Note: Massive apologies. It's been at least a month since I posted a chapter. My laptop decided to crap out on me. I let it sit alone in my room for the last month without me touching it. Today was the first day that I decided to attempt to use her. She seems okay. I'll update more chapters today, or this week, to appease you lovely readers. I feel bad. I was planning on keeping a solid update every weekend, perhaps I'll start up again this week since my laptop has been miraculously cured. Enjoy!

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Dean's father made a gruff noise as his son sat down in the Impala. "That the kid?"
"Yes," Dean replied.

"What's his name?" John asked. Dean was taken aback by his father's sudden interest in his social life.

"Cas," Dean replied.

"Is that some sort of nickname?" He tilted his head, looking at Dean through the corner of his eye.

"Yes, it's short for Castiel. Castiel Novak." Dean added his last name figuring that his father didn't know the family. The city was small, but it wasn't small enough to know everyone off hand. Perhaps his dad would be okay with him and Castiel.

"I went to school with a Novak," John said. "Religious family, from what I can remember. Decent folk. You could do worse with friends." Dean didn't respond. He stared at his father in curiosity at the words he was speaking. Could he really be approving of Dean's choice in friends? Even after his freak out over Dean leaving Sam? John was a totally different person intoxicated.

Dean was jarred out of his questioning mind when Sam pulled open the back door to the car. He sat down without a word, noticing that there was little tension in the Impala for a change. It seemed odd. Sam chocked it up to a good day. They were few and far between these days.

John stayed home that night as an attempt at keeping his boys in the house. Dean threw a quick dinner together for the family of rice and baked chicken. It wasn't anything special. Dean sat quietly watching his father for any sign of approval. Any sort of emotion towards the meal would have been enough for Dean. There wasn't even a grunt.

Sam finished first and left his plate on the table. Dean mentally pictured his brother's head exploding, brain matter littering the walls and ceiling. He quickly erased his thoughts when he realized who would be scrubbing down the mess. Maybe it wasn't such a good idea.

"Snap out of it, boy," John said.

"Sorry," Dean replied as he refocused on his plate of barely touched food.

"You're thinking too hard over there."

Dean figured that he'd better speak up while his dad was still semi-sober. Three beers were water to the man. "Can I ask you something?"

John downed the last gulp of his beer. "What is it?"
"You know my friend, Cas," Dean started to say. He paused. Perhaps this was a bad idea. He took in a deep breath. "He invited me to this Halloween party next week."

"You can go," John said. "One thing." He looked his son square in the eye. "You come home before one and you have to take Sammy." Dean didn't want to correct his father for making two points. So, he agreed. Dean was happy that he actually had plans for the holiday. Now all he needed was a costume.

Dean sat in the same desk he had sat in every Monday after school since he started his tutoring sessions with Castiel. Mr. Wesson was sitting at his desk correcting papers silently, while Dean tried to look over his notes for one of his classes. Which subject it was, he couldn't recall. It was all a jumble of letters like Dean had Latin sitting in front of him. Maybe if he read it backwards he could banish homework to hell. Dean looked up and caught his teacher's gaze.

"Mr. Wesson, can I talk to you about something?" Dean asked while he had his attention. The conversation Dean had with Castiel about his teacher was still fresh in his mind. "I don't know who else to talk to about this, but I thought maybe you could help, and if you can't, I understand, it's just something that's been bothering me for a while now, and I really feel like maybe you could help me figure things out, 'cause I'm not sure about this myself, and I was hoping that you could help me," Dean said without a breath.

Mr. Wesson interrupted the student, "Slow down, Dean. You're not making much sense. Breathe." He stood up from his chair. "What is it?" Mr. Wesson crossed his arms as he leaned his butt against the front of his desk.

Dean took in a deep breath and slowly exhaled. "I was gonna talk to Mrs. Bradbury, but I think she's too old to understand."

Mr. Wesson chuckled. "She's not that old. Her oldest daughter goes to this school. I think she's a junior."

"And I can't talk to my dad about this." Dean didn't have to elaborate on the subject as Mr. Wesson had the pleasure of meeting the man at parent teacher conferences. Dean looked up at his teacher, gathering his courage to speak.

"What's the matter, Dean?" Mr. Wesson's mind wandered to the worst. He assumed rightly that it was Dean's father who had laid hands on him earlier in the semester.

"I know that I like girls, but over the years, I've had," Dean paused and stared at the linoleum, "feelings for guys." Dean's last words were spoken just above a whisper. Mr. Wesson didn't reply, so Dean continued. "Deep down I know it's not right, not normal, but I can't help it."

"It isn't wrong, Dean. I don't want you to think that it is. So, whoever told you that doesn't understand. They don't know anything more than their bigoted, judgmental beliefs." He looked directly at his student. "I came out to my family when I was roughly your age."

"Wait, you're…," Dean started to say. Castiel had guessed correctly.

"Yes, I am," his teacher said. "I thought my parents were going to hate me forever, but I lucked out. They love me for who I am, regardless of my sexual preference."

"I don't think I'd be as lucky," Dean wanted to say out loud. Instead, he kept his mouth shut. Dean couldn't ignore the words his father had spoken years prior.

John, Sam and Dean were at a mall buying back to school clothes when Sam pointed out two people. Sam was six at the time. His life was consumed with action figures, Legos and talking animal cartoon movies. Anything outside of this realm, Sam had to tug at his father's shirt sleeve, to pester him to answer his questions. He was a bright boy, and always needed to learn more about how things worked in the world. Little had changed over the years. As Dean got older he grew more annoyed by his brother's constant enquiries. Sometimes they would lead down the wrong path, causing Dean to want to shake Sam senseless.

"Dad," Sam had said, grabbing John's arm to gain his attention. "Why are those two men holding hands? Are they friends?" Dean had briefly shut his eyes, fearing what the answer was going to be, as John bent down to face his youngest son. He had gestured for Dean to come in closer.

"They're homosexuals, gays, queers, faggots," John barely explained to Sam. He then looked directly at Dean and back at Sam with a stern expression on his face. "It ain't right. You got that?" Sam nodded, though he didn't fully understand what connotation those words had held. "Good, 'cause I don't want either of my sons to turn out queer. It's disgusting and it ain't right. " John turned his gaze directly to Dean. His next words had left an impression on him, and were still running through his mind. "If you turn out like that, I'd disown you in a heartbeat."

When Dean first became aware of his feelings, he was angry with himself. His father's words would ring through his ears every time he had thoughts that he knew weren't normal. And he knew deep down what his father would do to him if he found out he was even thinking these thoughts. As he became friends with Castiel, and after learning a certain thing about him from Crowley, Dean's feelings for the same gender started to rise back to the surface.

"Dean," Mr. Wesson said. "Dean." He was shaken from his thoughts.

"Sorry," Dean replied.

"You all right?"

"Yeah," Dean replied. "Can I ask you one more thing?"

"Shoot," his teacher said.

"There's this guy I kinda like, I just don't know how to go about, you know," Dean said, fumbling on his words. He couldn't believe he was asking his history teacher these sort of questions.

"Well, okay, how about you start by finding out if this guy is also into guys," Mr. Wesson said.

"He does," Dean quickly replied.

"Then, how about asking him to a movie or something," the teacher offered. He was having a hard time grasping that he was having this conversation with a student. The only thing that was keeping him from ending this was knowing that Dean might not have an older male to talk to about this sort of thing, let alone someone who understands being gay. Mr. Wesson was flattered at the thought.

"He did ask me to go to this Halloween party," Dean said. "I'm going with him, though I have to bring my brother, and I think we're just hanging out as friends."

"Try something subtle. Touching, flirting, you know the easy things that can either go unnoticed or can help move things along." Yeah, Mr. Wesson was seriously having an odd conversation with a student. "As a responsible adult, promise me that if you do start to have sex, that you do it with condoms. I won't promote abstinence. It's a load of shit if you ask me. I'd rather give students the correct means to live life safely rather than aid in suppressing a human want."

Dean smiled slightly. "Thanks, Mr. Wesson."

"No problem."

The Halloween party ended up being at some kids' house that Castiel barely knew. Word got out around school where it was going to be and Ash had pressured his friend to meet him there. Every day since the address was leaked, Ash continuously annoyed his friend about it, never letting up telling him that it would be a Halloween to remember.

"You're coming to this party, dude," Ash said without even a good morning to his friend. Castiel was placing his backpack in his locker when Ash practically jumped on him about it again.

"I'm going, now shut up," Castiel said. He slammed his locker closed.

"Good, 'cause if you don't show up, I'm kicking your ass."

"Don't we have this same conversation every morning?"

Ash shrugged. "At least it'll get through that thick skull of yours." Castiel ducked out of the way of getting poked in the head. "Did you ask out you're Greek god yet?" Ash asked as they made their way through the halls towards their chemistry class.

"I did," Castiel replied.

"And?"

"And I think he's going," Castiel said.

"Sweet," Ash said. He hit his friend in the arm. "I told you this party is going to be epic."

"And if it isn't, I'll be the one kicking your ass," Castiel said.

"That ain't gonna happen, my friend."

Castiel knew exactly what he wanted his costume to be this year. He stumbled upon this television show one evening, after being told by some girl in last year's English class that he had to check it out, and he fell in love with it instantly. The girl, Charlie, ended up loaning her DVDs to Castiel the next week. She was ecstatic at the thought that Castiel was quickly becoming a fan boy.

Castiel stood in front of the bathroom mirror. He had put together his costume slowly, using all his money to acquire each piece throughout the year. The only thing that he owned already was his Converse sneakers. A white dress shirt was tucked into his navy blue striped dress pants. The matching suit coat was still hung up on a hanger on the back of the bathroom door. He was struggling with tying the tie that he bought for the sole use of this costume. Castiel couldn't knot the thing. He gave up after a good twenty minutes. The instructions he printed out weren't helping him in the least. He grabbed the suit jacket off the hanger and exited the bathroom.

"You look spiffy," Gabriel said. He was standing in the doorway of his bedroom with a packet of Fun Dip in hand. Castiel wasn't surprised that his brother raided the candy already.

"I try," Castiel said, shrugging.

"What are you supposed to be, anyway?" Gabriel asked. He stuck the sugar coated candy stick into his mouth. The blue to green powder was staining his lips.

"Isn't it obvious?" Castiel asked, his arms out. Gabriel looked at his brother questioningly. Castiel rolled his head back and turned to walk down the hallway. He still needed a few things to make his costume complete. Gabriel followed.

"It really isn't," Gabriel said.

"Here," Castiel said as he put on the tan trench coat over his suit jacket. "Do you get it?"

"Oh, I see it now," Gabriel said in mock enthusiasm. "No, I don't."

"Wait, I still need this," Castiel said. He went over to his backpack that was on the living room sofa. Inside was the last bit he needed to pull off the character. Castiel brandished the item, a silver and blue device that lit up and produced a buzzing sound. Gabriel was still looking at his little brother with confusion. Castiel dropped his shoulders and sighed heavily. "The tenth doctor. Doctor Who. David Tennant."

"Oh!" Gabriel exclaimed. "No. I don't get it."

"Never mind," Castiel said.