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

your touch brings forth an incandescent glow

C A S

Dean sleeps peacefully beside him, his naked body only covered by a thin blanket, and Cas's arms around him. Eyes fluttering beneath his closed eyelids, mouth slightly open as he breathes calmly.

Cas has lived for longer than humanity is capable of imagining. He has seen it all, lived it all. Been all over the world, in heaven, in hell.

He's seen pain, anger, hate, war, evil.

And for the love of the man beside him, it was all worth it.

He's seen beauty, all wonders of the world, joy, love, peace, goodness.

And yet, the man lying in his arms is the most beautiful of it all.

Nothing can compare to the love, the joy, the beauty of Dean Winchester. Nothing.

For Castiel, the world was created for him to meet Dean. Everything that has happened has led him into the arms of the only being Cas has ever truly loved. He would give anything for the man, he had given anything for him. And he would do it again. And again. And again.

All of it.

All of it, was worth it, just to be able to lay in bed next to Dean, watching him as peaceful as ever, sleeping with his head resting on Cas's chest. He'd do it all a thousand times, just to be able to lay here at this moment, counting the freckles on his face, waiting for him to open his green eyes so that Cas once again can look into the greatest wonder ever created in the whole universe. Nothing is as beautiful as those freckles. Nothing is as beautiful as those green eyes.

Although they've been together for a couple of weeks now, just the two of them living in a bubble where the rest of the world doesn't exist, Cas sometimes thinks he has to be dreaming. No one is so lucky as to get everything they have ever wished for when that wish is something as monumental as Dean Winchester.

For years and years, Cas had believed his feelings to be his, and his alone. He knew Dean cared about him, but he never dared to think that he might feel the same way. Cas had believed that Dean loved him as a brother, and nothing more. He didn't believe he could love a creature like Cas, a being like him. So he had never said a word. Never acted upon it. Although at times, that was all he had wanted to do. But he never did.

When Cas made a deal with the Empty to save their son, Jack, he was certain that the Empty could ever come for him. Since the one thing that would make Cas happy, the one thing that would make Cas that happy was Dean. Dean loving him.

Dean.

Beautiful Dean.

When he and Dean had been trapped in the bunker, Death banging on the door, he knew he had to save his Dean. He had to save him, or he would never be able to live with himself. He didn't know if it would actually work, but he knew that his feelings for Dean were so strong that even just saying the words out loud, would make him happy.

And it did.

And the Empty had come for him.

And he had saved Dean.

Cas believed his days were past, that he would spend the rest of eternity sleeping in the Empty. But he woke, and that's when the Shadow made sure to torture him. He hadn't known why he had started to wake, but he suspected that the man beside him had something to do with it. He couldn't hear his words when he was lost in the void, but an unrecognizable feeling had lingered around him. He recognized the feeling when Dean came close, pulling him into his arms. It was Dean. The feeling. It was Dean. Always Dean.