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“We’re back.” Sam’s voice flew from the open doorway but Dean didn’t even turn his head. Gabriel acknowledged him with a grunt but continued staring at Dean.
“Give it up Dean-o.” Gabriel smiled and leaned in. “You just can’t beat me.”
“Yeah, in your dreams.” Dean said smirking back. Staring contests were his specialty. Gabriel had come in and challenged him because he was bored. He had to hand it to him, he was good. But Dean was better. Years of challenging and being challenged by Sam at everything under the sun had prepared him for this. Plus, Cas was the King of staring, so, yeah, he had a lot of practice.
He heard Sam walk up but continued to ignore him.
“Hello? You guys want to help bring stuff in?” He asked but Gabriel was the one who waved him away.
“In a minute. I’m about to break your brother.”
Sam looked between them and sighed. “This is really what you guys decided to do instead of coming with us?
“He started it.” Dean said and Gabriel stuck his tongue out at him.
“Tattle tale.”
Sam leaned in front of them breaking the connection and shoved a pumpkin at Dean.
“Hey!”
“Sam-”
Sam stood up and pointed to the stairs where Cas was carrying about 10 bags by himself. Dean jumped up and met him half way grabbing most of them from his hands.
“What the hell did you buy? You went for pumpkins.”
Sam shrugged and grabbed Gabriel’s arm forcing him to stand. “It was a farmers market. They had organic stuff everywhere. I got apples, bananas, oranges, pumpkins, corn, tomatoes, peppers, some pie for you and maple candy for Gabe.” He pushed Gabriel toward the door. “Go get the rest.”
Gabriel started bitching, but went up the stairs anyway until he disappeared out the door. Sam followed him shaking his head.
Dean headed toward the kitchen with Cas right next to him. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a jar and presented it to Dean. “They had fresh honey. Sam bought me some. He even bought me some honey combs.” The smile on Cas’ face made the extra work to bring all the stuff in worth it. He didn’t ask for much, always did everything for them, he deserved this.
They dropped all the stuff on the counter and Cas picked up the tomatoes and looked at them thoughtfully. “Should these go in the refrigerator?”
Dean shrugged, “I have no idea Cas. Wait for Sam, he can put it away.”
“But Sam spent all day shopping; he shouldn’t have to put it away too.”
Dean pulled everything out of the bags but left it all on the counter. “Trust me, it’s better if he does it. If you do it wrong he’ll just come behind you and do it again anyway.”
Sam walked in carrying a pumpkin in each hand and placed them gently on the counter. Gabriel followed him in carrying one of his own.
“This one is mine.” He declared and Dean walked around the counter to look at it.
“What if I wanted that one?” Dean asked and Gabriel shrugged and placed his pumpkin on the table.
“To bad. I carried it in. It’s mine.”
Cas walked up behind him and gestured to one sitting on the counter next to Sam. “I picked that one out. I thought you would like it best. Was I mistaken?” He asked and Dean turned his head to look at the pumpkin Cas chose. It was a nice size, but not huge like Gabriel’s, but Sam had probably picked it for exactly that reason, little napoleon over there had to over compensate for everything. His pumpkin had a stem that was swirled at the top and the base was perfectly flat so it would sit perfectly on a table, or on the front step. Dean leaned in but caught himself last second and coughed and patted Cas’ shoulder.
“That one’s great Cas. Thanks.” He walked around the counter and picked it up grabbing a knife on the way and sitting across from Gabriel who glanced over at Sam and made grabby hands at him.
“Gimme a knife.”
Sam ignored him and continued putting stuff away. Gabriel sighed dramatically and took his shoe off. Dean had no idea what he was planning but then he just cocked back and tossed it at Sam. It hit him in the middle of the back, not hard, but enough to totally be annoying. Sam whirled around and glared at him. Gabriel batted his eyelashes and blew a kiss at him.
“You’re kidding me? You couldn’t walk the 2 feet it took to get a knife?” Sam asked incredibly but yanked a drawer open and pulled a knife out. He took the three steps it took to reach Gabriel and pointed the knife at him. “I should carve you like a pumpkin.” He said then slammed the knife on the table in front of Gabriel before going back to his groceries.
“You love me!” Gabriel yelled and Sam shook his head but said nothing. Dean was pulled away from staring at the pair of them in disbelief when Cas brushed his hand as he put a big bowl in front of them.
“Sam said if we save the seeds he can bake them.”
He sat down next to Dean and pulled his own, much smaller, pumpkin close to him and just stared at it.
Dean shook his head and started cutting the top of the pumpkin. Once that was done he reached in and started pulling the guts out with his hands. Sam finished putting everything away and came over to the table and brought his own pumpkin with him. He looked at Cas who was still contemplating his pumpkin and laughed holding a small knife out to him.
“Don’t stress so much Cas. It can be anything you want it to be.”
Cas’ face softened a bit. “Anything?”
“Go nuts.” Dean said and nudged him.
A few hours later they had 3 bowls of pumpkin guts, a tray of pumpkin seeds in the oven and were all putting the finishing touches on their pumpkins. Dean smiled and put his knife down.
“I don’t mean to brag boys, but I think mine came out pretty damn good.” Dean swirled his around for everyone to see and Sam nodded, turning his pumpkin away.
“That’s awesome Dean. I like the, the fangs.”
Gabriel burst out laughing and actual tears came out of his eyes. “You’ve been working on that?”
Sam leaned over and smacked Gabriel in the back of the head, turning his laughs into more quite chuckles.
Dean frowned and looked at it again then back to Sam. “Let me see yours.”
“No it’s not finished.” Sam said but Dean grabbed it and turned it around. Well shit.
“I saw one online and thought it was cool so I copied it. Yours is original.”
Gabriel snickered again, “Yea, original crap.”
Sam leaned over again but Gabe covered his head and leaned away. Dean stared at Sam’s pumpkin and was astounded at how good it was. Sam had made Jack Skellington’s face. And it was so….good. So clean, so perfect, as usual for his perfect brother. He pushed Sam’s back to him and grabbed Gabriel’s. He turned it toward him and glanced at Gabriel.
“Let’s see yours chuckles.”
He turned the thing and his face fell again. What the hell? Did they both take pumpkin classes without him? Gabriel had carved a scary face with slanted eyes, and also had FANGS, but his was so much better. The details in it were disgustingly good. He shoved it away and crossed his arms.
Cas reached over and turned Dean’s pumpkin toward him. He smiled and looked at Dean, then nodded at the abomination in front of them. “I love it Dean. You worked very hard on it.”
“Let me see yours.”
Cas shifted his away and looked down embarrassed. “I didn’t do it right.”
Dean smiled and held his hand out again. “I’m sure it’s good for a first attempt. Let me see it.”
Cas hesitated but finally turned it toward him. Dean’s face fell again. God. Dammit.
“I didn’t do something Halloween at all. But Sam said I could do anything, so I did bees. You know they’re my favorite. But now I feel as if I messed up our theme.”
Sam turned it toward him and grinned excitedly. “Cas this is great.”
“Really?”
Gabriel looked at it and nodded, winking and giving him a thumbs up. “Way cool little brother.”
Cas looked at Dean and cocked his head then looked back to Sam. “I see. You’re being nice to spare my feelings. It’s obvious from Dean’s demeanor that he is upset with me.”
Dean stopped wallowing in his own shit long enough to pull Cas’ pumpkin to him and look at it thoughtfully.
“It’s awesome Cas. I’m not mad at you.”
Gabriel propped his elbows on the table and leaned forward. “Deanie weenie is just jealous because his pumpkin looks like a 3rd grader did it.”
“Alright. That’s enough out of you.” Sam stood up and bent down and grabbed Gabriel right out of his chair and threw him over his shoulder and stalked out of the kitchen. Gabriel grinned at them and waved as if he didn’t care that he was being forcibly dragged from the room.
Cas looked at Dean’s pumpkin. “Are 3rd graders terrible at carving pumpkins? Is that what he was trying to suggest?”
“Yeah Cas. My pumpkin sucks. I thought we were doing traditional. I didn’t know you guys were gonna go all Edward scissor hands and shit.”
Cas frowned. “I don’t understand that reference.”
“Never mind. The point is, yours is really good Cas. Where do you want to put it?”
Dean started to stand but stopped when Cas put his hand on his. “Dean, you always compare yourself to others. Can’t you look at your pumpkin and see how much work you put into it, how much fun you had doing it and see it’s just as good as ours?”
“I mean, I thought it was okay. But, I dunno, I just thought I’d be better than at least one of you guys.”
Cas stared at the pumpkins on the table before he stood up and grabbed his own. He raised it above his head and then slammed it onto the floor. Dean jumped up and looked at Cas with wide eyes.
“Dude! Why would you do that?”
Cas shrugged. “You wanted your pumpkin to be better than someone’s. Mine is now mush. Yours is better. Do you feel better about yours now?” He asked and Dean shook his head.
“I didn’t mean I wanted you to destroy yours! Cas you didn’t have to do that. You worked hard on that.”
“And you worked hard on yours. Dean, yours is the best one at this table, because you had the most fun making it, you put the most heart into it, and if being better than mine helps you love yours again, it’s a small price to pay.”
“Cas.” Dean stood up and looked toward the kitchen door and craned his neck to make sure nobody was coming before he leaned forward and kissed Cas softly. “Thanks.”
He coughed and could feel his face turn red as he bent down to start cleaning up the pumpkin.
Cas bent down and looked at Dean as if amazed by him. “No matter how many time we’ve done this, you still get embarrassed.”
“Shut up Cas.”
He grabbed the bigger pieces, hoping to save at least one when Cas kissed his cheek. “It’s alright Dean. No matter how many times we’ve done this, I still feel the butterflies every time too.”
Dean coughed again, but couldn’t help the warm feeling that spread through him at the declaration.
The next day Dean was glad to see Cas’ pumpkin whole and perfect again sitting next to his on the library table. Gabe had poofed it back together with his magic when he’d seen the broken pieces on the table. Cas told him he’d knocked it over by accident. Dean could tell Gabriel didn’t believe him but he’d still fixed it without comment. Cas had insisted they put both his and Dean’s together since they were the two best ones. And now that Dean looked at them side by side, he realized Cas was right.