They could’ve been happy, in another life. No monsters, no flames framing Mary’s hair. She drops them off at school and John grins at how Dean scuffs his feet stubbornly. Sam storms out of the shower, age 13, brandishing a bottle and screaming at how Dean was a complete dick and had switched it, and Dean falls out of his chair laughing. High school, and Dean looks small in his oversized jacket until summer comes and John takes him for driving lessons and puberty hits him like a train.
Age 16, Dean likes long legs, full lips and short skirts. He gets them, too, in between classes and at the movies after school. Sam rolls his eyes and Andy tells him that he owes him five bucks. Then a new guy comes to school, and Dean trips the first time he sees him sitting in the cafeteria with his brothers and sisters. Cas is weird at first- screw that, he’s always weird- but there’s something about him that Dean can’t shake.
Dean kisses Cas for the first time after drama class, and Cas kisses back so hard that Dean has to put a hand on Cas’s back to steady himself. Everyone’s surprised (including Dean and Cas), but Sam wants Cas to teach him physics and John asks him about cars and Mary kisses Cas on the head and gives him an extra slice of pie.
College, and Dean moves out of Kansas with Cas. Their twenties are full of road trips with Jo and Sam. Sam graduates top of his class at Stanford, and Dean claps so hard his hands hurt. Thirties, Dean and Cas drive to New York to get married. Sam and Jess buy a house - literally white picket fence. Fourties, Dean and Cas play with their neice as she grabs at her dad’s long hair and Dean laughs and tells Sam to just get a haircut already.
Fifties, and Dean’s hair is starting to gray and he scowls when people mention it. Sixties, Dean, Sam, Cas and Jo wait by the door for Jo’s grandson to come home from his first date. Seventies, they start to collect photos. They take out polariods from when they were teenagers and Dean says that Sam’s hair still hasn’t goddamn changed.
Eighties, Dean and Cas sit with shaking hands. They meet everyone in heaven, and Mary’s pie is still as good as it always was. They could’ve had a good life, but instead they get thrown bottles and demon deals and it’s not falling more than it’s being ripped apart. Broken families and running away and too much blood in their mouths and things they should’ve said. Confessions into an empty trenchcoat. Shouting abuse at the sky. They save the world and it’s never enough. It’s never enough.
