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Castiel watched in distrust as he watched Gabriel pack the dishwasher incorrectly.
"Gabriel, how is it that you live on your own?" Gabriel looked up at Castiel with a pout.
"For your information, Cassie, I get along just fine without anybody else's input." Castiel rolled his eyes, but Dean nudged Castiel with his elbow.
"Leave the man alone. He's doing his best." Gabriel smiled at Dean and then looked at Castiel.
"I like him. You should keep him." Castiel looked over at Dean and gave him a fond, half smile.
"Yeah, I like him, too." Castiel watched Dean give him the smile that he'd grown so attached to. Castiel didn't focus on the last part of Gabriel's words because he knew that would hurt. It would hurt tomorrow going home and when his parents called him in the next week or so, he'd have to pretend that he and Dean had just broken up.
"That's so nice, Cas. I wish I could say the same."
"Oh ha ha." Castiel gave Dean a gentle push to his shoulder.
"Alright, if you two are going to act like this I'll let you go around town yourselves." The two looked over at Gabriel.
"What do you mean?"
"All googly eyed and mushy."
"We promise, let's go though. Your mom will be upset if we're late." Dean stood up and Castiel followed.
"Great! I'll go change and then we can go." Gabriel ran up the stairs. Dean looked anywhere but Castiel. It was suddenly weird without the rest of the family there and Castiel not remembering. How did he not remember? Maybe Dean was losing his…ability. Castiel suddenly looked uncomfortable.
"You alright, man?" Dean asked.
"I'm just…did I fall down last night when I was drunk? My legs are just...sore." Dean tried not to laugh. Yeah, most guys were the next day after the first time. This wasn't the first time Dean had taken another man's virginity (with a man, anyway), but it was the first time he was pretty happy with himself for it. The first time that he wanted to do it again. The first time that Dean really had enjoyed himself. What the hell was wrong with him?
"No, maybe you fell down the stairs or something." Castiel was confused. He kept getting snippets of last night in flashbacks, but he knew that it was a dream. It was fuzzy and hard to recall if they were actual memories. But Dean would've said something. Something about them…being together. He hadn't. Of course Dean would've said something so that he could get paid. He wouldn't have just been with Castiel because he wanted to. People like that usually weren't drawn to Castiel. Castiel was about to ask him something else about last night, but then Gabriel came bounding down the stairs. He was pulling on a shirt and Dean noticed a pair of golden wings on the inside of his arm.
"So there are your wings." Dean said matter-of-factly. Gabriel smiled at them.
"Yeah, I didn't get ones all down my back like somebody. Did he tell you he got them by himself?"
"You got yours by yourself too!" Castiel huffed.
"Yeah, but my tattoo isn't all down my back! Anybody can get a little one like this done alone. Yours are freaking huge." Gabriel continued to babble about the tattoos. Castiel knew that he was just jealous that he didn't think of getting them down his back. "…black. Much like his soul." Gabriel stuck his tongue out.
"Are you trying to tell me you think your soul is golden?"
"Duh. I'm named after an ARCH-angel. They all had golden wings."
"I'm fairly certain that you're wrong, but we need to get going since you two came up with this ludicrous idea to show Dean around town. You know it's only going to take about an hour? Maybe less."
"Cassie, if you don't want to go, by all means stay. I can show Dean-o a good time by myself." The way Gabriel said that, almost insinuating that something might happen if he let them go alone, made Castiel angry for no reason. He only had a short time left with Dean, and he was going to spend that time all with Dean. No matter how much it was going to hurt to say good-bye tomorrow back in Chicago.
"No, let's go."
"Great! Dean, my man, you're going to drive and I'll just randomly point and shout directions at you." Gabriel then turned on his heel to led the trio outside.
"Hard to believe he's actually an adult, huh?" Castiel bumped Dean. Dean gave him a little half shrug and followed Gabriel outside. Castiel thought that was odd, but chalked it up to the long night and then walked out to the already warm day.
"So, I'm thinking we could start at the high school, and then we could show him Fish Lake, and…" Gabriel was still babbling as Dean unlocked the Impala and Gabriel climbed into the backseat.
"How are we going to get into the high school? It's the middle of July. Nobody's going to be there, not even summer school is still in session."
"How would you know? You've never done summer school." Castiel rolled his eyes as Dean started the car.
"No, but you did, and until my freshman year of high school, Mom never let me stay home when she went to get you. I hated it."
"Oh yeah, Dean?" Dean glanced at Gabriel in the review mirror. "Take a left out of the driveway." Dean nodded and followed Gabriel's directions (between his arguments with Castiel) before pulling into the high school parking lot. "Okay. Here it is. Cassie and I spent a combined eight years here."
"Well, there was one year that we were here for the same time." Castiel stared at the building. He was overcome with nostalgia. Here was where he'd met Hannah, but now he couldn't think of why he'd been drawn to her. Maybe it had been meeting Dean, but now it didn't seem important.
"Whatever, come on. Let's go."
"Go where? We already talked about this, nobody…"
"To the football field!"
"Why the hell would we go to the football field?" Castiel frowned at his brother. "None of us played football."
"I know, but the football field is where the janitors meet and they'll let us in." Gabriel got out of the car and started walking.
"We better go, or he'll just come right back." Castiel looked over at Dean. Dean was staring out the windshield.
"Yeah, lets go." Dean quickly got out of the car, leaving Castiel to wonder what was going on. Castiel followed Dean out and they walked together after Gabriel.
Dean wasn't meaning to be rude, but he knew what had happened here. He knew this was where Castiel had fallen in love with Hannah. He didn't want to be here. He was trying not to let it bother him, but he couldn't help it. He and Castiel would never have a past like that. He and Castiel weren't anything. This was a simple business transaction for both of them. They would be done with each other after they got back to Chicago. Dean hated himself for falling for this guy. He was also pretty pissed at Castiel for forgetting (or pretending) to forget that they had had sex the night before. 'There was no way he's pretending,' Dean thought. 'He would be freaking out if he really thought that happened.' Dean sighed to himself as he climbed up the hill to see four men in navy blue jumpsuits smoking cigarettes talking to Gabriel. Castiel had caught up with him at this point, and Dean grabbed his hand. Castiel seemed to jump slightly, but he relaxed and even intertwined his fingers with Dean's. Dean gave Castiel a gentle smile, and the two walked up to the group.
"...show his boyfriend inside." Gabriel seemed to be arguing with one of the men.
"Come on, kid. You know I could lose my job for that." The guy took a drag from his cigarette before throwing it on the ground and stomping it out.
"Gabriel, really, it's fine. We can just go to Memory Park."
"Yeah, man. I've seen enough high schools in my time." Gabriel glared at the men but then sighed heavily.
"Fine." Gabriel turned around and started walking down the hill, the other two in tow. "You've got a reunion coming up soon anyway, don't ya, Cassie?" Gabriel asked as they made it to the bottom of the hill.
"Oh," Castiel replied, nearly forgetting about it. "I suppose I do." It had been nearly ten years since he graduated high school. He hadn't attended his fifth-year reunion because his break up with Hannah was still too fresh for him to come back.
"And you'll bring Dean back for that, right?" Dean squeezed Castiel's hand in a comforting way. Just another thing about the man that he had grown used to. He liked that Dean just made the smallest of gestures to make sure that he was okay. Or asking in a way. Castiel squeezed back and looked into Dean's eyes.
"If Dean would like to come, I would be happy for Dean to come back with me." Dean smiled his heart-melting smile and Castiel returned it. He was surprised how much he meant that. He really did want Dean to come back with him. He wanted to bring Dean back and show him off to the people who hadn't come back for the wedding. Castiel knew that it was stupid, and he knew that Dean would most definitely not be coming back with him, but for right now, he could at least pretend.
"I would love to, Cas." Dean brought Castiel's hand to his lips and gave it a kiss.
"Okay, see, this is why I should've let you two go off on your own." Gabriel leaned against the Impala.
"Why?" Dean released Castiel's hand and let him walk around the other side of the car.
"Because, you two are all mushy and gross. Now let's go to the lake." The three got in the car and took off again. Gabriel giving directions without arguing with Castiel this time.
Once at Memory Lake Park, the three got out and Gabriel took a deep breath.
"There's not a lot of open space in L.A. This is nice."
"I agree with you. The city is nice and all, but I grew up between South Dakota and Kansas." Dean looked around the lake. "I love stuff like this."
"You grew up in the country, but moved to the city and you're a mechanic, why?" Gabriel asked as they started walking around the lake.
"Well, my brother was in law school and my dad passed away. There was nothing tying me there anymore. My Uncle Bobby had moved to Chicago with his wife Ellen after Ellen's daughter Jo decided to go to Northwestern, so I followed him out there. He gave me a job, and the rest, as they say, is history." Dean wasn't sure when Castiel had grabbed his hand, but he felt a squeeze. He looked over and Castiel had a small smile on his face. Dean realized that Castiel didn't know anything about him. Dean knew nearly everything about Castiel and now he was going to start telling him things so that maybe, just maybe, it wouldn't be such a permeant good-bye when they went home.
They were about half way around the lake when Castiel suddenly stopped and looked at a tree. Dean was pulled back gently, but Gabriel continued to walk, not noticing the other two.
"What?" Castiel was still looking at the tree before he took a deep breath and looked at Dean.
"This is stupid. It happened so many years ago." Dean was confused.
"What did?" Castiel nodded at the tree.
"That's where I kissed Hannah for the first time." Dean looked at the tree, and then back to Castiel. Castiel was looking at it, but Dean had decided something. Dean cupped Castiel's face in his hands and placed a kiss on his lips. Castiel seemed surprised at first, but then the wrapped his arms around Dean's neck and kissed him back. It wasn't didn't feel like the one they had shared the night before. It felt comforting. Like Dean was just making sure that Castiel was still doing okay. Suddenly, there was somebody clearing their throat. The two broke apart and Gabriel had his arms crossed.
"Really?" Was all he said. Dean shrugged and Gabriel threw his hands up.
"We can go home if you two don't want to do this."
"No, Gabriel, it's just…this is where I first kissed Hannah." Castiel replied, sheepishly.
"And I wanted to help take those bad memories away." Dean offered. Gabriel chuckled slightly.
"Well, I guess I can't argue with that. But come on, I've got to show you where Cassie and I had our first swimming lesson and he nearly drowned."
"Why is that funny?" The trio then made their trip around the lake, with Gabriel and Castiel giving little stories about what had happened at certain parts. Dean was really enjoying himself. After they had circled the lake twice, Gabriel looked at his phone.
"Oh man, we better get home. It's nearly two! Only four hours until the wedding and we've so much to do!" Gabriel declared dramatically. The other two laughed.
"You're right, Mom will get mad. We really better get going." Castiel, Dean, and Gabriel walked back to the car and drove back to the Novak's to get dressed for the wedding.