Dean wakes up the morning of his 46th birthday and doesn't feel much different.
His left knee aches a little; but it's been doing that for years, ever since he twisted it weird going down the stairs, the years of abusing it finally catching up with him. His head hurts a little, since he's dehydrated from all the drinking he and Cas did last night. (Celebratory birthday whiskeys. Plural. He knows that he’s getting too old to do that at midnight.)
But other than that—he feels the same.
Rolling over onto his back, he stares up at the whirling ceiling fan.
Imagine where you want to be in twenty years was always the plucky, feel-good advice fed to him by older, well-meaning folks. When he was a kid, he had some pretty good guesses as to what that would be: in a grave. In a motel room with his brother and dad snoring next to him. On the road to a hunt that he’ll be smarting from for days after.
And all that happened at some point in his life, one way or another. But now--
He's not in a grave; he's alive. He's not in a motel; he's in his own bed, in his own house that he fixed up with his two hands. He's in bed with his husband, listening to his soft snoring just a few inches away.
No more hunts, except for the ones he helps other hunters with when they call. No more clear and present danger, except for going down the stairs the wrong way and tweaking his left knee.
The ceiling fan suddenly blurs. Dean scrubs the tears out of his eyes. He rolls over to tuck himself up against Cas's warm, naked back and buries his nose into his skin, breathing him in.
He smells like the detergent Dean carefully picked out a few months ago that’s good for Cas’s sensitive skin. He smells like shampoo from his shower last night.
Cas stirs. He grumbles and groans at the sun streaming in through the shades because, for all of his amazing, admirable qualities, being a pleasant morning person is not one of them.
"Mornin', sunshine," Dean whispers, nipping at his earlobe just to be a little shit. Cas mumbles something and bats him away. Dean huffs out a soft laugh and kisses his neck in an apology.
Cas snuggles closer into Dean (along with not being a morning person, he’s also a spider monkey that likes to cuddle; man holds multitudes). He turns his head enough to brush his lips against Dean's. "Happy Birthday, Dean,” he rasps.
Dean smiles. Really, honest-to-goodness smiles. Because this is exactly where he wants to be twenty years from now; for every birthday and all the rest of it.
"Yeah," he whispers, pressing his temple to Cas’s. "It is happy."