Chapter Two

Cas once again woke up excited, and hurried to get dressed. This time, he chose something more casual, throwing on a polo shirt and sweater, an old pair of jeans, and his favourite sneakers. He didn't touch his hair, but as he walked past the mirror, he felt off, so he put on an old blue tie, tucking it beneath his sweater. He was the first to arrive at school, so he switched on the coffee machine, and went about tidying the staff room.

Jo was the next to arrive, and made a beeline directly for the coffee.

'Aww, you put coffee on for us,' Jo grinned, pouring herself a mug.

'Just doing my part,' Cas smiled.

Then another woman arrived. She had short dark hair and a warm smile, and she immediately approached Cas with a hand outstretched.

'Hey, we didn't get to meet yesterday,' she said, shaking his hand. 'I'm Jody.'

Cas nodded. 'With kindergarten.'

'That's right.'

'He made us coffee,' Jo said, pointing Jody in the direction of the pot.

'You're an angel,' said Jody, and she too helped herself to a mug.

As more of the staff began to filter in, Cas picked up empty mugs around the room and rolled up his sleeves to wash them, then put on another pot of coffee once the first one was emptied.

Dean was one of the last to arrive, and Cas handed him a fresh cup of coffee. As he did so, Dean gave his outfit an appraising look.

'Better?' Cas asked, with a little flourishing gesture.

'Much,' Dean nodded, sipping his coffee. 'Mmm, you made this?'

Cas nodded.

'It's good.'

'Or you're just caffeine deprived,' Jo laughed, coming over to them. 'Why are you wearing your thirst trap shirt?'

Dean almost choked on his coffee and Cas's eyebrows shot up. The shirt Dean was wearing was green, rolled up to his elbows, and open to show off the black t-shirt he was wearing.

'My what?'

'Yeah, you only wear it when you want to show off. You think it makes your arms look nice,' said Jo.

'Oh yeah, and it brings out your eyes,' Jody added.

'Okay, first of all, if I was thirst trapping, you'd know it,' Dean said indignantly, though Cas couldn't help but notice the slight blush spreading over the bridge of his nose.

Cas took a long sip of his own coffee to hide his amusement.

'Come on, Cas, we gotta set up,' Dean grumbled, turning on his heel and exiting the staff room.

Cas hurried to catch up with him.

They walked in awkward silence for a moment, until Dean said, 'You know, I wasn't-'

'I know,' Cas said hurriedly.

'Good. Good.'

'It does look good on you, though,' Cas said, in an attempt to lighten the mood that only succeeded in making himself blush.

'Well, thanks,' Dean smiled.

They were spared any further embarrassment by entering their classroom and distracting themselves by setting out the art supplies.

The children arrived, and Dean went through his routine of hugs and high fives at the door, and Cas watched from the back of the room with a smile on his face. Most of the kids settled at their desks, but Grace nervously approached Cas, one of her sleeves in her mouth, and tugged at the hem of his sweater.

'Hey,' Cas said warmly, crouching in front of her. 'Can I help you?'

'Mr Cas, can I have a hug?' she asked, her voice muffled by her sleeve.

'Of course you can,' Cas said.

Grace beamed and threw her arms around Cas's neck.

Cas hugged her back, but when she let go, Charlie ran over and asked for a hug as well. Soon, all the children were begging for a hug, and Cas laughed as they all ended in a huge class hug.

'All right, everyone,' Cas said firmly, standing up. 'Let's take our seats now, Dean's waiting to start class.'

The children did as they were told, hurriedly putting their bags in their cubbies before sitting at their little desks.

Dean briefly caught Cas's eye and winked, once again causing heat to rush to his cheeks, and turned to the blackboard.

That day, they were learning about the water cycle. Dean split the class into two groups: one to make paper clouds, and the other to make a river.

While Cas hovered between the two groups, he could feel Dean's eyes on him, and did his best to ignore it.

They spent the morning on cutting and sticking, until Dean announced that it was lunchtime.

'Hey, are you good to watch them while I get some coffee?' Dean asked, patting Cas's shoulder.

'Oh, sure,' said Cas, pushing down the flutter of nerves in his stomach.

Cas took the class outside in the sun, and stood beside a picnic table under the window, sweeping his eyes over the class as they ate their lunch. When Dean returned, the tension in Cas's shoulders receded

'I couldn't find your lunch, so I made you a sandwich,' Dean said, balancing two plates in one hand, and gripping two mugs of coffee with the other.

'Thank you,' Cas said, taking one of the plates and setting it down on the picnic table. 'I should probably remember to bring some.'

Dean chuckled. 'Yeah, you can't teach on an empty stomach, trust me. How's it going out here?'

Cas shrugged. 'No fighting, no tears. As good as a lunch break gets, I suppose.'

Dean nodded and took a bite of his sandwich. 'So,' he said through the food in his mouth. 'Why'd you wanna be a teacher?'

Cas took a sip of his coffee, then cupped the warm mug in his hands. 'My brother,' he said. 'He always struggled at school, and got written off as the troublemaker most of the time. Turned out, he had pretty severe ADHD, and it makes me sad to think about how long he went without any real support. He got an aide for his last couple of years of high school, and he did really well. I want to be that person, and one day, I want to work with special needs kids.'

Dean nodded and smiled. 'It was my brother for me too,' he said.

'You have a brother?'

'Younger,' Dean told him. 'His name's Sam. It was just us growing up, so I kinda had to take care of him.'

'I'm sorry to hear that,' said Cas.

'Don't be. It's nice to be close to him, and teaching ended up being natural to me. I love these little suckers, you know?'

'I think they're fans of yours too,' Cas said, and Dean grinned.

'You should eat your sandwich, they won't be this quiet for long.'

Cas gratefully took Dean's advice, and just managed to shove his sandwich in his mouth before he was being called over to look at something in the pond.

After lunch, they went back to their project, and finished just in time for afternoon reading.

Dean pushed the desks back slightly and set out bean bag chairs.

'Can Mr Cas read to us today?' Grace asked, sitting on one of the bean bags.

Dean looked up at Cas. 'What do you say?'

'I'd love to,' said Cas.

Dean grinned and swapped places with Cas, handing him the book they were going to read on his way to the back of the room.

Cas cleared his throat, his mouth suddenly dry as he stood in front of the children, all of them watching him expectantly. He began haltingly, blushing again when he looked up and saw Dean smiling encouragingly. Soon enough, though, he got into it, and even attempted different voices for the different characters. He was delighted when the kids laughed along, and was even a little disappointed when he had to stop for hometime.

Dean watched them as they ran from the room and down the corridor towards their parents, while Cas began tidying away the bean bags.

'Well, I think that means you're in charge of reading time now,' Dean chuckled, closing the classroom door once he was sure all the kids had been picked up.

'Can I choose the books?' Cas asked enthusiastically.

'Sure,' Dean grinned.

Cas beamed and moved on to tidying away the art supplies, while Dean tacked the water cycle project to the wall at the back of the room.

'How'd your brother do? After school, I mean?' Dean asked, wiping down the desks.

'Pretty good, but even with assistance, traditional education was never really his thing.'

'Oh yeah?'

Cas smiled. 'Yes, he ended up in Vegas as a magician. He was good too, really drew in the crowds.'

'Really? How'd he die, he get caught in one of his tricks, or something?' Dean said, chuckling at his own joke.

Cas cleared his throat. 'Um… yes, actually.'

The smile fell from Dean's face and he looked horrified. 'I - I'm so sorry-'

Cas laughed back at him. 'It's okay. Honestly,' he said. 'If you knew him, you'd know that he wouldn't have wanted to go any other way.'

Dean sighed in relief. 'I'm starting to get the feeling that he would have found you letting me walk into that very funny.'

Cas laughed again. 'He would have.'

'My brother's the more serious type. He's a lawyer,' Dean told him. 'He does like his pranks though. 'One time he glued the cap to my beer and I spent so long trying to open it.' He chuckled at the thought. 'All right, I think that's it. We're good to go. Come on.'

Dean walked him out to the parking lot, where they had once again parked beside each other.

'See you tomorrow,' Dean said cheerfully before climbing into his car and driving off.

The next few days were exhausting, but Cas did his best not to show it, but Dean noticed him drinking twice the amount of coffee than usual.

'First week catching up to you, huh?' Dean asked, patting his shoulder at lunch break. Cas nodded tiredly. 'You got this,' Dean said. 'Week's almost out, and you can sit on your butt all weekend.'

Cas snorted.

'Listen, I know you're tired, but usually we take the new guy out for a drink after their first week, so what do you say?'

'As long as one of those drinks is more coffee, I'm in.'

'Awesome,' Dean grinned.

As promised, at the end of the day, Dean brought Cas a large mug of coffee, and insisted that Cas sit down and drink it while he tidied up the classroom.

'Come on, I'll drive you,' Dean said once he was done.

'But my car-'

'We'll come back for it. After driving in that thing, you definitely deserve to be in a nice car for once.'

Cas rolled his eyes but didn't argue, and went with Dean to his car.

It was comfortable inside. Though the seats were well used, the leather was soft and welcoming.

'You still listen to tapes?' Cas asked.

'Yeah, way better than that iPod crap.'

Cas chuckled to himself. 'You know they don't make iPods anymore, right?'

'Good,' Dean said emphatically.

He drove them through town to a bustling bar and parked outside. He picked a table, bought a round of beers, and soon they were joined by Jo, Ash and Jody, all eager to get to know Cas. They bombarded him with questions, but he found them easy to talk to, and he was heartened by their interest.

'Wait, you live all by yourself?' Jo asked.

'Yes, I am a grown up,' Cas laughed. 'I can live alone if I want to.'

'So no girlfriend?'

Cas snorted softly. 'No, no girlfriend.'

Jo nodded, then after a beat said, 'Boyfriend?'

Cas shook his head. 'Not at the moment.'

Dean shifted slightly in his seat and sipped on his beer, looking anywhere but at Cas.

Jo then asked about Cas's family until he was tired of talking.

'Enough about me,' he said, 'tell me more about yourselves.'

'What's to tell?' said Jo. 'Been a teacher a few years now, but I was a bartender for my mom before that.'

'Your mom?'

'Yeah, she's kind of a big deal around here,' Jo said proudly. 'She owns this place, actually.' She took a sip of her own beer. 'Ash is an enigma,' she smiled.

'And I'd like it to remain that way, thank you,' he grinned.

Jody rolled her eyes. 'Don't mind him, Cas, he'll start blabbering as soon as you get a second beer in him.'

'What about you?' Cas asked.

'Oh, been a teacher for so long, I don't even remember when I started,' she smiled. 'Got a husband and a kid, and he absolutely refused to go to the same school as me.'

'How old?'

'Nine.'

Cas nodded. 'Seems about right for his age.'

'Yeah, he'll grow out of being embarrassed by his mom eventually.'

Then Jo elbowed Dean. 'Come on, your turn.'

Dean groaned loudly. 'He's been listening to me talk all week, I'm sure he's had enough of my voice by now.'

'Not at all,' Cas said, slightly too quickly.

Dean smiled, a light blush on his cheeks. 'Well, let's see, I'm an Aquarius, I enjoy sunsets and long walks on the beach. I've never murdered anyone, although no one's tried to get between me and my pie.'

Cas laughed. 'Is that your dating profile?'

'Would be, if you caught me dead using one.'

'He's too "old school" for that,' Jo smirked.

'Yes, I noticed the tape deck in his car.'

'Hey, why are we making fun of me when Ash is right there with an actual mullet?'

'Mullets are in, Dean,' said Jody. 'The kids say so.'

'The kids also wipe their boogers in their own hair.'

'Yeah, you should make sure you're prepared for that, you guys have got the fresh kindergarteners next year,' Jody said to Cas.

'I'll start stocking up on tissues.'

'And cold medicine,' Jo added. 'You're gonna be sick all the time, trust me.'

'You guys remember that flu from last year that even got Bobby?' said Ash. 'That one was killer.'

Cas listened while they all laughed and shared stories. He sipped at his beer, but it did nothing for the tiredness that was catching up to him. The others' voices and the chatter in the rest of the bar were washing over him, and before he knew it, he was being started awake by Dean.

'Man, you really are tired,' he laughed. 'Come on, let me take you home.'

'My car…' Cas mumbled, rubbing his eyes.

'I'll come pick you up tomorrow and we'll go get it. You're too tired to drive anyway.'

Cas couldn't argue with that, so he went with Dean back to his car and tried not to fall asleep in the passenger seat, though this was difficult when Dean put on his music at a low, comforting volume.

Dean dropped him off outside his house and waved goodbye, promising to come and get him the next day, and Cas trudged inside, ready to eat a bowl of noodles and collapse into bed.

Cas saw the picture of Gabriel staring at him and sighed. He knew what Gabriel would say.

You had a hot guy on your doorstep and you didn't invite him in?

I can't have a crush on the teacher, he would have said back.

What are you talking about? Everyone has a crush on their teacher.

Then Gabriel's picture fell over and Cas carefully set it back up.

'Looks like you'll just have to keep being disappointed by me,' he murmured, holding onto the frame for a little too long. 'Miss you, Gabe.'

Sleep came almost immediately, and Cas dreamed of his brother. He allowed himself to lounge in bed for a full half an hour when he woke, before he remembered that Dean was coming to pick him up, and his fluttering heart forced him out of bed.

He managed to get through putting on clothes and eating breakfast before he heard the Impala pull up outside and Dean blasting the horn. Cas all but ran for the door, almost forgetting his car keys, and tripped over his own feet on the way out.

'You all right?' Dean said, amused as Cas clambered into the car.

Cas nodded, flushing.

'You look well rested,' Dean smiled. 'That's good. Don't worry, the more you do it, the easier it'll get. You'll work up that stamina in no time.'

It was odd seeing Dean outside school. His dress sense was much the same, only with fewer paint stains, and without the thick smell of chalky watercolours and glue filling the air, he smelled faintly of a spicy aftershave.

The school parking lot was deserted when they arrived, except for Cas's car still sitting where he left it.

'I like coming here when no one else is around,' Dean confessed as he pulled into the space beside Cas's car. 'It's nice and quiet.' He parked the car. 'Don't get me wrong, I love hanging out with the kids, but they can be so loud.'

Cas nodded. 'I understand. I did a lot of daycare while I was training. It was good to come home to peace and quiet.'

'You've never had anyone there with you?' Dean asked casually.

'There's been no one I wanted to share my space with.' Cas shrugged, then suddenly worried that Dean would think he'd never been with anyone at all. 'I - I mean, there have been people - men - but I just…,' he stammered through the words and Dean just laughed.

'I get it,' Dean said, still laughing. 'Your home is yours. You gotta be pretty special to get in, I bet.'

'That's not to say it'll never happen,' Cas said hurriedly.

'Keep digging, maybe you'll find a way out of that hole,' Dean said in amusement.

Cas blushed. 'My people skills are a little rusty,' he admitted. 'If you spend all your time with children, you forget how to talk to grown ups.'

'Very true,' Dean said. 'Go on then. I'll see you Monday.'

Cas got out and waved to Dean as he drove away, then slapped a hand to his forehead. At least Gabriel would have found it funny.

Welcome back! Thanks to Eyum daRelmera, Aethen618, EmilyAnnMcGarrett-Winchester and Kathy for the reviews! Hope you enjoy the chapter :)