Chapter ten! It doesn't feel like the story should be this far through – what's going on?! Thanks so much to everyone who has reviewed, followed or favourite – you're all amazing and I'm so happy that you're enjoying the story. This chapter doesn't have any Destiel action in it as such, but it does start to show the first few problems creeping in... Please please review so that I know what you think! I hope you like it.

Once again, a massive thank-you to my beta rdmnss!

Disclaimer: I don't own Supernatural or any of the characters. If I did, Destiel would be canon, Gabriel would still be alive and Metatron would never have gotten away with expelling all of the angels from Heaven... *sob*

Castiel wasn't sure why he felt nervous walking to the coffee shop where he was meeting Gabriel – he saw his brother every couple of months for a chat, so it wasn't like this was unusual. But this was the first time that Castiel had arranged to meet him since he started dating Dean – he presumed they were dating now – and he wasn't sure how Gabriel would react to that. Of course, Gabriel had been teasing Castiel for ages about getting together with a girl – but Dean wasn't a girl, and he had heard that being sexually attracted to men if you were male was despised by some, for whatever reason. Castiel didn't know if that opinion was held by his brother – Gabriel could certainly be very opinionated about certain things. It would be very difficult to proceed with Dean if Gabriel wasn't supporting. After all, all of Castiel's advice came from his brother – Gabriel was the one who had always enjoyed going on 'dates'.

Sighing, Castiel watched a pair of pigeons fight over a few crumbs at the side of the road. That would be an interesting image to paint – he carefully committed the scene to memory, deciding that when he got home he would attempt it, just to take a break from portrait painting. He was so absorbed with staring at the birds that he didn't notice someone come up behind him until they put their hands over his eyes.

Panicking at the sudden obstruction to his vision, Castiel lashed out to one side, and heard an 'oof!' as his fist made contact. The hands dropped from his face and Castiel whipped around to see Gabriel standing there, an expression halfway between amusement and pain on his face.

"Damn, Cassy-boy, I forgot how hard you could punch!" Gabriel exclaimed.

Castiel rolled his eyes. "There was no need for you to obstruct my vision in such a way. I panicked – for that I apologise. I did not know it was you."

Gabriel laughed, straightening up and trying to hide his wince. "It's nice to see you too. Come on; let's go inside before you start a riot in the streets."

Castiel shook his head at his brother's lame attempt at humour. Spending time with Gabriel could really try on his patience sometimes.

Once they were settled on a couch at the back, Gabriel ordering his typical ridiculously sweet coffee and chocolate brownies while Castiel stuck with tea, Gabriel began talking again.

"So, Cassy-boy, how's your art school thing going? Made any friends yet?"

Of course, that was the first thing that Gabriel would bring up.

"My work at the Academy is going well. We are working on our portrait portfolios at the moment, experimenting with different mediums to produce a variety of pieces of work of the same subject. As for friends – yes, I have made one, although I believe that he is closer to a boyfriend at this point."

Gabriel nearly spat out his coffee.

"Cassy-boy has a boyfriend? Well it's about time! I'm proud of you! Come on, give me all the juicy details – what's he like? Is he tall? Muscular? Hot?"

A few people were looking over strangely at this point – Gabriel wasn't exactly good at keeping his voice down.

"Um." Castiel felt a bit awkward, and felt his body language closing up under the scrutiny. "His name's Dean, he's studying mechanics at the college. He's 18, I think, and yes, he is very muscular. If by 'hot' you mean physically attractive, then yes, I am attracted to him. It would be hard not to be."

Gabriel's face was split into the biggest grin Castiel had ever seen.

"Man, Cassy-boy, how did you score him? I wasn't aware attractive, muscular mechanics normally went for socially awkward recluses. No offence."

"None taken." Castiel paused, thinking. "I don't know. I rejected his offer of friendship at first, but he was very persistent, and eventually I agreed to meet up with him. From there it just escalated, we got on very well. He's a very understanding person."

"Aww, well isn't that just heart-warming." Gabriel patted Castiel on the shoulder. "Congratulations! Have you kissed him yet?"

Castiel froze. "...Yes." He replied reluctantly. He felt like he was admitting to some kind of sin, although why, he didn't know.

"My Cassy-boy is growing up! Finally!" Gabriel was practically bouncing in his seat – Castiel edged away slightly so that a flailing arm didn't knock his half-full cup of tea over.

Gabriel's face suddenly took on a darker look. "He's not... using you, is he, Cassy? You know, you're comfortable with everything he's doing? I just want to look after you and make sure. You can tell me."

Castiel gave Gabriel a stern look. "Gabriel, I know that you are only watching out for my safety, but you can trust Dean. He's never done anything I'm not comfortable with, and I know he's holding back in order to do that, so I am very grateful to him. He would never try anything unorthodox."

"You think that sex is unorthodox?" Gabriel asked in a teasing voice.

Castiel blushed bright red and turned away, making Gabriel laugh.

"Sorry, Cassy-boy. Well as long as you and Dean-o are happy, I'm happy for you. When do I get to meet him?"

"It's Dean, and I don't know. I don't know if he is ready to meet my family yet."

Gabriel's face softened. "Well, I'd like to meet him, so just give me a call when you're both happy to do that." He chuckled again. "Wow, I never thought I'd see this day. You've proved me wrong, Cassy, I thought you'd be in your twenties by the time you finally plucked up the courage to date someone."

Castiel frowned but didn't respond.

"Anyway!" Gabriel picked up a brownie and bit into it. "I need to tell you about this amazing thing that happened at the sweet shop the other day. See, this lady came in and - "

Castiel tuned out Gabriel's voice, knowing that he would probably talk for at least ten minutes about whatever had happened to him in the past few months. It wasn't that he wasn't interested – Gabriel's stories were always interesting, if a little odd – he just needed some time to process his relief at Gabriel's support. Castiel was thrilled that Gabriel didn't seem to have a problem with his sexual orientation – he hadn't even mentioned it, almost like he'd always suspected. Perhaps he had – Castiel didn't know how you could tell whether someone was into men or women just by looking at them, but maybe if you had practise you could. If anyone was able to do something like that, it would certainly be Gabriel with his years of experience in sex.

Glancing around, Castiel suddenly noticed a man looking at him from the other side of the shop. He was quite heavily built and wearing mechanics overalls, and he looked around 17 or 18, with a small amount of scruff on his chin that just about passed for a beard. He was staring at Castiel with what could only be described as loathing, and when he noticed Castiel staring back he mouthed the word 'faggot' with a menacing expression. Not really understand what was going on, but disliking the man instantly, Castiel shuddered and turned away, noticing that Gabriel now wore a worried expression.

"Are you alright, Cassy-boy? You zoned out there for a second."

Castiel shrugged. "I'm fine, Gabriel. It is nothing." He wasn't fine, but he didn't want Gabriel to worry about him. He was an adult – he could look after himself.

Gabriel nodded, but the look of concern stayed on his face, and he held Castiel's gaze for a few seconds contemplating before turning back to his nearly-finished plate of brownies.

I'm afraid I've got to dash after this." Gabriel apologised after a few seconds. "I've got a date with Kali at five, I need to go back and get ready."

"Who is Kali?" Castiel asked, only half-interested in the answer.

Gabriel actually flushed a little. "She's a girl I met at a bar a few nights ago. Seriously feisty – downright dangerous when she's angry, in fact – but seriously hot as well. I asked for her number and she practically accosted me. But she agreed that I could take her out on a proper date if I wanted to get to know her, so here we are."

Castiel raised his eyebrows. "You mean you might actually keep her around for long enough to get to know her?"

Gabriel poked his tongue out at Castiel. "Oi! I'm not that bad! But yes – if there was any woman who could make me settle down a bit, it would be her. There's just something about her spark – I don't know. We'll see how tonight goes."

Castiel smiled. "I am glad that you found someone like that, Gabriel."

He smiled. "Me too."

A few minutes later, having finished their drinks and food, Castiel and Gabriel stepped out of the shop and Gabriel pulled Castiel in for a hug.

"It was good to see you little bro! We should do that again soon – maybe if you introduce me to Dean-o I can introduce you to Kali? Email me!" With an excited wave, Gabriel walked off, leaving Castiel shaking his head slightly at his brother's enthusiasm. It must be all the sugar.

A smile on his face, Castiel walked around the corner to head back to his apartment and almost walked right into someone. He looked up to apologise, but the words died on his lips as he noticed the intimidating figure of the man from the coffee shop looming over him. His body tensed and he subconsciously moved into a fighting stance, but the man simply leered unpleasantly down at him.

"So you're the reason that Dean's stopped comin' out with me to pick up chicks, huh?" He asked scathingly.

Castiel remained silent, trying not to aggravate him. Presumably this guy knew Dean somehow – he vaguely remembered Dean mentioning someone who he used to spend time with once, but he couldn't recall the name.

He guy stepped back and spat on the ground in front of Castiel's feet. "I don't know what kind of faggot nonsense you're tryin' to infect Dean with, but know this – that guy's one of the straightest people I know, so he's only usin' you for somethin'. If you know what's good for you, stay away from him. He'll only hurt you in the end – and if he doesn't, I will. Consider that a promise."

The man wheeled around and walked off, his face a mask of anger. Castiel tried to force himself to relax. In a way, it would have been easier if the guy had just tried to attack him – Castiel knew how to physically defend himself, he had taken martial arts for years before coming here, but he had no idea how to deal with verbal abuse. He couldn't help but go over what the man had said. Was Dean really just using him? Was he just trying to embarrass Castiel in a way that he hadn't noticed? He liked to think that that wasn't the case, but a shade of doubt was beginning to creep in – plenty of people had mentioned that now, so perhaps the warning was just. He didn't trust this man, but he was beginning to doubt his trust in Dean too.

Shaking slightly, Castiel walked away, going over his best options of what to do now. He couldn't exactly just talk to Dean about it, and he couldn't talk to Gabriel because he was going out tonight. That was just about everyone that Castiel talked to. He could just ignore what had happened – but then what would he do about Dean? Did he want to go out with him again knowing that he might just be being used? Castiel could feel a sinking feeling in his heart. This was why he didn't have friends. Forming attachments only lead to getting hurt – he had learnt that with his family. He should never have made that mistake again.

Behind him, Benny smiled a triumphant smile. His plan had worked. The weird kid was suitably shaken up, and shouldn't be bothering Dean again. He would have his friend back in no time.

Thanks again for reading – please write me a review so that I know what you think! Feel free to make suggestions as to how Cas and Dean's next meeting should go, now that Cas is starting to have doubts...