It was the first day, in a long time, that Dean felt relaxed.
He stared out the window of their new house. They had quit hunting years ago, after that it had mostly been mortal issues. Taxes, houses, some way of a steady income, weird things he thought he’d never be doing. Yet here he was.
“Dean?” Cas asked, poking his head into the room, “Everything okay?”
He smiled at his fiancée, “It’s something I never thought I would witness.”
Cas was confused and concerned. Years spent on earth and sarcasm never failed to stop him.
“It’s perfect,”
The former angel relaxed, then kissed Dean “Well I’m glad, this house was not an easy buy,”
“Couple of rounds of pool, one trip to vegas with my lucky charm,” he rustled Cas’s hair “And we are set for life,”
Castiel grinned, “Now help me unpack the office,”
‘The office’ was what they called hunters hq. Their plan was to become the bobby singer of this generation hunters. Now that they were officially in the “fucking arthritis” stage of their life, they figured they’d be more use helping younger fighters, like Krissy and Claire. It was their way of never letting go of the hunters.
Because you can’t let go of your whole life.
***
“You’ve got to be the oldest person there,”
“Well I’m 90% sure one of my professor’s is a corpse,” Sam says. He finally (20 years late) got a law school interview and today was his first day.
“Any cute babes?”
“Dean these people were babies the last time I was at college,”
“Same thing,”
Dean could hear Sam’s sighs from his end, “Gotta go, next class in 5,”
“Don’t get into trouble, drinking permitted on every day but…”
“Sunday and keep an ear out for cases, I know, bye Dean,”
“Bye Sammy?”
“How’s Sam doing?” Castiel asked, bringing in two cups of coffee.
Dean smiles, taking his favourite mug, the one with the impala on it (Cas bought it after the real car had been damaged beyond repair) “He’s fine, he’s great actually,”
“How late was he for the interview again?”
“Well… this one was on a monday,” They both laughed.
***
Dean still got nightmares.
They were a wide variety of things. Most of the time, they were about deaths or memories from old cases. In this particular one, he was a demon again. The dream ended with him killing Cas and Sam.
He woke up covered in sweat, and possibly a few tears. Once he calmed down and realized he wasn’t in a dream, he rolled over to face Cas.
But he wasn’t there.
Dean began to panic, worst case scenario after scenario going through his head. That’s when he remembered that Cas, like all humans, now had to pee. So he was probably just down the hall, or lost and in the kitchen or somewhere. Knowing this, he rolled onto his back and fell asleep.
That’s when something fell onto his forehead. A single drop. It was a warm thick liquid. The second it hit his head, he knew what it was. Dean sat straight up in bed, convinced he was dreaming. Then another drop hit him, mixing into his hair, he reached up and felt it. Blood.
I always called Cas the red angel. Why? Because all the other angels are blue. He was blue when I first met him, just like all his brothers and sisters. Following orders and beliefs from an invisible man, not mingling with the puny mortals we are. He fit in, he was a little soldier with wings. You could first see the red when he first pulled me out of hell. Just on the tips of his wings. At the time, I wouldn't have noticed it unless I was looking for it. Same with the barn. Although, it had probably began to turn more purple at this point.. For a long time, he was slowly fading in and out of blue. It ended up with him being purple. A mix of two sides, not sure where he truly belonged. He tore himself up, one side feuding with the other, then blending all together in a chaotic feud. It hurt him, and I could see that every time he said "I'm fine". When Cas fully rebelled against heaven, he became red. The last little drops of blue washed out and mixed with the spilt blood. It was as if the life came back inside him. The two sides no longer had a battleground inside him. He was his own person, his own strength, his own beliefs. He is the red angel, my red angel.