October 13th, 2005

Dean Winchester woke to darkness, with his head pounding and his eyesight blurry. Bit by bit, as his vision cleared, he could make out his surroundings: he was in a dark room – probably a basement or cellar due to the lack of windows and light – and the air was damp, smelling of rot. He couldn't see much else and made to move his hand to grab the flashlight he'd stashed in his jacket earlier, but he couldn't move. Looking down, he found himself bound to a chair.

"Sonavabitch," he muttered to no one in particular. He had no idea how he came to be tied up, only remembered the thing he was hunting – a ghoul this time – throwing him against a wall, but he knew he had to break free before the SOB came back. Dean struggled against his restraints, the rope rubbing painfully against his wrists. He looked around, his eyes slightly adjusted to the dark, only to find that he was alone. Where is she?

"It's not going to do you much good to struggle," said a soft voice from the corner, and Dean grinned to the darkness. Emma Sinclair came into view, an amused expression on her face. Her long, dark brown hair that usually hung in loose silky tendrils down her back was slightly matted and her blue eyes shone with laughter; her machete was covered in blood. She came up to Dean and bent in front of him, retrieving a pocketknife from the black leather jacket she always wore.

"Aren't you a sight for sore eyes," Dean said as Emma began cutting through the rope. She ignored his comment but raised her eyes to his briefly.

"Why is it that you always get yourself tied up?"

Dean's grin grew wider. "Everyone wants to get a piece of me. Some are into kinky stuff."

Emma tried not to laugh at his bad joke, considering it's exactly what the ghoul had been trying to do – to get a piece of him. "Stop talking so I can focus on this." She cut through the last of the restraints and Dean stood, rubbing his wrists. It was only when he was free that he looked to the ground next to him – why didn't he do that before? – and saw the ghoul's headless body.

Dean looked at Emma in surprise and admiration. "You ganked it? That thing was Chewbacca sized."

She rolled her eyes affectionately at him, a small smile gracing her lips as she said "nerd" before taking his arm and pulling him towards the stairs, desperately wanting to get out of that house. Even after years of hunting, Dean still managed to be surprised when Emma, in all of her five foot four and a hundred and ten pound glory, managed to kill these giant things.

Night had fallen when they stepped out of the house and Emma found an odd calmness wash over her. She liked the night, despite how ironic it was that she knew what lurked in the dark. When she was very young, it was always at this time of day that her father would sneak into her room with her sneakers, his already on. They would quietly make their way outside and into her dad's old car and drive until they found a good spot to stop and watch the stars until the early hours of the morning. The stars reminded her of youthful innocence, before she was exposed to the ugly reality of the world.

"Em?" Dean was already sitting in the Impala, leaning across the seat to look at her through the rolled down window. She hadn't noticed him get in the car. "You coming? I've got something to show you."

Emma looked at him quizzically but decided it was pointless asking him what he wanted to show her; he'd never say until they got there. They drove, the only noise being the purr of the car's engine, but Emma didn't mind, enjoying the silence. It was a comfortable silence, one that she could only share with Dean.

She had known Dean since she was young, since she was born even. Their fathers, Anthony Sinclair and John Winchester, had been marine partners and long before that, best friends. It was her father that was the hunter, but Emma had never really known the specific details of how he came to be one – something about being orphaned and found by an older hunter when he was in his early teens – but she knew that he had put that lifestyle when he'd met Grace, Emma's mother. However, once Mary Winchester died, Anthony had been pulled back into that life, unable to let his best friend find that thing alone; he showed him the ropes and learned a lot more along the way. As for her mother… she left them two years after Mary's death. Maybe it was because she couldn't handle taking care of three kids while her husband was off on a crusade with his friend, maybe it was because she'd found someone else. But whichever the reason, Emma hated her; she hated her for what it did to her father, how it drove him even more into hunting the same way it drove John.

"Where are we going?" Emma finally broke the silence after they'd passed the exit they should have taken.

Dean looked at her briefly before turning his eyes back to the road. "You'll see."

At some point, Dean turned off the highway and onto a dirt road that eventually led them to a clearing, where he killed the engine and got out of the car. Emma followed suit without question, and pulled herself onto the hood. After this many years, she learned not to question Dean and to go with it, unless it was something irrational, which seemed to happen more often than she would like to admit.

Emma heard the trunk slam shut and Dean came around, an undeniable twinkle in his eyes. She looked at him curiously but shook her head; that man was always up to something.

He sat next to her, their legs touching, and as Emma looked up at the sky to see if she could spot any constellations, she caught Dean looking at her out of the corner of her eye. He was smiling.

She turned to him. "What are you looking at?"

Dean winked. "I didn't forget; it just got delayed with the whole monster thing. Happy birthday, Em," he said to her, pulling a beer from behind his back. Emma laughed when she saw the bow on it. She took it gratefully, thinking that this was the most perfect thing he could offer; she was far from an alcoholic, but it was the thought, the cheesiness behind it that she loved. They didn't have much – heck, all of their belongings fit into the trunk of the Impala – but she would take this over any other extravagant gift, simply from the fact that it came from Dean.

In all honesty, she had forgotten it was her birthday; they'd been so caught up in the hunt of the ghoul that it slipped her mind. She didn't feel a year older, didn't feel as if she was twenty-six instead of twenty-five. A birthday for her wasn't a big deal. But Dean remembered; he always did.

Emma looked at Dean, and in the moonlight, the color of his eyes was of a richer shade of green, the light catching flecks of dark brown, black and yellow. "Thank you," she said to him, laughing, "it's perfect." She wasn't sure if he understood how much that small gesture meant to her. Yet judging by his smile, he knew.

"There's a lot more where that came from," Dean joked. The wind picked up from behind them and Emma gave the slightest shiver, wishing she'd pulled out the blanket from the trunk. Dean kicked off his boots to not damage the paint of the car and readjusted himself on the hood, sitting behind her. He wrapped an arm around Emma's waist and placed a leg on either side of her, his body shielding hers from the wind.

Emma leaned back against his chest to get a better look at the sky. "You're growing soft, Dean," she teased.

He took a pull of a beer he'd brought out for himself and kissed her temple, resting his chin on top of her head. "Only with you, Em," he replied, his arm tightening around her.

They spent the rest of the night on the hood of the Impala, drinking beer and looking at the sky, Emma showing Dean which constellation was which. She's told him countless times before but he didn't mind; he enjoyed listening to her recount each of the mythologies, hearing the passion in her words and voice. And when they'd had enough of the stars, they lay there and listened to music, saying nothing. Eventually, they fell asleep.

A/N: This idea has been festering for nearly three years, and I finally racked up the courage to start posting it. I know this chapter was short, but I promise you the others will be much, much longer and much more detailed (that is, if you stick around for that long). Let me know what you think in the reviews, and don't forget to favourite/follow if you want to know where the story goes! After all, it's only the beginning.