Did this on a prompt from rosaline_kels on livejournal. Something to do with Cas being a lifeguard and Dean being in love with him and vowing to end the day with Cas giving him CPR (aka a kiss).

So there.

Sink or Swim

Dean can't help staring at Cas from across the way. He's sitting in the life guard chair high up above everyone else in nothing but a pair of dark blue trunks and Dean just feels a tightness in his chest and pants that he can't get rid of. He noticed a few months back when Cas had come over to go in his pool and it had all gone downhill from there. He loved how Cas walked, the way he formed his words, how he thought before he spoke. He loved the little dimple of his ribs through skin and the way his hair was disheveled and crazy even though Dean had seen him brush it with his own two eyes. He loved his lips, how plump and soft looking they were, always chapped no matter how many times Sam had tried to give him chap-stick. And he loved Cas's eyes, most of all those gorgeous eyes that shined sapphire in the summer sun and made him gasp and feel like a fish out of water.

He was crazy about his best friend. His best friend since kindergarten. Who just happened to be a lifeguard at their local beach.

So Dean had this plan. By the end of the afternoon, Cas was going to kiss him or so help him, he was going to drag that skinny assed boy down with him and molest his mouth with his own if he had to. So he needed his plan to work.

Dean walked over to Cas's high chair as the slighter man climbed down, coming down to his break. Dean took a moment to enjoy the view of that fine ass, and then noticed he wasn't the only one and shooed away the many beach girls that were mooning at HIS Cas. No way.

He was there at the bottom, so when Castiel turned around, Dean was the first thing he saw. The smile that lit up his face was enough to make Dean sweat without the heat of the day added to it.

"Dean!"

Dean smiled. "Hey Cas. Off duty so soon?"

The smaller man shrugged and gave him a small smile. "Are you disappointed?"

Don't give it away Dean, he thought to himself as he gave a small smile in return. "Not at all. Lunch? It's on me."

Castiel gave a half-hearted shrug. "Why not?"

They walked over to the many vendors and each bought a basket of clam cakes and fries (on Dean) with a can of Coke. They walked over to go on the jetty that jutted out and into the ocean. Dean walked over to the edge and Castiel sat beside him their feet dangling off and skimming the water as they ate.

"So, see any action this afternoon?" Dean asked. He mentally smacked himself. See any action? Wasn't that a tad dirty.

But Castiel didn't seem to notice, another thing he loved about him. "No. No one's drowned so far. Just the odd scream and yell from a scantily clad girl to get one of the life guards into the water with them."

Dean felt a bolt of jealousy run through him. Stupid skanky girls and their stupid skanky revealing bathing suits. "Ever get yelled down?" he asked instead.

Castiel snorted. "Plenty. I never go though." He made a crazy face. "Those girls scare me. you have NO IDEA what they'll do to you in the water."

Dean burst out into a laugh, throwing a fry at a passing seagull. Cas could be funny when he wanted to be. "Well I guess that's ok too."

Castiel gave him a worried look. "Why, did you want me to go with them?" There was something in his voice...

"Only if you wanted to," Dean said quietly, silently hoping they weren't having a 'moment'.

Castiel looked him in the eye, like he usually did when what he was about to say was going to be very serious. "I didn't. Not with them," he seemed to mutter afterward.

"Well then," Dean said, breaking the awkward tension that had threatened to overwhelm them. He stood up, His basket left on the rocks beside Cas. This was his chance to show Cas how awesome he was, how HE, and not those skanky girls in their skanky revealing bathing suits, was the right choice. He walked to the edge of the jetty-where you're not supposed to go. "Water looks awesome."

Castiel shifted behind him, suddenly apprehensive. "Yeah. Looks like." he paused as Dean got closer to the edge. "Say, Dean? Maybe you should step back a little?"

Dean turned to see Cas, a concerned look on his face. he waved a dismissive hand at him. "Pshaw. Don't be such a part-pooper Cas. It's only the ocean." He got closer. He was gonna show Cas just how brave he was, turn on that Winchester charm.

Castiel on the other hand swallowed nervously as Dean got to the edge of the jetty, the rocks dark, wet and slippery. "Dean, seriously. That's not safe."

Still, Dean pushed forward, walking on the dark rocks, his flip flops smacking against them and sending up splashes of water. "Seriously Cas. I'm fine." He maneuvered around a piece of seaweed. "See? Totally ok. No falling for m-WHOA!" And then, of course, because luck was never on his side (he was a Winchester after all) Dean's flip flop slid on the slippery rock and he fell into the water, head first and smacking into a rock on his way down. He hit the ocean with a splash, vision blurry and mind disoriented from his smack into the rock.

Castiel sat in shock as Dean disappeared beneath the waves. He waited a whole ten seconds before it clicked that Dean had just SMAHSED into the water and hit his head on a ROCK on the way down. And that he was NOT coming up. He hopped to his feet, flip flops left on the rock as he almost yelled for a life guard. A moment later he smacked himself in the forehead as he shed his t-shirt and mumbled, "You ARE the life guard you moron," before he jumped in right after him.

Dean awoke to warm, soft lips pressing against his and his first thought was, YES! I finally got him to kiss me!

Until he felt his stomach roil and his head spin and he was turned onto his side as he spit up water, heaving it out of him, the salt burning his throat and nose. Sand ground into his back and he was soaked and shivering and oh! his chest just ached.

He opened his eyes and almost closed them after that. But he didn't. Castiel's cerulean irises were looking down on him, full of anger and... was that fear? He was dripping water and Dean was acutely aware of people leaving them, the sand churned up around him as if there had been a crowd there moments before.

He coughed once and looked up into those tortured eyes. "Um..." he swallowed. "What happened?"

Castiel seemed to snap. "What happened? WHAT HAPPENED?" He took in a deep breath to calm himself down and when he opened his eyes again, they looked more frightened than anything else. "I could kill you, you know. Just-kill you."

Dean swallowed again, his throat killing him. He had a headache too. "Um..."

Castiel blinked the running water from his eyes and said tiredly, "You almost died."

Dean's blood ran cold. "What?"

"Exactly," his friend answered. "You slipped in and hit your head and... you almost DIED." His eyes were wide. "Dean, I had to drag you out. you weren't breathing and you're head..." Now he stopped and his hand moved to Dean's forehead where he pressed down. Dean winced and when Cas removed his hand, Dean saw blood.

"Cas..."

"NO! I told you...! But you, you're so stubborn, no you didn't listen. Why would Dean Winchester ever listen?" He shook his head and seemed to be getting away with himself.

"Um... Cas?"

"You just had to go too far, you know?" Castiel kept going, as if he didn't hear Dean. He probably didn't, seeing as Dean's voice was so soft and scratchy. "Go onto the slippery rocks, ignore ME, go off the deep-end, get knocked unconscious. Because that's the Dean Winchester way. You're a stubborn pain in the ass, and if I didn't love you, I'd have left you a long time ago and then where...would you...oh crap."

Dean sat stock still, slightly shivering from the water, but besides that nothing. His ears were ringing, but he didn't know if that was from almost drowning or hearing what he thought he had just heard. And by the way Cas's wide blue eyes were getting even wider, yeah. He heard right.

Cas loved him.

"Dean... I...I didn't..." Castiel stuttered, not knowing what to say or how to say it. He couldn't take it back. He didn't want to.

"You...love me?" Dean asked. He sounded out of breath, even to himself.

Castiel found no point in denying it. He nodded slowly. And then Dean, being Dean and sucking with words, leaned in and kissed him. Just like that. He was reclaiming those lush lips with his own since he had been unresponsive the first time. Castiel let out a little gasp, making Dean press harder with his lips until they parted and his tongue darted into Castiel's mouth. He laved into it, Cas's tongue tentatively meeting his and then lapsing into a rhythm of in and out, up and around.

A few moments later, when he was out of breath, Dean broke the kiss and leaned his forehead against Cas's. The man across from him was breathing in and out harshly, as if he had been the one to almost have drowned. "Good," Dean whispered, happy that they were on the far side of the jetty where no one could see them. This was private. "Me too."

Castiel froze and then his eyes opened lazily making Dean kiss him slowly all over again, just savoring in the way he tasted, which was more like salt-water than anything else at this point in time.

"Yeah?" Cas asked and Dean nodded against him. There was a pause. "Since when?"

And if Dean thought about it, he always had. Since he had first sat next to Cas in kindergarten and offered to share his paste, he had loved him. From the moment that Cas had tilted his head to the side and said that he wasn't really into eating said paste, he had loved him. So it only made sense for Dean to respond with, "Since forever."

And Cas seemed happy with that, nodding that yes, him too. "Well good. Now then." He stood up, making Dean groan. "Let's get you checked out. You might have a concussion."

He hauled Dean up to his feet, the taller teen protesting all the while, and dragged him to the life-guard's home base, which had a trained First Aid hand in there. Dean was checked out by a woman in her early twenties in a t-shirt thrown over a bathing-suit, but his eyes stayed on Cas the entire time.

And when she was done and said, "Nope. No concussion. You're boyfriend just got a pretty nasty bump on the head Cas. He's lucky to have you," Castiel just gave him a little smile that made his heart skip and said, "Oh yes he is."

You like? There are many reasons that i have not updated Nothing Is Ever Easy. One of them is happening now, as I am going to the Emergency Room (again) at this moment in time. All excuses will be posted with the new chapter, which will be soon. I promise. If not, you can come and find me and beat me until i do.

But for now...

TO THE ER!