Sitting with Meg and Balthazar in the staff lounge during finals week, Cas stirred the cup of watered down coffee in front of him and listened to the two banter back and forth. Today was the Romantic Lit final. Once grades were posted, Dean would no longer be his student. There had been a handful of short conversations between classes, two quick runs for coffee, and one long conversation during office hours between them over the past few weeks. Everything had remained strictly platonic even if there had been an underlying thread of tension running between the two of them.

"What are you mooning about, Cassie?" Balthazar asked, nudging Cas's spoon away from his coffee cup.

"Really," Meg continued, "you've been stirring that coffee for ten minutes."

Cas looked from Meg's face to Balthazar's, "I'm just looking forward to the semester break." He tried to answer nonchalantly.

Something in his expression must have given him away because Meg perked up like a hound on the hunt.

No way," she said, with narrowed eyes. "I know that look." She slid a glance to Balthazar, "He met someone."

Balthazar leaned back in the chair he was sitting on and spread an arm across the back of Meg's chair. "Do tell, Cassie. Secrets don't make friends."

Meg looked disdainfully at the arm just brushing her shoulders. "If you don't move your arm in the next ten seconds, I'm stabbing it with my fork."

Rolling his eyes, Balthazar dropped his arm onto the table, "So prickly, Meg. Aren't you curious about Cassie's new beau?"

With a short, delicate snort, Meg leaned forward onto steepled hands and directed her sharp stare at Cas. "I already know who it is."

Cas took a drink of the awful coffee and avoided eye contact.

"How do you know who it is and I don't? I'm really offended here, Cassie." Balthazar gestured expansively with his hands, leaving the perfect opening for Meg to elbow him just below the rib cage.

"Would you shut up. You would know who it was if you thought about it for a minute."

"Oh good lord. You aren't still hung up on that student?" Balthazar asked once he was able to draw a proper breath. "I thought you would have worked that pretty boy out of your system by now."

Cas frowned before he answered, anger tightening his lean frame and drawing his posture higher. "I don't want to 'work' Dean out of my system, Balthazar."

Balthazar leaned across the table as if he was imparting a bit of top secret knowledge, "Listen to me my friend, I've picked up on a few things during my during my extracurricular activities-" Meg cut him off before he could continue.

"What he means is he's been trolling in a lot of bars."

"What I mean," Balthazar began again, "is that I've been at the Roadhouse enough to know that that Winchester kid isn't the relationship type, Cassie. He's the cheap hotel room, car in the parking lot, back alley kind of type. Fuck him if you must. Please do, actually. We all know you need to get laid, but don't go into this with your heart on your sleeve and all wrapped up in your Crusading Prince Charming complex. It won't end well."

Cas set his coffee cup down very precisely and quickly stood, fighting every instinct that was pouring through him to plow his fist into the other man's face. He brushed his hands across the front of his trousers and walked away without a word.

Balthazar sent a hurt look towards Meg. "What did I say?" He asked.

Meg shoved his shoulder and stood up. "You're an asshole, Balthazar," she shot over her shoulder as she walked away, leaving Balthazar looking quite bewildered and alone at the table.

XXXX

"Sammy!" Dean yelled as he entered the apartment. "Sammy, you home?"

"In here." Dean could hear Sam's muffled voice calling back from the back bedroom. After kicking off his shoes by the door, dropping his keys on the table, and shrugging out of his coat, Dean walked to the rear of the apartment.

"Hey," Dean said, leaning against Sam's door, "I'm going out tonight. Do you have any plans?"

Sam, sprawled out on his back on his bed with his laptop propped up on his legs, looked over to where Dean was standing. "I think some of us are meeting up later for a movie or something."

"You need a ride?" Dean asked.

"If you could drop me off at Jess's that would be great. Everyone is meeting up there and then we will take the bus or something."

"Alright, I'm going to go get cleaned up." Dean said, pushing away from the doorframe and walking towards his room.

Later, after Dean had showered and changed into a light grey henley with a dark green button up and his best jeans, he stood staring at the bathroom mirror talking to himself. "Normal people go on dates. Its just dinner, you've had coffee with the guy a few times, you can handle dinner."

"Who are you talking to, Dean?" Sam asked through the door.

"Goddammit, Sammy. Give me a minute. I'm almost ready." Dean bellowed through the door. He could hear a muffled snort of laughter as Sam walked away from the bathroom.

When he finally opened the door and stepped into the living room, Sam raised his eyebrows. "Why are you dressed up?" He asked.

Dean looked down at his clothes, "What? I'm wearing jeans."

Sam rolled his eyes and gestured, "There isn't a band logo on your shirt, no holes in your jeans, and I don't see an oil stain anywhere. In the land of Dean Winchester, you are dressed up." Sam took a few steps closer and looked at Dean in amazement. "Are you wearing hair product?" Sam sniffed, "Dude, are you wearing cologne?"

Dean glared back at his brother and stormed away towards his coat, "Shut up, Sam. Who says hair product anyway?"

"Wait, wait, wait!" Sam called after Dean's retreating back. "Do you have a date?"

Dean shoved his feet into his boots and grumbled under his breath about annoying siblings as Sam continued his gleeful mocking.

"Seriously, are you going on a date? I've never seen you actually put any effort into anything like this before. Don't you usually just pull a Flynn Rider on these people and they just sort of fall over themselves?"

Dean crossed his arms and waited for Sam to stop talking. "If you are done giggling like a twelve year old girl now, we need to get going. I'm going to be late. Do you want a ride or not?"

Sam narrowed his eyes and studied Dean's face thoughtfully. Finally, he said, "Let me grab my coat," and turned towards his room.

When they were finally in the Impala and on their way across town towards Jess's house, Sam slapped his leg loudly, finally putting two and two together. "Oh my god, you are going out with your teacher."

Dean's knuckles whitened as he gripped the steering wheel harder. "Shut up, Sammy."

Sam turned and looked at Dean with a big dopey grin on his face. "Do Charlie and Jo know?"

When Dean didn't answer or look away from the road, Sam's smile got wider. "Can I tell them? Charlie will want to hack into the security feed at whatever restaurant you guys are going to and spy."

Dean sent Sam a side-eyed glance, "No, they don't know. No one does. This isn't a big deal so if you tell anyone about it, you are going to end up with Nair in your shampoo bottle again."

"Whatever, this is awesome. This is like a huge step for you, Dean. You need to tell Missouri about this."

"Son of a bitch, Sam. This isn't a breakthrough therapy moment. Jesus. Just chill out."

Sam brushes his hair away from his face and looks out of the window, not even trying to hide his grin, "Whatever you say, Dean."