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Still beautiful, still Dean Winchester
Castiel thinks, watching the broken man staring right back at him with his green eyes full of fear and despair. The man he loves. The man he is never going to see again.
Under the threat of Death pounding on the door attempting to break through and kill them, Castiel needs to hurry. He has to save the world. He has to save Dean, his world.
Castiel tells Dean everything he's ever wanted him to know, everything he needs to know.
"I love you," Castiel says finally, his blue eyes shiny with tears.
"Don't do this, Cas."
Castiel smiles. He didn't expect an 'I love you' back, of course. He knows Dean can't reciprocate his feelings, he has known it all along. Nonetheless, he smiles because he doesn't need to hear it. Afterall happiness isn't in the having, it's in just being. It's in just saying it. With those three simple, yet powerful words, Castiel finally feels and understands true happiness.
The angel doesn't tear his gaze away from Dean. Not even for a second, not even when black ooze, the thing that's about to take his life begins leaking through the rift that's forming on the wall behind them. It's coming to honor their deal.
Any second now could be his last, and he wants Dean to be the last thing he sees before the Empty swallows him.
Ready for his farewell, Castiel grabs Dean's shoulder, his bloody hand pulling him closer. "Goodbye, Dean."
What happens next, happens fast and changes everything.
"I said, don't do this!" Dean shouts, pushing his arm away and cupping Castiel's face in his hands. "Don't you dare leave me now!"
Hot tears are falling from Castiel's eyes, his face only inches from Dean's.
"Dean, it's too late... I had to do it. I did it to save you," Castiel explains quickly, his voice broken.
"Well, turns out I don't want to live without–" Dean is interrupted by a sudden, loud crash and he looks up, hopelessness and terror growing in his eyes. The crash is followed by a strangled cry. Death has managed to break the protective sigil on the door, entered the room and is immediately taken by the Empty.
She is gone and because the Empty has no power over humans, Dean is now safe.
Castiel sighs contently, basking in this knowledge, melting into the touch of Dean skin on his for the last time, waiting to die.
Their eyes meet again as Dean looks back at him. He's crying too now, silent tears running fast down his face.
"I'm so sorry, Dean..." Castiel whispers.
Dean's hands tremble on his cheeks as urgent words leave his lips in a shaky, reverent breath. "I love you, too," he says, and then Castiel's being pulled even closer until their mouths meet in a desperate and messy kiss.
Castiel’s feelings after confessing his love for Dean is nothing, nothing compared to this. Overwhelming waves of happiness wash over him like a flooding river. He feels invincible. He feels so wonderfully alive, and it's almost too much to bear.
Like a sudden dry thunderstorm, a loud, rumbling noise fills the air and sparks fly as Castiel's majestic, black wings appear and unfurl from his shoulders, causing him to gasp on Dean's lips.
Castiel wraps both his arms and his wings gently around him. Dean who is now sobbing wipes away with his thumbs the tears that won't stop falling from Castiel's closed eyes.
They just stay like this, holding each other tightly in a warm and protective embrace and kissing under the supernatural thunderstorm.
'I couldn't have asked better,' Castiel thinks. 'This is a beautiful way to die.'
Castiel pulls away from the kiss, startled, when a piercing, deep groan echoes in his head. A scream of agony.
That's when he sees it.
He and Dean are surrounded by a halo of pulsating, glowing blue light and the Empty, with its tendril of black ooze is thumping against it trying, unsuccessfully, to break through.
The ear-splitting sound of an inhuman voice reverberates in Castiel's mind. "This happiness... It's too powerful…" the Empty whines.
"Dean..." Castiel whispers, amazed, turning his gaze to him.
Dean's head is buried in the crook of his neck, dampening his skin with hot tears, and his hands are clutching at his shirt.
The Empty is howling in pain and anger. Castiel realizes that Dean can't hear it.
Castiel can hear Dean, however.
"We can have this, Cas..."
"You've always had me..." he is saying between sobs.
"Dean, look…" Castiel murmurs, as a new stab of happiness makes his grace dance within him and another wail of pain and frustration echoes in his head.
Dean looks up at Castiel, whose eyes are glowing blue with angelic grace, then around him, astonished. His eyes dart from the sparks in the air, to the halo protecting them, and land on the black tendril trying to break through.
“I've had enough of you, Castiel!” the nasty voice in Castiel's head shouts. “You can go and live your disgusting, happy life with your precious human. I don't care anymore, just stop tormenting me!”
Castiel and Dean watch in disbelief as the tendril crawls back along the ground like a hurt animal.
"I need sleep…" is the last thing Castiel hears before the Empty disappears into the rift in the wall from which it came from.
The room is dark and quiet now.
Castiel and Dean are still holding onto each other afraid of letting go, their foreheads touching and their breaths mingling.
“So, our love defeated an evil cosmic being, huh? Where are we, in a Disney movie? Like, true love's kiss or something?” Dean chuckles when Castiel tells him what happened.
“I guess so,” the angel smiles back. “though, I hope this is real.”
“It is.” Dean cups his cheek and kisses him softly. “We are real, Cas.”
Castiel's grace purrs inside him.