Orison, 5k, T, Dean/Cas. 15.19 coda.
Dean’s imagined reunions with Cas.
Read on AO3.
The thing Dean tries to do is: listen.
Happiness isn’t in the having. It’s in just — being. It’s in just saying it, Cas tells him, and Dean’s whole heart is screaming, No, but he shuts his mouth. He listens. He listens like his life fucking depends on it, which it does, in more ways than one.
Everything you have ever done, Cas says, the good and the bad, you have done for love.
You changed me, Dean, Cas says.
Cas says, I love you.
And then he’s gone and Dean’s alone, gasping sobs of air on the dungeon floor, and wishing he hadn’t. Listened. Wishing he could take it all back. Wishing he could just refuse, just keep Cas, if only for another instant, if only for long enough to stop thinking, What do you mean — what do you mean, something you know you can’t have?