Angeles

Thursday morning, Cas awoke to the grating sound of his alarm. He groans as he pokes his hand out from under the covers and turns it off.

He goes out into the kitchen and starts a pot of coffee. He grabs a bowl and a packet of oatmeal from the cabinet.

After his rushed breakfast, Cas goes into his closet to find his suit. From inside the closet, he hears his phone ring. He goes out to answer it, smiling when he sees the call is from Dean.

"Hello, Dean," Cas answers, still smiling.

"Hey, Cas," Dean says back. "Do you wanna do lunch today? I can grab your usual."

Cas sighs. "As lovely as that sounds, I actually have a meeting."

"A meeting? Really? For a bookstore?"

Cas holds the phone to his ear with his shoulder while he goes back to get his suit.

"I'm meeting with the estate lawyer. The owner has been missing so they're giving me temporary ownership until he can be found," Cas explains, beginning to shimmy out of his pajama pants.

"Ownership, really?" Dean whistles. "That sounds intense. And a little impressive, to be honest."

Cas chuckles. "It's only temporary. But Chuck asked that his property be left in my care, so I guess that's what is happening."

"So no lunch today?"

Cas smiles. "Not today. Sorry."

Dean sighs dramatically. "Well I guess you're just gonna have to make it up to me."

"What if I made you dinner?"

"Make me dinner? Wow." Dean pauses, and Cas can only assume he's considering. "That sounds pretty great, actually. I haven't had a good home-cooked meal since Christmas."

Cas rolls his eyes. "How does six sound?"

"Six sounds perfect," Dean answers.

"Okay. Then I will see you at six."

"Good."

"Okay, I need to get ready. I'll talk to you later, okay?"

"Yeah, of course. Good luck at your meeting," Dean encourages.

"Thank you." Cas hangs up before he can get even more sidetracked and goes back to undressing.

Cas was fighting the urge to bounce on his heels with anxiety as he stood in the empty elevator in the Wells Fargo building downtown, where the law firm was set.

The steel doors of the elevator part and Cas steps out, taking a deep breath before walking up to the desk.

"Can I help you?" the overly-chipper woman behind the desk asked Cas.

Cas tries to swallow the lump forming in his throat. "Um, hi, I have a meeting with Naomi Milton."

"Oh, Castiel Novak, right?" She jumps to her feet. "Right this way."

The woman leads Cas away from the desk, but not before he notices the name plate on the desk reading Julie Miller.

Julie leads Cas down a brightly light hallway, passing many cubicles, most of which occupied by people typing and filing papers. Julie stops in front of a door. "Wait just a moment, please." She disappears behind the door, latching it behind her.

As he waits for Julie to reappear, Cas can't help but notice the cubicle across from the office. From what he could see, it was too unusual, but there was a candy dish on top with M&M's. The woman behind the counter smiled up at him, brown eyes peering from behind her thick glasses.

"You can help yourself," she says, seeing him eye the colorful candy-coated chocolate.

"Perhaps on my way out," Cas replies, giving her a polite smile.

Julie comes back out. "Mrs. Milton will see you now," she informs him.

Cas swallows and goes into the office, noticing the marvelous view from the large windows.

A woman with red hair pulled back into a bun stands up and offers her hand to Cas.

When he gets back to his apartment, Cas isn't sure if he should be surprised or not to see his brother still there.

"Gabe?" he calls out.

"Hey little bro!" Cas hears from the living room.

"I thought you had work today."

"Nope. Day off." Gabriel smirks from the couch.

"Is it possible for you to leave for a little while tonight?" Cas asks.

Gabe sits up, intrigued. "Why? Have a hot date coming over?" He wiggles his eyebrows.

Cas rolls his eyes. "I do, actually. So if you could make yourself scarce for a few hours, that would be lovely."

Gabe leans back, throwing his hands up in mock surrender. "Okay, okay. I'll find something to do. Out of the apartment."

"Thank you."

Cas retreats into his room. He looks around for something to tidy, but his room is practically spotless. His bed isn't made, but it never is. All of his clothes are put away or in a hamper. His garbage can is hardly half full. He sighs as he loosens his tie.

Cas is about to strain the noodles from the dinner he's making when there's a knock at the door. Cas sets the pot of boiling water and al dente linguine noodles onto the counter and rushes over to open the door.

"Hello, Dean," he says quickly before returning to the kitchen, not bothering with formalities while his noodles are in peril.

"Hey." Dean comes in and closes the door behind me. "Am I early?"

Cas looks over at the clock on the wall.

"No, I'm just running late. You are perfectly punctual."

"Um, thank you?"

Cas chuckles as he pours the contents of the pot into the colander sitting in the sink.

"My brother was being extremely pokey about leaving. He took his time putting his shoes and jacket on. I think he was stalling on purpose," Cas jokes.

Dean laughs, a beautiful sound in Cas's ears. "He just wanted another look at this beautiful face."

Cas mock glares over Dean, noticing his sinful smirk. It should be illegal for someone to be so attractive. Cas puts the noodles into a bowl and sets it on the small table in the kitchen, where there's already two places set and a bottle of red wine.

"So what are you making for me?" Dean asks, examining the kitchen. "It smells amazing."

Cas smiles, stirring sauce on the stove. "Linguine with marinara, made with fresh tomatoes."

"You made your own sauce?"

"Yes." Cas removes the saucepan from heat and sets it onto a potholder on the counter. He opens a cupboard and reaches for another bowl.

"You can leave it in the pot, dude," Dean comments, stopping Cas. "It doesn't have to be super fancy. Honestly, a jar of Prego heated up in the microwave would've been good enough for me."

"So you won't mind that the noodles were actually left over from when I made chicken Alfredo?"

Dean gasps dramatically. "Nope, that's the line. I have to leave now." He smiles, making sure Cas knows he's only joking.

Cas smiles and brings the saucepan and potholder to the table.

"That was incredible," Dean comments as he sets his half empty glass of wine back on the table. "You can't get that tomato taste with the store-bought stuff. That was so good."

"I'm glad you liked it." Cas smiles and starts clearing the table.

"I'll wash, you dry?" Dean offers, standing up.

Cas looks over to Dean. "I'm not making you do my dishes."

"I know. I offered." Dean steps closer to Cas, almost trapping him against the counters, but still giving him enough room if he wanted to get around him. He leans in close, but doesn't let his lips touch Cas's just yet.

"I wasn't going to do them now anyway," Cas whispers, unable to get his voice any louder. The butterflies in his stomach felt like a hurricane.

Dean abruptly steps away from Cas, putting a little distance between them. "So what's next on the agenda for this evening?"

Cas blinks, trying to clear the dizziness from his head. Dean had that affect on him. "Um, I have something for you, actually. It's in my bedroom."

Dean cocks an eyebrow.

"It's right over here." Cas leads Dean into his bedroom and goes over to the nightstand. He pulls out a golden chain with a zircon crystal on the end of it. He hands it to Dean. "The, uh, crystal is supposed to drive away evil spirits. Or at least, that's what the little card said. I don't pay too much attention to mythology. But I knew you liked blue and it's a subtle blue. You don't have to wear it if you don't want to. I just thought...actually I don't really know what I was thinking."

"Cas," Dean interrupts. "I love it." He takes it from Cas and pulls it over his head, the chain long enough that it hangs down to his epigastric region. Cas smiles.

"Dean?" Cas asks after a moment of silence.

"Yeah?"

Cas looks into Dean's moldavite eyes. "Can I kiss you?"

Dean smiles. "I've been waiting for you to ask that for so long."

Cas wastes no time is bringing his lips to Dean's. Cas had no words for this kiss other than pure perfection. Except it wasn't perfect. But it was theirs, which is what made it perfect.

"Finally," Dean sighs, his lips smiling against Cas's.

Cas brings his hands to Dean's neck. Dean runs one of his hands up Cas's arm, clutching onto the other man's hand still against his neck. They both smile, but their lips refuse to part.

Even after Dean has left and Cas is in his bed, his lips are still tingling. He smiles as he rolls onto his side and buries his smile into his pillow.