Dean's fine with the way things are until one bleak Thursday afternoon. Mr. Shurley assigns them projects to work on. Partnered projects. Assigned Partners. Dean ends up with Cas, and Dean honestly thinks God hates him. Why else would He do this to him? He asks to go to Cas' place, but Cas tells him that Zachariah is in a mood, and he would not like dealing with his 'family.' Cas says it with physical quotation marks, and Dean is more than a bit curious about quite a few things. First; who is Zachariah. Second; What happened to his family? Dean thinks maybe Cas did have it as bad as him. He makes a mental note to start opening up to Cas. So they head out to the school parking lot to get to Dean's Baby.
Cas heads over to, from Dean's point of view, a rather short boy Dean doesn't recognize.
"There you are Cassie! I was wondering if you'd gotten lost." He's sitting on the hood of a Corvette Stingray, and Dean just about has a heart attack for the gorgeous car.
"Dean, this is Gabriel." Cas introduces them and Dean thinks he's heard that name in passing.
"Nice to finally meet you, Dean." Gabriel sticks out his hand and Dean shakes it.
Dean circles around the car and asks, "This yours?"
"Yeah, sure is." Gabe sound absolutely full of himself and Dean hates it.
Dean remembers where he's heard the name before as he reaches the rear of the car.
"Dean and I have a project to work on, so I will be late in returning home. Please inform Zachariah."
Gabe sighs, "Yeah, sure thing Cassie."
"So you're the guy who was friends with Cas, before everything?" Gabe sneers at Dean as if he's an affront to nature and it pisses Dean off more than anything. Dean can tell Gabe is trying to get under his skin.
Dean keeps his face straight as he makes his way full circle around the car, his inspection complete. The car is well taken care of, but still well used. At least he doesn't throw money around like it's toilet paper.
"Yeah," He keeps his voice calm, like the subject hasn't shifted from a polite greeting at all, "And you're the guy who keeps getting turned down by my brother." He smirks now. "Must suck getting turned down all the time." He walks towards his Baby. "This way, Cas!" He waves for Cas to follow him.
He hears Cas talk to Gabe for a minute before rushing after him towards Baby. Dean sits in the drivers' seat as Cas cautiously approaches. He opens the door and climbs in slowly. He looks to be in awe and he can't stop looking everywhere. Dean actually feels nervous. Dean kind of hopes Cas approves.
"This is your car?" Cas asks, and Dean can't really tell how he feels from his tone of voice.
"Yup. Used to be my dad's, but she got wrecked. I fixed her up with Bobby last summer." Dean smiles over at Cas. He hopes Cas caught that he'd mentioned his dad. That he'd mentioned his past.
Cas made no indication of catching it. Dean sits in the drivers' seat waiting for Sam and Adam, thrumming his fingers against the steering wheel. They'd all agreed to go home directly after school today; so where the hell were they. Dean starts the car and starts backing up when Sam comes running out of the school. Dean thinks about just leaving, just to spite Sam, but he stops the car. Sam jumps in the car, doesn't ask why Cas' in his seat, and demands that Dean drive away right that second. Dean asks about Adam, but Sam blubbers out some kind of excuse, which is good enough for Dean.
"Oh, shut up. We're going, you big girl." Dean grumbles.
"Bitch." Sam hits his shoulder.
Dean doesn't react until they get to the intersection- Dean caught the red light- where he turns in his seat and punches Sam's thigh, hard. "Jerk!" Dean calls.
He turns back around as the light changes to green. He shifts, and drives on.
"So where's Adam? I couldn't understand through all that fumbling you did."
"This coming from the guy who passes out." Sam threw him bitch face # 11, "He's going to some friends house, I don't know. Someone named Rachel? Something like that."
Dean frowns, "I don't know any Rachel." He looks in his rear view at Sam for a second. But that's all they need to have a silent conversation. They're interrogating Adam when he gets home.
Sam spreads out in the back seat, his gangly limbs flying everywhere; even over the divider onto the arm rest. "Sam!" Dean swats his brothers feet.
"It's not my fault Cas took my spot. You know the back seat is small."
Dean puts a funny grin on his face, "Yeah." He drags out, insinuating something that's never actually happened. Sam freaks out anyway.
"Oh GOD! Dean! That's gross!" Sam sits up and fidgets, making Dean laugh.
"I don't understand." Cas calls from the passenger seat, looking at Sam for clarification.
That just makes Sam blush and Dean laugh harder. He's laughing doubles again when Cas looks at him like he's honestly confused. He's laughing so hard he has to pull over because he doesn't want to crash Baby. He spends the next ten minutes laughing. He laughs so hard he's crying, actually. At one point Sam asks Dean if he's okay. Dean just nods and tries to calm down.
"Oh, man. I haven't laughed that hard in a while." He wipes his eyes dry, before turning to Cas.
"I still do not understand what was so funny."
A smile breaks onto Dean's face and he's worried he might laugh again, but he holds it in. "Don't worry Cas, nothing to do with you." He pulls back onto the road.
Cas looks at Sam, hoping he'll explain, but Sam just shakes his head and blushes harder.