Bouquet

Chapter Eight

Castiel pressed a ten dollar bill into Gabriel's hand the next time he saw his brother.

"What's this?" Gabriel asked, amused. "Did I win our bet? Or is this charity?"

"Shut up," Castiel muttered.

"Remember, I'm always right." Gabriel grinned. "This'll buy me a few candy bars. Excellent. Thanks, little bro."

Castiel glared at him, which only made Gabriel grin widen.

"So, how did the rest of it go?" he asked. "Tell me everything. I need details. Did you make out in the back of the theater? On a scale from one to ten, how intense was your eye sex over dinner? When he drove you home, did he stay the night? How big is his-"

"Gabriel!" Castiel admonished. "We had dinner, saw a movie, and that was all. And we don't have eye sex."

"Of course you do." Gabriel waved him off. "Did you kiss? Please tell me you at least kissed."

Castiel rolled his eyes. "Yes, we kissed. Briefly."

He remembered the first kiss they shared. Dean's lips had been warm against Castiel's. It had been revealing and intimate and passionate and theirs, he'd never had anything quite like that. The second had been just like it, but more.

Castiel could have kissed him forever. Next time he saw Dean, he decided, he would do that.

Castiel's wist must have shown, because Gabriel laughed. "Okay, lover boy. Let's restock the flowers, unless you'd rather keep drooling over Dean-o."

Castiel sighed, and made to help Gabriel. To be honest, he would rather keep thinking about Dean, but the shop opened in less than an hour, and there was plenty of restocking to do before then.

"Well, while you were off going at it with Dean-"

Gabriel was cut off for a moment by Castiel's protests.

"Yes, you were, even if it was only with the eyes- anyway, Kali and I made up. I'm taking her out for breakfast on Friday, so I'm going to have to leave a bit early."

"That sounds fine," Castiel said.

"No 'congratulations?' You wound me, Cassie." Gabriel put a hand over his heart dramatically.

"You two have broken up and gotten back together more times than I've seen the Princess Bride, and I watch that every time I get sick," Castiel told him.

"You never get sick," Gabriel said dismissively. "I could count the number of times you've had to stay home on one hand."

"Two hands," Castiel corrected. "Four times during school, three since-"

"Whatever. Point being, you don't watch the Princess Bride all the time, so your comment about me and Kali is irrelevant."

Castiel rolled his eyes, and continued to take inventory and restock flowers.

Monday was a long day for business. The shop wasn't open quite as long on weekends, but when customers were scarce, the hours dragged by. The only things getting Castiel through the day were Gabriel's ridiculous banter, and the knowledge that Dean would be calling or texting him eventually.

Eventually turned out to be four o'clock on the dot.

"You there, Cas?"

It had been less than forty eight hours since Castiel had seen him, but nonetheless he was thrilled to hear Dean's voice.