Work Text:
Castiel sat in the corner of the coffee shop, his MacBook and papers strewn out in front of him. He used to do a lot of his grading in his office in case students wanted to come by, but ever since he started talking to the pastry chef, he was spending more and more time at the new locale, trying a different sweet every day to accompany his usual dark roast. He figured this would help satisfy Gabriel, who insisted he "get out more," and his art history students usually emailed him if they wanted to ask something anyways. The fact that the chef had beautiful green eyes and a splatter of freckles might have been part of it too, but that wasn't necessarily a bad reason to spend money on the delicious creations.
After an hour or so, the demand was slow, and the chef in question came out from the kitchen for a break. Noticing Castiel, he grinned and walked over with his own coffee and a few lemon bars in hand.
Hearing the scraping of the chair in front of him, the professor looked up and promptly dropped his pen. "Hello, Dean," he smiled, hoping he didn't seem too excited about the company.
"Heya, Cas, I brought some snacks for us," Dean offered as he sat. His eyes twinkled in a way Cas only saw directed towards him. Then again, Cas rarely saw Dean interacting with anyone else, so he wasn't that hopeful that Dean felt especially warm towards him. However, he could say that Dean definitely made him flush with heat just from a glance.
"Why thank you. Your lemon bars are fantastic, just like all your other treats."
Dean flushed a bit with the praise, but simply smirked, "well I have some other treats I could show you."
Cas's flush depend as he looked down, but rather than from embarrassment as it usually is when someone makes sexual comments, it was partly from a desire that Dean would keep that promise. Of course, he wouldn't make a first move on Dean, since he couldn't tell his orientation, being the socially inept person he was. Even still, Cas enjoyed these friendly moments with Dean.
"So how is grading coming along?" Dean asked before taking a bight of a bar.
"It's interesting. My students had to write about architecture as a part of art movements and some of them having very insightful perspectives," Cas beamed.
Dean nodded as Cas spoke, listening to his every word. "Wow Cas, that sounds really cool. You gotta teach me some of this stuff sometime." Cas always was shocked when someone outside of his students was interested in his field of knowledge, and never took it too seriously in case they were just being nice. However, Dean was a sincere person and usually meant what he said, and it awed Cas when he would probe Cas about Gothic art or Fauvism.
Cas ran a nervous hand through his hair, making it stand up even more than it already did. "Oh yeah, um, I'll show you some of the influential works we discus maybe." Dean grinned at Cas as he diverted the attention from himself, "so, how is your work?"
Dean leaned back and gazed out the window. "Good, good, I'm trying to perfect a new recipe actually."
"I can't imagine coming up with new recipes, I can barely bake a cake out of a box myself."
Dean turned to look Cas in the eye, shocked. "Really? You can't bake at all?" Dean looked astonished, though his tone lacked any condescension. Cas shook his head. "My brother is gifted in culinary skills, but I avoid the oven and stove when I'm alone and just stick with a slow cooker and take-out so I don't cause another small fire."
"Another?" Dean laughed. Suddenly his face lit-up with an idea. "Hey, I could show you some basic stuff. You can't live off Chinese food forever."
Cas leaned back in shock, "Oh, it's okay, I don't want to impose-"
Dean quickly waved that off. "Don't worry, you wouldn't be imposing at all. I need a taste tester anyways, and my brother won't be visiting for a while."
Cas sat silently for a moment, and Dean suddenly lost his confidence. "I mean I totally understand if you don't want to, of course, I just thought-"
This time Cas was the one to cut Dean off as he broke into a grin. "I would love to Dean."
The chef let out a sigh of relief and gave a smile of his own. "How does Friday night sound?"
"Friday sounds wonderful." They exchanged numbers and addresses, since Dean offered to pick Cas up so he wouldn't have to take the buses.
"Well I gotta get back to the kitchen, I have a pie to make!" Dean beamed as he got up. Cas tried to hide some of his own elation over spending more time with Dean. But right before Dean stepped into the kitchen Cas noticed his small fist-pump, and smiled even more at Dean's own excitement.