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Dean ran his fingers through the hair, now silver, at Cas' temples. Cas smiled at him and the deep-set lines at his eyes made Dean smirk.

"What?" Cas asked, intrigued by Dean's expression.

"Nothin'," he said, running his fingers down Cas' cheek, "I'm just happy."

Cas cocked his head at Dean. "You're a very mysterious man, Dean Winchester."

"I know, it makes me damn sexy, don't you think?"

"That I do." Cas kissed his lips with the comfort of familiarity, slipping his tongue into Dean's mouth.

Dean smiled around Cas' lips. "Careful, hon," he teased, knowing Cas detested the term of endearment. He smiled at the sour look he got for it. "We got places to be."

Cas groaned, but took a step back. "You realize that this function requires a tie."

"Shut up," Dean playfully shoved Cas' shoulder.

"Your niece will appreciate it."

"You know, I've never actually been to a graduation. Missed Sam's. Clearly never made it to mine. So I guess that's something we have in common."

Cas nodded, "It will be interesting to take part in such a function."

"I don't know about interesting," Dean muttered to himself, fumbling with the tie.

"Nevertheless," Cas started, turning Dean around to face him and beginning to fix the tie Dean had all but knotted up. Dean could see that Cas half-suspected he'd messed it up on purpose so Cas would help. After all, years of dressing up like a federal agent should have prepared him adequately for the task. Cas focused on the tie as he spoke, "Sam will be expecting you on your best behavior for his daughter's ceremony."

"Why does everyone assume I'm the one who's gonna make a scene?" Dean pouted, thinking himself very socially acceptable indeed nowadays.

Castiel straightened Dean's tie, then tightened up his own. He examined Dean carefully, a smile on his lips. "There's still some Hunter in there. That's why."

"You bet your ass there is." Dean reached forward and loosened Cas' tie, then brought his hand to Cas' tidied hair and scruffed it up. "There's still some Angel in there."

Cas futilely combed his fingers through his hair, trying to flatten the dark mop, now generously peppered with gray.

The ceremony was what Dean had expected. Mostly boring. He'd barely survived the monotony of high school once, sitting through the graduation of a four hundred student class felt slow and tedious. But when Maria Winchester's name was called he and Sam got up and whooped like teenagers at a rock show - Sam's wife smiled at their antics, but pulled her husband down by the coattails. Passing by the Principal on the podium, newly graduated, Maria turned her shining brown eyes up to the stands and threw her Uncle Dean the devil horns, sticking out her tongue. Her mother shook her head, only pretending to be disapproving. Dean and Maria were strikingly similar, and Sam's wife was glad her brother in law was such a good role model in her daughter's life. He brought a necessary zest for life where Cas and Sam were mostly sensible, practical - Castiel bordering on blunt. Between the two of them, Maria had learned a lot about life from her uncles.

When Dean sat down he was practically glowing with pride. Dean noticed Cas couldn't help but smile quietly to himself.

Dean clapped a hand on his brother's back. The normalcy of the whole thing was blissful.

In the car on the way home, Dean was still smiling. Cas was driving, as he'd learned to almost two decades ago now, and he liked the feel of it. Dean knew Cas always liked displacing him and forcing him to ride shotgun. It was like a lifelong game of Tag between them. Fighting over who got to drive was a game that between Dean and Sam, Dean had always won. But Castiel truly enjoyed the challenge. It was a youthful, utterly unnecessary, and thus entirely human thing - two grown men racing to the car, smacking into the door at the same time, seeing who can get to the handle first.

Cas glanced over at Dean every so often. Dean was so content. "You're very happy."

"Yeah," Dean said nodding. "I was just thinking, it was all worth it, you know? All the crap we went through. It was all worth it. For now. 'Now' is awesome."

"I'm glad you feel that way."

"I'm glad you fondled me in the night without my knowledge twenty years ago," Dean teased, remembering that first morning he'd woken up naked next to Castiel, not entirely able to recall how he'd gotten there.

"As am I."

Dean remembered the warmth of Cas' body against his own that first time. He tried to remember how he got there... Usually he avoided tugging at that memory too hard, something cold and foreboding would stir in his stomach whenever he did and he'd tried to let go of his former perpetual expectation that the other shoe was bound to drop. He was a happy, simple guy now. And in the last twenty years, he'd grown comfortable, and he found himself less afraid to question. So he tried to remember... He'd been in the accident - the water, the crumbling building - and then...

Nothing. He remembered nothing. But not like he'd forgotten, more than that...it was like, something was blatantly omitted... He tried to work through it - he didn't remember seeing Cas that night, he didn't even remember getting home.

Just Cas the next morning. His brows furrowed as he struggled to remember.

Suddenly the car radio went fuzzy, nothing but very loud, unsettling static. He tapped it, but the static remained. Dean looked over at Cas, and saw that his posture was different, though familiar... he looked like the tense freshly-former angel of twenty years ago.

"Cas?" he asked quietly, feeling utterly confused.

"Let it go, Dean." Cas' voice was dark and deep. Impersonal and threatening, like it was once a long time ago.

Dean had just enough time to register the chill in his spine, when suddenly the radio snapped back on, stealing a breath right from his chest. He looked back at Cas once more, but he seemed relaxed and human again.

Cas glanced back at him, a gentle smile at first but then his brows furrowed as he examined Dean, squinting at him. "What's wrong?"

Dean couldn't answer. Something had just happened... right? Something weird.

"Dean?" Cas questioned, looking nervous, "are you alright? You look... afraid."

Dean wanted to tell him that something was wrong, that he felt... wrong... for a second there. But he couldn't put it into words, and he wanted to forget it.

"I'm fine Cas. It's fine."

Cas' eyes went back to the road but he took Dean's hand in his, and held it for a moment before bringing it up to his lips, running the alternating smooth and calloused skin against them. It was a habit he'd adopted years ago, the wonder of simple human sensation never really dulling for him.

Over the years it got to be like a nervous habit, brushing Dean's knuckles against his lips.

Dean took a deep breath as he gave in to the feeling. The foreboding and confusion receding until he'd all but forgotten it.