Little Specs of White

by MurderousQueen

Dean is bullied because he's "different", Castiel is there to show him that's he's just as normal as everyone else. The two friends grow up together and stay friends even when they both get married - to different people.

2. Chapter 2: Sixth Grade

There were little specs of white snow floating in through the open window in the bathroom of the elementary school boy's bathroom.

There were little specs of red on the sink Castiel Novak went to wash his hands at after getting peanut butter all over his fingers at lunch.

Castiel was a sixth grader, turning twelve this coming Christmas, and off to middle school next September. And for a sixth grader it was pretty jarring to see something that looked a lot like blood on a sink in a bathroom. Suddenly nervous, he looked around him, but saw he was alone except for one occupied stall where the door was closed.

Maybe … it wasn't blood. Maybe it was just … jam or something.

He moved to the next sink to wash his hands and he dried them with paper from one of the stalls. He didn't like using the hand dryers, they made a lot of noise and blew too hard, so using paper was much easier. He tossed it into the toilet and flushed, turning to leave the stall when he heard a sound from the next one.

From the occupied stall, Castiel heard the sound of sniffling that usually accompanied crying. And because Castiel was a friendly boy, he decided to knock lightly on the door.

'Go away,' came the stuffy reply.

Castiel frowned. His first instinct was to follow the order, but the boy inside sounded hurt. And there was blood on the sink. Not jam.

Castiel reached into his pocket and pulled out a Hershey's chocolate bar and slid it under the stall. He figured, whoever was in there was upset and possibly hurt, and chocolate had always been a peace offering in his family. His father always gave him and his brothers and his sister chocolate the day after a fight.

There was a shuffling noise and the door opened.

'You dropped your chocolate bar,' said a green-eyed boy with freckles on his face and blood around his nose, dried now and clearly unevenly dabbed away by a tissue.

'You can have it,' Castiel offered. 'I had a sandwich already so I don't need it.'

They boy looked familiar. He was the quiet boy who always sat alone at lunch, or sometimes with another girl in their grade who was generally pretty quiet too, when she wasn't sneaking around with a group who seemed to worship her. The two of them always sat at the back of class. Castiel didn't know his name.

'Thanks,' said the boy. 'Are you sure? I don't want to take something you might not want to give away.'

'I got four of them this week,' Castiel shrugged. 'They're all from my dad. He gives them to us when he feels guilty about something so it's okay. Take it. Did you get a nose bleed? My brother gets nose bleeds a lot and he always has to tilt his head back and pinch his nose.'

'No,' the boy lied. 'I didn't get a nose bleed.'

Castiel frowned. The blood on his nostrils was obvious. And the bruise on his face …

'Did someone hit you?' Castiel asked.

The boy looked away. Castiel looked down, feeling upset that he'd upset this boy.

'They hurt me because I'm different,' the boy said quietly. 'I don't want to be different. It's not fair.'

'Do you want me to … to get someone?'

'No,' the boy replied quickly. 'They don't help. They never help.'

'What's your name?' Castiel asked.

'Dean.'

'Hello, Dean,' Castiel replied, reaching his hand out towards the boy with the green eyes and the freckles and the bloody nose and the bruise. 'I'm Castiel.'

'Hi, Castiel.'

Dean shook his hand. A handshake was an oddly mature thing to do.

'You can call me Cas if you want. My brothers do. My parents do. Everyone I know does.'

'Okay … hey, Cas.'

'Hi,' Castiel smiled. 'Do you want help with your nose? My brother usually wets some tissue paper and dabs it until it's clean. Or if you want I could go find some ice if it hurts.'

'I'm okay,' Dean replied shakily, stepping out into the main part of the bathroom. 'I'm used to it. It happens a lot. Maybe you shouldn't talk to me or it will happen to you too.'

'I don't care,' Castiel decided.

'But I'm weird.'

'You seem normal to me.'

'You don't understand,' Dean said desperately, 'I like boys the way I'm supposed to like girls but I like girls too and no one cares. They only care that I like boys. There's something wrong with me. Go away before something happens to you for being around me.'

Castiel stared at him and blinked a few times. Dean flinched, holding up one hand in front of his face automatically.

'My dad likes boys,' said Cas.

'What?'

'My mom yells at him a lot because she doesn't want to have to break up. But my dad likes boys and he's … okay.'

Dean slowly lowered his hand.

'You're not going to hit me?'

'No.'

'You're not afraid I'm going to do something weird to you?'

'No.'

Dean looked around him again as if he didn't know what to do and then handed Castiel the chocolate bar he'd given him.

'Can you hold this while I clean my nose? Please?'

Castiel nodded and took the bar back. He stood in silence while Dean got some tissue and wet it for his nose, wincing in the mirror. Cas had never met any boy who liked boys before apart from his dad, but his dad wasn't the best example to give to Dean because sometimes his dad drank a lot of alcohol and got angry. But then he got nice again and gave them all chocolate and gave their mom flowers and everything was okay again for a few days.

Castiel handed the bar back when Dean was blood-free and Dean took it from him and opened it.

'You don't want to leave first?' Castiel asked, looking towards the door.

'I can't leave,' said Dean, 'or they'll hurt me again.'

'But why?'

'Because there's something wrong with me.'

'No there's not.'

'Yes there is.'

'I don't think so.'

'They do,' Dean aid desperately, 'and my dad does.'

'Well I don't. But you can stay in here if you want. I'll stay with you if you like. My friend and I aren't talking anymore so I have no one to play with outside anyway.'

'Come in the stall,' Dean asked. 'In case they come in here.'

Dean backed into his stall and Castiel followed him. He closed the door behind them and locked it and then sat on the ground with his legs crossed while Dean sat on the closed toilet lid and continued opening the bar Cas had given him and then he broke it in half and offered Cas some. Castiel smiled and took it without question.

'Do you have any friends?' Cas asked blatantly.

'One,' Dean nodded, speaking with his mouth full. 'Her name is Charlie. She likes girls but she doesn't get beat up because she has a lot of good video games and there's a bunch of people who always want to play them. And my brother is my friend too but he's four years younger than I am and he has his own friends in his grade.'

'I'll be your friend,' Castiel offered.

'But … why?'

'Because I like you,' he decided.

'I like you too,' Dean said quietly. 'But not … like that.'

'I know.'

'How do you know?'

'Because you're nice and there's nothing wrong with you.'

Dean smiled, very small. When Cas smiled boldly back, Dean's smile got bigger and some more confidence leaked into it.

'So how old are you?' Dean asked.

'Almost twelve,' Castiel said, stressing the almost. 'On Christmas Eve. What about you?'

'January twenty fourth and then I'm twelve too,' Dean said, blinking. 'You're just a month older than me.'

'I like being older than people,' said Cas. 'I have three older brothers. But I have a younger brother and a younger sister too. My brother is four years younger like yours. His name is Samandriel but we call him Alfie because that's his middle name.'

'Samandriel is a weird name.'

'My mom is religious. We're all named after angels. I think that's kinda stupid but I don't mind.'

'I'm named after my mom's mom,' Dean admitted.

'There's a girl called Dean?'

'No, Deanna. And my brother is called Sam after her dad Samuel. Except he's not Samuel, he's just Sam. He hates it when I call him Samuel to tease him. It's always really funny.'

'Is he the really small one with the hair like …'

Castiel mimicked with his hands the way Sam's hair fell around his forehead. Dean nodded eagerly.

'Yeah, that's him!'

'I saw him and my brother playing together once!' Castiel exclaimed. 'Our brothers are friends and now we're friends too.'

'Awesome,' said Dean, grinning now, far happier than he had been when they'd met just minutes ago.

Dean had a feeling things were going to get a little better, and he wasn't wrong about that.

Dean and Castiel spent the rest of their break in the stall, learning about each other and exploring their common interests, and in class Castiel decided he want to sit in the empty seat on the other side of Dean that wasn't occupied by Charlie, the girl who liked girls. Unfortunately when he actually did that their teacher made him move back to his usual seat, but at least he tried.

The boys walked out of school together when the day ended, Castiel headed to the bus stop and Dean to meet Sam at the point where their mom picked them up.

'Hey, Sammy,' Dean grinned down at his little brother when he saw Sam was already there. 'Good day?' he asked.

'I learned a lot of stuff!' Sam said eagerly. 'And we did art today and I painted a ladybug! I used black buttons and stuck them on as the spots!'

'Do you have it now?' Dean asked.

'No, it's drying in the art room. But I can take it home tomorrow!'

'I bet mom will pin it on the fridge,' Dean said proudly.

Despite his young age, Dean was very protective of his little brother. He'd been protective of him since before he'd been born; despite being so young when that happened, he always made sure to be protective of the baby in his mommy's tummy, and then of the baby when he was born, and then of Sam as he grew up. And with his protectiveness came a multitude of other feelings; pride being one of them.

'I hope so,' Sam smiled, as proud of himself as Dean was proud of him. 'What happened to your face? Did you get beat up again?'

Dean being beat up was not a new thing. It was a common occurrence, except usually no one paid attention to the crying boy in the bathroom stall.

'Yes,' Dean replied. His reply was much less ashamed than usual. 'And I met a boy in the bathroom and he gave me a chocolate bar and he was nice to me and we talked and he knows I like boys but he likes me! And his brother is your friend Alfie. Look, there's mom.'

The boys proceeded forward towards the car; a '67 Chevy Impala, belonging to their dad, but it was their family car too and their mom drove it when she needed to run errands or when she picked up the kids from school. They climbed in the back seat together, and Sam hugged Dean's arm.

'I'm glad you found someone nice,' Sam said proudly, proud of Dean now and not himself.

'Hey, boys!' Mary greeted energetically as she did every day. 'What's that about finding someone nice, Sammy?'

'Dean made a new friend!'

'I didn't say that!' Dean protested quickly, 'but you're right. I made a new friend!'

'You said he was Alfie's brother,' Sam added. 'How do you know he's Alfie's brother?'

'Because my new friend told me,' Dean boasted. 'He says he has a brother called Samandriel who's middle name is Alfie and when I told him about you he knew you were friends with Alfie and he knew what your hair looks like.'

'Alfie has a lot of brothers,' said Sam. 'Which one is your friend?'

'Castiel,' Dean replied.

'I haven't met him,' Sam frowned. 'One time I met Chuck though. He's in eighth grade. He gets nosebleeds a lot.'

'Cas said that he has a brother who gets nosebleeds a lot,' Dean nodded. 'And that he has three older brothers and one younger sister.

'Why does Chuck get nosebleeds a lot?' Mary asked, glancing back over her shoulder at the boys.

Dean shrugged and said, 'Cas didn't say.'

'Alfie didn't say either,' Sam added.

'Well at least you two know what to get this Chuck kid for his birthday if you ever have to get him something,' Mary said optimistically despite her question having an unknown answer. She had to explain her joke, because the boys didn't get it: 'tissues.'

The boys laughed and the mood stayed light for most of the rest of the journey. Mary and Sam both asked questions about Dean's new friend and he answered them excitedly; part of him was still convinced that the boy who had actually asked to meet up before class in the morning wasn't even real. But he was real because Dean still had the Hershey's wrapper he'd given him. It had been white chocolate, and Hershey's white chocolate was better than any other white chocolate out there in Dean's opinion.

Of course the dreaded but not new subject of why Dean was crying in the bathroom in the first place came up and he had to talk about what happened, about how he was just sitting there and talking to a boy who wanted to borrow a pencil and he was grabbed and beaten up while the other boy was "protected" from him and didn't even try to stop what want on.

'I'll be having a talk with the principal at your school,' Mary said seriously. 'As soon as we get home I'm going next door to borrow a phone and making the call. Actually, you know what? We're buying a phone It's about time we got one.'

She said the same thing at least once a week. They still didn't have a phone, and all the countless meetings with the principal were doing was causing the principal suffering because the scary lady kept yelling at him and he was too stupid to do anything about what she was yelling at him about.

But then something happened, and Dean's theory that things were going to start getting better suddenly seemed like it was coming true, because they stopped on the way home and they actually bought a phone with a man to install it following them home in his car.

And, even better, their dad had left that afternoon for a few days like he did once or twice a month to go see Bobby Singer, his partner in his mechanic practice, who lived allllll the way off in a whole other state millions and millions of miles away. So while his dad was millions, maybe even billions of miles away in South Dakota, Dean was safe from John, his father, yelling at him for getting beat up so loudly and so frighteningly that he almost cried. But he never cried anymore, because he knew that if he cried John would hit him across his knees or on his elbow and he would get bruises – bruises his mom would think he got from just playing rough, because sweet, sensitive John who brought home treats and showed his boys his work and let them help him would never, ever lay a hand on one of his children.

AND THERE WAS ICE CREAM FOR DESSERT AFTER THEY HAD MEATLOAF TONIGHT!

Could this day get any better?

No it could not.

No wait actually yes it could.

Because Dean's mom told him and Sam that they could both invite one friend over on Saturday afternoon to play for a few hours if they wanted to since John was away and Dean was gonna invite Cas tomorrow. Usually he invited Charlie but only if his dad was away, but this weekend Charlie was going away with her parents somewhere so it was perfect timing to have his new friend over and be like everyone else for once because he had more than one friend.

OH OH OH!

AND CHRISTMAS WAS IN TEN DAYS AFTER TOMORROW! SO THEY WERE HAVING SCHOOL HOLIDAYS SOON!

This was the best day of Dean's entire life. Every year on December 13th he was going to have the best day ever for the rest of his entire life. Even when he was grown up and old. Every year, December 13th, he was going to have the best day with fun and snow, because there was snow outside and it was falling and he and Sam got to play in it for a while before dinner while a man set up their phone line.

Friday at school was good too, because Castiel was waiting for him right where he said he'd be. In the boy's bathroom, and this morning he'd brought a small plastic container full of dry Cocoa Krispie's cereal which was Dean's favorite cereal but he only got to have it on weekends.

'So did your mom call the principal like you said she probably would?' Castiel asked once they'd gotten general greetings over with, as they munched on dry cereal in their stall.

'Yup,' Dean nodded. 'They're meeting after school to day so Sam and I have to stay behind and wait. And she got a phone.'

'She got one? Really?'

'Yeah, and even the man who installed it said it's about time and that most people got phones like ten years ago!'

'Well it's true. They did. My parents had a phone since before I was even born. I think they got it when my brother Balthasar was a baby because he did a lot of stupid dangerous things like rolling off of stuff onto the floor. That's what my mom said anyway. But my dad said they got it when a lot of us started being born so he could sell us all for money fast if he wanted.'

'You can sell people for money?' Dean asked in shock.

'My dad says so,' Castiel nodded. 'And he says he thinks about doing it a lot so my mom yells at him and he yells at her and then he yells at us and then he drinks and goes away to his boyfriend's house.'

Dean frowned for a moment, assuming he'd misheard.

'Your dad has a boyfriend?'

'Yeah,' Castiel nodded. 'He lives on the other side of the city with his weird daughter Amara. We're not allowed to talk about that at home or to other people because everyone is supposed to think he and mom are married and happy. But I don't care, he yells and then bribes us with chocolate and that's stupid so I'm going to say whatever I want. My older brothers call it freewill. So I've got freewill.'

'My dad sucks too,' Dean replied sympathetically. 'He acts so nice all the time but then he gets so mean. He's never mean to Sam, but he is to me and he yells at me and he hits me and pinches me sometimes. My mom doesn't even know. I've never even met anyone with a nice dad before except my friend Charlie, and every other person I've met has a really bad dad. So I don't think people should become dads anymore.'

'But then there would be no more people and everyone in the world would die,' Castiel pointed out.

'Not if they found a way to make it all moms,' Dean justified. 'If there's other people like Charlie who like girls, then they can all go together and they can find a way to have babies together.'

'But you need men for that,' Castiel insisted. 'My mom told me and my older brothers that. But not my younger or my sister because they're too young.'

'But if they could find a way,' Dean groaned. 'Like with … medicine or something. Or science.'

'Maybe …' Castiel allowed. 'Because moms are the best.'

'Yeah, they are,' Dean agreed. 'Oh, and mine wants me to ask a friend over to my house on Saturday and Charlie is going away this weekend and I have no other friends except you so … I thought I'd ask. You don't have to come. But we have a really big garden and it snowed yesterday and today and it didn't even melt like it usually does so if it snows more today and tomorrow we could build a dad-snowman and then push it over.'

'We could put a beer bottle in its hand for my dad,' Castiel added.

'And we could put a tool in its other hand for mine. He's a mechanic and he's away this weekend. Wait, so does that mean you want to come?'

'Sure,' Castiel nodded eagerly. 'I don't have anything to do this weekend. Two of my brothers are going to guitar lessons on Saturday but I don't have a guitar yet so I can't go with them. And my sister is going to a birthday party, and my oldest brother is going to his friend's house and I don't know what Alfie's doing. So I'm free. It's your lucky day.'

'It was my lucky day yesterday, too,' Dean said proudly. 'We had meatloaf and ice cream and played in the snow, and I met you.'

'That sounds like a good day,' Castiel grinned.

'It was. So I'm celebrating it from now on. And I'll have meatloaf and ice cream on December thirteenth every year.'

'I will too,' Castiel decided, 'because that's the day you met me and I met you.'

'So you're gonna learn how to play the guitar?' Dean asked, changing the subject completely.

'Yup,' Castiel said proudly. 'My dad was in a band before we were born and I think that's really cool even if he's mean now, and I want to be in a band too because when he tells us stories when he's in a good mood it sounds like fun.'

'Lucky,' Dean frowned. 'I want to play guitar too. Like all the people on my dad's classic rock tapes he lets me listen to all the time.'

'You should ask for lessons and we could go together!' Castiel said excitedly. 'For Christmas or your birthday.'

'I'll ask for my birthday,' Dean reasoned. 'Because we already have out tree up and there's already a really big present under it with my name on it and I don't want to ask for anything else that's expensive because my dad's job isn't that good. He's self-employed with one work partner so we don't get a lot of expensive stuff so we always have money for emergencies saved like when I was four and our house almost burned down because a candle fell over in my brother's nursery.'

'Oh,' Castiel frowned. 'Was everything okay?'

'One room got damaged but everything else was okay,' Dean confirmed. 'And we used savings to fix the house I think. So I'll ask for a guitar for my birthday now to give my parents time to save for that for my birthday. I don't think they'll be shocked because I always say I want to play instruments like the people on the tapes. One time me and Sam made drums and a guitar, the drums were plastic mixing bowls and wooden spooks and the guitar was a cereal box with a hole in it and rubber bands and a a piece of cardboard for the long part. It didn't do anything it just looked like the long part of a guitar.'

'It's called a neck,' said Cas.

'Then guitars have reaaaaally long necks like giraffes,' said Dean.

They continued on the subject of guitars for a while and Cas told Dean a few of the stories he'd heard from his dad before the bell rang, and then on the way to class, where he sat next to Dean again, but the teacher again tried to move him.

'Please,' Castiel begged. 'There's a cold spot in my old seat and last night I kept sneezing and my mom tried to keep me home today!'

It didn't look very much like the teacher believed him. But he was allowed to stay where he was now sitting. He and Dean high fived when the teacher wasn't looking, which earned Dean a funny look from Charlie, who he explained to through a note he scribbled quickly while the teacher talked. They passed several more notes back and forth talking about it until break, when Charlie went over to Cas and introduced herself at once, and suddenly Dean's only two friends in the world were becoming friends and everything was going well.

At recess the three of them hung out together and Dean wasn't hidden inside in a bathroom stall like he often was, because these past few days Charlie had been busy, swept away by her video game fans who all wanted to come over to play. They were quiet and kept to themselves, and briefly a girl called Meg came over to talk to Cas but it was awkward and she walked away because apparently she and Cas liked each other for a while and they held hands and it was okay but then Cas kissed her on the lips and things got weird. They'd since broken up and were barely even on speaking terms as was apparent by her visit.

'Girls are weird, Charlie,' said Cas. 'Good luck.'

'Girls are pretty and have nice hair to play with,' Charlie shrugged. 'So it balances out.'

The three of them sat together at lunch, too, and Charlie brought Reece's Peanut Butter Cups with her that the three of them shared, and they basically stayed as a tight knit trio through the rest of the day, too, right up until they had to go home; Charlie's parents picked her up and Cas went off to his bus, and Dean went to sit with Sam while they waited for their mom to arrive just two minutes later and they talked about how for the first time in days Dean had gotten through the day without any incidents at all from anyone.

Dean was proud to announce to his mom that Cas was going to ask if he could come over on Saturday, and on a piece of paper written down and given to him at lunch, he had the phone number of the Novak household to arrange it, and Dean thanked his lucky stars because a few days earlier and there would have been no way for them to arrange it. But then he remembered that his mom already knew Cas's mom because Sam was friends with Alfie, but that made things even better because then Cas would be more likely to be allowed to come over.

'I'll call as soon as we get home,' Mary promised, 'you two be good and wait for me whole I talk to the principle now. I'll try not to be long.'

So Sam and Dean were left in an empty corridor that felt weirdly official for a corridor and they wandered up and down it, the school quiet but for the occasional creak or tap. They tried playing some games of eye spy as they passed the time, and they played a question and answer game where one person would ask a question and the other had to reply with the first thing that came into his head which led to a lot of weird answers that didn't make sense, and then the meeting was over and they were on their way home from school, Dean reminding his mom about making the phone call every second of the way there, while Sam sat quietly and contentedly knowing that his friend had come over before so there were no new arrangements to be made over new friendships.

Dean watching his mother go inside and hang up her coat was agonizing and watching her make coffee for herself and sandwiches for the boys even more so. Every second that ticked by when she was doing those things made time get farther and farther away from the time Dean had told Cas that he'd have his mom call Cas's mom as soon as they got home from school.

And then when Mary actually did grab the phone, Dean was suddenly petrified and stayed silent and still listening to her make the call trying to gauge whether it was going well or not.

'She'll drop Alfie and Castiel off tomorrow at noon,' was the final consensus Mary told her nervous and eagerly awaiting son.

'Really?' Dean asked, grinning wide.

'Yes,' Mary promised. 'Now come on. Stop hugging your knees and go play with your brother.'

So go play with his brother Dean did, until tomorrow. He was so excited for his new friend to come over he doubted he would even sleep.

He did actually sleep, but he was up early the next morning eating breakfast while sitting by the door even though it was eight and they wouldn't arrive until twelve. And then he played with his toy soldiers by the door and then he played poker with Sam by the door using soldiers as chips (their dad had them playing poker since they were each five years old – a nice thing John sometimes did for Sam and used to do for Dean was when they weren't looking, go through the deck and pick out the cards they needed to win after peeking at their hand first.)

He and Sam did a drawing together while waiting by the door and they played snap by the door and then Dean bolted up and away from the door when the bell rang, to act like he hadn't actually been waiting all day by the door.

Sam dashed off to sit with Dean in the living room too, to act like he hadn't actually been keeping Dean company by the door because Dean had refused to move all day.

The boys crept back out when the moms were talking to wave at their friends from behind their mom's back, and then when the friend stepped inside and their mom left and there was some awkward lingering once Mary had greeted their guests nicely. And then she finally said 'I'll leave you boys to it. Lunch is in an hour, it'll be in the kitchen,' and walked off to do whatever moms tended to do when their kids were playing with their friends.

Sam and Alfie dashed off straight away to go play in Sam's room, and once they were gone, Castiel felt free to pull some comics out of his bag that he'd brought with him.

'I remembered you said you like comics so I brought some of mine,' Castiel said happily. 'We can look at them if you want.'

'You can show me in my room,' Dean suggested. 'I have comics too. We can compare and see if we have the same ones or not.'

'Okay,' Castiel said excitedly, so Dean led the way up to his room.

It was a pretty average room. The bed was against the wall and there were some posters his dad had given him of classic rock bands and some wrestlers up. The walls of his bedroom were painted blue with some stickers of stars and rockets, Dean saying 'I like space' by way of an explanation. He had a desk and a book shelf and a beanbag and a chest of drawers and a small radio with a slot for cassette tapes and box of those tapes, and the fake guitar Dean had told Cas about was on top of his book shelf.

'Don't trip over the toy cars,' Dean advised, pointing them out on the floor. 'You can sit on my beanbag. I'll sit on the chair.'

'Cool beanbag!' Castiel grinned. 'I want one but I don't have one. I have an inflatable pool chair in my room though. It even has a cup holder. I like your walls and your bed sheets and your floor and your beanbag and stuff. Is blue your favorite color?'

'Yes,' Dean said, nodding. 'It's one of them. I like all the blues and all the purples and all the turquoises. But my dad only lets me have blue stuff. He lets Sam have whatever colors he wants though. But I don't mind because blue is nice. Sometimes I wish I had blue eyes like yours so I could look at them in the mirror.'

'But green like yours is good!' Castiel objected. 'It's like … grass on a really really sunny day where you get ice cream and go to the park and people with dogs let you pet their dogs if they pass by and you get to play games with your friends while you run around.'

'No one ever put it like that before,' Dean frowned, fishing out his box of comics from the bottom shelf of his book shelf.

'They should,' Castiel frowned. 'I love green. My bedroom pool chair is green. And so is my pet frog.'

'You have a pet frog?'

'I got him for my birthday last year,' Cas nodded. 'His name is Cricket because when he croaks he sounds like crickets. You should come over to my house and meet him. He's really friendly and he likes to be held.'

'How do you hold him?'

'Just in the palm of your hand,' Castiel shrugged. 'Look, I'll show you.'

Castiel grabbed hold of Dean's hand and then reached to the floor and picked up a toy car which he balanced on his open palm. Then he took Dean's index finger from his opposite hand and made some light strokes on top of the car.

'Like that.'

'But what if he jumps away?' Dean asked.

'He won't,' Cas promised. 'He's trained really well. He'll only jump away if he doesn't like you.'

'What if he doesn't like me?'

'He will,' Cas insisted. 'His skin matches your eyes so he has to.'

'I hope so,' Dean muttered.

'We should ask our moms if you can come to my house when my mom is picking me up,' Castiel suggested.

Dean nodded.

'That's a plan. So what comics do you have?'

They got down to comic business. It turned out that Dean had a lot of comic Cas wanted but hadn't been able to buy at the time he saw them, so Dean let him read some now and let him take some home and he'd give them back on Monday at school. In turn, Cas leant Dean some to read which he would also return.

When they were done with comics, they moved on to play with some of Dean's toy cars. He had attached strings to some of them so using those strings they dragged them back and forth across the ground in a race, always keeping an eye on the time so they could go down for lunch when it was time, and after lunch they went outside to build that snowman they'd talked about except it was only ten inches tall because it had barely snowed and it was already melting, the ground dotted with white patches and wet spots.

Sam and Alfie were outside too, making lumpy shapes from the snow each resembling a small snowman, and then the four of them made some slushy snowballs together to throw at the house and whoever got the ball highest on the wall won. Dean was the best at throwing because sometimes his dad took him to play baseball and he pitched as well as batted, so he won.

All four of them continued to play together as they went back inside to warm up with some hot chocolate and more comic books; neither Sam nor Alfie had any comics of their own but Dean and Cas were willing to share. They were still reading and talking about the comics when Alfie and Cas's mom came to pick them up and when she did Cas asked about Dean coming over, so they set up a date for the same time next week, and Sam could come over too to play with Alfie.

'I'll tell Cricket about you,' Castiel promised Dean before he left.

'Who's Cricket?' Mary asked, once the door had closed behind them.

'His frog,' Dean replied.

'He has a frog?'

'Yep,' Dean grinned. 'Can I go to my room now? I want to read more of the comics he leant me.'

'Go ahead,' Mary nodded, gesturing the stairs.

'Can I come too?' Sam asked.

'Sure,' Dean nodded eagerly. 'Come on. I have to read them by Monday and I want to read them twice.'

The two boys dashed upstairs together and Mary watched them go, happy that both of her boys finally seemed happier than usual and had friends they weren't afraid to invite over to the house like Dean was frequently wary to do with his friend Charlie, who Mary personally liked, but John not so much.

Mary hoped that this would last and that Dean would finally stop being afraid of making new friends, because he looked happier than she'd seen him in weeks, and even Sam seemed to have lit up to see his big brother so happy and carefree.