Chapter 4

Dean and cas walked beside each other in complete silence for the initial few minutes. Dean was racking his brain to come up with something to say so that the silence didn't become too awkward, but he couldn't think of anything. He was cursing his brain, who refused to listen to him, off late. Suddenly he heard cas give a small laugh beside him. He turned his head to look at him. Cas seemed to find something really amusing in this whole situation.

'what? 'dean asked.

'nothing. It's just that I hardly know you, and everyone keeps telling me that we used to be best friends and it'll be just like old time when we get to spend time with each other. The funny thing is, I don't even remember what the 'old times' used to be like. And I've been walking beside you for the past few minutes, trying to figure out what to say, but I can't come up with a single thing.'

Dean couldn't believe what he was hearing. Yeah, cas stating the facts did make the situation a lot more awkward but he couldn't wrap his head around the fact that he was thinking the exact same thing just moments ago. This for some unknown reason made dean relax a little. Maybe he was thinking too much about not thinking about cas, maybe if he just stopped evaluating each one of his thoughts, related to cas, and reading too much into them, they could really become friends.( Not best friends though; he wasn't dumping Ash over anybody, ever!)

Dean was surprised how easily words flowed out of his mouth now that he felt relaxed.

He chuckled.

'tell you what, you don't have to think about anything and do what you just did, say whatever comes to your mind. I know what you're thinking, and I won't deny that this whole thing that we have going on, it's really awkward. But maybe we can move past all the initial discomfort and just be ourselves. I have a feeling that everything is going to sort itself out.' Said dean, and then he winked at cas. Cas smiled in return.

'sounds good' cas replied.

They walked and talked about random stuff strangers talk about when they are trying to figure the other person out. School, favorite food, music, movies, actors etc. the awkwardness had evaporated and both felt comfortable in each other's company. They walked a few blocks and finally reached their destination.

Dean was supposed to meet his friends at café oz and he could see them sitting there, laughing and chatting. As soon as dean saw them, he felt like turning away and leaving with cas. This had never happened to dean before. Dean never ever wanted to turn away from his friends. But right now, he felt like he barely knew cas, and he was desperate to get to know him better. His feelings confused him, but they were short lived, because soon after dean had spotted his friends, Ash saw dean walking toward them and called out his name, removing all thoughts from his mind.

Dean smiled at cas as they made their way towards the table which was occupied by a guy named ash and two girls.

'cas, these are my friends, ash and Jo and Bella. Guys, this is cas. He's a friend of mine, and he'll b living at my place for a year or two to complete college here.' Dean introduced them to each other and sat down next to ash and cas occupied the seat between dean and Bella. Cas smiled at the fact that dean wanted him to stay with him for the long run. Even though both of them knew that cas was here only for a week as of now, and would extend his stay only if he felt comfortable, dean had told his friends that cas was here to stay. This made cas feel welcome and he was almost sure that he'd love to stay here for the following semester.

Dean's friends were really nice, and cas felt very comfortable with them. They kept pulling each others' legs and calling each other name. They kept trying to get cas' attention to tell him an embarrassing story about another one of them. Cas was having fun. He laughed at all their jokes and even though he was meeting them for the first time, he felt like he belonged.

Dean on the other hand was not too happy. Even though the thought of having cas to himself had left his mind and he had completely forgotten about it, he felt really annoyed as Bella was acting weird and embarrassing him in front of cas. At least that's what he told himself. No, she wasn't telling him stories about dean, that was being done by ash. Bella was drooling all over cas, and it was so obvious. She kept running her fingers along cas' arms and kept laughing in that shrill voice and kept leaning towards cas. Dean told himself that what was annoying him was the fact that she was acting so desperate in from of cas. What would cas think of his friends?

Cas was oblivious to dean's annoyance and Bella's flirting. He was having far too much fun listening to what Jo and ash had to say about dean and each other.

Dean was suddenly pulled out of his thoughts about Bella when he heard cas laugh at something that Jo had just said. Dean had lost track of the conversation long ago, but when he heard cas laugh, he was back. He looked at cas, watching him as his head moved forward and backward as he laughed. Dean found the sound of his laugh enchanting. Cas slapped dean on the leg while laughing, unconsciously. Dean looked at cas' hand on his thigh, which cas had just left there. He stared at his fingers resting on the curve of his thigh and all other thoughts left his mind. He lifted his eyes to find cas looking at Jo with a small smile on his face. Dean suddenly felt a pair of eyes on himself and found ash staring at him. Had ash noticed what dean was doing? Dean wasn't doing anything! He couldn't possibly know what dean was thinking! Did he see him staring at cas? God! He was so screwed if he noticed! What'll he say to ash? What logical explanation did he have for what he was doing?

'uh… it's getting late. We should get home. Let's go cas.' Dean got up from his chair, and cas' hand fell from his leg. Cas got up and said goodbye to everyone. He told them that he had a great time and then he and dean started to walk back home.

'home'… cas liked the sound of it…