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Sam took a sip of his coffee and fiddled with the volume control on the dashboard for the fifth time in the past hour.
“Dude, quit messing with the volume!” Dean complained, reaching over and turning the music back up. “This is my favourite song.”
Sam sighed and rolled his eyes, turning to stare out the window at the fat white snowflakes that danced through the air to join their brethren in the snowy mounds that lined the road.
“That doesn’t mean we have to ruin our hearing over it,” he complained.
Dean went for singing loudly along with the chorus instead of answering his brother.
Sam was glad. They had been in the car for many hours and the tension was getting rather high. He really wanted to snap at his brother and insist the music be shut off or at least turned down to a reasonable level, but since this was Cas’ first time skiing, he decided to keep quiet so as not to ruin the angel’s experience.
When the white puffy snow had begun to fall two days ago, he and Dean had decided it was time to take a little break and take Cas out cross-country skiing.
Now Sam just wished they could get there before the tension over boiled and there was an explosion. Castiel was sitting stoically in the back seat and hadn’t said a word since the beginning of the trip. Sam sometimes forgot he was even there, but every time he looked back, Cas was blinking back at him with that slightly blank look he so often had. It made Sam want to laugh at the level of innocence such an old being could possess.
At last—but not before Sam had contracted a major headache from Dean’s overly loud music—they arrived at the ski resort.
With a sigh of relief, Sam pushed open his door and stepped out into the snowy parking lot. There were several other cars parked alongside them, but not enough to take away from the enjoyment of the experience. “Alright, let’s go rent some skis,” he called as Dean and Cas exited the car.
It took longer than Sam had expected for them to get fitted for skis and collect the various accessories required for the sport and it was almost an hour later that the three of them stepped up to the front of the cross-country trail they had decided to take.
“Alright Cas, just pull open the little flap on the front of your ski and stick the toe of your boot in,” Sam instructed, demonstrating for Cas with his own ski.
Cas furrowed his brow and tried to stick his foot in like Sam had instructed. But as soon as his boot touched the plastic, his ski went shooting off and Cas fell over backwards into the snow with a loud huff.
Sam lunged forward to try and catch him but was too late. Instead, he reached down and helped Cas back up to his feet.
Dean had gone to retrieve the runaway ski and was trying hard to hide a smile. “There Cas. Just be a little more careful this time.”
“I do not know what happened, Dean,” Cas said, looking very confused. “The ski just came to life and bolted.”
This time Dean couldn’t help himself from laughing. “Nah, Cas. That’s just ‘cuz their slippery so they can slide on the snow.”
“Oh,” Cas said, staring determinedly down at his feet as he tried to put the tip of his boot back in the ski.
Dean rolled his eyes but bent down to help Cas with his other ski.
Fifteen minutes later, they were on their way—albeit rather slowly. Castiel seemed to be having quite a lot of trouble manoeuvring with the skis on.
Every few minutes Sam had to stop because Castiel had fallen over and gotten his skis tangled up again, or Dean had gone for a hill too eagerly and managed to ram the end of his ski into the base of a tree. Now that was something Sam hadn’t seen before.
By the time they reached the end of the trail, Sam was annoyed, hungry, and more than a little grumpy.
He slid over to the side of the path and unlocked his skis. Dean wasn’t far behind, his eyes lighting up at the prospect of getting food at the little ski resort diner.
Castiel was a different story entirely. He kicked off his skis halfway to the parking lot, leaving his ski boots attached while he stepped through the snow in socked feet. He trudged forlornly across the last few metres, clutching his skis in his arms and looking downright miserable. “Dean, I’m c-cold,” he muttered through chattering teeth.
“Dude, why did you wear your trenchcoat then? I told you you’d freeze!” Dean cried, shaking his head.
Cas looked like he was about to burst into tears and Dean quickly added in a kinder tone, “Don’t worry, bud. Everyone has it rough their first time. You just have to practice. One time Sammy crashed into a tree and knocked both his front teeth out. They were just baby ones though.”
Cas looked very concerned at that, but he smiled a little and thanked Dean. “I don’t think I will ever be able to ski, but thank you for inviting me to come with you.”
“Of course! We’re family Cas. And now you have to do all the quirky stuff that comes with it,” Sam added, eyes brightening a little. He smiled at the other two and took Cas’ skis from him. “Come on. I think we could all use a little soak in the hot tub.”