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"Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,
I will fear no evil,
for you are with me;
your rod and your staff,
they comfort me."
-Psalm 23
Castiel sits at the long table of the bunker. He isn't around here much, but when he is he loves exploring the plethora of books at his disposal. There are so many, but since he reads faster than a normal human being he has already stored over half of the library into his memory.
Mainly the library consisted of hunting books, which fascinated the angel, but a few non-hunting books were also squished in to a corner of one of the far bookshelfs. These books consisted of Shakespeare, Poetry, Lord Of the Rings, Harry Potter, and Sherlock Holmes; and Castiel was captivated by them. However.. There was something in those books he did not quite understand.. It was in all of the books, plays, and poems. It was the thing that made Romeo commit suicide upon seeing Juliet's body then her vice versa, it was the thing that made Hermione seethe with anger upon seeing Ron with another woman and Harry seeing Cho with Cedric, and it was in Aragorn's eyes when he gazed upon Arwen.
The angel tilted his head to the side in confusion. He knew of this emotion but never understood it.
Sighing, he turned the page of The Halfblood Prince, the sixth book in the Harry Potter series, half his mind trying to ponder and come up with the answer to his question and the other half entirely focused on the riveting tale come to life in his head from the pages.
While Cas was contemplating, Dean walked into the room and walked right past the angel to get to the kitchen, his need for a beer and a sandwich making him not see the trench coated man reading.
"Jesus Cas!"
Dean exclaimed when he returned into the room, his plate almost falling from his hands and waisting the food upon it. The other hand that clutched his beer pressed to his rapidly beating heart while Cas actually looked around for Jesus.
"Make a noise next time.. Jeez.."
Cas nodded and continued reading his book after he realized Jesus wasn't there. Dean just rolled his eyes and sighed, sitting down at the long table and ravenously digging into his ham and cheese sandwich.
"Where is Sam"
Cas asked after a few seconds of comfortable silence. Dean motioned with his finger for the angel to give him a few moments before swallowing.
"He just left to go to the store to pick up more supplies"
He gave a small smirk at Cas before picking up his beer, twisting the cap off, and starting to tilt the bottle back into his mouth.
"Dean, what is love"
Dean started choking on his beer at the unexpected question. He felt his cheeks heat up slightly and when he finally got his breath back, he looked up to see Cas had put the book down and was staring straight at him with a concerned expression in his eyes.
"Why do you want to know"
Dean croaked out of his still sore throat from the choking episode. (That is not a joke for the Internet to enjoy)
"It is mentioned in everything I have read. I have heard of the emotion and know it's definition, but the concept of it eludes me."
Dean sighs for the second time with in ten minutes.
"To Love is.. To me anyway.. It's like a best friend, but more. It's the one person in the world who knows you better than anyone else. It's someone who makes you a better person. Actually, they don't make you a better person you do that yourself because they inspire you. It's the one person who knew you and believed in you before anyone else did or when nobody else would. Love, is someone or something you carry with you forever inside your heart. And no matter what they do you'll never turn your back on them."
Sometime during his little speech, Dean cast his eyes on the table. He was actually speaking from the heart for once in his life and taking the roundabout way to get this confession off his chest.
"That was beautiful Dean"
"Ok enough sappy chick flick moments!"
When he was done talking he focused on his hands as if they were the most interesting things in the world, anything to avoid the eye contact.
He was actually so engrossed in his hands that he didn't hear his angel get up and make his way around the table.
Dean sighed and stood to leave, clean his dish, and maybe grab another beer when he knocked into the angel standing over him.
"Cas! What did I say about personal spac-"
He starts but gets cut off by heaven's softest lips colliding with his rougher, more well worn lips. The human's eyes widened as he didn't react at first. However, when he felt the warmth radiating off of the angel in front of him, as he put the skills he learned from the pizza man to good use, Dean felt his pupils dilate and he began to give in, kissing back passionately. Seconds passed like minutes so when their lips finally parted Dean's chest was heaving for air while the angel remained fine because of heavenly powers of stamina.
"Why?"
Dean felt the word tumble from his mouth before he could stop it and he instantly regretted it. His regret didn't matter though because it was clear that the angel didn't regret a single thing that had happened.
"Because I though that was an appropriate action that conveyed that you love the other person"
Dean froze. Cas loved him? Castiel, Angel of the Lord? Dean felt a microscopic amount of blush color his cheeks.
"You love me?"
"I thought I made it rather obvious"
Dean just burst out laughing then grabbed Castiel by the shoulders and brought his in for a shorter kiss than the last, but it still wasn't skimpy in the passion department.
"Promise"
Dean mumbles with his eyes closed after they pull away for the second time.
"Promise what, Dean"
"Promise me that, unlike everyone else in my crapy life, you will never leave me"
Castiel says nothing but grasps Dean's right hand and brings it up to meet his left. Next he wraps his pinkie finger around the other male's.
"Cas.. What the hell are you doing"
"I saw it on a TV show once. It's what is known as a 'Pinkie Promise'. If I break my promise, you can cut my pinkie off. You humans come up with some weird concepts.. But none the less, I pinkie promise I won't leave you."
Dean just stared at their fingers before chuckling and pulling them apart.
"I understand now"
"Understand what?"
"Love"
Castiel pulls Dean down to his level before pulling him into yet another heart melting kiss. The second kiss of many.