Disclaimer: I don't own SPN.

Now we skip forward several years, to the middle of season 10 and the Mark of Cain which, for plot purposes, is my AU S10 and a little popular theory from before the season finale that I pinched.

Thanks to mollienaturerocks and noxsoulmate for your reviews :D

8. Sacrifice

"Dammit! You idiot, Cas!" Dean snapped. "Why the hell would you do that for me?"

His best friend – and, he wished, something more – glared at him icily. After having searched for a cure for the Mark of Cain for nearly a year, they had finally found one! And Cas had finally found his grace, after he and Sam had made Metatron human and threatened him into taking them to it. He'd tried to get away with the demon tablet after weakening Cas but Sam had been there to easily take him down while Cas got his grace back.

And then Cas had just gone and thrown it away again! He finally had his powers back and was back to being a high and mighty angel and then when the spell called for the grace of an angel in love with humanity, he'd just cut it out as easily and nonchalantly as cutting pie!

"Dean –" Cas tried to say. Dean cut him off.

"You finally got your mojo back! You could go back up to Heaven and be with your dickish family and go home! You just cut it out without a thought! What the hell, Cas?"

"Dean!" Cas snapped. "I am at home! I am with my family!"

Dean froze. He knew that Cas preferred them over the other angels – after all, who wouldn't? Sam might not be much but he was damn irresistible – but Cas had never explicitly said that this was his home! Had he?

"What?" was all Dean could (rather intelligently, he thought) say. Cas gave him an exasperated look.

"How many times have I said that I would rather be with you, Dean?" he said. "How many times during the civil war in Heaven did I tell you that I would rather be here than there? You're my family, Dean – you and Sam. This is my home. And if giving up my grace means that you no longer have to suffer with that accursed Mark then it was a sacrifice worth making!"

Dean was shell-shocked. He'd never known that Cas had felt this way! He'd known that Cas considered him and Sam family but he'd never dreamed that Cas would consider them closer family than the angels he'd been around for thousands of years!

"But why, Cas?" Dean said. "You rebelled against Heaven and fell for me! You didn't kill me when that bitch Naomi told you to! You gave up an entire frigging army for me and now you gave up your grace! Why the hell would you do all that, Cas?"

The ex-angel's next words shocked Dean to his core, as well as ignited a spark of hope.

"Because I love you! You are the most important person to me and I would do anything for you! Anything! This is not simply platonic brotherly love, Dean! I am in love with you and I have been for years!"

All Dean could do was stare.