Imagine Me This. Please?

The angel had saved you once before,and you prayed (literally) that he would again. The first time you saw him, it was like the heavens opened and your life changed. 

Previously, your entire life had been nothing but you and your brother. Your parents died when you were young, and you could barely remember them. Your brother, however, had memories that you wished you could share...

And some you were glad you didn't.

He had seen your parents murdered and it had left your brother scarred and broken. After he had grown up he took up certain... hobbies that you couldn't follow but you lived under his care. Your brother was a bit overbearing and protective. You had never lived life on your own. So when you decided to move out, it was a battle. After what had happened with your parents, he was reluctant to let you leave

Then you started hunting. He was beyond furious, but you knew it was the right thing to do. You began hunting after having a run in with some vampires your first week alone. Trouble always found the Wayne family it seemed. 

A clumsy and aloof angel stumbled into the vampire situation and saved you. You thought you were a goner, but he burst through the door with rays of light in his wake. He was my savior. He destroyed the nest and healed me. He stayed with me until the nightmares had stopped. 

His smile, while small, struck you as beautiful and sincere. You had been tagging along with him ever since.

A few months after he had saved you, you began to feel something different for Castiel. The way he'd try and stand between you and whatever you were hunting, even though he knew you didn't like him putting himself in danger for you. The way his eyes would light up after you would appear back at the motel after a hunt. The way he cared for you in a way that no one else ever had.

But unfortunately you couldn't be with him all the time. You had been caught. You had been captured by a low level demon. You normally would have been able to take the son of a bitch out on your own but he caught you completely off guard.

You knew Castiel would be coming for you, but you never knew how long it would take so you always looked for a way out before he got there. You were slowly shuffling your chair towards the exit when---

BOOM

“[Y/N]!!” 

Two loud voices chimed in at the same time. One was Castiel. The other had come from a dark figure with a billowing cape behind him. Your head lowered with a sigh. You knew this day would come.

“Who are you?” Castiel asked with his gravelly voice sounding a bit more gruff than usual. His eyebrows furrowed as he looked the masked man up and down.

“I could say the same thing” an equally gruff voice chimed back. “What are you doing with my sister?”

“Bruce, leave him alone. He's my significant other and if you lay a hand on him, so help me God, Gotham will never see their caped crusader again.” 

Castiel glanced back at you in complete confusion.

“Is this some sort of human tradition I'm unaware of?” He looked at your brother's frowning face and down to the emblem on his chest. “What is this strange crest?”

“Out of all the TV Dean and Sam had you watching, you never saw a Batman movie?” you asked, shocked. 

“Bat... Man...? Does he truly take the form of a bat?” Castiel reached for your brother's cape and but his hand was slapped away. Your brother leaped back and gathered himself into a fighting stance. You sighed again and coughed to gather both men’s attention again..

“You do realize there is still a demon around here, I'm chained up, bruised, and could really use a hug--” You groaned as Bruce moved towards you. “Not from you, Bruce.”

Cas snapped and your chains were gone. He knelt down in front of you, taking your hands in his. His hands gently passed over your wounds, healing them instantly. He brushed the hair away from your eyes and rested his forehead on yours.

“I am so sorry it took so long.” he whispered and planted a gentle kiss on your cheek. You smiled. He was never this affectionate before, but you could see humanity rubbing off on him more frequently in the past few months. 

“It's okay,” you said with a smile. “You came. Thank you.”

You leaned in to connect your lips onto your angel's but was interrupted by a loud cough. You turned to your brother who was shuffling awkwardly, attempting to maintain his stoic expression. 

“And thank you to you too, Bruce.” You wrapped your brother, or at least as much as his outfit would allow. “I told you that I was alright. I have a guardian angel.”

Bruce groaned.

“That's a bad line, even for me, [Y/N].”, he complained. He turned to Castiel and held out his hand. Castiel reluctantly took it. “You came to rescue my sister and healed her. For that, I am grateful.” he grunted and turned away with a flourish of his cape. He stopped at the door and glanced over his shoulder to Castiel. 

“But if you do anything to harm my sister, I will hunt you down. I don’t need super powers to--”

“GOODBYE BRUCE.”, you shouted and turned Castiel away. “Let's go find that demon.” 

---

“Batman's REAL!?” Dean squealed in a way that would have put a fan-girl to shame. You covered your ears. “And your his SISTER?!”

“Dean, we do have an entire book series about us,” Sam said. “It's not completely unbelievable... Just mostly.”

“This is why I didn’t say anything,” you said with your head in your hands.

“I do believe that [Y/N] needs her rest. You can bombard her with your inquiries later, if you please.” Castiel took your hand and guided you out of the room. You could hear Dean's excited whispers from behind you.

Ever since you and Dean decided to team up, things began falling into place. Both of you kept religious journals of any time a flash of what you began to think was another reality would appear. You wrote it down in a leather-bound journal he had given you. At the end of the week you would both compare and try to find the correlations.

Sometimes they’d match up, sometimes they wouldn’t. Everything around the barn and creatures matched up perfectly. You were both seeing the same things, just at different intervals. But anything about your skills, or what seemed like another lifestyle didn’t match at all.

Dean scratched his head and yawned.

“Go to bed. It’s almost 3AM. Don’t you have practice tomorrow?” you stretched backwards and looked over at the exhausted athlete. He sighed and raised his head towards you.

“I quit this morning,” he said, running a hand across his face.

“You what?” You asked, genuinely surprised. You knew he said sports weren’t really his thing, but you thought he’d stick with it for his parents.

“I’m not going back to school either,” his voice quieted. “I had another flash and it changed a lot of things.”

You looked down at his journal and your mind began racing. What could have made that big of a change?

Dean flipped open his journal and moved to a back page. He pointed at it forlornly. “I’ve been piecing together bits of my history and correlating it to the flashes I’ve had. The one that felt like a different life. The more I investigated and recorded, the more my life as the football star college athlete seemed to feel… wrong. Fake.”

Your mouth was open slightly, pondering on your own history. You had felt the same thing but nothing as specific as his.

“I called my mom the night I had the feeling… That the mom I know now isn’t my real mom. When she answered the phone, I knew right away. She wasn’t her. My mom died in an accident a long time ago.” His eyes were glossy and his voice low.

“Dean…” You put your hand on his shoulder. “I’m so sorry.”

He looked over at your hand and smiled.

“You don’t think I’m crazy?”

“I’m not saying that,” you grinned. “But I have the same feeling. This life… It doesn’t belong to me.”

He nodded and looked down at your journal. You had a thought nagging at the back of your head, but you were unsure if you really wanted to open that door.

“[Y/N]…” Dean sighed. “Do you—Do you think we knew each other? In our real lives.”

Dean practically kicked down the door for you. You had a feeling you and Dean had never met previously. Maybe in the same profession, but you had never met. Something about this made you sad.

“I don’t think so,” you said dejectedly.

“I was afraid you’d say that.” He lowered his head. “I thought the same thing but I just didn’t want to be the first to say it.”

“When you told me you were seeing the same things, I was so relieved. I finally felt… happy.” You opened up. Without realizing it, Dean had taken your hand. His head leaned down to rest against yours. You could feel the slight pull of your hair from his stubble. “I had spent what seemed like my whole life feeling abnormal. Like I was an outcast. But you—“

“—put it all into perspective.” He smiled, his grip tightening on your hand. You swiftly became hyper aware of his touch and your face heated up. Like the floodgates had opened and the feelings weren’t going to stop any time soon. Dean was all you had here and that made your heart clench with fear and perhaps a fair amount of affection. Dean’s eyes caught yours and something in his glance made you feel that maybe he felt the same way. The expression softened and he grinned.

 “If this weren’t about mythological creatures and some bat shit crazy vampire wannabes, that would have been a sweet pick up line.”

You smacked the back of his head jokingly and you both began laughing, breaking the tension. You attempted to shelve the feelings that had been realized, knowing that this dream could end. That Dean wouldn’t be there anymore. Did you even have anyone waiting for you? Something down deep gave you the answer.

No.

Dean’s voice brought you away from the disheartening thought.

“So we’ve established two things for certain. Neither of us are who we think we are.”

You let out a small spurt of laughter and nodded.

“Second, there is a Baku being held captive with us.”

“Right,” you nodded. “But we still aren’t any closer to figuring out what the sharp tooth bastards are. We’ve looked through every lore book 5 times for the past month and a half. Nothing.”

Suddenly, both you and Dean were hit with the same shocking pain to the sides of your heads, the room darkening instantly.

“You’re not going to find us in any “lore” book, honey.” A slithering voice called out. Both of your heads whipped around, searching the darkness for the source of the voice. It began laughing at your desperation. Dean’s hand clung to yours, his other grasping the gun. Your free hand grasped a strange shaped knife Dean had found in the same duffle bag.

“We’re something new,” another voice called out. “Found a way to get all the food we want.”

“Food?” You called out. “What food is that?”

“Ni~ightmares,” the first creature hummed cheerfully. “And you hunters have such delightful little dreams.”

Hunters.

Dean’s hand tightened and you could feel the muscles clench down his arm. Your body reacted to the word as well. That’s what you both were. It was just a word with little meaning or description as to what it actually was, but you knew. You were a hunter.

“Baku’s are such stupid creatures,” the second sang. “So easily tricked.”

“So easily beckoned.” The first added.

“Baku’s hear someone crying for a nightmare to go away and they’ll come running to help,” the second creature’s voice drew closer to your ear. “How foolish. Once he starts draining the bad, he can’t stop till the dream is over. So we just make sure to maintain a constant stream of terror and sleep so we can milk all he delicious fear for ourselves.”

“And what happens to the Baku?” You whispered, your anger growing.

“Oh, it’s killing him of course.” Both creatures began laughing wildly. “And you as well. No one can withstand such a heavy load of the frights, you know.”

Your stomach dropped. You were dying?

“So, the Baku sucks up the nightmares and you mooch off of the poor guy?” Dean yelled. “Taking innocent people hostage to be your fear factories?”

Both creatures snorted. You began to see the outlines of their figures in the dark.

“You both are hardly innocent.” One said with a chuckle. “Hunters rarely are.”

“Why tell us this?” You spat. “Why now?”

“We couldn’t get any more nightmares out of you two once you started snooping around.”

“We wanted to see how it turned out before we finally slit your throats.”

“I’d like to see you try,” Dean shouted, his body tensing completely beside you.

“Oh please, you really think you’re free to move about?” the first creature snorted.

Instantly, Dean’s hand disappeared from yours and you were flung against a wall. Dean’s shouts flew away from you and the sound disappeared. You cried out his name but here was no response. Your hands slid slowly up until they began to hang from chains hooked into a rusty hook on the wall. Your entire body became heavy and fatigue unlike you had ever experienced rushed over you in uncomfortable waves. Tears slipped from the corners of your eyes, leaving a streak down what you could now feel was a dirtied and bruised cheek.

“He’ll be dead in a few, sweetie. No need to cry now. It’s all going to be over soon.” The second voice cooed in your ear. You could see the being now. The fangs dripping slowly from its lips. It was mostly human, but its skin seemed to hang just a little too lose. Its eyes contained a faint glow, and a sea of dark memories. Your head lowered, close to accepting your fate. The image of Dean at the table researching hour after hour darted through your head. You two had worked too long and too hard for you to lose with the bow of a head. You mustered all your strength and began pulling at your chains.

“Oh come now, like that will make a diff—“ The creature began but was cut off by a piercing shriek, in what sounded like the other creature’s voice. It called out to its partner and turned around. You took the chance and raised your leg as high as you could and kicked the fanged beast over. It yelped and fell over onto the ground. It wasn’t a strong kick, but it was off guard and you took what advantage you could. It lifted itself off the ground, its dark eyes now filled with rage. Something had killed its partner.

“Sam! Get the other one!” Dean’s voice called out.

“Got it!” another human voice replied and the creature suddenly cried out in pain. The bit of a blade could be seen through its chest, but it was as if it came from another plane. Like the creature was in two places at once, and the other place was a lot more threatening than what he had faced with you. Your eyes widened at the crying creature at your feet. It died quickly and you felt the chains on the wall loosen to the point where you slipped your hands out from the restraints.

The room became lighter but still dark enough you had to squint to make details in the distance out. You fought the fatigue and scanned your surroundings. It was a barn similar to the one you always saw with Dean, but it wasn’t the same. Your eyes suddenly fell upon a barrel chested man huddled in the corner. His arms and legs were bound and a tube was protruding from his neck.

The Baku. Though he was in a human form, you could feel the otherworldly presence emanating from the broken body.

You ran towards his side and began struggling against the chains to release him. A low grumble came from his large chest.”

“’Tis alright, little one. We are found.” A melodic, deep voice sang out into darkness. “It is almost time now.”

Your eyes connected with his and you felt an overwhelming sense of peace sweep over your body. The kind eyes stared back at you, his mouth curling into a weak smile.

“You did well,” he whispered lightly. He spoke slowly, but clearly. “I put you two together so you could weaken those creatures enough that they could no longer be cloaked in the world of man.”

“You—put us together?” You whispered, taking the broken being’s hand in yours.

“All it took…” his breathing became labored. “Was a single good dream.”

Tears began falling down your cheeks against your will. The memories over the past months with Dean spun in your mind like a whirlwind and you could barely make sense of your thoughts anymore.

“Now… Let us both be free, shall we?” He smiled at you as his eyes gently closed. The instant his eyes closed your mind expanded and the memories of your life before the Baku came swimming back to you.

You were a hunter.

Your family was attacked by a vengeful spirit, taking several family members and leaving the remainder scarred. Several of you had taken up hunting, determined to help prevent the same thing from happening to others. Slowly, each was taken out, leaving you alone. You did the only thing you knew how in order to cope.

You hunted.

You had taken a case regarding several mysterious disappearances in the mid-west. Little did you know, the fanged creatures had been behind it and were stealing people for the Baku to drain. You had become ensnared in their trap. If it hadn’t been for the Baku manipulating the dreams as he was draining, you and Dean would never have found each other.  

You never would have connected.

You never would have had that one good dream.

The creatures couldn’t stomach a good dream, so once they had a taste of you and Dean’s, their power weakened enough for whatever spell that was cloaking their hiding spot to disappear.

Dean’s face became blurred in your memories, like a dream lost the day after it was had. You struggled to maintain the image, feeling comfort at the reminiscing you often did. It appeared as though your captors had created a space where they could access multiple people at different locations from the same central area, which would be why Dean disappeared as soon as they “woke you up”, so to speak. Each day the memory became fainter. Dean’s face no longer holding any distinct features but the smell of him remained. The feel of his hands was still there. Every now and then you would use a familiar lore book and be brought back to your late night studying sessions.

Every time a sad smile would spread across your face.

Several months passed and you found yourself driving down the freeway in Virginia, heading for a small diner where several people had reported seeing something that matched the description of a new werewolf. You were in the area and decided to take the case. You pulled into the parking lot of the secluded diner and made your way to the door.

Unexpectedly, the hair on the back of your neck stood up. The sound of footsteps approaching behind you sent your reflexes into overdrive. A hand grabbed your shoulder and you instantly snatched it up, pulling the full grown man’s arm behind his back. With the quick movement, the man’s smell swept into your senses quickly and it sent your mind into a frenzy. It was so familiar.

You stumbled backwards, releasing the man’s arm from your grasp. He stood up slowly and turned to face you. The man’s face was handsome but that wasn’t what was drawing you in. His green eyes searching in your face for the same thing you searched for in his. Memories. 

“It’s you, isn’t it?” Dean whispered, staring down into your eyes intently, still desperately trying to find the confirmation. “[Y/N].”

You didn’t say anything. You simply stared, putting together the pieces of remembrances in your mind. Dean’s face finally came into focus in your memories. The time you spent together felt real again.  

“I’ve looked everywhere for you.” His eyes welled up with tears. Your eyebrows scrunched up, confused as to whether to run away or fall into his arms. You second guessed the reality. You had been fooled before. As if to quell any doubt, Dean pulled you into his grasp and held on tightly. His heartbeat against your chest was an assurance that he was really there. This wasn’t a dream anymore. He pulled you out of his arms.

“You have no idea how long I’ve waited for this,” he looked down, his breath hesitating for a moment before dipping down to meet your lips to his. His hands gently placed around your waist, your hand moved to his cheek, feeling the scruff underneath your palm, reminding you this was real. The kiss was real. His grip tightened. He held on for dear life, fearing that if he let go you might slip away into a daydream and never come back.