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It had been snowing for days. There was nearly a foot of snow on the ground, which was not something that Baby could handle. That meant that the Winchester brothers had been stuck inside the bunker with nowhere to go, and they were starting to feel it.
Christmas was two days away but there was no festive spirit in the air. Cas had business to attend to in heaven, so Sam and Dean were on their own for a while. Dean was spending most of his time watching porn or horror movies, and Sam had thrown himself into cataloguing the archives, despite their depths.
Needless to say, they had no expectations for Christmas to be anything special this year, so when, at exactly noon, Christmas decorations appeared in every nook and cranny in every room of the bunker, they were incredibly confused.
Sam heard a “What the--!” coming from down the hall followed by a crash, and went to go investigate.
He found Dean wrapped head to toe in red, sparkly ribbon. He could tell from Dean’s expression that he was certainly not pleased. “Get me out of here, Sammy!” He yelled and shook sparkles all over the hallway. Sam did his best not to chuckle at his brother standing there, tied and unable to move, but eventually couldn’t keep himself from taking a quick picture.
Once Sam had found scissors in one of the drawers nearby and managed to cut Dean free, the two of them split up to check the rest of the bunker, Dean trailing red sparkles all the way.
In a few minutes, the two of them managed to check the entire bunker and confirm that not a single foot of space throughout was missing christmas decorations. Even the bedspreads had been changed to reds and greens, with santas and reindeer on them.
They met back up in the kitchen afterwards.
“What the hell, dude?” Dean was pacing back and forth trying to think this through. “Why have we been cursed with 200 pounds of freaking holiday barf?!” Dean was Not Happy about this situation. Nobody got to decorate for Christmas but him, and only when he decided he wanted to. And whenever he got into the holiday spirit - which honestly he couldn’t remember the last time he was - it was good, masculine decorations! Like some christmas lights and a few snowflakes! And maybe some blow-up reindeer to go outside but dammit who didn’t like reindeer?! Not this sparkly girly crap that had barfed all over the place! There had been Christmas pajamas in his drawers! Christmas pajamas! Dean Winchester did NOT wear Christmas pajamas!!!
The younger Winchester took a seat at the table trying to act as upset as his brother, but he secretly thought it was pretty cool, and definitely not the worst way they’d been cursed.
“Maybe a witch is trying to prank us?” he offered. “We have pissed a lot of people off, maybe they’re trying to get back at us in a non-lethal way.” Dean just scoffed and rolled his eyes as he finally put a stop to the pacing.
“I don’t care what the deal with this is, I just want it gone. You and I are going to do a major clean up of all this crap, and only keep the bare minimum. Got it?”
They split up around the bunker once again, and Dean headed straight for his room. When he got there, he found it draped in even more decorations, and the walls were covered in sparkly silver tinsel. No. He was not going to deal with that. The sparkles had gotten all over his bed! That was not acceptable!
Dean grabbed a ladder and began carefully removing all the decorations from the walls to reduce the amount of glitter litter around his room, but to no avail. By the time he was done, Dean was covered head to toe in red and silver glitter, and his room was as well!
Frustrated by all the effort, Dean took the torn-down decorations to the main trash can in the kitchen. Grumbling about how long it would take to get the glitter out of both his room and his hair, Dean made his way back to his de-christmasafied bedroom, only to find that everything he’d taken down had been put right back up again, exactly where he was the first time!
He tried again and again, but every time he threw the decorations away, they came right back. Eventually he gave up on it, and resolved himself to be covered in glitter 24/7.
Sam didn’t seem to mind the decorations since his wasn’t at all glitter-focused and he was nice and clean. Unbelievable.
When he wasn’t dealing with the glitter, though, Dean had to admit - to himself and himself only - that it was kind of nice to see the bunker so festive. They rarely had time to put up a tree and some lights, let alone a full set of decorations in the bunker. It made him smile just a little bit.
The glitter was still getting on his nerves, though! No matter how nice the other decorations were, the sheer amount of glitter that he encountered was not helping his christmas cheer.
~~~
It was Christmas eve, and all through the house, not a creature was stirring, not even a Moose.
Well, all was quiet until exactly midnight, when both hunters were woken by a loud crash accompanied by the sound of glass breaking.
Both hunters were up in an instant, guns in hand, ready to defend themselves from the intruder. They walked slowly and quietly into the war room, and found a lean figure with dark hair with his back to them wearing a much-too-large santa suit. Dean could place that back and hair anywhere, even when there was no trenchcoat nearby.
“Cas?” Dean asked, lowering his gun. Sam did the same as the angel turned around. “I thought there was something urgent going on in Heaven. What are you doing here?”
Cas looked slightly down, and all Dean wanted was to rush over and give him a big hug, but no, he would not do that. He would respect the angel’s personal space.
“Oh, yes. I prevaricated that certain piece of information because I needed an excuse for my absence in order to plan for a small Christmas surprise for you and Sam.” He turned around to look back at the tree, and Dean finally noticed that there were a whole bunch of presents underneath, and a lot looked like they’d been shaken around. Right next to the tousled presents was a pile of broken ornaments, and Dean realized that that was the sound of breaking glass that had woken them up.
“Unfortunately, I seemed to have tripped over some of the presents and dropped the ornaments I made to put on the tree. It was meant to be a surprise. I’m sorry that I ruined it.”
Dean took a step closer to the angel, and clapped him on the back; a friendly, familial gesture even though he longed for more.
“Cas, you did a fantastic job with this. The decorations are beautiful,” and so are you “ and it’s the thought that counts with gifts anyway. I’m sure the presents aren’t all that banged up, and even though the ornaments are a little, heh, worse for wear, the glass will still look pretty in a jar with some light shining on them. They’ll be our own homemade Christmas lights!”
Dean couldn’t help being unusually optimistic about the whole thing. Now that he knew his - the - angel created them for him, they took on a new glow through his eyes. Even the dreadful sparkles that still hadn’t come out of his hair were a reminder of his best friend. The mad he’d do anything for.
Dean gripped Cas’ shoulders with both hands and looked him directly in the eyes. “Thank you, Cas. It’s really wonderful.”
Castiel seemed to swell at those words, his face truly lighting up in a way that Dean hadn’t seen in a while, and it made Dean want to shout with joy at the knowledge that he’d made Cas feel like that.
He heard a cough coming from a few feet away, reminding him that Sam was still there, too. Dean quickly pulled away from Cas but let his right hand linger on Cas’ left shoulder for another brief moment before ending contact between them again.
“Well,” Dean said with a questioning laugh, “do we get to open presents?”
Cas nodded and handed Dean a small rectangular present. Dean tore at the wrapping and found inside a picture framed in thin, dark wood that looked like it had been hand-sanded. It was beautiful, but not as much as the image he was staring at.
It was of him and Cas sitting on Baby’s hood, laughing at Dean, who had just spilled beer all over himself. Dean remembered this moment. He could see the joy in both of their eyes, but there was something in the way Cas looked at him that he hadn’t noticed in the moment…
They didn’t take many pictures of themselves, especially not of other people; there was rarely a good moment to do so. He got a glimpse of their interactions from the outside. The look in Cas’ eyes was something so intense and beautiful, but seeing it from another point of view gave it another level of brilliance. That was the look he - he fell in love with.
“Cas…” He almost said something, something that might change his friendship with his best friend forever, but he backed out at the last second. “It’s beautiful. Thank you.”
“You’re welcome,” he replied with that small smile that Dean loved so much. They moved on to some presents for Sam, a few more for Dean, and some that Cas had picked out for a few of their other friends.
Eventually the late night - or early morning, however you’d like to define it - started to wear on the brothers, and they decided to take a few more hours of rest before starting the Christmas cooking that they’d decided on for the year.
As much as he tried to fall back asleep, though, Dean couldn’t seem to manage it.
He tried as hard as he could, but he kept thinking back to that picture and the look in Cas’ eyes. It seemed like… could it really be - The thing Dean’s mind went back to over and over again was that look, that look had love in it. Dean was trying not to let himself hope, but maybe, just maybe, there was a possibility that Cas loved him back.
Deciding that it wasn’t worth it to lay there in bed anymore, Dean threw on a robe, grabbed the picture and headed to the kitchen to get a cup of coffee for himself.
When the liquid was done brewing, he poured it into his favorite mug and took a seat at the table, just to continue staring at the image he’d been given. He found himself so lost in thought that he was a bit startled when someone else walked into the room.
Cas took a seat beside the older Winchester, and began starting at the picture just as Dean had been. They sat there in silence for a few minutes until Cas spoke softly, barely above a whisper.
“The reason I love this picture so much is the natural beauty coming from within. There’s the brilliant orange sunset contrasted with the dark green trees behind us, the small wisps of clouds in the sky, but my favorite part is you, Dean. That little smile on your face, even though you just spilled beer on your favorite shirt. You find the good in everything you touch, and this picture is the perfect representation of that.
“Even in your darkest moments you shine, Dean. You’re absolutely beautiful that way. Dean, Dean Winchester , I love you. I think I always have, but looking at this image of you helped me truly understand my feelings. I know you’ll probably never return them, but I’ve always wanted to tell you and I thought this was the perfect moment. I love you, Dean”
Dean was awestruck. Cas loved him. Cas loved him back. His thoughts were rushing so fast that he forgot to even say anything to the man he loved more than anything, and didn’t even notice time passing until Cas began to pull away from their closeness that had formed between them while Cas spoke.
Without thinking, Demand grabbed Cas’ arm and pulled him back, pressing their lips together for the first time, reveling in the fact that Cas loved him. It was too much to comprehend, so Dean focused only on the moment between them.
Eventually they broke the kiss. They just stared breathless into each other’s eyes, seeing for themselves the love they both felt, and that they both knew would never end.
They sat there that early Christmas morning, close enough in each other’s company just reveling in their new knowledge, knowing that they had a lifetime to take it slowly. All they needed at that moment was each other.
The End.