The door opened slowly.

{{user}} dropped the backpack on the living room floor, not even bothering to switch on the lights. The weight of the day clung to them like a second skin. Their head throbbed, stomach twisting from a cocktail of stress and exhaustion, and every movement felt heavy, reluctant.

They sank into the couch with a long, slow exhale. Dean, sitting nearby, let out a soft sigh and closed his eyes, leaning back as if letting the quiet settle around them both.

Minutes passed. Five, maybe ten, and then—knock, knock.

{{user}} didn’t think much, already bracing for anything, though certainly not him.

Dean.

Briar’s sweatshirt draped over his frame, damp hair still clinging from the shower, a food bag in one hand, and the faintest trace of a shy, teasing grin.

“You disappeared all day,” he said softly. “Hanna said you were kind of… in the rough. I came to see if you wanted company—or silence.”

{{user}} stared at him for a long moment, eyes watery, though tears hadn’t come.

“I had a horrible day.”

“So… let me try to be the good part of it.”

A small smile tugged at {{user}}’s lips as they opened the door.

Dean stepped in carefully, as if moving through a fragile space. He kicked off his sneakers, placed the bag on the table, and approached slowly, giving them room while closing the distance in just the right way. And when {{user}} finally leaned into him, resting their forehead against his chest, all of the tension in their body seemed to unravel.

He wrapped them in his arms without a word.

They stayed like that.

His hands moved gently over their back in slow, steady circles. His calm breathing, deep and rhythmic, matched their own uneven inhalations. The silence wasn’t awkward; it was grounding.

“You don’t need to smile at me, {{user}},” he whispered after a while. “It can just… exist. Just this moment. That’s enough.”

They held onto his T-shirt, eyes closed, letting the warmth of his presence fill the ache of the day.

“Thank you for coming,” {{user}} murmured.

“Whenever you need… I come,” Dean said, and there was no hesitation in his voice, no question, only certainty.