Castiel:

He hadn't expected to see Dean in the studio so early. He knew Dean hated mornings. When he walked into the studio and heard music playing, he wondered down the hallway like a ghost. The song that was playing made his heart ache, and when he reached the door he saw Dean dancing, shirtless. He saw the pain and concentration in the other man's face, saw sweat glistening on Dean's skin. He must've been here a while. Cas didn't mean to just stand there and creep on Dean, but he was transfixed. The spell was broken when Dean jumped up into the air, his lines perfect, and then landed with his ankle rolling under him. Dean crashed to the floor and Castiel took a step forward to help him up.

"DAMN IT!" Dean screamed pounding the floor.

"Are you okay?" Castiel asked. He flinched as Dean jumped. Not long after that, Dean had left in a huff. Castiel put his bag down, and leaned against the wall of mirrors, he rubbed his temples. He wasn't expecting to see Dean here at all. He hadn't known that Dean was back to All Star, he had assumed that Dean would never do it, but he supposed last time Dean turned Nigel down, he had different motivations in life. Dean's primary motivation at the time was keeping his relationship with Cas. Cas laughed bitterly about the irony of that thought, and put on music, and started to dance.

After a few hours, Hannah swung by the studio. When he paused the music, he could hear that people were dancing in other rooms. He was pouring sweat and he stooped to pick up his water bottle and walk over to Hannah.

"Hey honey, I brought you breakfast," she said, handing him a bag with some avocado toast wrapped up inside. Castiel grinned at her as he unwrapped it.

"What, no muffins?" He joked. Hannah pulled opened her bag and pulled out a muffin.

"None for you, you have to be in tip-top shape!" She said, biting into the muffin with sass, if that could be possible.

Castiel laughed and reached out for her muffin, snatching it from her hands and taking a bite.

"Give it back!" She giggled, swatting at him. He handed her breakfast back, and started munching on his own.

"The toast was a good call," he told her.

"I know," Hannah said, winking at him. She was too good to him. He hadn't expected that when he got a manager, he'd end up loving her. She had fixed him in more ways than one. When he retreated from his relationship with Dean, he had transitioned into trying to be as busy as possible, and she had helped with that, all the while making sure he didn't break down from working too hard. She had kept him fed, made sure he got at least some sleep, and made his life far less complicated than it had been previously. With Hannah around, he showed up, and he danced. She'd even negotiated his contract with So You Think You Can Dance to get him back on the show, a feat that he didn't think was possible after he bailed during the season finale of the last season he was in. Hannah was like Wonder Woman. She took care of Castiel, and always seemed to know what he needed.

She kissed him on the cheek and rubbed a soft hand up and down his arm slowly as they sat on the floor and ate breakfast.

"What are you thinking about?" She asked him gently.

"I saw Dean this morning," he told her, almost wondering if it was worth mentioning to his fiancé.

"Well," she took a sip of water, "you were expecting that, right? After we ran into him at the airport."

"I guess," he mumbled.

"I know it is probably . . . still difficult for you, Castiel," she never called him Cas. "But you're just going to have to push through it. You're an amazing dancer and you're lucky that this opportunity came along. Don't squander it because your ex is here."

"I know," he told her, looking at her earnest, loving eyes. "You're right. I'll try and ignore him as much as possible."

Hannah stood up, brushing the crumbs off her slacks and holding a hand out to Castiel.

"Come on, we'd better get going. The show wants you at the recording studio in an hour."

Castiel took her hand, and gathered his things, and then they left. On their way out the door, he chanced one look back at the studio, and couldn't help but think of Dean.

He remembered watching scary movies with Dean on the couch, curled up together, the scent of popcorn drifting lazily through the air. Every time a monster popped out, Cas would jump, and Dean would laugh, rubbing Cas's side a little.

"It's not funny, Dean," he would say seriously.

"It's hilarious angel," Dean answered back, mouth full of popcorn.

"Are you coming honey?" Hannah asked him, turning around. Cas nodded his head, and walked out of the studio, turning off the light behind him.

Dean:

When Meg and Dean walked into the filming location, they were surprised to see there were only ten newbies. Dean raised an eyebrow at Kat, and she looked away as if she didn't see him. He felt like something was going on. Some of the All-Stars he recognized, Jo was there, and he gave her a huge hug and made her promise to have dinner with him and Meg later. Michael was there, the slimy little weasel that had tried to hook up with Cas. Dean glared at him and walked away, realizing he had nothing to be mad about anymore. Cas wasn't his. Still, something was unsettling about the situation. Michael wasn't responsible for Dean's current mental state, but he certainly hadn't helped. Kevin was back, and was talking to one of the new contestants, Dean saw him and waved, Kevin waved back enthusiastically, and Dean made a mental note to invite him to dinner as well. The rest of the All-Stars, Dean didn't know.

The hair and makeup people whisked Dean away, and started putting that god-awful powder all over him in big puffs. Through the clouds of what he was assured was "matte loose powder and nothing else" he saw Castiel enter the room, wearing nicer clothes than before, ready for his close-up. Hannah wasn't too far behind him. Dean wondered what she was doing there. The crew didn't normally allow significant others to hang around the dancers 24/7. Hannah had a kind face. High cheekbones, a ready smile. Dazzling blue eyes (though nothing like Cas's). Her hair was cropped shorter, brown and wavy. She wore gray jacket with matching slacks, and a blue blouse. She looked so serious in those clothes. Even Meg, who was going to be on TV today, was wearing tight jeans and a sparkly band tee. His eyes flitted over to Cas, who was wearing a white button up and a blue tie with slacks that made his ass look-

No, Winchester, don't think about that. He decided instead to focus on the lady jabbing his face with an oddly shaped spongey thing.

"Are you uh . . . gonna be done any time soon?" Dean asked her. Normally his makeup didn't require this much effort. He looked down to the girl, who was probably in her mid-twenties, and noticed for the first time her hands were shaking a little.

"Sorry I'm just- You're just. . . I'm a big fan," she told him nervously.

Dean didn't even know he had fans at this point. He smiled at her. "What's your name?"

"Becky," she answered, grinning awkwardly and showing off her braces.

"Thanks for the makeup Becky," Dean told her, winking.

She let out a shrill little giggle which Dean found adorable, and then Kat called the dancers over to the center of the floor, and his attention was snapped elsewhere.

Kat stood, glamourous as ever in the middle of the room, the cameras were turned on.

"Dancers, this season is going to be different," Kat paused for dramatic effect, the camera swooped around to show the reactions of the dancers. Dean stood, stone faced. "This season is our ten year anniversary, and as such, we wanted to do a bit more work with the all-stars, as well as finding America's favorite dancer. So while the all-stars will pair up with our new dancers to help them better learn their way around different genres of dance, the all-stars will also be paired up with each other, and the new dancers will be paired up with each other. What this means, is that each episode, everyone here will be expected to learn two routines, and the new comers will be expected to learn three, including the opening group number. The partners will rotate out, and we expect you should all get a chance to work with each other at some point. Also the last few episodes of the season are going to be a redo of all of our fan favorites, but instead of just being fan favorites from this season, they will be fan favorites from all of the seasons."

Kat seemed to finally take a breath. "Thank you so much for joining us on this season, now let's see who you'll be dancing with for the first week!"

Dean's stomach dropped as he looked over at Castiel, standing across the room from him. Their eyes met. They'd be working together, Dean was sure of it. That's the way fate worked, right? He didn't know how well he would handle that. And that thing about fan favorites from all of the seasons? Dean hoped that meant he would be dancing with Jo. What it probably meant was that he would be dancing with Cas. Turning Pages had been talked about for years. He felt like he had swallowed a rock.

"Dean!" Kat cried out, "come forth and draw your first names!" Kat had two hats. One hat was full of new dancers, one hat was full of old dancers. He drew his new dancer first.

"Bela Talbot." Dean read off the paper. Bela came forward and hugged Dean, seeming confident and relaxed. Way more than Dean had been on his first day picking names.

"And your All-Star?" Kat asked, looking at the hat excitedly. Dean caught her eyes flick up towards Castiel, and back to him. He decided not to acknowledge that look, not on camera. He just hoped he didn't get-

"Meg Masters," he read the name with a breath of relief. Meg rushed forward and hugged Dean and he smiled and clapped her on the back. He looked up at Kat who looked mildly disappointed, but within seconds was looking back up at the camera and smiling dazzlingly. After that, Dean mostly zoned out. When Castiel was called, he got a newbie named Lisa, and an All-Star. Michael. Castiel was polite to Lisa, hugging her. When Michael came up to him, Castiel merely looked at him, even in front of the camera, he wasn't willing to hug Michael, let alone shake his hand. Michael looked back, and seemed to feel the same way about Castiel, blush burning on his cheeks, from anger or embarrassment, Dean couldn't tell.

After the cameras were off, Dean sought out Kat.

"Dean! So good to see you again after all these years!" Kat held her arm out and Dean hugged her easily.

"Great to see you again too, Kat. Hey, I had a question."

Kat's eyes seemed to cloud.

"Yes?"

"Well, I'm not particularly happy with this new arrangement of the show, I understand it wasn't your decision though," he continued, "but you know weird stuff happened between Castiel and Michael, right? Is it . . . uh . . . a good idea to put the two of them together?" He sincerely hoped no one could hear him right now.

Kat fixed him with a questioning stare, "they will be monitored closely. We were aware of their previous . . . encounter. Dean I have a question for you," Kat said.

"Shoot."

"Why do you care?" Kat asked, not rudely, but genuinely curious.

"I . . . uh . . . everyone deserves to be safe, and we've gone through some disturbing stuff from the people on this show. I was just . . . wanting to be safe," Dean stuttered, knowing that there was an underlying truth to his words. Because I still love him. Kat seemed to know that truth too, and looked at him sadly, putting a hand on his shoulder.

"I'll make sure he's safe, Dean," she told him. "What happened to you will never happen to our dancers again," she said, squeezing him reassuringly. She was talking about Alistair. Dean flinched a little and nodded.

"Nice talking to you," he said, turning around, and ran face first into Castiel, bumping their shoulders painfully and stepping on his foot. "Oh. Um- I'm sorry, I didn't mean to . . . I'll go." Dean panicked, his words not coming out. Castiel was staring at Dean as if Dean had just admitted to eating monkey flesh. Ah. So he had probably overheard his entire conversation with Kat. Dean rushed out of the room, feeling for all the world like he had forgotten how to breathe.