Strings Attached

Chapter 17

Castiel goes to the band room instead of lunch out of habit. He finds Dean pacing back and forth, seeming nervous about something. Castiel cocks his head in confusion.

"Dean?"

Dean stops pacing and looks at him, seeming relieved. "Oh my god, Cas, thank god you're here," he says quickly, so fast Castiel can barely understand him. "I'm so, so sorry. I shouldn't have let them do that but I just — I didn't know what to do cuz they're my friends and —"

"What are you apologizing for?" Castiel asks, confused.

"This morning, when I just left you instead of telling them to stop," Dean clarifies.

"You don't need to apologize," Castiel says, more confused than before. Why would he apologize for that? "I actually was going to thank you for not beating me up."

Now Dean's just as confused as Castiel was. "Why would I have beaten you up?"

Castiel shrugs. "I don't know. People do that a lot. I don't question it." He learned not to question them a long time ago.

"No, I mean why would I beat you up?" Dean asks. "We're friends. Friends don't beat up other friends without mutual consent."

"We're friends?" Castiel repeats.

Dean nods slowly. "Yeah... Or, at least, I thought we were friends. Do you not want to be friends?"

"No, no, it's just... I've never had a friend before, so I don't really know... how to be a friend."

"You've never had a friend before?" Dean repeats, surprised.

"No."

"Wow," is all Dean can say to that. "Well, you do now. Welcome to the world of friendship."

"Um... Thanks?"

"First rule of friendship," Dean tells him, "is that you always want to be able to call your friend, so, what's your number?"

They exchange phone numbers, and now Castiel can officially say there's a contact in his phone whose last name is not Novak.

"Alright, now that that's done, whatcha wanna do?" Dean asks. "Guitar? Cuz I've been working on Dust in the Wind and it's sort of coming along."

"Sure," Castiel agrees. "I'd love to hear it."

And, sure enough, Dean can play it. It's sort of choppy, but it sounds much, much better than the last time he played it. When Dean finishes, he looks up at Castiel expectantly.

"Nice," Castiel approves. "When'd you learn that?"

"I worked on it a lot during lunch yesterday," he replies. "I kept hoping you'd show up, but you didn't. But then I worked on it last night, too."

"Well, it's definitely coming along," Castiel agrees, using Dean's words.

"What happened after I left this morning?" Dean asks.

"Nothing," Castiel lies.

"One of the things about being friends is talking about things," Dean tells him.

"Then I'm beginning to rethink this friendship thing," Castiel replies.

"No, don't do that," Dean says quickly. "If you don't want to talk about it, you don't have to. But if you change your mind and you ever want to talk, I'm here."

"Thanks. And what happened to Bobby?"

"What?" Dean asks, confused.

"You said your uncle called," Castiel reminds him. "What's happened?"