A/N: Takes place at the beginning of season nine. After the angels fall and Cas loses his grace, Dean finds the ex-angel and they hide in plain sight to wait out the storm. Based around the song I Will Follow You into the Dark by Death Cab for Cutie. Oneshot.
Into the Dark
Sitting on a beach chair, looking out at as the sun sets low over the Gulf of Mexico and stains the sky pink and orange, Dean can't think of any place he'd rather be, of anything he'd rather be doing, or of anyone he'd rather be doing it with. So when Cas looks sideways at him from under a floppy straw hat, all Dean can do is smile.
"How's this for vacation?" he asks. Even though they're really just hiding out (in plain sight, 'cus Dean's heard that hiding something in plain sight makes it harder to find) because of all the fallen, blood-thirsty angels, it feels like a vacation.
Cas nods, contemplating the sinking sun. "It's good. Very good. Even if it's not really vacation, if my understanding of the word is correct."
"Thanks, killjoy."
"You can't kill joy," Cas points out. "Joy isn't alive."
"You take everything so literally, don't you?"
Cas frowns at the sunset. "Your human languages confuse me at times, Dean. It seems as if everything has a double meaning."
"A lot of things do, yeah. Want another beer?"
Cas takes the beer but looks at it suspiciously for a second before meeting Dean's eyes. The hunter just winks and takes a swing of his own beer.
"Dean," the ex-angel says, "Did that have a double meaning too?"
He laughs. "Of course it did, angel – just get drunk already, okay?"
And they both do.
Later that night and a couple more beers in, they're still out on the beach, even though the sun set hours ago. The night is deep and a cool breeze plays over the hunter and the ex-angel. Back pressed against the cool sand, Dean stares up at the stars, watching as they whirl overhead like brushstrokes in a Van Gogh painting. Or maybe he's just drunk. Either way, it's gorgeous. He turns to look over at Cas; the ex-angel watches the stars intently, eyes wide open against the dark.
"Hey, Cas," he says.
"Yes, Dean?"
"I got a question for you."
The ex-angel looks at him and shrugs in the sand. "Go ahead."
"So… what happens when we die? To you and me, anyway." Dean pauses for a moment to laugh – it's weird, him asking what happens when he dies, 'cus after all, Dean's died a few times himself. "I mean, I've been to Heaven and Hell and Purgatory already. I don't think any of those places are going to take me back; I'm too much trouble. They see me coming and they light up the "no" on their vacancy signs."
Cas chews his lip, his forehead wrinkled.
"So what else is there?" Dean sighs, playing with a handful of sand. The grains fall through his fingers, loose and fine. "Nirvana? Or just the dark? You gotta know, Cas."
"I don't know."
Dean laughs again; he sees Cas smiling and shakes his head, but the ex-angel says nothing. They lay there on the sand just watching the stars, listening to the waves crash on the shoreline, and Dean almost falls asleep.
Cas sighs. "Dean, someday you will die."
"Way to be frank about it, Cas."
"And when you die, I'll be close behind."
They are both silent for a moment.
"The truth of the matter is, Dean, I don't know where we'll go when we die anymore. Purgatory is for monsters, Hell can't hold you or me, and they won't take us, and Heaven won't let us in either."
"So you have no idea where we're going." It wasn't a question, merely a statement, and Dean looked back up at the stars, searching the sky as if it hid an afterlife behind its inky whirling blackness.
Cas sighs. "Whatever happens, though…"
Dean looks back at him.
"Dean, I will follow you into the dark."