this   isn’t   about   them.   mary’s   arms   cross   and   her   fingers   curl   into   the   knit   of   her   sweater,   head   shaken.   she   worries   now   ⸻   wonders   if   it’s   worth   this   strife   and   that   look   in   his   eye.     “  it’s   not   about   changing   the   men   of   letters   but   hell,   if   there’s   a   shot   at   it   then   i’ll   take   that,   too,   but   what   they   do,   dean?   it   keeps   people   from   ending   up   like   you   and   like   sam   and   like   me.  ”     i   couldn’t   save   myself.     “  nobody   has   to   end   up   like   this.   nobody   else   needs   to.  ”

he disapproved of her using their lives as bad examples. surely, they weren't perfect, but in comparison to the men of letters, they were saints. " end up like what, exactly? " being loyal to one's own? " this job isn't meant to be for everyone. it's supposed to suck. "

“─maybe you don't think so, but there's possibilities,” Hayliel murmured softly to the seasoned hunter, “but that doesn't mean that I had to trick her.”

“─I had fallen ten years ago, you see. In my ten years on Earth, I had befriended a young girl, Emily Hart, the vessel I am inhabiting. I told her my story and she told me that meeting an angel must've been a sign from God and she invited me to take possession of her vessel. I didn't have to promise her anything, Dean Winchester.”

" oh, so you took advantage of a believer by spewing bullshit that you knew they were gonna buy instead. " he replied bluntly. " yeah, no, y'er right. that's a much better alternative. "

she silently let out a scoff. ' you wouldn't get it. ' how could he? he's one of the best hunters in the world, unlike her he's well respected. in hell and in heaven. ' centuries of being someone's second-in-command kinda gets to you after a while. '

" i mean, sure, you can plot y'er revenge an' kill him off — but claim the throne? " he scoffed. " y'er jus' treatin' yourself with more work. "

her heart feels like it has been carved out of her chest, stunting her breathing momentarily, slowing everything around them as a deafening ringing takes to her ears. everything that they have worked hard on, everything they have tried desperately to do in order to close the gates, now futile. "he was gonna die or did you just think he was going to?" she asks, and it sounds cruel from her, like poison on her lips, but she's blinded by grief. by anger. "you made a promise to me, dean."

emeralds blinked back at the question that hit like an offence. with his own defenses now up, dean could but only protect the one thing — the one person — he'd always fought for. " it's sam. " anyone who knew of dean would know that an answer like that sufficed ; not by any means satisfactory, but a quick one to explain.

  while she was making her 𝑢𝑠𝑢𝑎𝑙 rounds to check & see if things were okay, the vampire could only 𝑠𝑚𝑖𝑙𝑒 in surprise. it's not often that people were 𝑜𝑏𝑠𝑒𝑟𝑣𝑎𝑛𝑡, especially in a lively place like her club; most were caught up in the 𝑡ℎ𝑟𝑖𝑙𝑙 of it all, and the expensive drinks. " 𝒘𝒂𝒊𝒕 𝒓𝒆𝒂𝒍𝒍𝒚? 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒄𝒐𝒎𝒆 𝒕𝒐 𝒑𝒂𝒏𝒅𝒆𝒎𝒐𝒏𝒊𝒖𝒎 𝒐𝒇𝒕𝒆𝒏? " the vampire asks in surprise, as she could tell he was human. " 𝒏𝒐𝒕 𝒂 𝒍𝒐𝒕 𝒐𝒇 𝒑𝒆𝒐𝒑𝒍𝒆 𝒓𝒆𝒂𝒍𝒍𝒚 𝒏𝒐𝒕𝒊𝒄𝒆 𝒘𝒉𝒆𝒏 𝒊'𝒎 𝒉𝒆𝒓𝒆 𝒐𝒓 𝒏𝒐𝒕. 𝒃𝒖𝒕 𝒃𝒆𝒄𝒂𝒖𝒔𝒆 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒍𝒊𝒌𝒆 𝒎𝒚 𝒄𝒍𝒖𝒃 𝒔𝒐 𝒎𝒖𝒄𝒉, 𝒇𝒐𝒐𝒅 & 𝒅𝒓𝒊𝒏𝒌𝒔 𝒂𝒓𝒆 𝒐𝒏 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒉𝒐𝒖𝒔𝒆! "

" wait, what? " his glee obscured his weary features as he grinned like a child being offered a dessert as a treat for being a good boy and finishing eating his vegetables. he was taken aback by the unexpected offer, feeling almost obligated to protest, " y-you don't have to do that. i mean, i'm already well-fed by the entertainment of this place. " he grinned in utter delight. " but, hey— your call. " he raised his arms in seeming surrender, as he realized on second thought, he could use an extra meal given how low he'd been on cash lately.

there's something that flits over the winchester's features, there one second and gone the next. if jo hadn't spent her former life studying over each line of the eldest winchester, urged on by her foolish crush that she had on him forever ago, she would have missed it. though she can't seem to make out what it means. "no, dean, wait-" she starts, reaching out for him to tug him back to their conversation, if not mentally then at least physically. "what happened?"

he wanted to be careful about the way he had to word it. he knew he had no choice but to give her answer. despite her tug keeping him in place, his gaze remained to the ground, almost out of shame ... he realized what he was about to admit out loud ... " — i didn't let sam finish the trials. " he broke his promise. " he was gonna die, so i stopped him. " ... " i'm sorry. "

"so did it work?" jo moves to stand by where @tobeblamed is, excitement and adrenaline flooding her veins, as her eyes beam wide and expectantly. "did you close the gates of hell forever?" did we save my brother?

jo — he had forgotten about checking in with her ... he had a lot on his plate with sam's wellbeing dictating the entire course of his actions. " can we talk about this later? " he was in a rush to get back to the hospital. sam shouldn't be left alone.

She was raiding the nightstand when she heard his voice. Alex was still trying to find her footing, still learning to be more aware of her surroundings. "--No, this is .. my room. What are you even doing here? It's for the girls in this sorority only, you creeper!" Of course she was lying. He wasn't stupid.

" i was lookin' for my sister. " he lied effortlessly as he proceeded to point and accuse, " and you're not her roommate. " he only knew that because he had already talked to the real resident — who was mourning her roommate being found dead.

"You do know I'm years behind everyone in my school right?" Bloom snapped forcing the heat to die down a bit if only to prove that she did have discipline over her magic. "Everyone else grew up with this and has been doing it for years. I grew up on a magic-less planet, being able to work with no magic might be the only thing I have going for me." She couldn't afford to not brute force her way through things, it was the only thing keeping her from failing half of her classes. Why couldn't she had been stuck with Codatorta, he'd let her just hit some things until she wore herself out. "And all I do is save people I've never met, I've got humanity out the wazoo at this rate!"

" y'er talkin' too much. " he remarked, strongly implying to tone it down and have some more patience ... or better yet, have more trust in him and his methods. " tell me somethin', " after guiding her through the forest, he paused for a moment to walk back to her and pose an important question for her ponder on, " what do you expect to get out of this training? "