Work Text:
The wooden blocks loudly scattered over the table, with one plopping unceremoniously onto Jack’s half-eaten pizza slice.
“Sorry Jack,” Castiel muttered, sighing as he watched the blocks topple.
Jack only chuckled, never any less delighted at the tower falling. He removed the Jenga block from his food and placed it atop the rest of its fallen brethren. The pile of blocks was flanked by two piles of pizza boxes, with several empty beer bottles also littering the table – the latter mostly Dean’s doing.
Peaceful energy permeated the Dean-Cave as the family lounged around the table. The jukebox was humming out tunes behind the buzz of conversation.
“No offence buddy but you’re terrible at this game.” Dean snickered lightly from the couch in front of the table, taking a sip of his beer.
“It would seem so.” Castiel frowned back at him.
It was a lighthearted frown which soon faltered into a smile. He received a soft one from Dean in return. As always, the moment lasted slightly too long but was also fleeting enough that both parties could write it off as imagined.
Cas sat up slightly from the floor and began to rearrange the blocks for another round.
Sam squinted at the angel next to him, and then glanced quickly up at Dean and Jack who were very much engrossed in their respective pizza and beer. He mulled over something for a moment before speaking up slowly.
“Yeah Cas, you kinda suck at Jenga-“
At this Dean and Jack glanced up at Sam questioningly. Dean looked slightly offended, despite the fact he'd said practically the same thing moments ago. Cas stopped arranging the blocks for a moment to tilt his head at Sam slightly.
“-and Charades” Sam continued.
Dean huffed out a laugh at that, shaking his head at the memory.
-and Pictionary, and Monopoly, and Connect Four, and Uno, and everything else we’ve ever played.” He looked over at Cas. The suspicion which had been clouding Sam’s features had turned accusatory as he finished his sentence.
Cas shifted his cross-legged position slightly, glancing around the room as he did so.
Jack was staring at the pair on the floor with concern. However, it was Dean who spoke up, glaring faintly at Sam for a moment before he did so.
“Jeez Sammy what’s gotten into you. It’s not like they were sitting around playing Yahtzee in heaven. Right, Cas?” He offered lightheartedly.
“We did not play Yahtzee in heaven, it is true” Cas responded formally, his tone was stiffer than usual.
Dean looked at Sam as if to say ‘See?’, before taking another sip of his beer.
“Yeah but-” Sam looked over at Cas again, like he was an equation Sam was attempting to solve “I can’t remember the last time you haven’t lost a game we’ve played, it seems borderline impossible.” His tone was lighter, yet still accusatory.
Cas looked back at him with a straight face, though Sam detected a hint of worry fluttering behind his cerulean eyes.
“I guess I’m just not cut out for some human leisure activities” Cas suggested too innocuously, with an out of character shrug. Sam did not seem satiated, though he let it go for the moment, reaching over to grab another slice of pizza.
“It’s okay Cas maybe you’ll win the next round!” Jack offered encouragingly.
“Or how about we try to find a game you might be good at?” Dean sat up from his slumped position with raised eyebrows, waving the bottle in his hand in Castiel’s direction as he spoke.
Cas only gave him a lost look in response.
“Trivial Pursuit?” Sam offered.
“One that isn’t a snoozefest Sammy” Dean muttered, rolling his eyes. Sam pursed his lips annoyedly in response.
“What about Scrabble?” Jack suggested as he squinted over at the pile of board games in the corner of the room, carefully considering each one.
“That works!” Dean bounced up from the couch to grab the game.
Sam continued to ponder.
---
“Cas I don’t think that’s a word.” Sam looked down at the arrangement of letters with furrowed brows.
“Oh- I seemed to have put down an Enochian phrase.”
“These aren’t Enochian letters.” Sam replied back, the suspicious look from earlier returning.
“It’s the English phonetic spelling for an Enochian joke about a dog and a bone- nevermind- I'm sorry, I guess this means I skip my turn” Cas stated with an exaggerated sigh.
“Cas th-” Sam was interrupted by a giddy Dean.
“Hey you know what man- you can use Enochian words, it's fine.” He got out the words between light chuckles. He shook his head fondly at the angel, clearly deeply amused by his lost puppy antics.
Sam snapped out of his inquisition for a moment to smile knowingly at his easily amused brother. His eyes then shifted over to Castiel. He was watching Dean chuckle with an affectionate look in his eyes.
“Does this mean I’m still winning?” Jack interjected, a wide grin on his face. While the kid wasn’t a sore loser by any means, he did seem to receive unbridled joy whenever he was in the lead during any of their game nights. It wasn’t so much the winning that seemed to cause this, as much as it was impressing his dads. Sam made sure to always respond with enthusiasm at each of Jack’s wins.
Cas shifted his attention towards him.
“Yes Jack, you seem to be in the lead by a wide margin.” He grinned at his son encouragingly.
Jack happily shuffled in his seat and reached over to grab his age-appropriate ginger ale from the table.
Sam glanced over at Cas, then to Dean and Jack respectively. His squinted eyes widened for a split-second as realisation washed over his features. Oh.
“I really thought you would’ve gotten the hang of Scrabble Cas” Sam stated sadly, his tone much too innocent. He shook his head in overstated remorse.
“Sorry to disappoint.” Cas replied sincerely as he awkwardly shifted in place. He glanced at Dean and Jack before looking back down at the board.
Sam smiled slightly at him, a smirk threatening to come through.
“Why are you on his case today man?” Dean questioned, with annoyance underpinning his tone and features.
Sam put his hands up in surrender and replied with a chuckle.
“Sorry, sorry. I’ll stop pushing. I just can’t believe the odds.” He glanced over at Cas with the last phrase, a knowing smile on his face.
Cas squinted at him for a split second before glancing away.
Dean spoke up again.
"You know what Cas, we'll have a few one on one matches sometime and I'll help you learn how to play all these properly."
Castiel's face perked up with interest. He attempted an even tone as he responded.
"I think that may be necessary." He nodded seriously at Dean, who playfully shook his head with a smile.
Something told Sam that Cas would end up needing a whole lot of these board game tutoring sessions. He chuckled to himself lightly as he wondered how long Cas would be able to keep the charade up.