Four

Dean has now been avoiding Castiel for two days—Dean didn't answer his texts on Sunday and did not go to school on Monday, telling his dad that he was sick. So when Castiel showed up on his doorstep at 9:00 Monday night, Dean was definitely not prepared.

"Dean. You've been ignoring me," Castiel says as he pushes his way inside.

"I haven't been ignoring you, I've just been sick," Dean responds.

"You look fine to me."

Cas's jaw is set and Dean can see a slow-burning anger in his eyes. Castiel isn't furious like he was when he showed up at Dean's a week and a half ago; now he's just hurt.

"I don't understand, Dean. Why did you just suddenly stop talking to me?" Castiel asks.

"Look Cas, it's nothing, it's fine. I just think that… That maybe we should stop with the whole "revenge on Michael" thing. I think it's gone far enough. I think he gets the point."

"What?!" Cas exclaims. "No! Not yet! He hasn't even said anything about it to me yet! I want to know his reaction!"

"C'mon Cas, it's been a week, he hasn't said anything, and it's just kind of weird. This isn't like you, man. Just let it go."

"I can't, Dean! He hurt me, don't you get it! I just want him to feel a little of the anger that he caused me. I want to know that I didn't just stand by and let him walk all over me without doing anything about it. Please, Dean, just one more week, and if he doesn't react by then, we can drop it. I promise."

Dean knows that he is going to regret this. He can feel it in every single one of his bones, but because he now apparently has a thing for Cas and would clearly do anything for him, he just can't say no.

"Fine! Fine, Cas. One week. One. And then this game is over."

Cas just beams at Dean and wraps his arms around his friend. As Dean embraces Castiel in return, he can't help but think that if Cas is going to react like this, then helping him out is totally worth it.

Another school week has passed by, and Dean and Jo are sitting in his room on Friday afternoon. Dean, having finally admitted to himself and Jo that maybe, just maybe he has a little crush on Cas, is complaining.

"I was completely fine before all of this started! I didn't have a stupid crush on him, I didn't want to date him and kiss him and cuddle him all the freakin' time, and now every time I see him my heart just freakin' goes into overdrive!"

"Dean," Jo replies, "let's get real. Whether you realized it or not, you totally had a thing for Cas before this whole "pretending to date" thing."

"No, I didn't!" Dean nearly yells.

"Oh, really," Jo responds sarcastically. "Then how come every time I come over here on movie nights, you guys are practically draped across each other? Why do you think you hated Michael so much when he and Cas started dating? Why do you think you hate him so much for hurting Cas? And why in the hell do you think you were so willing to walk around holding Cas's hand everywhere and acting like the perfect boyfriend when you get literally nothing out of it?"

Dean sits and ponders Jo's questions for a minute before the truth hits him in the face like a very rude, very abruptly swung baseball bat.

"Oh my, God. You're right. You're totally right. I totally have a thing for Cas. Why didn't I know?"

"Because," Jo says with an eye roll, "you're an idiot. And so is Cas. Because he totally likes you too and he can't tell that you're sitting in here pining away like a doofus when you could be out there kissing him."

"Jo, I really don't think he likes me, because if you haven't noticed, he's still kind of hung up on the whole Michael thing," Dean retorts.

"Oh, Dean," Jo sighs, "poor, sweet summer child, baby-face Dean. Word of advice: tell him tonight when you go out, okay? I promise, it'll be fine, and you'll be a lot happier with him knowing than just tagging along pretending to be his boyfriend. Especially when you actually could be his boyfriend."

With that, Jo struts out of the room, heading to The Roadhouse for her shift. Dean looks at the clock: 4:30. Still another hour and a half until he has to pick up Cas for their "date" tonight. Cas had somehow gotten wind that Michael and Mr. Community College would be at Purgatory tonight, a local club that actually allowed eighteen year-olds, and had promptly begged Dean to go. Apparently, Dean's recent case of "can't say no" just won't stop.

Dean sits thinking on his bed for a few more minutes before reaching a decision: Jo's right. He can't just sit around pretending to be Cas's boyfriend anymore, he has to do something.

With that in mind, Dean dons his best jeans, a dark green button-down, and goes out to have the best date of his life with his best friend.

Dean and Cas go out for pizza before hitting the club, before their "date" actually starts, and Dean is doing all that he can to signal to Cas that he's totally, 100% into this date. Cas, however, is not getting a single bit of it.

Dean has been holding Cas's hand across the table, has been flirting incessantly, has even tried playing footsie with the guy a couple times, and Castiel has literally been nothing but unaware and stoic.

So it's grumpily and slightly awkwardly that Dean drives to Purgatory and parks his car, grumbling under his breath a bit as they walk to the line at the door. As they wait in line, Cas finally pipes up.

"Dean, are you okay?" he asks. "You seem a bit disgruntled."

Dean sighs, "I'm fine, Cas."

"Are you sure?"

"Yeah, Cas," Dean says, a bit downtrodden. "Let's just have a good time tonight and show Michael what he's missing out on, okay?"

Dean offers Cas a small smile, which he returns gleefully. Michael has been throwing sullen stares at the pairs' way all for the past several days or so. Cas is pretty sure that he's about to his breaking point with Cas and Dean's blatant public flirting and PDA, which is why he was so insistent that they go out to Purgatory tonight.

Cas looks at Dean and says, "I promise that when Michael breaks, it'll be completely worth it."

Dean offers a tight-lipped smile and pulls out his ID as he and Cas reach the front of the line. They get their hands X-ed with a sharpie marker, signaling that they are not yet old enough to drink, and then make their way into the club. The music is infectious, the people wild and mostly drunk, and Dean calms down a bit. There's no way he can't have at least some fun here tonight.

"Come on, Cas," he says, holding out his hand, "let's dance."

Cas smiles and places his hand in Dean's, intertwining their fingers by habit at this point, and let's himself be pulled to the dance floor. Dean let's go of Cas's hand and the two move to the music, facing each other and being jostled by the crowd around them. Dean takes advantage of the close quarters provided by the crowd to bump into Cas as often as possible. He completely forgets about Michael.

Dean realizes that he is in the perfect position to make some more moves. He slowly reaches out and grabs Cas's hand again, moving their bodies closer and closer until their chests are touching. Castiel just smiles and continues dancing, moving to the beat of the music. Dean decides to go for step two and snakes his arms around Cas's waist; his hands slowly detach themselves from Cas's, and twine around his body to rest on his back. Their faces are only a few inches apart now. Dean can feel Cas's breath on his face, can almost taste him, and just as he's finally, finally working up the courage to possibly close those few inches to Cas's lips, the song they're dancing to ends and Cas pulls back with his eyebrows furrowed in question.

Dean curses the song and the DJ and all music in general, but doesn't let his opportunity completely slip away. As a new song starts, Dean grabs Cas's hand and says, "one more song."

But this time, rather than wrapping his arms around Castiel and pulling them chest-to-chest, he turns Castiel around so that Cas's back is facing Dean. Dean then steps into him and molds his chest and stomach to Cas's spine, rests his chin on Cas's shoulder. He hears Cas quietly gasp in a short breath. He can almost feel Castiel's realization that this is more than simply a fake date.

Dean feels Cas's head begin to turn, and he lifts his head from Cas's shoulder to meet his eyes. The two stare at each other on the dance floor, barely moving to the music anymore, and their breath intermingles between them. Dean can feel the electricity flowing between them, can almost already feel Cas's lips on his, and he finally starts moving in towards Cas, closing the barely there space between them. Then, before Dean can capture Cas's two perfect, rosy, chapped lips:

"Hello, Castiel."

Cas jerks away from Dean, jumping as though he's been shocked, and stares at Michael.

"Michael," Castiel says, slightly out of breath.

"How are you this evening, Castiel?" Michael asks with a quirked eyebrow and a slight smirk.

"I'm doing just fine, thank you. Where's your boyfriend?" Cas asks, almost sneering. Dean thinks it's a good look on him.

"Oh, he's not my boyfriend. Dylan and I are completely over, Castiel. That's actually why I came here tonight. I'd heard you'd be here and I was hoping we could talk."

"Talk," Cas repeats stoically, no emotion at all in his voice. "Talk about what?"

"Well," Michael responds," about us, of course."

Dean scoffs and looks at Michael like he's crazy. Of course Cas doesn't want to talk, of course Cas doesn't want to work it out, of course Cas doesn't want there to be an "us." Dean's just about to tell Michael exactly where he can shove his "discussion" when Cas opens his mouth first instead.

"Okay."

"Okay? Okay?" Dean shouts. "Are you serious, Cas? You do remember that this is the dick that cheated on you, right? The one that you literally caught with another dude in his bed? That asshole, you remember, right?"

"Of course, I remember Dean, we are merely going to have a discussion," Cas assures him in a calm voice.

"Yeah, well, discuss this," Dean huffs out, pushing past Cas and Michael. "I'm done. I'm leaving. See you whenever."

With that Dean storms off the dance floor toward the front of the club, leaving Michael and Cas standing alone. Dean doesn't notice Cas's confused gaze following him out of the club. He doesn't notice Michael smirk after him in triumph. Nor does he notice Charlie standing off to the side with Benny, both of them having witnessed the whole encounter.

Rather, he notices the stinging of his eyes as he fights back angry tears, he notices the ache in his chest where it feels like someone shoved his heart into a trash compactor, and he noticed his fingers clenched around his car keys. Dean is angry, he's pissed even, but mostly he's just hurt. He's done so much for Cas in just the past two weeks alone, but now, as soon as Michael asks, Cas is running back to him. Dean feels like he doesn't even exist as all.

Charlie walks to the bar where Castiel is sitting talking to Michael and grabs him by his ear.

"Ow, ow, OW!" Cas yells as Charlie drags him away from the bar. "What the hell, Charlie?"

"You," Charlie hisses out through her clenched teeth, "are an incomprehensibly, profoundly large idiot."