A/N: This is for the awesome Faye, AKA carry-on-my-wayward-rusher for the Sassy Exchange 2.0! She had three really tempting prompts and when I got my sister to try and help me choose, it came up that I had never actually seen Grease. So then she made me watch it. And then this happened. Hope you like it!

But Oh! Those Summer Nights

The laughing couple ran along the beach, happy to be in the afternoon sun and each other's company. With a sudden burst of energy, he second boy caught up with the first, grabbing him around the waist and shifting their momentum so that they stumbled into the water. Still laughing as the waves splashed around their ankles, they came to a stop. The playful hold became a warm embrace.

"I've really loved spending the summer with you," the taller boy murmured into the other's hair.

"Yeah, it's been...amazing," he replied with a happy sigh. "But-but will I see you again?"

"I don't know," was the honest answer. "I'm moving back to Australia in a week. You knew that when we started this."

"But that was before! Before everything!"

"Hey, come on, it's alright. Because no matter what, we'll always have the memories of our summer together."

"Oh, Patrick!"

Patrick smiled tearfully back at his lover. "Alex."

They kissed passionately, knowing that their summer romance was coming to a close. But no one cares about them.

Meanwhile in a town a few miles away, two figures sat in adjacent library chairs, huddled over the same large book. There was no sound but the soft whisper of turning pages.

"Hey Cas," said Sam, breaking the quiet.

"Hm?"

"I was just thinking."

"Okay?"

"You realize summer is nearly over, right?"

Castiel finally looked up. "What?"

"Yeah, it's already the second week of August."

Castiel blinked. "Oh." He slowly closed the book, face pensive. "I hadn't realized time was passing so fast."

Sam nodded. "Me neither." He watched Castiel's face closely. His boyfriend's facial expressions were very subtle, so he had to-or got to, really-stare at his face to interpret them. For anyone else that may have seemed weird, but Cas didn't seem to mind. Actually he didn't even notice that it should have been weird. His disregard for social norms had taken a bit of getting used to, but it was one of the things about Castiel that Sam loved most.

Castiel's brow was furrowed slightly and the corners of his mouth twitched downwards minutely. These were the only outward signs, but they were enough for Sam to tell that he was unhappy. Well shit, he hadn't meant to do that, it was just...summer was ending.

"Do you think we'll see each other?" he asked, hopeful.

Castiel shook his head. "I live on the other side of the country. My parents just own a vacation house near the beach."

"So," Sam concluded glumly, "you'll be moving back."

"Probably within the week," Cas confirmed.

Sam slumped in his chair. "Oh."

"We should do something," said Cas. "With summer ending."

And time running out.

"Like what?"

Castiel shifted as he thought. "We could go to the beach. If you'd like."

"I don't know if that's really our kinda scene." Sam smiled, touched by the offer anyway; Castiel overheated easily in his ever-present trenchcoat so he preferred public buildings with A/C like the library rather than the beach with his parents. Sam understood the sentiment-the library was infinitely preferable over a summer in the garage with his brother.

Actually they had met in the library at the beginning of the summer, both of them reaching simultaneously for the same book on Chinese dynasties. They had both started stammering and tried to get the other to take it, eventually compromising by sitting down together to attempt to read at the same time. Luckily their reading speeds were close enough that neither got frustrated with the other, and reading together became an almost daily affair.

Then they had started having whispered conversations about what they were reading, which in turn became spoken conversations, which in turn got them several stern looks from the librarian. So they had checked some books out and taken them to the nearest diner, and talked over burgers (making sure to keep the books immaculately clean, of course).

Later, Sam would count that as their first date.

They were in the library again, when Sam had leaned in to comment on a picture of the Hagia Sofia, and Castiel had leaned in at the same time, and somehow they were kissing.

Yeah, the librarian hadn't liked that either. But Sam had a boyfriend, so who cared?

"Hey, how about we check this one out, and go sit outside in the shade? The weather's starting to get cooler, and once we're outside we can..." he trailed off.

Castiel graced him with a small smile. "Okay."

Sam grinned in return, hopping up and pulling his library card out of his pocket.

Two days later, Castiel was gone.

When Sam went back to school, it was with heavy heart. And a black leather jacket.

He didn't really like the jacket that much, but according to his brother it was 'mandatory for hanging out with us, geek.' Dean's group of friends included two other guys named Ash and Garth, plus a tomboyish girl named Jo. Sam didn't see how Ash or Garth were any less geeky than he was, but they all wore the jackets anyway. Maybe the jackets really were what made the difference, because their little group was set apart as People-Who-Should-Not-Be-Messed-With in the eyes of the student body. Sam was just grateful to have people to hang out with.

"Hey! Little Winchester!" Jo shouted from across the front lawn. She was standing with Ash and Garth and waving for him to come over.

Sam sighed. That was him. Time to get into character.

"I'm not little anymore, Jo!" he shouted back, crossing to them with long strides.

"No kidding," Ash snorted. "Did you hit another growth spurt or what?"

"You'll always be little to me," Jo teased, smacking his arm.

"More importantly, dude. Where were you this summer?" demanded Garth. "We went by the garage a coupla times and Dean was there, but not you."

"Oh. Um, mostly the beach I guess. You know, just around."

"Not much of a tan," a new voice joined the conversation. Sam felt an arm slide around his shoulder, and suddenly his brother was hanging off him, cocky grin firmly in place. "If you were heading to the beach all those times you should've told me. Ya know, so I could come?"

"And tear you away from your precious car?" Sam rolled his eyes, but he was grateful when the conversation moved on from his lack of a beach tan.

"Sam is definitely taller than you now," Jo noted.

Dean scowled and flipped her off, before he started tugging Sam towards the school entrance.

"Where're we going, Dean?"

"To class, Sammy, duh. It's the first day of school and all that."

"Like you go to class." His brother was starting his second year as a senior.

"Whatever. Got to get a look at who's here, right?"

"...You mean you want to see Gabriel."

"Shut up, Sam." Dean pushed Sam's head down closer to his so he could ask quietly, "Hey, we're not gonna have to sing, are we?"

"Uh, no? Why would we?"

Dean finally let him go and clapped him on the back. "No reason. Carry on, geek boy."

They headed into the building, followed by their friends. A few minutes later, Castiel arrived on the campus. He trailed behind his friend Anna, taking in his new school. He could hear snatches of conversation, but the loudest appears to be coming from a group of people wearing matching white jackets. Jackets which matched Anna's.

"-gotten really tall, did you see?"

"Yeah, well, I'm not really interested in that brother."

"Everyone," Anna interrupted, striding straight up to the group. "This is Castiel. He just moved here from across the country. Cas, this is Gabriel, Balthazar, and Raphael."

"A pleasure," drawled Balthazar.

"Sure," Gabriel agreed, rather insincerely. He looked bored.

Raphael just glared at him. Cas wasn't sure why, but he was used to people glaring at him for no reason.

Castiel took several moments to stare at them, taking in details and minutiae and filing them away to analyze later.

"What is he doing?" Gabriel asked Anna.

"It's normal for him, just give it a few minutes and he'll stop."

"Why is he wearing a trenchcoat?" Balthazar asked.

Cas blinked. "Technically it's an overcoat," he corrected.

"Okaaaaaaay." Gabriel started edging away. It was not very subtle.

"I should go get my schedule," Castiel mused out loud. He turned abruptly and left.

"We're eating lunch outside," Anna called after him.

He heard Raphael mutter, "Why would you tell him that?" behind him. Then he heard Anna kick him.

He liked Anna.

But he had been hoping to use his lunch to see if Sam went to this school. A quiet boy like Sam may not be well-known to the other students, though, so he was prepared to walk around the entire campus if he had to. He tried to imagine what their reunion would be like if he did go here. With a small smile, he headed for the administrative office.

"Alright, Sam, time to spill-what did you actually do this summer?" Jo demanded.

Sam paused, not sure what to say. They were eating lunch in the bleachers near the soccer field. Jo and Ash were sitting on the bench behind him, while Garth lounged across the one below him. Dean was restlessly pacing the top bench. He must not have caught sight of Gabriel yet today.

"What do you mean?" he finally asked. "I told you, I went to the beach."

"If you were really at the beach, then why did you look so shifty about it this morning?" Jo raised an eyebrow, clearly not ready to let it go.

"Well..." He floundered for an excuse.

"Didja meet someone?" Garth asked.

Sam immediately flushed. The others pounced on it.

"Holy crap, you did! Come on, tell us more!"

At the picnic tables outside the cafeteria, Castiel was scanning the benches for Sam. No luck.

"Hey Cas, come over here already," someone called. He recognized the voice as Balthazar's. He spotted him sitting white the other white jackets at a middle table. Anna looked up from her phone and waved at him, too. He debated ignoring them to continue his search, but he had to do something with the cumbersome tray of food that the lunch lady had shoved at him. Maybe he could just leave it at their table or something.

"So, Cas," Balthazar said as he neared their table. Raphael yanked him down onto the bench. So much for abandoning his tray and escaping. "We were just discussing what we did over the summer."

"I did Dean," Gabriel stated smugly.

Castiel looked at him blankly. "I don't know who that is."

For some reason Gabriel laughed. "I think this kid is growing on me."

"Kinda cute, isn't he?" Balthazar agreed with a nod.

People were very strange, in Castiel's opinion.

"So, what did you do this summer?" Anna asked, stowing her phone to give him her undivided attention.

"Well." Castiel stared intently at his tray, trying to think how to start.

"I know that look," Balthazar said.

"Oh yeah." Gabriel grinned. "So? Tell us more."

"Well," Sam started. "I met him at-" He couldn't say the library; they'd make fun of his 'geek love.' "-the beach. You know, he was...swimming. And uh, he started drowning." Shit, where had that come from?

"Jesus, Sam. How come this kind of crap always happens around you, huh?" Ash joked.

"I saved his life," Sam said defensively.

"I met a boy," Cas told them.

"Ooooh." Castiel perked up a bit at his audience's response to this admission. "Where'd you meet him?"

"At the library."

Raphael snorted. "The library. Wow."

"We went to other places, as well," he said. For some reason he felt defensive.

"Like where, exactly?"

Hm. Sam and he hadn't actually gone too many other places. "The diner. Um, and..." They looked at him expectantly. "...the beach." He finished. The beach was supposed to be a romantic place, right?

"Nice," Gabriel said. "And what did you guys do?"

"Way to go, Sam! I'll bet he was super grateful, right?" Garth waggled his eyebrows.

"Um, yeah. He was."

"So then what did you guys do after you saved his life? I'll bet it was good."

"We started meeting up," Sam shrugged. "Almost every day. And then every night."

"Nighttime at the beach," Dean sighed fondly. "Did you take this guy down to the boardwalk?"

"Yeah," Sam jumped at this. "Underneath the boardwalk."

"Nice."

"Well we went to the boardwalk." Cas tried to think of other activities that would be considered romantic.

"And?" Gabriel prompted.

"And...he held my hand."

"Oh, you held hands."

"Yes. He was very sweet."

"He sounds like a really nice guy," Anna commented, poking at her cafeteria food.

"He was," Cas confirmed.

"You showed this guy a nice time, right?" Dean asked. "Like a gentleman?"

"Oh yeah," Sam agreed, trying to sound as innuendo-y as possible. The guys laughed a bit; Jo just rolled her eyes.

"We had a really nice time," Castiel said. "Sometimes at night we would go walking down the beach and stargaze."

"A couple of nights we snuck into that beachfront bar that doesn't really check IDs."

"Some nights we hopped the fence around the lighthouse and lay in the grass to talk."

"Sometimes we stayed out all night."

"Whenever we stayed out late, he'd walk me home."

"His parents were out a lot at night partying, so we went to his place."

"He came to meet my parents, and they actually liked him."

"He had a nice bed. And he liked it rough."

"He had a kind face, and he was always very gentle."

"He wasn't very shy once he was under me."

"He was a little shy..."

"And he was hot."

"...but he was very strong. He could pick me up with no effort."

"One time he-"

"-invited me out to go driving-"

"-and it was totally deserted-

"-there was this field a few miles out of town-"

"-no mattress, but we made do with-"

"-very pretty, with all kinds of wildflowers and-"

"-got hot in there pretty fast-"

"-perfect weather, so we got out and-"

"-started taking our clothes off and-"

"-there were these horses wandering around with-"

"-his mouth, God-"

"-ate right out of my hand-"

"-and he swallowed."

"Way to go, Sammy," Dean said with a grin. Jo made a sound of disgust. "Okay, maybe a little heavy on the details, but it's reassuring to hear that you actually know what sex is."

Oh God, how had he ended up with such a sexualized version of his summer?

"That sounds really sweet," Anna said with a smile. Even Gabriel and Balthazar were smiling a bit. Gabriel a bit wistfully, it seemed like.

Castiel blinked. Now that he was done with his story, he had to wonder how on Earth it had come out as romanticized as it had.

"Who was this guy, anyway?" Raphael said inbetween forkfuls. "Sounds like a drag to me."

Cas started to prod his own food. "His name was Sam Winchester."

Raphael choked. Balthazar stared. Gabriel started laughing maniacally.

Anna snapped around in her seat to stare at something. Following her gaze he looked out across to the sports fields. There was a row of bleachers near what he guessed was a soccer field. A group of kids in matching black jackets (why were there so many people with matching jackets at this school? Very strange) was standing up to leave. One was taller than the others, and even from a distance Cas recognized that hair.

Immediately he got up. Anna made a grab for his sleeve, saying "Cas" in a wary tone. But he hurried away-without his lunch tray, ha-before she could catch him. That was Sam.

When he came to a halt in front of the group of black jackets, Sam was the last to notice him. He was staring at the ground and frowning, and only looked up when he bumped into the girl, who had stopped at Castiel's approach.

"Cas?" he said, eyes wide.

"Hello, Sam."

"Who's this?" asked one of the boys. Cas could tell by the way they were standing that he was the leader of their small group.

"Uh...this is..." Sam's eyes flickered between the leader and Cas. He looked pained for a moment, but then he hid it behind a grin. "This is who I was telling you about."

"No kidding?" Mullet kid whistled. "Nice, Sam."

The last boy shoved Sam forward with a grin.

Sam stumbled, looking down at Cas with an odd expression. It was one he had never seen on his face before. He kept nervously raising his hand up and running it through his hair, making it messier. Castiel wondered what exactly was going on.

"Hey, babe. I, uh, I didn't know you went here."

Babe?

"I didn't. I lived in Oregon, remember?"

"Mm," said Sam hummed noncommittally.

"I moved just a this last weekend."

"Cool. So I guess I'll be seeing you around then, right? We can...meet up. Do stuff."

The other boys were snickering, and Sam had this completely out-of-character sleazy smile on his face. Castiel's eyes narrowed. What exactly had Sam been telling his friends?

"A date, you mean?" he asked.

Sam shrugged, glancing over his shoulder at the others. "Or we could skip that part and go straight to the...you know."

"...I see. Or how about this: we can skip that part and go straight to me dumping you." He turned on his heel and left. He could hear the boys laughing behind him, teasing Sam. He hoped they gave him hell. And then choked on their own laughing tongues.

He was halfway down the main hallway when Sam caught up to him.

"Cas! Cas, wait!"

Somehow he could hear the difference in Sam's voice; this was the boy he'd spent the summer with, rather than the jerk who'd been outside. But that didn't mean he wanted to talk to him. He picked up his pace, but Sam managed to grab his sleeve anyway. He yanked it away.

"Leave me alone," he demanded shortly.

"Cas, I'm sorry-"

"How wonderful for you. Go be sorry somewhere else."

Sam reached for him again, so Cas stamped his foot down on Sam's as hard as he could and ran.

This time, Sam didn't follow.

Fittingly, he next saw Sam in the school library, after classes had ended.

"Cas, can we talk?" he implored, puppy dog eyes out in full force. Cas forced himself to focus on his book.

"We're in a library, Sam. Talking is not permitted," he whispered back.

"Please hear me out."

Castiel sighed and lowered the book slightly to give Sam a pointed look. "What is it?"

"It's just, back there when, I mean," Sam stumbled over his words. "That wasn't me."

Castiel was unimpressed. "Was it your evil twin, then?"

"No...it was me, but it wasn't me."

Still not impressed. "Explain, then."

Sam looked rueful. "Would you take 'peer pressure' as an excuse?"

"No," he replied simply, bringing his book back up to his face.

"Cas, please."

Grudgingly, he put the book down again.

"It was a lot like peer pressure, actually. It's just that, all my friends were there, and they already tease me enough about being a geek. I wanted to look cool in front of them, but I just ended up making an ass of myself to the one person there who's opinion matters most to me."

It took Castiel a moment to realize Sam was talking about him. "I'm flattered you care about what I think, Sam, but you shouldn't concern yourself so much with that kind of thing. Other people's opinions aren't important; only your own should be."

"Yeah, I know." Sam slumped forward, leaning his face in his hands. After a moment he looked up and gave Cas a hesitant smile. "But my opinion is that you're...amazing, Cas. And stronger than me, I think."

Castiel remembered with embarrassment the story he'd ended up telling at lunch. "I fall victim to peer pressure, too, Sam. Everyone does."

"Hm. Is that why you went on that date with some ditsy cheerleader?"

"Meg wasn't ditsy," Cas denied.

Sam cocked his head a bit to the side, a move which Castiel had first noticed over the summer when they were reading about the Renaissance. It never failed to make him smile, just a little bit.

"She was evil," Castiel told him.

Sam gave him a full-blown smile, and Castiel knew he was done for.

"I'll just have to train you better," he said with a sigh. Sam gave him a mock salute. "You can start by taking off that jacket. And if I ever see you do that James Potter thing with your hair again..." he trailed off threateningly.

Sam, however, seemed too overjoyed to notice. He shrugged out of his jacket, and when Castiel pulled out the chair next to his own, he jumped up eagerly to sit next to him.

"What are we reading now?" he asked.

"Eastern Asian religions."

"Awesome."

Sam was just too cute. Castiel gave in and kissed him.

"None of that, now!" the omnipresent librarian scolded from somewhere behind them.

Cas heard one boy laughing about 'library geek love.' It looked like Gabriel was with him. Cas was pretty sure he didn't want to know what they were doing behind those bookshelves. Luckily the librarian moved off to go interrupt them, so he got the opportunity to lean up and kiss Sam again.

"I'm sorry," Sam whispered against his lips.

"You've already been forgiven, Sam." He grinned, which seemed to throw Sam for a loop. "So, do you want to go make out under the boardwalk after school?"

They ended up getting kicked out of the library again.