The blue-eyed man stops singing and looks like he's having trouble catching his breath. Another man comes on stage, shakes his hand and grabs the mic. "Hello I'm the manager. That was Castiel Novak, everybody. If you like what you just heard," he looks Castiel up and down, "or saw," he winks, "he sings here every wednesday. Sometimes he also strip dances," the crowd cheers and Castiel's eyes widen and his cheeks go red.

"Okay that's not true, he doesn't strip dance. Though we all wish he did." The crowd laughs again and Castiel smiles nervously, his eyes darting to Dean who looks amused. They smile at each other for a second, and then Castiel and the manager leave the stage, out of Dean's sight.

He walks up to the manager a few minutes later and asks for a job here. The guy looks at him for a minute, judging, and then tells him the job is his. Just as he's paying the check- still ignoring the waitress and her breasts- Castiel walks right past him, his hand brushing his arm, and walks out the bar. Dean quickly gets up and follows.

"Hey! HEY, CASTIEL!" Dean yells into the parking lot, making a couple of people turn around. Castiel stops walking, faces Dean. "Hello Dean," he replies with a calm smile, his voice grave and soft.

"Uh how'd you know my name? You some kinda psychic or something?" Castiel laughs. "No, I just heard your brother call you Dean- was the tall guy your brother?"

"Oh, um yeah that's Sammy, my little bro. He went back to his motel room." Dean doesn't know why he mentioned the motel but a weird feeling he's not familiar with sinks into his stomach. He's nervous and hopeful and hopeless and lustful and revolted and excited all at once and it doesn't make sense, because this guy is making him feel those things, and he doesn't swing that way and he hardly knows him.

"I see." They stand in silence for a few minutes; Castiel staring calmly at Dean, Dean fidgeting and looking anywhere but at Castiel.

"Did you like the song?" Castiel asks, his lips and eyes playful. "The song? Are you kidding? I felt like you were singin' it just for me; loved every second. You got a real special voice there!"

Castiel chuckles and mutters something that sounds like "Just for you." and then he says, louder, "Thank you. Music's just kind of my savior, as cheesy as that sounds."

"Oh no no, that ain't cheesy, I get you man. I feel the same way about it." Dean replies, grabbing Castiel's shoulder and dropping his hand as soon as he realized what he'd done.

"So um, do you have anywhere to be right now?" He asks Castiel. "No, I was just gonna go home and maybe read a little."

"That sounds boring! You wanna go home with m- not, not like um, that, just y'know drink a couple beers, maybe read a little together." He says the last sentence with a smirk.

"That should be fun! Okay, let's go."

They walk around the bar and into Dean's motel room. "This is just temporary. I bought an apartment a couple of streets down, but it's being furnished so I'm stayin' here for a couple of days." Dean says to Castiel, as if he's saying The next time you come over it's going to be in a private apartment so don't worry

Castiel nods, his eyebrows raised a little. He sits down on the edge of the bed. Dean brings out a couple of beer bottles and hands one to Castiel.

"So Cas, can I call you Cas? What do you do other than sing at the bar?"

"No one's ever called me Cas before. I like it," he smiles and continues "Well there's a bookshop right next to the bar, I don't know if you've seen it. But yes I work there. I live a couple of streets down from here too."

"Oh wow, so I get to see you around a lot. The bar owner offered me a job tonight and I took it."

Castiel laughs. "That's great, Dean. I look forward to bumping into you." They get quiet after that; drink their beers in comfortable silence, sitting next to each other on the small bed, knees touching.