Ready to Fall

Chapter Seven

Castiel's face pulls into a scowl that causes Dean to shake his head and laugh. "This is my boyfriend, Cas," he says putting an arm around Castiel's shoulders. He's finding more and more that Castiel is increasingly compliant when Dean is touching him in one way or another.

"Nice to meet you, Cas. I'm Pamela."

Castiel offers Pamela a curt nod. "Hello, Pamela."

"So listen, a couple of friends are meeting down at Southern Comfort in a few hours. You guys should come--we can catch up, all that good stuff." Pamela flashes Dean a wide smile and her teeth glow beneath the black lights.

"I'll have to check with Sam," Dean states. "We're kind of chaperoning his first date."

"How adorable," Pamela drawls. 

"You know who you should give a call though is Charlie. I bet she'd love to hear from you."

"Oh, Red Queen! I miss that girl."

"Like I said," Dean says with a knowing gleam in his eye, "give her a call."

From behind them one of the guys Pamela is with nudges at her shoulder with his pool stick. "It's your turn, Barnes," he says.

"I'll see you boys later, okay?"

"Call Charlie," Dean prods again. Pamela offers them both a wink, and then she's turning back to her game while Dean leads Castiel to where Sam and Jess are lacing up their bowling shoes.

"You certainly know a lot of women," Castiel points out as they walk, their shoulders brushing amiably.

"What can I say?" Dean asks. "The women love me."

The four of them decide to split up into two teams, couple against couple and as Sam sets up their names on the computer, Dean slides into the chair next to Castiel. Castiel is bent over, trading his street shoes for bowling shoes, but when he sits up Dean asks, "You any good at bowling, babe?"

"I've never bowled before," he confesses, and Dean gawks at him for a good few seconds before offering Castiel a grin.

"Well, you'd never played Super Mario Kart either, and you won the whole fucking thing," he points out.

Castiel seems to mull this over before nodding and saying, "That is true."

"Yeah, see? So we'll still kick their asses. Besides, I've always been pretty good with balls." Dean wiggles his eyebrows at Castiel who huffs at him with a shake of his head before Dean tugs Castiel over to pick out a ball.

Before the game gets started, Dean walks Castiel down their lane, showing him the arrows on the floor and explaining how to aim. "Your bowl should all be one fluid movement," Dean states.

They stop at the line, and Dean places his hands on Castiel's shoulders, standing behind him and positioning Castiel like he's just about to toss his ball.

"Shoulders loose," Dean says, "that's it." He wraps a hand around Castiel's waist, resting his palm on Cas' belly and taking Castiel's right hand in his.

"Pull back--" Dean pulls their arms back as if there were a ball there “--and when you swing forward, that's when you let go of the ball."

Dean's well aware that Castiel could probably grasp the concept just by watching other bowlers, but if they really were dating Dean would take every opportunity he could get to have his hands all over Castiel, and  because he knows Sam and Jess are watching, he does just that. But only because they're being watched, of course.

"Any questions?" Dean asks.

When Castiel speaks his voice comes out rough and strained, "No, I think I understand."