Work Text:
Dean takes a deep breath, the smell of the Impala’s interior helping him calm down. No matter where he is, no matter what’s happening in life, the Impala is always there. A roof over his head, a way to escape, a project to distract him. But he doesn’t want Castiel to think he’s not going to show up, so Dean takes a deep breath and gets out, heading for the coffee shop where they agreed to meet.
Inside the shop, Dean takes a moment to breathe in the smell of coffee and milk. He didn’t know milk could smell so much until he started handing out in coffee shops. Bars always smell of liquor, and that’s what he was used to. Now though, he’s starting to appreciate coffee and milk a little more.
A quick look around the shop, and Dean notes all of the exits, that most of the patrons are female, and that he can’t see Castiel. The woman are all talking in groups, no woman sitting alone, so he relaxes a little. The line moves quickly, the hum of conversations fading to the background, and it’s not long before he has his venti black coffee, no room for milk.
There’s still room, enough for his little bit of creamer, but at least saying ‘no room’ gets him a little more coffee.
Dean finds an empty set of armchairs around a table in a corner, sitting in the chair that gives him a view of the front door. He sips his coffee but not a lot because he doesn’t want to run out before he’s been able to talk to Castiel for a while.
Apparently Dean gets lost in his thoughts because the next thing he knows, Castiel is sitting to his left with a big smile on his face. “Hey, how are you?”
A little rattled that he didn’t see Castiel come in, Dean shrugs to buy a little time. “Not bad. Today’s my day off, so it’s been relaxed.”
Castiel chuckles, sitting back in his chair. “I don’t get to even pretend to relax until summer vacation, and even then, I have to work on lesson plans, so it’s not all vacation.” He puts two muffins on the table between them. "Blueberry muffins, because you're food motivated."
Dean blushes, remembering his joke on Halloween. He reaches out to grab a muffin while also asking, “You can’t use the same lesson plans every year?” Dean knows he knows nothing about teaching, but Sammy did the same things, read the same books that Dean did, so he assumed it was the same every year.
“We get new resources, new guidelines, new things to teach,” Castiel explains, taking his own muffin, “so we have to adjust. We don’t start from scratch, just polish and update.” That makes more sense. “But enough about work, what do you do for fun?”
Dean snorts. “The same thing I do for work. I rebuild cars, generally classic cars when it's for fun.” There’s just something so satisfying about taking a broken, abandoned heap and making it run again. “I don’t focus on following all of the rules exactly because as long as it runs again, I’m happy.” He takes a bite of the muffin and moans at the sweet taste. "These are really good."
Castiel smiles at him, still unwrapping his muffin. "I know. That's why I come here instead of the chain shops. The baked goods are so much better."
Taking another bite, Dean has to agree. "If I want breakfast, I might start coming here."
“I do whenever I can. But, back to cars, you said something about the rules?” Castiel asks, so Dean explains about original parts versus modern made parts, all metal versus fiberglass, enjoying bites of muffins throughout the explanation.
“Doing it all original preserves the value but can be nearly impossible,” Dean sums up. “I want it to look good, sound good, and drive safely. Besides, more people can afford the car if it’s a little less than pristine.”
“You don’t keep all of the cars?” Castiel asks, eyes wide with wonder. “I don’t think I could put that much time into something then let it go.”
How to explain? “It’s more about the doing than the having,” Dean finally says, “and being able to see the cars going again no matter who’s driving them.” That and he's just one guy. He can't drive more than maybe two on a regular basis, and a fully repaired car just sitting around is a shame.
Castiel snorts. “I’ll have to take your word for that. I’m not a car person at all. I drive a Prius because it’s cheap and gets me where I need to get to go. Have you kept any of your cars?”
Dean gestures out to the Impala sitting in the lot. “My baby. She’s the first car I worked on, and I grew up with her. Can’t let my baby go.”
Leaning forward for a better view, Castiel studies the Impala through the window. “You’re car looks cool, and I can tell it’s an older car, but I can’t see anything more than that. I just don’t know cars.”
“And I don’t know how to teach kids,” Dean says with as shrug. “If you want to learn about cars, let me know, and I’ll teach you everything I know. If you don’t want to know, well, you can still call me to look at your car if it breaks down.”
Castiel actually laughs this, time, more than his cute little giggles, and Dean smiles at the sound. “I’ll keep that in mind. So, what brings you to this town of all towns?”
Dean hesitates, not sure how much to share on a first date. “Um, there’s two answers to that. Do you want the easy, nice answer or the not so nice but more detailed answer?”
Leaning closer to Dean, Castiel puts a hand on his arm and says, “I’ll take whichever answer you’re comfortable sharing. I don’t expect you to know or trust me enough for a really deep answer yet.”
No, he doesn’t, but at least Dean’s made it clear that things aren’t super easy and nice for him right now, that he might be a little off. “I moved here because Sam and Rachel are here, because I wanted to be near family again. I needed a new start.”
Castiel nods, not moving his hand. “I’ve lived here my whole life, except for when I went to college. Most of my family lives here too, my brothers and sister, my parents. We still do family dinners on Sundays. As much as I want to get away from them sometimes, I understand wanting to live near family.”
Dean nods agreement, and then they shift the conversation to hobbies, Castiel talking about his gardening to help grow herbs, vegetables, and some fruit he uses when cooking and baking. It turns out they have cooking in common, although Dean doesn’t really bake. “It’s too specific,” Dean says with a shrug. “I like cooking better because I have some flexibility with what I’m doing, to experiment.”
“You can experiment a lot with baking,” Cas argues with a shrug, “but to each their own.”
“Exactly.” Dean takes another sip of his coffee only to realize his cup’s empty. He checks his phone and realizes they’ve been talking a lot longer than he realized. “Um, I need to head out, go make dinner for Sam and Rachel. I’d like to do this again though.”
“Me too.” Cas beams at Dean, standing up and holding out his hand. Dean doesn’t need it, but he takes Cas’ hand to help him stand up. “Coffee again?”
Dean shrugs, not sure about that. “Maybe lunch, on a Saturday? Since I know you can’t take lunch breaks during the week.”
“No, I can’t, but Saturday works for me. Do you work Saturdays?” They start heading for the front door, tossing their trash in the garbage as they head out.
“Depends on the workload. Sometimes we can work weekend days to get a weekday off. Like, I’m working Saturday this week instead of today, Wednesday,” Dean explains. “Sometimes, it’s nice to have a chance to work on Saturday. No new cars coming in, no customers calling, fewer people getting in the way. It’s nice.”
“Can you show me the shop some time?” Cas asks. “I know I won’t necessarily understand everything, but you’ve seen my classroom, so I’d like to see where you work.”
“How about this Saturday?” Dean offers. “I know it’s only a few days away, but I’m working, you aren’t, and we can do lunch before or after, whichever you want.”
“This weekend works, but I’ll get back to you about time,” Cas says as they reach the side of the Impala. They managed to park next to each other by chance. “Not all of my siblings live in town, and Uriel is coming for a visit, so I need to know what time to make sure I’m around when we’re doing family activities.”
“Sounds good. And if this weekend doesn’t work, there will be another Saturday I work, I promise,” Dean tells Cas. “Just text me your plans.”
“Can I text you more than just my plans?” Cas asks, smiling at him, reaching over to put a hand on his arm. “I’m sure I can come up with some more than that to say.”
Dean puts a hand over his arm in return. He doesn't look super big, but his arm feels stronger than he looks. “Anything you want. Just know I can’t text much at work, so I might not respond quickly.”
“As long as you respond,” Cas says, “we’re good. Unless you tell me to stop texting, and then I’ll stop, because we’re not doing this if we don’t want to.”
Taking a chance, Dean leans forward to put a hand over Cas’ mouth. “I want to do this. Text away.”
Cas’ lips turn up in a smile, and Dean realizes just how soft they are. “I’ll text you.” As Dean lowers his hand, Cas steps forward to hug him. “Thanks for doing coffee with me.”
“Thanks for asking.” Dean watches Cas head out and realizes he doesn’t know quite when he started calling him Cas instead of Castiel. He’ll have to ask him later if he’s okay with nicknames. Dean fires up the Impala and heads home and finds Rachel and Sam in the kitchen, Rachel beaming at him while she stirs a pot.
“We made spaghetti!” she announces, still stirring the pot. “Dad said you needed some time with a friend, so we didn’t want you to have to make dinner.”
“Appreciate it, sweets.” Dean steps up to press a kiss to the top of her head before looking at Sam who raises an eyebrow at him. Dean nods to tell him it went well, and Sam nods back. He’s sure he’ll have questions later on.
Sure enough, as soon as dinner’s over and Rachel runs to her room to play, Sam points at the sofa. “Sit and talk to me. How’d it go?”
Dean sits with a shrug. “Pretty good. We talked for a while, and I lost track of time, which is good.” Time flies during good conversations, drags during the bad ones.
“It is.” Sam settles down next to him. “Will you see him again?”
Dean sighs, head falling back on the sofa. “I think so. I invited him to the shop on Saturday since he wants to see what I do for work. He said he’d text me the time that works for him. It’s weird,” he admits.
“How so?” Sam asks. “That’s pretty standard. You have a few dates, keep them light and casual, then decide if you want to take it further.”
Dean wants to say something about how that’s not how Sam did it with Ruby, that Dean used to be a love ‘em and leave ‘em kind of guy, but he doesn’t. It’s not fair to Sam, and even if Dean was up front with his partners about what he offered, he isn’t as proud of his past as he used to be.
“I know. I’m just not that used to it. Fuck, I’m not used to dating at all,” Dean admits, “at least not past about two dates.”
And then there was Raphaela, something neither of them really wants to talk about. She technically did try to date Dean, but her ideas weren’t exactly standard ideas. Going to a Satanist ritual was not Dean’s idea of a date or a good time.
“If spending time with Castiel makes you happy, and you have a good time, keep going,” Sam suggests. “If it ever gets awkward, then you tell him the issue, and you decide if it’s a one-time thing that can be changed so it’s comfortable again, or if it’s a big enough issue to stop dating.”
Dean scoffs, shaking his head. “I can’t believe I’m learning to date at thirty.”
“Not everyone dates at the same time,” Sam reminds him, “so better to learn when you’re ready versus when you think you’re supposed to learn.”
Sure, but that doesn’t mean he can’t feel like he maybe should have learned sooner. “What about you? Any interest in dating?”
Sam shakes his head. “I need to focus on Rachel. I know single parents can date, but I want to keep my attention on her. Maybe when she’s older, in high school. I don’t know.”
As long as his brother’s happy, Dean doesn’t really care if he’s dating. He’s not sure how Sam gets by without sex, but that’s Sam’s deal to manage. After all, big life changes can kill your sex drive, something Dean knows really well now.
“Just be happy,” Sam tells Dean, standing up and stretching. “I’m going to check on Rachel then do a little more work. I’ve got a project to finish.”
Dean nods and sits on the sofa a little longer, just relaxing after the day before heading to his side of the duplex. Who knew dating could be so stressful?