Dean furrows his eyebrows. "No," he says quickly, "I don't know about angels, but two men don't just sleep together. It's weird." Dean crosses his arms, staring down at the hurt being. "Especially when they just met," he adds on stubbornly.

"But," Castiel stammers, voice full of heart break, "I'm not a man." His body aches with pain, tears still brimming in his eyes. He chokes back a quiet sob and grits his teeth before adding on quietly, "I can't watch over you if you sleep somewhere else."

Angels are watching over you.

Dean cannot help but feel slight guilt at the other's expression. He sighs out and finally moves onto the bed beside the angel. He supposes that he will be able to leave as soon as Castiel is asleep. "Why do you need to watch over me? Just 'cause you're an angel?" he asks curiously as he lays on his side to face Castiel, who is still on his stomach.

Castiel stares at Dean tiredly, moving his uninjured wing to rest over the hunter as he speaks. "No... I'm your angel," he tells the other in a weak voice, "At the beginning of time... All the angels were assigned a list of humans to protect... One after another, for forever." His wing curls around Dean weakly, encasing the blonde in a feather canopy. "I am your guardian angel Dean... I have been since the beginning of time..."

Dean is taken aback by the soft feathers around him, but he keeps his eyes locked on Castiel's, not allowing himself to relax. "What about now?" he asks. "Did you say you," he pauses for a moment, thinking back, "fell from heaven? Why did you fall?"

Castiel turns his head, not wanting to recall the events before his falling. "It-" he begins quietly, then sighs, "It was because I saved you that night. I wasn't suppose to interfere."

Dean finally drops his stern expression, mouth gaping slightly in confusion. "Wasn't suppose to interfere? With saving my life? Isn't that sort of the whole point of being a guardian angel? Like... Protecting me and all that?"

The angle blinks tiredly at the man next to him. "Yes," he mutters, "but when you decided to take your own life-" Here, Castiel takes a slow breath, squinting his eyes slightly to focus them through his drowsiness. "Suicide... It's the equivalent of rejecting the gift that God has given to you," he goes on, "When you stepped off of that bridge, you rejected the life that has been made for you... along with any celestial help that I could have offered."

Dean frowns in disbelief, glancing upward at the dark wing that stretches over him. He sighs and reaches up, touching the wing gently and running his fingers over the feathers. "Why did you save me then?" he asks as he finally looks back to the brunette, "If you were going to fall because of it, why didn't you just let me die?"

Castiel stares at Dean with tired eyes, turning a bit so that he can lay on his side without putting pressure on the hurt wing that is taped to his back. "Dean," he utters in a quiet voice, reaching out to lay his right hand upon the covered burn on the hunter's arm. "For all the good you've done in the world," he whispers, "None of it would matter if you had killed yourself there."

Dean tenses up at the touch on his shoulder, then slowly relaxes as he watches the angel's long, thin fingers slide into place of the fingers on the mark. "What do you mean?" he asks, staring down at the other's hand, before looking back to the creature's face.

"When someone commits suicide," he explains in a weak voice, running his fingers along the burn on the blonde's arm, "they are not allowed into the gates of heaven."

"What happens to them?"

"Either they get lost here on Earth, doomed to walk amongst the living as a spirit,"

Dean knew what became of spirits. Even the most harmless of ghosts would eventually lose themselves in their loneliness, becoming more malevolent as time passes, and one day become the poltergeists that the hunters seek to get rid of.

"Or they go to hell to suffer for the rest of eternity."

Dean looks away slightly out of guilt. He understood now. Castiel had saved him not only from himself, but endless suffering. In doing so, the angel had given up his life in heaven, where he could have spent forever in peace, doing God's work and protecting the humans that he was assigned. But why?

The ex-hunter frowns and reaches to the hand on his arm, being careful as he moves it away from the scarred flesh on his arm. He had meant to let go soon after, but finds that Castiel is now holding onto his hand weakly. The blonde does not have it in him to pull away from the gentle gesture.

"Why would you-" Dean stops and frowns at the angel. "Why would you give away your spot in Heaven to save me?" he asks.

Blue eyes widen at the question and the angel's mouth gapes as if Dean had asked him the most simplistic question in the world. "Because I love you."

An expression of shock flickers over Dean's face and he forces out a breathy laugh, trying to brush the comment off as a joke. "You're kidding right?"

The angel looks heartbroken for a moment as he pulls Dean's hand closer, tightening his grip on it slightly. "I am not joking... "

"You just met me. you can't... actually like me-"

"I don't just like you, Dean," he cuts the other man off quickly. "It's more than that," he explains, "and I didn't just meet you. Dean, I've known you since the beginning of time. I've always know that I would love you." Castiel, noting the look of confusion on the other's face, goes on, "It's not romantic... At least, not from what I can understand. It is deeper than that, Dean."

Dean averts his eyes. He believes that he should be even more concerned by the angel's explanation of his affection, but instead he feels as though it makes sense, in a strange way. He sighs, watching Castiel lift his hand slowly.

"We're connected Dean," he tells the man in a soft voice, "I knew I had to protect you because of that." Castiel lifts the hand the rest of the way up to press a soft kiss to the back of it tired. "We're connected," he insists as he begins to nod off, "We always have been."

Dean watches at the angel's eyes finally slide shut. He sighs, not pulling his hand away from the sleeping winged-man. He finds himself thinking over everything that Castiel has told him, and he starts to understand what the brunette had been saying.

After a few minutes, he finds himself relaxing under the blanket of feathers. His hand finally tightens to hold onto Castiel's and he closes his eyes, slowly allowing himself to drift off to sleep.

YAS.

All of the fluff you guys... Next chapter we're skipping forward a couple of weeks. And it's going to be cute as hell.

Can you believe it's been twelve chapters?

A big thank you to everyone who has drawn fanart of this fic! If you want to see the art you can check out the "fanart" tag on my tumblr: writingonprospit. And if you want to draw I will be so so grateful!

Thank you for reading and please leave a review.