2 minute read

hannah strong’s pIece features characters from what type of anime?

thing and start fresh? Shrug off a few hundred deaths, more funerals than we can count, and sit around the fireplace eating s’mores?” “We take care of Jack while he recovers, and we teach him how to live safely as a nephilim and a hunter. We wait for Sam to find Eileen and bring her home. We do what we want, be what we want, and have what we want, because there isn’t anyone to tell us ‘no’ anymore.” Cas’ words rang in Dean’s ears as his heart clenched. Dean wanted to retire from hunting. He wanted to live without fearing what lurked around the corner. He wanted to sing to himself while he cooked Jack’s favorite foods, stand at Sam’s side as his brother’s best man when Sam and Eileen finally tied the knot, and see the day he’d become an uncle. He wanted to fix cars while sipping cold beer and face any monsters that dared come after his family with his angel guarding his back. His angel. There was that, too… “And when something goes wrong, what do we do?” Dean asked. What does one do when their best friend says he loves them, then dies for them? What does one say when they’ve spent years pretending not to want what their heart begged for, only to be told they could’ve had it all along? “Well,” Cas began, “we deal with it when it happens, like we always have.” He held out a calloused hand, one that had healed a million wounds and taken countless lives in battles he’d had no choice but to fight. “Together.” For a moment, Dean stared at the hand offered to him. He glanced at Cas’ face in search of any signs of dishonesty. Since returning from the Empty, Cas hadn’t spoken of the confession he’d made before his death. Dean assumed that meant they were pretending it never happened. Decades of practice made Dean a great pretender, but he didn’t know what to do when the pretending ended. His dad would tell him to step back. John Winchester would give him the look that always struck Dean’s gaze to the ground and his hands to his sides. He’d say angels were dangerous, especially ones like Cas. Chuck wouldn’t have to look at either of them. He wouldn’t even have to be in the same room. When Chuck was still God, he could do anything he wanted at any time. He could kill one of them, both of them, or make them kill each other. But Chuck wasn’t God anymore, and John Winchester was dead. They weren’t there to say ‘no,’ just like Cas said.

Dean inhaled, slow and deep. His heart thundered. His fingers trembled as he reached, hesitant. Their hands grazed. Warm palms slotted together. Fingers intertwined. Cas stepped closer until they were inches apart. Their eyes closed and their heads tipped together until their foreheads gently touched. Dean and Cas stood, motionless in the silence of the map room. The tension in their shoulders eased as they breathed. Maybe tomorrow would plunge them into chaos. Maybe something horrific awaited around the corner. For now, though, there was peace. No matter what tomorrow would bring, today, they were together. Today, they could have what they always wanted.

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