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Sam slammed a huge stack of books on the table where Cas was staring into space and Dean was falling asleep. The sound made them both jump and Sam sat down next to Dean, flipping open the first book.
They were in in Illinois, in some little town in the middle of nowhere, the kind were everyone’s families knew each other and there wasn’t a lot to do except for the local library, a park, and a small diner. They were stuck in the library, doing research, and while Dean enjoyed the old days kind of hunt, he didn’t want to stay stuck here forever. There were windows lining the far wall of the library and he could see a huge sign that made him look up at Cas.
Cas was still looking at one of the books that Sam had brought over, not seeming to interested in it.
“Hey, Sammy, I’m going to go back to the hotel real quick. I left something there.”
Dean swear he heard Sam snort, letting him know he didn’t believe Dean would even come back. Dean pushed his chair back, and walking to the door, out to the warm day outside. There were hardly any cars on the road, and the Impala was one of the three in the lot.
He walked over to her and picked up his jacket from the front seat, pulling it on and shutting the drivers side door, when he heard someone behind him. When he turned around, it was just Cas.
“Shouldn't you be helping Sam?”
“He doesn't really need any. I didn’t know if you...”
Cas didn’t say anything else, just kinda looked around. Dean didn’t think it would hurt to let Cas join him.
“Come on, I wanna show you something.”
He walked past Cas, across the street, hearing Cas follow after him.
When he got to the door that was below the sign he saw, he turned to smile at Cas. Cas seemed confused, and didn’t know whether to share Dean’s excitement.
“Dude, it’s an arcade!”
Cas didn’t say anything.
“It’s got games- just come on, I’ll show you,” Dean said to Cas’s confused look and opened the door, and making sure Cas walked in first, following behind him.
Sam saw the two walk into the door from his seat at the library, looking out the window. He sighed. He wasn't surprised, and maybe Cas would actually have fun instead of always hounding Sam about wanting to help him. Not that Sam didn’t want the help. He just knew that, maybe, just maybe, Cas spending some time with Dean wouldn't be that bad.
“Like this,” Dean said, pulling his arm back then swinging it forward to release the ball, and rolling it up into the middle spot, scoring 100 points. Skeeball. Dean’s favorite arcade game. Easy, lots of tickets, and was actually fun. The arcade was fill of old fashioned joystick games and 5 or 6 skeeball games. Dean and Cas had been playing for about 10 minutes.
Or at least Dean was playing.
Cas wasn’t sure how, he just stood at the bottom of his game, watching Dean play.
Dean walked to Cas, and picked up one of the orange colored balls that the game gave, and handed it to Cas, who, after getting the nod from Dean, tried to do the same as Dean did, only to roll it right into the bottom of the game, coming nowhere close to the spots, which meant no points. Cas looked at Dean, and Dean could see he was trying so hard.
“Here,” Dean grabbed another ball from the row on the side of the game, and handed it to a weary Cas. Dean stood behind Cas and put his hand around the hand that held the ball, and pulled Cas’s arm back, then swinging it forward, rolling it the way to the top spot.
When Dean’s hand had gone around Cas’s, Cas had sucked in a breath, not sure what Dean was doing. But when the ball rolled into the top spot, the most points, Cas turned his head towards Dean, smiling. Dean was smiling, too.
“See? Perfect shot.”
Dean leaned down to grab the tickets that were rolling out of the machine, sticking them in his back pocket with the rest. They didn't have enough to actually get anything but it was nice to keep them, to remember this. When he looked at Cas again, he still had that look in his eyes, that amazed look that he got whenever he found something new or was truly happy.
“I honestly thought this was a waste of time, but this..this is great,” Cas said, eyeing the skeeball machine.
Dean couldn't help but laugh a little, and be amazed at how human Cas sounded, how different it was.
Different in a good way.
“Yeah, I guess so,” Dean looked up at the machine, too and then to the door.
“Hey, we can go and get something to eat or check on Sam, if you want...”
Dean wasn't sure about the look Cas was giving him now, so he stopped.
“Whatever you want to do, Dean.”
“Okay, well, I’m hungry so let’s go get some food.”
Dean turned towards the door, Cas trailing behind him, neither of them really caring that Dean’s fingers had entwined with Cas’s while they had been standing there.
It wasn't until they both had two small burgers sitting in front of them at the diner down the street from the arcade and library before Cas said something.
“Is this a date?”
Dean choked on his burger. He manged to get himself together and clear his throat before looking up at Cas.
Cas was sitting up like he always did, his burger untouched in front of him, clearly waiting for an answer.
Dean looked at his own burger, crumpled the napkin in his hand, threw it on the table, and leaned back, hands resting on the table.
“Well, um...no, not really, where did you hear that?”
Cas nodded towards their waitress that was standing at the door that led to the kitchen, obviously talking to the cook or another waitress.
“She’s telling them that ‘there’s this cute couple that just walked into here, I heard them talking about the arcade, figures, Rick doesn't even take me to the movies’”
Cas seemed to quote the woman word by word, and Dean fidgeted, not sure what to say back. He wondered why the woman would say that; Dean had dropped Cas’s hand before they entered the diner, even though he really, really didn’t want to. And Cas didn’t seem to want to let go either. But there's no way the woman had seen that.
“It’s just having dinner, Cas.”
Cas narrowed his eyes at Dean, but Dean ignored it as he reached for his burger and took another bite.
“Why not?”
“Why not what?” Dean answered, still chewing his food.
“Why can’t it be a date?”
Dean stopped chewing, mouth wide open.
After a second, he snapped his mouth shut but didn’t start chewing again. Cas was looking at him, his head turned like he always did, not sure what to make of Dean’s reaction.
“Um, well, I guess it can be,” Dean finally answered, looking back at Cas.
Cas turned his head back to normal and Dean saw his eyes light up for a second before Cas looked at his burger, finally picking it up with both hands.
“I’m glad. It’s nice. I enjoyed it,” Cas said, looking at the burger and taking a bite.
Dean gave a quiet snort and took a bite of his own burger, looking at Cas enjoying his.
“The date or the burger?” Dean asked, half joking, not expecting a real answer.
Cas looked up from the burger in his hands, and looked Dean in the eye, making Dean stop chewing again. Dean hated that. How Cas could make his stop whatever he was doing without even saying a word and Dean was sure Cas didn’t even know he was doing it. He drove him insane. Cas stared at him for a good minute, a minute of complete silence. The whole diner seemed to rush to silence.
“Spending time with you, Dean.”
When Sam finally found them a hour later, they were still sitting at the booth, eating pie (because what other dessert would Dean order), Cas telling Dean he had to stop eating if he wanted to get any work done later and Dean telling Cas to shut it, but Dean’s hand was over Cas’s own on the table top, not caring about what the workers at diner thought or anyone else.