pantheonofdiscord:

For @convallariini, who bribed me with emoji coffee from halfway around the world.

The war room is quiet. Sam’s turned in for the night, but
Dean and Cas are still awake, sharing the silence over a few beers.

Well, Dean’s doing the drinking. Cas is just sitting, his
hands folded in his lap, but he seems content.

“What was it like?”

Cas looks over, brow furrowed in question. “What?”

Dean inclines his head, and Cas follows his gaze up to the
clock high on the wall. It’s just turned past midnight. “I mean, we’re going on
nine years now, and you’ve never talked about it. So, getting me out – what was
it like?”

Cas looks at him a moment before shrugging. “It was a
mission.”

“Yeah,” Dean says. “And?”

“It was extremely violent.”

“Go figure.”

Cas throws him a look. “We fought. Demons mostly, but other
things too. I don’t know for how long; time in Hell is more… abstract than
it is here.”

“Yeah, I remember,” Dean says. They lapse back into silence,
Cas’ face now turned thoughtful. Eventually, Dean speaks up again. “Why you?”

“My garrison was the best equipped. We had the requisite
military experience.”

“No, not your garrison.” Dean shakes his head. “Why you?”

Cas shrugs again. “I got there first.”

Dean huffs a disbelieving laugh. “What, just random chance?
That’s it?”

“That’s not enough?”

That pulls Dean up short for a moment. “I don’t know, I
guess just… after everything, everything that’s happened since, I figured
there would’ve been more to it. Some cosmic plan or something.”

Cas tilts up the corner of his mouth. “When have we ever been ones for cosmic plans?”

“Alright, good point.” Dean chuckles slightly. “Just with
you and me… it’s hard to chalk us
up to random chance.”

Cas turns to look at him fully, his chair squeaking loudly in
the quiet room. “I don’t. I think of it as free will.”

Dean nods, a slow smile inching across his face. “Free will.
Yeah, alright, I can get behind that.”

Cas smiles back, his eyes soft. Dean holds his gaze a long
moment, then he stands and moves over, his knees bumping into Cas’ chair. Then he
leans down and kisses him gently. Cas smiles into the kiss, then reaches up to trace
his fingers along Dean’s jaw.

Dean pulls away. “Thanks for saving me, Cas.”

“Yeah,” Cas says, locking their eyes. “You too.”