A/N: THE SPANISH DUB SAVED MY ENTIRE SOUL AND THEN FLUNG IT INTO THE SUN WHERE I'M NOW RESIDING IN BLISSFUL AND GLORIOUS VICTORY. WE WON, BITCHES!
"I love you, too," Dean said, surprised that the words had even come out of his mouth. It was as if they'd had a mind of their own, as if they'd punched out through his gut, his diaphragm forcing the air out of his lungs, the air that needed to be released. Released and formed into words, such beautiful words.
They were the words that had been forming for years, filling in the broken, dented cracks of his being, and solidifying every time he looked at Castiel. And those words had pulsed whenever he'd seen Castiel looking back. And now... now they'd both said it. They both knew, and understood, and loved, and Dean couldn't breathe, and the world was falling out from underneath Dean's feet, only for Castiel's presence to hold him to this very earth, and tell him it was okay. It was okay that he loved. That they loved.
The hurt little boy in Dean — well, he wasn't so hurt anymore. He was proud.
Dean Winchester loved Castiel.
Castiel's smile widened, as if his heart was soaring higher than Heaven.
Dean wanted his to do so too, to get lost in this, to find peace and paradise, but the Empty — that black, inky darkness — was here.
Dean couldn't breathe. He didn't know what to do, he didn't—
He reached out and kissed Castiel. This was going to be Dean's happiness.
When his angel kissed him back, Dean became lost in it. The seconds stretched out into multiple eternities across the unthinking existence of universes, and in all of them, they weren't supposed to be. Castiel had been supposed to grip him tight, raise him from perdition, and do what he was told. Not this, he wasn't supposed to do this — fall in love. Meaning Dean hadn't been made to do this either. He'd made it himself. This was theirs, and in that one universe, in that one moment, Dean felt Castiel in his heart, wholly.
They were real. They had made this love real. The Empty couldn't take that away, even as oily tendrils reached for the love of Dean Winchester's life.
Castiel held him tight.
And then he saved him.
Good things do happen, Dean.
Not in my experience.
What's the matter? You don't think you deserve to be saved?
They loved each other.
Dean Winchester is saved.