A/N: Hello again! Sorry it took so long for me to get this first chapter up. I started writing it immediately after finishing the prologue but I ended up writing it how I had imagined I'd write the first and second chapters but together. And I was a bridesmaid in my best friends wedding, which took precedence, obviously. But anyways, I hope you guys like it since it's far more Destiel-y than originally intended. No special warnings for this chapter. Enjoy!

Beyond that odd encounter that that first morning brought, Castiel hadn't had a day unlike any other. Hell, the rest of the week had been pretty basic. The only thing that had been even remotely surprising to him was watching a kid take a tumble down some stairs because he was emstill/em drunk that Friday morning from his "Thirsty Thursday" activities the night before. At least he'd shown to class.

Last year it was different, granted everything was so new and different than he had experienced when he taught at UCLA during his graduate studies. Besides the fact that this was his first time as a full time teacher, it wasn't as if he hadn't been teaching for years by then. He was an SI his sophomore year and started TA-ing his junior year, then after graduating taught undergrads while he did his masters for religious studies and teaching. He was a bit of an overachiever, to say the least. Sure, he had never had a college summer vacation but he wouldn't have done anything with it. He didn't need to work to pay for school; scholarships covered that, so why not keep learning? He'd seen enough of the middle class working schedule with his brother Gabriel's job at some hotel restaurant. The only benefit of it to Castiel was that he could sit at the bar long before he was twenty-one and sip non-alcoholic beverages. And it was after all how he had met his now boyfriend of three years.

Ah, the boyfriend. Now his brother wasn't a fan, but it was also because it had all sort of been his fault. Castiel had known for a long time that he liked men. He couldn't quite pinpoint the time in his life that he'd admitted it, because it hadn't been a big deal for him. He'd dated a couple of girls in high school and was just over it all together too soon, then brought a boy home and Gabriel had made some comment along the lines of, "Mike really shouldn't have played dress up with you when you were little then, huh?" It was all in jest, but that was the biggest deal that had been made of it. Their oldest brother, Michael, wasn't too fond of the idea according to Gabriel, but he had never said it to Castiel's face. Then again, they had probably only been around each other a dozen times over the last decade. He was eight years older than Castiel, so he had his own life to tend to. Gabriel had taken to running the house of two when Castiel was just fourteen. The three boys had been on their own for two years at that point. Although Castiel still to this day couldn't remember him being around all that much, that was when their dad truly skipped town and since his mother had passed giving birth to him, that was it. Gabriel had once hinted that Michael resented Castiel for their mothers passing and then their father leaving, but again, he'd never said anything like that to Castiel. Though he'd hardly seen Castiel since then.

"Honey, I'm home."

Castiel's shoulders squared back tensely when he heard the voice. How long had he been sitting at the dining room table, zoned out like that? When he focused back in he noticed a beer on the far side of his laptop, where he'd started to post the syllabus for each of his classes, though he'd left a jumble of words at the end of it that didn't make all that much sense. He noticed he had fifteen emails waiting for him on his teaching email, which was either the suck up students or impatient students waiting for the syllabus to be posted because they already lost it, missed class, or whatever their reason was, he really didn't care. He had more important matters to deal with.

Before he could do anything to straighten himself up or look a little less like a teacher, the owner of the voice had hung his jacket up in the front closet and crossed the small apartment to the living/dining room where Castiel sat. "Luce." Lucifer Markus stood there before him in all of his wonderful glory. Well, maybe he wasn't all that wonderful but he certainly suited Castiel. Twenty-six-year-old Castiel Novak had met the now thirty-year-old Lucifer Markus about four years ago. Maybe it was the name that had kept him intrigued at first, or maybe it had been the fact that he was shit-face wasted, more than he had ever been in his life and had ever been since.

He was twenty-two, newly single, and feeling more than just a bit sorry for himself. Another cheater, surprise, surprise. Gabriel went around the college party scene far more than Castiel ever had and about as much as his new ex had been and had caught him all over another guy. When Castiel had confronted him about it… he had more than a few unkind words to say to Castiel about his annoying, studious ways. So feeling a little more than just pathetic, and in an effort to drown his self pity in a bottle of jack, he'd essentially found himself draped over the bar counter, unable to sit up properly by himself. Although Castiel liked to think that he was a man of morals, that day had proven that that wasn't always the case.

He couldn't quite accurately remember the night enough to retell it, but he'd heard enough from Gabriel to know he wasn't the classiest gent in the joint. Yet somehow he'd ended up waking up with the worst of hangovers the next morning, in a stranger's bed. The bed was no stranger to him anymore, nor the man who had wandered into the room wearing nothing but a towel, before handing him a glass of water and two pain killers, which Castiel only partook in after vomiting in the bathroom for a solid fifteen minutes. And this, this was what he remembered with painful clarity.

The blonde hair, wet, plastered to the mans forehead. Castiel knew he should have been more uncomfortable being in this stranger's home, but his head hurt too much to care, and since Castiel did have pajama pants on (though they weren't his own) and a nice bed to sleep off a hangover, he wasn't too picky. He'd never been so indiscrete before in his life, but it gave him a slight feeling of empowerment to know he could move on so quickly.

"It's Castiel, right?" He was shocked that the stranger knew his name, so much so that he didn't say anything for awhile and just stared at him, mouth agape. "Is that a yes?" Castiel nodded sheepishly. "You don't remember anything… do you?" He seemed like he was asking the question all together too tentatively, like he was afraid to hear the answer, but Castiel couldn't even lie to him. This man was entirely unfamiliar to him, and the situation was slowly sinking in as he pulled the sheets up to his eyes before responding.

"Not a thing. I'm terribly sorry but …" Castiel knew nothing he could say would improve the situation. He'd never been like this before. Did this make him a slut?

"Don't worry about it, kid." The man reached under the sheet to ruffle Castiel's hair with a light laugh. "I figured as much. I mean I think you downed an entire bottle of Jack and several glasses of scotch. And surprisingly an apple martini was in front of you when I showed up." Castiel kept the sheet over his face because he knew he was turning beet red. The stranger was exaggerating his alcohol intake, but after a few shots of Jack, a glass of scotch, and a martini this was sure to be the retaliation from his body. Since his brother had been his bartender, it was unlikely he'd been given much more than that, but that did raise a question. Since his embrother/em was his bartender, how had he gone home with this stranger?

"Are you ever gonna drop that sheet?" Castiel quickly shook his head then groaned, regretting it, as he was overwhelmed with a sense of nausea. The man chuckled a little and Castiel's eyes peeked out angrily. "You know, we didn't emdo/em anything." Castiel looked at him quizzically before responding in a strained voice.

"Really now? Then how come I'm wearing pants that are most definitely emnot/em mine?" he grumbled unhappily. If this man thought lying to him was acceptable because Castiel had been drunk out of his mind, he was sorely mistaken. Though he had an inclination to believe the man because with his last relationship, he'd always woken a bit sore in the morning, and unless his head just hurt emthat/em much that he didn't notice, maybe the man was being honest?

"Well, you kind of started stripping when I brought you in here." Castiel's blush didn't improve at that comment. "Okay, let me back up." The man sat crisscrossed, his back to the wall as he started his story. "I showed up at the bar late last night, admittedly looking for someone to have a good time with. And I saw this guy." He smirked a little to himself. "He has the most beautiful blue eyes, I'll tell you." He sighed a little dramatically and Castiel kept his face mostly covered since he knew the man meant him. "But, if I'm looking for a one-nighter, I do like to have consent, so, he was a bit too plastered for that. So much so that he couldn't walk alone and his brother the bartender was busy with customers, so I decided to be a nice guy and help the gorgeous guy out to his cab. But the problem was that he dragged me in the cab with him, literally." Castiel watched his hand as the man pointed at his own chest where some light scratch marks were. "Muttered something, I don't know what, but I figured eh, I'll just share the cab. But no, he can't say where he lives. So again, being the nice guy I am, I figured I'd give him my couch for the night. But no." The man was wildly smirking at Castiel, which made him practically melt; his face was so hot from embarrassment. "He's all over me once I bring him up. Literally trying to strip me, and when I wouldn't let him, he started stripping himself. Turns out he had a pretty rough day. Talked about his ex while sprawled across my bed in his underwear." Castiel's legs curled up under him in discomfort and he sighed heavily. "It was tempting, but I kept to myself. Handed him a pair of my pajama pants and convinced him that trying to get me to screw him wasn't the right choice to make while inebriated, and then he cuddled and cried on me." Castiel groaned audibly until the he felt a hand on his head. "And here he is, folks."

"And I'm supposed to believe that?" Castiel said dryly. He wasn't in a trusting mood and though he wanted to trust the guy, he found the story hard to believe

"Well, it's the honest to God and Jesus and hail Mary's truth. And you passed out shortly after that. I could hardly wiggle out of your cuddle to pee much less try something. However, now…" Castiel hadn't been expecting him to try anything now. Between that and his dulled reaction time from his hangover, he could hardly fight back as the man pulled to sheet down and gave him a quick kiss. Castiel jerked back before he even realized that it was on the cheek. "Touchy, too." This was almost more embarrassing to Castiel. The man in front of him was trying to be sincere and had at least taken care of him the night before. He deserved more than Castiel admonishing him out of habit.

It took him a moment to relax back under the covers. Well what was he supposed to do now? This stranger had done him a great service in his night of self-pity-induced drunkenness, and Castiel had managed to do him emevery/em disservice in a matter of minutes.

"Hi. I'm Lucifer Markus. And you are…?" Castiel stared up at him with slightly squinted eyes and a slight head tilt. He looked at the hand extended to him, then back to his face, then back to the approaching hand that tapped his nose. "Lighten up, kid. I'm trying to make this easy on you, you know?" At that Castiel finally laughed a little, and the man, Lucifer, gave him what had to be the sweetest smile.

"Castiel Novak."

"Ah, Castiel. Pleasure to meet you." He took Castiel's hand in his own and brought it up to his lips for a gentle kiss. With another round of blushing for Castiel, he was gone.

It had taken several months of wooing on both of their parts before things were official. Castiel would've likely given in that morning in his bed, but he was too suspicious of the story and hungover to make a decision like that without confirming the bar part of the story, and after that he'd remembered how rushing into things had left him before. His headache and confusion upon meeting Lucifer was a constant reminder for those several months. His brothers dislike for the blonde man also aided to that, but that had never faded, even after a recent three-year anniversary between the two before the school year started up. Although, Gabe had admitted that he was happy if Castiel was, however he did not believe that his younger brother was truly happy. Castiel always got confused when Gabriel told him that, because he didn't see how he could be any happier. This week had been trying to change that though.

Sure, Castiel was busy with his first week with classes in session again, but last year they'd seen each other much more. Lucifer had been coming in later than usual for the past few months, but he was hoping for a promotion so Castiel understood completely. He needed to stand out if he wanted to get any sort of recognition at the competitive law firm – and they'd already had the money argument. Sure it was emStanford/em, but the locale made Lucifer's salary hike up as well, and it was still significantly higher than Castiel's. It allowed them to move there and have such a great condo so close to campus, and Castiel knew that if he was to complain, that was sure to be held over his head, and he didn't want to argue with Lucifer. Especially this week.

This week had been more than just Lucifer coming home later than usual; it had been the way he'd come home. He'd gone out every night, which wasn't the problem; it was the way he came home at least a little bit drunk every night. He'd invited Castiel out and he'd gone twice, but the fact that Lucifer liked to get a bit hands-y and flirty when inebriated (and not always with Castiel) was mildly frustrating. Then it had been the night he didn't come home until the early hours of the morning. Sometimes he had weeks like this, and Castiel would let it slide without any complaints, but something was different this time and he wasn't sure he could stay silent about it any longer.

"Cassie?" his eyes flicked up at the man standing over him, and he sighed slightly.

"Did you sleep with someone else?" Castiel hadn't been known for beating around the bush. The look on his partner's face however told him everything he needed to know. The long pause could have meant either a yes or a no, but the way he couldn't speak when he was always the one with the right words to say and the perfect way to say it. He was a lawyer. Castiel knew well enough of the man by now to know that such a pause meant he was trying how to best swing it in his favor. The man he knew and loved, had he been innocent, would have been stunned, yes, but he would've gone on to deny it. Castiel figured he would have been angry at the suggestion or at least offended or hurt, but no. The man before him was in lawyer mode and trying to figure out the situation as best he could. He was trying to figure out how to best quell Castiel, but he didn't need to.

It was best for all parties involved if Castiel simply removed himself from the situation until it could be resolved amicably, or at least without a mental breakdown on Castiel's part. He grabbed his wallet, keys, and phone from the table before grabbing his large, khaki trench coat from the hallway closet before going out into the night.

The bar scene wasn't too far away thankfully, because more than anything right now Castiel needed to be away and with a stiff drink in his hand. When he had both of those, he would have some time to straighten things out with himself. The most disconcerting part was the fact that Lucifer had just let him leave. Of course, him walking out was an inevitability and best for the both of them, but the man he knew wouldn't have let him walk out without saying a word. The man Castiel knew and loved never let him leave without saying goodbye and preferably with an earnest "I love you" latched onto it. But he had let Castiel walk out without a word, on a Friday night. After what had been confirmed, he had hoped Lucifer would at least apologize or something, but he couldn't even do that.

One fifth of whiskey to start out the night.

Castiel was drinking painfully slowly, because he wasn't aiming to get drunk, just to dull the pain and clear out an unnecessary thoughts and emotions as he sorted things out. Could he forgive? He believed in forgiveness, but the idea seemed so hard to him right now. It was unfathomable to Castiel that he would breach his trust like that, because he couldn't imagine doing the same. Maybe if things had been bad between them, but if they had he would have had the decency to end things. However, Castiel had believed things were going well between them. So well in fact that maybe, just maybe, it would be a permanent thing. Now Castiel wasn't thinking marriage or even anything official like that, but he liked the idea of growing old with one person. If a piece of paper to make it official meant it'd be official to his family and others, why not, but that had never really been in the cards for him for several reasons, the illegality of the matter being one of them.

There was a dull thud as Castiel's forehead hit the counter of the bar. He hardly registered the pain. It was infinitely better than the pain resonating in his chest right now. He wanted to think it was nothing, that what he had done would have meant nothing to him and was just something that had happened, but the fact that he hadn't said so to Castiel right away just made things worse. It had Castiel stuck in the "maybes" and "what ifs" of everything that made him want to down shots until he puked or passed out, preferably both. That was saying something because Castiel didn't particularly enjoy drinking, especially not to get drunk. But at this point it would numb the other pain he was feeling and that was all he wanted.

"Maybe you should stick to coffee." He rolled his head to the side to see who had spoken. The dull buzz made the voice sound familiar, but it wasn't until he looked at the man parked on the stool next to him that he knew who it truly was. "Hey, Cas."

"Dean." He slowly lifted his head and looked at the man next to him. He was smirking at Castiel, an eyebrow raised as his eyes turned down to look at the heap of a man draped over the bar. Castiel was sure he was certainly a sight to see. It was inevitable that he would never hear the end of this from his new student and of course it would travel to others as well. But Castiel was far too upset and buzzed right now to even care.

"You look awful." His care-free chuckle agitated Castiel more than even his audacity to so abruptly nickname him and use it emagain/em. Castiel was a professional at it's finest. Except when he wasn't at his finest, like now, draped over the bar. It was a low point, he would admit.

"Yeah, I know." He groaned heavily and sat himself up, his head lolling back as he stretched.

"I'll have a beer, and can you get some water or something to help my friend here?" Normally Cas would have objected, but he was too hazy. He rolled his head forward, slowly, and with a groan. He turned to Dean with a raised eyebrow in question.

"Got a solid fake ID I take it?" Though he hardly looked eighteen, Castiel had taken the assumption that he was still under twenty-one when he'd last spoken to the freckled man before him. He gave Cas a cheeky grin and pulled out his ID to show the bartender, who gave it a close look over before returning it and Dean slid it across the bar to Cas. Either it was real or it was an incredibly impressive fake. Castiel was too hazy to take in all the details but he gave an indignant "hmph" and slid it back to Dean.

"Don't need a fake when you're twenty-two. Costs ten bucks to replace my license and way too much for a fake anyways." His smirk was still pissing Castiel off.

"Why is a twenty-two year old in my class?" He nodded a thanks to the bartender and took the water and reached over the bar for the peanuts he'd seen stashed there. It was better than nothing.

"I took a few years off." Castiel grunted in response. "Needed to find myself." Castiel scoffed at that. "What? You callin' me a liar?" When he looked at Dean, he read his expression as both bemused and confused.

"You don't have to lose yourself in order to find yourself."

"Oh I never said I lost myself in the first place." Castiel just looked at him incredulously.

"Do you have to have a come back for everything?"

"Of course." Castiel rolled his eyes and Dean chuckled. "I guess the better question is what are you doing teaching that class?" Cas basically choked on his water. The question seemed absurd, and he'd also swallowed it down the wrong pipe and the burn went straight to his head. As he was coughing, it registered in his brain that there was a tough pat on his back and he realized Dean's sudden closeness to him. He jerked away and Dean retracted his hand and held it up in front of him. "Alright, my bad, just trying to help."

"Not necessary." Castiel hacked slightly before resuming his previous position.

"Alright, I'll remember to just let you hack out your lung next time." When Cas looked over at Dean he noticed he was a bit taken aback this time.

"Sorry." He mumbled, reaching for his water.

"Bad day I take it?"

"You have no idea."

"Oh, I don't?" Dean's voice came across as bemused. "Then why don't you tell me about it?" Cas was the one taken aback this time.

"Why?"

"Why not?" Dean was keeping up with him all together too well and it wasn't giving the hazy Castiel any chance to think things through or be prepared to respond to him. "Let me guess, girlfriend dumped you?" Castiel responded with a dark laugh.

"Close enough."

"But no cigar, hm? Alright then…" Castiel rolled his head towards Dean again, who was drinking from his beer with as thoughtful and contemplative of a face that one could have while drinking a cheap beer and at a cheaper bar. "You obviously didn't dump her, unless you're that weird person that has to booze the day off when they do the dumping, but you don't seem the type." He didn't bother responding to Dean, since he seemed to be thinking aloud more than anything else, and also, Cas didn't quite understand him. He was sitting here, talking to the buzzed Castiel for no apparent reason except to perhaps tease and prod at Cas in his weakened state. "Did she cheat?" At that, Cas turned from him all together too abruptly and focused on his water. "Ah."

"What? All out of things to say now?" He didn't want to look at Dean right now; he was on the verge of tears and had been for the past several hours, it was just threatening to boil over now that someone had actually said it out loud. Even though Dean had said the wrong gender, even though Dean knew nothing about him, and even though Lucifer had never directly said it, it all hurt the same.

"I can't say I relate, however things can always get worse." Cas slowly turned his head to Dean and just paused.

"What would you consider worse?" He was genuinely curious as to what Dean's take was on all of this, mostly because Cas was sure he had experienced what was sure to be considered worse by nature, but this betrayal outweighed it all. Maybe it was just his perspective and the fact that this had literally just become aware to him, but he didn't think so.

"Family leaving you. Blood you know and trust bailing on you." Dean's voice was somber. He stared at the various bottles lining the back wall of the bar for a moment before reaching to take another swig of his beer, but the swig turned into more as he finished the last half of the bottle and motioned to the bartender for another one. "And I don't mean them dying or anything, I mean actually leaving."

"Been there, done that." Cas mumbled.

"Ah but was it expected?" Dean questioned, his tone now curious as he looked at Castiel.

"… In a way." Cas shrugged it off.

"So this probably trumps your "been there, done that". But now imagine the family member you're closest to just bailing. emThat's/em worse. Only thing that trumps that is you yourself dying, but even with that you don't get to think about it for too long." Cas chuckled a little at that. "And hopefully you don't feel it for too long."

"True enough."

They fell into a silence for a few minutes. There was a sort of line that was going to be crossed if further questions were asked and just as unsure as Cas was about letting that line be crossed, Dean was unsure about crossing it. Dean liked this mousy professor so far, and he didn't want to push him and make him uncomfortable, however continuing to question him could easily lead to that. But saying nothing was hardly an option for him at this point. But while Dean was contemplating that, there was Cas, thinking about how the green-eyed man beside him had fallen into that sort of situation. To Cas, his reasons were obvious, despite the fact that the man before him had missed it.

"Who'd you kill to make your family just ditch you like that?" he questioned and Dean sputtered a little and smiled at him.

"No, if I'd killed someone I think my dad would still keep me around." He frowned slightly and stared straight ahead, thinking about how much detail he wanted to go into with what he was about to disclose to the acquaintance beside him. "Now ditching on the family business was like ditching him, as he saw it. Then again, he was the one who said, "If you're leaving, you better stay gone". But when he said that to my brother it lost the effect to hear it the second time." To that, Cas really didn't know what to say.

"At least he gave you a fair warning." Cas paused after he spoke, and Dean looked at him, a bit shocked, but he cracked a little smile.

"Well, and we'd been warning him for years anyways with Sammy looking at colleges and stuff. Sam's my little brother." Cas nodded silently, glad Dean had taken the initiative to answer the question Castiel was about to ask. "He's brilliant, really brilliant. He's a good kid too. But with how our dad's been… It was hard to leave but I didn't want to leave Sammy alone." Dean's expressed became tight lipped and forced as he turned back to look at the wall.

"So you chose to apply as well then? Needed to finish out schooling or did you just never go?" Dean flushed a little at that and gave a sort of nod.

"Yeah, I went local for a bit then just went to work with my dad until moving out here with Sam." Something seemed a bit fishy about that to Castiel, but he wasn't going to question it. "I wrote a really good essay." And with that Dean took another drink of his beer, despite the fact that it was empty. Cas just nodded and figured whatever it was, it probably wasn't any of his business. "You know, you never answered my question."

"What question?"

"Why you're teaching that class." Castiel paused to think things over. Why emwas/em he teaching that class? It had seemed to obvious of a thing to do for him to even bother explaining it out loud before.

"Well I majored in it. I got my masters in teaching it. And I love teaching it, so I suppose that's why." Dean grunted slightly to Cas' response. "What?"

"Just doesn't sound all that sincere to me."

"Well why do you do what emyou/em do, assbutt?" And in the instance Cas said that, two things happened. Cas had realized he was probably unfathomably in love with this man's smile, and Dean cackled wildly as he realized Castiel lacked tact and a solid sense of humor. Cas couldn't help but smile back a bit though. It wasn't the best insult he'd dolled out.

"emAssbutt/em? emReally/em?" Dean managed to choke out between chuckles, and Cas just shrugged a little in response. After awhile, his laughter died down and he was able to speak again. "Because it was the family business I was raised in, and I get good money." Cas raised an eyebrow, since that could have meant so many different things and at this point his mind was going to a career route that was less than respectable. After what his eyes had discovered upon further inspection of the freckled man beside him, nothing would really surprise him at this point. "I'm a mechanic, thanks. Although if business is slow, I might venture into the less desirable career fields…" he chuckled a little to himself and Cas returned that. "So, did you always want to teach?"

"Nah, you have emgot/em to be kidding! She did emthat/em?" Hours had passed like minutes while they were talking, and for Cas, he hadn't spent so much time chatting with someone so freely like this since when he'd met Lucifer years ago. And Dean had emnever/em met anyone like him before, as he'd said several times after he'd gotten a few more drinks in his system. Besides his brother, Dean had never really gotten close to another person, or at least told them most of the things he'd told Cas.

Dean chuckled back and responded to Cas. "Yeah, my poor brother. He was so traumatized. I mean, I probably shouldn't have dragged him to that bar for his eighteenth birthday, but it wasn't like I hadn't given him a drink before. They didn't care as long as I took care of him, and besides the stripper, everything went pretty well." Cas laughed at that, his arms folding under him as his head dropped down to the table. The world was spinning and he felt like he was falling uncontrollably, so he sat back up with a groan again. "Had a bit too much to drink, Cas?" Cas nodded, but groaned again. He hadn't eaten or had anything besides alcohol to drink in hours, so now he was sitting there, exhausted and suffering because of it. Because he wasn't much of a drinker usually, in his attempt to keep up with Dean he'd more than just drank himself under the table. The negative after effects of the alcohol had already begun to take their course.

"Come on, drunkie." Things were a bit foggy for the both of them, however, after a bit they were up and supporting each other as they walked out of the bar.

For some reason, they'd both started laughing. Neither could really explain why, but it was more than just drunk giggling, or at least that was what they both thought. Cas had unknowingly started dragging them off towards his apartment. Over the course of the few blocks, Dean had started to wonder where they were going and exactly why, but he was experienced enough of a drinker that he had some semblance of his sobriety left, and if not any sobriety, perhaps at least common sense. Well, he had enough sense to know the man he was helping support as they trudge down the street at an ungodly hour was far too intoxicated to be making any sort of serious decisions, and to his knowledge, was entirely uninterested.

After the few block trek towards the mousy professors apartment, Dean knew he needed to force the brunette up the stairs without him. The pouty Castiel though tried his hardest to object, and ended up sliding down to sit on the steps to the apartment building, leaning against the handrails, his arms outstretched towards Dean a little more than hopelessly, his fingers reaching and eventually clinging onto the fabric of his worn leather jacket.

"Please. I don't want to." A frown settled on Dean's face as he heard the desperation in Castiel's voice. "Please." His grip on Dean's arm was surprisingly strong considering the fact that his body lay limply on the stairs, his head lolled back against the rails, but there was his hand, gripping onto Dean's jacket like his life depended on it.

Dean crouched over Castiel, scooping his arms under each of his to lift up the dead weight. Castiel relinquished his grip on the taller mans arm and instead settled for laying his arms over Dean's shoulders, his head lazily following them, cocooning itself in the crook of his neck. Despite the fact that he smelled of alcohol more predominantly than anything else, there was a scent beneath it that was more enticing to Castiel, however he was too tired to put a name to it.

"C'mon buddy, we need to get you up those steps and get you home." Castiel didn't respond much to that in terms of moving, so Dean took the initiative and wrapped his arms around Cas, squeezing and lifting him so he could force him up the steps. Dean gritted his teeth together as he did so, the dead weight making this a bit more difficult than anticipated. Castiel belched over his shoulder and groaned occasionally, but most loudly when Dean released him at the top. Dean smiled at him; despite the fact that he was now absolutely exhausted and about positive that there was no way Cas would even fathom this in the morning much less actually care about any of this in that moment. After all, he couldn't even walk himself up the stairs.

Cas abruptly started digging through Dean's jacket pockets, his weight heavy against Dean as he pushed him in the process. Dean felt his back hit against the wall, though he let the man continue to search him for whatever he was so intent on finding. He pulled out Dean's phone and started typing in it and Dean just gave him a cheeky grin.

"You have to call tomorrow." Was all Castiel said before he leaned himself against Dean, and much to the freckled man's surprise, he leaned in to kiss Dean. Dean began to reciprocate it, a hand traveling up from his side and behind Cas' neck before he remembered that the man kissing him was first off, a man, and secondly, he was a man taken by a emwoman/em, at least as far as he was concerned. He'd called his girl Luce all night, and despite the fact that they had cheated, Dean could tell well enough that he wasn't giving up just yet, no matter how hurt he was.

So despite the fact that the warm lips against his were more than welcomed and inviting, Dean pushed him away gently by the shoulders. Castiel's lips were in a pout as he pulled away and he looked at Dean, first confused, then alarmed. Cas quickly shoved Dean's phone back at him and then proceeded to dig in his pockets until he pulled out his keys and his wallet. He shoved a twenty at Dean, and then stared at him. Pointing at the bill, he spoke. "That's for a cab. Not for… that." He flushed up, embarrassed, as he fiddled with his keys, pausing when they actually got in the door. He was quickly sobered as he remembered that Lucifer would be inside, waiting for him likely. He would want to talk it out or he'd be passed out drunk. Cas silently prayed for the latter, because he was now riddled with guilt over his sudden betrayal.

Dean reached forward and lightly grabbed Castiel's arm. "It'll be fine. Don't worry about it." Castiel forced a small smile back at Dean before he entered the building. The thud of the door was painful to him, He looked back to see Dean through the glass stairs, turning and heading down the steps. With a heavy sigh, he closed the main door over the glass door and clicked the locks into place.

Upon further entry into the apartment, he saw a lump of a figure that he presumed was his boyfriend, under a lumpy blanket on the couch. Castiel gave a slightly indignant "hmph" as he went off to the bedroom. He couldn't really be sure if he'd wake to an equally hungover Luce or not, but he was glad he'd had the sense to sleep on the couch rather than try to sleep on the bed. Either way, there was no way Cas was sharing a bed with him tonight. Once in his bedroom, he struggled to undress himself, but eventually accomplished it, and with his dirty clothes in a heap on the ground and his pajama pants pulled out of the hamper and pulled back up on his form, he was ready for bed. Almost as soon as he'd pulled himself under the covers, he fell asleep.

It was another half hour before Dean made it to his apartment. He strode in immediately, and after locking the doors behind him, heard some chatter in the living room. Upon further inspection he found the television on, displaying a movie he'd never seen before. What was more interesting was his brother, passed out dead asleep on the cough, with a girl. Dean smiled at this, remembering vaguely how Sam had said he'd met a girl at orientation. He didn't know if the brunette on top of him was that girl, since last thing he'd known, he had yet to see her again, but he was happy that Sam was adjusting well.

He reached down to yank on a chunk of Sam's hair. The younger boy groaned and his eyes struggled to open. He tilted his head back to see what had woken him, and slowly smiled when he saw Dean. "Mm... Hey Dean." His voice was hoarse and lower than Dean was used to hearing. But he supposed that was college. The eighteen year old was still growing like a weed, hair included.

"Hey Sammy. Is this the girl you were talking about?" Sam put his head back down and looked at the sleeping female.

"Oh… No. Haven't seen her since orientation. This is just a girl from my pre-law class. Madison." He shrugged lightly. "You were out late. Meet some people? Did you have fun?" Dean just smirked at his brother

"I guess you could say that." He knew Sam was concerned that this transition would be difficult for Dean, and since he'd left because of Sam, of course Sam had to think anything bad that Dean encountered was all his fault. As Dean saw it, he'd made the decision to leave with Sam on his own. He'd made his bed, and he was going to have to sleep in it. And anyways, the change of scenery was nice.

"By the way, I emsaw/em you in my religious studies class this week. You don't need to follow me around, I'm not a kid anymore."

"Yeah you are, Sammy."

"Well, whatever, either way, you're not a student there, you shouldn't be going to a class at a school where you emare not/em a student." Dean shrugged at him slightly.

"Eh, it's not like they check." Sam rolled his eyes at him and yawned slightly.

"Well, do what you want, but don't follow me around. I'm fine."

Dean reached forward and ruffled up his younger brother's hair and gave him a smile. "Sure you are. Get some sleep, Sammy." He gave his younger brother's head a slight shove before turning on his heel and heading for his bed.