Sam and Castiel returned to the body language group after lunch. The younger Winchester was actually looking forward to watching Cas use the new information he learned. This group had turned out to be a really good idea for the angel. And if it helped him figure out a few things about Dean, so be it.
Now that the group activity was mostly over, Marta had come over to help Cas and Sam with their "jealousy issues".
"I feel as though perhaps I am misreading the situation at times." The angel was saying, definitely making sure the woman running the group was earning her pay.
"Yes, there are a lot of people that convince themselves that they are misinterpreting it, instead of accepting the truth of the situation, so they won't be forced to do something about it. Do you find that you have a hard time with other forms of confrontation?"
Castiel's face clearly said he thought the question was ridiculous. The look made Sam chuckle a bit and Marta turned her attention to him.
"You don't agree that Cas has issues with confrontation?"
Sam continued to chuckle while shaking his head. "No, I wouldn't say he has anything against confrontation." He tried to make it sound like he was talking about their relationship instead of the thousands of battles Castiel had endured in his life.
"Why do you think he has problems recognizing when someone is flirting with him then?" She asked in a way that said she was genuinely curious. He realized a little late that it may have been easier to let her believe that Cas was just intimidated by confrontation. The last thing they needed was someone psychoanalyzing them.
"To be honest, I think he just has a hard time seeing it." He shrugged to hopefully indicate he hadn't thought about it much.
"Well, Cas" she said his name as if she knew it was short for something, but since they hadn't given her anything else to go on she couldn't figure out what it was short for. "How did you know that Sam was interested, before you got together?"
A quick flash of panic crossed Castiel's face before he could stop it, but he schooled his features quickly enough. He looked to Sam, and the slight fear the taller man saw there made Sam jump to the rescue.
"Cas had no idea that I was interested." He said it a little too loudly, but it got Marta's attention back on him. "I practically had to yell it at him."
His mind quickly tried to work out a scenario for that scene in case she asked more questions. First, he tried to work out how he would approach the situation if he was ever interested in someone that seemed to have no clue as to his intentions. Real inspiration came, though, when he started thinking about how Dean might have to make his intentions clear to the angel in the future. Using Dean as his inspiration had worked out so far.
"What do you think you did that finally made him realize you were interested?"
"Well, subtlety just flies right over the poor guys head. I think that's why he's been so interested in this body language group, to be honest. So the only way to get him to notice me was clearly going to have to be a grand gesture that he could not mistake for anything else." Yeah so maybe his brother wasn't really a grand gesture kind of guy, but maybe he was.
"Cas has a bit of an older model vehicle. It didn't run very well and he was traveling a lot for work. I started to get worried that it would eventually break down on him." Ok, so maybe not the best example, especially since he knew Dean had already purchased the parts to fix up Castiel's car. It was a romantic gesture, but Dean would be walking right into that trap with no idea what he was getting into. Maybe it was a little too late to second guess his decision though.
"So I bought all the parts that I thought his car needed, and the next time he came by I got him away from the house for a while so I could fix it up. When he asked me why I did it, I just told him how I felt." Sam shrugged like it was no big deal, while inside he was having a tiny nervous breakdown about setting his brother up like that.
"Well it seems to have worked." Marta smiled at them in a way that Sam interpreted as romantic and sappy. It really wasn't even that romantic, Dean could have been just doing it for a friend in need. Given that his brother was infatuated with the angel, Sam could definitely interpret it as romantic.
"Alright let's move on." Marta turned her smile on Castiel. "In looking for signs of someone's interest, let's start with eye contact."
This comment made Sam laugh again. When her attention swung back to him he figured he would have to explain again as well. "Cas has a bit of an eye contact problem. As in, he is always making direct eye contact." And as if to prove his point those soulful blue eyes turned on Sam.
"Yes, I've noticed." Marta said, smiling at Castiel in a forgiving kind of way. "It is actually rather flattering." The angel's face showed only surprise as he turned back to her. "Cas, eye contact is a sign of attraction. I assume you make so much eye contact out of a need to be polite. A lot of children are taught to use eye contact as a sign of respect. Which, it is that as well, but if you have too much eye contact it can be seen as a sign of attraction."
Castiel looked dumbfounded at the knowledge, but he did not say a word in response. Sam assumed his reasoning had more to do with the angel's lack of knowledge with human customs than any respect issues.
"A person that is interested in you might also find a reason to touch you. Maybe when the waitress drops off your water she rests her hand on your shoulder as she leans over. Maybe the bartender touches your hand as he reaches out to take your money. These are harder to recognize as sometimes the waitress may just be losing her balance, or maybe the bartender is paying attention to something else while reaching for your money. You have to be careful with this one. Look for other signs. If the waitress seems to smile more when she looks at you, or the bartender is giving you complete eye contact as he fills your order." She paused as she let that sink in.
Castiel looked a little confused, but endlessly interested in everything she was saying. He looked back at Sam as if he was wondering if either of those things had happened before.
Sam didn't really know how he was supposed to react. He was much too busy thinking about all the times Dean had found an excuse to touch the angel. He'd give him a little shove when Castiel was standing near the coffee pot and Dean had to have his coffee right then . Or when he'd lay a hand on the angel's shoulder and lean over him as he looked at whatever Cas was researching. Or how whenever the angel's mojo was weakened Dean would hold onto him as if he had to be there to hold him up.
Marta tilted her head to the side in a very familiar gesture. It was almost the same head tilt that Castiel himself used much of the time. "Another sign that someone is interested is the head tilt." Which she was apparently demonstrating. Sam wondered if he would have to start acting jealous at some point. Cas just tilted his head back at her.
"Mirroring another person's actions is another sign." She said, making Castiel sit up as straight as possible. Marta giggled at him. "It seems like you are giving off a lot of the signs of interest, unintentionally. It's starting to become clearer why you have such a hard time seeing these gestures in others." Castiel squirmed in his seat a little.
"Ok here's an easy one." She seemed to be trying to save Cas from his sudden embarrassment. "Personal space."
Sam choked on his own saliva in his efforts to hold back his natural reaction to those words. He knew where she was going with this one. He also knew how often Dean had complained about his personal space when Cas had first come around. Castiel had never changed his ways, but Dean had stopped complaining about it a long time ago. Sam had a coughing fit while the other two watched, Marta handing him a bottle of water.
"Are you alright?" She asked, concerned.
"Yeah, I'm fine." Sam took a large gulp of the water and then a large breath to steady himself. "I'm sorry, please continue." He shook his head at the concerned expression on Castiel's face. They certainly didn't need an angelic rescue for this.
"I was saying that a good indicator of interest is when someone seems to like to spend time in your personal space. Not only will they find excuses to touch you, but they will tend to stand a little closer than necessary. Maybe when they talk to you, they seem to lean in. Or sometimes they reach for things around you, without asking you to move out of the way. One way to test if this is a sign of attraction is to take a step back. Sometimes they will just carry on as if nothing has changed, but someone that is trying to be close to you will likely find a reason to step back into your personal space again."
At this point even Castiel seemed to understand why Sam had reacted the way he had to her mentioning personal space. The angel rarely showed emotion on his face, but at that moment there was an unmistakeable pinkness to his cheekbones.
"Those are some of the best indicators of interest that I know of. I hope that was helpful to you, Cas. And Sam, I hope you will be understanding if he still has a hard time noticing these signs. It may take him a while to get used to looking for them." She smiled cheerfully at them and stood. "Do you guys have any other questions?"
Both men shook their heads and moved to stand with her.
"Sorry to cut this short, but I have another group I'm supposed to talk to in an hour." She stuck her hand out to shake with each of them.
"Thank you so much for your help." Castiel enthused gratefully. There was no mistaking the genuine tone in his voice, and Marta blushed a little. No wonder the angel was always getting hit on.
"Yeah, thanks." Sam gave her small smile and reached for Cas, pulling him gently to his side as they watched her walk away.
"So, did you learn anything?" Sam asked the angel when Marta was out of earshot.
"I believe I did." Castiel replied, a small frown crossing his face as he seemed to contemplate that fact. Sam had no doubt the questions would come later. Cas would have his time to sort it all out, and Sam would have some time to hopefully come up with some answers. Although he knew his brother had a thing for the angel, it wasn't really his place to blurt something like that out. He'd have to provide some more… delicate answers.
"Sam, can I ask you a question?" His reprieve did not last as long as he'd hoped, they had barely been hanging out in the room for an hour.
Sam glanced up at the tv to see what the angel had been watching while he'd been trying to find as much information as he could about the employees that had quit. "You want to know why there's a show about the crap people leave in storage? Or why other people might want to buy all of someone else's abandoned crap?"
Castiel glanced at the TV and turned back to him with a frown. "They believe they will find something of monetary value in them. Sometimes they do make quite a bit more money than they spent to acquire it."
Well that distraction worked much better than anticipated.
"But that was not the question I wanted to ask you."
Or not so much. "Ok Cas, what's up?"
The angel looked a bit confused and a lot worried. It wasn't as if Sam couldn't guess what kind of question was about to come out."Do you think that I give off the impression of attraction towards others?" The angel asked.
Well it was a gentler question than he thought he'd have to answer. "Yeah, I think you do sometimes." He answered honestly. He held no hope that it would be the last question.
"How often do you think I do so?"
"It honestly depends, Cas. You unknowingly give those signals all the time. Some people pick up on it and some don't. I guess I only count the times when people see it." This is not exactly how he thought this conversation was likely to go. Not with bombs like eye contact and personal space being dropped. There was absolutely no way that even Castiel was that blind.
"Do you think it is a problem? Is that your true reasoning behind asking Marta to teach me more about it?" The look on the angel's face said that he honestly thought his ignorance of his own actions might be irritating to the brothers.
"What? No! It's not a problem, Cas. I honestly just thought you'd like to know." He closed his laptop and turned his full attention on the other man. "Most of the time we think it's funny, to be honest. Watching people hit on you, and you having no idea." He gave Castiel a gentle smile to try to make it up to him. He didn't want the angel to think he was making fun of him, but there wasn't really any other way to interpret that. "It's never affected any of our cases, so I guess we never really felt the need to clue you in."
Castiel seemed to accept that answer. He looked down and played with the edge of the blanket that was folded up under him. It was a nervous gesture and it was very telling. It wasn't like the angel to fall victim to nerves.
"Is there something else you wanted to ask me?" Sam asked, deciding he might as well get this part over with.
"Yes. I am trying to decide how to phrase my question." The angel looked more nervous with each passing second.
"Why don't you just try asking me the question you really want answered?"
A silence filled the room for several minutes. Sam didn't want to press too hard, and the angel seemed reluctant to ask the question on his mind. Sam could be patient.
"Sam, do you think Dean thinks I am attracted to him?" Well, that was not the direction of attraction that he'd anticipated being questioned.
"Well, aren't you?" Sam asked gently. He didn't really know how to do things like this gently, and Cas really didn't do well with subtlety anyway.
The angel's face was the picture of surprise for a few moments, until he ducked his head from Sam's line of sight. He could still see a redness creeping across the other's visage. Several moments of silence filled the room.
"Sam, I…" when he lifted his head again the redness had cleared and the angel just looked ashamed. Sam would not accept that.
"No Cas, it's fine! It's none of my business." He didn't know how to comfort the angel, but he knew he didn't want the other man to feel shame for being attracted to his brother. He jumped out of his seat to relocate next to the angel on the bed. After a moment of deliberation he threw his arm around the smaller man's shoulders. He was stiff as a board in Sam's arms, but that did not deter him.
He thought about his response for good long while before actually opening his mouth again. The angel slowly began to relax into his side, the anxiety of being called out slowly draining out of his shoulders.
"You remember a couple years ago? That whole Apocalypse thing?" Sam smiled down at his friend. As if any of them would ever be able to forget that. "Do you remember what we were fighting for? Team Free Will and all that." He felt the other man nod next to him. "I think that if anyone deserves to be able to do what they want, when they want, it's you Cas. We could never have done it without you. So, if you want to, you can fall in love with anyone you want. Up to, and including, my idiot brother."
"He's not an idiot." Castiel ducked his head again, and Sam was beginning to realize that it was a tell. Castiel was blushing again. Adorable.
"Well, I'm allowed my own opinion on that." He gave the other man a little squeeze before releasing him, and standing again. "If me and that idiot are going to be able to interview tomorrow then I have to finish doing this research. You can go back to pretending to watch tv while you work out the mysteries of the universe."
Castiel smiled up at him as he pushed himself back into his tv watching position. "Thank you, Sam"
And there was all that genuine gratefulness that had made Marta blush. Good thing Sam was a man who could not be swayed by the adorableness of the angel.
"Anytime, Cas."