2

The morning seemed to arrive earlier for Castiel than he had wanted. There was a handsome stranger soldier in his home, how could he possibly be sleeping? All he could possibly think of was him and his grass-green eyes.

He sat up, the small sunlight of six in the morning, hitting his back as he sat on the edge of his bed. Castiel wasn't as tired as he usually was every working day. His assumption since he had woken up at four thirty in the morning had been that there was a complete stranger sleeping in the guest room.

Sure, the man was extremely and undeniably hot but he was still a stranger. He didn't want to end up like that one movie he'd seen where a soldier just as attractive as Dean Winchester showed up to a family's house and he killed most of the members in the end. Cas didn't want to end up like mother of that movie, stabbed to death for being kind.

Castiel couldn't understand why he was so flustered by the sudden appearance of Dean Winchester into his life. He had brought home guys just as handsome as him in the past and dated a few and he didn't feel as trusting as he did with him. The feeling was odd, he couldn't piece together, and he hated the sensation of it. Dean was a stranger, a possible serial killer rapist, and he had just allowed him into his home. He blindfolded himself the moment he heard Dean's voice the other night, and he walked right into his trap.

"How could you be so stupid?" He told himself. How could he be? How did his crotch manage to think stronger than his brain?

Cas stood up and put on a shirt. He had to get rid of Dean before he did something chaotic or before the blindfold covering his eyes tightened up again. There was a determination firing up inside him, ready to let go to kick out the soldier.

The house was silent, so quiet it was almost intoxicating; not even the birds were chirping, it was dead silent. Maybe Dean had left after all. Maybe he wasn't the killer Castiel had assumed and he kept his word on leaving in the morning. He could breathe now, his worries were gone. Dean the soldier was gone.

At least that was what he thought until he heard something drop from the room he never let anyone in. It was from the room where Cas kept his photography projects.

Castiel was a photographer, the best and only one of his small town in Washington. He owned a shop where he mostly took family photos and pictures that the newspaper liked to use for their articles. When he wasn't doing that he liked to photograph himself, he used to do it a lot with his brothers but after they moved out, Castiel had no other option but to do it on his own.

A little after his brothers left, Castiel used one room to hang all of his pictures. If a person were to go in there, they'd assume him narcissistic but they had to understand how unbelievably photogenic he was and how perfect his pictures would turn out.

Castiel slowly pushed the door open. Dean was picking up the pictures and papers from the box he had dropped. He was glad it wasn't one of the sensitive family albums where it showed Cas in his embarrassing teen years. "Hey." Dean greeted with a bright grin, "Sorry if I woke you up."

He should've scolded him, told him that he was in no position to be in Castiel's photography room and that he was surpassing his limitations. "It's fine," He simply said instead. How was he letting him get away with this?

Dean settled the box back where he had found it, "This used to be my room and I wanted to see if some of my old stuff was still here." He shook his head in disappointment, "My brother took everything with him."

"Or my brother Gabriel could've found it and sold it on eBay."

"Did he really?" He questioned after raising an eyebrow.

"The house was pretty empty when we got here so…I doubt it." Castiel walked to the tables where he kept pictures of himself. Well, more like the pictures where he looked silly or where he was doing dumb things with his brothers. He couldn't have Dean seeing that.

"You really like taking pictures of yourself, huh?" Dean chuckled, approaching the wall full of Castiel. One may thing this as a joke, but Castiel would spend too much time alone that he started to take pictures of himself, mostly because he thought his eyes were camera-worthy, and it filled up an entire wall and half of another.

Castiel thought that the discomfort he was feeling was only internal, but he could feel it forming on his face, "When you're lonely you do things you don't realize you'll regret until someone asks about it."

"Oh." Dean didn't think the topic would make his uncomfortable so he decided to change it, "Do you really have a tattoo like this one?" He pointed at a large framed picture that hung on the middle of the wall. It was one Castiel usually dismissed because it was the first one he had taken after his brothers moved out and it seemed a bit odd to him to acknowledge it again. It was a picture of his back, just a few moments after getting his tattoo.

He remembered Gabriel's hours of trying to convince him to get one, to follow the family tradition and after Cas got the tattoo of the angel wings he had wanted, his brother took captured it and printed a large picture of it to symbolize that Castiel was "truly a Novak now", as Gabriel had quoted.

"Yeah." He admitted. After he confirmed it, he hoped Dean wouldn't ask him if he could show it to him because he wouldn't, he didn't care how handsome he looked with his sexy messy hair.

"But why angel wings?"

"It's sort of a tradition actually. Since everyone in my family is named after angels, my cousin Lucifer started this trend that at age of twenty-one we'd get a tattoo of angel wings on our backs that would represent our personality. Since I'm plain and simple, I got myself a tattoo that was plain and simple."

"It's nice though, it not exotic but it's good to look at."

Castiel didn't know how to respond to that. This was basically his personality he was complimenting, this was his body he was flattering. He didn't want to take this out of context but this was flirting.

And Dean realized that too. He didn't want it to sound that way and maybe he hadn't noticed that what he had said or how it could've been taken differently by the person standing next to him, "Um," Dean began uneasily, he had to move one from the situation quickly before he got more awkward stares from the blue eyed man, "Are you a full time photographer or is this a hobby?"

"I own a shop."

"You do?

"Yeah," Castiel smiled, "It's the only one in town, prevents the people from going all the way to Seattle if they want quality photos."

"That's nice of you."

"My brothers suggested the idea, if they hadn't I would have never opened it in the first place." It was true, mostly. Balthazar was the one to nag him about it the most about how he could use his skills for something else than taking pictures of the backyard squirrels at his mother's house.

It had been a terrible experience in the beginning, with Cas having to do everything on his own since finding a proper employee had been difficult, but later he started to get a hang on things and his path softened up a bit for him.

-.-.-.-.-.-

The conversation between Dean and Cas had continued an hour before Castiel realized that he hadn't showered and he needed to leave. He didn't have breakfast that morning so he bought a muffin from the coffee shop in front of his store.

It had been a long, long, time since he had had a proper conversation with someone besides his brothers. It was nice to have somebody that was interested in his life. It was a feeling he liked. It made think of Dean on his drive to work. It was nice to have those green eyes focus on him with such interest the way Dean did.

Then he thought he'd never see Dean again, that the moment he had with him would be the last one he'll spend with him.

"Cas? Are you okay?" The voice of a girl interrupted his train of thought. It had been confusing for him since he didn't realize that thinking about Dean would erase the last hour, almost two hours, of his life. All those minutes seemed like two.

He hadn't realized that his intern, Charlie Bradbury, had been standing there for almost five minutes waiting for him to open the door. "Oh, um, yeah." How long had she been standing there? "When did you get here?" He unlocked the door and allowed her to go in first.

"Same time as always, man, eight-fifteen. I was surprised to see that you were late, you never are." Twenty-one year old Charlie Bradbury from the community college of his town was the only applicant when Castiel had set up a volunteer list outside his shop. He was surprised to see that someone had actually signed their name and put their real phone number next to it with the expectations that he might call. When she arrived for the interview he was not expecting her to be fun or passionate about photography, he had assumed her to be just a student who wanted to get their community hours with. "What's up with you? You seem hung-over."

"I'm fine." He assured her.

Charlie knew he wasn't fine. She had known him too well to know when Castiel was lying and when he clearly wasn't okay. "Is that guy still stalking you?"

"What? No, thankfully."

"Then what is it?" She settled her bag on top of the counter.

How could a man he had just met the night before have so much effect on him? They had only had one conversation, how could that have started a fire inside him that slowly grew? "It's nothing." He whispered. Castiel wanted to tell her how he was feeling because she could help…but he also knew Charlie would try to take him through several extremities to find Dean and make them meet again after he was gone.

"I know something's up and you don't want to tell me for several reasons." She frowned; she didn't like it when he kept things from her. They were supposed to be best friends and tell each other everything but Cas refused to live up to the name. "But I understand—"

"Last night a handsome soldier walked into my house believing his brother still lived there and I offered him a room so he could spend the night—"

Charlie gasped "Is that why you were late? You slept with him?"

"No! I'm pretty sure he's not into guys…but even if he was…it wouldn't be me."

"It would definitively be you, don't be silly. You're tall and handsome; he'd be a fool to not be interested in you." Charlie smiled, trying to send a change of emotion into her friend's head. Castiel was typically very serious, it was fun seeing him lose it over a guy, but this situation seemed different. He was frustrated by the mystery man that she was yet to meet. How bad was his case that Cas wasn't telling him gushing all over about how hot the guy was?

"Thanks, Charlie…" He murmured. "His name is Dean Winchester, by the way."

"Brother of Sam Winchester?"

"I'm guessing. How did you know that?"

"I know his hot girlfriend, Jessica Moore."

"I forget you are friends with everyone in town." Castile finally managed a smile, "But anyways, we should get to work, we have an appointment at nine and I need to set up."

-.-.-.-.-.-

At six o'clock in the afternoon, after arriving home, Castiel took his daily run. It was an exercise he would do every day to avoid going to the gym and have weird muscular men giving his athletic figure a weird glare like if he had walked into the wrong place at the wrong time.

He used the run to lose the weight he had gained from Charlie's lunch that day, lasagna with extra cheese, deliciously prepared but greasy and Castiel was the type of person to easily gain weight with the small bite of good food.

Castiel loved to run around in the park near his house with Mumford & Sons helping him waste the two hours of exercise he'd take. It also helped him with keeping his mind off Dean Winchester.

All he could think of that day was him, him and his gorgeous green candy apple colored eyes. He never thought he would come across eyes that would be as green as his. They were just as rare as his shade of blue.

He walked up his driveway, his breathing was heavy. Cas really needed a glass of water. It seemed as if he had run an extra mile that day. He reached for the keys of his house inside his pocket and was about to unlock his house when suddenly he heard a familiar voice behind him, "Hey." It was that Hey he never thought he'd heard again, the one he believe was gone forever.

"Hello, Dean." Castiel wiped away his sweat from his forehead. "What…" He tried to catch his breath, "What are you doing here?"

"I saw your ad about a roommate online…I was wondering if the position was still open."