The briefing was simple: ‘Stand guard over the Michael Sword until the battle is ready to commence. Await further instructions.’

Castiel doesn’t mind working security duty; he was briefed shortly after the initial salvation of the Sword from the pit, and again before taking up his position. He knows what to do. However, it’s easy to forget that the green room isn’t real. Time moves differently there, the space ever-changing to make a prison of mountains, cathedrals, salt flats, orchards, and whatever Castiel was led to believe about Heaven’s greatest weapon—Dean Winchester is something entirely unexpected.

From the beginning, Dean and Cas continue to find their way together over and over.

Chuck keeps erasing it.

“I will do it then,” Castiel said with confidence that he did not truly possess. “I will pretend to be a hunter and gain the trust of Dean Winchester so that we may locate Michael’s grace and restore him. I might not be as familiar with humanity as Balthazar is, but I am still a master tactician. I am certain that deceiving a few humans will be well within my capabilities.”

As the humans would say, famous last words.

(Dean is the fallen archangel Michael. Castiel is sent on a mission to restore him to his angelic self. Things get complicated, however, when Castiel finds himself falling for Dean.)

Sam decides to reconnect with family for the first time in eleven years, and he’s shocked to find Dean is now married. But Dean’s out-of-character behavior and Cas’ evasive answers to simple questions soon lead Sam to believe there is something shady going on under their wholesome façade. Once proof falls into his hands, he knows he’s going to have to do something drastic if he wants to rescue his brother.

Sam is going to have to murder Dean’s husband.

“Thank you for stopping by, Dean,” Emmanuel says, holding out the jacket. “I hope to see you in church on Sunday.”

The tips of Dean’s fingers accidentally brush over the back of Emmanuel’s hand when he reaches for the jacket. “Probably not,” Dean laughs as he pulls Dad’s jacket around him. “Like I said before, I’m not exactly a believer. You?”

Emmanuel doesn’t answer immediately. Then, without really looking at Dean (more like looking through him,) he whispers, “I will be.”

Dean Winchester, war vet and functioning alcoholic with a life that’s going nowhere, takes a job at Baltimore Hospital for the Criminally Insane. Dean had never heard of Dr. Castiel Novak notorious serial killer and cannibal given he’d been dodging bullets and performing field triage during Novak’s sensational trial. Seasoned orderly Rufus lays out the rules: Do not touch the glass. Do not approach the glass. You pass him nothing but soft paper - no pencils, no pens. Use the sliding food carrier only, no exceptions. If he attempts to pass you anything, do not accept it. And most importantly: don't tell him anything personal.

But Dean was never much for following the rules and Castiel has a way of making Dean feel like he isn’t the grade-a loser his hot-shot FBI agent brother thinks he is. Then, a senator’s daughter goes missing, setting forth a chain of events that put Dean on a path that forces him to choose where his loyalties lie and just how far he’s willing to walk into the dark.

A lot can happen in twelve years. This is what Castiel discovers after unexpectedly running into Dean Winchester again — the high school love he never said goodbye to. While there are a lot of reasons for why that happened — some he’d rather not remember — one thing is certain:

He’ll never let go of him again.

Dean was intimately familiar with guilt. It came along with hunting, especially when it wasn't a clean cut monster kill and innocents got involved. But this guilt was unlike anything he'd ever dealt with before.

When Cas died in the Bunker's library, an angel blade in his chest and the Mark screaming in Dean's ears, the guilt drove him into hiding. He disappeared and isolated himself like an animal secluding itself for death.

He makes a prison of nature for himself in the woods and expects to never see another soul again.

But fate has other plans, plans that include Castiel.

Winchester takes a deep breath. "I'm your soulmate."

Castiel should be saying something reassuring, something to convince the psychopath in front of him that he can be molded and should be kept alive. He is a trained FBI agent that has been in the Behavioral Analysis Unit for nearly a year. He knows what to do when kidnapped. Instead, "What the fuck is wrong with you?" comes out.

(Supposed serial killer Dean Winchester kidnaps his soulmate, FBI Agent Castiel Novak. What ensues is a battle of wills – one determined to be loved, and one determined to be free.)

Emmanuel is rescued - and named - by Daphne Allen when she finds him wandering alone in the woods. Years later they share a comfortable existence, her leading a small revival and him in the center of it as a faith healer. He doesn’t know if he’s happy, but it’s all he has.

And then a stranger comes to town.

“Take me,” Dean says. He doesn’t have to think about it. “Take me as your vessel, Cas.”

or: Cas is cursed into an endless sleep. Dean offers himself up as his vessel while they try to break it.

Dean is the Prince of Hell, heir to Lucifer. When Abaddon attempts to kill Dean in an attempt for the throne, Dean escapes and nearly dies from his wounds.

Castiel is a newly appointed captain of his angelic garrison. When there is demonic activity on Earth, he joins a small group of soldiers to investigate. He finds Dean on the brink of death, and in spite of his own misgivings, feeds Dean his own blood in order to save him.

Both on the run from their own kind, they learn to get along, what it's like to be human, and to love.

Dean dies with the Mark of Cain on his arm, waking up with black eyes and hellfire licking at his heels.

Cas, sick on the stolen grace that's rotting inside him, gives chase.

As his pursuit and Dean's evasion ebbs and flows, they begin to figure out the difference between marks given and marks received, and what it means when one such mark is faded but not forgotten.

Dean buys Castiel as a slave and has a fun time viciously breaking him in. But what Dean doesn't know is that this is exactly what Castiel wants.

(Or, two sociopaths walk into a slave auction...)

When he wakes, he has no idea who he is. Not his name, what he looks like, or why he’s flat on his back, staring up at the stars littering the night sky.

The first thing he learns about himself is that he has shitty instincts, especially if his first one is to protect the blue-eyed man currently stabbing someone in the face.

Or, the story where two strangers can’t agree on much and know even less, but they’re both fairly certain that they’re in love.