A/N: Hello! This is my first Supernatural fic, though I have several Sherlock stories. This story IS slash, although it is not graphic or even really that slashy. In fact, it doesn't even have to be slash. It is not set at any particular time in the series. I do feel terribly sad about Matt Smith leaving Doctor Who, so if you wish to make me happier, leave a review?
Dean Winchester is not a religious man. Oh, sure, Angels and Heaven and Hell and demons and prophets are all real and he knows it. He's been to Hell and Heaven and Avalon and Purgatory and met Angels and demons. He may not be a religious man, but every night when he goes to bed, Dean Winchester says a prayer.
He never prays to God or even to Michael or Gabriel or any of the Archangels. He prays to an angel, unimportant and unextraordinary in every way except for the fact that he is brave and a warrior and every quality he posesses is beautiful and terrifying and mystifying and amazes Dean. Dean prays to Castiel every night and he has ever since he met him, so long ago after he pulled him from Perdition.
Castiel always answers. He can't ignore Dean. He knows Dean is vulnerable and scared and worried and exhausted and confused and stressed under the guise he adopts during the day. But during the night, when it's just Dean and Cas and the dark, cold, lonely world, Dean breaks and sometimes he cries and sometimes he yells and sometimes he sits in silence next to the Angel and both share that mutual understanding only two people with the deepest of bonds can share.
When Dean is tired and ready to sleep, he crawls in bed and Cas sits next to him and reads him a story or sings him a lullaby older than time or rubs his back or the comforting, childish gestures he never got after his mother was killed. Dean falls asleep quickly and Cas prays for him and kisses his forehead and quietly disappears in a whisper of feathers and a faint breeze.
Both get by on this system and it calms them to know someone really, truly needs them and loves them. It's not romantic; it's a quiet relationship with no physical attraction or lust or desire. It's a pure, simple bonding of the soul and mind and it's perfect. Perhaps once Dean would have desired him physically, but the presence of one to the other is enough and more than enough. It's a Hunter and an Angel whose love is too deep for the body.
Nobody knows. Not Sam, nor anyone. It is a secret and both are happy to keep it that way. No one else could understand the magnitude of their love and would assume things that never have nor will exist.
Every time one or the other dies, the one left behind gets his heart broken, for neither knows when their luck will run out. So they take the precious moments each night and hold them in their hearts and treasure each moment and they know that they are both on borrowed time, time they should never even have had. They keep each other close to their hearts and souls.
When Dean Winchester says his prayers at night, Castiel always answers.