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Title: What Follows Beneath

Author: tristhe

Rating: PG-13

Fandom(s): Supernatural

Pairing(s): Dean/Castiel

Wordcount: 345

Status: Complete

Spoilers/Warnings: Any time after 4x01. Slash.

Notes: Un-beta'ed. Spat out in exactly 14 minutes, so don't expect quality.

Disclaimer: I do not own these characters, and make no money off of them.

Summary: He remembered love and lust, together, once. It wasn't like that anymore. Not after hell.

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Dean remembered what it was like, before Hell, to experience lust and love together. He remembered Cassie, and despite Sam's preconceptions, she wasn't the only, or the first, girl he'd ever loved. He remembered, before Hell, how easy it was, sometimes, for love and lust to get mixed up together, how they didn't just confuse each other but sometimes, rarely, actually augmented each other. Dean remembered how love and lust could blend.

But that was before.

He still knew lust, of course, and still indulged in it. And he enjoyed it thoroughly when he did.

And, of course, he still loved, however tattered and grimy his soul may have become.

And Dean even, despite it all, discovered that he could still feel romantic love. Though it had taken months before he figured that out. He figured he could be excused on account of extenuating circumstances, surely.

But what Dean did not feel, despite the distinctly non-platonic nature of this new love, was lust together with it. He knew it wasn't because he was mistaking the nature of the love. He wanted to touch, to caress, to hold - to kiss, even. He wanted skin-on-skin, and long, exclusive staring, and holding hands, and sharing far too much. He wanted, in short, everything that marked romantic love as romantic, not platonic - in love and not just love - except for the actual sex.

He could not even imagine love and sex together anymore. It just didn't work.

He remembered what it had been like, once. But it just didn't happen, now.

He would probably have been more upset about it except that his new lover was an angel.

So, in the end, Dean figured he was just lucky things fell together as they did. No one else Dean had ever fallen in love with would have been able to put up with a chaste relationship. There would have been tearful fights and accusations of lack of love simply because of a lack of desire.

But as things were, they fit together just fine.

And Castiel was a great cuddler.

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