Hello all. I would like to thank rainystv for the lovely review. I would also like to thank those of you who have followed and favoured since my last update. You are awesome.

So here's the next chapter. I hope you like it.

Disclaimer: I don't own Supernatural.

3 minutes and 45 seconds of his life left and Dean knew what image he wanted in his mind when the time came. As such he pulled his eyes from the sky and instead turned them to a photo he had carried around in his wallet since it was given to him, though he had refused until this moment to look at it. It had so many memories of him connected to it. It held so much pain, and yet the time the photo depicts was one of the happiness Dean could ever remember. So with a deep breath he looked down at the photo of him and him, both drunk as could be seen by the slightly glassy eyes. Dean had his arm around him, pulling him close and grinning like an idiot into the camera while he had his head resting on Dean's shoulder. Closing his eyes Dean turned his mind back to that night six years ago.

Six years ago…

Dean was sitting by the bar smiling so wide people wouldn't have been remiss in mistaking him for being the one who had just graduated the top of his class from Stanford and been offered the research position in the Ancient History department of the same college rather than his best friend. But it was only cos he was so damn proud of what Cas had achieved. I mean yeah, he had always known his best friend was a brainy dork but now Cas had the papers and job to prove it to the rest of the world.

It was strange how things could change so much in four years. He remembered when Cas had said he was coming here and he had flipped out, and now here he was, in the campus bar not just surrounded by Stanford students, but being accepted by them, hell there were some who seemed to think that if they sucked up to him that would get them in with Cas, though where they got that idea from he had no feakin' clue, for one, Cas would make up his own mind about people, and two Dean couldn't stand lick asses. But that was beside the point, he had found, from his increasingly more frequent visits, that he actually liked some of Cas' friends. Yeah okay they would never be his best buds, but you know, they weren't all bad. Balthazar wasn't that bad once you got to know him and Hannah was sweet, though he really did think that someone should inform her that Cas was gay. Poor girl, she seemed to really hold a torch for him or his mind as she put it. Which of course always made Dean chuckle and have to turn away so he didn't offend her. But they were good people. He liked that, especially as his little brother Sammy would be starting at Stanford in the fall. This was a good place for him. He would be able to test his wings here, and he would be safe. Yeah Dean was glad that his brother was following Cas' footsteps rather than his own. And yeah okay he may have another reason for that as well. See Bobby had died two years ago, leaving Dean and Sam all the family they had left. As such when Sam had decided that he was going to Stanford Dean had sorted everything out so that he could also move to California, that way he would be close to the two most important people in his world. His brother and his best friend.

In fact he and Cas had spent the afternoon looking at apartments together, they needed one which would be big enough for three so Sam could come home for the holiday's, even if home was just down the road from the dorms, Dean wanted to make sure his brother felt welcome and Cas agreed with him as soon as he had ventured to mention the idea. So they had been looking, and they had found the perfect place. It was just another thing to celebrate. Dean's world was finally coming together, and he couldn't wait for this new part to start.

"Dean, come, dance, sing, party." Cas staggered over to him shouting.

"I ain't dancing to this Cas. It would be a crime, hell this noise is a crime." Dean replied raising his bottle of beer above his head when his best friend tried to grab his hand and drag him onto the dance floor.

"Why? because it's music from the noughties?" Castiel asked swaying against Dean's chest as he tried and failed to entice Dean to join him by batting his eyelids at him in an over exaggerated manner.

"The what?" Dean asked spluttering, cos if ever there was a stupid word, Cas had just said it.

"Noughties, Dean, the naughty noughties." Castiel tried to whisper sensually, but the effect was ruined by him dissolving into laughter as he finished the sentence.

"I think I've corrupted you Cas." Dean replied with a shake of his head as he put out his arm to hold Cas up. He was laughing so hard, or more truthfully was so drunk, he couldn't stand without help.

"Good." Castiel replied suddenly stopping laughing and staring into Dean's eyes with one of his intense stares that Dean could never look away from. Cas' eyes could tell him so much about what his friend was thinking on occasion, and he had known the guy for over a decade, the staring thing didn't bother him. Hell he didn't even notice they were doing it half the time.

"Obviously not well enough though Dean-o." came a voice pulling both their eyes towards an older man who joined them smirking at them both and waggling his eyebrows at his brother.

"What? why'd you say that Gabriel?" Dean asked the new comer completely ignoring the by play of silent conversation between the Novak's, it was always easier that way in his mind.

"Cos he is still top of his class and my smart ass little brother." Gabriel replied turning to Dean and grabbing his drink and downing it. Before Dean could protest about Gabriel stealing his drink Castiel replied to his comment with a smirk.

"I'll always be your smart ass little brother, Gabriel, it is part of my charm."

"Yeah, you go on thinking that Cassie." Gabriel responded with a smirk, but there was a gentleness in his voice that all three there knew was his way of saying he was proud of Castiel. Of course it was gone as quickly as it appeared. "Now you two, I want a photo so come on." He said waving his expensive smart camera around with abandon until Dean grabbed Cas and smiled up at the camera while he felt Cas' head rest on his shoulder. With the picture taken Gabriel waved once more before turning and disappearing into the mass of people in the bar, leaving Dean and Cas alone once more. Not that either of them moved from the photo pose for a minute.

"Hey no passing out or being sick on me." Dean muttered hoping Cas hadn't gone to sleep or something. He wasn't sure he would be able to carry his friend home right now.

"I'm not planning on either, I just like this." Castiel replied with a sigh as he rubbed his head once more against Dean shoulder, neither of them noticing that Castiel's arms had moved so they now circled Dean's waist.

"What?" Dean asked curious at Cas' drunken ramblings.

"Me and you, together. I've missed you Dean, so much." Castiel whispered with a smile as he breathed in the smell of leather and motor oil that never seemed to leave Dean however much he washed.

"That's cos I'm awesome. But don't worry, you don't have to live without me anymore. Cos we're moving in together." Dean replied shaking his shoulders, he really didn't trust Cas not to fall asleep on him.

"Yes we are." Castiel responded moving away from Dean and turning away from him briefly but out of the corner of Deans eye he saw a sad shadow cross Castiel's face, though when he turned to question him about it all he saw was his happy smiling best friend, as such it put the expression down to a figment of his drunken imagination and went on to enjoy the evening at Cas' side.

Opening his eyes Dean looked down at the picture once more and ran his finger gently across the contours of his face. He finally understood what the look he had seen was. He had never known how he felt about him. He had gone believing that Dean saw him only as his best friend, oh god, Dean hoped that when he pulled that trigger he would get a chance to correct that assumption.

Leaning back against the windscreen of his car he once again closed his eyes and remembered the time when he was given this photo, the time when he had finally seen the light (as it were) of his affection towards him. And while thoughts of Gabriel's words passed through his mind his finger subconsciously continued to stroke the contours of the face in the photo, almost as if he could imagine the real face under his hand.