Destiel

Chapter 6

Four months later

Dean couldn't stand it any longer. That song had been replayed at least two dozen times today alone, and he had been tired of it after the third go around. That record had to go, and if he never heard that song again, it would be too soon. He got up from the oak table and walked determinedly across the marble floor of what had now become his home. The bunker of the Men of Letters had become a ahven for Dean, Sam and Castiel while they waited for the inevitable end. Dean was the most firm of them all, being on edge every time Sam or Castiel left. He waited up all night until they returned, knowing the dangers that awaited them when they left the bunker.

But he couldn't take the music any longer and as he turned the corner, he saw Castiel standing as if in a trance, with a small smile on his face as he stood next to the record player, vinyl spinnign against a polished needle. Dean walked right over to the record player and pulled the vinyl off, Castiel's eyes having seen him pass but not paying attention until he heard silence. He snapped out of his daze-like bliss, "I'm listening to that."

"No you're not," Dean snapped the record in half over his knee. He never had to hear it again.

Castiel watched as his favorite record snapped courtesy of Dean Winchester, and he felt hurt. "That's rude." he said witha befuddled tone.

"You played this song twenty times in a row," he held the two broken halves in his hand, facing Castiel now.

"You could have asked me to stop," the angel pointed out.

"And you would have played it again tomorrow." the hunter pointed out.

Castiel paused, sensing something deeper at the root of this. "You're irritable Dean, maybe if you-" he was cut off by Dean.

"No, I'm not going for there." He set the broken halves of the record down on  a polished wooden side table.

"Sam and I have gone out there, and we have both came back fine." The angel said.

"I'm not chancing it Cas, you know how I feel about it." He said

"Some fresh air-" The angel just started to say before he was cut off again by the hunter.

"No," Dean said firmly, eyes locking with Castiel's eyes. "I'm not going out there; for all we know it could be hell on earth by now."

"It was fine last time I went on a supply run, Dean,"

"That was two weeks ago." Dean seemed persistently irritable. After all, he ahd been cooped up here for nearly four months. He'd not left these scared walls and Sam had confided in Castiel that he thought Dean was going a abit stir crazy, even if there were plenty of rooms to go to for a change of scenery.

Castiel let a silence fall between them, staring Dean down in the music room, or at least that was what they called it. Castiel's lips parted and even though he'd mulled over the words, tasted them on his tounge when nobody was around and almost rehearsed what he had seen on TV, he was still unprepared.

"Dean, I love you, but your solution to every problem is to live inside a mountain." Castiel said while crossign his arms and looking at the other man with a small smile.

Dean was about to retort that it was the only way to keep them safe, the only way to ensure their survival, when the first four words of Castiel's sentence rang in his ears. He could hear the blood rushing in his eardrum; feel the tightness in hsi shoulders relax. He realized he had been ready for a fight, and then those words washed over him like coming up from a dive into a river of fresh, cool water. The words were smooth and natural, and wholeheartedly sincere.

Dean finally let himself blink after what seemed like any eternity though it was only a fraction in time. And then it didn't matter, none of it: the angels falling, closing the gates of heaven and hell, the fact that he had once been Gabriel's vessel, or that he hadn't seen the King of Hell in nearly a year and had heard nothing of him. None of this mattered then, because Castiel had said those words, and Castiel saw Dean's stance softening as he gave up his argument. He had heard the words, but never did they sound so sweet.

"I love you too."