I have been working on this for a while, and decided to post it. I'm not entirely sure where to go with Dean/Cas's relationship. So if you all would review and give me some ideas, my ego would appreciate it.

EDIT: I noticed I left something out of my chapters. Song credits. I'll post these at the end of every chapter now.

ooo-ooo-ooo-ooo-ooo

It'd been a long morning. Driving three states away from their last location left Dean more than a little tired. The Impala barreled down the road, with the sun floating in the sky up ahead. The tape player had broken two days ago, and without his tunes, Dean felt a little awkward, pressured toward making conversation with Castiel, who was sitting in the seat across from him. He wasn't in the mood, and switched on the radio.

"That's as close as I'll get to loving you, even though, there's nothing else I'd rather do"

Both men's eyes met for a moment, and then awkwardly dashed back and forth between the radio buttons and straight ahead at the open road, trying to ignore the lyrics in hopes that they would just go away.

"I can dream, I can hope, I can scheme but still I know-"

At the same time, Dean and Castiel both shot a hand forward to change the channel, hands touched briefly, then jerked away as if being burned, before each gracelessly reached for the radio button a second time, at the same time. Both paused for a moment, making eye contact for only another brief moment before Castiel said in his calm, gravel voice, retreating back to his seat,

"Sorry. Your radio. Not mine."

"Damn right," Dean replied, actually appreciating Castiel's understanding of personal property at this point. Sam never did this on their road trips, and was forever dicking with the radio, the windows, the seats, the glove box, the rear-view mirrors, anything that permitted hands to adjust it. Dean smirked to himself as he coolly changed the channel without further argument over who controlled the radio, satisfied with himself until the next ration of noise broke his thoughts.

"You spin my head right round, right round, when you go down, when you-"

"That's enough of that." Dean said sharply, changing the channel in disgust. The crap people listened to these days.

"Don't you remember you told me you love me, baby?-"

"Ugh, what the hell is this?" he groaned, avoiding that irritating look of concern he was most definitely getting from Castiel's position in the passenger seat. Dean hated that look. It translated to, I can tell something about this bothers you, human. No thanks on the mental heart-to-heart, Cas. Dean changed the channel again, becoming frustrated quicker and quicker.

"Hold the line! Love isn't always on time.-"

"Why is everybody singing about their feelings?!" Dean growled, frantically stabbing a finger at another channel, landing said finger in the broken tape deck before actually hitting the channel 6 mark. Damn February right to Hell.

"You and me baby ain't nothing but mammals so let's do it like-"

Now angry, and visibly flushed, Dean settled for switching the radio to OFF. The silence was awkward, but not as bad as the shady sequence of songs on air today.

After only a 10 second silence that got more unpleasant by the second, Castiel cleared his throat.

"Dean, I've been thinking."

"NO!" Dean snapped, his voice harsh like the cracking of a whip. Castiel jolted in surprise momentarily, the way he always did when someone suddenly yelled. His blue eyes stared at the red-faced man driving the car, blinking every so often, but not breaking his gaze of confusion. Why did you just yell at me, Dean? What did I do now? Is this about personal space again? At this moment, he wished Sam or that old man that the Winchesters liked would have been sharing the car with them. Maybe they would have led the conversation, or lack thereof, into another topic. But as it stood, it was just the two of them right now.

Dean's eyes eventually sneaked over to the corners of their sockets for a quick peek. Yep, he's still staring at me like that. It had been roughly a full minute and Castiel still had that expression focused squarely on him, the one that seemed to mix mild alarm with a questioning "Why are you in such a bad mood?" without actually saying anything. Later, after he was able to think clearly with a burger in his hand, Dean reminded himself that he would have to tell Cas how normally humans were uncomfortable being stared at for a period of time lasting longer than five seconds.

Why am I in such a bad mood, really? Dean didn't know. Maybe he was just mad at Sam. Maybe he was mad at Bobby for saying that he and Cas were too busy having a tea party when they were supposed to be feeling terrible and somewhat responsible for Bobby's being confined to a wheelchair. Tea party? We're not having a damn tea party. We're workin' here. And why the hell do you give a damn about what party I have or what's drank at it? Last time I checked, I'm a grown man and if I even wanted to have a tea party, I am damn-well entitled to having one. Tea parties are faggy and I don't want to have one, but… Bobby's just bitter about not being able to walk. That's it.

"Dean?"

At hearing his name being called, breaking the silence again, Dean snapped out of his daze and addressed his passenger.

"What, Cas?"

"My apologies, but you've been muttering to yourself for ten minutes… and you're also driving on the wrong side of the highway." Castiel replied, motioning forward, where luckily the road was quite empty, but Dean really was on the wrong end of traffic. He corrected back into his own lane.

"Bathroom break?" Dean asked, realizing he was being kind of an ass by yelling earlier and tried to change the subject casually.

"Excuse me?" Castiel asked, cocking his head slightly to one side, in attempt to process this information.

"Do you have to pee?" Dean reiterated.

"Angels don't have any biological need to emit waste, if that's what you're implying."

"Well humans do." Dean said, pulling off at a diner and putting the car in park.

"Don't men usually 'go' on the side of the road?" Castiel asked, remembering both Sam and Dean needing to stop and walk into the woods for a 'bathroom break' at given times.

"Not when you need to drop a deuce."

"Okay." Castiel answered, having heard enough. He never questioned God's creation, but the idea of defecating seemed like one of the worst things that a human could have to do. He was lucky. As an angel, he didn't have to eat or drink, and as a result, he didn't have to go through such a disgusting process.

"Are you hungry, Dean?"

"What?"

"Hungry. I'm only asking because you left the television on at the motel, and while I was waiting for you, I learned something, about humans."

"Oh?"

"A commercial, as you call it, said that crankiness was an unfortunate side effect of hunger. And with your mood as it is-"

Dean interrupted by laughing at the angel's clueless brilliance in his understanding of humans. The Snickers commercial was meant to be a joke, though it contained truth. But try explaining that to an angel that had the sense of humor of an egg. He just opted to tell Cas that, yes, being cranky sometimes meant that a person was hungry. Thinking about it, he definitely could use some sustenance.

"I'm willing to wait with you, while you 'refuel'." Cas offered. He never felt hunger in his very long life, but liked sitting and listening while Dean talked. He always seemed a little happier and a lot less tense when he was putting food into his mouth.

"Sounds like a plan, come on." Dean said, turning off the car and heading into the diner with the angel following in close proximity. It was a 'seat yourself' kind of place, so Castiel took Dean's lead and sat in the seat across from the one occupied by the still irritated human. The waitress came, took down what Dean wanted and looked at Cas, waiting for him to ask for something. He made eye contact with her, blinking a few times and said "Coffee?" as more of a question than a statement.

"That's it?" the waitress replied.

"He's on a diet." Dean said, smiling to himself.

"Whatever you're doing, honey, it's working." she said before walking away. When she was out of earshot, Dean motioned to her and winked at Castiel.

"Not bad." He said.

"No, Dean."

"What?"

"Stop trying to 'involve' me with my father's creations." Castiel replied, knowing exactly where his companion was going with this. Dean, do you ever have anything else on your mind besides women and food?

"Come on. Do you wanna be a virgin forever?" Dean asked condescendingly.

"I don't mind."

"But Cas-" Dean was interrupted by the waitress bringing drinks, much to Castiel's relief. It would change the subject, temporarily getting Dean away from this crusade he was on. Cas picked up the surprisingly big mug and took in a mouthful of the black liquid he was developing a fondness for.

"Hey, since angels don't need to eat or drink, and since you never have to use the toilet, where does your coffee go? Like, why do you drink it?" Dean asked.

"It doesn't really go anywhere. I drink it, and then nothing happens. It disappears inside me. I just find the warmth and the taste pleasing." Cas replied, slowly taking another drink, closing his eyes momentarily.

ooo-ooo-ooo-ooo-ooo

"You had ONE job, Cas! ONE JOB!" Dean stomped around the motel room, throwing another fit.

"I fail to see what I did wrong." Castiel answered, straight-faced and waiting for another one of Dean's explosions. He wondered to himself if all humans were this moody and volatile.

"Look around this room, Cas. How many beds do you see?" Dean snapped, motioning around the room and stopping when his hand gestured to a king sized bed in the middle of the room.

"One." He answered.

"ONE! Just one!" Dean yelled again.

"I don't know why you're so angry. We only need one. As an angel, I don't need to sleep. I was just going to sit in the kitchenette and rest while you slept."

"That's not the point. Did you see the way that the desk chick looked at you?" Dean asked, lowering his voice a bit.

"She smiled at me. I thought she seemed nice." Castiel replied, remembering the pretty young woman that he spoke to when he checked into the room they were using.

"She thought we were gay, Cas."

"I don't understand what you mean." he replied, being very honest. Some of the things Dean said went misunderstood by Cas, but he would let it go most of the time, not asking for an explanation and would assume he would just figure it out later.

"Gay, Cas! GAY!"

"Well, you're the only one who isn't. I was in a fine mood a moment ago."

"Not that kind of gay. I mean…homosexual." Dean grunted, lowering his voice dramatically.

"What?"

"Homosexual!"

"Dean, I heard what you said. I don't know what that is." Castiel replied, still very calm and collected. He hoped that if he kept his own calm over the situation, that eventually Dean would relax as well.

"You know that thing I like doing with women?"

"Yes."

"Well, imagine that… but with two guys."

"Okay."

Dean fumed. Explaining things like this to a clueless angel was infuriating. What do I have to do? Draw you a labeled diagram, Cas?

"She thought that WE were going to do that, tonight. In this room with ONE FREAKIN BED that you just had to agree to!"

"Okay." Castiel said.

"Okay?" Dean seethed. "That's it? Okay is all you have to say? Doesn't that bug you?"

"I'm sorry, Dean. But no. Why would that bother me? I know the truth."

"That's not the point, Cas. That chick was really hot."

"She was also a married woman, a righteous woman. Trust me, Dean. Even if she didn't think you were a 'homosexual', you wouldn't have had a chance with her anyway." Cas explained.

"That's… not the point!"

"You keep saying that. What is the point?" Castiel asked, seriously not sure why he was being chewed out so thoroughly. It was an honest mistake for someone that didn't understand human culture.

"The point is, I'm not into dudes and neither are you."

"I don't know, Dean. I care for you deeply. I did raise you out of Hell, somewhere I didn't want to set foot in, and then I turned against my own kind in order to help you."

"I think you're confusing friendship with romance."

"Pardon me. I know nothing about the difference between my own feelings and those defined in love. I'm new to human emotions, but spending time here, I am learning. In my long life, I have never had friendship. I enjoy your company, I can say that. I like being near you. I like the things you say. I have given everything and I would still give even more for your safety. Call that whatever you would like to call it."

"But you don't want to do me?" Dean asked, blinking repeatedly, then squinting and waiting for an answer.

"I can't say that I do. I don't have those sort of desires."

Dean sighed a breath of relief.

"Good." That was all he needed to hear regarding the issue. Castiel was not exhibiting sexual attraction to him and that was all that mattered. Dean didn't give a second thought in the fact that Cas didn't understand anything about human sexuality. As long as he basically said, "No, Dean. I do not want to rub my junk on you." That was good enough. For Dean, anyway.

Castiel, now cast into deep thought, stood quietly, staring out the window, slightly hurt by Dean's words. Dean hadn't intended to be cruel, but to Cas, the tone his voice carried when he said 'good' really meant, 'that's good, because your feelings disgust me, Castiel'. I'm reading too far into that remark, Cas thought to himself, Dean does not think I'm disgusting, because I'm not. He's just irritated at my inexperience at the world I now live in.

ooo-ooo-ooo-ooo-ooo

SONG CREDITS:

That's As Close As I'll Get To Loving You- Aaron Tippin
Right Round- Flo Rida
Superstar- The Carpenters
Love Isn't Always On Time- Foreigner
The Bad Touch- Bloodhound Gang