(After this)

Dean had got some sleep, and now he was lying out in the Impala after having some beer from the Drunken Dragon tavern. It helped a little.

Not really.

He sent a comm to Sam earlier when he was more awake saying where he was, and that it was true.

Apocalypse canceled. No more angel condoms, no more Michael, no more Lucifer. The Winchesters were free from destiny's hold.


...No more Earth.

They failed. He failed.

If she'd counted her days right (and Miku was sure she had), then it was October for her. Her birthday, to be precise. Miku looked at her reflection in the mirror. She certainly didn't look like she was twenty, did she? But, what had she expected, a sudden aging overnight?


Miku prodded at her cheek with a finger and made a face. Maybe she'd been expecting the start of a wrinkle, or a hair suddenly turned gray. But no, nothing different, and nothing new. Miku turned to look at the conjured house around her again, finding some solace in the familiarity of home. It was important, of course, not to let herself stay in here too long. There were things she had yet to learn, and things that needed to be done.

She scurried from the bathroom to the foyer, from the foyer to to the living room, past a sleeping Ruri curled on the couch, and outside where she'd been doing something nice and asinine - raking October leaves up in the yard to use them for fuel to make sweet potatoes.

It was her birthday, after all, she deserved a nice treat.