"I'm gonna be late, I'm gonna be late, I'm gonna— c'mon baby, you can do it." Dean mumbled into his Impala's dash, praying that she would start up.

The ole '67 Chevy Impala was in for a repair, but he couldn't bring himself to bring her into the auto-shop. He was still angry about getting laid off. She usually still got him to where he needed to go, but today was not one of those days.

"Dammit!" Dean swore, slamming his palms against the steering wheel. It was at least a 15 minute drive to the grocery store that he had work at. And, he had about 30 minutes to get there... on foot.

Dean threw open the car's door, stumbling out with his jacket in his hand and slamming the door behind him. It was the typical, dry-cold kind of December morning that chilled the inside of Dean's lungs.

"Running never hurt anyone." Dean muttered to himself as encouragement. But, at about 10 minutes in, he was thinking quite the opposite.

Why does my life suck so bad? Dean thought, his lungs already burning.

He was only 10 minutes late, his chest heaving as he stumbled his way through the back door of the grocery store.

"You're late, Winchester!" Naomi, snapped. She held her clipboard up to her face and wrote down his time.

"Car problems, Naomi, I had to run all the way here." Dean managed to say, gasping for air.

"Not an excuse, Dean." She barked, narrowing her venomous eyes at him. Dean rolled his eyes, wondering why she was in more of a bitchy mood than normal.

"Sorry." Dean mumbled, finally returning to a normal breathing pattern.

"It's fine, Dean. This is your first warning." Naomi stated, peering over the clip board at him. "You're assigned to house keeping for most of the day. There were a lot of misplaced items lately. We can't have this sort of disorganization during the holidays. I'm sure you can fix the problem." And with that, she turned on her heels and walked away to lecture her next victim.

"Great." Dean muttered to himself, rolling his eyes and heading to drop his jacket off in the break room. It's going to be a long ass day.

===========================

"Who puts an apple by the apple juice? Those are completely different forms of apple!" Dean ranted, frustrated. How stupid can people be?

Dean turned to walk back to the front of the store, thinking he's picked out all the misplaced items. It was pretty dead in the store today considering there was only a week until Christmas. So, Dean whistled a song to himself and walked through the store, feeling surprisingly content with his shitty life at the moment.

That was until he strolled passed some lunatic opening up a bag of sour cream and onion potato chips and eating them in the middle of the isle. Dean back tracked his steps, blinking a few times to make sure he was seeing what he thought he saw. A man with dark hair wearing a tan trench coat over a suit, was eating a bag of chips.

"Uh, sir?" Dean asked, taking a couple steps towards the "hard to miss guy" he was pretty sure Jo was talking about yesterday.

His eyes glanced up to Dean, stopping him in his tracks. They were blue. A bright, sapphire blue that surprised Dean so much he couldn't remember why he was bothering him. After a couple moments of awkward eye contact, the trench coat guy was the first to break the silence.

"Hello." He greeted, his voice deep and rough, but sounding strangely smooth. He dropped his eyes and reached his hand into the bag of chips, bringing Dean out of his thoughts and into reality.

"Uh, why are you eating food when you haven't paid for it yet?" Dean asked, his voice weak. He already mentally kicked himself for sounding like an idiot.

"What do you mean paid?" The man questioned, crunching on the chips.

Dean raised an eyebrow, wondering if this guy was playing dumb or actually dumb. "I mean, you should buy the food from the store before you eat it, ya know? I mean, I guess as long as you pay for it before you leave, it shouldn't be a problem... but for sanitary purposes, you should wait until you leave the store."

The man chewed on the chips for a couple moments, like he was trying to understand what I was telling him. "What if I don't have any acceptable payment to purchase them with?"

Dean straightened his back, his face going as blank as possible. This guy was crazy, like Jo said. And, probably actually homeless, too. "Then, well, I suggest you leave now before things get a little complicated."

"But, I need food to survive. Isn't that a human necessity?" The man asked, narrowing his eyes and tilting his head slightly. Dean tried to focus on anything but the man's eyes, worrying that he would become paralyzed in them again.

"Well, ah, sure. But, humans also need to have money for these things. Or other people get angry." Dean explained slowly.

"I don't understand why we must pay for something we can't live without." He said, shaking his head slightly in disbelief.

Dean finally forced himself to meet the mans' eyes again. His own eyes widened as he studied his face. He was different. Dean didn't really want to label him as crazy; but, he definitely had some questions to ask him.

"Who even are you?" Dean asked. He couldn't help but ask. Something was seriously bothering him about this guy.

The man's lips twitched into a crooked smile. "I'm Castiel, an—"

"—Winchester!"

Dean spun around, his mouth slightly parted in shock when he saw Naomi stomping toward them.

"You found him! You found the crook whose been stealing food!" Naomi quickly explained to Dean, her eyes wide. "You're lucky I didn't call the cops!" She said, pointing a boney finger at Castiel.

"I— I was not aware this food required a trade in services." Castiel defended, slowly trying to hide the bag of chips behind his back.

"What?" Naomi breathed, sounding just as confused as Dean looked. "Nevermind that, I'm just here to put you on a final warning. If I ever catch you on camera or if Dean here sees you stealing food again, I will have you arrested. Understood?"

Literally, kill me. Dean thought, awkwardly shoving his hands in his pockets. Naomi sounded like she was lecturing a younger sibling about something he saw them do. Awkward.

Castiel nodded quickly, his eyes wide. "Yes, yes, I understand."

"Good." Naomi nodded in agreement, flashing Dean a quick "good job, you caught some bum stealing food" smile before walking back to her throne (office).

Castiel let out a deep sigh, his face dropping to the half empty bag of chips in his hands. "I should leave now."

Dean wanted to say something in return, but his body and mind were still trying to overcome how awkward that situation just was. He didn't catch up to reality until Castiel had turned his back, and started walking down the isle to the exit.

Dean wasn't sure if he was feeling desperate or if he just felt bad for the guy, but before Castiel was too far away to hear, he decided to call out to him.

"Bye, Cas...!" Dean called, his voice falling soft before he could finish his full name. Yeah, he was already hitting himself for that slip up.

Castiel stopped walking. He peered over his shoulder at the man with the freckles, green eyes, and a kind heart.

"Goodbye, Dean."

////////////////////////////

Happy Labor Day!! :)