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Sam hated back to school shopping. Completely hated it. Getting pencils and paper and stuff wasn’t bad, but then there was the clothes shopping. It was annoying, and the only reason he’d even agreed to this was because Cas asked. Ellen had given him some extra money after he’d spent the summer helping Dean fix up her bar, so he could at least get something himself, but that still involved going to the store and looking and trying stuff on and praying it didn’t look too stupid.
He’d found a pair of jeans that was a little long but otherwise fit him nicely, which was perfect, and picked out a couple new shirts. Now he was just waiting while Cas tried on all the ridiculous stuff his brother picked out. Balthazar’s style was great – on Balthazar. Cas could not pull off the rumpled sexy the way Balthazar could. Balthazar kept trying, though.
Sam shifted on the bench outside the changing room. He was bored. So when the guy sat beside him, Sam looked over at him curiously. Big mistake.
“Hey. I’m Lou. How you doing?” Lou gave him a big, charming smile.
Sam scooted a little away. “I’m fine.”
Lou didn’t take the hint. “Back-to-school shopping? Me too. Just moved here, what do the boys at the high school wear?”
“I dunno. Clothes? Jeans. You should ask Balthazar, he’s the fashion guy.” Sam pointed to Balthazar, approaching the dressing room with more clothes for Cas to try on.
“Rather ask you, you’re a lot cuter.” Lou winked at Sam. “That guy looks like ten bucks on a street corner, don’t you think?”
“He’s my friend.” Sam stood up. “If you’re going to insult my friends, then I’m not staying here.”
“Whoa, sorry. Looks good on him. Doesn’t mean I want to dress like that, is all. You don’t dress like that either, so I’m guessing you agree.” Lou grinned and reached out, tugging on Sam’s sleeve to get him to sit back down.
Sam jerked his arm out of Lou’s grasp. “Leave me alone.”
“Come on, don’t be like that. Give me a chance. I’m sorry I insulted your friend, okay?” Lou got to his feet and reached out to Sam. Sam backed up.
“No. Leave me alone. Please.” Sam wished he'd let Dean come along like he'd wanted to. Dean would be able to make this guy go away.
Lou sneered. “What, you think you’re too good for me?”
“No, I…” Sam looked over at the dressing room. “I have a boyfriend.”
“Who, the rent boy? You didn’t say that earlier.” Lou took a step toward Sam, who retreated. “You’re lying to me.”
“He’s not.” Cas’s arm slipped around Sam’s waist and he looked Lou up and down. “This guy bothering you, hon?”
“Hey.” Sam checked out Cas’s outfit, not worrying about the way his eyes lingered at Cas’s ass for once. “I love those jeans on you. Yeah, this guy won’t leave me alone.”
Cas kissed Sam’s cheek. “Thanks.” He turned to Lou. “I heard him say to leave him alone twice, so I would suggest you leave him alone. Or you and me are gonna have a problem.”
Lou looked for a minute like he was going to say something back, but looking at the way Cas the linebacker’s chest and biceps bulged under the ridiculously tight shirt Balthazar had him trying on apparently changed his mind. “You might not wanna leave him unattended too long, Muscles. He’s way too pretty for you.”
“That’s for him to decide. Get out of here.” Lou held up his hands and walked away, and Cas breathed a sigh of relief. “Wow, he was annoying.”
“Tell me about it. Thanks for the save.” Sam stepped out of Cas’s arm. “You really do look good in that.”
Cas looked down at himself, a shy smile stealing its way onto his lips. Not that Sam was looking at Cas’s lips. “Yeah. I wasn’t sold before I came out here, but now, I think I’m getting it. Especially with you being too pretty to leave alone without creeps bugging you.”
Sam snorted. “Don’t know what Lou was looking at.”
“He was looking at you. Hey, uh, sorry if I crossed any lines, made you uncomfortable at all.”
“You were fine. Lou needed to buy it, and he was pretty dense.” Sam smiled, looking down at the ground and then peeking up at Cas. “You think I’m pretty?”
“Yeah. You’re… you don’t?”
“Nah. Dean’s the pretty one. I’m the weird-looking one.” Sam hoped the blush wasn’t showing as bad as it felt.
“Dean’s pretty, yes, but you are too.” Cas’s smile faded into a puzzled look. “Not that I’m complaining, because it set me up for the save, but wouldn’t it have been easier to say you weren’t gay than to say you had a boyfriend?”
Sam shrugged. “I dunno. Probably could’ve gotten Balthazar to play along if you hadn’t come out. But if I go with I’m not gay, there’s no one around to bail me out if he didn’t believe it.”
“But this way you have to deal with rumors about you at school.”
“If you were worried about rumors about us dating, I hate to break the bad news to you, but they’ve been there practically since we moved here back in tenth grade." He chuckled. "I’m actually kinda grateful for them, the reason we came to live with Ellen is because Dean and I were both thoroughly sick of fighting the rumors about us back in Minnesota.”
Cas stared in shock. “There’s… rumors about us? Seriously?”
“Yeah, there’s a few variants. Pretty universal that the new gay boy corrupted the good local Catholic boy, but they range from if it hadn’t been me it would’ve been someone else to I’ve got you brainwashed to it’s not me you’re after, it’s Dean, and you’re just using me to get to him. Which if you are, you should’ve told me so I could set you up.”
“You’re gay?”
It was Sam’s turn to stare in shock. “You haven’t known that for two years? Everyone else in this town figured it out within two weeks of me moving in.”
“How?”
Sam opened his mouth. He didn’t know exactly what he was going to say until it was too late to stop it. “Probably because of the neon signs advertising the crush on you from the moment I saw you that Dean is constantly teasing me about?” He clapped his hands over his mouth, not that it would do any good to shut up now, but at least maybe he could stop digging. When he couldn’t take it anymore, not with Cas staring at him with his mouth hanging open, Sam pulled his hands away. “Look, just… say something? Or hit me? Or leave? Please? I’m sorry. Just… do something.”
It took a couple of tries for Cas to find his voice. “Life is like a box of chocolates.”
“Huh?” What did Forrest Gump have to do with anything?
“You never know what you’re going to get… but sometimes, it turns out to be really sweet.” Cas threw his arms around Sam. “Guess this solves the problem of what happens when school starts and Lou starts wondering why we’re not acting like boyfriends…”
Sam scoffed. “Lou will have forgotten me by tomorrow.”
“Doubtful. I can’t imagine forgetting you would be easy.” Cas pulled back and smiled hugely. “Doesn’t matter. This is the best day ever. Sam Winchester likes me back!”
“Wait, what?”
“I’m not the only one who’s completely oblivious to crushes,” Castiel teased. “Maybe not quite from the first time I saw you, but when we had to work together on that terrible group project in history and you shut down that asshole talking shit about how women haven’t contributed anything of value to politics.”
“Wow. Remind me to send Lou a fruit basket or something.” Sam pulled Cas back in for another hug.
Balthazar cleared his throat, and Cas turned around. “How long have you been standing there?”
“Long enough. You have shopping to finish.” Balthazar pushed Cas back toward the dressing room and turned to Sam. “You listen to me. You treat my big brother right, or I will mess you up.”
“Try it, and Dean will mess you up. But relax.”