AN: This chapter also contains some E rated material.

They laid together in the bed for some time. Dean was certain that he had never cried like this. Cas for his part rubbed soothing circles into Dean's back and held him tight to his chest. Dean thought that at any moment Cas would fade as he had at the warehouse. He thought that at any moment he'd be holding the air and dying just a little right after.

Cas murmured love into his ear. The warmth of the words left him wanting more again. He could feel Cas' smile against his skin. Cas got up though. Dean silently cursed himself for not holding on tighter. Cas was pulling on clothes. "What're you doing?" Dean asked.

"Just putting on some clothes. You should do the same." Cas tossed Dean some pants and a t-shirt from the floor.

For no good reason, Dean complied. He watched Cas slowly drag the pants up over his thighs and Dean felt admiration for the form that stood before him. He had held all of that in his hands. He had held Cas. A small smile ghosted over his face. Cas moved to him and stared down at him. Dean was sitting on the edge of the bed with his t-shirt still in his hands. He had managed the pants just fine. Cas reached down and took the shirt from Dean's lap. "What?" Dean asked.

"You looked like you needed help." Cas held the shirt open over Dean's head and Dean reached up into it. Cas smoothed it down over Dean's chest. He reached out and took Dean's hand and pulled him up. "Slip on some shoes." Cas moved to the door where his shoes were and slipped them on without socks. Dean thought that looked uncomfortable, but Cas was an angel so it likely didn't matter.

Dean slipped his own shoes on, but he managed to include socks. "Are we going somewhere?"

"Yes, Dean." Cas reached out and took Dean's hand and walked out of the room together. Dean started to feel the anxiety kicking up again.

"Where are we going?" Dean let go of Cas' hand and stopped walking when they got to the foot of the stairs.

Cas hooked a finger in the top of Dean's pants and pulled him along. "There isn't much more night left. I thought that we could step outside and look at the stars again, like we did years ago."

Dean followed along. They got outside and Cas looped an arm around Dean's waist. Dean said, "I'm freaking out a little."

Dean felt a warm flow of grace tickle up through him. Cas had been doing that periodically whenever Dean began to feel to anxious. "Is that helping?" They got to an empty field next to the bunker.

"Yes," Dean said. They stepped over some discarded concrete blocks. The field was likely going to have something built on it that never came to be. There were the cinderblocks, and also some concrete cylinders that looked like they would've offered up some sort of support for a large building. Cas found one that was near the field's center and sat on the edge of it.

The edges of the sky were lighter. The stars were plenty. Cas pulled Dean to the spot next to him. Another little pulse of grace flitted through Dean's being, caressing away the worry and ache that kept encroaching on the moment. "It's not my grace from before. That's gone for the most part, but I suppose that this is mine now. Possession is 9/10ths of the law I've been told." Cas' fingers curled around Dean's. His thumb stroked a trail back and forth over Dean's hand.

"Where'd it come from?" Dean looked at the side of Cas' face as he stared out at the night sky. Dean wanted to focus on anything that wasn't Cas leaving. Cas for his part was dialing down his own emotions.

"It's a gift from them. It is a bit of what they were made of. It is why I'll fade away in time. There's a reason that they can't stay here. Their essence is being cast out into the sky and what remains here will fade to nothing. As this grace burns away so too will my time here."

Dean felt worry again, and the grace licked away at it. "Stop doing that." The grace retreated.

"Why?"

"We'll lose time together if you waste it on me."

Cas pulled him closer to his side. Cas allowed for some of the emotion from earlier to show. His eyes were pools just about to overflow. "Nothing I've done with you was a waste. Let me have this." Cas cupped Dean's face with his free hand and drew him into a deep kiss. It could turn into more easily. Cas' tongue swept the roof of Dean's mouth. When he backed off a little, it was just to bite at Dean's lower lip and suck it into his mouth. Dean closed his eyes and let the world swim around him. Cas pulled away and Dean chased the kiss a little before opening his eyes.

"More," Dean whispered as he stared at Cas' deep blue eyes so close, so real, so here.

"The others will be here soon." Cas rested his forehead on Dean's own. "They're less than a mile away now."

"Is that why we're out here? You wanted to say goodbye to them?" Dean's heart was pounding from the kiss and the worry that came back again.

"Partly. I wanted to explain things, and I wanted to sit with you under our sky."

"I won't survive it, Cas. I won't." Cas leaned back and looked at him a moment. "I know you think that I'm strong enough, but this little bit with you, it's not enough."

"You made it through before, and had the second ritual been unnecessary, you might have had a shot at moving on with someone new. I wish that I had explained the necessity for such things where you're concerned."

"What the hell, Cas? What the hell do you mean?" Dean stood up and paced in front of him.

"I only meant that you could have moved on with the preacher. He is kind. I want you to have peace, and he could supply that without you having to give up a thing." Cas watched him, his head moving back and forth with Dean's angry pacing.

"So you were watching me, this whole time?"

"Not exactly."

Dean stopped pacing and loomed up over him. Cas looked up at Dean. "So, you weren't exactly watching me, but you managed to determine that Paul was a nice guy?"

"I was the one binding them all together. When Paul took on the essences, I was well and truly aware of his character. He was, is as you put it, a nice guy." Cas' voice dropped into a low gravel that would normally have Dean's arousal kicked up into the stratosphere, but at this moment, he was much more concerned with Cas' grave misconceptions. "In time perhaps you can come to love him."

"Fuck you, Cas. Fuck you." Dean shoved him hard. It was only because Cas was surprised by the action that he moved just a little. "How could you think for even one second, that there is anything in here." He tapped his chest. "Anything, that isn't yours. When I let him kiss me, I was thinking about you. When he kissed me a second time, I was trying not to think about you, then I went to bed and thought about you. When he approached me a third time, guess what…" Dean grabbed Cas' face and stared hard into his eyes. "He asked me to leave with him. I couldn't, because the only thing I wanted was you. Didn't matter that you were gone. Didn't matter that I had zero hope of ever getting even the smallest moment with you again, but damn it I wasn't interested in filling my bed with mister second best." Dean came down lower, still holding Cas' face in his hands. "It's you or it's no one. You gotta know that. Look in my head. Look at what I've been. I've been shit without you."

The curl of grace slipped into Dean. He felt the warm flow of it like water washing over him. It reminded him of the light that had covered him before, of the comfort and love that he had felt in those moments. "It feels the same, because it is from the same source." Cas interrupted his thoughts.

"The light was you?"

"And also you. It was my grace inside you pushing out to the world around you. It was trying to provide comfort, since I wasn't here to do it personally."

Dean's thumb stroked a path over Cas' cheek. "So you see in there, how it was, how I've been?"

"I see." Cas looked saddened and Dean believed that maybe he did understand. "I'm sorry."

"So you have to see now, why I can't do this," he waved his hands at his sides, "without you."

Cas looked away and said, "When we did the first ritual, I took what you said to heart." He looked back at Dean. "You said that we had to protect the vessels. I went a step further though. I thought about humanity too. I spoke with my father and told him that we needed to protect them. I explained that just tying them all to me wasn't going to be enough. My love for humanity," Cas paused and added, "My love for you, was possibly not going to be the thing to convince Amara to see things differently. Luckily my father agreed."

"And this was why he agreed to the whole keeping of the fractured essences in the vessels?"

"Yes. It tied them to humanity. They were these big powerful beings that couldn't see anymore what it was to be human." Dean came back to the spot next to Cas and sat down. Cas continued, "God was using Chuck's vessel to roam the earth, Amara had a body, Lucifer had made the rounds, and then there was Billie. Yet each of them took over their vessels. They did not commune with the humanity that gave them form, they merely used them to gain form. Once they were broken a little, they could see what beauty lies in mankind. They could then see what it was to feel all that humanity felt without the trappings of their power getting in the way."

"Seems like they could have seen it through you."

"I'm just an angel, a broken one at that. My feelings could be discounted. But paired with the others, they could see it, and it worked. They learned. And we had the added bonus of sealing off Hell and protecting mankind from the demons that might not like all of this progress." Cas smiled then. "It has been better here, hasn't it?"

"Yeah, Cas. You did good." Cas' smile grew with the compliment. "So you made a deal with God and got to save the vessels, save humanity, and in all of that, you didn't make a deal for yourself?"

Cas' smile fell a little. "My desires in this were not important."

"Really?"

"They weren't, yet somehow, my father gave me this reward. I was given time with you."

"What will happen to you?" Dean's voice dropped low.

"They plan to linger in the stars. I fear that they were influenced by me a bit. I wanted to be at home there." He pointed toward Denab. "I wanted to know that I could look down at this place, and that I'd never bring harm to anyone here. I wanted to be able to look down from there and see you happy and alive with no one bringing you pain or trouble."

"So they're going to hang around Denab, our patch of sky, and what will happen to you?" Dean's worry spiked again, as Cas did not answer the question the first time it was asked. He had merely stated what he had wanted and not what would be.

Cas took his hand. "I don't know. I'll fade away, maybe join them. I'm not sure what comes next."

Before Dean could question this any further, Claire's truck and a second unfamiliar car pulled up near the field. His people emerged from the vehicles. Claire raised a hand to her forehead and peered out across the now not so dark field toward them. Dean could hear her even from this distance. "Cas!" She was running toward them now.

Dean and Cas both stood up together. The others were running over in her wake. She collided with Cas, full force. "Claire." He said her name into her hair and hugged her tight.

After a few moments of this, Claire let him go a little, but not entirely. Dean said, "Really, you're not happy to see me too."

Claire reached over with one hand and pulled him into their space. "You ass. You left us. I told you Cas would be saved. Told you."

Dean felt her words like lead in his gut. He couldn't tell her anything. He couldn't tell her that Cas had maybe mere minutes with them. He was doing all he could to just not fall apart. He felt the wetness on his cheeks though and saw that he was losing his battle. He looked over Claire's head and saw Sam. He moved closer to them and wrapped his own arms around them all. "Dean, next time warn us when you go running off."

Dean let out a small laugh, that was not a happy sound. "I'll try." Somehow that was the thing to make them all separate and just look at each other. Paul, and Billie stood just behind Sam, and Chuck had his hand on Dean's shoulder. Alex came up to Claire and rested a hand on her arm.

"I missed you, Cas," Claire said. She turned to Alex and said, "This is Cas. Cas, this is Alex, my fiance."

Cas quirked up his lip into a little half grin. He reached out a hand to Alex, who took it. "It is a pleasure to meet you." Dean was freaking out again. Everyone was acting like everything was normal. It wasn't normal. Everything was wrong. EVERYTHING IS WRONG, Dean silently screamed.

And it was then that Paul cleared his throat and said, "Something's wrong."

Cas let go of Alex's hand and looked at him. "Nothing is wrong."

Thankfully, no one believed him. Claire said, "What's wrong? What's happening? Cas?"

He huffed out a long suffering breath of air but did not answer. Dean said, "He's only here for a short while more. He's going to fade away and leave us. Said that he would only get seven hours and that there was no way to get more."

"I'm sorry," Cas husked out. The sky was growing brighter. "I feel content. I've been given something I'll always cherish. I got to see you all again. I got to know that you will all live."

"It's not enough," Dean said again. "Cas." He was near tears.

"He's not telling you everything." Paul walked up closer as he said it, and the others parted a little to make room for him.

"Stop," Cas' words were a low threat, the kind of tone he typically used before unleashing the full wrath of Heaven.

"No, angel. You must tell them." Paul stood his ground and maybe even puffed himself up a little. Cas moved toward him, like he might actually follow up his verbal threat with a very real smiting. Dean stepped between them.

Dean raised his hand to Cas' chest. "What's he talking about Cas? What do you need to tell us?"

Cas didn't look at him. Instead he looked over Dean's shoulder to Paul. "How are you doing that?"

"It was a parting gift for what we did. I have been given a little leftover power. I can apparently still see thoughts. I see your thoughts." Cas moved a little at that. Paul continued, and Dean stayed between them. "Billie will live a long life, but she won't be immortal." He waved a hand toward Chuck then and said, "What about you Chuck?"

"I'm getting the prophet thing again. Oh, that and I can play the guitar. I could play before, but he made sure I got some professional grade skills. I think that was the thing God really wanted to give me, but the others were being so generous." Chuck laughed a little with the last word. "Guess I might get back into writing again."

Sam and Dean both said, at the same time, "NO."

Paul said, "So, Castiel, you need to tell them how they can save you or I will."

Cas stared at Paul like he could blast a hole through his head with a mere look. Dean reached up to Cas and gently settled his hand on his cheek.

"Cas, how can we save you?"

"You can't. He's wrong," Cas said.

Paul interrupted, "He's afraid of what it could do to you."

"You must stop. Don't you value his life even a little. Don't you think that I checked? It won't work. I thought that it might, but I checked and it won't. So stop getting his hopes up. It's hard enough as it is."

"Tell me what you're hiding. If it really won't work then keeping it to yourself is pointless." Dean held his cheek still, and Cas stared at just him.

"When I pressed my grace into you before, I wasn't just healing you. I was checking our bond. More specifically, I was checking on the grace that I had left within you when I first pulled you from Hell. You were fractured and torn. I stitched your soul together using my grace. I had thought that maybe I could pull some of it from you, that I might be able to use it to live a somewhat human life here."

"Do it then. I support this." Dean dropped his hands to Cas' shoulders and gave him a little shake with his words.

"I can't. Taking it from you would likely harm your soul. The two are quite bonded, and the removal of one might not be possible without some of your soul coming along too. Plus the amount I'd need to take from you would need to be significant to even make this worth it, and taking that much would absolutely harm you." He took a deep, needless breath and whispered to just Dean, "I won't hurt you. I won't want to live if I hurt you."

"It's worth the risk. You keep saying words like might and likely. I think that means that we have a shot at doing this right. If I have anything in me that can save you, it's yours, Cas."

"It's not worth it."

"It is. Please. You've seen what I've been without you."

Claire spoke up then. "You can also have the bit of grace that you left in me."

Cas looked at her, tipping his head in that way that he sometimes did when he was surprised by a thought. He moved away from Dean and stood close to Claire. "May I?" He reached out to her and she nodded.

He touched her near her temple and closed his eyes. "It's enough, right?" She asked.

Cas let her go and smiled. "I didn't know how much had clung to you. It's been many years."

"I'm your vessel. Last of the line. Of course it's still in here," She said, smiling up at him.

"I wish to leave some of it in there as a protection for you. It has, I hope, provided some comfort in my absence?" Cas' words sent a spike of hope through Dean.

"I think it has. It's the light, isn't it?" Claire was so calm, smiling up at Cas like everything was just fine and always would be.

"It is," Cas whispered to her and dropped a kiss into her hair.

"So, we're good?" Dean looked from one to the other. "We gonna do this thing?"

Claire said, "Go for it. I'm ready." And like that, they all moved closer together, forming a tiny knot separated from the others.

Cas reached out one hand toward Dean's cheek. Cas' other hand settled on Claire's face as well. Before anything happened he looked at Dean and said, "If it seems like anything is going wrong, I'll know, and I'll stop. I won't let you get hurt. If it is our fate to end like this, if I'm meant to fade away from you, know that I loved you entirely and that I'll take that with me."

"Fuck fate. Fuck it Cas. We are not fated to anything. And as far as hurting me goes, nothing will hurt worse than losing you again, so don't go looking for any little excuse to stop this. You risked everything on the off chance that you'd save humanity, me. You tied yourself to God, Lucifer, the Darkness, and Death. You gave up everything, so now I'm asking you to take a goddamn chance again. Defy the stars or fate or whatever it is that you think is controlling our destiny. Take your grace back and live."

Cas smiled at him with a look of such genuine pride. When he spoke, his words were something in Enochian that Dean did not recognize. Dean felt a painful pulling in his chest like he was being ripped apart from the inside. He stared at Cas and schooled his expression in an attempt at not worrying Cas. Claire's face was not as controlled. Her brows came together in concentration and something like pain. Dean felt Cas pressing his head back a little and something snaked up his throat and out of his mouth.

In the early dawn light, Dean and Claire stood before Cas and all their world as Cas' grace curled up from their lips into the air between them. Dean felt Cas ease off of him. He couldn't say anything to encourage him, so he instead reached out and grabbed Cas' arm. More grace spooled out of him into the space between them. Claire reached out to Cas and held his arm as well. Grace danced from her mouth to the same space. Cas dropped his hand from them and opened his mouth to the light. It rushed into him like a river flowing swiftly home to the open sea, and it was likely the most beautiful thing Dean had ever seen.

He felt a little different. His chest ached a bit, like his lungs were bigger than his ribcage. "Are you okay," Cas asked.

Dean felt his legs giving out a little, but Cas held him up. "Yes. You?" Dean asked.

"Yes." He looked at Claire then and asked, "Are you okay? I didn't hurt you, did I?" Alex was at her back, bracing her.

"I'm absolutely fine, Cas." She moved closer to him and pulled him into a hug.

When she released him, Cas turned his attention to Dean. "Some of your soul came too." He settled his hands on Dean's arms. "I will understand if you feel differently now. I know that some of your affection for me must have been a product of our bond. If you no longer…" Cas did not get to finish, as Dean stopped his words with a kiss.

Dean parted from him briefly enough to say, "Shut-up, Cas." Then he moved back to him again and kissed him in front of everyone like the world was finally his and life needed to be celebrated. Cas eventually wrapped his arms tight around Dean lifted him more into his arms and kissed him back like he believed that it wasn't a goodbye and might never be one.

Chuck interrupted their moment with a loud whoop of enthusiasm. They parted and smiled at the rest of the group. Chuck moved to Cas' side and Charlotte, Sam, and Paul joined him. Chuck said, "I think that we now know what it was they wanted from us at the end." He looked to the others. They each settled a hand on Cas.

Paul said, "It won't be enough to have your diminishing grace. We can help with this though." He nodded to Charlotte.

"Billie had been quite capable when matters involved souls. Seems you might be in more need of a soul than just this spot of grace." She reached up to his cheek, and tipped his head back a little. Chuck, Paul, and Sam continued to hold him too. Charlotte opened her mouth and a thin white light slipped past her lips. Chuck, Sam, and Paul did the same. The white light moved into Cas' mouth and disappeared.

Cas' eyes glowed bright as his body stiffened. Dean started to move forward, but Claire grabbed his arm and kept him back. Alex settled a hand on his other arm. Cas closed his eyes and fell to the earth. Dean was at his side, knees in the dirt, hands scooping up his head. "Cas. Cas, you okay?" He looked up at the others, who were smiling. "What'd you do to him?"

"It was just a simple transformation, not so dissimilar to when an angel falls and their grace turns into a soul. He had to be in possession of his grace though before that could happen. Seems like Cas wasn't the only one that knew a thing or two about how to work with mighty essences," Billie said.

Cas' eyes opened and he pushed himself up from the ground a little. "Dean."

"You okay, Cas?"

Cas got up but kept a hand on Dean's arm. "I am. I…" He looked at Charlotte then and said, "I have a soul?"

"You have a soul," she replied. "Now when your time comes, perhaps you and Dean can carve out some heavenly space together."

Cas moved away from Dean then and reached out a hand to Charlotte, who took it. "Thank you."

"Don't thank me. Thank Billie. She was the one who left what seemed to be a whole lot of useless knowledge in my head. I'm starting to think that maybe there's some stuff in here that might not be so useless after all."

"Got some lottery picks for us then Charlotte?" Alex laughed.

"No, but I've got some odd information about child rearing that seems useless. Anyway." She turned and smiled at Dean and said, "I hope that you can forgive me and that in time you can consider me your friend again."

Dean moved to her and pulled her into a hug. "There's nothing to forgive. You never have been anything but my friend the entire time."

Chuck gave Cas a loud slap on the back and said, "What do you all say we go in and crack open a celebratory bottle of something? I think we've all earned a little down time and frivolity." They moved off toward the bunker as a unit, a blanket of honest joy just beginning to bubble up to the surface with each step.

Sam clapped Cas on the shoulder as they walked back to the bunker. It was daylight and the stars were no longer owning the sky. Sam said, "You're a lot of trouble, ya know?" He smiled as he said it.

"Hopefully, I won't be in the future." Cas smiled back.

"Just take good care of him. He's a lot of trouble too." Sam nodded over at Dean who had his arm wrapped around Cas' waist as they walked.

"I'm not a bit of trouble. It's all him." Dean nearly whined.

"Sure, Dean, sure," Sam laughed at them both.

"So, you human now?" They entered the bunker and Cas held him the whole way in.

"Maybe. At least I know I'll end like one." He must have noticed the look of worry that passed over Dean's face, because he added, "Of course, that will likely be many decades from now. I believe you might see me with grey hair."

"Really?"

"Really." Cas smiled at him as he said it, and the edges of his eyes crinkled up a little in that way that Dean loved.

It took a few days before some of the worry left Dean. There seemed to be this need to cling to Cas, to make sure that he was there, always. His hand never strayed far from Cas' back or arm. When they slept, and Cas actually slept, Dean would pull him into his space, cocoon him in limbs until he was certain he would not be able to escape. Their time was not finite as it had been before, but Dean thought that one could never be too certain, so he operated as if it was all still possibly temporary.

Everyone was jovial. They ate and drank and found odd little games that would engage them come evening. He and Cas often left the revelries early for the comforts of Dean's room. They were together each night and sometimes during the day when they could sneak away from the others. They still seemed to rush and cling and move as if each moment would be the last. Dean wanted to slow things down, and at the same time, he wanted to have everything that had been missing all at once.

On the seventh day of their new life, Dean woke up early. He looked over at Cas on his side of the bed, lips parted, little puffs of air passing in a sleepy kind of kiss. His hair was mussed from Dean's efforts. A little grin quirked up at the corner of Dean's mouth as he remembered how he had carded his fingers through that hair, and Cas had stared at him so intently as their sweat slick bodies rocked together. Dean was a happy man.

He slipped out of the bed and found some pants on the floor of the dark room. He got dressed and moved out into the hall as quietly as possible. Everyone was likely still asleep. This group though was crazy, so it wasn't unlikely that someone would be up. Dean often found that at any hour someone would be awake, doing something that required cognitive thought. He made his way to the kitchen where the coffee was already brewing. Alex with her great love of coffee had decided that they should just set the timer on it, because waiting in the morning was torture. He couldn't disagree and also decided then and there that this was yet another reason to love that she would be marrying Claire.

He found a coffee mug in the cupboard and got the first cup of coffee. He held it to his lips and breathed in the rich, earthy aroma, then headed out to the main room and up the stairs. He wandered out to the field that they had been in before. The sky was still just a little dark and Denab was there. He settled in on one of the concrete cylinders and drank his coffee. He looked up at the stars and smiled. "I don't know if you take prayers now. Don't even know if you can hear me." Denab seemed brighter somehow. It shouldn't have been. The sun was just beginning to rise, and the edges of the sky were glowing with the pink light of dawn. The stars were still there though, just like always, a gentle reminder of what he had and what he always would have.

He took another sip of the coffee and felt a little breeze wash over him. Cas was in the bunker, likely still sleeping. Cas was in there, and Cas was his. Claire and Alex were in there, a whole world of happy possibilities lay in their futures. And then there was Sam. He was happy when he thought of how things had turned out for him. It had always been a goal for him to have something good come up for Sam, but he never thought that happiness for him could ever be possible. Sam could be free of the life now without the looming need to fix the mistakes of the past. Those were fixed, and they could have some measure of peace now. Dean had been operating under the assumption that Sam had kept on working in the hunter field because he had felt somehow responsible for the way that the world had been. He thought that maybe Sam felt like there was unfinished business.

Dean took another sip of the coffee. He closed his eyes for a moment and breathed in the crisp morning air. "I just wanted to say, thank you. Thank you for giving him back to us, to me." He looked down at his hands hugging the mug, hands that had done much in this world. "You said you hoped that I'd forgive you. You said that you wanted me to look up to the stars and not hate you so much." He lifted the mug to his lips again and drank. "I don't hate you. And though I don't see how it matters much what one guy here thinks, I forgive you too. Hope that helps." He laughed a little. "Hope you're happy now, ya got me out here at the butt crack of dawn talking to the fuckin' sky."

He didn't hear Claire until she was nearly at his side, laughing at him. "Morning." She sat next to him on the concrete cylinder.

"Morning." She had her mug of coffee settled on her knee. "You're up early."

"Could say the same thing about you." She leaned into his side and rested her head on his shoulder. "Is this what it feels like to be happy?"

"I think so." Dean wrapped an arm around her and drank down the last swig of his coffee.

"Shouldn't you be curled up in bed right now with a certain someone?"

"Shouldn't you?" Dean countered immediately.

"Yeah, I guess I just needed to see that the world outside was still here, that it wasn't all some sort of odd dream. I'm just, a little surprised each day when I wake up and the world is still set to rights."

Dean pressed a kiss to her head. "Same." He set his mug down on the space next to him. "First couple of nights I thought that I'd wake up and Cas wouldn't be there. I freaked out a little when he went off to another room, and I couldn't see him for a minute. I sort of follow him around a bit too much. This is the first time I've actually chosen to separate voluntarily."

"So what brought you out to the big wide world sans Cas?" Claire set her coffee mug on the space next to her and took Dean's hand in hers.

"I owed them a few words." He nodded up at the brightening sky. "Guess it just seemed like there were things that I needed to tell them. Hopefully, they know that I appreciate the end results of their sacrifices."

"I'm sure they know." She smiled up at him. The sky was bright now, and Denab had disappeared into the day. After some time had passed, Claire asked, "So, what're your plans now? You two gonna stay here or…" She waved a hand out at the world to signify all of the other options.

Dean smiled at the thought that all of the other options were now a golden possibility. "I haven't exactly spoken with Cas about this. I don't know what he'd like to do with the rest of his life."

"You could go back to your job. You were good at it. Made me forget how much I despise school."

"What would Cas do though?"

Claire laughed. "He could be your house husband."

"Pretty sure he would not be good at that."

Claire waggled her eyebrows at him. "I don't know Dean. You know the doors have little vents at the bottom in the bunker? We all know way too much about how good you think…"

Dean cut her off. "That has nothing to do with the future plans that we will be discussing." Dean looked off at the horizon and added, "Might need to make a conscious effort though to temper our enthusiasm." Claire just laughed. Eventually, they heard the crunching of gravel. They both turned to it at once and saw Cas wandering toward them, hair still a wild mess, shirt untucked, and sweatpants loose and baggy on him. Dean sucked in a breath of pure lustful joy. "Hot damn. How'd I get so lucky?"

"I hesitate to mention all that you both had to go through to get to this point." Claire got up and met Cas halfway. Dean watched as Claire wrapped her arms around him, pressing her cheek into his chest. Cas hugged her back and kissed past her hair. He looked like he had said something to her, but Dean couldn't hear what. Cas let her go and she wandered off back to the bunker.

"Hello, Dean," Cas said when he got to the space in front of him. There was a bit of timidity in him in just this moment that was rather endearing. He had been a force to be reckoned with the last several nights, commanding and also all consuming.

Dean smiled back and raised a hand up to him. Cas took it, and sat beside him. "Sleep well?"

"I'm still getting use to it. I'd rather not wake up alone." He looked at Dean and seemed to rethink his words. "I didn't mean that like it sounded."

"I'm sorry. I should have woken you up, but you looked peaceful and happy. Didn't want to disturb that."

Cas smiled at him. "I wouldn't have called that disturbing. I'd have called that something else entirely."

"Yeah, probably a prelude to more sex."

"That wouldn't be a bad thing."

Dean laughed now. "Not at all, but I needed to try out praying this morning. Had some things that I needed to say."

"I can't hear prayers anymore." There was a small measure of melancholy in Cas' tone.

"I'm sorry, Cas. You've given up too much."

Cas reached up and turned Dean's face to him. He stared at him with all of his old intensity. "I haven't felt like I've had to give up a thing." He kissed Dean then, light and gentle. Dean parted his lips a little, but Cas didn't deepen the kiss. He brushed his fingers over Dean's cheek and occasionally stopped kissing him to whisper some words of endearment. It was peaceful, and at the same time it was new. There was no rushing in this moment. Everything was quiet and still. A distant trill of an early morning bird's song ended the silence.

When Cas leaned back and stared up at the sky, Dean followed his gaze. "I told them thank you." Cas looked back at him when he spoke. He gave Dean that questioning look. Dean asked, "You think that they still hear prayers?"

"Did it feel like they did?"

Dean considered the question. Even with Cas he had often been unsure as to whether or not he had been heard. He did feel peace though as he prayed. "I don't know."

"I'd like to believe that they heard you, because that will mean that they'll hear me as well, when I'm ready to pray." Cas took his hand in his. "I have much to be grateful for as well." He gave Dean's hand a squeeze to punctuate the sentence.

They let the day warm them by slow degrees, content to just sit and breathe. The stretch of time made Dean wonder about their futures and how long they'd have together. He wondered about their goals and plans that were as yet nebulous. "Claire was wondering what we'd do next."

"Was she now?" Cas' tone was light and comfortable.

"Yeah, and it got me to wondering what you wanted to do with your life, and how long you'd get to live?"

Cas pulled Dean a little closer and wrapped his hand around his waist. "I don't know the number of my days, but I have many. I have a soul now, so we will grow old together. As per the other question, I have no plans as of yet that extend beyond our current activities." Dean felt the corners of his lips quirk up into a smirk. "I'm certain that you still have some skin that I have not yet thoroughly inspected."

"These are good plans." Dean felt the heat rushing to his face, and he wondered if there would ever be a time when Cas didn't affect him so easily. "What about the big things? Like, do you want to live here or elsewhere? Do you want to work or hunt? Do you want to have your own place while you get use to your human life?"

"That last question was just stupid, Dean."

"Yeah, it really was." He laughed and settled his head on Cas' shoulder. He put his arm on Cas' leg, wrapping his hand around Cas' knee. "But the other questions weren't."

"I go where you go. I think that was the deal." Cas kissed into his hair.

"I want to know what you want though too."

"You enjoyed teaching at the community college. I'd like to go home with you and see you do that. The world of academia is appealing." Dean liked the way that Cas looked so sincere, the way his lips pressed closed in a tight line of thoughtfulness.

"You think you might want to teach or something?" Dean tipped his head back and kissed up into Cas' neck. "I've got this office. It's small, cramped even, but I would like to get you in there."

Dean kept kissing Cas' neck. The low rumble of Cas' voice was triggering all the arousal that was already heating up in Dean. "Something tells me that you want to show me more than just your office." Cas pressed a languid kiss to Dean's neck, just behind his ear. "Do you have a desk?"

"I do." Dean laughed at the odd question.

"How large is it?"

Dean leaned back and looked at the concrete cylinder that they were sitting on, then turned his eyes back to Cas. "Bigger than this at least." Cas hummed. "Sturdy too." Dean got up and held out a hand to him. "Come back into the bunker with me."

"Why?"

"I want to check out the desk in my room, see if it's about the same size." Dean smirked and Cas got up and matched his look.

Halfway back and Cas asked, "Do you have a bookshelf in your office?"

"Yes, it's full of works on astronomy and philosophy. I stocked the philosophy books for Charlotte, for the days that she was around."

"If I taught there, I'd have to get an advanced degree. It could be years." They went inside and snaked their way back to the bedroom.

"Nah, we'll just get Sam to make you some fake papers. Not like you have a paper trail anyway. Besides, you'll need some IDs and such if we want the world to view you as a real dude and all."

"That might prove useful." Cas pushed the bedroom door closed and pulled off his clothes. Dean sat on the bed and toed off his shoes.

"Necessary, actually," Dean said.

Cas tipped his head to the side. "Necessary?"

"Yeah, 'cause I'm gonna marry you, and you need to exist on paper for me to do that." Dean just grinned at Cas' shocked expression.

"You could just have Sam make up those papers too."

"No, I don't want those papers to be fake. I know a preacher too, that said he'd help us out, I mean, if you happen to be interested." Dean was smiling at him, knowing full well that Cas was fine with this plan.

"Clearly, Dean, spending the rest of my life with you in any capacity, is all that I want." He paused a beat and added, "I will marry you. It is redundant as your soul and mine are entwined, but I like that we keep finding new and varied ways to connect." His eyes dropped to Dean's lap. He fell to his knees between Dean's legs and pressed his palms to Dean's thighs. He pulled off Dean's pants, and Dean stifled a laugh.

"You've certainly adjusted to certain aspects of humanity with ease."

"I've spent an inordinate amount of time contemplating sex with you. It is nice to finally give actions to my prior thoughts."

Cas pressed his index fingers past the waistband of Dean's boxer briefs and pulled them down in a single fluid motion. Dean just had to push himself up a little to make the action go smoothly. "So, an inordinate amount of time, huh?"

"It was a maddening and confusing existence." He looked up at Dean past lashes that fluttered a little. Cas looked down at Dean's lap then back up again with a smirk. "It may have been worth it."

"May have?" Dean laughed. He brought his hands to Cas' face. He wanted to linger in this moment, just look at him. For Cas' part he didn't move, seeming to sense Dean's need. Cas pushed himself up a little and Dean leaned down. They kissed in the space between them. When they parted a moment later, Dean said, "Go slow."

Cas nodded. He leaned toward Dean's chest and kissed him over his breastbone. He nuzzled in closer and Dean spread his legs to draw him in. Cas ran his hands around Dean's back, resting them just close enough to Dean's butt. He kissed a trail down Dean's chest to his sides, seemingly intending to feel the skin over each rib under his lips.

Dean let his fingers slowly brush over the hair at the base of Cas' neck. The hair there tickled his fingertips. Dean liked the languid feel of the moment, the way that they seemed less desperate now than they had befor. No one was leaving. No one would be dragged away. They had a lifetime ahead of them both to learn each other beyond what they already knew. "I love you," Dean whispered.

Cas sucked a kiss into the space between Dean's leg and hip. "I find you tolerable." Cas rested his head on Dean's thigh and rolled it back a little to look up at Dean, wanting to see the effect of his joke. The breath from his slightly parted lips ghosted over Dean's lap. Dean regretted his request for slowness just a little. Cas did not move. Dean said, "Just tolerable, huh?"

"Just tolerable." Cas smirked. He went back to kissing Dean. He grazed over his thigh, letting the back of his head brush over Dean's arousal. Dean carded his hands through Cas' hair and gave him a gentle pull. "Not yet." Cas took both of Dean's hands in his and set them on the bed at his sides. "Keep those there." He looked up at Dean in a way that seemed rather commanding, and though Dean would not disobey, Cas added, "If you move them, I'll stop, and you'll learn just how slow I can make this."

"Exactly how slow are we talking?" Not that Dean wanted to go any slower.

"I can go for days," Cas growled out. "I'm much more patient than you."

Dean decided that there was a challenge in that that he'd like to revisit at a later date. He wondered if he could make Cas beg for something. He wondered if he could deny Cas in an effort at prolonging pleasure. He thought that maybe Cas was right. He wasn't so sure he'd have the stamina for that much patience. He was certainly willing to try though. Focus. Cas was kissing the inside of his knee now, and it was glorious. He hadn't realized how sensitive he was there. Cas' hand squeezed the back of his other thigh. Dean fell back onto the bed, careful to keep his hands exactly where Cas had placed them.

There was a certain luxury to what they were experiencing. They were moving like they had all the time in the world. It was something almost novel to them both. Dean remembered what it was to feel like he had too much time, like life had gone on for too long. Now all he could think was that life like this could never be long enough. Time stretched out for them as Cas blanketed his body in kisses and the gentlest of touches. He breathed love into Dean's skin. Dean wanted to do the same for him too, and he would when the time was right. For now he could let Cas do this.

Cas licked a stripe up the underside of his thigh, moving slowly up, up, up. And Dean thought, finally as Cas centered himself, tongue still leading the way. Cas didn't linger though. He let his tongue slip over Dean in a gentle glide brushing over the tip and onward and away. "Cas," Dean said in a low tone of desperation. His fingers clutched at the bedding at his sides as Cas inched up the bed, tongue now gliding up Dean's stomach, to his chest, to each of Dean's nipples for a quick detour. Cas' legs were framing him now. His arms were bracing him up, muscles taut and close to Dean's head. Cas' tongue slipped over Dean's throat and up to his lips where it stopped it's journey.

Dean was done with this game. Yet Cas was not done, not yet. He kissed Dean, slow and sweet. Dean opened his mouth and sucked in Cas' bottom lip. He was rewarded with a low hum of pleasure from Cas and the feel of his body settling down on Dean's own. Their hips rocked together for a moment, and Dean thought that this could be more than enough. "You may move your hands." Cas leaned away and looked at him. Dean reached up to him and cupped his face in his hands. "I will never understand why more angels do not choose to fall." Cas brushed back Dean's hair slowly, leaving his hand entangled in the short strands.

"Perhaps they just haven't been presented with the full benefits package." Dean ran his hands down Cas' body to settle at his lower back. Dean rocked his hips up into Cas, watching as Cas closed his eyes a moment before he sucked in a long breath past clenched teeth.

"That must be it." Cas reached over to the nightstand for lube and once again Dean was surprised by the fact that Cas handled sex with an ease that usually only came from experience, experience that Cas did not have. He must have seen a lot in his time as an angel, and now Dean thought, I am reaping the benefits. Cas readied Dean slowly. His hands on Dean were gentle and moved with absolute purpose. Dean felt his eyes rolling back into his head as the fresh static pulse of pleasure ran through his body. Cas knew him, knew every atom of his being, and used all of that knowledge with purpose.

Dean still had his hands on Cas' back. Dean's body was ready, but Cas kept up his efforts. Dean was done waiting. He moved his legs in, wrapping them around Cas as he rolled them both over. Cas was startled by the change, and looked up at him, back pressed firmly to the bed. "Thought we'd change things up a little." Dean positioned himself over Cas and waited for some sign that he was following along with the new plan. "You good?"

Cas laughed at him, a rich melodious sound of pure joy. "Yes, Dean. I'm good." And he was. And so was Dean. They moved together, Dean looking down at him through most of it. His eyes fell closed occasionally with the bliss of it all. And when they reached the end, Dean swore that he saw stars, huge bursts of them brighter than any he had seen in any night sky. They breathed in each other and lay in each other's arms, knowing that the world was theirs now. They had each other, and time, and all the things that Dean had fervently wished for under the canopy of the star-marked heavens. And it was good.

AN: This has been a real labor of love here. It's finally over though. I do plan to pen an epilogue that I'll post after this chapter. I'm not sure when it will be finished as I have to work on some other stuff first, but it is happening. For now, thanks for reading this, giving it a fav, a follow, and/or a review. All are appreciated.