"Till my love comes to me"

"A star falls out of the heavens and fades in the afterglow. The wind embraces the willow. The ivy clings to the tree. My arms are waiting to hold my love wherever my lover may be. And so I'll walk in the moonlight till my love comes to me."

With sleep still in his eyes, Dean cursed another work day before dawn. He nestled his back into the warm impala seat. In no hurry to get started on this particularly cold Baltimore morning, he sipped the heavenly coffee concoction from his thermos. His eyelids became so heavy that he almost drifted off again.

Tap, tap, tap!

"Ugh…" He looked over to see Benny, his southern, bright eyed, bushy tailed counterpart. "Go away," he groaned.

"Now boy that ain't no way to treat your old pal, Benny!" He practically gleamed so bright you would have thought the sun had all-ready come up. "Don't you wanna get this dog and pony show on the road?"

"Son of a bitch." He dragged out the last word, suddenly remembering what they had to do today.

His company had been doing the brick work on this big fancy cathedral for a month now. For some reason the architect got a bug up his ass and wanted to have a meeting with all the senior foremen. That meant him. But he was dragging Benny along for backup.

They trudged through the mud side by side. "Let's get the guys started before we get this shit over with."

Benny nodded "You're the boss, haus."

Dean chuckled, grinning at the other man, "Remind me again why I keep you around?"

Benny matched his grin "Well let's see. I'm a mediocre brick layer, but I'm a hell of a singer, I can make a damn good pot of chili, and I'm handsome."

Dean laughed again and shoved his shoulder, "that last one's debatable, old boy."

"Oh no, I'm down right desirable. It's my southern charm. They eat it up."

Dean shook his head, "Eat it up, my ass."

"Oh you'd like that now wouldn't you, sailor." Benny laughed, just loving pushing Dean's buttons.

Benny had known Dean was gay for some time now. In fact, that's the reason they met. Dean had been out running errands one day when he bumped into this frail little nothing of a Georgia boy who looked petrified, staring at the "big city buildings", as he referred to them. Dean still smiles at the fond memory.

The boy's name was Lucius. However Benny liked to call him Lucifer, because as he said, "sometimes I swear that boys got a little devil in him."

Dean bought the boy a coffee and let him spill his life story. As it turned out, Lucius was gay and when he came out his southern Baptist family was more than disapproving. They all were except for the eldest brother, Benny.

Loving him unconditionally, Benny packed the boy up and took him to the coast. He said Baltimore was a big enough city that he could be himself and small enough that Benny could keep an eye on him. And that's what they did.

He showed Lucius around the city, importantly to Mount Vernon. That was Baltimore's gay district (the gayborhood). It wasn't really Dean's scene but it would prove helpful to the boy.

They walked around for another hour or so when Lucius admitted that Benny was a mason and had left a great job behind to help him, his helpless little brother. Dean took the boy by the shoulder and reassured him that the man could start working for him Monday. That was 6 years ago. Lucius has grown into a man and Benny grew into a loveable pain in Dean's ass.

Benny shoved Dean's arm realizing he was lost in thought and snapped him back into reality, "You here with me, Deano?"

He nodded and made his way over to the usual meeting area for their crew. They assigned them their duties and instructed them that lunch was 11:00 am if they weren't back by then.

They were walking over to the construction trailer just carrying on and trying to get under one another's skin.

They were getting ready to file up the stairs when it happened. A smaller man he didn't know hit a slick of ice three steps in, fell backwards onto Dean and sent them both spilling into the dirt.

Dean shaking his head in an attempt to recover looked down at the man in his arms. He was met with a pair of shy blue eyes that would have melted him if it weren't so cold outside. He sat up and the other man scrambled to his feet nervously.

"I…I…I'm so sorry. I didn't see the ice. Oh my, are you okay?" He extended a hand to assist Dean from the ground. Overwhelmed by the weight of the chiseled man under his scrawny arms he almost toppled over again but Dean caught him and grinned.

"Hey don't sweat it, I'm fine. You okay?"

The man appeared utterly mortified. He said he was fine, extended another apology, and hurried into the trailer.

"Really know how to sweep 'em off their feet, don't ya, boy?" Benny smirked giving his best effort to dust Dean off.

Dean grinned too. "Hey, what can I say? I'm 2 pounds of charm in a 50 pound bag."

They made their second attempt at entering the trailer and this time did so successfully. Finding two chairs they sat down and waited for the bustling to settle.

A man came to the head of the room to address the crowd. When those blue eyes met Dean, again, he began to blush.

Benny prodded him and whispered "think that one took a shining to you, boy."

Dean smiled and shushed Benny.

The blue eyed man spoke "Hello, my name is Castiel Novak. A few of you already know me, but to those of you who don't, I am the lead architect on this project."

"Oh, brother", Dean mumbled, mostly for himself to hear but so did Benny and he snickered.

The meeting wasn't dragged out in Dean's opinion. Benny of course had other thoughts. At the close of it, Castiel thanked them all for going "above and beyond in your efforts", casting Dean a grin. His initial embarrassment had obviously subsided.

"Flirt if I ever seen one." Benny teased.

"That's the problem, old boy. You never have seen one." Dean joked and Benny flashed his best mock hurt look.

They exited the trailer and made off to finish the work day. He raced home after and collapsed in his bed, head swimming with thoughts of his architect.

"Winchester, don't even think about it." He warned himself, knowing it would do no good.

Dean lifted himself from the bed and padded off to his bathroom. He found the hot water of the shower to subdue his thoughts of Castiel Novak, losing himself in the aroma radiating from soap suds.

After drying off and putting on proper clothes. He decided on a walk through the city. Maybe he could fully wipe the image of those delicate lips from his mind. He didn't know why he was so hung up on it. At first he didn't even think on the notion. But then those looks this Castiel Novak kept flashing him surfaced in his mind. It was certainly nothing a few whiskeys from Hogan's couldn't cure.

The walk down Fort Avenue was short. Just a couple blocks from his apartment. When he walked in he was met with the usual smiles and greetings. Scanning the bar of regulars he noticed someone strange in his usual seat. "I'll be damned."

Taking the seat next to the familiar face, he cleared his throat "Shove me on my ass then snake my seat? I see you may have a problem with me."

The brown haired head snapped around with a tilted look of confusion that quickly turned into a toothy grin "Oh, hello. I'm sorry. Would you like me to slide over one?"

Dean shook his head and smiled at the man, "No. I wouldn't dream of it. I'm Dean Winchester by the way. And you're Castiel Novak." He shoves his hand out for a shake," so what brings you in this dump, Cas? Never seen ya around here before."

"Cas?" There was the innocent tilt of confusion again. He thought about the nickname for a moment, "I like that...anyway what brings me in here? Let's see. I moved to the city about 3 months ago, I'm originally from Massachusetts, and I haven't been out once aside from work. So I said to myself "Novak, you need to interact with human beings." This was the closest bar to my apartment and I didn't want to get lost, so here I am."

Dean chuckled at the honestly worded response, "So here you are." Dean ordered a beer. No sense in the whiskey. That was for forgetting Castiel, and, well, fat chance of that. "Well lucky me, hanging out with the big boss. Can I get you a drink? I'm not usually a brown noser but for you I'll make an exception."

He had succeeded in making the architect blush and smile "Not at the moment but thank you."

They carried on that way for an hour or so, watching drunk old men file in and out.

"So lucky me seeing you here, or I would have been stuck entertaining myself with retired union workers," Cas said referencing the crowd of old men swapping stories of their days as longshoremen up at Seagirt Marine Terminal.

Dean cracked up "Oh yeah. They're a salty bunch but great guys once you grow on them." Dean patted the man down the bar on the shoulder "Ain't that right, Gus?"

That earned him a swat from the older man, "Winchester, you still haven't proved to me that you can even shoot a decent round of 8-ball."

Castiel laughed at the insult. Checking his watch he admitted to Dean that he must turn in for the evening. Dean offered to walk him home, and still not sure of this city, he accepted.

Stopping at his front door, Castiel expressed his gratitude to Dean.

"No thanks necessary. We should do this again sometime. I'd like to see more of you" Dean said, not putting too much thought into the statement.

Castiel grinned, sheepishly "I'd like that."

"Well it's settled then." Dean put his number into the man's phone. Without thinking he shocked the both of them by kissing Cas' cheek before turning on his heels and saying goodbye.

Castiel practically swooned, "Goodbye," he mumbled loud enough for no one to hear.