warning: spoilers for season 12.
warning: if you've seen the last episode of 12, well, the same fate befalls Cas here.
Cas always put emoticons in his texts. Without fail, he replaced words with emoticons or added relevant ones to the end- if nothing else, he added a flower or an angel emoji.
Somehow, these always cheered Dean up. A little bit of Cas shined through from his phone screen, as if Cas was handing him happiness. Not that he would admit to appreciating the emoticons.
Cas seemed to be looking out for him, too. A goodnight text was sent when Cas wanted Dean to go to bed. More often than not, it was what prompted Dean to stand up, get off his ass, and go to sleep.
These were always accompanied by a star or three, or a cityscape at night.
Dean figured he could have used the little face with the zzz. He asked Cas.
"That is not night time," Cas said, that was that. The stars were prettier anyway.
Even Lucifer in Cas's body kept up with the texts. Like clockwork, Dean would get that goodnight message. At least, until he found out it was Lucifer. Then the messages stopped.
They picked back up again when Lucifer was gone.
And when Dean was walking away with a body full of soul bombs, ready to blow up God and His Sister, Dean received a text that said "Goodbye, Dean."
It was the first and only one to have a heart emoji.
Dean sent back the heart in return. He had nothing to lose.
When it turned out Dean was alive, the first text he got was a flood of happiness emojis. Every emoji that could represent joy was there. Every single one. And all the flowers, for good measure.
The next was about Sam, with a syringe emoji indicating the drugs used for torture.
All in all, Dean mused, that was rather a concise way of putting it.
So the good night texts continued. Long ago, Dean had started responding with a text of his own and an equal amount of emojis. Despite all the lying he'd done in his long life, Dean never sent that text if he wasn't going to sleep right after. It ensured that if Cas didn't get a response, he'd inquire as to Dean's health and activity and sleep.
It was almost... sweet. (Dean banished the thought.)
But when that damn devil-Klein baby mojoed Cas...
The emojis disappeared.
The first time Dean got a goodnight text with no stars, he almost fell off his chair.
"What?" Sam asked.
"Does Cas seem weird to you?"
Dean tentatively sent a star in reply. Nothing.
Dean continued uneasily. Maybe it was stupid to mistrust Cas over some damn pixels on a phone. Maybe he was going to anyway.
Then the baby was about to be born and that fight happened and the weird portal and Lucifer-
Cas lay dead on the floor-
Cas lay dead on the floor-
Cas lay on the floor, not moving, with his wings spread behind him-
Cas lay on the floor, in the paralysis of death, wings charred into the ground-
Cas is dead.
Dean tried not to cry.
He didn't cry.
That's a lie.
He cried.
Sam picked him up eventually. "Dean! We have a problem! It's Jack!"
Dean nodded slowly, eyes blurry, unable to think of a hunt right now. Unable to do much at all right now. "Bunker?"
"Bunker."
They ended up in the bunker. Cas's body went up in flames. Red and orange licked the tan trenchcoat and the tie but Cas didn't fight it, didn't anything, just lay there and let the smoke take him. Dean wanted to scream at him for playing this trick on him. He wanted to scream at Cas for letting his trench coat turn to ash.
Dean pulled out his phone and charged it out of habit.
Messages to Cas were displayed on the screen.
...
Cas: I can't allow this baby to come to harm.
Dean: the world's in harm
Dean: if saving the world means hurting a baby...
...
Cas: goodnight
Dean: goodnight (star)
...
Cas: Help me defend the house
Dean: why do you have so many diapers?
...
The conversation stopped there.
Dean typed.
Dean: Good bye Cas (heart)
Then he suddenly couldn't see the screen. It was all watery.
Once upon a time there was a girl who met a boy. They hit it off and it seemed like they were a perfect fit. They somehow got around to planning a date, and they were going to go on the date, and they were going to be happy. Then, circumstances changed and they weren't allowed to date.
So the girl wrote an extraordinarily anguish-filled story about emoticons because why the hell not.
The end.
P.S. I know I'd normally give author advice. Can I get some advice instead?
(I'm being dramatic and I'm a teenager so obviously the world's gonna end. No, really. It's ending. Because my life is a mess.)