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Dean Winchester doesn’t deny himself anything. You could ask any denizen of Heaven, Hell and everywhere in between and you would be met with complete and utter unanimous agreement. In fact, with the current script-torn-up-and-pissed-on state of affairs, you could argue that it was the one solid truth left in all God’s creation. Dean Winchester doesn't deny himself anything.
Famine, emaciated and all-round-evil-dick horseman of the apocalypse had confirmed this, albeit through bitter taunts and put-downs. Still, if you were looking for an informed opinion, there was no better guy to ask than one who could manipulate folks into gorging themselves to death on whatever repressed thing it was they hungered for. Famine had no power over Dean, because Dean hungered for nothing. Dean hungered for nothing, because- you guessed it- he doesn't deny himself anything.
What Dean does do is go through life with a certain lack of awareness. A lack of awareness that is perhaps born from a desire to preserve his macho persona and a whole-hearted dislike of letting anyone get ‘too close’. In fact, were he to realize it, there was one thing that Dean Winchester might hunger for. If not back at the diner during the almost-apocalypse, then possibly after Purgatory, but certainly after Meta-douche and a brief stint as ‘Deanmon’.
Of course, this hunger would only last as long as Dean needed to act on his feelings, because at the end of the day, he doesn't deny himself anything. So the problem really just comes back to the whole issue of self-awareness.
Fortunately for Dean, the one thing spent a considerable amount of time-not all entirely voluntary- becoming very well acquainted with its own thoughts and feelings, bypassing its own angelic-borne emotional constipation and thus equipping itself with the ability to override Dean’s.
This ability manifested itself on one otherwise unimportant Thursday afternoon as a swift course of action that would entirely obliterate any and all lacks of awareness on Dean’s part. An action that would bring a decade’s worth of friendship, betrayal, forgiveness, a profound bond, and lingering stares all crashing to the fore in an almost overwhelming surge of meaning and chick-flick feelings.
Oh.
Dean Winchester doesn't deny himself anything.Therefore, once he got over the initial shock, it made sense that he would throw himself, body and soul, into returning the kiss because he wanted it.He wanted it, and now everything made a little more sense.