Despite making myself sad while writing this, I'm still quite proud of it. I don't own any of the rights to Supernatural. Credit to hermitic . tumblr . com for the beautiful fan art. Enjoy!

Cover my eyes, cover my ears

Tell me these words are a lie

It can't be true that I'm losing you

The sun cannot fall from the sky

There he was. Surrounded by bodies of humans, angels, and demons alike lay Dean; his Dean. Cas rushed over to the man's side and before either of them knew it, he was on his knees cradling the fragile body.

"Cas?" Dean's voice was so weak but at that moment Cas didn't care. It was his voice, he was still alive.

"It's okay Dean, I'm here" the angel held his voice steady but only just.

"What happened?" Dean asked. Castiel didn't reply but instead hushed the hunter in his arms. Blood was soaking through Dean's clothes and onto Cas' hands. The angel gathered as much strength as he could and placed his hand on Dean's wound. The hunter groaned in discomfort but Cas focused all his energy on Dean. But absolutely nothing happened.

"I'm sorry Dean. The fight, it drained me. I can't-"

"It's okay Cas, it's okay" Dean managed to smile at the angel.

"But I should be able to do something, I'm sorry" Cas' words flowed from his mouth at speed, panic growing in his heart.

"Cas" Dean interrupted the other's rambling "It's okay, just stay with me"

The angel nodded shakily in reply. They remained in silence for a while. Cas clung to Dean, willing himself to heal him. But every time he tried, nothing happened.

Stop every clock, stars are in shock

The river would run to the sea

I won't let you fly, I won't say goodbye

I won't let you slip away from me

Cas wanted to stop the world, to pause life. Anything to give Dean more time. He would have called out for help but he knew there was no one out there; only empty space and piles upon piles of bodies as a result of the greatest fight this world had witnessed and would ever witness again. It suddenly struck him that Sam was nowhere in sight. Surely his brother would have been at Dean's side long before he himself had arrived.

"He's gone" Dean suddenly said as though he had read Cas' thoughts "Sam... he's dead. He died defending me. It wasn't meant to be like that; I was the one who was supposed to protect him!" Cas watched as the hunter's eyes slowly filled with tears. Subconsciously pulling Dean closer to him, Cas looked down gently into the green depths of the other man's eyes. He knew the pain of losing a brother, over the past few months he had lost them all. Dean was all he had left.

Hold on, be strong

Every second hope will grow

I'm here, don't you fear

Don't let go

They stayed quiet for a few moments longer before Cas felt Dean slouching in his arms.

"Dean?" the angel's voice was laced with fear "Dean?!"

The hunter regained consciousness but could barely keep those perfect green eyes open. He was fading and Cas knew it.

"Dean, Dean stay with me. Please, I need you to stay awake for just a bit longer. I'll be able to regain my strength soon. Please just stay with me" Cas' voice rose in pitch as he felt Dean's body growing heavy in his arms once again. He gently shook him and the hunter groaned lightly. The angel's heart began to race; he couldn't lose Dean. Not now, not ever.

"Dean, p-please" the crack in the angel's voice was what brought Dean back once again.

"C-Cas?" he managed to whisper. Cas sighed in slight relief at the sound of the other's voice and tried to hush him to silence but apparently, Dean had different ideas.

"No, Cas. There's something I have to tell you- a dying man's wish"

Cas shook his head, his eyes wide in shock but Dean only smiled gently in reply.

"Cas, I know you're an angel but, to me, I have always felt that you were my angel. I knew that no matter what happened, we would always end up together; on the same team, fighting side by side. And, I guess I've known for a while but never got a chance to tell you. So, here goes. Cas, I love you"

Dean didn't know what reaction he had been expecting; a hug, a slap, a heartfelt confession, a blast into oblivion. But what he hadn't been expecting was to look up and see those brilliant blue eyes looking back at him and a smile on the angel's face.

Slowly, as if unsure of how to go about it, Castiel leant down over the hunter until their faces were a hair's width apart. With one final glance back up to his Dean's eyes, Cas pressed their lips together. And it was the most amazing sensation he had ever felt. He didn't understand why so many humans wanted the power to talk to God or to grow wings and fly; what he was feeling right now was hundreds of times better than either of those could ever be. The hunter's lips tasted warm with a slight metallic tang of blood but Cas didn't care. He felt Dean's lips smile against his own and he smiled back before finally pulling away. Dean sighed gently and took one last look at his angel before closing his eyes for the last time.

Can you hear heaven cry?

The tears of an angel

"Dean?" Cas' smile began to fade from his lips "Dean? Dean, no... come back. Dean, you can't- I can't. Dean? Dean?! DEAN!"

The sound of the hunter's name echoed in the empty darkness but no reply came; no reply would ever come. Castiel began to feel his eyes filling with tears and he suddenly recalled something the Winchesters had told him once.

'You cry when you feel an extreme emotion. It's usually associated with sadness but it can be because of anger, pain or even happiness'

Cas' lips tugged up at the corners as he remembered Sam's explanation and Dean's laughter in reply and him daring his brother to 'get a little bit more girly'. But then Cas cast his eyes back down to the lifeless, soulless body in his arms as he heard the last of Dean's laughter fade in his mind. Suddenly, a beautiful golden-white light spread across the now barren landscape before softly fading to reveal a pair of amazing, pure white wings. Cas fanned out his wings to their fullest reach. If there had been anyone left alive to watch, they would have thought he was about to take off and fly away forever. But instead the angel folded his wings forward, fully covering Dean in his soft glow, and cried. He let the tears flow down his cheeks and drip down onto Dean's shirt. As he wept, the glow from his wings began to fade; slowly getting dimmer and dimmer before all light was gone from them. The last threads of his damaged grace spluttered out and only then did the tears stop falling from Castiel's eyes as the last of his angelic powers left him. Without the power of his grace holding him together, Cas slumped forward over Dean.

And with his wings curled over their two bodies, that is where the angel stayed; neither of them to move again.