Chapter 2

-ship: Dean/Castiel-

When Dean went off to college, he thought he would fail. His father was a simple mechanic, and he had just barely passed his high school classes. Ever since his mother died when he was 14, he had been depressed and lonely. His little brother Sammy was company, but Sam was too busy being a smartass to help his brother. So he sank into a stupor of alcohol and one-night stands, sometimes guys, sometimes girls, all through high school. Sometimes he would find someone who he could talk to, like Lisa or Benny, but they all faded away eventually, only adding to his misery. When his father sent him off to college, he figured college would be the same story. That was before he met his roommate.

When he first trudged into his dorm room, he was greeted by a room already cluttered with boxes. In the center of all the boxes was a guy with ruffled raven black hair. He wore a tight tshirt that showed golden skin with rippling muscles. He was bent over a sketchpad, and Dean noticed a box on the desk, with colored pencils, drawing pencils, pastels, oil paints, water paints, and every other drawing medium Dean could think of. He coughed a little and the guy looked up, revealing the brightest blue pair of eyes Dean had ever seen, making his breath catch a little. He quickly snapped out of it, however, as the man grinned and stood up.

"Hey, I'm Castiel Novak. Excuse the mess, I haven't really unpacked yet." he said, offering his hand out.

"Yeah I see that. I'm Dean." Dean said coldly, avoiding the hand.

Cas tilted his head a little, looking at Dean. He had always been very good at reading people, what his sister Anna called 'seeing into their souls'. He just called it an artist's instinct. Dean was incredibly attractive, but there was something cold about it. He looked at those gorgeous green eyes and saw a troubled soul. And that was when he became fascinated by Dean Winchester's eyes.

Over the first half of the year, Dean brought guys and girls back to the dorm, just like high school. But during this time, he warmed up to Castiel. Castiel listened. But he didn't just listen briefly like Lisa or Benny… he listened the whole time. Gradually the days between Dean's one-night stands grew longer and longer as he and Cas grew closer and closer. Not just mentally, but physically as well.

One day after Christmas break, Dean came out of the shower wearing just a pair of jeans, with the tip of his briefs poking out over the brim of the jeans. He saw Cas bending over his sketchpad, but not dutifully drawing like normal. Instead, he was brushing away tears from his eyes.

"Cas, what's up?"

Cas glanced up and his heart skipped a beat at Dean's bare torso, muscular and perfect. He stuttered a bit as he cleared the fog in his mind caused by that art-worthy beauty.

"It's just my family, Dean, nothing else."

Dean chuckled a bit internally at the look in Cas's eyes at his body, but he worriedly sat next to Cas on the bed.

"Talk to me."

Cas hesistated, but then sighed and began to tell Dean. After all, after all those times he had listened to Dean, he was sure Dean could listen to him.

"My family gave me a pretty hard time during Christmas break. They expected me to go into religious studies and become a pastor, like my father and Michael both did. And after Luci and Gabriel deciding to do their own thing, they expected me to follow that path even more. But I don't want to follow a path laid out for me. And I certainly don't want to become a pastor. I want to be an artist. It's all I've ever wanted to be." he said, throwing his precious sketchbook on the floor and burying his head in his hands.

Dean calmly picked up Cas's sketchbook off the floor and glanced at his best friend. Cas never let anyone touch his art. He sat back down on the bed and asked Cas,

"You mind if I look?"

Cas mindlessly shook his head yes, without thinking, and Dean started flipping through the pages.

It started with old watercolors and sketches of people Dean recognized as Cas's brother Gabriel and his sister Anna, both with beautiful wings stretching from their backs. He marveled at the detail and the colors… Gabriel's whiskey-colored eyes and matching golden hair and wings…

Right as he turned the page to a color pencil drawing of a pair of green eyes, Cas's head whipped up and flashed over to Dean and the sketchbook. He tried to make a quick grab for it, but Dean turned to Cas couldn't reach it, gaping at the beautiful pictures of green eyes and muscular arms and torsos and his own face. He glanced over at Cas, who had turned a shade of red so deep that he looked like a tomato. He just laughed and looked back at the drawings, smiling as he marveled at Cas's visions of his own body.

"Dean, I…"

Dean leaned over and pressed his lips to Cas's, silencing whatever he was about to say. Cas jerked a little at the sudden pressure, but he responded equally quickly, returning the kiss and placing his hands on Dean's bare and muscular chest as Dean framed Cas's face with his hands. And for a while, they both forgot everything that had ever bothered them. Dean slowly backed away, smiling at how Cas leaned with him, chasing his lips.

And so they kept on going, figuring out what to do about Cas's parents and dealing with Dean's nightmares and depression. But with each other, they could deal with anything.