Supernatural Oneshots

Hallelujah

A/N: I was going to put a video of me playing piano here but then I got into Pentatonix. I am BEGGING you, listen to this arrangement with headphones. This group redefines a cappella. 

Dean never sang or played guitar for anyone; not even Sam. Well, not that Sam remembers, anyway. He used to sing Sam to sleep when he was a little kid, and Dad was being belligerent. That was long ago, though. A different Dean. But there Dean sat, in the basement of the bunker, with his old guitar dusted off, singing to himself for the first time in years. He lightly strummed, letting the strings vibrate over his calloused fingers. It wasn't perfectly in tune, but the melody washed over Dean as relaxed his shoulders and let the tension wash away, for the first time since he could remember. At last, he began to sing, his baritone voice reverberating throughout the room.

Well I heard there was a secret chord, that David played and it pleased the Lord. But you don't really care for music, do ya?

Castiel didn't think anyone else was up this late at night, so he was certainly surprised when he hear music, of all things, emanating from the bunker's basement as he walked by one night. Music was Cas' favorite invention of mankind. It was so distinctly and beautifully human. As an angel, Cas always struggled with understanding human emotion, but through the melodies and harmonies, he could feel too. His curiosity now perked, Castiel quietly crept down the dark stairwell. About halfway down, a voice emerged from the strumming. Not just any voice; Dean's voice. Castiel stopped, unable to comprehend what he was hearing. Dean of all people, was singing. Cas had never heard anything as magnificent as what he was hearing. He could hear the years of pain, longing and anguish resounding in the deep melody. It was the song of a broken man; a beautiful man who had seen more than any man should have to see. Cas continued down the stairs, drawn to the man and his story. Cas had always been drawn to Dean but this was different; intimate almost. It reminded him of a prayer. This prayer wasn't to his father or anyone, though. This was Dean's open prayer to the world, and to himself. As he stepped off the last stair and onto the cement basement floor, the stair squeaked beneath Cas' foot. 

Dean froze, the tension coursing through his body once more. Someone had found him like this; vulnerable, weak, pained. He wasn't sure if he'd rather the unknown intruder be a friend or a foe. Slowly, he turned his head to face the man at the bottom of the stairs, and his heart dropped to his gut. There stood Cas, the last person Dean wanted to see. If it was Sam, maybe he could explain himself. How could he explain himself to Cas, though? Angels don't understand music, or the emotion it holds. They aren't equipped to process it. It's a human thing. Dean closed his eyes, fighting back tears, about to apologize when Cas spoke.

"Why did you stop?" 

"You weren't supposed to hear that, sorry" Dean mumbled. "Just forget you saw anything". He felt his face heating up, and knew his ears were turning red.

"I don't want to forget" Cas blurted. 

Dean gave him a quizzical look. 

"It was beautiful, Dean". Cas looked up at Dean with those big innocent eyes, full of love and admiration. 

"It was nothing close to 'beautiful', Cas" Dean scoffed. "Besides, how would you know? Isn't music a human thing? I didn't think angels could understand that stuff". Dean turned away from Cas. 

"It was beautiful to me Dean" Cas began. "I don't know if my brothers and sisters can feel it but I can. The movement of the song pleased me, but there was something else. I could feel, Dean".

Dean felt his heart skip at Cas' description of music. He had never met someone else who understood the underlying emotion of music, its intimacies and what it brought out in him. He certainly wasn't expecting it from an angel. But it was Cas' next statement that truly caught Dean off guard.