Dean sauntered in to Shop class, followed closely by Gabriel, the two of them laughing loudly. Everyone already seated glared at the two of them, even Bobby rolled his eyes at their loud behaviour. Gabriel steered Dean over to the work-bench occupied by Castiel, who was sat quietly reading a History book.

"Well, if it isn't my barrel of fun cousin!" Gabriel laughed, sitting on Castiel's right-hand-side. Dean smirked and sat on his left.

"Afternoon Gabriel," Castiel smiled, shutting his book and sliding it in to his bag; "hello Dean, how's your day been?"

"Not too bad, gotten a bit of hassle, but, you know... Nothing I can't handle."

Castiel frowned; "has Balthazar just made things worse?"

"Stop fretting, Cas! Dean-O's fine! Big strong boy like him can handle anything!" Gabriel grinned, elbowing his cousin. Before Castiel could reply, Bobby called the class to order. He took attendance and explained the lesson plan, before calling everyone to gather around his bench.

"Right kids, we're making shelves today, nice and easy..."

Dean grinned as Bobby talked the class through making shelves, finding the whole thing surreal. Eventually, he set the class off to start their work, Dean finding it easy. As he easily sanded edges and drilled holes, he noticed Castiel having some trouble, Gabriel laughing.

"Don't laugh at me, Gabriel! You know I'm no good at DIY!" Castiel frowned, dropping his file on to the bench. Dean smiled meekly and went over.

"You all right, Castiel? Need some help?"

Castiel smiled awkwardly; "please! I'm terrible at this!"

"No problem, I'm a natural. Firstly, you need the vice to be tight, yours is quite loose."

Dean tightened the vice's grip on Castiel's block of wood by quite a lot. Castiel smiled sheepishly.

"And then, you need to get in to a steady rhythm, it should be easier now the wood's not slipping about everywhere."

"Thank you."

"It's fine. You need help, ask, I'm nearly done."

Gabriel grinned whilst getting on with his own shelves. It didn't take long for Castiel to find another problem.

"Um, Dean? Could you undo the vice? It's too tight for me."

Dean grinned; "sure, sorry, can't help it, don't know my own strength."

Castiel smiled; "it's ok... Could you help me with the drill? I usually get Gabriel to do it for me, it makes me nervous."

"No problem! Come on."

Castiel followed Dean over to the drill, cringing when he began fiddling with the drill-bit. After checking everything was in place, he stood behind Castiel and manoeuvred him in to place.

"Hold on to your piece tightly, and grab the top of the lever..."

Castiel gulped down a dry swallow, doing as he was instructed, taking in a sharp breath as Dean's hand found it's place on top of his.

"You've got to ease the drill down gently. This wood is fine, but it's best to get in to the habit so you don't end up splitting the more brittle types, right?"

Castiel nodded, finding it hard to take in what Dean was saying, as the larger boy pressed himself against his back, reaching around to turn the drill on.

"Keep a tight hold of the wood or else it'll go flying..." Dean said quietly, resting his other hand on Castiel's shoulder. With Dean's help, Castiel eased in to drilling several holes, but found it difficult to keep his nerves at bay. Gabriel glanced over at the two boys and grinned.

"Dean, why are you holding his hand?" he laughed. Dean and Castiel looked over, noticing their hands were atop each others as they gripped the drill handle. Castiel's face blushed bright pink.

"I'm teaching him how to use the drill, it's a very hands-on activity, Gabriel!" Dean responded, a slight smirk on his face.

"Yeah, well, make sure it doesn't turn in to Brokeback Mountain!"

"Dude, we're making shelves, not camping in the mountains!"

Gabriel laughed; "close enough, man!"

Dean released Castiel and shut the machine off; "we're done... Need more help?"

Castiel smiled meekly; "could you just do it for me?"

Dean laughed and clapped Castiel on the shoulder; "seriously? That's cheating!"

"Well, I'll never need to put up shelves, I'll just get a guy to do it for me!"

"Come on, DIY is a very manly thing! Show off how butch you are!"

Castiel laughed; "butch men don't wear waistcoats and ties."

"You could start a new trend... Why do you wear that, anyway?"

Castiel shrugged and followed Dean back to their bench; "I just like to look smart... I have an affinity for three-piece suits. They're just about the only things that turn me on."

Dean stopped abruptly, staring at Castiel; "you what?"

Castiel suddenly realised what he'd said and turned red; "well, uh... Not like... It's just a phrase, I mean, I'm not sexually aroused by them, it's just..."

Dean nodded; "yeah, I think I understand..."

The two boys awkwardly sat down, Gabriel still grinning. Castiel managed to get on with his work for a few more minutes before needing Dean's help.

"Dean, I require assistance... Again, I'm sorry."

Dean grinned and shrugged, shuffling over to Castiel; "it's fine, what's up?"

"This piece won't fit in to this piece," he frowned, holding up two pieces of wood. Dean reached over the bench, his shirt hitching up slightly, grabbing some pages of sandpaper.

"You need to sand the top there, it's a tiny bit too wide."

Castiel nodded and watched Dean fold up a sheet several times before handing it to him; he gingerly reached to take it, their fingers lingering before Dean let go.

"You know how to do it, right?"

"Um, yes..."

Dean flashed Castiel a cheeky grin before turning back to his own work, having nearly completely finished. Gabriel was messing about, half doing his work, half stabbing pieces of scrap-wood with his screwdriver.

"Hey, can you answer me something?" Dean asked, suddenly, looking up from his work. Gabriel and Castiel looked up from their own work.

"What?"

"Balthazar, and Crowley... How come-"

"-They have British accents? British nannys," Gabriel answered, twirling his screwdriver around his fingers. Castiel nodded and got on with his work.

"We weren't raised by our parents, they were too busy doing whatever they had to do, so we had an abundance of nannys to look after us. Crowley's and Balthazar's were British, so they have very obnoxious accents. They even picked up some of the idioms..." Castiel explained, softly scraping his piece of wood with the sandpaper. Dean nodded.

"So... Was yours really strict?"

Gabriel laughed; "she was so anal about everything! We had the same one... Castiel obviously followed in her footsteps, I rebelled pretty hard."

Castiel nodded; "so much defiance for a four-year-old!"

Dean grinned; "in what way?"

"Well, she'd insist on having things in order. Crayons in rainbow order, books stacked in order of size... I'd purposely mix the crayons up, stack the books however I wanted to, I just basically messed with her OCD senses... Which little Cas picked up instead. She sods off, I then have to deal with her tiny clone instead!"

Castiel smirked; "and who do you turn to when you can't find something?"

"Sometimes your superpowers come in handy... Dean, never let this boy in to your room, it won't be the same after he leaves!"

Dean laughed; "oh?"

"He has super obsessive compulsions, he has to tidy and organise, no matter how personal things are!"

Castiel shrugged and got on with his work. Dean smirked at him and casually began rubbing varnish in to his finished shelves whilst Gabriel laughed about some of Castiel's habits, including how he woke up at the crack of dawn, how his ties were organised by type, size and colour, and how he kept a diary.

"It's not a diary, Gabriel, it's a journal! I'm not a thirteen-year-old girl!"

Dean laughed; "what's the difference?"

Castiel sighed; "I don't write about my feelings and cute boys, I chronologically list the days events and occasionally note any anomalous emotional reactions that may have occurred."

Behind Castiel, Gabriel was grinning and nodding; "he does have a list in the back of all the cute boys!"

Dean laughed as Castiel hung his head in defeat.

"I'm not even going to bother arguing any more."

"It's all right Cas, I believe you!"

Castiel smiled and continued his work, stopping abruptly after a few moments, looking up at Dean. Dean stopped what he was doing too to look back at Castiel with a confused face.

"...Yes?"

"...You called me Cas!"

Dean paused, before looking shocked; "oh, shit, sorry!"

"No... It's fine... It's, nice, coming from you..."

"Um... Ok?"

Castiel looked down at his work, feeling his face burning slightly; "sorry, that probably sounded kind of creepy."

Behind him he could hear Gabriel laughed; "wow Cas, make a friend and scare him away ten minutes later! You don't come on to your friends, Castiel, I know you're new to this, but if you want to have sex with someone, you woo them first!"

Dean could feel his face burning too, he glanced over at Castiel who looked like he was shaking.

"I wasn't... I wouldn't... I mean... I'd never..."

Castiel's stuttering made Gabriel laugh even more. Just in time, Bobby shouted for the class to stop what they were doing and start to clean up, putting their work, however unfinished, in one of the empty cupboards. Castiel took the opportunity to flee from Gabriel's mockery, cleaning up and darting out of the room the moment the bell rang. Gabriel was still chuckling as he and Dean left for their next lesson.

"That was kind of cruel, Gabe."

Gabriel shrugged; "he'll be fine, I rarely get to embarrass him in front of someone who's not family. Besides, you know I was only kidding!"

Dean nodded; "fair enough..."

That evening, Dean was arguing with Sam about using the laptop.

"It's mine!"

"I need to use it! All you do is play games!"

"Get your own! Just because you want to email your boyfriend!"

"Just let me use it! For fucks sake!"

Bobby sighed angrily and marched in to the room; "will you two shut the hell up? Sam, let Dean use your computer for ten minutes, Dean, once you're done emailing, you get to work!"

Sam and Dean glared at each other, Dean snatching the laptop from Sam's hands and marching downstairs. He quickly logged in to his email and smiled at the (1).

"RE: I'm so so sorry Dean.
I cannot apologise enough for Gabriel's behaviour today, and for mine. I should have acted with more decorum, especially after you helped me so much. This is why I steer away from making friends, I'm too awkward around people I'm not comfortable with. Not that you make me uncomfortable but at the same time you do, if that makes sense? You don't want to be my friend anyway, I'm not all that, I'm extremely overrated. Anyway, I shan't be surprised if this is the last message between the two of us.
Castiel."

Dean frowned and quickly wrote his reply.

"Castiel, you have nothing to apologise for! I know what Gabriel's like, he was just trying to embarrass you, don't worry! And I get you're awkward and uncomfortable around people you don't know, I guess you just have to get to know me some more, then, you won't be awkward! And don't say you're not 'all that', you're pretty awesome from what I've seen so far, you're too harsh on yourself.
I can't talk for long today, I've got to go to work in five minutes. If you want, you could drop by? Get to work on that butch image of yours? Though, I wouldn't suggest you wear your usual, it might get dirty. Unless you have a casual suit you wear when you have odd jobs to do? I wouldn't even be surprised if you did!
Right then, I'll be going, I may be on later if I don't see you? Please come by! Look, you've got me begging, you bastard! Right, in attempts to maintain what little dignity I have left, I shall bid you goodbye, for now.
Dean."

Not even bothering to re-write what he'd written to make himself sound less lame, he clicked 'send', grinning, before going back upstairs to give Sam the laptop back and get changed for work. Bobby's garage was only a five minute walk from his house, but Dean rarely got the chance to drive anywhere, so took the one minute drive down the road instead.

It was an unusually nice, warm day for October, and it didn't take Dean long to take off the top half of his navy overalls, tying the arms around his waist. It also didn't take long for his white wife-beater to get covered in grease, oil and sweat, along with his arms and face. He was hunched over the engine of a Toyota Pickup when his co-worker, Rufus called him.

"There's a kid here to see you, really awkward... Dressed in a suit and tie for God's sake!"

Dean laughed and rubbed the sweat from his forehead with his arm to reduce the amount of grease being transferred; "yeah, send him back."

The older man rolled his eyes and disappeared back into the office. Dean leant back on the car, stretching his arms out in front of him. A few moments later, Castiel slipped out of the office, looking awkward, but wearing a significantly less dapper suit. Dean grinned and held his hand up in greeting.

"You came!"

Castiel nodded and shuffled over towards him, noticing the way Dean's arms and face were reflecting the sunlight; "I got your email..."

"Great... So..."

"You're all, dirty, and greasy."

Dean grinned and rubbed his face again, smearing some grease across his forehead; "yeah, it happens when you're bent over a car's innards all afternoon. Nice suit, by the way."

Castiel smiled foolishly; "yeah, I don't really have any, casual clothes?"

"You look a bit like Constantine!"

The smaller boy frowned; "who?"

"Oh, he's a comic book character, an occult detective? There was a film based on it starring Keanu Reeves?"

Castiel shook his head; "I don't follow."

Dean smiled; "of course you don't... So... Want to see how to change a spark plug?"

"Um... You'd have to tell me what a spark plug is."

Dean laughed and pulled a rag from his overall's pocket, wiping his hands before grabbing the shoulder of Castiel's jacket, leading him over to the engine. Even if he'd wanted to listen to what Dean was saying, Castiel couldn't concentrate at all. He was too engrossed in Dean himself, instead of his words; he had a completely different smell to his usual musk, obviously because he'd spent a lot of time rolling around in car oil and grease. He'd also never seen Dean wearing less than his shirts and jackets, and wasn't expecting his arms to be as thick and muscular as they were. His whole getup was something Castiel thought only existed in women's "man calendars". He noticed he was staring quite intently when Dean waved his hand in his face.

"Cas, you all right?"

Castiel blinked a couple of times before nodding; "yeah, sorry, I was elsewhere."

Dean smiled; "sorry, I should have guessed cars aren't your thing."

Castiel smiled back; "it's fine, it's nice to see you so interested in something, even if you do look a little cliché."

Dean laughed; "cliché?"

"You look like you should on some calendar, or in some women's magazine."

Dean laughed even harder; "seriously? Maybe I should take up modelling, earn a little more money!"

Castiel hummed his response, neither agreeing or disagreeing. Dean grinned and wiped his hands on his rag again.

"So... Want a drink? We only have tea or coffee, but you know, so-"

"-Tea, please," Castiel smiled. Dean grinned and guided Castiel back up to the office, to the small kitchenette. Rufus was sat with his feet up on the table, reading the days evening newspaper.

"Drink Rufus?"

The older man looked up and frowned; "coffee please Dean. So, who's your friend?"

"This is Cas, met him at school."

Rufus nodded and looked Cas over, still frowning; "your friend wear suits often?"

Dean grinned; "all the time!"

Castiel shook his head to stop himself staring at Dean again, finding himself doing it quite a lot.

"Hey Cas, you ok making your own? I don't want it to taste like grease..."

"Yeah, do you want me to make yours and-"

"-Nah, Rufus and I drink enough grease daily to be a little lost without it in our tea."

Castiel chuckled and began making his tea, whilst Dean made the other two. Normally, he shied away from human contact, but Castiel found himself leaning in to Dean whenever they bumped arms. After Rufus got his coffee, he went out front to the desk, leaving Castiel and Dean alone. The two of them sat at the table, nursing their mugs of tea.

"I'm glad you came, Cas."

Castiel smiled, staring down at his tea to stop himself staring at Dean; "I don't thing anything could keep me away."

"Wild horses couldn't drag me away!"

Castiel looked up' "hmm?"

"Oh, just, a Rolling Stones lyric... So um, why did you come? I mean, you have no visible interest in cars, and well..."

"You suggested I get to know you so I wouldn't feel awkward around you. An opportunity showed itself for me to do just that, so, I took it... I'd really like to be your friend, Dean. You're so much nicer than anyone I've met at school."

Dean smiled, feeling his cheeks burn; "I am your friend, Cas. You don't need to try to impress me or anything... Be yourself, besides, you know if you tried to pretend, Gabriel would just pull you up on it anyway!"

Castiel chuckled nervously; "that's true... You really see us as friends?"

"Yeah! ...You don't?"

"...If I'm honest, I don't know what friendship... Feels like."

"It's a bit like this..."

Castiel smiled and lifted his cup to his lips, staring in to Dean's eyes, mentally noting every shade of green he could see. Dean meanwhile stared in awe at the blue of Castiel's eyes, feeling like they were staring in to his soul.

"Dean, can I ask you something?"

Dean shrugged and took a quick sip of his drink; "sure."

"You said your mother enjoyed Theology... And you knew Castiel was the Angel of Thursday, um... Do you also enjoy Theology? Or did you just retain knowledge through osmosis?"

Dean frowned slightly; "well uh... My mom died when I was 7, and Theology was like, her passion, you know? So, I kept her books, read them, memorised the information, in a kind of attempt to keep her alive, you know?"

"I'm sorry."

"It's fine... So um, why the angel names?"

"Just, a family quirk. A sort of, tradition passed through the fraternal side of my family... Everyone has a kind of, religious name... Over time, everyone I know has been named after angels, the 12 apostles, the gospel writers..."

Dean nodded; "wow, how big is your family?"

"Quite... So uh, what about your family?"

"Um... Do you mind if we don't talk about my family? It's kind of, a sore subject."

Castiel frowned and looked down; "yeah, sorry."

"Don't apologise dude. Come on, I have work to do."

AN: I read this back after posting, I had no idea it was so laced with innuendo! It seemed so innocuous when I wrote it! Ahh well, I hope you all enjoy the double entendres!