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Thinking about falling in love with Castiel after he loses his divinity. After he’s been kicked out of the bunker, he loses his best friends, his family, his home, and the man he loves, all in one fell swoop. He’s lost his power, his defense, and he’s lost in a world that wasn’t his home, and he has no one to rely on. Not only that, but he’s learning how to do things that he’s never needed to do before. Eating, drinking, sleeping, even holding a job, just as a means of survival. He’s learning what it’s like to actively live in a human body; to take care of it and survive in it, instead of just inhabiting a body like we would clothing or an apartment.
Falling in love with his quirks and social oddities. Getting to watch iconic movies with him, and enjoy his reactions as he sees them for the first time. Loving him as he struggles with this new, human identity and holding him through the times it all becomes too much. Getting to watch as his self-worth gradually begins to sprout, as he realizes he is priceless because of who he is, not because of what he can offer others. Listening to him talk about things that confuse or enamor him about being a human being. Listening to him talk about the things that make him feel, and getting to see his eyes shine as he takes on a task that he enjoys. Getting to be the person who loves him when he doesn’t feel like he deserves it, and loving him even when he struggles with loving himself. Becoming that comforting safety, that only someone you love can offer, for him.
Loving Cas as he navigates being human would have heartbreak and hardship, but sticking with him and loving him through it would offer loyalty and love that is hard to fathom. The heartbreak of hearing his story, and the way that he was treated by the people he loves would be one that haunts you, even when he has long since healed and moved forward from it. The sting of that heartbreak would be the very pain that pushes you into Dean’s path as he tries to reach out to Cas again, and it’s the same thing that makes you rail against each hurtful word and cutting expression that he throws Castiel’s way over the course of the years. That haunting pain that Cas bears in his heart is what makes you fight to stay by his side when he inevitably agrees to return to help the Winchesters, and it makes you protective of him, and his heart, angelic or otherwise.