Chapter Text
Ho ho hopefully this holiday will make us believe that
We're exactly where we're supposed to be
And we're ho ho hoping that
We all come back and as a matter of fact I know
We're exactly where we're supposed to be
Together by this Christmas tree
“I want to be a hunter,” Cas had said, smiling big and eager, not really knowing what it meant. Then later, at the nursing home, even when Dean offered to let him ride shotgun, because he’d done such a good job, Castiel said, “I can’t come. I want to stay.”
Dean pretended he didn’t care, but he did. Bobby was dead, Sam didn’t want to be a hunter anymore, Cas wasn’t around, Benny had run off, hopefully hiding and not killing anyone. Dean just wanted everything to be good again. He wanted his little family back, Team Free Will. All of the holiday crap didn’t help matters, commercials on all the TV stations talking about family and being together. He had to flip the station every time it went to break. Even the motels they stayed in were decorating.
Normally he liked Christmas, it was Sam who always got mad about it, complaining that they had crappy Christmases as kids. But it worked for Dean, he didn’t mind it so much. He taught Sam to appreciate it one year, but after they’d both been to hell and back then purgatory and Amelia... everything was broken.
So it was that on a cold Christmas eve, Dean and Sam were on a hunt and Sam was moping. They split up, Dean scoping out a house while Sam was impersonating a cop and doing research.
As Dean sat in the Impala, staring at the house across the street, he wished he was anywhere but there. He actually wished they could just take a night off and be a family, broken though they were, they were family and Sam and Cas were all he had. With a sigh and a I-can’t-believe-I’m-doing-this, he closed his eyes.
“Castiel... I know you tuned out Heaven and the Angels, but maybe you haven’t tuned me out... So I’m praying to you... It’s Christmas, man... and Sam’s in mood and you’re not here and I’m just. I don’t know, I just want everyone to be together. I don’t know if that’s too much to ask here, probably. Whatever,” Dean opened his eyes and scowled at the house. “I don’t know why I’m bothering...”
He finished his stakeout of the house. Nothing even happened, so it was a royal disappointment on top of being a waste of a good Christmas eve. Cranking up the Impala, Dean drove back to the motel. The lights were off when he walked up and opened the door.
“Sammy? You here? You better not be sleeping.” Just as Dean went to turn on the lights, a different set of lights flicked on. There, on the other side of the motel, Sam and Cas stood side by side around a pathetic little Christmas tree, dwarfed by their great height (it barely reached Sam’s waist) and the overly long strand of multi colored Christmas lights. The tree looked like it might fall over under the weight of the light strand and the half-assed tinsel that hung in huge clumps. Several strands of the silvery stuff was all over the floor and covered Cas’s trench coat.
“Merry Christmas, Dean,” Sam said, smiling brightly, looking like a big happy puppy.
“Merry Christmas, Dean,” Cas echoed with his own goofy I’m-badly-keeping-a-secret grin plastered across his face.
Half the lights on the tree flickered off. Dean didn’t even care. “Dude, seriously?”
“Seriously.” Sam confirmed.
“I heard you might need a little... Christmas spirit...” Castiel explained and Dean looked down, hiding his face, but nodding.
“Yeah, yeah, you heard right...” Dean approached, looking the tree up and down, then looking at his brother and Cas. He threw his arm around Sam, hugging his brother close. “Thanks, man.”
“Sure, Dean. You should thank Cas, though, he suggested it.”
Releasing Sam, Dean stepped over to Cas, set a hand to his hip, then pulled him in for a close embrace. One arm wound about the smaller man’s waist, the other around his back, holding his shoulder. He pressed his cheek to Cas’s and whispered a warm, “Thanks, Cas,” into his ear.
Castiel returned the embrace, not as self-conscious of Sam as either of them probably should have been. The younger brother simply looked away, smiling to himself. All of them were exactly where they were supposed to be, gathered together around this sad little Christmas tree.