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"I'm a leaf on the wind...watch how I soar," Dean murmured the last line uttered by Firefly's Hoban Washburn, as he died after having safely landed the beloved Serenity vessel and her crew onto the planet "Miranda."
Taking a sip of freshly steeped Autumn roobio tea in his lazy boy, he spotted movement outside the window in the yard of the gloriously crisp day. Sammy was out raking leaves, so he figured he'd better pause the movie and help out.
Their green, craftsman bungalow with brown trim and burgundy door blended in with an organic beauty in the arboreal area in which they spent each day.
He wrapped a scarf around his neck, yanked on a wool beanie, and upon stepping outside, found the rake leaning against the farthest cobblestone pillar. With the gardening tool in one hand and another autumn tea in the other, he stalked over to Sam, handed him the hot beverage.
Sam jovially accepted it, relishing the mouthful of creamy autumn heaven from Dean. Then setting the drink on a window ledge he pulled Dean in by his scarf, lazily kissing him, letting his tongue dance in his mouth, sharing the delectable flavor.
"Mmm that hits the spot," Sam purred, then pecked Dean's cheek, "thanks."
Dean lovingly swatted his ass and got to work, raking another leaf pile. They were about to start on another when-
PoP!-PoP!-PoP!
Both were peppered with the sharp sting of ..not bullets.. and ran behind a thick and thriving crape myrtle bush on the side of the house.
"What the Hell man?" Dean quickly surveyed his and Sam's clothes, finding purple and pale blue paint splatters all over their jeans and jackets. Sam peaked out from behind the bush in hopes of determining which direction their attackers were hiding.
"On your left!" Dean heard someone yelling loudly from a substantial distance off in the woods and braced for another round.
He felt a tap on the shoulder from Sam then followed where he was pointing, taking in a set of Spider paintball guns and face shields set neatly on the cobble pathway leading around to the front of the house.
"Psst!"
Both brothers turned in the direction of the voice summoning them to find Jack and Castiel were positioned behind the bush they'd just been occupying.
"Grab your weapons and let's go!" Castiel whispered shouted with a smirk, clearly having been brought up to speed on the game.
"Who's on our team?" Sam asked, pulling down his face mask.
"Kevin, Adam, and Charlie. Then Jo, Gabriel, Ellen, Mary, John, and Benny are reds," Jack informed, tossing them two black cotton strips of material for their arms.
"Who's idea was this?" Dean asked, grateful as all get out for the ridiculously fun opportunity to play in a fall woodsball tournament with some of his favorite people in the universe.
Sam shot a lighthearted glance at Dean that conveyed he should know better.
"Jo and Charlie," they both answered and laughed at the same time.
Grinning like eight year olds on Christmas morning, Dean and Sam crept behind Castiel and Jack under the dense sections of forest offering better arboreal cover.
The afternoon passed with joyful sounds of carefree souls playing capture the flag. Adam was traded more times than anyone could count. The two times Cas was traded, he thought it traitorous and pouted until realizing the steep cost to the team gaining him had paid.
Sam and Jack had strategized well, capturing the flag for their team twice. Dean was covered head to toe in paint, certain he'd be black and blue for days.
Cas and Jack stuck around, after everyone else had waved goodbye after confirming a next round and limping off to their own private paradises.
Dean and Sam sat down on their back patio, sipping on the Butter Beer Jack had snapped into existence.
"Not gonna lie Cas, I didn't expect there to be paintball and fall in heaven," Dean contently sighed, watching the sun sinking below the spruces and firs surrounding his and Sam's home.
"There's a lot of things I don't expect to be here, but I'm still learning," Jack casually replied.
Sam and Dean deadpanned.
"You didn't absorb all of Chuck's knowledge when you..you?"
Dean could tell Sam was trying to digest the impact of Jack's words. It was throwing him for a loop too.
"No."
Why was it so hard for angels to understand humans needed a little explanation..just a smidge of blank-filing on heavy topics like this?
"Okay..care to elaborate?" Dean prompted him.
He noticed Cas wearing that look, the one he'd learned over the years which always preceded thought provoking truth bombs.
Like a statue of a daydreamer waking to life, Jack just began to speak like he'd already been mid sentence.
"I did, but I've been keeping it locked behind a door. Some of it's bad. So bad your soul would actually explode from trying to process and understand it. But mostly what I have from him are miracles of the universe. Since I was born in a young adults body and had to grow up so fast, understanding there's so much more to learn, I wanted to take my time."
Dean understood that, he was pretty sure Sam did too.
"Humans are precious because even at the end of their lives, after everything they've experienced, there's still so much they don't know. Still so many mysteries to solve. I like the idea of keeping this part of my heritage."
"So just like kids can experience wonderment and feel the magic in learning things in their own time, you're trying to replicate that for yourself in your..God situation er, whatever?" Sam tried the analogy to better understand Jack's perspective.
"That's exactly what I want. Not only for myself, but so I can always feel closer to humans. Relate to them because I'll still be experiencing the magic and awe of the multiverse with them..just more advanced stuff, obviously."
Dean couldn't hold back. "I think that's really cool, Jack. I like that a lot. And I like what you and Cas have done with the place. Never really dug the whole Matrix vibe this place used to have...everyone locked away in their own heaven, just didn't sit right with me."
That sweet, innocent little smile Jack used to have made an appearance just then. It reminded Dean of that smile Cas used to get whenever he was proud of having 'humaned' correctly.
"Even if you'd died before the whole thing with God being a dick.. he may have tried to keep you guys apart, but heaven was designed for soulmates to share a heaven. He would've had to change the realms entire operating system, probably making more of a mess in the process than he already had. But he would never have been able to keep a soul from reuniting with itself."
Sam squinted in confusion. "You mean keep soulmates reuniting with each other.."
Immediately Jack's expression told them Sam's correction wasn't accurate.
"I mean, in theory, yes. I have learned some astonishing things here, and I'd planned on explaining this to you guys soon," Jack looked to Cas, for him to verify the truth in his words.
Cas nodded and wore that look again. The truth bomb look.
"What is it? Tell us?" Sam wanted to know.
Jack took a deep breath, like he was steeling himself to deliver difficult news. "Chuck messed with you guys so much more than you could ever imagine. He..enjoyed a special brand of torture-"
"What gave it away?" Dean asked, bitter as fuck with how things had turned out for him.
"No really, you don't understand. You think you understand what it means, being-"
"Soulmates yes," Sam fervently assured Jack, "That's what it means to be in tune with someone, to know them better than anyone else."
Cas interjected with, "Except with you two, it's not plural. Residing in you aren't mates created by Chuck, destined to share a special kinship, or connection. You two are literally cut from the same spiritual cloth. For eons, God cycled through the process of the big bang, walking fish, and eventually getting to whichever singularity put you on his radar and drew his attention with laser focus."
Dean was growing tired of this already. They must have sensed his fatigue and irritation, deciding to get to the friggin' point.
Cas seemed eager to get to the point as well. "You were likely one of the earliest forms of soulmates. You'd have been fortunate if he'd left it at that."
"Just because I'm gonna exist to infinity and beyond doesn't mean I want to spend that long on this conversation," Dean tried delicately nudging them along.
"Chuck reached a point where meddling with alternate universe soulmate you wasn't an angsty enough narrative. So he intentionally took that spiritual cloth, tore it in half, understanding that by its primordial nature, it would seek out its other self. And to damn your physical reunification by his law, but repeatedly binding you by familial blood," Cas paused, clearly overwhelmed by his anger for what they'd suffered by Chuck's machinations. His voice quieted and a few tears spilled as he continued. "No one in any universe has suffered as greatly as the two of you."
"There aren't tears enough in the world for what's been done to you," Jack's red rimmed eyes peered at them with more sorrow than Dean ever imagined possible for anyone to feel, human or otherwise.
Looking at Sam, Dean recognized how conflicted he was. They'd both need time and space to process this nugget. Right on cue, Cas and Jack embraced them, holding Dean and Sam tenderly in their celestial light and love.
"I liked woodsball. Maybe next time we can try speedball," Jack grinned, waved, then disappeared.
Castiel tossed them a thoughtful, loving smile and then he too, was gone.
The second Sam opened the back door into the kitchen, Dean rubbed his hands together with glee before announcing, "PIIIEEEE Sammeh!"
His heart desired the comfort only cherry pie could bring and it was ready to take out of the oven just as soon as he'd thought of it. The cooling time was next to nothing.
Plopping down at their kitchen table, Sam surprised Dean by grabbing the chair beside him and digging in. At first, they ate in silence, taking their time to enjoy the pie while it soothed their souls. Correction- soul.
"I don't have any basis for comparison Sam, but there's always been something, some kind of pull I feel towards you. The soulmate thing's crossed my mind, how could it not with the stuff we dealt with? But two halves of the same soul? Gonna need a while to wrap my head around that."
"Chuck really was like a deity version of Saw. I just wish we knew why. Why us?"
"They way Cas and Jack made it sound, it had to be something outside even Chuck's ability to comprehend. Honestly, I'm going with Jack on this one. Let's leave this one mystery alone and focus on knowing with him in charge, it's never happening again. Whatever it was doesn't matter, because I'm good with who we are."
Dean was suddenly in a schmoopy mood and fed Sam the last bite of pie, then hobbled upstairs, feeling the paintball bruises finally stiffening his muscles. He liked that he could still feel soreness sometimes. It was a perfect excuse to let Sam fuss over him.
Another great thing about heaven? The water pressure in the showers were superb. He heard Sam get into the shower and relaxed into his strong arms, which were no doubt just as sore as his own. He'd happily take care of Sam too. They remained in the shower a while longer, soaking in the marvelous warmth against each other's skin.
They didn't require sleep, and yet they found a modicum of lingering inclination to rest when it was dark outside. The temperature inside their bedroom was warm enough to let their bodies air dry, with limbs curled and entangled so neither could tell where one began and the other ended.
Moonlight spilled in from the ceilings skylight and the radio on Sam's nightstand began softly playing a familiar, beloved tune.
"Mama take this badge from me"
I can't use it anymore"
Memories from another time and another heaven played out for both of them as they gazed into each other's eyes.
"It's getting dark too dark to see"
A flicker of colorfull light followed by a massive BOOM! Drew their attention to sky above them. Their ceiling had become transparent and both turned on their backs, with Sam's arm tucked underneath Dean's head, taking in the brilliant fireworks display.
"Feels like I'm knockin' on heaven's door"
The show would go on for hours while they reveled in their eternal bliss.
"Knock-knock-knockin' on heaven's door"
Forever at peace with their own little slice of heaven.