The Reason

'We have apple pie!'

"What the hell are you doing, Dean?!" Sam yelled as Dean jerked the steering wheel and parked the Impala outside a small diner.

"I was hungry." Dean shrugged. "And they have pie."

"You just ate an hour ago." Sam said, rolling his eyes.

"What? Can't a guy be hungry? You work up quite the appetite ganking demons."

Sam heaved a sigh and followed Dean into the diner. They seated themselves at a booth near the back of the room.

The waitress walked over, twirling her blonde hair her index finger. "Can I getcha anything, hon?" she asked Dean, batting her fake eyelashes.

Dean looked at Sam, grinning with 'that look' on his face.

"Just a bacon cheeseburger and a slice of apple pie." he said, smiling his charming smile at her.

"Anything else?" she asked. "Anything at all?" The double meaning behind her words was obvious.

Sam glared at Dean and kicked him under the table. "No, that'll be all." he said through gritted teeth.

"Alright." the waitress sighed. "Let me know if you think of anything else." she said, winking at Dean as she walked away.
Dean nodded at her then turned on Sam and glaring at him. "What the hell was that for!?" he demanded.

"We have work to do, Dean. This is serious." Sam reminded him sternly.
"Alright, what are we looking at?" Dean asked grudginly.
"Well there have been a few omens in..."

That's when Dean starting tuning him out. Omens, demons, blah blah blah, Always the same old stuff. It's the freaking apocalypse, he thought, shouldn't we be trying to stop it? True, they'd come up empty on everything so far, but ganking hoards of demons, while it was usually a good break from the boredom, wasn't going to slow it down. Sam broke the world and Dean was getting tired of trying to clean up the mess when he knew there was one way they could stop it for sure. He just had to say the word.

"Dean, are you even listening to me?" Sam asked, sounding annoyed.

"Yeah, yeah. Demons. Apolcalypse. Got it." Dean said, waving his hand to dismiss the conversation.

A sudden breeze and fluttering noise alerted Dean to the fact that he was now seated very close next to an unexpected guest.

"Jeez, Cas!" he exclaimed, jumping back in the booth. "Personal space." he reminded him.
"My apologies." Cas muttered, moving over a little.

Dean looked around and noticed that the handful of other people in the diner were staring at Castiel. They obviously hadn't missed his sudden appearance out of seemingly nowhere.
"Cas, you can't just pop up in the middle of a diner like that." Sam scolded him under his breath.

Cas took a deep breath and stood up, touching two fingers to the forehead of everyone in the diner, knocking them unconscious. "Satisfactory?" he asked Sam.

Sam looked around the diner, looking rather concerned, but nodded anyway. He didn't want to see what Castiel would do if he said it wasn't satisfactory.

"Cas, how did you find us? I thought we were off the angel radar." Dean asked, looking around as if Zachariah, Michael or Lucifer might be hiding around a corner.

"I followed you." Cas answered as if it were the most obvious answer in the world.

"Why?" Dean asked.

"I need to talk to you, Dean." he said. "Only you." he added, looking at Sam. "Sorry Sam."

Before Sam could react, Cas had knocked him unconscious as he had done to everyone else.

"Cas!" Dean exclaimed, looking pointedly at his now unconscious brother.

"What?" Cas asked, completely oblivious, as usual.

"You didn't have to knock him out! He could have just waited outside."

"I'm sorry, Dean. I couldn't take the chance." Cas said.

"It's just Sam, Cas. Anything you have to say to me, you can say to him too." Dean told him.

"No I can't. Not this." Cas said.

That's when Dean noticed that Castiel was blushing. Funny, he didn't know angels could do that. Maybe they just had no reason to. The vessels were capable, he supposed.

"Don't do it, Dean." Castiel pleaded, looking at Dean sadly.

"Can't do what?" Dean asked, playing dumb. Cas couldn't possibly know that he'd just been thinking of Michael and how easy saying yes would make everything.

"You can't say yes." he confirmed.

"And why the hell not?" Dean asked angrily. "I'm tired, Cas. I'm tired of trying to stop it, I'm tired of your quest to find God, I'm tired of trying to protect Sammy. Hunters, demons, angels. They're all after him, Cas. And everything in between. I say yes and it all goes away." Dean voiced exactly what had been circling his brain for days.
"Because we need you, Dean. I didn't turn my back on heaven, start killing my brothers, for you to give up. I did it all for you. I'm just asking you do this one thing for me."
"You have no way to stop the apocalypse, right? Well me neither. I'm more use to everyone as Michael's vessel. Give me one good reason I shouldn't call Michael down right now and end this." Dean demanded.

"Sam-"

"Nope. He got us in this damn mess. Not good enough."

"Bobby is-"

"Not going to be heartbroken. He'll have Sam and he'll get over it." Dean knew that was a lie but he said it anyway.

"I-I-"

"You what, Cas?" Dean asked.

"I'd... Miss you." Cas admitted.

"You'd miss me? You're willing to let the world be destroyed because you'd miss me? Isn't that a little selfish, Cas? Profound bond or not."

"I-It's more than a profound bond, Dean. It's very complex. I don't completely understand it but..." he trailed off, his face a bright red that Dean had never seen before.

"You're blushing, Cas" Dean said, raising his hand to touch the side of his face. "I didn't know angels could blush." he said quietly.

"They usually don't" Cas muttered uncomfortably, looking at the floor.

"So what's very complex?" Dean asked softly, his hand still resting on the side of Cas' face.

"E-emotions. One in particular." Cas answered shakily.

Dean smiled, moving closer. "Which one?" he asked.

Cas looked up from the floor, his blue eyes searching Dean's. He obviously found something there that convinced his to answer. "Love." he whispered.

Dean grinned in spite of himself. His other hand came up and he held Cas' face in his hands and slowly leaned it, their lips brushing together lightly. Cas wrapped his arms around Dean, pulling his closer as they kissed.

"Don't do it." Cas repeated quietly after they broke apart.

Dean held his gaze. "I won't." he said truthfully. He wouldn't. He couldn't. Ever.