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“Hey! What’s this?” Jack asked, grabbing the long wrapped pole of colorful paper. It was blue and decorated with snowflakes, penguins, and polar bears (Sam had been teaching him his animals).
He started opening it, excited to figure out what this was, and Dean and Cas let go of each other’s hands to run over.
Cas took one of Jack’s hands, and Dean confiscated… whatever that was.
“Hey, hey, hey!” he reprimanded. “Now we have to buy it.”
“Cool! What is it?”
For the moment, Sam wasn’t with them. He was out “working a case” (Dean had told him that he was actually Christmas shopping). So Dean, Cas, and Jack had gone to the grocery store to buy some things for dinner and get out of Sam’s hair. Jack had run off, finding the section for cards and presents. Dean and Cas had followed, and then had been perusing the cards, laughing at the puns on them, and Dean opening the ones that had recordings. Jack was sure he was never going to get, “No, I am your father,” out of his head.
Dean held up the colorful pole. “This—” he began.
“—is wrapping paper,” Castiel finished. “Don’t worry. I didn’t know what it was at first either.”
“Wrapping paper?” Jack asked, trying to grab it back from Dean. Dean let him, letting out a defeated sigh. Cas rubbed his back. Jack, meanwhile, assumed since they had to buy it now that he could do whatever he wanted with it.
He finished ripping most of the plastic off, and then felt the decorated paper, his eyes wide.
“Yes,” Castiel said, beginning to explain. “Wrapping paper is for wrapping presents, particularly on Christmas, hence the winter theme.”
“How do you wrap them?”
“Come on, I’ll show you after we buy that and get home,” Dean said. “Alright, now put it in the cart.”
Jack reluctantly let go of it, putting it in the shopping cart already filled with foodstuffs and many, many bottles of sparkling cider. The plastic wrap still hung from the pole of wrapping paper.
Jack was bored during the rest of the shopping, his eyes constantly roving over the wrapping paper. Maybe he should’ve tried to get more. There’d been one of red and green plaid, another of gold with bursts of stars. There had been so many beautiful ones! But, Jack had seen penguins, which Sam had taught him about yesterday, and all thoughts of the other poles of wrapping paper had gone out of his head. Penguins. Those were what he wanted. But now he wanted more.
Once home, Dean and Castiel used Sam’s present they’d bought him earlier in the week (which they’d been hiding in Dean’s room) to show him how to wrap.
It was difficult.
Jack kept cutting out the wrong sizes, couldn’t get a good rectangle, got tape all twisted up and stuck together. He even got tape on his fingers. Then, when he thought he was starting to figure it out, he ripped the wrapping paper. Trying to fix it with more tape, he ripped it again, tape having been stuck to one end, and not relinquishing its hold on his finger. He’d pulled back, and the tape had pulled the paper with him.
“I can’t get it,” Jack whined.
“Hey, it’s okay,” Dean told him.
“I didn’t get it my first few times either,” Castiel assured.
“Here, let me show you,” Dean said, taking the present from him. He cut a new piece of wrapping paper, and then showed Jack exactly how to fold it. However, he released it instead of taping it together, pushing it gently back over to Jack. “Okay, your turn. You got this.”
Castiel held Jack’s shoulder in a comforting grip.
Jack took a deep breath, and he started again.
Then...
He got it! He actually got it!
Sam’s present looked excellent all wrapped up in the blue paper.
Jack, triumphant with his wrapping, held the present over his head, shaking it back and forth as he did a little dance in his seat.
“Look, see! You got it!”
“Great job, Jack.”
Little did Dean and Castiel know, they’d created a monster.
For three days, Jack went around the bunker, hiding objects in his room, wrapping them, and then replacing them where he’d found them. Every time one of his dads sighed and opened one, Jack would just declare, “Merry Christmas!” and ask them if they liked their present. Sam went along with it, sticking to it the longest. Dean cracked immediately, and Castiel had tried to not show his frustration and annoyance.
They had no idea that their reactions only egged Jack on.
When his dads left on a hunt, Jack went and used his fake credit card (stomach hurting from the lie) to buy all the wrapping paper he could.
When his dads got back to the bunker a few days later, Jack was halfway finished with wrapping all the books in the library.