Chapter 64.

The zoo's restaurant gave off an enticing smell and the burgers looked good. "Are you hungry?" said Dean.

"No, I'm never hungry." said Anael, "I don't even know how that feels."

"Of course you don't." he said, "I forgot you were an angel."

"I shouldn't have reminded you." she said.

"It's okay," he said, "At this point, it seems pretty irrelevant. Anyway, you wanna have a burger?"

"I'd like that." she said.

It felt strange, like he was pretending to be something he wasn't, sitting there at a table like a normal person, eating a burger, drinking iced cola, officially on a date for the first time in years. He'd had that feeling, many times before, of pretending to live a normal life, only this time, it had a chance of becoming real. This time, it wasn't an empty charade.

He watched Anael eating and knew she was not experiencing what he did when she tasted the food. However much she wanted to be human, she couldn't turn off her angelic senses and that meant that she encountered food in a way he never could, but then, he had felt hunger and knew how good the satisfaction of it felt.

"What are you thinking?" she said, reminding him that he had been too quiet.

"Not much." he said, "After a while, my brain just goes to screensaver."

"I don't believe your brain ever even slows down." she said.

He shrugged. "Well, mostly, I'm just enjoying being here, with you, doing real people stuff as if we were real people."

"I may not be, but you're as real as it gets." she said.

He raised his glass to her. "You're very kind."

"When did you ever know an angel to be kind?" she said. He must have looked as uneasy as he felt at that, because she quickly said, "Sorry. Trying not to bring up the angel thing."

"Told you," he said, "Don't care. You're here, you're hot, you're mine. You're Anael and every one of those things trumps angel."

"Would you ever ask Jack not to make me human?" she said.

"Jack wouldn't listen to me," he said, "Not about that."

"That's not really an answer." she said.

"It's the best one you're getting." he replied.

Her sudden smile surprised him. "You're a challenge." she said.

"That's one word for it." he said, "There are others."

She didn't suggest any, just watched him with that smile. The burger tasted unusually good. Life felt unusually good. Apparently, he hadn't screwed things up yet.

"Did you mean what you said about tonight?" she said. It offered him an opportunity to make plans with her and that in itself felt special.

"I did." he said, "Tonight's gonna be good." A thought occurred to him. "Do you like champagne?"

"Yes." she said, "Though I didn't think you did."

"Doesn't go with the flannel, does it?" he said, "But I'll drink it when the opportunity arises. More glass than crystal, but I am a fine opportunist, always happy to drink above my station."

"I didn't mean you weren't civilised enough," she said, "Just that it's not in the first ten drinks I'd associate with you."

"Are you saying you do think I'm civilised?" he said.

She laughed. He loved hearing her laugh. Since moving into the bunker, she had begun to make that unangelic sound from time to time, just as Cas had over the years. "An archangel makes your coffee. How can you feel socially inferior to anyone?"

"I lack social graces." he said.

"No, you choose not to use them on people who aren't worth the effort. The truth is, you can fit in anywhere. You know why people have been looking at us today? Because they're all wondering how I managed to find someone so kind and sweet and funny and how they can find one too."

He had noticed people looking at them, but hadn't been aware that she had noticed too. He had to smile at her innocence, but he also had to correct her.

"It's really good of you to think so," he said, "But they were looking because you are probably the most beautiful woman they ever saw. I doubt if most of them even noticed there was a guy with you and not one of them would remember what I looked like." He allowed his eyes to travel from her stunning hair all the way down to her elegant boots. "Trust me," he said, "Those legs will always draw a crowd."

"A lot of them were looking at you." she said.

"Only because my presence stopped them making a move."

"Most of the ones who looked at you were female."

"So? You make women look twice too."

She laughed again. "Come on, Dean, you know you're gorgeous."

"On that, we can agree, but it's you that gets all the attention when we're together and that's great. I like to see the envy in their eyes. There's nothing I like more." He considered that for a moment and then said, "Actually, there is one thing I like more, seeing the lust in yours."

"Love, not lust." she said.

"Let's compromise and say it's both." he suggested, "And on the way home, we'll buy a bottle of champagne, leave it chilling in our room while we have supper with the others and then share it in bed later."

"Sounds good." she said.

"It will be. Last time, in the motel, it was okay."

"Better than okay," she said, then a note of anxiety entered her voice, "For me, anyway."

"Hey, don't get me wrong. It was the best sex I ever had. I just think, with a little time and planning, I can do better. You want me to teach you human stuff. Well, I could have taught you a lot more that night. So tonight, I'm gonna teach you about foreplay."I think I might enjoy that." she said.

"If you don't, I've kinda wasted a lifetime of research." he said.

"Will you teach me about special kissing?" she said, "Jules told me tht she and Cas ... "

"Best not to." he said quickly, unsure why it troubled him so much to imagine her engaging in oral sex.

"You don't like it?" she said.

"It's not that." he said, "I just think it's maybe not appropriate for an angel."

"Oh." she said, looking unhappy. She didn't understand and neither did he and using the A word never seemed to improve these situations.

"Ignore me," he said, "I'm probably being a dick again. We'll talk about it another time."

"Okay." she said, her voice far too neutral and noncommittal.

"If I've hurt you ... " he began.

"No, not at all." she said, "I'm jut trying to navigate uncharted waters."

"I know. I make stuff more complicated than it needs to be."

"We're still having sex tonight, right?" she said.

"Yeah, that's definitely happening." he said.

The warm smile was back. "Good. Then everything's okay."

He grinned at her. "I like your priorities, Anael." he said.

"I like your body," she said, "A lot."

"Well, you're only human." he said, then realised, with horror, what a thoughtless thing that was to say.

He met her gaze, anxious to undo the damage, but she just laughed. "That's the nicest thing you ever said to me." she said.

"Really?" he said.

"Uh-huh."

"Then it's pretty clear I need to up my game."