The End of All Things

Chapter Three: Story Time

"You were out late last night," Sam said, snapping Dean out of his thoughts as he looked up from the bowl of cereal he was eating. Sam poured coffee into his favorite black mug and raised an eyebrow at his brother.

"Uh...yeah, I went to the bar to play pool...," he murmured and looked back down at his breakfast, taking a huge bite to avoid Sam's bombardment of questions that was sure to follow.

"You were at the bar that long?" Sam asked incredulously. Dean sighed and lifted a shoulder.

"Well, I may have run into Castiel on my way home..."

"Oh! What'd you guys do for so long?" Dean shrugged again.

"We just...talked..."

"You stood on the side walk for three hours and talked?"

"Well...we might have gone to the gym and he may have taught me how to box for a while..." Sam stopped pouring milk into his bowl of cereal to stare at Dean like he was an idiot.

"Why are you so reluctant to give details about what happened? You make it sound like it's some sort of big secret." Dean sighed and ran his fingers through his short hair.

"I dunno, Sammy, I'm just tired..." he said, shoving another spoonful of Fruit Loops into his mouth. Sam stared at him skeptically as he took a seat across from him.

"Dean...?"

"What?"

"Do you....do you have a crush on Castiel?"

"What?! No! Dude, I'm not gay! Or bi or any of that!" Sam shrugged.

"Maybe not, but maybe you are for Cas."

"That...that doesn't even make sense!"

"It means that maybe Castiel is the only guy you'd ever think of that way."

"No...no, no, no...Sam, no. Just no...," Dean snapped, grabbing his bowl and storming over to the kitchen to put his dishes away.

"If you didn't like him, you wouldn't be getting so defensive," Sam mumbled.

"Drop it, Sam..."

"Dean, it's really okay if you have a crush on Castiel."

"Sam..."

"I mean, he is kind of an attractive guy."

"I SAID DROP IT, SAM!!" Dean shouted and slammed the dishwasher closed, storming out of the kitchen and up to his room. He smashed the door closed behind him and fought the urge to start throwing things. After a few deep breaths, he changed out of his baggy grey sweatpants into a pair of jeans, a grey t shirt, and a blue plaid shirt with the sleeves rolled up to his elbows. He grabbed his army green jacket and keys, heading down the stairs and praying that Sammy had dropped the subject like he'd asked.

+++

By the time Friday rolled around, Castiel had a thousand excuses in mind for getting out of the lacrosse game. As the week had marched on, Cas' fondness had continued to grow into a mini crush. It wasn't anything big, that much he knew, but he wasn't used to crushing. This was the first time he'd ever liked anybody and he wasn't exactly sure what to do with it, especially when he was so far from Dean's type that they might as well have been on different planets. The best Cas could figure was that the greatest plan was to distance himself from Dean to end the crush.

It was just that distancing himself from Dean was a lot harder than he'd originally thought it would be. He didn't mention the night of boxing, which was slowly pushing its way to the best night of his life, and neither did Dean, which was a relief, because Cas was afraid he'd ask for more lessons. Cas didn't think his crush could hold more alone time. After the second day that Dean was required to show him around, Cas figured Dean would go back to his lacrosse buddies. But, he just kept reappearing after each of his classes and kept on talking like it was the most natural thing in the world. Cas had no idea how to feel about it and the conflicting feelings were about to kill him.