Dean slowly eased into consciousness, light shining in through the blinds, the kitten curled up at the foot of the bed. He felt a warm body pressed against his own and smiled. It was Castiel.

He opened his eyes ever so slightly, seeing Cas's peaceful face as he still slept. This was true bliss, being with the one he loved. He never loved anyone the way he loved Cas. He could barely admit it to himself, in fear that if he did admit it, it would turn out to all be an illusion, and Cas would fade away like a mirage.

Dean pressed his forehead against Cas's, closing his eyes again. "Cas?" He murmured, clearing his throat. "Cas, you gotta wake up, baby. We have school."

Cas sighed softly, fidgeting slightly in his sleep. "The... the penguins are... in the toilets." He mumbled.

Dean chuckled quietly. "Cas, quit your dreaming and wake up." He whispered.

Cas smiled in his sleep. "Your breath smells like peaches."

He laughed again. "C'mon, Cas. Wakey, wakey, eggs and bac-y." (A/N: as if that's theoretically spelled right.)

Dean found this incredibly adorable. He began to wonder what Cas could possibly be dreaming about. The odds of him having a dream about penguins with peach breath in the toilet was a bit unlikely.

"Come on, Cas," Dean murmured, kissing the bridge of Cas's nose. "You don't wanna be late for school, do you?"

Cas took a deep breath. "I... would very much like to... to see the slides of your... liver operation, but... first I... I must go and... hack my head into... tiny pieces with my comb."

Dean stifled his laughter as best he could, but this was all quite amusing. "Caaaaas," He drawled out his name. "Wake uuuuuup."

This time it was a bit inaudible, but it sounded like he said, "The train has already gone, would you like to hire a bicycle?"

Dean cleared his throat and whispered in Cas's ear something he had a hunch would scare him awake. "Cas, you have an F in math class."

As expected, Cas jumped awake, murmuring, "Have mercy!"

Dean smiled at his success. "Up and at 'em, Pumpkin!"

Cas grinned. "I didn't ask for a wake up call, Peach."

"Call it a freebie."

He chuckled softly. "Right. Oh, god, please tell me I didn't snore."

Dean smiled. "Nope. No snoring. You had an awful lot to say, though."

Cas's face went tomato red. "Oh shit. I do that sometimes."

"Hey, it's no big deal. I thought it was cute."

"I mean... I didn't say things like... 'Hand me the jump leads, the chickens have escaped', right?"

Dean chuckled. "No, there weren't any runaway chickens. There were penguins, though."

Cas half smirked. "And what were these penguins doing?"

"I'm not sure what they were doing, but they found themselves in a toilet. Somehow."

Cas began to laugh softly, Dean joining in. "You're joking."

"Cas, I can't make this up."

"God. And you endured that whole thing?"

"The whole thing."

Cas groaned, internally cringing. "That's plain awful. Penguins in toilets, my god."

"And I'm pretty sure their breath smelled like peaches or something. What're you feeding these guys, Cas?"

Cas laughed, completely happy here with Dean. He didn't want school today. Then again, he was never completely satisfied with going to school to begin with. But today, more than ever, he wanted to call in sick or something.

"Can we stay here? In bed? All damn day long?"

Dean sighed. "You know we can't. Our education is very important."

"I know that. You know I know. But... I'm just not feeling it today. Are you?"

"I never quite feel it. But I know what you mean."

"Let's just stay here. Come on. Pretty please?"

Dean grinned. "The physical appearance of the please makes no difference."

Cas gave him a small bitchface. "Don't go using my own references against me, now."

"C'mon, Cas. Last night, I practically had to sell my soul just to get you to stay with me."

Cas gave him pouty eyes, running his hand through Dean's hair. "Come on, baby," He whispered. "You know you want to. I mean, at least about half an hour late."

Dean looked into those pouty blue eyes and couldn't help but give a little. "Half an hour. No more, got it?"

"Got it. Do you think we could call ahead and blame traffic so we don't get in trouble?"

"I dunno, Cas. Half an hour of traffic? Are we sure that's believable?"

"You got something better?"

He smirked. "I could definitely think of something that could take half an hour."

Cas shoved his shoulder. "Dean!" He laughed.

"What? I was talking about snuggling! Why, did you think of something else?"

Cas kept laughing. "Dean, shut up!"

They heard footsteps approach the door, and they instinctively turned their heads towards the source of the sound. "Okay. Shutting up." Dean murmured, quickly sitting up, flinging the bedsheets off the two of them, which then covered the kitten.

Sam opened the door, all dressed for school, though still looking a bit groggy. "Dean, you taking me to school or what?"

"Wow, look at that, Sammy," Dean grinned as Cas attempted to look casual. "Woke up yourself this morning. You're practically a grown man."

Sam shot him a bitchface, which would've been crowned king compared to Cas's. "C'mon, let's go." And, with that, he left.

Dean sighed, looking over to Cas. "Well, so much for that half an hour. And I was kinda looking forward to it."

"Why not get Sam to stay here, too?"

"Cas, quit trying too hard." He kissed Cas's forehead and went to find clothes for the day.

He found a dark blue plaid shirt and an old pair of blue jeans an decided to go with that. He got an old black Metallica T-shirt and jeans and tossed them at Cas.

Cas smiled. "Dean, how'd you know I liked Metallica?"

Dean chuckled, taking his shirt off with his back turned to Cas. He slipped on the plaid shirt, just knowing Cas had his eyes on him.

"Oh, how about that? Someone's watching me." He spoke sarcastically. "I wonder who it is."

Cas chuckled, taking off his own shirt. "It's quite the mystery." And he got the Metallica shirt on, finding it was a bit baggy.

Dean had gotten his jeans on and was now buttoning his shirt. "Would it happen to be the cutest boy alive with eyes bluer than the ocean?"

At this point, Cas was, of course, blushing. "M-maybe." He chuckled shyly, acting way too much like a girl for his liking.

Dean turned around to find Cas all dressed, smiling up at him. "How do I look?"

"As pretty as a picture, baby."

This didn't help the profound blushing. "Oh, shut up, you. We have a school to get to."

Dean realized something. "Oh, man."

"What?" Cas asked.

"You wouldn't happen to have your school stuff with you, would you?"

"Oh, son of a bitch!" He jumped off the bed and ran out the door. "We gotta go!" He called from the front door.

Dean chuckled to himself. "Freaking adorable."

Dean drove them in his Impala, Cas riding shotgun and Sam in the back. Dean had to drive to Cas's place so he could grab his stuff real quick.

Once they got there, Cas rushed inside, gunning for his room as quick as he could. He snatched his backpack off the floor and ran outside, back to Dean's car.

"Alright. Go!" He snapped at Dean, who then drove towards the high school.

After a few minutes, Cas realized something else. "Oh, no."

"What? What is it?" Dean asked.

"Who's gonna take care of... you know who?"

"Oh. You mean... her? Uh, I'm sure she'll be fine. Yeah."

"Who?" Sam asked in confusion.

"Uh, no one you know, buddy." Dean replied.

"What was Cas even doing in your room, anyway?"

Neither of them had an answer for that one. Not a good one anyway. "Well," Dean scrambled for words. "Y'know, guy stuff. Stuff you wouldn't understand yet."

"Oh, yeah? Well name it; I can look it up on Urban Dictionary."

"Trust me Sammy, anything you look up on Urban Dictionary can only lead to trouble."

It wasn't long before they arrived, just in time. They rushed into the building, Cas murmuring to Dean, "I wish we had all the same classes."

Dean grinned. "What, you'd have my classes, or I'd have yours?"

"Hm, a little bit of both."

"Don't worry. We'll meet up at lunch."

"You swear on your life?"

Dean smiled. "I'd say 'My life and everything beyond', but then I'd just be overusing it."

Cas returned the smile. "Then overuse it."

Dean chuckled softly. "See you at lunch, Pumpkin."

"See you there, Peach."

And as soon as Dean left, Cas remembered what he was supposed to do. He was supposed to ask Hannah out. And he was kinda terrified.

It wasn't supposed to matter, but still, he'd never asked anyone out before in his life. He'd only been asked out. By Dean. Who he was gay for. But Hannah was definitely not a guy. So he couldn't be gay for her. But what if he accidentally turned out to be straight for her? His whole life would fall apart.

No, he had to get it together. He had to get to chemistry class. He must. He must, he must, he must. He couldn't do this. There was no doing this. But... he had to. For Dean.

He walked into the classroom, and he saw Hannah there. Right next to his seat, as always. He had to go sit down. Next to her. This was so much easier when he felt completely neutral in the sexuality area.

He soon managed to swallow his fear, and sat in his seat, getting his pencil out of his backpack. Right. Next. To. Her.

He glanced over at her. She was on her cell phone, since class hadn't started yet. Say something, idiot.

"Uh, hi, hey." He choked out. Hi hey? Idiot!

She looked over at him and grinned. "Hey, Cas. You got here a bit later than usual."

So she knew what time he usually got to class. Interesting. "Yeah, you know how it is when you just wanna... procrastinate."

She chuckled. "Yeah, no kidding."

Date. Ask. Now! "Sushi." Oh perfect.

She blinked. "Um, what?"

"Do you... do you, uh... like sushi?"

"No, I hate seafood."

Of course she does. Fantastic. "Oh."

She smiled. "Cas, I was kidding. Jeez, you're tense. What's up?"

Do you wanna go out for sushi? Do you wanna go out for sushi? Do you wanna go out for sushi? For god sakes, just say it man! "Out? For sushi? You and me?" Smooth, man. Real smooth.

"Oh. Wow." She seemed to notice the fact that he meant a date for sushi.

"Yeah, I know. It's just so sudden. Trust me, I - I know how crazy it must sound."

"I thought you were gay."

"Wha- huh?" He dropped his pencil, and it landed on the floor.

They both leaned over to pick it up, and accidentally hit each other's heads together. They looked at each other and chuckled, Hannah picking up the pencil and handing it to Cas.

He muttered a thanks and set the pencil down. "Okay, so, let's get back to- you said you thought I was... happy?"

Hannah chuckled softly. "No, I thought you were... gay. Like... homosexual."

Cas nodded along. "Uh huh."

"Well, I just - I haven't really seen you with a girl before, and I could've sworn I saw you checking out some guy's ass in the hallway once."

Cas actually almost choked on his own oxygen. "Um, no, I've never-" He suddenly remembered the day his eyes wandered a bit too much. "Oh my god."

"But, I - I never asked, because if you weren't actually gay, I feel like I would've offended you or something. So... sushi?"

Cas was still contemplating the fact that he had a gay moment before Dean. "Uh... oh, um, yeah. Sushi. How about today after school?"

"Sounds... perfect." Hannah smiled until the teacher began class for the day.

All throughout class, he couldn't help but feel like he was betraying Dean somehow. He knew they agreed this was for the best, but there was still that nagging feeling in the back of his head saying that this was wrong.

After chemistry, he had two classes before lunch; math and Phys Ed. Math went just fine, as usual, but PE? Not so much. Two words; dodgeball tournament.

He got his food and managed to find Dean amongst the sea of students. He sat across from him, breathing heavily, sweat pouring down his face.

"You okay, Cas?" Dean chuckled. "You look like you just ran a marathon."

"Dodgeball... tournament. Kill... me." He rested his forehead on the table in front of his tray of food.

"Come on, Cas. Dodgeball is the best sport known to man."

"Tell that to my sweat glands. Get them to calm the hell down."

"So, did you ask her?" Dean asked.

"Yeah. We're going out for sushi today."

Dean grinned. "Look at you, Mr. I-Got-A-Date."

"Yeah. Great."

Dean noticed his bitterness. "What's wrong, baby?" He looked around to make sure no one heard him say "baby".

Cas sat up and looked at him. "It's just... why can't we tell? I want people to know, Dean. I want Jo and Charlie to know. Can we at least tell them?"

"Tell us what?" Jo asked from behind, nearly giving Cas a heart attack.

Jo sat on Cas's left, while Charlie sat to Dean's left. Cas completely panicked and went with the first thing that came to mind.

"I have a cat."

Jo gasped loudly. "Oh my god! You got a freaking cat?"

"Little tiny kitten, yeah," He glanced over at Dean. "I, uh, I heard somewhere that cats and other animals can be very therapeutic, so, what with my... condition, I went for it."

"Is it a boy or a girl?"

"Girl."

"What's her name?"

Cas thought for a moment, a bit unsure. "Well, we- er, I haven't quite decided yet. I just got her yesterday."

"Oh my god! Maybe she and Scooter can have kitty playdates!"

Scooter was Jo and Charlie's kitten, who was a bit older than "Sugarapple". Or "Applesugar", if Cas and Dean could make up their minds.

"Yeah, maybe. He's fixed, right?"

"Of course."

"Do you think we could come by and meet the little darling?" Charlie asked with a smile on her face.

Darling. Of course.

"Darling." Cas murmured. "Brilliant. Absolutely brilliant."

"What?" Jo was confused.

"Her name is Darling." Cas smiled.

Dean smiled as well. "I think that's a great name."

Cas looked over at him, still smiling. "You like it, then?"

"Yep."

"Uh, you're welcome." Charlie spoke sarcastically.

Cas chuckled, glancing over at Charlie. "Thank you for such inspiration, O great and powerful Charlene."

"So, when can we meet Darling?" Jo asked.

"Well, I'm not sure," Cas returned to seriousness. "I mean, I do have that date today."

"Really?" Jo was clearly interested. "Tell, Cassie. Who might the lucky lady be? If... y'know, it is a lady." She added suggestively.

Cas scoffed. "Definitely a lady. It's Hannah."

Jo looked at him in surprise. "Hannah? Hannah from first period?"

"Yep."

She smirked. "Look at you, Cassie."

Cas blushed intensely. "It-it's nothing, really."

"No, no, no, this is very much a something. No offense, but Hannah is so out of your league."

Cas decided to unleash some sarcasm. "No, why would I take offense to that?"

"Oh, you know it's true. You know she's a cheerleader this year, right?"

Cas experienced another choking-on-air moment. "Holy shit, I'm dating a cheerleader? You'd think I'd know she's a cheerleader."

"Well, look at that," Dean smiled. "You're going out with a cheerleader, and I'm going out with the cheerleader. Funny how life works, huh?"

Cas nodded. "Yeah. Crazy."

It wasn't long before the bell rang, which marked the end of lunch. On to fourth period, which, for Cas, was English. They were reading Of Mice And Men, and so far, Cas found it riveting.

Dean decided to walk him to class, just so they could spend more time together. Cas realized he didn't eat a single thing as he dumped his trash into the trash can.

"Okay, so I've got a date with Lisa on Friday, we're going to see a movie. Seems believable enough, right?"

"Yeah," Cas muttered a reply. "Real authentic."

"Noiselessly Lennie appeared in the open doorway and stood there looking in, his big shoulders nearly filling the opening. For a moment Crooks did not see him, but on raising his eyes he stiffened and a scowl came on his face. His hand came out from under his shirt. Lennie smiled helplessly in an attempt to make friends."

Cas found himself nearly incapable of focus as he stared blankly at chapter four of the book as the teacher read on. He kept thinking about Dean. Then again, he always thought about Dean, come to think of it.

But this time, there were different aspects of thought when it came to Dean. This time, the word cheating accidentally made it's way into his train of thought. Not Dean cheating on him, oh no. Rather the opposite. But Cas knew he'd never do such a thing. Of course, in a way, he already was.

The teacher continued reading until it was time for period five; Fine Arts I. They spent the previous week making clay sculptures. Cas would often find himself watching the other students as they sculpted. There were students making Adventure Time characters and the Duck Dynasty guys and real life celebrities like the Kardashians. But Cas was sculpting the Tenth Doctor. He would have went with Tom Baker of course, but he had already made an interactive drawing of the Fourth, in which he made it look like he was tugging on his scarf.

He walked to class, prepared to make his finishing touches. He got his nearly complete sculpture off the shelf, got the proper tools, and filled a provided plastic cup with water. He went to his table and gently removed the Doctor from the bag, setting it down on the cloth.

He sculpted the Doctor so he wore his overcoat, the one he got from Janis Joplin, 3D glasses, and held his sonic screwdriver (which took quite a bit of work). He didn't take much pride in his work, but everyone thought it looked amazing. Of course, being the Modest Max he was, he didn't believe them.

He started tweaking his hair a bit, getting rid of any fingerprints he might've made, and adjusting anything that might have been out of place. Of course, since he had a mild case of OCD, this all took the entire class period. It was ready for the kiln. He just couldn't wait to paint it.

The last class of the day; World History/ Geography. Not a good class at all.

This teacher had to have been born from Blandness and Death. All he ever did was show them a bunch of slides talking about a bunch of crap that happened a hundred years ago. Yep. Blandness and Death.

Cas wasn't even taking down notes anymore. About half an hour in, he realized he was sketching again. He did this way too often. Whenever he got lost in thought with a pencil in his hand, he'd start sketching his thoughts by accident. This time, he was sketching Dean. It wasn't what he would call a good drawing, but everyone insisted that he was amazing.

After what felt like 29 years, the bell finally rang, and school had ended for the day.

Everyone piled out, obviously relieved to have survived History class. Cas was doubly relieved today. He hurried to meet Hannah at the parking lot; at the end of class she said to meet her there.

He quickly spotted her; she was at what he could only assume was her car, a blue BMW.

"Hey, Cas. Ready for our date?" She grinned.

Cas returned the smile. "Yeah. Let's go."

Dean, meanwhile, was driving Sam home from school. He couldn't wait to see Cas after his date. He couldn't help but be proud. He knew how scary it was asking someone out on a date, but Cas managed. He just hoped Hannah kept her nasty paws off his baby.

"So, how was school, Sammy?" He asked, glancing in the rear view mirror.

"Good. But... there's a new girl."

"Ooh, does Sammy have the hots for the new girl?" Dean teased.

Sam scoffed. "Well she definitely has the hots for me. She kept asking me if I was single, or if it hurt when I fell from heaven and stuff. It was kind of annoying, really."

"Whats her name?"

Sam thought for a second. "Rebecca, I think."

Dean nodded along. "Rebecca, huh?"

"She kept saying to call her Becky for short."

It wasn't long before they arrived at the apartment. As Dean pulled up, he thought of something; doesn't the cat need food?

"Sammy, why don't you go inside, I'll be back later."

"Why? Where you going?"

"Just make like a good little soldier and march."

Sam chuckled softly, walking inside while Dean went down to the local pet store. It wasn't anything fancy like Petco or Petsmart. It was just a quaint little place called Zelda Knows Pets.

He went in and got some cat food, and decided he didn't need any bowls; he could use some old ones at the apartment. And, while he was at it, he grabbed a couple cat toys as well. He payed for it all and went out to his car, making a quick drive home.

He carried his supplies inside, everything contained in a plastic bag, and got some bowls down from a cabinet in the kitchen. Sam, meanwhile, was busy playing a video game in the living room. Some Xbox game, Dean wasn't sure.

"Hey." Sam called, eyes still glue to the screen.

"Hey." Dean called back, filling one of the bowls with water.

"What'd you get?"

"Nothing for you."

"But that can't be right. You got me the same thing last week." He shot back sarcastically.

"Ha ha. You're hilarious." He took the supplies and went into his bedroom, where Darling was sleeping on one of the pillows.

He set the bowl of water down by the door, and set the empty bowl beside it, filling it with food. Darling seemed to hear this and came running, chowing down on the food.

"I bet that's a lot better, huh?" Dean spoke softly to her, smiling as he gave her a light scratch behind the ear.

He heard his cell phone ring, and when he looked at the caller ID, he realized it was his grandfather, Samuel. This surprised him; his grandfather never called.

He decided to answer it. "Well if it isn't Grandpa Samuel. Jeez, how long has it been, old timer?"

He barely got the sentence out before Samuel started throwing words at him. He could barely understand him.

"Whoa, whoa, slow down. What's happening?"

And when Samuel explained everything a bit more slowly, Dean began to wish he hadn't.

Cas had a surprisingly good time on his date. He was expecting more paranoia about whether or not it was considered cheating, but he had a pretty great time. And that started to concern him.

He decided to go to Dean's place, since he missed him so much. Once they pulled up to the apartment, they said their goodbyes, and Cas walked up to the door and knocked. Pretty soon, Sam opened the door.

"Hey, Sam!" Cas greeted gleefully. "Would Dean happen to be in his room?"

"Yeah, come on in."

Cas stepped inside and made for Dean's room until Sam called after him. "What do you guys do in there, anyway?"

Cas wasn't sure how to answer, so he went with, "Nothin'." And kept walking.

He opened the door and started talking. "Oh my god, Dean, I had the best time. I mean, Hannah is just-" He stopped short when he saw the sad look on Dean's face as he sat on the bed, staring down at his hands. "Hey, Dean, what's wrong?"

Dean briefly glanced up at him, then looked away again. "I... I got a call from my grandfather." He spoke softly.

Cas sat beside him, grabbing one of his hands. "What did he say?" He asked gently.

Dean took a deep breath, trying to hold in tears. "It... it's my... my cousin. Gwen. She... she's been diagnosed with... leukemia."

Cas covered his mouth with his hand in shock. "Oh my god. I'm sorry. I-I'm so sorry, Dean."

Dean took a deep breath. "I have to go see her. I... I have to."

"I understand completely. Where is she?"

"About three and a half to four hours out. I told my grandfather I'd see her tomorrow after school. But... who knows? She might not even be here tomorrow."

"Hey," He kissed Dean's cheek. "Don't talk like that."

"How else am I supposed to talk, Cas? She's dying."

"Don't be like this. I'm the manic depressant here, not you." He chuckled weakly.

Dean was very close to tears now. He loved Gwen. She was his favorite cousin. And now she was dying.

Cas wrapped his arms around Dean's torso, resting his head where his shoulder met his neck. "You'll be okay. I promise, Peach."

Dean paused before replying, afraid that if he said anything the tears would flow. "Swear on your life?"

Cas smiled small. "My life... and everything beyond."