Chapter Forty-Two

Cas was up early and went jogging alone, but Dean had expected that. While Cas was out he went to the kitchen and started putting together breakfast. He cooked bacon and eggs, sausages, fried up some tomatoes, and when Mary saw what he was doing, she began mixing up some pancakes and waffles. Dean was just finishing a pot of coffee when Cas came back. He didn't say anything, but he smiled when he saw the effort they'd gone to, and went to shower.

Charlie and Sam came down the stairs, enticed by the smell of food and coffee, and helped themselves. Cas was the last to come for food. His hair was still wet, he had his red hoodie on and his sunglasses. He grabbed a waffle and some eggs, but stood in the corner of the kitchen with it instead of sitting at the table with everyone else. Once he'd eaten, he went back upstairs alone. No one followed him, but they all watched him go, each of them concerned.

Dean clapped his hands together. 'Come on, guys, I didn't make all this food for nothing, eat up.' Once he was sure they were all distracted by breakfast, he shot a quick message to Cas.

Dean

You good?

Cas

Yes

I'll be down in a minute

Dean

Take your time

But it wasn't until Anna arrived that Cas finally emerged from their room. He'd taken off his sunglasses and gave Anna a big hug. She returned the embrace and they both stood for a while.

'Do you think he's all right?' Cas asked in a small voice.

Anna pulled away and put her hands on Cas's shoulders. 'It's Gabe,' she said kindly. 'Of course he's all right.'

Cas nodded and Anna stroked his cheek. 'Listen to me, Cas. Gabriel will always be our big brother, but you need to focus on yourself now, all right? Gabe will do what Gabe will do, and it's not good for you to be worrying about him like this.'

'I know,' Cas sighed. 'I'll try.'

Charlie and Anna stayed for the rest of the weekend, and Dean drove them both to the airport for their flights.

'Keep in touch, Castiel,' Anna said, parting with a final hug.

'I will, I promise.'

As for Charlie, she had barely left their sight before she was texting Cas, encouraging him and calling Gabriel names. Cas laughed but the mirth didn't reach his eyes.

Cas and Dean were out again Sunday night, watching the sky in silence, and Cas slept in a ball curled against Dean, twitching in his sleep.

They were both awake early on Monday morning. They no longer needed to be up for school, but their bodies were still in the habit. They lay quietly, Dean's arm around Cas and Cas's hand wandering idly over his stomach.

'Come jogging with me,' Cas murmured, circling Dean's bellybutton with a finger.

'You're lucky I'm not ticklish,' Dean chuckled.

'Aren't you?' said Cas with a mischievous glimmer in his eye. Before Dean could stop him, Cas was poking him in the sensitive spots on his ribs. Dean tried to squirm away from Cas's probing fingers, but he was laughing too hard. Instead, he wrapped his arms around Cas and kissed him. Cas's hands stopped poking and instead gently held him at his sides.

'Come on, Dean, come jogging with me,' Cas said again, between kisses. 'Exercise is good for you.'

'There are other ways to get a workout,' Dean laughed, pressing Cas into the mattress and pinning his wrists over his head.

'You can't do this every morning,' Cas said, giving in to Dean's touch.

'Oh yeah? Watch me.'

But after a few mornings of this, Cas finally insisted that Dean go out with him.

'If you do well, I might reward you when we get back,' Cas murmured, slowly kissing the back of Dean's neck until he shivered.

Dean bit his lip then groaned dramatically. 'All right, fine,' he said. 'Just don't laugh when I suck at it.'

'I can't promise that,' Cas smiled.

Dean rolled his eyes, but grabbed a t-shirt and shorts from his wardrobe, and laced on his sneakers.

Mary and John were both out, but Sam saw them on their way downstairs and snorted. 'Wow, you're actually getting him to go running? I thought he was allergic.'

'Shut up, Sam,' Dean grumbled, and followed Cas outside.

It was a clear day, and hot. It didn't seem to bother Cas at all. His stride was confident and effortless, but after only ten minutes Dean struggled to keep up with him. Cas slowed his pace and, to his credit, did his best not to laugh, though amusement was clear on his face. When he thought that Dean couldn't take much more, he turned them around and headed for home.

Once outside the front of the house, Dean doubled over, panting and sweating.

'Ugh that sucked,' Dean groaned, rubbing a stitch in his side. 'I don't get why you like it so much.'

Cas took a gulp of water from his bottle and handed it to Dean. 'It's… freeing,' he said, only slightly out of breath. 'The group homes were often overcrowded. Lots of noise. When I run, it's quiet, and I can clear my head.'

Dean nodded and straightened. 'I get it. For me, when there were people in my room, I'd hang out in the garage and watch Dad fixing cars. Not so quiet though.'

Cas took the bottle back, a glint appeared in his eye. Then, he squirted water all over Dean, soaking his hair, face and shirt. 'Thought you might like a head start on your shower,' he laughed.

Dean wiped his eyes and grinned. 'Is that right?' he said. 'You think you'll get away with that?'

Cas tried to dodge away, but he was too slow, and Dean snatched him up by the waist, spinning him around. Cas squirmed in his arms, but not particularly hard.

'All sweaty and gross, am I?' Dean laughed. 'Now you are too.'

'Oh no, what a disaster.' Cas twisted in his grip just enough to seize him by the back of the head and crush their lips together.

Dean gently lowered him until his feet touched back down to the ground, but didn't break the kiss until he murmured, 'So, did I do good enough for a reward?'

Cas's eyebrow twitched. 'I think so,' he said, his voice low and husky. 'We'll wait for Sam to head out to Garth's, and then you'll find out what I have waiting for you.'

Dean cleared his throat. 'That - that sounds good,' he said, though his body was already tingling with anticipation.

In the end, though, Cas couldn't wait for Sam to leave, and hopped into the shower with Dean where they both struggled not to make any noise. They realised they weren't entirely successful when they emerged from the shower and found that Sam had left early.

'Oops,' Dean sniggered. 'But, you know what that means? We've got the house to ourselves for a few hours.' He dropped his towel and grabbed hold of Cas again.

'Hmm, maybe the running was good for you after all.' Cas too let go of his towel and pulled Dean to their bedroom, but they didn't bother to close the door.

After that, Dean went jogging with Cas more often, at the very least to have an excuse to stare at Cas's ass.

With little else to do, however, Dean grew bored, so John brought him projects from his shop to work on in the garage. Cas watched him a lot of the time, when he wasn't playing Dungeons and Dragons with Sam and his party. Dean joined them on occasion. It was more fun than he thought it would be, and over the coming weeks, he even experimented with new characters. Sam and his friends would lightly tease Dean as they played, but Cas was nothing but supportive, guiding Dean through the game and making sure he enjoyed himself.

In the evenings and some weekends, Cas went off with John for driving lessons, and he became more confident with it day by day. Then, one Saturday afternoon, Cas and John arrived home with huge smiles on their faces.

'Look!' Cas said, proudly presenting Dean and Mary with his full driver's permit.

'What!' Dean exclaimed. 'I didn't even know you were taking your test!'

'I didn't want to put any pressure on it, in case I failed,' Cas said bashfully.

'Are you kidding? Of course you'd destroy that test,' Dean grinned.

'You did good, kid,' John said, clapping him on the back.

'Thank you.'

Cas pulled Dean aside while John told Mary all about the test. 'I want to buy a car when I get to college,' he said. 'Will you come with me to choose one?'

''Course I will,' Dean smiled, softly running a hand through Cas's hair. 'I'm proud of you.'

'Let's go out with the telescope tonight.'

Dean grinned. 'You got it. Why don't you drive?'

Cas looked surprised, then nervous. 'I don't know… It's your car.'

'Hey, I trust you. Besides, there's nothing you can do to her that I can't fix.'

'All right.'

Though Cas had driven the Impala before, he was still nervous, so Dean had him drive the long way around until he was more comfortable.

When they arrived, Cas sat completely still once he'd parked.

'She's powerful, right?' Dean said, stroking the dashboard fondly.

'Yes,' Cas agreed. 'She's a little much for me, I think. I might choose something less special than she is.'

'Hey, your first car's gonna be special no matter what,' Dean said. 'But I'll drive home if you want.'

'Please.'

'You handled her really well,' Dean said as they got out, 'so don't feel bad or anything.'

Cas smiled at him, and they went into their usual routine unloading the telescope. By now, Cas was satisfied that Dean knew the equipment well enough to help him set it up, and the process went by much more quickly.

'What are we looking at tonight?' Dean asked.

'The Ring Nebula,' said Cas, fiddling with the dials on the telescope. 'I think we're slightly early for the best view, but it's still worth a look.'

'Cool, where do we look?'

Cas considered it, then said, 'Why don't you try to find it?'

Dean balked. 'Me? I dunno, Cas, I'm not so great at that as you.'

'You know more than you think,' Cas reassured him. 'Just give it a shot, I'll help you.'

Dean couldn't help but smile. 'All right, where do I start?'

'Do you remember what I told you about the summer triangle?'

'It's the three brightest stars, right?'

'That's it. Can you see them?' Cas cast his eyes about. 'They're a little further to the east right now, and down towards the horizon.'

Dean nodded and squinted overhead. 'Okay so that one's Altair,' he said, pointing, 'and that over there's Deneb, so… that makes that one up there Vega, right?'

Cas beamed at him. 'That's right. What do you know about Vega?'

'Oh, I know this,' said Dean. 'It's in that constellation… the swan one?'

'Not quite, but close.'

Dean racked his brain. 'Oh, it's Lyra!' he said. 'I remember 'cause she's that girl from those books you like.'

Cas was stunned into silence for a moment. 'You really remember that?'

'Of course,' said Dean. 'I love listening to you talk.' Then, to his dismay, Cas started to cry. 'Wha- hey, I'm sorry,' he said, leaving the telescope to reach for Cas's hands.

Cas shook his head. 'You didn't do anything wrong,' he said, his voice thick with emotion. 'It - it just hit me that you pay attention to the things I say. I haven't had that much in my life, I'm sorry, it caught me off guard.'

Dean pulled him into a hug. 'I love you.'

'I love you too, Dean,' Cas said, then pulled out of the hug to rub his eyes. 'I - um - I did something earlier and I'm not sure, but I think it's the right decision.'

Dean frowned. 'What d'you mean? What did you do?'

'I texted Gabriel after I passed my test. He didn't respond, obviously. Then I thought that I can't chase him forever, and I can't keep hurting myself expecting him to come back for me. So I - I blocked his number.' Cas's face crumpled as a fresh wave of tears hit him. 'I d-don't want him to hate me, but I think it's the right thing for now.'

Dean nodded and rubbed Cas's shoulders. 'That's a big step,' he said. 'It's okay to feel weird about it for a while. But, yeah, I think it might be for the best for the time being.'

'Yes. It was hard enough to focus on school thinking about him so much. I'll need to really concentrate on college. He - he's smart and-' Cas broke off to choke back a sob. 'If he really wants to find me, he will.'

They stayed out for another hour, and Dean let Cas show him more things to look at in the night sky. It seemed to cheer him up, if only for a few minutes. As promised, Dean drove them home. He was tired when they got there, and quickly got into bed, but Cas wasn't ready.

'I'm just going to watch videos for a while, is that all right?'

'Of course it is,' Dean murmured, and he fell asleep to the quiet sound of Cas's laptop playing documentaries.

Welcome back! Thanks to EmilyAnnMcGarrett-Winchester for the review!

We're coming to the end now guys, probably only a few chapters left so stay tuned :) See you next time!