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Dean Winchester was coded as a hero. That much was certain. He was the Michael sword and the older brother figure. He was supposed to be righteous and good. Two things tainted that.
The first was his father, John Winchester. John was obsessed with revenge; not exactly a good trait to pass on to an “angelic” child. John Winchester was murdered before he could completely soil Dean for Michael, but there was not an angel in heaven that could have predicted what would come next.
The second was an angel named Castiel. He was originally just supposed to pull Dean from hell, but so much more came out of it than that. Dean did not have the connection with Castiel that he originally thought he would have. Castiel’s true voice sounded like nothing, but ear-bursting screams to Dean. This discouraged Castiel a little bit, but that fear was soon replaced with a warm feeling in his stomach that he did not recognize. That feeling grew into so much more as the years went by. Castiel’s stomach became filled with butterflies, but there was always something darker lurking underneath those feelings. Without Dean, heaven had to use a replacement Michael’s sword, which didn’t work out in anyone’s favor, aside from the humans. From then on Castiel knew he would have to choose between Dean and Heaven. He would always choose Dean.
Dean made the choice to choose Castiel and Sam over all else. His hero arc faded before he even realized he had one. He is still the hero, but in a different way from how God meant it. Dean’s whole life was spent protecting the earth, but more so protecting his brother and his secret love. He battled his internalized homophobia for years before accepting that he was bisexual and that he was in love with Castiel.
Castiel was a genderless being, but his vessel had been male the entry time that he had known the Winchesters and he was pretty content with identifying that way. If he had to pinpoint his sexuality, he would probably say gay. Dean was his one love in this universe. He knew that Dean was what made him happy in his life. In his thousands of years of life, he had never been as happy as when he confessed to Dean.
The empty knew this and it swallowed him whole in front of Dean. What killed the elder brother the most was he couldn’t be the hero this time.