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“Cas,” Dean pleaded, “You don’t understand. This isn’t just an ex. This is Lisa.”
“Lisa?” Cas’s voice sounded tinny and distorted through the speakers of Dean’s phone.
“It’s a long story.”
From the other end of the line, Dean could hear Gabe’s raucous laughter, and there was a scuffling noise. Dean waited until Cas returned, grabbing a cookie from his counter and leaning against the wall.
“Sorry.”
“Is that Gabriel?” Dean asked, through a mouthful of food.
Cas groaned. “Yeah. He’s coming over for the holidays. Started guilt-tripping me about how we hadn’t had a proper family Christmas in years. You have no idea how much I’d kill to get away from him right now. It’s only been a couple of days and I’m close to kicking him out.”
Dean heard a faint, “You love me,” from Gabe.
“What’s he been doing?”
“The usual. There are candy wrappers everywhere.”
“That sucks, dude.”
“Yes.” Castiel sighed. “Anyways. You were saying? About Lisa?”
“Right.” Brushing the crumbs off of his shirt, Dean walked to his couch and sank onto the cushions. The topic of Lisa was always tough, but he hadn’t anticipated being invited to the same Christmas party as her. It was too late, at this point, to drop out. “Well, we were dating for a while, a couple of years ago. It was really serious, too. Sammy thought that we’d get married. I think he’s still hoping that we’ll get back together.”
“Oh.” Castiel’s voice sounded strange. Dean frowned.
“What?”
“Nothing.”
Shrugging, Dean continued. “She broke it off because she thought I wasn’t serious enough. She didn’t think I’d be committed enough to ever actually get married. So… seeing her again is going to be shit unless I find someone to be my fake fiance, so I can prove her wrong.”
Silence.
“Cas?”
There was a noise. Relieved, Dean opened his mouth to say something, but Cas had begun to laugh with clear disbelief, apparently unable to control himself.
“You -- how --” Castiel dissolved into inarticulate noises.
“What?” Dean asked, confused.
“Do you,” Cas caught his breath, “Even realize how ridiculous that sounds? How are you going to keep it up? Someone’s going to find out.”
“It’ll be fine!” Dean said, defensively, “All I need to do is get a ring, hold hands with someone for a while, and look a little lovesick. Sammy would have to be in on it, of course.”
“Who do you have in mind?”
Dean paused, scratching the back of his neck. “I didn’t think that far ahead.”
“Well, you can’t pick up just anyone off the street. They’re going to need to know a little something about you. And you’ll have to come up with a good story about how you met. They’ll ask about that for sure.”
Dean exhaled. “Fuck. I didn’t even think about all that. Guess it’s a good thing that I called you.”
An idea was creeping up on him. He’d need somebody who’d have the forethought to prepare for questions like that. Otherwise, he’d be entirely caught off-guard the entire evening. He had a feeling that the game would be up before the end of the night.
“Cas.”
Castiel must have heard something in his tone, because his reply was steeped with apprehension. “Yes?”
“Would you be my fake fiance?”
It turned out the easiest part of getting fake-engaged was agreeing to it. Past that, they spent hours debating over the smallest of things. Castiel, taking every opportunity possible to get away from Gabriel, had taken to spending most of his time at Dean’s place.
Dean had thought that the fake ring could be anything that looked vaguely authentic, but Cas had insisted that they pick out an actual ring, claiming that the other party-goers would be able to tell if it wasn’t real. This had resulted in visiting various jewelry stores together, eliciting strange looks from the storekeepers when they explained that, no, they weren’t actually getting married.
Cas had also made Dean change out of his jeans and t-shirt, which he did after only mild grumbling. After brainstorming their responses to the questions Cas was sure that people would ask, the two of them were satisfied with their preparations.
That didn’t make it any less daunting when they were standing on the doorstep of the house’s party. It was Bela Talbot’s place, a large home that was polished to perfection. Dean was suddenly glad that he hadn’t arrived in his old jeans.
Bela opened the door, her eyes falling on Dean first. “Dean! I haven’t seen you in forever.”
Resisting the urge to tell her that there was a reason that he hadn’t wanted to see her, Dean gestured to Cas. “Hey. This is my fiance, Castiel.”
Bela barely blinked at Dean’s words. “My, didn’t you luck out.” Looking at Cas with an impressed sort of appraisal, she reached out and adjusted his tie. Cas sent an uneasy look at Dean.
“Hands off,” Dean told her, finding it incredibly easy to let a possessive tone sneak into his voice. He didn’t like the sight of her being so close to the dark-haired man.
Bela lifted her hands in the air in an unspoken acquiescence. “Touchy, Winchester. Don’t worry, I won’t steal your man.” Opening the door wider, she allowed the two of them to step across the threshold.
The party was already booming inside. Just like Bela, it had a very classy sort of feel, and Dean instantly felt out of his depths. Taking one look at him, Cas seemed to understand this, and took the lead. Sliding his arm through Dean’s, he leaned in close to whisper in his ear.
“Don’t worry. They’ll be too busy fussing over our engagement to worry about anything else. Just relax.”
Dean shivered as Cas’s breath grazed the side of his neck. “Got it.”
Already, a couple guests that Dean recognized had taken notice of them. Most noticeably, a red-haired girl broke away from the crowd and ran towards them. She, unlike most of the other guests, wasn’t dressed to the nines. The sight of her familiar Star Wars t-shirt made Dean smile.
‘Charlie!”
“Hey, Dean... Cas.” Her gaze fell on their intertwined arms, and she pulled on Dean’s elbow until both of them followed her to the side of the room.
“Did you two finally sort yourselves out and start dating?” She asked, in an excited whisper.
Dean and Cas exchanged a quick, embarrassed glance.
“Well… no?” said Dean, finally.
“We’re pretending to be engaged. Because Lisa is here,” Cas explained, wiggling his hand at her. The golden ring gleamed on his finger.
Charlie’s eyebrows rose so high that they practically disappeared into her hair. Apparently in shock, it took her a moment to respond with, “Well, I have to say, this is some real fanfiction-y type shit.”
“Wha-” Castiel began, but Dean shook his head at him.
“Are you here with anyone, Charlie? I didn’t know you knew Bela.”
Charlie shrugged. “Only barely. I heard that you and Sam were going to be here, so I asked for an invitation. And I brought Gilda.”
Dean looked into the crowd and managed to spot Gilda, wearing a floor-length cotton green dress with golden decals. Her curly brown hair fell loose down her back. When he looked back at Charlie, she was, too, smiling fondly in the direction of the woman.
“I’ll let you get back to your date,” Dean said, winking at her. She gave him a quick thumbs-up and disappeared.
Dean let his hand fall into Cas’s, and Cas made a small noise, smiling at him, his eyes looking brilliantly blue in the dim light. Dean tried not to focus too much on that. Now was not the time to be falling even more for Cas (a process that had started long ago and Dean was doing a very good job of ignoring).
Together, the two of them managed to break into the crowd, gossiping and talking and showing off Cas’s ring as they went (a feat that always induced a wave of ‘ooohs’ and excited chatter from the ladies). Castiel, who Dean knew become more withdrawn around unfamiliar people, did an excellent job of being talkative and friendly, and Dean watched him with affection.
Finally, they encountered Lisa, who walked towards them with a faintly bemused expression. “Dean?”
Dean stepped closer to Cas. “Good to see you, Lisa.”
Cas bobbed his head, slightly, in understanding. Holding out his hand to shake hers, he said, “I’m Castiel. Nice to meet you.”
“And you,” said Lisa, her eyes catching on the ring on his other hand. “You’re… engaged?”
“We are,” Dean told her, squeezing Cas’s hand. Cas smiled at him.
Lisa frowned. “I didn’t know you were gay.”
“Bi, actually.”
Lisa laughed. “I see. I was going to say -- you certainly seemed enthusiastic enough in bed when we were dating. I’d say your interest in woman is pretty undeniable.”
Castiel coughed. Dean looked over to see him glaring at Lisa, possessiveness practically radiating off of him. Hiding a grin, he glanced back at Lisa, who looked abashed.
Bouncing back quickly, she beamed.
“Well. Congratulations to the both of you. Y’know,” she said to Cas, “I never thought Dean would settle down. You two must be really in love.”
“We are,” Dean heard Cas say. He looked over to find the other man smiling softly at him. Lisa’s eyes darted between them, and she asked how they met. Castiel shot an I-told-you-so look at Dean, and began telling the tale they had invented, of the psychic reader that had introduced them.
“Well, I think that’s enough awkward ex-girlfriend encounters for the night,” she told them, after a few minutes, shifting backwards into the crowd. “It was nice to meet you, Cas. Congrats again on the wedding.”
“Thank you!” Dean called after her, and she lifted a hand in goodbye.
Dean and Cas drifted to the side of the room, making their own section in the crowd.
“That didn’t go too badly,” Cas observed, scanning Dean’s face.
Dean smiled. “That was great, Cas. You looked really jealous there, when she talked about when me and her were dating.”
“Oh,” Cas shrugged, looking mildly uncomfortable, “That was… that was just…”
“Easy, man,” Dean said, reassuringly, “It was perfect.”
“Oooh!” Bela Talbot’s voice rung from the crowd. “I hope you appreciate my placement of the mistletoe, there, Dean.”
Comprehension slowly dawned on Dean, and he dared to look up. Sure enough, hanging overhead was a sprig of mistletoe. With trepidation, he lowered his gaze to meet Castiel’s eyes.
“Listen,” he said, trying not to look at the other man’s lips, “You don’t have to--”
Cas interrupted. “Dean. I want to.”
It took a second for Cas’s words to sink in. Then, experimentally, he slid his arms around Castiel’s waist, and leaned in. Without any more warning, Castiel’s lips were on his, and he finally allowed himself to acknowledge all the moments of longing that had led up to this point. All the times they had held each other's gaze just a moment longer than was necessary, all the times Dean has searched for any excuse to clasp the other man’s shoulder or wrap his arms around him.
And, for the first time since he had arrived at the party, Dean felt his tension ebb away, and he allowed himself to relax in Castiel’s arms.
It looked as though it would be a very Merry Christmas after all.