.

He wasn't even committed to the classes. He didn't study, and failed a bunch of his exams already. But he made a promise to his mom that he will try his best to finish college, and he would most definitely not break it. Making his mother proud was his biggest wish of all, so before doing anything, he thought twice of what she would say about it. That's how he made most of the decisions in his life, like even considering the idea of going to college.

Dean would much rather just stay at home and work in his father's mechanic shop, because that's the one thing he was sure he was good at. But he decided to make his future different, rather that living his father's life for the rest of his days.

Now, he has to stay here, in Kansas State University, and try to make the best of what he had, even if he felt like crying every time he saw the big fat books.

It was Monday tomorrow and he had to study the one subject he hated the most: history, and it didn't help that he got up at noon. He took out a leftover pizza from the fridge and poured some of the coffee he made earlier.

He avoided all of the mess in the room and sat on the old chair right next to the desk. He would probably clean the room a bit, but there was nobody to clean it for. He didn't have a roommate, because the one he had dropped out, and his girlfriend, Lisa, broke up with him, so nobody really visited.

If by some accident someone did visit, the person better be okay with dirty places, because there was unwashed clothes and underwear on the bed,bread crumbs on the floor, spilled liquid on his table, and he was pretty sure a rat was living in one of the bottom cabins in the mini kitchen, that wasn't really a kitchen, it was basically just one corner of the room.

But his unsanitary living conditions was the last thing he needed to worry about. He needed to find a way to study hard and study fast, so he can pass the history exam that was just a day away. He thought of asking for his next door neighbor, Kevin, for help, but he was pretty sure that he wouldn't help him, because they were in the same class together, so he needed to study too, and Kevin was really cranky before exams. He had no other choice to do it himself.

He opened the big brown book on page 203 and started reading. The chapter was about the beginning of World War Two. After finishing the whole ten pages of that chapter he only understood that the World War Two started with an attack of Poland.

That wasn't nearly enough information for him to pass. He tried remembering something from high school, because he was pretty sure that he studied about World War Two before, but he couldn't remember anything, mostly because he wasn't really a great student, and his memory wasn't his strongest suit.

He tried to reread the chapter again, this time with more concentration, but he couldn't do it. His mind was elsewhere. He decided to take a break, so he turned on his laptop that his dad bought for him before he started college. He wasn't really a computer person, but he did know how to check his e-mail to see if anyone sent him anything.

Usually it was empty, or just some spam mail, but this time he had two. An e-mail from the school and one from his brother. He opened the one from Sam first. He started reading, and he got happy even on the first line:

Hey jerk,

How have you been? I haven't heard from you in a while.

I guess now, that you're in college you are kind of too cool for me. Haha.

Anyway, I know you're busy, but try calling more often. I wanna hear from you.

With love, your bitch.

A smile rose on Dean's face. He was so happy that Sam was sending him messages often. He replied as soon as he finished reading. He made it long, explaining how he had to study, eat and sleep, and even though it didn't seem much, it was very stressful and he just didn't have the time to spend on the computer or on the phone.

He also mentioned his big exam that's coming up and how he has no idea what he'll do, since he has no knowledge of the subject. He also requested of Sam to say hi to his parents and everyone back home, and he promised that he'll try calling more often.

Before closing his laptop he remembered there was another message sent, and it was from the school, so he thought it wouldn't hurt to read it. As he started reading further, the message was getting worse. It said that there was a student transferring from another room in the dorms, reasons unknown, and that he would be arriving today in the afternoon.

Dean got frustrated because he just got used to living alone, and he wasn't ready to give up his privacy just yet. He quickly took his phone and started dialing the main office of the school. It was Sunday, so of course, nobody answered.

He was frustrated. He didn't even know this kid. For all he knew, he could've been kicked out by his old roommate because he was too annoying, or even worse, a bully, which was a weird thought, since college students are considered mature enough to not bully others, then again, he didn't know for sure. And it wasn't like Dean couldn't handle a bully. He was probably the most feared kid in high school, but that didn't mean he liked fighting. He wanted for his college life to end peaceful and happy.

The more he thought about the fact that a new person is about to come in this room today and stay here for who knows how long frightened him. He had to at least clean up a little bit, since it seemed there is no other choice for him. But how was he supposed to clean when there was an exam he had to study for. It was less than a day away, and Dean's knowledge about it still remained low.

Dean didn't have enough time to finish his worrying when he heard a quiet knock on the door that almost made him believe that it was just in his head. He stood in place for a minute until he heard it again. He wondered who could it be, since the kid was supposed to be arriving in the after noon, and it was barely just noon.

He walked to the door and opened it. He saw a young boy, about his age, who's blue eyes made Dean want to look at them. His dark brown hair was messy and he was wearing a dirty light brown trench coat.

"Can I come in?" The blue eyed boy asked quietly.

"Uh, yeah." Dean said as he broke his gaze and stepped away from the door, gesturing the blue eyed person to get inside. He just nodded and entered the room. For a minute there, he just stood and looked at the mess. Dean thought he was too shocked by the dirty room to do anything else.

"Sorry about that," Dean said quietly with an apologetic look, "I didn't really have time to clean up."

"It's okay." he boy said. He took a seat on the chair, because it seemed that it was the cleanest area he could sit on.

"What's your name?" Dean asked as he sat on the other chair.

"I'm Castiel." He said shyly.

"Cool name." Dean smiled at Castiel.

"Really? You are not going to make fun of it?" Castiel seemed a bit surprised, which made Dean even more surprised than him. Why would he make fun of his name, he wondered.

"Of corse not." Dean said. He looked around and saw that Castiel didn't bring any suitcases with him, so he asked "Um, where are your stuff?"

"Some people that work at the dorms are going to bring them in later." Castiel said. Dean noticed that Castiel always had the same tone in his voice, which made Dean curious why.

"Oh..." He said, "Do you want anything to eat, or?" Dean asked, because he hated awkwardly quiet moments, and it seemed that he was getting himself into one.

"No, I'm good." Castiel said after looking around in the room again, feeling disgusted.

"Okay. Well, I better start cleaning then. I'm really sorry I didn't clean before. There was nobody to clean for." Dean explained apologetically.

"No, it's okay, it really is. It's about as messy as my last room..." Castiel said as he got up the chair, "Well, not quite as messy, I suppose." He have him a soft smile. Dean chuckled. He felt better about the fact that he didn't clean up, because it seemed that Cas was a really understanding person. Castiel was also a bit weird, but Dean kept that to himself.

Castiel started walking towards the desk where Dean had left his book open and commented on the chapter that the book was open on.

"Ahh, WWII, I remember that subject perfectly. That was when the Nazi's and their supporters attempted mass genocide. There was a ton of people that tried as hard as possible to hide the fact that they were Jewish, homosexual, or anything that the Germans didn't like." He sighed. "Tragic times, really."

Dean just stood there, looking at Castiel, who seemed to know tons about this subject, which might actually help Dean pass this exam. He barely knew the guy, but somehow, he felt comfortable enough to ask him for help, so he did.

"Sure, I can help you. History is one of my strong suits." He said with a smile, "But, can we maybe clean up a bit first?" Dean laughed at Castiel. He was so weird, he thought, but he couldn't help but feel sympathy towards him.

"Of corse we can!" Dean said enthusiastically, and he automatically started picking up the dirty clothes from the bed, then underneath it. He realized that there was one bed since he pushed the two together to make a bigger one for himself, so he looked kind of embarrassed.

After he cleaned the clothes he separated the beds and pushed the one on the other side of the room. Then he took out the sheets because they were dirty and replaced them with clean ones from the closet. He was completely distracted from Castiel, until he heard a scream. He turned around and he saw him sitting on the table, looking too scared to get down.

"What happened?" Dean asked.

"This is ridiculous! There was a rat in the cabin!" He yelled.

Dean laughed so hard that it caused him to snort like a pig, and Castiel was just looking at Dean with a confused look.

"Yeah, I know about the rat. I kinda liked him, so I never bothered to get rid of him. He's nice." Dean said.

"Well that would be a nice warning before I started cleaning." Castiel said quietly.

"Sorry Cas. I forgot to mention that." He said, "Hey, is calling you Cas alright?" He asked.

"I suppose it is. First time anyone's ever called me that." Cas said.

"Good! It will be like my own little nickname for you." Dean said and started looking for the rat. Cas didn't say anything.

Then something moved over by the beds causing Cas to panic once again. Dean just laughed and went to look over to see what it was. When he finally found the white furry animal he picked it up carefully. "Look at him Cas. He is adorable." Dean said.

"I'm kind of scared. Get rid of it." Cas said nervously.

"Oh, come on. I wanna keep him." Dean held the little rat close to Cas, forcing him to look at it. Cas opened his eyes slowly and saw the little creature in Dean's hands. He couldn't help it giving it a soft smile, and he had the sudden urge to pet his little ears, so he did.

"So, can I keep him?" Dean smiled as he looked at Cas getting over his fear.

"I guess..." Cas said quietly, feeling a bit embarrassed that he overreacted over a furry little creature.

"What should we name him?" Dean asked.

"Name him?" Cas asked confused.

"If we're keeping him he needs a name!" Dean said.

"Okay then, how about Spike then." Cas suggested.

"Why Spike?" Dean wondered.

"Because his ears have a spike shaped form, it's an odd form for rat ears." Castiel explained. Dean nodded. "Spike it is then."

Dean took the rat and put it in a small box he had and both of them continued working on cleaning up the place. Cas cleaned the floor, where some parts were harder to clean than others. The carpet had something sticky and he had to scrub it twice to get rid of it.

Dean cleaned the cabins with a cloth he found and some kitchen supplies his mom bought for him when he moved in the dorms. Then he went downstairs to put his dirty clothes in the laundry and when he came back he saw Cas sitting on his now clean bed, with suitcases all around him.

"I guess we have more cleaning to do." Cas sighed.

"No! No! Ahh... I need to study!" Dean yelled.

"It's alright, I can tutor you before I unpack." Cas comforted him. Dean smiled at him and nodded in agreement. They both sat on the desk that was separating their beds and started reading the chapter that Dean was supposed to memorize by tomorrow.

TBC