A/N: Sam wanted to send Dean back to school, but was it such a great idea?
Love Extra (Chapter 10) by frostygossamer
Sam charged down the hall to the lecture room, checking his watch as he went. He was a couple minutes late. His students would be getting antsy. As he stomped along, a door opened into the hall and Dave Mann stepped out in front of him with a cute freshman close on his heals.
"Ooh-ya," Sam gasped, stopping himself just in time.
"Ah, Sam," said Mann. "So you've decided to show up after all. I was about to go sub your class myself."
A grin appeared on Sam's face. "No need," he said. "Right here and ready to go."
Mann raised an eyebrow. "You OK?" he asked, surprised by Sam's radical change of mood since they last met.
"Perfect," answered Sam, firmly. "Never been better."
Mann's brows knitted together. "He's back, right?" he hazarded.
"You betcha," Sam responded happily.
He left Mann shaking his head as he steamed off to class.
Mann wasn't sure how he felt. Honestly, it was hard for him to know he had helped to get his ex back with someone else. Sam would never know how much it had hurt his pride to do the right thing. Hard-nosed though he might be, Mann would always be attached to Sam. But...
He turned to the adoring youth standing beside him.
"See that guy," he told him. "Used to be my star pupil. Now he's a millionaire. Stick with me, kid, and in a couple years that could be you."
~X~
When Sam entered the diner at quarter of one, he spotted Dean immediately. He was sitting in a corner booth at the back cradling a black coffee, the table littered with flashy-coloured brochures. Sam walked over and flopped down across from him.
"So you found something?" he observed.
Dean sighed and shook his head. "Dunno where to start," he griped.
Sam picked up a random catalog and ran an eye over it.
"Guess you oughta go with something hands-on to begin with. You're pretty good with your hands, baby."
Dean grinned cheekily. "These hands can work magic, Sammy boy," he chuckled.
"And don't I know it," agreed Sam, with a wink. "Start with what you know. Easiest way is to build on what you already got."
Dean grumbled. "Beginning to think I don't know nothing about crap," he complained defeatedly, laying back in his seat and sighing.
Sam shook his head. "Sure you do. You know plenty about... CARS."
"'Course I do. Dude, I'm a mechanic," Dean snapped. "And a damn fine one too."
Sam chuckled. "OK then. Where can you get into a class in automechanics. Good place to start."
"But I already know everything there is to know about freakin' automechanics," Dean griped.
"Then you're gonna ACE it," reasoned Sam. "Here." He turned to the page for a class called 'Advanced Vehicular Maintenance' and plonked it in front of Dean. "How about this?"
Dean gave the page the once over. "Sure. Sounds OK. Guess I could handle this."
"Fine. That's settled," said Sam, sweeping the chaff off of the table into a pile. "Now whaddya wanna order? I'm buying."
Dean's answer was predictable. "Need to ask? Bacon cheeseburger, dude."
~X~
For the following couple weeks Dean was on his best behaviour. He was home with Sam again, and that felt good. Living in a motel sounds like fun until you have to do it for weeks on end. By yourself. He wasn't going to jeopardize things again any time soon. And he needed to show Sam he was with the plan.
He went back to Ludo at the garage to check that the guy was OK with him going back to part-time. He would need to be flexible around Sam's work hours. And he was really going to need all his energy in the evenings, if he was going to keep Sam sweet.
Dean didn't know if his abrupt flip-flop would piss off the repair shop boss, but Ludo was easy with it.
"Sure," he said. "Paying you by the hour anyways. Why the change of mind? Boyfriend bitching?"
Dean flinched. Now, he had carefully never mentioned his sexuality or living arrangements to him or Jules, so he guessed that he had to be snarkily referring to that visit by Mann.
"That damn dickbag is so NOT my freakin' boyfriend!" he retorted in disgust, then after a second he recklessly added, "Uh, he's my boyfriend's boss."
There. He had admitted it. He had a boyfriend. Sam would be proud.
"Whatever," Ludo remarked airily and wandered away, completely underwhelmed.
Dean would have liked to see more surprise on the guy's face. He was a little disappointed by the lack of reaction. Heck, HE had been more surprised. And he would never have figured Ludo for a liberal.
~X~
Thursday morning, Dean turned up at the community college where his chosen class would be held in plenty time. He stopped a young girl who came staggering across the lobby with a heavy pile of photocopying.
"This the right place for the Advanced Vehicular Maintenance class?" he asked her.
He figured Sam was right that it made sense to start simple. Although there wasn't a whole lot he didn't know about maintaining motor vehicles, he reasoned that it wouldn't hurt to get himself an actual attendance for his résumé. The nomadic life he and his dad had led when he was a kid meant he was embarrassingly lacking in paper. And he was living with a guy who had diplomas up the wazoo, so...
The girl, who had been holding the top sheet on her pile with her chin, glanced up and grinned on seeing a handsome face beaming at her.
"Yeah, sure," she agreed. "Starts in, uh, ten minutes. You're right on time."
She pointed out the correct door and hurried on her way before Dean could ask anything else.
Dean walked in the room and glanced around. A dozen or so young guys and a couple boyish chicks where already settled in, chatting away and laughing in noisy groups. Dean got his eye on an empty chair beside a busty babe about his own age who was practically poured into her black leather pants.
Chick looked like fun.
~X~
It was Dean's turn to make dinner that night again, so he picked up groceries on the way back. When Sam came home, it was to find him in the kitchen, singing Metallica to a spoon-mic. Not so tuneful maybe, but certainly joyful.
"You sound... up," Sam said. "Class fun?"
"You betcha," Dean replied, archly, standing by the stove. "Italian OK for you?"
"Fine," agreed Sam, coming up behind him to wrap his long arms around Dean's waist.
As Dean dropped pasta shapes into a pan of boiling water, the big guy kissed his lover on the back of the neck and chuckled.
"Anything you like is fine with me, baby," he said.
"Yeah sure, man," Dean agreed, with a laugh. "Anything I wanna make. Considering I been running my ass off all day and you been sitting behind a damn desk."
"...working hard," Sam added. "You reckon educating a howling pack of sophomores is easy?"
Dean shook his head affectionately. "Dude, go lay the table," he commanded.
Sam kissed him again on the ear and complied with the order. Dean watched him straighten the tablecloth and lay out silverware.
"Totally freakin' domestic," he thought, with a grin.
He loved to watch Sam engaged in regular domesticity. It rubbed in how their relationship was normal, natural, real. It was one of the reasons, at least when they were home alone, Dean had no problem with their set-up. Living with another guy was simple. None of that 'Men Are From Mars, Women Are From Venus' crap. He and Sam were best buddies with benefits, excellent benefits. No, it was other people's opinions that worried Dean.
Over their pasta, Dean communicated how his class had been.
"So? Was it... good? OK?" Sam asked, doubtfully.
"It was freakin' awesome," Dean answered with enthusiasm, mouth full of farfalle.
"Oh, really?" Sam responded, kind of surprised. "You enjoyed it? Hafta admit I'm kinda surprised. I'm guessing the instructor wasn't a douche after all?"
"The teacher was totally awesome," Dean agreed. "Guy was a natural. Never seen a teacher teach class so... awesomely."
Sam felt a tiny twinge of jealousy, seeing how turned on his guy was getting over some community college blackboard jockey. What did this guy have that he didn't?
"So you'll be back next week?" he asked.
"Hell yeah. Gonna be there front and centre," agreed Dean. "No problemo."
~X~
Sam had reckoned that getting Dean back into school would keep his roving mind occupied, instead of just his muscle-brain. Maybe keep him out of trouble when he wasn't around. Although, he pretty much expected Dean's initial zest for adult education would have waned before the month was out.
However, to Sam's amazement, Dean continued to attend the community college every Thursday like clockwork. Whenever Sam casually inquired how things were going, Dean would effuse about the quality of the teaching, not something Sam would have expected from him. Dean had always held that the 'School of Hard Knocks' was his alma mater and the best education for a regular non-nerd like him. Sam chose not to take that personally.
After a few weeks, Sam started to get curious. What exactly was Dean up to at this class? One Thursday afternoon he left Stanford early and swung by the community college, to surprise Dean by picking him up in the SUV instead of letting him catch the bus home as he usually did. He arrived a couple minutes after the class was scheduled to end.
Walking through the building's main entrance, Sam collared a couple kids who gave him directions to the Advanced Vehicular Maintenance class. He strode along the hall to Room 10 chuckling at the prospect of surprising his partner. Quite a crowd of chatty adult students passed him on their way out.
"Looks like it's been one popular class," Sam noted. "Guess Dean wasn't fooling about the instructor's awesomeness."
Then, as he rounded the final corner, he spotted something that made him take a step back and peer around the wall surreptitiously. Dean was standing in the hall outside Room 10, deep in animated conversation with a well endowed female in tight leather pants and a low-cut rock band shirt. Dean was smiling his sexy number and the woman was rubbing up against him like an over-friendly cat.
"The hell?!" thought Sam. "So that's why Dean's been so into this class. He hooked up!"
"OK. See ya," Dean told the chick, then in a low huskier voice. "And remember, Babycakes, don't let those freakin' b-words grind you down."
Babycakes?! Dean called her Babycakes?! Shocked and confused, Sam turned on his heels and left the building.
Unaware that he had been seen, Dean finished his conversation with 'Miss Leather' by wishing her goodnight. Grinning, she playfully slapped him on the butt as he turned away.
"Backatcha, Deano," she said, with a sexy little laugh.
TBC
A/N: Poor Sam. Dean is playing havoc with his nerves yet again.