Work Text:
Based off of this drawing by the amazing msdoomandgloom.
There were a lot of things that Meg hated about being human. She hated that she could feel her body slowly aging, hated that she needed to eat and drink to survive instead of just whenever she was bored, hated that she had to shower and use the bathroom. She hated that she had to sleep. She hated every little inconvenience that came with a human body.
But at least she had Castiel with her.
Her fallen angel, on the other hand, had adjusted to humanity quite well. There were still days that she caught him staring up at the night sky, and there were nights where he fought sleep until his eyes were red and his words were slurring, but he had adjusted. He had delighted in trying everything humanity had to offer, from food to pissing, and, if Meg was being honest, a little of his enthusiasm had rubbed off on her.
The little cabin in the backwoods that they’d purchased didn’t allow for neighbors, and Meg didn’t like people, anyway, but Castiel enjoyed the nearby town. He liked the simplicity of his job at the local gas station, and was friendly with his co-workers. Meg wasn’t too fond of the kids at the local high school where she worked as a nurse, and took great pains to avoid getting friendly with her co-workers.
Slowly, they built a life. Castiel gardened and learned to sew. Meg went hunting for animals and occasionally did research for the Winchesters and tried not to kill anyone she worked with. They went bowling on Saturdays, if Castiel wasn’t working the night shift, and sometimes went to movies. It was horribly boring, and some days Meg had to fight the urge to just take off, to catch a bus or train or just start walking until she found something to do, someone to fight.
But it was peaceful. And after multiple trips to Hell and years fighting with Crowley before the Winchesters finally took him out and Castiel had cured her with his newly-human blood, she figured she deserved some peace.
But that didn’t mean she had to participate in every harebrained idea her newly-human boyfriend came up with.
“I’m not wearing that!” Meg growled when Castiel came home and hour and a half late on Thursday afternoon, holding two shopping bags and wearing his kicked-puppy look. He pouted at her, somehow made his eyes wider, and held up the sweater again.
“This one isn’t for you. It’s for me,” he informed her. “I thought we could do a Christmas card.”
“Where did you come up with that idea?” Meg asked. Castiel shrugged.
“Nora showed me the picture she’s using for hers. It seems to be a thing that humans do. Since we are human now, I thought we should try it as well.”
Meg narrowed her eyes at him. “Why are we gonna make a Christmas card? Who would we even send them to? Everyone we know is dead.”
“Sam and Dean and Kevin are alive and well,” Castiel pointed out. “Nora. A few other people from work. Your friends at work.”
“I don’t have any friends at work.”
“My friends at work, then. A few people. This is a thing that normal humans do. Also, I’ve been thinking that we should pick a church to attend for mass on Christmas–”
“I’m not going to church,” Meg interrupted. “You can go.”
“Okay, we’ll work on that. But we should take the picture for our card, first, so we can get them made up and sent out. Besides, we have so few pictures of us together. I would like some more.”
“We can take a picture together, but I’m not wearing a sweater,” she compromised.
Castiel gave her the puppy-dog look again. “But you haven’t even seen the one I got for you.”
“Don’t care. If it looks anything like that one you’re holding, I’m not putting it on,” she said firmly.
Castiel frowned and looked down at his sweater. It was a nice, Christmas appropriate shade of green, and had a heavily-decorated Christmas tree on the front. Standing in front of the tree was an admittedly cute black and white cat wearing a Santa hat. Meg knew that Castiel had probably chosen it because he liked cats, and she knew that he was thinking about adopting one.
“I was a demon for centuries, Clarence. We don’t do Christmasy shit,” Meg reminded him. “Just because I’m human it doesn’t change that.”
“Just look at it? Please? For me?” he begged. He looked at her with the puppy face for another minute, and Meg felt herself crumbling.
The asshole had gotten manipulative. He’d figured out that she was susceptible to the puppy eyes.
Meg sighed. “Alright. I’ll look at it.”
Castiel’s face broke out in a grin. Meg took the other bag from him and had to suppress a smile when she saw it. It was Christmas red to compliment his green sweater, but instead of a nice, holiday-themed pattern on the front, it featured the Krampus carrying off a child that looked suspiciously like Crowley, the two of them surrounded by chains.
It was definitely festive, in a demon way.
Meg sighed. “I’ll wear it, but I am not smiling in the picture.”
Castiel beamed at her.
.
Meg really couldn’t complain too much about the picture. Castiel had insisted on getting it done at the local mall, where they had props and backgrounds and things. Meg had fought going, saying that the wooden walls of their cabin were perfectly festive, but Castiel had promised to make her blackberry pie and rub her feet, and she had relented.
So, she had put up with stupid holiday music, screaming children, and horribly garish Christmas decorations. But the pie had been delicious, and Castiel was damn good at foot rubs, so it was worth it.
Castiel had put the picture of them above the fireplace in a little wooden frame. The people at the place had digitally inserted a red background that was patterned like a Christmas sweater, filled with candy canes and reindeer and snowflakes. Castiel had insisted that he and Meg hold a prop, and since she had outright refused to hold any of the overlarge candy canes or wear the Santa hats, Castiel had decided that they two of them should be wrapped up in Christmas lights.
Meg had been true to her word, and hadn’t smiled. But Castiel had, and he looked every inch like a middle-age dad who was having far too much fun. Meg had obligingly wrapped an arm around him and held her end of the string of lights, and had managed to keep a straight face when Castiel used his free hand to give her ass a squeeze in an attempt to make her smile.
They looked normal. They looked human.
And, Meg had to admit, it was sort of…nice.