A Long Hunt

Swan Song

When Cas awoke next he found the space beside him on the bed cold and empty.

"Dean!" Cas exclaimed in worry, the peace of waking up immediately gone as panic set in. "Dean? Where are you?"

"Woah! Hey, Cas! Calm down!" Dean exclaimed, his voice still destroyed from the night before as he appeared from what appeared to be a kitchen. "I'm right here angel!" 

The hunter rushed to the bed to sit beside Cas and comfort him. Dean clutched the angel and pulled him in for a warm tight embrace. When he finally loosened his grip around Castiel, Dean pulled his face back and leaned in to kiss him slowly. 

"Don't ever leave me again." Cas whimpered as he repeatedly placed soft gentle kisses upon Dean’s lips.

"Never again." Dean whispered back as he smiled lightly. "If we made it through that, we can make it through anything."

Cas could have cried he was so happy that Dean was okay again.

The angel finally pulled his face back and looked deep into the hunters face. His happiness was dampened slightly when he saw Dean’s pale skin and sallow cheeks.  As Castiel’s eyes raked across the hunter’s body quickly, he found dark purple and brown bruises budding all across Dean’s freckled skin with deep dried gashes crisscrossing his body everywhere. These marks were the results of the torture they had done to him and injuries he received as he fought to get free. All of this exterior damaged worried Castiel, but nothing scared him more than when he looked into Dean’s deep green eyes and only saw deadened pain. Dean was hiding the broken pain well, but Cas could still see it glistening dully in the hunter’s face. Cas knew that what he was seeing wasn’t the type of pain that just goes away overnight. This was pain that would linger and follow Dean for years to come. This would torment Dean in the middle of the night and cause him to lose more sleep than he already did. Dean looked damaged both inside and out.

“Dean, how are you doing? Are you okay?” Cas asked trying not to sound as worried as he really was. His joy and excitement from a few moments ago had made him forget about how far from okay Dean really could be.

A smile lit up Dean’s face as he said, “Fuck yeah! I'm great! I’m not a demon anymore and I’m in the arms of the most amazing angel in the entire world.”

Cas smiled back at Dean, trying to conceal the fact that Dean was now worrying him even more. Though the hunter had smiled brightly at him, that smile hadn’t completely erased the horror hidden in his eyes. Dean was a master at lying, but Cas knew all of his tells.

The angel immediately thought back to something Demon Dean had said to them, ‘After what I did to all those people, the old me couldn’t handle what I did.’

Dean was far from okay. He had killed humans. People he had sworn his life to protect. He knew that even though he had been a demon, Dean would blame himself. Cas knew Dean was broken to a point that was almost beyond repair. Almost. Cas had fixed him before. Dean just needed a little support; he could be healed over time once again.

“Enough about me though, How are you doing Cas?” Dean asked changing the subject quickly as he trailed his fingers through the angel’s hair. “You used up a lot of your mojo on me.”

“I’m good. A little weak, but nothing I can’t recover from.” Cas admitted honestly. Maybe if he was honest with Dean, it would coax his partner to admit that he needed help.

Dean smiled and moved back in for another kiss. “You can get through anything Cas. You’re a fucking badass.”

As they kissed, their movements quickly became heated as Cas tried to deepen the kiss. His fingers trailed up under Dean’s shirt and began to pull him closer. Cas made Dean move onto his lap so the hunter was straddling him as he leaned forward and continued their kiss. Castiel's fingers tangled in the hunter’s hair as he tried to buck his hips upwards into Dean while keep their faces pressed together. One hand eventually released the hunter and tried to trail down to Dean’s jeans.