Cas doesn't go to the coffee shop the next week. Or the week after that. Sam texts him to see if he's okay, and he gives him vague replies to keep him from worrying. Dean doesn't have his phone number, Cas thinks mournfully to himself, I'm moping over him and he doesn't even have my phone number. Cas knows exactly how pathetic he's being, and he hates himself for it, and he can't quite seem to care.

Eventually, it's necessity that drives him down the stairs and into the familiar sour scent of Winchester's. Ruby is out of town for some family business, so he couldn't get her to go down for him, and he's run out of the pre-ground coffee beans in his office, so he leaves his office reluctantly. It ought to feel good walking into the shop after so long, but Cas just feels an uncomfortable tenseness in between his shoulder blades.

It doesn't help that the first thing he sees when he opens the door is Benny leaning over the counter to plant a kiss on the corner of Dean's mouth. It so much doesn't help that Cas has already started to turn around and walk back out before remembering that he is a grown-up and needs to act like one. He turns around to walk further into the shop. Dean isn't actually working the register – Jo is – he's just leaning on his hands against the end of the counter closest to the back room while Benny hitches one hip against it on the other side. Neither of them see Cas, until, of course, Sam (newly freed from his cast and sporting a walking brace) spots him and calls out his name. Benny waves. Cas doesn't look to see Dean's reaction.

"I was worried about you, man," Sam says as he clumps over to him. "You can't disappear like that!"

Cas waves him off. "I had to recover after the gala. I'm back now, though." He means it, he really does.

Sam beams. "Dean!" he calls, over his shoulder, "go make Cas's latte!" Dean grins, salutes him, and spins around to go to work. Cas tenses again.

"No," he calls out quickly, "I just need a drip!" Sam quirks an eyebrow at him and Cas smiles nervously at him. Plain coffee isn't his favorite, but it means Dean won't have as much of a hand in it. Dean shrugs and fills the cup while Cas asks Sam how his leg is feeling, and he waits until Dean has put the coffee cup down on the counter before going to get it.

Benny smiles at him when he walks over. "Good seeing you again, Cas," he says. Cas forces himself to try to relax and be nice. Benny continues, "Dean was gettin' antsy over you." He looks up at Dean teasingly.

Cas blinks at him. "He…oh?"

Dean whacks Benny with the end of a dishtowel. "I may have been concerned, because you were missing." He gives Benny a glare. "Stop telling lies."

"I call it as I see it," Benny says, shrugging, and he laughs when Dean smacks him again.

Cas watches them and hates the way his chest feels suddenly empty. Thank god for Sam, who calls him over to his table. Cas goes gladly, not even bothering to excuse himself from Dean and Benny, who are play-fighting across the counter. Sam holds his arm out to Cas and wraps it around his shoulders when he gets close, pulling him in to ostensibly look at something on his phone, but instead Sam leans his head close to Cas's and says, "What do you think of them?"

Cas turns his head to look at him in surprise. "Uh, them?" He jerks his thumb back towards the couple at the counter.

"Yeah."

Well. Cas doesn't exactly want to answer that. "Benny's nice, I guess," he says elusively.

"Yeah, but, how about them together?"

Cas narrows his eyes. "Are you asking me because I'm the only gay guy you know?"

"What! Shit, no, Cas." Sam splutters a laugh. "I just wanna know what you think."

Cas sighs resignedly. "I haven't really spent much time with them," he says. Sam looks at him pleadingly. "But they seem happy, anyway. Why? Are you worried?"

Sam shrugs and furrows his eyebrows. "I dunno. They just – they look happy, but when I ask Dean about it, he doesn't wanna talk."

"That doesn't seem like unusual behavior for him."

Sam laughs. "True," he says. He thumps Cas's shoulder. "Dean just doesn't usually go on more than one date with anyone, so I'm probably just paranoid." Cas's chest clenches at this new information and he glances back at the coffee counter. Benny's migrated off somewhere (Cas doesn't look for him) and Dean looks up at Cas. He smiles, but his eyes are sad. Cas doesn't like that look.

"I think they're fine," Cas lies. He smiles at Sam reassuringly and extricates himself from under his arm, saying he has to get back to work since Ruby's gone. Sam smiles back, waves him out the door. Cas doesn't catch the way Dean stares at him the whole way out.

So today is double chapter Wednesday because 1) there's no new episode and 2) I realized as I went to edit this that nothing actually happens except for ~character development~ or something, I am so not a real writer you guys. Anyways. So skip on through to the next one, too!