I want to live. I want to love. I think I am ready.

your touch brings forth an incandescent glow

Dean's prayers searching, always finding Cas, no matter how far apart they were. Even when Dean was praying to him, to Cas. Not the angel Castiel, but his Cas, the prayers always found their way to him.

And then Dean had found him. Saved him.

Brought him back. Brought him home.

And...

Told him that he loved him too.

Dean loved him.

Dean.

He thought he had known happiness and joy before, but the way he felt when Dean told him that he wasn't alone with those feelings, was something that Cas didn't even know how to name. Never had he felt such love. A love he had felt every day since.

Dean's love.

Cas places a gentle hand in Dean's hair, smiling down at the sleeping man. He'd let it grow longer than usual, and Cas found the soft beautiful hair to be just another wonder that the world could not measure up to. At the touch, Dean moves slightly in his sleep, his hand reaching up, resting on Cas's chest. Close to his heart.

They had all the time in the world. Nothing more to fight or beat. Nothing to worry about. Only live. Finally being able to live. To love. They had all the time in the world, the rest of their time, together.

Since Cas came home, they had spent as much time as possible together. Just being with each other. Figuring out the two of them. Yes, the simple way to put it was that Cas loved Dean, and Dean loved Cas. But, to Cas, it felt so much bigger than that. No one knew Cas better than Dean, and they had been family for so many years. But his was something else. Something Cas had hidden for so long. Something Dean had hidden for so long. And now that they didn't have to hide anything ever again, they were learning and getting to know each other in another way than before.

Learning each other, again. There was so much to learn, so much to learn differently. Kisses to learn. Bodies to learn. Feelings to learn. Slowly, they were figuring it out. Slowly they became.

Dean had just started his new job at the garage working four days a week, the other days he spent in the bunker working with the hunters, although he never went with them on hunts. Cas filled his days by helping the others in the bunker the best he could, or by reading and learning, sometimes learning the hunters what he knew. Most days, when Dean was working, he would leave the bunker to go outside, their dog following close more often than not, something he had found to be his favorite thing to do to pass the time. Nature. The one place, other than inside this room, where he could find a sense of peace so deep and calm that he would long for it at times.

And of course, Dean. Dean filled his spare time with Cas, and Cas filled his spare time with Dean. They had talked about Cas also finding some kind of job, and he wanted to, sometime in the future maybe. But right now? Right now Cas just wanted to be. Wanted to be human.

They have all the time in the world to make a life together, and Cas could not think of anything that he wanted more than that. At the thought of them together and the joy it brought him, something seemed to spark inside him, sending electric waves through his body. He'd felt it before. That little spark. The small portion of grace that remained inside this, his, body. It acted on its own. Surprising Cas each time he felt it, as he keeps forgetting. But it's still there sometimes. That little spark, his little piece of angel grace. And it was always Dean who made it spark.

Carefully he raised his lips to Dean's forehead, gently kissing him as his hand still gently rested atop his head. Fingers dancing through his beautiful light hair.