It all feels like a game, like something a child may fantasise about while still blessed with the ignorant innocence of youth. All gravity and austerity vanishes, overcome by joys and humours too pure to be subdued, the jovial and gay feelings bubbling inside them like warming alcohol, sober but dazed in a happy bliss best known by the young boys and girls who run freely in the yard, brandishing sticks to fight imaginary dragons and calling for muddy princes to come to their rescue.
Castiel holds Dean in his arms, laughing as the prince tightly grips his shoulders, arms wrapped around, reverting to an overgrown child. As an angel, Castiel never felt like this, felt the juvenile splendour humans were blessed with. He always had a job, always needed to be solemn and vigilant, always to be the perfect soldier. Never to laugh, never to smile, and most importantly, never to feel.
But he’s feeling now. Feeling a lot as Dean’s laughter rings in his ears, a sound so sweet and sublime he can’t recall a time Heaven’s Choir ever uttered a sound nearly as wonderful. He always felt the love of God, His warmth and His light always there for His children; but this is entirely different, entirely human. To feel the warmth of another, for their soul to be the light, for them to love to be exclusive is something unmatchable, unimaginable. And with the warmth of Dean’s breath brushing against his cheek, his olive eyes light as the sun itself, and his love so thick and strong it mixes with the very air Castiel inhales, well, the angel can’t help but smile.
“You’re my knight in shining armour,” Dean says, the phrase so childish and simple but the meaning so sophisticated and complex. He presses his lips to his noble knight’s cheek, tickled by the soft, lightly prickling stubble, smirking against Castiel’s skin. It’s just like the stories, the fairytales Mary often told, taking a page from an ancient book of myth and penning them down in reality. It’s a glorious feeling, a wonderful feeling, a beautiful, heavenly feeling.
“And I,” Castiel breathes, voice so dreamy, so smooth, a few of the airiest chuckles slipping out in between as he lets Dean kiss his cheek again and again, “I will always come to your rescue.”






