Castiel had somehow managed to ride to school with his older sister without making eye contact with her or throwing up all over himself with guilt. Which was better than when he was four and had tried to hide the fact that he ate a whole stick of butter from her, although throwing up in that instance may have come from a variety of causes.

At lunchtime, Castiel decided to sit cross-legged on the floor of a seldom-used hallway outside of the gym, where he could eat his Tupperware of pasta salad with calamata olives and goat cheese in peace. It had been a while since the last time he sat out here, although during the first few weeks of school it had been is hiding place of choice. He remembered those nerve-wracking weeks of classes, when he'd looked out at the masses of cheerful high school students enjoying themselves and decided that he just couldn't handle it. Apart from a few teachers who pretended not to notice the weird kid sitting by himself as they passed by, he could usually get some privacy here.

But while the hallway was seldom used that didn't mean it was never used. Obnoxious laughter and a strong whiff of Axe body spray announced the arrival of a group of Castiel's classmates. Castiel tried to make himself as small and unnoticeable as possible against the hallway wall, but it was too late.

"Cassandra!" a pudgy blonde boy named Chad sneered, brilliantly and originally calling Castiel a woman's name in order to insult him, "You can't eat out here it's against the rules."

Castiel looked up at his classmates, a group of about six young men now wandering near to him. They were all moderately fit, tanned from sports, indistinguishable young men wearing some combination of khaki shorts and striped polo shirts. He wasn't doing anything to bother them. Surely this time they would just leave him alone. "I would appreciate it if you wouldn't tell a teacher." Castiel said, and continued, deadpan, a la Bartleby the Scrivener, "I'd prefer to sit out here today."

Chad was already snickering though and boisterously trying to get the guys around him to pay attention.

"What are you eating anyway? You're so fucking weird!" Chad laughed kind of desperately, eyes flashing to his friends for affirmation. The other boys, blessed with the quiet confidence that comes with being a moderately good looking jock in high school, went along with it. These guys had been raised with Chad, had been friends with him since they were about three years old, and the fact that he had grown into a real jerk wasn't quite enough to break those bonds. Chad was obviously not going to stop ragging on this kid, and they were on his side at this particular moment. "Maybe eating all that gay food is what turned you gay." Chad suggested, then shrieked with laughter at his own joke. His friends backed him with an obligatory chuckle.

Castiel's expression flattened out and he directed all of his attention to eating his lunch as quickly as possible.

"Hey, dude, you got a problem?" a gruff voice called out from down the hallway. Castiel tensed in recognition of Dean Winchester's voice, looking up, panicked, as his defender strode down the hallway towards them.

"Who are you?" Chad muttered. His expression was cautiously defiant. Dean towered over the pudgy bully, but Chad was still surrounded by his posse of dudes and they looked dangerously athletic.

"I'm Dean Winchester asshole, and you better just go to lunch ok?" Dean's voice had lowered to a threatening growl, and his shoulders were set like somebody who knew how to throw a punch's.

"Dude, Chad, let's just get out of here." Said a guy wearing a pink polo with a popped collar. He clearly outranked Cas's tormentor in the social ranking because everybody but Dean and Chad immediately relaxed and began moving away. Things were getting awkward. Nobody wanted to get suspended.

Chad gave another one of his aggressive little laughs, but he raised his hands in what looked like resignation and began to back up. Cas, who hadn't taken a breath pretty much since Dean showed up, realized that he had been holding his fork so tightly it had bent the plastic.

"Ok, whatever," Chad said, turning around. Dean was about to turn to Cas to make sure everything was ok, when Chad finished his thought.

"Faggots."

With a growl Dean sprang towards Chad to wipe that fucking smile off his face, but he never got the chance.

Castiel had launched himself from his seated position and with a rough grab and a shove had Chad pinned to the wall in less than 5 seconds.

"You are mean without being clever, you aren't funny, and you don't have any real friends." Castiel hissed at a stunned, panicky Chad who was clawing at Cas's arm trying to wiggle free. Cas was a rock though, and no matter how much Chad flailed he couldn't get out.

At this point Chad's "friends" had overcome their initial shock at the weird little guy actually defending himself, and had started running over to see what was going on. Dean managed to rip his eyes away from the stunningly transformed "in-charge" Castiel to address the group.

"Back the fuck up." Dean growled, shoving one of the bigger guys. In the next few seconds everything was punching and scuffling and grabbing and shouting. Castiel, figuring that he'd let Chad get out before he pissed himself, turned to find Dean fighting like a madman. He was hopelessly outnumbered by a whirlwind of douchebags, but he was putting up a good show. Cas ran over and wrapped his arms around Dean, restraining him, and trying to drag his sister's boyfriend out of the fray.

"HEY." Shouted a teacher, and everybody bolted. The crowd of jockish asshole boys disappeared down the hallway, sprinting through various escape routes. Well, everybody escaped save Dean who was still entangled in Cas's restraining grip.

"Mr. Singer," Castiel pleaded to his favorite English teacher, still holding back a furious Dean, "Please, they started all this, he was just trying to help."

Mr. Singer was glaring at the two boys, with the expression that usually comes immediately before a suspension when coming from a teacher, but his eyes flicked down to the pasta salad Cas had spilled onto the floor. He eyed Castiel and his friend. Dean had finally stopped trying to get away, but he was still fuming and looking down the hallway at where Chad and his gang had run.

"You eating in the hallway again, Castiel?" Singer asked.

"It's been a bad week, Mr. Singer." Castiel said, sheepishly.

"Who's this one?" Mr. Singer asked

"Dean Winchester." Cas said.

"I'm Cas's boyfriend." Dean elaborated.

Cas was struck by a sensation of lightheadedness, and he could not help but stare at Dean as though he had just announced that he was made entirely of ham and that the school was about to blow up. Mr. Singer raised an eyebrow.

"Are you? Well cool your jets son, because if I see any dumb stuff like what I just saw ever again your ass is OUT of this school, do you understand?"

"Yes sir." Dean muttered, rubbing his forehead.

Cas didn't respond, he was still floating somewhere in the stratosphere after Dean's announcement.

"Good." Mr. Singer's face still expressed nothing but annoyance, but he gave Castiel a stiff pat on the back in solidarity before he started to walk away down the hall. "Go eat your lunch in the darn cafeteria like a normal person." He called back to the sophomore as he stepped into his classroom.

Dean turned to Cas, his beautiful green eyes expressing nothing but empathy, and he touched Cas's arm in reassurance.

"You ok Cas?" He asked.

Castiel's eyes were wide with shock, his expression stunned. Moments ago he had been terrifying, but now he looked like he'd forgotten how to close his mouth. In other words, it was not immediately obvious to Dean whether or not Castiel was all right.

"I…" he said, looking down at where Dean was still touching his arm, "What?"

The last time Dean had seen Cas show this much emotion he had been sitting in his lap. Dean smirked just ever so slightly and touched the side of Cas's face, and Castiel's eyes, impossibly, grew even wider.

"Cas," Dean said, remembering the way Cas's whole demeanor had shifted once he was holding Chad to the wall, all fury and strength and… fuck, "Can we like, get out of here? And talk?"

"Dean?"

A beautiful red head stood at the end of Castiel's secret hallway, trembling slightly as she looked at her brother and her boyfriend standing so closely together. Cas jumped back like Dean's hand on his face had burned him, overwhelmed by guilt. Dean looked at his girlfriend, who was staring at her brother and her boyfriend, perched beautifully on the precipice between screaming and crying.

"Hey Anna." Dean said, his tone serious. "We should probably talk first. I guess."

The three Winchester men sat around their tiny kitchen table, with a half eaten grocery store pie as centerpiece. Dean was drawing little designs on his plate with the melted ice cream remains of his dessert, while his father and brother stared directly at him with expressions of utter incredulity. Sam broke the silence first.

"Hold up, you and Anna broke up because you…"

"I'm like bi or something. I don't know. I like her brother." Dean took a swig of his Root Beer like this was no thing. On his own earlier Dean had been trembling like a daisy thinking about telling his brother and father what had happened, but in front of both of them he could have been ordering pepperoni instead of mushrooms on a pizza.

Things had been considerably worse when he was telling them to Anna. He could still see the hurt expression on her face when had had told her about the Star Wars evening. The fact that she had so clearly been trying really hard not to cry had actually been worse than if she had just lost it.

"You're dating a boy?" John Winchester asked, just trying to pin the basics down.

"No, Cas flipped shit and said he couldn't date me because I used to date his sister and it's too weird." Dean looked miserably down at the table in front of him. Cas hadn't been able to make eye contact with him the whole time they had talked, he had made his ultimatum and left. The whole day had been total soap opera bullshit, and he was tired of feeling so many fucking emotions. He took another slug of root beer.

"So you wanted me to make friends with Cas so you could cheat on your girlfriend with him?" Sam asked.

"No! I wanted you to make friends with Cas because I don't want him to be bullied! Nice job with that by the way, Jesus." He rolled his eyes, irritated and defensive. "And don't call him Cas, I call him Cas, you don't get to call him Cas."

"So you're gay?" John Winchester asked for the second time. His expression was unreadable, so Dean couldn't quite tell if this was going to be a Burt Hummel moment or something considerably less sympathetic.

Dean looked down at his root beer again, pouring every ounce of effort he had into speaking coolly and calmly.

"I like dudes and girls." He said. Cas had probably felt like this coming out to his parents too. God, he should buy him more than just a cookie for being a jerk about that.

"But, you've always been such a…" John paused, trying to think of the word.

"Slut?" Sam suggested.

"Shh Sam. Um, Ladies man?" John asked with a hint of hope in his voice.

"Slut." Sam repeated.

"Damnit Sam, shh." John looked at his second youngest son with that irritated expression only Sam could milk out of him. Dean could hardly think of a time the two of them had been together without bickering. But he did not need that right now, he was going through some shit.

"Dad, I've always checked out dudes, I just never let myself think about it until Cas. I still like girls though, I just like dudes too. I think. I'm not sure, it's complicated." Dean sighed. "Not like it matters because I'm a huge asshole and Cas's never going to date me because it would be really shitty for Anna."

Dean eyed his father's beer.

"Could I have some of that?"

"No." John said. He had some dubious parenting methods, but apparently underage drinking was where he drew the line. He leaned back in his chair, staring at his son. Dean looked down sheepishly, unintentionally displaying his long eyelashes, and that small movement reminded John so strongly of Dean's mother that he had to look away for a second.

This was exactly the sort of shit these boys needed a mother for. John took a deep breath before he continued.

"Dean, I'm not going to lie to you, this whole situation is just out of my league. I don't know what I should say to you about this."

Dean stared at his plate, jaw clenched. He'd bought Cas a cookie? Fuck that. He'd make Cas a pie, that's what he'd do, he'd bake him a homemade friggin' pie.

"But Dean, I just want you to know that I love you, and your brother, no matter what." John Winchester said. "I don't have any idea what I can tell you about dating your girlfriend's brother, because that's just… that's ridiculous honestly. But I'm sure you'll figure it out."

With that he smiled compassionately at his son, and finished off his beer. Dean shrugged and finished his root beer. As far as Winchester family meetings went, this one was about average in the level of awkwardness. At least they weren't talking about their feelings anymore, thank fucking God.

Anna's laptop had a surprising amount of quality break-up songs, a fact she was taking advantage of, perched on her computer chair in her pjs scrolling through her iTunes and putting together a fairly epic playlist. She and Jo had stopped after school to pick up some ice cream and DVDs, and she had spent her evening at Jo's house, watching movies she liked while Jo's mother Ellen brought her more slices of pizza and rubbed her back comfortingly.

A very soft knock struck her door.

"Come in." Anna invited, toggling back and forth between Single Ladies and Kiss You Off.

"Anna." Castiel's distinctive voice greeted her from her door, the first time she had been addressed by him since before the weekend. She looked up from her laptop to see her little brother, standing in her doorway wearing a ratty t-shirt and pajama pants, holding a wrapped cookie in his hands, and staring at the ground like a shy toddler asked to say hello to a stranger.

"Hi Castiel" Anna said. Her face remained flat and emotionless, the way Castiel's usually was. Perhaps some things do run in families.

"Anna, I should never have kissed Dean." Castiel took a deep breath and looked up, meeting her beautiful clear eyes with his own. He extended the cookie in front of him. "I know this isn't enough."

Anna examined her little brother. His face was rife with poorly hidden misery. She hadn't seem him look like this since the night he knocked on her door and told her that he was pretty sure he was gay, and that he was almost positive that their parents were going to throw him out for it. She took the cookie with a frustrated sigh, then reached out and took her brother in her arms, enclosing him in a sort of bear hug that she hadn't given him since he was actually a little kid.

"Castiel, don't worry about it, ok?" She shook her head and looked into his utterly astonished face. A bemused laugh escaped her when she saw his panic. "Castiel, I had been planning on breaking up with Dean for a like a week."

Castiel pulled back a little bit further from Anna's hug. His eyes were wide, begging for her to continue.

" I don't know if you noticed but he was kind of being a dick boyfriend…" She paused, imagining her handsome boyfriend, er, ex, kissing her little brother. Nope, that was gonna be weird for a while. "For, I guess, reasons that you probably know more than me honestly. Ugh." She shook her head and recollected her thoughts, focusing on the panicky baby brother at hand, "ok Castiel, just don't beat yourself up about this ok?"

For a few seconds Castiel stood utterly still, absorbing the shock of this information.

"You were going to break up with Dean?" Castiel asked, clearly disbelieving.

Anna raised a skeptical eyebrow. "Wow, ok, yeah, I don't know what he did for you but he sure as hell wasn't doing that for me." Anna looked at her baby brother, remembering how worried she'd been about him for their first few weeks at this school. Ever since he'd started spending time with Dean he'd been more social, he'd stopped locking himself in his room and listening to depressing music, he'd like, got a life. "Castiel, if you want to date Dean…" She paused again. "Wait a few weeks?" She sighed.

Castiel actually gasped at this.

"I wasn't, no, Anna, I couldn't…" He sputtered.

"Let me tell you, he would totally be into it. Trust me." Anna continued, rolling her eyes. "He talked about how great you were for like 20 minutes when I was trying to dump his ass. Worst apology ever."

Castiel's face resumed its normal blank expression, which Anna knew signaled something close to contentment for her little brother. She hardly had time to be pleased with his happiness before she had the wind knocked out of her from a crushing hug.

"Thanks Anna." Cas whispered, voice muffled from his face being smushed into her collarbone.

"You'd do the same for me." Anna shut her eyes and sighed. "Now get the hell off me and let me brood for a while, 'kay?"

SUMMER:

Dean stared intently at the ragged basketball hoop in front of him at their local public courts, dribbling the ball several times in prep. He was pouring sweat, his dark t-shirt sticking to his back uncomfortably. He eyed the hoop again. Sam and him were playing PIG, and if Dean didn't get this last shot than Sam would win. He dribbled a couple more times.

"OH JUST GET IT OVER WITH ALREADY!" Sam shouted at him from off court, taking a swig from one of those fancy water bottles that look like they come from the future and athletes find so damn necessary.

Dean rolled his eyes in exasperation and took his shot. The ball arched up splendidly, before ricocheting off the side of the hoop and towards the ground, along with Dean's hopes of victory.

"WOOT WOOT!" Sam announced, throwing his arms in the air and running around his older brother in an overexcited victory circle. "P-I-G baby!"

"Whatever, you got lucky dude." Dean grumbled.

"I think the fact that he is on the basketball team and practices a lot more than you is why he was able to beat you so easily at this game." A gravelly voice from the sidelines suggested, honestly and without any judgment in its tone.

"Son of a bitch!" Dean gumbled. "What kind of a boyfriend are you?" Dean looked over at Castiel, who had been sitting at the edge of the court watching the game in its entirety, remaining completely silent until just now. Regardless of the heat, he was dressed in a white button up shirt and belted kakhi pants, and unlike Dean didn't appear to have broken a sweat.

"I'm not sure what kind of a boyfriend I am." Castiel responded, but he gave that little half smile that so rarely graced his expression, "But I think I'm a pretty good one, all things considered."

It was just too cute, and Dean couldn't help but jog over to the side of the court to wrestle Cas into a teasing headlock, Cas complaining all the while about how gross and sweaty Dean was. Dean kissed him right on the top of his adorable head, and Sam gave his usual sigh and continued practicing free throws like this wasn't happening.

"Hey!" A voice called out from a car at the side of the park. A pale face framed in gorgeous red hair peeked out of the window. "Lovebirds! It's too hot for this shit! Jo and I want ice cream. You in?" Anna kind of liked Dean better now that they weren't dating. She'd always thought of him as an incredibly attractive asshole that would look good standing next to her in prom pictures. But the way he looked at Cas, like he couldn't believe that somebody this great actually liked him, it was just to freaking cute to resent.

"Hell yeah!" Dean called out to his ex girlfriend. They were fairly comfortable together again, once Dean had stopped thinking about how weird their situation was. Anna had gotten over him with almost insulting rapidity, and it had only taken a month for the rest of Anna's family to stop making snide comments about him when he came over to pick Cas up or stay for dinner.

Sam, Dean, and Cas impossibly managed to squeeze themselves in the backseat of Anna's car and she headed off towards Dean and Sam's favorite ice cream place. Cas casually hooked his arm around Dean's, sweaty grossness be damned, and snuggled into his boyfriend slightly closer. Dean leaned down ever so slightly to whisper in Cas's ear.

"Later?" Dean asked.

"Definitely." Cas responded, and surreptitiously kissed Dean's cheek.

"Gross dudes." Sam said, too close to not have overheard the entire exchange.

"Shut the hell up Sammy." Dean teased, and surprised Castiel by tilting his face up and kissing him right on the lips in front of everyone. Cas recovered quickly though, closing his eyes and kissing back.

It was going to be a lovely summer.